Jaunts Across the Sea

Lawrence, KS: Privately Printed by William E. Morris, Jr. (1st Edition, December 1906). Hardcover with red textured boards and black titles/illustration, 110 pages, heavy stock, cream-colored. No dust jacket was issued. Signed by the author on the Foreward page. Clean and unmarked, with a square, tight binding. llustrated throughout with original postcards, both color and black-and-white, mounted on individual pages with corners inserted into slits, as in a photograph album. Frontispiece photo is an original studio portrait of the author, mounted with glue, protected by tissue guard. Photo and postcards have left faint corresponding toned areas on pages opposite. Includes a Family Record starting in 1743 in North Wales, and Supplementary Notes. This is a deaccessioned museum copy. A rare book, lovely and unusual!

ABOUT THE BOOK: Privately printed in 1906 for relatives and friends of William E. Morris, Jr., Lawrence, Kansas. Not numbered, but likely not many printed. The book is a daily account of life on board Cunard ocean liners Umbria, Saxonia, Caronia, and Ivernia; visits with family in England and North Wales (Rhyl and Rhuddlan); travels around England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland detailing tourist stops. He writes of his experience touring steerage on one return trip on the Saxonia steamer to the United States: "Some 1,900 Russian Jews were passengers in the steerage....A more dejected, wretched-looking lot of human beings it would be hard to find. Their condition was pitiable, indeed. Now they were trying to recuperate from seasickness....Yesterday afternoon, in company with a fellow-passenger, I went through the steerage. Such a sight as met my eyes I will not soon forget! Fathers, mothers and children huddled together here and there like a lot of beasts--some eating and drinking, some doing one thing and another--anything to pass the monotony of the voyage. The odor here is anything but pleasant, and coming in contact with the Russian emigrant makes it almost beyond endurance. I was very glad to leave this place and go where air and sunlight were plentiful."

FOREWARD: "Having had the good fortune of making two visits to Europe during the years of 1903 and 1905, and keeping a diary of both of my journeys, thought, perhaps, the perusual of my rambles would afford a slight degree of pleasure to others, I have decided to issue this little book for gratuitous distribution to my relatives and friends. Mistakes, if there be any, I trust will be overlooked, as this is my first effort. Conveying to the recipient my highest compliments and will wishes, I am, Sincerely yours," (signed by author)