Ports were closed and every precaution taken. The anxiety of officers and
sailors and the increased agitation of the sea was soon noticed by the
ship's gay company. Before ten o'clock most of the passengers were glad
of the good-night excuse for retiring. The smoking room, however, was
crowded with devotees to the weed. Old-timers were busy with cards, or
forming pools on the first day's run from Sandy Hook, or speculating as
to the time of arrival at Queenstown.
The atmosphere of the room was as thick as the weather outside. It is
no wonder that a club man of New York, making his first trip to Europe,
inquired of his Philadelphia friend, "Why do Americans smoke so
continually?"
He answered, "It is easier to tell why the English drink tea and why
Americans drink coffee. But to answer your question, I suppose the
mixture of races quickens the flow of blood and produces the intense
activities we witness. Besides, the enlarged opportunities offered in
a new and growing country present attractive prizes in the commercial,
political, social, and religious world. To attain these the Anglo-Saxon
blood rushes through arteries and veins like the heated blood in a
thoroughbred horse on the last quarter.
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