"Young man, you have made a bad start: I was born less than three hundred
miles from where I stand, and I visited this square many times before you
were born."
This statement was received with applause and I was allowed to finish
what little I had to say in peace. The meeting adjourned after
unanimously passing a resolution protesting against the _Dreadnaughts_.
Meetings of this character were held continuously all day.
[Illustration: THE BATHS OF CARACALLA, ROME, WHERE THE ROMANS HAD THE
BEST TIMES OF THEIR LIVES AND WERE ALWAYS IN THE PICTURE WHILE IT LASTED]
Then we took a new steamer to New York, and the cruise of the _Cork_ was
a thing of the past.
Retrospectively I might add that we suffered from a kind of artistic and
historical dyspepsia, brought about by our inability to digest the
immensity of the things we had seen and their variety. After leaving
Madeira the stopping places came so fast that our sightseeing was indeed
hard work, each new place blotting out the one that had preceded it.
Undoubtedly we would after a while remember the scenes and places
visited, and we would surely do so if we read the standard writers on
these subjects.
Of the management it may be said that it had a Herculean task to perform,
and its work was well done. If the amount of detail it had to face and
arrange had been placed in less skilful hands or neglected, it would have
been fatal to our comfort and progress.
My companions were on the whole a bright, alert and sympathetic company.
Here and there, of course, there was some friction; human nature, under
the strain put upon it by the length of the cruise and the number of
people, could not be expected by the most exacting critic to behave
better. The unimportant differences of opinion and misunderstandings
that arose under trying circumstances will fade with the years as they
fly by, and leave only bright, pleasant, interesting memories of all the
wonderful things it was our privilege to see on this remarkable trip.
I offer a humble apology for the slang I have used in these pages, but it
has seemed almost impossible to describe the scenes in connection with
Jerusalem and Cairo without it--in fact, I couldn't help it!
I regret exceedingly that the anonymous character of this little effort
will not permit me to mention the names of many men and women who, by
their good-fellowship, sincerity and helpfulness, assisted one another to
pass the time and make things "go," when sometimes the going was far from
good.
If in any of these lines I have given offence I hope to be pardoned, as
none is intended. Every one knows that a succession of compliments and
eulogies makes uninteresting reading, therefore I feel sure of being
thoroughly understood; and further, I should like to add that I believe
the formula, "I move we adjourn," will be appreciated by the patient and,
I hope, forgiving reader. At this stage of the proceedings the aeroplane
must be lowered to kiss the dew and so glide into its hangar, regrets
being current that we had not the pleasure of Messrs. Cook and Peary's
company as passengers.