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Show OCEAN TRAVEL FIFTY YEARS AGO. "The cabins of the City of Palmyra wero admirably arranged just back of, the chairs of the dining table, so that you could Instantly bolt to the, one from tho other at the flr3t signal sig-nal from nature. Tho Consul found the lower berth in his room already tuken by a young man who, when his utterances became vocal, said ho was going out to put a sewing machine on the London market, and who, whon he rose on thc last day of his voyage, voy-age, showed himself so wan and weak and wasted that It seemed as If his sewing machine might ilrst be illustratively illus-tratively employed In running up tho seams of tho poor young agent's shroud. Probably It was not, though what really became of him tho Consul Con-sul knew even less than he knew thc falo of his other fellow passongers. Most of them were Americans, and these were divided from Hho English by their opinions of the civil war, though English enmity to the north wns not so emphatic then as afterward; after-ward; and they were never so much united by anything as by the sight of an Iceberg which everybody seemed to see at once. They 'were all glad even to see it, and to see It a mile off; even at that comfortable remove It was of such a mighty bulk that it chilled both sea and air. "The Easy Chair would willingly have made more of this Iceberg in the interest of a Christmas number; but the ex-Consul would not suffer 1L Ho said there wero no young ladles on board, at least, to save from it if it had misbehaved. There woro Indeed two ladfeB, but not of tho herolnable ago; tho Amorlcan girl, who has since so swarmed abroad to play.-such a prominent part In International fiction, fic-tion, wns hot then discovered. The City of Palmyra, though she was of only 1,500 tons burden, would have offered this girl somo opportunities to prepare for the fray, if she had been imagined; with a flush deck quite clear of Impediments tho ship aftord-" ed ampler space for walking and talking talk-ing than tlie largest modern steamers. steam-ers. But hero, except that she had no band, tho City of Palmyra's advantages ad-vantages ended. At tho stern a 'house,' as a house ls understood at se.a, formed the smoking room, and whon tho deck was not swopt by 'whooping billows,' the hardy smoker could 3tagger out to this edifice, and take his chance of staggering back; there were strong waters as well as cigars sorved in the house. For the enjoyment of more innocent pleasures the dining saloon formed the only place; It was at once the dining saloon, sa-loon, drawing room, music room, loungo and library, which are separately sepa-rately supplied to the luxury of the traveling public on steamers llko that where the Easy Chair and the ox-Consul ox-Consul now meL From the roof of this sole apartment somo doleful lamps swung by nlgliR and by dnv the pale November light stofe in through the low windows under tho eaves. The cuibins wore cheered by yet smaller lamps set behind ground glass panes between each two, and inflexibly put out at 10 o'clock. Four years later the ox-Consul found on an up-to-date Cunarder candles between such panes; or perhaps it Avas tho other way about "The saloon was too dim for reading, read-ing, and ho remembered no card playing. play-ing. Ho declared that there were not even any stories told there to whilo away the Interminable afternoons or evenings. There may have been gaming gam-ing in the smoking room, with drinking drink-ing and even swearing; he was never present to deny It, or the fact of disputing dis-puting between Uie American and the English members of tho Anglo-Saxon race, about the north and south In the war then raging on bloodier fields." W. S. Howells ln Harper's Mugazinc. |