Doing over; a tour eastward around the world

Preface

Intended originally for my own personal pleasure, but having been urged by friends to put them into book form, these notes are submitted, not as an effort to picture in all the details their life, customs, laws and religions of the peoples in the countries visited upon this tour around the world, but as representing my observations and impressions of things as I saw them, to which is added some information derived from guide books and from individuals.

In my enthusiasm over the tour I confess to a disposition to have my friends and others share, if possible, in part, at least, through the reading of this book, the interest I felt while making the trip. Many of the sights seen it will be impossible to picture from the mere reading thereof. This applies especially to India, which, because of the wondrous and weird as well as thrilling stories oft-times told, is by many referred to as more or less a land existing only in the mind of some versatile dreamer. I leave to the reader, however, to judge of the merits of my effort to picture my observations.

F. M. H.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Scene of Our Thrilling Temple Experience, Hampi, India

FRONTISPIECE

Hindu Burning Ghat, With a Body Ready for

Cremation, Bombay Facing Page 28

Tomb of Kahn Muhammad, Bijapur, India " 37

Great Mausoleum or " Gol Gumbaz,'^ Bijapur,

India ** 44

Tower of Fame, Chitorgarh * ' 53

Elephant which Carried Us to and from Chitorgarh ' ' 60

Caravan Going Through the Khyber Pass " 69

Rural Scene Out From Delhi, India " 72

Nautch (or Dancing) Girls of India " 73

Mohammedan Anniversary Celebration, Agra, India " 76

Native Barber, India * ' 85

Great Temple to Buddah at Buddh Gaya, India. " 92

Our Traveling Outfit through India *' 101

Burmese Girl and Pagoda Shrines, Burma " 108

Natives Diving for Silver Coins at Colombo " 145

Donkey Ride at Chin-wang-tao, Northern China. " 160

On the Pasig River, Manila. " 177

Baron Von Ketteler Memorial Arch, Pekin " 192

Temple and Grounds, Shizuoka, Japan " 257

Street Scene in Miyoshi, Interior of Japan " 272

CHAPTER I. PAGE The Start Around, Including a Thirteen Days' Voyage 1

CHAPTER n.

A Rough Experience on the Mediterranean and Eleven Days

More of Voyaging 13

CHAPTER HI.

India and the Beginning of Our Sight-seeing 23

CHAPTER IV.

Some Thrilling Experiences in Out-of-way Places 38

CHAPTER V.

We Enjoy the Hospitality of a Rajah — A Visit to Mt. Abu.. 50

CHAPTER VI.

More Sights in Out-of-way Places, and the Khyber Pass 62

CHAPTER VII.

Treats Principally of Delhi and Agra, the Show Towns of

India , 71

CHAPTER VIII.

The Sacred City of Benares, and Buddh Gaya 83

CHAPTER IX.

Darjeeling and the Himalayan Mountains 91

CHAPTER X.

Of Burma, the Burmese and Mandalay 103

CHAPTER XI.

Back to Southern India, at Madras, and Visit to Trichinopoli 114

CHAPTER XII.

A Resume of the Trip Through India 125

CHAPTER XIII.

The Island of Ceylon and the Cities of Colombo and Kandy. 137

CHAPTER XIV.

Seven Days Aboard Ship to Java, Thence to Singapore 145

CHAPTER XV.

Hongkong, Canton and the Cantonese 160

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XVI. PAGE

Manila and the Philippine Islands 172

CHAPTER XVII.

Back to China and Voyage Through the Yellow Sea and Gulf

of Pechili Past Port Arthur 185

CHAPTER XVIII.

Extreme Northern Part of China, the Great Wall in its Approach to the Sea, and Pekin 192

CHAPTER XIX.

Nanking, the Old Chinese Capital, and the Yangtze-Kiang

River 205

CHAPTER XX.

Shanghai and the Chinese 216

CHAPTER XXI.

Japan, the Japanese, and Our First Experience of Japanese Life 225

CHAPTER XXII.

Through the Interesting Inland Sea to the Sacred Island of

Miyajima 242

CHAPTER XXIII.

Simple Life of the Japanese as Seen by Rikishas Through the

Interior 248

CHAPTER XXIV.

Kyoto, the Show Town of Japan 262

CHAPTER XXV.

Miyanoshita, the Popular Summer Resort of Japan 278

CHAPTER XXVI.

The Capital (Tokyo) and the Famous Temple Town of Nikko 287

CHAPTER XXVII.

The Fifty-four Hundred Mile Voyage, Yokahama to San Francisco 302

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The End of the Tour 314

DOING OVER.

A TOUR EASTWARD AROUND THE WORLD JANUARY TO AUGUST, 1906.

CHAPTER I.

THE START AROUND, INCLUDING A THIRTEEN DAYS' VOYAGE.

After about ten years of anticipation and longing, I finally left Chicago, eastward bound, on Wednesday, January 3, 1906, and the following Saturday found myself, with tw^o Cincinnati friends as companions, on board the steamship Hamhurg, sailing from New York.

Alexandria, Egypt, via Gibraltar and Naples, was the objective point of landing and where we were due on January twenty-first, from whence a two days' visit to Cairo was to have been the beginning of our real sight-seeing on the tour around the world.

The day was a crisp one with broken clouds, occasional snow flurries and a temperature about freezing. Considering the time of year, it was an ideal day for the start on a voyage that was to take us into the hot

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climate of the orient. While the Hamhurg lay at her pier in Hoboken, on the day of departure, passengers began, about noon, to pass up the gangway for the voyage across to Naples. By two o'clock the ship's decks were crowded with more or less excited people made up of those who were going on the voj^age and friends who had come to see them off; of the latter, there appeared as many as of passengers, with here and there a small group in lively or earnest, if not serious, conversation during the fast expiring time still remaining before departure. After the usual warning to those who were not to be passengers and the exchange of hand shakings and bon voyages between parting friends and the final disappearance down the gangway of the last of the visiting parties, the ship 's crew, at about two-forty weighed anchor for the run to Naples, four thousand, one hundred and fifty-seven miles. (Distance, New York to Gibraltar, three thousand, two hundred and seventeen miles.) There was the usual waving of handkerchiefs between friends while the Hamhurg was being towed from her pier and out into the stream.

No relatives or friends had come to see me off, but letters and telegrams from distant ones had been sent me in care of the Hamhurg. These messages of God speed on a journey that was to take me as many as thirteen thousand miles from loved ones and friends

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had all the cheering effect that could have been wished for by the most solicitous.

It had been about nine years since my last voyage to a foreign land, in consequence I was thrilled with pleasure at being aboard ship again, — to say nothing of my inward enthusiasm over the prospects of a trip for which I had so long hoped — the tour of the world, upon which I was now started.

As the Hamburg steamed down the bay toward Sandy Hook, seaward bound, in the midst of my leaping spirits I became conscious I had been scrutinizing the faces of those on board, to read, if possible, the prospects ahead in new acquaintances. In a very little while the ship's passenger list was scanned, when it developed that of the two hundred and four first cabin passengers one hundred and thirty-three were women and of the latter sixty-five were registered as unmarried. Here was a prospect for those of us unmarried men of whom, so far as was apparent, there were comparatively few. A pleasant surprise had come to me only a few days prior to sailing in the information that in addition to the two Cincinnati companions referred to at beginning of these notes, another friend and his wife were to be fellow passengers. The latter two added much to my pleasure of the voyage, as to the wife I could confide my little love affairs, and as reward for the confidence get her

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sympathy, encouragement and advice, all so needful to an inexperienced bachelor.

As the voyage was but just begun, however, I must not anticipate, but as much as possible refer only to incidents of the trip as they followed. In addition to the first cabin passengers there were on board about one hundred and thirty-five steerage, nearly all Italians returning to sunny Italy for the winter only to return to the United States in the spring.

Our good ship, four hundred and ninety-eight feet long, sixty feet beam, a depth of thirty-eight feet, and of ten thousand six hundred tons displacement, with a crew of two hundred and sixty-eight officers and men, while slow, was pretty steady, and rode the high seas of the Atlantic with comparatively little rolling or pitching. Notwithstanding, however, the heavy seas experienced proved too much for some of the passengers, as will appear later in these notes. The steamer was fairly comfortable as to appointments and service. I was fortunate in having to myself a small stateroom, fairly well located, much to my satisfaction.

At table in the dining room we were placed at one seating eight, including, besides our own party of

three (for the world's tour), a Mr. O'D and

daughter, of New York (and standard oil), a Mr.

and Mrs. W , of Minneapolis, and a Mr. B ,

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of Washington, D. C. The latter, for a good part of the voyage to Naples, proved a jovial character, then let down and became very tiresome. The table party as a whole, however, was a congenial one and much envied by other passengers. The first day of the voyage had passed, then the second and yet another, with no stirring incident to change the now, steadily getting acquainted, small community closely housed aboard ship. Some of these new acquaintances proved pleasant as some of them also were interesting.

The Gulf Stream had been reached and as it was crossed diagonally we were said to be two days going through it. The temperature now had gone up to about sixty-five degrees and on the third day, with threatened rain, a high wind and consequent rolling of the ship (we were going in the trough of the sea), a number of passengers sought the seclusion of their staterooms, no doubt to moralize on the disadvantages of sea voyages.

On the fourth day occurred an embarrassing incident for the gallant one of our party. The latter had invited some half dozen girls and as many of us men to a lunch to take place about nine o'clock in the evening back in the second cabin. The latter was unoccupied except for a few overflow first-cabin passengers, hence offered a good place for a pleasant little

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affair as above and away from the gaze of other passengers.

At the appointed time parties of two or more could be seen working their way back toward the second cabin to do which it was necessary, also, to cross over the spar deck. The ship was now rolling and pitching at a lively rate ; had been in fact all day, and as the deck between the first and second cabins was open it was also exposed to any waves breaking over it. While some of the party were crossing they were drenched by one of those high waves. Once all were in the second cabin saloon, seated about a table and no doubt in pleasant expectancy of what was in store, our host gave the order to serve wine. To the host, who was at my side, the wine must have seemed an interminable time coming ; at any rate he confided to me that he felt signs of an approaching upheaval (seasickness). In the midst of the good cheer prevalent, when wine had been served, lo! our host had disappeared. A hostless party is an awkward situation, hence, under the circumstances, adjournment was soon suggested and readity complied with, for it developed that some of the guests would soon have followed the host's lead and disappeared to their respective staterooms. Thus abruptly ended what our genial host had intended to be a pleasant evening affair, and drinking his health, intermingled with expressions

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of regret over his lamentable temporary condition, we quickly found our way back to the comforts of the first cabin.

Going steadily eastward toward the rising sun, each day was cut short twenty to forty minutes, depending upon the distance voyaged and the degrees of latitude southward in our course. The days also seemed growing shorter as we became more acquainted with the passengers. The fifth day out brought with it bright sunshine, a much smoother sea, which also brought out of hiding and onto the upper decks those erstwhile absent (seasick) passengers. These latter are really objects of sympathy, as any one knows who has ever had a like experience on shipboard. On this evening, during dinner, that irrepressible gallant of our party (who by this time was recovered from the previous evening's experience) sent to the table of one of the newly made girl acquaintances, whose birthday it was, a birthday cake, with sixteen lighted candles on it. The poor girl entirely unprepared for the surprise was much embarrassed at the merriment occasioned, and yet, no doubt, enjoyed the attention shown her. The diplomatic selection of sixteen candles on the part of our irrepressible was like him, for thus the candles, so attractive on a birthday cake, could be added without exposing the young lady's

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age, that precious secret with most girls once they have reached the still tender age of twenty-one.

The sixth day out, January twelfth, the passengers appeared quite at home with one another, and in consequence life aboard was more or less a continuous round of visits between groups of newly made acquaintances. The weather on this day and the next was dismal and rainy, but thanks to the numerous acquaintances one could keep off gloom that must otherwise have resulted, depending, of course, upon the individual.

St. Michaels, the last of the Azores group of islands, was passed on the morning of the seventh day, and though off shore about two miles, towns and villages, besides cultivated lands, could be pretty well seen through field glasses.

More rainy weather on the eighth day, and a calamitous one it proved to several passengers in a poker game experienced with the ship's poker sharks. On the afternoon of the ninth day, about half past two o'clock, land was again sighted; this time Point St. Vincent, the extreme southernmost point of Portugal. In the evening was given the first dance of the voyage, thus giving newly made acquaintances a further opportunity to become possible lasting friends. The dancing was under more or less difficulty because the

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ship continued to do some rolling, but the dancers seemingly enjoyed the sensation none the less.

It was becoming apparent that that rascally little fellow ''cupid" was hovering about — needless to say that the ship's gossip was making matches regardless of him. As to the latter, I thought for a moment during the voyage the whir of his wings were audible even to me, but it evidently was a false alarm, at least if he had previously made his presence known to me it must have been in derision since there was no repetition of the incident.

At six o'clock on the morning of the tenth day, we anchored in the beautiful harbor of Gibraltar, and at eight o'clock, on a tender, we went ashore. The city with its twenty-two thousand population was very attractive. Its population, aside from six thousand British soldiers, is largely Moorish and Spanish, though the Spanish town proper is several miles from Gibraltar. A strip of about a half mile separates English Gibraltar from Spain and is neutral territory. Gibraltar, built on the side of the rock of Gibraltar, is largely Moorish, Spanish architecture, with narrow zigzag streets, the principal one being asphalted.

Aside from the fact that I had not been in a foreign land for nine years, the Moorish and other oriental peoples looked very picturesque and fascina-

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ting to me. The market place was crowded with these interesting people to whom we foreigners seemed of no especial interest — very naturally because foreigners are here more or less all the time, Gibraltar being one of the ports where most passing vessels stop if for but a few hours. We spent but three hours in the place, then aboard ship again proceeded on the nine hundred and forty miles voyage to Naples. Through the streets of Gibraltar innumerable donkeys loaded down with charcoal and fruits monopolize much of the space, though I saw a boy loaded down with enough weight to bend a man. On the day of our visit the Congress of Nations was sitting at Algeciras, Spain, over the Moroccan question, and which eventually decided in favor of France as a sort of protectorate, as I recall it. At Gibraltar, we had already gone so far east, sun time, that we were about six hours ahead of that in New York.

On the eleventh day out from New York, beginning about noon of the day before, when we left Gibraltar, passing between it and the Moroccan coast opposite, where is the city of Tangier, we proceeded up the Mediterranean, with a beautiful sunlight, but crisp atmosphere, without any wind except that produced from the motion of the ship. From time to time we could see outlines of the Algerian coast. Throughout the voyage to date but few other vessels

[10 1

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had been seen, but in the Mediterranean numerous craft of various kinds were met with frequently.

Another evening of dancing, and by this time cupid's darts seemed to be taking effect on several of the younger people, while gossip was at work getting us older bachelors mated. Ship's gossip is really amusing and takes the place of the daily newspapers, so to speak, for without it a sea voyage would lack one of its specially spicy morsels. There is no place on earth, probably, where for short periods small communities are thrown so closely together as on shipboard, and while a ship's acquaintance does not necessarily continue on land, many warm friends are thus made, to say nothing of the numerous love affairs. Surrounded for days by sky and water, restless water probably, and star-bedecked skies, or moonlit nights, the air is surcharged with feelings akin to romance, assuming of course that a stranger influence — seasickness — is not at work.

On the twelfth day out we passed the island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean, with ideal weather above and around us, while sailing on the beautiful blue sea.

We had averaged about three hundred and fifty knots per day when on the morning of the thirteenth we arrived in the harbor of Naples, having made the run from New York in twelve days, seventeen hours,

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less the six hours difference in time. Thus ended safely a voyage notable for pleasant acquaintanceships, of two or three known love affairs, followed by a scattering in various directions of the erstwhile shipboard gathering to meet, perhaps, not again, but yet leaving behind trails of pleasant recollections.

Chapter II

A ROUGH EXPERIIiNCE ON THE MEDITERRANEAN AND EI.EVEN DAYS MORE OF VOYAGING.

Our arrival at Naples a day late of the schedule time made it apparent that the trip to Alexandria and Cairo must be abandoned, accordingly we bade farewell to the Hamburg. Arrangements were soon thereafter completed for the voyage from Brindisi, Italy, via the P. & 0. mail steamer for Port Said, where we were to overtake the steamship China, on which we had previously engaged passage for the voyage to Bombay. My first and keenest disappointment of the entire tour thus stared me unsympathetic ally in the face, since I had counted on great interest and pleasure in the two days' visit in Cairo, before the start for Port Said. My disappointment found no comfort in the fact that in the voyage from Brindisi we would pass within one hundred miles of Alexandria. However, no alternative was left us but to abandon the visit to Cairo for some possible future time. Thus the two days we expected to have put in at Cairo were required to be spent in Naples. Because of a continued cold rain, and that the members of our party had previously visited Naples, but little effort was made [13 1

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at sight-seeing. We here picked up another Cincinnatian, who, as per previous arrangement, was to join us for the tour around the world, thus making four in our party. Therefore, on the night of the twenty-first of January, at ten-twenty o'clock, we boarded the train and started for Brindisi, where we were due on the following morning. The sleeper in which we made the trip was far from the Pullman style of comfort, in fact was small and very uncomfortable — and in order to permit three of us to recline half way on the seats, one of our party stretched out on the floor. Here our steamer rugs came into service for there was no bedding and what an uncomfortable night it was. In all our round of the world's trip we had no such discomfort in a sleeper, not even in India or Burma. We struck a cold rainy day and other discomforts in Brindisi, and were required to wait until evening before we could go aboard the ship for the fifty-four hour run to Port Said. Brindisi had but one hotel that was supposed to be decent enough for foreigners, and this one was just opened the day of our arrival after having been closed for some time, hence poorly prepared to care for us. The place was cold and cheerless, and the one meal, lunch, about one o'clock, was apparently gotten together from any old stuff that could be found in the town. Brindisi is an old town and important mainly as a jumping off

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place for those travelers who come overland through the continent for India via Port Said and Bombay. Brindisi is at the extreme southern point of the Adriatic Sea and on the Gulf of Tarahto. Fortunately we were allowed to go aboard the steamer, Isis by name, in time to get dinner. Needless to say the latter was relished after a tough breakfast aboard train en route to Brindisi and the lunch in the latter place as referred to above. We had been asleep on the Isis but a few hours when at midnight anchor was weighed and we left the port only to run immediately into the teeth of a gale and consequent high sea. The former had been blowing all day so that the Isis, which was a small ship about three hundred feet long, was at once tossed about like a bottle. How long I had been asleep I do not know, but very likely not long after we had started, but of a sudden I was awakened a most seasick laddie. The storm continued about thirty-six hours, during which time the Isis slowed down from her twenty-two knots speed to eight or ten knots per hour. All the passengers were sick, as were also the stewards and assistant engineers, though the latter must, of course, be on duty, not being disabled as were the passengers. The force of the rolling of the Isis was so fierce that my trunk at times would be under the berth in which I lay, then under the one opposite. I made two heroic efforts to overcome my

ri5i

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feelings of seasickness, dressed and went on deck, but each time was driven below and I finally capitulated, went to my berth and remained until about noon of the following day. The Isis is named after the goddess Isis, adored by the Egyptians as benefactress because she is credited with having taught their ancestors the art of cultivating wheat and barley. What the goddess had against the passengers aboard that she permitted the elements to give us such a distressing shaking up I can not imagine, unless she discovered there were four bachelors aboard and wished to punish them, or perhaps she may have intended it for several married men aboard who did not have their wives with them.

As a result of the storm, which was the worst I ever experienced, we arrived at Port Said twelve hours late, having taken about sixty-six instead of fifty-four hours to make the run of nine hundred and thirty-six knots from Brindisi. Our course from the latter port, after passing through the Gulf of Taranto, was through the Ionian Sea, past the Ionian group of islands, thence southeast through the Mediterranean Sea, past the island of Crete or Candia on which could be seen the snow capped mountains, thence within a hundred miles of Alexandria to Port Said.

The waters of the Mediterranean were of a beau- [16]

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tiful blue until about opposite Alexandria, close to which the River Nile empties into the Mediterranean, and where the water, up until Port Said was reached, was a light green, the so-called Nile green. The last twenty-four hours of the run was with bright sunshine and a becalmed sea, much to the relief of us poor sailors aboard. It was six o'clock in the evening of January twenty-fourth when Port Said was reached where the steamship China was awaiting us. It was already dark and as the China was to sail as soon as the passengers, mail and baggage could be transferred from the Isis, we were allowed to go ashore for a very short time, about a half hour, but because of the darkness little of the city, which is said to have about twenty thousand people, could be seen. We were, however, on Egyptian soil to that extent.

At half past eight in the evening we started aboard the China for the run of one hundred miles through the Suez Canal, the full length of the Red Sea, which, with two hundred knots of Gulf of Suez, is one thousand three hundred knots long; thence across the Arabian Sea, one thousand six hundred and forty knots to Bombay. While in the harbor of Port Said we saw a Russian man-of-war, one of the few which escaped destruction or capture by the Japanese. A transport of Russian prisoners also passed out returning home to Russia. The transport was as full of 2 [17 1

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those poor fellows as a lump of sugar could possibly be of flies. Many were the hardships those soldiers no doubt had to endure, besides the horrors of warfare. Later, in our visit through Japan, we were told that many of the Russian prisoners had expressed the wish to remain Japanese prisoners in preference to going back home to Eussia.

Of the one hundred miles of Suez Canal, much of the distance is through lakes, five or six in all, of which Lakes Bahlah, Timsah, Great Bitter and Little Bitter are the principal ones. The building of the canal was started in 1854, finished in 1869 so that vessels could pass through, and in 1872 the tolls received exceeded expenses. The canal proper, aside from the lakes, is but about two hundred and fifteen feet wide in the straight parts and two hundred and fifty feet in the curves, with a depth of twenty feet. The work of widening the canal was going on at the time of our passage through and where dredges are kept at work all the time to keep the proper depth, which is encroached upon continually by the sand from both sides. Arabia on one side, Africa (Egypt) on the other, both sand deserts with occasional villages and canal stations along the line, at which points some little vegetation and trees are seen. The work along the canal is done by Arabs, Egyptians, and others, and in their peculiar garb looked very odd as well as pic-

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turesque. Camels were largely used to carry away the sand which was packed on their backs and taken back from the canal and dumped. In one or two places trams of very small cars were used for the purpose. Because of some obstruction we were delayed at one point about four hours. Ismailia, on the Egyptian side, and once an important city controlled by the French, was passed at noon. Ordinarily the trip through the canal requires about eighteen hours, a six to seven knot speed, the fastest allowed; but because of the above stated delay we were twenty-two and one-half hours. Accordingly, Suez, also on the Egyptian side and located at the southern end of the canal, was reached at six o'clock, hence again dark as at Port Said. Nothing but occasional lights and outlines of buildings could be seen. Passing Suez, we entered the Gulf of Suez, then through the Red Sea.

One 's belief in biblical history regarding the passage of the Red Sea by the Jews in the flight of the latter, is given a severe jolt on closer acquaintance with the Red Sea's one thousand one hundred miles of length, one hundred miles width and its depth.

The lakes along the Suez Canal, prior to the building of the latter, probably connected with the Gulf of Suez at high tide and left them separated on the ebb tide. During the latter stage the Jews may have crossed. At two o'clock in the morning of January [19]

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twenty-sixth, while in the Gulf of Suez, our ship ran down a dhow (an Arab boat) containing eight men. The men were evidently bound for some market, the dhow having been loaded with fruit, but as they evidently were saving oil, thus evading the law requiring a light on the boat, they paid the penalty in the loss of one of their crew. That all were not drowned seems nothing short of a miracle; as it was, seven of the men were hauled upon our ship and taken to the next stop, Aden. The steamer China is five hundred feet long, fifty-seven feet beam, with nice broad decks and very fair service. The decks are so broad that some of the English passengers play cricket upon them, spreading a net to keep the ball from going overboard. Various deck games were played during the nine day voyage to Bombay, such as bag races, etc., prizes being given to the winners. Dancing also was indulged in by some. Most of the one hundred and fifty passengers were English, including several titled people. The weather, beginning with Port Said, was pretty warm and down the Red Sea the thermometer reached about eighty degrees. Besides other acquaintances made aboard was that of a Mr. Prab-