The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-25


 could instantly bolt to the one from the other at the first signal from nature. The consul found the lower berth in his room already taken by a young man who, when his utterances became vocal, said he wassgonig out to put a sewing machine on the London market, and who, when he rose on the last day of the voy- age, showed himself so wan and weak and wasted that it seemed as if his sewing machine might first be illustratively em- ployed in running up the seams of the poor young agents shroud. Probably it was not, though what really became of him the consul knew even less than he knew the fate of his other fellow passen- gers. Most of them were Americans, and these were divided from the English by their opinions of the slvil war, though English enmity to the north was not so emphatic then as afterwards and they were never so much united by anything as by the sight of an iceberg which every body seemed to see at once. They were all glad to see 1t, and to see it mile off; even at that comfortable remove 1t was of such a mighty bulk that it chilled both sea and air
 ''The Easy Chair would willingly have made more of this iceberg in the interest of Christmas number; but the ex-Con- sul would not suffer it. He said there were no young ladies on board, at least, to have from it if it had misbehayed. There were indeed two ladies, but not of the heroinable age; the American Girl, who has since so swarmed abroad to play such a prominent part in international fiction, was not then discovered. The City of Palmyra, though she was of only 150O tons burden, would have offered this Girl some opportunities to prepare for the fray if she had been imagined; with a flush deck quite clear of impediments the ship afforded ampler space for walk ing and talking than the largest modern steamers. But here, except that she had no band, the City of Palmyra's advan- tages ended. At the stern house as a house is understood at sea, formed the smoking room, and when the deck was not swept by 'whooping bilows,' the hardy smoker could stagger out to this edifice, and take his chance of stagger- ing back there were strong waters as
  the enjoyment of more innocent pleas ures, the dining saloon formed the only place; it was at once the dining saloon, drawing room, music room, lounge, and library, which are separately supplied to the luxury of the travelling public on steamers like that where the Easy Chair and the ex-Consul now met. From the roof of this sole apartment some doleful lamps swung by night, and by day the pale November light stole in through the low windows under the caves. The cabins were cheered by yet smaller lamps set behind ground-glass panes between each two, and inhexibly put out at 10 o'clock' Four years later the ex-Consul found on an up-to-date Cunarder candles between such panes; or perhaps it was the other way about.
 "The saloon was too dim for reading, and he remembered no card-playing. He declared that there were not even any stores told there to while away the in- terminable afternoons or evenings There may have been gaming In the smoking room, with drinking, and even swearing; he was never present to deny it. or the fact of disputing between the American and English members of the Anglo-Saxon race, about the North and South in the war then raging on bloodier fields''