For the first time in a long' life of travel I find myself voyaging first-class 1 first-class passenger other than in nam and, at the same time, paying socondclass fare. The good okt Saxon word "cabin" was aptly employed to describe the accommodation formerly and still provided to wayfarers in British ships our American cousins who, like the Chinese, delight in euphuisms, allured 1g public by the invention of tearoom," yot nowhere have T founil anything to equal the cramped discomfort afforded by these so-called staterooms in steamers flying the vaunted Stars and Stripes, and that on both coasts of the groat continent. The earlier and famous British liners on the Atlantic ferry offered the first-class traveller the choice of one of fou in a small "cabin" but never more th: two superimposed; on the Pacific Coast [have travelled ina cabin seven foot by four, upon one side of which throe such shelves lay sup imposed, and, for my ove third share in this "stateroom" 1 paid first-class fare, This isa result of tion which the Groat Republic needful to afford to its timid offspring, lest rude outsiders (barbarians, 1s the Chinese say) "eat the fruit of the children," exposing the profits of Capital to the inroads of Competition.
By the wisdom of our forefathers, who abolished the oki Navigation Laws, the inter-trade between British colonies and Dependencies is open to all comers, whereby healthy competition results and conservative shipowners are forced to advance and to consider the comfort of their clients, if only for the sake of thei own pockets. In the Chive trade, the Messageries Maritimes wore the first to show the way in improvements to the premier British Company, the far-famed that then held the field. There small crowded cabins of those days in limited dimensions of the steamers themselves.
We have, however, soon these steamers ly increase in size, until they are now literally tenfold the tonnage of fifty lyeers back; yet the dimensions of the first-class (so-called) p senger accommodation, which one would naturally have expected to soo advance in a proportionate ratio, remain unchanged. How is this anomaly explicable? A Practical monopoly, based upon Government subsidy; is the answer.
Happily there hes now come upon the scene one of the most powerful steamship camp nies in the world,—the famous "Hamburg-American Line" which, unpropped by any subsidy itself, has at this late cly, entered into competition for a share of the China trade with the otter regaler sulwi'sed. lines' British, French, and Germau,—and, in doing so, hex made bold bid for popularity by inaugurating what we cannot describ" other se as anew departure in passenger acesauidotion. Hitierto, anything line been made.to suilice that the long-suff.riny, p-senger could bs compelled to" put up with' Now, at last, China pussenyers are offered really first-class accommodation, thanke to German enterprins iv general and to the Hambarg-America Packetfabrt Action Gese'lsch ft in parti ular.
The steamship Rhenania upon which we are now voyaging is primarily a cargo-boat she euries 9,000 t us of cargo below her main deck, while upon, and in the contre amidships, of this maiudeck, in exacted a square"ided. throw-storied hotel for the ion +f the Brst-class passengers of the ship. The edhing (we forbear to use the debased werd, Stateroom) moersure eric) thirteen for square by ten fet six inches in height: each cabin contains two bedsteads placed in alcoves, we washstands and two ward robes, besides a roomy safe, a practicable Inble, three feet by five, and two moveable arm-chairs. Everything else ison a like sumptuous scale; the baths numerous and All provided with douches of cold, topid, ant war water, douches net only in name but which actually provide an ample flow of water of the required temperature upon turning a pointer tw the legend indicated. 'The diving saloon, ladies' drawing-room, the mucking room, and the wide promenade "shelters"—genuine roomy veran-all in Keep'ug, the decoration been forgotten, a library furnished with and ¢vaste, while a library has wot books iw four languages;—German, Eaxlish, French, and" Dut: accommodation is corres) sly ep ious, and are unplacantly reminded of mite out to China ngs steamer, fi'toow yenrs ayo, in which the thied ant fourth officers lad ely one small cabin ty share between them. the passenger accom tothe growing, But the cause of this reluohanco ty adapt:
size of the steamers uw engaged in the passen or trade, isnot due so wich tom short-sighted parsimony in the capita! outlay needful t" the building of suitable necommodstions originally as might be
expense entailed in their upkeep first supposed," but to the heasy aliule to the tonnage dues charged upon the measurement of all enclosed spaces in" modera vessel. Thus, measured bY the cubic contents of the space set aside for the passenger accommodation in the Rhenania, the'tonnage dues levied by the Suez Canal Company amount to nearly one-half of the pa rooney charged. The: first-class cabins on tie Rheusnia measure each 1,775 cubic feot which, at 8} francs per ton of one hundred fect, gives a tax of 1774 franes or £7.2s, upon each of the twenty cabins; add to this the enclosed spaces allotted to passage-ways, saloons, baths, ete, and this heavy sum: is'more than doubled. The Canal Company tempted farther to impose charge upon the shelter decks as j potential receptacles for light cargo and this notwithstanding that the Canal tariff charges an. additional tax of ten franes per head upon passengers of all classes. But this attempted surtax upon the shelter decks proved to be the last straw aid Jed. to. the British~-companies
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.