Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1912-07-10
ESTABLISHED 1855
ROGERS O THE ATLANTIC
THE GENERAL WRITES OF TRIP
ACROSS THE POND
Interesting Side Lights on Thirty
Four Hundred Mile Voyage on
the Tackles Sea

EDITOR CENSOR: We boarded the
Kroonland from Antwerp at Dover,
where Caesar landed and close by
where William the Conqueror disem-
| barked his Merriam army to claim his
own and write the Doomsday book.
Our course is down the English channel
where we see many ships going to and
returning from all parts Of the globe
some lacking with canvas, others plow-
ing by steaming at fast speed; some of
a few thousand tonnage, others mighty
levlathans. We pass the Lizard light
house, the mariners guide to the chan
mel, and now go out on the ocean.
Alone on the ocean save for the gulIs
which follow far out on the trackless
sea. When they turn back, the por-
poise, in schools, sport alongside the
steamer, while the flying fish leap into
the air in play or to escape an enemy
seeking food. Billows following pillows
come surging, rolling. beating against
the ship but she minds it not.
1t is evening. We are going into
darkness, into a storm. 0,Storm, quiet
your anger Ocean, cease your blow
ing! You have agitated and dashed and
scourged the steel sides of the ship but
she heeds you not. Calm yourself and
be good ocean tonight; quiet your
angry surface and see how peaceful
you can be. You are not limitless, are
not boundless, nor are you fathonless.
Your limits are defined, your boundar-
les marked, your bottom mapped.
Morning comes, the ocean swelling
beautifully, scenery magnificently SUI
bllme. Sickness overcome, | walk the
deck and recall Oliver Wendell Holmes,
Il q he 70 he hot he
says to the dwellers on its shore: "You
are neither welcome nor unwelcome
do not trouble myself with the living
tribes that come to my water. / have
my own people, other than yours, that
grow to mightier dimension than your
mastodons and elephants, more numer-
GUS than all the swarms that fill the air
or move on the earth. Who are you
that build palaces on my margins?
see your white faces as | saw the dark
faces of the tribes that came before
you, as | shall look upon the unknown
family of mankind that will come after
you. And what is your human family
but parenthisis in a single page of
my history. The rain drops stereotyped
themselves on my rocks before living
creature left footstep there. What
feelings have | for you? Not scorn,
not hatred, not love; blank indifference.
| will lap your feet, will cool yUu in
the summer days, | will bear you in my
strong arms, | will rock you in my roll
ing undulations. Am | not at times
gentle, kind, harmless? The wind is
rising and we are rough playmates.
See my foaming crestl Feel the rocks
tremble as the pillows crash against
them. Out of me all things came
sooner or later all things in me will sub
side. All thugs change, but change
not Time wrote no wrinkles on mr.
forehead. All tongues are spoken on
my shores, while have but one langu-
age the wind. Few words are mine.
but have whispered snem, sang them
and chanted them to all men, to all
trihes, from the sire when the .irst
wild wanderer came into my presence.
They came to me. for my, voice is the
infinite and eternal" And thus spoke
the ocean.
Our course has been far south of the
ice foe, We pass the light ship and
steer for the harbor of New York.
The last dinner of ship board; the orr
chestra playing we'll. Like Apollo,
who swept such harmony from the Tyre
that the listening gods were charmed;
like 0rpheus, who with magic strains
led rocks and trees and beasts to follow
him; like David, who drew from his
enhancing harp a concord that dis
PEELED the gloom about the brow of
Saul and flooded Israel's palaces with
music and joy; the sublime symphonies
of Handel, Mozart and Beethoven :
all these combined did not equal the
Simple majesty Of Home, Sweet
Home" the concluding piece at the
last dinner on the Kroonland.
Quarantine inspection over, with the
aid of five tugs the steamer is locked
and we leave the ship that has trans
ported US safely three thousand four
hundred miles through mist ana fog
and high seas. Custom inspection over,
we ride under the Hudson river and en-
train on the Lehigh. The route takes
as across New Jersey, Pennsylvania
and New York, over the suspension
bridge into Canada, under the St. Clair
river into Michigan and on to Chicago,
Milwaukee and Sparta and | can
truthfully say that, from Cashton to
Viroqua, | saw the best farm homes
and growing grain and stock this side
of the Atlantic. EARL NJ. ROGERS.