TO WASHINGTON AND BACK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8670, 12 September 1891, Page 1 (Supplement)

TO WASHINGTON AND BACK.

[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] No I.— VOYAGING IN THE SOUTH

PACIFIC. TIIE SHIP AND THE CAPTAIN.

-Tjie s.s. Mariposa deserves the good name she has for a fast, steady, and comfortable sea boat. The weather she experienced between Sydney and Auckland on August 13 to 10 would test the qualities of tiny ship, and she came through that trial unharmed, except for the loss of a boat and a few scratches. Captain Hay ward is a man who inspires confidence. Ho cannot be called a model from a passenger's point of view (as Captain Carey, cvgrthmhuk.;/.), being taciturn and reserved and liking to walk the deck with a niind-your-own-business sort of air; but this matters little. He has an intellectual faco with plenty of back head, and strikes you as a man to be trusted in tin emergency. The passengers who experienced tho storm referred to are unanimous in his praises. They are equally emphatic as to the behaviour of the ship. In voyaging we think of safety first and of comfort next, hence the good name of tho Mariposa. I cannot, however, say much more in her favour. Considering that she is only eight years old. she does not compare at all favourably with Union Company's boats in those contrivances which passengers have learned to expect and to value. The bathrooms, e.;/., are mere inside cabins, dark and small, and without even a shower. The cabins are fairly large, but quite bare and comfortless, and ill-ventilated. But the saloon arrangements arc the greatest surprise.

HOW THE STEWARDS LOOK DOWN ON BRITISHERS.

Many of the stewards are Americans, and people who are unused to American wags will get an idea of what they are like and a chance of getting used to them before reaching the great continent itself. One passenger is a quiet, gentlemanly man and head of a large English firm known till over the world. The steward was removing his •plate and knife before he had finished his supper. Passenger: "Don't take that knife away ; I have not done with it."

Steward: "I have orders to clertr this table, and I will; you are not in a d d British ship now !" Another steward standing by : " Yes, we licked them once and we could do it again." The passenger gave in, but reported the matter to the purser (another American), who merely remarked that so-and-so " must have been drunk;" but no apology has been tendered to the insulted passenger. Let no one suppose that the passenger in question is a blustering globe-trotter, with imperious, disagreeable ways. He is ■ a quiet, gentle-mannered Englishman, who could not possibly do or say anything to provoke such insult. He says that only once before in all his extensive travels has he been insulted because of his nationality, and that was when he had the misfortune to travel in a Russian steamer.

Another passenger—an Auckland gentleman—asked a steward oil the night we sailed if lie could have a biscuit and a little cheese. The man did not answer a word, but called another steward, who, when the request, was timidly made to him, pointed to a choir and said, "Sit down there." Presently lie appeared with a dry biscuit or two. "Cannot 1 have a little cheese?"' begged the hungry gentleman. "Not tonight," was the answer. " You see we have to go a long way and must not. use up everything at the start; you shall have cheese to-morrow if you want it." My firstexperience of an American steward was slightly different: " Can' you give me an apple?" 1 asked, feeling sick, in my berth. "Have you one in the ship?" "Yes, thousands of them," lie replied, as if he had known me twenty years, and without more ado fetched one. Another curious practice here is to allot each passenger a seat at the table on the second day out. I asked the purser (American) if a. few gentlemen who were travelling together could have seats at. one table. He replied, " Captain Hay ward is master of this ship," and walked away. Result : When tho numbers at table were allotted by this same purser the party in question was broken into three or four, and the gentleman who had asked to be allowed to sit with his friends was appointed to a table made up almost entirely of the fag end of the Sara Bernhardt troupe—French people of a low class, with whom he could nob exchange a word on the whole voyage. Of the cooking I shall say next to nothing, especially as a letter must not be all grumbling. Let me give just one illustration. You ask for jam, and a dirty jam tin, with the tin lid not even removed, is put down before you. The whole thing is so different from the Union Company's own steamers that I wonder that something is not done to bring these chartered steamers on the line into something like equality with the Union Company's own boats. I trust that by calling attention to the subject in this way something may bo done to bring about a better state of things.

SARA BERNHARDT. Our most distinguished passenger is Sara Bernhardt. . She has the captain's cabin on deck and rarely, if ever, comes into the saloon. Her meals are served on a square deal table on deck, where she sits behind a screen, eating, chatting, and playing cauls with three or four others. She lias a pleasant, intelligent, but not a striking face. She is not a lady who, if you met her in the street, nob knowing who she was, would tempt you to turn and look a second time. Sho is of medium height, with features rather long than broad, and her hair just now is something between auburn and red. It is rather remarkable how many of the ladies of the company have hair of the same colour. The whole party is mixed, as such parties usually are, and if one may judge by their behaviour to one another, they are carefully graded as to salary and social position. The divine Sara dwells apart, like a queen, and there seem to be three or four sets of people in the company, down to a group that strikes you as very greasy indeed. The saloon and decks are one incessant jabber of French. I begin to feel as if I shall forget my own mother tonguo if this voyage should last very long. By the way daily contact with all these ladies gave ono a very unfavourable impression of the effect of powder and paint. Tho practice once begun must be hard to leave off, because it seems to destroy the natural bloom of the cheek. These powdered faces have a sickly almost ghastly hue, in this bright tropical sunlight. One longs for the sight of the natural bloom upon an English girl's cheek. Alas! every seat in this big saloon is occupied, but amid all these there is not one English or colonial maiden. Would that wo had just one to show the contrast between the beauty which God makes and man's poor handiwork !

KNJOYING Till? TROPICS. I am posting this at Tututila, to wait for the Alameda there, as we hardly hope to meet her at Honolulu in consequence of our being two days late in starting. The tropical sea and sky and atmosphere are very delightful, and seem to leave one bathed in a delicious languor. The Mariposa has a flush deck, and it is a curious sight to see the deck full, under the awnings, of every conceivable kind of easy chair, and each chair filled with a languid bub com-fortable-looking lounger. Smoking seems to be nearly the only recreation tor which the passengers have sufficient energy. One explanation is chat people will not learn to eat; reasonably. One cadaverous-looking passenger, sitting opposite to me ab table to-day, had for lunch roast pork and beans, a great mess of lobster, with sardines and other aids to digestion to fill in between.