saloon and the state-rooms on the _Mauretania_, with their glaring contrast to the accommodation on the lively little _Britannia_, we need not stop to imagine. The fare in those days from Liverpool to Boston was thirty-eight guineas. Nowadays, for one-half that sum life on an Atlantic liner can be pleasant and luxurious. As steamships became bigger, the conditions of travel became gradually more tolerable, but it was not until the influence of the first White Star _Oceanic_ that a revolution was made in these matters. Quite apart from the superior qualities of her hull and engines she was more thoughtfully arranged with a view to making the passenger’s life at least as comfortable as was then thought possible. Some of these improvements we have already noted in the course of our story, but it is worth remembering that in the amelioration of the passenger’s lot the White Star Line have not been in the rear. Among other items, they have to their credit the honour of having originated on board ship the placing of the saloon and passenger accommodation amidships, instead of right aft; installing electric bells, providing separate chairs in the saloon, instead of using the old-fashioned, uncomfortable high-backed forms, which were thought good enough for the ocean voyager; installing self-acting water-tight doors, supplying third-class passengers with bedding, eating and drinking utensils--for in olden days the emigrant had to provide not merely his own supply of food for the voyage, but everything he required of all sorts excepting water. It was the White Star Line which was the first to supply an elaborate system of Turkish baths for first-class passengers. But it was the _Oceanic_ which was the turning-point in steamship comfort. All else that has since followed has been not a little influenced by this ship. For us to go through a detailed list of the wonderful comforts which are obtainable on board the modern passenger steamship would convey the impression of reading through an advertisement catalogue. Already the reader is in possession of some knowledge of the really wonderful equipment which is to be found on the modern ocean-going steamship. Nothing has been omitted that could well have been added. Nowadays, in spite of the extravagant waste of space which such a proceeding involves, many of the best steamships are fitted with single-berthed state-rooms, so that to be thrust into acquaintanceship with a perfect stranger is no longer essential for the whole voyage. Dickens’s “preposterous box” has grown into an exceedingly comfortable apartment, and the millionaire may hire for the voyage the regal suite with bedrooms and dining-rooms, its fire-places, mirrors, sconces, bedsteads and the rest, as perfect as in the most extravagant metropolitan hotels in New York or London. With the ship’s smoke rooms, veranda cafés, libraries, lounges, writing rooms, orchestras, telephones from the