The Ship-Dwellers: A Story of a Happy CruisePaine, Albert Bigelow
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The Ship-Dwellers: A Story of a Happy Cruise
Paine, Albert Bigelow
Middle East -- Description and travel
We need to do that. What we don't know about history and geography on
this ship would sink it. Most of us who have been to school, even if it
is a good while ago, keep sort of mental pictures of the hemispheres,
and preserve the sound of certain old familiar names. We live under the
impression that this is knowledge, and it passes well enough for that
until a time comes like this when particular places on the map are to be
visited and particular associations are to be recalled. Then, of course,
we start in to classify and distinguish, and suddenly find that there is
scarcely anything to classify and less still to distinguish. I am
morally certain that there are not ten of us on this vessel who could
tell with certainty the difference between Deucalion and Deuteronomy, or
between the Pillars of Hercules and the Golden Horn. The brightest man
on the ship this morning asked if Algiers was in Egypt or Spain, and a
dashing high-school girl wanted to know if Greece were not a part of
Asia Minor.
We shall all know better when we are through with this trip. We shall be
wonders in the matter of knowledge, and we shall get it from first
hands. We shall no longer confuse Upper and Lower Egypt, or a peristyle
with a stadium. We are going to know about these things. That is why we
are here.
In the matter of our amusements, picture-puzzles seem to be in the lead.
They are fascinating things, once one gets the habit. They sell them on
this ship, and nearly everybody has one or more. The tables in the
forward cabin are full of them, and after dinner there is a group around
each table pawing over the pieces in a rapt way or offering advice to
whoever happens to be setting them. Certain of our middle-aged ladies in
particular find comfort in the picture-puzzles, and sit all day in their
steamer-chairs with the pieces on a large pasteboard cover, shifting and
trying and fitting them into place. One wonders what blessing those old
_Quaker City_ pilgrims had that took the place of the fascinating
picture-puzzle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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