Chapter XVI: Part 16

In the same article I read that Mr. Morgan once called on the German Kaiser. Afterwards the Kaiser said he was surprised to find Mr. Morgan “not well informed regarding the philosophical development of nations.” I often think the philosopher is an unimportant man; he looks into the future, and sees many things that are not there. The philosopher is a recluse; a thinker. He hides away from mankind, and writes books about subjects he does not know much about. J. P. Morgan knew mankind intimately, and benefited it because of his knowledge. He made bets that the people would do certain things at certain times, and became rich because of the accuracy of his knowledge; yet he is accused of knowing nothing about “the philosophical development of nations”! He had a tremendous fund of practical knowledge, and that beats all the philosophy in the world. Morgan believed that in the human family, character was everything; that character was the basis of all credit, and that the simple doctrine of good conduct for its own sake, is the greatest religion in the world. How superior Morgan’s simple religion was to the Hindu’s philosophy! Morgan was an humble citizen, yet he accomplished more than did Kaiser Wilhelm, a philosopher and a king. A nation fought Morgan continuously and bitterly, yet he was undoubtedly a public benefactor. Wilhelm had the love of a great nation, yet he undoubtedly talks too much, and has been repeatedly humiliated for the habit. Wilhelm is great in spite of his indiscretions, being a king; but J. P. Morgan was great in spite of the fact that he lacked the friendship of his own nation, and was compelled to do his good work in the face of bitter and often malicious opposition.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30.—When I went on deck this morning, several of the passengers were ahead of me, gazing at mountains off to the right: Italy. By 9 o’clock we were close to the shore, and with a glass could see many villages still in ruins from the earthquake of five years ago. The sides of the mountains were terraced, and used as vineyards. In one place, in a canyon far up the mountain, we saw a village which seemed to have been built around an old castle. We were approaching the Strait of Messina, and ships were as numerous as they were in the narrowest part of the Red Sea; at one time, seven sailing-ships were in sight, and several steamers. Presently, on the left, Sicily appeared, and we gazed at Sicily awhile, and then went over to the other deck and looked at Italy, unable to decide which was the more interesting. Both are very mountainous, and much alike. Villages are thick, not only along the shore, but the sides of the mountain are spotted with them, and in both Italy and Sicily we saw many curious old castles and monasteries. On both sides, also, we saw many ruins from the earthquake, although they seemed to be rather more numerous in Sicily than in Italy.... Just before entering the Strait at the narrowest part, where it is only two miles wide, we saw the town of Messina, which was almost completely destroyed by the earthquake of 1908. Hundreds of the wrecked houses seem never to have been rebuilt, and they present a scene of desolation, but around them many new houses have been built. This is also true on the Italian coast. Many of these new houses were sent from America, ready to set up. Messina had a population of eighty thousand. Its old citadel was not destroyed, and we saw a good many ships in its harbor. Opposite Messina is the Italian town of Riggio, which is six or seven hundred years older than the Christian era. On both sides of the Strait we could see broad streams (perfectly dry as a result of a recent drouth) coming from the mountains.... The captain said we should be in the most interesting part of the Strait at 1 P. M., the lunch hour, and ordered lunch postponed half an hour. His prediction was exactly verified, and nothing could have driven the passengers from the decks at 1 P. M., there was so much to see.... At 4 P. M. we came to Stromboli, a volcanic island in the sea. Captain Ulrich said he would pass on the south side of the mountain, that we might better see the volcano; the distance was greater, but this change in the ship’s course enabled us to get a very fine sight of Stromboli. From the south side we saw the crater, and the smoke pouring out of it in great volume. There is no lighthouse on Stromboli, as the volcano furnishes a red glare by which mariners steer their course at night. You would think people would keep away from a lonely island in the sea which smokes all the time, and is liable to erupt, and destroy everything for many miles around, but they don’t. We saw two villages on Stromboli: one of them of good size. The larger one is located a considerable distance from the crater, but the other is not a thousand feet from the track of the lava as it descends to the sea. And these smoking volcanoes not only bark; they bite. Only a few miles away is Messina, where eighty thousand people were destroyed only five years ago. In the other direction is Vesuvius, which has taken a greedy toll of human life for many years; the last time in 1906.

THURSDAY, MAY 1.—I have seen many prettier sights than the far-famed Bay of Naples. Many people say a look at the bay caused them to forget the frets and worries of life, but I had no such feeling. We arrived early in the morning, when the town was partly hidden in mists, but later I saw the bay in bright sunshine, from several points of advantage, but it did not greatly impress me. The Bay of Naples is so large that it is not a harbor, therefore a breakwater has been constructed, and behind this our ship anchored, in company with a good many others.... I have spoken elsewhere of English becoming the universal language. This morning I heard the Italian pilot telling the captain of the ship a piece of war news. The pilot talked broken English. A Frenchman, a Portuguese, a Belgian and a Hollander gathered to hear the war news, and they all understood English.... After the usual medical inspection, which always seems ineffective and useless in the first-cabin, the passengers were allowed to land. We went to the Hotel Vesuve, where I had been before, and were given two excellent rooms overlooking the bay. In front of the hotel was a street, and then the sea, and from my window I watched the fishermen at work; they were so close that I could have hailed them, and asked what sort of fish they were taking out of the nets. Directly in front of our windows was an old castle and fort, and soldiers were always passing in or out of the gate. The Hotel Vesuve is the best of the dozens at which we have stopped, and the price is only thirty-six francs per day; that is, we have two of the best rooms in one of the best hotels in Italy, and the price is $3.60 per day each, including meals. Living at the hotels in South Africa is pioneering compared with living at the Hotel Vesuve in Naples. Living at hotels is a joke at home, but living at the Hotel Vesuve in Naples makes a man think of breaking up housekeeping.... Adelaide thinks Naples is the most delightful town we have seen; and the list of towns we have visited includes Pompeii, which was destroyed by an eruption from Mount Vesuvius in the year 79. It was so completely covered up by ashes that its site was forgotten, and it lay neglected for seventeen hundred years. Then the work of digging it out began, and is still in progress, and will continue for many years to come. Pompeii existed long before Naples; it was an old city when Christ was born, and was a seaside resort of the Romans. Probably everyone has read the story of Pompeii, and I shall not print it again, except to express my astonishment over the fact that much of the finest art work in the world today was found in the ruins of Pompeii; the moderns have not been able to equal it. Everything of interest found in the ruins may now be seen in the museum at Naples. The people of Pompeii had excellent plumbing at the time of the eruption; probably the ancients thousands of years earlier knew much that we now call modern. In the museum at Naples may be seen jewelry from Pompeii that would pass for an exhibit made in 1913; patterns are the same, and the work equally good. The implements used today by dentists and doctors may also be seen among the relics from Pompeii. There is an ugly instrument known as the speculum, which may be seen in drug stores and doctors’ offices; I have no doubt it was used too much three thousand or more years ago, for I saw one in the museum at Naples. It was found in the ruins of Pompeii, and it is exactly like the instrument used too much today.... I will mention another thing about Pompeii the general reader may not know. The Romans and Greeks who occupied the town were a dissolute, pleasure-loving lot, and they left many relics that are shown to men only. In the big museum at Naples, there is one room probably forty feet long, and half as wide. In it are preserved literally thousands of disreputable things found in Pompeii. They include statuary and pictures in mosaics. I heard a woman say lately that she despised Pompeii so much that she did not enjoy her visit to the place; probably her husband had told her what he saw in the Dirty Room, and she hated the people who formerly occupied the deserted houses and streets. The people are certainly improving in morals all the time; we are not as good as we should be now, but we are better in every respect than the ancients were. I often wonder that the ancients, who believed in so many gods, were not scared into better conduct.... Pompeii is reached by railroad train from Naples. If you take an express train, the twenty miles may be traveled in half an hour. Electric cars also run there, but they make many stops, and are much slower. When you are in Pompeii, you are near Vesuvius, the mountain which has destroyed so many lives. It is particularly peaceful just now, and I saw no smoke issuing from the crater. Seven years ago it went on a rampage, and destroyed several villages and six or seven hundred lives. At that time the mountain lost three hundred feet of its top, and is so insignificant-looking now that a good many visitors to Naples do not make the journey to the summit, which is easily accomplished by electric and cog railway. A mountain near Vesuvius is now higher than Vesuvius itself, but the wicked old pile will grow, and no doubt will erupt at some time in the future, and kill thousands again. Stromboli, which we saw yesterday, is a much more impressive sight at present than Vesuvius.

FRIDAY, MAY 2.—It has been said a good many times that Italy has too many churches and royal palaces. Naples has two royal palaces, although the king lives at Rome. One is in town, and the other in the country, near the sea. We visited the king’s town palace, as it is open to the public two days of the week. There are eight hundred rooms in the place, and twelve hundred servants care for it.... A room in a king’s palace is usually a huge affair, probably 100x50 feet, with an oval ceiling, and great chandeliers containing candles specially manufactured for royalty. The furniture in each room is of a different pattern; fancy chairs and divans made of gilt and brocade. No palace seems to have been made as a place of residence for a family, but for show, and intrigue, and murder, and dancing, and alarms, and riots. Most of the famous murders in history have taken place in palaces. Not far from the king’s town palace in Naples is an old palace now occupied by soldiers as a barracks. It is a dirty place, but we were taken to the upper rooms where are preserved relics of royalty nearly a thousand years old. These include a chapel, decorated by artists of great fame. Then we were taken down a winding stairway into a terrible place where dead bodies were displayed in coffins. The dead bodies in the coffins were those of princes, and cardinals, and all of them had died violent deaths. One cardinal had an expression of agony on his face which will haunt me for months; he had been smothered in the most inhuman way. The bodies we saw were dressed in the magnificent clothing they wore when they were murdered. This sight was seen in a noisome hole underground, and was so terrible that Adelaide almost cried when she begged me to take her out. We had a guide with us, and a warder from the castle, but neither of them could tell us much about the place, except that it is a relic of Spanish occupation in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.... In thinking of the magnificence of palaces and castles, always remember the terrible murders that have disgraced them. A king fills us common people with awe, but he always has a brother, an uncle, a cousin, or some other near relative who knows that he deserves death. I think I have longed for nearly everything else, but I never longed to be a king, nor would I care to live in a palace with twelve hundred servants, any one of whom would poison me for two dollars and promise of a postoffice.... On the way to the king’s town palace we passed through the old part of Naples; a district of tall houses, all of them crowded with poor people. The street was very narrow, and the sun was almost obscured by clothes newly washed, and drying in the sunlight. The wash-lines ran across the streets, and were so thick that I thought the sight the most curious I had ever seen. The streets were so crowded with children that we got through them with difficulty, and every little while some one who had been to America, hailed us in bad English. The lower floor of every house was nearly always occupied with a little shop, in which a family also lived. In one of these places, a little child was lying dead. The body was surrounded with candles, and five women sat in the room. For some reason, the mother of the child wanted us to look at it; she came out into the street, weeping, and made motions indicating that she wanted us to go in, which we did. The guide said the woman’s husband was in America, and that she felt a friendly interest in us on that account.... The street was a steep one; so steep that we went down it by means of broad steps. I have seen a street almost exactly like it in Jerusalem. The cross-streets were narrower and steeper than the main street we traveled, and I was almost disposed to agree with Adelaide that Naples is the most interesting place we have visited.... James Gordon Bennett, of the New York _Herald_, issues an edition of his paper in Paris, and it is sold all over Europe by street peddlers. Twenty times a minute we were offered a copy of the _Herald_; the peddlers knew we were Americans, and were so insistent that I always carried a copy of the paper in my pocket, to show them I had one. They also sold the New York _Times_, and I carried a copy of that paper, too.... Flowers grow in great profusion in Italy, and are sold by street peddlers who are hanging onto your carriage half the time. I bought fifteen very fine roses, on one occasion, for ten cents.... The Italian lire and the French franc are of the same value, twenty cents, and the franc circulates everywhere in Italy, as the lire circulates everywhere in France. If you ask for Italian money in Italy, you are as apt to get francs as lires.... Prices may have advanced abroad, as at home, but I doubt if the advance has been as great. Adelaide needed a pair of gloves, and the price at one of the best shops in Naples was fifty cents a pair. The same gloves would cost $1.50 at home.... You hear a great deal about tips abroad: how the servants mob you at hotels, etc. The tip nuisance is worse in New York than it is in Naples; besides, larger tips are exacted in New York. Carriage-hire here is less than half what it is in New York, and when I land in that American city I shall pay for rooms at the Waldorf-Astoria more than I paid for rooms and meals at the Hotel Vesuve. And Naples is one of the greatest resorts in Europe, and the Hotel Vesuve is one of the best hotels in Naples.... We expressed a desire to see the San Carlos theatre, one of the most famous in the world, and the guide promptly took us there, and had it lighted up for our special benefit. I was willing to give the theatre man forty cents, but our man said twenty cents was enough, and that was what we paid. The cathedral in Naples is also a famous place, built in imitation of St. Peters, in Rome. And it is a very good imitation. The guide took us through this church, and never gave the priest guides more than half a franc, or ten cents each. I suppose he robbed us a good deal, but I never caught him at it. You are always hearing that when you shop in Naples, the shopkeeper is compelled to add something to the price for the guide. One day the guide left us for a few minutes, in a famous arcade, and we found prices the same as when the guide was along. English is spoken nearly everywhere in Naples and throughout Italy, because so many of its citizens have been to the United States.... The Italian girls are nearly all good-looking when young, but after they are married and have children, most of them become too fat. I have always thought it a good joke on a man to marry a girl weighing a hundred pounds, and have her increase her weight to two hundred, or two hundred and fifty. And the joke on the man is particularly good if his daughters, on reaching fifteen or sixteen, are also very fat.

SATURDAY, MAY 3.—I had intended sailing from Naples on the North German-Lloyd ship “Princess Irene,” a favorite, but when I reached Cook’s office I found the ship crowded. I was offered the second officer’s room, if I paid $60 extra, but in pursuance of my vow to avoid favorites in future, I concluded to travel to New York on the French ship “Canada.” This ship is new, and has not yet had time to become a favorite, so I secured very much better accommodations at a lower price than was demanded for the German boat.... In Cairo, Egypt, is a famous hotel known as Shepherd’s. There are at least four hotels in Cairo better than Shepherd’s; there are half a dozen just as good, and another half-dozen where you may secure satisfactory accommodations. Avoid favorites of every kind, if you wish fair treatment.... Wherever a traveler goes, he encounters free advertising for the United States, but I saw a stars-and-stripes sight in Naples this afternoon that greatly impressed me. The “Canada” and “Princess Irene” were docked side by side, and as both were to sail at 6 P. M. for New York, both displayed the American flag. When I went to the dock at 4 P. M., the decks of both ships were black with emigrants, and they were still going up the gangways as thick as ants. When Adelaide and I went aboard the “Canada,” the sailors were compelled to clear a way for us to the first-class decks, where there were fifty passengers, as compared with three or four hundred in the second-cabin, and nearly two thousand in the steerage. Once on the upper decks of the “Canada,” we could see a similar crowd of emigrants on the “Princess Irene,” which lay alongside, and the emigrants kept coming until six o’clock, when the big whistle blew, and the gang-plank was drawn in. Three ships left Naples for New York today, and all of them were crowded with emigrants. And this doesn’t happen occasionally; it is of daily occurrence—not only here, but in many other ports. In every part of the world the people know about the United States, and go there in constantly increasing crowds, although South Africa, and Australia, and South America, and New Zealand, and Canada, and many other countries, are offering inducements to immigrants.... We got away a little after 6:30 o’clock, and found the sea kind again; this is our twenty-fifth day at sea without discomfort. There was a shower of rain just before we left Naples, which drove to cover the thousands of weeping women who had come to the dock to see friends depart, but outside the bay the sea was calm. Ten or fifteen poor children were on the dock, begging the passengers for pennies, but the rain didn’t bother them. There was one boy who could turn handsprings, but while he was showing off his accomplishment, the other children got the pennies. The moral is, attend to business, and don’t show off.

SUNDAY, MAY 4.—When we awoke this morning, the “Canada” was lying in the harbor of Palermo, in Sicily, where it spent the day in taking on more emigrants. As the ship was to remain until evening, we went ashore at 8:30 for the day, accompanied by an old gentleman of seventy-six, who acted as guide.... I have neglected Palermo in my reading; I knew almost nothing about it. I didn’t know it contained another palace belonging to the king of Italy, and about four hundred thousand people.... A few men are natural-born gentlemen. Our old guide was such a man. He lived in the United States, as a young man, and we were much pleased with him.... In Italian and Sicilian towns, nearly every family owns a milk goat. These goats are sent to the country, to graze, and are brought in every night and morning to be milked. We drove up-town in Palermo just as the milk goats were being collected by the herd boys. The goats know where they belong, and often climb two or three flights of stairs, to be milked. Milch cows are also driven into town, and milked in the streets. The calves accompany their mothers, and to insure that they will not get lost, are tied to their mother’s tail. There is a certain brand of Italian cattle, and they have not changed since the days of the Romans; every section of the Old World has its particular kind of cattle. In South Africa we saw a good many queer-looking cattle from Madagascar, imported after the rinderpest had killed nearly everything in Africa. In Egypt we saw another kind. India has another variety, and the Scotch and Irish also have varieties of their own. In the United States we are constantly improving cattle, and have no favorite except the best.... Although we visited Palermo on Sunday, the public market was in full blast. One man was making a tremendous outcry to attract attention to his beef. He said it was very cheap; the price was thirty-two cents a pound. Beef is very high-priced in Sicily, and so are fish, but poultry is quite cheap.... Palermo has a wonderful cathedral, and the guide took us there, during a mass. There was a large choir of men and boys, and an archbishop conducted the service. The old guide was a devout Catholic, and frequently crossed himself while in the cathedral, but he took us through the worshipers, to look at the different wonders, and the worshipers didn’t seem to mind it, or pay any attention to us. Occasionally we stopped, afraid to go on, but the old guide motioned for us to come on, and we walked among kneeling women to join our conductor. There were several chapels in the place, all of which were shown us, but the big service finally became so interesting that we spent a quarter of an hour in witnessing it. We saw many very old priests in the enormous building, and our guide seemed to know all of them; indeed, he seemed to know everybody everywhere, and to be universally respected. There were certain valuable relics and jewels belonging to the cathedral. In order to see these the guide conducted us into apartments which seemed to be private, and occupied by a considerable number of clericals. The guide knew all these men, and they bowed to him respectfully.... Then he took us to the private grounds of a count. The gatekeeper saluted our old guide with great respect, and, as we strolled about the grounds, the guide was at liberty to pick fruits and flowers for Adelaide. He next took us to a very old church, where we saw a quaint lot of monks. These queer men knew our guide, too, and he took snuff with one of them who opened a door to what seemed to be subterranean vaults of some kind. We walked down several long flights of steps, and entered a place where thousands of dead bodies were displayed. Many of the bodies were in coffins with glass tops or sides, but most of them were fastened against the stone walls. The guide said the bodies were buried for a year or two, and then taken up, and displayed in this queer way. There was nothing offensive about the place, except as thousands of grinning skulls are offensive. The guide did not know how many bodies were displayed in the place, but I should say the number was far above ten thousand. Some of the bodies were of infants, some of old men, some of young girls, some of priests. I had never before seen anything like it, nor did I know any such thing existed in Palermo or elsewhere.... Then we went to the royal palace, built in 1132, and which is occupied once or twice in a decade by the King of Italy and his family. We went into the private rooms of the king and queen, and saw their beds, and their baths; we saw the kitchen, and dining-room, as well as the state apartments. And all the palace attendants were very respectful to our old guide; he was permitted to roam about with us without restraint. Once, when he wanted to show us a certain apartment, he took a key out of a private drawer, and we walked a long way down one of the battlements to a tower where the room was.... But the best thing we saw during the day was the chapel of the old palace. It was a wonderful piece of art work, the entire interior being covered with valuable paintings and more valuable mosaic work. This chapel was in the class of the wonders to be seen in India. We visited it twice, and both times services were in progress. As we had done at the cathedral, the guide conducted us among the kneeling worshipers, and he knew every priest and monk he encountered, and they all spoke to him respectfully. I don’t believe I have ever seen anything that attracted me more than this chapel, built in the eleventh century. The interior is of marble, and the decorations of mosaic work laid in designs cut in the marble.... At 1 P. M. we rested at a little hotel on the side of the mountain overlooking Palermo. The old guide knew the proprietor, who waited on us himself, and tried hard to give satisfaction. We had macaroni cooked in Italian style, fish, wine, and quite a hearty lunch, but the charge for four of us—including the guide and driver—was a little less than $1.40. Then we went on up the mountain to a wonderful old church in a wonderful old town, the name of which I have forgotten. It was a feast day of some kind, and a great celebration was being held in the wonderful old town. The streets were packed with the merrymakers, and all sorts of hawkers were selling all sorts of articles that were queer to us. On our way down the mountain we saw a wonderful valley devoted to lemon orchards. The owner of one of these orchards lived several years in St. Louis, and, knowing we were Americans, invited us to see his lemon crop. The lemons were just ready to pick, and the yield was very good, apparently. The proprietor told me he had twelve acres; that the land was worth $1,000 an acre; and that all of his lemons were shipped to the United States. He was much interested in a rumor that the new president, Mr. Wilson, would remove the duty on lemons, but I was compelled to confess I did not know anything about it. As it was Sunday, all of the farmer’s family, including his wife and children, and hired men followed us about. There were two boys in the family, and they climbed trees, and loaded Adelaide down with various kinds of fruit. The lemon orchard, I noticed, is irrigated, but neither the proprietor nor the guide could tell me where the water came from. Usually it comes from wells, and is raised with sweeps turned by donkeys and horses.... We returned to the docks at 5:10 P. M., after eight very delightful hours in Palermo. The boatman was waiting, and the old guide went aboard with us, carrying Adelaide’s great collection of fruits and flowers. During our absence we had taken on six hundred more steerage passengers, and their friends surrounded the ship, in boats. In half an hour the big ship backed out of the harbor, and pointed its nose for New York.

MONDAY, MAY 5.—I think every man believes his “luck” is atrocious, and that he rarely gets an “even break.” But I am perfectly satisfied with what they have done to me on the “Canada.” It is a new ship of fourteen thousand tons, and there are only fifty passengers in the first-cabin. As a result, we have plenty of room, and the officers give us whatever we want. I have a room to myself on the best deck, and Adelaide has another just like it next door. Between our rooms there is a private bath, which has been turned over to us for good measure. On most ships the beds are hard. On the “Canada,” our beds are provided with springs, and we have real bedsteads. I have two windows in my room, and Adelaide has two in hers; our bath-room is as big as a stateroom, and is provided with a shower-bath, in addition to the usual tub.... In the dining-room, we have a table to ourselves; a small table for two, with a side electric light, in addition to the ceiling lights. On our table twice a day are quart bottles of red and white wine, always full. This wine is free; it is a feature of all French boats. The cooking is the best I have ever enjoyed on a steamship or hotel, and the attendance perfect. Our waiter is a Frenchman who speaks almost no English, but the chief steward (a German, by-the-way) speaks English, and sees that we are not neglected. The meals are French, except that we have an English breakfast; which means that we have eggs, chops, fish, bacon, etc. On the continent, breakfast almost universally consists of coffee, bread and butter, and jam. At the fine Hotel Vesuve, in Naples, we had this sort of breakfast, although we could have eggs if we called for them. In Paris it is almost impossible to get anything to eat before noon, except at hotels patronized by Americans and English.... Our rooms are in charge of a woman; we see a man in overalls occasionally, but the woman is in charge. On German ships, the dining-room stewards not only care for the rooms, but play in the band; on the “Canada,” waiters in the dining-room have nothing to do with the sleeping-rooms.... The first-class passengers have two big decks. In the rear of the upper deck is a handsome smoking-room. At the rear of the next deck below, the deck on which our rooms are located, is a music-room. At the other end of the deck is a writing-room. Just below the writing-room, and reached by a grand stairway, is the dining-room. All these rooms are very handsome, as the ship is less than a year old.... What do we pay for all this luxury and magnificence? Less per day than we paid on the “Maunganui,” between Wellington and Sydney, where I shared a room 9×10 with three others. Adelaide shared a room of similar size on the “Maunganui” with three other women. The “Maunganui” was a favorite; the “Canada” is a new and unknown ship struggling for recognition from the traveling public. Moral: Keep away from favorites; they will always impose on you.... Another pleasant thing about the “Canada” is that there is not a single Englishman on board. There is no Sports Committee, no loud talk, and no noise. About half the first-cabin passengers are Americans, and they are so well-behaved that I am proud of them. The others are French and Italian, and they are also quiet and modest.... When we look down on the lower decks, we see a seething mass of humanity: Italian and Sicilian emigrants. Fortunately the weather is fine, and most of them are on deck; only a few of them are seasick. Some people can’t go on a millpond without becoming sick, and we have a few of this sort in the first-cabin. The three or four hundred passengers in the second-cabin we cannot see, as they are on a deck under ours.... This morning I saw four barbers at work among the emigrants; barbers who are going to the United States to work at their trade. The barbers charge four cents for shaving, and six cents for hair-cutting. The barber in the first-cabin charges only fifteen cents for a shave, and he is a good workman. The emigrants eat on deck, now that the weather is fine. Each one seems to get a loaf of bread, and a bucket containing soup and meat. A cheap wine is also given them; also macaroni. They are well treated, as the Italian government has a commissioner on board to look after their interests. This commissioner sits on the captain’s right in the dining-room, and has one of the best rooms on the ship.... The emigrants are all poor people, but very wasteful, now that they have plenty. Every day enough bread is wasted on their deck to feed dozens of people, and this is swept up and thrown overboard by the sailors.... These emigrants are objectionable, in one way. In case of a panic, we would all go to the bottom. Nothing could control them, and we haven’t enough boats to float twenty-five hundred people, even if order were maintained. But the “Princess Irene,” the favorite, is carrying even more emigrants than the “Canada.” I have never before been on a ship where the decks were black with emigrants; there are a few hundred on nearly every ship, but the crowd on the “Canada” frightens me.

TUESDAY, MAY 6.—The weather remains fine, and the sea is as smooth as we found it in the Red Sea, or on the east coast of Africa. The Mediterranean narrows up at its western end, as we approach Gibraltar, and becomes a great harbor. At six o’clock this evening we were within a few hundred yards of the mountainous coast of Spain. The Mediterranean being narrow at this point, we are seeing many ships: seven were in sight at one time this evening.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 7.—At 4:30 this morning, a steward knocked on my door, and said:

“Gibraltar.”

I climbed out of bed, hurried into a little clothing, and went on deck. Daylight was faintly appearing. On the right, two or three hundred yards away, was the rock of Gibraltar, where the English have a huge fortification which is said to be so old as to be a joke. No one is allowed in the fortification, but it is common report that the big guns are so old and rusty that it would be dangerous to fire them. The rock of Gibraltar is an island, and puts out into the sea. Behind it is the town of the same name; a place as big as Atchison. The picture of Gibraltar shown in advertisements of the Prudential Life Insurance Company looks exactly like it, except that the bay and town behind the rock are not shown accurately. Half-way up the rock of Gibraltar was a light, and a long shelf; I suppose the shelf is a part of the fortification. In the town were occasional clusters of electric lights, as may be seen in any modern town just as daylight is appearing, and I could see a lighthouse on the African shore off to the left. Creeping through the straits were a number of ships, one of them within two or three hundred feet of the “Canada.” Then I went back to bed. I aroused Adelaide, and told her of the sight on the opposite side of the ship, but she concluded not to get up.... Soon after breakfast, we passed Tangier, and left Africa for good. We have been in sight of Africa almost constantly since March 2, when we landed at Durban. During the twenty-four days we were on the “Burgermeister,” we were out of sight of it a few days after leaving Port Said, but this morning we saw the African continent again, at its north-western end, at Tangier, in Morocco.... An hour later, we were out of sight of land in the Atlantic ocean, which Adelaide had been afraid of, but there was little motion, and the weather was warmer and brighter than it has been since leaving Port Said. The barber, when he shaved me this morning, predicted rough weather when we get behind the Azores, but certainly we are having beautiful weather now, and have had it continuously for thirty-two days.... There is an American on board who said to me this morning: “I shall never travel at sea again. Wherever you go by ship, travel is rendered disagreeable by the English. The English are intensely disagreeable to me, and in future I shall keep away from them. They are the most impolite people in the world, and do not realize that everything English is not perfect. They pronounce words wrong, and regard you with pity if you pronounce the same words correctly. The English are headed for a big tumble. You and I will not live to see it, but Canada and Australia will throw off the English yoke. That will encourage India, and Africa, and many other countries, to do the same thing. England is seeing its best days right now; let the Englishmen swagger while they may. The English remind me of a big trust: they paid too much for their various possessions, and are bound to ‘bust.’”... I do not feel that bad about the English, but I certainly remark that the “Canada” is much quieter than it would be were a majority of the passengers sons of John Bull. So far, I have not seen a single passenger running around in pajamas.

THURSDAY, MAY 8.—Our magnificent French cook had macaroni for dinner today, and, while I liked it better than the Italian way of preparing it, I did not like it so well as the American way. Italian macaroni did not please my taste. It was not cooked enough, to begin with, and had the tomato sauce baked into it. It is a sight to see Italians eat macaroni. It is cooked in long strings, and the Italians poke it into their mouths in a fashion that is not at all pleasing.... Six whales were in sight at one time this afternoon, and probably there were many more in the school we did not see. An hour later, we ran into the biggest lot of porpoises I have ever seen. They were quite close to the ship, on both sides of it, and seemed to be following us. A porpoise looks like a fish weighing twenty-five to forty pounds, and leaps entirely out of the water when in a sportive mood. Jumping out of the water is probably a fish’s method of taking a bath.... We have our chairs on the upper or hurricane deck, and, when we take a walk, pass the wireless room, where an operator sits all day and night with receivers at his ears, to catch any call that may be in the air. When the operator reads, he has the receivers fastened to his ears, and I have seen him eating dinner in his room when rigged up in the same queer way.... A dove has been following the ship several days. It is very tired, and this morning I saw it attempt to light on the waves; then it fluttered up into the rigging, and rested there awhile.... Near the entrance to the dining-room there is a notice in French and English. Among other things, it says the management will appreciate the courtesy if passengers dress for luncheon and dinner. We are wondering what a proper dress for luncheon is. The rules also say that dogs are not allowed on board, but one has the run of the ship; and, since he is the only nuisance on board, we wonder that the officers stand for it. I never cared much for those who go crazy about dogs. Senator Vest, of Missouri, once wrote a false and sentimental tribute to dogs, and the Dog People were so much encouraged by it that they are very pronounced nuisances everywhere. No one has a right to keep a dog that is a nuisance to others; whoever does not know this is unfair and impolite in other ways.... The big ship “Canada” is doing a very fair job of pitching this afternoon, but we have been at sea so long that we do not mind it. There is a noticeable thinning-out on the steerage deck. So far, we have been at sea fifty-three days since leaving San Francisco, and have been seasick only four or five days. We were sick three days on the Pacific, and two between Australia and New Zealand, but during the last forty-seven days at sea we have experienced no inconvenience. I sleep at night as I never slept before in my life; there is just enough motion to rock me to sleep.... In Italy, a traveler from the United States wonders at the general use of wine. All classes drink it, and it is very cheap; I bought a bottle of very good wine in Naples for six cents. The poor people use it instead of gravy or milk; on the ship, I see emigrants soaking their bread in wine. Every vacant plot of ground in Naples is devoted to grapes and vegetables. In the heart of the town, wherever you find a vacant lot, you find a garden. I have never seen anything growing in Italy except vegetables and fruit; I wonder where the wheat comes from with which they make macaroni? The Italians say American flour makes better bread than the Italian flour, but inferior macaroni. The Italians are poor, as a rule, but nearly all of them are fat; particularly the women. The poor people of Italy do not eat meat once a week; the Italian emigrants on the ship get it twice a day. But they are very wasteful of it, and complain as much as though they had always been accustomed to the very best. One of the officers says that on the last trip, the ship was compelled to bring back twenty-two emigrants who failed to pass the examination in New York. The charge against one man was that he had been a professional beggar. This man made a great deal of trouble during the voyage to New York; he was always finding fault with the food, although it was abundant. I asked the officer why the ship gave the emigrants so much food that they threw it overboard; his reply was that the Italian commissioner on board insisted on a liberal supply, and the captain was at his mercy. The emigrants are pretty well crowded in their sleeping quarters; one hundred and fifty men sleep in one room, in a bed which runs up in broad tiers. If the owners of the English ships running between Australia and New Zealand ever hear of this, they will die of mortification because of their moderation in putting only four in a room.... We had a moving-picture show last night, with the explanatory lecture in French.... The barber who shaves me every morning says he has been going to sea a good many years, but never started on a voyage on Friday; that a ship never leaves its initial port on Friday. The barber is mistaken. For thirty years or more, the P. & O. line has sent a ship out of London every Friday. Nine-tenths of all you hear is untrue. The barber also says that the famous expression, “See Naples and die,” is founded on a play on words. In the bay of Naples there is an island called Morreai, which in Italian, means something connected with death. The original saying was, “See Naples and Morreai,” but in a spirit of levity the English translated the saying, “See Naples and die.”

FRIDAY, MAY 9.—This afternoon we passed the “Lusiana,” an Italian emigrant ship also bound for New York. The “Lusiana” left Naples a day before we did, but it is slow, and we overhauled it. We passed it within a hundred yards, and marveled at the manner in which it pitched and rolled; probably the big “Canada” was cutting up in a similar manner, viewed from the decks of the “Lusiana,” which were black with emigrants. The emigrants did a good deal of cheering as we passed.... The “Canada” is also a faster ship than the “Princess Irene,” the favorite, and we are hoping that we may overtake it, and jeer at the passengers. The “Princess Irene” had a start of nearly twenty-four hours, as it did not stop at Palermo.... By-the-way, as we left the “Lusiana” behind, I caught the geographies in a ridiculous error. They all say that at sea, the last sight of a disappearing vessel is the top of its masts; which proves, the geographies say, that the world is round. The curvature of the earth is something like an inch to the mile, so that the funnels of a ship would not disappear under five hundred miles, if one could see that far. Three hours after we passed the “Lusiana,” it was a mere speck on the horizon, but we could plainly see its hull. After it had entirely disappeared from view by the naked eye, we could see its hull with the aid of glasses. The ships were probably fifteen miles apart when we finally lost sight of the “Lusiana,” and the difference between them, in the curvature of the earth, did not exceed fifteen inches.... The hull of the “Canada” is white, and it must have presented a very pretty sight to the passengers on the “Lusiana,” who were all of one class: emigrants. But down below, the “Canada” is probably a little untidy. Everything below its two top decks is crowded with emigrants, and they are not very clean. In the evening, they sing a great deal; a trombone-player, en route to New York to join an Italian band, leads with his instrument. Among the first-class passengers is an Italian opera-singer who is about as good as any of the second-rate tenors at the Metropolitan Opera House, and he sings every evening.... Nearly all the emigrants seem to wear home-made socks and shoes. Most of them are young men; I doubt if there are two hundred women in the entire lot. Many of them have been over before, and will return home when outdoor work ceases next winter, as the price of the passage is only $25. The weather is chilly, and the emigrants sit on deck wrapped in blankets furnished them by the steamship company. In addition to a blanket, each is given a sack stuffed with straw, and on these they sleep. Nearly all of them eat in groups on deck, and this morning I saw them pouring olive oil into tin cups containing either coffee and bread, or wine and bread, I could not tell which.... I write this at a table in a little alcove on deck, and the screaming of the emigrants as they excitedly talk to each other amounts to a roar. This noise is in my ears continuously, except when I go to my room, which is amidships, and far removed from the emigrant decks forward and aft.... The cooking on the ship continues to astonish us, it is so excellent. So far, we have not had a dish duplicated at lunch or dinner. You would think anyone could scramble eggs; it may be difficult to unscramble them, as the late J. P. Morgan once observed, but there should be little difference in the process of scrambling them. I am fond of scrambled eggs, and have been eating them all my life, but the manner in which they are prepared in the “Canada’s” kitchen is new and delightful. This morning I asked the chief steward to take Adelaide into the kitchen, to learn the chef’s secret of scrambling eggs. Adelaide says one secret of his delicious cooking is that everything is reeking in butter. It is possible that a German or English crew would suit me better than the French crew of the “Canada,” when it comes to the general work of the ship, but the kitchen and dining-room, and sleeping-rooms, are better managed on this ship than on any other with which I have been familiar on two voyages around the world, and three shorter trips by sea. I do not want any better accommodations than I have on the “Canada.”... Much as I admire the Germans, I cannot help noting that their language does not _sound_ as well as French or Italian. To a man who does not understand languages, the German sounds worst of all, unless it is the Russian. On the “Burgermeister,” where we heard German constantly for more than three weeks, we used to laugh at its funny sounds. I know of no uglier sounding word than the German word “yaw,” which means “yes.” If I were a young man, and should propose to a young and beautiful German girl, and she should reply with what poets say is the sweetest of all words, yaw, I should feel disposed to run away to South America, or South Africa, or some other country where it is too hot.... I have never known anyone to struggle quite so hard against baldness as the barber on the “Canada.” When his hair is in order, it looks all right, but the other morning, while I was being shaved, the window blew open, and the barber’s hair went to pieces. He is bald, but has cultivated a lot of long hair on the side of his head which he combs over his baldness. The wind threw this long hair out of place, and as it flapped around, the barber was as flustrated as an old maid suddenly discovered in her night-gown.... Speaking of the barber reminds me that he says all the officers of the “Canada,” except the captain, wanted more pay, a few months ago, and walked out just before the ship was to sail from Marseilles. The ship had a big lot of passengers aboard, but the general manager was stubborn, and he fooled around for a week before he could find another set of officers.... We hear on the upper deck that the six hundred Sicilians among the emigrants are not as good workers as the fourteen hundred Italians; and that in addition to being lazy, the Sicilians use a knife with very little provocation. In Sicily, you hear a great deal of the vendetta, wherein a man will knife another man who is a second cousin to an enemy.... This morning we passed the Azore islands, where Columbus stopped on his famous voyage. Usually the “Canada” passes between the islands, and quite close to shore, but owing to rain and mist we passed on the longer and safer course.