The voyage differed but little from our cruises in the yacht.  J. P. took his meals in his own suite, and as Mrs. Pulitzer and Miss Pulitzer were on board they usually dined with him, one of the secretaries making a fourth at table.

In the matter of guarding J. P. from noise, extraordinary precautions were taken.  Heavy mats were laid outside his cabin, specially made a dozen years before and stored by the White Star people waiting his call; that portion of the deck which surrounded his suite was roped off so that the passengers could not promenade there; and a close-fitting green baize door shut off the corridor leading to his quarters.  His meals were served by his own butler and by one of the yacht stewards; and his daily routine went on as usual.

During the voyage I was broken in to the task of reading the magazines to J. P. So far as current issues were concerned I had to take the ones he liked best—­The Atlantic Monthly, The American Magazine, The Quarterly Review, The Edinburgh Review, The World’s Work, and The North American Review—­and thoroughly master their contents.

While I was engaged on this sufficiently arduous labor I made, on cards, lists of the titles of all the articles and abstracts of all the more important ones.  I have by me as I write a number of these lists, and I reproduce one of them.

The following list of articles represents what Mr. Pulitzer got from me in a highly condensed form during one hour:  “The Alleged Passing of Wagner,” “The Decline and Fall of Wagner,” “The Mission of Richard Wagner,” “The Swiftness of Justice in England and in the United States,” “The Public Lands of the United States,” “New Zealand and the Woman’s Vote,” “The Lawyer and the Community,” “The Tariff Make-believe,” “The Smithsonian Institute,” “The Spirit and Letter of Exclusion,” “The Panama Canal and American Shipping,” “The Authors and Signers of the Declaration of Independence,” “The German Social Democracy,” “The Changing Position of American Trade,” “The Passing of Polygamy.”

I remember very well the occasion on which I gave him these articles.  We were walking on one of the lower promenade decks of the Cedric, and J. P. asked me if I had any magazine articles ready for him.  I told him, having the list of articles in my left hand, that I had fifteen ready.  He pulled out his watch, and holding it toward me said: 

“What time is it?”

“Twelve o’clock,” I replied.

“Very good; that gives us an hour before lunch.  Now go on with your articles; I’ll allow you four minutes for each of them.”

He did not actually take four minutes for each, for some of them did not interest him after my summary had run for a minute or so, but we just got the fifteen in during the hour.

After all that was possible had been done in the way of reducing the number of magazine articles, by rejecting the unsuitable ones, and their length by careful condensation, we were unable to keep pace with the supply.  When a hundred or so magazines had accumulated Mr. Pulitzer had the lists of contents read to him, and from these he selected the articles which he wished to have read; and these arrears were disposed of when an opportunity presented itself.