Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1902-01-23
ALONG THE BORDERS OF OLD
MANCHURIA.
SERVICE OF THE PLAlNEST
All Dine Together and Napkins Liable
to Change at Any Time, and Every
one Helps HimseIf-Scant Villages
and Other Sights En- Route-CoI-
orod Posts Mark the Way.

and his wife, who would not eat IN the
saloon, but messed" in their own
cabin. The wife was a stout. fussy
/. little dame, who knew her position
and put on airs, greatly to the amuse
ment of my French and Russian lady
! acquaintance.
We each paid 21a rubles a day for
our food, which consisted of tea and
! bread, and butter IN the morning, a
| greasy meal at midday, tea and stale
! buns in the afternoon, and at a hot
dish Of all sorts and more tea.
All the saloon passengers, save our
| general and his lady, fed together.
The table was covered with oilcloth,
| rather ragged At the midday meal
| there was brought a huge platter, on
which was generally a hash of meat
and onions, undercOOked peas and
| macaroni, and oil-smeared potatoes.
Everybody helped him or herself with
his or her own knife and fork. Knives
were used equally with forks in carry
ing food to the mouth. There were no
salt spoons, but a knife, greasy with
meat fat carried quite lot Of salt if
stuck in the salt cellar. If you wanted
a second helping you diyed into the
big plate with your knife and fork
and fished out what you fancied.
There was none of the inconven-
fence of your serviette ring going
astray, such as you usually have in
English boats. There were no rings,
but just sufficient serviettes to go
round, and these were thrown in
bundle on the middle of the table. If
you had made a mess of cleaning your
fork at midday you let somebody else
have that serviette in the evening.
And the somebody else didn't mind.
The 0ilcloth got rather sticky at
times because there were never any
plates to put your bread and butter on,
and only one knife for the whole COM
pany TO butter their bread. When
your neighbOr talked to you he did so
with his forearms spreading along the
table, and with his knife and fork
pointing to the skylght. When you
required bread it was not expected at
all Of you to take the first piece You
took up four or five pieces and helped
yourself to the one you liked, and
threw the rest back anyhow for the
next person to maui. Then between
the meals and the bringing Of tea
you have tea with every meal in 81
beria-eVeTybOdy brought out a little
wooden toothpick and picked and
sucked his teeth for 10 minutes. I've
an idea some fastidiOus Britishers
would think this rather disgusting.
But the crowd was very select and
very official; that must not be forgot
ten. The most distinguished man at
table was the colonel of a Tartar regi-
ment-a drab faced man with black
cropped whiskers and spectacles Of
black glass (for his eyes were weak
who was on his way to Manchuria
to civilize the heather Chinese. He
ate with his fingers and salivated after
the manner of Mexican coWpuncher.
Next to him was a lady proceeding
to join her husband, a military man at
necessarily, especially between the
courses at meal time. She threw the
little cardboard cigarette stems about
indiscriminately. There was a fur
merchant and his wife. He was a big
man with rugged eyebrows, and a
beard iron streaked. He was most
agreeable. The one word of English
he knew was porter" and after two
days acquaintance he said l was not
like the other Britishers he had met,
because l did not get angry because
there was no porter" on board the
ship. He put spoonfuls of strawberry
! jam in his tea, and insisted l should
! join him. He had a great admiration
| for Britishers. In the evenings,
when it was dark and the rain spat
| wore a macintosh on deck. The
| pockets are so made that l can slip
! my hand behind lapel and get at
| my trousers pocket without unbuttOn
| ing the front of the macintosh. He
was enthusiastic about this cOntriv
ance. He watched me bring out
punches of keys. and a penknife and
! kOpecks, and had all the delight Of q
child seeing an ingenious trick. He
tapped his beard, and said Britishers
were clever people. His wife was {
kindly old body, so kind that had no
the courage to raise objection wher
she handed me a piece of butter with
her fingers.
Lastly, there was my stable com
panion, the man with whom l shared
my cabin, an inspector of schools
Most Of his time, was spent lying OF
his back smoking cigarettes ant
drinking Crimean wine. At nigh
time he snOred with the snort of ;
tugboat. I can't sleep with snorer
So when he snored l whistled Annie
Laurie" as shrilly as l could. Whist
ling is the one thing that stops
snorer without any show Of offensive
ness So whenever my gentleman
snorted l began with the air descrit
ing the picturesQueness Of MaXwe
tons braes which made him twist an
half awake and gave me an opportU
nifty to doze before he started again.
[ have used the phrase stable CON
panion. I've known cleaner stable
than our cabin. You can get used t
many things in time, but when tn
first night I felt things dropping o
my neck and crawling on my chez
and making excursions along my arm
. struck a light and found the plac