The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-09

From the Casual Notes of an Irrespon-
sible Traveller in the July Bookman.
IF you are making your first voyage.
and are aboard a French steamer,
1 you will be delighted. because, from
the moment you ascend the gangpiank,
YOU are already In France. Seven-tenths
of the passenger list will be made up OF
foreigners. You will not hear Engnsh
spoken except rarely. The neat little
Breton and Norman sailors speak pa
tots that is strange to you. The stewards
do not respond to any language save tneir
own. The meals are served with cere-
mony. There is plenty of deck room, ana
the deck room is snowy clean and with
averv convenience, even to the shoulder
ing little meche which is conveniently
played In a small copper cask so that you
NAV light your cigarette from II, no mat
ter which way the wind happens to piow.
Even the tiny flags upon the chart In the
Communion way to indicate each days
progress are tricolored and therefore
French Everything is as neat as pin,
down to the small brass cannon which is
dashed forward, to bark out small roar
of low when the distant harbor is sighted.
If one may use an Americanism, the most
expressive adjective which suggests itself
as applicable to a French steamer, IS
"cute'
But there is something more than
"cuteness" about It. NO one ever sees
there the kind of miscellaneous acquaint-
ance and companionship which you note
upon an English vessel crowded With
Americans. The passengers are not homo
peneous. They do not, for the most part,
come from countries where you may go
up and speak to any one you please
without a formal introduction. The Amer
leans who choose these steamers have
very much the same point OF view. Iney
do not want to attend ship concerts or
70 listen to emotional revelations delivered
in throaty or nasal tones. They ike 10 De
let alone, to enjoy the solitude wnich
is respected by their temporary compan-
ions and which they in turn respect In
others There is the ship bearing them
onward with magnificent power; there arc
the quiet decks, and there is the great
expanse of ocean whose strons sai' ar
renews ones life and gives one de
lc,ous hours of unbroken sleep at night.
Won will find something very interesting
about the psychology of two persons who
occupy berths in the same stateroom.
when Won board the vessel. you go down
70 your cabin and thrust your steamer
| tr 81, under the lower berth or under the
coach opposite Then you take out your
| toilet articles and arrange them on one
side of the mirror very much as though
| Won were stalking out claim In mining
country. Then you go UP on deck, and
| II Won come down an hour or two later.
after the ship is under way, you will find
| that someone else has IN like manner
disposed of his steamer trunk and has
placed his small belongings on the side
which you have left for him. There is
a sort Of tacit understanding, an I'M
| written etiquette about these things.
You may turn In at particular hour of
tile night, and your mysterious COM
panion has either turned In before and
has drawno his curtains; or perhaps he
will turn in later. noiselcss, discreet and
hoping that he may not rouse you. There
is the same mysterious agreement in
the morning. You RISE and he rises.
but never simultaneously. And so it is
that you may cross the ocean without
ever seeing or knowing the one who
shares your room. 1t is triumph OF
tact, and 1 take 1t that this sort of tact
lis essentially masculine. fancy that
women who are bil1eted together adopt
another course, strike up temporary ac-
quaintance. and talk things over sottc
voce in the watches of the night. But
this Is only theory of mine; and per-
haps 1t is an entirely wrong one.
Il have spoken Of the reserve which. in
general, prevails on great French
steamer. The only exception H. to be
found In the fumoir; but that would BE-
The case wherever men Of any nationality