15 Sep 1927
John to Father / S.S. Montclaire
I suppose you are wondering how I am getting along financially, etc. I am having a wonderful trip. As I told mother in other letters the ship is a palace built for Lords and Sirs of England to ride on. Of course we (I) felt very much out of place for a day or two, but then we figured we were paying the $21.43 per day as well as they were and therefore the ship was just as much ours as it was theirs. The English sure get on my nerves. I almost hate to think that my ancestors were English. Maybe it's just the class of English we're in, but everything is Bawly old top and Jolly Well, etc. I don't try to mingle with them at all. I'm mighty glad they didn't send me to England. I beleive the English hate the Americans worse than any other European race; and of course being Mormons doesn't help much.
Except for the first two days at sea we have had very favorable weather, even though we havn't seen the sun since the first day on the St. Laurence. We are scheduled to land tomorrow night at 7 p.m. That would be 11 a.m. at home. We are eight hours ahead. We change an hour each day.
Well now to get down to the purpose. I have left $76.00 and some odd change. Out of that has to come tips for the stewards which will amount to 7 or 8 dollars. That will leave me with $68.00 at Liverpool. I ought to be able to get along on $18.00 between Liverpool and Antwerp. You see we might stay a few days in Liverpool. That will leave me $50.00 at Antwerp. Here I think we are assigned to our fields of labor, and or course we must be able to get ourselves to that field. If it is away down in Switzerland it will cost more than if it were in Belgium. If I labor in Belgium I ought to have plenty to last till the first of November. Of course you can never tell how things are going.
How did your business come out. I would like to hear how things came out. I think though that everything will come out all right. I am spending just as little as possible.
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