Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, October 25, 1903, Page 25

The Democracy of the O O SIT at table and listen to talk from Andrew Carnegle; to play shuffle-board with Thomas Bailey Aldrich; to walk the deck with members of the family of Secre- tary Root; to take afternoon tea with Sir Thomas Lipton; to discuss American affairs with the earl his way to Boston in company with the Honorable Artlllery company of London—certainly acquaintances of this kind, continuance of which after the voyage is by no means obligatory, are nowhere to be made with Such ease and naturalness as on the sea. Probably there is no place In the world where more democratic conditions prevail than on board an ocean liner, despite the fact that the luxury of the appointments of ®ea travel has Increased tremendously within the past decade and that nowadays it is possible for a voyager to obtain oa shipboard any degree of magnificence for which he is wlil ng to pay. As any wes.ern traveler will bear witness, there i3 less class distinction, less of those invidious contrasts that differences of wealth aro too apt to create, aboard the great steams- ers than in almost any place ashore that one can mention. of Denbigh on To be sure there is a great range in the amounts individua! voyagers pay as pase sage money and in extent of space occu- pied by the passenger in what may be called his private apartments. In the giant flyer exquple—perhaps the most perfect in appointments and general Oceanie, for equipment of any vessel In the Atlantio service today—this range varies all the way from the man who pays $1%0 for a berth in a stateroom which he shares with two others to the seif-indulgent person who writes a check for $1,000 in exchange icr the privilege of occupying a princely suite of five or six rooms on the promenade deck. But the one raan enjoys no more extensive privileges in the¢ sooking room, in the li- brary or on deck than the other; each ge's exactly the wealthier man same fare at may table happen to and the occupy a seat in the saloon that is in some respects less dcesirable. In fact in what may be termed the public parts of the big steam- ship no such thing exists as privilege or distinction, and the least well-to-do among the first cabin passengers may place his chair in the most attractive nook on deck if he applies for the location in time Now the desire to know details of the lives of those who are in the public eye ap- pears to be very normal, or at least a very widespread, craving. Anybedy who has crossed the Atlantic in the same ship with a remarkable, or titled, or multi-mil- lioned man is quite certain to be plled with questions as to how the famous one dressed, what his manner was toward his feliow passengers and, in general, how he com- ported himself. Of course, the story should, seemingly, be soon told, for the reason that the difference between those who are reck- oned famous and those who are less con- spicuous is by no mans €o great in any walk of life as it {s commonly reckoned to be and is rather shipboard than elsewhere, but it that bears [rc- less on is a story quent repetition. People like to hear of great men who mingle freely with their fellows For instance, to take an {llustration, the man whose name is perhaps more fre- quently and prominently before the Amer- fcan public than that of any other except the president, J. Plerpont Morgan, recently returned from KEurope on Oceanic. He occupied a stateroom that was commodious, although it was by no means the most ex- pensive one, and he was perhaps the most unobtrusive passenger on board. When the ship came up the harbor he stocd leaning over the rail side by side with men whose names probably rarely figure in the news- Here meets, on every ship, papers except when they are published as part of the passenger lists After the gangplank was put out and Mr. Morgan had descended to the pier, he submitted to the rigid customs examination with as good grace as any of his fellows Sir Thomas Lipton, croseing at the same time, himself the most genial of men and one who made the acquaintance of as many as pos=sible of his fellow passcngers, made the statement that Mr. Morgan was r mosl popular passenger on the ship for his genlality and good friendship. On land the great financ time is so valuable that he has perforc to be abrupt, almost brusgque, toward those with whom he has business relations, and resolutely to deny all access to thos who have no praper claim unon his time In his frequent ccean crossings, however, Mr- Morgan relaxes his exclusiveness. He occupies a single stateroom and does not take even a secretary with him—a surpris- ing fact when one considers what busy man he is and how incessantly h mind works upon the details of his plans An other surprising fact is that he selects, usually, and by preference, not the swift est Atlantic flyers, but the more roomy and steady boats like the gigantic Cedric and Celtie, in which nothing of comfort is sacrificed to speed In fact, the trend of the time among distinguicshed and ex- perienced travelers seems to be toward the big, comfortable vessels, cven though they take a day or two longer for the voyage than the record smashers, A very popular traveler, and one of simple tastes, who visited the United States last year, was Prince Henry of Prussia. His retinue occupied some eight or ten rooms on the steamer, but the state- room occupied by Prince Henry himself THE SMOKE ROOM ON THE % FINLAND what might be called the club-A favorite was not especially pretentious. It was, iIn fact, one that had been reserved by an American traveler who gave it up as an act of courtcsy to the distinguished vidt r, During the voyage Prince Henry spent much of his time on the in the company of miral of the G navigator, he 1 s cam=hip's b ilge the captiin, As an ad- navy tnd a qua’'ilied had a ri to b> th.re had a natural professional in it terest in the navigaiion of the ghip. Out- tide of the hour ent in this manner he was a familiar {igure in the smoking room and attraciel everyone with whom he came in contact by his geniality readiness to aintances, and make acq This mingling Is, to u certain the was a with one's fellow voyagers extent, an inheritance from travel. Then it ity rather than staterooms: wos th: olden days of ocean matier of necess for the best of the merely a cubbyhole to ship's quarters choice 5 s'ecp in and were so cramped thal sepa oard the huge cay, however, one who ration became imypossible. Al liners of the present has the mear ind the desire may have private sitting yme, ¢ining room and bath rooms. This priviiege ceriuinly makes it all the more notewo.thy that those who, in their land journeys travel in private cars if not in private trains, make the voyage when they go to sea in utter simplicity, As an instance of what may be done in the way of luxury and seclusion, the recent voyage of Mr., and Mrs bilt on their honeymoon trip, which took them s the Atlantic and back again, will gerve as an illustration. The fact that they had just been married probably caused them to wish to be left to themselves on this occasion more than they would necessary under other circumstances. Reginald Vander- acrc deem Mr. One of this group playing shuffleboard A DEMOCRATIC PASTIME on the de k of the St. Louis is a well known American millionaire resort of P’rince Henry. and Mrs Dominion ing from flower of Vo) Vanderbiit went to urope on the New England, saile and returned on May- same line. On the eastward occeupled a suite of four state- dining room and a bath room. These rooms were especially decorated and furnished for the travelers, the dining room line steamer Boston, the ¢ they rooms, i being fitted up as a s=itting room and the four staterooms furnishing quarters for the 1ridal pair, the valet and the maid. Notwithstanding the arrangements that had been made to fit up rooms especially to suit them, Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt changed during the voyage to one of the large stuteroom on the saloon deck of the gteamer, which is fitted like a luxurious bed room in a luxurious hotel. On their return they occupled a suite made up of four staterooms, two of which w thrown together to form a sleeping chamber, which was furnished with a costly brass bed stead bought on Mr. Vanderbilt's order and with other appointments to malch. Two other rooms, similarly made Into one, were fitted up as a sitting room by the in- troduction of tables, lounging chairs and electric lights. In addition to rooms they had a special dining room on the upper promenade deck in the house where the captain of the has his guarters. It was on this trip that Mr. Van- derbilt's luggage, consisting of forty-three trunks and bags, enriched the customs by $8,000, the largest sum ever paid In per- sonal duties in the port of Boston. This perhaps serves to indlecate the height of luxury in. which one may ere the Atlantic if it is desired, but it 1s m that even the wealthiest or most distinguished voyagers travel upon a scale convenient thes: vessel instance scld g0 extensive and expensive as Mr. and Mrs. Vandorbilt on this particular trip Many travelers have little personal peculiarities which they indulge on ship- board either ¢ a matter of necessity or of desire, For example, Mr. Joseph Pulit- zer, founder ol the new school of journal- fsm at Columbia university, is a very nerv- ous man, and it is necessary on the oec- ecagions of his numerous trips to Europe to put down mats on the deck outside the stuteroom 10 minimize as far as possible the ordinary deck nolses Another well known man who has been prominent in rational affairs for many years has con tracted the hot water habit as a result of gome stomach trouble For this reason, when he goes on board ship he tips his steward liberally and gives instructions that the latter is to hunt him up at certain hours wherever he ma be or whatever he may be doing and give him his pre- scribed glass of hot water Anoth man who 18 very prominent in the industrial world has a passion for flowers, which he frdu frecly on shipboard Before he sails a supply of cut flowers is sent to the liner cooling bo nd every day the voyager has a fresh bouquet in his state- room and on Lis tabl Then they are travelers who take along with them les in the line of eating, drinking and 1 Thig, however, is an idiosyncrasy w h is by no mesns confined to persons of prominence, although it may be more common among them for the reason they (Continued on Page Sixteen,)