Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-08-11
TRAVELLING In BELGIUM
DR.. Mcconnell Tells Of Scenes and
Incidents by the Way.
INTERESTING TRIP ACROSS ATLANTIC
War Torn Territory Still Shows Marks
of the Great Strusele-People Have
Kindly Feeling For Americans-
Passenger Rates High But Living is
The Yorkyille Enquirer

Correspondence The Yorkville Enquirer
Antwerp, Belgium, July 1S, 1922.-l
have heard story Of Scot VINO
when he was marching down the aisle
to be married, became extremely ner-
yous and when the best man asked
SANDY, have we lost the ring" re-
piled mo, mon, have lost my enthu-
siasm." Never lose your enthusiasm,
when you travel for then there will
be many petty annoyances from day to
day. You can see more in Washing
ton for less money than in any place
in the world, so I first stopped OF
there with my wife and boys, for my
son and a 12-year-old nephew make
up the party) and the National Mu-
scum, the Capitol, the Bureau nj En-
craving and Printing, made good
day of sightseeing without a cent
spent for fees. So always visit WASH
ington, for few cities are so beautiful.
A passport now is required for
travel-it costs $1,000 to get one, then
so much for each country you visit,
$1,000 for Great Britain, $500 for
France and $1,000 for Italy-so 1 was
out $500 the very first thing. All
steamship companies have the same
minimum rates now You cannot go
across as a cabin passenger for less
than $125.O0 each on up to S2,5OO.OO for
the special suites on such ships as the
Majestic" The same passage that
cost me $125.OO. I've had before for
s55.O0 and it has been down as low as
$45.O0. So you see coming over costs
twice as much as before the war-but
after you get over it costs about hait
as much as in TIE states, provided you
stay in Belgium, France or Germany
where money is cheap.
We sailed on the FINLAND" 4 good
steady slow boat with some 500
passengers, loaded with sugar and Ford
automobiles. Every berth was filled,
the deck space rather crowded. 1t Is
under the American flag, but is officer
ed mostly by Englishmen and the crew
was everything, Chinese, Malay, Flem-
ish, Swedish and what not. ABOUT
twenty students were acting as stew
ards or walters One big fellow, 6 feet
q inches. with n little pea jacket on
was ridiculous as he reached all over
the table with his long arms. He told
me he was one Of the football players
from the University of Minnesota. A
lanky Georgia Cracker from the sand
hills Of Georgia was master at arms,
which is ship police.
A ship is the neck of a funnel
through which people must pass in
crossing the ocean and you see some
funny sights and hear some odd talk.
Our ship had a lot of Germans and
Austrian Jews going back home after
years Of absence. They were all eXclt-
ed and fearful as we pulled into dock
at Antwerp. One Russian, who claimed
he was a musician taking rest-for
he might have been fake as he would
not play for us, talked Bolshevikl doc
trine and ran down America until a
newspaper man and myself blessed him
out and then he got indignant and
tried all his arguments on the women,
This newspaper fellow was a good
sport, of English descent, but an
American citizen and lived in Newark,
n. J. He came over a poor boy and
had worked himself up and had wife
and two fine boys and was going to
England for the first time since he
left 23 years before. He was Knight
Templar and a Shriner and when a
priest aboard told him the Masonic
orra nization was the most iniquitous
in all the world, and that it had caused
the World war, etc. l looked for the
fur to fy-and fly it did.
Some. missionaries were aboard
bound for Africa, ono l knew, Mr..
Washburn. Another missionary and
wife were returning. They have had
IS years in the worst section of Africa.
The ants had eaten up his house, so
he was taking back with him two big
Swedc bricklayers from North Dakota
and he was going to make his build
ings of brick. The Swede and his wife
were Christian volunteers too. You
meet some strong characters among
these pioneer missionaries. The ma
tives in the Congo are rapidly dccrcas-
| ing. The death rate far exceeds the
birth rate-a peculiar condition which
will soon thin them out. | wrote
several prescriptions for these workers
to try out.
An Iowa farmer was aboard, OF Ger
man descent and he was going or a
visit to Luxemburg. We called him
"By Gosh" for he ended every sentence
with "by gosh" or something stronger
He said all Iowa farmers who phd
100000 to s5OO.OO per acre for farm
land were broke "by gosh," and that
prices on hogs and cattle changed so
fast that he was not certain whether
he was rich man or poor man, "by
gosh"
The Finland was a transport during
the war and was tOrpedoed. The tor
pedo went completely through the
! ,,,r, ,f shin killing twenty