The Southern Magazine, 1871 (Classic Reprint)
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| Hersteller: | Forgotten Books (Author, Unknown) |
| Stand: | 2015-08-04 03:50:33 |
Produktbeschreibung
Excerpt from The Southern Magazine, 1871 A day or two after the start the saloon, the state-rooms, the decks are like the field of Balaklava; everywhere lie the sick, the dead and the wounded. To go upstairs is to meet a hundred mute eyes upturned in silent appeals for mercy and help - women´s eyes that speak volumes of nocturnal woe, children´s eyes that look hot and haggard with expectant changes in the condition of the stomach, men´s eyes that have grown weak as gruel or as a cat that has just kittened. If there were strength for it, a serenade would arise as harmonious as an orchestra of Grimalkins invoking Venus on the housetop. But the marrow of men at sea is a sort of soup; the blood is water; the bones are sticks of soft sealing-wax; the brain is a bowl of porridge. Nerve-force is just strong enough to diffuse an infinite ache and indigestion through what seems like leagues and leagues of body. One´s legs, in their capacity to spin out and be twisted, and overflow the berth and be bruised on the washstand, and catch among crinolines and trains, seem fully equal to the famous boots of faery. You never knew the length of your arms till you went to sea. At the table they are in the ribs of the elderly lady who sits next to you. On deck they are in a continual state of stretch, to try to catch hold of something or somebody, to hold on to no matter what, even your deadliest enemy. When you go to bed their portentous length shocks and terrifies you, and the superfluities are left to hang over the side of the berth, or dangle dismally before the eyes of the passenger underneath. When the ladies begin to sit upright and buckle their belts, you make the discovery that there is a piano on board. There is a sea-sickness of the ears which only those who have been to sea ever know. If the ears could take an emetic and be over with it in a trice, it would be beatific; but they cannot, and day in, day out, they submit to a torture more exquisite than all the Middle Ages could inflict. On the harp concealed within the piano dance all the imps of darkness. A troop of goblin mockeries and melodies breaks loose from the bowels of the instrument, and derisively taunts the wretched traveller who would be quiet. It is a musical colic, a case of harmonious gripes, a piano that has pain in its stomach. And on it goes in a musical paroxysm all over the sea, a dance of death. Then the babies as they toddle and tumble down stairs and up, bumping their precious heads and uttering most land-like squeals - what an element in the chaos! And further, to the tourist who takes it quietly in the saloon, reading Marryatt or dozing on the sofa, the everlasting setting and unsetting of tables is a nightmare. No sooner have you stolen away into a sunny corner with a delicious book than in comes a procession of stewards, laden with cloths and napkins and tumblers. Your day-dream is of brief duration. Like Caligula, you could wish they all had one neck and you could wring it. There is sure to be a witty man and a man of anecdotes, and a politician and a doctor and a lawyer on board. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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