Show ON THE mediterranean having nearly completed a fair days voyage on the mediterranean sea from voyad senoa noa in italy to port said in egypt I 1 thought I 1 would send your readers a few items as I 1 find them in my journal about 11 am I 1 went on board the Hohen hohenstaufen staufen a vessel bej lodging to the Nord deutsche lloyd I 1 was met at the gangway by a host of waiters all of whom competed in displaying their courtesy one took my luggage another showed me the way to my berth one asked me if I 1 preferred english to german and so on thus the first impression I 1 received was a very favorable one and it increased on a nearer acquaintance with the crew from the captain to the steward the hohenstaufen Hohen staufen is not exactly a large vessel as compared with the transatlantic lines but strange to sa say y it has much better accod accommodation oda for passengers the second cabin is very elegant A room which on board the alaska for instance is considered large enough for six persons is here calculated to hold only three and the spare room is filled out with an elegant sofa and two washstands wash stands it is very seldom that three persons are berthed together for so long as there is room enough each passenger gets his own little apartment having established myself comfortably fort ably on board I 1 commenced to study my follow fellow passengers in the second cabin there were besides myself an english gentleman going to ceylon where he has an estate and three german gentlemen bound for australia the steerage passengers were about two hundred all bound for australia of these the majority were english between twenty and thirty were italians and the germans were about the same number there were also a 4 few J jews aws two danes two russians one norwegian and some irishmen I 1 have never before realized that a large current of emigration is drawing this way every year from europe to australia and I 1 wondered if the various countries of europe win will not some day find themselves depopp considering how many millions of people and money every year go out to other continents among the passengers were not a few religious people some methodists ests made themselves prominently prominent by singing hymns although I 1 am afraid their musical talents were very little appreciated by the greater greater portion of the passengers one n evening in particular this was app apparent ar e they had formed a little group and were singing lustily hold old the fort for I 1 am coming ff when all of a sudden in another part of the vessel the solemn sounds or of a bass drum a snare drum an accordion accor deon and a aute flute were heard it was the sailors sl baud band no sooner had this sounded than half a dozen young couples started to jump about like overgrown babies A ragged italian in another part of the deck encouraged by the example fetched his old accordion accor deon and to its miserable shrieks some more jumping was done above the sounds of the ill timed instruments and the rap ra rap rap mp of the iron heeled boots of the me dancers the methodist singers were still aart exhorting to hold the me fort this was a scene worthy of the pen of a charles dickens a sight to be witnessed nowhere but among two hundred emigrants or perhaps in a lunatic ansylum assy lum A jew whom I 1 conversed with a few times positively declared that he did not be believe llerve anything any thing of what the ancient prophets had written and that he would not give a boap of the finger fin for the holy land civilization he said was the only messiah that would redeem his people from the hatred to which they were subject now these sentiments are not uncommon I 1 am sorry to 0 say among the jews may god soon have mercy upon his ancient people and lift the veil that still hides their faces and darkens their sight I 1 also became acquainted with a family from liverpool of the baptist persuasion the gentleman was very well informed and ad of liberal views we had several interesting conversations I 1 tried to show him that no one ought I 1 to 0 preach unless he could prove that he had authority from heaven to do so that the reason why there are so many divisions in the christian world today is to be found in the fact that this authority is lacking and this also has rendered christianity at present almost powerless in the struggle against in infidelity fidelity I 1 pointed out that it might be very interesting to hear the opinions of this learned minister and that but that after all this is not what we really require we need a true and powerful gerful declaration thus saith rhe the lord not an 1 I think ap or 1 I believe I 1 further lead him to meditate upon the existence of man before the foundations of the world were laid our mission on this globe and the promise of eternal salvation in worlds to come in these subjects he exhibited much interest and when we parted he promised to write to me ay as soon as possible I 1 have no doubt he was an honest christian and I 1 hope he will become more enlightened in the truths as they are in christ jesus the whole passage from italy to egypt was as far as the weather was concerned one fine pleasure trip the sea was as calm as a good conscience all the way the sun shone brightly every day so that the canvas had to be spread ou deck in order to give shade the moon and the stars threw their silver rays mys all around us during the night and methinks I 1 never saw so clear a moon or such bright stars before as on OB this azure sky my heart swelled with joy as I 1 stood on the deck and admired gods vast and beautiful creation I 1 thought I 1 could understand a little the feelings of the royal poet of old who charmed by the beauty of gods creation burst out admonishing everything that had existence to sing praise anto the lord 11 to his musical ear the weak harmony from the strings of his har harp ant must have grown insignificant and he wanted to hear a volume of sounds from this immense workmanship of god 7 which in its harmony of motion and beauty is so unfathomable and so perfect the lovely weather just referred to was the more remarkable as the ship had had a rough time of it two days before reaching genoa but it seems it is always my good fortune to have fine weather on the sea I 1 have crossed the north sea seven times I 1 have sailed many a voyage over le the baltic I 1 have passed through catte vt gat and gerack sailing along the norwegian or coast to many degrees north of the arctic circle where the midnight sun plays with the large whales and the seals I 1 have crowed crossed the atlantic twice and now the mediterranean but I 1 have never seen what may be termed really bad weather at sea I 1 tb think ink I 1 have experienced perien ced far worse on land I 1 have therefore been so well accustomed to pleasant weather when on the water that any other kind would almost be a surprise to me we left genoa at ten p in on january ath next morning at eight I 1 was on deck and found that we could all daill see aft land on both sides on our right hand were the rocky shores of corsica and on our left the little island of elba once in a while other islands came in sight and again vanished about seven a m on january ath we passed vesuvius near enough to see a vast column of smoke hovering over it in the afternoon of the same day we passed the volcano strom boll boll very doge close by this is the most northern of the Li parlan islands and has a height of metres its crater is always throwing out smoke and with few intervals streams of lava were seen running down its sides into the sea yet the island is inhabited I 1 counted about fifty houses grouped around abound an old church on its west coast and on the opposite coast appeared to be a considerable sid erable city the vegetation as seen from the ship seemed scanty another volcano was visible on the right hand but far off an old Id irishman after having looked at the volcano for some time came up to me and said now sor gilve never heard it explained but if this is not the entrance to hell oi 01 should loike to know it is aist fancy a great big fire in the middle of the wather and no wood nor no coal to feed it who could do that but the un his self I 1 could not help smiling at this short but novel expression of opinion ye yet t I 1 the gentleman might not have been been so very far from the truth after all who knows in a little while having passed the islands the coast of calabria on the left and of Ci cicilia ellia on the right came in view and in the evening we passed through the strait of messina which on its narrowest passage is not more than four kilometres kilo metres wide the sun had already set when we passed through this strait but in the magical light of the moon a wonderful panorama was wag unfolded to our sight to the left we could distinguish the little town of scylla the of old built on the slopes of the rock with the same name which the of ancient max mar iners thought to be the dwelling place of that fearful sea monster scylla the destroyer of all ships that came within its reach behind scylla aspromonte a mountain 1964 meters high and known from the attack of the italians on that noble hero garibaldi august 1862 lifts its head towards the sky to the right the beautiful fu I 1 coast landscape of cicilia presented itself illuminated lumina ted with the hundreds of gaslights of messina and other towns which seen from the ship were derschon 11 1 1 german truly wun as my friends declare from the strait of messina our course lay more eastward and during the night we came out into the open sm sea A comparison between the german steamers on these waters and the gulon guion line of the atlantic will fall very much in favor of the former on the german boats everybody is kind and polite to the passengers from the first officer to the waiter the kaptain did not think it below his dignity to wish his passengers ou on board a good mo morning I 1 nor to cou converse versY with them an and give ve them every reasonable informs information on everything was done for tile the comfort of the passengers on the english steamer the officers looked as aa dignified as chinese mandarins and I 1 do not believe they exchanged a word with the jm passengers engers during a whole week everybody down to the stewards tried to look vas bi big 11 and the passengers were treat eaas a necessary evil hardly to be endured on the english steamer everything was done for the convenience veni ence of the crew not for the passengers who paid their money the fare in the second cabin of the german steamer was as good as that in the first cabin of the alaska if any of my fellow sufferers should happen to see these lines they will agree with me in lauding flauding the german arrangements our bill of fare was varied one days dinner consisted 0 of sou soup p fish fi sh roast bee beef A chicken pudding fruit besides 22 vegetables butter ch cheese ees e sau sausages sadegh anchovies etc which were always on the table and everything was well done an and served to us in a way that what was good in itself was made to taste still better I 1 wish I 1 could have said the same of tb the alaska but I 1 cannot what was given us in the second cabin there was not good nor was there enough of it unless one kept on applying for amorell more a request which was very reluctantly complied with I 1 remember one day I 1 asked a gentle man on the alaska what was the bill of fare for the day and he said A dobes sole leather and conglomerated w paste in common english this is translated bread roast beef and pudding but I 1 confess that I 1 hardly know which of these two versions of the bill of fare was waa ar the more appropriate to substantiate diate what I 1 here say against the alaska I 1 will mention only one item out of many that have not left my memory we served with liver several tunes times now the liver is a very useful member of the body but its functions when alive ought to entitle it to a quiet rest when dead it is not very fit for food under any condition but this particular liver so I 1 was informed had been bought in liverpool carried across the atlantic once and was still served tops to us on nearing liverpool again from this may be judged the kind of food in general on the alaska and besides when thrown at the passengers paes engere as if they were a S set of hungry dogs instead of a company of tourists I 1 think it is too much for human patience to endure the guion line would do well to send some of their officers and stewards particularly the latter abroad in order to learn leam mores saw ano germany may be recommended 80 a splendid place to go to for that purpose the trip on the alaska w was as quite Is a job and we were glad when it was over the trip to is the was in every sense a pleasure and one felt sorry when the time to leave it had arrived it was a parting with friends it may be necessary to state that the writer is neither an englishman nor a german and therefore has no prejudice re judice in favor of the germans au on the contrary if he has any prejudice at all it would be in favor of the english but he is simply recording facts and I 1 know tow tho anyone who has to go this ibis way wa agree with me when he has made A comparison of the two lines of 0 ste steamers arnem auf av 3 M S THE SHIP 0 the mediterranean jan 12 1889 |