watched the little indicator that makes a red line depicting the exact
course of the ship on a circular chart, tried out the fire alarm system
that instantly rings a bell if a high temperature is registered any
place on the ship, from the bridal suite to the darkest corner of the
hold. We set the fog whistle to blow at regular intervals. We were told
that the searchlight could enable the pilot to discover objects about
five miles out, and by the time the gyro compass and numerous other
devices had been explained to us, we were ready to believe that the ship
cost seven million dollars, and that five thousand dollars was the daily
operating expense (two thousand dollars of which was spent for the one
thousand gallons of oil).

The mock trial was one of the features of the trip. Nearly everyone was
arrested, sentenced or fined. Mrs. F. Panter's and Captain Ruben
Robinson's trials were the most sensational. In spite of Carl
Westerfeld's efforts to save Captain Robinson from being convicted of
fox trotting with a certain charming widow, he was heavily sentenced.
Louis C. Brown was released upon the hearing of the eloquent pleadings
of his attorney, Louis H. Mooser. At the close of the session,
Commissioner Francis Krull imposed a fine upon himself for his merciful
tendencies as the judge.

When a crowd of us piled into the wireless room and asked the whys and
wherefores, the poor operator gave up trying to explain why the messages
were all sent at night, and settled the matter by telling us that the
atmospheric conditions were better then, and that the ship was equipped
with two systems, the spark and the arc, but that the arc was given the
preference. The Empire State kept its apparatus tuned to the one at
Sloat Boulevard, so if any of those at home missed us, just all they had
to do was to drive past that station any night, and, perhaps, at that