Here’s a 2004 Focus article that first appeared Thursday, September 6, 1883 in The Washington Observer. It was originally written by the Editor and Proprietor of the paper, Ernest F. Acheson.
EDITOR OBSERVER: After a pleasant sojourn, I took up the march for home. Although I had seen much, there was much more that I had missed! On Tuesday July 24th, I started by the Great Western Railway for Liverpool, stopping en route at Stratford on Avon to see the birthplace and tomb of Shakespeare. I arrived at Stratford about 1 o’clock and entered the Omnibus to ride to the Red Horse Hotel. Inside of the ‘bus was a placard announcing that the Red Horse was known to Americans as the Hotel of Washington Irving. The hotel was a little two story building without a front upon the street. The entrance is an archway leading from the street back to the stables. When I entered I found that the room fronting upon the street was the Coffee Room, and at the table were two “drummers” eating dinner.
The maid soon brought in dinner for me, consisting of roast lamb, peas, potatoes and bread and butter. Almost all English cooking is plain and when one gets used to their ways, he can get along very nicely. Once peculiarity that struck me more than any other is that they never salt either butter or food of any kind. Each person salts to his taste at the table. While at dinner I got into a conversation with the gentlemen present who had many questions about America. Save the gentleman, “Boots” and the maid, I saw one about the hotel. I did not see the proprietor or clerk and was not asked to register my name. After dinner I started out first to visit the grave of Shakespeare. I found the town a very pretty, clean one, but so different from our American towns.
The streets were irregular and crooked, some of the houses were new and others quite old, some with little windows and the second stories projecting over the first. Many homes seemed to be built of heavy framed timbers and then filled in with stone or brick, and had little panes of glass leaded in the windows.
Everything however looked clean and neat. In many of the humbler homes the windows were full of flowers. It was quite a walk down one of these crooked streets to the church, which is near the outskirts of the town and is very old. The part where the “bard of Avon” lies buried was built in the 12th century, and the central parts about two years before Columbus discovered America.
The church is of stone, many of which are crumbling with age and have, from time to time, to be replaced, and is lighted by high windows filled with little leaded panes such as I have already described.
The stone marking the grave is the oldest part of the church, lying flat upon the pavement that has been worn by the feet of visitors so that the inscription has to be re-cut time and again. The register kept in the church shows that a large proportion of visitors are Americans.
After leaving the church, I visited the house in which the bard was born, which is now turned into a kind of museum of Shakespearean relics. The house is many centuries old with many gables and small windows. It is framed as I have described of heavy timbers and filled in with stonework. Your space will not allow of a detailed description of the various relics and curiosities displayed there.
On the same evening, I went to Liverpool, arriving there at 10 o’clock. Liverpool is said to be more of an American city than any place in England. The first evidence I had of their adopting of American ways was the street which took me to the hotel and the second, hot muffins for supper and breakfast. As a rule the breakfast at an English hotel will consist of beefsteak, mutton chops and boiled eggs, or boiled eggs, mutton chops and beefsteak. The hotel, the Adelphi, also had an elevator, called there a “lift,” in good running order. I was much pleased with the shops or stores of Liverpool. There were fine displays in the windows with the prices marked in plain figures. I do not wish to tantalize your lady readers by showing how they could have shopped to advantage if they had been there, but will give an example: find kid gloves of odd sizes, under 6 and over 8, were marked one shilling, twenty-four cents, others from two to six buttons, from thrity-two up to seventy-five cents. This being the great English seaport, the most interesting things to see is the docks. Starting out from the “landing stag,” as it is called, upon a tug and going down the river towards the sea, you soon come to a high stone wall that for miles cuts off all view towards the city. Here and there are openings wide enough for ships to enter. Going into anyone of these you find other heavy stone walls and piers running parallel and perpendicular to the outside wall, forming docks at which the largest ocean steamers can be loaded and unloaded undisturbed by the wildest storms without.
I could, with pleasure and profit, have spent many days here but time and tide wait for no one and so Thursday afternoon, July 26th, found me steaming down the harbor, surrounded by strange faces, on the famous City of Berlin, en route for home. What cared I if I knew no one. I knew that many hearts like mine beat quicker at the thought that every throb of the great engine beneath us brought us nearer and nearer home. Many eyes like mine would be strained over the watery waste for the first glimpse of our native land. It does not take long to get acquainted on shipboard being shut up together with nothing but the sky and sea about you, it is the easiest thing in the world to pick up acquaintances. The first day, I got acquainted with the children, the second with their parents, and the third with almost everybody well enough to be on deck. The staterooms on board were rather small. The one I was in was six feet square, with two berths, one above the other, a sofa opposite the berths and a stationary washstand. My room-mate and I never attempted to get up or go to bed at the same time. The partition did not quite reach the deck above, leaving some space for ventilation. The doors could be fastened partly shut with hooks for the same purpose. When well, one of the chief employments is that of eating and looking forward to the next meal, for the sea air gives a fine appetite. When seasick- well! You do not need anything to engage your thoughts. My friend Brown described his sensations in a few words- “At first I was afraid I would die and then I was afraid I would not.” The next morning after leaving Liverpool we dropped anchor in Queenstown harbor and waited all day until 5 o’clock for the mails. No sooner were we in the harbor than the deck was over run with peddlers selling laces, silk handkerchiefs, bog oak ornaments, canes &c. We had about five hundred steerage passengers on board and with them, the peddlers drove a fine trade in cheap candy and fruit.
Having received the mails our ship stood out to sea but when the lingering twilight of that northern latitude deepened into night we were not yet entirely out of sight of land. The next morning we were fairly at sea and could feel the swell of the ocean which brings to the delicate stomach the first unpleasant sensation of sea-sickness. As the day passed on, the wind freshened and the number of persons “paying tribute to Neptune” greatly increased. Some retreated to their berths and did not appear in public for several days. Others bravely remained on deck but, at intervals, gazed intently at the waters over the side of the ship. After about two days the wind died down, the sea became calmer and most of the passengers recovered sufficiently to enjoy the voyage. After the first day at sea we rarely sighted a sail and daily round soon became monotonous. The usual program for the day was about as follows: First a salt water bath, then breakfast from eight to nine o’clock, lunch at 1 o’clock, dinner from five to seven, supper at nine in the evening. In addition to this, early risers would get a cup of coffee and a cracker before breakfast and were reduced to such things as could be kept on ice or in tin cans. The intervals between meals were filled by reading, walking back and forth, talking and in playing various games. There was a great variety of people among the passengers, principally English and America. We had missionaries returning home for a rest from their labors, play actors returning after fulfilling English engagements and American Tourists, some of whom had been away one or two years and had been over Europe, Egypt and the Holy Land. With such a variety one could not help making pleasant acquaintances and getting a store of useful information.
The most remarkable day of the voyage was the second Saturday when we sighted the Long Island coast. As evening came on, a large number of the American passengers gathered upon the upper deck, watching the outline of coast, until darkness shut it out from sight, when the lights from Manhattan Beach and Coney Island came in full view. Some patriotic soul started up one of our National songs and the rest joined in the chorus with a will. This was followed with rousing cheers for our flag. What a happy lot we were. The thought of home softened every heart and we were like children again. So songs and cheers alternated until we cast anchor at New York harbor.
The next morning as we approached the pier I noticed a young lady, who had been two years away from home, standing the deck with radiant face and eyes like stars. I asked her “What makes you look so bright this morning?” She replied, “I see my father on the pier.” In a few moments came the bustle and confusion of going ashore and I found myself riding away to the hotel with the vision of that happy beautiful face mixed firmly in my memory.
No comments:
Post a Comment