Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1933-12-06

Raise a hand and a score of seago-
ing taximen leap to life. offering you
a fascinating adventure, a cruise
around this harbor.
Ignore the boatman's chatter.
What If there are SO miles of
wharves and quays, and Inc that
viii lift $50 tons. and 10000 har-
Dor workers? Get all that later
from the consul, II you must have
your fguresl Just now, look at that
fleet of obsolete wind-jammers,
their painless sticks long naked of
sail and that elephantine freboat
squirting kissing streams on a burn
ing coal barge.
There's a big liner, too, backing
into the channel, Off for Buenos
Aires. On deck a brass band of wa
~ter-musicians Is playing "Over the
Waves" labeled 'Sobre las Olas" for
the Spanish-speaking passengers
who crowd the rail- TO wave and
shout shrill "Adiosl" to wet-eyed
Argentile exiles on the pier.
Those left behind always do the
crying" says your boatman, 'not
those who 60" But the liners fare
we'll blast browns his voice. Gulls
scream and flock after an English
collier. whose cook has just dumped
his scraps. The collier blends with
mist and fog like a movie fade-out.
And yet another ship looms In her
place, linked to a queer floating ele-
vator. whose long curved spouts are
pumping wheat from her hold.
Ships From Far Lands.
Here in the channel now are miles
of "%dolphins," or clumps of piles,
to which boats tie up to save wharf
charges. They are mostly tramps
and freighters. Alongside n slug
gish tub we drift. as she unloads
hemp and rice. At her rail stands
a steward, a slant-eyed Manila boy,
gazing s~tolcally oyer the strange
harbor-how different from his ia
miliar Manila bay
Close by rusty. weather-beaten
ships pass, ships from tropic ports.
manned by lascars and other dark.
skinned men. Exotic smells from
their open matches hint at strange
straw-baled goods from heather
markets on the China coast OF Bra
zIl-nut sheds along the Amazon. or
nipa shacks on sun-drenched Malay
beaches, where copper-skinned girls
comb long black hair. fragrant with
coconut OIL or shirtless men squat
about their fighting roosters.
A giant seaplane roars overhead,
but a Chinaman, peelIng potatoes
outside his galley door, doesn't even
look up. We turn and start back to
the quays, wharves, warehouses, the
forest Of cranes, and the whistling
tugs.
Through four or FIVE centuries
Germany wrestled to deepen this
tidal Elbe, digging more and more
berths for boats along It's banks and
deepening them as boats grew big
ger. Today, no other port anywhere
has more clever lab~or-saving de-
vices for the swift handling of ships,
and the juggling, sorting, weighing,
and dlspatching Of goods-endless
miles OF bulk, boxes, barracks, bags,
and bales. Supplying as the fig
ures are to the casual visitor, they
mean a lot to Germany; for this
world trade-gate, with all Its smoke
and whistles. Is the barometer that
points out fat or lean years for the
whole republic. "0ur destiny is on
the water" Is an old German say.
ing.
One man got rich making table
cloths and napkins for German
liners. Other profits come from salt
fish and sea biscuits; some groups
make oil cake, soap and margarine,
or chocolate bars. Others roast cof-
fee, refine sugar. or make fertilizers
and trade In guano from troplc bird
islands. Thus this astonishing port
functions.
Altoona, with coal and fish wharves
neat cottages, grape arbors, ant
beer gardens, is an Ideal home towr
for sailors. Dine anywhere, by the
st. PAUL. wharf. for example, anC
you see many deep-water men ant
their families celebrating papa'i
Homecoming. Ships lie so near some
st. PAUL cafes you can read the
names on their sterns.