The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-25

including 16 days of excellent board on the sea. AS 1t fell in with my plans, I took passage on the Chiyo Mavu, a fine ship only two years in commission and of 21,000 tons displacement. Quite for tunately for me, there were only about | 75 first class passengers, and so I got | a whole state room to myself, large and airy, with good bed, a comfortable lounge, bureau and writing desk. a wardrobe. and convenient racks. Long before we had passed the Golden Gate my trunks and satchels were all in place and such things as I supposed would be needed on the voyage were unpacked and properly disposed of. I have a sort of passion for making. myself at home on ship, especially when a long voy- age Is before me. The weather was very cold, considering the season of the year; but I remained on deck until we had passed out into the open sea, and the city and the land had faded from view. Then I began to look around, and take stock of things on board The com mander MT Greene, Is an Irishman; and the purser looks like an Englshman. The head steward is an American. All the other officials and the whole crew are Japanese. It won't be long until the captain is of the same nationality. The Japs have no thought of permanently
 
 all the walters in the dining room and the room stewards are Chinamen. They are chosen for this work as being more compliant and biddable in disposition. The facility with which they discharge their tasks leaves nothing to be desired. At breakfast they are clad in clean blue gowns reaching nearly to their ankles, and at s o'clock dinner these are replaced by gowns of spotless white. So quietly do they come and go that the stiffness be- comes at times almost oppressive.
 Nothing is spared to make the passen- gers comfortable. The table contains a great variety of foods well cooked and well served but there is an utter ab- sence of the almost wasteful prodigality that one sees on English ships. Econ omy reigns everywhere. Even stationery Is doled out by littles. These eastern folk have had centuries of close living be- hind them, and have acquired the habit of saving at every point It would be well if we Americans could pattern after them. The ship is fully equipped for wireless telegraphy. We are now clos ing our 18th day from San Francisco, and have been entirely without news for only one day. On yesterday we heard of the terrible race riot at Galveston. That sort of thing spreads over the world very rapidly. The Associated Press people,
 whatever else they may miss, never fail to give full narratives of a mob or a lynching This accounts for the general belief abroad that violence and murder are normal affairs among us, and 1t must be confessed that the actual facts, taken
 without the least exaggeration, do put us to shame in the eyes of civilized man.
 kind. If 1t be true that when things are livery bad they never get any better until they get to be much worse, 1t is surely almost time that reformation were
 coming among us.
 | Several friends advised me to sail from Seattle or Portland, saying that at this season of the year the southern route would prove exceedingly warm. Never was there a worse mistake As inti- mated above. it was very chilly when we left the Pacific coast. For the first | two days one could not comfortably stay on deck without an overcoat and rug. After that, as we were running south west until we reached Honolulu in lati- tude N, the temperature gradually grew higher; but at no time, not even for a day, was it disagreeably hot. Since then we have been steering northwest-we are now in, latitude 34 degrees. and the at mosphere has been perfect baim-mid- dle Tennessee in early October. When we reach Japan we shall probably pay up for this blessing. The sea has also been kind to us, for the msot part as smooth as glass and as blue as the sap- phire heavens On two days there was Q little commotion, with long swells that made the ship dip good deal, but noth- | ing serious. never saw so few cases of nal de mer Even those that have como under my observation have been of the mildest type. Personally have kept my
 record as a good sailor unbroken, though
 once the ships doctor did give me a pretty good dose .of calomel for the en- couragement of liver that seemed in | clined to retire from business.
 l The ships company. though not large l embraces a good many different kinds oi people glish, American. German. Ar