something quite indescribable. In fact, the whole ship was a conglomer- 

 ation of stenches surpassing, I am confident, the two-and-seventy which 

 Coleridge distinguished in Cologne, "all well defined and several 

 stinks." 



The only Ughting in the passengers' quarters was by means of oil 

 lamps, which gave but a feeble illumination; those in the saloon were 

 hung in gimbals, Uke a compass, so that they remained upright, however 

 violently the ship might roll, or pitch. Between each pair of staterooms 

 was a small, triangular closet, with sides of ground glass and in this a 

 little oil lamp was placed, each lamp lighting two rooms. All lights 

 went out at io:oo p.m. and then there was nothing to do but to go to 

 bed. 



In the saloon meals were served on long tables, with rows of revolving 

 chairs on each side of them. The cooking was pretty bad and the bread 

 and coffee were vile, meat and vegetables of little variety, but very fair, 

 and no fruit but oranges. The baths and sanitary arrangements were 

 disgracefully bad, much worse than needful even in that period of poor 

 plumbing. In short, the luxury of a modern liner was conspicuously 

 absent and a sea voyage was a very uncomfortable undertaking, though 

 some passengers enjoyed it, or professed to do so. My own sentiments 

 were well expressed by the captain who took me to Panama in 191 1, 

 when he said: "The man who goes to sea for pleasure would go to 

 Hell for recreation." 



For a week the weather grew steadily worse, culminating in a ter- 

 rific gale on Friday night, when a sailor was washed overboard almost 

 within arm's length of where I stood. As we learned, on landing, the 

 German steamer Schiller was wrecked that same night on one of the 

 Scilly Islands, with fearful loss of life. 



It would be a waste of time and good paper to give any account of 

 our three months' tour of Europe; we saw something of northern Italy, 

 Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, France and Great Britain and en- 

 joyed our experiences beyond the power of words to express. I shall 

 merely mention a few adventures that were amusing or significant. 

 Travelling was cheap in those days; our hotel coupons from Cook cost 

 us two dollars a day each and provided for everything but luncheon. 

 It was then the universal custom on the Continent for the guests in 

 a hotel to dine together at table d'hote, almost always at six. It was a 

 pleasant custom and one often made agreeable acquaintances in that 

 way. One day, in Paris, we were seated at table opposite an English 

 clergyman and his wife; after exchanging a few remarks, the lady said 



:4o: 



