ASIA Around the World on a Floating Palace By James T. Nichols _ Cornell University Library G 440.N61 Around the world on a floating palace, 3 1924 010 414 732 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924010414732 Around the World ON A Floating Palace By JAMES T. NICHOLS Author of 'Birdseye Views of Far Lands" Vol. I and Vol. II Nichols Book & Travel Co. University Place Station | , Des Moines, Iowa Copyrighted 1923 By JAMBS T. NICHOLS INTRODUCTORY WORD This book is a record of a voyage around the world. Eight hundred and ten cruisers encircled the globe on a palatial ocean liner. It was the largest company on the largest steamship that ever undertook such a journey. The story was written for Peoples Popular Monthly, published in Des Moines, Iowa, and is published in book form with the permission of the publishers of this journal. No literary merit is claimed for the book. It is the simple story of the visit to each country, written "on the ground" and very largely in the language of the street. The "Morning Times" feature is an attempt to give some of the happenings and sayings as well as some of the jokes and gossip heard daily on an ocean liner. The illustrations are almost wholly from pictures taken by the cruisers. Many of these were given the author while on board the ship and unfortunately the names of those who furnished the pictures were not written on them and proper credit cannot be given. In all cases credit is given when known. A map of the world journey is reproduced so that the reader can trace the entire voyage. The world journey touched about thirty great foreign cities in fifteen countries on four continents. Thousands of miles were traveled on trains in many lands, hundreds of miles in automobiles, about one week was spent in jinrikshas, carriages, carts and on ponies, camels and elephants. Travel on the water covered about thirty- three thousand five hundred statute miles on more than sixty bodies of water. In all, the author traveled almost forty thousand miles on this world journey. (L M C ^ H H W o <,< oa 1-! ^ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I The Empress of France 7 II New York to Havana— 1,165 Miles 11 III Havana to Panama^990 Miles 19 IV Panama to the Golden Gate— 3,297 Miles 25 V Around San Francisco 31 VI The Golden Gate to Hilo— 1,900 Miles 36 VII Hilo to Honolulu— 200 Miles 43 VIII Honolulu to Yokohama— 3,400 Miles 50 IX Yokohama, Kamakura and Tokyo 56 X Tokyo, a Little World 65 XI Tokyo to Osaka— 394 Miles 73 XII Kyoto to Hong Kong— 1,460 Miles 78 XIII Hong Kong to Canton— 90 Miles 85 XIV Rambles Through Canton 91 XV Canton to Manila— 700 Miles 96 XVI The City of Manila 103 XVII Philippines to Java— 1,570 Miles Ill XVIII Batavia to Singapore— 530 Miles 118 XIX The Crossroad of the Orient 124 XX Singapore to Rangoon — 1,117 Miles 134 XXI Rangoon to Calcutta— 830 Miles 142 XXII Calcutta to Darjeeling- 400 Miles 147 XXIII Darjeeling to Columbo— 1,600 Miles 156 XXIV The Island of Ceylon 164 XXV Columbo to Agra— 1,690 Miles 173 XXVI The Taj Mahal. 182 XXVII Agra to Bombay— 840 Miles 189 XXVIII Bombay to Suez— 2,970 Miles 195 XXIX Suez to Cairo— 130 Miles 201 XXX The Pyramids and Sphinx 206 XXXI Sakarah and Memphis 211 XXXII Cairo to Naples— 1,210 Miles 216 XXXIII Naples to Gibraltar— 976 Miles 221 XXXIV The Rock of Gibraltar 227 XXXV Gibraltar, Havre, Southampton, Quebec — 4,263 Miles 233 XXXVI Conclusion 238 THE PANAMA CANAL Upper — Lower Gates, Gatun Locks Center — Coaling Plant at Balboa Lower — U. S. Warships Going Through Locks CHAPTER I The "Empress of France" A MIGHTY ocean steamship is a floating pal- ace. Such was the "Empress of France," which was chartered for a cruise around the world. During the war this ship was the flag ship of the patrol between the Shetland Islands and Iceland. She intercepted fifteen thousand ships, escorted convoys and steamed nearly three hundred thou- sand miles. After the war the ship was entirely recondi- tioned and became one of the palaces of the sea. With twenty imperial suites with private baths, hundreds of smaller staterooms, two large dining saloons, two smoking rooms, libraries, lounges, social halls, gymnasium, elevators, glass-inclosed promenade deck, she became a real home for eight hundred and ten cruisers for four months. She has six decks above the water line and is a quadruple screw turbine eighteen-thousand-flve hundred-ton steamship and holds the record for crossing the Atlantic Ocean in five days and twen- ty-two hours. On this world- journey, the Empress of France had a crew of six hundred people. Twenty-four engineers and fifty-six mechanics kept the machin- ery running smoothly. Seventy firemen shoveled three hundred tons of coal into her furnaces every twenty-four hours when she ran at full speed, and when all things were favorable she made more than four hundred miles per day. It took thirty-six cooks, twelve bakers and seven butchers to get our food ready. And when this was 8 Around the World on a Floating Palace ready it took eighty-four of our one hundred and ninety stewards to wait upon the tables for our company. In fact, this was the largest company and on the largest steamship that ever attempted to encircle the globe. "We started from New York with eighty-five thousand pounds of fresh beef, thirty-six thousand pounds of mutton, twenty-six thousand pounds of bacon, twenty thousand pounds of fresh pork, ten thousand pounds of veal and twenty thousand pounds of cured ham. Thirty-one thousand chickens, twelve thousand capons, six thousand ducks, five thousand geese, three thousand turkeys, two thousand quail, one thousand grouse, eight hundred partridges and one hundred and fifty hares were in our refriger- ators. We had four thousand oxtails, four thousand ox kidneys and four thousand pounds of canned ox tongue. We had seventy-two thousand eggs, ten thousand pounds of butter, five thousand pounds of ice cream powder, one thousand gallons of new fresh milk, two hundred gallons of pure cream and the pantrymen were prepared to make us forty gallons of ice cream every day. Along the line of vegetables we had sixty tons of Irish potatoes, fifteen thousand pounds of sweet potatoes, nine thousand heads of cabbage, thirty- six hundred heads of lettuce, eight thousand pounds of turnips, six thousand pounds of carrots, one thousand pounds of ripe tomatoes, twenty-six hundred pounds of cauliflower, and twenty-six hundred pounds of eggplant. In the way of fruit we had, on leaving New York, four hundred boxes of oranges, four hundred The "Empress of France" 9 boxes of apples, three hundred boxes of grape- fruit, and other things in proportion. In all the above I have only mentioned some of the most prominent things, as everyone knows there were hundreds of other things along the line of eatables. At almost every port during the entire journey our refrigerators and pantries were stocked up and it is all but unbelievable the amount of pro- visions consumed on this world journey. The chief steward told me again and again that he pur- chased the very best that the markets afforded re- gardless of prices. He also said that at any time any of the cruisers wanted any delicacy to eat, if he wereinformed he would do his best to purchase it at the first port touched. Our laundry was prepared to take care of five thousand towels, three thousand napkins and more than two hundred tablecloths daily. Besides these were all the sheets, pillow cases and other articles, to say nothing of our personal laundry that must be washed and ironed daily. With this in mind, who could but feel sorry for the twenty-eight peo- ple in the laundry department, even though they had all modern equipment? THE MORNING TIMES Vol. I January No. 1 ANNOUNCEMENT, PUR- The purpose of The POSE AND POLICY Morning Times is to give A very brief page of The the readers of this book Morning Times will be some idea of some of the added to the end of each doings and sayings that oc- chapter in this book. The cur daily on a great ocean name of this sheet is quite liner. Once upon a time significant as will be noted the editor of this sheet in the next paragraph. traveled on an ocean liner 10 Around the World on a Floating Palace ■where there was a large amount of gossip heard by many of the passengers al- most daily. There was one individual, you can guess whether this individual was a man or a woman, who dispensed so much in- formation regarding these doings and sayings that said individual was called by some others "The Morn- ing Times," hence the name of this sheet. one in a thousand who never heard them before. The policy of The Morn- ing Times will be to tell the truth only part of the time. In fact it would be impossible to tell the truth all the time considering the material from which the contents of this sheet must be chosen. It is also im- possible to give credit where credit is really due. No doubt some of these jokes and sayings had their origin in the mind of Adam when Eve was "only a rib," but they are told on each voyage as entirely new and absolutely orig- inal and it is barely pos- sible that there is at least Let it be further noted that it will be the policy of The Morning Times to keep personalities elimi- nated from its columns. There will be no mud slinging or anything of that kind, but it will be a clean, moral, upright, newsy, gossipy sheet. A large share of the contents were contributed by the cruisers, and of course ev- erything is new and true - and very original, or was at one time. The paper is to be read and forgotten at once, or if you are in- terested in the story of the cruise you can refuse to read The Morning Times and yet be about as wise as though you had scanned carefully every word in every issue. With this frank statement of policy the editor is relieved from all responsibility, and if you read The Morning Times at all you do so at the peril of loss of valuable time. CHAPTER II New York to Havana — 1165 Miles THE Empress of France was the scene of great activity all day January twenty-second. At four-thirty in the evening all visitors were warned to go ashore at once. Thousands had come to the pier to see us off and wish us "Bon Voyage," or "Bum Voyage," as one expressed it. One promi- nent New York minister had a thousand people from his congregation to see him off. This great delegation was headed by a band and their music was delightful. Just before five o'clock the great whistle was blown loud and long and its deep tones made the great liner quiver. Gang planks were swung in, the tugs began to puff and as the floating palace began to move, both liner and pier became one vast sea of waving hats and handkerchiefs and the air was filled with "good-byes." Some were sing- ing, some were crying and some were yelling, while others were silently trembling with emotion. We were off on a thirty-thousand-mile cruise around the world. Down North River we went amidst the shrieks of a hundred or perhaps a thousand whistles from tugs and ferries, motor boats and other water craft and closing factories on the land. Some of the mighty sky scrapers were a blaze of glory as their thousands of lights glittered in the gathering dark- ness. Although I had passed it more than a score of times, yet the Statue of Liberty never looked more wonderful than at that moment. Out of New York Bay into the broad Atlantic our great ship proudly steamed, but fortunately the 12 Around the World on a Floating Palace waters were smooth. Places at tables had been assigned and we who preferred the "first sitting" were all in our places promptly at six o'clock. Off Cape Hatteras, the sea became a little rough and a good many of our cruisers had their first ex- perience in "feeding the fishes." The ship doctor had one hundred and ninety patients. We had forty physicians in our company and some of them gave their services and advice freely. Many believe that seasickness is largely in the mind and preventable. The writer is one who be- lieves this but dared not say so before anyone who was ill with the malady. Twenty-five years ago I started across the Atlantic determined not to be seasick, and throughout all the years, making many voyages, I have never missed a meal on board and never lost one. With calm weather, however, nearly all soon re- covered and were as happy as could be. Later on one cruiser developed pneumonia and had to be left at the first stop. He was full of pep, however, and declared he would meet us at San Francisco February tenth. But we never saw him again, for he passed into the Great Beyond the next day. Passing through the Florida Straits it was early on the morning of January twenty-sixth that we steamed into the Bay of Havana, passed Moro Castle and into the great harbor at Havana, Cuba. At the entrance of the harbor the channel is less than a half mile wide and the harbor itself is one of the finest in the world. It will accommodate nearly a thousand vessels at one time, so experts tell us. My, what forgotten memories are revived as we look around! Almost exactly twenty-five years New York to Havgina — 1,165 Miles 13 ago, just a few hundred feet from where we are landing, without any warning whatever, the battle- ship Maine was blown to pieces and two hundred and sixty-six American seamen lost their lives. That explosion was heard around the world and it practically blew Spain from the western hemi- sphere. Havana is a city containing nearly four hundred thousand people, a little larger than Kansas City, Missouri. It is said to be the wealthiest city per capita on earth, but I have been in other cities that made the same claim. By means of a cable it is connected by telephone with towns and cities all over the United States and Canada. The human voice can thus be heard distinctly more than six thousand miles — the long- est telephone line in the world. The Chamber of Commerce in Havana had written this fact to me and in a lecture on board ship before reaching Havana 1 mentioned it. After leaving Cuba, a gen- tleman said he took my suggestion and talked with his home in New York City and heard distinctly. A three-minute conversation cost him seventeen dollars but he declared it was well worth it. The Empress of France had to anchor out in the harbor and we had to be taken to shore on tenders. Before leaving the decks we could see the great line-up of fine automobiles parked on the dock ready to whirl us through the city. We were soon in them and silently speeding over the smooth asphalt paving through streets and boulevards. Along the great sea wall we went for miles, then to the Country Club and golf links some eight or ten miles away, through fine boulevards and the aristocratic portion of the city. The drive was 14 Around the World on a Floating Palace delightful. For fine club houses and beautiful grounds, Havana is equalled by but few cities. It is said that one club has forty-three thousand members and their club house cost a million dol- lars. The Clerks' Club also has thirty thousand members. As the dues are but a dollar and a half a month, one does not have to be rich to belong to it. The aristocratic Christobal-Colon cemetery is one of the show places of the city. The beautiful "Fireman's Monument" in the center cost seventy- nine thousand dollars and is a wonderful piece of work. But I would not want to be buried in this cemetery because, after three years if the rent of the tomb is not paid, it is opened and the bones thrown out upon the bone pile and the tomb rented again. If I should die and were buried here and my wife married again, I fear the second husband might object to paying the rent of his predecessor's tomb and I would have to go to the bone yard. Until quite recently, so I was told, this bone yard was a regular pyramid of bones out in the open. But these bones were hauled away and a wall built around the yard and a new bone pile started, but 1 saw through the crack under the gate and at least a dozen skeletons were in plain sight. Someone suggested that it was bad psychology for the peo- ple of Havana to allow this bone yard to be seen by visitors at all. Half of our cruisers lunched at the Hotel Saville and the other half were taken to the Roof Garden of the Plaza Hotel. These are the finest hotels in the city and I was told that the rates were about twenty-five dollars a day for the best rooms. At New York to Havana — 1,165 Miles 15 any rate I do not expect to have such a sumptuous feast again on the world journey as the three-dol- lar-per-plate luncheon on the Roof Garden. These Cubans are human like the rest of us, for when I complimented the manager of the hotel, not only upon the well-cooked food, but upon the order and system of his management, his eyes sparkled with delight and his handshake was most hearty. Of course I went to the Columbus Cathedral where the courteous attendant assured me that the bones of the great discoverer of America lie quietly resting in this church. The fact is that in a half- dozen other churches the guides are just as certain about their claims. Yet there was a finality about this man that makes one inclined to believe him, even though Columbus died across the sea and very likely his body was cremated. It is too bad that space will permit only the men- tion of the governor's palace, fifteen great churches nearly all of which are noted for richness and splendor of decorations, fifty public fountains scat- tered over the city, the superb botanical garden, to say nothing of other sights. I saw the toilers, both men and women, working in one of the one hundred first rank cigar and tobacco factories and was told that they receive fourteen dollars a thousand for making good cigars, of which Cuba sends one hundred and fifty million to the United States annually. The Island of Cuba is a little larger than the state of Tennessee and contains nearly three mil- lion people. ,She has nearly a half-million chil- dren in her government schools and the University 16 Around the World on a Floating Palace of Havana enrolls nearly twenty-five hundred stu- dents annually. She has one million and a half acres in her sugar plantations and about two hundred sugar mills. Her sugar crop alone in 1920 was valued at more than a billion dollars. If the sugar she exports to the United States alone were all placed upon ships it would take twelve hundred vessels to carry it. THE MORNING TIMES Vol. I January No. 2 As we start it might be well to use this edition of The Morning Times to men- tion a few of the most fa- miliar terms that are in use on board ship every day. In doing this I will give the term and its meaning. Bow — The front end of the ship. Stern — The rear end of the ship. Port— The left hand side as you face the bow. Star Board— The right hand side as you face the bow. Bridge — A bridge high over the bow where cap- tain and officers stay. Crow's Nest — A place high on the front mast where the lookout stays. Lookout — Man in crow's nest who looks ahead for rocks, vessels, etc. Fore — Any place for- ward on board where you happen to be. Aft — Any place on rear of the ship where you hap- pen to be. Hold — ^Down the freight elevator to baggage rooms near bottom of ship. Steward — Man who takes care of your room or waits on you at table. Stewardess — Woman who looks after room occupied by ladies. Dining Saloon — Simply the large dining room. Lounge — Large rooms with all kinds of easy chairs and cushions. Chief Steward — Man who has entire charge of din- ing room and food. Purser — The cashier, banker and bookkeeper of the ship. Commander — The King who rules the ship — his word is law. Captain — Man who has complete charge of all the crew. Chief of Police— Man who has charge of detec- tives and watchmen. Log — A sort of a screw, rope and speedometer that measures the speed. Log — Also donates book 'New York to Havana — 1,165 Miles 17 in -which are all the rec- ords such as reports, longi- tude and latitude, miles traveled each day and all items of information that are kept on board during the voyage. Steerage — The decks be- low where the poorer peo- ple travel. However, on this journey there are no second or third class pas- sengers. All rooms have been cleaned, painted and an electric fan placed in each room. The rooms on the lower decks are less expensive but in service, food, free access to all parts of the ship, all are supposed to share equally. DECK GAMES There are a half dozen or more deck games that are enjoyed very much on a long journey. Even on a short trip across the Atlan- tic such out door games as "shuffleboard" and "pitch- ing quoits" are engaged in quite freely. But more uncommon games are "Threading the needle," "Sticking the pig's eye," "Driving the bottles," "Potato race," "Slinging the monkey," "Cock fight," "Life preserver race" and a lot of others. These games are very popular on South American trips and are very enjoyable. FORTY WEDDINGS It is reported that forty weddings will likely result from the courting that be- gan on the "Empress of France" among our cruis- ers. This is not surpris- ing when it is remembered that there were nearly two hundred marriageable la- dies among the cruisers. HE WILL DO IT ANYWAY She — Now Doctor, my husband is sure to be sea- sick. Will you tell him what to do?" Doctor — ^"Never mind, madam, he will do it any- way." Photographs hy Paul Boyd Upper — One of the Beauty Spots in Havana Lower — Havana from Roof Garden, Hotel Plaza CHAPTER III Havana to Panama — 990 Miles LEAVING Havana we had a fine sail on the Gulf of Mexico, which is the boiling pot of the At- lantic Ocean. Here the waters are heated and sent out in that great ocean river called the Gulf Stream. Turning the point of western Cuba we passed through the Yucatan channel, it being but a little more than a hundred miles across to the Yucatan country. Then for several hundred miles we were on the smooth blue waters of the great Caribbean Sea. Passing the breakwater we came into Limon Bay and had already realized we were at a great world crossroad, for ships flying the flags of nations were in the harbor at Christobal-Colon. As the Empress of France only had about five thousand tons of coal in her bunkers when we left New York she must have sixteen hundred tons more to reach San Francisco. ' On this account we went directly to the Cristo- bal-Colon coaling statioh, which is said to be one of the most up-to-date plants of its kind in the world. That this statement is true is shown by the fact that fifteen hundred and seventy-eight tons of coal were actually loaded upon our ship in less than twelve hours. As the ship neared the coaling station we could see a train of ten coaches ready to take us to the twin cities, which were only a few miles distant. It did not take long to leave the ship and board the train, and at the first station a hundred automobiles were in readiness to take half of our party on a 20 Around the World on a Floating Palace forty-mile drive while the other four hundred went on to the regular station, spent some time sight see- ing about the towns and had lunch at the splendid Washington Hotel. When the first contingent returned to the hotel the second party of four hundred got into the same automobiles and took the drive, which included a visit to the Gatun Lock system, the submarine and hydroplane base at Cbco Solo and many other in- teresting places. In the year fifteen hundred and ten a man be- came hopelessly in debt at San Domingo and, to escape his creditors, was smuggled on board the first ship known to reach the Isthmus of Panama. This man was Balboa, and three years later (1513) he climbed a tree on Culebra Hill and discovered the great Pacific Ocean. Four hundred years later, almost to the day, the waters were turned into the Panama Canal. It took Balboa twenty-nine days to cross the Isthmus. Our ship crossed it in a little more than six hours. Balboa himself originated the idea of a canal across the Isthmus and was so insistent about it that King Charles V ordered a survey made, but the work was not followed up. One of the next men after Balboa to advocate a canal here was a Scotch preacher by the name of William Patterson, but the people then, as many people of today, refused to take the counsel of the minister. The first people to actually "throw dirt" were the French, who worked eight years, spent two hundred and fifty million dollars and then failed. It is interesting to know that ours was the nineteenth project proposed to dig the canal. Havana to Panama — 990 Miles 21 Before describing our passage through the canal I am going to call attention to some facts and fig- ures that mathematicians have worked out. The concrete used in the entire canal would make a pyramid almost as high as Cheops and the excava- tions would make sixty-three pyramids as large as this mighty Egyptian mass of stone. Gatun Lake is said to be the largest artificial lake in the world, covering one hundred and sixty- four acres of land. This is made by damming up the Chagras river. The concrete used in this dam alone would make five hundred Washington Monuments and if all the material used in this dam were loaded on two-horse wagons the proces- sion of them would be eighty thousand miles long. It is more than eight miles through Culebra Cut and the average depth is two hundred feet. At the deepest place this cut is five hundred feet deep and a half mile wide at the top. The channel through this cut is more than three hundred feet wide at the bottom and the water is forty-five feet deep. It took fifty million pounds of dynamite to blast the rocks in this cut and if all the material taken from it were loaded on flat cars it would make a train that would reach around the earth four times — one hundred thousand miles. In digging this Culebra Cut (or Gaillard Cut as it is now called) one hundred miles of railroad track were laid and one hundred and fifteen loco- motives with two thousand cars were in constant use. In digging the canal about thirty-five thou- sand men were employed, six-sevenths of whom were colored. Our government tried out eighty nationalities and the Barbadoe negroes proved to be the most satisfactory. 22 Around the World on a Floating Palace The Isthmus of Panama used to be called "the pest-hole of the world," "the bazaar of all dis- eases." In September eighteen hundred and eighty-five, when the French were at work, it is said that one out of every five men died and that the average life of a workman was only six weeks. Now it is one of the most healthful spots to be found and a mosquito crea1;es about as much ex- citement as a burglar. Some time before we began the work the discov- ery was made that the mosquito carries contagious diseases such as typhoid and yellow fever and that kerosene on water forms a scum that smothers the insect as soon as it is hatched. The greatest battle was with the mosquito. Gen- eral Gorgas spent one-half million dollars eradi- cating this pest. Of course he was the laughing stock of a lot of people who accused him of throw- ing government money away, but he went on draining swamps and pouring coal oil upon the water, screening in porches and houses and soon these diseases gradually disappeared. The Canal Zone is a strip of land ten miles wide across the Isthmus. The United States paid the Republic of Panama ten million dollars for it, bought the ground a second time from the individ- ual owners, paid the French forty-million dollars for their rights, are now paying Panama an annual rental of two hundred and fifty million dollars, and have agreed to pay the Republic of Colombia twenty-five million dollars for her good will. The canal cost four hundred million dollars but is already more than paying expenses, the tolls amounting to more than one million dollars per month. At present there are nearly twenty thou- Havana to Panama — 990 Miles 23 sand people employed on the Canal Zone. It takes twenty-five hundred people to operate the canal. It is well defended by airplanes, submarines and big guns. One defense gun will throw a shell that weighs twenty-four hundred pounds seventeen miles and it is said that another gun will throw a shell thirty miles. THE MORNING TIMES Vol. I January No. .3 THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA Little Tommy — "Pa, what is the Isthmus of Panama?" Pa — "The Isthmus of Panama son, is a narrow strip of land connecting Central America to the United States Treasury." VERY PROGRESSIVE A much married lady im- parted to elderly maiden who was devoutly religious the information that she had had four husbands. The meeker sister said, "It is hardly fair for Providence to give you four husbands and me nary a one." "Now don't you lay that onto the Lord," said the other, "for He is not in the least to blame. I just got out and hustled for every one of them husbands." OLD TIME PATRIOTS To pass through the great Panama Canal arouses some of the old time pa- triotism that was manifest in the early days of our country and calls to mind Franklin's Famous Toast. It was across the sea in the early days when Ben- jamin Franklin, an English Premier and a French Statesman were together and some one proposed that each toast his own country to which the others instantly agreed. The Englishman was first and said, "Here's to the King of England, the Sun that gives light to the peoples of the earth." The Frenchman came next and said, "Here's to the President of France," the Moon whose magic rays move the tides of the world." Franklin arose instantly and said, "Here's to George Washington the Joshua of America who commanded the Sun and Moon to stand still and they obeyed him." Photographs by Mr. Lyman Upper Left — Ruins op Old Panama City Uppei! Right — Panama Boy and His Mother LowBK — A Panama Canal Slide CHAPTER IV Panama to the Golden Gate — 3297 Miles IT WAS early in the morning January twenty- ninth. Our tolls for passing through the canal had been arranged for and were approximately twelve thousand dollars, but the canal was saving us nine thousand miles between New York and the Golden Gate. If a steamship is owned by a reliable company, it is allowed to pass through the canal and the bill is figured and presented to the company. If there is any doubt about the owners paying the tolls promptly, cash must be paid "on the spot." No pay, no pass. We were all on deck as the Empress of France began to move from the coaling station out into the channel of the canal. I neglected to say that the canal is about fifty miles long, while in reality it is only forty miles across the Isthmus. The chan- nel had to be dug to deep water at each end, which is some five miles at each end. After steaming about seven miles from the coaling station we came to the first lock of the Gatun Lock system. Just below the lower lock gate we noticed a gi- gantic chain a little above the water. This chain will stop any ship — ^friend or enemy. The largest liner might strike this chain going at full speed but the chain would stop it before the gate is reached. By an ingenious device the chain will give out as the weight comes against it but will not break. It was great to see the big gates open for us. They are gigantic affairs. They are sixty-five feet wide, about the same height and seven feet thick. 26 Around the World on a Floating Palace They weigh about five hundred tons each. The hinges on them alone weigh thirty-seven hundred pounds. The lower gates on the Pacific side are nearly twenty feet higher than these, made so be- cause of the difference in the tides of the two oceans. When these gates are entirely open, the big chain drops to the bottom. The gates cannot be closed without first raising this chain to the top. Eight electric motors, called electric mules, run- ning on a cogged track, were made fast to the ship and we were pulled into the first lock chamber. These lock chambers are one thousand feet long and one hundred and ten feet wide. After the gates behind us were closed the valves were opened and thousands of gallons of water boiled up from the bottom of the lock chamber. A great tunnel below, sixteen feet square, lets the water down from above. There are just one hundred holes, each eighteen inches in diameter, in the bottom of each lock chamber. In about a dozen minutes the great ship was lifted twenty-eight feet and we were on the level with the water on the second lock chamber. The gates above were then opened and the "electric mules" towed our ship into the second lock cham- ber. The same process was repeated and we were then in the third lock chamber and on a level with the water in Gatun Lake, which is eighty-five feet above the level of the ocean. As we were towed out of this third lock chamber into Gatun Lake we noticed a great steel affair that looks like a section of a great bridge. This is an emergency gate which can be turned and lowered Panama to the Golden Gate— 3,297 Miles 27 until it shuts off all the water from the entire lock system in case repairs must be made. All locks are made double so that ships can pass each other, even in the lock systems. Our own engines were next started and we went at full speed twenty-four miles across Gatun Lake. As we entered the Great Culebra Cut the engines had to be slowed down and we went nearly nine miles through this cut at a very slow speed. Emerging from this cut we entered the first lock on the Pacific side and were let down about thirty feet into Miraflores Lake. It is about one mile and a quarter across this lake and here by means of other locks we were let down to the level of the Pacific Ocean. Going about five miles farther the Empress of France slowly came up to the pier at Balboa. As there are two cities at the Atlantic end — Christobal, the city of sunshine, and Colon, the city of moonshine — so there are two cities at the Pacific end — ^Balboa and New Panama City. Nearly two hundred automobiles were in waiting at the pier and soon we were being whirled through the streets of these cities. We saw the new hospital in Panama City, the bathing beach, the bull ring, the race course, many of the churches and some of us had the privilege of going through a most wonderful private botani- cal garden. The streets, as a rule, were clean and almost full of children and the parks and plazas were real playgrounds. Some of these children were naked and all seemed to be having a good time. An eight-mile drive over a splendidly paved highway brought us to the ruins of old Panama 28 Around the World on a Floating Palace City. Two hundred and fifty years ago this was a city containing twelve thousand houses, eight mon- asteries and several large cathedrals. But the Welch pirate. Sir Henry Morgan, destroyed the city. This man was both inhuman and unmerci- ful. His exploits were terrible. If you think the late war was the acme of inhumanity, read about Sir Henry Morgan. There is nothing left of Old Panama City but ruins. The roots of great trees are interlocked with the stones in the walls of buildings in these old ruins. Could these old walls speak, the whole civilized world would shudder. Driving back to Balboa I spent some time in the great Administration Building on Balboa Heights. The paintings beneath the dome of this building are some of the greatest masterpieces on the Amer- ican continent, allowing the writer of these lines to be the judge. To gaze upon them one almost lives over again the days when the great slides seemed to say to the engineers and workmen, "hands off." The great hospital on Ancon Hill is a wonder. To visit it makes one prouder than ever that he is an American. It was a great treat that some of us enjoyed who got into one of the great club houses and saw the swimming contest that happened to be on at the time. Swimmers from New York, Denver and other places were present. There comes an end to all good things, and at eight o'clock in the evening of January thirtieth we passed through the Gulf of Panama and out into the great Pacific. The weather had been hot around the canal but when we got into the dol- drums at the southern end of the continent it was still hotter. Panama to the Golden Gate-^3,297 Miles 29 The three thousand two hundred and fifty miles from Panama to the Golden Gate was a long jour- ney. While we were enduring the heat the Wire- less News, a little paper published daily and placed on our plates at breakfast, told of the zero weather at home. Happily we missed the storms on the first fi£ty-five hundred miles of sea travel. THE MORNING TIMES Vol. I January No. 4 SHE DIDN'T NEED A MAN We had a goodly num- ber of maiden ladies on the world cruise. One of thetn was asked why she did not get married that she might have a man around. She replied, "I already have a stove that smokes, a dog that growls, a parrot that swears, and a cat that stays out late at night and what do I want with a man around?" HE GOT THE TEXT WRONG 6ne of our young men who does not often attend church services dropped into Divine service one Sunday morning. Later on someone asked him if he could quote the text of the sermon. He said he was not sure about it but he thought it was that pas- sage where it says, "Many are cold, but few are fro- zen." THE DEVILED HAM Some people were dis- cussing what became of the herd of swine mentioned in the Scriptures where the evil spirits went into them. One gentleman, no doubt thinking of a meal he had just had among the natives on the island, suggested that they were made into deviled ham. LOT'S WIFE BEAT A MILE Two men, Mr. Wood and Mr. _ Stone, saw a lady dressed in one of the new modern creations from Paris. Mr. Wood turned to Stone, Mr. Stone turned to Wood, and they both turned to rubber. Pltotoiifftphs fi-om Cbiiiiihci- of Commerce Uppee — San Fri.\NCisco City Hall Lower — View Business District. San Francisco CHAPTER V Around San Francisco TO PASS through the Golden Gate is to enter the largest land locked harbor in the new world. The area of San Francisco Bay is four hundred and fifty square miles. It is sixty-four miles long and from four to ten miles wide. Forty-eight steamship lines operate from here and send their ships to and from the seven seas. They have forty-one modem piers, fifteen miles of berthing space and one hundred and thirty-five acres of cargo space. They are now planning an additional warehouse that will provide a half mil- lion more square feet of space and it will cost two million dollars. The Golden Gate is less than a mile wide. The channel is more than a half hundred feet deep and the current is very swift. Nearly thirty years ago the ship Rio de Janeiro, after a long voyage, was started through this gateway in the darkness, struck a rock on the right hand side, went down, and all on board except one man were lost. Had it not been for this man and a few pieces of wreckage upon which the name of the ship was printed, no one would have ever known what be- came of the great ocean liner. To one who saw San Francisco immediately after the earthquake and fire of nineteen hundred and six the city of today might be called "A Mir- acle City." With hundreds of buildings only great piles of broken concrete and twisted iron girders, with water and gas mains broken, with one-third of the population collecting their insurance and 32 Around the World on a Floating Palace leaving the city, it actually looked like the city was doomed for generations. After only seventeen years almost every trace of the great calamity has disappeared and the city is far greater than ever before. Its fifty banks have resources of a billion dollars and ac- tual deposits of more than seven hundred and fifty million dollars. Its assessed value is five hundred millions and bonded indebtedness less than one- tenth of that amount. This city has a twenty-million-dollar civic center in the heart of its business district, with an audi- torium that seats twelve thousand people, a city hall that cost four million and a municipal library that cost one million and a half. It has five hun- dred miles of hard surfaced streets and boule- vards. You can ride anywhere on its three hun- dred and fifty miles of street railway for five cents, sleep in any one of its twelve hundred and seventy hotels on a good bed and dine at any of its five hundred restaurants for less money than in New York. If you lived there your children would be well taken care of in one of the city's one hundred and seven public schools and you could have your choice of two hundred and seventy-four churches to worship in on the Lord's Day. You could live in one of the thirty-four thousand one-family dwellings, one of the twenty-four thousand flats or in one of the two thousand apartment houses. You could go to work in one of the four thousand manufacturing plants in Greater San Francisco and help in producing one billion dollars' worth of goods every year. Around San Francisco 33 Your son or daughter could be one of the eleven thousand regular students at Berkeley University across the bay, or be one of the sixteen thousand enrolled annually in the University Extension courses. You could have your choice between fifty-seven movie houses or seventy theaters, or if you wanted to see a football game you could go to the great Berkeley Stadium and sit with sixty thousand others and not be crowded. If there were five in your family and as well off as the average San Franciscoian you would have nearly four thousand in the savings bank and be worth more than fifteen thousand dollars. / On reaching this world city our eight hundred cruisers found enough Lincoln and Cadillac cars ajid limousines to take us on a thirty-mile drive. Of course we went through Chinatown, around Nob's Hill to the old Exposition grounds through the fifteen-hundred-acre Presidio Park and saw that San Francisco is the best fortified city on the American continent. Then along the ocean beach to the Golden Gate, thence to the Cliff House where the millionaires of the early days were wined and dined and watched the sea lions play. Up and down the beautiful drives of the one thousand-acre Golden Gate Park where for thirty minutes we revelled in the beauty of acres of blooming flowers and shrubbery and eucalyptus trees. Then up and up nearly a thousand feet into the air to the top of Twin Peaks, where, for won- derful scenery, the sight is not surpassed at any spot on the earth, then down into the busy thor- oughfares and for a mile on Market Street, which has been well named "The Street of Gold." At the eight-million-dollar Palace Hotel, which M Around the World on a Floating Palace covers two acres of ground, we were assisted by courteous attendants into tlie beautiful Rose and Palm dining rooms where our company of eight hundred were shut off from the crowd. After a sumptuous feast the Mayor turned over to us the keys of the city, the president of the Cbamber of Commerce told us we could have what we wanted for the asking, and the Chief of Police assured us that the sky was the limit for all those on this world cruise. Our manager responded to these welcome addresses in a most fitting manner and for nearly two days we enjoyed the hospitality of this wonderful city of the Golden Gate. THE MORNING TIMES Vol. I February No. 5 YOU CAN'T BEAT KANSAS A man from Texas and another from Kansas were discussing tlie merits of their home state. The Tex- an said, "Down in Texas we raise radishes so large that it takes a team to pull them." "That's nothing," said the man from Kansas, "I saw two policemen in my home city both sleep- ing on one beat." REAL PHILOSOPHY The lady had a pet rooster named Willie. Roosters came and roost- ers went but she would not eat Willie. She had been away from home and on her return Willie was missing and they told her of the minister's unex- pected visit and their fear that Willie was accident- ally chosen as a sacrifice for his comfort. She said of course mistakes would happen and after all she was so much happier that Willie had entered the min- istry than if had belonged to the laity. COULD HE DO IT? They point out one spot on the Potomac River where George Washington threw a silver dollar from one shore to the opposite shore. It seems an impos- sible feat until one remem- bers that a dollar went far- ther in those days than it does today. THE SCUM AT THE TOP Two men got into a quar- rel over the aristocracy from which they sprang. One of them said, "I came from the best families in the country, from the top of the pot." "Sure," said the other, "the scum al- ways rises to the top of the pot." Entrance to Lava Tube at Mount Kilauea on the Hawaiian Islands CHAPTER VI The Golden Gate to Hilo— 1900 Miles IT IS nineteen hundred miles from San Francisco to Hilo. This little city is located on the larg- est island of the group called the Hawaiian Islands. This large island is about as large as the state of Connecticut and is called "Hawaii." We had taken on nearly two thousand tons of coal at San Francisco and it proved to be of such a poor quality that we lost forty to fifty miles a day from our regular schedule and the radio was kept busy by our manager, who had to completely rearrange the program for our short stay in Hilo. One elderly gentleman had passed away soon after leaving San Francisco and his friends had to be communicated with that the authorities might know what to do with the body. This was the sec- ond death since we left New York, the first having died at the hospital in Havana. Our first sight of Hawaii was in the afternoon and at four o'clock we were entering Hilo Bay and the Empress of France was pulled up to the side of a pier. As the ship neared the pier it actually looked like the entire population of the city, twelve thousand people, had come to see us land. A fine string band was playing, many were singing and all seemed to be smiling and happy. As our cruisers went down the gang plank they were met by hundreds of smiling girls who welcomed them by placing a chain of red and yellow paper around the neck of each one. Without apology I am going to turn this into a personal narrative for a few paragraphs. Being among the first to leave the ship I had not yet The Golden Gate to Hilo— 1,900 Miles 37 stepped from the gang plank when a man came tearing through the crowd and took hold of my hand. It was a young man who lived in my own home for several years and only left it three years before. You can hardly imagine a happier sur- prise, for no member of my family knew that he had been married or that he had gone to the Ha- waiian Islands. This man's name is John Hirchler, and he had his car at hand. Before a hundred people had landed we were in the car headed for the Crater of Kilauea, which is the largest continuously ac- tive volcano in the world. The crater is thirty-one miles from Hilo and no one who has taken it can ever forget the drive to this spot. One sees gigantic ferns, cocoanut and banana trees, shrubbery and flowers and about everything peculiar to the tropical jungle. At one moment it looked as though you were in the jungle far from civilization and the next moment you are passing a sugar plantation with the homes of the toilers in little villages and which are a wonderful sight. Part of this drive is over a well-paved highway and part of it is over rough, stony ground. As we were very anxious to reach the crater before dark and as my friend had been over the road only a couple of days before and knew the road very well, we certainly broke all speed limits. Some- times we would be in a real forest and almost in a moment this would change to a sugar or pine- apple plantation. As we neared the crater the darkness was com- ing on. The sulphuric fumes made me think of Dante's Inferno. The escaping steam from rocks 38 Around the World on a Floating Palace and fissures sometimes blinded us and made it im- possible to see the rough roadway which was now over lava as hard as stone. This old crater pit, which has been called "The House of Everlasting Fire," covers nearly three thousand acres of ground. The road to it has been called "The Road to Hades," and it surely is well named. This pit is encircled by abrupt bluffs which are five hundred feet high. In the bottom of the large pit is a still deeper abyss which covers some fifteen acres or more. This lower abyss al- ways has in it molten lava and sometimes the whole thing is one vast lake of fire which is a boil- ing, bubbling, seething, crackling mass of fiery liquid — a real Lake of Fire. On this particular occasion the crater was a disappointment. Some time before the bottom seemed to have dropped out and a lot of people prophesied that Kilauea was dead. This seem- ing inactivity was for but a very short time. Some- times even a few hours make a great difference. A year before the liquid lake was only sixty feet below the crater rim and by the middle of the summer it had gone down four hundred feet. At this particular time it was as low as the lowest. Of course as the story of "poor coal" had been the cry for a week it was quite natural to conclude that the imps working in this inferno had either gone out on a strike or had a supply of "poor coal." To look down into the terrible abyss was a never-to-be-forgotten sight. I got down on my hands and knees while my friend held on to my feet, peeped over the almost perpendicular bluff and almost beneath was the mass of bubbling fire The Golden Gate to Hilo— 1,900 Miles 39 boiling like a pot. But it was hundreds of feet down to it. Only twenty-four hours after our party left the island the dispatches brought the news that Madam Pele, the Goddess of the Volcano, had re- ceived a supply of good coal and the crater was on a wild rampage, the molten lava even covering & part of the road we went over. The most common exclamation heard on the Empress of France was, "Why could not this have happened when we were there?" Driving five miles through the forest along the very narrow, winding roadway we reached the Vol- cano Hotel just after the first contingent of the party from the ship had arrived. The eight hun- dred people had been divided into two parties, the first company having boarded automobiles at the pier and driving directly to this hotel for the eve- ning dinner. The second company boarded a spe- cial train and had been taken in a roundabout way to Glenwood, which is nearly a dozen miles from the hotel. As the autos made the trip in much the shorter time they were sent from the hotel to the train, then to the hotel, after which those who had finished the meal were taken to the volcano and back to the train, the autos then returning to the hotel to pick up the second four hundred, take them to the crater and then back to the ship. Our efficient manager had this all so well ar- ranged that the eight hundred people were taken over this perilous journey without an accident of any kind, people eighty years of age making the trip. A few people had quite a thrill when they were left at the crater in the darkness long after the midnight hour. Fortunately, however, some- 40 Around the World on a Floating Palace one missed them and a car was sent back to pick them up. Some of the people did not get back to the ship until nearly four o'clock in the morning and all were tired but happy, for it was a wonder- ful experience. Going back to my own experience, we drove from the hotel back to Hilo, where Mrs. Hirchler had a steaming hot dinner ready and while the entire company were making their perilous drive we were having a great time talking of the old days, and of course I was asking all kinds of ques- tions about the people of Hawaii. The Japanese have more than one hundred thousand of the quar- ter of a million people of these islands and are in- creasing at a very rapid rate, these Japanese chil- dren being everywhere. It is well to keep in mind the fact that there are eight of the larger islands that make up the Ha- waiian group, this "big island" of Hawaii being larger than all the others together. The Hawaii National Park was set apart in nineteen hundred and sixteen by an Act of Congress but was not for- mally received and dedicated as such until July, nineteen hundred and twenty-one. There are two sections of this National Park on this large island. The Mauna Loa section, com- prising seventeen thousand three hundred and eighty acres; the Kilauea Volcano section and Kau Desert (lava desert), comprising seventy-nine thousand two hundred and sixty-five acres, and a road connecting the two mountains comprising three hundred and sixty acres. Plans are already under way to build this roadway between the two volcanos, Mauna Loa and Kilauea. The Golden Gate to Hilo—1,900'Miles 41 THE MORNING TIMES Vol. I February No. 6 He — Well, we're two days at sea and have to go two days more before we strike the island, but do you know that there's land within a mile and a half of us? She — No, I do not. There's none in sight. Where is it? He — Straight down. ABOUT TO GO UP Sambo was not feeling well and went to the doc- tor. His wife went with him but she waited at the bottom of the - stairway. The doctor told Sambo that he was in a bad fix, that he had s^rV^!^^-^^i ^w ^glrl itJi^&^^^sJ m^^Bltai ^rPHPP i^^^oH^^^n ^K^^s iHiiK ^^^ Gate to a Japanese Temple Pliolographs bli Paul Bojid Canton and'Some of the Mani- Boats on the Pearl Rivee CHAPTER XIII Hong Kong to Canton — 90 Miles TTONG KONG is the name of an island and not -*- -■- the name of a city, as is generally supposed. The name of the city on the island is Victoria, but it is scarcely ever heard. People address letters to Hong Kong without mentioning the name of the city and they reach their destination as quickly and with as much certainty as though they were properly addressed. This island is irregular in shape, a little more than ten miles in length, from two to five miles in width and has an area of a little more than thirty square miles. It was ceded to Great Britain about eighty years ago and is the great center of British commerce with China and Japan. It is also a British military center. About twenty-five years ago the peninsula of Kowloon, which is on the mainland of China just opposite to Hong Kong, was also ceded to Great Britain, or rather leased to her, for ninety-nine years. This with the waters of the bay gives Great Britain a territory of about three hundred and fifty square miles besides the island of Hong Kong. The city of Victoria, generally called Hong Kong, is the chief city on the island and has a pop- ulation of a little more than a half million peo- ple, some fourteen thousand of whom are non- Chinese. There are several villages on the island and all together these contain nearly twenty thou- sand people. New Kowloon contains more than a hundred thousand people, so the combined pop- 86 Around the World on a Floating Palace ulation of all this British territory is more than six hundred and twenty-flve thousand people. The Hong Kong harbor is one of the finest, most beautiful and busiest harbors in the world. But it only contains about ten square miles of terri- tory. Fifteen years ago, according to one author- ity, it boasted of being the largest shipping center in the world, more than five hundred vessels en- tering and clearing the port in one year. Since the war trade has fallen off, however, yet in nine- teen hundred and twenty the imports amounted to about six hundred and fifty million dollars, while the exports for the same year were one hun- dred million dollars more than that. It was afternoon when the Empress of France steamed into this beautiful harbor. Being a free port, we were not bothered with red tape officials that are found in other ports. Our ship went di- rectly to the pier on the Kowloon side. This was a happy surprise, for ten years before the great liner upon which I was traveling not only an- chored in. the harbor, but stirred up a lot of mud in the bottom. From the ship the island of Hong Kong is beau- tiful beyond description. The splendid stone buildings, from three to eight stories high, are built almost without a break for a couple of miles along the shore and magnificent homes of the rich and stately public buildings dot the mountain side in a most picturesque way. The "peak" rises more than eighteen hundred feet and the funicular tramway will take one to within four himdred feet of the top. We could see this tram from the ship, but so far away, the cars only look to be about the size of baby carriages. Hong Kong to Canton — 90 Miles . , 87 In a short time all the cruisers, except ^e com- pany of them who were to go to Canton that same evening, were given ferry tickets to cross. to Hong Kong, all these people having independent action for the evening. Of course we all went over to the city, and as a great portion of the city is Chi- nese, our people had their first look at these strange but interesting people in their homes and shops. As all our people were to visit Canton, the com- pany had to be divided into five parties, for all the accommodations and native guides obtainable in Canton could only provide for a little more than one hundred and fifty people at one time. As we read in the daily papers that only the night before our arrival the pirates along the Pearl River, where we were to pass, had captured a ship, stole twenty thousand dollars worth of property and held seven people for ransom, and knew of the revolution in Canton but a few days before, some were naturally apprehensive and more or less excited about it. But danger is fascinating and nearly always brings a thrill. That fact cropped out among our people at Honolulu when we heard that Mount Kilauea went on a rampage only a few hours after our visit there. Some declared that they would have given a hundred dollars to have been on the rim of the volcano at the time. Here the same feeling cropped out again and if word had come to our manager telling him that the trip to that city was too perilous to attempt I imagine that ninety per cent of our company would have said, "We will risk it, anyway." 88 Around the World on a Floating Palace The city of Canton is about ninety miles up the river from Hong Kong. Early the next morning after landing I was in the party scheduled to make the trip up the river by boat and back by train. Our river steamer was a good one. We started on time. Many uniformed men armed with Win- chesters were on the boat moving about the decks. Barb wire was placed upon the sides so pirates would have a hard time climbing up to the decks should they attack us. Double iron gates and bars, with armed guards both outside and inside, shut the pilot house off from the rest. of the ship. It was easy to see that every precaution had been taken and that we were in very dangerous terri- tory. Steaming out of the harbor at Hong Kong and into the mouth of the Pearl River the sight was wonderful to all, for the city of Victoria on the side of the mountain on the island of Hong Kong is "beautiful for situation." We soon passed a place called Dutch Folly. In the early days the Dutch asked and were granted permission to erect a hospital on the island for sick sailors. Later when they landed some medi- cine and equipment in barrels and cases, unfor- tunately one box was burst open, and lo! it was filled with arms and ammunition. The Chinese, when they saw it, solemnly and wisely remarked, "What fooUee the Dutchee mustee be that they thinkee the sick be curee with ee powder and bul- lets." The Pearl River is about as large as the Mis- souri, that is the main channel, and just about as muddy. After some distance the country is very Hong Kong to Canton— 90 Miles 89 flat and the rice fields partly under water. Men and women were already working in the rice fields in water and later in the day when the rain fell in torrents they worked away. Some of these people, as well as those in sampans, wore, grass coats over the clothes in which tHey were born and actually looked like shocks of grass moving. By the way, half of the people on the earth sub- sist upon rice. It requires the most ardent toil to raise it. It must be set out much like cabbage or tomatoes, only closer together, but in mud and water. To cultivate it men and women must work in mud and water most of the time, and in many cases even harvest it in water. As we neared the city of Canton more people were in the fields and we began to get a real glimpse of the thousands who live in boats. Some of the larger junks were propelled by men and women walking on windlasses that turn the pad- dle wheel, making one think of the galley slaves of the old days. THE MORNING TIMES Vol. I March No. 13 THE EDITOR'S LETTERS to give advice to both but MIXED he in some way got the An editor received two letters mixed. The proud letters in the same mail, father was not only sur- One of them came from prised but very indignant the happy father of twins when he read, "Cover who asked the editor how them with straw and set it they could best get them on fire and the little pests through the teething pe- will be settled forever." riod. The other letter The other man was just came from a farmer who as mad when he opened his was asking how to get rid letter and read, "Give them of grasshoppers that were a little castor oil and rub ruining his crop. their gums with a bone As usual the editor tried ring." Photoi/raphs hy Miss Wilson and Dr. PoweU Upper Left — Fi^ower Pagoda in Canton Upper Right — Statue to Magellan in the Phtlipptnes Lower — A Native F^tlipino Country Home CHAPTER XIV Rambles Through Panton "n EACHING Canton we saw never-to-be-forgot- -'-^ ten sights. First, the river population is enormous, being estimated at from three to five hundred thousand people. These little boats are generally about five feet wide and perhaps thirty feet long. Each one of them contains at least one family of from five to ten or twelve people. Thou- sands of people are born on these boats, grow up and die without ever spending a single day on land. The doctors make their rounds in boats. So do the butchers, market men, barbers, hucksters, fak- ers, -priests and undertakers. The most of these boats have their gods. These people rake the bot- tom of the river like you rake the garden. They live on anything, fish, lobsters, frogs, eels, turtles, snails, worms, fowls, rats and goodness only knows what. Canton itself almost makes one feel like wear- ing a gas mask. To go through the narrow streets, from four to eight feet wide, and see how the teeming thousands hve, is something like a nightmare, only it is real. The fifty-seven varie- ties are not in it when it comes to smells. It is sewer gas, corroding meat,, slaughter house, soap factory, tannery, pig-sty and hen-roost all put to- gether, and then some. The visit to Canton was most unsatisfactory to nearly all of our people. The city was in the throes of insurrection and some of the streets were barricaded. The hotel was inadequate for those 92 Around the World on a Floating Palace who stayed all night. Some of them had to sleep on the floor and had the fight of their lives with mosquitoes and other insects which are worse. The sedan chair carriers went out on a strike, or something else happened to them. Most of those who did go through the narrow lanes had to walk and. dared not go far or be separated from each other. We who went through these places did so at the peril of our lives. Ten years ago I was alone in the city and was carried ten or twelve miles through the narrow, ill-smelling lanes. Then I was entirely alone and did not realize the danger until it was too late. The landlord at the hotel arranged with the coolies as to just where to take me and I could not understand their language nor they mine. Thirty minutes after we started I would have given fifty dollars to have been back to the hotel. But I lived through the perilous day and the experience was worth while, after all. No one knows the population of Cantonr It would be absolutely impossible to take a census of the city even if there was no revolution in prog- ress. The population is estimated all the way from one to five million people. It used to be a walled city, but most of the walls have been torn down. At the present time one can go, as we did, nearly around the city in an automobile, for many of the streets neair the outside have been widened. Along the Bund there are some fine buildings. One of these is the home of Dr. Sen Yat Sen, upon whom some have looked as the deliverer of South China, but it seems that he is not leading the people to- ward the promised land at this time. Rambles Through Canton 93 The oasis in this great city is the small British possession called Shameen. This possession con- sists of about forty-five acres which is an artificial island in the river, made so by a canal. This also includes a French section consisting of about eleven acres and practically all foreign business relations with the city are carried on in Shameen. Space forbids a further description of the city, although it certainly is an interestnig place to visit. Were it not for the Young Men's Christian Association, Christian College and the various Christian missions I doubt if it would be at all safe for any American or European to enter the city. Then, too, the Chinese seem to respect the Eng- lish speaking people. They have a revolution every week or two these times, and have had for a year or two. One man who lives there said that only a few weeks ago while these Chinese were shooting at each other he found it necessary to go down one of these narrow lanes where the revo- lution was the hottest. He held up his hand and the word was soon passed along and the firing ceased. He then, still holding up his hand, walked down the street in safetj'. But as soon as he left the firing commenced again. THE MORNING TIMES Vol. I March No. 14 THE POPULATION OF to enumerate the people CANTON of tlie city of Canton. go"ouTtoi beeh^e1n^h^ CHINAi^TW ALL heat of the day, upset the uvr-n hive and undertake a cen- A man said to a China- sus of the bees as to try man who had but few 94 Around the World on a Floating Palace clothes on, "John, I don't see how you can keep your body warm with so few clothes on." John replied, "Does white man get cold on face?" "Why, no," said the white man, "we are used to the cold in our faces." "Chinaman all over face" replied John. VATTA YOU SING . A New York Policeman thus accosted an Italian or- gan-grinder: "Have you a permit to grind this organ on the street?" "No, me no habbe de per- mit." "Then, sir, it becomes my duty to request you to ac- company me." "Alia righta. Vatta you sing?" TIME IS MONEY Eli Perkins once lectured in a Quaker town in Penn- sylvania and at the close the chairman of the com- mittee came with a roll of bills: "Eli, my friend, does thee believe in the maxims of Benjamin Franklin?" "Yea," replied Eli. "Well, friend Eli, Benja- min Franklin, in his Poor Richard maxims, says that 'Time is money!' " "Yea, verily, I have read it," replied Eli. "Well, Eli, if 'Time is money' as thy friend, poor Richard; says, and thee be- lieves so, then verily I will keep the money and let thee take it out in time." SOME WRITERS The first live days out our cruisers used thirty thousand sheets of the "Empress of France" writ- ing paper. It takes a wise man to discover a wise man. Upper — A Present Day Farmer in the Philippines Center — A Village Scene in the Philippines Lower — A Future Farmer in the Philippines CHAPTER XV Canton to Manila — 700 Miles THE trip from Canton to Hong Kong was made on a special train and the accommodations were fairly good. A few of us rode in the obser- vation car attached and we had some fun with the sign- in the car, "Reserved for the Governor," which was shown to those who came into our car. As only our party was on the train, this caused a little sport. Had it been daylight, we were told, we could have seen the headless body of a pirate on the right of way, it having been lying there un- buried for three weeks. This brings to mind the fact that there used al- ways to be criminals awaiting execution in Can- ton. If a party came to the city who wanted to see an execution, if they would make up a small purse to pay for extra trouble a criminal would be brought out and decapitated before them. The schedule for our party provided for a won- derful day in Hong Kong. Crossing from Kow- loon on the ferry we were met with automobiles which took us to the "Peak" tramway station. The car was then crowded with fifty or sixty peo- ple at a time. It is a cable arrangement; while one car goes up another comes down. Personally I don't like this way of traveling up a mountain- side, for it comes nearer making me seasick than a storm at sea. Up fourteen hundred feet we stepped out of the car into sedan chairs where men carried us up a hundred feet more. Then the walk around the winding way for the three hundred feet elevation Canton to Manila— 700 Miles 97 seemed a mile or more, but at the top the view was so magnificent that no one who made the trip was sorry for the hard walk. The hundreds of ships in the harbor below looked very small. Our own great ship and its sister ship, the Empress of Asia, tied up to the same pier across the harbor, looked like mere toys. Walking back to the tramway station rikishas were ready to take us to autos in which we made the wonderful journey down the mountain and to the Hong Kong Hotel for luncheon; This is one of the finest hotels in the Orient. I looked into a small banquet room where a small outside party was having a dinner and never before have I seen such a beautifully and artistically arranged table. Plates were about five dollars each. After the luncheon we were taken on one of the most wonderful drives in the world. The English have spent millions on this great drive around the island. It must be thirty miles or more and is just one surprise after another. It takes one through the various Chinese villages and gives a glimpse of their struggle for an existence. Hun- dreds of men and women were laboriously toil- ing on the public highways and at other tasks as well. The climax of all was the Repulse Bay Hotel and grounds. No wonder that millionaires come from all parts of the world to stay at this hotel. The naturally protected bathing beach in front, the wonderful gardens all around the spa- cious hotel and well up on the rugged mountain- side behind, the delightful climate and ocean breeze, the luxurious growth of tropical flowers 98 , Around the World on a Floating Palace and shrubbery, all these together make it an ideal spot, almost like paradise itself. An invitation to seven o'clock dinner into the home of Dr. Jew Hawk, a prominent Chinese phy- sician in the city and who graduated from Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, thirty years ago, was one of the happy surprises of my visit to Hong Kong. His home is a fine mansion on the hill and the seven-course dinner was well cooked and served in American style. Dr. Hawk has been a physician in Hong Kong for twenty-three years, eight years of it in one of the large city hospitals. This man was largely educated by Christian people in America. His only son was in an Ameri- can university studying electrical engineering and his only daughter married to one of the promi- nent business men of the city. Dr. Hawk keeps up a church for the Chinese at his own expense, had thirteen young folks in his own home giving them an education, and paying for the education of others. He is so grateful to his old teacher. Prof. Macy of Des Moines, that he wrote him some time ago offering to pay the en- tire expense if he would undertake a trip to China to visit him. After dinner Dr. Hawk took me to one of the club houses of the city where Chinamen congre- gate. There are hundreds of these club houses and the laboring men are so thoroughly organ- ized that they almost do as they please. I was in- troduced to many of these prominent men, one of whom was a gyromancer, who finds lucky places to bury the dead and does all sorts of such things. Canton to Manila — 700 Miles 99 A look into one of the great hospitals of the city was a revelation, but it would take a chapter to describe it. A Chinese theater where five thou- sand people were packed in like sardines in a box was a sight of a lifetime. A visit to the bright light district where the rich Chinamen have their concubines and banquets was different from any- thing else on earth. 1 saw a firecracker fifty feet long and which took fifteen minutes to explode - and sounded like a battle all this time. It was near the midnight hour when I went back to the ship. The weather was cold and rainy, and yet along the streets where a little protection from the storm was found were thousands of beggars and poor people, lying with burlap or matting or anything they could get to cover them, trying to sleep. It was one of the saddest midnight sights I ever witnessed. I counted as many as eight in one huddle and Dr. Hawk said there were thou- sands of them. In Hong Kong I saw women hitched to carts like oxen, hundreds of them, as many as five to one cart, and pulling a load that would wind a team of horses. I saw hundreds of girls carrying loads of stone four or five blocks from where it was crushed to the place it was used in buildings. They take two basketsful fastened to each end of a bamboo pole and swung across their shoul- ders. I lifted some of these burdens and do not believe I could carry one basket as far as these girls carried two, without stopping to rest, to save my life. I saw mere children toiling as slaves and 100 Around the World on a Floating Palace as much under cruel taskmasters as were the chil- dren of Israel in Egypt of old. And yet Hong Kong is perhaps the most enlight- ened and modern city in all that great empire with four hundred million people. O my! How long, O Lord, how long, will the teeming millions of human beings have to live such lives? And yet, great Christian characters like Dr. Jew Hawk are hopeful and see the dawning of a better day for China. But one rarely witnesses such a sight as when the Empress of France left the pier at Hong Kong. It was eight in the evening and it actually seemed as if all the English speaking people in the city as well as hundreds of the tradesmen and beggars had come to ply their trades and see us off. After the whistle blew the scene beggars all description. The decks were piled high with the junk our party had purchased. But the people! The jargon of Chinese traders, and laundrymen who were trying to get their hard earned cash! The ship's officers had a time get- ting tlie smugglers off the boat. I saw one man that it took two strong officers to get him up the stairway and they handled him roughly. I don't know what he was accused of doing, but I felt sorry for him. Added to the above was the racket made by the wooden instruments made for that purpose and distributed by the hundred. Then ribbonlike pa- per was thrown in streamers by hundreds of pas- sengers that friends on the pier might be united with them as long as possible. The shouts of all, both passengers and visitors, with hundreds on Canton to Manila— 700 Miles 101 the Empress of Asia, less than fifty feet away, well, I give it up; it is impossible to describe the scene. Then word came that a couple had missed the special in Canton and were racing on the express which followed thirty minutes later. But the ship pulled away from the pier and around nearest the railway station and waited for the train. When the train came in a steam launch was all ready and brought the couple out to the ship. While all were glad they were not left behind, yet many felt hard toward them, for they had been warned to stay with the party in Canton, but had not heeded this warning and thus the whole shipload was held up for nearly an hour. by their folly. The trip of six hundred and thirty miles from Hong Kong to Manila was uneventful. THE MORNING TIMES Vol. I March No. 15 BURYING THEIR DEAD ^^^ placed in one of these The Chinese do not bury rooms. As long as the rent their dead in cemeteries, of the room is paid the A lucky place must be priests fail to find a lucky found to bury a body and place to bury the body, this may be in tlie middle The relatives also bring of the road or field. food and place it in the In Canton they have the room for the dead to eat. "City of the Dead." This An American said, "John, is outside of the old city I don't see how the dead wall and consists of hun- can eat the food you bring." dreds of little rooms. When "Eatee food we bringee one who has money dies easy as smellee flowers you in Canton the body is tak- bringee," quickly replied en to this City of the Dead the Chinaman. PJiolographs hij Mifts Wilson and Mr. L!j}naH Upper Left — A Basket Carrier UrPER Right — Manila Palms LowKR — The Pasig River CHAPTER XVI The City of Manila WHILE the visit to Manila will remain a pleas- ant memory to many of us, yet to a majority of our more than eight hundred cruisers it will be remembered as a great nightmare. We landed shortly after the noon luncheon. Half of our company were counted out to take a boat trip up the Pasig River which would give a most interesting view of the interior of the large island upon which the city of Manila is located. It will be well to keep in mind the fact that there are more than seven thousand islands in the Philippine group and their combined area is al- most as great as that of Great Britain. More than half of the islands, however^ are uninhabitable rocks; less than half of them even have names, and less than five hundred of them have as much as one square mile in area. The largest of these islands is that of Luzon, which is about the size of the state of Kentucky. The population of the entire group is about ten and one-half millions. All but about eight hun- dred thousand of them have been brought under Christian influences and are nominally Christian. Even the head hunters in the mountains have dis- continued many of their inhuman practices. The city of Manila is the largest of the Philip- pine cities, containing nearly three hundred thou- sand people. The transformation of this city within the twenty-flve years of American occupa- tion is almost unbelievable. When Dewey entered Manila Bay the city was 104 Around the World on a Floating Palace almost as great a pest-hole as Panama before we dug the canal. There was practically no water or sewer system, and yellow fever, cholera and typhoid swept the people away like flies, every year. The city was then surrounded by a wall on the outside of which was a moat full of stagnant water. The streets were narrow and filthy, the network of canals through the city was the home of thousands who lived in vermin fested, filthy boats. Lepers and people with smallpox ran at large. Here were packed together more people per square mile than live in the same area in New York City. Now Manila is a great, modern, up-to-date city with a pure water supply that furnishes the peo- ple with twenty-two million gallons of water daily, a splendid sewer system that cost more than two million dollars and one hundred and fifty miles of streets and boulevards the most of which are clean and well kept. The old walls have long since been torn down and the material used in building homes and busi- ness houses, the moats filled and made into beauti- ful drives and gardens. Hundreds of acres of ground have been rescued from the sea and upon which have been erected many great business houses and public buildings, a million dollar hotel, and some of the finest drives and botanical gardens found in any city. All told there are sixty-one public parks and plazas in the city. Among them are the famous Luneta and the Hehan Botanical Gardens. Plaza McKinley and Harrison Park are also very fine and lovely resorts. The City of Manila 105 The fire department is as modern as can be found in the eastern world, and the twelve public markets enable the people to obtain fresh meat, fish, vegetables and all such food at the lowest pos- sible prices. I visited some of the hospitals and training schools for nurses and found them, in the main, up to date and modern. While twenty-five years ago Protestant Chris- tianity was almost unheard of in the city, now the various churches and Bible societies have about two hundred missionaries, more than two hundred ordained Filipino preachers, fifteen hundred lay preachers and evangelists, one hundred dea- conesses and Bible women and more than one hundred thousand church members in and about Manila. These Protestanat churches have thirteen hos- pitals, two orphanages, twelve mission schools and a union Theological Seminary. They operate twenty-seven dormitories for students in the Gov- ernment schools and have nearly two million dol- lars invested in buildings and equipment. Por- tions of the Bible have been translated into more than twenty Filipino dialects. This writer enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. Leslie Wolfe, a Christian missionary, while in the city. Fifteen years ago his church had practically noth- ing in the Philippines. Now it has about eighty churches with almost eight thousand members. The twenty-two American workers are assisted by seventy Filipino preachers. They had eight hun- dred converts last year and one of the churches in Manila had six hundred and sixty people in their Bible school the Sunday before my visit. IOC Around the World on a Floating Palace The Catholic people have seminaries and or- phanages all over the islands. They have a large cathedral, twenty-two churches and as many more chapels in the city. They have hospitals, a train- ing school for nurses, an orphanage and home for the aged women besides various other institutions in the city and about two hundred mission stations in other parts of the islands. The people of Manila are great for amusements of various kinds. The biggest annual event is the Manila Carnival. This is also a Commercial and Industrial fair. It lasts about one week and is said to be the biggest yearly event in the Orient. Last year the attendance averaged sixty-two thousand daily. The city of Manila has sixteen daily papers and about fifty other regular magazines. The city was surrendered to Admiral Dewey on the thirteenth of August and by September first every school- house in the city, not in ruins, was operating at its fullest capacity. From that day to the present education has not only been emphasized, but has gone forward by leaps and bounds. The Englishman was right when he said, "Wherever the Germans go you find the arsenal; wherever the French go you find the railroad; wherever the British go you find the custom house, but wherever the Americans go you find the schoolhouse." The great university in Manila has thirty-one buildings and enrolls thirty-five hundred students annually. The Santo Thomas University has the distinction of being the oldest educational institu- tion iinder the American flag, having been founded -twenty-five years before Harvard. The City of Manila 107 One great sight for our cruisers was the famous Bilibid prison, which is one of the most humane institutions of its kind on earth. It covers seven- teen acres of ground and many of its fifty build- ings are built around a circle and in the central tower watchmen, armed with Winchesters, stand day and night. When not at work the prisoners mingle in companies in large., clean dormitories where they read, sing and visit with each other. To stand in the central tower and see the two thousand prisoners in their afternoon drill is a wonderful sight. The prison band plays while the various companies, hidden from each other, move like the hands of a great clock. They stand, kneel, touch hands, lie down, arise, walk and exercise with such wonderful regularity, keeping time with the music all the while, that one can hardly realize that they are real men. Besides the boat ride on the river our people were given a three-hour automobile drive, visiting many sights in the city as well as getting a glimpse of village life in the country near by. However, there was one or two "flies in the ointment." After such rousing receptions at Hilo, Yoko- hama and all other Japanese cities, as well as at Hong Kong, many were surprised not to see a wel- come sign in the whole city of Manila. They had no reception committee whatever except that pro- vided by our own manager and no ado whatever was made over the largest company of world trav- elers that ever visited their city. The most unfortunate occurrence, and that which made the visit to Manila a nightmare to so many of our people was an event that happened at the Manila Hotel. As he always did, our man- 108 Around the World on a Floating Palace ager had provided accommodations for us at the best hotel. We were to take dinner at the great Manila Hotel and then sleep on board the ship. There was something in the food that poisoned the people and that night the Empress of France was turned into a gigantic hospital. The ship's physician was hurriedly summoned about midnight, ran to the case in his pajamas and never had time to dress until the middle of the next forenoon. He summoned every nurse and steward on the ship to assist him and the physi- cians among our cruisers, who were not too ill to assist, gave their services freely and the early morning saw six hundred people either on beds of pain or moving about almost like ghosts. It surely was one never-to-be-forgotten night of terror to many. After all, however, our visit to Manila was one that no one could have afforded to miss. While the Filipinos were not demonstrative in their wel- come, they were very kind and courteous to us and nearly every one of them wore a smile. They also seemed very grateful for every courtesy shown them and were very appreciative, after all. Then, too, after the multitude of outstretched hands and the "cumshaw" appeals in China, it was a relief to get into a city once more where there were very few beggars of any description. As we said goodbye to those who came to see us off, it was with best wishes, not only to General Wood and those associated with him, but to every man, woman and child in the Philippine Islands. The City of Manila 109 THE MORNING TIMES Vol. I April No. IG HEARD IT TWICE Two negroes got into a row with another who was very handy with a gun. They both started to run as the bad man began shooting. When they were at a safe distance one said, "Sam, did vou hear dat bullet?" "Yas," said Sam. "I hearn it two times." "How you mean two times?' asked the other. "I hearn dat bullet once when it passed me, and den anudei' time when I passed it," said the excited darky. A Street Scene in Manila Photofirnphs hy Miss Carmack and Mr. Lijinnn TTppER Left — A Street Sprinicl.er in Batavia, Java Upper Right — A Canal Scene in Java Lower — A Sadoc in Buetzenzorg. JavvV CHAPTER XVII Philippines to Java T>EFORE leaving the Philippines it will be well AJ to call to mind that the man who is generally given the credit for first encircling the globe died on these islands and a monument was erected to his memory in one of their cities. This man was Magellan. Magellan was a Portuguese and the story of this great voyage, in which he lost his life, is one of the most thrilling tales of sea life. He started from Seville, Spain, September twentieth, in the year fifteen hundred and nineteen, with five ships, the combined tonnage of which was less than five hundred tons. The flagship, which was com- manded by Magellan himself, was the Trinidad, a one hundred and ten ton vessel. The story of the finding of the Straits of Magel- lan, of the mutiny of the officers of three of the ' five ships and the strategy of this brave man, of the ninety-eight long days of crossing the Pacific, of the fight on the island of Cebu, and the death of this hero of the seven seas, is too long to be told here. Of the five ships and two hundred and sixty- five men who started with Magellan, only one ship and eighteen men actually completed the journey and that was after almost three years had passed. The one surviving captain, who is generally called Elcano, thus obtained as his armorial bearings a globe upon which was inscribed, "Primus circum- dedistieme." The fifteen hundred and seventy miles from Manila to the island of Java seemed a long jour-^ 112 Around the World on a Floating Palace ney, for the weather was very hot. However, we had a great ghmpse of the island of Borneo, for we hugged the coast of this land for hundreds of miles. One rather exciting event for most of our peo- ple was the crossing of the Equator. Old Father Neptune came aboard and with his helpers suc- ceeded in throwing a half hundred men and women into the swimming tank with all due cere- mony. Some few of these were taken against their will and thrown in with flieir good clothes on, but most all took the matter as one of the in- cidents of ocean travel and laughed about it. This whole ceremony was very amusing to all and especially so when the captain of the ship and one of the prominent directors of the party were dumped in backwards. The next day the entire company of eight hundred received their certifi- cates duly signed by Neptune, the God of the High Seas. Another event in which most all were interested was the costume parade on the promenade deck. Hundreds togged up in their newly purchased garments, from the grass suits of river boatmen and ricksha men to the finest Japanese and Chi- nese silks and many other native garb. Some of the ladies wore but little more than their birthday clothes and one man wore the rich garb of a heathen priest. Prizes were given for the six best and the judges had a time deciding the three ladies and the three gentlemen who should receive them. The sad event of the journey was the pass- ing into the great beyond of another one of our cruisers. Only a young man, too, but one who had Philippines to Java 113 perhaps been worse to himself than to anyone else. With his body full of the poison of drink and narcotics the touch of ptomaine poison at Ma- nila was too much for him and when the crisis came his life went out. There is something about death that makes even the pleasure loving think soberly at times. In his sermon on Sunday morning, and almost at the very moment that this life went out. Rev. Baxter said: "I walked a mile with pleasure. And she chatted all the way, But I was none the wiser, For all she had to say. I walked a mile with sorrow. And she never said a word, But O ! how I remembered her. When I walked along her road." I hardly know how to describe our visit to the island of Java, which has rightly been called the "Garden of the World." This island is less in size than the state of New York and contains about thirty-six million people, being the most densely populated country on the globe. This island of Java is full of volcanoes. It is generally stated that there are forty-five volca- noes on the island, but only a couple of years ago some scientists made a careful investigation and found no less than one hundred and nine of them, active and extinct. A merchant in one of the cities visited showed me a map of the volcanoes with their height and a little red flame issuing from the top of those which are active at times. I counted just twenty 114 Around the World on a Floating Palace of the latter. It was on this island in seventeen hundred and seventy-two that the top of a moun- tain was blown off and forty villages were com- pletely destroyed. In eighteen hundred and twenty-two not far from this island another mountain top blew off and the explosion was heard seven hundred and twenty miles away and only twenty-six people out of a population of twelve thousand escaped alive. In eighteen hundred and eighty-three an entire island in the neighborhood blew up and the explo- sion was heard fifteen hundred miles away. This terrible disturbance raised waves in the ocean that swept over plantations in both Java and Sumatra and reached the coast of America. Thirty thousand people were killed by this catas- trophe. Other calamities even more terrible have occurred in these parts, but as one writer suggests, it is no use telling about them, for people simply would not believe the stories. It is said that there is one volcano on Java to- day that is acting very strangely and geologists say that it is liable to blow up at any moment. If they were able to tell the very day that such a ca- lamity would occur the ignorant natives would not believe it and would go on without paying one particle of attention to them. The red soil of Java is perhaps the most fertile to be found on the earth. They only have to scratch it and plant the seed and most anything will grow. No attention has to be paid to seasons. As soon as one crop is matured they can plant an- other. One man told me that they can raise four crops of corn per year. As soon as one crop has Philippines to Java 115 matured they cut it up, take it off the ground and plant another. Here one sees a wonderful growth of palms, co- coanuts, bananas and almost every tropical tree and fruit imaginable. In some cases tea is grown among rubber and other trees and it is not an un- common sight to see three crops growing on the same land -at one and the same time. I have never before seen such a bountiful crop of rice growing anywhere as in Java. The people in the native villages seem to be con- tented and happy, and their wants are few. They need but little clothing, in fact thousands of chil- dren do not wear any. Many men wear only a sort of a cloth about their loins and their brown bodies almost look like bronze. As a rule, the women wear bright colored clothing which covers their entire body. Excepting the washer women in the canals, these native women are a modest folk. They have a way of getting into the water, lifting up their clollniig a^ the LoJy goes down, that is quite in- genious. Sometimes they are not very careful about this act of undressing, but men do not watch them nor seem to pay any attention to them. They are simply used to it and think nothing about it. On one occasion I was crossing a bridge over a small canal and noticed a couple of very small children by the side of the path and some pack- ages near them and was wondering how it came that such small children were left alone, when I heard the water splashing. The mother evidently was on her way home from a shopping expedition and took a notion to have a plunge. As I looked 116 Around the World on a Floating Palace over the side of the bridge, there she was in the water and was enjoying it hugely. The village life of these native Javanese is very simple. They need no fire. In most cases the floor of their dwellings is mother earth and they can live, if necessary, on the stuff that grows on trees. If they have schools or places of worship I did not see any of them and I really think the Dutch government keeps them in ignorance on purpose. Yet they seem to be an industrious peo- ple and nearly all of tliem are employed at some- thing. THE MORNING TIMES Vol. I April No. 17 FATHER NEPTUNE "Who is this Father Nep- tune I hear so much about," asked one of our cruisers of another as we were Hearing the equator. "Well, I'm not sure, but two priests got on at Ma- nila, one of whom is quite elderly, perhaps it's him," was the reply. A TERRIBLE ACCUSA- TION The first time the author of this book crossed the equator was in the waters off the coast of South America. A great enter- tainment was staged. Fath- er Neptune with his train of officers and ex- ecutioners came on board. A throne had been erected for this God of the High Seas and the first man brought before him was tried, convicted and con- demned to die for the ter- rible crime of murdering the Spanish language. LIMERIC OF JAVA We drank Java coffee in Java So strong it would strangle a goat. We ate of a fruit called the guava So tart that it would pickle a shoat. We tasted a root called cas- sava. So sweet it would cloy in the throat. They said it was cool But we, as a rule, Could wear neither collar . nor coat. W^^ " Photor/ycip}i.