The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-12-02

around the deck on which our rooms
are located, and then climbing the
stairs to the upper deck, where the
captains bridge is located. There we
make another round and descend to
our own deck, around and up the
stairs again. The passengers sit about
in steamer chairs, and they are a po-
lite and interesting lot. Some of them
never appear at the table: at least,
never see them in the dining room:
1 see them only on deck, sitting in their
chairs, wrapped in blankets. Two fine
looking old gentlemen always sit to-
gether, and talk, and sleep, and read.
There are several elderly stout ladies,
and several who seem to be invalids.
have not met many people; I do not
make up" with strangers very we'll:
MI. Macauley told me this morning
that it is said of me among the pas
sengers that I am the most solitary
man on board.
When you get on your back at home
you can have funny dreams, but you
can have funnier ones While you are
at sea, and not doing very well. Last
night I got on my back, and dreamed
that the room steward aroused me. I
knew, as you do in dreams, that was
to leave the boat. All the small boats
hanging over the side had disappeared,
save one, and into this I climbed, with
Mattel, who was waiting for me. The
| bOatSWain has amused me ever since
we started in; he is a fat, good-natured
Ch1naman, who seems to be good to
his men, and very lazy himself The
bOatsWain seemed to be in charge of
| the little boat, and I remember hear
ing the captain say the boatSWain was
a good sailor. The eyelids of every
! true Chinaman seem to be swollen
from bee sting. Another member of
our crew was a little Chinese sailor 1
had remarked working about the ship,
and whom / mentally referred to as
] 4 Il
in his belt, and an iron pin, used in
untying knots. These two, the boat
| swain and Shorty, made up our crew,
except the room steward, who devoted
most OF his time to looking after the
two passengers. Time passes rapidly
in a nightmare, and the room steward
| served US many meals; the stale bread
! out of one box, and the stale water out
of another. And 1 became SO tired of
! 1t! The bOatSWa1n and Shorty had rig
ged a sail and we sailed and sailed;
didn't know where we were going, and
didn't care; I only knew I was tired
! Of that stale water out of the box for
ward, and of the stale bread out of
the box aft. And so we sailed, and
/ sailed: always at night. wasn't hun
cry or thirsty; there was plenty of wa
/ ter in one box and plenty of bread in
! the other. such as it was, but I wanted
1 a change. We seemed to be floating
down the Missouri river. I kept think
/ ing: '"This is a land of plenty; why
/ doesn't the boatswatn land, and get
some fresh water, and some fresh
I bread ?" But I couldn't talk to him,
and so he sailed, and sailed, and we
had seven meals a day: stale bread
out of one box, and stale water out OF
another. Shorty and the staterOOm
steward we're always busy, as had
always seen them on the ship, scrub
bling ard securing. but the boatswain
stood around in his lazy, fat way, and
/ looked after things And
then an odd thing happened: I recog-
nized the Atchison bridge, and we were
sailing toward it, and the boatswair
was making arrangements to land. We
/ landed near Cy Smiths bridge shanty
and Mattel and I hurried off toward
North Atchison: toward the house
where we live. It was still night, ano
we took the three Cinnamon with US.
or rather they followed US. Shorty
Matters, and the boatswain the two
valises. E. w. H.