Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-01
WHALES EVASIVE CREATURES

It Is but a holiday Jaunt, this journey
which was undertaken with so much sol
emn formality when all ships were Vi
wood and times were different. Going 10
Europe has almost ceased to represent
novel experience. The Unsuitable interest OF
the American citizen in all that the world
Is doing Is rapidly making this undertaking
one of the customary incidents of the aver
age mans career. We know that Uncle
Sam has the greatest and best land on
earth. but there are still beauties and diff
ferences that may be of interest value
and we are willing to be shown. We even
insist upon it. Besides. Europe is the most
extensively advertised institution earth
1t has been written about more or less by
almost everybody who has touched pen to
paper and It Is time for some one to be
reaping the benefit of all this publicity. AS
Switzerland is the playground of Europe,
80 Europe has become the museum OF the
world.
And all America is making ready to see
the sights" Ocean travel has become hea-
vier each summer, until this year the crowd
has surpassed all the others. Bookings for
places on ships of all degrees of size and
elegance began before the snow was on
the ground.
There is no use of trying to accommo-
date all of the people who want to cross this
year, Sdiu Tic DOOhlLs dsciIt OAoSolioS-
lately.
why don't they built more ships?'
What's the use? The more ships you
build the more people want to travel
1t didn't seem quite logical.
No Yo-heave-ho.
Yet the wanderlust turks in every human
spirit and renewed facilities for travel
mean renewed temptation. Every man who
read sailor stories in his boyhood feels that
he would like to smell the salt air for days
at stretch and experience the solitude OF
the deep.
But the romance of the sea has departed.
The sailors do not sing out "Yo-heave-ho'
and the wind does not howl through the
rigging. 1t may manage to utter few
mild notes among the smokestacks and the
ventiIators. but they are feeble and insn-
cere. The real workers on board are away
down somewhere in the depths of the
mighty masses of machinery, where toll Is
too oppressive to permit light-heartedness.
and where air is perhaps too scant to be
wasted in vocal gayety.
1t my fortune to ship in one Of the
most modern representatives of ocean ship
construction. La Provence. the new French
liner whose ecord-breaking propenslties
developed on the first trip, have become
habitual
There was no hint of record breaking
travel during the voyage; no telegraph
poles to flash by cinder-smitten windows;
tell of a water-tank Just passed; nothing
but water and silence great that It
absorbs Into itself the rhythmic beat of
machinery and the splash of water at the
PROV.
There was but one lntimation offered that
the boat was engaged in doing something
extraordinary. OF course the merry wag
was on board. What enterprise can escape
him? He learned that the man In charge
of the vessel was a Captain Alex.
Alex" he repeated Then we ought to
expect something exceptional. I understand
he comes of a very smart family
Trunk the Chief Topic.
The most difficult ordeal for the novice in
ocean journeying comes long before he has
set foot on the gang plank Every friend
who has been across looks him over and
weaves fearful tales of the terrors that
await him. You are half seasick before
you start and ready to give a cabman or
hotelkeeper anything he asks II he will only
spare your life. You are glad TO escape to
the waste of waters where you will at
least find companionship in your dismay.
The trunk is the chief topic OF the coun-
selior and friend who finds JOY in frighten-
ing all of the uninitiated. And there is no
doubt OF 1t; trunk may become nuisance
whose adequate description not be at
tempted because 1t requires more profanity
than is permitted by law. II the journey is
made on foreign vessel. you leave Amer
lea ana us Language DeIllDQ you as you
step on the dock. The difficulty in being
precisely understood by the man who
handle luggage in your own language is
often great. It becomes multiplied by mill
lions when his knowledge OF English is
strictly limited to the Inscriptions on cur
rent coins. By means of much pantomine
! managed to impress a husky, French
sSfior man with the fact that 1 was in a
state of considerable mental agitation and
he paused with some sympathetic interest
as TO its cause, l showed my ticket and
waved my hand toward the heap of debris
which the expressmen had cast on the dock.
An inspiration seized him. He scaled a
prectpice, and seizing from the little
avalanche he created a large. yellow and
altogether unpromising trunk. began to
drag 1t to the gang plank. 1t was only by
diHt OF great persuasion that the larceny
was averted, and his glance was reproachful
and unforgiying; that OF a man whose
trustfuiness has been betrayed.
A young woman who was hunting a stray
trunk created furry f--consternation.
She searched her school day recoliections
and found that MALE meant trunk" II
WAS her mothers trunk she wanted, and
mother was easy-.mere." But when she
put II together, the sentence sounded like
demand for mai de mer' and the attend
ant was forced to forget his courtesy ana
exclaimed to O fellow workman Mon
Diaui Whnt a strange deslraP'