April 
*.Ve crossed the Mount or at noon on Sunday the l(th, hut 
no notice was taken of it until the next afternoon, when King 
I'eptune belatedly hoarded the ship, and treated the neophytes 
with appropriate roughness. I have newer s*- en such a mess as 
the f irst-crossers were dunked in. A hoard table near the 
swimming pool ».as smeared with spaghetti, soap suds, cat sup and 
raw eggs, and the men were all rolled thoroughly in that, while 
chunks of ice and more of the ice-cold spaghetti kkx were 
shoved inside the i r bathing trunks. Balloons full of ice 
water were hurst over their heads, and generous lathers of 
egg and soap smeared in their hair and all over the ir faces, 
while Worcestershire and catsup were poured down their throats. 
They treated the girls a 1 i 1 1 le more gently, but all of them 
were put through the initiation blindfolded, and then led to 
the edge of the pool, and pushed in. 
The weather has been hot and steamy, hut the sea beauti- 
ful and blue. There is plenty of entertainment, movies, and 
dancing, and on two evenings there has been a splendid floor show 
put on by a group of prof essi onals ontheir way to a night club 
in Rio. 
The men take care of the animals. Prances and I are 
studying Spanish (she much harder than I am}. I go to ch urch 
every mom ing, walk five miles a day, Bead, a couple of hours, 
study Spanish an hour. The.i e are lots of cocktail parties, 
and the swimming c r owd , from which I am still barred because of 
my rotten cold, have luncheon on deck every day. 
There has never been so interesting a passenger list on 
any ship that I have traveled on before. Reading the list 
are Ambassador Oaf f ery and his wife on their way to Rio, very 
dignified, not mixing much with anybody else, but pleasant 
enough when Bill barges in on them and insists on buying them 
a drink. Patricia "Honeychile" Wilder, a Hollywood starlet , i s < 
traveling with Randy Bow, a pretty Virginia girl, and her (Pat's) 
fiance, a wealthy Argent ine horce-racer. Young Terry Burke, an 
insurance agent, made a pass at Pat one night, and the Argentine 
blacked both his eyes for him. Mrs. David Kamensten, said 
to be a vaudeville actress, wears the longest finger nails and 
feye-lashes I have ever seen on a human being. Mr. andMrs. 
McClellan giggle and blush every time the orchestra plays "Here 
Gomes the Bride." Dr. Boys and Mr. Cooper, both of Kalamazoo, 
are in Siemel's party and are hoping to shoot jaguars in Mat to 
Grosso. Jo Stolfi is a fat Hew York policeman who is gp ing to 
Buenos Aires to bring hack a "moiderer" and all ws as how he might 
as well have a good time now, because on the way back he'll 
be too busy watching his prisoner. Father Powers, the priest, 
has been in China for six years, where he "had a little trouble 
with bandits," and when he got out of the hospital was sent back 
to the States for a year's leave from foreign service. He has 
an Irish brogue and a grand sense of humor. 
