The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-12-24
Across the Pacific to Girdle
the World.
THE WAY A SHIP ACTS.
Seasickness Makes Another Ill
ness, HOmesickness.
How Women Get Ahead of Men,
Occasionally.


a lifetime, and all that, and that
ought to be supremacy grateful, and
a lot more. say I realize all this,
but not quite as wildly as I did be-
fore I left the States. And yesterday
the eleventh day out didn't real
lie II at all. In fact I called my IA
Their in was lying in bed thinking
how good New York was going to
lOok-to ask him what in the name of
Goodness made him want to take me
on this miserable trip, anyway. And
he didn't even say anything about
gratitude. Honestly he looked rather
apologize, and az If he owed me some
thing for having brought me along.
Then we talked in very homesiclS
voices about what q good town Atchi-
son was, ana how nice the people We're
and how we didn't like foreigners, but
did like Americans, and how wa didn't
like water and did like land and about
how. many square meals We were go
ing 70 have II we ever saw home again.
They serve seven meals a day here,
but We have been living chiefly on thin
air and ice water, for / don't know how
many days, till our chief idea Of home
and happiness consisted in what we
used to eat therein the Gays when it
vas q pleasure to eat.
Dante thought he knew a little about
the ways and means Of making people
uncomfortable, but Dante left seasick-
ness out Of his Inferno, so really don't
think he knew anything about the mat
ter. Wait until I write an Inferno.
and be good. am going to put in a
big swing. It's going to be hung on
springs. and have a thousand different
motions: First to one side then to
the other then up and down and side
ways at once. There's to be a little
jar that shakes It all the time in spite
Of the other motions. Then I'm going
to clap in a few OF the meanest peO-
pie know and set my swing going.
And it's never going to stop. Side
ways and backwards, and a little jar,
then up and then down.
That's just the way a. ship acts. It
shakes you a million ways at once, and
all the time this horrible swinging mo-
ton Way up and then a drop. Up
again and drop again, and it Never
Stops. That's what impresses you
when you first get on. If it would only
stop for minute-just for a. second,
you would give up the rest of your life
for that moments relief, but it keeps
right on. Way up, and then the hor-
ribie drop. And then up and down
again and so on until the joke has long
since ceased to be a joke about the sea-
sick man who Wag first afraid he was
gong TO die. and then that he wasn't
and you pray and pray and pray to
die, and TO die quickly
Instead Of dying, you go to sleep,
and awake to ind your deathly sick
ness all gone. Your relief is the great
EST, sweetest Joy you have ever known,
You raise your head-and it all comes
back You're wanting to die again,
and you have to live and grin and hear
H. And every second you seem to get
slcker and stcker. By and by you hear
an awful, deafening noise, and a Chi
nese boy goes by your door beating a
Mucous chinese gong. One stroke Wav
down In the hold could be heard all |
over the ship. but they seem to think
1t necessary to beat it through everv
passage way and on every deck to be
found. And that gong means dinner |
But you never dreamed or imagined
Wi
could be anything so thoroughIv re-
voting or horrible as the thought of
dinner And you roll over. not only
SICK now but sicker-SeVen times sick
er than you were before. and that
brazen devil gong still rubbing il in.
mats the first three days. Later
you're better and eat salads and pie
ana things. Still a little LATER Won
lose the salads and pies and tbinps
and wish you were dead again. That
stage passes, too, and YOU begin To
pe glad the Lord didn't answer all
your petitions. and though you're
very weak and don't feel like MOVING
you're rather glad your alive. after
All. You lie all day long in vo1Ir
steamer chair, feeling just like YOU
imagine a little new baby feels inst
helpless and listless and ready to he
waited on. You don't care to read
or write or talk or smile or move 81
mere nothing left but day dream
ing which lasts till your sfrenetI,
comes back. Then you vaken some
morning and the sea is like glass fI7e
suns shining and the breezes s7veeD-
ING tns decks and in through your
peEtnoles and you're glad, glad glad
20 De alive You take a walk after
breakfast with your father. and Won
Doth decide you're sad sea-doe-s and
etaI seaslckness IS thing of the past
AZ leasI Tor you two, and you say:
mune." III
And pretty soon it storms for Won
rnraN~
soon you're fat on your back apai1i
seasick, homesick, thoughly disgusted
thoroughly diSheartened SEEING Do+t7
ing out the horrible journey before Won
wondering if it viii ever, ever come
10 an end. A sweet little woman who
sits at your table comes in and EO17
both cry together because Won want to
60 nome and can't. and have to wan
der around for an unbeara HE time
looking at things and countries Won
don't want to see, eating things Won
don want to eat, meeting nothing but
foreigners whose only subject of CON
VersatiOn is abuse of vo1lr dearly he
loved United States, and last but not
least crossing oceans and oceans and
oceans in horrible smelling ships that
jar you and shake you and knock Won
about and all the time are swim zinc
swinging, now way UP, now down: up
and then dropping and Never stOn
Oh, to be home again. Home, home.
home!
And it's the eleventh day out and
Japan still SIX days away. You realize
now that yOu-had your fun getting
ready. In the joy and excitement Of
anticipation, you were happier than
you had ever been in all your life And
that was the fun. This is the other
side. Must we always pay for all our
pleasures Do you want to know
what I'm doing? FussinF as usual and
[ suppose no one could guess why
Wei, If must tell, simply because I'm
nor back in the United States doing
the same old things I've done since the
year one: getting UP. going to bed.
dressing and undressing eating and