many churches and royal palaces. Naples has two royal palaces, although
the king lives at Rome. One is in town, and the other in the country,
near the sea. We visited the king’s town palace, as it is open to
the public two days of the week. There are eight hundred rooms in
the place, and twelve hundred servants care for it.... A room in
a king’s palace is usually a huge affair, probably 100x50 feet, with
an oval ceiling, and great chandeliers containing candles specially
manufactured for royalty. The furniture in each room is of a different
pattern; fancy chairs and divans made of gilt and brocade. No palace
seems to have been made as a place of residence for a family, but for
show, and intrigue, and murder, and dancing, and alarms, and riots.
Most of the famous murders in history have taken place in palaces. Not
far from the king’s town palace in Naples is an old palace now occupied
by soldiers as a barracks. It is a dirty place, but we were taken to
the upper rooms where are preserved relics of royalty nearly a thousand
years old. These include a chapel, decorated by artists of great fame.
Then we were taken down a winding stairway into a terrible place where
dead bodies were displayed in coffins. The dead bodies in the coffins
were those of princes, and cardinals, and all of them had died violent
deaths. One cardinal had an expression of agony on his face which
will haunt me for months; he had been smothered in the most inhuman
way. The bodies we saw were dressed in the magnificent clothing they
wore when they were murdered. This sight was seen in a noisome hole
underground, and was so terrible that Adelaide almost cried when she
begged me to take her out. We had a guide with us, and a warder from
the castle, but neither of them could tell us much about the place,
except that it is a relic of Spanish occupation in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries.... In thinking of the magnificence of palaces and
castles, always remember the terrible murders that have disgraced them.
A king fills us common people with awe, but he always has a brother, an
uncle, a cousin, or some other near relative who knows that he deserves
death. I think I have longed for nearly everything else, but I never
longed to be a king, nor would I care to live in a palace with twelve
hundred servants, any one of whom would poison me for two dollars and
promise of a postoffice.... On the way to the king’s town palace
we passed through the old part of Naples; a district of tall houses,
all of them crowded with poor people. The street was very narrow, and
the sun was almost obscured by clothes newly washed, and drying in the
sunlight. The wash-lines ran across the streets, and were so thick that
I thought the sight the most curious I had ever seen. The streets were
so crowded with children that we got through them with difficulty, and
every little while some one who had been to America, hailed us in bad
English. The lower floor of every house was nearly always occupied with
a little shop, in which a family also lived. In one of these places,
a little child was lying dead. The body was surrounded with candles,
and five women sat in the room. For some reason, the mother of the
child wanted us to look at it; she came out into the street, weeping,
and made motions indicating that she wanted us to go in, which we did.
The guide said the woman’s husband was in America, and that she felt a
friendly interest in us on that account.... The street was a steep
one; so steep that we went down it by means of broad steps. I have
seen a street almost exactly like it in Jerusalem. The cross-streets
were narrower and steeper than the main street we traveled, and I
was almost disposed to agree with Adelaide that Naples is the most
interesting place we have visited.... James Gordon Bennett, of the
New York _Herald_, issues an edition of his paper in Paris, and it is
sold all over Europe by street peddlers. Twenty times a minute we were
offered a copy of the _Herald_; the peddlers knew we were Americans,
and were so insistent that I always carried a copy of the paper in my
pocket, to show them I had one. They also sold the New York _Times_,
and I carried a copy of that paper, too.... Flowers grow in great
profusion in Italy, and are sold by street peddlers who are hanging
onto your carriage half the time. I bought fifteen very fine roses,
on one occasion, for ten cents.... The Italian lire and the French
franc are of the same value, twenty cents, and the franc circulates
everywhere in Italy, as the lire circulates everywhere in France. If
you ask for Italian money in Italy, you are as apt to get francs as
lires.... Prices may have advanced abroad, as at home, but I doubt
if the advance has been as great. Adelaide needed a pair of gloves, and
the price at one of the best shops in Naples was fifty cents a pair.
The same gloves would cost $1.50 at home.... You hear a great deal
about tips abroad: how the servants mob you at hotels, etc. The tip
nuisance is worse in New York than it is in Naples; besides, larger
tips are exacted in New York. Carriage-hire here is less than half
what it is in New York, and when I land in that American city I shall
pay for rooms at the Waldorf-Astoria more than I paid for rooms and
meals at the Hotel Vesuve. And Naples is one of the greatest resorts in
Europe, and the Hotel Vesuve is one of the best hotels in Naples....
We expressed a desire to see the San Carlos theatre, one of the most
famous in the world, and the guide promptly took us there, and had it
lighted up for our special benefit. I was willing to give the theatre
man forty cents, but our man said twenty cents was enough, and that
was what we paid. The cathedral in Naples is also a famous place,
built in imitation of St. Peters, in Rome. And it is a very good
imitation. The guide took us through this church, and never gave the
priest guides more than half a franc, or ten cents each. I suppose he
robbed us a good deal, but I never caught him at it. You are always
hearing that when you shop in Naples, the shopkeeper is compelled to
add something to the price for the guide. One day the guide left us
for a few minutes, in a famous arcade, and we found prices the same as
when the guide was along. English is spoken nearly everywhere in Naples
and throughout Italy, because so many of its citizens have been to the
United States.... The Italian girls are nearly all good-looking
when young, but after they are married and have children, most of them
become too fat. I have always thought it a good joke on a man to marry
a girl weighing a hundred pounds, and have her increase her weight
to two hundred, or two hundred and fifty. And the joke on the man is
particularly good if his daughters, on reaching fifteen or sixteen, are
also very fat.
SATURDAY, MAY 3.—I had intended sailing from Naples on the North
German-Lloyd ship “Princess Irene,” a favorite, but when I reached
Cook’s office I found the ship crowded. I was offered the second
officer’s room, if I paid $60 extra, but in pursuance of my vow to
avoid favorites in future, I concluded to travel to New York on the
French ship “Canada.” This ship is new, and has not yet had time to
become a favorite, so I secured very much better accommodations
at a lower price than was demanded for the German boat.... In
Cairo, Egypt, is a famous hotel known as Shepherd’s. There are at
least four hotels in Cairo better than Shepherd’s; there are half
a dozen just as good, and another half-dozen where you may secure
satisfactory accommodations. Avoid favorites of every kind, if you
wish fair treatment.... Wherever a traveler goes, he encounters
free advertising for the United States, but I saw a stars-and-stripes
sight in Naples this afternoon that greatly impressed me. The “Canada”
and “Princess Irene” were docked side by side, and as both were to
sail at 6 P. M. for New York, both displayed the American flag. When
I went to the dock at 4 P. M., the decks of both ships were black
with emigrants, and they were still going up the gangways as thick as
ants. When Adelaide and I went aboard the “Canada,” the sailors were
compelled to clear a way for us to the first-class decks, where there
were fifty passengers, as compared with three or four hundred in the
second-cabin, and nearly two thousand in the steerage. Once on the
upper decks of the “Canada,” we could see a similar crowd of emigrants
on the “Princess Irene,” which lay alongside, and the emigrants kept
coming until six o’clock, when the big whistle blew, and the gang-plank
was drawn in. Three ships left Naples for New York today, and all of
them were crowded with emigrants. And this doesn’t happen occasionally;
it is of daily occurrence—not only here, but in many other ports. In
every part of the world the people know about the United States, and
go there in constantly increasing crowds, although South Africa, and
Australia, and South America, and New Zealand, and Canada, and many
other countries, are offering inducements to immigrants.... We got
away a little after 6:30 o’clock, and found the sea kind again; this
is our twenty-fifth day at sea without discomfort. There was a shower
of rain just before we left Naples, which drove to cover the thousands
of weeping women who had come to the dock to see friends depart, but
outside the bay the sea was calm. Ten or fifteen poor children were
on the dock, begging the passengers for pennies, but the rain didn’t
bother them. There was one boy who could turn handsprings, but while he
was showing off his accomplishment, the other children got the pennies.
The moral is, attend to business, and don’t show off.
SUNDAY, MAY 4.—When we awoke this morning, the “Canada” was lying in
the harbor of Palermo, in Sicily, where it spent the day in taking on
more emigrants. As the ship was to remain until evening, we went ashore
at 8:30 for the day, accompanied by an old gentleman of seventy-six,
who acted as guide.... I have neglected Palermo in my reading;
I knew almost nothing about it. I didn’t know it contained another
palace belonging to the king of Italy, and about four hundred thousand
people.... A few men are natural-born gentlemen. Our old guide was
such a man. He lived in the United States, as a young man, and we were
much pleased with him.... In Italian and Sicilian towns, nearly
every family owns a milk goat. These goats are sent to the country,
to graze, and are brought in every night and morning to be milked. We
drove up-town in Palermo just as the milk goats were being collected by
the herd boys. The goats know where they belong, and often climb two or
three flights of stairs, to be milked. Milch cows are also driven into
town, and milked in the streets. The calves accompany their mothers,
and to insure that they will not get lost, are tied to their mother’s
tail. There is a certain brand of Italian cattle, and they have not
changed since the days of the Romans; every section of the Old World
has its particular kind of cattle. In South Africa we saw a good many
queer-looking cattle from Madagascar, imported after the rinderpest
had killed nearly everything in Africa. In Egypt we saw another kind.
India has another variety, and the Scotch and Irish also have varieties
of their own. In the United States we are constantly improving cattle,
and have no favorite except the best.... Although we visited Palermo
on Sunday, the public market was in full blast. One man was making a
tremendous outcry to attract attention to his beef. He said it was very
cheap; the price was thirty-two cents a pound. Beef is very high-priced
in Sicily, and so are fish, but poultry is quite cheap.... Palermo
has a wonderful cathedral, and the guide took us there, during a mass.
There was a large choir of men and boys, and an archbishop conducted
the service. The old guide was a devout Catholic, and frequently
crossed himself while in the cathedral, but he took us through the
worshipers, to look at the different wonders, and the worshipers didn’t
seem to mind it, or pay any attention to us. Occasionally we stopped,
afraid to go on, but the old guide motioned for us to come on, and we
walked among kneeling women to join our conductor. There were several
chapels in the place, all of which were shown us, but the big service
finally became so interesting that we spent a quarter of an hour in
witnessing it. We saw many very old priests in the enormous building,
and our guide seemed to know all of them; indeed, he seemed to know
everybody everywhere, and to be universally respected. There were
certain valuable relics and jewels belonging to the cathedral. In order
to see these the guide conducted us into apartments which seemed to
be private, and occupied by a considerable number of clericals. The
guide knew all these men, and they bowed to him respectfully....
Then he took us to the private grounds of a count. The gatekeeper
saluted our old guide with great respect, and, as we strolled about
the grounds, the guide was at liberty to pick fruits and flowers for
Adelaide. He next took us to a very old church, where we saw a quaint
lot of monks. These queer men knew our guide, too, and he took snuff
with one of them who opened a door to what seemed to be subterranean
vaults of some kind. We walked down several long flights of steps, and
entered a place where thousands of dead bodies were displayed. Many
of the bodies were in coffins with glass tops or sides, but most of
them were fastened against the stone walls. The guide said the bodies
were buried for a year or two, and then taken up, and displayed in
this queer way. There was nothing offensive about the place, except as
thousands of grinning skulls are offensive. The guide did not know how
many bodies were displayed in the place, but I should say the number
was far above ten thousand. Some of the bodies were of infants, some of
old men, some of young girls, some of priests. I had never before seen
anything like it, nor did I know any such thing existed in Palermo or
elsewhere.... Then we went to the royal palace, built in 1132, and
which is occupied once or twice in a decade by the King of Italy and
his family. We went into the private rooms of the king and queen, and
saw their beds, and their baths; we saw the kitchen, and dining-room,
as well as the state apartments. And all the palace attendants were
very respectful to our old guide; he was permitted to roam about
with us without restraint. Once, when he wanted to show us a certain
apartment, he took a key out of a private drawer, and we walked a long
way down one of the battlements to a tower where the room was....
But the best thing we saw during the day was the chapel of the old
palace. It was a wonderful piece of art work, the entire interior being
covered with valuable paintings and more valuable mosaic work. This
chapel was in the class of the wonders to be seen in India. We visited
it twice, and both times services were in progress. As we had done at
the cathedral, the guide conducted us among the kneeling worshipers,
and he knew every priest and monk he encountered, and they all spoke
to him respectfully. I don’t believe I have ever seen anything that
attracted me more than this chapel, built in the eleventh century.
The interior is of marble, and the decorations of mosaic work laid
in designs cut in the marble.... At 1 P. M. we rested at a little
hotel on the side of the mountain overlooking Palermo. The old guide
knew the proprietor, who waited on us himself, and tried hard to give
satisfaction. We had macaroni cooked in Italian style, fish, wine,
and quite a hearty lunch, but the charge for four of us—including the
guide and driver—was a little less than $1.40. Then we went on up the
mountain to a wonderful old church in a wonderful old town, the name of
which I have forgotten. It was a feast day of some kind, and a great
celebration was being held in the wonderful old town. The streets were
packed with the merrymakers, and all sorts of hawkers were selling all
sorts of articles that were queer to us. On our way down the mountain
we saw a wonderful valley devoted to lemon orchards. The owner of one
of these orchards lived several years in St. Louis, and, knowing we
were Americans, invited us to see his lemon crop. The lemons were just
ready to pick, and the yield was very good, apparently. The proprietor
told me he had twelve acres; that the land was worth $1,000 an acre;
and that all of his lemons were shipped to the United States. He was
much interested in a rumor that the new president, Mr. Wilson, would
remove the duty on lemons, but I was compelled to confess I did not
know anything about it. As it was Sunday, all of the farmer’s family,
including his wife and children, and hired men followed us about.
There were two boys in the family, and they climbed trees, and loaded
Adelaide down with various kinds of fruit. The lemon orchard, I
noticed, is irrigated, but neither the proprietor nor the guide could
tell me where the water came from. Usually it comes from wells, and is
raised with sweeps turned by donkeys and horses.... We returned to
the docks at 5:10 P. M., after eight very delightful hours in Palermo.
The boatman was waiting, and the old guide went aboard with us,
carrying Adelaide’s great collection of fruits and flowers. During our
absence we had taken on six hundred more steerage passengers, and their
friends surrounded the ship, in boats. In half an hour the big ship
backed out of the harbor, and pointed its nose for New York.
MONDAY, MAY 5.—I think every man believes his “luck” is atrocious,
and that he rarely gets an “even break.” But I am perfectly satisfied
with what they have done to me on the “Canada.” It is a new ship of
fourteen thousand tons, and there are only fifty passengers in the
first-cabin. As a result, we have plenty of room, and the officers
give us whatever we want. I have a room to myself on the best deck,
and Adelaide has another just like it next door. Between our rooms
there is a private bath, which has been turned over to us for good
measure. On most ships the beds are hard. On the “Canada,” our beds are
provided with springs, and we have real bedsteads. I have two windows
in my room, and Adelaide has two in hers; our bath-room is as big as a
stateroom, and is provided with a shower-bath, in addition to the usual
tub.... In the dining-room, we have a table to ourselves; a small
table for two, with a side electric light, in addition to the ceiling
lights. On our table twice a day are quart bottles of red and white
wine, always full. This wine is free; it is a feature of all French
boats. The cooking is the best I have ever enjoyed on a steamship
or hotel, and the attendance perfect. Our waiter is a Frenchman who
speaks almost no English, but the chief steward (a German, by-the-way)
speaks English, and sees that we are not neglected. The meals are
French, except that we have an English breakfast; which means that we
have eggs, chops, fish, bacon, etc. On the continent, breakfast almost
universally consists of coffee, bread and butter, and jam. At the fine
Hotel Vesuve, in Naples, we had this sort of breakfast, although we
could have eggs if we called for them. In Paris it is almost impossible
to get anything to eat before noon, except at hotels patronized by
Americans and English.... Our rooms are in charge of a woman; we
see a man in overalls occasionally, but the woman is in charge. On
German ships, the dining-room stewards not only care for the rooms,
but play in the band; on the “Canada,” waiters in the dining-room have
nothing to do with the sleeping-rooms.... The first-class passengers
have two big decks. In the rear of the upper deck is a handsome
smoking-room. At the rear of the next deck below, the deck on which
our rooms are located, is a music-room. At the other end of the deck
is a writing-room. Just below the writing-room, and reached by a grand
stairway, is the dining-room. All these rooms are very handsome, as the
ship is less than a year old.... What do we pay for all this luxury
and magnificence? Less per day than we paid on the “Maunganui,” between
Wellington and Sydney, where I shared a room 9×10 with three others.
Adelaide shared a room of similar size on the “Maunganui” with three
other women. The “Maunganui” was a favorite; the “Canada” is a new and
unknown ship struggling for recognition from the traveling public.
Moral: Keep away from favorites; they will always impose on you....
Another pleasant thing about the “Canada” is that there is not a single
Englishman on board. There is no Sports Committee, no loud talk, and no
noise. About half the first-cabin passengers are Americans, and they
are so well-behaved that I am proud of them. The others are French and
Italian, and they are also quiet and modest.... When we look down
on the lower decks, we see a seething mass of humanity: Italian and
Sicilian emigrants. Fortunately the weather is fine, and most of them
are on deck; only a few of them are seasick. Some people can’t go on a
millpond without becoming sick, and we have a few of this sort in the
first-cabin. The three or four hundred passengers in the second-cabin
we cannot see, as they are on a deck under ours.... This morning I
saw four barbers at work among the emigrants; barbers who are going
to the United States to work at their trade. The barbers charge four
cents for shaving, and six cents for hair-cutting. The barber in the
first-cabin charges only fifteen cents for a shave, and he is a good
workman. The emigrants eat on deck, now that the weather is fine. Each
one seems to get a loaf of bread, and a bucket containing soup and
meat. A cheap wine is also given them; also macaroni. They are well
treated, as the Italian government has a commissioner on board to look
after their interests. This commissioner sits on the captain’s right
in the dining-room, and has one of the best rooms on the ship....
The emigrants are all poor people, but very wasteful, now that they
have plenty. Every day enough bread is wasted on their deck to feed
dozens of people, and this is swept up and thrown overboard by the
sailors.... These emigrants are objectionable, in one way. In case
of a panic, we would all go to the bottom. Nothing could control them,
and we haven’t enough boats to float twenty-five hundred people, even
if order were maintained. But the “Princess Irene,” the favorite, is
carrying even more emigrants than the “Canada.” I have never before
been on a ship where the decks were black with emigrants; there are
a few hundred on nearly every ship, but the crowd on the “Canada”
frightens me.
TUESDAY, MAY 6.—The weather remains fine, and the sea is as smooth
as we found it in the Red Sea, or on the east coast of Africa. The
Mediterranean narrows up at its western end, as we approach Gibraltar,
and becomes a great harbor. At six o’clock this evening we were
within a few hundred yards of the mountainous coast of Spain. The
Mediterranean being narrow at this point, we are seeing many ships:
seven were in sight at one time this evening.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7.—At 4:30 this morning, a steward knocked on my door,
and said:
“Gibraltar.”
I climbed out of bed, hurried into a little clothing, and went on deck.
Daylight was faintly appearing. On the right, two or three hundred
yards away, was the rock of Gibraltar, where the English have a huge
fortification which is said to be so old as to be a joke. No one is
allowed in the fortification, but it is common report that the big
guns are so old and rusty that it would be dangerous to fire them. The
rock of Gibraltar is an island, and puts out into the sea. Behind it
is the town of the same name; a place as big as Atchison. The picture
of Gibraltar shown in advertisements of the Prudential Life Insurance
Company looks exactly like it, except that the bay and town behind
the rock are not shown accurately. Half-way up the rock of Gibraltar
was a light, and a long shelf; I suppose the shelf is a part of the
fortification. In the town were occasional clusters of electric lights,
as may be seen in any modern town just as daylight is appearing, and I
could see a lighthouse on the African shore off to the left. Creeping
through the straits were a number of ships, one of them within two or
three hundred feet of the “Canada.” Then I went back to bed. I aroused
Adelaide, and told her of the sight on the opposite side of the ship,
but she concluded not to get up.... Soon after breakfast, we passed
Tangier, and left Africa for good. We have been in sight of Africa
almost constantly since March 2, when we landed at Durban. During
the twenty-four days we were on the “Burgermeister,” we were out of
sight of it a few days after leaving Port Said, but this morning we
saw the African continent again, at its north-western end, at Tangier,
in Morocco.... An hour later, we were out of sight of land in
the Atlantic ocean, which Adelaide had been afraid of, but there was
little motion, and the weather was warmer and brighter than it has been
since leaving Port Said. The barber, when he shaved me this morning,
predicted rough weather when we get behind the Azores, but certainly
we are having beautiful weather now, and have had it continuously
for thirty-two days.... There is an American on board who said to
me this morning: “I shall never travel at sea again. Wherever you go
by ship, travel is rendered disagreeable by the English. The English
are intensely disagreeable to me, and in future I shall keep away
from them. They are the most impolite people in the world, and do
not realize that everything English is not perfect. They pronounce
words wrong, and regard you with pity if you pronounce the same words
correctly. The English are headed for a big tumble. You and I will not
live to see it, but Canada and Australia will throw off the English
yoke. That will encourage India, and Africa, and many other countries,
to do the same thing. England is seeing its best days right now; let
the Englishmen swagger while they may. The English remind me of a
big trust: they paid too much for their various possessions, and are
bound to ‘bust.’”... I do not feel that bad about the English, but I
certainly remark that the “Canada” is much quieter than it would be
were a majority of the passengers sons of John Bull. So far, I have not
seen a single passenger running around in pajamas.