Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-09-05
On British Soil

YESTERDAY I spent several delightful
hours on British soil'' with as au
thentc an development of English atmos-
phere as though a long sea voyage lay be-
hind the adventure
The first thing one notices on reaching
British soil is men smoking pipes. AS L
entered the Consulate of His Britannia
Majesty. on Third street, I saw a gentle
man relishing pipe in the luxurious man
ner peculiar to the island kingdom. ! felt.
ashamed of the medicated vegetable ciga-
rettes ] was smoking as a despairing hay
fever remedy. They are very thin little
tubes, with cardboard mouthpiece; they
exhale a vile peppery scent; they are as
sociated with the first Writings of very
young lads who buy them at drug stores
before they dare purchase legitimate fags.
Emit the smoke through the nostrils,"
says the legend on the box; "they will make
the head as clear as bell" emitted
furiously. and asked for my friend the vice
consul. Trailing clouds of aFomatic incense,
! was ushered in.
HAD had a hunch. In the morning paper
l. I had seen the announcement of the
Cunard Line:
PHILADELPHIA to LONDON
Nennonia. ................., ..,.... Sept.
For a long time had had a hankering to
get on board a ship. Like Mr.. Wilson, who
"chafes at the confinement of Washington
the man who feels any salt in his blood
chafes at being bound down to pavements.
He has spells when he wanders along the
docks, yearning over oyster schooners--thc
Mnggie A. Hotrlett is in from Maurice River
Cove and feasting his eyes on the TALL lean
bows of ocean going steamers. He rides the
Gloucester ferries trying to memorze the
comely lines of the vessels in midstream.
The propeller of an unladen tramp turning
over in a slow flap flap of foam, kicks at
his heart. The harbor is never ending
panorama Of romance and excitement. He
tries to imagine a thousand excuses for
getting aboard the ships he sees %ut it is
hard to make sailormen understand this
yearning They expect one to have some
plausible reason for wanting to hang about
their vessels have never met n profes-
sional mariner who did not suspect me of
some dastardly purpose in lettering about
How can one explain that just to nose
about q ship, to poke and peer about her
fascinating decks. is an end in itself? Sup
pose you were to say you were "admiring
the funnel" they would think you mad
And yet that is just what one wants to do.
DUT my hunch was this: to lure the vice
ID consul from his tasks, and under his
authentic wing to 60 down to the VennoniG,
the pioneer ship of the new Cunard service
to Philadelphia to 60 aboard, if possible,
and gloat. The chief rule in life is to follow
the hunch. 1t never fails.
So the vice consul agreed, and emitting
clouds of medicated fume / sailed along
with him! At the Cunard pier we found
the new pier superintendent, Mr.. Annall.
I would have been much abashed to face his
clear gray questioning eye alone, but under
the chaperonage of my consular friend all
was easy. Beside the sheer flank of the
yennonia we stood chatting and he agreed
that we might go aboard. just then along
came Captain Brown, and we saw that
fortune was with us. Up the ladder we
scrambled. We had glimpse of the we'll
known scarlet and black funnel, familiar
in New York and elsewhere, but stranger
70 philadelphia. Then we were in the holy
of holies, the captains cabin. Captain
Brown got out his pipe and his tin of Cap
stan. 1t was plainly British soil!
CAPTAIN BROWN was the perfect host
" that only the sea captain can be. The
two landllbbers hung entranced upon his
words. His sea experience has been as COM
plete, one thinks, as any mariners. Trained
In the rough school Of sailing ships, he has
becn twenty wears IN thr CrnarA company. I,