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

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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

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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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:0 WHITE AND GOLD could ever have existed on this-one of the most beautiful spots that God ever made! A day was spent at Geneva on the southwestern extremity of the lake. What a beautifullcity! I wonder if San Diego will ever equal it! It has nearly, if not quite, all the possibilities of the Swiss city. Lausanne is a unique city, built along the face of a mountaine its streets meandering back and forth and winding their tortuous way from base to summit, with here and there a funicular railway running straight from the waters of the lake to the summit. The trip from Lausanne to Paris oifers nothing of striking interest. But Paris itself is a city of. striking beauty. Its broad and well-paved ave- nues and boulevards-lined and double-lined and quad-ruple-lined with stately shade trees; its clean streets, its hundreds of open spaces, its hand- some buildings, make it one of the handsomest, if not the handsomest city in the world. With these and its scores of historic places and buildings its interest for many people ends. We visited beautiful and historic Versailles with its fine chateau and surrounding gardens. St. Cloud, too, if possible, still more beautiful, otfered another day,s interest and pleasure. But we were longing to hear the English tongue, and eat an English breakfast; so at the end of two weeks we started for London , arriving here on the evening of May 3rd after a dirty trip of four hours across the channel. And here we are in the heart of this great noisy, bustling city of more than seven millions. Friends met us here, who have made our visit so far very enjoy- able. We have visited the Bank of England, where we saw tons of gold bullion stored in the vaults like so many bricks, and boys printing bank notes in denominations of five to one thousand pounds sterling. We have been to the theatre, seen the King and his family, visited St. Paulls, and spent a. Saturday at Windsor Castle, twenty-one miles west of London, where we were privileged to see all the royal apartments, and to drive through the beautiful grounds of the park and forest. We also visited Eton one of the most noted boys' public schools in England. We saw the bOYSw ranging from twelve to nineteen years in their black clothes, white collars and silk hats. The junior boys wear tiEton,, jackets-a short, rather tight- fitting garment that comes down to the waist, while the larger boys wear long coatSL-but all wear the high hat. They were an interesting looking set of boys, and are fairly representative of the English HPublic School boys. We have got to journey through England and Scotland, and perhaps Holland, Belgium, and the Rhine country. And then across the Atlantic, the United States, to our well-beloved and best-beloved California. London, May 14th, 1911. THE TWO PILGRIMS.