San Diego State University - Del Sudoeste Yearbook (San Diego, CA)

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8 WHITE AND GOLD It consisted chiefly of waves and circular wind blowing at the rate of 110 miles an hour. This so far was our only bad weather. Leaving it behind, we soon anchored in the equatorial city of Singapore, where we were wel- comed by Miss Harriett Read, a graduate of the NNormal on the Hill . Miss Read 1s doing a grand work here. She has charge of the primary grades at Oldham Hall-a large missionary school. We can never forget the pleas- ure of that day. After visiting the school we took a long irickisha ride through a cocoanut plantation-and later an automobile ride through the city and out to a rubber plantation, where we learned how rubber is ex- tracted from the trunks of the rubber tree. In the evening we waved good- bye to Miss Read and her friends from the deck of the ttYorck as we sailed away, and turned northward towards Penang, where a day was pleas- antly spent among the beauties of a tropical island. Five days more and we landed at Colombo, Ceylon. Our stay here was altogether too short- only one day. But we crowded into that all that was possible. A party of us hired a carriage, and we kept it going through tropical forests and native villages till sun-down. The natives of Ceylon are a most charming people-happy as the happiest of children. In fact they are children, and their little thefts are those of little childrene'that is, not thefts at all. It was here, or perhaps, elsewhere, that natives in canoes crowded 'round the steamer crying ti ten cent, fire away, all the time. And if a ten cent piece was thrown overboard a dozen semi-naked brown-skinned natives leapt from their canoes, and, soon, one of them appeared on the surface with the coin in his teeth, and ,clambered into his canoe ready for another dive.. Leaving Colombo we started westward on an eleven-day voyage through the Indian Ocean and Red Sea to Port Said in Egypt. This was the most delightful part of our sea experience. The weather was not oppressive, but one did not need much clothing either day or night. Many of the passen- gers were English. There were also a Prince de Bourbon and an Austrian Baron. The Prince was a. gentleman. We all know the English to be lovers of all kinds of sport. Under the leadership of the English governor of Borneo, a series of games was organiZed, with prizes for the Winners. Twen- ty one prizes were offered for the various contests, and eleven of these were won by passengers from Southern California. What do you think of that? We arrived at Port Said on Thanksgiving Day, and took the train to Cairo, where we spent nearly four weeks among the pyramids and other antiquities of an ancient civilization. We crossed the desert tin a rain stormi on the hurricane decks of donkeys followed by yelling donkey boys on foot. At the end of the journey, the donkeys were removed from underneath us, and there we stood as stiE as theSphinx itself for some minutes until circulation was restored. Then we moved slowly and sadly on to a place of refresh- ment, where we rested for some time. Those days in Egypt were full of interest. We visited a university which is simply a great hollow square Without a roof. Groups of students from thirteen to sixty years of age tall malesi, led by teachers, were scattered all over the place, sitting on their haunches, memorizing the Koran in a kind of sing-song tone. Seeing that there were over a thousand students, it is easy to imagine the effect the noise and confusion had upon the nerves of Western teachers. We visited the Arab quarters of the city Where the bazaars are located in which thousands of artisans are engaged in all kinds of useful and decorative arts. The streets are all narrow tsome of them narroweri and dirty, with the ever-present Oriental smell that a westerner can never get used to. This smell is found from Japan all along the line to Northern Italy. One can never forget it. New Cairo is a well-laid-out and beautiful city. But Eng- land has a great problem here, as she has all over the Orient. Its solution is in the remote future.

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WHITE AND GOLD 7 Joumeyings WW BY FORMER PRESIDWI' 8. T. BLACK ' Leaving San Diego on the morning of September seventh, 1910, we travelled by train to Seattleastopping 0135 for a few days in Oakland and San Francisco to say good-bye to friends and relatives. Then up the gorge of the Sacramento, round the base of majestic Shasta, on through the States of Oregon and Washington, clothed in autumnal tints, we journeyed pleas- antly enough. We boarded the good steamship iiMinnesotaii at Seattle and began our westward voyage, sailing westerlyealways westerly-towards the east. In two weeks we reached the other side and were in the Orient- Japan! What a wonderful countryeinhabited by an equally wonderful and intensely interesting peopleI-in many ways the most interesting of all the many peoples we have met. They are bright, courteous, honest and cheerful. The streets of their cities literally swarm with merry, well-be- haved children, who were as much interested in us as we were in them. We spent three most delightful weeks in travelling through the country. One is impressed everywhere with the efficiency of the J apanese They are quite cap able of taking care of themselves and can hold their own with the most advanced western nations. After a week in Yokohama, and another in Tokio, the capital twhere it rained all the timeD, our steps then turned southward to Kyoto, the ancient capital, where we met friends Whom we had known in California thirty, years ago and more. We visited schools, shops, tea houses, parks, private residences, castles, and royal palaces. Only in schoolhouses did we find any furniture. Even the palaces are destitute of furniture. The iioors are covered with rich matting, and the walls are adorned with specimens of Japanese art. The natives use their feet for chairs, and the matted iioors serve both for tables and beds. We could not catch the sitting art, so we just lolled around as best we could-much to the delight and amusement of our hosts. After seeing J apanese women and girls load our steamer With coal at Nagasaki, we turned to the south for three days, and entering the Yang-tsi-Kiang River, we dropped anchor at Shanghai. Foreign Shanghai, that is, that portion made up of concessions to foreign nations, is a beautiful, up-to-date city, with all the advantages of the most modern civilization-churches, schools, clubs, parks, athletic grounds, beautiful homes, splendid equipages drawn by spirited horses and driven by gorgeous coachmen. The honk, honk of the automobile is as familiar here as among western nations. Electric cars are as common as in the United States. The jinrikisha and the wheelbarrow of the native may also be seen ming- ling with the modern means of locomotion. Shanghai is one of the wealthiest of oriental cities, and is generally known as the Paris of the Orient. But there is another Shanghai, inclosed by walls and inhabited by natives. It is char- acterized chiefly by its bad smells, its narrow, dirty streets; its beggars, jugglers, and thieves. 0 yes, we visited it, in charge of a guide, and then took a bath. Hong Kong was our next stopping place. It is an English city, and therefore clean and well governed. It consists of an island mountain--the ' streets zig-zagging across its face up to an elevation of some 2000 feet. Its electric-lighted streets present a charming sight at night from the ships anchored in the bay. A very pleasant day was spent here. We went up to iiThe Peak by ,ricksha and funicular railway, whence we had a gor- geous view of the bay, the China sea, the ocean, and some ttback country. After leaving Hong Kong we ran into a typhoonethe real thing. The least said about our experiences there the better. We don,t often think about it.

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F 44. -;-. - 44 WHITE AND GOLD 9 Leaving Cairo by rail we embarked at Port Said for Naples, where we arrived on the afternoon of a cold Christmas day. Fifteen days were spent here-mostly cold and rainy. We had an opportunity to see the beauties of the matchless bay, to attend the Grand Opera, and to walk through the silent streets of Pompeii-this last sight alone being worth almost all it cost to get there. We saw smoking Vesuvius, but did not ascend to the crater, as the last 2000 feet of the ascent was covered with snow. We, however, did enter a crater at Pozznoli, where smoke was issuing from a score of crevices warning us of the uncertainty of the ground over which we were walking. Seven weeks were spent in Imperial Rome-in many respects the city of greatest interest in all the world. We visited the chief objects and places of interest many times, so that the Palatine hill, the Forum, the Coliseum, the Pantheon, St. Peters, the Vatican, St. Paulie without the walls, the cata- combs, the leading art galleries, etc., etc. are quite familiar to us. One of us was present at an audience given by His Holiness, the Pope, and received his blessing. We visited the house in which Keats spent his last days and saw where Herminius held the bridge. The old Roman baths are full of interest to all travelers: They must have been immense affairs, and really social clubs instead of mere bathing places. From Rome we passed on to Florence, the center of Italian art, and saw it all, but fear we did not appreciate it as Miss Lamb or Mrs. Coldwell did while they were there. We stood on the spot where the immortal Savonarola was burned for consciencei sake, and visited his cell--a dingy place-re- markable chiefly for its want of ventilation. Several visits were made to the great Duomo, the UHizi gallery, and Ponte Vecchio, which is lined with goldsmithst workshops-a quaint old bridge over the Arno river. We toured the heights surrounding the city, where magniiicent. views may be obtained. An intensely interesting day was spent at Pisa, where we visited the magnificent cathedral and climbed to the top of the leaning tower. From Florence we proceeded to Venice, the horseless city, with its nar- row streets, its canals, its gondolas, and its bad smells. We visited its beau- tiful cathedral, the Doge,s Palace with its Bridge of Sighs, and its an- cient prisons; we fed the pigeons at San Marco; and we made several trips to adjoining islands, on one of which we did see a few horses and one car- riage. Here, too, we saw the German Emperer pass along the Grand canal in a boat rowed by sturdy German bluejackets. From Venice we passed westward to Milan with its beautiful cathedral glistening in the sunnthat is, when the sun shines. It did not shine while we were there. In fact, it snowed during the night before we left, and one of the pilgrims saw snow falling for the first time. After a five daysi visit we departed for the Italian Lakes. The ground was white the whole distance with snow, which at Como was a foot deep, so instead of stopping there we continued our journey to beautiful Lucerne in Switzerland, the country in Which there are no beg- gars, where all earn an honest living. What a relief ! After leaving J apan we had found them everywhere until we crossed the Alps into this little republic on the roof of Europe. While at Lucerne we ascended to the sum- mit of the Rigi by funicular railway, finding at the top the snow was three or four feet deep on the level-that is, where there is any level. What a grand panorama from the peak! To the east, to the north, to the west and the south, rose the scores of white-capped peaks-many of them piercing the clouds thousands of feet above the surface of Lake Lucerne. We cir- cumnavigated the charming lake, visited all the many points of interest, then passed on to Lausanne on beautiful Lake Leman. HHow the little lake shinesP, Around the lake, stopping at the Castle of Chillon, made famous by Byron's Prisoner of Chillon , where we saw the pillar to which the prisoner was chained for four years. What a pity that such barbarity