The passengers,
however, began making requests that I deliver an address to them in
the dining-saloon some time during the voyage, and this I consented to
do. Senator Sewell presided at this meeting. After ten days of
delightful weather, during which I was not seasick for a day, we
landed at the interesting old city of Antwerp, in Belgium.
The next day after we landed happened to be one of those
numberless holidays which the people of those countries are in the
habit of observing. It was a bright, beautiful day. Our room in the
hotel faced the main public square, and the sights there -- the people
coming in from the country with all kinds of beautiful flowers to
sell, the women coming in with their dogs drawing large, brightly
polished cans filled with milk, the people streaming into the
cathedral -- filled me with a sense of newness that I had never before
experienced.
After spending some time in Antwerp, we were invited to go with a
part of a half-dozen persons on a trip through Holland. This party
included Edward Marshall and some American artists who had come over
on the same steamer with us. We accepted the invitation, and enjoyed
the trip greatly. I think it was all the more interesting and
instructive because we went for most of the way on one of the slow,
old-fashioned canal-boats.
Pages:
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272