The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 5, 1904, Page 15

R. BERT LEVY, who ar- r San Francisco two on the Sonoma lia, is one of the the Antipodes. connécted 1 , one of the e colonies, where »us for his pic- ¢ Jewish character, ir years he has e, where he gained nence for his type in par- of famous well as for the s pen which ac- s. - At the fessionally tists that the big theaters »ons ed w who was made ex- vo sons toward prayer her ed the head the Em- e of the the year. une 12, it te in five in- r to make its e notable, Mr. commissioned isco and il- from beginning to e, exclusively for Sunday Call's erary policy s the very latest e by best writ- £ MARK. TWANS DOUBLE, FRAN CoreRE; A o MeRC WA not only a brand new novel, by 2 to have laid bare secrets of his own life in ive,” the superb and authentic art work of a man equally famous from another far distant quarter of the slobe both brought to- gether for the first time in one edition picture the sorrows and sufferings, ideals and the history of their own race, as well as to reveal the se- cret of the cause and the effect of their ceaseless persecution through the ages. In the following article Mr. Levy has written of the humors and de- lights of & trip across the Pacific on 2 big Oceanic liner and illustrated it with some characteristic drawings which speak for themselves. They are however, mere rapid sketches, giving no idea of the real skill and power shown in his finished work. i ) describe the beauties of the isl- and paradise on the route from the Antipodes to California, but no mention is made of the chief beauty of travel—the beauty of human compan- jonship that is fully matured on board ship. Amusing, indeed, it is to watch the gradual thawing of the icy man- ners adopted by some people at the start of the voyage. The sour-faced, garcastic man who found fault with the nuts and cheese two hours out from Eyvdney proves by the time we reach AINTY guide books scattered throughout the big ocean liners Aucklind %o be at heart (as my young American table-mate puts it) “a reg-lar ack of a fellow and real ‘white.’ ” The little cliques that stood (separated like the islands on the map of the Pacific) on the promenade deck as we left Sydney became as close as the United States two days out. The high-toned lady, who considers so-and- 80 “no class” (and does not keep her opinion to herself) at the start of the journey is seen nursing the no-class one’s baby before the vessel has regis- tered one day's run across the Pacific. Table grumblers, as a rule, are beau- tifully silent after about ten hours have elapsed. There are some people Wwho live on bread and jam all the year round, and when they are invited to a wedding adversely criticize the cham- pagne. This class of table grumbler is irrespressible, but gets a bad time from healthy passengers. And no voyage could bring forth more humor than a trip across the Pacific on one of these big liners. “They say dst Pritannia rules de waves,” sald a sick Jew the first day out, leaning over the ship's rail and mournfully anticipating an internal dis- turbance. ‘em straight.” The sight of some bright American boys placing an empty whisky bottle and a glass by the deck chair of the sleeping Archbishop is calculated to bring & smile to the most melancholy face, and when the “Johnny” who has been minutely describing his “twenty-: eight voyages across the Pacific, don’t’ yer know,” and his absolute proof against seasickness, turnspale and sud- “Vell, I vish she'd ‘s’ ruled. THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. denly dives below for his cigar case (as he puts it), the crowd fairly shakes with laughter. It is astonishing how quickly people get to know one another aboard ship. Lifelong friendships are bought by the loan of three anti-bilious pills and the glving away of a little bit of corn plaster to one’s cabin mate has not only extracted your friend's corn but the pathetically told story, of his unhappy married life as well. On land you can run up against the average man for years and only exchange a formal word of greeting now and agaln, but should you meet that man aboard ship and in a week moment offer him an apple he almost immediately tells you the story of the love affalr that {s slowly but surely breaking his heart, and by the evening of the same day you've had several drinks together and its odds-on he has shown you ‘her” photo and letters, and all he wants in return is—your advice. “I ftelt drawn toward you from the. first, old man. Yours is a face to in- spire confidence (here he tells you the amount of his letter of credit or shows you his bankdraft). “Of course I wouldn’t talk like this to a stranger” he adds. (You have known him exact- 1y one day.) The delights of sigh are as naught, compared to the wealth of en- joyment to be extracted in studying our ever-varying fellow creatures, and where else can they be studied to such advantage as aboard ship, and espe- clally on such a delightful voyage as crossing the Pgclfic affords? e e ————— — On the fifth day out from Sydney a returning American crack cyclist who had “scooped” big money ‘“out there” was the center of the multifarious group that goes to make up a typical ship's smoking-room crewd. = English Johnnies returning home by the ‘“short, quick route” and Incidentally taking in the “ah—S8t. Louls—ah—Exposition— ah”; robust Australlans going to have a look at the States; smart young Amiericans who had made a Dbit “out there” and are off home to look for novelties for the colonies; big, fine New Zealanders, pioked up at Auckland; gentle-man- nered Eawallans who had come aboard flowersbedecked at lovely Honolulu, all weot to make up that jolly after- dinnes amoking room atmosphere which 1s one of the most charming character- istics of & tslp on a big ccean liner. The blg cyelist had “had & corking time out there” and wouldn’t hear a word against Australlans or the Aus- tralian “boys.” “Bay,” he repested, " 'Murica may be God’s country, but when God wants & good time I guess he goes out thur.” The cyeclist was a bluff and hearty Californian boy, who had made himself extremely popular with the passengers, but had evidently got upon the nerves of a rather elongated, loud-checked, haw-hawing English Johnny. “P've 'nevah, nevah traveled with Americans befoah. I think they are extremely clevah, very clevah; but I object to their awful twang—ah,” said the Johnny. * * v But presently the little group of ZAEEI Yy b i Teorcazr ey \ Americans in the corner got even with the Englishman. He had been “spout- ing’” about his English home, his motor cars and pack of hounds, his shooting- box, ete., but his statement that it was ‘“quite seventeen—ah—miles, don’t yer know, from our hall door to the gate- keeper's lodge” inspired a subdued chorus (to the concluding bars of “Auld Lang Syne”), led by the cyclist, which was more expressive than elegant. Again and again from the American stronghold rang out that tender and beautiful air and shattered the Johnny’s highly-colored pictures of his stately English home. The enormous value he put upon his mother’s family jewels was punctured by the chorus, rendered fortissimo, and when the good-natured raillery finally drove him away in a blustering rage the atmosphere became delightfully soclal—everybody “lighted up,” chairs were drawn closer, and looking upon ‘the scene through the haze of tobacco smoke one could” scarcely realize that we were thousands of miles from anywhere In the midst of the Pacific. Here wers men gathered from the four quarters of the globe, op- poeing forces, as it were, artistically blended by the companionship of a long voyage into one harmonious composi- tion. Bearded and bronzed men who had made their money from the ‘soil far out—back in the “never-never” land of Australla—men who had gamely lived down many a heart-breaking drought, were “swapping yarns” with Qgelicate looking Oxford scholars and sons of wealthy English. merchants. Sturdy miners, whose deeply furrowed PACIFIC. ON A “LINER”. PETE" AP THEATRIC faces were characteristic of the pick- tortured surfaces of the alluvial fitlds of old Ballarat and Bendigo, their na- tive towns, were in earnest conversa- tion with morose types of British globe- trotters, and, like the high light on a pleasing picture, was the animated but friendly discussion between an Arch- bishop and a German Jew. Where else but amid the friendly environments en- gendered by a long ocean voyage could such tdeal conditions prevail? There Is a lady on board who would prove a veritable gold mine of copy to a writer of farce. She appears at breakfast in black satin and diamonds and does not keep the story of her dally life a secret. “Every morning of my life,” she tells her neighbors at the table in a con- fidential whisper that can be heard above the roar of steam and storm, “my maid brings a cup of tea to my bedside,” and then almost in the same breath she summons a passing stew- ‘Hey, mister, fetch us a bit more The passengers at a certain saloon table rejoiced in the possession of an Irish-Australian mining magnate, and the unconsciously humorous remarks that he let fall as rich and plenti- ful as gold in the wash-: of the from which he hailed. “Good mornin’,” he said, seating him- self at breakfast. ‘“We'll pass the Ven- toora this mornin’, I belalve.” One of his table mates ventured the opinion that we had our sister p in fiht_ *Oh, no,’ d the Irishman, “I was talkin’ to wan of the officers while he was cleaning the floor in the smoking- room an’ he sald we'd pass it * mornin”.” To leave the crowd of good-natured, happy fellows holding a “Calcutta™ on the ehip’s run and to look at the sad BERY -~ ¢ LEVY - - BY - B4 face of the old lady by the bridge com- panion is a violent contrast in emotion. Her face, Rembrandtesque In its in- tensity of light and shade, tells che story of many sorrows. She is going to the States to see a son who is “in trouble,” we gather (you kmow how this sort of news leaks out) and every- body aboard feels sorry and wants to show it. Somebody proffers her a rug. anctiher a book, which she accepts with & smile. (What a feeble smule It is!) Bhe makes a pretense at reading, but presently she puts the book aside with & sigh and sits thinking, thinking, al- ways thinking. Petty beside this appear -the imagi- nary troubles of a dear little American girl who has been spending a couple of years in New Zealand. “Say,” she mournfully complains in broad American accent, “everybody Is saying that I don't talk & bit like an American. I do hope that isn't true. I want everybody to know I'm an Ameri- can and that I'm go home.™ She sits on th companion steps, her blu v ully homeward.- “I & his old boat would just hurry,” she keeps saying. One morning our t-hating Eng- lshman nearly worked himself into an apoplectic fit. He had come upon a book of essays on a vacant deck chalr and settled himself to read. Presently the crack cyclist happened along and claimed the book as his. “By gad, sir,” sald the Johnny, sub- sequently describing the incident to his clique in the g-room, “the boundah actually Ruskin, Ten- nyson and all our othah top-notchers.” There are a few board who, In antl visit to the United up” works on “America at Sea to Sea, pressions dence—as a cons ar lence a few people are asking each other for information about rers” and such like For the special vous ones the funny the following yarn: ted Bunko-Steerers® isco, which boasts 15,000 strong, has intelligence depart- benefit of the an on board “The Amalga! to put ch: ngers g. The alk marks operating members on ent of the bearer’s belongings. assengers leav- ing the steamer at F' o with chalk- marked ¢ advise the nko-steerers the exact extent of and whers they are ty g to put up.” tell you something in confi- " whispered the low-comedy man, and his listeners expectantly drew closer. “There are seven mem- bers of e Amalgamated Bunko- Steerers” S« ty’s intelligence staff on this ship nov And the low-comedy man left a group of nervous men obligingly looking for chalk-marks on each other’s backs. It was the privilege of the writer to accompany the commander and his of- ficers on his daily tour of “inspec~ tion.” The progress of the official par- ty throughout the huge vessel is marked by the severest discipline. The care and attention bestowed upon the most minute details is simply as- tounding. Now and again during the Rour the captain would stop to speak a few kindly words to a poor foreigmer in the steerage, or, while his eagle eye took in the sanitary condition of & sick man’s cabin, a cheery story from HOGHES ROMINENT AUSTRALIAN AL MANAGE R the captaln would gratify the pant. Of course, the beauties of the island scenery en route have been described again and again. Americans are fa- millar with the grand in nature, for at thelr own door nature has laid many treasures. But like unto an oasis in the desert is Honolulu to an Australian who has painted all his life among the gum trees of his own dear country and leaves it for the first time to gize upon the island. The writer stood spellbound fer hour beside the celebrated Pali felt for the first time that te try te imitate nature with brush and peint is, after all, only a little mockery. All the adjectives that one can to Honolulu have been scores of times, and one wheo feels it deep down can only sigh say nothing. And now the rattle and the sound of "N;- ; E good fellow.” We are a day off 0. In the bright, warm saloon the Archbish- op has just proposed the heaith of the President of the United States of America. Well, it’s the sort of voyage that Americans are taking more and more ~this trip across the Pacific In an Oceanic liner. But it is not given to everybody to be a young Australlan and to feel the blood tingling at the recollection of many happy, joily days and “nights” out on the Pacific with real “white” American boys. You crowd of bright American bovs and girls who came aboard at Honolulu, those little snatches of Hawallan na- tive airs you hummed have sunk right down into my soul with the beautiful color of the Pali, the Punchbowl and all those other things that make up my dream of the Paradise of the Pa- cifde, aceu-