urse she is also
arrayed in one of those queer-looking garments that resemble an inverted
cloth balloon, with the feet protruding from holes in the bottom. She
sometimes absent-mindedly keeps the toothpick behind her ear while
promenading the deck, and I have humbly thought that a woman promenading
pensively back and forth in the national Greek costume, smoking a
cigarette, and with a wooden toothpick behind her starboard ear, was
deserving of passing mention.

The chief engineer of the ship is an Englishman with a large experience
in the East; he has served with the late lamented General Gordon in the
suppression of the slave trade in the Red Sea, and was anchored in
Alexandria harbor during the last bombardment of the forts by the English
ships. "The best thing about the whole bombardment," he says, "was to see
the enthusiasm aboard the Yankee ships; the rigging swarmed with men,
waving hats and cheering the English gunners, and whenever a more telling
shot than usual struck the forts, wild hurrahs of approval from the
American sailors would make the welkin ring again."

"There was no holding the Yankee sailors back when the English were
preparing to go ashore," the old engineer continues, a gleam of
enthusiasm lighting up his face, "and it was arranged that they should go
ashore to protect the American Consulate--only to protect the
American Consulate, you know," and the engineer winks profoundly, and
thinking I might not comprehend the meaning of a profound wink, he winks
knowingly as he repeats, "only to protect the American Consulate, you
know." The engineer winds up by remarking: "That little affair in
Alexandria harbor taught me more about the true feeling between the
English and Americans than all the newspaper gabble on the subject put
together." We touch at Smyrna and the Piraeus, and at the latter place a
number of recently disbanded Greek soldiers come aboard; some are
Albanian Greeks whose costume is sufficiently fantastic to merit
description. Beginning at the feet, these extremities are incased in
moccasins of red leather, with pointed toes that turn upward and inward
and terminate in a black worsted ball. The legs look comfortable and
active in tights of coarse gray cloth, but the piece de resistance of the
costume is the kilt. This extends from the hips to the middle of the
thighs, and instead of being a simple plaited cloth, like the kilt of the
Scotch Highlanders, it consists of many folds of airy w