Smiling 'round the world

Introduction

When I was a small boy, the world, if I stopped to think about it, seemed not only as big as I could see from sky-line to sky-line, but it went off into still further space — stretching away and away into unfathomable distance, the thought of which made my breath come and go, and little shivers run up and down my back. Then I got scared, and concluded it was about time to go and tease the cat, or put snuff on the stove, or indulge in some other of the amenities by which boys sweeten existence for their elders.

As I got bigger, the world got smaller, but not in proper ratio. I didn't get big enough, and the world still stretched from horizon to horizon. I bridged part of the distance — at times — but always came back to the starting-point with the feeling that the job was incomplete. So, one fine day, I made up my mind that I must see what lay beyond those baffling horizons; and the only way to get 'round them both was to go in a circle. Hence this trip — of many moons and many miles. Hence this book — of many jests and many smiles; offered as something better than a mere bagatelle of humor; perhaps a solace, a compensation — who can tell?

INTRODUCTION

For there is a compensation in everything,— even to the man who was blessed with a disorderly wife. No matter how much everything was at sixes and sevens in the house, and nothing in its rightful place, he could always get up in the middle of the night and put his hand on the fly-paper, without ever having to strike a match.

Merrily yours,

Marshall P. Wilder.

Thanks are due to the Eastman Kodak Company for privileges granted to the author.

I. Across the Continent 19

"Besting" Fate— The Undertaker and the Doctors — The Irishman's Bird — How we Missed the Grand Canon — Lunch-counter Ethics — The Lady from County Down — "George, have you Seen my Maid?" — How I Milked the Cow — The Gila Monster — The One Place that is Hotter than Hades — She was Afraid of Me and the Evil Eye — The "Mongolia" is There.

II. On the Pacific 42

A Double Send-off — Chinese Service — Saloon Boys and Their Attire — We Are Introduced to "Pidgin-English" — How to Capture a Chair — The Boatswain Playing Fan- Tan — Pretty Chinese at Her Devotions — "Sky Pilot" Brings Bad Luck— Captain Drops Sunday — My First Ocean Trip — Leper Island and Father Damien — Welcomed by the Naval Boys.

III. Hawaii 56

We Are Garlanded with Wreaths of Welcome — My First Experience as a Chauffeur — Luncheon Amid the Palms — We See the Sights of the Town — Stump Speakers in the Vernacular — Lovely Pali — "One-Finger Poi ' ' — The Aquarium — Surf -Eiding — Phenomenal Eice Crops — Imported Labor — Japanese Invasion — Captain Cook's Monument—How "Bill" Swore Off— My Poetic Friend, Charley Stoddard — How I Struggled with the Architecture of the Hawaiian Language — My Good Friend, Lieutenant- Governor Atkinson — The Handsome Bachelor of the Islands — Fire-Drill — Approaching the Shores of Japan.

IV. Japan 79

Yeddo Bay — Sacred Fujiyama — The Fall of the Great Official — Taking Temperatures- — Mountain Pilgrims — Tattooed Sampan Eowers — Grand Hotel, Yokohama— Manager Eppinger — Captain Da vies' Kindness and Courtesy to Us — Eiding in a 'Eicksha — Paymaster McDonald of U. S. Navy — Shrine and Tea-House — Accomplished Madam Fujita — Clean, Little Japan — The Japanese Student in London — "Please Wipe Your Feet M — Everything Small — Famous Flower Festivals — Japanese Art as a Brainstorm — Taken Seriously from the Connoisseur's Standpoint.

V. Snap Shots op Japan - - - 99

Streets Overflowing with Life and Color — Children as the Sands of the Sea — Baby Nurses — Street Venders and Eating- Stands — Continual Baking and Brewing — Shops Open to the Street — Domestic Life Seen Through Open Screens — Fire-boxes — I Try to Make Some Purchases — Japanese Money of an Ancient Vintage — Inroad of American and European Ideas— Marriage in Japan — Eailroad Travel — ' ' Buffalo Bill" and the Englishman — Wail of the Lost Souls — No Outward Signs of War — Their Brass Bands — Japanese Mother and Her Three Sons — The Bounty- Jumper 's Glass Eye — A Nation of Imitators — Eeligious Aspects Amusing as Well as Interesting — Ancient and Primitive Methods — Everything Done in the Hardest Way — Evolution of the New Japan.

CONTENTS VI. The Emperor 's Birthday - - 118

A Holiday for All Japan — Streets a Mass of Color — Tiny Human Butterflies — A Courteous Crowd — Eight Thousand Troops in Line — Gold-lace Diplomats — The Crown Prince is Greeted with Shouts — Emperor with Eeverent Silence — His Face not His Fortune— " Ole Hats ! "— Big Wigs Swap Stories — Banquet in Imperial Palace — Japanese Editorial — Ambassador Griscom and His Charming Wife — Stars and Stripes Float over Shabbiest Buildings.

VII. Visit to a Japanese Theater,

Tokyo 128

Theater of Old Japan Now Merely Legendary—We Set Out for the Theater— Tokyo a City of Magnificent Distances — Whirled in a 'Eicksha — Street Signs — Open Shops — Shrill Horn of the Candy Seller — Paper Lanterns for Practical Use — Soft Minor Note of the Blind Masseur — Perfect Stage Setting — Takata, Great Woman Impersonator — Danjiro, Most Famous Female Impersonator — Actors ' Private Curtains — Wonderful Audience — Everybody Smoking — Paddy and the Trombone — Children Everywhere — Sata, the Great Actor — No Lack of Fine Acting — Must be " Letter Perfect" in Three Days — Orchestra and Electric Lights — Fortunate in Seeing First Performance of Modern Plays.

VIII. A Glance at the Japanese Fire

and Police Departments - - 140

The Watchman and His Clanking Sword — Primitive Fire-House Methods — Only Three Steam-Engines in Yokohama — Hitched Up After Alarm is Sent in — Fires Get Tremendous Headway — Easy Jump from Low Buildings— Whole Outfit Seems Like a Toy

— I Get a Permit and Visit a Police Station — School for Ju-jutsu — Fine Exhibition of Wrestling — Troupe of Traveling Amazon Wrestlers — Broadway Squad Might Benefit — Minister of Justice Gives Me a Permit to Visit Sugamo Prison, Tokyo — "I am an American, and Glad of It" — Nat Goodwin's Dog — Watch Five Corridors at Once —Chaplain Exhorts— Well Fed, Well Taken Care of, and Certainly Contented — Imprisonment in Japan not the Worst Thing Could Befall a Man.

IX. First Impressions of China - - 152

Harbor at Mouth of Yang-tse-Kiang — Ancient Junk — Fish-Net Begging — The Bund — Oriental Paris — Chinese Jaunting-Car — Porker Takes a Bide — Becruits Drill with Sand — Bronze Statues are Sikh Policemen — Three Cities in One — American Consul-General Goodnow — Mr. George Mooser and Beautiful Wife — ' 'Pman American, but I speak English' ' — Same as when Queen Bess Beigned — Ancient Walled City — I am Seized by Horrible Chinese Beggar — Make Way for the Man with the Burden — Footbinding Practised by all Classes — Anti- Footbinding Society — Fuchau Boad and Sing-Song Girls — Tiffin on the " Monadnock' ' — I Entertain the Jackies — Street Pageants — ' ' Pidgin-English. ' '

X. A Visit to a Chinese Theater - 168

I Compare the Art of Two Countries — The Chinese Suffer Greatly — Stage Merely Baised Platform — Nerve-racking Orchestra — Befreshments All Bound — Everybody Drinks Tea — Chinese Wife Smokes a Valuable Pipe — The Demi-Monde Get Green Cups — Actors Shriek with Falsetto Voices — Tell What They Are Going to Do Beforehand — No Scenery and Pew Properties — Prances Like Horse — Wear Painted Masks — There Are No Actresses — Attempt at Vaudeville — She Entertained the Bores — Preposterous Heroes and Characters — Nothing Funnier than Chinese Theater Except Practise-Drill of Chinese Soldiers.

XI. The Majesty of the Law in China 176

Police Department Very Cosmopolitan — Mixed Court — 'Bicksha Inspection — I Visit the Court and am Introduced to the Mandarin Magistrate — He Wears the Little Bound Button — Police Bun in Prisoners by the Cue — Sentenced to Certain Number of Strokes with the Bamboo — Wearing the Cangue — Attendants Sit on the Prisoner, While He Gets One Hundred on His Bare Legs — In the Ancient Walled City Terrible Cruelties Are Practised — The Ling Chee, or Hundred Cuts — Signs His Own Death- Warrant — Wholesale Bribery — Execution of Pirates — ( ' My Just Make Little Squeeze ! ' ' — Not Even Above Blackmail.

XII. Manila : the Old and the New - 187

Landing of Magellan — Drinking Blood Contract — Haughty Spaniards — Chinese Pirates — Era of Peace — The Silver Galleons — Greedy Dutch — Battle of Playa Honda — Japanese Ambassador — Beligious Embassy — Jealous Portuguese — Spanish Friars Put to Death — British Squadron Arrives — Bombards the City — Great Losses by the British — The Peace of Paris — British Embark and Sail for India — Islands Settle Down Under Spanish Dominion — Dewey's Guns Change the Map — My Debt to an Accomplished Manilian — What the U. S. A. Has Done for Manila — Two Centuries of Dirt Bemoved.

CONTENTS XIII. The Manila of To-day - - - 195

In Seven Years the United States Government Has Performed Herculean Tasks — Great Filtering Plant — Absolutely Pure Water — Cleanest Bill of Health in the Universe — Civil as Well as Military Government — Admirable Police Force — Dollar Has Lost Its Name — The Universal Conant — Van-Loads of New Money — I Buy a Panama Hat for Twenty Conant — "She Acknowledges to Twenty-Five ' ; — Fine Fire Department Built on New York Lines — Trolley Line — New City Hall and Laboratory — Beautiful Luneta — Fine Harbor Works — Fiesta of the Virgin of Antipolo — Flourishing Candle Business — Popular " Mayor' ' Brown — His Big Heart and Hospitable Home — The Consumptive 's Dying Wish Fulfilled— I Tell the Mayor a Story of Speaker Eeed — "I Don't Want the Horse to See You!"

XIV. Native Life in Manila - - - 211

Costumes Unchanged — Beautiful Textures — Woven from Pineapple Leaf — Put Cigar in Baby's Mouth for Safe-Keeping — Men's Shirts a Mere Thought — Chinese Marry Filipino Women and Become Good Catholics — Water in Standard Oil Cans — Cock-fighting the National Amusement — Booster the Most Important Member of the Family — Housekeeping Hard for Americans — Incompetent Servants — Spaniards Used to Whip Them — Domestic Life Among the Planter and Merchant Classes— Charming Homes and Happy Hearts — Graceful Hospitality — Their Pleasures and Amusements — Miracle Play — Fireworks and Home to Bed — Emilio Aguinaldo — His Wings Clipt, and He Will Soar no More.

CONTENTS XV. Bildbid Prison . - - - 222

Tragedy Enacted in the Old Spanish Prison — Insurrection of Prisoners — Escape of Sixty at Malahi Island — Winchester Eifles from the Towers Quash Eevolt — Gatling Gun also Takes a Hand — Over in Five Minutes — I Visit the Prison Shortly After — Fifteen Killed and Many Wounded — Warden Wolf and His Assistant Mr. Stewart Show Me Over the Ancient Prison and Tell Me Its History — Houses Largest Number in the World — Forty-seven Hundred, and Only One Hundred and Fifty Are White — Gangs Sent Out Daily to Work on Eoads — Good Prison Fare Famous — Natives Would Like Prison Lodging if Hard Work Did Not Go Along with It — American Indifference — Present Condition of Filipinos Thousandfold Better than in Four Centuries — Future Full of Splendid Possibilities— The True Story of a Duck.

XVI. A Parting Glimpse of China - 231

Harbor of Hong Kong — A Beautiful Sight — Terraced Hillsides — Busy Wharves and Female Coolie Laborers — A Wonderful City — Handsome Eesidences at the Peak — Beautiful View — Grabbing Eeal Estate — The Boy, the Apple, the Sixpence, and the Bible—' < I '11 Make a Politician of Him ! ' '— 1 ' You 're a Hog, and You '11 Never Get Over It ! ' ' — Americans Unwelcome — They Are Fair Game for Extortion and Eobbery — We Are Invited to Dine with Mr. Wei Yuk — Are Carried Up the Peak by Coolie Bearers — A Palatial Eesidence and a Princely Eepast — Charming and Cultivated Hosts — How a Chinese Lady of High Eank Dresses — Splendid Jewels.

XVII. Canton, and Trip From Hong

Kong to Ceylon - - - 239

Medieval City of Canton — Chinese Pagodas of A. D. 1400 — Civil Service Examinations — Education the Only Patent of Nobility — General Grant Most Honored American — Actors Outcasts and Pariahs — City of the Dead — Shameen 2 — Macao — Grotto of Camoens — Eastern Monte Carlo — Missionaries Unpopular — Americans Not — The Future Alone Can Tell! — Christmas Dinner on Board the "Prinz Eitel Friedrich ' ; — Pooling for Presents — Brilliant and Beautiful Table Decorations — Dinner Served in Processions — The Very Swell Gravy-Bearer — Songs of All Nations — The Towering Christmas Tree and Its Presents — Christmas Day at Singapore — A Hot Old Time, if Nothing Else.

XVIII. Singapore 253

The White Man's Grave — Innovations and Improvements — Stigma Bemoved — Picturesque Crowd on Wharf — Natives of Madras Coast — -Malays Dislike Work — The Sarong and Fez — We Drive Up to the Town in a Gharry — Ponies Are Like Dogs — Bubbed Down with a Bag — Shrieking for Two Dollars an Hour — -Baffles Hotel and Baffles Square — Sir Stanford Baffles, Who Secured Singapore for England — An Enthusiastic Collector of Native Flora and Fauna — The Blow that Deprived Him of Wife and Children as Well as His Marvelous Collection — Botanical Garden — Chinamen Outnumber Entire Cosmopolitan Population — Fill the Offices and Become Thoroughly English — Gorgeous 'Bickshas — Paid in Bice — Opium Trade Flourishes — Secret Societies — Penang.

CONTENTS XIX. Ceylon : The Door-sill of India - 262

Only Gem of the Sea — Gorgeous Ensemble of Color — Dugout Canoes — Black Tamils — Handsome and Commodious Hotel — Mr. Hoffer, an Ideal Hotel Manager, Late of the Cecil, London — Head Waiter " Joseph' 9 — Bathing at Mt. Lavinia — My Creole Friend of the Isle Bourbon — Native Mountain His Sepulcher — Took America au serieux—' i I Have Seen the Sun at Midnight ! ' ' — Giant Cat's-eyes — Snake-Charmers — The Mongoose — Bullocks as Pets — Cow is Sacred — Familiar Crows — Variety of Native Life and Costume — Cingalese Disdain Labor — Tea-Growing: Its Profits — Buried Cities of Ceylon — We Escape the Dreaded P. and O. and Embark on the German Liner.

XX. Cairo of To-day - - - - 282

History of the Great Ditch — "Le Grand Francois' ' and How He Fulfilled the Oracle's Prophecy for Egypt — Monotonous Aspects — Bible Scenes — Enormous Tolls — Port Said — The Great Barrage — English Prejudice — Mecca Pilgrims — Bewildering Sights and Sounds of Cairo — Funeral Mourners — Public Scribes — Shopkeepers ' Bitter Eivalry — Cairene Wedding Procession — The Whirling Dervishes — The Howling Dervishes — The Citadel — Tombs of the Califs — The Pyramids and Sphinx — Guides All Lie in Seven Different Languages — Incubators — Spot Where Moses Was Found — Obelisk of Heliopolis — Museum and Mummies — "Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant! " — Eecruiting the Army — The University — Six Powers with Hand on the Cash-Box — Ismail's Mad Legacy.

CONTENTS XXI. Naples 316

The Famous Bay — Beautiful Shore-Line to Pompeii — Herculaneum — We Walk on the Seething Crust of Solfatara — Pozzuoli — Baiae and Its Famous Kuins — We Lunch at the Little Inn, and Drink the Historic Wine of Posilipo — l i Spaghett I ' ' — Agrippina 's Villa and Her Cruel Murder — The Grotto del Cane — The Neapolitan Puppy — I Tell Him a Story— " Shall I T'row Heem in?" — The American's Unexpected Beply — The Pink Coral Grotto — How the Head Eower Tried to do Us — The Landlord's Pathetic Appeal — I Call My Bluff — We Leave Naples with a Sense of Relief.

XXII. Gibraltar 326

First View Disappointing — Adequate Armament — Everything Truly English — We Drive About and Make Some Purchases — Tommy Atkins Shows Us the Gates — Beautiful Flowers Blooming Everywhere — British Domination Apparent — Will England Ever Restore the Rock? — Her Rule in Egypt Greatly Beneficial — Possession Nine Points of the Law — Homeward Bound — We Embark for America — Passing Through the Azores — Real Paradises — We Sight Fayal — Temperature Becomes Cooler — I Put on Two Overcoats — Can Almost Smell Broadway — The Narrows — The Goddess Waves Her Torch at Us — We Sweep Up to the Dock — Smiling Faces and Outstretched Hands — Dear Old New York — Glorious America — Beloved Home!

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Picturesque Advertising in Colombo Frontispiece s

Girl Wearing Lei Surf-Boat Riding The Hawaii Hotel 56 *

A Public School

A Wayside Shrine

A Fair Smoker

Sightseeing in Tokyo 80

At the Tea-House of the 101 Steps

A Street Restaurant

Nunobiki Waterfall 96 J

Three Little Maids

A Watering-Cart

Wrestlers

A Japanese Mother 116

The Emperor's Carriage A Messenger Boy A Smiling Reception

The Emperor of Japan 144

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

CHINA :

Asleep in His Cab

Kiver Life

Prisoners Wearing the Cangue

The Willow Pattern Tea-House .... 160 .

Chen Dong

A Sikh Policeman

Two Police Sergeants

A Shanghai Victoria 180 >

Eesidence of a Chinese Gentleman

Chinese Junks and a Pagoda

On a Native Barrow

A Street in Canton 236

MANILA:

Ancient Fire Department

Nipa House

Modern Fire Department • . 208

Two Old Boosters

A Eope-Walk

A Filipino Mother

" Mayor' ' Brown's Residence and Carriage 228

CEYLON:

A Cingalese Belle Indian with Caste Mark The Galleface Hotel

A Native Ferry 268

ILLUSTKATIONS

FACING PAGE

EGYPT:

A Load of Turkeys An Egyptian Mother A Cake-Seller

The Tent in Which the Holy Carpet is Carried to Mecca A Street Circus 288

Water-Sellers

The Sphinx

Eapid Transit in the Desert 308

Public Letter- Writer

The Obelisk at Heliopolis

Sleeping in the Street 312

ITALY:

Seeing Pompeii

A Policeman of Naples

Eating Spaghetti 324

ACEOSS THE CONTINENT

" Besting' ' Fate — The Undertaker and the Doctors — The Irishman's Bird — How we Missed the Grand Canon — Lunch-counter Ethics — The Lady from County Down — " George, have you Seen my Maid" — How I Milked the Cow — The Gila Monster — The One Place that is Hotter than Hades — She was Afraid of Me and the Evil Eye— The "Mongolia" is There.

THEKE is a morbid desire latent in the breast of nine- tenths of humanity to have it out with Fate, sooner or later, and to "best" her, if we can.

If the old lady — she must be old, for we have all heard of her since we were able to hear anything — if the old lady has been particularly hard on us, we feel that our grievance is just about the worst ever ; and then we want to do something desperate. If we are in the neighborhood of eight years or thereabouts, we fly to the candy-shop and sink our all in peppermints and gumdrops. If we are at the romantic period, when love has everything else at a discount, we get real reckless, and say to our best girl, "Come to the altar! let us plunge! — Ho! there, instalment man! rag-time portieres and marble- top cradles for ours ! ' ' Then, when we have done the deed, we're not sorry — no, indeed! only it entails responsibility and things; and consequences — the inevitable consequences, as Kipling puts it. So let me give you a little suggestion : "When the reckless fit overtakes you, start on a journey, if not 'round the world, then 'round the back yard. Never mind the expense — plunge ! Remember, you're going to get even with Fate! and, besides, think of the reward. Travel is the greatest educator. Travel opens the mind and bottles of good cheer, and hospitable doors, and the arms of friendship; it sometimes closes them, too, but never mind that. Keep going, — ' ' Keep ahead, ' ' as the undertaker said to the doctor at the funeral, "I know my place in this procession!"

Now, that was what we thought when we started to tour the world ; but, try as we would, we couldn't keep our place in the procession. We started for the Grand Canon of the Colorado in Arizona; that was to have been our first stopping-place. But we were like the Irishman who started out on a bet to shoot a certain bird ; he missed the bird, but killed a frog. He picked it up, and looked at it in surprise. "Be gobs!" he said, "I knocked the feathers off it, anny way ! ' ' The Grand Canon was our bird; we didn't hit it, but we knocked the feathers off it in the way of divers unexpected adventures, as will be shown later.

The start was propitious, and everything went forward favorably, until Kansas City was reached. We arrived early in the morning, and were requested by the conductor to get breakfast at the eating station. Yet that man had seemed to be our friend!

As we couldn't eat the food, we turned our attention to the people. Not that we felt cannibalish— but it gave us something to do.

There was a youth at the quick-lunch counter who served coffee, and there was a maiden beside him who occasionally changed a plate or handed out a spoon when she wasn't caressing her skyscraper pompadour, or smoothing out a beruffled white apron that had perceptibly shrunk in the wash.

The young man's running fire of remarks to customers, and side compliments to her, sounded something like this :

"See here! if you've finished, get a move on and give somebody else a show! Say, Mame, there's one o' them up-town girls that think so much of themselves. Why, they ain't a marker to you! I tell you, you're worth — fifteen cents please, and the cup don't go with the coffee for a souveneer. Say, Mame, was you to Nellie's last night? I bet you looked out of sight. I couldn't get away from this beanery. That's the very best butter, madam; we get it five miles out in the country. What's that?

No ; I don't reckon it walked all the way here. Ain't she fresh?"

A stout woman hovered along the line seated by the counter, like a perturbed hen trying to find a hole in the chicken yard fence. She held a small tin pail and had evidently come from the car of excursionists attached to our train. She inquired anxiously of the Ganymede of the coffee urn:

"Say, young feller, what's yer coffee wuth a cup?" But Ganymede was too closely occupied to heed her. Finally she poked a beetle-browed old gentleman in the back with the dime she held, repeating,

"Say, Mister, what's coffee wuth a cup here?"

Turning fiercely, the man glared at her and snorted :

"Well, they charge ten cents, but it ain't wuth a damn!"

"Washouts on the road!" was the word when we returned to the train and we must be switched south at Newton, Kansas. We had visions of the Grand Canon receding into the future and darker ones of spending we knew not how many days on the train. So we looked about us to see what manner of people were to be our traveling companions. They were certainly varied.

At the end of the car were a mother and daughter, the latter of uncertain age, but certainly old enough to have a cup of tea do her good. Every morning during the entire trip they arrayed themselves completely, even to bonnets and gloves, and sat there demurely all day, as if they were in a trolley ear, and expected to step off at the next corner.

Back of us was an old Irish woman — the pathetic sort that are peculiar to County Down. She would confide her story in a plaintive, little monotone to every one. She sidled into our seat and confided to us that she was going to " Calif orny" —

"To my daughter," she explained. "God knows I want some few days of sunshine before I go intirely. I'm not strong, and I a,te no thin' at all, ye'd wonder what I live on. I've had no thin' the past three days but eight bottles of kumiss, four bottles of wine an' a box of crackers. Think of that, now — just nothin' at all."

She went to one of the eating houses along the way and not knowing they would charge her for a full meal, she sat at one of the tables and ordered a cup of tea and a roll. Her indignation, when charged seventy-five cents, was sublime. It took the cashier, four waitresses and the proprietor to explain that she should have gone to the counter. But of no avail. The blood of County Down was at white heat. She raved like a madwoman. Finally, the cashier offered to take sixty cents — that was allowing fifteen cents for the rest of the dinner. He was a just man, and with a due sense of proportion. That's all the dinner was worth, anyhow.

When the old lady returned to the car, everybody was treated to the recital.

"What do you think of a place where they would take sixty cents from an old woman, who has none too much, for wan cup of tay and wan small bun? 'Tis fair robbery — that's what it is, and if me sons knew of it — mabie ye know me sons, they're printers in New York. ' ' A deep dive into a pocket that must have reached to her feet brought up the card of these sons, who were printers, and of whom she was no doubt justly proud.

"No, no. Kape the card — ye may need some printin' done some time, and they're good byes."

This was repeated almost every day till I had a neat little pile of cards on my window-sill.

Farther down the car was a would-be fashionable woman, the kind who affects an English accent and uses a lorgnette. She was traveling with her small daughter and a maid. The maid was evidently her most treasured possession, for she displayed the greatest anxiety on her account, ceaselessly asking every one the same question: Had they seen her Abigail? The small daughter was a bright, restless child, whose every action called forth a caution or a reprimand from the mother.

"Nita, darling!" in a mincing, elegant tone, and quite piano, " my precious sweetheart " — then sforzando — crescendo fortissimo — "You little vixen — stop that, or I'll break your neck!"

An Australian couple who were returning home by way of San Francisco, after having come to America by way of England, had the next section. She had talented Leslie-Carter hair — deeply, darkly, beautifully red — but after all, good Jesuit hair — the roots justified the ends. She was not at all pleased with America — oh, dear, no ! — and constantly aired her impressions in a strident voice, and with a strong, cockney accent. She thought America a "shocking plice ,, — -and very much overrated — one she never cared to see "agine." And the railroad service — "the h'idea of dragging them all over the country, and cheating them out of the Grand Canon — why, it was downright dishonest!"

One section was curtained in all the time, and occasionally a hollow cough might be heard behind them. A poor consumptive, put on the train in almost a dying condition, was lying in the berth; going in search of health in the dry atmosphere of Arizona.

The poor fellow was in a pitiful state, unable to help himself, and entirely dependent on the good offices of the conductor and porter, and a few of the passengers. One lady took him orange juice every morning and bathed his face and hands several times a day, talked encouragingly to him and tried to cheer him up — as sweet an exhibition of sympathy as one could wish to see.

The consumptives are ubiquitous in overland travel, there being several on every western-bound train. It is right that they should be taken to the healing climate of Colorado and Arizona, but the fact that the Pullman Company allow them to travel in the regular coaches, where they spread contagion, and provide no other means of transportation is a criminal offense against the healthy people who are forced to expose themselves to the contagion. When so many States have made the question of guarding against this disease the subject of legislation, it would seem as if they were neglecting a very pressing duty in allowing this menace to travelers to continue.