The Log of the Empire State | Page 2

There were other discoveries in the steerage. A Servian girl, Alma

Karlin, who speaks ten languages fluently, but could not afford a
first-class passage (although once well-to-do) on account of the low
exchange value of her country's money. She is on a three-year tour to
study conditions in the Pacific Islands, to learn if her countrymen can
successfully immigrate to this region.
A young American married to a Chinaman, a group of Orientals
devouring an odd-looking concoction with chop sticks, a motley group
of Hindus with their fezzes, made the picturesque gathering, that gladly
received the surplus fruits distributed by the belles of the ship.
We struck a squall that surprised many of us enjoying the salt sea
breeze in our stuffy state rooms, by washing the spray over our neatly
put-out dinner clothes. That night it took real sea legs to dance while
the ship rocked. But it was great sport, and Sidney Kahn's University
Orchestra "jazzed" on as if they were on solid ground.
The third day all of the officers appeared in white. White duck curtains
replaced the wooden doors. The women blossomed out in the daintiest
of summer frocks, the men in white flannels, and although most of us
found our shoes difficult to put on (in spite of the fact that we all had
shoes a half a size larger) deck games were in full swing and sea
sickness was a thing of the past.
Commissioner Krull was the first to jump into the open-air swimming
tank, some of the ladies following. But it took deck tennis and the
tropics to make the tank popular.
Captain Nelson took us on a tour of inspection, and as eating was the
principal occupation, we asked to see the electrically operated galley
first, for, next to the bar, it was the chief attraction. We all have heard
of electric dish washers, potato peelers, knife sharpeners, bread bakers,
cake mixers, etc., but what a guarantee for matrimonial bliss there
would be if every young bride could be as sure as this ship was to
please the most particular of husbands. How? By using an automatic,
electric egg boiler that can be set for any time, and when the desired
number of minutes is reached, presto! up comes the egg out of the
boiling water! Not a second overdone, or underdone. In China some of
us were given, as a great delicacy, a "twenty-year-old egg" and toward
the end of the trip many of us had lost interest in all eggs, no matter
how cooked.
The stoves burn oil, and although the day was hot, and the noon meal

was in preparation, there was no excessive heat and no fumes. The
white-clad Chinese waiters did their appointed tasks with the
smoothness and lack of confusion of clockwork.
Our smiling waiters greeted us every morning in long blue kimonos.
Ours answered to the name of Arling, and after one had ordered an
abnormal breakfast, he suggested that the griddle cakes were "veery
goo-wd." Everyone ate more than they ever thought they could, and
when at eleven o'clock, the deck boy came along with broth, few there
were that had the courage to say, "No." The tang of the sea caused
groups to invade the charming tea-room, with its yellow curtains and
painted wicker furniture, at tiffin time. And if chicken, a-la-King, was
served after the nightly dancing party, - well, everyone said, "We don't
make a trip like this every day, so, why not?"
There was a weighing machine on the lower deck, but, we all believed
that it must have been out of order. If we had not gained any more
pounds than we had spent for oriental souvenirs, we would have been
lucky.
Some of the older members of the party welcomed the Sunday evening
movies instead of the strenuous dancing, but we were all glad to go to
bed after the movie villain had been killed.

Chapter II

The servants were so attentive and the beds so soft that many of the
ladies fell into the custom of having breakfast in the staterooms.
After lunch one sunny day we mounted the steep little stairs to the
captain's quarters. His spacious combination living and bedroom with
private bath was a miracle to those of us who had to have the room boy
move the luggage in order to have space enough to open the quaint
little bureau drawers. On his center table was one of those strange
dwarf Japanese trees, that are not permitted to be imported. These odd
plants seem to thrive in spite of their diet of whiskey and the binding of
their branches with tiny wires - perhaps, if they must be fed exclusively
on whiskey, there is another reason besides the possibility of their
bringing