The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1917-07-19

II isn't foolish az !, seems. The sea
Il extremely wide and roomy The
oceah liner has no fixed path. To sink
boat one must first catch ii and in
the case Of Sub IL ia necessary TO get
tothc spot first and wait there The
way they are pointing the ships now
Il il difficult to separate ship from
shadow and with the speed obtained
On our boat little time was allowed
for the other fellow to make up his
mind.
No Fear OF Submarines
Nc were not, however. concerned
about submarines, Far from it. Not
a passenger on the boat would admit
he was afraid Of EN-. Occasionally
the submarine was used as o point to
some feeble joke, and everybody
laughed uproariously for fear he
would appear nervous. No, we were
all very careless and mindfree re-
garding subs and torpedoes-but il
will never be known how many of us
slept with our clothing on. But of
course none of us did this because we
wer afraid. We had no lights by
which to undress and we are most of
us undecided as yet as to whether we
resented the inconvenience or welcom-
cd the excuse.
Life on Board
The easy life aboard modern YES
sci is conducive to pleasure. We feed
well. sleep we'll and loaf well--ordin-
arily. But how can one feed well
when in the doorway Of the dining
room stands two stalwart Porto Ri
can troopers with fixed bayonets, new
er taking their eyes off a group of
German prisoners at the next table ?
OF course we don't care so much about
the Germans, but suppose something
started. A dining saloon is rather
close range and those soldiers do
handle their guns somewhat careless.
Speaking Of the German prisoners
we are reminded that their quarters
were directly over ours. All night
long we hear the tramp, tramp, of the
Porto Rican guardsmen as they watch
before the door Of the Germans. There
is comfort in the thought of those
soldiers and their presence gives a
sense of security if only they would
not get seasick and drop their cart
ridges right over the head of our
bunk, and we in the upper berth.
To one unaccustomed to the ways of
the army there is sort of fasclna-
ton in watching a soldier load his
musket. He deftly inserts sort of
me tallic hand in the breech of his gun.
This hand has five very long, cold
fingers extremely sharp and business
like, each one capable of carrying
5000 yards, and penetrating Lord
knows how many thicknesses of
plank-a ships deck for instance and
possibly a passenger or so. And as
we rumi,ate on this possibility we
again agree with the wisdom Of the
officer. There is no pleasure in sea
travel these days.
Someone is always taking the joy
out of life anyhow. As a rule ships
officer is a good fellow and full of in
formation. He will patiently enlight-
en- each flock of passengers on the
mystery of eight bells, starboard and
port, etc. He will even fail TO show
annoyance when you mention down
cellar" instead of going below, and
back and front instead of fore and aft,
and calling the dining room dignitary
"head waiter" instead Of first, second
or third chief steward, and all such,
but ships officer with . big navy
automatic strapped on his waist looks
entirely different. That big automatic
gives him a standoffish appearance
which is hard to overcome, and if you