Land. Furthermore, it was suggested that although the ship's library

would afford a fair amount of reading matter, it would still be well if

each passenger would provide himself with a few guidebooks, a Bible, and

some standard works of travel. A list was appended, which consisted

chiefly of books relating to the Holy Land, since the Holy Land was part

of the excursion and seemed to be its main feature.

Reverend Henry Ward Beecher was to have accompanied the expedition, but

urgent duties obliged him to give up the idea. There were other

passengers who could have been spared better and would have been spared

more willingly. Lieutenant General Sherman was to have been of the party

also, but the Indian war compelled his presence on the plains. A popular

actress had entered her name on the ship's books, but something

interfered and she couldn't go. The "Drummer Boy of the Potomac"

deserted, and lo, we had never a celebrity left!

However, we were to have a "battery of guns" from the Navy Department (as

per advertisement) to be used in answering royal salutes; and the

document furnished by the Secretary of the Navy, which was to make

General Sherman and party" welcome guests in the courts and camps of

the

old world, was still left to us, though both document and battery, I

think, were shorn of somewhat of their original august proportions.

However, had not we the seductive program still, with its Paris, its

Constantinople, Smyrna, Jerusalem, Jericho, and "our friends the

Bermudians?" What did we care?

The Innocents Abroad