e on board without the
necessary red tape, in fact to make me a stow-away, but I refused. I
cabled my son in New York to see if I could get a favorable order
from Washington. I cabled Governor Taft, but he was powerless in the
great pressure of our returning troops. In the meantime, I was daily
growing weaker from the excitement and worry of being unable to do
anything at all. The housekeeper of the very well-kept Nagasaki hotel
was especially kind. She gave me very good attention and even the
Chinese boy who took care of my room and brought my meals realized
the desperate condition I was in. One day, with the deepest kind of
solicitude on his otherwise stolid but child-like and bland face,
he said:--

"Mrs., you no got husband?"

"No."

"You no got all same boys."

"Yes, I have three nice boys."

"Why no then you three boys not come and help poor sick mother go
home to die?"

Captain John E. Weber, of the Thirty-Eighth Volunteers returning
home on transport Logan, insisted upon my taking his state room. The
quarter-master, who had refused me so many times before, thought that
he could not allow it, anything so out of the "general routine of
business;" but Captain Weber said, "On no account will I leave you
here, after all your faithful service in the Philippines to myself,
other officers, and hundreds of boys." I had one of the best state
rooms on the upper deck and received the most kindly attentions from
many on board; the quarter-master had been a personal friend of my
husband in other and happier days. On the homeward way, the ship
took what is known as the northern course; she made no stop between
Nagasaki and San Francisco. We went far enough north to see the coast
of Alaska. We saw many whales and experienced much cold weather. In
my low state of vitality I suffered from the cold, but not from sea
sickness. I did not miss a single meal en route during the twenty-four
sailing days of the ship. They were days of great pleasure. We had
social games and singing, and religious services on Sunday. There were
a great many sick soldiers in the ship's hospital; three dying during
the voyage. On reaching San Francisco the ship was placed in quarantine
the usual number of days, but there was no added delay as there were
on board no cases of infectious disease. Mrs. General Funston was
one of the passengers and was greeted most cordially by the friends
and neighbors of this, her native state. Upon my declaring to t