Part 16

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22.—A howling gale has been raging all day. On the upper deck this afternoon, many of the passengers were soaked by a wave which came aboard. The wind is following us, and pushing the ship along; the sailors say that a head-wind would have resulted in as bad a day as is usually seen at sea. The decks are slippery, and those who go out are in constant danger of being soaked with spray. For a wonder, I am not seasick, and spent my time talking with passengers who have visited strange places. One man lived for a time in one of the remote islands of the Malay archipelago, where the natives wear very little clothing, and he says the men have the handsomest figures he has ever seen; that the marble figures in art galleries do not equal living examples in Borneo. The figures of the men are much superior to the figures of the women. Occasionally a very young girl will have a good figure, but never equal to a boy of the same age; men of thirty have splendid figures, whereas women of that age have no figures at all.... A bird known as the hornbill is found in Borneo. When the female has laid a sufficient number of eggs, the male seals her up in the nest, which is in a hollow tree, and compels her to sit until germination takes place. While the female is a prisoner, the male feeds her faithfully. Another bird deposits its eggs in a pile, covers them over with sand, and leaves hatching to the sun. A half-dozen hens will place their eggs in the same pile. When the eggs are hatched, the young are immediately able to look after themselves.... In some of the islands of the archipelago there are no judges, courts, or policemen, yet the natives are well behaved, and crime is almost unknown. This, my informant says, is probably the natural state of man; wherever crime is rampant among savages, it has usually been introduced by members of civilized races. In a state of nature, a man soon learns that if he expects his rights, he must respect the rights of others; therefore if he desires peaceable possession of his house, or his cattle, or his wives, he must respect the property rights of others. Crime seems to be the product of civilization, and not of savagery.... Captain Warrall says there is nothing in the story that he becomes seasick every time he leaves port. But he says it is a fact that when he goes to sea after a long stay on land, he suffers with a headache for several hours. This headache is due to the motion of the ship, and he believes most sea-going men are affected in the same way. The second engineer told me he had the same experience as the captain, and my room steward says that on leaving London or Sydney he always gets a headache, which does not entirely disappear until the second day out.... In the old days when I was a reporter on the Atchison _Globe_, I thought it a good item when I found a farmer’s boy with forty rabbits. I found a better rabbit story than that today. On this ship are one hundred and eighty thousand frozen rabbits, en route for London, every one of them trapped. Rabbits in our country are ruined by being shot; we have never learned the art of trapping them. I have been familiar with rabbits all my life, but never knew a man who could trap them. In Australia, rabbit-catching is a trade, and the rabbit-catchers have a union, which was raising quite a disturbance while I was there, by threatening a strike. The rabbits caught in Australia and shipped to England bring in a tremendous sum of money annually; I have forgotten the figures, but the total is enormous. Rabbits were imported into Australia by members of an energetic Sports Committee. In the early days certain of the citizens of Australia said: “Our people have no amusement; let us import rabbits from England, that there may be something to hunt.” So a Sports Committee was formed, and members of it held public meetings, and passed subscription papers, and abused those who did not give. As a result of it all, rabbits were imported from England, and they are now a far greater pest than English sparrows are in the United States.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23.—Our tall pastor conducted Holy Communion services at 7 o’clock this morning, in the music-room. There were four present: the pastor, his wife, his nurse maid, and myself. I am a very early riser, and this service was the only thing going on; besides, I nearly always sympathize with a small attendance. Our pastor carries two uniforms with him; a white one fringed with black, and another entirely of black, which he wore this morning. I am inclined to believe that he is Low Church. The most animated and vicious church row I was ever familiar with started because a certain pastor insisted on using wafers in his communion service, whereas a bossy woman in the congregation preferred bread. Bread is Low Church; wafers represent the High, I am told.... Although only three persons attended the communion service, out of a total of possibly three hundred on the ship, our pastor does not go around making sneering remarks about his efforts not being appreciated, as do members of the Sports Committee. I am inclined to believe that the tall pastor is right. The communion service was advertised by posting notice of it on the bulletin board. The passengers know about hell, and about its rewards offered by the church; the pastor is quite right in letting them alone. As old-fashioned children used to say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.... We feel tonight that we are almost within sight of Durban; we are still more than two thousand miles away, but we should be there in six more days, and we shall not mind the last two or three, in making preparations to land. The sun came out this afternoon, and the sea is smoother, so that we are all feeling better.... Back of the smoking-room there is a balcony where the passengers often sit. The young engineers also come up from the deck below, and sit in the balcony at times, when off duty. I have become acquainted with a number of them, and ask them questions about the sea. They explained to me where the Pacific ocean ends, and the Indian ocean begins. The line is somewhere in the vicinity of Melbourne, so that Australia is partly in the Indian ocean and partly in the Pacific. Flowing eastward from Africa, there is a great current. After reaching the vicinity of Melbourne and Tasmania the current turns, and flows westward five or six thousand miles. The two currents are a thousand miles apart. The “Anchises” came out in the current flowing eastward, and did not stop at Durban, but, on its homeward voyage, it is in the current flowing westward. The engineers say this current probably caused the Indian ocean to be distinguished from the Pacific.... At dinner tonight, the decline of American shipping came up. “When I went to sea as a boy,” Captain Warrall said, “the American clipper ships were the pride and envy of all seamen. They could sail all around the English, and the Maine Yankees could do it today, as they have repeatedly proven in the international yacht races. I often think it is incorrect to speak of the decline of American shipping. Some of the finest ships afloat should carry the stars-and-stripes, since they are owned and controlled by American capitalists. Were it not for the American policy of protection, the seas would glisten with the stars and stripes. As a famous American says, ‘There’s a Reason’ for American cargoes being carried in foreign ships. The reason is that English seamen receive about half as much pay as your seamen receive. The fact that you Yankees do not own ships is really another of your cute tricks; you get your carrying done cheaper in another way.”... A citizen of Melbourne was at the table, and he said he saw the fleet of American warships come into that harbor a few years ago. He spoke very highly of the crews; he was on the streets of Melbourne constantly, and saw thousands of American sailors, but did not see one who was drunk or rude. It is the commonest sort of thing here to hear both English and Colonists speak in the highest possible terms of America and the American people.... I frequently hear this, too: “You Americans give tips too liberally.” So far as I am concerned, I only conform to a custom established by the English. I give because it is the custom, and give no more than seems to be necessary to prevent a riot. The English also have an exaggerated notion of tipping in America. One of them told me today that he understood that when a bell-boy took a guest to a room in an American hotel, he was impudent unless he received a dollar. Nothing in the story, of course; and many of the other stories told of Americans over here are equally untrue and absurd.... On the “Maunganui,” in which I sailed from New Zealand to Australia, there was no concert. But an active, meddlesome man could have arranged one, and organized a Sports Committee to unnecessarily bother at least three-fourths of the passengers. Behave yourself, and let others alone, is a good rule.... At 3 o’clock this afternoon a woman slipped into the music-room, and began singing, playing her own accompaniments. There is nothing quite so absurd as an amateur singer who cannot sing much, and who is quavery and uncertain. This woman was very bad, and I understand she is to appear at the Grand Concert arranged by the Sports Committee.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24.—There is a sick woman on board, and the other women pay her a great deal of attention. Two of them attend her constantly, in her room and on deck, and a dozen others would gladly do as much, if opportunity presented. Another woman passenger looks after the sick woman’s two children.... There is also a sick man on board. He is very ill, and I doubt if he will live to reach Liverpool. Occasionally, on fine days, a steward brings him on deck, where he looks pale and unhappy, and pants for breath, but as a rule he is confined to his stuffy room, where no one sees him except the doctor. I have never seen a sick man more completely neglected, whereas the woman passenger who is ill receives every possible attention. The women say the sick man prefers to be let alone, but I don’t believe it. The sick man is a tragedy in loneliness. He came out on the “Anchises” from London, hoping the voyage would benefit him, but it has harmed him instead.... The sky is very brilliant at night, and we see many shooting stars; and every time we see a shooting star we wish that Mr. Riley will fall overboard. Mr. Riley is indulging in a great big drunk, and I hear he has borrowed money from half the men on board, promising to pay on arrival at Durban. Mr. Riley is a very active member of the Sports Committee, and prominent in everything except the Holy Communion services held every Sunday morning. I do not believe he has heard of these, as he gambles in the smoking-room until a late hour every night, and does not get up very early. If Mr. Riley should hear of the early communion service in the music-room, he would certainly advise the tall pastor as to its ceremonies, for he offers advice in everything else. My room is near the bar, and I never go to it that I do not hear Mr. Riley calling on the barkeeper to hurry along the grog. Mr. Riley also has a very irritating laugh, and I have come to dislike him as much as a menagerie monkey dislikes a boy. Last night there was a dance held near my room, and this, in addition to Mr. Riley and the bar, kept me awake until long after midnight.... “Of course you know why the men wear colored socks,” a man said to me on deck last night. “It is because colored socks do not show dirt, and can be worn until they are filthy. I wear white socks, and probably change them oftener than any other passenger on the ship, but I think I am a marked man because of my white socks. I often catch the other passengers looking at my feet in wonder.” I asked him if he also wore a night-gown, instead of pajamas, and he said he did, whereupon we organized a club, as I also wear white socks and a night-gown. Pajamas do not seem enough of a change from pants and shirts, and I cannot sleep in them; and colored socks irritate my ankles.... On the ship, children are almost universally called kids, or kiddies, another form of bad English which Americans deplore. There are eighteen children on board, and the ship resembles a nursery. Even the stewards privately complain of the incessant racket. This morning most of the passengers shifted to the port side of the deck, but we remained on the starboard side, because all of the children went with the crowd. “You must be enjoying a quiet and pleasant day,” the deck steward said to us. A good many of the passengers had their chairs shifted back to the starboard side, and I heard them grumbling about the noise; from which I am led to believe that if the passengers spoke their minds freely, a protest would go up to the captain about Mr. Riley, the Sports Committee, and the “kiddies.”... A passenger was telling today of a man he once knew in Melbourne who took thirty drinks of whisky a day. Finally, during an illness, the doctor advised him that he must be more temperate; that twenty drinks a day were enough. The man tried twenty drinks a day, but the almost total abstinence from alcohol killed him.... A prominent citizen of Sydney, with whom I talk a great deal, says many of his fellow-citizens believe that if the government had kept out of railroad building, and left it to private enterprise, the country would have many more miles of railroad, and double its present population. Considering the resources of the country, the railroad facilities of Australia are insignificant. There are half a dozen different railroads running finer trains in little Kansas than may be seen in Australia. And both freight and passenger rates are lower in Kansas than in Australia; service is better, and the employees receive higher wages. There is something wrong with the Australian railways, and I believe it is government ownership.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25.—Today we had a cricket match between members of the crew and the passengers. Score, 29 to 27, in favor of the crew. The features of the game were: 1. The batting of Mr. Connell, who sits at our table; 2. The bowling (which means pitching) of Mr. Connell; 3. The bad playing of Mr. Riley, whom we hate; 4. The appearance of a Mr. May, a passenger, as a barracker for the crew. A barracker in cricket means the same thing as a fan in baseball, and Mr. May’s line of talk in making fun of the passenger players was very good. I coached him a little in baseball talk, and the mean way in which he said, “Take him out!” when a pitcher was hit freely, was quite a pleasant reminder of home.... One of the players in the ship’s team was the young man who appears when you press a button in the smoking-room; in short, he is one of two bartenders employed on the “Anchises.” This young man was a particularly good pitcher. The best batter on the ship’s team was the second officer. There is a democracy in sport which levels all rank. The game lasted nearly two hours, and I picked up a smattering of the rules. There are eleven players on a side, and each player must take his turn at batting; but the best pitchers of the team may do all the pitching. Before a batter is out, the pitcher must knock down the wicket with the ball; sometimes a batter knocks the ball about a long time before he is out. Mr. Connell, who sits at our table, made nineteen scores before they got him out, and batted three-quarters of an hour.... A good many of the passengers are mining men from South Africa. Among these is a man who was born in America, but who has lived among Englishmen so long that he cannot be distinguished from them. He married an English woman, and has three children who have a very rich brogue. The man told me today that he very naturally fell into the ways of the English within a year after going to South Africa, and that now our pronunciations amuse him as much as they amuse the English. He plays cricket, likes it better than baseball, and pitches with the peculiar twist which distinguishes the English game.... This evening I saw a man sitting on deck apparently curling his moustache. Later it developed that he was getting a string around an aching tooth; this accomplished, he pulled the tooth with a single jerk. He said to me: “In a year or two I shall have them all out, and put in a full set of good teeth.” All the people here seem to look forward to the time when they will have all their teeth out, and put in a full set of the kind supplied by dentists. One of the first things you notice here is the great number of people with full sets of false teeth. I believe I could name a dozen comparatively young women on this ship who have no teeth of their own.... We have been in the South-east trade-winds several days; the smoke from our funnels is always ahead of us. On this track the wind blows in the same direction for months at a time; there is also a current flowing with the wind. A thousand miles south of us, the current flows eastward, and the winds blow eastward as steadily as they blow westward here.... There is gossip on board to the effect that the two women passengers who have been nursing the sick woman, have quarreled. The invalid is carried on deck every fine day, and reclines on a cot, and it has been remarked that one of her volunteer nurses has disappeared; she is sulking in her room over some affront offered her by the other volunteer nurse. The passengers are much interested in the row. The nurse who is still on duty will leave the ship next Sunday, at Durban, and her rival will have a clear field during the run of nearly three weeks to Liverpool. The invalid was injured in a hunting accident; her horse fell while going over a hedge. She is a particularly nice woman, and one of the amusements on deck is to visit with her as much as the nurses will allow. And she has a baby boy called “Captain,” who is loved by everybody.... On deck this afternoon, a woman ordered her two boys to go to their room, and wash their faces. Much to my surprise, they did it. In America, when a woman tells her child to do anything, he attempts to argue her out of the notion, and usually succeeds. The children on the ship are somewhat annoying; not because they do not mind well, but because they are left to themselves. Their mothers are generally members of the Sports Committee, and their nurses are flirting with members of the crew. There is one very noisy youngster who is rapidly driving me to distraction. She has a nurse, but I have not seen the nurse all day.... The mother of a ten-year-old boy on board says he does not know anything about money; that he can’t tell a shilling from a penny. At home, a boy of that age would be packing a newspaper route, and know all about money. I particularly admired Captain Trask, of the “Sonoma,” because he told me two of his sons were carrying newspaper routes. That’s the way to bring up a boy in town; buy him a newspaper route by the time he is nine or ten years old, and let him learn who is good, and who is not.... Mr. Riley, who has not yet fallen overboard, although all of us have wished it on every shooting star since leaving Adelaide, believes he is the life of the ship, and a general favorite, although I believe I have never known anyone to be more generally disliked. He is always half-drunk, and thinks that is the proper thing on shipboard. There is a disagreeable smell about a steady drinker, and Mr. Riley has it in a very marked degree. I once heard him say to a modest, gentlemanly man with whom he was arguing: “You must confess that you admire a good fellow who spends his money more than you admire the saving, industrious man who doesn’t.”... Mr. Riley is that sort of a fool; and that sort is the very worst kind. The man Mr. Riley was arguing with made a stinging reply, but Mr. Riley is usually so drunk that he doesn’t know it when repartee goes against him.... Next to our table in the dining-room sit a father and mother and their grown son. Every morning the wife and mother gives her orders to her men-folks for the day, and points out what they did the day before that was displeasing. They talk in low tones, but we can generally hear what they say. The son seems to be the principal culprit, as he is paying attention to a certain Miss Helen the mother does not like; but the husband is well trained, for I have noticed that he takes his orders humbly.