Arizona republican., 1918-09-22
Chapter TX In Which We Return To "The Land of The Free"


 The Free"
 We found when we were leaving England another of those curious con- trasts between the nations of the earth that one meets in a long journey. Con- ing into Bordeaux we were conveyed for three hours by a ratty little French destroyer and a big dirigible French balloon. Leaving Liverpool, we lay two nights and day sealed in the har- bor, and then sailed out with the Ara bic, the Mongolian, the Victorian, and two freighters. amid a whole flock of cruisers and destroyers. The protecting fleet stayed with us two nights and three days On the French boat the barber practically had no news of sud- den deaths and hairbreadth escapes which had happened while we slept. We sailed into the Gironde Rive. peacefully, almost joyously. But we left the Mersey with a story that a pig | fleet of destroyers hovered at the riv- CTS mouth; that the Belgic had beer. i beached out there on a shoal by a "sub" and that we would be lucky if our throats were not cut in the water as we | tried to swim ashore after we had been | blown out of our boats.
 The French certainly are more cas- ual than the English. But then, the Germans have sunk virtually no French l liners, while the British liner is the favorite food of von Tirpitz! They even showed us his teeth marks on our American liner, the New York. On an earlier trip during the summer of 1917 the boat had been torpedoed when Ad- miral Sims was a passenger, going to England. The Admiral was sitting at dinner when the explosion occurred and the force of it threw him to the high ceiling of the dining saloon! At least that's what they told us. Caution and conflicting doubts, fears within and foes without were not so unreas- enable IS one might fancy, coming out of any British port.
 Only the Old Return
 But to Henry and me the greatest contrast came, not in the conduct oi the ships officers, as compared with the French seamen, but in the ships company, going to war and coming away from it. We went with youth; the Espagne was crowded with young men going to war, with young women going out to serve those who were sal vaging the waste of war. The boat car ried a score of lovers-some married some impromptu, some incidental anc fleeting, but all vastly interesting. For " ments, and stumbling over the dark decks at night on the Espagne, We were forever running into youth paired off and gazing at the mystery of the ocean and the stars. So the corkS were always popping in our old hearts; and we enjoyed it. But we paced the black night decks of the New York as "one who treads alone a banquet hall de- serted" We were among the younger people on the ship. There was no youth to play with under thirty. No one touched the piano. No one lifted hIs voice in song The most devilish thing going as we saile1 was a game ol chess, There was a night game ol whist or cribbage or some other seden- tary game, which closed at ten, and af- ter that in the library the talk saggeo and died like a decomposed chord in a Tschaikovsky symphony It was sad. One had to go to the smoking room where there was waSsail on lemor squash and insipid English beer unti after midnight. But there the talk wa: good. Of course it sometimes bore : strong smell of man about it. but il was virile and wise. A rug dealer froa Odessa, a dealer in mining machinery from Moscow, Chicago college pro, lessor returning from Petrograd, gig dEeIle IudheF llOlIl FEY pl, d brace 0 British naval officers going over to re . turn with Canadian transports, al American aerial engineer, back fron an inspection trip to France, a grea English actor, who once played Romeo F with Mary Anderson-to give one al approximate of his age-a Red Cros: commission from Italy and an Austra , lian premier. The whole ships com pany was but thirty-four first cIds and of these but six were women. l was no place for flashing young blade , in their late forties like Henry and me : As the hour for leaving the ship ap :; preached, the press of the splendi |, months behind us drew Henry and ID together more and more. We wer o hanging over the deck rail looking at 1, faint attempt at a cloudy sunset at in 1 end of our last day out. We fell t talking of the love affairs on the Els II pagne, and perhaps from me cam some words about the Eager Soul, tn ' Gilded Youth and the Young Doctor | Henry looked up dazed and anXiou: Il Clearly he did not know what it wa . all about.
 ,t The Persons of the Play "Who was this Gilded Youth ' asked Henry.
 He was the dream we dreame
 when we were boys. Henry. When fat :, set you out as book agent on til ' highway and me to kicking a Peerles