state-rooms, lifts from one deck to the others, a newspaper printed ready for him each morning as he comes down to breakfast with the latest American and European news transmitted to the ship over-night by wireless telegraphy; with gymnasia to keep him fit and well during the voyage, with Turkish baths, a high-class cuisine, the opportunity of dining either à la carte or table d’hôte without extra charge, whilst all the time the good ship is breaking records each voyage to get him back to mother earth as quickly as ever can be--what else is there left to the ingenuity of man to devise for the increased comfort of the much-pampered and still-grumbling passenger? [Illustration: THE VERANDA CAFÉ OF THE “LUSITANIA.” _From a Photograph. By permission of the Cunard Steamship Co._] [Illustration: FIRST-CLASS DINING SALOON OF THE “ADRIATIC.” _From a Photograph. By permission of Messrs. Ismay, Imrie & Co._] The illustration facing page 300 shows the veranda café just alluded to, which is placed high up in the sky on the _Lusitania_. Since it faces aft, no inconvenience can be felt through the speed at which the vessel is rushing through the air. But who that stood on the deck of the _Clermont_ or the _Charlotte Dundas_ could ever have imagined that this spacious café should form just one small section of a steamship? It is the Germans who have to some extent set the pace within recent years in steamship luxury. Anxious for the patronage of the wealthy American who was accustomed to the luxurious comforts of the best hotels, the German-American lines began to lead the way in showing that the steamship could be made as glorious within as any shore building, notwithstanding the restrictions necessarily laid upon an object that is subjected to the buffetings of wind and wave. Low ceilings gave way to high; simplicity was conquered by ornate decoration, and this in no vulgar but an exceedingly artistic manner. Stereotyped arrangements of saloons and cabins gave way to something more in accordance with the requirements of good taste and elaborate comfort. A free use of applied art by the highest craftsmen in paintings, carvings and so on; magnificence in place of more or less ample comfort--these have been the principles which have actuated the Teutonic internal steamship arrangements ever since the ’nineties. The _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_ came as a sensation in this respect, and in regard to her decorations alone was the handsomest vessel in the world. The rise of German prosperity, and, therefore, the appearance of what economists demonstrate to be the immediate sequel--an instant desire to expend money in all sorts of self-indulgence--has been followed by a readiness on the part of the steamship companies to put forth the greatest material comfort that is practicable on board ship. German decorative art was in a peculiarly happy position to be able to supply all that was necessary to make a steel tank resemble a palace. Conventional