The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-02-16

g.
which our good ship. the Great North
ern. is speeding towards Panama, Is
the blueness OF its waters. Not o n
ago / was speaking, as representative
of the navy's exhibit at San Francis
CO, with MI. w. +. Halsell, the Massa-
chusetts marine artist, about his splen-
did painting of the battleship Oregon
at the Santiago de Cuba fight. with
view to securing the picture for our
exhibit at the Panama-Pacitic Inter-
national Exposition at San Francisco.
l had seen the picture in the National
Museum at Washington, and 1 asked
him if he had not painted the water
too blue. He replied that he had visi-
ted the scene of the famous fight in
order to match the color with absolute
accuracy. Like Sheba's Queen, when
one comes to see for himself he must
like her be convinced, and exclaim in
her words: The half has not been
told The sea is of the deepest in
digo hue.
The b%lueneSS OF the ocean lmpreSSes
all alike. l have beer reading Mr..
Arthur Billiards. book on Panama
one of the latest words on the Big
Ditch. the country or its location, and
its territorial environment. In goine
to Philadelphia to take the boat, l
called on Mr.. Gordon II. Cilley, an old
n~ewspape comrade on the Charlotte
Observer and the Philadelphia Record,
and now one OF the right hands of Mr..
John Wanamaker in his advertising
department. When I got to the boat
l found awaiting me a package which
contained this book on Panama and
another on California together with
the handsome Wanamaker Golden
Book. But to get back OF the main
line: Mr.. Billiard writes in %sprightly
style of the blueness Of these far
southern seas. Says he:
THE tropics should be visited by
way of the sea. You come INTO them
gently, almost imperceptibly. You are
more impressed by the intensifying
blueness of the water and sky thar
by the increasing heat. 1t begins
when you leave the yne of thu
Gulf Stream and deepens day by day
Each night you turn in feeling that a
last you have perceived the ultimate
blue and each morning o wake III
to realize that yesterdays blue was a.
insipid as a first-love compared t.
~deepness Of the color of this new
day"
\ Caribbean Sunset.
How the Almighty Creator shift
His earthly kaleidoscope with som
new beauty at every turn. The gold
@ n glory of the far southern sunset l
beyond description. On the evenin
uDO WnlCn L am Writing the sun san.
behind a bank of heavy dark cloud
which were picturesque in themselve
because they seemed to have bee
hung with the southern moss Whic
n sees in Florida or Louisiana fol
Ssts. This effect came from a lot C
small fluffy white clouds floating i
the foreground of the masses of MIN
bus. In the interstices of these cloud
the sun slid down the western sky ir
to the sea. The sky was a mass {
beaten gold--the more brilliant ye
low shades turning slowly into a ric
old gold. After the dazzling orb ha
disappeared, the path of macadamize
glory which it had laid in the indig
sea was slow to fade. as well as tf
after-glow across the western SIX
which hung there like curtains wove
OF cloth-of-gold. The red sunsets
our North Carolina Blue Ridge a.
matchless, and often they ming
some ochre and chrome with scarf
n crimson-but here in the track
Christopher Columbus and Sir Franc
Drake on the far-famed old SPANS
Main. the sunsets are as solidly go
as the treasures which the CONQUEST
dores took in ruthless robbery fro
the Aztecs and the Incas. and Sc
home as rich ballast in the calico,
of the royal Ferdinands and Phili
and CharleseS who ruled Spain befo
Destiny had even dreamed Of writi1
chabo upon her brow.
a Bcnediction on the Bridge.
Even the seamen say that never d
snip make her maiden voyage und
such fair winds and smooth seas
ours. The captain Of our boat is
grandson of the Vikings. A Nors
descended son Of the seas is he,
the name Of Ahmen. 1 think the S
cret Of our bright skies must be
cause we have a living Benedict
on the bridge.
l am setting down here a few il
pressions of the voyage. 1t is mer,
the Log Of a Land-lubber.
A Beautiful Boat.
;. $. Great Northern, Wednesd;
January 27-Due to sail this afterno
at 4 p. m. from Philadelphia, but I
getting loose until Z o'clock, we ",
merely tugged out into the middle