Well Ed. this is some boat & its a bout 3 times as big as the city of benton harbor & its 4 storys high & 600 ft. long & has got electrick lights & they must have there own electrick light plt. on the boat or else they got wires conecting with the cabels on the bottom. & I am glad we pickt out the 2nd cabin in stead of the 1st because the 1st cabin has got 4 hunderd pgrs. & we only got 330 so we aint so crowded but I was wrong a bout the 2nd cabin being back of the 1st 1 because the 1st 1 is right in the middle of the boat and they must begin numbring from the middle but it dont make no diffrunce because the weather has been grand & if we was in the 1st cabin where they dont get no breeze we would probly suffakate. The book all so speaks a bout they being 4 saloons on the boat but I only seen 3 of them so far but 3 is a plenty & if a man drinks all they got in 1 of them hes doing pretty good. I been all over the boat wile Minnie hasent did nothing but set in the parlor & walk up & down the deck a couple times a day & chin with the other skirts & I been trying to get her to livun up but nothing doing & may be she is sea sick but I dont see how even a woman could get sea sick because the weathers been grand & the oceans just as smoth as mich. av. prof. Baker who has been acrost before I dont know how many times showed me all over the boat from the engine room to the steerage where the steering is done at. I told Minnie a bout they being a jimnasum on the boat & she says I better go in there evry day & work some of the fat off of me & may be thats a good tip because I have fated up some since I got a chance to rest up my self & let others do the heavy work a round the place. The boat is 20 thous. horse power so prof. Baker tells me but I guess it gets a long better then 20 thous. horses would if they was pulling out here in the middle of the ocean. they got a wire lest tellegram on the boat & we get all the news from all countrys evry day but they aint been nothing from Chgo. as yet & I aint seen your name menshoned Ed. so may be they dont know who you are. Then they got a barber shop & them saloons I was telling you a bout and 2 or 3 rooms to smoke in & play cards & I am going to get in to a game tonight with some men I met on the boat & I wouldent play no cards if Minnie would livun up & pal a round with me but any way I am haveing the time of my life & if she aint haveing a good time with them skirts its her own falt.
I wisht you could see the meals they hand out & no wonder they soak a man for the boat fair because the meals is included in it. I thot breakfast must be there big meal when I seen it but they come back at noon with 9 or 10 corses & then at supper they hand you enough to choke a horse but they aint managed to choke me yet but Minnie makes me ware the soup & fish at supper because the 2 school teachers done it the 1st night & the collars enough to choke me. It is some swell dinning room where we eat at & its full of pretty pitchers drawed by a man named Louis Seize & there pretty good for a dutch man. Our party of 9 eats at 1 table but we dont all get there at onct most of the time but we was all there to supper to gather last night & we had a swell time because this here prof. Baker got after me to tell some storys & I told the 1 a bout the 2 irish men mike & pat that come acrost to gather on the boat & then I told them the 1 a bout the men driveing up to Fogartys house in the auto. and asking weather Fogarty lived there but I dont know if I ever told you that 1 or not. Two men drove up to Fogartys house in a auto. & 1 of them run up and rung the door bell & Mrs. Fogarty come to the door & 1 of the men says does Fogarty live here and she says yes bring him in. you see she thot Fogarty was piped & they was bringing him home & the men was just friends of Fogartys & was trying to find him & so they
