Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 183, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1911 — GOING TO EUROPE ON A CATTLE SHIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOING TO EUROPE ON A CATTLE SHIP

THE great trans-Atlantic linerß carry thousands and thousands of Americans into the great ports' of the old world. Most of them pay a good round price for the service, although there are some people who go in the steerage rather than misß the trip. But there are many American college students and perhaps some others w.ho go to Europe and who do not worry ahead of time about cabin quarters or staterooms. They are the fellows who work for their passage on cattle Bhips.

Without a doubt the experiences of one who crosses the Atlantic as a cattleman are unique. Twenty or thirty years ago a man was paid from S3O- - S6O together with all of his expenses to cross the ocean as a cattleman, hut now there are two men in Boston who are getting rich charging college students $5 to get them positions (for want of a more appropriate word) on cattle ships. The boys get no more for their services than their passage and board. Having been assured that we would have to “rough it” and have lots of work to do, a college friend and I went over to the Cunard docks in Bast Boston on a beautiful morning. There we signed up to work for our passage as cattlemen and to get accommodations same as the seamen. We didn’t know what we were doing, but we knew ten days later. There we met the rest of our “party.” Cattlemen Third Class. There were 400 cattle on board. The ship carried 70 first-class or cabin passengers and, according to our friend, the Scotchman, the cattle were second class and we were third class. I believe he was right. At any rate, the petty officers of the ship wasted lots of good time telling us that we were cattlemen, and can not and must not do this and that

We sat in a fine-looking group on the for’ard end of the main deck as the ship left the Boston harbor that morning. There was little wind. No one was seasick, and each was determined not to be. Up to this point we knew nothing) of what we were to do and just what sort of “accommodations” we were to have. • A petty officer, with shining face and shoes, and the characteristic thin mustache, which is quite the thing among the young Englishmen, informed us that our dinner, stones and "dishes” could be had at the galley. He gave us, In a large black pan, a big chunk of greasy meat, together with some potatoes which had been boiled dry and then boiled again. In another large pan was Che hash—famous hash—with nameless ingredients and a terrific odor.

Our first meal and pan washing on the main deck attracted too much of the attention of the cabin passengers on the deck above, and the captain sent down orders for us to repair to the cattlemen’s quarters in the fo’castle. The seamen pronounce that word in two syllables. The name applies ta the quarters of the seamen ahd the cattlemen, with a partition between them Tunning tyack from the bow of the boat to the first hatch. We were on the port, or left, side. Our quarters had been used as a storeroom for everything that had a bad smell, such as rotten rope, heavily tarred; pulleys, chains and paint. We slept there the first night, but the odor was too much for us; we all awoke more or less rick.

The Cattleman’s Work. Now, something of the- work that Calls to the lot of the cattlemen. We were called by the night watchmen (when they were not asleep) at * o'clock in the morning, and we literally rolled out of the hay. Our crowd

of five, all working together, attended to every want of the 200 cattle. The first job was to tfater the stock. The story about making a horse drink was invented by a man who never tried to water a wild steer from a bucket, for certainly by substituting the latter for the former the point would have been more forcible. We used 'ten wooden buckets, dipping the water from large tanks that we filled from overhead pipes. There were two main alleyways along each side of the cattle deck and they, dear things, lined each side of the alleys with their horns sticking half way across. . They had been tied to the head board by the ’longshoremen; we bad nothing to do with tbe loading. We put the buckets in the corn trough alohg in front of 'them, then poured water in the buckets as they were emptied. It all sounds very well but each steer wanted to drink from a bucket of his neighbor. They fought and jerked and pulled and upset the buckets, but we must make them drink or they would die. So, with water splashing on us and running down our shoe tops, we would pat them kindly on the nose and say nice words. Three steers often would not drink when offered three buckets, but if two buckets were taken away all three would fight to drink from the same one.

Feeding the Brutes.

The next course was hay. It was stored near the first hatch in large bales, averaging about 200 pounds' apiece. Some one forgot to put a hay hook on the boat so we had to roll the bales with out finger nails. ;It was the early morning duty of each man to roll a qertain number down the alley, and that was fine exercise before breakfast. Then we cut the wires, shook the hay with care, removing all lumps, and fed it to the brutes. Our morning work generally was finished at 11 o’clock and the work in the afternoon lasted from 2 to about 5:30. The afternoon menu was another round of more buckets and more hay. We swept alleys again in the afternoon. Our brooms were very artistic, being a bundle of twigs tied together and a stick Jammed into one end of the bundle. I don’t know how rich the Inventor has become who first thought of that method of watering cattle and sweeping alleys. , The first sight of the lights off the Irish coast looked pretty good to us. All that day we could see either Ireland or England. In the afternoon the ship 1 kept pretty close to the Welsh shore. The coast is high and rocky and in the sunset it was a beautiful dull reddish color. The bills beyond were green and divided by the old stone fences into small irregular farms. The stone houses, most of them white, were scattered here and there along the fertile valleys. Our pilot came on at Lynas Point at 5:30 In the evening and had full charge of things till he reached Liverpool. The cattle could smell land, so the seamen said, and .were restless the last night and we slept but little. We turned dpwn the broad Mersey shortly alter midnight. That was Saturday morning and we reached Birkenhead, on the west bank, In a shaft time. Here we landed our 400 cattle, all in excellent health and we shed no tear* at seeing them depart. Bach of us carried pome cargo the gangplank and set foot- for the first time on English soil. ~

We bought English bicycles and spent two months on the perfect roads of England and the continent. The cattleman has his Joys and sorrows but the latter are very soon forgotten and one finds tlmaelf planning to go again—wren as £ cattleman.

We in America pride ourselves on the great progress we have made as a nation; and with some reason, far, among all the records of world history, hardly a parallel can be found to the advances made by the United States in mechanical Invention, industrial development, and commercial progress jn the comparatively short period since this nation had its birth. There 1b one respect, however, we must frankly admit, in which this marvelous record of advance has not been sustained; and that is in regard to the development of original work In architecture. Here, America has done little more than “mark time.” In spite of the remarkable progress, we have made in other lines of endeavor, it cannot be said that the ancient architectural conventions based on old world traditions have up to the present time adapted themselves thoroughly to the new; conditions of our national life and environment. Individual architects have dealt successfully with individual problems;

but we can hardly yet be said to have evolvbd any truly distinctive and typically national American style ot architecture. It Is possible, however, that the drift to suburban life now so noticeable, may yet bear positive fruit along this line. For in the country, man absorbs the sunshine, breathes God’s air of heaven, and is it least free to express himself; and I pity the man whose heart does not respond to the “call -of the wild,” with it# respite from the cramping and belittling effects of an unbroken residence amongst the surroundings of a crowded city life. And if a people’s architecture—as It Is certainly true —Is a mirror of the nation’s character and a reflex of Its environment, then we may hope that some day this drift “hack to nature” will bear its appropriate fruit. Even within the limits of our cities there are outlying, sparsely built districts where mapy of the delights of real country life are still available; and for a small family or a young married couple of moderate means, the little five-room cottage shown in the accompanying perspective view and floor plane offers an attractive suggestion for a-home of their own. This house is 19 feet 6 Inches wide, by 38 feet long, not Including the front porch, which gives six feet additional length to the bouse. It therefore accommodates itself well to a lot 38 feet wide. The entraaoe door at the left leads into a vestibule opening directly into the mod| Important room In the house, a commodious living room well lighted on two side# and connecting with the spacious dining room Immediately behind it The passage from the dining room to the kitchen at the rear is through the nentry. and the kitchen le also enter-

ed from a vestibule opening off the back porch. Upstairs are two large bedrooms opening directly off the hall at the stair landing. Each room is amply provided with closet accommodation, the front bedroom having two of these well-appreciated conveniences. The bathroom is also entered directly from the upstairs hall. A basement under the entire bouse provides plentiful accommodation for laundry, heating apparatus, storage purpose*

etc. The covered front porch, which has a substantial look about It, extends across the entire front at tbe house, and has Its own special attractiveness as an outdoor sheltered retreat for rest, recreation, or the entertainment of guests. The house can be built complete for 'about $2,200 t 052,300. $2,300.

Second Floor Plan.

First Floor Plan.