shirt, I may say for the benefit of other
travellers, proved invaluable. The silk hat, however, is no longer used
in England except perhaps for scrambling eggs in.

I pass over the details of my pleasant voyage from New York to
Liverpool. During the last fifty years so many travellers have made
the voyage across the Atlantic that it is now impossible to obtain any
impressions from the ocean of the slightest commercial value. My readers
will recall the fact that Washington Irving, as far back as a century
ago, chronicled the pleasure that one felt during an Atlantic voyage
in idle day dreams while lying prone upon the bowsprit and watching the
dolphins leaping in the crystalline foam. Since his time so many gifted
writers have attempted to do the same thing that on the large Atlantic
liners the bowsprit has been removed, or at any rate a notice put up:
"Authors are requested not to lie prostrate on the bowsprit." But
even without this advantage, three or four generations of writers have
chronicled with great minuteness their sensations during the transit.
I need only say that my sensations were just as good as theirs. I will
content myself with chronicling the fact that during the voyage we
passed two dolphins, one whale and one iceberg (none of them moving very
fast at the time), and that on the fourth day out the sea was so
rough that the Captain said that in forty years he had never seen such
weather. One of the steerage passengers, we were told, was actually
washed overboard: I think it was over board that he was washed, but it
may have been on board the ship itself.

I pass over also the incidents of my landing in Liverpool, except
perhaps to comment upon the extraordinary behaviour of the English
customs officials. Without wishing in any way to disturb international
relations, one cannot help noticing the rough and inquisitorial methods
of the English customs men as compared with the gentle and affectionate
ways of the American officials at New York. The two trunks that I
brought with me were dragged brutally into an open shed, the strap
of one of them was rudely unbuckled, while the lid of the other was
actually lifted at least four inches. The trunks were then roughly
scrawled with chalk, the lids slammed to, and that was all. Not one
of the officials seemed to care to look at my things or to have the
politeness to pretend to want to. I had arranged my dress suit and my
pyjamas so as to make as effective a displ