This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Nellie Bly's book, Around the World in 72 Days. The Pictorial Weekly's Company, New York City, 1890. Chapter 1 A Proposal to Girdle the Earth What gave me the idea? It is sometimes difficult to tell exactly what gives birth to an idea. Ideas are the chief stock and trade of newspaper writers, and generally they are the scarcest stock in market, but they do come occasionally. The idea came to me one Sunday. I had spent the greater part of the day and half the night vainly trying to fasten on some idea for a newspaper article. It was my custom to think up ideas on Sunday and lay them before my editor for his approval or disapproval on Monday. But ideas did not come that day, and three o'clock in the morning found me weary and with an aching head tossing about in my bed. At last tired and provoked at my slowness in finding a subject, something for the week's work, I thought fretfully, I wish I was at the other end of the earth. And why not? the thought came. I need a vacation. Why not take a trip around the world? It is easy to see how one thought followed another. The idea of a trip around the world pleased me, and I added, if I could do it as quickly as Philius Fogg did, I should go. Then I wondered if it were possible to do the trip in eighty days, and afterwards I went easily off to sleep with a determination to know before I saw my bed again if Philius Fogg's record could be broken. I went to a steamship company's office that day and made a selection of timetables. Anxiously I sat down and went over them. And if I had found the elixir of life I should not have felt better than I did when I conceived a hope that a tour of the world might be made in even less than eighty days. I approached my editor rather timidly on the subject. I was afraid he would think the idea too wild and visionary. Have you any ideas? he asked as I sat down by his desk. One I answered quietly. He sat toying with his pens, waiting for me to continue, so I blurted out, I want to go around the world.  I want to go around the world in eighty days or less. I think I can beat Philius Fogg's record. May I try it? To my dismay he told me that in the office they had thought of this same idea before, and the intention was to send a man. However, he offered me the consolation that he would favor my going, and then we went to talk with the business manager about it. It is impossible for you to do it, was the terrible verdict. In the first place you are a woman and you would need a protector, and even if it were possible for you to travel alone you would need to carry so much baggage that it would detain you in making rapid changes. Besides, you speak nothing but English, so there is no use talking about it. No one but a man can do this. Very well, I said angrily, start the man and I'll start the same day for some other newspaper and beat him. I believe you would, he said slowly. I would not say that this had any influence on their decision, but I do know that before we parted I was made happy by the promise that if anyone was commissioned to make the trip, I should be that one. After I had made my arrangements to go, other important projects for gathering news came up, and this rather visionary idea was put aside for a while. One cold wet evening, a year after this discussion, I received a little note asking me to come to the office at once. This summons, late in the afternoon, was such an unusual thing to me that I was to be excused if I spent all my time on the way to the office wondering what I was to be scolded for. I went in and sat down beside the editor, waiting for him to speak. He looked up from the paper on which he was writing and asked quietly, Can you start around the world day after tomorrow? I can start this minute, I answered, quickly trying to stop the rapid beating of my heart. We did think of starting you on the city of Paris tomorrow morning so as to give you ample time to catch the mail train out of London. There is a chance if the Augusta Victoria, which sails the morning afterwards, has rough weather of your failing to connect with the mail train. I will take my chances on the Augusta Victoria and save one extra day, I said. The next morning I went to Gormley, the fashionable dressmaker, to order a dress. It was after eleven o'clock when I got there and it took but very few moments to tell him what I wanted. I always have a comfortable feeling that nothing is impossible if one applies a certain amount of energy in the right direction. When I want things done, which is always at the last moment, and I am met with such an answer, it's too late, I hardly think it can be done. I simply say, nonsense! If you want to do it, you can do it. The question is, do you want to do it? I have never met the man or woman yet who was not aroused by that answer into doing their very best. If we want good work from others or wish to accomplish anything ourselves, it will never do to harbor a doubt as to the result of an enterprise. So, when I went to Gormley's, I said to him, I want a dress by this evening. Very well, he answered as unconcernedly as if it were an everyday thing for a young woman to order a gown on a few hours notice. I want a dress that will stand constant wear for three months, I added, and then let the responsibility rest on him. Bringing out several different materials, he threw them in artistic folds over a small table, studying the effect in a pier glass before which he stood. He did not become nervous or hurried. All the time that he was trying the different effects of the materials, he kept up a lively and half humorous conversation. In a few moments he had selected a plain blue broadcloth and a quiet plaid camel's hair as the most durable and suitable combination for a traveling gown. Before I left, probably one o'clock, I had my first fitting. When I returned at five o'clock for a second fitting, the dress was finished. I considered this promptness and speed a good omen and quite in keeping with the project. After leaving Gormley's, I went to a shop and ordered an Ulster. Then going to another dressmaker's, I ordered a lighter dress to carry with me to be worn in the land where I would find summer. I bought one handbag with the determination to confine my baggage to its limit. That night there was nothing to do but write to my few friends a line of farewell and to pack the handbag.  There was so much to go into such little space. I got everything in at last except the extra dress. Then the question resolved itself into this. I must either add a parcel to my baggage or go around the world in and with one dress. I always hated parcels, so I sacrificed the dress. But I brought out a last summer silk bodice and after considerable squeezing managed to crush it into the handbag. I think that I went away one of the most superstitious of girls. My editor had told me the day before the trip had been decided upon of an inauspicious dream he had had. It seemed that I came to him and told him I was going to run a race. Doubting my ability as a runner, he thought he turned his back so that he should not witness the race. He heard the band play, as it does on such occasions, and heard the applause that greeted the finish. Then I came to him with my eyes filled with tears and said, I have lost the race. I can translate that dream, I said when he finished. I will start to secure some news and someone else will beat me. When I was told the next day that I was to go around the world, I felt a prophetic awe steal over me. I feared that time would run the race and that I should not make the tour in eighty days or less. Nor was my health good when I was told to go around the world in the shortest time possible at that season of the year. For almost a year I had been a daily sufferer from headache, and only the week previous I had consulted a number of imminent physicians, fearing that my health was becoming impaired by too constant application to work. I had been doing newspaper work for almost three years, during which time I had not enjoyed one day's vacation. It is not surprising then that I looked on this trip as a most delightful and much needed rest. The evening before I started I went to the office and was given two hundred pounds in English gold and Bank of England notes. The gold I carried in my pocket. The Bank of England notes were placed in a chamois skin bag which I tied around my neck. Besides this I took some American gold and paper money to use at different ports as a test to see if American money was known outside of America. Down in the bottom of my handbag was a special passport number 247 signed by James G. Blaine, Secretary of State. Someone suggested that a revolver would be a good companion piece for the passport, but I had such a strong belief in the world's greeting me as I greeted it that I refused to arm myself. I knew if my conduct was proper I should always find men ready to protect me, let them be Americans, English, French, German, or anything else. It is quite possible to buy tickets in New York for the entire trip, but I thought that I might be compelled to change my route at almost any point, so the only transportation I had provided on leaving New York was my ticket to London. When I went to the office to say goodbye, I found that no itinerary had been made of my contemplated trip, and there was some doubt as to whether the mail train which I expected to take to Brindisi left London every Friday night. Nor did we know whether the week of my expected arrival in London was the one in which it connected with the ship for India or the ship for China. In fact, when I arrived at Brindisi and found the ship was bound for Australia, I was the most surprised girl in the world. I followed a man who had been sent to the steamship company's office to try to make out a schedule and help them arrange one as best they could on this side of the water. How near it came to being correct can be seen later on. I have been asked very often since my return how many changes of clothing I took in my solitary handbag. Some have thought I took but one, others think I carried silk which occupies but little space, and others have asked if I did not buy what I needed at the different ports. One never knows the capacity of an ordinary hand satchel until dire necessity compels the exercise of all ones ingenuity to reduce everything to the smallest possible compass. In mine I was able to pack two traveling caps, three veils, a pair of slippers, a complete outfit of toilet articles, ink stand, pens, pencils and copy paper, pins, needles and thread, a dressing gown, a tennis blazer, a small flask and a drinking cup, several complete changes of underwear, a liberal supply of handkerchiefs and fresh ruchings and the most bulky and uncompromising of all, a jar of cold cream to keep my face from chapping in the varied climates I should encounter. That jar of cold cream was the bane of my existence. It seemed to take up more room than anything else in the bag and was always getting into just the place that would keep me from closing the satchel. Over my arm I carried a silk waterproof, the only provision I made against rainy weather. After experience showed me that I had taken too much rather than too little baggage. At every port where I stopped at I could have bought anything from a ready-made dress down, except possibly at Odden, and as I did not visit the shops there I cannot speak from knowledge. The possibilities of having any laundry work done during my rapid progress was one which had troubled me a good deal before starting. I had equipped myself on the theory that only once or twice in my journey would I be able to secure the services of a laundress. I knew that on the railways it would be impossible, but the longest railroad travel was two days spent between London and Brindisi and the four days between San Francisco and New York. On the Atlantic steamers they do no washing. On the Peninsula and Oriental steamers, which everyone calls the P&O boats, between Brindisi and China, the quartermaster turns out each day a wash that would astonish the largest laundry in America. Even if no laundry work was done on the ships, there are at all the ports where they stop plenty of experts waiting to show what Orientals can do in the washing line. Six hours is ample time for them to perform their labors, and when they make a promise to have the work done in a certain time, they are prompt to the minute. Probably it is because they have no use for clothes themselves, but appreciate at its full value the money they are to receive for their labor. Their charges, compared with laundry prices in New York, are wonderfully low. So much for my preparations. It will be seen that if one is traveling simply for the sake of traveling, and not for the purpose of impressing one's fellow passengers, the problem of baggage becomes a very simple one. On one occasion in Hong Kong, where I was asked to an official dinner, I regretted not having an evening dress with me, but the loss of that dinner was a very small matter when compared with the responsibilities and worries I escaped without having a lot of trunks and boxes to look after. End of Chapter 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Around the World in 72 Days by Nellie Bly. Chapter 2 The Start On Thursday, November 14th, 1889, at 9.40 and 30 seconds o'clock, I started on my tour around the world. Those who think that night is the best part of day and that morning was made for sleep know how uncomfortable they feel when for some reason they have to get up with, well, with the milkman.  I wondered sleepily why a bed feels so much more luxurious and the stolen nap that threatens the loss of a train is so much more sweet than those hours of sleep that are free from duty's call. I have promised myself that on my return I would pretend some time that it was urgent that I should get up so I could taste the pleasure of a stolen nap without actually losing anything by it. I dozed off very sweetly over these thoughts to wake up with a start, wondering anxiously if there was still time to catch the ship. Of course I wanted to go, but I thought lazily that if some of these good people who spend so much time in trying to invent flying machines would only devote a little of the same energy towards promoting a system by which boats and trains would always make their start at noon or afterwards they would be of greater assistance to suffering humanity. I endeavored to take some breakfast, but the hour was too early to make food indurable. The last moment at home came. There was a hasty kiss for the dear ones and a blind rush downstairs trying to overcome the hard lump in my throat that threatened to make me regret the journey that lay before me. Don't worry, I said encouragingly, as I was unable to speak that dreadful word. Goodbye.  Then to encourage myself, I thought, as I was on my way to the ship. It's only a matter of twenty-eight thousand miles, seventy-five days and four hours, until I shall be back again. A few friends who told of my hurried departure were there to say goodbye. The morning was bright and beautiful, and everything seemed pleasant while the boat was still, but when they were warned to go ashore, I began to realize what it meant for me. Keep up your courage, they said to me while they gave my hand the farewell clasp. I saw the moisture in their eyes, and I tried to smile so that their last recollection of me would be one that would cheer them. But when the whistle blew, and they were on the pier, and I was on the Augusta Victoria, which was slowly but surely moving away from all I knew, taking me to strange lands and strange people, I felt lost. My head felt dizzy, and my heart felt as if it would burst. Only seventy-five days, yes, but it seemed an age, and the world lost its roundness and seemed a long distance with no end, and, well, I never turned back. I looked as long as I could at the people on the pier. I did not feel as happy as I have at other times in life. I had a sentimental longing to take farewell of everything. I am off, I thought sadly, and shall I ever get back? Intense heat, bitter cold, terrible storms, shipwrecks, fevers—all such agreeable topics had been drummed into me until I felt much as I imagined one would feel if shut in a cave of midnight darkness and told that all sorts of horrors were waiting to gobble one up. The morning was beautiful, and the bay never looked lovelier. The ship glided out smoothly and quietly, and the people on deck looked for their chairs and rugs and got into comfortable positions, as if determined to enjoy themselves while they could, for they did not know what moment someone would be enjoying themselves at their expense. When the pilot went off, everybody rushed to the side of the ship to see him go down the little rope ladder. I watched him closely, but he climbed down and into the rowboat that was waiting to carry him to the pilot boat without giving one glance back to us. It was an old story to him, but I could not help wondering if the ship should go down whether there would not be some word or glance which he would have wished he had given. You have now started on your trip, someone said to me. As soon as the pilot goes off and the captain assumes command, then and only then our voyage begins. So now you are really started on your tour around the world. Something in his words turned my thoughts to that demon of the sea, seasickness. Never having taken a sea voyage before, I could expect nothing else than a lively tussle with the disease of the wave. Do you get seasick? I was asked in an interested, friendly way. That was enough. I flew to the railing. Sick? I looked blindly down, carrying little what the wild waves were saying, and gave vent to my feelings. People are always unfeeling about seasickness. When I wiped the tears from my eyes and turned around, I saw smiles on the face of every passenger. I have noticed that they are always on the same side of the ship when one is taken suddenly, overcome as it were with one's own emotions. The smiles did not bother me, but one man said sneeringly, and she is going around the world. I too joined in the laugh that followed. Silently I marveled at my boldness to attempt such a feat wholly unused as I was to sea voyages. Still, I did not entertain one doubt as to the result. Of course I went to luncheon, everybody did, and almost everybody left very hurriedly. I joined them, or I don't know, probably I made the start. Anyway, I never saw as many in the dining room at any one time during the rest of the voyage. When dinner was served, I went in very bravely and took my place on the captain's left. I had a very strong determination to resist my impulses, but yet in the bottom of my heart was a little faint feeling that I had found something even stronger than my willpower. Dinner began very pleasantly. The waiters moved about noiselessly. The band played an overture. Captain Albers, handsome and genial, took his place at the head, and the passengers who were seated at his table began dinner with a relish, equaled only by enthusiastic wheelmen when roads are fine. I was the only one at the captain's table who might be called an amateur sailor. I was bitterly conscious of the fact. So were the others. I might as well confess it. While soup was being served, I was lost in painful thoughts and filled with a sickening fear. I felt that everything was just as pleasant as an unexpected gift on Christmas, and I endeavored to listen to the enthusiastic remarks about the music made by my companions. But my thoughts were on a topic that would not bear discussion. I felt cold. I felt warm. I felt that I should not get hungry if I did not see food for seven days. In fact, I had a great longing desire not to see it, nor to smell it, nor to eat of it until I could reach land or a better understanding with myself. Fish was served. And Captain Albers was in the midst of a good story when I felt I had more than I could endure. Excuse me, I whispered faintly and then rushed madly, blindly out. I was assisted to a secluded spot where a little reflection and a little unbridling of pent-up emotion restored me to such a courageous state that I determined to take the captain's advice and return to my unfinished dinner. The only way to conquer sea sickness is by forcing oneself to eat, the captain said, and I thought the remedy harmless enough to test. They congratulated me on my return. I had a shamed feeling that I was going to misbehave again, but I tried to hide the fact from them. It came soon, and I disappeared at the same rate of speed as before. Once again I returned. This time my nerves felt a little unsteady and my belief in my determination was weakening. Hardly had I seated myself when I caught an amused gleam of a steward's eye which made me bury my face in my handkerchief and choke before I reached the limits of the dining hall. The bravos with which they kindly greeted my third return to the table almost threatened to make me lose my bearings again. I was glad to know that dinner was just finished, and I had the boldness to say that it was very good. I went to bed shortly afterwards. No one had made any friends yet, so I concluded sleep would be more enjoyable than sitting in the music hall looking at other passengers engaged in the same first day at sea occupation. I went to bed shortly after seven o'clock. I had a dim recollection afterwards of waking up enough to drink some tea, but beyond this, and the remembrance of some dreadful dreams, I knew nothing until I heard an honest jolly voice at the door calling to me. Opening my eyes I found the stewardess and a lady passenger in my cabin and saw the captain standing at the door. We were afraid that you were dead," the captain said when he saw that I was awake. I always sleep late in the morning, I said apologetically. In the morning, the captain exclaimed with a laugh, which was echoed by the others. It is half past four in the evening. But never mind, he added consolingly, as long as you slept well it will do you good. Now get up and see if you can't eat a big dinner. I did. I went through every course at dinner without flinching, and stranger still. I slept that night as well as people are commonly supposed to sleep after long exercise in the open air. The weather was very bad, and the sea was rough, but I enjoyed it. My seasickness had disappeared, but I had a morbid haunting idea that although it was gone, it would come again. Still, I managed to make myself comfortable. Almost all of the passengers avoided the dining room, took their meals on the deck, and maintained reclining positions with a persistency that grew monotonous. One bright, clever American-born girl was travelling alone to Germany to her parents. She entered heartily into anything that was conducive to pleasure. She was a girl who talked a great deal, and she always said something. I have rarely, if ever, met her equal. In German as well as English, she could ably discuss anything from fashions to politics. Her father and her uncle are men well known in public affairs, and by this girl's conversation it was easy to see why she was a father's favourite child. She was so broad and brilliant and womanly. There was not one man on board who knew more about politics, art, literature, or music than this girl with the margarite hair. And yet there was not one of us more ready and willing to take a race on the deck than was she. I think it is only natural for travellers to take an innocent pleasure in studying the peculiarities of their fellow companions. We were not out many days until everybody that was able to be about had added a little to their knowledge of those that were not. I will not say that the knowledge acquired in this way is of any benefit, nor would I try to say that those passengers who mingled together did not find one another as interesting and as fit subjects for comment. Nevertheless, it was harmless and it afforded us some amusement. I remember when I was told that we had among the passengers one man who counted his pulse after every meal, and there were hardy meals too, for he was free from the disease of the wave, that I waited quite eagerly to have him pointed out so that I might watch him. If it had been my pulse instead of his own that he had watched so carefully, I could not have been more interested thereafter. Every day I became more anxious and concerned until I could hardly refrain from asking him if his pulse decreased before meals and increased afterwards, or was it the same in the evening as it was in the morning. I almost forgot my interest in this one man when my attention was called to another who counted the number of steps he took every day. This one in turn became less interesting when I found that one of the women who had been a great sufferer from seasickness had not undressed since she left her home in New York. I am sure we are all going down, she said one day in a burst of confidence, and I am determined to go down dressed. I was not surprised after this that she was so dreadfully seasick. One family who were removing from New York to Paris had with them a little silver sky terrier which bore the rather odd name of Homesweet Home. Fortunately for the dog, as well as for those who were compelled to speak to him, they had shortened the name to Homi. Homi's passage was paid, but according to the rules of the ship, Homi was confined to the care of the butcher, much to the disgust of his master and mistress. Homi had not been accustomed to such harsh measures before, and the only streaks of happiness that came into his life were when permission was obtained for him to come on deck. Permission was granted with the provides of that if Homi barked, he was to be taken instantly below. I fear that many hours of Homi's imprisonment might be laid at our door, for he knew how to dig most frantically whenever anyone said rats, and when he did dig, he usually punctuated his attempt with short crisp barks. With dismay we daily noted Homi's decrease in flesh. We marveled at his losing weight while confined in the butcher's quarters, and at last put it down to seasickness, which he, like some of the passengers, confined to the secrecy of his cabin. Towards the end of the voyage, when we were all served with sausage and hamburger steak, there had been many whispered inquiries as to whether Homi had been seen that day. So anxious became those whispers that sometimes I thought they were rather tinged with the personal concern that was not wholly friendship for the wee dog. When everything else grew tiresome, Captain Albers would always invent something to amuse us. He made a practice every evening after dinner of putting the same number of lines on a card as there were gentlemen at a table. One of these lines he would mark, and then partly folding the card over, so as to prevent the marked line from being seen, would pass it around for the men to take their choice. After all had marked, the card was passed to the captain, and we would wait breathlessly for the verdict. A gentleman whose name had been marked paid for the cigars and cordials for the others. Many were the discussions about the erroneous impression entertained by most foreigners about Americans and America. Someone remarked that the majority of people in foreign lands were not able to tell where the United States is. There are plenty of people who think the United States is one little island with a few houses on it, Captain Albers said. Once there was delivered at my house near the wharf in Hoboken, a letter from Germany addressed to Captain Albers first house in America. I got one from Germany once, said the most bashful man at the table, his face flushing at the sound of his own voice, addressed to Hoboken opposite the United States. While at luncheon on the 21st of November, someone called out that we were in sight of land. The way everyone left the table and rushed on deck was surely not surpassed by the companions of Columbus when they discovered America. I cannot give any good reason for it, but I know that I looked at the first point of bleak land with more interest than I would have bestowed on the most beautiful bit of scenery in the world. We had not been long inside of land until the decks began to fill with dazed looking, wand-faced people. It was just as if we had taken on new passengers. We could not realize that they were from New York and had been enjoying a season of seclusion since leaving that port. Dinner that evening was a very pleasant affair. Extra courses had been prepared in honor of those that were living at Southampton. I had not known one of the passengers when I left New York seven days before, but I realized, now that I was so soon to separate from them, that I regretted the parting very much. Had I been travelling with a companion, I should not have felt this so keenly. For naturally then I would have had less time to cultivate the acquaintance of my fellow passengers. They were all so kind to me that I should have been the most ungrateful of women had I not felt that I was leaving friends behind. Captain Albers had served many years as commander of a ship in eastern seas, and he cautioned me as to the manner in which I should take care of my health. As the time grew shorter for my stay on the Augusta Victoria, some teased me gently as to the outcome of my attempt to beat the record made by a hero of fiction, and I found myself forcing a false gaiety that helped to hide my real fears. The passengers on the Augusta Victoria all stayed up to see us off. We sat on deck talking or nervously walking about the bus too in the morning. Then someone said the tugboat had come alongside, and we all rushed over to see it. After it was made secure, we went down to the lower deck to see who would come on and to get some news from land. One man was very much concerned about my making the trip to London alone. He thought as it was so late, or rather so early, that the London correspondent who was to have met me would not put in an appearance. I shall most certainly leave the ship here and see you safely to London if no one comes to meet you," he protested, despite my assurances that I felt perfectly able to get along safely without an escort. More for his sake than my own, I watched the men come on board and tried to pick out the one that had been sent to meet me. Several of them were passing us in a line just as the gentleman made some remark about my trip around the world. A tall young man overheard the remark, and turning at the foot of the stairs, looked down at me with a hesitating smile. Nellie Bly?" he asked inquiringly. Yes, I replied, holding out my hand, which he gave a cordial grasp, meanwhile asking if I had enjoyed my trip and if my baggage was ready to be transferred. The man who had been so fearful of my travelling to London alone took occasion to draw the correspondent into conversation. Afterwards he came to me and said with the most satisfied look upon his face, he is all right. If he had not been so, I should have gone to London with you anyway. I can rest satisfied now, for he will take care of you. I went away with a warm feeling in my heart for that kindly man who would have sacrificed his own comfort to ensure the safety of an unprotected girl. A few warm hand-classes and interchanging of good wishes, a little dry feeling in the throat, a little strained pulsation of the heart, a little hurried run down the perpendicular plank to the other passengers who were going to London, and then the tug cast off from the ship, and we drifted away in the dark. End of Chapter 2 This is LibriVox Recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Around the World in 72 Days by Nellie Bly. Read by Mary Reagan. Chapter 3 South Hampton to Jules Verne's Mr. and Mrs. Jules Verne have sent a special letter asking that if possible you will stop to see them. The London correspondent said to me as we were on our way to the wharf, oh, how I should like to see them! exclaimed, adding in the same breath, isn't it hard to be forced to decline such a treat? If you are willing to go without sleep and rest for two nights, I think it can be done. He said quietly, safely, without making me miss any connections? If so, don't think about sleep or rest. It depends on our getting a train out of here tonight. All the regular trains until morning have left, and unless they decide to run a special mail train we will have to stay here all night and that will not give us time to see Verne. We shall see when we land what they will decide to do. The boat that was landing left much to be desired in the way of comfort. The only cabin seemed to be the hull, but it was filled with mail and baggage and lighted by a lamp with a smoked globe. I did not see any place to sit down, so we all stood on deck, shivering in the damp, chilly air and looking in the gray fog like uneasy spirits. The dreary, dilapidated wharf was a fit landing place for the antique boat. I silently followed the correspondent into a large empty shed where a few men with sleep in their eyes and uniforms that bore ample testimony to the fact they had slept in their clothes were stationed behind some long, low tables. Where are your keys? The correspondent asked me as he sat my solitary bag down before one of these weary-looking inspectors. It's two-fold to lock, I answered simply. Will you swear that you have no tobacco or tea? The inspector asked my escort lazily. Don't swear, I said to him, then turning to the inspector I added, it's my bag. He smiled and putting a chalk mark upon the bag freed us. Declare your tobacco and tea or tip the man, I said teasingly to a passenger who stood with poor, thin, shaking homie under one arm, searching frantically through his pocket for his keys. I fixed him, he answered with an expressive wink. Passing through the custom house, we were made happy by the information that it had been decided to attach a passenger coach to the special mail train to oblige the passengers who wished to go to London without delay. The train was made up then, so we concluded to get into our car and try to warm up. A porter took my bag, and another man in uniform drew forth an enormous key with which he unlocked the door in the side of the car I managed to compass the uncomfortable long step to the door and striking my toe against some projection in the floor went most ungracefully and unceremoniously onto the seat my escort, after giving some order to the porter, went out to see about my ticket, so I took a survey of an English railway compartment. The little square in which I sat looked like a hotel omnibus and was about as comfortable. The two red leather seats in it run across the car, one backing the engine, another backing the rear of the train. There was a door on either side and one could hardly have told that there was a dingy lamp there to cast a light on the scene had not the odor from it been so loud. I carefully lifted the rug that covered the thing I had fallen over, curious to see what could be so necessary to an English railway carriage as to occupy such a prominent position. I found a harmless object that looked like a bar of iron and had just dropped the rug in place when the door opened and the porter, catching the iron at one end, pulled it out, replacing it with another like it in shape and size. Put your feet on the foot, woman, get well, miss," he said, and I mechanically did, as he advised.  The guard came afterwards and took our tickets, pasting a slip of paper to the window, which backwards looked like a divert. He went out and locked the door. How should we get out if the train ran the track? I asked, not half-liking the idea of being locked in a box like an animal in a freight train. Trains never run off the track in England, was the quiet, satisfied answer. Too slow for that, I said teasingly, which only provoked a gentle inquiry as to whether I wanted anything to eat. With the newspaper spread over our laps for a tablecloth, we brought out what the basket contained and put in our time eating and chatting about the company until the train reached London. As no train was expected at that hour, Waterloo Station was almost deserted. It was some little time after we stopped before the guard unlocked the door of our compartment and released us. Our few fellow passengers were just about starting off in shabby cabs when we alighted. Once again we called goodbye and good wishes to each other, and then I found myself in a four-wheeled cab, facing a young Englishman who had come to meet us, and who was glibly telling us the latest news. I don't know at what hour we arrived, but my companions told me that it was daylight. I should not have known it. A gray, misty fog hung like a ghostly pall over the city. I always liked fog. It lends such a soft, beautifying light to things that otherwise in the broad glare of day would be rude and commonplace. How are these streets compared with those of New York? It was the first question that broke the silence after our leaving the station. They're not bad, I said with the patronizing air, thinking shame-facedly of the dreadful streets of New York, although determined to hear no word against them. Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament were pointed out to me, and the Thames, across which we drove. I felt that I was taking what might be called a bird's-eye view of London. The great many foreigners have taken views in the same rapid way of America, and afterwards gone home to books about America, Americans, and Americanisms. We drove first to the London office of the New York world. After receiving the cables that were waiting for my arrival, I started for the American Legation to get a passport as I had been instructed by Cable. Mr. McCormick, Secretary of the Legation, came into the room immediately after our arrival, and after welcoming and congratulating me on the successful termination of the first portion of my trip, I sat down and wrote out a passport. My escort was asked to go into another part of the room until the representative could ask me an important question. I had never required a passport before, and I felt a nervous curiosity to know what secrets were connected with such proceedings. There is one question all women dread to answer, and as very few will give a truthful reply, I will ask you to swear to the rest first and fill in the other question afterwards, unless you have no hesitancy in telling me your age. Oh, certainly I left. I will tell you my age and swear to it too. I am not afraid. My companion may come out of the corner. What is the color of your eyes? He asked green. I said indifferently. He was inclined to doubt it at first, but after a little inspection both the gentlemen accepted my verdict as correct. It was only a few seconds until we were whirling through the streets of London again. Last time we went to the office of the Peninsula and Oriental Steamship Company where I bought tickets that would cover at least half of my journey. A few moments again and we were driving rapidly to the Charing Cross station. I was faint for food, and while my companion dismissed the cab and secured tickets, I ordered the only thing on the Charing Cross bill of fare that was prepared, so when he returned his breakfast was ready for him. It was only ham and eggs and coffee, but what we got was. I know we did not get much and when we were interrupted by the announcement that our train was starting I stopped long enough to take another drink of coffee and then had to run down the platform to catch the train. There was nothing like plenty of food to preserve health. I know that cup of coffee saved me from a headache that day. I had been shaking with the cold as we made our hurried drive through London and my head was so dizzy at times that I hardly knew whether the earth was at a chill or my brains were attending a ball. When I got comfortable seated in the train I began to feel warmer and more stable. The train moved off at an easy going speed and the very jog of it lulled me into a state of lanker. I want you to see the scenery along here it is beautiful, my companion said but I lazily thought what a scenery compared with sleep when one has not seen bed for over 24 hours so I said to him very crossly, don't you think you better take a nap? You have not had any sleep for so long and you will be up so late tonight that really I think for the sake of your health you would better sleep now. And you, he asked with a teasing smile, I had been up even longer well I confess I was saying one word for you and two for myself I replied with a laugh that put us at ease on the subject. Honestly now I care very little for scenery when I am so sleepy, I said apologetically those English farmhouses are charming and the daisy dotted meadows I had not the faintest conception as to whether there were daisies in them or not are only equal by those I have seen in Kansas but if you will excuse me and I was in the land that joins the land of death I slept an easy happy sleep filled with dreams of home until I was waked by the train stopping we changed for the boat here my companion said catching up our bags and rugs which he hauled to a porter a little walk down to the pier brought us to the place where a boat was waiting some people were getting off the boat but a larger number stood idly about waiting for it to move off the air was very cold and chilly but I still preferred the deck to the close musty smelling cabin beneath two English women also remained on deck I was much amused at the conversation they held with some friends who had accompanied them to the boat and now stood on the wharf one would have supposed by hearing the conversation that they had only that instant met and having no time to spend together were forced to make all further arrangements on the spot you will come over tomorrow now don't forget the young woman on the boat called out I won't forget are you certain you have everything with you the one on the wharf called back look after Fido give him that compound in the morning parents of improvement the first one said you will meet me tomorrow said number two on shore oh yes don't forget to come was the reply and as the boat moved out they both talked at once until we were quite a distance off and simultaneously the one turned to her share and the other turned around and walked rapidly away from the wharf there has been so much written and told about the English Channel that one is inclined to think of it as a stream of horrors it is also affirmed that even hearty sailors bring up the past when crossing over it so I naturally felt that my time would come all of the passengers must have been familiar with the history of the channel for I saw everyone trying all the known preventatives of sea sickness the women assumed reclining positions and the men sought the bar I remained on deck and watched the seagulls or what I thought were these useful birds useful for millinery purposes and froze my nose it was bitterly cold but I found the cold breezing until we anchored at Boulogne, France then I had a chill at the end of this desolate pier where boats anchor and where trains start is a small, dingy restaurant while a little English sailor who always dropped his H's and never forgot his serve took charge of our bags and went to secure accommodations for us in the outgoing train to get something warm to eat I was in France now and I began to wonder now what would have been my fate if I had been alone as I had expected I knew my companion spoke French the language that all the people about us were speaking so I felt perfectly easy on that score as long as he was with me we took our places at the table and he began to order in French the waiter looked blankly at him until at last mourn a spirit of fun than anything else I suggested that he give the order in English the waiter glanced at me with a smile and answered in English we travelled from Boulogne to Amiens and the apartment with an English couple and a Frenchman there was one foot warmer and the day was cold we all tried to put our feet on the one foot warmer and the result was embarrassing the Frenchman sat facing me and as I was conscious of having tramped on someone's toes and as he looked at me angrily all the time above the edge of his newspaper I had a guilty feeling of knowing whose toes had been tramped on during this trip I tried to solve the reason for the popularity of these ancient and commodious railway carriages I was very shortly decided that while they may be suitable for countries where little travelling is done they would be thoroughly useless and thinly populated countries where people think less of travelling 3,000 miles than they do about their dinner I also decided that the reason I think nothing of starting out on long trips is because our comfort is so well looked after that living on a first class railway train is as comfortable as living at a first class hotel the English railway carriages are rigidly heated one's feet will be burning on the foot warmer while one's back will be freezing in the cold air above if one should be very suddenly taken ill in an English railway compartment it would be a very serious matter still I can picture conditions under which these ancient railway carriages might be agreeable but they are not such as would induce a traveller to prefer them to those built on the American model supposing one had the measles or a black eye then a compartment in a railway carriage made private by a tip to the porter would be very consoling supposing one was newly wed and was bubbling over in ecstasy of joy then give one an English railway compartment where two just made one can be secluded from the eyes of a cold sneering public who are just as great fools under the same conditions although they would deny it if one told them so but talk about privacy if it is privacy the English desire so much they should adopt our American trains for there is no privacy like that to be had in a large car filled with strangers everybody has and keeps his own place sitting for hours as is often the case in English trains face to face and knees to knees with a stranger offensive or otherwise as he may chance to be then to the English railway carriage made me understand why English girls need chaperones it would make any American woman shudder with all her boasted self-reliance to think of sending her daughter alone on a trip even of a few hours duration where there is every possibility that during those hours she would be locked in a compartment with a stranger small wonder the American girl is fearless she has not been used to so-called private compartments and English railway carriages but to large crowds and every individual that helps to swell that crowd is to her a protector when mothers teach their daughters that there is safety in numbers and that numbers are the bodyguard that shield all womankind then chaperones will be a thing of the past and women will be nobler and better as I was pondering over this subject the train pulled into a station and we stopped my escort looking out informed me that we are at Amiens we were securely locked in however and began to think we would be carried past when my companion managed to get his head out of the window and shouted for the guard to come to our release freed at last we stepped out on the platform at Amiens End of Chapter 3 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Around the World in 72 Days by Nellie Bly Chapter 4 Jules Verne at Home Monsieur Jules Verne and Madame Verne accompanied by Mr. R. H. Charard a Paris journalist stood on the platform awaiting our arrival when I saw them I felt as any other woman would have done under the same circumstances I wondered if my face was travel stained and if my hair was tossed I thought regretfully had I been traveling on an American train I should have been able to make my toilette en route so that when I stopped off at Amiens and faced the famous novelist and his charming wife I would have been as trim and tidy as I would had I been receiving them in my own home there was little time for regret they were advancing towards us and in another second I had forgotten my untidiness in the cordial welcome they gave me Jules Verne's bright eyes beamed on me with interest and kindliness and Madame Verne greeted me with the cordiality of a cherished friend there were no stiff formalities to freeze the kindness in all our hearts but a cordiality expressed with such charming grace that before I had been many minutes in their company they had won my everlasting respect and devotion Monsieur Verne led the way to the carriages which awaited our coming Madame Verne walked closely along by my side glancing occasionally at me with a smile which said in the language of the eye the common language of the whole animal world alike plane to man and beast I am glad to greet you and I regret we cannot speak together Monsieur Verne gracefully helped Madame Verne and myself into a coupé while he entered a carriage with the two other gentlemen I felt very awkward at being left alone with Madame Verne as I was all together unable to speak to her her knowledge of the English language consisted of no and my French vocabulary consisted of we so our conversation was limited to a few apologetic and friendly smiles interluted with an occasional pressure of the hand indeed Madame Verne is a most charming woman and even in this awkward position she made everything go most gracefully it was early evening as we drove through the streets of Amiens I got a flying glimpse of bright shops a pretty park and numerous nurse maids pushing baby carriages about when our carriage stopped I got out and gave my hand to Madame Verne to help her alight we stood on a wide smooth pavement before a high stone wall on top of which I could see the peaked out lines of the houses Monsieur Verne was not long behind us he hurried up to where we were standing and opened a door in the wall stepping in I found myself in a small smoothly paved courtyard the wall making two sides and the house forming the square a large black shaggy dog came bounding forward to greet me he jumped up against me his soft eyes overflowing with affection and though I love dogs I especially appreciated this one's loving welcome still I feared that his lavish display of it would undermine my dignity by ringing me to my knees at the very threshold of the home of the famous Frenchman Monsieur Verne evidently understood my plight for he spoke shortly to the dog who, with a pathetic droop of his tail went off to think it out alone we went up a flight of marble steps across the tiled floor of a beautiful little conservatory that was not packed with flowers but was filled with the display just generous enough to allow one to see and appreciate the beauty of the different plants Madame Verne led the way into a large sitting room that was dusky with the early shade of a wintry evening with her own hands he touched a match to the pile of dry wood that lay in the wide open fireplace meanwhile Monsieur Verne urged us to remove our outer wrappings before this was done a bright fire was crackling in the grate a soft warm light over the dark room Madame Verne led me to a chair close by the mantel and when I was seated she took the chair opposite cheered by the warmth I looked quietly on the scene before me the room was large and the hangings and paintings and soft velvet rug which left visible but a border of polished hardwood were richly dark on the mantel which towered above Madame Verne's head were some fine pieces of statuary in bronze and as the fire gave frequent bright flashes as the flames greedily caught the fresh wood I could see another bronze piece on a pedestal in the corner all the chairs artistically upholstered in brocaded silks were luxuriously easy beginning at either side of the mantel they were placed in a semi-circle around the fire which was only broken by a little table that held several tall silver candlesticks a fine white angora cat and rubbing up against my knee then seeing its charming mistress on the opposite side went to her and boldly crawled up in her lap as if assured of a cordial welcome next to me in this semi-circle sat Mr. Chirard Monsieur Jules Verne was next to Mr. Chirard he sat forward on the edge of his chair his snow white hair rather long and heavy was standing up in artistic disorder his full beard rivaling his hair and snowiness hid the lower part of his face in the brilliancy of his bright eyes that were overshadowed with heavy white brows and the rapidity of his speech and the quick movements of his firm white hands all bespoke energy, life with enthusiasm the London correspondent sat next to Jules Verne with a smile on her soft rosy lips Madame Verne sat nursing the cat which she stroked methodically with a dainty white hand while her luminous black eyes moved on her husband and myself she was the most charming figure in that group around the wood fire imagine a youthful face with a spotless complexion crowned with the whitest hair dressed in smooth soft folds on top of a dainty head that is most beautifully poised on a pair of plump shoulders add to this face pretty red lips that open to disclose a row of lovely teeth and large bewitching black eyes and you have but a faint picture of the beauty of Madame Verne the next day when she met me she wore a silk skin jacket and carried a muff and on her white head was a small black velvet bonnet on taking her wraps off in the house I saw she wore a watered silk skirt laid inside plates in the front with a full straight black drapery that was very becoming to her short plump figure the bodice was a black silk velvet Madame Verne is, I should judge, not more than five feet two in height Monsieur Verne is about five feet five Monsieur Verne spoke in a short rapid way and Mr. Charard in an attractive lazy voice translated what was said for my benefit Has Monsieur Verne ever been to America? I asked Yes once the answer came translated to me for a few days only during which time I saw Niagara I have always longed to return but the state of my health prevents my taking any long journeys I try to keep a knowledge of everything in America and greatly appreciate the hundreds of letters I receive yearly from Americans who read my book there is one man in California who has been writing to me for years he writes all the news about his family and his home and country as if I were a friend and yet we have never met he has urged me to come to America as his guest I know of nothing I longed to do more than to see your land from New York to San Francisco How did you get the idea for your novel around the world in 80 days? I asked I got it from a newspaper it was his reply I took up a copy of Le siècle one morning and found in it a discussion and some calculations showing that the journey around the world might be done in 80 days the idea pleased me and while thinking it over it struck me that in their calculations they had not called in to account the difference in the meridians the denouement such a thing would make in a novel so I went to work to write one had it not been for the denouement I don't think I should have ever written the book I used to keep a yacht and then I traveled all over the world studying localities then I wrote from actual observation now since my health confines me to my home I am forced to read up descriptions and geographies Mr. Irvine asked me what my line of travel was to be happy to speak one thing that he could understand so I told him my line of travel is from New York to London then Calais, Brindisi, Port Said Ismailia Suez, Auden Colombo, Canang Singapore, Hong Kong Yokohama, San Francisco New York why do you not go to Bombay as my hero Philius Fogg did Mr. Irvine asked are you anxious to save time than a young widow I answered you may save a young widow well before you return Mr. Irvine said with a smile I smiled with a superior knowledge as women fancy free always well at such insinuations I looked at the watch on my wrist and saw that my time was getting short there was only one train that I could take from here to Calais and if I missed it I might just as well return to New York by the way I came for the loss of that train meant one week's delay if Mr. Irvine would not consider it impertinent I would like to see his study before I go I said at last he was only too happy to show it to me and even as my request was translated Madam Irvine sprang to her feet and lighted one of the tall wax candles she started with the quick springy step of a girl to lead the way Mr. Irvine who walks with a slight limp the result of a wound followed and we brought up the rear we went through the conservatory to a small room up through which was a winding stair or more properly speaking a spiral staircase Madam Irvine paused at every curve to light the gas up at the top of the house and along a hall that corresponded and shaped the conservatory below Mr. Irvine went Madam Irvine stopping to light the gas in the hall he opened a door that led off the hall and I stepped inside after him I was astonished I had expected judging from the rest of the house that Mr. Irvine's study would be a room of ample proportions and richly furnished I had read so many descriptions of the studies of famous authors and have dwelt with something akin to envy our space is so limited and expensive in New York on the ample room the beautiful hand-carved desks filled with costly trinkets the rare etchings and paintings that covered the walls the rich hangings and I will confess it I have thought it small wonder that amid such surroundings authors were able to dream fancies that brought them fame but when I stood in Mr. Irvine's study I was speechless with surprise he opened a lattice window the only window in the room and Madam Irvine, hurrying in after us lighted the gas jet that was fastened above a low mantle the room was very small my little den at home was almost as large it was also very modest and bare before the window was a flat top desk the usual letter that accompanies and fills the desks of most literary persons was conspicuously absent and the wastebasket that is usually filled to overflowing with what one very often considers their most brilliant productions in this case held but a few little scraps on the desk was a neat pile of white paper probably eight by ten in size it was part of the manuscript of a novel that Mr. Irvine is engaged on at present I eagerly accepted the manuscript when he handed it to me and when I looked at the neat penmanship so neat in fact that had I not known it was prose I should have thought it was the work of a poet I was more impressed than ever with the extreme tidiness of this French author in several places he had most effectually blotted out something that he had written with no interlining which gave me the idea that Mr. Irvine always improved on his work by taking out superfluous things and never by adding one bottle of ink and one pen holder was all that shared the desk with the manuscript there was but one chair in the room and it stood before the desk the only other piece of furniture was a broad low couch in the corner and here in this room with these meager surroundings the books that have brought him ever lasting fame I leaned over the desk and looked out of the little lattice window which he had thrown open I could see through the desk the spire of a cathedral in a distance while stretching down beneath me was a park beyond which was the entrance to a railway tunnel that goes under Mr. Irvine's house and through which many Americans travel every year on their way to Paris leading off from the study the large room is completely lined with cases from ceiling to floor and these glass-doored cases are packed with handsomely bound books which must be worth a fortune while we were examining the wealth of literature that was there before us Mr. Irvine got an idea taking up a candle and asking us to follow he went out into the hall stopping before a large map that hung there holding up with one hand the candle he pointed out to a several blue marks before his words were translated to me I understood that on this map he had with the blue pencil traced out the course of his hero Philius Fogg before he started him in fiction to travel around the world in eighty days with the pencil he marked on the map as we grouped about him the places where my line of travel differed from that of Philius Fogg our steps lagged as we descended the winding stair again it had come time to take farewell and I felt as if I were separating from friends down in the room where we had been before we found wine and biscuit on the little table and Monsieur Jules Verne explained that contrary to his regular rules he intended to take a glass of wine that we might have the pleasure of drinking together to the success of my strange undertaking they clinked their glasses with wine and wished me Godspeed if you do it in seventy-nine days I shall applaud with both hands Jules Verne said and then I knew he doubted the possibility of my doing it in seventy-five as I had promised in compliment to me he endeavored to speak to me in English and did succeed in saying as his glass tipped mine Good luck, Nellie Bly Madame Verne was not going to be outdone by her gallant husband in showing kindness to me she told Mr. Chirard that she would like to kiss me goodbye when he translated her kind request he added that it was a great honour in France for a woman to ask to kiss a stranger I was little used to such formalities or familiarities as one may deem them but still I had not one thought of refusing such delicate attention so I gave her my hand and inclined my head for I am taller than she and she kissed me gently and affectionately on either cheek then she put up her pretty face for me to kiss I stifled a strong inclination to kiss her on the lips there was so sweet and red and show her how we do it in America my mischievousness often plays havoc with my dignity but for once I was able to restrain myself and kissed her softly after her own fashion with uncovered heads and despite our protestations they followed us out into the cold courtyard and as far as I could see I saw them standing at the gate waving farewell to me just tossing their white hair end of chapter 4 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Around the world in 72 days by Nellie Bly Chapter 5 on to Brindisi When Monsieur et Madame Verne were no longer visible my thoughts turned to my trip I feared that the enjoyment of my visit to their home had jeopardized the success of my tour the driver had been told to make the best speed back to the station but the carriage seemed to be rolling along so quietly that I could not rest until it was urged again upon the coachman to reach the station in the shortest possible time some few moments after we reached there the train came in fitting a hearty goodbye to Mr. Chirard I started again on my tour of the world and the visit to Jules Verne was a thing of the past I had gone without sleep and rest I had traveled many miles out of my way for the privilege of meeting Monsieur et Madame Verne and I felt that if I had gone around the world for that pleasure I should not have considered the price too high the train which carried us to Calais I infer from what I have heard the pride of France it is called the club train and it is built on the plan of vestibule trains in America the carriages are so narrow that after having been accustomed to wide ones the club train seems like a toy I have been curious to know why this train is called the club train I had a foolish idea at first that it was the private property of some club run for the special benefit of its members and I felt some hesitancy about traveling on a train devoted to the use of men however the presence of a number of women put me at ease and though I made many inquiries about the train all I could learn was that it was considered quite the finest equipped train in Europe the car in which we sat as I said before contained some women and was besides liberally filled with men passengers shortly after we left Amiens that dinner was served in the front car everybody at once filed out and into the dining car I have thought since that probably the train carried two dining cars because the dinner and an excellent one it proved to be was served table dote and there seemed to be accommodations for all after we had our cheese and salad we returned to our drawing room car where we were served with coffee the men having the privilege of smoking with it I thought this manner of serving coffee a very pleasing one quite an improvement on our own system and quite worthy of adoption when I reached Calais I found that I had two hours and more to spend in waiting the train that I intended to take for Brindisi is a weekly mail train that runs to accommodate the males and not passengers it starts originally from London at 8 o'clock Friday evening of each week the rule is that the persons must buy their tickets 24 hours in advance at the time of its departure the male and passengers are carried across the channel and the train leaves Calais at 1.30 in the morning there are pleasanter places in the world to waste time in than Calais I walked down along the pier and looked at the lighthouse which I am told is one of the most perfect in the world throwing its light farther away than any other it is a revolving light throws out long rays that seem so little above our heads that I found myself dodging to avoid being struck of course that was purely imaginary on my part for the rays are just the opposite to being near the ground but they spread between the ground and the sky like the laths of an unfinished partition I wonder if the people of Calais ever saw the moon and stars there is a very fine railway station built near the end of the pier it is of generous size but seemed as far as I could judge at this hour of the night quite empty there is a smoothly tiled enclosed promenade on the side of the station facing the pier that I should say would prove quite an attraction and comfort for passengers who are forced to wait in that place my escort took me into the restaurant where we found something to eat which was served by a French waiter who could speak some English and understand more when it was announced that the boat from England was in we went out and saw the be bundled and be baggage to passengers come ashore and go to the train which was waiting alongside 1000 bags of mail were quickly transferred to the train and then I bad my escort goodbye and was shortly speeding away from Calais there is but one passenger coach on this train it is a Pullman Pala sleeping car with accommodations for 22 passengers but it is the rule never to carry more than 61 one berth being occupied by the guard the next morning having nothing else to occupy my time I thought that I would see what my traveling companions looked like I had shared the state room at the extreme end of the car with a pretty English girl who had the rosiest cheeks and the greatest wealth of golden brown hair I ever saw she was going with her father and invalid to Egypt to spend the winter and spring months she was an early riser and before I was awake had gotten up and joined her father in the other part of the car when I went out so as to give the porter an opportunity to make up my state room I was surprised at the strange appearance of the interior of the car all the head and foot boards were left in place giving the impression the coach was divided into a series of small boxes some of the passengers were drinking some were playing cards and all were smoking until the air was stifling I never object to cigar smoke when there is some little ventilation but when it gets so thick that one feels as if it is molasses instead of air that one is inhaling then I mildly protest it was soon this occasion and I wonder what would be the result in our land of boasted freedom if a Pullman car should be put to such purposes I concluded it is due to this freedom that we do not suffer from such things women travelers in America understand as much consideration as men I walked down the car looking in the boxes only to find them all occupied by unsocial looking men when I reached the middle of the car my little English roommate who was sitting with her father saw me and kindly asked me to sit down with them her father I remember as a cultured broad-minded man with a sense of humor that helped me to hear with less dread the racking cough that frequently stopped and shook his thin frame as though he had the egg you father, the little English girl said in a clear musical voice the clergyman sent you his large prayer book just before our departure and I put it in your bag my daughter is very thoughtful he said to me then turning to her he added with a smile on his eye please take the first opportunity to return the prayer book to the clergyman and tell him with my compliments to myself that trouble that I was grieved to deprive him of his book for so long the young girl's face settled into a look that spoke disapproval of her father's words and a determination not to return the prayer book she held class to her breast a large prayer book and when her father jokingly told her she had brought the largest one she could find which he looked on as wasting valuable packing space when she could have carried a small one that would have been as much service I was actually startled by the hard determined light on her face and everything else she was the sweetest most gentle girl I have ever met but her religion was of the hard uncompromising kind that condemns everything forgives nothing and swears the heatheness forever damned because he was not born to know the religion of her belief she spent all afternoon trying to implant the seas of her faith and I listened thinking from her words that if she was not the original Catherine Ellesmere she at least could not be more like that interesting character for the first day food was taken on the train at different stations and the conductor or guard as they called him served it to the passengers a dining car was attached in the evening but I was informed by the women that it was not exactly the thing for us to eat in a public car with men so we continued to be served in our state rooms I might have seen more while traveling through France if the car windows had been clean from their appearance I judged they had never been washed we did not make many stops the only purpose of stopping was for coal or water as passengers are not taken on or off this train between Calais and Brindisi in the course of the afternoon we passed some high and picturesque mountains that were covered with a white frost I found that even wearing my ulster and wrapped in a rug was none too warm about eight o'clock in the morning we reached Modena the baggage was examined there and all the passengers were notified in advance to be prepared to get out and unlock the boxes that belong to them the conductor asked me several times if I was quite certain that I had no more than the handbag with me telling me at the same time if any boxes were found locked with no owner to open them they would be detained by the customs inspectors when partly assured that I had no trunks he said that it was not necessary to get out with my handbag as no one would think it necessary to examine it half an hour later we were in Italy I was anxiously waiting to see that balmy sunny land though I pressed my face close to the frosty window pane bleak night denied me even one glimpse of sunny Italy in its dusky people I went to bed early it was so very cold that I could not keep warm out of bed and I cannot say that I got much warmer in bed the births were provided with only one blanket each I piled all my clothing on the birth and spent half the night lying awake thinking how fortunate the passengers were the week previous on this train just in the very same place that we were traveling through Italian bandits had attacked the train and I thought with regretful envy if the passengers then felt the scarcity of blankets they at least had some excitement to make their blood circulate when I got awake in the morning I hastily threw up the window shade and eagerly looked out I fell back in surprise wondering if for once in my life I had made a mistake and waked up early I could not see any more than I had the night before on account of a heavy grey fog that completely hid everything more than a yard away looking at the watch on my wrist I found that it was ten o'clock so I dressed with some haste determined to find the guard and demand an explanation of him it's the most extraordinary thing he said to me I never saw such a fog in Italy before there was nothing for it except to sit quietly counting the days I had been away from New York subtracting them from the number that must elapse before my return when this grew monotonous I carefully thought over the advisability of trying to introduce brown uniforms for railroad employees in the United States I thought with weary frenzy of the universal employment of navy blue uniforms in America and I turned with rest to the neat brown uniforms brightened with a touching of gold braid on the collars and cuffs that adorned the conductor and porter of the India mail but even this subject would not fill the day so I began to notice the difference between the whistles employed on these engines and those at home there was no deafening, ear-racking blast from these but plaintive sounds pitched in a high key that was very soprano indeed compared with our bass whistles I noticed in Italy as in all the other countries where I found railroads the trains are started by a blast from a tin horn horns such as those that take conspicuous places in political campaigns once every four years succeeding by the aid of enthusiastic campaigners in making night hideous for several months preceding the election in most cases these hornblowers seem to be located at the station but in France and Italy they occupied the front platform of each coach and I noticed with amusement that the tin horns were chained to them all day I traveled through Italy sunny Italy along the Adriatic Sea the fog still hung in a heavy cloud over the earth and only once did I get a glimpse of the land I had heard so much about it was evening just at the hour of sunset when we stopped at some station I went out on the platform and the fog seemed to lift for an instant and I saw on one side a beautiful beach in a smooth bay dotted with boats bearing oddly shaped and brightly colored sails which somehow looked to me like mammoth butterflies dipping dipping about in search of honey most of the sails were red and as the sun kissed them with renewed warmth just before leaving us in darkness the sails looked as if they were composed of brilliant fire a high rugged mountain was on the other side of the train it made me feel dizzy to look at the white buildings perched on the perpendicular side I noticed the road that went in a winding line up the hill had been built with a wall on the ocean side still I thought I would not care to travel up it I got out for a few minutes at the next station where we stopped to take our dinners I walked into a restaurant to look about it was very neat and attractive just as I stepped inside a little girl with wonderful large black eyes an enormous gold hoop rings in her ears ran forward to me with the fearless boldness of a child I touched her pretty black hair and then naturally felt in my pocket for something to give her just as I drew forth a large copper coin but less the value of a coin generally the larger its size a small man with a delicately refined face flashing black eyes wide expanse of white shirt front broken by a brilliant diamond came up and spoke to the baby in the way she drew back from me although her little hand had been stretched out expectantly before I knew he had told her not to accept anything from me I felt on for his impulse like boxing his ears he was so tiny and impudent the guard coming in search of me found us at this critical moment you have insulted him he said to me as if I was not conscious of it the Italians are the poorest and proudest people on earth they hate the English I am an American I said bluntly and abruptly a waiter who had been standing close by apparently not listening but catching every word just the same came up and spoke to me in English then I determined to remedy the fault I had committed but nevertheless I had a dogged determination that the child should yet take the coin what a beautiful restaurant I exclaimed I am passing hurriedly through Italy and in my desire to see judging from the samples of good cooking I have had en route Italian eating houses are excellent I hope I did not put you to any inconvenience I almost forgot the restaurant when I saw that lovely baby what exquisitely beautiful eyes exactly the same as her father's at least I judged from the similarity of their eyes that he is her father though he looks so young the waiter smiled and bowed and translated I knew he would and that is why I said it all then the little man's pride melted away and a smile replaced the frown on his face he spoke to the baby who came up and shook hands with me I gave her the coin and our peace was sealed then the little father brought forth a bottle of wine and with the most cordial smiles and friendliest words begged me to accept it I did not intend to be outdone so I told the waiter that I must take some wine with me insisted on paying for it and with low vows and sweet smiles we took leave of one another and I rushed after the guard to the train boarding it just as the horn blew for it to continue on its way we arrived in Brindisi two hours late when the train stopped our car was surrounded with men wanting to carry us as well as our baggage to the boats they're making no mention of hotels maybe wonder if people always pass through Brindisi without stopping all these men spoke English very well but the guard said he would get one omnivus and escort the English women the invalid man and his daughter and myself to our boats were not charged more than the right fare we drove first to the boat bound for Alexandria where we took leave of my roommate and her father then we drove to the boat that we expected to sail on I alighted from the omnivus and followed my companions up the gangplank I dreaded meeting English people with their much talked of prejudices as I knew I would shortly have to do I was earnestly hoping that everybody would be in bed as it was after one in the morning I hardly expected the trial of facing them at once the crowds of men on the deck dispelled my fond hope I think every man on board that boat was up waiting to see the new passengers they must have felt but illy paid for the loss of their sleep for besides the men who came on board there were only the two large English women in my own plane an interesting self these women were more helpless than I as they were among their own people I waited for them to take the lead but after we had stood at the foot of the stairs for some time gazed at by the passengers and no one came forward to attend to our wants which were few and simple I gently asked if that was the usual manner of receiving passengers on English boats it is strange, very strange a steward or someone should come to our assistance was all they could say at last a man came down below and as he looked as if he were with the boat I ventured to stop him and inquire if it was expecting too much to ask if we might have a steward to show us to our cabins he said there should be some about and begin lustily to call for one even this brought no one to us and as he started to find one himself I started in the opposite direction among the crowd that stood about was but one man that dared to speak without waiting for an introduction before he could be commonly polite you will find the poster in his office the first door to the left there he said and I went that way followed by the guard from the train sitting in the office was the purser and a man I supposed to be the doctor I gave my ticket and a letter I had been given at the P&O office in London to the purser this letter requested that the commanders and pursers of all the P&O boats on which I traveled should give me all the care and attention it was in their power as such officers to bestow after leisurely reading the letter the purser very carelessly turned around and told me the number of my cabin I asked Cor Stewart to show me the way but he replied that there did not seem to be any about and that the cabin was on the port side and with this meager information he impolitely turned his back and busied himself with some papers on the desk before him the train guard who still stood by my side said he would help me find the cabin after a little search I opened the door and stepped in and the sight that met my eyes both amused me and dismayed me at the opening of the door two bushy heads were stuck out of the two lower berths and two high pitched voices exclaimed simultaneously with a vexed intonation oh! I looked at the band boxes, boots, handbags gowns and the upper berth that was also filled with clothes and I echoed there oh in a little different tone I returned to the purser and told him I could not sleep in an upper berth and would not occupy a cabin with two other women after looking again over the letter I had brought him as if to see how much weight he should give it he referred me to another cabin this time a steward made his appearance and he took the part of an escort I found a pretty girl in that cabin who lifted her head anxiously and then gave me a friendly smile and I entered I put my bag down and returned to the guard who was waiting to take me to the cable office I stopped to ask the purser if I had time to make the trip to which he replied in the affirmative with the proviso if you worry the two women who had travelled with me from Calais had by this time found their way to the purser's office and I heard them telling that they had come away from home and left their purse and tickets lying on the table in the sitting room they had started in such a rush the guard took me down the gang plank and along several dark streets at last coming to a building where a door stood open he stopped and I followed him in the room in which we stood was perfectly bare and lighted by a lamp whose chimney was badly smoked the only things in the room were two stationary desks on one lay a piece of blank paper before an ancient inkwell and a much used pen I thought that everybody had retired for the night and the cable would have to wait until I reached the next port until the guard explained to me that it was customary to ring for the operator who would get up and attend to the message for me suiting the action to the words the guard pulled at a knob near a small closed window much like a postage stamp window the bell made quite a clatter still I had begun to think that hopeless when that window opened with a clink and a head appeared at the opening the guard spoke in Italian but hearing me speak English the operator replied in the same language I told him I wanted to send a cable to New York he asked me where New York was I explained as best I could then he brought out a lot of books through which he searched first to know by which line he could send the message at least so he explained then what it would cost the whole thing was so new and amusing to me that I forgot all about the departure of the boat until we had finished the business and stepped outside a whistle blew long and warningly I looked at the guard the guard looked at me it was too dark to see each other but I know our faces were the picture of dismay my heart stopped beating and I thought with emotions akin to horror my boat was gone and with it my limited wardrobe can you run the guard asked in a husky voice I said I could and he taking a close grasp of my hand we started down the dark street with a speed that would have startled a deer down the dark street past astonished watchmen and late pedestrians until a sudden bend brought us in full view of my ship still in port the boat for Alexandria had gone but I was saved End of Chapter 5 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Around the world in 72 days by Nellie Bly Chapter 6 An American heiress I had not been asleep long it seemed to me until I waked to find myself standing upright beside my birth it required but a second a glance at my drenched self and the sounds of vigorous scrubbing on the deck above to explain the cause of my being out of bed before I knew it I had gone to sleep with the porthole open and as my birth was just beneath it I received the full force of the scrub water as it came pouring over the sides I managed to let the heavy window down and went back to bed wet but confident that I would not again be caught napping under such circumstances I had not been asleep many moments until I heard a voice call Miss, will you have your tea now? I opened my eyes and saw a steward standing at the door awaiting a reply I refused the tea as did the English girl on the other side of my cabin managing to answer her bright smile with a very tired one and then I was off to sleep again Miss, will you have your bath now? A voice broke in on my slumbers shortly afterwards I looked up and discussed with a little white-capped woman who was bending over me tended to say I had just had my bath a shower bath but thought better of it before speaking I know I said something about in a few minutes and then I was asleep again Well, you are a lazy girl you'll miss your bath and breakfast if you don't get up this instant was my third greeting my surprise at the familiarity of the remark got the better of my sleepiness well, by all that is wonderful where am I? am I in school again that a woman dare assume such a tone to me? I kept my thoughts to myself and said stiffly I generally get up when I feel so inclined I saw my roommate was missing but I felt like sleeping and I decided to sleep whether it pleased the stewardess or not it mattered little to me the steward was the next one to put in an appearance every day and I must have this cabin made up before they come he said complainingly the captain will be here presently there was nothing to do but get up which I did I found my way to the bathroom but soon saw that it was impossible for me to turn on the water as I did not understand the mechanism of the faucet I asked the steward I saw outside the door the whereabouts of the stewardess and was simply amazed to hear him reply the stewardess is taking a rest and cannot be disturbed after dressing I wandered up on the next deck and was told that breakfast was over long ago I went out on deck and the very first glimpse of the lazy looking passengers in their summer garments lounging about in comfortable positions or slowly promenading the deck which was sheltered from the heat of the sun by a long stretch of awnings and the smooth, velvety looking water the bluest I have ever seen softly gurgling against the side of the ship as it almost imperceptibly steamed on its course and the balmy air soft as a rose leaf and just as sweet air such as one dreams about but seldom finds standing there alone among strange people on strange waters I thought how sweet life is before an hour had passed I was acquainted with several persons I had thought and expected that the English passengers would hold themselves aloof from a girl who was traveling alone but my cabin companion saw me before I got away from the door and came forward to ask me to join herself and friends we first had an amusing search for the steamer chair which I had told the guard to buy it and send on before our departure there were over 300 passengers on the ship and I suppose they averaged a chair apiece so it can be easily pictured the trouble it would be had a chair among that number I asked where the deck stewards were when at last I felt the search was useless and was surprised to learn that a deck steward was an unknown commodity on the P and O line I presume the culture master has charge of the decks my companion said in conclusion but we are expected to look after our own chairs and rugs and if we don't it is useless to inquire for them if they disappear shortly before noon I became acquainted with an Englishman who belongs to the civil service in Calcutta he had been in India for the last 20 years during which time he had repeatedly visited England which made this trip an old story to him he had made the same trip from Calais on the India Express as I had and said he noticed me on the train learning that I was travelling alone he devoted most of his time looking out for my comfort and pleasure the bugle blew for luncheon which is always called by the Indian title Tiffin on ships travelling in eastern seas the Englishman asked if I would go with him to Tiffin and as I had gone without breakfast I was only too anxious to go at the first opportunity the dining hall is on the second deck it is a small room nicely decorated with tropical foliage plants and looks quite cozy and pretty but it was never intended to accommodate a ship carrying more than 75 first class passengers the head waiter who stood at the door stared at us blankly as we went in I hesitated naturally thinking that he would show us to some table but as he did not I suggested to the gentleman with me that he ask before we take our places sit anywhere was the polite reply we received so we sat down at the table nearest we had just been served when four women ranging from 24 to 35 came in and with indignance of surprise seated themselves at the same table they were followed by a short fat woman with a sweeping walk and an air of satisfied assurance who eyed us in a supercilious way and then turned to the others with an air of injured dignity that was intensely amusing they were followed by two men and as there were only places for seven at the table the elderly man went out two of the girls sat on a lounge at the end of the table for the young man then we were made to suffer all kinds of rude remarks were made about us they did hate people coming to their table too bad papa was robbed of his place shame people had to be crowded from their own table and similar pleasant speeches were hurled at us the young woman who sat at my left was not content to confine her rudeness to her tongue but repeatedly reached across my plate brushing my food with her sleeves without one word of apology I confess I never had a more disagreeable meal I thought at first that this rudeness was due to my being an American and that they had taken this means of showing their hatred for all Americans still I could not understand why they should subject an Englishman to the same treatment unless it was because he was with me after experiences showed me that my first conclusion was wrong that I was not insulted because I was an American but because the people were simply ill-bred when dinner came we found that we were debarred from the dining room passengers who got on at London were given the preference and as there was not accommodations for all the passengers who boarded the ship at Brindisi had to wait for second dinner one never realizes until they face such contingencies what an important part dinner plays in one's life it was nine o'clock when the dining room was cleared that night and the Brindisi passengers were allowed to take their places at the table I hardly believe they took much else everything was brought to us as it was left from the first dinner cold soup the remnants of fish cut up bits of beef and fell all down the miserable course until at last came cold coffee I had thought the food on the India Express might have been better until after my experience on the P&O steamer and then I decided it might have been worse such a roar of complaint as went up from those late dinner passengers they wanted to get up a protest to serve on the captain but I refused to take any part in it and several of the more conservative ones followed my example the two women I have already referred to as having traveled on the India Express to Brindisi were treated even worse than I was when we made inquiries we were told that at dinner only were the places served but that at breakfast in Tiffan first there were first served acting on this information they went in to early Tiffan the following day and a young man who sat at the head of an empty table said to them as they went to sit down you can't sit there I've reserved those places for some of my friends they went to another table and after sitting down were requested by some latecomers to get up and leave and give the places to them one woman cried bitterly over it I am a grandmother and this is the sixth trip I have made to Australia and I was never treated so insultingly in my life there are circumstances under which a trip on the Mediterranean would be like a dream of paradise if one were in love for instance for they do say that people in love do not eat and aside from the food the trip is perfect probably it is a hope of finding the cure that will help them to forget a stomach void that makes love the principal subject on the P&O boats travelers who care to be treated with courtesy and furnished with palatable food will never by any chance travel on the Victoria it is all rule and no practice on that ship the impudence and rudeness of the servants in America is a standing joke but if the servants on the Victoria are a sample of English servants I am thankful to keep them as they have such as they are I asked the stewardess to assist a woman who looked as if she was dying of consumption to the deck with her rugs only to be told in reply that she would not help anyone unless they came and requested her to do so I heard her tell a passenger one day that she did not believe it was sickness but laziness that ailed the woman if complaints were made about the conduct of the servants they were always met by the assertion that the servants had been for a long time in the company's employ and would take privileges the commander of the ship set an example for rudeness a Spanish gentleman of high position who was traveling to China where he represented his country in the diplomatic service also got on at Brindisi he thought that his first duty was to pay his respects to the captain in charge of the ship so he asked someone to point out the captain to him this was done on deck and with a profound bow, hat and hand begged the captain's pardon and said that he was the charge's affair of China and Siam for the Spanish government and he wished to pay his duty and respects to the captain of the boat on which he was traveling the captain glared at him savagely for a moment after he had finished and then asked rudely well, what of it the Spaniard was speechless for a moment but recovering he said politely pardon, I thought I was addressing a gentleman and the commander of this ship turning he walked away and they never spoke afterwards although I had brought a letter to the captain he never noticed me in any way a bright-faced dolly boy who was going to Hong Kong to enter the banking house of his uncle brought a letter to the captain he presented himself one day on deck stepping a foot or so away until the captain should have time to read it he then read the letter, folded it carefully, put it in his pocket and walked away he never spoke to the boy afterwards and the boy was careful not to give him that trouble the captain had a tongue for gossip too every time I heard a sliding story about any of the passengers and would ask where it came from the answer would always be the captain had told it to somebody notwithstanding all annoying trifles it was a very happy life we spent in those pleasant waters the decks were filled all the day and when the lights were put out at night the passengers reluctantly went to their cabins the passengers formed two striking contrasts there were some of the most refined and lovely people on board and there were some of the most ill-bred and uncouth most of the women whose acquaintance I formed were very desirous of knowing all about American women and frequently their admiration for the free American woman many going so far as to envy me while admiring my unfettered happiness two clever scotch women I met were traveling around the world but are taking two years at it one Irish woman with a laugh that rivaled her face and sweetness was traveling alone to Australia my cabin mate was bound for New Zealand but she was accompanied by her brother a pleasant young Englishman who insisted on relinquishing his at first dinner in my favour and who stayed away despite my protest and my determination not to deprive him of a warm dinner in the daytime the men played cricket and quats sometimes in the evenings we had singing and other times we went to the second class deck and listened to better music given by second class passengers when there were no chairs we would all sit down on the deck and I remember nothing that was more enjoyable than these little visits there was a cool girl with a pale slender face who was a great favourite with us all though none of us ever spoke to her she sang in a sweet pathetic voice a little melody about who will buy my silver herrings until I know if she had tried to sell any we should have all bought the best we could do was join her in the refrain which we did most heartily better than all to me it was to sit in a dark corner on the deck above where the sailors had their food and listen to the tom-tom and a weird musical chanting that always accompanied their evening meal the sailors were lushers they were not interesting to look at and doubtless if I could have seen as well as heard them at their evening meal it would have lost its charm for me they were the most untidy looking lot of sailors I ever saw over a pair of white muslin drawers there were a long muslin slip very like in shape to the old time night shirt this was tied about the waist with a ship and on their heads they were gaily colored turbans which are really nothing but a crown of straw with a scar shaped piece of bright cloth often six feet in length wound about the head their brown feet are always bare they chant as all sailors do when hoisting sails but otherwise are a grim, surly looking set climbing about over the ship like a pack of monkeys when I boarded the boat at Brindisi the purser gave me some presents that had been sent to me care of the Victoria after we had been out several days a young woman came up to me with an unsealed cable and asked if I was Nellie Bly upon telling her I was she said that the purser had given the cable to some of the passengers the day before as he did not know who Nellie Bly was and after two days traveling among them it reached me occasionally we would have a dance on deck to the worst music it could hear the members of the band also washed the dishes and though I could not blame the passengers who always disappeared at the appearance of the musicians still I felt sorry for them it was both ridiculous and pathetic that they should be required to cultivate two such inharmonious arts one of the officers told me that the band they had before were compelled to scrub the decks and their hands became so rough from the work that it was impossible for they were discharged and the new band were turned into dishwashers instead of deck scrubbers I had not been on the Victoria many days until someone who had become friendly with me told me it was rumored on board that I was an eccentric American heiress traveling about with a hairbrush and a bank book I judged that some of the attention I was receiving was due to the story of my wealth I found it convenient later on to correct the report when a young man came to me and I was the kind of girl he liked and as he was the second son and his brother would get both the money and the title his sole ambition was to find a wife who would settle a thousand pounds a year on him there was another young man on board who was quite as unique a character and much more interesting to me he told me that he had been traveling constantly since he was nine years old and that he had always killed the desire to love and marry because he never expected to find a woman who could travel without a number of trunks and bundles innumerable I noticed that he dressed very exquisitely and changed his apparel at least three times a day so my curiosity made me bold enough to ask how many trunks he carried with him nineteen was the amazing reply I no longer wondered at his fears of getting a wife who could not travel without trunks End of Chapter 6 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Around the World in 72 Days by Nelly Bly Chapter 7 Two Beautiful Black Eyes It was in the afternoon when the Victoria anchored at Port Said on deck eagerly watching for the first side of land and though that sight showed us a wide sandy beach and some uninteresting two storied white houses with arcade fronts, still it did not lessen our desire to go ashore I suppose that would have been the result under the circumstances had Port Said been the most desolate place on earth I know everybody was experiencing a slight weariness though we should all have stoutly denied such reflection on our constant companions and gladly welcome the change of a few hours on shore where at least we might see new faces. A more urgent reason still for our going to land was the fact that this was a coaling port for the Victoria and I never knew of anything that would make one more quickly feel that there are things in life much worse than death if I may use the expression than to have to stay on board a ship during the coaling operation Before the boat anchored the men armed themselves with canes to keep off the beggars they said and the women carried parasols for the same purpose I had neither stick nor umbrella with me and refused all offers to accept one for this occasion having an idea, probably a wrong one, that a stick beats more ugliness into a person than it ever beats out hardly had the anchor dropped then the ship was surrounded with a fleet of small boats steered by half clad Arabs, fighting grabbing, pulling, yelling in their mad haste to be first I never in my life saw such an exhibition of hungry greed for the few pints they expected to earn by taking passengers ashore Some boatmen actually pulled others out of their boats into the water in their frantic endeavors to steal each other's places When the ladder was lowered numbers of them caught it and clung to it as if it meant life or death to them and here they clung until the captain was compelled to order some sailors to beat the Arabs off which they did with long poles before the passengers dared ventured forth This dreadful exhibition made me feel that probably there was some justification in arming oneself with the club Our party were the first to go down the ladder to the boats It had been our desire and intention to go ashore together but when we stepped into the first boat it was a dreadful boatman and literally dragged across to other boats The men in the party used their sticks quite vigorously all to no avail and although I thought the conduct of the Arabs justified this harsh course of treatment still I felt sorry to see it administered so freely and lavishly to those black half cloud wretches and marveled at their stubborn persistence even while cringing under the blows Having our party divided there was nothing to do under circumstances but to land and reunite on shore so we ordered the Arabs to pull away Midway between the Victoria and the shore the boatman stopped and demanded their money in very plain and forcible English We were completely at their mercy as they would not land us either way until we paid what they asked One of the Arabs told me that they had many years experience in dealing with the English and their sticks and had learned by bitter lessons that if they landed an Englishman before he paid they would receive a stinging blow for their labour Walking up the beach sinking angle deep in the sand at every step we came to the main street almost instantly we were surrounded by Arab boys who besought us to take a ride on the burrows that stood patiently beside them There were burrows of all colours sizes and shapes and the boys would cry out for a ride see Gladstone with two beautiful black eyes This they would cry in such soft plaintive way that one felt that the two beautiful black eyes made the animals irresistible If one happened to be of a different political belief and objected to riding the Gladstone hobby as it were a choice could be made of almost any other well known if not popular name There were Mrs. Maebrics Mary Anderson's, Lily Langtree's all the prominent men of the time I knew all about burrows having lived for some time in Mexico but they proved to be quite a novelty to many of the passengers almost all of whom were anxious to take a ride before returning to the boat So as many as could find animals to ride mounted and went flying through that quaint sleeping town yelling with laughter bouncing like rubber balls on their saddles while half naked Arab boys goaded the burrows on by short urgent hisses and by prodding them from behind with a sharp stick After seeing about 50 of our passengers started off in this happy manner a small number of us went to a gambling house and in a short time were deep in the sport of placing our English gold on colors and numbers and waiting anxiously for the wheel to go round to see the money at last swept in by the man at the table I do not think that any one of us knew anything about the game we put our money on the table and laughed to see it taken in by the man who gave the turn to the wheel There was another attraction in this place which helped to win a number of young men from that very expensive table It was an orchestra composed of young women some of whom were quite pleasing in both looks and manners The longer we remained at this gambling house the less money we had to spend in the shops I went ashore with the determination not to buy anything not to increase my baggage I withstood the tempting laces which were offered at wonderfully low prices the quaint Egyptian curios and managed to content myself by buying a sun hat as everybody else did and a pegery to wind about it as its customary in the east Having bought a hat and seen all I cared to of the shops I went strolling about with some friends feasting my eyes on what were to me peculiarities of your people I saw old houses with carved wood fronts that would have been worth a fortune in America occupied by tenants that were unmistakably poor The natives were apparently so accustomed to strangers that we attracted very little if any attention except from those who hoped to gain something from our visit We went about finding no occasion to use sticks on the natives We saw a great number of beggars who, true to their trade, wind forth their hands, their plaintive appeals but they were not so intrusive or bothersome that they necessitated are giving them the cane instead of alms The majority of these beggars presented such repulsive forms of misery that in place of appealing to my sympathetic nature as is generally the case they had a hardening effect on me They seemed to thrust their deformities in our faces in order to compel us to give money to buy their absence from our sight While standing looking after a train of camels that had just come in loaded with firewood I saw some Egyptian women They were small in stature and shapelessly clad in black Over their faces beginning just below the eyes they were black veils that fell almost to their knees As if fearing that veil alone would not destroy all semblance of features they wear a thing that spans the face between the hair and the veil down the line of their noses In some cases this appears to be of gold and in others it is composed of some black material What Egyptian woman carried a little naked baby with her? She held it on her hips its little black legs clinging to her waist much after the fashion of a boy climbing a pole Down at the beach we came upon a group of naked men clustered about an alligator that they had caught It was securely fastened in some knotted rope the end of which was held by some half-dozen swallows The public water carriers with well-filled goatskins flung across their backs we met making their way to the town for the last trip that day Darkness came on us very suddenly and sent us rushing off for our ship This time we found the boatman would not permit us to even enter their boats until we paid them to take us across to the Victoria Their price now was just double what they had charged to bring us to land We protested but they said it was the law to double the price after sunset They were just finishing the coaling when we reached the ship but the sight we caught of the coal barges lighted by some sputtering dripping stuff held in iron cages on the end of long poles that showed the hurrying naked people rushing with sacks of coal up a steep gangplank between the barges in the ship was one long to be remembered Nor were they working quietly Judging from the noise every one of them was yelling something that pleased his own fancy and humor The next morning I got up earlier than usual so anxious was I to see the famous Suez canal rushing up on deck I saw we were passing through what looked like an enormous ditch in close on either side with high sand banks We seemed to be hardly moving which made us feel the heat very intensely They tell me that according to law a ship must not travel through the canal at a speed exceeding 5 knots an hour because the rapid passage of the ship would make a strong current that would wash in the sand banks One gentleman who had traveled all his life helped us to pass some of the tedious stifling hours in the canal by telling us the history of it It was begun in 1859 and took 10 years to build The work is estimated to have cost nearly 18,250,000 pounds although the poor blacks that were employed to do the labor commanded the lowest possible wages It is claimed that the lives of 100,000 laborers were sacrificed in the building of this canal which is only 100 English miles 88 geographical miles 5 in length When first completed the width of the surface of the canal was 325 feet The constant washing in of the banks has reduced it to 195 feet The bottom is said to be 72 feet wide and the depth is but 26 feet The trip through the canal can be made in from 20 to 24 hours About noon of our first day in the canal we anchored in the bay fronting Ismailia Here passengers were taken on which gave us time to see the Cadiz Palace which is built a little way back in the heart of a beautiful green forest Continuing the journey through the canal we saw little of interest The signal stations were the only green spots that met the eye but they were proof of what could be done even in this sandy desert by the expenditure of time and energy The one thing that enlivened this trip was the appearance of naked Arabs who would occasionally run along the banks of the canal crying in pitiful tones This we understood meant money which many of the kind-hearted passengers would throw to them but the bankers never seemed to find it and would keep on after us still crying until they were exhausted We passed several ships in the canal Generally the passengers would call to the passengers on the other ships but the conversation was confined mainly to inquiries as to what kind of voyage had been theirs We saw at one place in the canal a lot of Arabs both men and women at work Among them were a number of camels that were employed in carrying stone with which the laborers were endeavouring to strengthen the banks In the night the boat hung an electric light from the front and by the aid of this light moving it from side to side were able to continue on their way Before the introduction of the electric headlights for this purpose the vessels were always compelled to fly up in the canal overnight because of the great danger of running into the sandbanks In addition to making the trip longer this stoppage added greatly to the discomfort of the passengers who found that even the slow motion of the boat helped in a measure to lessen the stifling heat that seemed to come from out of the sandbanks during the night as well as when the blazing sun was in the cloudless sky We saw, when near the end of the canal, several Arab encampments They were both picturesque and interesting First we could notice a small dull red fire and between that fire and us we could see the outlines of people and resting camels At one encampment we heard music but at the others we saw people either working over the fire as if preparing their evening meal or in sitting positions crouching about it in company with their camels Shortly after this we could see the anchor in the bay of Suez Hardly had we done so when the ship was surrounded by a number of small sailboats that, in the semi-darkness with their white sails before the breeze reminded me of moths flocking to a light both from their white winged-like appearance and the rapid way in which numbers of them floated down on us These sailboats were filled with men with native fruits, photographs and odd shells to sell They all came on board with a number of jugglers The passengers took very little interest in the vendors, but all had a desire to see what was to be offered by the jugglers There was one among them a black man who wore little else than a sash a turban and a baggy pocket in the lining of which he carried two lizards and a small rabbit He was very anxious to show us his tricks and to get the money for them He refused, however, to do anything with the rabbit and the lizards until after he had shown us what he could do with the handkerchief and some bangles that he brought along for this purpose He selected me from among the crowd to hold the handkerchief, which he had first shaken as if to show that it contained nothing He then showed us a small brass bangle and pretended to put the bangle in the handkerchief He then placed the handkerchief in my hand telling me to hold it tightly I did so, feeling the presence of the bangle very plainly He blew on it and jerking the handkerchief loose from my grasp shook it Much to the amazement of the crowd the bangle was gone Some of the passengers in the meantime stole the juggler's rabbit and one of the lizards had quietly taken itself off to some secluded spot He was very much concerned about the loss of them and refused to perform any more tricks until they were restored to his keeping At last one young man took the rabbit from his pocket and returned it to the juggler much to his gratification The lizard was not to be found and as it was time for the ship to sail the juggler was forced to return to his boat After he had gone several people came to know if I had any idea how the trick with the handkerchief had been done I explained to them that it was an old and very uninteresting trick that the man had one bangle sewn in the handkerchief and the other bangle, which he showed to the people he slipped quietly out of sight Of course the one who held the handkerchief held the bangle but when the juggler would jerk the handkerchief from the hand and shake it in full view of the audience the bangle being sewn to the handkerchief would naturally not fall to the floor and as he carefully kept the side to which the bangle was attached turned towards himself he successfully duped his audience into thinking that by his magic he had made the bangle disappear One of the men who listened to this explanation became very indignant and wanted to know if I knew positively how this trick had been done and why I had not exposed the man I merely explained that I wanted to see the juggler get his money much to the disgust of the Englishman Where we were anchored at Suez some claim is the historic place where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea Some people who bothered themselves greatly about facts, figures, and ancient history bought views, which showed that at certain stages of the tide people even in this day can wait around there without any risk of life or comfort The next morning when we arose we were out of sight of land and well out on the Red Sea The weather now was very hot but still some of the passengers did their best to make things lively on board One evening a number of young men gave a menstrual show They displayed both energy and perseverance in preparing for it as well as in the execution of it One end of the deck was set aside for the show, a stage was put up and the whole corner was enclosed by awnings and the customary green curtain hung in place during service as drop curtain between acts as well as appearing before and after the performance The young men filled their different roles in a very commendable manner but as the night was so dreadfully warm the passengers feeling the heat more than usual owing to the deck being enclosed by awnings, it was difficult to awake any enthusiasm on the part of the audience We had an intermission in the dining room for punch and biscuits and I know that no one appreciated the refreshments more than the actors who joined us, their black and faces streaked with perspiration Towards the last the passengers could find very little to do that proved interesting or in any way aided them to forget the heat A few of those who could sing or imagine they could were persuaded to exercise their vocal organs for the benefit of those who could sing and would not those who realized they had no voice and knew enough to remain quiet At other times many of us went to the deck reserve for the second class passengers and enjoyed the concerts given by them When there were no chairs for us on this deck we would sit on the floor and we all acknowledged that the first class passengers could not furnish music that was any better The days were spent mainly on deck lounging about in easy chairs I found that no one enjoyed as much comfort as I did I had changed my heavy waist for my silk bodice and I felt cool and comfortable and lazily happy When dinner hour approached we could see a few rush off to dress for dinner and later they would appear in full dress low bodice and long train much to the amusement of that class of passengers who maintained that it was decidedly not the thing to appear in full dress on an ocean steamer The evening dress made of white linen in which the young men in the east and the parents at dinner impressed me as being not only comfortable and appropriate but decidedly becoming an elegant It is very seldom that men do not get more enjoyment out of life than women under like circumstances between cricket to which they were passionately attached and quats and the smoking room which was the scene of many exciting games for large stakes and later on an hour or so spent in a dark corner of the deck pleasing and being pleased with sex, the enforced rest was quite an agreeable one to the men We were all very much interested and concerned about a small bird that had traveled with us from Suez sometimes flying along a little way and then resting on the rigging of the ship It was a pretty bird with a slender gray tail and a silver breast and a black ring about its throat its back being a modest, drab-ish brown At first it was easily frightened but after a while it became very tame and it would light on the deck among the passengers picking up the crumbs they threw to it Beside the bird as a topic of interest we had the lizard which was left behind by the juggler It was found in a quiet corner of the deck by the quartermaster the morning following our stop at Suez A sympathizing young man took charge of it and endeavored to feed it but after living in sullen quietness for a few days it ceased to breathe and its death was sullenly announced to the passengers The Victoria is said to be the finest boat on the P&O line Still, it could not be more unsuited for the trip It is very badly planned being built so that a great number of cabins inside are absolutely cut off from light and air It is a compliment to call them cabins as they are really nothing more than small, dark, disagreeable and unventilated boxes The passengers are charged all the same rate of fare into one of these undesirable boxes there is no redress They must simply bow before the dictates of this company who trade on the fact of there being an old established line and a very desirable one in many respects and passengers are treated I judge only by what I saw and heard as if they should consider that a favour had been conferred upon them when they were permitted to pay for tickets to travel on that line The prices to ports that are touched at by rival steamship lines are reasonable While to ports where they have the monopoly they charge exorbitant rates I have stated that the conduct of the officers and servants and the quality of the food left much to be desired by the travellers The nights were so warm while on the red sea that the men left their cabins and spent their nights on deck It is usually customary for the women to sleep on deck one side of which at such times is reserved exclusively for them to have courage to set the example so the men had the decks to themselves Sleeping down below was all the more reason why women arising early would go out on the decks before the sun began to boil in search of a refreshing spot where they could get a breath of cool air At this hour the men were usually to be seen promenading about in their pajamas But I heard no objections raised until much to the dismay of the women The captain announced that the decks belonged to the men until after eight o'clock and that the women were expected to remain below until after that hour Just before we came to Aden we passed in the sea a number of high, brown mountains They are known as the Twelve Apostles Shortly after this we came inside of Aden It looked to us like a large, bare mountain of wonderful height but even by the aid of glasses we were unable to tell that it was inhabited Shortly after eleven o'clock in the morning we anchored in the bay Our boat was soon surrounded by a number of small boats which brought to us men who had things to sell and the wonderful divers of the east The passengers had been warned by the officers on board not to go ashore at Aden because of the intense heat So the women spent their time bargaining with the Jews who came to the ship to sell ostrich feathers and feather boas The men helped them to close with the sellers always to the seller's advantage much as they might congratulate themselves to the contrary I, in company with a few of the more reckless ones decided to brave the heat and go ashore and see what Aden had to offer End of Chapter 7 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Around the World in 72 Days by Nellie Bly Read by Mary Reagan Chapter 8 Aden to Colombo Hiring a large boat I went ashore with a half-dozen acquaintances who felt they could risk the sun Before oarsmen were black fellows thin of limb but possessed of much strength and tireless good humor They have, as have all the inhabitants of Aden, the finest white teeth of any mortals This may be due to the care they take of them and the manner of that care From some place I am unable to state where as I fail to see one living thing growing at Aden, they get tree branches of a soft, fibrous wood which they cut into pieces three and four inches in length With one end of this stick, scraped three of the bark they rub and polish their teeth until they are perfect in their whiteness The wood wears into a soft pulp but as one can buy a dozen sticks for a penny one can well afford to throw the stick away after once using although, if necessary a stick can be used many times I bought several sticks and found them the most efficient as well as the pleasant toothbrush I had ever tried I failed to regret that some enterprising firm had not thought of importing this useful bit of timber to replace the tooth-destroying brush used in America The man in charge of the boat that carried us to land was a small black fellow with the thinnest legs I ever saw Somehow they'd reminded me of smoked herrings they were so black, flat and dried looking he was very gay notwithstanding his lack of weight around his neck and over his bare breast were twined strings of beads black and gold and silver around his waist was a highly colored sash and on his arms and ankles were heavy bracelets while his fingers and toes seemed to be trying to outdo one another in the way of rings he spoke English quite well and to my rather impertinent question as to what number constituted his family he told me that he had three wives and eleven children which number, he added piously by the grace of the power of his faith he hoped to increase his hair was yellow which added to his very light dress of jewelry and sash gave him rather a strange look the bright yellow hair and the black skin forming a contrast which was more startling than the black eyes and yellow hair that flashed upon the astonished vision of the American public some years ago but has become since an old and tiresome sight some of the boatmen had their black wool pasted down and hidden under a coating of lime I was very curious about it until the first man explained that they were merely bleaching their hair that it was always done by covering the head with lime which being allowed to remain on for several days exposed to the hot sun and the water bleached the hair yellow or red at the expiration of that time this bleaching craze he also informed me was confined to the men of Aden so far none of the women had tried to enhance their black beauty in that way but it was considered very smart among the men while we were talking our men were vigorously pulling to the tune of a rousing song one line of which was sung by one man the others joining in the refrain at the end their voices were not unpleasant and the air had a monotonous rhythm that was very fascinating we landed at a well built pier and walked up the finely cut from the boat to the land instantly we were surrounded by half clad