CHAPTER XXXV.

ON BOARD THE STEAMER ESPERO.

N TUESDAY, May 1, at 6 o'clock, P. M., we

embarked on the steamer Espero, of the Aus

trian Lloyd line, for Constantinople, taking leave of Beyroot after a very pleasant sojourn of three days. Be it known by all travelers that the Austrian Lloyd steamers do no extra feeding. Their dinner-hour is five, and when they sail at six, as they generally do, if a passenger gets his dinner he pays for it extra. Moreover, they take great pains to land you at the port of destination just before a meal. In the run of the year a good deal of bread and meat is saved by this close sort of economy, and I must say this Austrian bread is worth saving. It is the sweetest bread I have ever eaten.

Our captain is a burly Italian, a funny, genial fellow, who plays a practical joke on some one every now and then. He takes more pains to get off a poor trick than any man I ever saw. For instance, he fastened the plate of Cook's dragoman to the table-cloth with sealing wax, just before dinner one day, burning a hole in the table-cloth in doing it. How he did laugh when the man's plate was to be changed and the table-cloth was lifted with it. The man who can get so much laughter out of a joke no better than that is to be envied.

We have several Turkish officers on board, bound for Constantinople. The war has begun; the whole weight of Russia is coming upon the Empire, and Turkey "expects every man to do his duty." Some of the officers of the lower ranks amuse me. Their uniform is blue, and the skirt of the coat is sewed to the body in plaits nearly an inch wide. H. says they remind him of a negro in his master's cast-off coat. Those we have seen are certainly as ungainly a looking set as can be well imagined. Now and then one makes a show of dressing up, but there is always sure to be something outre. I have seen some quite elegantly dressed, except that their feet were in slippers which were down at the heel, with no stockings on.

But at Smyrna some officers of high rank got aboard. They were faultlessly dressed in European style, and as fine-looking men as you will see anywhere. One, especially, is a man of very imposing presence, who would be taken for a man of mark in any country. They are very courteous and self-possessed. One of them sits next to me at meals. On my asking him if he spoke English, he shook his head and said, "No." But we manage by a sort of pantomime to keep up an exchange of amenities at the table, in which he will never allow me to get ahead of him. I have taken a decided liking to him, which, I imagine, he reciprocates. Two things I hope for in connection with this Russo-Turkish war -one is that the Turks may get a good drubbing, for they need it; the other, that this particular Turk may not get a hole shot through him.

Most of our passengers are Englishmen and

women. Two of them are clergymen of the Established Church. They and their party are the jolliest set on board. They are the only ones who act like snobs. One of the reverend clergymen, especially, puts on airs, and affects the elegant gentleman in many respects, while at the same time he pays assiduous attention to the ladies, and often sings snatches of humorous songs with grimace and gesture that-well, I will not say it. This gentleman was invited to read prayers on Sunday, but he had the grace to get his older and better-behaved friends to officiate. After prayers there would have been a sermon, but the ship was just landing at Mitylene, and the confusion was so great as to render it impracticable.

Nearly all on board are people of good sense and modest behavior-that is, I mean of the first-class passengers and some of them are men of very large information. The English, so far as our observation extends, travel more than any other people, and, with very few exceptions, they are sensible travelers. They dress for it in a plain, substantial way, and do not overload themselves with luggage. They are ready to take things as they come, rarely making any ado if they encounter some mishap or have some discomfort to undergo. Only now and then one is a little snobbish. Perhaps they are somewhat too much given to ordering servants about in hotels and on ships, and once in a while one is noisy and blustering in his way of doing it. One of our snobs, going ashore in a boat at Mitylene, quarreled with the boatman on his return, and fell foul of him with

his fists. I am glad to say he was not one of the clergymen.

The English ladies know exactly how to travel, dispensing with all finery and nonsense, dressing in stout goods of somber colors, and taking things as they come. Two unmarried ladies, not over-young, out without any male friend, taking care of themselves under Cook's auspices, were in Dr. Schaff's party through Palestine. I admired them, not for their personal beauty-for they had none of thatbut for their good sense, which they were liberally endowed with, for their unaffected good manners, their remarkable intelligence, self-possession, and first-rate horsewomanship. They were provided with gentle, but active, and sprightly horses, and were as fearless riders as any in the company, complaining' less of fatigue then the men. They sometimes unconsciously led the cavalcade at so rapid a rate that the venerable Dr. Schaff was compelled to break into an undignified canter to keep from getting lost. He protested that it had never been in his expectations to gallop through Palestine, but he was obliged to do it to keep in sight of the rest. Once the spell was broken, and he had begun to gallop, I half suspected him of enjoying it. Certainly he was not always behind. I am not sure but that with practice he would excel as much in horsemanship as in Hebrew. I have rarely met with a more genial, enjoyable man.

Both companies of us were photographed together amid the ruins of Baalbec. Two negatives were made, in one of which a heavy shadow fell from me upon the Doctor. He consoled himself that the

shadow was not upon his head, and I acknowledged that it would be impossible to throw that in the shade. It always shines out clear.

But I must get back on board the good ship Espero. We had on board the Rev. Dr. Post, of the Mission at Beyroot. He is, by the necessities of his position, in a large practice as a physician and surgeon at Beyroot. His reputation as a surgeon is all over Syria. Patients come to him for capital operations from great distances. He is also Professor of Anatomy and Surgery in the Medical Department of the College, and of Botany in the Scientific Department-work enough for one small man; but, like many intellectual men of small stature, he has the nervous and muscular fiber that can bear almost any strain. He can turn off work and stand it like Dr. Summers. He is going to Constantinople with the scientific text-books which have been prepared in Arabic by the missionaries, to show the Government that the hard work of the Mission looks to the substantial and permanent advancement of the Turkish Empire, and to request certain franchises for the College. But I suspect the Government has its hands too full of the war to give him much attention. Little cares it, at best, about the education of the people, though it does sometimes grant favors to distinguished men when they apply. At any rate, under whatever auspices of Government, and in spite of all wars, these great labors and educational enterprises, carried on in the name of the Son of God, will go forward to the happiest issue.

In addition to the first-class passengers, we have a