The National tribune., 1909-10-14

EN- FALLS.
/ After dinner we sat for awhile in the
social hail. chatting with the pleas
ant, red-faced Engl sEwoman with the
frowsley hair, who loves flowers to a
passion and who bathes in the Baltic;
not daily. of course. but she has done
so. l am sure the waters of the Baltic
! must be icy. and no one but an English
man or woman could bear toe in 1t
| ('it'' is quite proper, for it is a sea, you
remember), and 1 do not envy her a
bit the prestige which this experience
has given her. Then very bright
eyed, intelligent woman, who, / think,
| Is connected with some London paper,
Joined us, and gave a very amusing ac-
| count of having been locked in the
cathedral that afternoon while poking
around it, after her party had left the
| church. She was rescued by the old
man who showed us thru, at the most
| dramatic part of the epsode. when it
looked extremely probable that she
would be obliged to spend the night
there and be left behind by the ANA
zon. Then the character whom some
one on the ship has dubbed "Tootsy"
(, came sailing in, and everyone had to
laugh at her little bit, tho i do really
think this sort of thing is mean.
in spite of the fact that 1 do it myself.
A too keen sense of the ridiculous is
sometimes a misfortune. But ] must
describe "Tootsy' to you. She is easily
60 years of age If not more. and she
wears invariably the most satisfied, en-
tirely- pleased -with-herself smile I ever
saw on any face. Like Taft's, 1t won't
come off. She is very thin and very
sallow. She wears specs. Generally
she skips around over the deck clad in
the most scandalously -soiled white
woolen skirt you can imagine, with a
little short, soiled jacket to match.
4 Doc IIt- HI e,I>; >;rt So h n,fy
a good foot from the bottom up. Over
her specks and her smile she wears the
most absurd little straight-brimmed
white, or what was once white, straw
hat, trimmed with wreath of pink
roses and turned up sharply in front.
She is sight for the gods! If it were
not for her undetachablc smirk, /
should feel really very sorry for her,
for have not seen single soul speak
to her, not one. She has husband on
board, whom they tell me is a cele-
brated English scientist and a most
learned man, also a son, but neither of
these seem to be with her much. "Toot.
lsy" sits on deck alone, reading or sew
ing, with no company but her smile.
Wearyins finally of the mild excite
nent of social hail." we went out on
deck to watch the dancing awhile, for
have not told you that we have very
fair orchestra or some five or six pieces
on board, which plays during dinner,
for dancing during the evening and
lgives US morning concert. Elizabeth
and / enjoy looking on, comfortably
tucked up in our steamer chairs, COM
lmenting on the toilets, etc, and specu-
lating as to the probable girl the rather
good-looking purser with the gay Lo-
thario air will select for his evenings
lfirtatious campaign. English girls. as
| a rule, do not dance well. They hold
| thpnSplypS hadlN and have EffIa M n
grace of our girls while tripping the
light fantastic. In promenading with
their partners after the dance, too, they
do not seem TO have much to say gen.
orally, and Elizabeth and / both re-
marked the lack OF "go" in the situa-
ton. The purser on this occasion had
chosen handsome girl of the Ma
donna type. who coulG neither dance
nor talk, and he was not long in getting
rid of her. lie is the type that doesn't
believe In wasting a minute on an I'M
Interesting girl.
We sat there idly watching the little
byplay going on between the young
men and women. not realizing the time
when someone called to us to come and
see the sunset. While we had had oc-
casional glimpses OF the sun during the
day from behind the clouds, this was
the first time since we reached
Norway that his majesty had
favored us with a full-dress display.
. The sky had rolled up and tucked away
lout of sight its clouds, and only fieecy
: bit here and there was to be seen in
: the blue canopy overhead. The sun, big
and fiery, stood clear in the heavens
S Just about to drop below the horizon
IL was a glorious sight. The shadows
| on the verdure-covered rocks were
2 magnificent. We watched II till II sank
below the horizon, and were amazed to
( know II was 10 o'clock. When we
r went below ourselves. at II o'clock, il
was as bright as day. and If it grew
| dark at all that night we did moi
! know it.
Yesterday morning when we came up
, on deck We fornd it gray and cold as
usual, with MANY of the people gone
ashore to visit Torghatten, for we had
anchored early in the morning. Torg-
hatten is huge hat-shaped rock, with
: big hole thru it, situated on small
island called Torgen. 1t is quite hard
climb up the rock, and the view thru
the hole is said to be very fine when
you get to 1t, but there is absolutely
, nothing else TO see, SO Elizabeth and
decided to remain on board. II the
day had been fine / think we would
1 have gone just to stretch our legs on
shore, but we needed more than hole
in rock to tempt US from our COM
9 Portable chairs that nasty day. At the
5 foot OF the rock were some half dozen
houses, and someone said that on the
other side there were about as many
, more. We lay opposite the island till
D 1880 In the afternoon, which to Eliza
: beth and me seemed unnecessarily long
, considering the poorness OF the show,