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traders living on tho island. Npxt in- point of
time came tho Dutch, and their nation is still
more numerously represented among the business
Arms. England, howovor, though a later arrival,
has largely supplanted both in tho control of the
commerce of the port, though the Germans seem
to be numerous.
Singapore and Penang are the great export
' ports for tin, three-fourths of the worldls output
of, that product being mined nearby. - The, United
States takes ten and a hairmillion dollars worth
of tin from the Straits Settlements and six mil
lions of other products and sell only $1,161,000
worth in return. ' '
I might add in thia connection that tho trade
possibilities of the tropics have been very much
over-estimated by enthusiastic 'expansionists. The
natives raise their own food at a 'much lower cost
than we could possibly sell it to them, even if our
food were suited to their wants. They do not
need our building material and as for clothing,
one American is worth more as a customer than
a hundred of these natives. While a few wear
rich robes, the mass content themselves with
a very scanty costume of very cheap cotton a
costume which someone has described as "a
handkerchief around the loins and a table cloth
around tho head." No shoo manufacturer need
send a salesman to these parts, for even the coach
men and footmen in livery are barefooted. I once
supposed that we might work up a trade in breech
clouts and fishing rods, but I find the latter grown
here in profusion and tho former is not valuable
enough to furnish a basia for much trade.
There is one branch of commerce that might
.be developed if this were not the. home of the gem
and if the natives were not skillful goldsmiths.
Jewelry is the passion here Women fairly load
themselves down, with ornaments when they can
afford it. They wear rings on, the fingers and
toes, bracelets and anklets, ear ornaments galore
and, strangest of all, jewels in the nose. We no
ticed one woman yesterday with three enormous
pendants hanging from each ear, one from the top,
one from the side and one; from the lobe, and
bur coachman at Kandy was resplendent with
six in either ear, but his jewelry was more modest
In size. The nose ornaments look like shirt studs
and are screwed into one or both nostrils; some
times a ring hangs from the point of the nose.
The necklaces vary greatly in style, workmanship .
and value. The island of Ceylon is rich in gems
and furnishes a variety of stones for the jeweler's
art. From the fact that nearly all of the precious
stones mentioned in the Bible are to be found
here it is thought that Ceylon must have been
' known to the Israelites and that her ships carried
wealth to Solomon.
After seeing the extravagant use of jewelry
here, one is almost tempted to forgive even the
most vulgar display of precious stones made in
the Occident; and then, too, the rubies, sapphires,
the diamonds, the emeralds, the amethsts, the
alexanderites, the cat's eyes, the opals, etc., ex
hibited in the stores here are so beautiful that
one must be proof against vanity to resist their
charms.
Ice might have formed an important item of'
trade, for nowhere does the white man appre
ciate this luxury more, had not the ice machine
made" importation unnecessary. The larger boats
now manufacture their own ice from condensed
sea water, and there are plants at -all the Im
portant ports. We went from Borneo to Singa
pore on a ship which was not equipped with an
ice machine, and we complained when the supply
gave out. An English passenger took advantage
of our distress to compare national characteristics
and humorously remarked that when the Amer
icans moved into a new territory, they at once
established an ice plant while the English gave
their first attention to the laying out of cricket
grounds.
One does not travel far In the Orient until he
incomes a crank on the subject of water. He
w , BO many warnings that he soon suspects
the wn? lukB in every glassful. If he tries
h wS. waters tncy Pall on thctaste, and if
Jlt ,bolld water he is tormented with
somn nlL f not ay. neon boiled or that
S A T nha,B bcen accidentally suusti
a vision Slhf0alc?,Ju?uokot,, is recalled as
visited bfail- mSSl VetTT8 "
Singapore as an etoriort" T!y
The Commoner.
breezes" of Ceylon are, immortalized in song and
story it is the land
"Where every prospect pleases
And only man is vile." . ."
At Kandy, about seventy-five miles from the
coast, there is an excellent' botanical garden riv
alling the garden at Buitenzorg, even as Kandy
itself rivals Buitenzorg as a summer resort.' (There
are extensive gardens at Singapore and Penang,
but they are inferior to those on Ceylon inuTJava.)
These gardens are about equally distant from the
equator; the former hbrth, the latter south, but
the garden at Kandy has twice the altitude of
the other. We were interested in comparing the
plants and examining the hew specimens. While
'Buitenzorg is superior In her collection of or
chids. the ferns at Kandy surpass anything we
have "seen. Here the yellow bamboo is added to
the varieties seen elsewhere; here, too, we saw
the screw palm, whose leaves form a spiral line
like the thread of a screw. Another curious va
riety is the sealing wax palm, the higher joints
of which look exactly like red sealing wax. The
travelers' palm, which we also saw in Java, is
to be found here, its name being derived from
the fact that each leaf stem catches and holds
sufficient water to slake a traveler's thirst, The
talipot palm attracts the attention of all visitors,
not only because its leaves formed the parch
ment for the early books of Buddhism, but be
cause it flowers but once, and then, as if ex
hausted by its half century's effort, dies, The
sensitive plant grows wild here and seems almost
human in its perception, as it shrinks from the
slightest touch and folds its leaves as if withered.
I have already spokeh of the fruits of the
tropics, especially those of Java, but I. think I
ought to qualify my words. Since revelling in
mangosteens, 'rambutans, etc., Ihave eaten an
apple and am convinced that no tropical fruit
can compare with it,; and. when to the apple are
added the peach, the ;pear, the plum; and the
cherry, and to these fruits of the trees are added
the grape, the strawberry, the raspberry and the
blackberry not to speak of the pineapples,, oranges
and bananas of our southern staYes, who will say
that th;e temperate zone 'is, not as highly faVored
as the' waririer lands? '.'"''
We not only have an abundance of both the
necessaries and the luxuries, but we escape some
of the torments of the tropics. Animals, reptiles
and insects run riot here. The tiger is "man
eating' the serpents are large and poisonous and
the irisectB are omnipresent. We sometimes com
plain at home of the mosquito, which seems to
be a universal pest and Is found everywhere,
"from Greenland's icy mountains to India's coral .
strands," but here its activity is perennial and
its appetite reaches its maximum. In all the hotels
the beds are protected by mosquito barsfor with
out them sleep would be impossible. The 'ant is
even more annoying than the mosquito, for' while
the former does most of its prowling at night,
the latter "improves each shining hour' If the
natives play, the sluggard, it is because they re
fuse to profit by the example of industry 'which
the ant ever presents to them.. It is hotjun'com
mon for the legs of dining tables and clipboards
to be set in bowls of water as a protection ' from
these insects, and where this precaution is not
taken the diner divides his time between eating
and fighting ants. The white ant has a literary
turn of mind and pays especial attention to books.
We have heard of several libraries being ravaged
by this insect, the leaves being so perforated that
the books looked like honeycombs. In his search
for lcnowledge the ant has the companionship of
the cockroach, which grows here to the length of
two or three inches, can fly and stains what it
can not devour. The house lizard is always in
evidence. One evening we counted twenty-four
of these interesting little reptiles in sight at one
time on our porch. At night large lizards in the
trees call hoarsely to each other, and when it
rains the air is vocal with the croaking of frogs
and the singing of insects.
In the Botanical Garden at Kandy we saw
hundreds of flying foxes, which look like buz
zards. Some of these flying foxes measure four
feet from tip to tip.
I find that there is. a disease in these lati
tudes called tropical frenzy an uncontrollable
anger which sometimes manifests itself when Eu
ropean officials deal with native subjects. This
has been seriously discussed in medical meet
ings, and it has been argued that acts of violence
on the part of officials should be excused on this
ground. The subject has been scientifically con
sidered at a meeting of German physicians. This
disease seems to be confined to Europeans, the
natives being immune from it at least, it is not
considered a good defense when urged by a na-
.J . . '-,
tive as an excuse for doing violence to a Euro;
pean. .'... , , ",.,
My experience with thd money changers'. of
the Orient has made the money changers of
America seem virtuous by comparison. This is
the worst place for shaving, for discounts, for
premiums, for commissions and for exchange that
I have visited. In traveling one has frequently
to change money from the currency .of one nation
to that 'of another, and as there seems to be no
fixed rate, he never knows what he is going to
realize. (By the way, one who thinks that- a
gold dollar is.gobd the. world around can learn
something from the discounts:) At Colombo I
had some Singapore bills converted into rupees.
The cashier at the hotel said that the rate -"was
one-twenty, and gave me twelve rupees for ten
dollars. A few minutes afterwards I had occasion
to buy some tickets of a tourist agent and he
allowed me fifteen rupees for ten dollars ; tho
next time I made change I received sixteen ru
pees and seventy cents for ten. Thig is a sample
of the experience one has here. At, Singapore I
drew some money on my letter of credit which
calls for pounds; as I was going into English
territory, I thought it would be convenient to
carry some five pound notes, rbut the bank in
sisted on. converting the- pounds;. into Singapore
dollars at eight forty-five and then offered to sell
me five pound notes at the rate of eight seventy.
When I related this incident to an Englishman,
he recalled an instance where a man presented
a two hundred pound note and asked for smaller
bills; the hank charged him a commission for
converting the larger bill into rupees and then
another commission for converting, the rupees into
five pound notes.
I found in China that the notes issued by a
bank .in one city would be: discounted when
presented at a branch of the same bank in another
city. Throughout the Malay states the Chinese
are conspicious as money lenders "but at Singa
pore they come into competition With the Indians,
who are their superior in this line' of business.
At Colombjp we saw no-Chinese tftHill.
We -hkve found the American missionary
every wheret but his work among the Malays is
less' prqniiflng than any wh6re' else".?' Missionary
work has been quite successful among the 'Chitfeso
In the Malay archipelago and-'among the Tahiils
at Singapore, but nearly, all the Malays are Mo
hammedans, and while they believe in one God
and recognize Christ as a great prophet,' they
believe the author of their religion to have been
a superior teacher
In traveling one has an opportunity to study
human nature in all its phases, and irf an extended
trip meets representatives of ail' the nations. The
North German Lloyd has a' line running from
Yokohama to Bremen. (This line, I may add,
makes it possible for one to go- from San Fran
cisco to New York within two months, with but
two changes of boat, and still stop long enough
at the principal ports to learn Something of the
cities and the people.) We went from Singapore
to Colombo on one of the boats of this line. Be
sides a few Americans, Germans and Hollanders
and a still larger number of English, there were
several Japanese en route for Europe and Rus
sian officers and soldiers returning from Japan.
We made some agreeable acquaintances among
the company, as it is possible to "do on every voy
age, but just before leaving the boat at Colombo
we came into contact with a tourist who belonged
to the genus hog. Our boat arrived between
eight and nine in the evening, and the porters
informed us that the hotels were full but that
we could obtain rooms in the morning, as a
number would leave on our ship. I stated the case
to the captain, and he assured me that we were
welcome to remain on board until morning. ' Just
as my wife and daughter were retiring, a-"man
came on board, followed by a lot of baggage, and
directed his porter to put it in our room, I
explained to him that not being able to find ac
comodations on shore, we had obtained permission
to occupy the room until morning, but he brus
quely replied that he had engaged the room two
months before and must have it- I called his
attention to the fact that the boat was late in
reaching port and would not leave until nearly
noon the next day, and suggested as politely as
I could Jhat the captain wag. the proper person
to decide whether he was entitled to claim the
room under the circumstances. Without con
sulting the captain he went tot the steward and
demanded that the ladies be moved to another
room although another room was placed at hia
disposal for the night. It required some plain,
straight-forward and emphatic language to bring
him to the .point where he was willing to occupy
a different room temporarily, and I am afrafd that
he still regards Americans as very rude and im-
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