Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-24
AWAITING THE SHIP
Scenes About Offices of the
Overdue st. Louis.
PECULIAR QUESTIONS
THE FRENCHMAN WHO WAS IN
TERESTED IN HATS.
Woman Who tainted Regularly and
Was So Surprised When Good
News Came.
PECULIAR QUESTIONS

or passengers on board the overdue steamer
swarmed within and around the offices Of
the line. The crowd was about equally d.
vided between men and women. There Is
saying to the effect that American crowds
are always good natured. The saying, of
course. was never meant to include the
crowds that hover about steamship offices
to wait for news Of overdue steamers. 1t
certainly could never have been truthfully
applied to the daily and nightly throngs
awaiting word of the ST. Louis Something
OF sullenneSs, not to say downright anger,
was impaired to these crowds by the in
formation that the steamer had sailed for
New York with many boiler tubes sorely in
need of plugging, with clogged engine ma
chlnery, with foul bottom, and with sew
eral other ailments certainly not making for
seaworthiness
While the modsh women who focked
about the counters and desks of the steam
ship offices were for the most part tremu-
lous and fearful. little understanding
caring Tor the elaborate explanations as to
the accidents to which tubular boilers are
liable and so on, but filed only with appre-
tensions Of an appalling disaster, the ma
jority of the men in the crowd exhibited
petulance, peevishness or downright bois-
ferrous anger during the long days and
nights that passed before the word was
flashed to New York that the st. Louis
had been sighted, limping in somewhere up
around the Banks. Many of the men end
women took apartments for the night at
the old-fashoned downtown hotels in The
neighborhood Of the steamship offices to
await tldlngs OF the overdue steamer.
Clerks Answer Questions.
The busy clerks replied patiently to the
incessant and often repeated questions Of
the anxious women, assuring them and re-
assuring them that the St. Louis was as
safe as church, but such assurances never
kept them away from the desks for more
than a few moments
The mems questions were not so numer-
Gus, and they appertained to more practical
matters, but they were volleyed at the
clerks as IL the latter figured in some deep,
dark conspiracy to have the ST. Louis
wrecked with all hands. But the clerks
bore the hot and wrathful questions of the
men with all fortitude. Here are a few
typical questions asked by the anxious
one
Say, look a-here when the dickens was
the st. Louis last in drydock for scrap
ing. anyhow
"D'ye mean to stand there and tell me
that the officials of this COMPOUNDED COM
pany didn't know that the st. Louis wasn't
fit to go to sea this trip?"
mo wireless outfit on board the St. Louis
hey? Well, why not I'd like to knows
this company too poor to blow itself to
Marconi apparatuS?"
THE St. Louis hasn't taken the southern
route, you say? Well. dye mean to tell US
that you people had the malignant gall to
| send an old, leaky-boilered tub to New
York over the northern passage in the mid
die of an Atlantic winter?''
well be finding out next that the gal
| ley cook is navigating the st. Louis, by
Jovew
Thus the male walters in the steamship
offices, some of them even shaking their
| fists Under the noses Of the patient. hard
working clerks, and not one In ten of them
any more reasonable than a barnyard fowl.
Huddled in corner were a number Of
women relatives, wives and mothers and
sisters of the inferior officers Of the miss
ing steamer-humble-loo folk, who
nevertheless conducted themselves In a far
| more sane and sensible manner than most
Of the highly placed men and women who
zing the clerks. The most dignifed little
woman in the offices during the entire wait
was the f1ancee of a postal clerk on board
the missing steamer. She was to have
| been married to the young man upon the
arrival of the vessel if it came in on sched-
ule time But she sat patiently, waiting
| for news, and never bothering any of the
men behind the desks. 1t is pleasant to be
able to record that she married her young
man anyhow when the st. Louis at length
got in, and that he took her along with
him on board the Philadelphia when that
steamer started for the other side a few
days ago.
A Man Milliner's Plant.
famous man milliner of New York,
Frenchman, buzzed daily about the steam
| ship Offices. bemoaning the non-arrival Of
one of his male employees who had been
sent especially to Paris to bring back to
this country a number Of new Paris hat
models
re negligent gamin he not arrive yet.
and my customaires waiting for zose hats!'
walled the little Frenchman at frequent in
tervals. wringing his hands. and then all
Of the men waiting for news of their loved
ones fairly ached to kick him.
The waiting men likewise lOnged to
- III !, f,,crv off, fcy Nav Vnr
banking house, to which a large amount
of gold bullion had been consigned by a
London bank. The gold was on board the
ST. Louis, and the fussy agent divided his
time between hectoring the clerks and talk
ing aloud about insurance rates.
A sporting Individual who at one time
worked the liners as card sharp. appeared
at the steamship offices on the sixth day
on which the St. Louis was overdue and
attempted to make a book that the St.
Louis wouldn't be heard from within GER
tain number of days. essaying to lay SO
much against that probability for one day,
SO much for two days and so on. A brawny
member Of one of the New York athletic
clubs, who was extremely wrought up on
account of the fact that his wife was on
board the missing steamer, grabbed the
gambler by the slack of his clothing and
incontinently booted him out of the build
Ing.
at the offices was a headquarters detec-
tive, who had in his pocket a warrant for
the arrest of one of the passengers known
to be on board the ST. Louis on the charge
of desertion and non-support. The detec-
tive would stroll in. smoking enjoyably.
two three times a day, merely elevate
his eyebrows in way of inquiry, and
stroll out again with fine indifference when
the clerk shook his head. The detective
cheerfully nabbed the deserter and nom
supporter when the St. Louis at length got
In. and looked vastly Disguised when the
wife who had brought the charge fell into
her arrested husbands arms and wept
over the joy of his salvation when he step
ped down the gangplank to the pier.
The Broker With an Option.
Another man who made the anxious
throngs sore was a broker of the bounder
variety, who. 1t seemed from his stream of
talk. was holding open an option on a GER
tain block Of stock for one of the passen-
gers on board the st. Louis
Nothing heard of her yet?" he would ex-
claim. wrathily. every time he strutted into
the offices "Well, by ginger, won't hold
that option open another hour-Tll close it
out right away!' and then he would strut
out amid the hatred of the walters. only
to return an hour or SO later to talk some
more about his option