Omaha daily bee., 1909-08-29

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lovers move nearer each other. Like the
Venture is It creamy white, but the sides
are smooth; IL is smaller and more trigly
put together, the companionway a narrow
stairway with iron railing, the projection
Of the upper deck measured with hanging
baskets Of maidenhair fern, and boxes OF
the delicate green tracery outlining the
outer edge all about. The windows are
covered with snowy ruffled curtains and
a scarlet pennon is the only colorfui hit.
There are other households in the col
ony-twenty, thirty or forty-and each is
! attractive in its special way Some Of
them are two stories and a half high, with
accommodations for forty or fifty; others
Of two stories with the roof garden for
half a dozen tenants.
All are masses of foliage, one a bed of
scarlet geraniums, another tiers Of white
lilies and tall palms. One is tinted pink,
and great yellow hearted marguerites are
the chosen flower, and there is one of
champagne color with purple iris. This Is
stationed in a shady backwate with pond
lilies about it.
The Red Rover has red awnings, red
cushions and red silk curtains at the many
windows. The names Of some Of them show
a laudable desire on the part Of the owners
that they shall not be mistaken for apart
ment houses or seaside villas. Their nomen-
clature is Of the Daphne. Neptune, Water
Witch class and of the two last you note
the River god has rows OF delft boxes
at the window lodges blooming with blue
stalks OF lsrkspurs, and the Circe, a pale
lemon two stored boat with floating cur
tains Of yellow null and a golden tinted
awning over big easy chairs cretonne COW
cred. has every available bit Of space hold
ing towering rosebushes. heavy with dam
ask blossoms.
1t is soon after the colony Of Households
is passed that the first of the locks is en-
tered, there being thirty-three In all from
Putney. The history of one is the history
Of all, a slow stopping of the steamer and
the g~urgling of imprisoned waters against
the green coated sides of the lock. Old
men OF the waterman type, the same the
world over, with straggly boards, weather
beaten faces and faded eyes lean on the
gate bars, companioned sometimes by
younger men who nave stopped their labor
of angling, rowing or skiff repairing to
take their turns at this work.
There is neither delay nor hurry. You
recall a day on the Lachine canal, when
the locks were opened by habitants and
the queer French songs, half gay, half
SHut DunClQdltu t1e IlHlnE ana 1dlllnB OF
the water. Here no sound is heard, no
chatting and no songs. The stolidity of
the British nation at work is ~triumphantly
maintained. There is neither hurry nor de-
lay, neither Joy nor sorrow, a ~taciturn in
difference of temperament and the smooth
ness of we'll ordered work done, with no
happiness in the doing.
And after the first lock is traversed the
panorama of river scenery is spread out
like the slowly appearing and disappearing
surface of a moving picture. It's diversity
surprises, yet the framing is always the
same. There are stately mansions with
c~astellated roofs, long flights of steps
leading from the water. with copings
which are vine covered so that no trace of
the granite beneath is visible.
Next to these are watermen's cottages,
pink or delicate brown or white, covered
with clamberlng roses set in velvet sward.
There is a meadow black with crows. the
one next to it holds a flock of sheep,
many flocks in fact, sheperded by a youth
with orange cap; a group Of Troyon cattle
and then thick wooded slopes, with under
brush and in the branches singing birds.
There are houses Of varying styles Of
architecture, the Queen Anne and Tudor.
but all having a cleanly washed and newly
opened look. Not a faded flower, a grimy
wall, a dusty blade Of grass is seen.
There is a man on the towpath i'm his
shirtsleeves dragging a boat containing
two gayly sttired girls, and under some
hanging branches a man and a maid are
having cakes and tea, the water boiled by
a spirit lamp. There is a row Of young
naples garlanded together with wreaths
Of crimson ramblers, edging a moss COW
cred wall and beyond, camping grounds
where parties are stretched about on the
turf chatting. eating luncheon, mapping.
The conversation on board takes an
American twist, and with the rare informa-
ton and accuracy which has been noted
before, you find yourself confronted by a
middle aged couple asking If tennis has to
be played on the asphalt in America. Your
admiration of the velvet turf has led to
the belief that we have none at all in the
states and they demand II 1t is not hard
to have to keep the dogs tied there all
the time, for they nave heard that snakes
are so prevalent that 1t is necessary.
You leave them their cherished beliefs;
it seems unwise to uproot them all at once.
The interchange of national courtesies is
Interrupted by the captains narration of
historic fact. He points out the house where
Tennyson did his counting and from which
he was Iater married; the church contain
Aho - @1AN " Wv ARAAAV Va ~
of Stanford and Merton the village
where sydney Smith wrote the Peter
Plymley" letters; places associated with
Chaucer, earthworks Of Roman origin.
Gothic and Norman churches fit across
the field OF vision: backwaters with tentins
parties and tented canoes; bridges vary
ing from stone arches TO painted wood
ornate and ivy covered; Elizabethan man
sions where kings and queens have tarried.
You enter oxford landing place on time,
steaming through a double row of plainly
equipped Households, the homes of various
rowing clubs. There is a melee of rowing
shells and small fry Of the boating class,
for again IL is the English twilight, and
the city and offices and students rooms
have discharged their human tenants to
the leisure OF the river.
You have a glimpse Of college life-a nigh
spent at Summerville, one of the women's
colleges of the university town. Like the
rest, Il is grim and gray and heavy with
the weight of years, The arched gateway
leads directly from the street and a porter
stepping from the tiny lodge escorts you
acress the vast quadrangle, through clois-
tered passages 10 the living rooms.
The special apartment designated for YOU
use is the typical college girls room, and 4
you shut your eyes you might forget tina
you were in historic oxford and think tina