Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-07

When our grandfathers went to sea
most of them made up their minds to
be unhappy. They knew that, in the
conditions then prevailing, an ocean
voyage was inseparable from misery
and discomfort. Their successors, how
ever, go on board ship with a light
heart knowing that they will have all
the luxuries of shore life with none
of its wear and tear. OF course there
Is still the dreaded NAL de mer but even
that has been robbed of much Of it's
terror. Indeed, even the moderately
good sailor who takes his passage on
the "beamy" Atlantic steamer Of large
tonnage. which does not force the pace
In all weathers. and which is prac-
tically devoid of vibration, thanks to
the turbine, can hardly fail to keep his
sea legs, and to enjoy that which. in
some comparative cockle-shell of a
former age, would have been q painful
experience. The big steamers OF the
present day may have been built main
~ with an eye to economy, but in
reality they have proved a veritable
boon to travellers, first by reason of
their steadiness, and secondly on ac-
count of their roomlness. Wretched,
stuffy quarters, termed by courtesy
cabins, have given place to apartments
so commodious that they would have
seemed impossible q score of years ago,
while what may be called the improved
physical surroundings of the voyager
have been accompanied by an amount
of attention to his spiritual and crea-
ture comfort which makes him today
almost a pampered person. And the
pampering still goes on.
1t Is on the Atlantic that life at sea
is especially Identical in point of
LUXURY with existence ashore. On other
oceans there Is progress toward the
same end, but 1t is in the run from
Europe to America that ideal conditions
have been set up. To begin with, the
passenger is no longer cut off from the
rest of mankind. Wireless telegraphy
brings him the news of the day, which
he reads every morning in newspaper
published in midocean. The same
means enables him to keep in per-
sonal touch with his friends ashore.
Thus all sense of complete isolation has
gone forever. At the same time there
is the sensation of being in a floating
hotel which, In point of equipment,
might be matched, but could not be
excelled, either in Piccadilly or the
Place Vendome. You have your own
suite of apartments, with it's salon, its
bedroom and its bath and toilet room,
and the decoration and upholstering,
the work of real artists, may be trusted
to convey a sense of harmony.
Telephones at Hand
You have telephones at hand and
movable electric lamps at your dis
posal and you sleep In a real brass
bedstead and not in that uncomfortable
thing called a berth. You can have
cabin de luxe, sufficing for family
needs, or, If you are voyaging en-
garcon, you can be accommodated, at
a reasonable rate, on the now popular
principle of "one man, one cabin"
which the Norddeutscher-Ll Lloyd COM
pany did so much to establish. The
idea of herding strangers together
always one Of the disagreeable features
of former ocean travels going out,
just as the notion has been dispelled
that wardrobes, chests of drawers,
writing tables, and other indispensa-S
BILE essentials ashore are really not
needed in a steamers cabin. The up
per berth, with it's need for some dis
play of athleticism, is not yet extinct,
but the best of the steamship compa-
MES are doing away with 1t wherever
they can.
Palatial is the proper epithet to apply
to the dining saloons of the best of the
modern liners. Here, again. in the
matter of internal arrangement there
is ID lcIuGllCy W lOllOW SHOIc pIdCLlCc.
The old idea of requiring passengers
to sit down at long tables is growing
obsolete. The Cunard company, for
instance, has broken away from tra-
dition in this respect, for on the
Caronia and the Carmania their new
turbine steamers, the rigid prandial
arrangements of a former age have
given place to the provision of num-
ber of small tables. Doubtless the
same idea will be adopted in those
mammoth vessels, the Lusitania and
the Mauritania. If, however, those
steamers are to be really up to date
they will also have to possess an ocean
restaurant as we'll as a dining saloon,
for the experience of the Hamburg
American company is emphatic on this
point. They began, eXperimentally,
with grill room on the Deutschland.
The idea showed an intelligent under
standing of human nature. People do
not care to dine in droves, like a flock
of sheep, and 1t is a gratuitous as
sumption that the table d'hote menu
will appeal to every one with the same
force.
The restaurant ashore finds it's JUS
tification in the demand for the light
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