Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/228

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN

Common Pleas of Philadelphia, Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and Vice-President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. I bespeak for Judge Pennypacker your official courtesies during his sojourn abroad.

I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant,
James G. Blaine.

We left Philadelphia on the Red Star Steamer “Belgenland,” July 16th, and after crossing the ocean, going through the English Channel, and up the Scheldt, landed at Antwerp July 29th. The company on the boat, while not so numerous as on the great steamers, was in some respects unusual, and in the course of the long voyage they were pretty closely welded together. There were a concourse of physicians, including Dr. F. P. Henry and Dr. Philip Leidy, who were going over to attend a medical convention, and there were three school teachers who had been determined by ballot to be the most popular in the state, and were being given the outing by the Philadelphia Press. They were the Misses Elizabeth D. Grant, Annie M. Bishop and Jennie M. Davis. For an entertainment given on the way over I wrote a number of jeux d'esprit touching up some of the passengers and the lighter events which happened. They were written in pencil on the back of a paper novel, which, being thrown away, was found by the steward and sold to a newspaper. Much to my surprise, on my return, I found them making the newspaper rounds, and I now include three of them:

Out at sea there's a lady named Davis;
To her note book she but a slave is;
She writes down within it
What happens each minute,
And when Godwin upset by the wave is.
 
The minister went to sea,
The minister soon got sick.
It cared no more for him
Than for any heretic.
 
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