Evening star., 1939-11-19

The Travellers Notebook
Short Cruises Keep Vev Much Alive
The Spirit That It's Fun
To Travel at Sea

uncertain fate when present hostili-
ties broke out. carry on the not-so-
old tradition Of the sea that travel
by ship is fun. Indeed, directors Of
short cruises have been largely re-
sponsible for the gay social and
sports life through the last 10 or Is
years And 1t is not In their code
to drop 1t now.
The usual short cruise ship, unable
because Of its size to duplicate the
space and all the facilities of the
larger liners, has built up q spirit
of entertainment around one gen.
eral theme-lively sociability. This
is particularly true of the cruises
that draw the younger crowd, al
though there are ships that permit
a more formal atmosphere. But in
general the young generation, and
many Of the about-40 adults, prefer
q rollicking good time. Picking their
ship to avoid the more reserved at
mosphere, they can find 1t.
Dancing is an activity that has be-
come so important in the social
scheme of short cruises that opera
tors often engage special instructors
to go along on Caribbean voyages.
Expert bridge players sometimes
join the cruise staff. Besides sports.
including swimming on the modern
cruise ships, recreation includes al
most continual wooden horse rae
ing, table tennis and other parlor
and deck games. Switchboard is
still popular although the cruise di-
rector, as master of ceremonies.
strives to build his entertainment
around larger crowd. He borrows
or invents activities to gather and
then mix his customers. And his
ingenuity brings forth such antics
as these:
He musters a crowd and q few
empty bottles, and calls for q volun-
teer performer from the audience.
-Four bottles are then placed about
q foot from one another on the
dance floor or deck. The performer
hears that he will be blindfolded-
and his goal is to step among the
bottles without overturning anv.
Gingerly the passenger begins to
step, but just before he does an at
tendant quietly whisks all the
bottles away. With laughter and
cheers, the crowd calls on the per-
former to 60 ahead or cautions him
TO be careful. At the psychological
moment before he becomes too con-
1used to go on, the blindfold is
snatched away and he can Join in
the laughter.
virginia reels and John Paul
Joneses are all right but the cruise
director has some other tricks tn
mix up the dance crowd. One stunt
is to start a lone couple dancing
Wltnln few minutes comes the
clash OF cymbals, and the dancers
part to choose other partners from
among the spectators. From time tn
time, the cymbals sound and the
partners break away to take others
from the sidelines. Before the Or
chestra halts the tune, all are
merrily dancing.
4 Il
Scribblings: Montreal has $50
churches. v
To see Mexico at its fiesta best
dressed in its most dazzling cos
tunes, with street dances to the tune
OF lifting music by native orchestras,
arrange to be south of the Rio
Grande on December IL. The occa-
sion is the celebration In honor of
Mexico's patron saint, Our Lady
OF Guadalupe" Linger If you wish.
for there is nearly q month of
f1estas in store, continuing until
January 6. - =
Fayetteville;eN IN. g., named for Gen.
Lafayette, originally was known as
Cross Greek Town. The bell in the
old market house still tolls the cur
few at 8 pm.
The province of Quebec will lift
the hunting ban on caribou on Jan
uary /, 1910.
The traveller who has in his Jour-
neys collected strange names has
missed rich city If Lisbon, Portu-
gal, was not visited. For he has
not had the luck to acquire" at
first hand these names: Street of
the Little Englishman, Street of the
Mother of Water, the Sad Ugly One
Street and the Alley Of the Faithful
Of God.
Novelties Of Americas most re-
DECnDTC