The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-03

 B. W. Huebsch, publisher.
 ITHE gale had increased. Not a pas \ senger was to be seen on deck. \ Sailors were inspecting the life boats. Huge masses of water seethed against the ships side, cutting into its course obliouely. The waves made mad leap into the air hung there for an ir stant in the form of white corals and fell like a thousand lashes on the deck which was all awash The breath of the gale
 tore the smoke backward from the mouths of the smokestacks and scat tered it in the wild chaos in which heaven and sea were mingled.
 Between the door leading to the main companionway and the companlonway it. self was a square level space, about which a railing ran and in which few person scould stay and enjoy the fresh air without being drenched. When Fred erick on his way below deck, passed through the open door, he found a quiet assemblage of pale faced passengers. One chair was still unoccupied. He seated himself in it with the fanciful notion that he was joining gathering of condemned men.
 A clothing manufacturer had dragged himself from his cabin, heaven knows how, and was lying in his chair like d dead body. There were two other men conversing with each other, one small. rotund and scary faced, the other tall and thin.
 The tall one was showing the other section of submarine cable and letting the hard piece, intricately braided of hemp, metal and guttapercha, pass from hand to hand. From his choppy, whis- pered sentences, the company learned that in 1877 he had worked as electrical engi- neer on steamer laying a cable between Europe and the United States. The work on the high seas had lasted without inter- ruption for many months. He had spent several months supervising the construc- tion of the steamer itself in the yards. especially the riveting of it's metal plates. He spoke of what is called the cable plateau at the bottom of the ocean. stretching from Ireland to Newfound- land, strip of gray sand so named be- cause it supports the main Transatlantic | cable.
 The copper wires in the center of the cable, he said were called its soul, the rest of the mass, almost as thick as a mans fist and resembling a great hauser. serving merely as a sheath to protect the soul. Frederick had mental vision of the fearful solitudes of the ocean depths, with the monstrous metal serpent, appar- ently without beginning and without enc, creeping over. the sandy bottom peopled by the enigmatic creatures of the deep. It seemed to him as if such profound iso- lation must be grewsome even for the dead mass of cable.
 In the midst of these meditations his chair slipped and Frederick. in company with the electrical engineer, the dozing manufacturer. woman physician and . woman artist, was hurled against the ban ister. while the opposite row of passengers was hurled on top of them. It was . ridiculous incident. but Frederick observed that no one seemed to find it so. They tried to arrange themselves in or der again. One of the ever industrious stewards appeared and, as If to comfort them for their overthrow, passed about Malaga grapes.
 when shall we reach New York;" somebody asked. The eyes of all the others instantly turned upon the ques- tioner in amazement and alarm. The steward. usually so polite, merely smiled an embarrassed smile and gave no reply. In his opinion an answer. one way or the other, would have been to challenge fate. The passengers felt much the same. h. deed. the idea that their feet would &C., | tually ever tread solid land again seemed in their present condition almost like an extravagant fairy tale.
 | The short. stout man, to whom the cleo trical engineer was chiefly directing his discourse, was conducting himself peculi- arly. At short intervals he would look | out anxiously into the uproar, turning his l small watchful eyes searchingly up to the | tops of the masts, which never ceased to describe great ares in the air (starboard | to port. port to starboardD and out into l the monotonous rolling of the waves, swelling into ever higher and higher
 masses. His face was full of concern.
 Frederick was on the point of inwardly
 ridiculing the pitiful landlubber's coward
 ice when he heard him say that scarcely
 three weeks before he had brought his schooner safely to New York from three years trip around the world. and intended
 to start out from New York on the same trip to last the same length of time. The little man was the experienced captain of