The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1907-11-01
FROM PHILADELPHIA TO LIVERPOOL.

The following letter received from Mr..
Wilson D. Wallis, who recently won
the Rhodes scholarship due Maryland,
will be of interest to his many friends
and relatives in Hartford.
LAS this is the writer's first experience
on the ocean he hopes to be pardoned
for thinking that the happenings of this
voyage may be of some interest to home
friends.
Those who won the Rhodes scholar
ships for 1907 met in Philadelphia on
September Goth, where early the next
morning we embarked for Liverpool on
the American liner Merton" Our ships
tonnage was 16, 1856, SOB feet long and
SO feet wide. Though called the American
line, we regret to say that these vessels
are built and manned entirely by English.
The equipment of the vessels was COM
plete, being lighted throughout with cleo
tricity, and contains a well furnished
library, ladies parlor. smoking room and
dining saloon extending the entire
width of the steamer; the state rooms
are in the center of the vessel on the
saloon deck where the the motion is least
perceptible. glimpse into the hold of
ed overwhelmed US with its immensely +,
there being "a boilers, consuming 80 tons
of coal daily, yet compared with the
Lusitania, which we saw in the harbor
at Liverpool, with its 100 boilers con-
Stunning 1000 tons of coal, our vessel
seemed to be pigmy. The vessel was
kept scrupulously clean, the decks being
scrubbed nightly, although the dust on
gGll, L. IS ~ !, lx
to warrant this care. Travelling as we
did eastward. we enjoyed more than our
share of moonlight nights and as we
moved northeast. after passing out of
the Capes, the nights preceptibly lengthen-
ed. Our course, together with our
location and distance travelled. were
plotted daily on chart. 1t was interest
ing.to note on the plot how we gradually
curved our course above the latitude,
thus taking advantage of the spherical
shape of the earth in order to shorten
the distance.
Life on the vessel was cosmopolitan,
| but English blood predominated. Our
very excellent walters were undoubtedly
English and in their finished manners
| indicated their complete training for their
| work; vet so usual is this the case that
my table companion, three years
Canadian student at Oxford. had never
| particularly noted it. The English fast
| but little; few were ready for coffee
at $50 A. NJ, and all were ready for
breakfast at 8 80 A. M, followed by a
lunch at 10, and that by a substantial
| lunch at l. At 5, tea and light refresh
ments were again served and at 6 As a
splendid dinner, while at 9 a further
| lunch was served in the saloon
I'VE were far from lonely, for the vessel
carried $50 storage and 100 cabin pas
sengers, including among the latter two
young ladies from Indianapolis on their
way to Berlin for vocal culture; and a
graduate of the Woman's College, Balt1
more. who had taken an A. M. in the
University of Chicago and was now about
to enjoy a fellowship at Oxford anc
Berlin for the coming year The Rhode:
students were very much in evidence
there being SO, representing 3S different
states. 1t may be interesting to state
that of the 267 who took the Rhode:
examination last Januay, $50 passed; a
were chosen, but no man has yet passet
in three of the Western states and only
one from Nevada. Our average age Il
20 years and 7 months. The treatment
of us students on shipboard was mos
generous and we all had good time.
"On our eleventh day out we sighted
"the cow and the calf and soon tn
mountains on the Irish coast hove int
view, and the extremely rough weathe
when rounding the southern coast mad
us especially glad when we sighted LAM
) on the west coast of England. and kne .
that at an early hour we would be stand
ing on terra firma."