Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/304

 ABOUT ALL KINDS OF SHIPS

THE MODERN STEAMER AND THE OBSOLETE STEAMER

WE are victims of one common superstition the superstition that we realize the changes that are daily taking place in the world because we read about them and know what they are. I should not have supposed that the modern ship could be a surprise to me, but it is. It seems to be as much of a surprise to me as it could have been if I had never read anything about it. I walk about this great vessel, the Havel, as she plows her way through the Atlantic, and every detail that comes under my eye brings up the miniature counterpart of it as it existed in the little ships I crossed the ocean in fotuv teen, seventeen, eighteen, and twenty years ago.

In the Havel one can be in several respects more comfortable than he can be in the best hotels on the continent of Europe. For instance, she has several bathrooms, and they are as convenient and as nicely equipped as the bathrooms in a fine private house in America; whereas in the hotels of the Continent one bathroom is considered sufficient, and it is gen erally shabby and located in some out-of-the-way corner of the house; moreover, you need to give notice so long beforehand that you get over wanting

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