Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/468

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South America, and New Zealand, and Canada, and many other countries, are offering inducements to immigrants. . . . We got away a little after 6:30 o'clock, and found the sea kind again; this is our twenty-fifth day at sea without discomfort. There was a shower of rain just before we left Naples, which drove to cover the thousands of weeping women who had come to the dock to see friends depart, but outside the bay the sea was calm. Ten or fifteen poor children were on the dock, begging the passengers for pennies, but the rain didn't bother them. There was one boy who could turn handsprings, but while he was showing off his accomplishment, the other children got the pennies. The moral is, attend to business, and don't show off.



Sunday, May 4.—When we awoke this morning, the "Canada" was lying in the harbor of Palermo, in Sicily, where it spent the day in taking on more emigrants. As the ship was to remain until evening, we went ashore at 8:30 for the day, accompanied by an old gentleman of seventy-six, who acted as guide. . . . I have neglected Palermo in my reading; I knew almost nothing about it. I didn't know it contained another palace belonging to the king of Italy, and about four hundred thousand people. . . . A few men are natural-born gentlemen. Our old guide was such a man. He lived in the United States, as a young man, and we were much pleased with him. . . . In Italian and Sicilian towns, nearly every family owns a milk goat. These goats are sent to the country, to