Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-19
THE VISITOR AND A TELEGRAM


an hour after he was bunked, at that;
and he was willing, and leveled more
conversation right back at me.
He was up, dressed and taking his
peer at the Atlantic ocean by 6 In the
morning, three hours after he'd gone to
bed, for he'd been longing for the salt
water for years. He'd been land-locked
in q western post. and man who has
spent a lot of years at sea never quite
gets used to being away from the tang
Of the ozone of the sea.
He was back for breakfast, which, as
to his share of it. he made look like
meal that an overgrown Great Dane
dredges into and then looks around with
a questioning expression in his eye.
After breakfast, over pipes. we sat
down to plan. OF course, l Cancelled all
thought of work. I am always delighted
when anything like this turns up to give
me a legitimate excuse for canoeing
every thought of work.
We decided decided-that he was to
stay in Atlantic City for about four days,
watching the gang that already is as
sembling here for the Eastern patrol of
the Appia Way Of the Sea- Then on to
1t came out. just when we'd begun to
plan these things, that my oldtfme matey
never had set foot in New York. Twas
an odd thing. but SO it was. He had
been virtually everywhere else in the
world. from Rangoon to Ramleh, from
Shanghai to Singapore, from Port Said
to Porto Rico. from Tegucigalpa to Ia
coma; but never in New York. Always
he'd somehow v. or an 10Th r. missed mss Ne"
And so we rugged it. -Four days of At
lantic City, and then about five days to-
gether in New York, which would give
him time to skate back to his post by
the expiration of his fortnight's furlough.
= \
He had a lot Of fellers in New York
that he wanted to dig up, anyhow: peo-
pie whom he had known on the west
coast when he was a newspaper person,
men he'd sailored and soldiered with. and
so on. And desired to swirl him few
in New York. 1t is always an interesting
thing to get anybody's impressions Of a
first view or the trivialities on q huge
scale Of N'YSwk; it is particularly d.
yerting to see and hear what a regular
man thinks of New York on his first
visit there.
I should say here. by the way. that
we had considerable talk about the
chances OF a Japanese war. He consid-
cred that such a war was bound to come
He said that he voiced. too. the general
impression of army officers on that ques-
ton. He himself had been a great deal in
Japan; and he considered that the Jap
anese war was as certain-and not in the
exceedingly remote future, etther-as
anything could be. He said that he was
glad to have q chance to peek New YORK
over before the japanese thing broke
out; perhaps No wouldn't have chance
to make the Atlantic seaboard again for
many years.
So! There we sat, f1migating the IL
brary with pipe smoke, and talking over
the whizzful. gregarious. foregathering
time We We're going to have Of 1t here
in Atlantic City and there in New York
for a matter of nine days or so; tanning
over the places we were going to take in
for the sake Of giving him a look, the
people we were going to pillow up for
having-parties purposes. and all like that.
1t was beautiful. I liked It immensely.
entirely aside from the fact that I was
going to be with an old friend. liked
1t because 1t gave me such a gorgeous
excuse for not working for about nine