I should be very sorry to class foreigners, generally, as a dirty set of people when left to themselves, but I fear there is too much reason to suppose that (in how many cases out of ten I will refrain from saying) a disrelish for a good honest plunging wash is one of their chief attributes. It requires but very little experience, in even their best hotels, to come to this conclusion. I do not mean in those houses where an influx of English has imposed the necessity of providing large jugs, baths, and basins; but in the equally leading establishments—patronized chiefly by themselves—in these, one still perceives the little pie-dish and milk-jug, the scanty doyly-looking towel, and the absence of a soap dish ; whilst it would be perfectly futile to ask for anything further. So, on board the Scamandre, this opinion was not weakened.
They dipped a corner of a little towel, not in the basin, but in the stream that trickled from the cistern as slowly as vinegar from any oyster-shop cruet, and dabbed their face about with it. Then they messed about a little with their hands; and then, having given a long time to brushing their hair, they had a cigarette instead of a tooth brush, and their toilet was complete tour bulgaria. This description does not only apply to the Scamandre passengers, but to the majority of their race, whom I afterwards encountered about the Mediterranean.
There was such a terrible noise still upon deck— such hauling about of huge chains and dashing them down, as though theatrical goalers were constantly making their entrances or exits — such renewed squabbling, and stamping, and screaming; and useless covering up and darkening of hatchways, that I was glad to get back upon deck, along which the rising sun came right from the bowsprit, to tell us again that we were at last going towards the East. And here it would have been more to our comfort, if the sailors had transferred to themselves, some of the pains they took to wash the decks. The engine pumped up the water into a tub, and this they dashed
about in the most reckless manner; now flooding you away from the seat you had picked out upon a coil of ropes ; now almost washing the scared poultry clean out of their coops; and at last not leaving a spot so big as a foot-print to stand upon. So that when the ladies were dressed, we were not sorry to go down to breakfast, at three bells—which, (as everybody will say they knew,) is the nautical for half-past nine ;— and here a very good meal of omelets, fish, cutlets, potatoes, fruit, and wine, awaited us.
Last as long as possible
On board ship, breakfast or dinner is made to last as long as possible—there is so little to occupy the rest of the time ; so that we did not complain of being kept waiting between the courses, but clutched eagerly at any subject of general conversation that was started. There was no lack of this amongst the French, at their end of the table; but it was astonishing to analyze it, and see what trivial subjects occupied them. Those accustomed to the clatter of a table must frequently have observed the same thing, In the present case, one of the party occupied the attention of the entire table for ten minutes with an anecdote, which he prefaced by saying, “ Limes arrive quelea chose then recounted his story at length, of which, in all honest truth, the following is the essence:—that he had been going by a shop and seen a large fish exposed for sale, and that, the same morning, he called upon a friend at breakfast-time, and saw a piece of the same sort of fish on the table. This was all; but one would have thought from his energy and excitement, that a matter of the deepest
importance was connected with the occurrence, as he struck the table so violently to enforce its singularity, that the glasses jumped about. But his audienee appeared amazingly astonished at the event, and said, with the liveliest enthusiasm. Encouraged by this, he next called the attention of the company to a peach that he had cut through, stone and all, as another affair ties singuliere.” There is no telling what other matters of interest he might have touched upon, had not our phrenologist turned the conversation by observing that the bust of Lyeurgus, in the Royal Academy, at Naples, was the image of Mazzini; whereupon everybody went off at once about Rome and the Pope, Hungary, Louis Napoleon, Garibaldi, Russia, and the state of Venice, in such full cry, that it is a wonder how their mouths found opportunities to finish breakfast. It was, however, over at last, and then we all went upon deck, beneath an awning, to read, work, or smoke, until the heat was so intense that we could do nothing but lie down, completely overcome, in our berths, until dinner. This meal was a superior edition of breakfast; and when it was over we went on deck again.
