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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Birdseye Views Of Far Lands, by James T. Nichols.
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Birdseye Views of Far Lands, by James T. Nichols
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Birdseye Views of Far Lands
+
+Author: James T. Nichols
+
+Release Date: March 16, 2009 [EBook #28340]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRDSEYE VIEWS OF FAR LANDS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Peter Vachuska, Chuck Greif, Martin Pettit and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>BIRDSEYE VIEWS OF<br />FAR LANDS</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3><i>by</i></h3>
+
+<h2>JAMES T. NICHOLS</h2>
+
+<h3>Author of "Lands of Sacred Story,"<br />"The World Around," etc.</h3>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/logo.jpg" width='50' height='62' alt="logo" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<h4>Published by<br />JAMES T. NICHOLS<br />University Place Station<br />DES MOINES, IOWA</h4>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<h4>Copyrighted 1922</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/nichols.jpg" width='451' height='700' alt="JAMES T. NICHOLS" /></div>
+
+<h4>JAMES T. NICHOLS</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+
+<p>Birdseye Views of Far Lands is an interesting, wholesome presentation of
+something that a keen-eyed, alert traveler with the faculty of making
+contrasts with all classes of people in all sorts of places, in such a
+sympathetic way as to win their esteem and confidence, has been able to
+pick up as he has roamed over the face of the earth for a quarter of a century.</p>
+
+<p>The book is not a geography, a history, a treatise on sociology or
+political economy. It is a <i>Human Interest</i> book which appeals to the
+reader who would like to go as the writer has gone and to see as the
+writer has seen the conformations of surface, the phenomena of nature
+and the human group that make up what we call a "world."</p>
+
+<p>The reader finds facts indicating travel and study set forth in such
+vigorous, vivid style that the attention is held by a story while most
+valuable information is being obtained. The casual reader, the pupil in
+the public school and student in the high school, professional men and
+women, will all find the book at once highly interesting and
+instructive. In no other book with which I am acquainted can so much
+that is interesting be learned of the world in so short time and in such a pleasing way.</p>
+
+<p>Teachers in rural schools will find the book especially helpful. It will
+inspire the pupils in the upper grades in these schools to do some
+observation work themselves and to in this manner seek to learn their
+own localities better, while at the same time it will suggest the
+collection of materials about other countries, their peoples, products,
+characteristics and importance from sources other than text books.</p>
+
+<p><i>Every rural school as well as every high school and public library in
+the land should have one or more copies of this book.</i></p>
+
+<p class="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">W. F. Barr</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
+<i>Dean College of Education<br />Drake University&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</i></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT</h2>
+
+
+<p>The contents of this book have appeared, in substance, in Successful
+Farming, a magazine that has a circulation of more than eight hundred
+and fifty thousand copies per issue, and the book is published largely
+at the request of many of the readers of this journal.</p>
+
+<p>The author began traveling in foreign countries many years ago. Some of
+the countries described in the book have been visited many times and
+often with unusual opportunity to see places and people as they really are.</p>
+
+<p>When the writer began traveling it was with no thought of ever writing
+for a magazine or publishing a book. It is only natural, however, that
+one would read what others say about the countries he expected to visit.
+Travel books and articles were often read in public libraries and the
+habit was formed of making extensive notes, sometimes entire sentences
+being copied in notebook without the use of quotation marks or any
+reference whatever to the author. It is therefore impossible to give
+credit where credit is often due.</p>
+
+<p>No literary merit is claimed for the book. The information was gained in
+every possible way and the book is sent forth hoping that it will be
+suggestive and helpful, especially to those who find it impossible to
+visit foreign lands. If the eye of an author of a book or magazine
+article should read the following pages and fall upon a thought or
+sentence that is familiar it will be evidence that your book or article
+was very helpful to the one who writes these lines. This book is simply
+an effort to pass some of the worth while things on to others.</p>
+
+<div class="right"><img src="images/sig.jpg" width='300' height='92' alt="Jas. T. Nichols handwritten signature." /></div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><span class="mono">CHAPTER</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_I">I</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Land of Opposites&mdash;China</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_II">II</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Pearl of the Orient&mdash;Philippines</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Country America Opened to Civilization&mdash;Japan</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Transformation of a Nation&mdash;Korea</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_V">V</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A Great Unknown Land&mdash;Manchuria</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Land of Sorrow&mdash;Siberia</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Home of Bolshevism&mdash;Russia</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Nation That Conquers the Sea&mdash;Holland</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Nation That the World Honors&mdash;Belgium</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_X">X</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A Glimpse of America's Friend&mdash;France</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;Some Impressions of the Great Peace Conference</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Nightmare of Europe&mdash;Alsace-Lorraine</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Home of the Passion Play&mdash;Oberammergau</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Country Where the War Started&mdash;Servia</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A World-Famous Land&mdash;Palestine</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A World-Famous City&mdash;Jerusalem</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A World-Famous River&mdash;The Jordan</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Playground of Moses&mdash;Egypt</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A Country With a Thousand Rivers&mdash;Venezuela</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;A Land of Great Industries&mdash;Brazil</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;Uruguay and Paraguay</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Wonderful Argentine Republic</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">XXIII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;Yankeedom of South America&mdash;Chile</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">XXIV</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Switzerland of South America&mdash;Bolivia</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">XXV</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Land of Mystery&mdash;Peru</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">XXVI</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The World's Great Crossroad&mdash;Panama Canal</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">XXVII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Seven Wonders of the World</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Land of Opposites&mdash;China</span></h3>
+
+<p>A half century ago the world laughed at Jules Verne for imagining that
+it would ever be possible to go around the world in eighty days. It was
+not until years later that Nellie Bly, a reporter, actually encircled
+the globe in that space of time. Now we are dreaming of making such a
+journey in ten days and our aeroplanes are flying at a rate of speed
+that would take one around the world in eight days. At this hour
+thousands of young men can handle these flyers as easily and with almost
+as little danger as they can handle an automobile. With aerial mail
+routes already established in many countries it will not be long until
+mail service by aeroplane will be established around the world.</p>
+
+<p>This book is a series of Birdseye Views of Far Lands something the same
+as one would see on a flying visit to various countries. In this way it
+will be possible to get glimpses of countries on every continent in one
+small volume and thus give interesting and valuable information about
+countries and peoples in all parts of the world. Young people especially
+are in the mind of the writer. As most of the information was secured by
+rambling through these countries and rubbing elbows with the common
+people it will be difficult to keep from using the personal pronoun quite often.</p>
+
+<p>It is fitting that our first view be of China which is one of the oldest
+civilizations on the earth. This great agricultural people have tilled
+the same soil for forty centuries and in most cases it yet produces more
+per acre than the soil of perhaps any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> other country. The Chinese are a
+great people. Although they are just awakening from a sleep that has
+lasted twenty centuries or more, yet the world can learn many valuable
+lessons from them. They used to embody the genius of the world and even
+yet have skill along certain lines that is simply amazing. Many of the
+great inventions that have blessed the world and which we are using
+today were wrought out by these people and it will not be out of place
+here to recount some of their achievements.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese invented printing five hundred years before Caxton was born
+and the Peking Gazette is said to be the oldest newspaper in the world.
+They invented paper nearly eighteen centuries ago and had books hundreds
+of years before the days of Gutenburg. They invented the compass twenty
+centuries before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. They invented gunpowder
+ages ago and were the first people to use firearms. They used banknotes
+and bills of exchange long before other nations, and the modern adding
+machine is founded upon a principle which has been used by them a
+thousand years. They discovered the process of rearing the silkworm and
+they dressed in silk when our forefathers wore clothing made of the
+skins of animals. The writer has crossed the Atlantic more than a dozen
+times on ships with watertight compartments, a so-called modern safety
+device, but the Chinese had watertight compartments in their junks
+hundreds of years before modern steamships were ever dreamed about.</p>
+
+<p>To the Chinese we must credit the making of asbestos, the manufacture of
+lacquer, the carving of ivory and many other important industries. Even
+today they make the finest dishes and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> best pottery. At one time
+they built a tower two hundred and fifty-six feet high entirely of
+porcelain. Ages ago they dug the longest and in some respects the
+greatest canal ever dug on earth, the Grand Canal of China, which was a
+thousand miles long and some of which is in use to this day. They built
+the Great Wall of China which was fifteen hundred miles in length and
+which was a greater undertaking than the building of the Pyramids of Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese were the first people to coin money in a mint; the first to
+have a standard of weights and measures; the first to have a system of
+marking time. They had a celestial globe, an observatory, and noted the
+movements of heavenly bodies more than four thousand years ago. A
+Chinaman was the first to distill and use intoxicating liquor and for
+this he was dismissed from the public service by the ruler who said,
+"This will cost someone a kingdom some day." They are industrious,
+resourceful and skillful and should they become warriors and introduce
+modern methods and instruments of warfare the world would be up against
+the most frightful peril of all ages. Napoleon Bonaparte said of China,
+"Yonder sleeps a mighty giant and when it awakens it will make the whole world tremble."</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese are one of the strongest races of people in existence. They
+have only been conquered twice but in both cases they absorbed their
+conquerors and made Chinese of them. Although old, out of date and slow,
+they have principles in their civilization that will last as long as
+time, and China will be a great nation long after some of the so-called
+great nations now in existence are forgotten.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p><p>With the exception of Russia as it was before the world war, the
+Chinese Empire is perhaps the largest the world has ever known. Its
+population comprises one-fourth of the human race. If the single state
+of Texas were as densely populated as at least one of the provinces of
+China, there would be living in this one state more than two hundred
+million people or nearly twice as many people as are now living in the
+whole United States. The resources of this great country are almost
+boundless. There is said to be coal enough in China to furnish the whole
+world fuel for a thousand years. While in China I was told of one
+mountain that has five veins of coal that can be seen without throwing a
+shovelful of dirt. Some years ago the German government investigated the
+iron resources of China and published the fact that they are the finest
+in the world. This no doubt explains one reason why Germany was trying
+to get a foothold in China.</p>
+
+<p>But in agriculture the Chinese shine. As noted above they have tilled
+the same soil for four thousand years. Some of this soil too is very
+thin and poor but it produces as well today as it did a thousand years
+ago. While most of their methods are the oldest and crudest that can be
+found, yet in some other ways the whole world can learn lessons from
+them. They use fertilizer in the form of liquid and put it on the
+growing plant rather than on the soil as we do. The farmer will feed his
+plants with the same regularity and care that our farmers feed and care
+for their horses and cattle. Every drop of urine and every particle of
+night soil is preserved for fertilizer. This is saved in earthen jars
+and gathered, mostly by women, each morning. A Chinese contractor paid
+the city of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> Shanghai $31,000 in gold in a single year for the privilege
+of collecting the human waste and selling it to the farmers around near
+the city. Where a beast of burden is at work a boy or girl is near with
+a long handled dipper ready to catch the urine and droppings as they fall.</p>
+
+<p>In China the farmers have always been held in high esteem. While the
+scholar is highest, the farmer is second on the list in the social
+scale. It is interesting to know that the soldier is fifth or last on
+the list because his work is to destroy rather than to build up. The hoe
+is an emblem of honor in China. For hundreds of years the Emperor with
+his nobles went every spring to the Temple of Agriculture to offer
+sacrifice. After this ceremony they all went to a field near the temple
+and paid honor to the tillers of the soil. At a yellow painted plow, to
+which was hitched a cow or buffalo, with a yellow robed peasant leading,
+the Emperor dressed as a farmer put his hand to the plow and turned nine
+furrows across the field while bands of musicians chanted the praises of
+agriculture. Even the Empress set the example of honest agricultural
+toil by picking the leaves from the mulberry trees, early each spring,
+to be fed to silk worms.</p>
+
+<p>All China is a network of canals and the Chinese are a race of
+irrigators. Both men and women stand from daylight until dark walking on
+a sort of a windlass turning an endless chain with buckets on it, one
+end of which is in the canal and the other end up on the bank, pumping
+the water up to flood the rice fields or irrigate the growing crops. No
+people toil harder or more earnestly than do these simple people. While
+they grow an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> abundance of vegetables, yet rice and tea are the greatest
+products of China.</p>
+
+<p>The great rivers of the empire are so liable to disastrous floods that
+in many of the lower lands the people content themselves with fishing
+and raising geese and ducks. A duck farm is most interesting. A large
+shed by the river, or a raft, will serve as a shelter for the night. The
+farmer of course sleeps in this shed. Early in the morning he opens the
+door and out come the ducks. At night they return from every direction
+scrambling over each other to get in. The Chinaman sits near the door
+with a long bamboo pole herding them in. He even trains drakes to assist
+him and they care for the flock something like a good shepherd dog will care for sheep.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese do nearly everything backward or opposite from the way we do
+it. The reading in their books begins at the end. Instead of across the
+page the lines are up and down with footnotes at the top. The Chinaman
+laughs at a funeral and cries at a wedding. He beckons you to come when
+he wants you to go away. Instead of shaking his friend's hand in
+greeting him he shakes his own hands. When he gets puzzled instead of
+scratching his head as we do he kicks off his shoe and scratches the
+bottom of his foot. When he gets mad at another he kills himself
+imagining that his dead spirit will haunt the enemy and make life
+miserable for him. Men often do crochet work while women dig ditches and
+drive piling. Men wear petticoats and women wear trousers.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese launch ships sideways. Their compass points to the south. In
+building a house they make the roof first and the foundation is the last
+thing they put in. The key in the door turns <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>backward to lock it. The
+kitchen is in the front while the best room is in the back of the house.
+When a Chinaman sprinkles clothes for ironing purposes he uses his mouth
+as the sprinkler. I never had a collar washed in China that was not
+ironed wrong side out. He pays the doctor when he is well and stops the
+pay the moment he gets sick. You can almost bank on a Chinaman doing
+anything the opposite from the way you do it and he laughs at your way
+as much as you do at his.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Pearl of the Orient&mdash;Philippines</span></h3>
+
+<p>Of all the islands in the eastern seas, none are more interesting than
+our own Philippines. Like the genuine pearl which is the result of a
+bruise and the outcome of suffering, these pearls of the far east are
+said by geologists to be the result of great volcanic forces that tore
+them away from the continent and set them out six hundred miles as "gems
+in the ocean." More than three thousand there are of these islands all
+together, and their combined area is nearly equal to that of Japan or
+California. I visited the Philippines a short time before the world war
+broke out and at that time there were seven million acres of arable land
+unoccupied and some of it could be entered and purchased for ten cents per acre.</p>
+
+<p>This is a land where the storms of winter never blow but where from
+month to month and age to age there is good old summer time. Children
+are born, grow to manhood, old age, and die without ever seeing fire to
+keep them warm for they never need it. A range of twenty degrees is
+about all that the spirits in the thermometer ever show, for the minimum
+is seventy-two and the maximum ninety-two degrees. While the nights are
+cool and the days warm, yet a case of sunstroke was never known and but
+once in a generation has a hundred in the shade been recorded.</p>
+
+<p>About the most unpleasant feature is the little tiny ants. They find
+their way into everything. Table legs must be placed in jars of water
+and yet they find their way to the top of the tables.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> Then there is
+dampness everywhere. Books soon become mildewed or unglued and the
+finest library will soon have the appearance of a secondhand bookshop.</p>
+
+<p>Almost all kinds of tropical fruits can be raised in the Philippines. I
+drove out from Manila to the home of Mr. Lyon, who is a regular Burbank.
+He located on some of the worst soil to be found and undertook to
+demonstrate that anything that will grow on any spot on the earth will
+grow there and he practically succeeded. He has sent to India,
+California, Egypt and nearly everywhere for the rarest orchids and most
+delicate plants. To eat of the fruits of every kind of tree and hear him
+tell the story of plants and shrubs and trees in his Garden of Eden is
+an experience one cannot forget.</p>
+
+<p>The story of how these islands came into our possession is still fresh
+and vivid in the memory of thousands. Spanish cruelty had reached the
+climax and Admiral Dewey was commanded to "find the Spanish fleet and
+sink it to the bottom of the sea." As the great ship upon which I went
+into and out of this harbor plowed the waves I lived over again that
+marvelous May day in 1898. It was one of the great days in our history.
+As the fleet entered the harbor word came to the flagship that they were
+entering a territory covered with submarine mines, yet Admiral Dewey
+signaled, "Steam ahead." A little later word came that they were in
+direct range of the guns at the fort and once more the Admiral signaled
+"Steam ahead." Still later word came that they were entering the most
+dangerous mine-infested district of all and were liable any instant to
+be blown to atoms, and once more the fearless Admiral signaled "Steam
+ahead." The result was that the long dark night<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> of Spanish rule was
+ended and a new era was ushered in.</p>
+
+<p>The transformation brought about since that memorable day is almost
+unbelievable. The whole country has been revolutionized. Railroads and
+macadamized roads have been built with steel and concrete bridges and
+where it used to be almost impassable it is now a pleasure to travel.
+Schools and colleges have been established. A bureau of labor has
+averted many strikes. A constabulary force of nearly five thousand men
+has done wonders in suppressing brigandage, bringing the savage tribes
+into subjection and preserving the peace in general. This force is
+somewhat similar to the mounted police system of Saskatchewan in Canada
+and is a terror to evil doers.</p>
+
+<p>A bureau of health has transformed the city of Manila from a
+fever-infested hotbed of contagious diseases to one of the most
+healthful cities on the globe. Six thousand lepers have been collected
+and established in a colony on an island. The number of cases of
+small-pox has been reduced from forty thousand to a few hundred per
+year. Cholera, which used to sweep away tens of thousands is almost
+unknown. With a dozen or more great hospitals and more than three
+hundred boards of health, great things have been accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>I was much interested in the report of Francis Burton Harrison who was a
+recent governor general of the Philippines who said, "During the war
+this race of people was intensely and devotedly loyal to the cause of
+the United States. It raised a division of Filipino volunteers for
+federal service and presented destroyers and a submarine to the United
+States Navy; it oversubscribed its quota in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> Liberty bonds and gave
+generously to Red Cross and other war work. America was criticised and
+even ridiculed for her altruism in dealing with this problem. The idea
+of training tropical people for independence was thought to be
+idealistic and impracticable. The result was quite to the contrary. Once
+more idealism has been shown to be the moving force in working out the
+destinies of nations. That is what America has done to the Philippines."</p>
+
+<p>"If the city of Manila could, by some genius of modern times, be laid
+down in Europe and ticketed, labeled, bill-posted and guide-booked, it
+would be famous," says one authority. The city contains an area of more
+than fifteen square miles and is more densely populated per mile of
+street than New York. When civil government was established in 1901 the
+conditions were deplorable. The streets were narrow and filthy and there
+was no sewer system to speak of. The river and dirty canals divided and
+subdivided the city. There was practically no water system and disease
+and death lurked in almost every shadow.</p>
+
+<p>Now the city is fast becoming one of the world's great cities and one of
+the most healthful cities on the globe. The streets have been widened,
+many of them, and are kept clean. A water system brings pure water to
+almost every household and a great sewer system takes away the filth.
+The Manila Hotel is worth a million and a park or square on the water
+front covers hundreds of acres of ground.</p>
+
+<p>The great Y. M. C. A. buildings were thronged as in no other city the
+writer ever visited. The fire department is up-to-date, the police
+system well organized, and even in the great Bilibid prison the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> reforms
+introduced are second to none in any prison. This prison covers
+seventeen acres of ground, making it one of the largest in the world.
+Many of its fifty buildings are built around a circle and in the tower
+at the center, watchmen, who can see the entire prison, stand night and day.</p>
+
+<p>Through the kindness of the officials the writer was allowed to go into
+this tower one afternoon as the five thousand prisoners came from the
+shops, formed into companies and went through a thirty-minute drill. The
+band played throughout and as the men were formed into companies we from
+the tower could see each individual company although they were hidden
+from each other. The great body of men moved like the wheels of a great
+clock. They stood, knelt, touched hands, lay down, arose, walked and
+exercised, keeping time with the music in a way that was wonderful to
+behold. Cells for prisoners have long since been done away. They mingle
+in companies in large sunny, clean, dormitories, where they visit, read and sing.</p>
+
+<p>In the heart of Manila there remains "all that is mortal" of one of the
+most interesting spots in the eastern world. It is the old, old capital
+city and its story is the story of the Philippines. The old walls of
+this inner city were built some four hundred years ago and could they
+speak, the whole world would listen with amazement and horror. There
+were seven gates in this old wall and they were closed and opened by
+means of gigantic windlasses.</p>
+
+<p>Then, too, the story of the old Fort Santiago almost rivals that of the
+Tower of London. Here were found, when we took it, mysterious
+underground passages, store rooms and magazines, dark and hidden
+chambers some of which were nearly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> half filled with skeletons. The
+stories that center around this old fort make one shudder to hear them.
+Possibly they are exaggerated, but there are many today who believe
+them. As an example, we are told that a woman had been walled up in a
+cell, with only a small opening through which food was shoved in, the
+day her baby was born and when the Americans came they found her and her
+sixteen-year-old child in this dark room. The child had never had even a
+glimpse of the sunlight.</p>
+
+<p>When I climbed upon this old fort and saw the stars and stripes waving
+in the breeze, where for more than three hundred years the Spanish
+emblem had terrorized the people, I thought of the mighty changes that
+the American flag had brought. That memorable day in 1898 when our own
+General Merritt met the Spanish governor-general and arranged for the
+surrender of the city, was one of the greatest days in the history of the orient.</p>
+
+<p>People in Manila slept but little that eventful night for somehow they
+had gotten the idea that the coming morning would be their day of doom.
+When the sun arose they hardly breathed. For a whole week they were
+afraid to venture from their homes. But there was no pillage, no plunder
+and no bloodshed. When the amazed people found courage to venture out,
+their astonishment knew no bounds. It was almost too good to be true
+that American occupation meant the dawning of a new, and for them, a
+glorious day, and it is not surprising that such a report could be given
+as Governor General Harrison submitted in 1919.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after he came from the Philippines I heard Rev. Homer C. Stuntz
+recount many of his experiences there and will give a single one of
+these as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> memory recalls it. As Bishop of the Methodist church he had
+been there about six months when one day a fine looking young Filipino
+came to his home and asked for a private interview. He insisted on
+having doors and windows closed and blinds all down. Mr. Stuntz said he
+had no idea what the man wanted. When they were alone with door locked
+and with evidence of great agitation the young man said: "I have come
+many miles to see you and ask you a question that means more to us
+Filipinos than any other question that I could ask." Mr. Stuntz said
+that as yet he had no idea what was troubling the man until he
+continued: "I want to know, sir, if it is now safe&mdash;the soldiers say it
+is, but I cannot believe it&mdash;to have a copy of the Protestant Bible in
+my house and read it to my family?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Stuntz said the whole thing seemed so strange to him that he was
+silent for a moment, when the man continued: "Sir, this is a very
+important question to us Filipinos. You know the law under which we have
+lived here is this," and quoting from section 219 of the Penal Code of
+Spain in the Philippines, said: "If any person or persons shall preach
+or teach or otherwise maintain any doctrine or doctrines not established
+by the state, he shall be deemed guilty of a crime and shall be punished
+at the discretion of the judge." Then, to the amazement of Mr. Stuntz,
+the man continued: "Under the operation of that law my own father was
+dragged from our house and we never saw him alive again. That was when I
+was eleven years old. I have supported my mother as best I could, and
+now I have a wife and two children. I want to know if it is safe."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p><p>It was with a heart thrilling with pride that this great American took
+the young man to the window and as he opened the blind and the window
+itself and saw the stars and stripes proudly waving in the breeze and
+with tears running down his face said to him: "My dear man, as long as
+yonder flag waves over the city you may take the Bible and climb up on
+the ridgeboard of your house at high noon each day, three hundred and
+sixty-five days in the year and read it as loud as you can and no man
+shall harm you." Three months later Mr. Stuntz went to that man's home
+city, spoke from half past seven until midnight, announced that he would
+speak in the same building at six o'clock the next morning, and an hour
+before the appointed time five hundred people were in line waiting to get in.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Country America Opened to Civilization&mdash;Japan</span></h3>
+
+<p>Three hundred and fifty years ago there were perhaps a million
+Christians in Japan. The great Jesuit missionary, Francis Xavier,
+introduced the religion of the Nazarene into Japan in 1849, and it
+spread like a prairie fire. But in the course of time the Japanese
+leaders turned against the priests and leaders of the new religion and
+undertook to obliterate everything Christian from their civilization.</p>
+
+<p>They placed a price upon the head of every Christian. They made what
+they called footplates, a plate about the size of a shoe sole with a
+picture of Christ upon it. When a person was brought whom they
+suspicioned as being a Christian they put this footplate down and
+commanded the accused one to stamp it. If this was done freely the
+person was allowed freedom, for they said no Christian would step on the
+face of Christ. If the accused one refused to do this the horrors of his
+torture were so great that death was a release. The writer of these
+lines has seen some of those old footplates that have been preserved to this day.</p>
+
+<p>Stone signboards were placed along the highways of Japan upon which were
+written: "So long as the sun shall continue to warm the earth, let no
+Christian be so bold as to enter Japan; and let all know that the King
+of Spain himself, or the Christian's God, or the great God of all, if he
+dare violate this command, shall pay for it with his head." I saw one of
+these old signboards on exhibition in a museum in Tokyo. Japan closed
+her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> ports, established a deadline around her domain and allowed no
+ships to land, shut out the world and became a hermit nation.</p>
+
+<p>It was the eighth of July, 1853, that a fleet of vessels boldly crossed
+the forbidden line and dropped anchor in what is now known as Yokohama
+harbor. It was Commodore Perry and the stars and stripes were waving
+from the ship masts. At once there was great excitement on shore and
+soon boats with men wearing swords were along the ships' sides trying to
+explain that they were on forbidden territory.</p>
+
+<p>The men in the small boats were told emphatically that only the highest
+official could come on board. One of the men represented that he was
+second in rank and when he was allowed to come on board Commodore Perry
+refused to see him. After a parley this Japanese officer was made to
+understand that the expedition bore a letter from the President of the
+United States to the Emperor of Japan and that it could be delivered
+only to the officer of the highest rank. When the Japanese officer
+produced the notifications warning all ships against entering the port,
+the lieutenant refused to receive them.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to the shore the officer came back to the ship in an hour or
+two saying that his superior would not receive the letter addressed to
+the Emperor; that he doubted that the Emperor would receive the letter
+at all. He was instantly informed that if the superior officer did not
+come for the letter at once the ships would proceed up the Bay of Yeddo
+and deliver the letter without him. Of course this ultimatum created
+great excitement and the officer finally asked a stay in the proceedings
+until the next day.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p><p>During the night signal fires blazed from the mountain tops and bells
+sounded the hours. In the next few days the famous letter, which was
+incased in a golden box of a thousand dollars value, was delivered.
+Nothing very definite was accomplished, however, and the fleet came
+home. The next year Commodore Perry returned with a larger fleet,
+another letter, and with presents of various kinds. These consisted of
+cloth, agricultural implements, firearms and a small locomotive with
+cars and a mile of circular track for the miniature train, together with
+a telegraph line to go around it.</p>
+
+<p>The interest and curiosity caused by this miniature railway was
+wonderful. People walked hundreds of miles to see it. When some of the
+dignitaries were told that in the United States of America there were
+many large trains in which hundreds of passengers were carried they
+could hardly believe it. One of these officials said that if big trains
+could carry passengers little ones ought to be able to do so. It was
+then arranged for him to take a ride. With his flowing robe he was
+assisted to mount one of these little cars like as if it were a donkey.
+The whistle was blown, the steam turned on and away he went around the
+circle and it created as much excitement as a balloon once did at a
+circus in this country.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, it was suggested that a treaty be made between the United
+States and Japan. On board the flagship of Commodore Perry was a
+minister of the gospel who was consulted and after much discussion a
+clause was inserted giving America the right to erect or establish
+places of worship in Japan and a promise that Japan would abolish the
+practice of trampling on the face of Christ and the cross.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p><p>At first our missionaries were restricted to certain localities and
+they had a time of it. Less than twenty-five years ago this treaty was
+revised and until this was done no Christian missionary could leave
+these restricted areas without permission from the Japanese government.
+This treaty also gave Japan the right to send their missionaries to the
+United States and thus we have a half hundred Buddhist temples on the
+Pacific coast at the present time.</p>
+
+<p>On landing at Yokohama, one of the first places I went to visit was the
+great bronze idol of Kamakura, which is but eighteen miles from
+Yokohama. It is about fifty feet high, and it is called the "Great
+Buddha" or "Diabutsa." It is a thousand years old and a horrible looking
+affair. I went up into the hollow image which is ninety-seven feet in
+diameter. I wanted to scratch the eyes out, for they are said to be made
+of solid gold. Years ago there was a temple over this image, so it is
+said, but a great tidal wave swept the building away. Now they are
+collecting money from tourists to erect another temple, so they say.
+They tackle every American for a subscription and strangely enough they
+get a lot of money out of them.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of heathen temples brings to mind a large one that I visited in
+Tokyo. It is dedicated to a fox. The people used to believe, some of
+them do yet, that when one dies his spirit enters the form of some
+animal. A man is afraid to throw a rock at a dog for fear he will hit
+his old grandfather&mdash;he doesn't know but that his grandfather's spirit
+entered that particular dog. So they dedicate their temples to these
+lower animals and often take better care of animals than poor people.</p>
+
+<p>In this Tokyo temple mentioned there is a great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> image in one end of the
+building and below it a money chest nearly as large as a trunk the lid
+of which is like a hopper. Of course it takes money to keep up the
+temple and the followers of Buddha come here to worship. They always pay
+before they pray. A lot of us pray and then don't pay. Fortune tellers
+are nearly always in heathen temples. The gambling instinct abounds. The
+people too often undertake to deceive their gods by making promises that
+they will do so and so if successful when they never intend to fulfill
+the promises. It makes one's heart ache to see people bow down before
+these lifeless idols. Most of these temples are hotbeds of immorality as
+many of the treacherous priests have neither principle nor conscience.</p>
+
+<p>One night I went to a real Japanese hotel. Of course, in a great city
+like Tokyo, there are plenty of English or European hotels, but in this
+case I went for the experience. Before entering we had to take off our
+shoes. No person enters a real Japanese house with shoes on. However,
+they wear clogs that can be kicked off at the door. Entering a small
+vestibule of the hotel a servant bowed, seated us, took off our shoes,
+put them up like checking one's grip, brought slippers and assisted in
+putting them on, then invited us in. The proprietor bowed and began to
+apologize. The Japanese always apologize. A friend was with me and the
+landlord said that he was very sorry that he had no rooms good enough
+for such dignified guests to sleep in, but he would give us his best.</p>
+
+<p>Bidding us follow him he led the way upstairs. I simply could not keep
+the slippers on my feet so took them off and carried them, one in each
+hand. At the top of the stairway a door slid open and a Japanese lady
+began laughing. I expect she is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>telling yet about a foreigner who once
+came to the hotel who thought slippers were to wear on his hands. On
+reaching the rooms, amidst profuse apologies, he named the price which
+was double the amount named on the printed card. When my friend called
+his attention to his published prices he said: "Yes, but I will make you
+fine gentlemen a discount," and proceeded to discount the price to that named on his card.</p>
+
+<p>The city of Tokyo is a little world in itself. It contains nearly three
+million people. It covers more than twenty-eight square miles of
+territory. Its streets are generally narrow and in much of the city
+there is practically no sewer system. The refuse and night soil is all
+saved and sold for fertilizer. If a fire should get well started it
+looks like a great portion of the city would go up in smoke for most of
+the houses are of flimsy material and would burn like haystacks.</p>
+
+<p>They have no system of numbering houses and to hunt for some certain one
+is like hunting for a needle in a haymow. Like in all cities the people
+are pleasure loving and the parks and shows are well attended. In the
+very heart of the city is a square mile of territory given entirely up
+to the lowest form of evil. It is undoubtedly one of the most wicked
+spots on the globe.</p>
+
+<p>One must not judge the Japanese people or even the people of Tokyo by
+this standard, however, for no people ever made such tremendous strides
+as have the Japanese nation since the days of Commodore Perry. The great
+Imperial University of Tokyo makes one think of Yale or Harvard. The
+buildings are modern and the campus beautiful and well kept. Passing
+through these grounds a friend pointed out the most noted buildings.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>Entering them I found the most modern and up-to-date equipment. One
+large building is devoted exclusively to the study of earthquakes. The
+Japanese know more about earthquakes than any other people.</p>
+
+<p>The students are taught how to erect buildings earthquakeproof. The most
+powerful seismographs in the world are in this university. I saw a
+record of the San Francisco earthquake that was made by these
+instruments&mdash;just when it started, when it was at the worst, length of
+time it lasted and all about it. Here in this building is a picture of a
+place where, during an earthquake, the ground was opened and a lot of
+people had fallen perhaps a hundred feet down. The photograph was
+evidently taken just as the ground was closing and the people below were
+waving good-bye to those above as they were going to their death.</p>
+
+<p>Japan has been called the land of flowers and cherry blossoms or The
+Flowery Kingdom. It is one of the most interesting countries on the
+globe to visit. While shut away to themselves these people developed a
+civilization of their own which is far superior, in most respects, to
+that of other oriental peoples. Their experience with Christianity,
+corrupt though it was, no doubt gave them the start. The entire area of
+Japan is but little larger than California and most of it is very
+mountainous and yet so wonderful are they in the development of
+agriculture that nearly sixty million people live upon the products of their soil.</p>
+
+<p>The Japanese people think a lot of America for they recognize the fact
+that to America they owe more than to any other nation. Their friendship
+for us is real too, if one can judge anything by mingling with the
+people. All this talk about Japan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> attacking America is too ridiculous
+to think seriously about, even though we have not treated them as we
+should in all cases. If you were in Tokyo today you would see the stars
+and stripes just below their own flag, and you would see more American
+flags than of all other nations combined, barring of course, their own.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Transformation of a Nation&mdash;Korea</span></h3>
+
+<p>The Palestine of eastern Asia is Korea. While called the "Land of the
+Morning Calm," it has been the battleground of the eastern world for
+centuries. Japan on the east has looked upon Korea as a "sword pointed
+at her heart." China on the south has always felt that Korea practically
+belonged to her, while the Great Bear on the north has looked longingly
+for ages toward this coveted land. The same can be said of Manchuria as well.</p>
+
+<p>Until recent years the world knew but little of this country. It was
+really a "Hermit Nation." The people lived in walled cities and allowed
+no outside people to come in. Less than a half century ago signboards
+could be seen along the highways upon which was written: "If you meet a
+foreigner, kill him; he who has friendly relations with him is a traitor
+to his country." It is said that they actually kept the country along
+the sea shore barren and unattractive while in the interior the people
+lived on the fat of the land. The mountain peaks were great beacon
+towers lighted up every night to signal to the capital that no danger
+threatened and all was well along the borders.</p>
+
+<p>In area, Korea is about as large as Minnesota. The population is more
+than fifteen millions. Except in the northern part, which is as cold as
+Minnesota, the climate is delightful. Nearly everything that will grow
+in Japan will grow in Korea. The surface is largely mountains and
+plains. In the mines are gold, copper, iron and coal, as well as other
+minerals. The silk industry is becoming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> one of great value and although
+every mountain forest has been cleared, some paper is made.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps in no other country in the world has such an effort been made to
+keep men and women apart as in this strange land. In Seoul, the capital
+city, they used to toll a bell at eight in the evening which meant that
+men must go indoors and let women on the streets. Blind men, officials,
+and certain others were exempt. Any man with a doctor's prescription was
+allowed on the streets, but so many of these were forged that much
+trouble resulted. At midnight the bell tolled again and after that hour
+men could circulate on the streets freely without danger of arrest.</p>
+
+<p>The people in Korea nearly all dress in white no matter what their work
+may be. Men and women dress much alike. A curious custom among married
+women is the wearing of waists that expose the entire naked breasts.
+This is all but beautiful and as some one says, gives the appearance of
+a shocking show window. The theory is, so they say, that to cover the
+breasts is to poison the milk. No man really amounts to much in Korea
+until after he is married, but that is largely true in our country.
+There, however, silence is the wife's first duty. Marriage customs are
+much like those in Japan where parents make the matches. It is said that
+often the husband never hears the voice of his wife until after marriage
+and even then she keeps silent for as long as a month.</p>
+
+<p>The Korean people have some happy times together in spite of some of
+these strange customs. One of their national festival days is called
+"Swing day." Swings are prepared nearly everywhere and people drop their
+work and swing. The Koreans are different from any other people in the
+far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> east and when they play they play with all their might. Men and
+boys love to hunt the swimming holes along the streams and they seem to
+enjoy this sport as do our own men and boys in America.</p>
+
+<p>While Korea has been a battleground for ages yet it was opened up to
+modern civilization by Japan something like America, through Commodore
+Perry, opened up Japan. Later on Korea paid tribute to China. The great
+crisis came in 1894 when the battle royal was waged between Japan and
+China for this land. On September 15th of that year a great battle
+occurred on land and two days later, in the mouth of the Yala River
+occurred what is said to be the first great naval battle of history in
+which modern warships were used. In this battle the Chinese fleet went
+to the bottom of the sea and soon Port Arthur was besieged and taken and
+the Japanese army started across the country with the cry, "On to
+Peking." This opened the eyes of the Chinese and Korea was surrendered
+and was practically annexed by Japan and its name changed to Chosen.
+Since that time Korean civilization has gone forward by leaps and bounds
+and is fast becoming a country that has to be reckoned with. The story
+of Japan's dealings with Korea during these years contains some mighty
+dark spots. These things have aroused the indignation of the whole
+civilized world and the end is not yet.</p>
+
+<p>To plant the seed of Christianity on Korean soil has required a great
+effort and the story of the transformation of this nation that has
+occurred within the past forty years is as thrilling as can be found in
+the history of modern missions. It was the pleasure of the writer to
+travel to the far east with one who has been on the field in Korea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> for
+twenty-five years. Thirteen of these years were spent in the city of
+Pyeng Yang which became the scene of one of the greatest revivals in all
+the history of the Christian church.</p>
+
+<p>At the time that Mr. and Mrs. Swallen, who were sent as missionaries by
+the Presbyterian church (Mrs. Swallen was my traveling companion), to
+Pyeng Yang, it was said to be the most wicked city in Korea. So
+frightful were the conditions that boys in their play would often drag
+the corpse of a person who had died during the night through the streets
+the next day, unmolested. It is almost impossible to believe the story
+of things that occurred almost daily in this city.</p>
+
+<p>The first building of the mission was but eight feet square, not much
+larger than a storebox. As at that time men and women were always
+separate in public gatherings, the men met at one hour and the women at
+another. Soon the building was doubled in size. When the Swallen's took
+charge the mission was called the Central church. Then came the great
+revival wave and the church grew to a great congregation. A new building
+seating between five and six hundred was erected and before it was
+finished it was too small. About one hundred members then withdrew to
+form another congregation in another part of the city. A little later
+another hundred started still another congregation.</p>
+
+<p>As the Central church building was even yet far too small they erected a
+great building that will seat two thousand. The interest was so great
+that other congregations had to be formed and at the time Mrs. Swallen
+told me this wonderful story, out from this little store-box mission
+seven great congregations had been formed in different parts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> of the
+city. Besides this the movement spread to the country and nearly thirty
+congregations had grown from this central mission.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the great revival of 1910 which attracted so much attention.
+These people started the cry, "A million converts in one year." The work
+was systematized. Bible classes were formed and every Christian became a
+real missionary. Volunteers were called for, who could give one or more
+days to the work. Nearly everyone volunteered and during the first three
+months it was estimated that seventy-five thousand days of personal work
+was promised. Great earnestness and enthusiasm were manifest everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>The pastor of this Central church and one of his elders formed the habit
+of going to the church every morning at dawn for prayer. This soon
+became known and others wished to join them. One Sunday morning the
+pastor announced that all who wished to do so might join them the
+following morning and the bell would be rung at four thirty. At one a.
+m. the people began gathering and at two o'clock more than one hundred
+were present. For four mornings these meetings were kept up and between
+six and seven hundred were present each morning. On the fourth morning
+the pastor asked how many would give one or more days of service and
+every hand went up, more than three thousand days work being promised.</p>
+
+<p>The secret of this mighty revival seems to have been caused by the study
+of the Bible and prayer. Everyone carried a New Testament. Bible
+training classes were formed and sometimes two thousand men actually
+gathered to study the Bible. In the churches in Korea, even yet men and
+women sit apart from each other. A petition divides the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> building but
+both men and women can see the minister. Men keep their hats on in
+church, but all, both men and women, take off their shoes before
+entering. To see these shoes, or clogs, is quite a sight. They are
+placed in racks made for that purpose, each having their own particular place in the rack.</p>
+
+<p>As might be expected trouble over shoes is not unheard of. Some of the
+women who are not over scrupulous sometimes take the best pair of shoes.
+In fact this custom became so universal that the women were taught to
+make and carry with them to church a small muslin bag. On reaching the
+church the women now take off their shoes, place them in the bag, and
+take them into the building with them. All, both men and women, sit on
+the floor. In some of the churches now small mats are piled high at the
+door and each takes one of these to sit on. One remarkable feature of
+these Korean churches is that each church is self-supporting from the
+beginning. Instead of leaning upon others they are taught to depend upon themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The World's Sunday School Convention was recently held in Tokyo. A
+significant thing about the invitation cabled to this country for this
+convention was the fact that it was signed by Japan's leading captain of
+industry and the Mayor of Tokyo as well. A Business Man's Sunday School
+Party had toured both Japan and Korea before this, however. In almost
+every one of the forty cities visited this party was met by governors,
+mayors, chambers of commerce, boards of education, railroad officials,
+as well as Christian workers and the friendly attitude of Japan toward
+America was manifest in every possible way, at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> the very time too when
+the California legislature was stirring up so much trouble between the two nations.</p>
+
+<p>But the greatest demonstration of all on this entire trip was that made
+in Seoul, Korea. The day was perfect. The great throng marched to the
+parade grounds, a Sunday school banner leading the way. Only members of
+Sunday schools and officials were admitted and fourteen thousand seven
+hundred Sunday school workers, by actual count, went into the grounds.
+It is said that the Japanese officials who for the first time witnessed
+an array of the Sunday school forces of Seoul looked troubled. It was in
+the month of May and the bushes of the old palace yard were abloom in
+white and red. As the great multitude sang the Christian hymns in the
+Korean language the very buildings almost trembled.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A Great Unknown Land&mdash;Manchuria</span></h3>
+
+<p>Of all the lands in eastern Asia perhaps the least is known about
+Manchuria of any of them. And yet one of the finest sleeping cars I ever
+traveled in was on the South Manchurian railway. I had a large roomy
+compartment to myself. In it was a comfortable bed, or berth, a folding
+washstand and writing desk, electric fan, and various other
+conveniences. While this was an eastern model sleeper, an American
+pullman was also attached to the train for those who preferred it.</p>
+
+<p>For two hundred and seventy years the Manchurians furnished the rulers
+for the whole Chinese Empire. The Empress Dowager was a Manchu. Born in
+a humble home, at the age of sixteen she became a concubine of the
+Emperor. She was so diligent in study and self-improvement that she was
+elevated to the position of first concubine and later became the mother
+of the Emperor's son and was raised to the position of wife. When her
+son was but three years of age the Emperor died and she swept aside all
+aspirants to the throne, placed her son upon it with herself as regent
+until he was of age. For forty-seven years, in a country where women had
+scarcely any power, this marvelous woman ruled one-fourth of the human race.</p>
+
+<p>Manchuria is a little larger than the combined area of Iowa, Minnesota,
+Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. It is located at the northeast of China
+and until recently formed a part of the Chinese Empire. While nearly all
+kinds of grain and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>vegetables are grown, the one great staple crop of
+Manchuria is the soybean. Think of growing two million tons of these
+beans per year! Before the war Manchurian beans were shipped all over
+the world. In a Manchurian city I asked a business man to tell me the
+chief sights of the city and he said: "We have nothing here but bean
+mills. It is beans, beans, beans." In the hills and mountains nearly all
+kinds of wild beasts are found. The Manchurian tiger is perhaps most dreaded of all.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the best known place in Manchuria is Port Arthur. Years ago the
+Chinese had what they believed to be an impregnable fortress in Port
+Arthur, but the wily Japanese battered it down in twenty-four hours.
+Later on the Russians got it and worked seven years on the
+fortifications and gun emplacements and really felt that they had it
+secure. Although the forts were built on the Belgian plan and Port
+Arthur was as secure as Antwerp, yet the unconquerable Japanese took it
+with a loss of only a thousand or fifteen hundred men. Nature has been
+kind to Port Arthur by throwing up the mountains of "The Chair," "The
+Table," and the "Lion's Mane," but the best defense that nature provides
+has to give way before the genius of the human brain.</p>
+
+<p>Only a little more than four miles from Port Arthur is the city of
+Dalney, also called Dairen. It is a beautiful little city of fifty or
+sixty thousand people with a good street car system and many modern
+buildings. On landing I went to the Yamato hotel and found comfortable
+quarters at a reasonable price. The South Manchurian railway operates a
+string of these Yamato hotels. This is a Japanese railway and operates
+with a steamship line crossing the Yellow Sea and the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+Trans-Siberian railroad, or rather did so before the world war. In Dalny
+I found a good Y. M. C. A. building with an American secretary. This
+association has good buildings in nearly every large oriental city
+especially if it is near the coast. One can hardly realize the debt of
+gratitude civilization owes to this organization. These buildings are
+oases on the great oriental desert where the American traveler can find rest and a quiet home.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of the war between Russia and Japan by the treaty of
+Portsmouth, Russia agreed to transfer to Japan without compensation and
+with the consent of the Chinese Government, the South Manchurian Railway
+between Port Arthur and Changchun, a distance of four hundred and
+thirty-six miles, "together with all rights, privileges, and properties
+appertaining thereto in that region, as well as all coal mines in said
+region belonging to or worked for the benefit of the railway." The
+Chinese Government also agreed not to construct any parallel lines that
+would injure the interests of this railway, so the Japanese have an iron
+hold upon the whole proposition.</p>
+
+<p>To travel the full extent of this railway in the late fall is an
+interesting experience. The soil is of a reddish color and the fall
+plowing was already done. The methods of farming used in China largely
+prevail here. I saw many of them taking their beans, grain, and other
+produce to market. Along the dusty highway the oxen slowly trudged,
+drawing great wooden wheeled carts. On one occasion the engine had
+frightened the oxen and they had their heads up and tails flying as the
+loaded cart bumped along over the field with the driver doing all he
+could to get them back into the highway. Women and children were often
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>sitting on the ground in the villages, seemingly without any work
+whatever to do.</p>
+
+<p>The Manchurian people are larger physically than the Chinese and are
+better looking. But some one has said of the Manchu, "he knows not,
+neither does he learn." They say that he only bathes once a year and
+does not care who owns the ground as long as he can till it, and that it
+does not bother him in the least to see his wife and daughter sit on the
+stone fence for hours picking the lice from each other's head. The women
+folks are largely slaves of fashion and still persist in trying to stunt
+the growth of their feet. Even while they do this they often work in the
+harvest field, wash their clothing along the streams, clean out the
+donkey stable, and do all kinds of outdoor work. While baking bread,
+spanking their children and doing other household duties, they are not
+slow in looking after and waiting upon their lordly husbands.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago a plague of the most deadly description swept over
+northern Manchuria. It was so terrible and fatal that when one was
+stricken there was but little hope for recovery. It was so contagious
+that when one member of a family took it, generally the entire family
+perished, as simply a whiff of the breath of one stricken was sufficient
+to give it to another. The government made every effort to cope with the
+situation but the difficulties were tremendous and the scourge spread
+like a prairie fire. More than forty-two thousand took it and it is said
+that not a single one recovered.</p>
+
+<p>The ground was frozen so hard that it was impossible to dig graves for
+the dead and preparation was made for cremating bodies. This created
+consternation among the Manchus. Every possible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> subterfuge was resorted
+to to conceal cases of the plague and bodies were often hidden in the
+snow all winter long. Dr. Jackson, a brilliant young physician of the
+Irish Presbyterian Mission in Manchuria, was stricken and died, as did
+Dr. Mesny, a splendid French physician. Early the next spring the plague
+ceased as suddenly as it broke out and has never appeared again in any
+country. However, many believe the "influenza" is a modification of this plague.</p>
+
+<p>Mukden, the Manchurian capital city, has been called "The Asiatic
+Armageddon!" It is a walled city and contains a couple of hundred
+thousand people. During the Russian-Japanese war a portion of it is said
+to have been eight different times in the hands of the Russians and
+Japanese. The streets are unpaved; dirt and filth abounds. There are
+many big dirty restaurants. The Manchus are great feeders. They eat
+between meals, soup and vegetables and most everything else. The
+temperature of Mukden is about the same as Saint Paul, Minnesota.</p>
+
+<p>The Imperial Tombs are not far from Mukden. The road to these tombs is
+paved with stones. This is called the "Road of the Spirit." On each side
+are six great life-sized stone animals. It is thought that these signify
+the Emperor's rule over certain countries. Visiting the great Ming Tombs
+near Nanking, China, one sees many of these large stone animals.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from Mukden one can get a look at the great Wall of China, the
+building of which is said to be the greatest undertaking of all history.
+It was fifteen hundred miles long, fifty feet thick at the bottom and
+from twenty-five to forty feet high. It was built over mountains, across
+valleys and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> rivers and down into the sea. There were towers about every
+three hundred yards and although built more than two thousand years ago,
+much of it is in good repair to this day. It took a million men ten
+years to do the job of building it. The Chinese and Manchus were great
+wall builders. Their cities were always walled.</p>
+
+<p>Mukden stands on a plain but its walls are forty feet high and thirty
+feet thick at the top. At each corner, and over each of the eight
+gateways there used to be a tower, and then the great Drum Tower and
+Bell Tower were in the midst of the city. Nearly every city had its big
+Drum Tower upon which drums were beaten if the city was in danger or an
+enemy near. Here in Mukden nearly all these towers have been taken down,
+but large portions of the old city walls remain. There are said to be
+very many more men than women in the city today. Until 1905, it is said,
+the city never had a policeman. The gates were closed at dark and the
+city became silent as the streets were not lighted. There is not enough
+light in the streets yet at night to hardly be noticed. The old
+patriarchal family system often prevails. Sometimes a family will be
+composed of a hundred people&mdash;several generations. The following from
+Dugald Christie will give a glimpse of some of the strange customs of these people.</p>
+
+<p>He says: "There was in Mukden a wealthy family who had land in the
+country adjoining that of some poor people. A dispute arose over
+boundaries and they went to law. Having money to back him the rich man
+won the case. The next day a son of the poor man committed suicide at
+the rich man's door and he had to compensate the parents heavily. When
+that was settled another son did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> the same, calling on all to witness
+that he did this because of the injustice his parents had suffered at
+the hands of this man. This time a much heavier indemnity was demanded
+and after months of haggling it was paid. Then a third son killed
+himself in like manner and the payment of the still further increased
+blood money reduced the once wealthy man to a state poorer than his
+rival. Again the law suit was heard and this time the country family won the case."</p>
+
+<p>Another Manchurian city of note is Harbin. This is located in the great
+agricultural district of the country. Twenty-five or thirty years ago
+this was open prairie, but one night two Russians pitched their tent on
+the spot that is now the center of the city. Like Jonah's gourd, the
+city almost grew up in a night. For years it was about the worst city to
+be found, there being at least one murder committed almost every day.
+After changing trains at midnight and rambling around a few hours I
+would say that it is not filled with saints yet. During the
+Russian-Japanese war it was one of the great gateways, more than a
+million soldiers passing through it.</p>
+
+<p>From Harbin west one passes through the Kuigan mountains. This is said
+to be the coldest place of like latitude on the globe. Here grows in
+abundance the Edelweiss, which is so rare and so prized in Switzerland.
+Mr. Taft, in "Strange Siberia," calls attention to the fact that one of
+the Manchurian towns here is named for Genghis Khan, who was one of the
+great military geniuses of the old days. He united the vast hordes of
+warring tribes of Siberia into one vast army and swept over this whole
+country like a mighty conqueror. Our American soldiers who were sent to
+this section<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> of the Far East sure got a glimpse of Manchuria that they
+will never forget.</p>
+
+<p>Before the world war many of the Chinese and Manchus crossed the line
+and worked in the Russian gold mines and grew rich, but they had a time
+getting their gold out of Russia without being discovered. But their
+cuteness is proverbial. Even Chinamen die, and they as well as the
+Manchus must sleep their long sleep in their native land. In a certain
+Russian city it is said that these Chinese were paying great attention
+to the dead bodies of their kindred in preparing them for the journey
+back home. The Russians became suspicious and peeping through a keyhole
+at the embalming processes these policemen discovered that gold dust was
+blown from a tube into the dead man's skull. This let the cat out of the
+bag, for these Chinese were making the bodies of the dead the carriers
+of gold, for as soon as the bodies reached home the gold was extracted.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Land of Sorrow&mdash;Siberia</span></h3>
+
+<p>Away yonder in eastern Siberia, on the banks of the Amur River, high on
+the projecting cliff stands a huge iron cross which can be seen many
+miles away. Upon this Christian emblem is inscribed one of the greatest
+sentences in all the literature of the world. Here it is: "Power lies
+not in force but in love." Strange it is indeed that such an emblem and
+such an inscription should be found in the wilds of this country. But
+many are the strange sights one beholds on a journey across this great
+lonely, strange, and sad land. Having crossed this country it is my
+purpose to recount some of the observations and experiences of the journey.</p>
+
+<p>But few people today realize the immensity of Siberia. You could take a
+map of the whole United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, and add to
+it a map of Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Italy,
+Switzerland, Germany and Austria (before the war), Holland, Denmark, the
+Turkish Empire, Greece, Roumania, and Bulgaria, and lay all these
+together down on Siberia alone and have territory left. Nearly five
+thousand miles of the main line of the great Trans-Siberian railway are in this one country.</p>
+
+<p>The building of this railroad was a gigantic undertaking and its
+construction cost the Russian Government four hundred million dollars.
+With all our boasted American hustle it took twenty years to build the
+Canadian Pacific railway from coast to coast. The Trans-Siberian is more
+than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> twice as long and was completed in half that length of time.
+Before the war there was hardly ever an accident on this railway. Every
+verst (about two-thirds of a mile) there is a little guardhouse and
+there was always a man or woman, generally a woman, standing with a flag
+as the train passed. I crossed on the International Sleeping Car train.
+It took ten days and ten nights and the average speed was more than twenty miles per hour.</p>
+
+<p>The berths on this train were very comfortable. They were crosswise of
+the car while ours are lengthwise. The train consisted of two
+first-class, two second-class sleepers, a diner and a baggage car. These
+international trains ran once a week each way before the war and
+sometimes one had to purchase a ticket weeks in advance to go at a given
+time. When all berths were sold those who had none simply had to wait a
+week for the next train. I was the lone American on the train all the
+way across. There were a number of Englishmen and many Frenchmen on board.</p>
+
+<p>My roommate was an old sea captain from Scotland. He had been on the sea
+forty-six years. Unfortunately his baggage was left at Harbin. He asked
+the chief of the train to wire back that it be forwarded on the next
+train, giving or rather offering a tip of a few shillings, but the chief
+would not give him any satisfaction. The next day the captain tried
+again, offering a tip of an English pound. This had the desired effect.
+In a few days we discovered that the English Consul from Yokohama was on
+board and laid the matter before him. Not long after this the train
+chief came and apologized and gave back the tip. I have wondered many
+times whether or not the captain ever received his baggage.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p><p>The dining car was a regular saloon on wheels. The first thirty minutes
+were spent by the waiters in soliciting orders for drinks. If you did
+not order anything to drink you were always served last. I had heard
+that it was almost impossible to get anything to eat on this train
+unless you were liberal in giving tips. So I started out to break the
+record&mdash;to cross Siberia without giving a tip on the diner. All went
+well for a couple of days. I was served all right. In fact, as long as I
+had the exact change everything was lovely. But when I gave the
+collector a bill he never came back with any change and I had to give it
+up. Such a feat as crossing Siberia without giving a tip in the diner
+could not be performed. The prices were not exorbitant, however, for one
+could get a fairly good meal for a dollar at that time.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the great rivers of the world are in Siberia. It is said that if
+all the steel bridges on this main line were placed end to end they
+would make a great steel structure more than thirty miles long. These
+were all built too by Russian engineers. Lake Baikal is a long, narrow
+body of water in the heart of Siberia. It is said to be the most
+elevated lake on the globe and has the distinction of being the only
+body of fresh water in which seals will live. In some places no bottom
+has been found. When the railroad was first built trains were taken
+across this lake on gigantic ferries.</p>
+
+<p>As the winters are long and cold, great ice-breakers were built to take
+the trains across during the winter time. It is actually said that these
+ice-breakers would slowly plow their way through thirty-six inches of
+ice. During the Russian-Japanese war these were too slow so they laid
+down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> heavy steel rails on the ice and all winter long trains were
+speeded across on this ice railway. Some time ago I made this statement
+in a lecture and as soon as the last word was spoken a Russian came
+forward saying: "I was a soldier in the Russian army and walked across
+this lake on the ice and saw them laying the rails at the time. It was
+then nearly sixty below zero."</p>
+
+<p>Siberia is the greatest wheat country on earth. All our great northwest,
+with Canada thrown in, is but a mere garden spot as compared with
+Siberia. There are multiplied millions of acres of the finest wheat
+fields in the world in this great country that are as yet untouched. The
+Siberian women make the best bread of any cooks the world around. It is
+as white as the driven snow and so good and nourishing that no one who
+eats it can ever forget the taste.</p>
+
+<p>Siberia is also one of the greatest dairy countries in the world. When
+the war broke out Siberia was actually supplying a large portion of
+Europe with dairy products. In two Siberian cities there were
+thirty-four large butter and dairy establishments. The Russian
+Government sent a professor of agriculture around the world to study the
+science and art of buttermaking. The results of his investigation were
+published in pamphlet form and sent to buttermakers and agriculturists.
+It is said that sometimes a thousand tons of Siberian butter have been
+delivered in London in a single week. It is also said that Great Britain
+was purchasing five million dollars worth of eggs per year from Siberia
+when the war broke out.</p>
+
+<p>I learned something of the superstition of the Siberian peasant when
+cream separators were first introduced. It is said that when these hard
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>working people were told of machines that would separate the cream from
+milk instantly they declared that only a machine with a devil in it
+could do such a thing. But an enterprising foreigner went ahead and
+built a factory and about the time he had some of the separators ready
+for delivery a mob gathered, wrecked the factory and smashed the
+separators into smithereens, declaring that they would not have machines
+with devils in them in their country. That was years ago, however, and
+they have long since learned to use and appreciate these machines.</p>
+
+<p>But the saddest sights I saw in Siberia were the trains loaded with
+exiles. These cars were not much better than stock cars and had iron
+bars across the windows. The sad faces within made one's heart ache to
+see them. As I rode in a comfortable car with a good bed to sleep in it
+was hard to keep from thinking of these unfortunate people who were
+herded like cattle in cold, dirty cars day after day and night after
+night for a month. Food was thrown to them almost as though they were
+pigs and at best this food was of the coarsest and most unsavory kind.</p>
+
+<p>But their journey, packed in these unwarmed and unsanitary cars was so
+much better than what exiles had endured before the railroad was built,
+that one can hardly make a comparison. Then the exiles had to make the
+long four thousand mile journey on foot. It took about two years. Most
+of the convicts wore chains on their ankles that weighed five pounds and
+chains on their wrists that weighed two pounds. Sometimes these chains
+wore the flesh from the bones and the pain, as they trudged along their
+way, was simply terrible. Men and women were herded in droves like
+cattle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> They had to make so many miles each day through storm or
+sunshine. Often it was midnight before they reached the sheds in which
+were the sleeping benches. Here they had to lie down on bare planks
+without any covering. There was no ventilation in these sheds except a
+bare window or two in the gable. In summer they sweltered and in winter
+they nearly froze to death.</p>
+
+<p>As these unfortunate people slowly trudged along, the heartless guards
+on horseback whipped them and often prodded them with bayonets.
+Sometimes both men and women fell fainting and dying along the wayside.
+As two were nearly always chained together, the living was unlocked from
+the dead, the body kicked out of the way and even left unburied. In the
+heat of summer the dust nearly suffocated them and in the late autumn
+and early spring (they stopped in winter quarters in the coldest
+months), they often floundered along through mud nearly knee deep. Often
+the mud was frozen in the morning and their feet would break through.
+Perhaps their shoes were completely worn out, but no mercy was shown
+them and they had to make their way barefooted.</p>
+
+<p>There was one thing the guards could not do, however, and that was to
+keep them still. As they went on their way they kept up a kind of a wail
+that was said to be the saddest chant that human ears ever heard. For
+miles and miles this mournful wail could be heard by the few people who
+lived in villages along the way. Sometimes, however, these villages were
+fifty or a hundred miles apart. But this wail was kept up continually.
+Every plan imaginable was used to stop it, but this could not be done
+and the guards and officers grew accustomed to it and let it go. No
+wonder that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> even yet in Siberia the call of the milkmaid is something
+like the wail of the exiles.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most thrilling events during the war was the opening of the
+Siberian prison doors in the spring of 1917, when more than one hundred
+thousand exiles walked out as free men and women. In the great Irkutsk
+prison a company of men were watching some of their fellow prisoners
+being flogged when a man appeared at the door saying: "Russia is a
+republic and you are all free." Instantly all was excitement. The
+officers fled for their lives. Even the prison blacksmiths fled, for
+they had welded the shackles on thousands of prisoners and they feared
+vengeance. Other smiths were pressed into service and were compelled to
+work all night long cutting these iron chains. Many were chained to
+wheelbarrows and of course could not get away until their irons were
+broken. A committee of public safety was formed at once and precautions
+taken. A banquet was prepared in the dismissed governor's palace and
+sixty men whose chains had not been cut loose sat down at the table with
+their chains rattling.</p>
+
+<p>In one place the priest, while performing his duties in the church,
+heard the news and announced it. Fifty men rushed out to kill the local
+police captain who had been a regular tyrant. As they came to his home
+they were met by the captain's ten-year-old daughter, who stood in front
+of her father and calmly said: "You will have to kill me first," and
+thus she saved his life.</p>
+
+<p>In five days after the revolution, six thousand exiles had reached
+Irkutsk from other prisons. By the way, Irkutsk is the capital of
+eastern Siberia and here the greatest prisons were located. It is said
+that as many as one hundred thousand <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>prisoners have been in the great
+prisons in and around this city at one time. There were no trains for
+these freed exiles and they camped along the railroad track. Every day
+the company became larger. At one time it was said that fifty thousand
+sledges were rushing toward the railroad as fast as horses, dogs and
+reindeer could drag them. The snow was already melting and they were
+determined to get to the railroad before it was too late.</p>
+
+<p>Those who think the great Russian Empire is nothing but cold, bleak,
+barren waste, will have to think again. In 1913 there were eleven
+million acres planted in potatoes, five and one-half million acres of
+flax and hemp and nearly two million acres in cotton. They even had one
+hundred and fifty thousand acres in tobacco. In all there were in
+cultivation nearly four hundred million acres of land. In 1914 Russia
+and Siberia possessed thirty-five million head of horses, fifty-two
+million head of cattle, seventy-two million sheep, and fifteen million head of hogs.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Home of Bolshevism&mdash;Russia</span></h3>
+
+<p>Of All the countries in Europe, conditions in Russia are perhaps most
+deplorable. With the granary of the world her people have the least
+food. A few years ago her laws were the most rigid of all countries, now
+she is nearest without law of any of them. With all her boundless
+resources, she is as helpless as a child. Like poor old blind Samson,
+she has lost her strength and is a pitiful sight to behold.</p>
+
+<p>But the purpose of this article is not to recount the horrors the war
+brought to Russia. I would much rather tell something about the people
+as I saw them just before the war, and their country and cities in times
+of peace. Some day these people will have a stable government. They have
+suffered for a long time, but out of it all will come a purified people
+and a government in which the people will have some rights and
+privileges worth while. The writer of these lines does not pose as a
+prophet, but will say that in twenty-five years Russia will have the
+best government in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian people are a race of farmers. When the war broke out
+eighty-five per cent of the people lived in the country. Although a
+nation having one-sixth of the earth's surface, yet she has only a few
+large cities. It is actually said that years ago people had to be
+chained in the cities to keep them from moving to the country.</p>
+
+<p>The people, as a rule, are honest-hearted, hard-working people, who have
+never had a chance. They are ignorant and often superstitious. They have
+been used to hardship and cruelty. In the old days a man was beaten
+three hours a day for debt and after a month sold as a slave if no one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+came to his rescue. Thieves and other criminals were hanged, beheaded,
+broken on a wheel, drowned under the ice or whipped to death. "Sorcerers
+were roasted alive in cages; traitors were tortured by iron hooks which
+tore their sides into a thousand pieces; false coiners had to swallow
+molten metal," says one writer.</p>
+
+<p>Woman was considered the property of man and her glory was to obey her
+husband as a slave obeys his master. No eyes could look upon her face
+and she was shut up like a prisoner. They used to think that if a
+husband beat his wife it was the sign he loved her. The Russian proverb
+says: "I love thee like my soul, but I beat thee like my jacket."</p>
+
+<p>Never will I forget the time spent in Moscow. The great center of the
+city is the Kremlin Palace and at the time of my visit it contained
+riches untold. Of course, the Bolshevists have looted it long before
+this. In it at that time was the largest gun ever made before the war,
+but it had never been fired. Also the largest bell ever cast was there,
+but this had never been rung. In front of this palace is the famous Red
+Square, and this has no doubt been red with blood many times during
+these terrible years of Bolshevist rule. If the very stones upon which
+people walk could speak, a wave of horror would sweep around the world.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most curious church in the world is that of Saint Basil the
+Blessed, which is in the city of Moscow. It has nearly a dozen spires
+most curiously built and no one seeing it can ever forget it. It is said
+that the eyes of the Italian architect who built it were put out so he
+could never build another like it. The Russian people are very religious
+and Moscow is their sacred city. At the sight of the glittering crosses
+the peasants coming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> into the city for the first time would often fall
+upon their faces and weep.</p>
+
+<p>This sacred city has passed through some horrible times. Famine has
+raged and the ravages of hunger caused parents to eat the flesh of their
+own children. Pestilence at one time stalked through the city like a
+mighty conqueror and a hundred and twenty thousand people perished
+before it could be checked. Nearly the entire city has gone up in smoke
+on more than one occasion and yet it still lives. When I was there its
+streets were ablaze with electric lights at night and thronged with
+shopping multitudes by day, but all this is changed at this time.</p>
+
+<p>If we can believe the historian, orgies have taken place in this city
+that would make it, for the time being, a rival of Hades itself. When
+the Russians turn against a man their hatred knows no bounds. In one
+case they caught a pretender for the throne and almost continuously for
+three days they tortured him in every imaginable way, shape and form.
+After he was finally killed they were so afraid that he might come to
+life that they took his body, burned it to ashes, loaded them in a
+cannon and fired it, scattering them to the four winds.</p>
+
+<p>One of the empresses of Russia became enraged at one of the princes
+whose wife had died and she compelled him to marry an old ugly woman
+whose nickname was "Pickled Pork." One historian says: "The marriage
+festival was celebrated with great pomp: representatives of every tribe
+and nation in the Empire took part, with native costumes and musical
+instruments: some rode on camels, some on deer, others were drawn by
+oxen, dogs and swine. The bridal couple were borne in a cage on an
+elephant's back. A palace was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> built entirely of ice for their
+reception. It was ornamented with ice pillars and statues, and lighted
+by panes of thin ice. The door and window posts were painted to
+represent green marble: droll pictures on linen were placed in ice
+frames. All the furniture, the chairs, the mirrors, even the bridal
+couch, were ice. By an ingenious use of naphtha the ice chandeliers were
+lighted and the ice logs on the ice grates were made to burn! At the
+gates two dolphins of ice poured forth fountains of flame: vessels
+filled with frosty flowers, trees with foliage and birds, and a
+life-sized elephant with a frozen Persian on its back adorned the yard.
+Ice cannon and mortars guarded the doors and fired a salute. The bride
+and groom had to spend the night in their glacial palace."</p>
+
+<p>For centuries the common people of Russia were afraid to open their
+mouths. Detectives were everywhere and half of the people exiled to
+Siberia had no idea what they had committed. One of the secret service
+men might visit a peasant home disguised as a tramp or agent. Allowed
+into the humble home he would examine the books on the table if any were
+there, and should he find a sentence tabooed by the government, the
+farmer who gave the stranger a place to eat and sleep would likely be
+exiled, although he had never read a line in the book.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen these detectives on trains, at depots, in hotels, always
+watching everybody. No proprietor of a hotel would keep a stranger over
+night without the guest's passport in his possession. One of these
+secret service men might come in at midnight and if he found a stranger
+or even a name on the register without an accompanying passport, the
+landlord might have to go to prison and of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> course they took no chances.
+As soon as I registered at a hotel in Moscow the landlord had to have my
+passport in his possession.</p>
+
+<p>All things considered it is not at all surprising that when the
+restraint was removed the people went to the greatest possible extreme.
+It is not surprising that they all wanted to talk and speechify. Every
+man had some grievance or something to talk about. While the peasants
+were honest and trusted each other, yet there have developed so many
+traitors that now they do not know who they can trust. The great mass of
+people are like a lot of sheep without a shepherd and can be led or
+driven in any direction. Of all people, they are perhaps most to be  pitied.</p>
+
+<p>A Russian gentleman recently expressed his conviction to the writer that
+the only hope for the country is in the church people. They are very
+religious and the Orthodox church was rich in priceless treasure and
+lands. But the Bolshevists looted and robbed the churches, which of
+course enraged the people. They were held in check by alluring promises,
+but these promises were not fulfilled and their eyes are now opened and
+they will rise up, so this man hopes, and overthrow Bolshevism. One
+thing is certain and that is that the Bolshevist leaders have recently
+made all kinds of concessions to the people.</p>
+
+<p>As the darkest days in the history of the Chosen Race in Bible times was
+when "every man did what was right in his own eyes," so these Russian
+folks have been passing through just such a time. There has not been any
+law to speak of and every man has been doing as he pleases with
+everything he could get his hands on. But as Russia has produced some of
+the master minds of the ages some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> of us believe that some of these
+times a leader will appear who will bring order out of chaos. As a rule,
+in the days agone, when the people of a great nation were really ready
+for a mighty step forward the good Lord raised up a man to lead them.</p>
+
+<p>Passing the great estate of Tolstoi I could not help thinking of one of
+his marvelous word pictures and as it concerns everyone of us it will
+not be out of place to call attention to it here. As the story goes a
+youth had fallen heir to his father's estate and this taste of wealth
+made him crazy for the lands adjoining the little homestead. One fine
+morning this young man was greeted in the highway by a fine looking
+nobleman who said he had taken a liking to him and had decided to give
+him all the land he could cover during one day. As they stood at the
+corner of the little homestead at the grave of his father the stranger
+said to the young man: "You may start now and walk all day, but at
+sundown you must be back here at your father's grave."</p>
+
+<p>Without even stopping to tell his wife the good news, or bid her and
+their little child good-bye, the young man started. At first thought he
+decided to cover a tract six miles square which would mean a walk of
+twenty-four miles, but he had only gotten well started when the plan was
+enlarged to a square of nine miles. The morning was so cool and fine and
+he felt so strong that he increased it to twelve miles and still later
+he made it a square of fifteen miles, which would mean a walk of sixty
+miles before sundown. By noon he had made the thirty miles but so great
+was his fear of failure he decided not to stop for lunch. An hour later
+he saw an old man at a wayside spring, but felt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> that he must not stop
+even for a drink of water and rushed on his way.</p>
+
+<p>By the middle of the afternoon he had discarded his coat and a little
+later threw away his shirt. An hour before sunset it was a race for
+life. His heart had almost stopped beating and his eyes began to bulge
+from their sockets. As the sun touched the horizon he was still many
+rods from the starting point. With all the strength of both body and
+soul he lunged forward and just as the sun went out of sight he
+staggered across the line and fell into the arms of the stranger who was
+there to meet him, but when he fell he was <i>dead</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"I promised him," said the stranger, "all the ground he could cover.
+Strictly speaking, it is about two feet wide and six feet long. And I
+drew the line here at his father's grave because I thought he would
+rather have the land he could cover close to his father than to have it
+anywhere else." "Then the stranger&mdash;<i>death</i>&mdash;slipped away," says Dr.
+Hillis, who tells the story, saying: "I always keep my pledge." So they
+buried the man with the land-hunger.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian people have just gotten a taste of liberty and are as crazy
+as was the man with the land-hunger. All hope and trust that they will
+see their condition before the nation comes to a death struggle, but
+they have passed the meridian and entered the dangerous part of the day
+and if the leader does not soon come who can stop their onward sweep,
+they will be in the last great struggle and the death rattle will be
+heard. But terrible as the situation is at this writing, however, there
+are some signs of a better day, and as long as there is life there is
+hope. Some of us still believe that the day will come when Russia will
+be a mighty and powerful nation.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Nation That Conquers the Sea&mdash;Holland</span></h3>
+
+<p>We read in ancient history that Xerxes whipped the sea, but this chapter
+will give a glimpse of a nation that conquers the sea. A million acres
+of the best land in Holland have actually been rescued from the water,
+and at this hour a large lake is being drained which means that hundreds
+of thousands of acres will soon be rescued from the sea and be made to
+blossom as the rose.</p>
+
+<p>The country of Holland is about the size of the state of Maryland.
+One-fourth of its entire area is below the sea level, and its great
+dykes were they placed end to end, would make an immense dam more than
+fifteen hundred miles long and in some places from thirty to sixty feet
+high. Almost the entire country is a network of canals. A single one of
+these canals cost more than fifteen million dollars and it is less than
+fifty miles in length.</p>
+
+<p>The faith of these Holland people in times of adversity is one of the
+wonders of history. For a hundred years they struggled against powerful
+Spain, but their faith saved them. It is said that at the siege of
+Leyden they were reduced to such desperate straits that all they had to
+eat was dogs and cats. In derision they were called "dog and cat
+eaters." They replied to their enemies: "As long as you hear the bark of
+a dog or the mew of a cat the city holds. When these are gone we will
+devour out left arms, retaining the right to defend our homes and our
+freedom. When all are gone we will set fire to the city and with our
+wives and children perish rather than see our families destroyed and our religion desecrated."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p><p>Think of it! A country one-half of which is below the level of the
+water, some of it sixteen feet lower than the ocean, which is only a few
+miles away! What watchfulness and anxiety bordering upon fear must
+occupy every moment, both day and night! In a single century there were
+thirty-five great inundations which literally swallowed up several
+hundred thousand people. Instead of being disheartened, like ants, they
+went to work at once to rebuild the dykes, and with the aid of hundreds
+of gigantic windmills pumped the water back into the sea.</p>
+
+<p>These windmills are not only used to pump water, but they saw wood,
+grind corn, crush seeds, make paper, and do about everything else. While
+they are imperilled all the time by water, they make the water serve
+them in numerous ways. Their fences are ditches filled with water. How
+their cattle and horses have been trained to stay in, a small lot
+surrounded by narrow ditches filled with water which they could easily
+jump over, is a mystery, but every visitor to Holland has seen it with his own eyes.</p>
+
+<p>These Dutch people are great farmers and stock raisers. As their country
+has no minerals, the people depend upon agriculture more perhaps than in
+any other part of the world. Supporting a population of four hundred and
+seventy people to the square mile, every foot of the land of course is
+tilled carefully. The main agricultural product is potatoes, of which
+they raise about one hundred million bushels per annum. Then come oats,
+twenty million bushels, rye, fifteen million and about a third as much wheat.</p>
+
+<p>The Hollanders build ships, refine sugar, dredge oysters, distill liquor
+and brew beer. They <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>manufacture carpets, leather and paper goods, make
+chocolate, cut diamonds as well as produce gold and silver articles and
+pottery. The farmer uses his cow like one of the family. He keeps her in
+the house when the weather is cold, washes and combs her hair more often
+than his own, and keeps her room as clean as the parlor. She chews her
+cud contentedly and the only thing about her which is tied up is her
+tail, which is generally fastened to a beam above to keep it from
+getting soiled. Of course, milk, butter and cheese are not a small part
+of the living of these people. Often in a Holland home the sitting room,
+dining room and sleeping room are one and the same. People often sleep
+in bunks one above the other like berths on a ship or sleeping car.</p>
+
+<p>The great bird in Holland is the stork, which is kept and given a home
+because of the service rendered in keeping down toads and frogs. The
+people who live in the lowest ground make nests for the storks upon
+posts erected for the purpose, and almost every Dutch city has a pet
+colony of these birds. The Dutch folk-lore tells of the tragedy of the
+stork colony away back in the fifteenth century which occurred during
+the breeding season. The town of Delft caught fire and when the older
+storks made ready for flight their offspring were too young to fly and
+too heavy to be carried, and rather than leave their young, the old
+birds went back to their nests and perished.</p>
+
+<p>The two great recreation amusements that everybody engages in are
+cycling and skating. Roads are good so that the former can be practiced
+the year around, while the latter, of course, can only be indulged in
+during the winter time. These people become so skilled on the ice that
+they can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> beat an express train, and to skate a hundred miles in an
+afternoon is an ordinary excursion. Some years ago a record of four
+miles in five minutes was established which is "going some" on skates.</p>
+
+<p>In the beginning of winter when the skating season opens, the young men
+and maidens have a great time going to the city of Gouda. The young men
+go to buy long pipes and bring them home safely in their mouths or
+pockets. The fair maidens try to waylay them and break these pipes.
+Likewise the maidens purchase brittle cakes and attempt to carry them
+home in bags without breaking them up, and the young men endeavor to
+knock the bags from their hands and thus, "break the cake." They all have a gay time.</p>
+
+<p>Skating is ruled by a sort of a national society. The fee is so small
+that everyone can join it. This society decides when skating is safe,
+marks the routes and employs sweepers to keep these highways clear from
+snow, etc. Everyone must obey the rules laid down by this society,
+consequently accidents are rare. One week each year they have a great
+festival called the "Kermis," which is not unlike the old-fashioned
+carnival in this country. All kinds of amusements are engaged in and all
+have a jolly time. St. Nicholas Day, which occurs on December fifth, is
+also a great day in Holland, especially for the children.</p>
+
+<p>The largest city in Holland is Amsterdam, which contains more than
+one-half million people. This is a walled city, but the walls are water
+in the shape of canals. There are four of them, the outermost being
+called the Single or "Girdle." Across these canals are smaller canals
+running diagonally and the city itself is as though built on a thousand islands.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p><p>These larger canals are almost filled with ships of various sizes and
+boats and barges fill the smaller ones. The city has the appearance of
+being built on the water, canals serving the purposes of streets. The
+ground used to be a great marsh and the entire city is practically built
+on piles which are driven down sometimes eighty feet.</p>
+
+<p>One great palace in the city stands upon fourteen thousand piles. One
+would think the buildings would collapse in the course of time, and some
+of them are all out of shape, but the people are so used to seeing the
+buildings lean, almost like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, that they think
+nothing about it. Once in awhile the road will give way under a heavily
+loaded truck, but they pry the load out, repair the roadway, and go
+ahead as though the highway were built upon solid rock.</p>
+
+<p>That the people of Amsterdam are religious is shown by the fact that
+there are many large churches in the city. The front of the great palace
+called the Dam has a hundred windows and only one little insignificant
+entrance. It has been called "the palace without a door." Just across
+the square is the Exchange with a great portico supported by seventeen
+columns. Some have called this "A door without a house."</p>
+
+<p>Like New York, Amsterdam has its Ghetto, in which more than sixty
+thousand Jews are packed almost like sardines in a box, and most of
+these live in the direst poverty and misery imaginable. However, just
+beside this Ghetto live wealthy Jewish families, and one of the great
+synagogues is so magnificent that they claim it represents the Temple of Solomon.</p>
+
+<p>As noted above the gigantic task of draining the Zuyder Zee has already
+been started. This great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> lake is a hundred miles long and half as wide,
+and used to be a great forest. Between seven and eight hundred years
+ago, this forest and some better lands consisting of farm lands and
+cities, were destroyed by the River Chim. A writer in the Scientific
+American, quoted in the Literary Digest, says:</p>
+
+<p>"Then Neptune looked down with longing eyes for his own. About the
+middle of the thirteenth century, the North Sea broke through the upper
+sand dunes and swept over the land. Hundreds of villages with their
+inhabitants were engulfed and destroyed. Geographical continuity was
+obliterated, and Holland found herself cut in two by an ocean
+eighty-five miles long from north to south, and from ten to forty-five
+broad. It proved, moreover, quite as treacherously dangerous a sea as
+that which divided her from Britain."</p>
+
+<p>The capital city of Holland contains more than a quarter of a million
+people. Perhaps the most outstanding building in The Hague is the Palace
+of Peace. It was dedicated August 28, 1913. Something like twenty
+countries contributed materials for this great building. The granite in
+the base of the walls came from Norway and Sweden, the marble in the
+great corridor is Italian; Holland supplied the steps in the great
+stairway, and the group of statuary at the foot of this stairway came from Argentina.</p>
+
+<p>The stained glass in the windows of the Court of Law came from Great
+Britain, and the rosewood in the paneling of the Council Chamber is
+Brazil's contribution. Turkey and Roumania each supplied carpets,
+Switzerland furnished the clock, and Belgium the iron work on the door
+at the main entrance. Our own contribution was a group<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> of statuary in
+marble and bronze at the first landing of the great stairway. Russia and
+China furnished vases, Japan sent silken curtains, and France furnished
+a magnificent painting. Thus the nations builded together and we all
+hope the dream for which this Palace of Peace stands will soon become a
+reality. We are glad that the building is now open again.</p>
+
+<p>For more than four years Holland occupied perhaps the most difficult
+position in which any country was ever placed. Every day of that time
+she was between the "devil and the deep sea." Compelled to be ready for
+invasion every moment, yet trying to remain strictly neutral, she had
+the job of feeding hundreds of thousands of refugees. These were anxious
+months and years, but the Dutch did most remarkably well and kept their
+heads above water all the time. No people were more happy to see peace
+come although they were compelled to harbor the greatest enemy civilization ever had.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Nation That the World Honors&mdash;Belgium</span></h3>
+
+<p>During the world war the eyes of the world were upon Belgium and it is
+quite fitting that an article be devoted to this little country whom the
+world honors. Although one of the smallest of all the independent
+nations yet before the invasion this little country stood eighth in
+wealth and sixth in export and import trade among the nations. Texas is
+more then twenty times as large as Belgium. Although not nearly all her
+land is under cultivation yet she supported seven and a half million
+people and before the war it is said she had no paupers.</p>
+
+<p>This little country has been called the "balance wheel of the world's
+trade." The city of Antwerp is said to have forty miles of quays&mdash;ahead
+of New York City. When the war broke out Belgium had just completed a
+ten million dollar canal and had spent eighty million dollars on her
+waterways. Her commercial and industrial interests were amazing. She had
+one hundred and eighty factories for the manufacture of arms alone. A
+single engine factory in Liege turned out two thousand large engines
+complete, annually. The zinc foundries and cycle works of this one city are world famous.</p>
+
+<p>Belgium had the cheapest railroad fare of any country on earth.
+Twenty-four of her thirty-two lines were government owned. One could
+purchase a third-class ticket, good for five days going anywhere over
+these lines for $2.35. One could ride to his work on the railway train
+twenty miles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> and back each day for a whole week for the insignificant
+sum of thirty-seven and one-half cents. This made it possible for even
+the poorest people to travel and many of them did. The city of Brussels
+had two hundred passenger trains entering and leaving the two great
+depots every twenty-four hours.</p>
+
+<p>Belgium gave the world the greatest example of thrift ever known.
+Surely, if ever a nation needed such an example, we did and do. Belgium
+could live well from the crumbs that fall from our tables. Were the
+American people as thrifty as the Belgians, we could save all the war
+cost us, including the soldiers' bonus, in a generation. There,
+everybody works, even father. While the people are poor, yet, as noted
+above, it was a country without paupers and will soon be so again.</p>
+
+<p>The government paid interest on savings and encouraged even the poorest
+to have a savings account. Such an account could be started with one
+franc and could be opened at any post office. Our thrift stamp idea came
+from Belgium. The farmer or working man could buy a small plot of
+ground, build a little home for his family, be insured against sickness
+or accident, even though he hardly had a dollar to start with. The
+government would back him and he could borrow money from the national savings bank system.</p>
+
+<p>The Belgians are said to have the best courts in existence. With a
+single judge in the Supreme Court, cases are reviewed quickly while
+everything is fresh in mind and witnesses and all other evidence is
+easily obtained, and the decisions of the lower courts either reversed
+or sustained at once without any lost motion whatever. The lower<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> courts
+are open for the settlement of all disputes. The judge cross-questions
+both sides without any lawyers to interfere and the poorest wage earner
+can have his wrongs righted without a cent's expense. The assistance of
+an attorney is hardly ever needed and not one decision in a hundred is appealed.</p>
+
+<p>The contribution of Belgium to farming and stock raising has been
+immense. Most of the soil is thin and has been used for centuries, and
+yet she raises more than twice as much wheat per acre as the Dakotas and
+harvests as much as $250 worth of flax per acre. A few centuries ago the
+district between Antwerp and Ghent was a barren moor called Weasland.
+Today every inch of this land is cultivated and is dotted by some of the
+finest farms in Belgium. This entire sandy district was covered,
+"cartload by cartload, spadeful by spadeful with good soil brought from
+elsewhere." It is now like a great flower garden and in fact much of it
+is flower beds. The city of Ghent is known as the flower city of Europe,
+there being a hundred nursery gardens and half as many horticultural
+establishments in the suburbs of this one city.</p>
+
+<p>A marvelous thing about Belgian agriculture is that they rotate the soil
+rather than the crops. Their methods of intensive farming are so
+wonderful that if North and South Dakota could be farmed as is Belgian
+soil, nearly all the people in the United States could move to these two
+states and be fed. Belgium is a land of very small farms and it is said
+that the poorest agricultural laborer has a better chance to become a
+land owner than in most any other country. Until auto trucks made their
+appearance the great drays of London and New York were drawn by Belgian
+horses. Belgian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> stallions often take the blue ribbons at our great
+state fairs and our farmers have found that the Belgian breeds of stock
+are second to none. Even Belgian hares are most prolific and most
+profitable of any breed of rabbits in this country today.</p>
+
+<p>The contribution in architecture of this little country to the world has
+been so great and her churches and public buildings so stately that
+Belgium has been called, "The Jewel box of Europe." Of course, many of
+her great cathedrals and public buildings were damaged or destroyed, but
+they will, in a large measure, at least, be restored.</p>
+
+<p>The art of Belgian painters is world famous and graces the finest
+galleries in both Europe and America. Many of the paintings of Rubens
+and other master artists are almost priceless. As lace makers the women
+of Belgium are famous the world around. From early morning until late at
+night these toilers sit in their low chairs and the skill with which
+they shoot the little thread-bobbins back and forth across the cushions
+is indescribable. Neither men nor women in Belgium are overly much given
+to amusements. They work with all their might, but when the national
+holidays come they abandon themselves to the amusements for the moment
+and have a most enjoyable time.</p>
+
+<p>While many are illiterate, the Belgians are giving much attention to
+schools these times. Even while they were guests of France, with their
+government located at Havre, they established twenty-four schools for
+the children and a single woman had more than five thousand pupils under
+her care and direction. They also established large schools at that
+place for disabled soldiers and many of them became not only skilled
+workers, but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>inventors. One of these disabled men invented a process to
+make artificial limbs out of waste paper and it is said that these limbs
+are the best made. Many of these legless soldiers with artificial limbs
+can walk so well that one would never imagine that they had been wounded.</p>
+
+<p>Providence seems to have made Belgium the great battlefield of Europe.
+Nearly every great general of European history has fought on Belgian
+soil. When the Spaniards looted Belgian cities and set up the
+inquisition it seemed as though the very imps of the lower regions were
+turned loose. I have looked upon many of the instruments of torture that
+can still be seen in European museums and they were even more terrible
+than anything used in the late war. Again and again has Belgian soil
+been drenched with blood. Only a little more than one hundred years ago
+the hosts of Napoleon and Wellington decided the destiny of nations at
+the battle of Waterloo.</p>
+
+<p>Here was this great hive of industry, with the wheels of her factories
+humming and her people happy, industrious and contented up to that
+fateful day in August, 1914. No people were more loyal to their ideals,
+more trustful of others or more anxious to serve humanity than these
+honest-hearted, hard-working people. They felt secure, for the treaty
+which protected them had been signed by all the nations around them.
+This treaty had been held sacred for more than eighty years and was to
+last as long as time. It had held them secure during the great crisis of
+1870-1871 and when the war cloud gathered in Austria and Servia they felt secure.</p>
+
+<p>Soon, however, it became plain that Germany had been planning for years
+to crush this little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> country like an egg shell. Four double-track lines
+of railway had been built up to the Belgian border. Miles of concrete
+platforms had been built, but no suspicions had been aroused. When the
+enemy started across Belgium he had better maps of the country than any
+Belgian had ever seen. At once many Germans in Belgium left their homes
+silently and the surprise of Belgian neighbors can be better imagined
+than described when they saw their old friends coming back with the
+enemy's army. They had been spies all these years.</p>
+
+<p>When the great siege guns were brought from their hiding places in the
+Krupp factories into Belgium, the foundations for them were already
+there. These guns were so heavy that the London Times stated that it
+took thirteen traction engines to pull a single one of them. They threw
+shells that weighed almost a ton twenty miles and a single one of them
+would destroy a building as large as our own national capital building
+in Washington. So accurately had these foundations been placed that
+scarcely a single shell was wasted.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that years ago some so-called German university men asked the
+Belgian Government for permission to study the geology of their country.
+This permission was granted freely. But these were mostly military men
+and spent months investigating and surveying and marking certain places.
+Once more these men came to the Belgian Government stating that they
+wished to study the formation of rocks and soil which would necessitate
+digging into the earth and as they did not wish to be bothered by the
+public, asked permission to build barricades around the places where
+they worked. Their request was granted instantly and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> by this means they
+built the foundations for these great siege guns.</p>
+
+<p>Finally the fateful day came. Germany told Belgium that she intended
+going across her territory anyway and if she would allow this to be done
+peaceably she would pay her double price for everything destroyed; that
+it would be to her best interests to allow this and that she might have
+twelve hours to think it over. In the darkest hours of the war, when it
+seemed that the Germans would be victorious, I heard the Belgian
+minister in Washington say in an address: "Yes, they gave us twelve
+hours to decide, but they gave us eleven hours and fifty-nine minutes
+too much time." As long as time, it will be remembered to the glory of
+Belgium that she told Germany instantly to stay upon her own territory;
+that the world would never say that Belgium went back upon her word;
+that if war came she would remain neutral as in the treaty she had
+agreed to do. The minister referred to above also said in this darkest
+hour: "They now have all but three hundred square miles of our
+territory, but what will it profit a man though he gain the whole world
+and lose his own soul.' We have lost our property, but we have saved our
+soul, and if it were to do over again we would do exactly the same thing."</p>
+
+<p>Brave little Belgium! For four and one half years she stood bleeding and
+with her head bowed in sorrow! Her homes were destroyed, her old men and
+women shot down like dogs, her women outraged, her youths and maidens
+enslaved, her little children misused, but Belgium still lives, and
+always will live in the hearts of men and women wherever civilization is
+known! Her King and Queen were brave and heroic through all those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+horrible times; her church leaders could not be bought or sold, and her
+common people were true as steel. As a nation she blundered in days
+agone, but what nation has not made mistakes? Belgium saved democracy
+for a thousand years and is today the nation that the whole world honors.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A Glimpse of America's Friend&mdash;France</span></h3>
+
+<p>Although great in history, France is but a small country. It is
+interesting to note that all France could be placed in the state of
+Texas and there would be room enough left for Belgium, Holland, Denmark
+and Switzerland, one in each corner. Even then, Delaware and the
+District of Columbia could be put in for good measure and the Lone Star
+State would still have more than eight hundred square miles to spare.</p>
+
+<p>About half of the people of France depend wholly upon agriculture for
+their living. Instead of living on farms as we do they live in small
+villages. Their farms are very small, generally running from two to
+fifteen acres. As a rule, the soil is thin and unproductive, but with
+their patient toil, careful methods of farming and a very liberal use of
+fertilizer they raise abundant crops. Just about half of the soil of
+France is tilled and about one-eighth is used for grazing while all the
+famous vineyards of this country cover but about four per cent of the
+ground. The balance is in forests and streams, highways, canals, and railways.</p>
+
+<p>When the war broke out there were about four million French families who
+owned their homes and a thriftier and more industrious people could
+hardly be found. In 1871, when the heartless Bismarck insisted on having
+a one billion dollar indemnity, besides the provinces of Alsace and
+Lorraine, he thought he had the people of France throttled for a
+generation, but to his very great amazement every dollar of this huge
+sum was paid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> in less than three years. This fact is but an indication
+that the French are a race of savers.</p>
+
+<p>A silent revolution in the habits of the peasant people has been the
+outcome of the war. Ages ago an uprising took the land away from wealthy
+owners and gave it to the peasants. A few years later Napoleon had
+enacted or rather established a Code by which a man's property was
+equally divided between his children. Thus, if a man died leaving four
+children and an eight-acre farm, it was divided into four strips of two
+acres each. Then, in the course of time, one of these children died
+leaving four children, his two-acre farm was divided into four strips of
+a half acre each.</p>
+
+<p>Thus a great portion of the land is cut up into little strips and
+gardens. Through the intermarriage of children a family might own
+several of these strips of land, often miles from each other. This often
+brought complications and made it impossible to introduce modern farm
+implements and do away with much of the drudgery of peasant life.</p>
+
+<p>This is one advantage that grew out of the war in many places. In the
+devastated areas all landmarks were often obliterated and in many cases
+the government brought in tractors and plowed great fields which before
+the war were hundreds of little farms and gardens. Then, too, many of
+these peasants became greedy, selfish individualists. Each man worked by
+himself and for himself and the idea of co-operation was almost unknown.
+No ordinary farmer ever became able to have modern farm implements
+himself and they never dreamed that several of them could go together
+and purchase a binder, a thresher or tractor. Their one standby was the
+hoe and not only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> the man but his wife and children often had to work
+from daylight until dark to keep the wolf from the door.</p>
+
+<p>Since the war a new day has dawned for the French peasantry. It was very
+hard for some of them to give up their old notions and customs, but it
+meant a new order for all who were in the pathway of the war. While the
+city of Paris has been always known as the Gay City, yet the people in
+the country did not enjoy life in any such way. They had no amusements,
+no daily papers, and in some places no songs. The famous Man with the
+Hoe is a picture of the French farmer. In many of the rebuilt villages
+now they have amusements and movies and in many cases public libraries
+have been started.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that in many of the farmhouses of the French peasantry may be
+seen hanging little colored prints representing the main professions. At
+the top of a stairway stands a king with the motto: "I rule you all," on
+a step below is a priest who says: "I pray for you all;" still farther
+down stands the soldier who says: "I defend you all;" but at the bottom
+of the stairway is the peasant whose motto is: "I feed you all." The
+French peasant seemed to take this for granted and never imagined that
+while doing it he might have advantages and pleasures that would help to
+make life worth living.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, there are great industries and industrial centers in France.
+The city of Lille was, before the war, the Pittsburg of France. This
+city was not only the center of the textile industry, but had scores and
+hundreds of factories and machine shops of all kinds. While the city
+itself was not totally destroyed, the factories were almost <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>completely
+ruined. In some cases railroad tracks were laid into the buildings and
+whole trainloads of costly machinery were shipped out of the country. I
+saw the inside of many of these buildings where high explosives were
+used and all that was left was the shell of the building, the inside
+being one mass of twisted iron girders and broken concrete.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the idea of the enemy was to make it impossible for French
+factories to ever again compete with their own so they attempted to
+destroy all they left. They especially looked after all patterns and
+plans and thought they were making a clean sweep. In one case a great
+factory that covered sixty acres of ground was destroyed. But the owners
+had a branch factory in southern France and immediately began
+manufacturing duplicate machinery so that when the war closed all that
+was needed was the transportation facilities to get the machinery to Lille.</p>
+
+<p>In the great coal fields about Lens the works and machinery were so
+completely destroyed that one could hardly tell there were coal mines in
+the district at all. The writer went over these ruins after the war
+closed and it is simply beyond the imagination to picture the actual
+conditions at that time. The course of small rivers and streams were
+changed so that the water could be run into these mines.</p>
+
+<p>One quite remarkable distinction is noticeable to a stranger going
+through France and that is that an occasional factory seems to be
+located in the midst of an agricultural district. The land may be farmed
+on all sides up to the factory buildings. The men often work in these
+factories while the women and children and old men do the work on the farms.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p><p>Portions of southern France are noted for the beautiful vineyards.
+Bordeaux and other brands of wine are famous the world around. Some of
+our boys are laughing yet about the French methods of making wine. The
+grapes are gathered and piled into a great vat. When this receptacle is
+filled, men, women and children take off their shoes and most all of
+their clothes and climb in. Here they walk and jump and tramp until the
+whole thing is a mass of pulp. In the meantime, the wine is continually
+draining out and being cared for by others.</p>
+
+<p>After they have tramped out all the juice possible by this method the
+remains are put into a great press something like a cider press. After
+all the wine has been extracted by these various methods, they use the
+pulp in the manufacture of a powerful intoxicant, but this is not
+generally used as a beverage. Of course, all understand that in many
+places they have modern machinery and make wine along scientific lines,
+but in many cases they use these old methods to this day.</p>
+
+<p>The courage of the French people is sublime. Even in the darkest days
+their faith never wavered and they firmly believed they would be
+victorious. As a monument of this faith there is in Paris today the most
+wonderful painting perhaps that was ever put upon canvas. It is called
+the "Pantheon de Guerre" and is a marvelous cycloramic painting of the
+war. It was opened up to the public soon after the armistice was signed
+and the writer saw it while attending the Peace Conference.</p>
+
+<p>Many remember the wonderful representation of the Battle of Gettysburg
+which used to be in Chicago. This Paris cyclorama is along the same
+line, but ten times more wonderful. It is three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> hundred and
+seventy-four feet in circumference and forty-five high. The actual
+preparation of this began in October, 1914, and while the army of the
+invaders was within thirty miles of Paris and the big guns were shaking
+the city, more than twenty artists were working on the marvelous production.</p>
+
+<p>The central figure is a woman, mounted upon a high pedestal, which
+stands in front of a huge temple, and she is holding aloft the laurel
+wreath of victory. Upon the first step of a giant stairway which leads
+to the temple is a group of French heroes which includes Joffre, Foch,
+Petain and many others, while in front of them are guns and flags
+bearing marks of conflict. The only allusion to Germany in the whole
+painting is in the battle-scarred flags and guns which were used in the
+first battle of the Marne. Upon this gigantic stairway are life-size
+figures of more than five thousand people nearly everyone of which is a
+life sketch of some French hero of the war. Among them are many women
+whose heroic work and influence will live forever.</p>
+
+<p>Just across on the opposite side of the painting from this scene is
+depicted a gigantic tomb on the top of which is a group of soldiers
+holding aloft a great coffin in which is a dead companion. At the base
+and on the steps is a woman dressed in mourning, kneeling in the
+attitude of prayer, while nearby is a wreath inscribed to the unknown
+dead. Back of the tomb in the distance you can see the rays of the
+setting sun and in some indescribable way they are lighting up the faces
+of those on the temple stairway like a beautiful rainbow of promise,
+while the tomb itself is left in the shadows of the declining day.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p><p>In the group representing Belgium it is only natural that Edith Cavil
+should have a prominent place. To be sure King Albert and his queen and
+others are there. As in Belgium the first casualties occurred it is
+fitting that here alone is seen a wounded man and the Red Cross workers
+are caring for him as he lies upon a stretcher. Here too, are seen the
+broken pieces of a cathedral tower with a chalice and altar and Cardinal
+Mercier in his priestly robes, while lying on the steps between him and
+the king is the torn "scrap of paper."</p>
+
+<p>But it would take pages of this book to give an adequate description of
+the entire panorama. Of course, all the allies are represented. In a
+group representing the United States, President Wilson is one of the
+chief figures. I am told that the picture of General Pershing is a
+life-sized painting, which he was kind enough to sit for, to be used in
+this production. Here is also seen an American Indian, a cowboy, a
+merchant and an artisan. An American flag is borne aloft while four West
+Point cadets suggest training and leadership. Women relief workers of
+all kinds are seen. Then extending entirely around the room above and
+back of all these groups is a profile map of France from the Channel to
+the Swiss border. Here can be seen the principal towns and cities
+involved during the war. Here, too, can be seen all the modern
+implements of war and everything is actual or life size.</p>
+
+<p>As I stood gazing upon this wonderful production of artistic genius, my
+own brain almost reeled and staggered at the immensity and vividness of
+it. One moment the perspiration would break out and the next moment it
+was hard to keep the tears back. Pride, beauty, indignation, mourning,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>genius, art, science, invention, generalship, statesmanship, honor,
+love, tenderness, devotion, heroism and glory are all intermingled in a
+most marvelous way. The opportunity to behold and study this great
+panorama of the war is almost worth a trip to Paris. Then to think of
+the faith and courage it must have taken to work on and on while the
+shells from the big guns were bursting at regular intervals during the
+day and the bombs dropping from the aeroplanes above at night; all this
+fills and thrills one's heart with admiration for the French people.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Some Impressions of the Great Peace Conference</span></h3>
+
+<p>For a month the writer listened to the heartbeat of nations as their
+representatives were gathered in the city of Paris. No other city ever
+had within its borders so many of the statesmen of nations. There were
+worked out the beginnings of the great problems that will mean the life of civilization.</p>
+
+<p>Should the nations of the earth plan and make preparation for another
+war the race is imperilled. It is either universal peace or universal
+doom. Either some plan to stop war or preparation for the final
+judgment. Quit fighting or quit living. Peace or death.</p>
+
+<p>The late war revealed the possibilities of human genius. Man's power to
+destroy has been discovered and across the sky can be seen in letters of
+blood the warning, "Abolish war or perish." Some say the war ended six
+months too soon, but had it continued that much longer, the probable
+results are too awful to contemplate. The Angel of Destruction had the
+sword lifted over Germany, but it was as though divine providence stayed his hand.</p>
+
+<p>American genius was just coming into play. For instance, we are told
+that a gas had been discovered that is so deadly that a few bombs filled
+with it and dropped upon a city would all but wipe it out of existence.
+When the armistice was signed hundreds of tons of that gas were ready
+for use and on the way to the battle front. Other inventions and
+discoveries have since been brought out that are too deadly to even talk about.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p><p>No one can describe the Peace Conference without giving great credit to
+our president, for without him it seemed that the leaders were unable to
+get anywhere. When he said that the time had come when the civilized
+nations of the earth should form an organization to abolish war the
+enthusiasm of the common people knew no bounds. A committee was at once
+appointed to work out a constitution for such an organization and
+President Wilson was made the chairman.</p>
+
+<p>Some problems touch only the rich and others have to do with the poor
+alone; some interest only the capitalist and others interest only those
+who toil with their hands; some absorb the thought of only the white
+race while others have to do with the black and yellow races; some have
+to do only with the educated while others reach none but the ignorant;
+but here is a problem that has to do with every family on the earth,
+rich or poor, capitalist or laboring man, white, black and all other
+colors and races&mdash;in fact, it touches every home and will do so as long
+as people live upon the earth.</p>
+
+<p>To abolish war would rejoice the heart of every mother who has gone into
+the jaws of death to give birth to a son. It would bring gratitude from
+the heart of every wife and sweetheart whose face has been bathed with
+tears as the last good-bys were on their lips. It would be a blessing to
+every child now living, as well as to the generations yet unborn. It
+would thrill the heart of every lover of justice and mercy and would
+answer the heart longings of millions who have prayed without ceasing
+for the reign of peace on earth among men of good will.</p>
+
+<p>When President Wilson enunciated the fourteen points some wiseacres
+laughed and criticised, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> these very points formed the basis of the
+armistice and the Good Lord only knows how many American lives were
+saved to say nothing of English, French, Italian and all the rest. No
+one knows how many are alive and well today who would have been sleeping
+in unknown and unmarked graves had the armistice been detained a single week.</p>
+
+<p>The American headquarters in Paris during the Peace Conference were in
+the Hotel Grillion, which is on the Place de la Concorde in the heart of
+the city. The room number 351 belonged to the suite occupied by Colonel
+House and it was really the birth chamber of the League of Nations. The
+nineteen men who made up the committee belonged to fourteen nations.
+President Wilson, as chairman, called them together in this room. The
+first meeting of this committee was held February third and was very
+brief. In all, ten meetings were held and all were held in this room.
+President Wilson presided at all but one of them. Each man brought his
+suggestions in writing so there would be no chance for misunderstanding.
+Full discussion of all points was always encouraged. When the entire
+constitution was worked out it was agreed to unanimously and it was then
+ready to be presented to the Peace Conference.</p>
+
+<p>Until the Peace Treaty was ready to sign all meetings of the great
+conference were held in the Foreign Ministry building in Paris. This is
+across the river Seine from the Concorde. Many supposed all meetings
+were held at Versailles but this is a mistake. Versailles is a city of
+some sixty thousand people and about ten miles from Paris. The old
+Palace is there but the great Hall of Mirrors where the treaty was
+finally signed could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> be comfortably heated in the winter time. So
+for that as well as other reasons the meetings were held in Paris.</p>
+
+<p>Through Mr. Ray Stannard Baker I received a pass to the Peace
+Conference. These passes were only given to newspaper men and I
+represented People's Popular Monthly. The great day was February
+fourteenth, 1919. On this date eighty-four statesmen representing
+twenty-seven nations, the combined population of which is more than
+twelve hundred million people, were seated around one table. Clemenceau
+was the chairman of the conference and sat at the head of the table. By
+his side sat our own president, who at that time, towered head and
+shoulders above the statesmen of the world. Let politicians rave and
+senators criticize, yet the fact remains that Woodrow Wilson will have a
+place in history by the side of the immortal Lincoln and Washington.</p>
+
+<p>When he was introduced our president read the constitution, or covenant
+as it was called, and then made some remarks concerning it. While I
+stood listening to him as he thrilled the hearts and held almost
+breathless this company of statesmen and noted their faces as he said:
+"We are now seeing eye to eye and learning that after all, all men on
+this earth are brothers," my eyes are swimming in tears and I don't know
+yet whether it was the man speaking, what he said, or the way he
+thrilled those men, that caused it. I do know, however, that it was one
+of the greatest moments I ever lived.</p>
+
+<p>Near the end of the table sat the black man from Liberia. How his face
+shone and his eyes sparkled when he heard these words! When he reached
+his homeland he no doubt told his people how the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> great American
+president championed a plan to abolish war and told the statesmen of the
+Peace Conference that the world is learning that all men on this earth
+are brothers, and the very hills of that black land echoed with praises for America.</p>
+
+<p>Since that day the Chinese, who have never been warriors and love
+America anyway, have talked in their tea rooms and joss houses about the
+American President's plan to abolish war. In the villages of far away
+India, in the homes of the Sea Islanders and in fact wherever human
+beings have congregated they have talked of a world peace. But it was
+the peoples of the downtrodden, war-stricken nations especially who
+looked to our president as the great champion of liberty and freedom.
+They believed that he was the "Big Brother" and that the country that he
+represented would see that they were treated fairly.</p>
+
+<p>Representing the great western giant whose genius, power and marvelous
+accomplishments of a few short months filled all Europe with amazement
+and far out-distanced anything they had done in the three years before,
+standing at the head of the only unexhausted nation and which could
+dictate the policies of the world&mdash;for this man to go to the Peace
+Conference with a plan to forever abolish war, it simply won for himself
+and our country the admiration and confidence of the statesmen of the
+world. Nothing like it had ever been seen before and the gratitude of
+all knew no bounds.</p>
+
+<p>Then the modest, dignified, unselfish bearing of our president among
+them turned gratitude into love and devotion. The words of far-sighted
+wisdom spoken everywhere brought from the greatest statesmen the
+recognition of leadership. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>Without a single effort on his part to put
+himself forward, he became the natural leader of all.</p>
+
+<p>A single instance of his thoughtfulness will be given. I was determined
+to see the tomb where General Pershing stood when he uttered the famous
+words: "Lafayette we have come," and which made the whole French nation
+doff its hat and cheer. After hours of searching and miles of walking
+and inquiries galore, the place was found, but the door to the enclosure
+had to be unlocked with a silver key. When entrance was gained and the
+spot finally reached, there on the tomb was a wreath of flowers nearly
+as large as a wagon wheel and which, when they were fresh, must have
+been beautiful beyond words to described. Upon it was a card on which
+had been written in English the words: "The President of the United
+States of America. In memory of the great Lafayette from a fellow servant of liberty."</p>
+
+<p>Then came the months of haggling, the work of selfish politicians both
+at home and abroad, and finally the rejection by our own people of the
+greatest piece of work since the beginning of the Christian era, all of
+which makes one who knows the real situation hang his head in shame. Why
+any living mortal in America could oppose a plan that has for its object
+the abolition of war is simply amazing to the people of Europe. Just
+before I left Paris in 1919 a French business man said to me: "I
+understand that the cables are saying that you have some men in your
+country who are opposing your president and this effort to abolish war.
+What kind of men have you got over there, anyway? Go back and tell them
+that it is not only the greatest thing for America that he came over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+here but it is one of the greatest things for the whole world that ever happened."</p>
+
+<p>In the fall of 1921 I made another trip to Europe and the change was
+beyond any power to describe. People who looked upon America as the one
+great nation of the earth almost sneered when they mentioned our
+attitude toward the League of Nations. They have almost lost confidence
+in us and it will be hard to regain it. France is especially bitter.
+Perhaps the result of the Disarmament Conference, which is practically
+the same thing under another name, will help them to forget some things,
+but the French will be slow to take up with it. We are all proud of the
+part our leaders had in this great meeting in Washington, but had our
+government stood enthusiastically for the League of Nations it would
+have saved hundreds of millions of dollars that we now have to dig up in
+taxes, and at the same time saved famine, fighting and hatred that it
+will take a long time to overcome.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Nightmare of Europe&mdash;Alsace-Lorraine</span></h3>
+
+<p>"I congratulate you on the annexation of an open sore to your Empire,"
+said Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria to the German Kaiser when
+Alsace-Lorraine was ceded to Germany by the Treaty of Frankfort at the
+close of the Franco-Prussian War, in 1871. As we entered the world war
+to fight for the downtrodden people of the world, determined that people
+must have their rights and that the peril of military autocracy must be
+crushed forever, the problem of Alsace-Lorraine became a great problem
+to America. Every citizen of the United States should know something of
+this little country that has been called "The Nightmare of Europe."</p>
+
+<p>Germany made every possible effort to blind the eyes of the world in
+regard to the facts about these provinces. She constantly declared there
+was no Alsace-Lorraine problem. In 1881, the Kaiser, in speaking of
+these provinces gave utterance to these words: "Germany would leave her
+eighteen army corps and her forty-two million people on the field of
+battle rather than surrender a single stone of the territory won in
+1871." Because Mr. Daniel Blumenthal, who lived in Alsace all his life,
+was mayor of one of the important cities there and a member of the
+German Reichstag and the Alsace-Lorraine Senate for years, dared to tell
+the world the truth about his country, he was condemned to death eight
+times. He lived, however, and then they imposed upon him sentences of
+penal servitude that aggregated more than five hundred years'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> time.
+This man finally got out of Germany and the whole world then listened to his story.</p>
+
+<p>First, take a look at the provinces. They are located, as you know, at
+the northeast corner of France. Together they are about as large as the
+Yellowstone National Park, or the size of about six Iowa counties. The
+soil is the most fertile to be found in Central Europe. The hills are
+richly wooded with fir, oak and beech, as well as other varieties. Corn,
+flax, tobacco, grapes and various fruits are grown. The great wealth,
+however, is in the minerals. Iron, lead, copper, coal, rock salt and
+even silver are there. Manufacturers of cotton and linen are plentiful.</p>
+
+<p>In the old days this country was a part of ancient Gaul and the Romans
+had it for five hundred years. When Rome broke up it became a part of
+France, and so remained until about the middle of the tenth century, at
+which time it came under the jurisdiction of Germany. Later on Alsace
+became a part of the Holy Roman Empire. During these days it was made a
+republic under the direction of a bishop and became a <i>decapole</i>, or
+province with ten free cities. This league of free cities had control
+for two hundred years, and with this in mind it is easy to see where and
+how this principle of liberty and freedom was born in the hearts of these people.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of the Thirty Years War, at the Peace of Westphalia in
+1648, these provinces came back to France and constituted a part of this
+country until the close of the Franco-Prussian War when Germany took it.
+The Treaty of Frankfort, which ceded this land to Germany was, as some
+one says, "not a treaty of peace but a treaty of hatred." Bismarck
+declared that Metz and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>Strassburg had been an open door through which
+France came again and again to invade Germany and he proposed to lock
+the door and throw the key into the well. Of course he had an eye upon
+the rich iron mines which were absolutely necessary to Germany in her
+preparation for a world war.</p>
+
+<p>This country has been a battlefield for centuries. It was the religious
+battleground in the seventh century. The Thirty Years War devastated
+almost every foot of the territory. It is said that in one community
+there was not a wedding for twelve years and not a baptism for fifteen
+years. Strassburg with its great university and priceless library was
+burned. The writer of these lines passed through this country years ago
+where it is said that there were two hundred square miles of cemeteries instead of farms.</p>
+
+<p>In 1870-1871 came the Franco-Prussian War and once more these provinces
+were largely devastated. Somehow the people got an inkling that their
+land might go to Germany and at once they were up in arms about it. They
+sent a delegation of twenty-eight men to the national assembly at
+Bordeaux with the following appeal: "Alsace-Lorraine are opposed to
+alienation. These two provinces, associated with France for more than
+two centuries in good and evil fortune and constantly opposed to hostile
+attack, have consistently sacrificed themselves in the cause of national
+greatness; they have sealed with their blood the indissoluble compact
+that binds them to French unity. With one accord, citizens who have
+remained in their own homes and the soldiers who have hastened to join
+the colors, proclaim by their votes or by their action on the field, to
+Germany and to the world, the unalterable determination to remain French."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p><p>When the decision was reached to give these provinces to Germany they
+sent the following appeal to the nations of Europe: "Europe cannot
+permit or ratify the abandonment of Alsace and Lorraine. The civilized
+nations, as guardians of justice and national rights, cannot remain
+indifferent to the fate of their neighbor under pain of becoming in
+their turn victims of the outrages they have tolerated. Modern Europe
+cannot allow a people to be seized like a herd of cattle; she cannot
+continue deaf to the repeated protest of threatened nationalities. She
+owes it to her instinct of self-preservation to forbid such abuses of
+her power. She knows too that the unity of France is now, as in the
+past, a guarantee of the general order of the world, a barrier against
+the spirit of conquest and invasion. Peace concluded at the price of
+cession of territory could be nothing but a costly truce, not a final
+peace. It would be for a cause of international unrest, a permanent and
+legitimate provocation of war."</p>
+
+<p>Even after this wonderful appeal, still another final plea was made, but
+it did no good. The heartless Bismarck had France by the throat and
+other nations seemed afraid to champion the cause of these helpless
+people. Thus the whole world reaped the reward of silence when great
+principles were involved. I have given the protest almost in full,
+quoting it from David Starr Jordan, that readers of this chapter can
+behold the evil effects of accepting a peace when the rights of people
+are left out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>A provision in this Treaty of Frankfort allowed those who wished to
+cross the line into France to go. Of course this would involve leaving
+their homes, their farms, their old neighbors and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>everything else that
+they could not take along. More than a year was given for this and on
+the last day of grace one author says: "All those who had means of
+transportation rode in carts, wagons, carriages, running over the black
+roads. Whole families drove their cattle. Old men dragged themselves on,
+leaning on the shoulders of young women who bore at the breast new-born
+children. Sick men, who wished not to die German, were carried bodily
+that they might draw their last breath on the frontier of Nancy and
+thank heaven to die on French soil."</p>
+
+<p>Then the Germans tried to blot out all traces of France. The French
+language was forbidden in schools, on advertisements or even on tombs.
+Police and secret service men watched the inhabitants and men were
+imprisoned for any demonstration whatsoever that exalted France. The
+frontier was closed, all communication with France was cut off and no
+one could cross the border without a passport that was vized by the
+German Ambassador in Paris. This was done until the death of Bismarck.
+In spite of all this, whenever a chance was given for the people to
+choose between France and Germany, they chose France. It must be
+remembered too, that a half million people crossed the line into France
+while they could and that a half million German immigrants had taken their places.</p>
+
+<p>All through the years France had mourned for her lost provinces and
+refused to be comforted. Many times I have seen the mourning figure of
+Strassburg, which is in the Place de la Concorde, in the heart of the
+city of Paris. This statue represents the distress of Alsace-Lorraine
+and "around this figure the war spirit of France rallied for forty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+years." It is said that flowers were placed at this figure every day for forty years.</p>
+
+<p>When General Joffre and the French army entered Alsace in August, 1914,
+the joy of the people knew no bounds. How they wept and rejoiced as the
+bands played the Marseillaise! French flags that had been hidden away
+for forty-three years were brought out and such scenes of rejoicing have
+rarely been witnessed. The same was true in Paris. A great company of
+Alsatians formed a procession and marched to the Strassburg statue on
+the Concorde. The procession was led by Alsatian women who carried palm
+branches. All marched bare-headed to the statue. Ladders were placed
+against the monument. An Alsatian climbed to the top and wound a broad
+tri-colored sash around the statue. The crowd cried: "Away with the
+crepe" and instantly all signs of mourning that had surrounded the
+statue for forty-three years were torn away.</p>
+
+<p>As might be expected, when the French army was driven out of Alsace
+later on, the people suffered untold misery. The Good Lord only knows
+what they went through. Thousands were condemned to prison for the awful
+crime of manifesting their French sentiments. A single word that
+reflected upon what Germany had done in any way would send one to
+prison. A lawyer by the name of Berger was sentenced to prison for a
+term of eight years for casually alluding to the invasion of Belgium.
+The number of women condemned to prison was enormous, for the women were
+more outspoken and less respectful to the Germans than the men.</p>
+
+<p>Neither did prison sentences end it; sentences of death were very many.
+The press was not allowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> to mention those who were shot. It was
+reported that thirty thousand of the people in these provinces were
+imported into Germany. But those days have gone by and it is certain
+that never again will Germany wield the sceptre over these provinces. Of
+course in this brief glimpse of Alsace-Lorraine many very important
+matters could not be mentioned at all, but these are sufficient to show
+why they could not help hating the people who have been heartless in
+their effort to subdue some of their blood relatives.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Home of the Passion Play&mdash;Oberammergau</span></h3>
+
+<p>Nestled at the foot of the mountains in the highlands of Bavaria, is the
+little village of Oberammergau, the home of the world-famous Passion
+Play. Although of German extraction, these humble people were opposed to
+war with all their power, but when it came they were compelled to
+submit. One of the saddest pictures during the war was that of these
+people as it was given by Madaline Doty, which was published in the
+Atlantic Monthly in 1917.</p>
+
+<p>This writer said: "The village was silent and the people were in great
+distress. There were no carriages or even push carts; no smiling people,
+no laughter, and no gay voices were heard. Old people sat about as if
+dazed. Five hundred and fifty out of eighteen hundred population had
+gone to war." The village was bankrupt. There was no money. It was like
+a plague-stricken place. The theater building was locked up. The little
+stores had nothing to sell. No person was allowed more than one egg per
+week and but few could get that. People were on the point of starvation.</p>
+
+<p>During the season of 1910 the writer made the journey to Oberammergau on
+purpose to see the Passion Play and this chapter is but a brief
+description of it. Journeying from Zurich, Switzerland, to Oberammergau
+a stop was made at Munich. From that place there is but one little dinky
+railroad and one of the greatest mobs I ever got into was at the depot
+in Munich. A thousand people were trying to get on a train that could
+carry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> only a few hundred. Finding a porter who was persuaded to open a
+compartment with a silver key a half dozen of us had a comfortable
+place. The distance to the mountain village is less than one hundred
+miles, but it took from five in the evening until midnight to reach it.</p>
+
+<p>Having purchased a ticket for the play on the following day weeks
+before, and with it lodging for two nights, a gentleman took me from the
+depot to the home of one of the players and I went to bed. Early the
+next morning while eating breakfast at the home, on looking through the
+door I discovered that one end of the house was a cow stable. Going from
+the house all that was necessary was to follow the crowd, for people
+seemed to be coming from everywhere. Passing through the winding, narrow
+streets, soon the large theater building was reached.</p>
+
+<p>This building is one hundred and forty feet square. The roof is
+supported by six gigantic arches that are sixty-five feet high in the
+center. The floor is built on an incline so that every one of the four
+thousand seats is a good one. The stage reaches entirely across the
+building and is in the open air, the whole end of the building open. At
+each end of the stage are small buildings representing the Palace of
+Pilate and the Palace of the High Priest. Back about twenty feet from
+the edge of the stage is a covered stage with a curtain and in which the
+tableaus are arranged. There are fourteen entrances to the building.</p>
+
+<p>The large orchestra is just in front of the stage but lower than the
+people, so unless one happens to be near the platform the musicians
+cannot be seen at all. The end of the entire building being open, the
+rain beats in and the cheapest seats are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> those where one is likely to
+get wet should it rain. The orchestra is kept dry by a large canvas that
+is pulled out when the rain begins. Back in the inner covered stage is a
+network of ropes, pulleys, lances, arms for Roman soldiers, dishes for
+banquets, costumes and wardrobes for the players, all in perfect order
+and ready for use at a moment's notice.</p>
+
+<p>The play itself occupies about eight hours. There are six hundred and
+eighty-five people in it, but only one hundred and twenty speaking
+parts. The principal actors are not many, but during the play there are
+many children as well as old men and women take part. There are
+twenty-two tableaus; seventy-six scenes and in all eighteen acts. The
+tableaus represent Old Testament prophecies of the events portrayed. It
+must be remembered, however, that the play represents only the events
+that occurred during the last week of Christ's life.</p>
+
+<p>The music is simply wonderful. For generations these mountain people
+have been developing a tenderness and pathos that really grips one's
+heart. The music was composed by a man by the name of Dedler, about one
+hundred years ago, and while it gives expression to the composer's
+tender heart, yet experts say that it reminds them of Hayden and Mozart.
+The paintings in the building are those of great masters. It took an
+entire year to paint the scenery for the play in 1910, but they could
+not afford to spend so much upon it in 1922. The curtains and costumes
+are of fine material, nothing shoddy or cheap about it.</p>
+
+<p>The story of the beginning of the Passion Play is as interesting as a
+novel. It was in the year 1633. A pestilence was raging in the villages
+in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> mountains of Bavaria and death rode down the valleys like a
+mighty conqueror. Hundreds were smitten and the hand of death could not
+be stayed. Whole villages were depopulated and even the dead were left
+unburied. For a while the village of Oberammergau was favored, while
+neighboring villages were stricken. A line of sentinels were stationed
+around the village and a strict quarantine was maintained. Finally, love
+of home and the desire to see his family caused a laboring man, Casper
+Schushler, who was working in another village, to steal through the line
+and spend an evening at his own family fireside.</p>
+
+<p>In a couple of days all was changed. The songs of the children were
+hushed in silence, for this man had brought the plague into the village.
+In thirty-three days eighty-four had perished and scores of others were
+smitten by the hand of death. It was a great crisis and looked as though
+that soon there would not be left among the living enough to bury the
+dead. A public meeting was called. It was a sad gathering of hollow-eyed
+men and women. They spent the whole day in earnest prayer. They vowed to
+the Lord that day that if he would hear their petition and save them,
+they would repent of their sins as a token of their sincerity, and that
+they would try to re-enact the scenes of Calvary and thus give an object
+lesson of God's love for humanity.</p>
+
+<p>The chronicler says that from that moment the hand of death was stayed.
+Not another person in the village died from the plague. Every one
+smitten recovered and by this they knew that the Lord had heard their
+prayers. At once they set about to carry out their vow. From that day
+forward they aimed to give the object lesson every ten years and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> have
+done so except on occasions when they have been hindered by war, as two
+years ago. In 1910 a quarter of a million people endured the hardships
+and inconveniences of a long, tiresome journey, sometimes spending many
+hundred dollars, to see the play.</p>
+
+<p>The day I spent there was one of the shortest days in my memory. Sermons
+not an hour long have sometimes seemed longer than this entire day. A
+strange silence was everywhere. There was no gaiety such as one sees at
+a theater. There was no applause, no laughter. Criticise it if you will,
+condemn it if you like, yet the fact remains that it is the greatest
+object lesson of the ages. It would be hard for any man to see it and
+not come away with a more tender heart and a better appreciation of the
+world's Redeemer. The late William T. Stead truly called this play "The
+Story That Has Transformed the World."</p>
+
+<p>No other story so fills and thrills the soul. I saw non-Christian men
+sit trembling with emotion and great tears rolling down their faces.
+Sometimes one's indignation was so aroused that it was hard to sit
+still. At other times the fountains of the great deep were broken up and
+one's heart would nearly burst. On this particular day every one of the
+four thousand seats were taken and five hundred people stood up from
+morning until evening. It is as impossible to describe the Passion Play
+as it is to describe a song. It is real life before your eyes. I have
+never yet seen pictures of it that did not make me heart-sick, for it is
+impossible to give a true picture of it on the screen.</p>
+
+<p>On years when the play is given it generally begins about the middle of
+May and closes the last of September. They give it regularly on Sunday
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> Wednesday of each week during this time. During the busy season it
+is often repeated for the overflow on Monday and Thursday and
+occasionally on Friday. Tickets for the regular play are generally sold
+out beforehand but as usual a great many reach the place without tickets
+and have to be accommodated in this way.</p>
+
+<p>All the years the highest ambition of the boys and girls in the village
+is to so live that they will be chosen for some prominent part in the
+play. No one can be chosen unless born in the village and this confines
+it to the village. No one is chosen for a prominent part if there is
+anything against his character and that places a premium on right
+living. Hence one can easily see their reason for hating war with all
+their power. While narrow in their peculiar religious ideas, no doubt,
+yet a more consecrated and devoted class of people are perhaps not found
+in another village on earth.</p>
+
+<p>All told there are nearly a thousand people who are connected in some
+way with the play and as the population of the village is less than two
+thousand, it practically takes in every family and sometimes every
+member of the family. The choosing of the important players is always an
+important event in the village. After a season closes no characters are
+chosen for seven years. At length the day arrives when the committee of
+fourteen who are to choose the leading characters for the play three
+years hence is elected. It is a great day. The assembly meets in the
+town hall. Every parishioner has a vote. The mayor of the village is chairman.</p>
+
+<p>After this committee of fourteen is duly elected a meeting is soon
+called. It takes several months to consider the problem. Every player
+must sign<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> a contract to carry out his part to the best of his ability.
+Offenders are punished with great severity. Married women are barred
+from the prominent parts. It is said that more than one hundred
+rehearsals are held before the opening day.</p>
+
+<p>The receipts for a season are enormous. The sale of post cards and
+souvenirs greatly add to the sum. It is not surprising that these people
+are often accused for running the play for the money there is in it. But
+the leading characters only receive a few hundred dollars for the
+season's work. The church receives a large amount. The theater building
+and upkeep represents a fortune. To care for the thousands who attend,
+the town must have a good water supply, an up-to-date sanitary system,
+and many things that would be uncalled for in an ordinary town. Located
+as it is away in the mountains, it is very difficult to have the things
+that are necessary in the way of improvements.</p>
+
+<p>The people of Oberammergau are a humble, hard-working people. Their main
+business is wood carving and they are experts in this work. Without the
+Passion Play season the demand for their product would not be so great.
+As is said above these people are very religious. They have a very
+expensive church or two. On a peak of one of the highest mountains in
+the vicinity is a gigantic cross. This is kept polished and when the sun
+shines upon it the sight is very beautiful. Many journey to the top of
+this mountain and the view richly repays one for the difficult climb.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Country Where the War Started&mdash;Servia</span></h3>
+
+<p>It was a Servian lad who started the war, or rather the fire was all
+ready to start and he lit the match. Whether he was hired to do this or
+not as has been reported may never be known as he died before the
+investigation had been completed. Nevertheless, this deed aroused the
+interest of the world in a country that was almost unknown before the war.</p>
+
+<p>Servia is not quite as large as the state of Indiana. The population is
+about double that of Indiana and the climate about the same as this
+state. The northern boundary is, or was at the outbreak of the war, the
+Danube river, on the east Bulgaria, on the south Greece, while on the
+west were Albania, Montenegro and Austria. She was shut away from any
+seaports all the years, and most of the time surrounded by enemies, the
+greatest of these being Austria on the west and Turkey to the east.</p>
+
+<p>In natural resources Servia is one of the richest countries in Europe,
+being productive of soil, good climate, well watered and having large
+mineral wealth. The Moravia river runs across the great plain in middle
+Servia and is to the country much the same as the Nile is to Egypt. Corn
+is cultivated everywhere in the country and is perhaps the greatest
+crop, while wheat also is largely raised. While various fruits are
+widely grown the plum orchards are the most numerous. Grapes also are
+grown extensively. Gold, silver, copper, iron and coal are found in many
+parts of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> country. It is interesting to know that a Belgian company
+has perhaps the largest anthracite coal mine in Servia. Also, there are
+three and one-half million acres of forests in this small country.</p>
+
+<p>The Servians are a race of peasant farmers, eighty per cent of the
+people being tillers of the soil. Most of the farms, however, are very
+small. The average farm is less than twenty acres. Servia perhaps leads
+the world in home owners according to population. Nine-tenths of the
+farmers own their farms. This is largely due to laws and old customs.
+The law allows a man a minimum farm of five acres with a team of oxen
+and farming implements and no one can take these from him for debt no
+matter how just may be his claim. Another law requires everyone to
+contribute a certain quantity of corn or wheat each year to a municipal
+institution to be lent in time of need or for seed to anyone and at a
+very moderate rate of interest.</p>
+
+<p>Another old custom among the Servians is for the entire community to go
+and help any man, who may be unfortunate, harvest his grain. This is
+made a great day and singing and laughing can be heard all day long in
+the fields, and in the evening they have certain religious ceremonies
+which end in a feast with music and dancing. These are great events for
+the young folks. It is a custom among the girls for those who are open
+for engagement to wear a red feather in their hair. Of late years the
+farmers have an organization that is not unlike the grange that we used
+to have in this country. Through this they get better markets for what
+they have to sell and lower prices for what they have to buy. Many who
+read these lines can call to mind some of the great times that people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+used to have in the meetings and great days in granger times.</p>
+
+<p>The Servians have some queer customs in regard to death and funerals.
+Almost every Servian prepares boards with which to make his own coffin
+and keeps them in a dry place ready for use when he dies. Old women save
+up money and sew it in their dresses, to be used to pay their funeral
+expenses. If a farmer is able to afford it he generally keeps a barrel
+of whisky in his cellar, to be drunk at his funeral.</p>
+
+<p>When the body of a dead person is in the house no one eats anything and
+the floors are not swept. After the funeral the floors are swept and the
+broom thrown away. For a day after one dies a little bread and a glass
+of wine are kept in the room with the dead body. They believe the soul
+tarries awhile and might want to eat and drink. They also believe that
+the soul lingers on earth forty days after death, visiting old familiar
+places and on the fortieth day ascends to heaven.</p>
+
+<p>On the day of a funeral an animal, likely a sheep, but never a goat, is
+killed at the grave in the presence of one holding a wax candle. This
+animal is then roasted and those attending the funeral have a feast, the
+guests each bringing something to eat with the roast. Women never sing
+or wear flowers or jewelry during the first year of mourning.</p>
+
+<p>European civilization owes much to the Servians. For hundreds of years
+these people have fought to save Europe from invasion. They have been
+the bulwark of Christendom against the unspeakable Turk and his
+religion. The bitter trials and hardships of the Servians have made them
+brave, heroic and self-sacrificing. This is especially<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> true of the
+women as the following incident among many will show.</p>
+
+<p>After all the hardships of the Balkan War, when diseases and suffering
+were everywhere; when the land had been left uncultivated and hunger
+stalked across the country and the women in both town and country had
+toiled unceasingly; after all these days of misery, when Austria was
+mentioned to a peasant woman she declared that she was ready for fresh
+sacrifices. Being reminded of what it would mean to have war again she
+said: "What matters the leaves and twigs that fall, provided the tree remains standing."</p>
+
+<p>There has been a very bitter feeling in Servia against the Austrians
+since 1908. In that year Austria had trampled under foot her sacred
+treaties and by brute force annexed Bosnia and Herzegovnia, Servia's
+neighbors, and had threatened the very existence of Servia herself. In
+the streets of Belgrade, their capital city, on that occasion there was
+a vast demonstration held almost in silence and every Servian pledged to
+do or die at his country's call. They well knew that a conflict was
+coming. In that war they had done a noble part but when it came to the
+settlement Austria practically refused to allow Servia an Adriatic port
+and other advantages she had justly earned.</p>
+
+<p>From that day until the world war broke out, Austria backed and assisted
+by German secret agents, tried to stir up Albania and Bulgaria against
+Servia. Turkey too was only waiting for a chance to plunder this
+country. But worst of all and greatest of all, Servia had the audacity
+to block the Kaiser's Berlin to Bagdad railway scheme which was to go through Belgrade.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p><p>Now the time had arrived when something must be done to provoke a war
+with Servia and annihilate her. The self-appointed world ruler of
+Germany had decreed it. As he was dictating the policy of Austria she
+must find some excuse to do the job. Then came the fateful day, July 29,
+1914. On that day the Crown Prince of Austria and his wife were
+assassinated at Sarajevo by a Servian youth.</p>
+
+<p>Not a thing was done openly for twenty-four days. At once on the
+assassination of the Austrian Grown Prince, the Kaiser called in his war
+lords and financiers and other great men of his coterie. He asked if all
+were ready for war. The army and navy men said they were ready
+instantly. The financiers said they could be ready in two weeks. They
+were told to get ready. While this was being done the Kaiser with the
+Austrian war lords worked out a plan by which the act of this Servian
+youth could be laid upon the nation and be made an excuse for war. So on
+the twenty-fourth day after the assassination came the ultimatum from
+Austria. It came as a thunderclap out of a clear sky.</p>
+
+<p>The little country was only allowed forty-eight hours to concede the
+unheardof demands. Diplomats tried to get Austria to extend the time,
+but she refused to do so. Sir Edward Grey of England led in an effort to
+bring about arbitration after Austria had declared war, and he all but
+succeeded for Austria and Servia both agreed to submit their differences
+to arbitration and Russia agreed to this. But just here Germany openly
+butted in and declared that she would not arbitrate anything and thus
+the war went on until it had involved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> nation after nation and
+practically the whole world was into it either directly or indirectly.</p>
+
+<p>When the declaration of war came to Servia, their old king was in bad
+health and was at a sanitarium. He had appointed his son to the regency.
+But at the word of war, old King Peter left the watering-place and
+started for the front. With flag in hand he came to the troops and
+addressed the men saying: "Soldiers, your old king has come to die with
+you; if there be any who are afraid let him turn back." It is easy to
+imagine the result. Not one of them turned back, and they easily routed
+the enemy and swept all before them. But the story of these terrible
+years can only be mentioned. The year 1914 was a year of victory for the
+Servians. But later on came the tremendous reverses, the awful typhus
+fever and the heroic retreat over the mountains. This retreat is one of
+the saddest and yet one of the most heroic pages of history. Finally
+France was able to come to the rescue and the Servians found a refuge on
+the island of Corfu. Had it not been for France the Servian nation would
+have been all but annihilated.</p>
+
+<p>While Servia has never made a contribution to civilization as has
+Belgium, she has played such a noble part that she will always have a
+large place in the heart of mankind. She has kept the Turk from invading
+Europe for centuries and it is hard to realize just what that means. The
+Turk has always been a plunderer and has cursed everything he touched.
+But his cup of iniquity has been filled to overflowing and the death
+rattle is in his throat.</p>
+
+<p>Providence has thus used Servia in a most wonderful way. Her great
+vision has been a united<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> country with all the Servians included, where
+they can work out their own problems and live in peace and harmony.
+These people are devoutly religious, most of them belonging to the Greek
+Orthodox church. They have great respect for learning. They are a most
+hospitable people and any foreigner is always made a welcome guest. They
+are well read in history but have never been favorably inclined toward
+either German education or language. They admire and love the French and
+invited the French Government to open a school in Belgrade. They have
+their own literature and folklore, their own popular music and national
+songs. The following are some of their bright proverbs of which they have a great many:</p>
+
+<p>"It is better to serve a good man than to give orders to a bad man.</p>
+
+<p>"It is better to suffer injustice than to commit it.</p>
+
+<p>"It is better to die honestly than to live dishonestly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is better to have a good reputation than a golden belt.</p>
+
+<p>"As long as a man does not dishonor himself no one can dishonor him.</p>
+
+<p>"Debt is a bad companion.</p>
+
+<p>"He who wishes to rest when he is old must work when he is young.</p>
+
+<p>"The lie has short legs.</p>
+
+<p>"An earnest work is never lost.</p>
+
+<p>"The unjustly acquired wealth never reaches the third generation.</p>
+
+<p>"A kind word opens the iron door.</p>
+
+<p>"God sometimes shuts one door that he may open a hundred other doors.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p><p>"It is better to weep with the wise than to sing with the fool.</p>
+
+<p>"In the forest a tree leans upon tree, in a nation a man leans on man.</p>
+
+<p>"Where there is no fear of God there is no shame of man.</p>
+
+<p>"Where there is no wife there is no home.</p>
+
+<p>"Where the devil cannot cause mischief he sends an old woman and she does it.</p>
+
+<p>"Work as if you are to live a hundred years, pray to God as if you were to die tomorrow."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A World-Famous Land&mdash;Palestine</span></h3>
+
+<p>The most fascinating and lureful land on the globe is the little country
+we call Palestine. Since it was wrested from the unspeakable Turk during
+the world war, the eyes of the world have been focused upon it to a
+greater degree than ever. It is the dearest spot to civilization. From
+it have gone the greatest and most powerful influences for good that
+ever affected humanity. It produced the one great character which is
+today the great center of history. The date of his birth is the
+recognized beginning of the greatest era in the history of mankind. The
+calendars of the world have been changed by the Galilean carpenter.</p>
+
+<p>Palestine is less than one-eighth as large as Wisconsin. Smaller than
+Greece or Italy or England or even Belgium, it has a greater history
+perhaps than all these combined. The book it produced is the foundation
+of history, literature and law. The hills and valleys, mountains and
+rivers are hallowed by the memory of him who wore the crown of thorns.
+The writer of these lines will never forget the tender memories aroused
+when standing on the sacred spots in this world-famous land.</p>
+
+<p>The man who said: "Palestine is the world in a nutshell," told the exact
+truth. Between snow-capped Mount Herman on the north, which is ten
+thousand feet above the ocean, and the Dead Sea on the south, which is
+thirteen hundred feet below the level of the ocean, are found all the
+zones and climates that can be found on the globe. The geologist finds
+here not only all the formations of rock<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> found on the earth, but all
+the geological periods and ages. The botanist finds here about all the
+plants, shrubs and flowers; the zoologist finds most all the animals and
+the ornithologist finds most all the birds, while the ichthyologist
+finds all the fishes.</p>
+
+<p>It used to be thought that there was at least one exception to the above
+named rule: that there was at least one type of fish that could not be
+found in Palestine. The exception was a type of fish found by David
+Livingstone in an inland lake in tropical Africa. Nature has provided
+the male of this peculiar fish with a large head and made him the
+protector of the school of little fishes when they are first hatched out
+so that in time of danger he opens his gills and the little ones swim
+into his mouth where they will be safe. The habit is unheard of and
+unparalleled among any fish in the world, so it is said. While for years
+it was supposed that this family of fish was found only in tropical
+Africa, yet some years ago one of this very type of fish was caught in the sea of Galilee.</p>
+
+<p>It was the privilege of the writer to visit Palestine some years ago
+with a converted Jew as a guide. We fell in together on an Italian
+steamship on the way from Italy to Egypt. On account of the bubonic
+plague which was raging in Egypt at the time we were thrown together
+again unexpectedly, leaving Egypt on the same ship bound for Syria. We
+were quarantined together on a ship in a Syrian harbor and became so
+well acquainted that he was persuaded to act as my guide through Palestine.</p>
+
+<p>Our first landing place on this sacred soil was at the city of Haifa,
+which is located at the foot of Mount Carmel near the northern part of
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>country. Haifa is a small city of some ten thousand people and to
+visit the market place in the early morning makes one think that the
+people are very much alive. Not far from the city are shown some
+rock-cut chambers in Mount Carmel that are said to be the very rooms
+where Elisha conducted his school for the young prophets.</p>
+
+<p>On the top of this mountain perhaps four or five miles from Haifa is a
+sort of a natural amphitheater and in this an old, old, rock-cut altar
+that is pointed out as the place where Elijah and the prophets of Baal
+had the great test to see whose god would answer by fire. At the foot of
+the mountain is a large mound which is to this day called the "Priest's
+Mound" and which is the traditional burial place of the false prophets
+who were slain at that time.</p>
+
+<p>From Haifa we went to Nazareth which is about eighteen miles in an
+eastward direction. We traveled for several miles along a railroad that
+the builders had started and then abandoned. The story told me at the
+time as to why this project was abandoned became quite significant when
+the war broke out, although it was told me several years before this
+happened. They said an English company secured the right to build a
+railway from Haifa to Damascus. About the time the work was started the
+Kaiser came to visit Palestine.</p>
+
+<p>Great preparation had been made for this visit and as a worshipper (?)
+he visited all the sacred places. On his return he spent a week in
+Constantinople with the Sultan of Turkey and that immediately after this
+visit this Turkish ruler decided that this railway would give the
+English too much power and the company was compelled to give up the
+work. Of course the railway was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>finished later on, but not by the
+English. As it developed after the war broke out, the Kaiser and the
+Sultan of Turkey had worked together for years.</p>
+
+<p>Stopping by the highway a Mohammedan woman was drawing water at a well
+and on request she cheerfully gave us a drink. These people never refuse
+to help even an enemy get a drink of water so I was told. The women do
+most of the hard work in Palestine. Where we stopped to pay the
+government tax that was always collected from travelers, I saw a man and
+woman building a stone wall. The only thing the man did was to sit on
+the wall while the woman mixed the mortar and carried both it and the
+stone to him. She even had to lift the stone up on the wall without any
+assistance from him, but he did manage to spread the mortar alone.</p>
+
+<p>Spread out before us was the great Plain of Esdraelon, which was often
+spoken of as the world's greatest battlefield. Here more battles that
+decided the destiny of nations have been fought than on any other spot
+on the globe. To behold the place where "The stars in their courses
+fought against Sisera" and a score of other world-famous struggles was a
+marvelous sight to say the least.</p>
+
+<p>Nazareth is a beautiful little city on the side of a mountain. The
+streets are narrow, the paving stones are worn slippery, and the shops
+are all open to the streets. In the Church of the Annunciation they
+point out "Joseph's Workshop" and "Mary's Kitchen" and with great
+solemnity show you the tools used by the Galilean carpenter and the
+cooking utensils used in the sacred home. There is in Nazareth one
+building the walls of which perhaps were standing nineteen hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
+years ago. This old wall is hoary with age and the Hebrew characters
+above the door indicate that it used to be a Jewish synagogue. Possibly
+it was the place where the great sermon was preached which so enraged
+the people that they tried to mob the preacher, but he escaped from their hands.</p>
+
+<p>An amusing experience was when we visited the Hall of Justice. The
+officials found that we had come into their city without permission from
+the authorities at Haifa. At once we were held up and fined. The fines
+and costs amounted to sixty cents each and I had to pay one dollar and
+twenty cents for myself and guide. When this was paid they gave us
+permission to proceed on our journey. That all might know that we had
+this permission it was so stated upon the back of our passports.</p>
+
+<p>The last thing I remember before going to sleep one night in the city of
+Nazareth was the loud talk of a crazy man in the street near the window.
+As there were no asylums for these unfortunate people they often just
+wandered around. I visited the only asylum for crazy people in all Syria
+at that time, and Dr. Waldimier told me with his own lips that it took
+him nineteen long years to get permission from the Turkish government to
+found the institution.</p>
+
+<p>From the top of the mountain near Nazareth one has a wonderful view of
+the entire country. As Palestine is less than one hundred and fifty
+miles long and but one-third as wide one can see almost entirely over
+the land from some high elevation. To the east and southeast of the top
+of this mountain lies the great Jordan valley with the mountains of Moab
+in the background. It was from one of these peaks, Mount Nebo, that
+Moses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> viewed the landscape o'er. Only about fifteen miles to the
+northeast lies the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias and
+Lake of Gennesaret. One cannot see the water in this lake, but the
+depression where it lies is very marked.</p>
+
+<p>To the north is the "Horn of Hattin," where the famous Sermon on the
+Mount was given to the assembled multitude. Still further is Mount
+Hermon which was the scene of the transfiguration. Still farther away
+are the mountains of Lebanon. To the west is old Mount Carmel and beyond
+that the great Mediterranean Sea. Stretched out to the southwest is the
+Plain of Esdraelon, and beyond that the mountains of Samaria. Just east
+of this plain are Mount Tabor and Gilboa. One can stand for hours and
+not get tired of looking for every foot of the ground is historic.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A World-Famous City&mdash;Jerusalem</span></h3>
+
+<p>The history of the world is largely the story of the rise and fall of
+great cities. In these great centers one can feel the heart-throb of
+civilization. Some of the great cities of today are famous for their
+size, such as New York and London; some for their beauty, like Paris and
+Rio Janeiro; some for their culture and learning, as Boston and Oxford;
+some for their manufacturing and commercial supremacy, as Detroit and
+Liverpool. But there is one city on the globe not nearly as large as Des
+Moines, not at all beautiful, its people neither cultured nor learned,
+has no factories and one narrow gauge railway takes care of most of its
+commerce, and yet it is by far the most famous city of all time. It is
+the city of Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p>The site of the city was once owned by a farmer whose name was Oman. He
+had a threshing floor on the top of Mount Moriah. The city as it is
+today is on top of two mountains, but the valley between has been filled
+up so that it is almost like one continuous mountain top. Higher
+mountains are practically on every side so that the moment one sees the
+city he thinks of the scripture, "As the mountains are round about
+Jerusalem, so is the Lord round about his people."</p>
+
+<p>To get an idea of the city as it was when the war broke out you must
+imagine a city of about sixty thousand people, without street cars,
+electric lights, telephones, waterworks, sewer system or any modern
+improvements whatever. However, General Allenby's entrance into the city
+in December, 1917, was the beginning of a new era. In three months<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> the
+English did more for the city than the Turk did in a thousand years.</p>
+
+<p>There is an old Arab legend which says: "Not until the River Nile flows
+into Palestine will the Turk be driven from Palestine." Of course this
+was their way of saying that such a thing would never come to pass for
+the Turk actually believed that he had such a hold on that country that
+there was no power on earth that could make him give it up. But when the
+English started from Egypt they not only built a railroad as they went
+toward Jerusalem, but not far from the Nile they prepared a great
+filtering process to cleanse the water, and then laid a twelve-inch pipe
+and brought the pure water along with them for both man and beast.</p>
+
+<p>Wherever they stopped for a length of time in the desert, "the glowing
+sands became pools," as the prophet had forecasted, and the desert began
+to "blossom as the rose." Sixty-five days after General Allenby entered
+the Jaffa Gate into the city of Jerusalem the water pipe or system was
+brought into the city and the Canadian engineer had made the Arab legend
+a reality, bringing the sweet waters of the Nile, a hundred and fifty
+miles away, into the City of the Great King.</p>
+
+<p>Jerusalem is to this day a walled city. The walls average some thirty
+feet high and are about fifteen feet thick at the top. It is a little
+less than two and one-half miles around the city wall, but the city
+itself has outgrown these limitations, quite a portion of it being on
+the outside of the wall. The hotel at which the writer stopped while
+visiting the city some years ago, was located outside the wall, as are
+many of the best buildings. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> streets are narrow, the houses have
+flat tops and many of them are but one or two stories high.</p>
+
+<p>There was a time, however, when this city boasted of having the finest
+building ever erected by the hands of man, viz: Solomon's Temple. This
+was built on Mount Moriah which was a great flat mountain top of uneven
+rock. Great arches were built around the sides and then the top leveled
+off until the large temple area was formed. Below the sides of this area
+are still seen the massive rooms that are called Solomon's stables. The
+writer rambled for hours through these great underground vaults and saw
+the holes in the stone pillars where the horses were tied. Here
+multiplied thousands took refuge during some of the memorable sieges
+that the city went through.</p>
+
+<p>Not far away are the great vaults known as Solomon's Quarries. Here is
+where the massive stones were "made ready" and the master builder's
+plans were so perfect that, "there was neither hammer nor ax nor any
+tool of iron heard in the temple while it was in building." The marks of
+the mason's tools and the niches where their lamps were placed can be
+seen to this day. It is a remarkable fact that in sinking shafts
+alongside the temple wall, great stones have been discovered but no
+stone chips are found by them. There are numerals and quarry marks and
+special mason marks on some of these stones but they are all Phoenician,
+thus confirming the Bible account that Hiram, the great Phoenician
+master builder prepared the stones and did the building for King Solomon.</p>
+
+<p>Jerusalem has several large churches the most noted of which is the one
+built over the traditional tomb of Christ. It is called the "Church of
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> Holy Sepulchre." For sixteen hundred years there was no question
+but what this tomb was the identical one in which the body of Christ was
+laid. This church as it stands today is a magnificent building with two
+great entrances. The sad thing about it is the fact that it is divided
+up into various chapels, each held by sects of so-called Christians, and
+a large-armed guard has to be kept in the church to keep these fanatical
+people from killing each other. Before soldiers were placed there,
+scenes of conflict and bloodshed were very common indeed&mdash;a sad
+spectacle for Jews and Moslems and other enemies of the Christ to gaze upon.</p>
+
+<p>In the Church of Pater Noster I counted the Lord's Prayer in thirty-two
+different languages inscribed on marble slabs so that almost any person
+from any country can read this prayer in his own language. In this
+connection it is interesting to note that at the gate entrance to the
+Pool of Bethesda the scripture story of the healing of the impotent man
+is written, or rather inscribed, beneath the arch, in fifty-one different languages.</p>
+
+<p>One of the large churches in the city was dedicated by the ex-kaiser
+when he visited the city in 1898. It was later found out that this
+German church was built for military purposes. During the war a wireless
+outfit and great searchlights were found in its tower. This
+self-appointed world ruler is represented on the ceiling of the chapel
+of a building on Mount Olivet in a companion panel with the Deity. In
+this same building the ex-kaiser is represented as a crusader by a
+figure and the Psalmist is painted with the moustache of a German
+general. When the ex-kaiser entered the city of Jerusalem, a breach was
+made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> in the wall near the Jaffa Gate, so instead of entering through
+the gate like an ordinary mortal, he went in through a hole in the wall.
+He would no doubt be glad now to go through another "hole in the wall" to have his liberty.</p>
+
+<p>To the writer, however, perhaps the most interesting place in or about
+the entire city is the Garden Tomb and Mount Calvary. This is almost
+north of the Damascus gate and on the great highway from Jerusalem from
+the north. Mount Calvary is only a small hill. The Jews speak of it as
+the Hill of Execution, or the Skull Place, as the outline of the hill
+seen from a certain direction resembles the form of a gigantic skull. It
+is said that no Jew cares to pass this place after night and if he
+passes it in daylight he will mutter a curse upon the memory of him who
+presumed to be the King of the Jews.</p>
+
+<p>Near this Skull Place is an old tomb that just fits the Bible narrative,
+viz: "Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in
+the garden a new sepulchre wherein never man was yet laid." This tomb
+was discovered many years ago by General Gordon and is often spoken of
+as Gordon's Tomb, also called the Garden Tomb. When excavating about it
+a wall was found which proved to be a garden wall the end of which butts
+up against Mount Calvary. One writer who has examined every nook and
+corner says in regard to this tomb: "It stands in the mass of rock which
+forms the northern boundary of a garden which literally runs into the
+hillside to the west of Mount Calvary itself."</p>
+
+<p>One of the first things noted as the writer went into this tomb was the
+fact that it is a Jewish tomb. They made their tombs different from
+those of any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> other people. That it was a "rich man's tomb" is also very
+certain, as is the fact that it dates back to the Herodian period in
+which Jesus lived. There is also some frescoed work upon it showing that
+it was held sacred by the early Christians. Then the "rolling stone" and
+the groove in which it was placed is very interesting. This was
+something like a gigantic grindstone which rolled in the groove and was
+large enough to cover the opening when the tomb was closed.</p>
+
+<p>While in and about Jerusalem the writer visited the famous "Upper Room,"
+the "Jew's Wailing Place," the "Mosque of Omar," which stands upon the
+very spot where Solomon's Temple used to stand, the "Way of Sorrows,"
+the "Ecco Homo Arch," the "Castle of Antonio," "Tower of David," the
+"Pool of Siloam," and a great many other interesting places. The Garden
+of Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives as well as scores of other places
+were fascinating but it would take a large volume to describe them all.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A World-Famous River&mdash;The Jordan</span></h3>
+
+<p>The great Mississippi and Amazon rivers are noted for their length; the
+Hudson and the Rhine for their scenery; the Thames and Tiber for the
+great cities on their banks; the Volga and the Dneiper for their
+commerce; the Nile and the Yellow rivers for their annual overflow, the
+former to give life and the latter to destroy; and the Euphrates and
+Tigress for the ruins of mighty cities of other days.</p>
+
+<p>But this chapter is a description of a river only a little more than two
+hundred miles in length, no scenery to speak of near it, never a great
+city on its banks, no sail or steamboat for commerce ever traveled upon
+its waters, no one scarcely ever cared whether it was within its banks
+or not, and not even any ruins worth while along its shores; and yet it
+is today and has been for centuries the most famous river on the face of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>It is the River Jordan, and a glimpse of it brings forth some of the
+most wonderful characteristics possessed by any river, as well as many
+historical events that make their memories dear to the hearts of men and
+women wherever civilization has found its way. Unlike all other rivers
+which rise in some elevated place and flow toward the sea level, nearly
+every mile of this river is below the surface of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>At the foot of Mount Herman in northern Palestine there is a spring of
+water that is almost ice cold. That spring is but a few hundred feet
+above sea level. The water from this spring is joined by that of several
+other springs and small rivulets<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> caused by the melting snows on the
+mountain, flows to the south a distance of a few miles, and forms a
+small lake which is about three miles wide and four miles long. This
+lake is just on a level with the Mediterranean Sea which is only about
+thirty miles to the west. This is spoken of in the Bible as "the waters
+of Merom." From the southern end of this lake the Jordan begins.</p>
+
+<p>The first ten and one-half miles the water falls six hundred and eighty
+feet to where it enters the Sea of Galilee. This pear-shaped body of
+water is a little more than a dozen miles long and half that wide and is
+surrounded by mountains. The river enters through a small canyon at the
+northwest and passes out through another canyon at the south end.
+Sometimes the wind will rush down the canyon at the northwest and in a
+few moments the waters of the lake are like a great whirlpool. These
+sudden storms often imperil any small boats which may be out on the sea
+as was the case in Bible times when the Master was sleeping and his
+disciples awakened him, saying: "Lord, save us; we perish."</p>
+
+<p>From this body of water to the point where the Jordan empties into the
+Dead Sea is only sixty-five miles by airline, but the way the river
+winds like a gigantic serpent, one would travel twice that distance were
+he to go in a boat. This Jordan valley is from four to fourteen miles
+wide and the mountains on each side rise to the height of from fifteen
+hundred to three thousand feet.</p>
+
+<p>Within this Jordan valley is what might be called an inner valley which
+is from a quarter of a mile to a mile wide, and from fifty to something
+like seventy-five feet deep. This might be called the river bottom and
+the river winds like a snake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> in this smaller valley. That boy was a
+wise lad who wrote a description of the Jordan as follows: "The Jordan
+is a river which runs straight down through the middle of Palestine, but
+if you look at it very closely, <i>it wriggles about</i>." When the river
+overflows it simply covers the bottom of this inner valley.</p>
+
+<p>As noted above, the Sea of Galilee is six hundred and eighty feet below
+the level of the ocean. During this sixty-five miles (airline) to the
+Dead Sea, it falls more than six hundred feet more, so that the Dead Sea
+itself is about thirteen hundred feet below the level of the
+Mediterranean Sea which is only forty miles west. Should a canal be cut
+across to the Mediterranean which would let the water through, not only
+would the Dead Sea and the River Jordan disappear, but the Sea of
+Galilee be included in a great inland sea east of Palestine.</p>
+
+<p>While the Jordan as well as other smaller streams flow continually into
+the Dead Sea, it is said that it never raises an inch. This, with the
+fact that this body of water has no outlet whatever, makes a problem to
+which geologists and scientific men have failed to give a satisfactory
+solution. Of course, the water evaporates very rapidly, but in the
+spring when the Jordan overflows and pours a much greater volume of
+water into it, how does it come that it evaporates so much faster than
+at any other time in the year?</p>
+
+<p>When the writer visited the Dead Sea the water was as smooth as glass.
+The water is so salty that a human body will not sink in it at all.
+Should the body go under it will bob up again like a cork. I have never
+learned to swim; in deep water simply cannot keep my feet up, but in the
+Dead Sea they could not be kept down, and of course I could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> swim like a
+duck. Nothing grows near this body of water. Everything about it is
+dead. Like some people, it is always receiving but never giving. At the
+mouth of the Jordan one can see dead fish floating on the water. When
+carried by the swift current into this salty water they soon die.</p>
+
+<p>The River Jordan runs very swiftly. It is about the size of the Des
+Moines river in northern Iowa, not nearly so large as this river in the
+southern part of the state. At the fords of the Jordan I waded out into
+the stream but the current was so swift that I did not attempt to go entirely across.</p>
+
+<p>Here at this ford occurred some of the greatest events of Bible history.
+On the plain just east of the river the Children of Israel were encamped
+when Moses went up on Mount Nebo, looked over the Promised Land, folded
+his arms and peacefully passed into the great beyond. It must have been
+an exciting day for the entire camp when they last saw their great
+leader become a mere speck on the mountain side and finally disappear
+altogether. They not only never saw him again but they never were able
+to find a trace of his body.</p>
+
+<p>There must have been much speculation among these people as to what
+became of Moses until in some miraculous way Joshua was informed that
+the great leader was dead and that he must now take charge and lead the
+people across the Jordan into the Promised Land. After thirty days
+mourning for Moses, the great company marched down to the river; it was
+opened for them and they crossed on dry ground. The record also states
+that this crossing was at the time when the river was out of its banks
+and this whole bottom, nearly a mile wide, was a rushing torrent.
+Perhaps this accounts for the fact that the enemies who had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> taken
+possession of the Promised Land were totally unprepared for their
+coming, feeling secure while the river was so high and dangerous.</p>
+
+<p>Another great event which occurred was when the old prophet Elijah and
+the young prophet Elisha crossed the river together and the young man
+came back alone later on for Elijah was taken up to heaven in a
+whirlwind. Now fifty young men had followed the two prophets to the
+river and when Elisha came back alone and told them how the chariot of
+fire came after Elijah they simply couldn't believe it and finally went
+across and searched the mountains for three days trying to find his
+body. Failing to find the body, together with the fact that they had
+witnessed the parting of the waters when the two men went over and the
+same when Elisha came back alone, was sufficient evidence to them that
+the young prophet had told the truth.</p>
+
+<p>Evidently this event created a great impression all over the country and
+young men came to the school for the prophets which was located near,
+that the buildings had to be enlarged. Every student borrowed an ax and
+went to work felling trees along the river bank. In one case the ax flew
+off the handle and went into the water. The young man was greatly
+troubled about this for it was a borrowed one. Word reached the prophet
+Elisha and he came out and caused the ax to come to the surface.</p>
+
+<p>But perhaps the greatest of all events that occurred at this place was
+the baptism of Christ. John the Baptist must have been the Billy Sunday
+of his day for the crowds that came to hear him were immense. One day
+among others who came was a fine looking young man who asked for
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>baptism. But the preacher knew him and refused, saying that he was
+unworthy to do this, but the young man, who was no other than the Master
+himself, explained the situation and the preacher hesitated no longer.</p>
+
+<p>In connection with the River Jordan and the bodies of water at each end,
+it is interesting to note that the first man to take the level and give
+to the world the remarkable facts about the physical characteristics of
+this wonderful and world-famous river, was an American. His name was
+Lynch and he was a lieutenant in the American Navy. At the close of the
+Mexican War, our Government permitted Lieutenant Lynch to take ten
+seamen and two small boats and make this exploration. The boats were
+taken overland to the Sea of Galilee and launched and this man and his
+helpers went down the river to the Dead Sea in them, and thus gave to
+the world the remarkable facts about this wonderful country.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Playground of Moses&mdash;Egypt</span></h3>
+
+<p>Next to Palestine, Egypt is perhaps the most interesting country on the
+globe to visit. For great antiquity and splendor no land surpasses this
+cradle of civilization. The science, art and architecture of the
+Egyptians is the marvel of leading men even to this day. The schools of
+Egypt produced the greatest characters of all ages before the coming of
+Christ. The wisdom of this ancient race as well as some of the
+engineering feats command the respect of these modern days.</p>
+
+<p>Take a map of Texas and California together, place a map of modern Egypt
+upon it and you will have enough left to make West Virginia. Ancient
+Egypt was only about one-fourth as large as modern Egypt. The greater
+portion of the land always has been and is today a desert. The thirteen
+million people practically live on the narrow valley of the Nile in a
+strip of territory from five to fifteen miles wide except down near the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from Cairo is a place called Fayoum. The name means "A Thousand
+Days." A missionary told me how it got this name. When Joseph was an old
+man some of the younger officers wanted him deposed and they said that
+he was no longer fit to be at the head of affairs. They said that near
+the city was a great swamp and if he were capable he would have drained
+this land. They, of course, did not think this was possible, hence the suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>Putting their heads together they went to the old councillor and
+persuaded him to put the impossible task up to Joseph believing that his
+failure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> would be so ignominious that he would be deposed. At once
+Joseph called Egypt's greatest civil engineers, outlined his plan, took
+hundreds of laborers, went to work and in sixty days the swamp was
+completely drained. When the old adviser was taken out to see how well
+the work was done, he was so amazed that he exclaimed: "That would have
+been a mighty work for a thousand days," and it is called Fayoum to this
+day. Today the gardens and orchards of Fayoum are among the finest and
+most productive in all Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>No one can go over this land without walking in the footsteps of Moses,
+for Egypt was his playground. Of course I was shown the exact (?) spot
+where the little ark was found among the bullrushes in the River Nile.
+When Pharoah's daughter saw the little child she was touched and thus
+the destiny of a nation hung on the cry of a little child. Miriam, the
+sister of Moses appeared just in the nick of time and when the princess
+told her to call one of the Hebrew women her feet hardly touched the
+ground in her effort to get her mother to the spot. When the little
+hands were held out toward the joyous mother she was told to take the
+child and nurse him and thus she was paid wages for bringing up her own
+child upon whom the sentence of death had been pronounced.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from the spot mentioned above is the famous Nilometer that Moses
+looked upon many a time. As I went down the steps to get a nearer view
+of this measuring apparatus a panorama of the old days seemed to come
+before my eyes. The very life of the people depended upon the overflow
+of the Nile. June 17th was one of the great days for on that day almost
+as regular as the sunrise the upper Nile began to rise. A few days later
+an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> anxious crowd gathered to see the water mark on the Nilometer begin
+to come up. About July third the criers started on their daily rounds
+through the city announcing the measurement. If it was up to normal the
+people were happy and if not they were sad. When the rise was about
+twenty feet the "Completion" or "Abundance of the Nile" was announced
+and preparation was made for the opening of the canal which time was a
+regular jubilee among the people.</p>
+
+<p>All night long before this ceremony rockets were fired at intervals and
+in the morning at the appointed time the governor and those with him
+"cut the dam" and the inundation started. For more than a month the
+canals were full, and the fields were flooded and a thin coat of fine
+pulverized soil was spread over the ground like a carpet and when seed
+was placed in the ground it grew like in a hothouse. At Cairo the Nile
+would often rise twenty-five feet.</p>
+
+<p>During these days a great deal of irrigating is done all through the
+season. In some places ponderous machinery is used but to this day a
+large portion of work is done by hand. One of the most common sights
+along the Nile is the shadoof. This is a long pole with a weight on one
+end and a bucket on the other. Hour after hour half dressed men and
+women will dip up water and pour it into irrigation ditches. Great
+wooden waterwheels are also used and an ox or donkey or man or woman or
+a blinded camel will go round and round and you can hear this wooden
+wheel squeak for a mile. The little buckets on the waterwheel keep an
+almost endless stream flowing into the irrigation ditch.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p><p>Another method is a sort of a paddle wheel on a windlass upon which a
+native will walk hour after hour. This turns a kind of an endless chain
+something like the old-fashioned cistern pump with which we are all
+familiar. In Egypt nearly everything is done by hand as man power is
+cheaper than machinery. I saw them grading a railroad with wheelbarrows,
+not even a cart or a donkey on the job. The great bridge across the Nile
+used to be opened by hand and boats pulled through by hand. It was a
+most interesting sight to the writer for a hundred or more men to get
+hold of a large rope and begin to heave-to. Soon the boat would begin to move slowly.</p>
+
+<p>As a rule people in Egypt are very poor. The plague of flies has not yet
+ceased in Egypt. Children are dirty and often diseased and the streets
+of the old portion of the city of Cairo literally swarm with them. While
+the people generally look quite hearty and well fed, yet beggars are
+everywhere. "Backsheesh" is about the first word the little child learns
+to speak and the last word an old beggar lisps before he dies. From noon
+until two-thirty or three o'clock shops are closed and thousands of
+people drop down where they are and go to sleep. Riding through old
+Cairo at this time of day my donkey had to pick his way, often stepping
+over people who were sound asleep.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the customs of Egyptians always have been different from those
+of other nations. Here women seldom pray to any god but men pray to all
+of them. Women carry burdens on their shoulders while men carry them on
+their heads. Women buy and sell in the market while their men sit at
+home and spin. The daughter instead of the son is supposed to care for
+the old folks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> when they become feeble and helpless. In kneading dough
+they use their feet while in handling mud they use their hands. Other
+peoples consider themselves above the beasts but the Egyptians made gods
+of the beasts and worshipped them. When an ancient enemy attacked Egypt,
+dogs, cats, and other beasts were driven at the head of the army and the
+Egyptians would surrender rather than run the risk of killing their sacred animals.</p>
+
+<p>The people in Egyptian cities do not eat their evening meal until from
+eight to ten at night. The restaurants have their tables in the streets
+and the people eat and shop at the same time. Watching the people at a
+large restaurant in Cairo, one night, I wrote down a list of the
+articles offered for sale while they were eating their evening meal.
+Here is the list: Alarm clocks, nuts, bread, lead pencils, fish, knives,
+cards, live chickens, cigars, cigarettes, cakes, eggs, mutton, matches,
+melons, watches, flowers, rugs, fancy boxes, stands, socks, perfumes,
+balloons, fruits of all kinds, slippers, canes, neckties, whips and guns.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to these venders, blind beggars and cripples, traveling
+musicians, gamblers with all kinds of devices, fortune tellers with
+wheels of fortune and many others were among the people all the time.
+After eating, many of the people drink wine and play cards until the
+early morning. All this time nearly everybody was talking at once and it
+was a regular circus to watch them. Several times hot words were passed
+but as a rule the people were in good humor and seemed to be having a good time.</p>
+
+<p>One of the much used and often abused beasts in Egypt is the camel.
+Riding a camel for the first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> time is quite an experience. The beast
+will lie down, but it is continually snarling and when it gets up you go
+through all kinds of motions. As I rode around the great pyramid and
+sphinx on one of these beasts the swing was not unlike that of a great
+rocking chair and while this ship of the desert did not seem to be going
+fast I noticed that the driver was running and the donkey alongside was
+on the gallop most of the time.</p>
+
+<p>At the time I was in Egypt one could purchase a fairly good camel for a
+little less than one hundred dollars. These beasts can live on next to
+nothing. They will strip a shrub of leaves and stems. A camel can eat
+and drink enough at one time to last it a week or ten days. The natives
+say that it lives on the fat of its hump. When a camel is weary from a
+long march across the desert the hump almost disappears and then as it
+eats its fill the hump becomes strong and hard again. It will carry a
+burden of from five to six hundred pounds.</p>
+
+<p>The city of Cairo is full of interesting sights. The streets of the
+better portion of the city are well paved and the buildings substantial
+and several stories high. The streets are sprinkled by hand. These men
+carry a skin of water&mdash;often half a barrel&mdash;and by means of a nozzle
+they throw it everywhere. There are many beautiful parks and drives in
+and about the city. The wonderful palms and other trees furnish shade
+and although the sun shines very hot it is quite cool under these trees.</p>
+
+<p>Runners go ahead of carriages containing prominent persons telling
+people to get out of the way for so and so is coming. Many people stop
+and look as they go by. An interesting sight was a wedding procession.
+It was headed by a band and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> an enclosed carriage with a black cloth
+over it contained the bride while the groom walked alongside holding on
+to the carriage. Following along behind on foot were the relatives and
+the rabble of the streets. My guide explained that when a wedding takes
+place a cloth is hung from the window and kept there for three days so
+one can go through the city and pick out the homes where they have had a
+wedding within that time.</p>
+
+<p>One of the lost arts is the Egyptian method of embalming the bodies of
+the dead. It seems that they believed that the spirit will return to the
+body in the course of time and they undertook to preserve the body as
+near perfect as possible until that time arrived. There are multiplied
+thousands of these mummies in Egypt. In the great museum in Cairo the
+mummy of the Pharoah who made the burdens of the enslaved Hebrews
+heavier can be seen today. Little did he think that in thousands of
+years the descendants of these people would spit in the face of his
+mummy, but they often do that very thing.</p>
+
+<p>In the old days it is said that they used to license robbery and govern
+it by law. The spoil was taken to the robber chief and the victim could
+go and claim his property and by paying a certain per cent of its value
+recover the property, after which the man who did the stealing could
+secure from the chief his portion of the proceeds. We laugh at this but
+how much worse is it than some of the things we license today?</p>
+
+<p>I had a most pleasant visit in the home of Dr. Ewing, a United
+Presbyterian missionary. The United Presbyterian people have done and
+are doing a most remarkable work in Egypt. A visit to their mission in
+Cairo was wonderfully <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>interesting to say the least. I was presented
+with some coins there, the smallest of which was worth, at that time,
+one-sixteenth of a penny, but the missionaries assured me that those
+coins were seldom used except in church collections.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A Country With a Thousand Rivers&mdash;Venezuela</span></h3>
+
+<p>Years ago two miners worked together for months and finally came to know
+each other as Tom and Jack. One day Tom was not well and could not do
+much but watch Jack dig. After noting some movements of the body that
+seemed familiar he said: "Jack, where did you come from?" The two men
+sat down and talked of boyhood days and found that they were born in the
+same community and had played together when they were small boys. Here
+they had worked together for months without knowing that they were
+neighbors; they actually got up and shook hands with each other.</p>
+
+<p>Venezuela is our nearest neighbor to the south. This country is nearer
+to Florida than New Orleans is to New York and yet we have lived side by
+side for four hundred years and hardly knew we were neighbors. We might
+have been friends and greatly assisted each other all these years. Is it
+not about time we were getting acquainted and shaking hands with each other?</p>
+
+<p>It is surprising to know that Venezuela is as large as Maine, New
+Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York,
+Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, the two Virginias, North and South
+Carolina and Georgia combined. It is a country that has a thousand
+rivers. In some parts of it you can travel for days in regions where as
+yet no white man has ever set his foot. One writer says that of all the
+countries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> in the world Venezuela is the one for which God has done the
+most and man has done the least.</p>
+
+<p>This great country has been called the hunting ground of South America.
+This is not so much because of the abundance of game, although all kinds
+of wild animals are plentiful; it has been given this appellation
+because of its unstable government. Its treasury has been looted again
+and again. Even the president of Venezuela was for years a criminal. He
+robbed merchants of other countries who tried to do business with his
+government. He imprisoned those who refused to assist him and ran things
+in a high-handed way. Business firms of other lands found this out and
+did not care to do business with such a country or help develop its
+resources in any way.</p>
+
+<p>We are not ashamed of our revolution in 1776 for its purpose was to gain
+our independence. During the past seventy or eighty years Venezuela has
+had more than a half hundred revolutions but generally they were gotten
+up to give an excuse for pillage and robbery rather than to make a
+better country or government. Things are better now, however, and a new
+day is dawning for these unhappy people.</p>
+
+<p>The main port or entrance to this country is La Guaira and sailors say
+it is about the worst port to enter in the world. This port city
+contains about fifteen thousand people and has but a single street. The
+high mountains are so near the sea that there is only a narrow strip of
+land at the foot and on this narrow strip the city is built. The sea is
+nearly always rough and the weather always hot. How people can endure
+such extreme heat all the time is a mystery.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p><p>All along this coast strip of Venezuela are plantations generally
+covered with cocoa trees. From the beans of this tree are made cocoa and
+chocolate. Coffee is also a staple crop. At the piers will be noticed
+bags of coffee and cocoa beans, great quantities of rubber and piles of
+hides. As we are nearer to them than other foreign countries we now use
+much of their products. The population of this great country is only a
+little more than that of the state of Iowa.</p>
+
+<p>Back only six or eight miles, in a direct line, from La Guaira and the
+blue waters of the Caribbean sea, high up in the mountains is a great
+valley in which is located the capital city of Venezuela. This city,
+Caracas, is about as large as Sioux City, Iowa, but to get to it is some
+job. It is only about twenty-five miles by rail and this railroad was
+about as difficult to build as any of our mountain railroads. The tracks
+cling to the mountain sides almost like vines cling to brick walls, and
+the curves are so short that one riding in the end coach can nearly
+reach the engineer. One can look hundreds of feet into caverns and
+gorges that seem almost like the bottomless pit.</p>
+
+<p>Venezuela got its name from Venice, Italy, in the following way. One of
+the earliest explorers sailing along the coast saw the Indian villages
+built on piles in the water along the shore and was reminded of the
+Italian city and called the country Venezuela, which means "little Venice."</p>
+
+<p>Here lived Las Casas, a priest who was the Indian's greatest champion in
+the early days and who is said to be the father of African Slavery in
+the new world. It was he who suggested that negroes be imported to labor
+in the fields and mines that the Indians might have an easier time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+Brought from Africa to work that the Indians might rest, these black
+people became the slaves of all.</p>
+
+<p>Venezuela was the birthplace of the great Simon Bolivar and other
+patriots who were fired with enthusiasm against Spanish oppression and
+literally gave their lives that the colonies might be free. Even the
+coins of the old days were stamped with Bolivar's name and everywhere he
+is revered as the George Washington of that country.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the large museums is a room in which are kept the great
+liberator's clothing, saddle, boots and spears and these things are as
+sacred to them as the Ark of the Covenant was to the Jews. In this same
+room is a portrait of Washington upon which is the inscription: "This
+picture of the liberator of North America is sent by his adopted son to
+him who acquired equal glory in South America."</p>
+
+<p>Through this country runs one of the world's greatest rivers, the
+Orinoco, which with its tributaries furnishes more than four thousand
+miles of navigable rivers. This great river system drains a territory of
+three hundred and sixty thousand square miles.</p>
+
+<p>It is rather strange that in this country with lovely and productive
+valleys whose irrigated orchards and gardens make a regular paradise,
+that the farming classes should be poor and ignorant, without ambition
+or education and be satisfied to live in comfortless, tumble-down huts
+without furniture or any of the improvements that make life worth
+living. But such is the case. Here where there are millions of coffee
+trees, fields of sugar cane and orchards of oranges, lemons and all
+kinds of tropical fruit, where the farmer could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> be happiest, he is
+about the most miserable creature that could be found. In his miserable
+home he has no lamp or candle, no books or papers of any sort.</p>
+
+<p>While Venezuela is rich in mines and forests, grain and livestock,
+coffee and rubber, dyes and medicines, gold and copper, lead and coal,
+to say nothing of tropical fruits and vegetables, she has another
+product that makes her known the world around. This is asphalt, or
+mineral pitch as it is sometimes called. This makes the smoothest street
+paving of any material known. It is also used extensively for calking
+vessels, making waterproof roofs, lining cold storage plants, making
+varnishes as well as shoe blacking as well as in a hundred other ways.</p>
+
+<p>At the mouth of the Orinoco river is the Island of Trinidad upon which
+is the famous pitch lake. This is the most noted deposit of asphalt
+known. This lake is a mile and a half across and looks, from a distance,
+like a pond surrounded with trees. Nearing it, however, one soon
+discovers that it contains anything but water.</p>
+
+<p>This material is of a dark green color and at the border is hard and
+strong enough to bear quite a heavy weight, but near the center it is
+almost like a boiling mass. The asphalt is dug from the edges of the
+lake, loaded on carts, hauled to the port and from there shipped to
+nearly every country on the globe. Two hundred thousand tons per year
+have been taken from the lake and yet there is no hole to be seen. Negro
+workmen dig it to the depth of a couple of feet and in a week or so the
+hole is level with the top again.</p>
+
+<p>The government of Trinidad has leased the asphalt lake to an American
+company and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>income amounts to nearly a quarter of a million dollars
+per year. Nobody knows how deep the asphalt bed is for borings have been
+made a hundred feet or more deep and there was no bottom. The heat is
+intense all around this lake.</p>
+
+<p>About fifty miles from the coast in Venezuela there is another asphalt
+lake and the material in it is of finer quality than at Trinidad, but it
+is hard to reach. Some believe that the two deposits are connected by a
+subterranean passage and supplied from the same source. It was from this
+inland lake of asphalt that the material was procured to protect the New
+York subway tunnels from moisture, so it is said.</p>
+
+<p>In the central part of Venezuela are the llanos which are said to be
+about the best pasture lands in the world. The chief industry here is
+cattle raising. More than two million head of cattle feed, upon these
+llanos, but they are capable of feeding many times that number.</p>
+
+<p>One reason why the people of this country have no ambition to lay up for
+the future or even get large herds of cattle has been because of the
+numerous revolutions of the past. Every time they have succeeded in
+getting large herds of cattle or stores of grain a revolution would come
+and their property be seized and often destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>No people can be prosperous and happy without a stable government,
+schools and colleges and the influences that are uplifting. This is the
+great need of many of the countries of South America today. Just here it
+is well for the farmers of this country to congratulate themselves. The
+writer of these lines has traveled nearly all over the world and having
+been a farmer all his early life it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> only natural that he would try
+to study the problems of the farmers in all lands.</p>
+
+<p>It is therefore with pride that one can say that considering all the
+complex problems with which the American farmer has to grapple, he is a
+hundred times better off than his brother farmers in any country in the
+world. He is more independent, has more privileges, more opportunities
+for making the most of life, has higher ideals, and lives better than
+the tillers of the soil in any other country on earth.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A Land of Great Industries&mdash;Brazil</span></h3>
+
+<p>You could take a map of the whole United States, lay it down on Brazil
+and still have room for England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Denmark and
+Switzerland left. Walk around Brazil and you have traveled a distance
+equal to two-thirds of a journey around the globe. If every man, woman
+and child in the United States were placed in Matto Grasso, the state in
+Brazil where Roosevelt discovered the "River of Doubt," in 1914, that
+state would not have as many people to the square mile as England has at
+this moment. If all the people on earth were placed in Brazil the
+population of that country would not be as dense as that of Belgium today.</p>
+
+<p>Brazil could produce enough rubber to supply the whole world with
+automobile tires for generations and never have to plant another rubber
+tree to do it, that is, of course, if all her rubber forests could be
+utilized. From a single Brazilian port is shipped one-fourth of all the
+coffee used in the whole world. In a single Brazilian state there are
+ten thousand coffee plantations that have more than fifty thousand trees
+each and six hundred of them have more than one hundred thousand trees each.</p>
+
+<p>Brazil might be called the "jewel box" of the world. Her diamond fields
+rival those of South Africa. Her mines produced a single stone that sold
+for fifteen million dollars. One writer says: "Of all the fabulous tales
+related of bonanza princes the palm for extravagance belongs to the
+early mining days of Brazil, when horses were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> shod with gold, when
+lawyers supported their pleadings before judges with gifts of what
+appeared at first sight to be oranges and bananas, but proved to be
+solid gold imitations, when guests were entertained at dinner with
+pebbles of gold in their soup and when nuggets were the most convenient
+medium of exchange in the money market."</p>
+
+<p>Would you like to go nutting? Brazil has the greatest groves on earth.
+Some of these nut trees grow to a height of a hundred and fifty feet and
+have a girth of twenty feet, fifty feet up from the ground. A single
+tree is said to produce as many as three tons of nuts during a season.
+In the trees of Brazil are found sixteen hundred species of birds. There
+are parrots galore and sixty-five varieties of woodpeckers have been
+catalogued. One family of birds in Brazil are said to be devout
+Christians as they never work but six days in the week.</p>
+
+<p>One would naturally suppose that in Brazil the weather would be
+extremely hot as the equator runs across the great Amazon valley. But
+the nights are cool and sunstroke is unknown. Frost can be seen in the
+highlands at certain times in the year. While fevers rage in parts of
+the land, yet most of the country is conducive to good health. The very
+dangerous parts of the Amazon valley are limited to certain parts of the country.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago at a contest in Paris between twelve hundred children the
+first prize for healthy appearance was given to a boy born in Manaos of
+Amazonian parents. This city is in the very heart of the jungle in the
+Amazon valley. There is one authenticated case of a man in this valley
+who lived to be one hundred and forty-five years old.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p><p>In the dense forests of the uplands of Brazil there are people who are
+living in the stone age of culture. They are practically wild tribes who
+know nothing about the use of metal, in fact, they know but little about
+civilization. They are said to be ignorant of common food such as
+bananas and rice. They seem to have no idea of a supreme being, believe
+in a soul that goes wandering about after death.</p>
+
+<p>In some parts of Brazil rice is cultivated quite extensively and it
+makes a cheap food. It is said that in one place a man from Louisiana is
+running an experimental rice farm showing the Brazilian farmers how to
+cultivate Japanese rice. Rather strange, isn't it, that United States
+farmers should be teaching the Brazilian farmers Japanese agriculture?</p>
+
+<p>A peculiar thing about the land of Brazil is the absence of earth worms.
+In our country these worms improve the physical condition of the soil
+but there this lack is made up by the multiplied millions of ants that
+burrow down deep into the earth. In our country, too, the chemical
+changes of winter help prepare the soil for the coming crops, but in
+Brazil there is no winter season when the land "sleeps" and it does not
+seem to be necessary.</p>
+
+<p>While in the great rubber industry of Brazil the trees grow and produce
+with but little if any cultivation, this is not true of the coffee
+trees. They have to be cultivated and carefully looked after. Insect
+pests that are so destructive to coffee trees in many countries, are
+almost absent in Brazil and this fact has not a little to do with making
+this the greatest coffee country in the world. In the state<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> of Sao
+Paulo almost the entire energies of the people are absorbed in the coffee industry.</p>
+
+<p>This state is a little larger than Colorado and is the most powerful
+state of the twenty that make up the United States of Brazil. The name
+of the capital is the same as that of the state and the city of Sao
+Paulo is about as large as Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is noted for its
+beauty and industry. The climate is delightful, always cool, but never
+freezing cold. With more than one hundred elementary schools besides
+numerous high schools and colleges it is perhaps the greatest
+educational center of the country. Near this city is the largest coffee
+plantation in the world. It contains something like eight million trees
+and takes about eight thousand people to run it. This one plantation
+produces twenty million pounds of coffee annually and there are thirty
+railroad stations upon it.</p>
+
+<p>A well kept coffee tree is about twelve feet high when full grown. The
+leaves are a shiny green, a little like holly. The trees bloom in
+September and fill the air with fragrance. As the white blossoms fade
+the berries begin to form. May is the harvest time. Harvest hands come
+in large numbers as they do in Kansas or the Dakotas during the wheat
+harvest. Workmen are paid according to the amount they gather and some
+of them gather fifty pounds a day.</p>
+
+<p>The coffee berries are first stripped from the tree then raked and piled
+into baskets. Next they are run through a machine that takes the bean
+out of the covering, then into tanks of water where they are thoroughly
+washed and then comes the drying process. It used to take weeks to get
+the coffee beans well dried and men had to watch and keep stirring the
+piles continually, but quite <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>recently a new process was discovered by
+which they are dried by steam.</p>
+
+<p>After the coffee beans are thoroughly dried they are run through rollers
+that break the skin covering and great ventilators blow the chaff away.
+Then the beans are poured into a gigantic sieve with different sized
+holes which are chutes in reality and from which endless streams of
+coffee graded according to size run into a large room. At each stream
+stand women who pick out imperfect or damaged grains. The coffee is then
+sacked and is ready for shipment. The ordinary bag of coffee weighs
+about one hundred and twenty pounds. Santo is the great coffee port and
+here can be seen ships from every civilized land taking on cargoes of
+coffee. If it is well kept coffee gets better with age, so it can be
+piled in great warehouses for months or even years and not deteriorate.
+Nearly a dozen million bags of coffee are shipped from Santo annually
+and as we are the greatest coffee drinkers in the world about half of
+the entire crop comes to us.</p>
+
+<p>Formerly many of the coffee plantations were worked by slaves. Negroes
+were brought from South Africa, as they were brought to work in the
+cotton fields in the south in anti-slavery days. In the year 1888 Brazil
+freed her slaves and the sudden freeing of a half million slaves almost
+demoralized the coffee and sugar industries of the country. Many of
+these negroes thought that freedom meant that they would never have to
+work any more and they became loafers and often criminals. Of course
+thousands of them drifted to the great centers of population and Brazil
+has had and is still having her share of race troubles.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p><p>Many of the workers on the coffee plantations at present are Italians.
+They come in large numbers to work on these estates. Each family is
+given a certain number of trees to look after; sometimes a single family
+will take care of several thousand trees. They have to do a lot of
+hoeing and weeding. The soil is almost red and these workmen take on
+largely the color of the soil as their faces and clothes are stained
+with red dust and water. Families are furnished houses to live in and
+they live their own lives as if they were in their home country.</p>
+
+<p>After coffee and rubber comes sugar. For many years Brazil furnished
+more sugar than any other country; now there are a half dozen countries
+ahead of her in the production of sugar. This is largely accounted for,
+not so much because of inability to produce, as because of the
+antiquated methods in use. There are places in the country where it is
+said that the same variety of sugar has been grown for two hundred years
+and that without any attempt on the part of the planters to restore the soil.</p>
+
+<p>One of the first things ever exported from Brazil was tobacco. This weed
+has been grown there ever since the country was discovered. Modern
+methods of culture are now being used so more of it will be produced
+than ever. They say, too, that Brazil produces as fine a quality of
+tobacco as Cuba. Cotton is also produced in large quantities.</p>
+
+<p>The Brazilians are an interesting people. I like them. They are always
+courteous and polite. Men often tip their hats to each other and kiss
+each other's hands. In Rio de Janeiro nearly everyone is well dressed.
+The women are good looking.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> The Brazil people are more friendly than
+any other South American people. The language, except among the Italians
+and other foreigners, is largely Portuguese while in practically all
+other South American countries the people speak Spanish.</p>
+
+<p>Although Brazil has millions of acres of the best timber in the world I
+never saw a wooden building in their great capital city. In Rio, nearly
+every automobile factory in the United States is represented. In this
+land of rubber they have no manufacturing plants to utilize it. Wages
+for common laborers are low and yet the people only work part of the
+time. In coaling a ship the men will work like beavers for a couple of
+hours and then sit down and smoke and talk as long and no urging them to
+work seems to do any good. One can make a living there with half the
+work it takes here and that is all they care for.</p>
+
+<p>The Brazilians have some odd customs. People always carry their burdens
+on their heads. Baskets as large as barrels are carried in this way
+without a bit of trouble. They say that four men will carry a heavy
+piano on their heads but I never saw them moving one. On almost every
+street there are venders of sweetmeats, vegetables, brooms, baskets and
+furniture. I saw one vender with two dozen brooms, a dozen mops, two
+chairs, and a lot of other truck on his head. He had the chairs hooked
+on the brooms, baskets on the chairs and a lot of other stuff piled up
+so that he looked like a moving express wagon.</p>
+
+<p>Streets in Brazilian cities are often named for days or months. I
+noticed one of the prominent streets in Rio named "13th of September,"
+another "15th of November." Rio de Janeiro means<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> "River of January." I
+never saw a chimney in the city, yet the streets and many of the houses
+are washed every night. Everything is shining. They seem to have a
+wonderful appreciation of beauty and never in any other city in the
+world have I seen more beautiful or artistic shop windows.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody seemed to be in a good humor. Policemen are small of stature,
+but they direct the street traffic in a most wonderful way. Everybody
+smiles and there is no loud talking, or drunkenness. The national drink
+is coffee and there are coffee shops with tables and cups everywhere.
+Men often drink a cup or two of coffee a dozen times a day. There are
+hundreds of coffee shops in Rio. Of course, liquor is sold in many
+places, but it is mostly drunk by foreigners. I never saw a Brazilian
+drinking liquor in their capital city.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Uruguay and Paraguay</span></h3>
+
+<p>Uruguay is the smallest of the South American republics. It is just a
+little larger than the state of Oklahoma. It is a little wedge between
+Brazil and Argentina and is, all in all, the most advanced country in
+South America. At the time of the visit of the writer it was the only
+country in South America whose dollar was worth a hundred cents. The
+population is about a million and a quarter&mdash;eighteen to the square
+mile. The principal industry is stock raising. The country has something
+like nine million head of cattle and fifteen million head of sheep. The
+meat packing business is enormous for such a small country.</p>
+
+<p>Fray Bentos, a town near Montevideo, boasts of the largest establishment
+in the world for the preparation of beef extract. The tall chimneys of
+this great factory make it look like a large city. The employees number
+thousands. They are well cared for and contented. There are no strikes
+there. They are well paid while able to work and pensioned when they reach old age.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, the Leibig company, has given all South America an example of the
+better way to treat men and women who toil. Schools are provided for the
+children. The religious nature is looked after, the company furnishing a
+church building. The company also provides hospitals for the sick. The
+cottages of the working people are supplied with electricity and are quite comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>This company has its own gas and water systems. In the great slaughter
+house many hundred head of cattle are killed each day. It only takes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+eight minutes from the time an animal is killed until it is in the
+refrigerating rooms ready to be made into beef extract. Every drop of
+blood is saved in this factory, being dried and made into chicken feed
+or something else that is useful. Chicago, however, goes Fray Bentos one
+better for there you know the squeal is caught by the phonograph and the
+records sold for grand opera.</p>
+
+<p>This establishment is not the only one of its kind in Uruguay. There are
+many other great plants where meat is chilled or frozen in the most
+modern, up-to-date way. In no country in the world is meat more
+carefully or scientifically cared for than in these great establishments
+and no one need be afraid to eat the meat that comes from Uruguay. The
+inspection is said to be the most rigid of any packing plants in the world.</p>
+
+<p>The Uruguayan boasts that every acre of ground in his country is
+productive. The grass is green the year around and stock does not have
+to be housed and fed in winter as in our country. All the grains and
+vegetables that will grow in our middle west will grow in Uruguay and
+there the farmers never have such a thing as a killing frost.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest city in Uruguay is Montevideo, the capital city. It is
+located on the Rio de la Plata river, which really seems more like a sea
+than a river, being sixty-two miles wide at this place. Buenos Aires is
+but a hundred and ten miles away and to reach it you just go angling
+across this great river. Montevideo is larger than Kansas City,
+Missouri. It has many splendid buildings, but no skyscrapers. The parks
+or plazas as they are called, are as pretty as nature and the hands of man can make them.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p><p>These people claim that Montevideo is the most healthful city on the
+globe, but the traveler often finds the same claim made for other
+cities. Most of the streets are narrow but are well paved and generally
+quite clean. Their street car system is certainly a good one. When the
+street is wide enough for a double track the tracks are laid close to
+the sidewalks which leaves the center of the street free for autos and
+other vehicles. This plan could certainly be adopted by the cities in
+our country and be a blessing. I had no idea that any city contained so
+many beautiful homes and flower gardens until I took a ride into the
+suburbs of this city. Almost every home, or villa, has a rose garden and
+there must be many wealthy people for it takes a tremendous amount of
+labor to keep these wonderful flower gardens in such good order.</p>
+
+<p>The people of Uruguay as a whole are better educated and brighter
+looking than the people of most other South American countries. Their
+schools and colleges are said to be the very best. The people, as a
+rule, dress well and seem to be prosperous and happy. A ramble through
+the streets and plazas lingers in one's memory like a pleasant dream.</p>
+
+<p>Away to the north in the very heart of the south central part of the
+continent is the country of Paraguay. While nearly twice as large as
+Uruguay it has but few more than half as many people and a majority of
+them are women. This ought to be called a bachelor's paradise.</p>
+
+<p>Paraguay came to be a woman's country in the following manner. Years ago
+Paraguay got into trouble with Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, all her
+neighbors, at the same time. These countries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> combined their forces and
+all but annihilated the Paraguayan army. As all the able bodied men were
+in the army they were nearly all killed. It used to be said that there
+were five women to every man in Paraguay and from all reports conditions
+have not greatly changed yet. It is almost dangerous for an unmarried
+man to show his head.</p>
+
+<p>The country is naturally divided into two parts, eastern and western.
+The most of the people live in the eastern part for the western part is
+flat and the rivers overflow, covering a great portion of the country.
+No wonder that great swarms of ferocious mosquitoes make parts of the
+country almost uninhabitable, fever-infested and unhealthy. Besides
+these unpleasant features the heat is often almost unbearable.</p>
+
+<p>The summer in Paraguay lasts from October to March and the winter from
+April to September, July and August being the coldest months. The Parana
+river takes to the sea a greater volume of water than our great
+Mississippi. Near the place where the Iguassu river empties into the
+Parana are the famous Iguassu Falls which are twice as wide and fifty
+feet higher than Niagara Falls.</p>
+
+<p>In the eastern part of Paraguay are great orange groves and all kinds of
+tropical fruits. The oranges are delicious and are so plentiful that
+they are fed to the pigs. As many as thirty are sometimes sold for a
+penny. Wheat and corn are grown and tobacco and cotton plantations are numerous.</p>
+
+<p>They say that in Paraguay a great many of the women smoke, but I imagine
+that this is greatly exaggerated. The same has been said of other South
+American countries but after traveling more than twelve thousand miles
+in and around this country I here record the fact that in not more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> than
+a case or two did I see a woman smoking. My traveling company only saw
+two or three cases so we are forced to think that many talk who do not
+know. For if any large number, as is often reported, used the weed in
+this way we would have discovered it.</p>
+
+<p>There is a very valuable tree that grows in Paraguay that is not often
+found in other countries. It is called the quebracho tree. The name
+really means "ax-breaker," and the wood is almost as hard as iron. A
+quebracho log will not float upon water, but will sink like iron. This
+wood makes the most valuable railroad ties known.</p>
+
+<p>But a certain variety of the quebracho tree is much more valuable for
+another purpose, viz: the tanning of leather. For ages the world's great
+tanneries used the bark of oak, hemlock and other trees for that
+purpose. But it was discovered that not only the bark of this tree but
+the wood itself makes better tanning extract than any other bark or tree known.</p>
+
+<p>In the heart of the continent there is a vast plain that takes in not
+only western Paraguay but reaches into Brazil and Bolivia on the north
+and Argentina on the south. This is called the Gran Chaco and it is
+nearly as large as the state of Texas. Most of this region is as yet
+unexplored. In parts of it are tribes of wild Indians as well as wild
+and ferocious beasts, alligators and snakes that are usually found in
+tropical jungles. In other parts are grassy plains suitable for cattle
+and other livestock. Already there are many ranches here, one of the
+largest of which is run by a stockman from the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Here in this far away and unknown country are millions of acres of
+quebracho forests in which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> this tanning extract is already being made.
+Thousands of men are employed in the forest to cut the trees and others
+with oxen haul them to the factories where hundreds of expert workmen
+are making this extract and shipping it to all parts of the world. It is
+said that a single one of these companies owns two million acres of this
+forest land. More than ten thousand men are employed by this one firm,
+so it is said, and as might be expected it is a United States company.</p>
+
+<p>But perhaps the greatest industry in Paraguay is the tea called by the
+name of the country. In their country they call it "mate." It is much
+more valuable than ordinary tea. It is a stimulant that leaves no bad
+effect and is said to be more healthful than the tea we use. People who
+have a good supply of this tea can work harder and with less fatigue
+than by using any other stimulant known.</p>
+
+<p>The plant or tree from which this "mate" is secured often grows as large
+as an orange tree and the leaves are green and shiny. There are
+thousands of acres of this growing wild and the product made from that
+in the wild state is as good as any. Thousands of Indians, as well as
+white people, are engaged in the harvesting and shipping of this tea.</p>
+
+<p>The largest city in Paraguay is Asuncion, the capital city. It is nearly
+as large as Des Moines, Iowa, and a portion of it is simply the ruins of
+the ancient city that was ruled by tyrants. One can see the massive
+uncompleted tomb where the last of these rulers expected to be buried.
+The two million dollar palace in which he lived in luxury and
+unspeakable vice can also be seen. But another part of the city is
+modern and up-to-date.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p><p>Before closing this article at least one man noted in the story of
+Paraguay should be mentioned. He was the first of the tyrants that ruled
+immediately after Paraguay freed herself from Spanish oppression. His
+name was Dr. Jose R. G. Francia and, according to the historian, for
+twenty-five years he was the government of Paraguay. In all history no
+man ever so dominated and controlled a nation as did he. He had no
+confidants or assistants. No one was allowed to approach him on terms of
+equality. He neither received nor sent consuls from or to any foreign
+countries. He was the sole foreign merchant of his country.</p>
+
+<p>This man was gloomy and peculiar and assumed supreme power without
+marrying, was against the educated classes and ordered wholesale
+executions. So fearful was he of assassination that he lived in several
+houses and no one but himself knew where he would sleep at night. When
+he walked the streets guards walked both in front and behind him. The
+very news that he was out was sufficient to clear the streets. And yet,
+powerful and cruel that he was, the humblest Indian could receive a
+hearing and justice from him. He was modest in a way, abstemious and
+never used his power for selfish indulgence. He was one of the wonders of history.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Wonderful Argentine Republic</span></h3>
+
+<p>The wonderful Argentine Republic is a little world in itself. Take all
+the United States east of the Mississippi river, add the state of Texas,
+place them in the Argentine Republic and there will be room for more.
+Here you can find some of the highest and most rugged mountains and then
+you can travel two thousand miles and hardly find a hill worthy of the name.</p>
+
+<p>From the torrid heat of the north you can go to the cold, bleak glacial
+regions of the south, all in Argentine. The seasons are just the
+opposite from ours. July is their coldest month and the hottest time in
+the year is in January. The north side of the house is the sunny side.
+In the Argentine there are some of the finest forest regions imaginable
+and then you can travel a thousand miles across level plains and never see a tree.</p>
+
+<p>The southern part of Argentina used to be called Patagonia. This is the
+Alaska of South America. The extreme southern point is the island of
+Tierra del Fuego, which is divided between Argentina and Chile.
+Argentina's part of the island is as large as the state of Massachusetts.</p>
+
+<p>Argentina has nearly five hundred million acres of ground that can be
+cultivated and this great area is extended over well watered plains, all
+of which are so accessible to the sea that the simplest railway
+construction is all that is necessary. Of this vast area only about
+one-fifth has as yet been cultivated or brought within the present railway area.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p><p>At present the country has less than one-tenth as many miles of railway
+as the United States and what they have is practically under English
+control. Engines and cars are all of English pattern. American
+locomotive works make engines for some of these lines, but everyone of
+them must be made strictly according to the English pattern.</p>
+
+<p>One-fifth of the eight million people in the Argentine live in Buenos
+Aires, the capital city. This city is the Paris of South America and is
+one of the great cities of the world. Here can be seen more extravagance
+perhaps than in any other city in the world. The advertised rates in the
+best hotels are from twelve to sixty dollars per day and these hotels
+are nearly always crowded. The writer attended a luncheon given by the
+United States Chamber of Commerce at the Hotel Plaza. The price was
+three dollars and a half per plate; there was scarcely anything to eat
+and the waiters expected a dollar tip from each man.</p>
+
+<p>These people buy their clothes in Paris and are only satisfied with the
+latest fashion. They drink French liquor in French style and demand the
+best Parisian comedy and opera in their theaters. The Colon theater is
+finer than anything in New York, and rivals any playhouse in Europe. It
+seats thirty-seven hundred and fifty people and I am told that a man
+cannot get in unless he is dressed in an evening suit.</p>
+
+<p>Buenos Aires boasts of the greatest newspaper on the globe and surely no
+other paper rivals it when it comes to service to its patrons. That
+paper is the La Prensa and it is housed in a beautiful building. The
+office of its editor in chief makes one think of a king's palace. This
+paper provides a company of the best physicians and surgeons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> who
+minister to all who apply free of charge. Its expert lawyers give
+council and advice free, its skilled teachers of music instruct all who
+enter one or more of the five series of classes. The prizes given
+annually by this journal for altruistic acts and deeds of heroism are
+worth a large sum. The chemical, industrial and agricultural bureaus are
+a boon to those interested in such subjects.</p>
+
+<p>This city also has the greatest race tracks in any land and the weekly
+races are generally attended by from thirty to fifty thousand people.
+The money bet on a single day's races often runs into hundreds of
+thousands of dollars, and the Jockey Club that owns the race tracks is
+so rich that it is embarrassing to get its money spent.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the cemeteries the writer ever visited, the aristocratic burying
+ground in Buenos Aires caps the climax. To be laid away in this ground
+costs a fortune. The tombs, many of them, are above the ground and
+nearly every family tomb is a little chapel. Here the living friends
+gather on certain days, visit, drink tea, and smoke cigarettes with
+coffins all around them. In many of these tombs chairs are always in
+order with flowers arranged, kept so by the servants of the tomb.</p>
+
+<p>There are thirty-six public markets in the city, some of which are very
+large. The wool market alone covers thirty acres of ground and the iron
+and steel building cost four million dollars. In it are seventy-two
+cranes and elevators and fifty million pounds of wool can be stored at
+one time. Not far from this building is another almost as large where
+the sheep are killed. The arrangements are so complete and the men so
+skilled that it is said a single man has killed as many as six thousand sheep in a day.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p><p>Buenos Aires is a city of locked doors. People never think of leaving
+their homes even for a few moments without locking the doors. If a
+business house or hotel has a rug at the door on which to wipe the shoes
+it will be chained fast. Stealing and pilfering is carried on
+extensively all over the city. Shippers claim that there is an
+international organization for stealing at the port cities all along the
+coast and it is hard to get at. In one shipment of thirty automobiles
+twenty-nine of the boxes had been opened and the set of tools taken. It
+is the custom at that factory to pack the set of tools in a certain
+corner of the case. A hole was cut exactly in the right place and the
+set of tools neatly taken out. In two instances that I was told about a
+drygoods firm had shipments opened and ten thousand dollars worth of silks and velvets taken.</p>
+
+<p>Near the city is said to be the largest dairy in the world. They milk
+seven thousand cows and this is done with the latest and most up-to-date
+machinery. At an annual stock show recently the crowds were so dense
+that men paid five dollars each to get near enough to the judges to see
+them do their work. The sale at the close was attended by five thousand
+people. The champion shorthorn bull sold for more than forty thousand
+dollars of American money. The champion Hereford sold for $32,737.00 and
+a two-year-old bull sold for $23,643.00. One ram sold for more than four thousand dollars.</p>
+
+<p>The Argentine could be made a great sugar producing country, but for
+some reason this industry is not being developed very rapidly. During
+the war special inducements were offered but the 1919 crop was but
+little more than that of 1913. There are only forty-three mills and
+refineries in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> the whole country and the surplus for exportation for
+1919 was only three hundred thousand tons and that is insignificant when
+one thinks of the possibilities of this great industry.</p>
+
+<p>But one can hardly think of Argentina without thinking of cattle ranches
+and wheat fields. It is in these industries that she shines. She now has
+thirty million head of cattle, but strange as it may seem she had as
+many ten years ago. She has thirty million sheep which makes her the
+greatest wool producing country on earth except Australia and if I am
+correctly informed she is not far behind that country.</p>
+
+<p>In Argentina the country is called "Elcampo" and the large farms
+"Estancias." These great estancias often consist of thousands of acres.
+A single one of them is said to be as large as the state of Rhode
+Island. The owners generally have good houses but do not live in them
+much of the time. They are in Buenos Aires, or traveling in Europe, and
+their children are in the colleges and universities. A number of
+overseers look after the farm but the work is largely done by
+foreigners, mostly Italians. Their lives are far from easy.</p>
+
+<p>The homes of these workers are generally made of mud. The floors are
+often nothing but the bare ground. These people are generally called
+colonists and work the soil on shares. They are in debt to start on; the
+overseers generally manipulate things so that they often never do get
+out of debt. The poor man's children do not have much in common with
+those of the rich. They are generally kept entirely separate from each other.</p>
+
+<p>While the cities are filled with beautiful parks and clinging roses are
+nearly everywhere, yet I never saw a country town with any thing
+beautiful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> in sight. The streets of these towns are either mud holes or
+dust piles, no work whatever being done upon them. The houses and stores
+are one-story buildings and often look like hovels. The one exception is
+the railroad station and often that is quite well kept.</p>
+
+<p>There are no four-wheeled wagons like ours in this country. All the
+hauling is done on large lumbersome carts often pulled by oxen. But they
+sure load them heavy; how they get so much stuff on them is a mystery.
+Much of the farming is slovenly done. While England produces thirty
+bushels of wheat per acre the rich fields of Argentine only produce
+eleven bushels per acre. This is but little more than half as much per
+acre as is raised in Saskatchewan and Argentine soil is fully as rich as
+Canadian grain fields.</p>
+
+<p>I crossed the great Argentine plain in October. Wheat was just beginning
+to head. Corn planting was in progress. Alfalfa fields were green while
+both trees and flowers were in bloom. But in riding six hundred miles
+without a hill, or tree except those planted by the hands of man, the
+journey soon became monotonous. Thousands of acres were almost covered
+with cattle and sheep.</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday men and women were in the fields almost the same as any other
+day. At the towns almost the entire population came down to see the
+International train go through. This train only runs twice a week. The
+young women were dressed in their best but they were never with the
+young men. They would parade up and down the platform while the young
+men would go in the other direction and the lads and lassies hardly
+seemed to notice each other.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p><p>The train ran almost on the dot. A hotbox delayed it thirty minutes on
+one occasion but it was carefully watched. At every stop for hours the
+train would hardly come to a standstill before a couple of men were at
+that box. The engines have no bells on them and the whistle is blown
+just before the train starts rather than before it stops as in our
+country. The train was largely made up of sleepers and a diner. The cars
+were quite comfortable. The berths are crosswise rather than lengthwise
+as in our sleepers. Everything on this train, however, from fare to eats was very expensive.</p>
+
+<p>On many of the larger farms the better breeds of stock are being raised,
+agricultural schools are springing up and scientific farming is being
+talked about. The government is taking a hand along many lines. Some of
+the great estancias are being divided and subdivided. The Welch people
+have a large settlement where better methods are being introduced. The
+Jews have a large colony and even the Italians are looking forward to a
+better day. Men from this country are entering in small numbers but with
+ideas that will revolutionize things, and especially the school house.
+An Englishman truly said: "Wherever the Germans go you find the arsenal;
+wherever the French go you find the railroad; wherever the British go
+you find the custom house, but wherever the Americans go you find the school house."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Yankeedom of South America&mdash;Chile</span></h3>
+
+<p>On account of their energy and enterprise the people of Chile have been
+called the Yankees of South America. They are a quick tempered people
+but often show a disposition to be whiter than their skin would signify.</p>
+
+<p>On a railroad train I saw a well-dressed young Chilean raise the car
+window. Behind him was an elderly man who did not like the wind blowing
+in and he evidently made some sign to the conductor, who simply put the window down.</p>
+
+<p>This angered the young man who raised the window again. A little later
+the conductor came back and said something to the young man who lowered
+the window immediately. The old gentleman had moved by this time and I
+supposed that the incident was closed.</p>
+
+<p>A little later the young man called the conductor and had him go and
+apologize to the old gentleman who came and sat down in the seat with
+the young man. Then they settled their differences, smoked and visited
+together like old friends. I felt a sort of admiration for these men
+that they would settle their difference on the spot and became friends.
+Such a procedure is much better than carrying a grouch.</p>
+
+<p>The country of Chile is a narrow strip of land from fifty to two hundred
+and fifty miles wide, but so long that if one end were placed at New
+Orleans the other end would reach to the Arctic Circle. The mighty ridge
+of the Andes mountains extends almost the entire distance. One of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>
+peaks in Chile is nearly five miles high&mdash;the highest on the globe except Mount Everest.</p>
+
+<p>In Chile there are many rich valleys yet much of the land is a desolate
+desert. One writer suggests regarding this awful silent region that the
+Desert of Sahara is a botanical garden in comparison with it. I traveled
+five hundred miles along this desert without seeing a tree or a blade of
+grass. This was in the northern part where it never rains. Much of the
+southern part is covered with water-soaked forests.</p>
+
+<p>Yet this Chilean desert is almost as valuable as a gold mine. Here are
+the only large deposits of nitrate of soda in the world. While no plants
+of any kind grow in this desert yet from it is obtained the product that
+farmers all over the world use for fertilizer. Plants of all kinds must
+have food to make them grow and this Chilean desert alone furnishes this
+food in abundance and in suitable form.</p>
+
+<p>Many millions are invested in establishments to get this nitrate, or
+saltpeter as it is often called, from the worthless material with which
+it is mixed and railroads to carry it to port. Little towns have sprung
+up along the seashore where the nitrates make up cargoes of hundreds of
+ships which carry this fertilizer to all parts of the world.</p>
+
+<p>A gentleman who lives in Santiago told me how he could set out tomato
+plants in the best soil, take a little handful of nitrates that look
+like common salt, dissolve it in water and pour it on the soil and the
+difference it would make is almost unbelievable. But a spoonful dropped
+on the plant will kill it. It never rains on these nitrate beds&mdash;if it
+did they would be worthless.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p><p>Of course, the people who do the work in these deserts or in the little
+ports along the shore have a hard life. No green lawns or trees adorn
+their villages. The dust is irritable and the people are a hard-looking
+class. In one of these towns which I saw, Antofagasta by name, the water
+the people use is brought nearly two hundred miles. The people used to
+drink champagne mostly for it was cheaper than water.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from Antofagasta are the great salt plains, said to be large
+enough to supply the whole world with this commodity for generations.
+The real nitrate beds are from fifteen to fifty miles from the ocean and
+at least three thousand feet above sea level. The largest beds are from
+four to five hundred miles in length so the supply is practically
+inexhaustible. When the nitrates are richest they are mixed with
+rock&mdash;about half and half. It is blasted out with dynamite, loaded on
+carts and dumped into great machines that grind it to a coarse powder,
+then thrown into immense tanks of boiling water where it forms in
+crystals on the sides and bottom. The water is then drawn off, the white
+sparkling stuff shoveled onto drying boards and when thoroughly dry is sacked and shipped.</p>
+
+<p>The liquid that is drawn off from these vats is made into iodine, which
+is so valuable that a cask of it is worth several hundred dollars. Chile
+owns about all the nitrate deposits yet discovered. She exports millions
+of tons of it annually, levies a tax on every ton of it and thus the
+government receives an immense income each year from this one industry.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the nitrate industry, Chile has immense stores of copper,
+tin and other metals.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> At one port where the ship stopped a small boat
+brought out a few sacks of copper ore. It took but a few minutes to put
+it on board but one of the officers said it was worth thirteen thousand
+dollars. At another Chilean port six hundred tons of tin were added to
+our cargo. Chile is about the only country in South America where coal
+is found in anything like large quantities.</p>
+
+<p>Of course such a mountainous region is volcanic. There are many
+earthquakes but they seldom do much harm. My first night in Chile was
+spent in Los Andes and I had not been in bed five minutes until an
+earthquake shock made it tremble like a leaf. But the people are so used
+to it that they pay no attention whatever to these minor quakes. At the
+time San Francisco was ruined, Valparaiso was all but destroyed but you
+would never know it by a visit to the city now.</p>
+
+<p>Chile includes a large part of the island of Tierra del Fuego. At the
+very southern tip of this is Cape Horn. This is a gigantic rock fourteen
+hundred feet high that juts out into the ocean and the great waves that
+continually lash against it make it perhaps the most dreaded spot by
+sailors in all the trade routes of the world. On all sides are wrecked
+vessels and this rock has been named the Giant Headstone in the Sailor's Graveyard.</p>
+
+<p>It was the famous Magellan who discovered the water passage above Cape
+Horn and it is called the Strait of Magellan. While safer than the route
+around Cape Horn, yet many are the stories of shipwreck, hunger and
+suffering told by those who went this way during the earlier days. Here
+are some of the names of places along the Strait: "Fury Island," "Famine
+Reach," "Desolation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> Harbor," "Fatal Bay," "Hope Inlet," and "Last Wreck
+Point."</p>
+
+<p>No one lives down at this point but tribes of Indians. It was the
+signals and campfires of these Indians that caused Magellan to call the
+island "Tierra del Fuego." The name means "Land of Fire." These Indians
+are said to be one of the lowest classes of human beings in existence
+today. Although the weather is very cold these savages wear but little
+clothing&mdash;in fact, they wore none until of later years they began
+getting cast off garments from wrecks and are now making some of their
+own clothing from the skins of animals.</p>
+
+<p>On this strait is located Punta Arenas, which is the southernmost town
+in the world. It is directly south of Boston and farther south of the
+equator than Winnipeg is north of it. Only about a thousand people live
+here. Many of them are rough characters and live hard and comfortless
+lives. This town is the only port within a thousand miles.</p>
+
+<p>Although cold and cheerless most of the time, yet millions of sheep are
+raised in this southern land and Punta Arenas is the shipping point. A
+kind of coarse grass grows here that is nourishing and sheep thrive and
+live for weeks alone on the open plains. Wool, hides and meat are
+brought to this port and shipped to the outside world. Of course all
+clothing, building material and machinery must be brought in for there
+are no factories in Punta Arenas.</p>
+
+<p>Santiago, the capital of Chile, is located in a valley that has been
+called the "Garden of South America." This valley is seven hundred miles
+long, fifty or sixty miles wide and hundreds of feet above sea level. On
+the east are the snow-capped Andes and on the west the coast ranges.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> On
+the mountain slopes on either side are the great herds of cattle and
+sheep and lower down the rich fields of alfalfa and grain, fruit and flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Strange to say the farming is nearly all done with oxen. I counted six
+yoke of oxen in a ten-acre field. Women as well as men work in the
+fields. The fences are made of stone but in many parts of the valley you
+never see a stone in the field. If they have any modern farm machinery I
+did not see it. All the fields are irrigated, as it seldom rains in this
+valley in the summer time.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the best land is owned by wealthy men who live in the city.
+Those who do the work are mostly Indians or half breeds, and they have
+but few of the comforts of life. Many of the farms are great tracts and
+there is a store where the worker can purchase what he needs but the
+prices are high and he is kept in debt. A country can never really
+prosper where the tillers of the soil are ignorant and have no say in
+the affairs of the government.</p>
+
+<p>It is in this valley where most of the Chileans live. While in other
+parts of the country there are but two people to the square mile, here
+in this valley there are seventeen to the square mile. Here are most of
+the schools and colleges, cities, railways and manufacturing plants.
+When about sixty per cent of the people are illiterate and this class is
+almost entirely the laboring class it does not look as if conditions
+would be changed very soon.</p>
+
+<p>I saw more drinking in Chile than in any other South American country. A
+portion of the city of Valparaiso seems to be given over almost entirely
+to the liquor dealers and the people who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> throng that district are
+hard-looking folks. The fag ends of civilization seem to have gathered
+here. This is the only city in South America where I was accosted by
+both men and women and they almost try to hold one up in the streets in broad daylight.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly all the Chilean women dress in black. A black shawl is worn and
+you would think they are all dressed in mourning, but they are not. This
+black cloth is called a manto and all women, both rich and poor, wear
+them. The business portion of the city of Valparaiso is built on a
+narrow strip of land at the foot of a high hill.</p>
+
+<p>All along there are elevators or lifts as they call them. For a couple
+of pennies you can step into one of these lifts and be taken up a
+hundred feet or more. While one lift goes up another comes down as they
+are always built in pairs. There are winding ways where horses and
+donkeys can walk up but no wheeled vehicle can be taken up or down for
+it is too steep.</p>
+
+<p>For this reason the dairymen and venders all have donkeys or small
+horses. A dairyman will have a couple of large milk cans, one on either
+side of the beast, or perhaps a small barrel on the top of a frame or
+saddle. The man leads or drives the animal and they are so sure-footed
+that they can go up a place so steep that one not used to climbing could
+not make the ascent.</p>
+
+<p>There are but few North Americans in Chile. I had breakfast (they call
+the noon meal breakfast) with the American Club. There were but
+twenty-five or thirty present, mostly business men. But few of these men
+are satisfied to stay long in Chile.</p>
+
+<p>The American Y. M. C. A. is doing some good work in Valparaiso, as in
+all other South American cities. The rooms are well patronized and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> it
+was homelike to see the leading magazines of the United States upon the
+reading table. The Sunday afternoon program that I attended was well
+gotten up and very interesting.</p>
+
+<p>While in Chile you see more to remind you of the United States than in
+any other South American country but I was not favorably impressed with
+the people. They will not compare in looks or actions with the people
+east of the Andes. Lack of education, culture and refinement are
+noticeable everywhere. Religion and morality are conspicuous by their
+absence and one cannot but pity those who live among them although one
+sees some good traits in many of them.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Switzerland of South America&mdash;Bolivia</span></h3>
+
+<p>In the very heart of the South American continent there is a vast
+table-land nearly as large as the great Mississippi valley, that some
+titanic convulsion has boosted up nearly three miles in the air. This
+great plateau is hemmed in by mountains, the coast range on the west and
+the main range on the east.</p>
+
+<p>These mountain peaks rise as high as twenty-two thousand feet. In these
+heights, two and one-half miles above sea level is Lake Titicaca, which
+is one hundred and sixty miles long and thirty miles wide. This lake,
+which is the highest body of water in the western hemisphere, is fed by
+streams of water from the Andes and is so cold that ice is formed along
+the edge every night in the year although the lake itself is never
+frozen over. The lake has no outlet and the color of the water is a steely blue.</p>
+
+<p>This lake forms the northwestern border of Bolivia. Situated as it is,
+including both mountains and table-land, Bolivia has been called the
+Switzerland of South America. It is more than twelve times as large as
+the state of Iowa and is the cradle of the ancient civilization that
+made up the world-famous Inca empire which existed many centuries ago.</p>
+
+<p>The people of Bolivia today have the blood of this ancient race in their
+veins and they are an industrious people. Visiting a mission school in
+Buenos Aires I was much impressed by one young man who seemed to be the
+peer of the two hundred students in the school.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p><p>On talking to this young man I found that he was from Bolivia. How he
+heard about this mission school I have forgotten, but the story of how
+he tramped two hundred miles over the mountains and then across the
+great Argentine plains determined to reach this school and work his way
+through, could not be forgotten. On Sunday morning I went to the
+American church and this fellow was at the door as an usher and the
+friendly greeting and winning smile he had for everyone gave me great
+respect for him and his people as well.</p>
+
+<p>Portions of this great Bolivian plateau are very beautiful. One noted
+naturalist coming from Paraguay said as he beheld this region, "If
+tradition has lost the records of the place where Paradise is located
+the traveler who visits these regions of Bolivia feels at once the
+impulse to exclaim: 'Here is Eden.'"</p>
+
+<p>Here grows the famous chincona tree from which we get quinine. Also the
+coca plant from which we get cocaine. Perhaps when the dentist pulled
+your tooth he used cocaine that came from this country. The natives chew
+the coca leaf as a stimulant. It is actually said that by the use of
+this leaf a man can go for many hours without food and perform feats of
+endurance that seem to us impossible.</p>
+
+<p>The cultivation of the coca plant is one of the important industries of
+eastern Bolivia. The plant grows as a shrub and must not be confused
+with the cocoa tree from the beans of which our chocolate and cocoa are
+made. The Bolivians produce eight to ten million pounds of coca leaves
+annually. The telegraph system of portions of this region is made up of
+fleet-footed Indians and it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> said that with a supply of coca leaves
+and parched corn they can run fifty miles a day.</p>
+
+<p>Here too grows the quinna which is not only a substitute for wheat but
+more nutritious and easier raised if reports are true. Cotton and sugar
+are produced in Bolivia as are the nutmeg and castor bean. Oranges and
+all such fruit are also grown in some parts of this country. But the
+supply and variety of medicinal plants is remarkable. The list includes
+aconite, arnica, absinthe, belladonna, camphor, cocaine, ginger, ipecac,
+opium, sarsaparilla and a lot of others.</p>
+
+<p>But this great inland country is noted the world around for its rich
+mines. Mount Potosi is often spoken of as a mountain of silver. It is
+said that not only millions but billions of dollars worth of silver have
+been taken from this one mountain. There are said to be six thousand
+abandoned mines on its slopes to say nothing of the hundreds that are
+being worked today. The city of Potosi used to be the largest city in
+the western hemisphere and was ten times its present size when the early
+settlements of the United States were but small villages.</p>
+
+<p>While the silver in this mountain is not nearly exhausted by any means,
+yet it was discovered that deeper down is a mountain of tin. Bolivia has
+been furnishing more than one-fourth of the world's supply of tin for many years.</p>
+
+<p>On the hills back of the city of Potosi can still be seen the thirty-two
+lakes or reservoirs that used to furnish water for the city and mines.
+It took half a century to complete this great ancient water system. The
+largest of these lakes is three miles in circumference and thirty feet
+deep. Each lake is surrounded by five sets of walls and two of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>
+reservoirs are sixteen thousand feet above sea level. All this mighty
+work was done before railroads were ever dreamed of. Only recently a
+railroad was built into this mining city and many of these abandoned
+mines are being opened again.</p>
+
+<p>The capital of Bolivia used to be Sucre. In fact, it is still the
+nominal capital of the republic. Here live many of the wealthy mine
+owners of the region. The Supreme Court is held here and the new
+government palace is a stately building. The richest cathedral in
+Bolivia is here and the image of the Virgin in it is made of solid gold
+adorned with jewels and is worth a million dollars.</p>
+
+<p>There are nine public parks or plazas in the city of Sucre and through
+one of these flows two streams of pure water. The one on the north side
+runs north and finally reaches the Atlantic Ocean through the great
+Amazon river while the other flows southward reaching the sea through
+the Rio de la Plata river.</p>
+
+<p>The capital of Bolivia as we know it is La Paz, but only the legislative
+and executive departments are in this city. Although La Paz is more than
+twelve thousand feet above sea level it is located in the bottom of a
+deep canyon. Back of the city is the giant peak of Mount Illimani which
+pierces the sky at the height of twenty-one thousand feet. While the
+weather is always warm in the day time it gets very cool at night,
+sometimes freezing cold. As they have no heating stoves it is very
+uncomfortable to sit quiet.</p>
+
+<p>The farmers of Bolivia live in little villages as a rule and know but
+little of the comforts of life. Their houses are built of mud and both
+people and animals often live in the same room. Their farms have to be
+irrigated and the people are skilled in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> this work. The plows used are
+wooden sticks and generally pulled by oxen. As in other South American
+countries the land is mostly owned by wealthy men who let it out on
+shares to common farmers who are generally kept in debt and have but little independence.</p>
+
+<p>The question of fuel for cooking purposes is one of their great
+problems. As our early settlers on the western plains had to use buffalo
+chips for fuel, these people use a great deal of donkey and llama dung
+for the same purpose. They bake their bread in small community ovens
+that are built something like a large barrel with a dome shaped top. On
+bread baking day they build a fire of moss, bushes and dry dung and heat
+the stove oven. Then they remove the coals, put their bread in and when
+it is baked you may be sure that it does not smell very good.</p>
+
+<p>The great beast of burden in Bolivia is the llama, which looks something
+like a cross between a camel and a sheep. Like the camel it can go for
+days without food or drink. It can be turned out and will make its
+living browsing on coarse grass, moss and shrubs that grow on the
+mountains. It is an intelligent animal and if loaded a little too
+heavily will lie down and refuse to budge until the load is lightened.</p>
+
+<p>The women of these Indian farmers and herders dress rather queerly. They
+put on many bright colored skirts all of a different hue. As the day
+grows warmer they remove a skirt showing one of a different hue. They
+are proud of their skirts and take much pride in showing each other their fine clothing.</p>
+
+<p>These women too are nearly always at work. If they are walking along
+driving llamas they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> working as they walk winding wool into yarn or
+knitting some garment. With juices from plants the yarn is colored and
+by means of a loom which any woman among them can make they weave this
+yarn into a kind of cloth.</p>
+
+<p>In Bolivian cities there are large markets to which these Indian women
+especially resort. On the ground are little piles of fruit, coca leaves
+and other products. They have no scales and sell by the pile. The
+gardeners will sell their products of onions, beans, parched corn and
+all such stuff in this way.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the people of this great inland empire live above the clouds. One
+of their railroads is a half mile higher than Pike's Peak in places and
+one of their cities, Aullagus, lacks but a hundred feet of being as high
+as this. They have four cities more than fourteen thousand feet above
+sea level, twenty-six above the thirteen thousand foot line, and
+seventy-three cities above the twelve thousand foot line. Of the one
+hundred and fifty-one cities in Bolivia most every one is above the
+eleven thousand foot line. Truly this land is the "Switzerland of South America."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Land of Mystery&mdash;Peru</span></h3>
+
+<p>When we reach the backbone of Peru we are not only above the clouds as
+in Bolivia, but we are surrounded by mystery. Here can be seen today the
+ruins of temples that were richer perhaps than any of those of the
+countries with which we are all so familiar. This article, however, will
+largely have to do with the Peruvian country as it is today. You could
+take a map of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North and South Dakota,
+Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma, place them all on the
+map of Peru and have territory left.</p>
+
+<p>The country runs largely north and south, having some fourteen hundred
+miles of sea coast. In the north is a great desert plain, but in this
+almost lifeless desert there is a great valley in which is a most
+interesting city. The name of this city is Piura and it is on a small
+river bearing the same name. This river is more like the Nile in Egypt
+than any other river known. Up and down this river are farms and
+plantations with irrigation ditches leading to fields of rice and grain,
+sugar cane and cotton as well as other valuable farm products.</p>
+
+<p>But upon the rise of the water in the river depends the life and
+prosperity of the people. Like the people of Egypt and the Nile, these
+people look upon this river with feelings of reverence. They have a
+great feast day for the river. In their spring time when the snows melt
+the river gradually rises, spreading over the valley bottom and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> filling
+all the low places and irrigation ditches with water.</p>
+
+<p>As the time for this rise approaches every traveler from upstream is
+questioned and on the day the big rise is due the great feast day is
+proclaimed and the people, generally five thousand or more, march toward
+the coming tide to meet the water. If there is an abundance of water
+they are sure of a great harvest. With fife and drum they meet the
+oncoming flood and go back with it; if it is a great flood they are
+happy and merry, but if the tide is low they are sad and gloomy for they
+know that many will be hungry.</p>
+
+<p>It rains here about once in seven years and these are called the seven
+year rains. Following the showers there is a wonderful burst of life
+everywhere. Quick growing grasses cover the land with a carpet of green
+and fragrant blossoms fill the air with sweetness; but in a short time,
+except where the irrigation ditches reach the land, the entire region
+once more becomes a yellow, parched desert.</p>
+
+<p>In this valley grows the best cotton that is produced anywhere. It is a
+well known fact among cotton growers that Piura cotton has a peculiar
+strength of fiber that makes it sell for nearly double the price of that
+grown in our southern states. As goats can live where other animals will
+starve, this valley is also noted for its great goat herds which make
+their living on the dry mountain sides.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest seaport of Peru is Callao. If the sea were rough this would
+be a dangerous harbor for all ocean liners must anchor far from the
+docks as only very small ships can approach them. I counted forty-two
+ocean liners in the harbor so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> you can imagine that it is a busy place.
+These liners represented nearly every sea-faring country on the globe.</p>
+
+<p>The city of Callao has had its ups and downs. Some one has said that the
+chief product of Peru is revolutions and Callao has had its share of
+them. Also, nearly every earthquake along the coast gives this city a
+shaking up. At one time many years ago when the city had a population of
+some six thousand people there came an earthquake followed by a mighty
+tidal wave that only left two persons alive. The very site of the city
+sunk beneath the waves of the ocean and never came up, the present city
+being built upon a new site entirely.</p>
+
+<p>The short ride from Callao to Lima, the capital city, is interesting.
+Here one is introduced to the famous "mud fence," as the fences are all
+made of mud. Little patches of ground are tilled and bananas, pears,
+oranges, and all kinds of fruit and vegetables as well as corn and other
+grain grow in abundance. Everything looks ancient. The ground is plowed
+by oxen hitched to a wooden stick. The mud huts and houses of the
+farmers are almost as bare of furniture as a hen coop and almost as
+dirty. It hardly seems possible that people so near the port as well as
+the capital city could be so far behind the times.</p>
+
+<p>The railroad runs along the Rimac river, but this is nearly dry much of
+the time, the water being used for irrigating purposes. Everything
+smells bad and the people are even dirtier than in Chile. Of course,
+there are some beautiful spots in the country and plazas in the cities,
+but all this gush about the beauty and loveliness of things in general makes one tired.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p><p>I saw more turkey buzzards and vultures in ten minutes in the city of
+Lima than I ever saw before all put together. At the slaughter house one
+can see a stream of blood running in the open soil and I suppose the
+offals are dumped out for the vultures to devour. The Rockefeller
+Foundation has set apart twenty-five million dollars, so I understand,
+to be spent in twenty-five Peruvian cities for the purpose of cleaning
+them up and providing sanitary systems for them. The leaders of this
+foundation have certainly found an appropriate place to spend money. I
+have seen four or five of the cities that are to benefit by this
+appropriation and they all sure do need cleaning up.</p>
+
+<p>In Lima, of course, I went to the great cathedral. Everybody does this
+for it is about the most outstanding thing to be seen. It is said to be
+the largest cathedral in South America. The corner stone was laid by the
+great Pizarro himself in 1535. His bones are in the cathedral now. I saw
+them. They are in a coffin the side of which is made of glass. The very
+holes that were made in the bones when they tortured him can be seen.
+The guide declared that such is the case and of course he would not yarn
+to a stranger in a sacred church.</p>
+
+<p>The houses in Lima are, as a rule, only one story high. The tops are
+flat and many of them are almost covered with chicken coops. They say
+that many a rooster is hatched, grows up to old age and enters the
+ministry without ever having set foot upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The small plaza in front of the cathedral is really beautiful and there
+are some good substantial buildings around it. The large depot is a
+modern, well built stately building. The streets are narrow and the shop
+doors are open to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> street. The doors of these shops are corrugated
+iron and are raised up like the cover of a roll-top desk. Above the
+shops are the residences of the more well-to-do class. Little balconies
+are built out over the sidewalk and here the "idle rich" ladies sit and
+watch the crowds below.</p>
+
+<p>To me a very interesting place was a building that used to be a sort of
+a place of refuge something like the cities of refuge we read about in
+the Bible. In the wide door, so they say, there used to be a chain
+stretched across and any man who could reach this was safe regardless of
+the crime he had committed. No officers or law could touch him. Of
+course, he was in the power of the keepers of the refuge. They could
+enslave him for life or kill him and no law could touch them. At least
+this is the story told me by a resident of the city.</p>
+
+<p>But the briefest article about Peru should not leave out at least a
+mention of the wonderful mountain railways of the country. The Central
+Peruvian railway tracks reach the dizzy height of 15,865 feet above sea
+level, which is almost a mile higher than the famous Marshall Pass in
+the Rockies. This railroad too is a standard gauge. To reach this
+altitude the train passes over forty-one bridges, one of which is two
+hundred and fifty feet high. It passes through sixty tunnels, the
+highest one of which is the Galeria tunnel, which is 15,665 feet above the sea.</p>
+
+<p>This railroad, perhaps the most wonderful ever constructed, was built by
+Henry Meiggs, an American contractor from New York. Some eight thousand
+men were employed in the construction and in some places in order to
+gain a foothold to begin their work they had to be swung down from
+dizzy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> heights above and held while they cut a safe place in the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>As might be expected many men were killed during the building of this
+railway. Once a runaway engine crashed into a derrick car on the top of
+a bridge and the debris can be seen in the valley below to this day.
+Several Americans lost their lives in this one accident. It is quite
+remarkable, however, that there has not been a single accident where a
+life was lost since the construction was completed years ago. This line
+is two hundred and fifty miles in length and every mile cost a snug
+fortune. It takes a train almost ten hours to reach the summit and the
+average rise the entire distance is twenty-seven feet per minute.</p>
+
+<p>Near Callao are some islands which are very interesting to tillers of
+the soil especially. In passing them I noticed millions and millions of
+birds. For many centuries these islands have been the nesting places for
+these sea fowl. Not only have these birds lived and died here but
+multiplied thousands of seal have come here to breed. The droppings of
+these millions of birds and animals and the accumulating bodies of the
+dead have decayed and made a kind of grayish powder. This substance is
+called guano and it is hundreds of feet thick.</p>
+
+<p>Hundreds of years ago it was discovered that this substance is the best
+fertilizer known. In the early days the Incas took every precaution to
+distribute this guano to agriculturists in the country. Districts of
+this deposit were allotted to certain territories and the boundaries of
+each district were clearly defined and all encroachments upon the rights
+of others were severely punished. No one was allowed to go about these
+islands during<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> the breeding season under pain of death and the same
+penalty was meted out to any man who killed either birds or animals here.</p>
+
+<p>Of late years millions of dollars worth of this guano have been shipped
+to all parts of the world. While the islands are closed to shipping
+during the breeding season and it is thought that many of the birds
+especially have been frightened away, yet they come in such numbers at
+times that it is said that the sky is darkened as they fly over.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The World's Great Crossroad&mdash;Panama Canal</span></h3>
+
+<p>Perhaps the greatest achievement of history, both in length of time of
+construction and in service to humanity, stands to the credit of the
+United States. The Panama Canal was dug in less time than it took to
+build the causeway in Egypt to get the stone from the quarries to where
+it was wanted for the big pyramid. This canal, too, is wholly an
+American achievement. It was planned by American brains, constructed by
+American engineers and with American machinery, and paid for with
+American gold, and every American has great reason to be proud of it.</p>
+
+<p>We paid the Republic of Panama ten million dollars for the lease on the
+zone through which the canal passes, and are now paying the same
+government two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year to keep them
+in a good humor. We bought the ground again from individual owners and
+have agreed to pay Colombia twenty-five million dollars to keep her from
+raising a racket. We paid the French forty million dollars for the work
+they did and the machinery they left so the whole thing, lock, stock and
+barrel, ought to be ours without any question.</p>
+
+<p>It was published on supposedly good authority that some of the machinery
+we used was purchased from Belgium, that we could not make it in
+America. While visiting Mr. P. B. Banton, the chief office engineer,
+some time ago I asked him about this and he said the only machinery
+Belgium furnished was to the French. We tried to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> repair and use part of
+this but it had to be discarded entirely.</p>
+
+<p>We purchased two gigantic cranes to use in the work from Germany, but
+one of them collapsed and both had to be rebuilt by American machinists
+before they would do the work they were guaranteed to do. The only parts
+used in the canal that were not made in America, according to Mr.
+Banton, are some gigantic screws which were made in Sweden. It so
+happened at that time that Sweden was the only country that had
+machinery to make such screws, and while we could have easily
+constructed such machinery, it was cheaper to get them from Sweden and
+this was done. After making this statement, Mr. Banton got the drawings
+and explained them, and later on I saw some of them in the Gatun-Locks.
+If I remember correctly they are about eight inches in diameter and
+forty or fifty feet long.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of drawings and blue prints this official said: "There are more
+than eighty thousand drawings in this one room." Of course, the original
+blue prints and complicated drawings of the canal are sealed up in a
+great bomb-proof vault, kept dry by electricity. Although I had passed
+through the canal on a ship and rode up and down it on the train it was
+only after talking an hour with this engineer and then going into the
+control station tower and watching boats taken through the Gatun lock
+system, going into the tunnels below and watching the gigantic cog
+wheels and wonderful machinery, that I began to appreciate the real
+ingenuity and brain work of this colossal achievement.</p>
+
+<p>On his last voyage to the new world Columbus visited Panama and was told
+by the Indians that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> beyond a narrow strip of land was the "Big Water."
+He sailed up the Chagres river a distance, failed to find it, and died
+believing that they were mistaken. About ten years later Balboa climbed
+to the top of a tree not far from where Culebra Cut is located and saw
+the "Big Water." Four hundred years later almost to the day the water
+was turned into the canal and thus America united the world's greatest oceans.</p>
+
+<p>After completing the Suez Canal and thus uniting the world's greatest
+seas, the French people believed they could dig across the Isthmus of
+Panama, but digging through Culebra Cut thousands of miles from home was
+much different from digging across the level plain of Suez only a few
+hundred miles away. A canal without locks is entirely different from one
+where great ocean liners must be lifted eighty-five feet above sea level.</p>
+
+<p>Then Panama was a jungle, where disease-carrying mosquitoes were
+swarming in districts where heat was almost unbearable. True, their
+medical skill was the best and their hospitals of the latest design, but
+where they cured hundreds thousands died like flies. Added to all these
+disadvantages was extravagance and waste, greed and graft, mismanagement
+and misappropriation of funds to say nothing of palaces and princely
+salaries for officials.</p>
+
+<p>The result was that after spending more than two hundred million dollars
+of the people's money, the whole scheme collapsed, and the work stopped.
+De Lesseps himself was arrested, disgraced, and imprisoned and died with
+a broken heart a little later in an insane asylum. The French had worked
+seven years, and now for four years not a wheel turned. Then they
+organized a new <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>company and worked at intervals ten years more until
+1903, when we bought them out. During these years a half dozen nations
+developed projects and made surveys but no digging was done except by
+the French until we took charge in 1904.</p>
+
+<p>The Canal Zone is a strip of land ten miles wide across the Isthmus of
+Panama, the distance being about forty miles from shore to shore. It is
+less than this, however, in a straight line. The canal runs from
+northwest to southeast, the Atlantic end at the north being about
+twenty-two miles west of the Pacific end at the south. This seems rather
+strange but we must remember that the Isthmus is in the shape of the
+letter S and it so happens that the shortest point runs in the direction named.</p>
+
+<p>Of course it would have been impossible for us to have dug the canal
+without a tremendous loss of life had it not been for the advance of
+medical science. Until we took charge this was one of the worst
+fever-infested districts on the globe. But just about this time it was
+discovered that the mosquito carries the germ of yellow fever and other
+contagious diseases. These pests breed in stagnant water and it was
+discovered that kerosene on the water forms a film on the surface that
+means death to the newborn mosquito. Then began one of the greatest
+battles of all history, the fight to eradicate the mosquito pest.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Gorgas had charge of the forces and he was determined to do the
+job well. Tracts of the jungle were burned over, ditches to drain
+stagnant pools were dug, and every barrel was looked after. Hundreds of
+Negroes with oil cans sprayed almost every nook and corner of the Zone
+with kerosene. Houses were screened, every case of sickness was looked
+after, and the result was soon manifest. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> mighty victory was won by
+Gorgas and today the Canal Zone is as healthful as any tropical country
+on earth. Of course, people criticized and joked about the mosquito
+brigade, but the colonel went ahead pouring oil upon the water, cleaning
+up filth, and compelling sanitary measures, paying not the slightest
+attention to the harping critics.</p>
+
+<p>At the north end of the Zone are the cities of Cristobal and Colon, the
+latter in Panama. The fact is they are practically one city, the
+railroad being the dividing line. While Cristobal is clean and beautiful
+much of Colon is dirty and rum soaked. Somebody said to me: "Colon is
+that part of the city where you can buy a drink," and it sure looks it.</p>
+
+<p>While it is only about forty miles across the isthmus yet the canal is
+fifty miles long. The fact is they had to dredge out to deep water which
+is about five miles at each end. Entering the channel at the north it is
+about seven miles to the Gatun locks. There are three pairs of these
+locks and they lift the vessel to Gatun Lake, which is eighty-five feet
+above sea level. It is twenty-four miles across this lake to Culebra
+Cut, which extends about nine miles through the hills, and to the first
+lock on the Pacific side. This lock lowers the ship about thirty feet to
+Miraflores Lake, which is a little more than a mile in length. Here are
+two pairs of locks which lowers the ship to sea level and then it is
+about eight miles or a little more to deep water. Counting all the
+distance occupied by the locks we have the fifty miles.</p>
+
+<p>Gatun Lake was made by a great dam across the Chagres river. This dam is
+a stupendous piece of work, being a half mile wide at the bottom, a mile
+and a half long, and more than one hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> feet high. A gigantic
+spillway allows the surface water to run over. During the dry season,
+about four months, the river does not supply enough water to run the
+locks so Gatun Lake must furnish the supply. This lake at present covers
+one hundred and sixty-four square miles, and last year it was lowered
+five feet during the dry season. The land has been purchased for the
+extension of the lake and the great spillway can be raised twenty feet
+higher if necessary so that a shortage of water is practically impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Each lock in the canal is a thousand feet long, one hundred and ten feet
+wide, and the average height about thirty feet, so they hold a
+tremendous amount of water. Every ship passing through empties two lock
+chambers full of water into the ocean at each end. It is an interesting
+fact that at the Atlantic the tide only makes a difference of two and a
+half feet, at the Pacific side the difference is more than twenty feet.
+While the low lock gates at the Atlantic side are sixty-four feet high
+the low lock gates at the Pacific side are eighty-two feet high.</p>
+
+<p>I was permitted to go into the control station tower at the Gatun lock
+system and see three ships taken through, also into the tunnels below to
+see the machinery in operation and it is a sight never to be forgotten.
+To take a ship through these locks the operator sets in motion twice
+ninety-eight gigantic electric motors and it is all done without an
+audible word being spoken. Every possible emergency has been provided
+for. Could an enemy ship by any manner of means get into the canal and
+undertake to ram the gates it would be helpless as far as any damage is
+concerned. Mighty chains guard the gates and it is impossible to get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>
+the gates closed without these chains being raised to their places.
+Emergency gates are provided so the water can all be shut off, the locks
+emptied and repairs made in the bottoms of the lock chambers, if necessary.</p>
+
+<p>At the continental divide the Culebra Cut is almost five hundred feet
+deep and more than a half mile wide at the top. The channel itself is
+three hundred feet wide and forty-five feet deep. There have been half a
+hundred slides and a single one of them brought down an area of
+seventy-five acres. Think of a seventy-five acre field all sliding in at
+once, every foot of which had to be dug out!</p>
+
+<p>The worst trouble was when the bottom bulged up from below. Some little
+time before my visit a large tree came up from the bottom. It had been
+rolled in by one of those fearful slides and long afterwards came up
+from the bottom. Somebody has figured out that if all the dirt that has
+been taken from Culebra Cut was loaded on railroad cars they would, if
+coupled together, make a train that would reach around the world four times.</p>
+
+<p>The canal cost about four hundred million dollars. The tolls now amount
+to almost a million dollars a month so it is more than paying expenses.
+The ship upon which I passed through paid seven thousand dollars toll,
+but it was one of the largest ships that pass through. Now that the
+danger from slides is practically over and trade routes are being
+established it ought to be a paying investment.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Seven Wonders of the World</span></h3>
+
+<p>A few years ago the editor of one of the great magazines of America sent
+out a thousand letters to as many scientists and great men scattered
+among all civilized nations in an effort to get the consensus of opinion
+as to what might be called the seven wonders of the modern world. A
+ballot was prepared containing fifty-six subjects of scientific and
+mechanical achievement and blank spaces in which other subjects might be
+written. Each man was asked to designate the seven he felt were entitled
+to a place on the list. He, of course, was not confined to the printed
+list and could write in others that were better entitled to a place than
+those on the printed list.</p>
+
+<p>About seventy per cent of these ballots were returned properly marked
+and the result was most interesting indeed. At once it was discovered
+that a complete change in human intelligence or judgment has taken place
+since the ancient Greeks made their list of the seven wonders of the
+world. Today the standard of measurement as to what should be classed in
+such a list is <i>service to humanity</i>, while in the old days the standard
+of measurement was or at least had largely to do with brute force.</p>
+
+<p>It is not surprising, therefore, that wireless telegraphy should have
+the highest place on the list. Guglielmo Marconi is far more worthy to
+be remembered than the king who built the great Pyramid in Egypt. This
+brilliant Italian, when but fifteen years of age was reveling in the
+dreamland wonders of electricity and when but twenty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> had the theory
+practically worked out and his patience and enthusiasm were simply
+amazing. He actually tried more than two thousand experiments along a
+single line before he was able to demonstrate the truth of one of his own theories.</p>
+
+<p>No one crosses the Atlantic Ocean these days who is not impressed with
+the marvels of this wonderful discovery. Through it the seven seas have
+became great whispering galleries. One of the greatest races the writer
+ever saw he did not see at all. For three days and nights two great
+ocean liners raced across the deep and never came in sight of each other
+at all. Yet every few hours we all knew just which ship was gaining and
+it was really a most exciting race. A few hours after Roosevelt was shot
+in Milwaukee I heard the news by wireless although I was on board a ship
+in the China Sea on the other side of the world.</p>
+
+<p>The telephone was given second place in the list of modern wonders. It
+is hard to realize that the telephone only dates back to 1875. It was
+during that year that Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant, Thomas A.
+Watson, were making experiments in a building in Boston. Mr. Watson was
+in the basement with an instrument trying without success to talk with
+Mr. Bell in the room above. Finally the latter made a little change in
+the instrument and spoke and Mr. Watson came rushing upstairs greatly
+excited, saying: "Why, Mr. Bell, I heard your voice distinctly and could
+almost understand what you were saying."</p>
+
+<p>The next year the imperfect telephone was exhibited at the Centennial in
+Philadelphia, but for a time it was the laughing stock of most people
+and hardly anyone ever dreamed that it would ever be more than a mere
+plaything. One day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> Dom Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil, who knew Mr. Bell
+personally, came in. With him was Sir William Thompson, the great
+English scientist. The emperor was given the receiver and placed it to
+his ear and was suddenly startled, saying: "My God, it speaks." This
+amused all, but greatly interested the man of science and thus the
+telephone was brought into prominence. While at the World's Fair in San
+Francisco I sat with a receiver and heard a man speaking in New York as
+plainly as though he were in the next room. Sitting within the sound of
+the waves of the Pacific, I was connected up with Atlantic City and
+heard the waves of the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>The third largest number of votes were given to the aeroplane and since
+the birdmen played such a part in the world war these scientists were
+correct in giving the flying machine a place among the wonders of the
+modern world. The fourth place was given to Radium, the fifth to
+Antiseptics and Antitoxines, the sixth to Spectrum Analysis, and the
+seventh to the marvelous X-Ray. Had eight subjects been called for the
+Panama Canal would have had a place, for it lacked but eleven votes of
+tie for seventh place. It can, therefore, be called the eighth wonder of the modern world.</p>
+
+<p>How different were the ideas of men during the days of ancient Greece.
+It is a remarkable fact that among the seven wonders of the ancient
+world only one of them was of any real service to humanity. True, one or
+two of them served as tombs for the dead and one of them was a sort of a
+pleasure resort, but it proved a curse rather than a blessing. The one
+of real service was the Pharos, or lighthouse, at Alexandria, Egypt.
+This was a gigantic structure more than four hundred feet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> high on the
+top of which a great fire was kept burning at night, thus serving as a
+lighthouse. The structure was so large at the base and the winding
+roadway so spacious that it is said a team of horses could be driven to
+the summit. The entire building has long since disappeared, but while in
+Alexandria its location was pointed out to me.</p>
+
+<p>In the list of ancient wonders, however, the Pyramids of Egypt were
+given first place. There are seventy-seven of these pyramids altogether.
+Three of them are located less than a dozen miles from Cairo, the others
+being up the river Nile a half day's journey. The largest is known as
+the Pyramid of Cheops and is nearest Cairo. It covers thirteen acres of
+ground and is four hundred and fifty feet high. My first sight of it was
+a disappointment for after all it is nothing but a pile of stone, and
+seems smaller to the eye than it really is. When one walks along by its
+side and begins the ascent to the top, however, its immensity begins to
+grow and impress the mind.</p>
+
+<p>Heroditus, the Father of History, says a hundred thousand men worked on
+this pyramid at one time and that it took twenty years to build it. It
+was scientifically and mathematically constructed ages before modern
+science or mathematics were born. The one who planned it knew that the
+earth is a sphere and that its motion is rotary. It is said that in all
+the thousands of years since it was built not a single fact in astronomy
+or mathematics has been discovered to contradict the wisdom of those who constructed it.</p>
+
+<p>On the north side of the pyramid, about fifty feet up, there is a narrow
+tunnel that runs down at an angle of twenty-six degrees to the center of
+the field that forms its base. The tunnel is so true that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> from the
+bottom one can see the star, that is near the North Star, which is
+supposed to have been directly in the north when the structure was
+built. After you have descended eighty-five feet in this tunnel there is
+another tunnel that runs up to the center of the structure where there
+are some large rooms or chambers. The pyramid was supposed to have been
+built for a tomb and these rooms are called the king's chamber, the
+queen's chamber, etc. In these rooms there are large mummy cases, but
+they are empty at the present time. One great satisfaction for me in
+visiting the pyramids was the fulfilling of a life-long desire to see
+all that is left of the seven wonders of the ancient world.</p>
+
+<p>The third ancient wonder was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. These
+gardens were in reality a great artificial mountain built upon massive
+arches. It was four hundred feet high and terraced on all sides and
+according to historians beautiful beyond description. Not only were
+beautiful flowers and shrubbery kept growing, but large forest trees as
+well. On approaching it this great mountain seemed to be suspended or
+hanging in the air&mdash;hence the name. Water was brought from the river and
+the ruins of these vast waterworks are said to be the marvel of civil
+engineers even to this day.</p>
+
+<p>It seems that these hanging gardens were built to please the wife of one
+of the most powerful monarchs of the old days. This queen had been
+brought up among the hills, and as Babylon was located on a great level
+plain she was dissatisfied and pined away for the hills and forests of
+her home land. To please her the king accomplished this mighty work.
+Today the whole thing, in fact, the entire city of Babylon, is nothing
+but a pile of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> ruins. Portions of the city have been excavated, however,
+and old records have been found in the ruins that throw light on many
+customs and phases of life in those days. Even the paving brick were
+stamped with the name of the king and anyone who visits the British
+Museum in London can see samples of them today.</p>
+
+<p>The next in the list of ancient wonders was the Temple of Diana at
+Ephesus. It is said that this temple was two hundred years in building.
+It was more than four hundred feet long and half as wide. The foundation
+was made earthquake-proof. The temple proper was supported by one
+hundred and twenty-seven columns which were sixty feet high. Each of
+these columns was a gift from a king. They tell us that the great
+stairway was carved from a single grapevine and that the cypress wood
+doors were kept in glue a lifetime before they were hung on their hinges.</p>
+
+<p>The image on the top of this temple was said to have fallen from heaven,
+but in reality it was carved from ebony and the men who did the work
+were put to death so they could not deny its celestial origin. It is
+said that around this image stood statues which by an ingenious
+invention could be made to shed tears. Another invention moistened the
+air in the temple with sweet perfume. The treasures of nations and the
+spoil of kingdoms were brought here for safe keeping and criminals from
+all nations fled to this temple, for when they reached it no law could
+touch them. No wonder that when the preaching of the Apostle Paul
+interfered with the business of the tradesmen who sold souvenirs of the
+image that they gathered up a mob and cried out for the space of two
+hours: "Great is Diana of the Ephesians," and ran<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> the apostle from the
+city. Today this temple with the city itself is nothing but ruins.</p>
+
+<p>Passing not far from the Island of Rhodes some years ago I tried to at
+least imagine that I could see the great statue called the Colossus of
+Rhodes which was given a place among these seven ancient wonders, but as
+not a vestige of it remains on the island it required a great stretch of
+the imagination to behold it. But although given this prominence it was
+not as large or as beautiful as the Statute of Liberty that graces New
+York harbor. It only took twelve years to build it and after standing
+fifty-six years it was overthrown by an earthquake and after nearly a
+thousand years the metal was used for other purposes. The other ancient
+wonders were the Statue of Jupiter that was made of ivory and gold by
+Phidias, and the Mausoleum of Artemisia. Both of these have long since
+passed out of existence.</p>
+
+<p>Brute force is no longer the measure of power or influence. Neither are
+towering structures or mighty tombs. The standard of measurement these
+days is the ability to serve. We are learning that the Galilean
+carpenter told the truth when he said: "He who would be great among you
+let him be servant of all." Service is one of the greatest words in
+human language. The man, or the institution, or the magazine that can
+render the greatest measure of service to the largest number of people
+is more powerful and influential than all the seven wonders of the
+ancient world put together.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Birdseye Views of Far Lands, by James T. Nichols
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+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's Birdseye Views of Far Lands, by James T. Nichols
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Birdseye Views of Far Lands
+
+Author: James T. Nichols
+
+Release Date: March 16, 2009 [EBook #28340]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRDSEYE VIEWS OF FAR LANDS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Peter Vachuska, Chuck Greif, Martin Pettit and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BIRDSEYE VIEWS OF FAR LANDS
+
+_by_
+
+JAMES T. NICHOLS
+
+Author of "Lands of Sacred Story," "The World Around," etc.
+
+Published by
+JAMES T. NICHOLS
+University Place Station
+DES MOINES, IOWA
+
+Copyrighted 1922
+
+
+[Illustration: JAMES T. NICHOLS]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Birdseye Views of Far Lands is an interesting, wholesome presentation of
+something that a keen-eyed, alert traveler with the faculty of making
+contrasts with all classes of people in all sorts of places, in such a
+sympathetic way as to win their esteem and confidence, has been able to
+pick up as he has roamed over the face of the earth for a quarter of a
+century.
+
+The book is not a geography, a history, a treatise on sociology or
+political economy. It is a _Human Interest_ book which appeals to the
+reader who would like to go as the writer has gone and to see as the
+writer has seen the conformations of surface, the phenomena of nature
+and the human group that make up what we call a "world."
+
+The reader finds facts indicating travel and study set forth in such
+vigorous, vivid style that the attention is held by a story while most
+valuable information is being obtained. The casual reader, the pupil in
+the public school and student in the high school, professional men and
+women, will all find the book at once highly interesting and
+instructive. In no other book with which I am acquainted can so much
+that is interesting be learned of the world in so short time and in such
+a pleasing way.
+
+Teachers in rural schools will find the book especially helpful. It will
+inspire the pupils in the upper grades in these schools to do some
+observation work themselves and to in this manner seek to learn their
+own localities better, while at the same time it will suggest the
+collection of materials about other countries, their peoples, products,
+characteristics and importance from sources other than text books.
+
+_Every rural school as well as every high school and public library in
+the land should have one or more copies of this book._
+
+W. F. BARR
+
+_Dean College of Education
+Drake University_
+
+
+
+
+AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT
+
+
+The contents of this book have appeared, in substance, in Successful
+Farming, a magazine that has a circulation of more than eight hundred
+and fifty thousand copies per issue, and the book is published largely
+at the request of many of the readers of this journal.
+
+The author began traveling in foreign countries many years ago. Some of
+the countries described in the book have been visited many times and
+often with unusual opportunity to see places and people as they really
+are.
+
+When the writer began traveling it was with no thought of ever writing
+for a magazine or publishing a book. It is only natural, however, that
+one would read what others say about the countries he expected to visit.
+Travel books and articles were often read in public libraries and the
+habit was formed of making extensive notes, sometimes entire sentences
+being copied in notebook without the use of quotation marks or any
+reference whatever to the author. It is therefore impossible to give
+credit where credit is often due.
+
+No literary merit is claimed for the book. The information was gained in
+every possible way and the book is sent forth hoping that it will be
+suggestive and helpful, especially to those who find it impossible to
+visit foreign lands. If the eye of an author of a book or magazine
+article should read the following pages and fall upon a thought or
+sentence that is familiar it will be evidence that your book or article
+was very helpful to the one who writes these lines. This book is simply
+an effort to pass some of the worth while things on to others.
+
+"Jas. T. Nichols" [handwritten signature.]
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                                        PAGE
+
+    I   The Land of Opposites--China                              5
+
+   II   The Pearl of the Orient--Philippines                     12
+
+  III   The Country America Opened to Civilization--Japan        20
+
+   IV   The Transformation of a Nation--Korea                    28
+
+    V   A Great Unknown Land--Manchuria                          35
+
+   VI   The Land of Sorrow--Siberia                              43
+
+  VII   The Home of Bolshevism--Russia                           51
+
+ VIII   The Nation That Conquers the Sea--Holland                58
+
+   IX   The Nation That the World Honors--Belgium                65
+
+    X   A Glimpse of America's Friend--France                    73
+
+   XI   Some Impressions of the Great Peace Conference           81
+
+  XII   The Nightmare of Europe--Alsace-Lorraine                 88
+
+ XIII   The Home of the Passion Play--Oberammergau               95
+
+  XIV   The Country Where the War Started--Servia               102
+
+   XV   A World-Famous Land--Palestine                          110
+
+  XVI   A World-Famous City--Jerusalem                          116
+
+ XVII   A World-Famous River--The Jordan                        122
+
+XVIII   The Playground of Moses--Egypt                          128
+
+  XIX   A Country With a Thousand Rivers--Venezuela             136
+
+   XX   A Land of Great Industries--Brazil                      143
+
+  XXI   Uruguay and Paraguay                                    151
+
+ XXII   The Wonderful Argentine Republic                        158
+
+XXIII   Yankeedom of South America--Chile                       165
+
+ XXIV   The Switzerland of South America--Bolivia               173
+
+  XXV   The Land of Mystery--Peru                               179
+
+ XXVI   The World's Great Crossroad--Panama Canal               186
+
+XXVII   The Seven Wonders of the World                          193
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE LAND OF OPPOSITES--CHINA
+
+
+A half century ago the world laughed at Jules Verne for imagining that
+it would ever be possible to go around the world in eighty days. It was
+not until years later that Nellie Bly, a reporter, actually encircled
+the globe in that space of time. Now we are dreaming of making such a
+journey in ten days and our aeroplanes are flying at a rate of speed
+that would take one around the world in eight days. At this hour
+thousands of young men can handle these flyers as easily and with almost
+as little danger as they can handle an automobile. With aerial mail
+routes already established in many countries it will not be long until
+mail service by aeroplane will be established around the world.
+
+This book is a series of Birdseye Views of Far Lands something the same
+as one would see on a flying visit to various countries. In this way it
+will be possible to get glimpses of countries on every continent in one
+small volume and thus give interesting and valuable information about
+countries and peoples in all parts of the world. Young people especially
+are in the mind of the writer. As most of the information was secured by
+rambling through these countries and rubbing elbows with the common
+people it will be difficult to keep from using the personal pronoun
+quite often.
+
+It is fitting that our first view be of China which is one of the oldest
+civilizations on the earth. This great agricultural people have tilled
+the same soil for forty centuries and in most cases it yet produces more
+per acre than the soil of perhaps any other country. The Chinese are a
+great people. Although they are just awakening from a sleep that has
+lasted twenty centuries or more, yet the world can learn many valuable
+lessons from them. They used to embody the genius of the world and even
+yet have skill along certain lines that is simply amazing. Many of the
+great inventions that have blessed the world and which we are using
+today were wrought out by these people and it will not be out of place
+here to recount some of their achievements.
+
+The Chinese invented printing five hundred years before Caxton was born
+and the Peking Gazette is said to be the oldest newspaper in the world.
+They invented paper nearly eighteen centuries ago and had books hundreds
+of years before the days of Gutenburg. They invented the compass twenty
+centuries before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. They invented gunpowder
+ages ago and were the first people to use firearms. They used banknotes
+and bills of exchange long before other nations, and the modern adding
+machine is founded upon a principle which has been used by them a
+thousand years. They discovered the process of rearing the silkworm and
+they dressed in silk when our forefathers wore clothing made of the
+skins of animals. The writer has crossed the Atlantic more than a dozen
+times on ships with watertight compartments, a so-called modern safety
+device, but the Chinese had watertight compartments in their junks
+hundreds of years before modern steamships were ever dreamed about.
+
+To the Chinese we must credit the making of asbestos, the manufacture of
+lacquer, the carving of ivory and many other important industries. Even
+today they make the finest dishes and the best pottery. At one time
+they built a tower two hundred and fifty-six feet high entirely of
+porcelain. Ages ago they dug the longest and in some respects the
+greatest canal ever dug on earth, the Grand Canal of China, which was a
+thousand miles long and some of which is in use to this day. They built
+the Great Wall of China which was fifteen hundred miles in length and
+which was a greater undertaking than the building of the Pyramids of
+Egypt.
+
+The Chinese were the first people to coin money in a mint; the first to
+have a standard of weights and measures; the first to have a system of
+marking time. They had a celestial globe, an observatory, and noted the
+movements of heavenly bodies more than four thousand years ago. A
+Chinaman was the first to distill and use intoxicating liquor and for
+this he was dismissed from the public service by the ruler who said,
+"This will cost someone a kingdom some day." They are industrious,
+resourceful and skillful and should they become warriors and introduce
+modern methods and instruments of warfare the world would be up against
+the most frightful peril of all ages. Napoleon Bonaparte said of China,
+"Yonder sleeps a mighty giant and when it awakens it will make the whole
+world tremble."
+
+The Chinese are one of the strongest races of people in existence. They
+have only been conquered twice but in both cases they absorbed their
+conquerors and made Chinese of them. Although old, out of date and slow,
+they have principles in their civilization that will last as long as
+time, and China will be a great nation long after some of the so-called
+great nations now in existence are forgotten.
+
+With the exception of Russia as it was before the world war, the
+Chinese Empire is perhaps the largest the world has ever known. Its
+population comprises one-fourth of the human race. If the single state
+of Texas were as densely populated as at least one of the provinces of
+China, there would be living in this one state more than two hundred
+million people or nearly twice as many people as are now living in the
+whole United States. The resources of this great country are almost
+boundless. There is said to be coal enough in China to furnish the whole
+world fuel for a thousand years. While in China I was told of one
+mountain that has five veins of coal that can be seen without throwing a
+shovelful of dirt. Some years ago the German government investigated the
+iron resources of China and published the fact that they are the finest
+in the world. This no doubt explains one reason why Germany was trying
+to get a foothold in China.
+
+But in agriculture the Chinese shine. As noted above they have tilled
+the same soil for four thousand years. Some of this soil too is very
+thin and poor but it produces as well today as it did a thousand years
+ago. While most of their methods are the oldest and crudest that can be
+found, yet in some other ways the whole world can learn lessons from
+them. They use fertilizer in the form of liquid and put it on the
+growing plant rather than on the soil as we do. The farmer will feed his
+plants with the same regularity and care that our farmers feed and care
+for their horses and cattle. Every drop of urine and every particle of
+night soil is preserved for fertilizer. This is saved in earthen jars
+and gathered, mostly by women, each morning. A Chinese contractor paid
+the city of Shanghai $31,000 in gold in a single year for the privilege
+of collecting the human waste and selling it to the farmers around near
+the city. Where a beast of burden is at work a boy or girl is near with
+a long handled dipper ready to catch the urine and droppings as they
+fall.
+
+In China the farmers have always been held in high esteem. While the
+scholar is highest, the farmer is second on the list in the social
+scale. It is interesting to know that the soldier is fifth or last on
+the list because his work is to destroy rather than to build up. The hoe
+is an emblem of honor in China. For hundreds of years the Emperor with
+his nobles went every spring to the Temple of Agriculture to offer
+sacrifice. After this ceremony they all went to a field near the temple
+and paid honor to the tillers of the soil. At a yellow painted plow, to
+which was hitched a cow or buffalo, with a yellow robed peasant leading,
+the Emperor dressed as a farmer put his hand to the plow and turned nine
+furrows across the field while bands of musicians chanted the praises of
+agriculture. Even the Empress set the example of honest agricultural
+toil by picking the leaves from the mulberry trees, early each spring,
+to be fed to silk worms.
+
+All China is a network of canals and the Chinese are a race of
+irrigators. Both men and women stand from daylight until dark walking on
+a sort of a windlass turning an endless chain with buckets on it, one
+end of which is in the canal and the other end up on the bank, pumping
+the water up to flood the rice fields or irrigate the growing crops. No
+people toil harder or more earnestly than do these simple people. While
+they grow an abundance of vegetables, yet rice and tea are the greatest
+products of China.
+
+The great rivers of the empire are so liable to disastrous floods that
+in many of the lower lands the people content themselves with fishing
+and raising geese and ducks. A duck farm is most interesting. A large
+shed by the river, or a raft, will serve as a shelter for the night. The
+farmer of course sleeps in this shed. Early in the morning he opens the
+door and out come the ducks. At night they return from every direction
+scrambling over each other to get in. The Chinaman sits near the door
+with a long bamboo pole herding them in. He even trains drakes to assist
+him and they care for the flock something like a good shepherd dog will
+care for sheep.
+
+The Chinese do nearly everything backward or opposite from the way we do
+it. The reading in their books begins at the end. Instead of across the
+page the lines are up and down with footnotes at the top. The Chinaman
+laughs at a funeral and cries at a wedding. He beckons you to come when
+he wants you to go away. Instead of shaking his friend's hand in
+greeting him he shakes his own hands. When he gets puzzled instead of
+scratching his head as we do he kicks off his shoe and scratches the
+bottom of his foot. When he gets mad at another he kills himself
+imagining that his dead spirit will haunt the enemy and make life
+miserable for him. Men often do crochet work while women dig ditches and
+drive piling. Men wear petticoats and women wear trousers.
+
+The Chinese launch ships sideways. Their compass points to the south. In
+building a house they make the roof first and the foundation is the last
+thing they put in. The key in the door turns backward to lock it. The
+kitchen is in the front while the best room is in the back of the house.
+When a Chinaman sprinkles clothes for ironing purposes he uses his mouth
+as the sprinkler. I never had a collar washed in China that was not
+ironed wrong side out. He pays the doctor when he is well and stops the
+pay the moment he gets sick. You can almost bank on a Chinaman doing
+anything the opposite from the way you do it and he laughs at your way
+as much as you do at his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE PEARL OF THE ORIENT--PHILIPPINES
+
+
+Of all the islands in the eastern seas, none are more interesting than
+our own Philippines. Like the genuine pearl which is the result of a
+bruise and the outcome of suffering, these pearls of the far east are
+said by geologists to be the result of great volcanic forces that tore
+them away from the continent and set them out six hundred miles as "gems
+in the ocean." More than three thousand there are of these islands all
+together, and their combined area is nearly equal to that of Japan or
+California. I visited the Philippines a short time before the world war
+broke out and at that time there were seven million acres of arable land
+unoccupied and some of it could be entered and purchased for ten cents
+per acre.
+
+This is a land where the storms of winter never blow but where from
+month to month and age to age there is good old summer time. Children
+are born, grow to manhood, old age, and die without ever seeing fire to
+keep them warm for they never need it. A range of twenty degrees is
+about all that the spirits in the thermometer ever show, for the minimum
+is seventy-two and the maximum ninety-two degrees. While the nights are
+cool and the days warm, yet a case of sunstroke was never known and but
+once in a generation has a hundred in the shade been recorded.
+
+About the most unpleasant feature is the little tiny ants. They find
+their way into everything. Table legs must be placed in jars of water
+and yet they find their way to the top of the tables. Then there is
+dampness everywhere. Books soon become mildewed or unglued and the
+finest library will soon have the appearance of a secondhand bookshop.
+
+Almost all kinds of tropical fruits can be raised in the Philippines. I
+drove out from Manila to the home of Mr. Lyon, who is a regular Burbank.
+He located on some of the worst soil to be found and undertook to
+demonstrate that anything that will grow on any spot on the earth will
+grow there and he practically succeeded. He has sent to India,
+California, Egypt and nearly everywhere for the rarest orchids and most
+delicate plants. To eat of the fruits of every kind of tree and hear him
+tell the story of plants and shrubs and trees in his Garden of Eden is
+an experience one cannot forget.
+
+The story of how these islands came into our possession is still fresh
+and vivid in the memory of thousands. Spanish cruelty had reached the
+climax and Admiral Dewey was commanded to "find the Spanish fleet and
+sink it to the bottom of the sea." As the great ship upon which I went
+into and out of this harbor plowed the waves I lived over again that
+marvelous May day in 1898. It was one of the great days in our history.
+As the fleet entered the harbor word came to the flagship that they were
+entering a territory covered with submarine mines, yet Admiral Dewey
+signaled, "Steam ahead." A little later word came that they were in
+direct range of the guns at the fort and once more the Admiral signaled
+"Steam ahead." Still later word came that they were entering the most
+dangerous mine-infested district of all and were liable any instant to
+be blown to atoms, and once more the fearless Admiral signaled "Steam
+ahead." The result was that the long dark night of Spanish rule was
+ended and a new era was ushered in.
+
+The transformation brought about since that memorable day is almost
+unbelievable. The whole country has been revolutionized. Railroads and
+macadamized roads have been built with steel and concrete bridges and
+where it used to be almost impassable it is now a pleasure to travel.
+Schools and colleges have been established. A bureau of labor has
+averted many strikes. A constabulary force of nearly five thousand men
+has done wonders in suppressing brigandage, bringing the savage tribes
+into subjection and preserving the peace in general. This force is
+somewhat similar to the mounted police system of Saskatchewan in Canada
+and is a terror to evil doers.
+
+A bureau of health has transformed the city of Manila from a
+fever-infested hotbed of contagious diseases to one of the most
+healthful cities on the globe. Six thousand lepers have been collected
+and established in a colony on an island. The number of cases of
+small-pox has been reduced from forty thousand to a few hundred per
+year. Cholera, which used to sweep away tens of thousands is almost
+unknown. With a dozen or more great hospitals and more than three
+hundred boards of health, great things have been accomplished.
+
+I was much interested in the report of Francis Burton Harrison who was a
+recent governor general of the Philippines who said, "During the war
+this race of people was intensely and devotedly loyal to the cause of
+the United States. It raised a division of Filipino volunteers for
+federal service and presented destroyers and a submarine to the United
+States Navy; it oversubscribed its quota in Liberty bonds and gave
+generously to Red Cross and other war work. America was criticised and
+even ridiculed for her altruism in dealing with this problem. The idea
+of training tropical people for independence was thought to be
+idealistic and impracticable. The result was quite to the contrary. Once
+more idealism has been shown to be the moving force in working out the
+destinies of nations. That is what America has done to the Philippines."
+
+"If the city of Manila could, by some genius of modern times, be laid
+down in Europe and ticketed, labeled, bill-posted and guide-booked, it
+would be famous," says one authority. The city contains an area of more
+than fifteen square miles and is more densely populated per mile of
+street than New York. When civil government was established in 1901 the
+conditions were deplorable. The streets were narrow and filthy and there
+was no sewer system to speak of. The river and dirty canals divided and
+subdivided the city. There was practically no water system and disease
+and death lurked in almost every shadow.
+
+Now the city is fast becoming one of the world's great cities and one of
+the most healthful cities on the globe. The streets have been widened,
+many of them, and are kept clean. A water system brings pure water to
+almost every household and a great sewer system takes away the filth.
+The Manila Hotel is worth a million and a park or square on the water
+front covers hundreds of acres of ground.
+
+The great Y. M. C. A. buildings were thronged as in no other city the
+writer ever visited. The fire department is up-to-date, the police
+system well organized, and even in the great Bilibid prison the reforms
+introduced are second to none in any prison. This prison covers
+seventeen acres of ground, making it one of the largest in the world.
+Many of its fifty buildings are built around a circle and in the tower
+at the center, watchmen, who can see the entire prison, stand night and
+day.
+
+Through the kindness of the officials the writer was allowed to go into
+this tower one afternoon as the five thousand prisoners came from the
+shops, formed into companies and went through a thirty-minute drill. The
+band played throughout and as the men were formed into companies we from
+the tower could see each individual company although they were hidden
+from each other. The great body of men moved like the wheels of a great
+clock. They stood, knelt, touched hands, lay down, arose, walked and
+exercised, keeping time with the music in a way that was wonderful to
+behold. Cells for prisoners have long since been done away. They mingle
+in companies in large sunny, clean, dormitories, where they visit, read
+and sing.
+
+In the heart of Manila there remains "all that is mortal" of one of the
+most interesting spots in the eastern world. It is the old, old capital
+city and its story is the story of the Philippines. The old walls of
+this inner city were built some four hundred years ago and could they
+speak, the whole world would listen with amazement and horror. There
+were seven gates in this old wall and they were closed and opened by
+means of gigantic windlasses.
+
+Then, too, the story of the old Fort Santiago almost rivals that of the
+Tower of London. Here were found, when we took it, mysterious
+underground passages, store rooms and magazines, dark and hidden
+chambers some of which were nearly half filled with skeletons. The
+stories that center around this old fort make one shudder to hear them.
+Possibly they are exaggerated, but there are many today who believe
+them. As an example, we are told that a woman had been walled up in a
+cell, with only a small opening through which food was shoved in, the
+day her baby was born and when the Americans came they found her and her
+sixteen-year-old child in this dark room. The child had never had even a
+glimpse of the sunlight.
+
+When I climbed upon this old fort and saw the stars and stripes waving
+in the breeze, where for more than three hundred years the Spanish
+emblem had terrorized the people, I thought of the mighty changes that
+the American flag had brought. That memorable day in 1898 when our own
+General Merritt met the Spanish governor-general and arranged for the
+surrender of the city, was one of the greatest days in the history of
+the orient.
+
+People in Manila slept but little that eventful night for somehow they
+had gotten the idea that the coming morning would be their day of doom.
+When the sun arose they hardly breathed. For a whole week they were
+afraid to venture from their homes. But there was no pillage, no plunder
+and no bloodshed. When the amazed people found courage to venture out,
+their astonishment knew no bounds. It was almost too good to be true
+that American occupation meant the dawning of a new, and for them, a
+glorious day, and it is not surprising that such a report could be given
+as Governor General Harrison submitted in 1919.
+
+Soon after he came from the Philippines I heard Rev. Homer C. Stuntz
+recount many of his experiences there and will give a single one of
+these as memory recalls it. As Bishop of the Methodist church he had
+been there about six months when one day a fine looking young Filipino
+came to his home and asked for a private interview. He insisted on
+having doors and windows closed and blinds all down. Mr. Stuntz said he
+had no idea what the man wanted. When they were alone with door locked
+and with evidence of great agitation the young man said: "I have come
+many miles to see you and ask you a question that means more to us
+Filipinos than any other question that I could ask." Mr. Stuntz said
+that as yet he had no idea what was troubling the man until he
+continued: "I want to know, sir, if it is now safe--the soldiers say it
+is, but I cannot believe it--to have a copy of the Protestant Bible in
+my house and read it to my family?"
+
+Mr. Stuntz said the whole thing seemed so strange to him that he was
+silent for a moment, when the man continued: "Sir, this is a very
+important question to us Filipinos. You know the law under which we have
+lived here is this," and quoting from section 219 of the Penal Code of
+Spain in the Philippines, said: "If any person or persons shall preach
+or teach or otherwise maintain any doctrine or doctrines not established
+by the state, he shall be deemed guilty of a crime and shall be punished
+at the discretion of the judge." Then, to the amazement of Mr. Stuntz,
+the man continued: "Under the operation of that law my own father was
+dragged from our house and we never saw him alive again. That was when I
+was eleven years old. I have supported my mother as best I could, and
+now I have a wife and two children. I want to know if it is safe."
+
+It was with a heart thrilling with pride that this great American took
+the young man to the window and as he opened the blind and the window
+itself and saw the stars and stripes proudly waving in the breeze and
+with tears running down his face said to him: "My dear man, as long as
+yonder flag waves over the city you may take the Bible and climb up on
+the ridgeboard of your house at high noon each day, three hundred and
+sixty-five days in the year and read it as loud as you can and no man
+shall harm you." Three months later Mr. Stuntz went to that man's home
+city, spoke from half past seven until midnight, announced that he would
+speak in the same building at six o'clock the next morning, and an hour
+before the appointed time five hundred people were in line waiting to
+get in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE COUNTRY AMERICA OPENED TO CIVILIZATION--JAPAN
+
+
+Three hundred and fifty years ago there were perhaps a million
+Christians in Japan. The great Jesuit missionary, Francis Xavier,
+introduced the religion of the Nazarene into Japan in 1849, and it
+spread like a prairie fire. But in the course of time the Japanese
+leaders turned against the priests and leaders of the new religion and
+undertook to obliterate everything Christian from their civilization.
+
+They placed a price upon the head of every Christian. They made what
+they called footplates, a plate about the size of a shoe sole with a
+picture of Christ upon it. When a person was brought whom they
+suspicioned as being a Christian they put this footplate down and
+commanded the accused one to stamp it. If this was done freely the
+person was allowed freedom, for they said no Christian would step on the
+face of Christ. If the accused one refused to do this the horrors of his
+torture were so great that death was a release. The writer of these
+lines has seen some of those old footplates that have been preserved to
+this day.
+
+Stone signboards were placed along the highways of Japan upon which were
+written: "So long as the sun shall continue to warm the earth, let no
+Christian be so bold as to enter Japan; and let all know that the King
+of Spain himself, or the Christian's God, or the great God of all, if he
+dare violate this command, shall pay for it with his head." I saw one of
+these old signboards on exhibition in a museum in Tokyo. Japan closed
+her ports, established a deadline around her domain and allowed no
+ships to land, shut out the world and became a hermit nation.
+
+It was the eighth of July, 1853, that a fleet of vessels boldly crossed
+the forbidden line and dropped anchor in what is now known as Yokohama
+harbor. It was Commodore Perry and the stars and stripes were waving
+from the ship masts. At once there was great excitement on shore and
+soon boats with men wearing swords were along the ships' sides trying to
+explain that they were on forbidden territory.
+
+The men in the small boats were told emphatically that only the highest
+official could come on board. One of the men represented that he was
+second in rank and when he was allowed to come on board Commodore Perry
+refused to see him. After a parley this Japanese officer was made to
+understand that the expedition bore a letter from the President of the
+United States to the Emperor of Japan and that it could be delivered
+only to the officer of the highest rank. When the Japanese officer
+produced the notifications warning all ships against entering the port,
+the lieutenant refused to receive them.
+
+Returning to the shore the officer came back to the ship in an hour or
+two saying that his superior would not receive the letter addressed to
+the Emperor; that he doubted that the Emperor would receive the letter
+at all. He was instantly informed that if the superior officer did not
+come for the letter at once the ships would proceed up the Bay of Yeddo
+and deliver the letter without him. Of course this ultimatum created
+great excitement and the officer finally asked a stay in the proceedings
+until the next day.
+
+During the night signal fires blazed from the mountain tops and bells
+sounded the hours. In the next few days the famous letter, which was
+incased in a golden box of a thousand dollars value, was delivered.
+Nothing very definite was accomplished, however, and the fleet came
+home. The next year Commodore Perry returned with a larger fleet,
+another letter, and with presents of various kinds. These consisted of
+cloth, agricultural implements, firearms and a small locomotive with
+cars and a mile of circular track for the miniature train, together with
+a telegraph line to go around it.
+
+The interest and curiosity caused by this miniature railway was
+wonderful. People walked hundreds of miles to see it. When some of the
+dignitaries were told that in the United States of America there were
+many large trains in which hundreds of passengers were carried they
+could hardly believe it. One of these officials said that if big trains
+could carry passengers little ones ought to be able to do so. It was
+then arranged for him to take a ride. With his flowing robe he was
+assisted to mount one of these little cars like as if it were a donkey.
+The whistle was blown, the steam turned on and away he went around the
+circle and it created as much excitement as a balloon once did at a
+circus in this country.
+
+Finally, it was suggested that a treaty be made between the United
+States and Japan. On board the flagship of Commodore Perry was a
+minister of the gospel who was consulted and after much discussion a
+clause was inserted giving America the right to erect or establish
+places of worship in Japan and a promise that Japan would abolish the
+practice of trampling on the face of Christ and the cross.
+
+At first our missionaries were restricted to certain localities and
+they had a time of it. Less than twenty-five years ago this treaty was
+revised and until this was done no Christian missionary could leave
+these restricted areas without permission from the Japanese government.
+This treaty also gave Japan the right to send their missionaries to the
+United States and thus we have a half hundred Buddhist temples on the
+Pacific coast at the present time.
+
+On landing at Yokohama, one of the first places I went to visit was the
+great bronze idol of Kamakura, which is but eighteen miles from
+Yokohama. It is about fifty feet high, and it is called the "Great
+Buddha" or "Diabutsa." It is a thousand years old and a horrible looking
+affair. I went up into the hollow image which is ninety-seven feet in
+diameter. I wanted to scratch the eyes out, for they are said to be made
+of solid gold. Years ago there was a temple over this image, so it is
+said, but a great tidal wave swept the building away. Now they are
+collecting money from tourists to erect another temple, so they say.
+They tackle every American for a subscription and strangely enough they
+get a lot of money out of them.
+
+Speaking of heathen temples brings to mind a large one that I visited in
+Tokyo. It is dedicated to a fox. The people used to believe, some of
+them do yet, that when one dies his spirit enters the form of some
+animal. A man is afraid to throw a rock at a dog for fear he will hit
+his old grandfather--he doesn't know but that his grandfather's spirit
+entered that particular dog. So they dedicate their temples to these
+lower animals and often take better care of animals than poor people.
+
+In this Tokyo temple mentioned there is a great image in one end of the
+building and below it a money chest nearly as large as a trunk the lid
+of which is like a hopper. Of course it takes money to keep up the
+temple and the followers of Buddha come here to worship. They always pay
+before they pray. A lot of us pray and then don't pay. Fortune tellers
+are nearly always in heathen temples. The gambling instinct abounds. The
+people too often undertake to deceive their gods by making promises that
+they will do so and so if successful when they never intend to fulfill
+the promises. It makes one's heart ache to see people bow down before
+these lifeless idols. Most of these temples are hotbeds of immorality as
+many of the treacherous priests have neither principle nor conscience.
+
+One night I went to a real Japanese hotel. Of course, in a great city
+like Tokyo, there are plenty of English or European hotels, but in this
+case I went for the experience. Before entering we had to take off our
+shoes. No person enters a real Japanese house with shoes on. However,
+they wear clogs that can be kicked off at the door. Entering a small
+vestibule of the hotel a servant bowed, seated us, took off our shoes,
+put them up like checking one's grip, brought slippers and assisted in
+putting them on, then invited us in. The proprietor bowed and began to
+apologize. The Japanese always apologize. A friend was with me and the
+landlord said that he was very sorry that he had no rooms good enough
+for such dignified guests to sleep in, but he would give us his best.
+
+Bidding us follow him he led the way upstairs. I simply could not keep
+the slippers on my feet so took them off and carried them, one in each
+hand. At the top of the stairway a door slid open and a Japanese lady
+began laughing. I expect she is telling yet about a foreigner who once
+came to the hotel who thought slippers were to wear on his hands. On
+reaching the rooms, amidst profuse apologies, he named the price which
+was double the amount named on the printed card. When my friend called
+his attention to his published prices he said: "Yes, but I will make you
+fine gentlemen a discount," and proceeded to discount the price to that
+named on his card.
+
+The city of Tokyo is a little world in itself. It contains nearly three
+million people. It covers more than twenty-eight square miles of
+territory. Its streets are generally narrow and in much of the city
+there is practically no sewer system. The refuse and night soil is all
+saved and sold for fertilizer. If a fire should get well started it
+looks like a great portion of the city would go up in smoke for most of
+the houses are of flimsy material and would burn like haystacks.
+
+They have no system of numbering houses and to hunt for some certain one
+is like hunting for a needle in a haymow. Like in all cities the people
+are pleasure loving and the parks and shows are well attended. In the
+very heart of the city is a square mile of territory given entirely up
+to the lowest form of evil. It is undoubtedly one of the most wicked
+spots on the globe.
+
+One must not judge the Japanese people or even the people of Tokyo by
+this standard, however, for no people ever made such tremendous strides
+as have the Japanese nation since the days of Commodore Perry. The great
+Imperial University of Tokyo makes one think of Yale or Harvard. The
+buildings are modern and the campus beautiful and well kept. Passing
+through these grounds a friend pointed out the most noted buildings.
+Entering them I found the most modern and up-to-date equipment. One
+large building is devoted exclusively to the study of earthquakes. The
+Japanese know more about earthquakes than any other people.
+
+The students are taught how to erect buildings earthquakeproof. The most
+powerful seismographs in the world are in this university. I saw a
+record of the San Francisco earthquake that was made by these
+instruments--just when it started, when it was at the worst, length of
+time it lasted and all about it. Here in this building is a picture of a
+place where, during an earthquake, the ground was opened and a lot of
+people had fallen perhaps a hundred feet down. The photograph was
+evidently taken just as the ground was closing and the people below were
+waving good-bye to those above as they were going to their death.
+
+Japan has been called the land of flowers and cherry blossoms or The
+Flowery Kingdom. It is one of the most interesting countries on the
+globe to visit. While shut away to themselves these people developed a
+civilization of their own which is far superior, in most respects, to
+that of other oriental peoples. Their experience with Christianity,
+corrupt though it was, no doubt gave them the start. The entire area of
+Japan is but little larger than California and most of it is very
+mountainous and yet so wonderful are they in the development of
+agriculture that nearly sixty million people live upon the products of
+their soil.
+
+The Japanese people think a lot of America for they recognize the fact
+that to America they owe more than to any other nation. Their friendship
+for us is real too, if one can judge anything by mingling with the
+people. All this talk about Japan attacking America is too ridiculous
+to think seriously about, even though we have not treated them as we
+should in all cases. If you were in Tokyo today you would see the stars
+and stripes just below their own flag, and you would see more American
+flags than of all other nations combined, barring of course, their own.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE TRANSFORMATION OF A NATION--KOREA
+
+
+The Palestine of eastern Asia is Korea. While called the "Land of the
+Morning Calm," it has been the battleground of the eastern world for
+centuries. Japan on the east has looked upon Korea as a "sword pointed
+at her heart." China on the south has always felt that Korea practically
+belonged to her, while the Great Bear on the north has looked longingly
+for ages toward this coveted land. The same can be said of Manchuria as
+well.
+
+Until recent years the world knew but little of this country. It was
+really a "Hermit Nation." The people lived in walled cities and allowed
+no outside people to come in. Less than a half century ago signboards
+could be seen along the highways upon which was written: "If you meet a
+foreigner, kill him; he who has friendly relations with him is a traitor
+to his country." It is said that they actually kept the country along
+the sea shore barren and unattractive while in the interior the people
+lived on the fat of the land. The mountain peaks were great beacon
+towers lighted up every night to signal to the capital that no danger
+threatened and all was well along the borders.
+
+In area, Korea is about as large as Minnesota. The population is more
+than fifteen millions. Except in the northern part, which is as cold as
+Minnesota, the climate is delightful. Nearly everything that will grow
+in Japan will grow in Korea. The surface is largely mountains and
+plains. In the mines are gold, copper, iron and coal, as well as other
+minerals. The silk industry is becoming one of great value and although
+every mountain forest has been cleared, some paper is made.
+
+Perhaps in no other country in the world has such an effort been made to
+keep men and women apart as in this strange land. In Seoul, the capital
+city, they used to toll a bell at eight in the evening which meant that
+men must go indoors and let women on the streets. Blind men, officials,
+and certain others were exempt. Any man with a doctor's prescription was
+allowed on the streets, but so many of these were forged that much
+trouble resulted. At midnight the bell tolled again and after that hour
+men could circulate on the streets freely without danger of arrest.
+
+The people in Korea nearly all dress in white no matter what their work
+may be. Men and women dress much alike. A curious custom among married
+women is the wearing of waists that expose the entire naked breasts.
+This is all but beautiful and as some one says, gives the appearance of
+a shocking show window. The theory is, so they say, that to cover the
+breasts is to poison the milk. No man really amounts to much in Korea
+until after he is married, but that is largely true in our country.
+There, however, silence is the wife's first duty. Marriage customs are
+much like those in Japan where parents make the matches. It is said that
+often the husband never hears the voice of his wife until after marriage
+and even then she keeps silent for as long as a month.
+
+The Korean people have some happy times together in spite of some of
+these strange customs. One of their national festival days is called
+"Swing day." Swings are prepared nearly everywhere and people drop their
+work and swing. The Koreans are different from any other people in the
+far east and when they play they play with all their might. Men and
+boys love to hunt the swimming holes along the streams and they seem to
+enjoy this sport as do our own men and boys in America.
+
+While Korea has been a battleground for ages yet it was opened up to
+modern civilization by Japan something like America, through Commodore
+Perry, opened up Japan. Later on Korea paid tribute to China. The great
+crisis came in 1894 when the battle royal was waged between Japan and
+China for this land. On September 15th of that year a great battle
+occurred on land and two days later, in the mouth of the Yala River
+occurred what is said to be the first great naval battle of history in
+which modern warships were used. In this battle the Chinese fleet went
+to the bottom of the sea and soon Port Arthur was besieged and taken and
+the Japanese army started across the country with the cry, "On to
+Peking." This opened the eyes of the Chinese and Korea was surrendered
+and was practically annexed by Japan and its name changed to Chosen.
+Since that time Korean civilization has gone forward by leaps and bounds
+and is fast becoming a country that has to be reckoned with. The story
+of Japan's dealings with Korea during these years contains some mighty
+dark spots. These things have aroused the indignation of the whole
+civilized world and the end is not yet.
+
+To plant the seed of Christianity on Korean soil has required a great
+effort and the story of the transformation of this nation that has
+occurred within the past forty years is as thrilling as can be found in
+the history of modern missions. It was the pleasure of the writer to
+travel to the far east with one who has been on the field in Korea for
+twenty-five years. Thirteen of these years were spent in the city of
+Pyeng Yang which became the scene of one of the greatest revivals in all
+the history of the Christian church.
+
+At the time that Mr. and Mrs. Swallen, who were sent as missionaries by
+the Presbyterian church (Mrs. Swallen was my traveling companion), to
+Pyeng Yang, it was said to be the most wicked city in Korea. So
+frightful were the conditions that boys in their play would often drag
+the corpse of a person who had died during the night through the streets
+the next day, unmolested. It is almost impossible to believe the story
+of things that occurred almost daily in this city.
+
+The first building of the mission was but eight feet square, not much
+larger than a storebox. As at that time men and women were always
+separate in public gatherings, the men met at one hour and the women at
+another. Soon the building was doubled in size. When the Swallen's took
+charge the mission was called the Central church. Then came the great
+revival wave and the church grew to a great congregation. A new building
+seating between five and six hundred was erected and before it was
+finished it was too small. About one hundred members then withdrew to
+form another congregation in another part of the city. A little later
+another hundred started still another congregation.
+
+As the Central church building was even yet far too small they erected a
+great building that will seat two thousand. The interest was so great
+that other congregations had to be formed and at the time Mrs. Swallen
+told me this wonderful story, out from this little store-box mission
+seven great congregations had been formed in different parts of the
+city. Besides this the movement spread to the country and nearly thirty
+congregations had grown from this central mission.
+
+Then came the great revival of 1910 which attracted so much attention.
+These people started the cry, "A million converts in one year." The work
+was systematized. Bible classes were formed and every Christian became a
+real missionary. Volunteers were called for, who could give one or more
+days to the work. Nearly everyone volunteered and during the first three
+months it was estimated that seventy-five thousand days of personal work
+was promised. Great earnestness and enthusiasm were manifest everywhere.
+
+The pastor of this Central church and one of his elders formed the habit
+of going to the church every morning at dawn for prayer. This soon
+became known and others wished to join them. One Sunday morning the
+pastor announced that all who wished to do so might join them the
+following morning and the bell would be rung at four thirty. At one a.
+m. the people began gathering and at two o'clock more than one hundred
+were present. For four mornings these meetings were kept up and between
+six and seven hundred were present each morning. On the fourth morning
+the pastor asked how many would give one or more days of service and
+every hand went up, more than three thousand days work being promised.
+
+The secret of this mighty revival seems to have been caused by the study
+of the Bible and prayer. Everyone carried a New Testament. Bible
+training classes were formed and sometimes two thousand men actually
+gathered to study the Bible. In the churches in Korea, even yet men and
+women sit apart from each other. A petition divides the building but
+both men and women can see the minister. Men keep their hats on in
+church, but all, both men and women, take off their shoes before
+entering. To see these shoes, or clogs, is quite a sight. They are
+placed in racks made for that purpose, each having their own particular
+place in the rack.
+
+As might be expected trouble over shoes is not unheard of. Some of the
+women who are not over scrupulous sometimes take the best pair of shoes.
+In fact this custom became so universal that the women were taught to
+make and carry with them to church a small muslin bag. On reaching the
+church the women now take off their shoes, place them in the bag, and
+take them into the building with them. All, both men and women, sit on
+the floor. In some of the churches now small mats are piled high at the
+door and each takes one of these to sit on. One remarkable feature of
+these Korean churches is that each church is self-supporting from the
+beginning. Instead of leaning upon others they are taught to depend upon
+themselves.
+
+The World's Sunday School Convention was recently held in Tokyo. A
+significant thing about the invitation cabled to this country for this
+convention was the fact that it was signed by Japan's leading captain of
+industry and the Mayor of Tokyo as well. A Business Man's Sunday School
+Party had toured both Japan and Korea before this, however. In almost
+every one of the forty cities visited this party was met by governors,
+mayors, chambers of commerce, boards of education, railroad officials,
+as well as Christian workers and the friendly attitude of Japan toward
+America was manifest in every possible way, at the very time too when
+the California legislature was stirring up so much trouble between the
+two nations.
+
+But the greatest demonstration of all on this entire trip was that made
+in Seoul, Korea. The day was perfect. The great throng marched to the
+parade grounds, a Sunday school banner leading the way. Only members of
+Sunday schools and officials were admitted and fourteen thousand seven
+hundred Sunday school workers, by actual count, went into the grounds.
+It is said that the Japanese officials who for the first time witnessed
+an array of the Sunday school forces of Seoul looked troubled. It was in
+the month of May and the bushes of the old palace yard were abloom in
+white and red. As the great multitude sang the Christian hymns in the
+Korean language the very buildings almost trembled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A GREAT UNKNOWN LAND--MANCHURIA
+
+
+Of all the lands in eastern Asia perhaps the least is known about
+Manchuria of any of them. And yet one of the finest sleeping cars I ever
+traveled in was on the South Manchurian railway. I had a large roomy
+compartment to myself. In it was a comfortable bed, or berth, a folding
+washstand and writing desk, electric fan, and various other
+conveniences. While this was an eastern model sleeper, an American
+pullman was also attached to the train for those who preferred it.
+
+For two hundred and seventy years the Manchurians furnished the rulers
+for the whole Chinese Empire. The Empress Dowager was a Manchu. Born in
+a humble home, at the age of sixteen she became a concubine of the
+Emperor. She was so diligent in study and self-improvement that she was
+elevated to the position of first concubine and later became the mother
+of the Emperor's son and was raised to the position of wife. When her
+son was but three years of age the Emperor died and she swept aside all
+aspirants to the throne, placed her son upon it with herself as regent
+until he was of age. For forty-seven years, in a country where women had
+scarcely any power, this marvelous woman ruled one-fourth of the human
+race.
+
+Manchuria is a little larger than the combined area of Iowa, Minnesota,
+Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. It is located at the northeast of China
+and until recently formed a part of the Chinese Empire. While nearly all
+kinds of grain and vegetables are grown, the one great staple crop of
+Manchuria is the soybean. Think of growing two million tons of these
+beans per year! Before the war Manchurian beans were shipped all over
+the world. In a Manchurian city I asked a business man to tell me the
+chief sights of the city and he said: "We have nothing here but bean
+mills. It is beans, beans, beans." In the hills and mountains nearly all
+kinds of wild beasts are found. The Manchurian tiger is perhaps most
+dreaded of all.
+
+Perhaps the best known place in Manchuria is Port Arthur. Years ago the
+Chinese had what they believed to be an impregnable fortress in Port
+Arthur, but the wily Japanese battered it down in twenty-four hours.
+Later on the Russians got it and worked seven years on the
+fortifications and gun emplacements and really felt that they had it
+secure. Although the forts were built on the Belgian plan and Port
+Arthur was as secure as Antwerp, yet the unconquerable Japanese took it
+with a loss of only a thousand or fifteen hundred men. Nature has been
+kind to Port Arthur by throwing up the mountains of "The Chair," "The
+Table," and the "Lion's Mane," but the best defense that nature provides
+has to give way before the genius of the human brain.
+
+Only a little more than four miles from Port Arthur is the city of
+Dalney, also called Dairen. It is a beautiful little city of fifty or
+sixty thousand people with a good street car system and many modern
+buildings. On landing I went to the Yamato hotel and found comfortable
+quarters at a reasonable price. The South Manchurian railway operates a
+string of these Yamato hotels. This is a Japanese railway and operates
+with a steamship line crossing the Yellow Sea and the great
+Trans-Siberian railroad, or rather did so before the world war. In Dalny
+I found a good Y. M. C. A. building with an American secretary. This
+association has good buildings in nearly every large oriental city
+especially if it is near the coast. One can hardly realize the debt of
+gratitude civilization owes to this organization. These buildings are
+oases on the great oriental desert where the American traveler can find
+rest and a quiet home.
+
+At the close of the war between Russia and Japan by the treaty of
+Portsmouth, Russia agreed to transfer to Japan without compensation and
+with the consent of the Chinese Government, the South Manchurian Railway
+between Port Arthur and Changchun, a distance of four hundred and
+thirty-six miles, "together with all rights, privileges, and properties
+appertaining thereto in that region, as well as all coal mines in said
+region belonging to or worked for the benefit of the railway." The
+Chinese Government also agreed not to construct any parallel lines that
+would injure the interests of this railway, so the Japanese have an iron
+hold upon the whole proposition.
+
+To travel the full extent of this railway in the late fall is an
+interesting experience. The soil is of a reddish color and the fall
+plowing was already done. The methods of farming used in China largely
+prevail here. I saw many of them taking their beans, grain, and other
+produce to market. Along the dusty highway the oxen slowly trudged,
+drawing great wooden wheeled carts. On one occasion the engine had
+frightened the oxen and they had their heads up and tails flying as the
+loaded cart bumped along over the field with the driver doing all he
+could to get them back into the highway. Women and children were often
+sitting on the ground in the villages, seemingly without any work
+whatever to do.
+
+The Manchurian people are larger physically than the Chinese and are
+better looking. But some one has said of the Manchu, "he knows not,
+neither does he learn." They say that he only bathes once a year and
+does not care who owns the ground as long as he can till it, and that it
+does not bother him in the least to see his wife and daughter sit on the
+stone fence for hours picking the lice from each other's head. The women
+folks are largely slaves of fashion and still persist in trying to stunt
+the growth of their feet. Even while they do this they often work in the
+harvest field, wash their clothing along the streams, clean out the
+donkey stable, and do all kinds of outdoor work. While baking bread,
+spanking their children and doing other household duties, they are not
+slow in looking after and waiting upon their lordly husbands.
+
+Some years ago a plague of the most deadly description swept over
+northern Manchuria. It was so terrible and fatal that when one was
+stricken there was but little hope for recovery. It was so contagious
+that when one member of a family took it, generally the entire family
+perished, as simply a whiff of the breath of one stricken was sufficient
+to give it to another. The government made every effort to cope with the
+situation but the difficulties were tremendous and the scourge spread
+like a prairie fire. More than forty-two thousand took it and it is said
+that not a single one recovered.
+
+The ground was frozen so hard that it was impossible to dig graves for
+the dead and preparation was made for cremating bodies. This created
+consternation among the Manchus. Every possible subterfuge was resorted
+to to conceal cases of the plague and bodies were often hidden in the
+snow all winter long. Dr. Jackson, a brilliant young physician of the
+Irish Presbyterian Mission in Manchuria, was stricken and died, as did
+Dr. Mesny, a splendid French physician. Early the next spring the plague
+ceased as suddenly as it broke out and has never appeared again in any
+country. However, many believe the "influenza" is a modification of this
+plague.
+
+Mukden, the Manchurian capital city, has been called "The Asiatic
+Armageddon!" It is a walled city and contains a couple of hundred
+thousand people. During the Russian-Japanese war a portion of it is said
+to have been eight different times in the hands of the Russians and
+Japanese. The streets are unpaved; dirt and filth abounds. There are
+many big dirty restaurants. The Manchus are great feeders. They eat
+between meals, soup and vegetables and most everything else. The
+temperature of Mukden is about the same as Saint Paul, Minnesota.
+
+The Imperial Tombs are not far from Mukden. The road to these tombs is
+paved with stones. This is called the "Road of the Spirit." On each side
+are six great life-sized stone animals. It is thought that these signify
+the Emperor's rule over certain countries. Visiting the great Ming Tombs
+near Nanking, China, one sees many of these large stone animals.
+
+Not far from Mukden one can get a look at the great Wall of China, the
+building of which is said to be the greatest undertaking of all history.
+It was fifteen hundred miles long, fifty feet thick at the bottom and
+from twenty-five to forty feet high. It was built over mountains, across
+valleys and rivers and down into the sea. There were towers about every
+three hundred yards and although built more than two thousand years ago,
+much of it is in good repair to this day. It took a million men ten
+years to do the job of building it. The Chinese and Manchus were great
+wall builders. Their cities were always walled.
+
+Mukden stands on a plain but its walls are forty feet high and thirty
+feet thick at the top. At each corner, and over each of the eight
+gateways there used to be a tower, and then the great Drum Tower and
+Bell Tower were in the midst of the city. Nearly every city had its big
+Drum Tower upon which drums were beaten if the city was in danger or an
+enemy near. Here in Mukden nearly all these towers have been taken down,
+but large portions of the old city walls remain. There are said to be
+very many more men than women in the city today. Until 1905, it is said,
+the city never had a policeman. The gates were closed at dark and the
+city became silent as the streets were not lighted. There is not enough
+light in the streets yet at night to hardly be noticed. The old
+patriarchal family system often prevails. Sometimes a family will be
+composed of a hundred people--several generations. The following from
+Dugald Christie will give a glimpse of some of the strange customs of
+these people.
+
+He says: "There was in Mukden a wealthy family who had land in the
+country adjoining that of some poor people. A dispute arose over
+boundaries and they went to law. Having money to back him the rich man
+won the case. The next day a son of the poor man committed suicide at
+the rich man's door and he had to compensate the parents heavily. When
+that was settled another son did the same, calling on all to witness
+that he did this because of the injustice his parents had suffered at
+the hands of this man. This time a much heavier indemnity was demanded
+and after months of haggling it was paid. Then a third son killed
+himself in like manner and the payment of the still further increased
+blood money reduced the once wealthy man to a state poorer than his
+rival. Again the law suit was heard and this time the country family won
+the case."
+
+Another Manchurian city of note is Harbin. This is located in the great
+agricultural district of the country. Twenty-five or thirty years ago
+this was open prairie, but one night two Russians pitched their tent on
+the spot that is now the center of the city. Like Jonah's gourd, the
+city almost grew up in a night. For years it was about the worst city to
+be found, there being at least one murder committed almost every day.
+After changing trains at midnight and rambling around a few hours I
+would say that it is not filled with saints yet. During the
+Russian-Japanese war it was one of the great gateways, more than a
+million soldiers passing through it.
+
+From Harbin west one passes through the Kuigan mountains. This is said
+to be the coldest place of like latitude on the globe. Here grows in
+abundance the Edelweiss, which is so rare and so prized in Switzerland.
+Mr. Taft, in "Strange Siberia," calls attention to the fact that one of
+the Manchurian towns here is named for Genghis Khan, who was one of the
+great military geniuses of the old days. He united the vast hordes of
+warring tribes of Siberia into one vast army and swept over this whole
+country like a mighty conqueror. Our American soldiers who were sent to
+this section of the Far East sure got a glimpse of Manchuria that they
+will never forget.
+
+Before the world war many of the Chinese and Manchus crossed the line
+and worked in the Russian gold mines and grew rich, but they had a time
+getting their gold out of Russia without being discovered. But their
+cuteness is proverbial. Even Chinamen die, and they as well as the
+Manchus must sleep their long sleep in their native land. In a certain
+Russian city it is said that these Chinese were paying great attention
+to the dead bodies of their kindred in preparing them for the journey
+back home. The Russians became suspicious and peeping through a keyhole
+at the embalming processes these policemen discovered that gold dust was
+blown from a tube into the dead man's skull. This let the cat out of the
+bag, for these Chinese were making the bodies of the dead the carriers
+of gold, for as soon as the bodies reached home the gold was extracted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE LAND OF SORROW--SIBERIA
+
+
+Away yonder in eastern Siberia, on the banks of the Amur River, high on
+the projecting cliff stands a huge iron cross which can be seen many
+miles away. Upon this Christian emblem is inscribed one of the greatest
+sentences in all the literature of the world. Here it is: "Power lies
+not in force but in love." Strange it is indeed that such an emblem and
+such an inscription should be found in the wilds of this country. But
+many are the strange sights one beholds on a journey across this great
+lonely, strange, and sad land. Having crossed this country it is my
+purpose to recount some of the observations and experiences of the
+journey.
+
+But few people today realize the immensity of Siberia. You could take a
+map of the whole United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, and add to
+it a map of Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Italy,
+Switzerland, Germany and Austria (before the war), Holland, Denmark, the
+Turkish Empire, Greece, Roumania, and Bulgaria, and lay all these
+together down on Siberia alone and have territory left. Nearly five
+thousand miles of the main line of the great Trans-Siberian railway are
+in this one country.
+
+The building of this railroad was a gigantic undertaking and its
+construction cost the Russian Government four hundred million dollars.
+With all our boasted American hustle it took twenty years to build the
+Canadian Pacific railway from coast to coast. The Trans-Siberian is more
+than twice as long and was completed in half that length of time.
+Before the war there was hardly ever an accident on this railway. Every
+verst (about two-thirds of a mile) there is a little guardhouse and
+there was always a man or woman, generally a woman, standing with a flag
+as the train passed. I crossed on the International Sleeping Car train.
+It took ten days and ten nights and the average speed was more than
+twenty miles per hour.
+
+The berths on this train were very comfortable. They were crosswise of
+the car while ours are lengthwise. The train consisted of two
+first-class, two second-class sleepers, a diner and a baggage car. These
+international trains ran once a week each way before the war and
+sometimes one had to purchase a ticket weeks in advance to go at a given
+time. When all berths were sold those who had none simply had to wait a
+week for the next train. I was the lone American on the train all the
+way across. There were a number of Englishmen and many Frenchmen on
+board.
+
+My roommate was an old sea captain from Scotland. He had been on the sea
+forty-six years. Unfortunately his baggage was left at Harbin. He asked
+the chief of the train to wire back that it be forwarded on the next
+train, giving or rather offering a tip of a few shillings, but the chief
+would not give him any satisfaction. The next day the captain tried
+again, offering a tip of an English pound. This had the desired effect.
+In a few days we discovered that the English Consul from Yokohama was on
+board and laid the matter before him. Not long after this the train
+chief came and apologized and gave back the tip. I have wondered many
+times whether or not the captain ever received his baggage.
+
+The dining car was a regular saloon on wheels. The first thirty minutes
+were spent by the waiters in soliciting orders for drinks. If you did
+not order anything to drink you were always served last. I had heard
+that it was almost impossible to get anything to eat on this train
+unless you were liberal in giving tips. So I started out to break the
+record--to cross Siberia without giving a tip on the diner. All went
+well for a couple of days. I was served all right. In fact, as long as I
+had the exact change everything was lovely. But when I gave the
+collector a bill he never came back with any change and I had to give it
+up. Such a feat as crossing Siberia without giving a tip in the diner
+could not be performed. The prices were not exorbitant, however, for one
+could get a fairly good meal for a dollar at that time.
+
+Some of the great rivers of the world are in Siberia. It is said that if
+all the steel bridges on this main line were placed end to end they
+would make a great steel structure more than thirty miles long. These
+were all built too by Russian engineers. Lake Baikal is a long, narrow
+body of water in the heart of Siberia. It is said to be the most
+elevated lake on the globe and has the distinction of being the only
+body of fresh water in which seals will live. In some places no bottom
+has been found. When the railroad was first built trains were taken
+across this lake on gigantic ferries.
+
+As the winters are long and cold, great ice-breakers were built to take
+the trains across during the winter time. It is actually said that these
+ice-breakers would slowly plow their way through thirty-six inches of
+ice. During the Russian-Japanese war these were too slow so they laid
+down heavy steel rails on the ice and all winter long trains were
+speeded across on this ice railway. Some time ago I made this statement
+in a lecture and as soon as the last word was spoken a Russian came
+forward saying: "I was a soldier in the Russian army and walked across
+this lake on the ice and saw them laying the rails at the time. It was
+then nearly sixty below zero."
+
+Siberia is the greatest wheat country on earth. All our great northwest,
+with Canada thrown in, is but a mere garden spot as compared with
+Siberia. There are multiplied millions of acres of the finest wheat
+fields in the world in this great country that are as yet untouched. The
+Siberian women make the best bread of any cooks the world around. It is
+as white as the driven snow and so good and nourishing that no one who
+eats it can ever forget the taste.
+
+Siberia is also one of the greatest dairy countries in the world. When
+the war broke out Siberia was actually supplying a large portion of
+Europe with dairy products. In two Siberian cities there were
+thirty-four large butter and dairy establishments. The Russian
+Government sent a professor of agriculture around the world to study the
+science and art of buttermaking. The results of his investigation were
+published in pamphlet form and sent to buttermakers and agriculturists.
+It is said that sometimes a thousand tons of Siberian butter have been
+delivered in London in a single week. It is also said that Great Britain
+was purchasing five million dollars worth of eggs per year from Siberia
+when the war broke out.
+
+I learned something of the superstition of the Siberian peasant when
+cream separators were first introduced. It is said that when these hard
+working people were told of machines that would separate the cream from
+milk instantly they declared that only a machine with a devil in it
+could do such a thing. But an enterprising foreigner went ahead and
+built a factory and about the time he had some of the separators ready
+for delivery a mob gathered, wrecked the factory and smashed the
+separators into smithereens, declaring that they would not have machines
+with devils in them in their country. That was years ago, however, and
+they have long since learned to use and appreciate these machines.
+
+But the saddest sights I saw in Siberia were the trains loaded with
+exiles. These cars were not much better than stock cars and had iron
+bars across the windows. The sad faces within made one's heart ache to
+see them. As I rode in a comfortable car with a good bed to sleep in it
+was hard to keep from thinking of these unfortunate people who were
+herded like cattle in cold, dirty cars day after day and night after
+night for a month. Food was thrown to them almost as though they were
+pigs and at best this food was of the coarsest and most unsavory kind.
+
+But their journey, packed in these unwarmed and unsanitary cars was so
+much better than what exiles had endured before the railroad was built,
+that one can hardly make a comparison. Then the exiles had to make the
+long four thousand mile journey on foot. It took about two years. Most
+of the convicts wore chains on their ankles that weighed five pounds and
+chains on their wrists that weighed two pounds. Sometimes these chains
+wore the flesh from the bones and the pain, as they trudged along their
+way, was simply terrible. Men and women were herded in droves like
+cattle. They had to make so many miles each day through storm or
+sunshine. Often it was midnight before they reached the sheds in which
+were the sleeping benches. Here they had to lie down on bare planks
+without any covering. There was no ventilation in these sheds except a
+bare window or two in the gable. In summer they sweltered and in winter
+they nearly froze to death.
+
+As these unfortunate people slowly trudged along, the heartless guards
+on horseback whipped them and often prodded them with bayonets.
+Sometimes both men and women fell fainting and dying along the wayside.
+As two were nearly always chained together, the living was unlocked from
+the dead, the body kicked out of the way and even left unburied. In the
+heat of summer the dust nearly suffocated them and in the late autumn
+and early spring (they stopped in winter quarters in the coldest
+months), they often floundered along through mud nearly knee deep. Often
+the mud was frozen in the morning and their feet would break through.
+Perhaps their shoes were completely worn out, but no mercy was shown
+them and they had to make their way barefooted.
+
+There was one thing the guards could not do, however, and that was to
+keep them still. As they went on their way they kept up a kind of a wail
+that was said to be the saddest chant that human ears ever heard. For
+miles and miles this mournful wail could be heard by the few people who
+lived in villages along the way. Sometimes, however, these villages were
+fifty or a hundred miles apart. But this wail was kept up continually.
+Every plan imaginable was used to stop it, but this could not be done
+and the guards and officers grew accustomed to it and let it go. No
+wonder that even yet in Siberia the call of the milkmaid is something
+like the wail of the exiles.
+
+One of the most thrilling events during the war was the opening of the
+Siberian prison doors in the spring of 1917, when more than one hundred
+thousand exiles walked out as free men and women. In the great Irkutsk
+prison a company of men were watching some of their fellow prisoners
+being flogged when a man appeared at the door saying: "Russia is a
+republic and you are all free." Instantly all was excitement. The
+officers fled for their lives. Even the prison blacksmiths fled, for
+they had welded the shackles on thousands of prisoners and they feared
+vengeance. Other smiths were pressed into service and were compelled to
+work all night long cutting these iron chains. Many were chained to
+wheelbarrows and of course could not get away until their irons were
+broken. A committee of public safety was formed at once and precautions
+taken. A banquet was prepared in the dismissed governor's palace and
+sixty men whose chains had not been cut loose sat down at the table with
+their chains rattling.
+
+In one place the priest, while performing his duties in the church,
+heard the news and announced it. Fifty men rushed out to kill the local
+police captain who had been a regular tyrant. As they came to his home
+they were met by the captain's ten-year-old daughter, who stood in front
+of her father and calmly said: "You will have to kill me first," and
+thus she saved his life.
+
+In five days after the revolution, six thousand exiles had reached
+Irkutsk from other prisons. By the way, Irkutsk is the capital of
+eastern Siberia and here the greatest prisons were located. It is said
+that as many as one hundred thousand prisoners have been in the great
+prisons in and around this city at one time. There were no trains for
+these freed exiles and they camped along the railroad track. Every day
+the company became larger. At one time it was said that fifty thousand
+sledges were rushing toward the railroad as fast as horses, dogs and
+reindeer could drag them. The snow was already melting and they were
+determined to get to the railroad before it was too late.
+
+Those who think the great Russian Empire is nothing but cold, bleak,
+barren waste, will have to think again. In 1913 there were eleven
+million acres planted in potatoes, five and one-half million acres of
+flax and hemp and nearly two million acres in cotton. They even had one
+hundred and fifty thousand acres in tobacco. In all there were in
+cultivation nearly four hundred million acres of land. In 1914 Russia
+and Siberia possessed thirty-five million head of horses, fifty-two
+million head of cattle, seventy-two million sheep, and fifteen million
+head of hogs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE HOME OF BOLSHEVISM--RUSSIA
+
+
+Of All the countries in Europe, conditions in Russia are perhaps most
+deplorable. With the granary of the world her people have the least
+food. A few years ago her laws were the most rigid of all countries, now
+she is nearest without law of any of them. With all her boundless
+resources, she is as helpless as a child. Like poor old blind Samson,
+she has lost her strength and is a pitiful sight to behold.
+
+But the purpose of this article is not to recount the horrors the war
+brought to Russia. I would much rather tell something about the people
+as I saw them just before the war, and their country and cities in times
+of peace. Some day these people will have a stable government. They have
+suffered for a long time, but out of it all will come a purified people
+and a government in which the people will have some rights and
+privileges worth while. The writer of these lines does not pose as a
+prophet, but will say that in twenty-five years Russia will have the
+best government in Europe.
+
+The Russian people are a race of farmers. When the war broke out
+eighty-five per cent of the people lived in the country. Although a
+nation having one-sixth of the earth's surface, yet she has only a few
+large cities. It is actually said that years ago people had to be
+chained in the cities to keep them from moving to the country.
+
+The people, as a rule, are honest-hearted, hard-working people, who have
+never had a chance. They are ignorant and often superstitious. They have
+been used to hardship and cruelty. In the old days a man was beaten
+three hours a day for debt and after a month sold as a slave if no one
+came to his rescue. Thieves and other criminals were hanged, beheaded,
+broken on a wheel, drowned under the ice or whipped to death. "Sorcerers
+were roasted alive in cages; traitors were tortured by iron hooks which
+tore their sides into a thousand pieces; false coiners had to swallow
+molten metal," says one writer.
+
+Woman was considered the property of man and her glory was to obey her
+husband as a slave obeys his master. No eyes could look upon her face
+and she was shut up like a prisoner. They used to think that if a
+husband beat his wife it was the sign he loved her. The Russian proverb
+says: "I love thee like my soul, but I beat thee like my jacket."
+
+Never will I forget the time spent in Moscow. The great center of the
+city is the Kremlin Palace and at the time of my visit it contained
+riches untold. Of course, the Bolshevists have looted it long before
+this. In it at that time was the largest gun ever made before the war,
+but it had never been fired. Also the largest bell ever cast was there,
+but this had never been rung. In front of this palace is the famous Red
+Square, and this has no doubt been red with blood many times during
+these terrible years of Bolshevist rule. If the very stones upon which
+people walk could speak, a wave of horror would sweep around the world.
+
+Perhaps the most curious church in the world is that of Saint Basil the
+Blessed, which is in the city of Moscow. It has nearly a dozen spires
+most curiously built and no one seeing it can ever forget it. It is said
+that the eyes of the Italian architect who built it were put out so he
+could never build another like it. The Russian people are very religious
+and Moscow is their sacred city. At the sight of the glittering crosses
+the peasants coming into the city for the first time would often fall
+upon their faces and weep.
+
+This sacred city has passed through some horrible times. Famine has
+raged and the ravages of hunger caused parents to eat the flesh of their
+own children. Pestilence at one time stalked through the city like a
+mighty conqueror and a hundred and twenty thousand people perished
+before it could be checked. Nearly the entire city has gone up in smoke
+on more than one occasion and yet it still lives. When I was there its
+streets were ablaze with electric lights at night and thronged with
+shopping multitudes by day, but all this is changed at this time.
+
+If we can believe the historian, orgies have taken place in this city
+that would make it, for the time being, a rival of Hades itself. When
+the Russians turn against a man their hatred knows no bounds. In one
+case they caught a pretender for the throne and almost continuously for
+three days they tortured him in every imaginable way, shape and form.
+After he was finally killed they were so afraid that he might come to
+life that they took his body, burned it to ashes, loaded them in a
+cannon and fired it, scattering them to the four winds.
+
+One of the empresses of Russia became enraged at one of the princes
+whose wife had died and she compelled him to marry an old ugly woman
+whose nickname was "Pickled Pork." One historian says: "The marriage
+festival was celebrated with great pomp: representatives of every tribe
+and nation in the Empire took part, with native costumes and musical
+instruments: some rode on camels, some on deer, others were drawn by
+oxen, dogs and swine. The bridal couple were borne in a cage on an
+elephant's back. A palace was built entirely of ice for their
+reception. It was ornamented with ice pillars and statues, and lighted
+by panes of thin ice. The door and window posts were painted to
+represent green marble: droll pictures on linen were placed in ice
+frames. All the furniture, the chairs, the mirrors, even the bridal
+couch, were ice. By an ingenious use of naphtha the ice chandeliers were
+lighted and the ice logs on the ice grates were made to burn! At the
+gates two dolphins of ice poured forth fountains of flame: vessels
+filled with frosty flowers, trees with foliage and birds, and a
+life-sized elephant with a frozen Persian on its back adorned the yard.
+Ice cannon and mortars guarded the doors and fired a salute. The bride
+and groom had to spend the night in their glacial palace."
+
+For centuries the common people of Russia were afraid to open their
+mouths. Detectives were everywhere and half of the people exiled to
+Siberia had no idea what they had committed. One of the secret service
+men might visit a peasant home disguised as a tramp or agent. Allowed
+into the humble home he would examine the books on the table if any were
+there, and should he find a sentence tabooed by the government, the
+farmer who gave the stranger a place to eat and sleep would likely be
+exiled, although he had never read a line in the book.
+
+I have seen these detectives on trains, at depots, in hotels, always
+watching everybody. No proprietor of a hotel would keep a stranger over
+night without the guest's passport in his possession. One of these
+secret service men might come in at midnight and if he found a stranger
+or even a name on the register without an accompanying passport, the
+landlord might have to go to prison and of course they took no chances.
+As soon as I registered at a hotel in Moscow the landlord had to have my
+passport in his possession.
+
+All things considered it is not at all surprising that when the
+restraint was removed the people went to the greatest possible extreme.
+It is not surprising that they all wanted to talk and speechify. Every
+man had some grievance or something to talk about. While the peasants
+were honest and trusted each other, yet there have developed so many
+traitors that now they do not know who they can trust. The great mass of
+people are like a lot of sheep without a shepherd and can be led or
+driven in any direction. Of all people, they are perhaps most to be
+pitied.
+
+A Russian gentleman recently expressed his conviction to the writer that
+the only hope for the country is in the church people. They are very
+religious and the Orthodox church was rich in priceless treasure and
+lands. But the Bolshevists looted and robbed the churches, which of
+course enraged the people. They were held in check by alluring promises,
+but these promises were not fulfilled and their eyes are now opened and
+they will rise up, so this man hopes, and overthrow Bolshevism. One
+thing is certain and that is that the Bolshevist leaders have recently
+made all kinds of concessions to the people.
+
+As the darkest days in the history of the Chosen Race in Bible times was
+when "every man did what was right in his own eyes," so these Russian
+folks have been passing through just such a time. There has not been any
+law to speak of and every man has been doing as he pleases with
+everything he could get his hands on. But as Russia has produced some of
+the master minds of the ages some of us believe that some of these
+times a leader will appear who will bring order out of chaos. As a rule,
+in the days agone, when the people of a great nation were really ready
+for a mighty step forward the good Lord raised up a man to lead them.
+
+Passing the great estate of Tolstoi I could not help thinking of one of
+his marvelous word pictures and as it concerns everyone of us it will
+not be out of place to call attention to it here. As the story goes a
+youth had fallen heir to his father's estate and this taste of wealth
+made him crazy for the lands adjoining the little homestead. One fine
+morning this young man was greeted in the highway by a fine looking
+nobleman who said he had taken a liking to him and had decided to give
+him all the land he could cover during one day. As they stood at the
+corner of the little homestead at the grave of his father the stranger
+said to the young man: "You may start now and walk all day, but at
+sundown you must be back here at your father's grave."
+
+Without even stopping to tell his wife the good news, or bid her and
+their little child good-bye, the young man started. At first thought he
+decided to cover a tract six miles square which would mean a walk of
+twenty-four miles, but he had only gotten well started when the plan was
+enlarged to a square of nine miles. The morning was so cool and fine and
+he felt so strong that he increased it to twelve miles and still later
+he made it a square of fifteen miles, which would mean a walk of sixty
+miles before sundown. By noon he had made the thirty miles but so great
+was his fear of failure he decided not to stop for lunch. An hour later
+he saw an old man at a wayside spring, but felt that he must not stop
+even for a drink of water and rushed on his way.
+
+By the middle of the afternoon he had discarded his coat and a little
+later threw away his shirt. An hour before sunset it was a race for
+life. His heart had almost stopped beating and his eyes began to bulge
+from their sockets. As the sun touched the horizon he was still many
+rods from the starting point. With all the strength of both body and
+soul he lunged forward and just as the sun went out of sight he
+staggered across the line and fell into the arms of the stranger who was
+there to meet him, but when he fell he was _dead_.
+
+"I promised him," said the stranger, "all the ground he could cover.
+Strictly speaking, it is about two feet wide and six feet long. And I
+drew the line here at his father's grave because I thought he would
+rather have the land he could cover close to his father than to have it
+anywhere else." "Then the stranger--_death_--slipped away," says Dr.
+Hillis, who tells the story, saying: "I always keep my pledge." So they
+buried the man with the land-hunger.
+
+The Russian people have just gotten a taste of liberty and are as crazy
+as was the man with the land-hunger. All hope and trust that they will
+see their condition before the nation comes to a death struggle, but
+they have passed the meridian and entered the dangerous part of the day
+and if the leader does not soon come who can stop their onward sweep,
+they will be in the last great struggle and the death rattle will be
+heard. But terrible as the situation is at this writing, however, there
+are some signs of a better day, and as long as there is life there is
+hope. Some of us still believe that the day will come when Russia will
+be a mighty and powerful nation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE NATION THAT CONQUERS THE SEA--HOLLAND
+
+
+We read in ancient history that Xerxes whipped the sea, but this chapter
+will give a glimpse of a nation that conquers the sea. A million acres
+of the best land in Holland have actually been rescued from the water,
+and at this hour a large lake is being drained which means that hundreds
+of thousands of acres will soon be rescued from the sea and be made to
+blossom as the rose.
+
+The country of Holland is about the size of the state of Maryland.
+One-fourth of its entire area is below the sea level, and its great
+dykes were they placed end to end, would make an immense dam more than
+fifteen hundred miles long and in some places from thirty to sixty feet
+high. Almost the entire country is a network of canals. A single one of
+these canals cost more than fifteen million dollars and it is less than
+fifty miles in length.
+
+The faith of these Holland people in times of adversity is one of the
+wonders of history. For a hundred years they struggled against powerful
+Spain, but their faith saved them. It is said that at the siege of
+Leyden they were reduced to such desperate straits that all they had to
+eat was dogs and cats. In derision they were called "dog and cat
+eaters." They replied to their enemies: "As long as you hear the bark of
+a dog or the mew of a cat the city holds. When these are gone we will
+devour out left arms, retaining the right to defend our homes and our
+freedom. When all are gone we will set fire to the city and with our
+wives and children perish rather than see our families destroyed and our
+religion desecrated."
+
+Think of it! A country one-half of which is below the level of the
+water, some of it sixteen feet lower than the ocean, which is only a few
+miles away! What watchfulness and anxiety bordering upon fear must
+occupy every moment, both day and night! In a single century there were
+thirty-five great inundations which literally swallowed up several
+hundred thousand people. Instead of being disheartened, like ants, they
+went to work at once to rebuild the dykes, and with the aid of hundreds
+of gigantic windmills pumped the water back into the sea.
+
+These windmills are not only used to pump water, but they saw wood,
+grind corn, crush seeds, make paper, and do about everything else. While
+they are imperilled all the time by water, they make the water serve
+them in numerous ways. Their fences are ditches filled with water. How
+their cattle and horses have been trained to stay in, a small lot
+surrounded by narrow ditches filled with water which they could easily
+jump over, is a mystery, but every visitor to Holland has seen it with
+his own eyes.
+
+These Dutch people are great farmers and stock raisers. As their country
+has no minerals, the people depend upon agriculture more perhaps than in
+any other part of the world. Supporting a population of four hundred and
+seventy people to the square mile, every foot of the land of course is
+tilled carefully. The main agricultural product is potatoes, of which
+they raise about one hundred million bushels per annum. Then come oats,
+twenty million bushels, rye, fifteen million and about a third as much
+wheat.
+
+The Hollanders build ships, refine sugar, dredge oysters, distill liquor
+and brew beer. They manufacture carpets, leather and paper goods, make
+chocolate, cut diamonds as well as produce gold and silver articles and
+pottery. The farmer uses his cow like one of the family. He keeps her in
+the house when the weather is cold, washes and combs her hair more often
+than his own, and keeps her room as clean as the parlor. She chews her
+cud contentedly and the only thing about her which is tied up is her
+tail, which is generally fastened to a beam above to keep it from
+getting soiled. Of course, milk, butter and cheese are not a small part
+of the living of these people. Often in a Holland home the sitting room,
+dining room and sleeping room are one and the same. People often sleep
+in bunks one above the other like berths on a ship or sleeping car.
+
+The great bird in Holland is the stork, which is kept and given a home
+because of the service rendered in keeping down toads and frogs. The
+people who live in the lowest ground make nests for the storks upon
+posts erected for the purpose, and almost every Dutch city has a pet
+colony of these birds. The Dutch folk-lore tells of the tragedy of the
+stork colony away back in the fifteenth century which occurred during
+the breeding season. The town of Delft caught fire and when the older
+storks made ready for flight their offspring were too young to fly and
+too heavy to be carried, and rather than leave their young, the old
+birds went back to their nests and perished.
+
+The two great recreation amusements that everybody engages in are
+cycling and skating. Roads are good so that the former can be practiced
+the year around, while the latter, of course, can only be indulged in
+during the winter time. These people become so skilled on the ice that
+they can beat an express train, and to skate a hundred miles in an
+afternoon is an ordinary excursion. Some years ago a record of four
+miles in five minutes was established which is "going some" on skates.
+
+In the beginning of winter when the skating season opens, the young men
+and maidens have a great time going to the city of Gouda. The young men
+go to buy long pipes and bring them home safely in their mouths or
+pockets. The fair maidens try to waylay them and break these pipes.
+Likewise the maidens purchase brittle cakes and attempt to carry them
+home in bags without breaking them up, and the young men endeavor to
+knock the bags from their hands and thus, "break the cake." They all
+have a gay time.
+
+Skating is ruled by a sort of a national society. The fee is so small
+that everyone can join it. This society decides when skating is safe,
+marks the routes and employs sweepers to keep these highways clear from
+snow, etc. Everyone must obey the rules laid down by this society,
+consequently accidents are rare. One week each year they have a great
+festival called the "Kermis," which is not unlike the old-fashioned
+carnival in this country. All kinds of amusements are engaged in and all
+have a jolly time. St. Nicholas Day, which occurs on December fifth, is
+also a great day in Holland, especially for the children.
+
+The largest city in Holland is Amsterdam, which contains more than
+one-half million people. This is a walled city, but the walls are water
+in the shape of canals. There are four of them, the outermost being
+called the Single or "Girdle." Across these canals are smaller canals
+running diagonally and the city itself is as though built on a thousand
+islands.
+
+These larger canals are almost filled with ships of various sizes and
+boats and barges fill the smaller ones. The city has the appearance of
+being built on the water, canals serving the purposes of streets. The
+ground used to be a great marsh and the entire city is practically built
+on piles which are driven down sometimes eighty feet.
+
+One great palace in the city stands upon fourteen thousand piles. One
+would think the buildings would collapse in the course of time, and some
+of them are all out of shape, but the people are so used to seeing the
+buildings lean, almost like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, that they think
+nothing about it. Once in awhile the road will give way under a heavily
+loaded truck, but they pry the load out, repair the roadway, and go
+ahead as though the highway were built upon solid rock.
+
+That the people of Amsterdam are religious is shown by the fact that
+there are many large churches in the city. The front of the great palace
+called the Dam has a hundred windows and only one little insignificant
+entrance. It has been called "the palace without a door." Just across
+the square is the Exchange with a great portico supported by seventeen
+columns. Some have called this "A door without a house."
+
+Like New York, Amsterdam has its Ghetto, in which more than sixty
+thousand Jews are packed almost like sardines in a box, and most of
+these live in the direst poverty and misery imaginable. However, just
+beside this Ghetto live wealthy Jewish families, and one of the great
+synagogues is so magnificent that they claim it represents the Temple of
+Solomon.
+
+As noted above the gigantic task of draining the Zuyder Zee has already
+been started. This great lake is a hundred miles long and half as wide,
+and used to be a great forest. Between seven and eight hundred years
+ago, this forest and some better lands consisting of farm lands and
+cities, were destroyed by the River Chim. A writer in the Scientific
+American, quoted in the Literary Digest, says:
+
+"Then Neptune looked down with longing eyes for his own. About the
+middle of the thirteenth century, the North Sea broke through the upper
+sand dunes and swept over the land. Hundreds of villages with their
+inhabitants were engulfed and destroyed. Geographical continuity was
+obliterated, and Holland found herself cut in two by an ocean
+eighty-five miles long from north to south, and from ten to forty-five
+broad. It proved, moreover, quite as treacherously dangerous a sea as
+that which divided her from Britain."
+
+The capital city of Holland contains more than a quarter of a million
+people. Perhaps the most outstanding building in The Hague is the Palace
+of Peace. It was dedicated August 28, 1913. Something like twenty
+countries contributed materials for this great building. The granite in
+the base of the walls came from Norway and Sweden, the marble in the
+great corridor is Italian; Holland supplied the steps in the great
+stairway, and the group of statuary at the foot of this stairway came
+from Argentina.
+
+The stained glass in the windows of the Court of Law came from Great
+Britain, and the rosewood in the paneling of the Council Chamber is
+Brazil's contribution. Turkey and Roumania each supplied carpets,
+Switzerland furnished the clock, and Belgium the iron work on the door
+at the main entrance. Our own contribution was a group of statuary in
+marble and bronze at the first landing of the great stairway. Russia and
+China furnished vases, Japan sent silken curtains, and France furnished
+a magnificent painting. Thus the nations builded together and we all
+hope the dream for which this Palace of Peace stands will soon become a
+reality. We are glad that the building is now open again.
+
+For more than four years Holland occupied perhaps the most difficult
+position in which any country was ever placed. Every day of that time
+she was between the "devil and the deep sea." Compelled to be ready for
+invasion every moment, yet trying to remain strictly neutral, she had
+the job of feeding hundreds of thousands of refugees. These were anxious
+months and years, but the Dutch did most remarkably well and kept their
+heads above water all the time. No people were more happy to see peace
+come although they were compelled to harbor the greatest enemy
+civilization ever had.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE NATION THAT THE WORLD HONORS--BELGIUM
+
+
+During the world war the eyes of the world were upon Belgium and it is
+quite fitting that an article be devoted to this little country whom the
+world honors. Although one of the smallest of all the independent
+nations yet before the invasion this little country stood eighth in
+wealth and sixth in export and import trade among the nations. Texas is
+more then twenty times as large as Belgium. Although not nearly all her
+land is under cultivation yet she supported seven and a half million
+people and before the war it is said she had no paupers.
+
+This little country has been called the "balance wheel of the world's
+trade." The city of Antwerp is said to have forty miles of quays--ahead
+of New York City. When the war broke out Belgium had just completed a
+ten million dollar canal and had spent eighty million dollars on her
+waterways. Her commercial and industrial interests were amazing. She had
+one hundred and eighty factories for the manufacture of arms alone. A
+single engine factory in Liege turned out two thousand large engines
+complete, annually. The zinc foundries and cycle works of this one city
+are world famous.
+
+Belgium had the cheapest railroad fare of any country on earth.
+Twenty-four of her thirty-two lines were government owned. One could
+purchase a third-class ticket, good for five days going anywhere over
+these lines for $2.35. One could ride to his work on the railway train
+twenty miles and back each day for a whole week for the insignificant
+sum of thirty-seven and one-half cents. This made it possible for even
+the poorest people to travel and many of them did. The city of Brussels
+had two hundred passenger trains entering and leaving the two great
+depots every twenty-four hours.
+
+Belgium gave the world the greatest example of thrift ever known.
+Surely, if ever a nation needed such an example, we did and do. Belgium
+could live well from the crumbs that fall from our tables. Were the
+American people as thrifty as the Belgians, we could save all the war
+cost us, including the soldiers' bonus, in a generation. There,
+everybody works, even father. While the people are poor, yet, as noted
+above, it was a country without paupers and will soon be so again.
+
+The government paid interest on savings and encouraged even the poorest
+to have a savings account. Such an account could be started with one
+franc and could be opened at any post office. Our thrift stamp idea came
+from Belgium. The farmer or working man could buy a small plot of
+ground, build a little home for his family, be insured against sickness
+or accident, even though he hardly had a dollar to start with. The
+government would back him and he could borrow money from the national
+savings bank system.
+
+The Belgians are said to have the best courts in existence. With a
+single judge in the Supreme Court, cases are reviewed quickly while
+everything is fresh in mind and witnesses and all other evidence is
+easily obtained, and the decisions of the lower courts either reversed
+or sustained at once without any lost motion whatever. The lower courts
+are open for the settlement of all disputes. The judge cross-questions
+both sides without any lawyers to interfere and the poorest wage earner
+can have his wrongs righted without a cent's expense. The assistance of
+an attorney is hardly ever needed and not one decision in a hundred is
+appealed.
+
+The contribution of Belgium to farming and stock raising has been
+immense. Most of the soil is thin and has been used for centuries, and
+yet she raises more than twice as much wheat per acre as the Dakotas and
+harvests as much as $250 worth of flax per acre. A few centuries ago the
+district between Antwerp and Ghent was a barren moor called Weasland.
+Today every inch of this land is cultivated and is dotted by some of the
+finest farms in Belgium. This entire sandy district was covered,
+"cartload by cartload, spadeful by spadeful with good soil brought from
+elsewhere." It is now like a great flower garden and in fact much of it
+is flower beds. The city of Ghent is known as the flower city of Europe,
+there being a hundred nursery gardens and half as many horticultural
+establishments in the suburbs of this one city.
+
+A marvelous thing about Belgian agriculture is that they rotate the soil
+rather than the crops. Their methods of intensive farming are so
+wonderful that if North and South Dakota could be farmed as is Belgian
+soil, nearly all the people in the United States could move to these two
+states and be fed. Belgium is a land of very small farms and it is said
+that the poorest agricultural laborer has a better chance to become a
+land owner than in most any other country. Until auto trucks made their
+appearance the great drays of London and New York were drawn by Belgian
+horses. Belgian stallions often take the blue ribbons at our great
+state fairs and our farmers have found that the Belgian breeds of stock
+are second to none. Even Belgian hares are most prolific and most
+profitable of any breed of rabbits in this country today.
+
+The contribution in architecture of this little country to the world has
+been so great and her churches and public buildings so stately that
+Belgium has been called, "The Jewel box of Europe." Of course, many of
+her great cathedrals and public buildings were damaged or destroyed, but
+they will, in a large measure, at least, be restored.
+
+The art of Belgian painters is world famous and graces the finest
+galleries in both Europe and America. Many of the paintings of Rubens
+and other master artists are almost priceless. As lace makers the women
+of Belgium are famous the world around. From early morning until late at
+night these toilers sit in their low chairs and the skill with which
+they shoot the little thread-bobbins back and forth across the cushions
+is indescribable. Neither men nor women in Belgium are overly much given
+to amusements. They work with all their might, but when the national
+holidays come they abandon themselves to the amusements for the moment
+and have a most enjoyable time.
+
+While many are illiterate, the Belgians are giving much attention to
+schools these times. Even while they were guests of France, with their
+government located at Havre, they established twenty-four schools for
+the children and a single woman had more than five thousand pupils under
+her care and direction. They also established large schools at that
+place for disabled soldiers and many of them became not only skilled
+workers, but inventors. One of these disabled men invented a process to
+make artificial limbs out of waste paper and it is said that these limbs
+are the best made. Many of these legless soldiers with artificial limbs
+can walk so well that one would never imagine that they had been
+wounded.
+
+Providence seems to have made Belgium the great battlefield of Europe.
+Nearly every great general of European history has fought on Belgian
+soil. When the Spaniards looted Belgian cities and set up the
+inquisition it seemed as though the very imps of the lower regions were
+turned loose. I have looked upon many of the instruments of torture that
+can still be seen in European museums and they were even more terrible
+than anything used in the late war. Again and again has Belgian soil
+been drenched with blood. Only a little more than one hundred years ago
+the hosts of Napoleon and Wellington decided the destiny of nations at
+the battle of Waterloo.
+
+Here was this great hive of industry, with the wheels of her factories
+humming and her people happy, industrious and contented up to that
+fateful day in August, 1914. No people were more loyal to their ideals,
+more trustful of others or more anxious to serve humanity than these
+honest-hearted, hard-working people. They felt secure, for the treaty
+which protected them had been signed by all the nations around them.
+This treaty had been held sacred for more than eighty years and was to
+last as long as time. It had held them secure during the great crisis of
+1870-1871 and when the war cloud gathered in Austria and Servia they
+felt secure.
+
+Soon, however, it became plain that Germany had been planning for years
+to crush this little country like an egg shell. Four double-track lines
+of railway had been built up to the Belgian border. Miles of concrete
+platforms had been built, but no suspicions had been aroused. When the
+enemy started across Belgium he had better maps of the country than any
+Belgian had ever seen. At once many Germans in Belgium left their homes
+silently and the surprise of Belgian neighbors can be better imagined
+than described when they saw their old friends coming back with the
+enemy's army. They had been spies all these years.
+
+When the great siege guns were brought from their hiding places in the
+Krupp factories into Belgium, the foundations for them were already
+there. These guns were so heavy that the London Times stated that it
+took thirteen traction engines to pull a single one of them. They threw
+shells that weighed almost a ton twenty miles and a single one of them
+would destroy a building as large as our own national capital building
+in Washington. So accurately had these foundations been placed that
+scarcely a single shell was wasted.
+
+It is said that years ago some so-called German university men asked the
+Belgian Government for permission to study the geology of their country.
+This permission was granted freely. But these were mostly military men
+and spent months investigating and surveying and marking certain places.
+Once more these men came to the Belgian Government stating that they
+wished to study the formation of rocks and soil which would necessitate
+digging into the earth and as they did not wish to be bothered by the
+public, asked permission to build barricades around the places where
+they worked. Their request was granted instantly and by this means they
+built the foundations for these great siege guns.
+
+Finally the fateful day came. Germany told Belgium that she intended
+going across her territory anyway and if she would allow this to be done
+peaceably she would pay her double price for everything destroyed; that
+it would be to her best interests to allow this and that she might have
+twelve hours to think it over. In the darkest hours of the war, when it
+seemed that the Germans would be victorious, I heard the Belgian
+minister in Washington say in an address: "Yes, they gave us twelve
+hours to decide, but they gave us eleven hours and fifty-nine minutes
+too much time." As long as time, it will be remembered to the glory of
+Belgium that she told Germany instantly to stay upon her own territory;
+that the world would never say that Belgium went back upon her word;
+that if war came she would remain neutral as in the treaty she had
+agreed to do. The minister referred to above also said in this darkest
+hour: "They now have all but three hundred square miles of our
+territory, but what will it profit a man though he gain the whole world
+and lose his own soul.' We have lost our property, but we have saved our
+soul, and if it were to do over again we would do exactly the same
+thing."
+
+Brave little Belgium! For four and one half years she stood bleeding and
+with her head bowed in sorrow! Her homes were destroyed, her old men and
+women shot down like dogs, her women outraged, her youths and maidens
+enslaved, her little children misused, but Belgium still lives, and
+always will live in the hearts of men and women wherever civilization is
+known! Her King and Queen were brave and heroic through all those
+horrible times; her church leaders could not be bought or sold, and her
+common people were true as steel. As a nation she blundered in days
+agone, but what nation has not made mistakes? Belgium saved democracy
+for a thousand years and is today the nation that the whole world
+honors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A GLIMPSE OF AMERICA'S FRIEND--FRANCE
+
+
+Although great in history, France is but a small country. It is
+interesting to note that all France could be placed in the state of
+Texas and there would be room enough left for Belgium, Holland, Denmark
+and Switzerland, one in each corner. Even then, Delaware and the
+District of Columbia could be put in for good measure and the Lone Star
+State would still have more than eight hundred square miles to spare.
+
+About half of the people of France depend wholly upon agriculture for
+their living. Instead of living on farms as we do they live in small
+villages. Their farms are very small, generally running from two to
+fifteen acres. As a rule, the soil is thin and unproductive, but with
+their patient toil, careful methods of farming and a very liberal use of
+fertilizer they raise abundant crops. Just about half of the soil of
+France is tilled and about one-eighth is used for grazing while all the
+famous vineyards of this country cover but about four per cent of the
+ground. The balance is in forests and streams, highways, canals, and
+railways.
+
+When the war broke out there were about four million French families who
+owned their homes and a thriftier and more industrious people could
+hardly be found. In 1871, when the heartless Bismarck insisted on having
+a one billion dollar indemnity, besides the provinces of Alsace and
+Lorraine, he thought he had the people of France throttled for a
+generation, but to his very great amazement every dollar of this huge
+sum was paid in less than three years. This fact is but an indication
+that the French are a race of savers.
+
+A silent revolution in the habits of the peasant people has been the
+outcome of the war. Ages ago an uprising took the land away from wealthy
+owners and gave it to the peasants. A few years later Napoleon had
+enacted or rather established a Code by which a man's property was
+equally divided between his children. Thus, if a man died leaving four
+children and an eight-acre farm, it was divided into four strips of two
+acres each. Then, in the course of time, one of these children died
+leaving four children, his two-acre farm was divided into four strips of
+a half acre each.
+
+Thus a great portion of the land is cut up into little strips and
+gardens. Through the intermarriage of children a family might own
+several of these strips of land, often miles from each other. This often
+brought complications and made it impossible to introduce modern farm
+implements and do away with much of the drudgery of peasant life.
+
+This is one advantage that grew out of the war in many places. In the
+devastated areas all landmarks were often obliterated and in many cases
+the government brought in tractors and plowed great fields which before
+the war were hundreds of little farms and gardens. Then, too, many of
+these peasants became greedy, selfish individualists. Each man worked by
+himself and for himself and the idea of co-operation was almost unknown.
+No ordinary farmer ever became able to have modern farm implements
+himself and they never dreamed that several of them could go together
+and purchase a binder, a thresher or tractor. Their one standby was the
+hoe and not only the man but his wife and children often had to work
+from daylight until dark to keep the wolf from the door.
+
+Since the war a new day has dawned for the French peasantry. It was very
+hard for some of them to give up their old notions and customs, but it
+meant a new order for all who were in the pathway of the war. While the
+city of Paris has been always known as the Gay City, yet the people in
+the country did not enjoy life in any such way. They had no amusements,
+no daily papers, and in some places no songs. The famous Man with the
+Hoe is a picture of the French farmer. In many of the rebuilt villages
+now they have amusements and movies and in many cases public libraries
+have been started.
+
+It is said that in many of the farmhouses of the French peasantry may be
+seen hanging little colored prints representing the main professions. At
+the top of a stairway stands a king with the motto: "I rule you all," on
+a step below is a priest who says: "I pray for you all;" still farther
+down stands the soldier who says: "I defend you all;" but at the bottom
+of the stairway is the peasant whose motto is: "I feed you all." The
+French peasant seemed to take this for granted and never imagined that
+while doing it he might have advantages and pleasures that would help to
+make life worth living.
+
+Of course, there are great industries and industrial centers in France.
+The city of Lille was, before the war, the Pittsburg of France. This
+city was not only the center of the textile industry, but had scores and
+hundreds of factories and machine shops of all kinds. While the city
+itself was not totally destroyed, the factories were almost completely
+ruined. In some cases railroad tracks were laid into the buildings and
+whole trainloads of costly machinery were shipped out of the country. I
+saw the inside of many of these buildings where high explosives were
+used and all that was left was the shell of the building, the inside
+being one mass of twisted iron girders and broken concrete.
+
+Of course, the idea of the enemy was to make it impossible for French
+factories to ever again compete with their own so they attempted to
+destroy all they left. They especially looked after all patterns and
+plans and thought they were making a clean sweep. In one case a great
+factory that covered sixty acres of ground was destroyed. But the owners
+had a branch factory in southern France and immediately began
+manufacturing duplicate machinery so that when the war closed all that
+was needed was the transportation facilities to get the machinery to
+Lille.
+
+In the great coal fields about Lens the works and machinery were so
+completely destroyed that one could hardly tell there were coal mines in
+the district at all. The writer went over these ruins after the war
+closed and it is simply beyond the imagination to picture the actual
+conditions at that time. The course of small rivers and streams were
+changed so that the water could be run into these mines.
+
+One quite remarkable distinction is noticeable to a stranger going
+through France and that is that an occasional factory seems to be
+located in the midst of an agricultural district. The land may be farmed
+on all sides up to the factory buildings. The men often work in these
+factories while the women and children and old men do the work on the
+farms.
+
+Portions of southern France are noted for the beautiful vineyards.
+Bordeaux and other brands of wine are famous the world around. Some of
+our boys are laughing yet about the French methods of making wine. The
+grapes are gathered and piled into a great vat. When this receptacle is
+filled, men, women and children take off their shoes and most all of
+their clothes and climb in. Here they walk and jump and tramp until the
+whole thing is a mass of pulp. In the meantime, the wine is continually
+draining out and being cared for by others.
+
+After they have tramped out all the juice possible by this method the
+remains are put into a great press something like a cider press. After
+all the wine has been extracted by these various methods, they use the
+pulp in the manufacture of a powerful intoxicant, but this is not
+generally used as a beverage. Of course, all understand that in many
+places they have modern machinery and make wine along scientific lines,
+but in many cases they use these old methods to this day.
+
+The courage of the French people is sublime. Even in the darkest days
+their faith never wavered and they firmly believed they would be
+victorious. As a monument of this faith there is in Paris today the most
+wonderful painting perhaps that was ever put upon canvas. It is called
+the "Pantheon de Guerre" and is a marvelous cycloramic painting of the
+war. It was opened up to the public soon after the armistice was signed
+and the writer saw it while attending the Peace Conference.
+
+Many remember the wonderful representation of the Battle of Gettysburg
+which used to be in Chicago. This Paris cyclorama is along the same
+line, but ten times more wonderful. It is three hundred and
+seventy-four feet in circumference and forty-five high. The actual
+preparation of this began in October, 1914, and while the army of the
+invaders was within thirty miles of Paris and the big guns were shaking
+the city, more than twenty artists were working on the marvelous
+production.
+
+The central figure is a woman, mounted upon a high pedestal, which
+stands in front of a huge temple, and she is holding aloft the laurel
+wreath of victory. Upon the first step of a giant stairway which leads
+to the temple is a group of French heroes which includes Joffre, Foch,
+Petain and many others, while in front of them are guns and flags
+bearing marks of conflict. The only allusion to Germany in the whole
+painting is in the battle-scarred flags and guns which were used in the
+first battle of the Marne. Upon this gigantic stairway are life-size
+figures of more than five thousand people nearly everyone of which is a
+life sketch of some French hero of the war. Among them are many women
+whose heroic work and influence will live forever.
+
+Just across on the opposite side of the painting from this scene is
+depicted a gigantic tomb on the top of which is a group of soldiers
+holding aloft a great coffin in which is a dead companion. At the base
+and on the steps is a woman dressed in mourning, kneeling in the
+attitude of prayer, while nearby is a wreath inscribed to the unknown
+dead. Back of the tomb in the distance you can see the rays of the
+setting sun and in some indescribable way they are lighting up the faces
+of those on the temple stairway like a beautiful rainbow of promise,
+while the tomb itself is left in the shadows of the declining day.
+
+In the group representing Belgium it is only natural that Edith Cavil
+should have a prominent place. To be sure King Albert and his queen and
+others are there. As in Belgium the first casualties occurred it is
+fitting that here alone is seen a wounded man and the Red Cross workers
+are caring for him as he lies upon a stretcher. Here too, are seen the
+broken pieces of a cathedral tower with a chalice and altar and Cardinal
+Mercier in his priestly robes, while lying on the steps between him and
+the king is the torn "scrap of paper."
+
+But it would take pages of this book to give an adequate description of
+the entire panorama. Of course, all the allies are represented. In a
+group representing the United States, President Wilson is one of the
+chief figures. I am told that the picture of General Pershing is a
+life-sized painting, which he was kind enough to sit for, to be used in
+this production. Here is also seen an American Indian, a cowboy, a
+merchant and an artisan. An American flag is borne aloft while four West
+Point cadets suggest training and leadership. Women relief workers of
+all kinds are seen. Then extending entirely around the room above and
+back of all these groups is a profile map of France from the Channel to
+the Swiss border. Here can be seen the principal towns and cities
+involved during the war. Here, too, can be seen all the modern
+implements of war and everything is actual or life size.
+
+As I stood gazing upon this wonderful production of artistic genius, my
+own brain almost reeled and staggered at the immensity and vividness of
+it. One moment the perspiration would break out and the next moment it
+was hard to keep the tears back. Pride, beauty, indignation, mourning,
+genius, art, science, invention, generalship, statesmanship, honor,
+love, tenderness, devotion, heroism and glory are all intermingled in a
+most marvelous way. The opportunity to behold and study this great
+panorama of the war is almost worth a trip to Paris. Then to think of
+the faith and courage it must have taken to work on and on while the
+shells from the big guns were bursting at regular intervals during the
+day and the bombs dropping from the aeroplanes above at night; all this
+fills and thrills one's heart with admiration for the French people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+SOME IMPRESSIONS OF THE GREAT PEACE CONFERENCE
+
+
+For a month the writer listened to the heartbeat of nations as their
+representatives were gathered in the city of Paris. No other city ever
+had within its borders so many of the statesmen of nations. There were
+worked out the beginnings of the great problems that will mean the life
+of civilization.
+
+Should the nations of the earth plan and make preparation for another
+war the race is imperilled. It is either universal peace or universal
+doom. Either some plan to stop war or preparation for the final
+judgment. Quit fighting or quit living. Peace or death.
+
+The late war revealed the possibilities of human genius. Man's power to
+destroy has been discovered and across the sky can be seen in letters of
+blood the warning, "Abolish war or perish." Some say the war ended six
+months too soon, but had it continued that much longer, the probable
+results are too awful to contemplate. The Angel of Destruction had the
+sword lifted over Germany, but it was as though divine providence stayed
+his hand.
+
+American genius was just coming into play. For instance, we are told
+that a gas had been discovered that is so deadly that a few bombs filled
+with it and dropped upon a city would all but wipe it out of existence.
+When the armistice was signed hundreds of tons of that gas were ready
+for use and on the way to the battle front. Other inventions and
+discoveries have since been brought out that are too deadly to even talk
+about.
+
+No one can describe the Peace Conference without giving great credit to
+our president, for without him it seemed that the leaders were unable to
+get anywhere. When he said that the time had come when the civilized
+nations of the earth should form an organization to abolish war the
+enthusiasm of the common people knew no bounds. A committee was at once
+appointed to work out a constitution for such an organization and
+President Wilson was made the chairman.
+
+Some problems touch only the rich and others have to do with the poor
+alone; some interest only the capitalist and others interest only those
+who toil with their hands; some absorb the thought of only the white
+race while others have to do with the black and yellow races; some have
+to do only with the educated while others reach none but the ignorant;
+but here is a problem that has to do with every family on the earth,
+rich or poor, capitalist or laboring man, white, black and all other
+colors and races--in fact, it touches every home and will do so as long
+as people live upon the earth.
+
+To abolish war would rejoice the heart of every mother who has gone into
+the jaws of death to give birth to a son. It would bring gratitude from
+the heart of every wife and sweetheart whose face has been bathed with
+tears as the last good-bys were on their lips. It would be a blessing to
+every child now living, as well as to the generations yet unborn. It
+would thrill the heart of every lover of justice and mercy and would
+answer the heart longings of millions who have prayed without ceasing
+for the reign of peace on earth among men of good will.
+
+When President Wilson enunciated the fourteen points some wiseacres
+laughed and criticised, but these very points formed the basis of the
+armistice and the Good Lord only knows how many American lives were
+saved to say nothing of English, French, Italian and all the rest. No
+one knows how many are alive and well today who would have been sleeping
+in unknown and unmarked graves had the armistice been detained a single
+week.
+
+The American headquarters in Paris during the Peace Conference were in
+the Hotel Grillion, which is on the Place de la Concorde in the heart of
+the city. The room number 351 belonged to the suite occupied by Colonel
+House and it was really the birth chamber of the League of Nations. The
+nineteen men who made up the committee belonged to fourteen nations.
+President Wilson, as chairman, called them together in this room. The
+first meeting of this committee was held February third and was very
+brief. In all, ten meetings were held and all were held in this room.
+President Wilson presided at all but one of them. Each man brought his
+suggestions in writing so there would be no chance for misunderstanding.
+Full discussion of all points was always encouraged. When the entire
+constitution was worked out it was agreed to unanimously and it was then
+ready to be presented to the Peace Conference.
+
+Until the Peace Treaty was ready to sign all meetings of the great
+conference were held in the Foreign Ministry building in Paris. This is
+across the river Seine from the Concorde. Many supposed all meetings
+were held at Versailles but this is a mistake. Versailles is a city of
+some sixty thousand people and about ten miles from Paris. The old
+Palace is there but the great Hall of Mirrors where the treaty was
+finally signed could not be comfortably heated in the winter time. So
+for that as well as other reasons the meetings were held in Paris.
+
+Through Mr. Ray Stannard Baker I received a pass to the Peace
+Conference. These passes were only given to newspaper men and I
+represented People's Popular Monthly. The great day was February
+fourteenth, 1919. On this date eighty-four statesmen representing
+twenty-seven nations, the combined population of which is more than
+twelve hundred million people, were seated around one table. Clemenceau
+was the chairman of the conference and sat at the head of the table. By
+his side sat our own president, who at that time, towered head and
+shoulders above the statesmen of the world. Let politicians rave and
+senators criticize, yet the fact remains that Woodrow Wilson will have a
+place in history by the side of the immortal Lincoln and Washington.
+
+When he was introduced our president read the constitution, or covenant
+as it was called, and then made some remarks concerning it. While I
+stood listening to him as he thrilled the hearts and held almost
+breathless this company of statesmen and noted their faces as he said:
+"We are now seeing eye to eye and learning that after all, all men on
+this earth are brothers," my eyes are swimming in tears and I don't know
+yet whether it was the man speaking, what he said, or the way he
+thrilled those men, that caused it. I do know, however, that it was one
+of the greatest moments I ever lived.
+
+Near the end of the table sat the black man from Liberia. How his face
+shone and his eyes sparkled when he heard these words! When he reached
+his homeland he no doubt told his people how the great American
+president championed a plan to abolish war and told the statesmen of the
+Peace Conference that the world is learning that all men on this earth
+are brothers, and the very hills of that black land echoed with praises
+for America.
+
+Since that day the Chinese, who have never been warriors and love
+America anyway, have talked in their tea rooms and joss houses about the
+American President's plan to abolish war. In the villages of far away
+India, in the homes of the Sea Islanders and in fact wherever human
+beings have congregated they have talked of a world peace. But it was
+the peoples of the downtrodden, war-stricken nations especially who
+looked to our president as the great champion of liberty and freedom.
+They believed that he was the "Big Brother" and that the country that he
+represented would see that they were treated fairly.
+
+Representing the great western giant whose genius, power and marvelous
+accomplishments of a few short months filled all Europe with amazement
+and far out-distanced anything they had done in the three years before,
+standing at the head of the only unexhausted nation and which could
+dictate the policies of the world--for this man to go to the Peace
+Conference with a plan to forever abolish war, it simply won for himself
+and our country the admiration and confidence of the statesmen of the
+world. Nothing like it had ever been seen before and the gratitude of
+all knew no bounds.
+
+Then the modest, dignified, unselfish bearing of our president among
+them turned gratitude into love and devotion. The words of far-sighted
+wisdom spoken everywhere brought from the greatest statesmen the
+recognition of leadership. Without a single effort on his part to put
+himself forward, he became the natural leader of all.
+
+A single instance of his thoughtfulness will be given. I was determined
+to see the tomb where General Pershing stood when he uttered the famous
+words: "Lafayette we have come," and which made the whole French nation
+doff its hat and cheer. After hours of searching and miles of walking
+and inquiries galore, the place was found, but the door to the enclosure
+had to be unlocked with a silver key. When entrance was gained and the
+spot finally reached, there on the tomb was a wreath of flowers nearly
+as large as a wagon wheel and which, when they were fresh, must have
+been beautiful beyond words to described. Upon it was a card on which
+had been written in English the words: "The President of the United
+States of America. In memory of the great Lafayette from a fellow
+servant of liberty."
+
+Then came the months of haggling, the work of selfish politicians both
+at home and abroad, and finally the rejection by our own people of the
+greatest piece of work since the beginning of the Christian era, all of
+which makes one who knows the real situation hang his head in shame. Why
+any living mortal in America could oppose a plan that has for its object
+the abolition of war is simply amazing to the people of Europe. Just
+before I left Paris in 1919 a French business man said to me: "I
+understand that the cables are saying that you have some men in your
+country who are opposing your president and this effort to abolish war.
+What kind of men have you got over there, anyway? Go back and tell them
+that it is not only the greatest thing for America that he came over
+here but it is one of the greatest things for the whole world that ever
+happened."
+
+In the fall of 1921 I made another trip to Europe and the change was
+beyond any power to describe. People who looked upon America as the one
+great nation of the earth almost sneered when they mentioned our
+attitude toward the League of Nations. They have almost lost confidence
+in us and it will be hard to regain it. France is especially bitter.
+Perhaps the result of the Disarmament Conference, which is practically
+the same thing under another name, will help them to forget some things,
+but the French will be slow to take up with it. We are all proud of the
+part our leaders had in this great meeting in Washington, but had our
+government stood enthusiastically for the League of Nations it would
+have saved hundreds of millions of dollars that we now have to dig up in
+taxes, and at the same time saved famine, fighting and hatred that it
+will take a long time to overcome.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE NIGHTMARE OF EUROPE--ALSACE-LORRAINE
+
+
+"I congratulate you on the annexation of an open sore to your Empire,"
+said Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria to the German Kaiser when
+Alsace-Lorraine was ceded to Germany by the Treaty of Frankfort at the
+close of the Franco-Prussian War, in 1871. As we entered the world war
+to fight for the downtrodden people of the world, determined that people
+must have their rights and that the peril of military autocracy must be
+crushed forever, the problem of Alsace-Lorraine became a great problem
+to America. Every citizen of the United States should know something of
+this little country that has been called "The Nightmare of Europe."
+
+Germany made every possible effort to blind the eyes of the world in
+regard to the facts about these provinces. She constantly declared there
+was no Alsace-Lorraine problem. In 1881, the Kaiser, in speaking of
+these provinces gave utterance to these words: "Germany would leave her
+eighteen army corps and her forty-two million people on the field of
+battle rather than surrender a single stone of the territory won in
+1871." Because Mr. Daniel Blumenthal, who lived in Alsace all his life,
+was mayor of one of the important cities there and a member of the
+German Reichstag and the Alsace-Lorraine Senate for years, dared to tell
+the world the truth about his country, he was condemned to death eight
+times. He lived, however, and then they imposed upon him sentences of
+penal servitude that aggregated more than five hundred years' time.
+This man finally got out of Germany and the whole world then listened to
+his story.
+
+First, take a look at the provinces. They are located, as you know, at
+the northeast corner of France. Together they are about as large as the
+Yellowstone National Park, or the size of about six Iowa counties. The
+soil is the most fertile to be found in Central Europe. The hills are
+richly wooded with fir, oak and beech, as well as other varieties. Corn,
+flax, tobacco, grapes and various fruits are grown. The great wealth,
+however, is in the minerals. Iron, lead, copper, coal, rock salt and
+even silver are there. Manufacturers of cotton and linen are plentiful.
+
+In the old days this country was a part of ancient Gaul and the Romans
+had it for five hundred years. When Rome broke up it became a part of
+France, and so remained until about the middle of the tenth century, at
+which time it came under the jurisdiction of Germany. Later on Alsace
+became a part of the Holy Roman Empire. During these days it was made a
+republic under the direction of a bishop and became a _decapole_, or
+province with ten free cities. This league of free cities had control
+for two hundred years, and with this in mind it is easy to see where and
+how this principle of liberty and freedom was born in the hearts of
+these people.
+
+At the close of the Thirty Years War, at the Peace of Westphalia in
+1648, these provinces came back to France and constituted a part of this
+country until the close of the Franco-Prussian War when Germany took it.
+The Treaty of Frankfort, which ceded this land to Germany was, as some
+one says, "not a treaty of peace but a treaty of hatred." Bismarck
+declared that Metz and Strassburg had been an open door through which
+France came again and again to invade Germany and he proposed to lock
+the door and throw the key into the well. Of course he had an eye upon
+the rich iron mines which were absolutely necessary to Germany in her
+preparation for a world war.
+
+This country has been a battlefield for centuries. It was the religious
+battleground in the seventh century. The Thirty Years War devastated
+almost every foot of the territory. It is said that in one community
+there was not a wedding for twelve years and not a baptism for fifteen
+years. Strassburg with its great university and priceless library was
+burned. The writer of these lines passed through this country years ago
+where it is said that there were two hundred square miles of cemeteries
+instead of farms.
+
+In 1870-1871 came the Franco-Prussian War and once more these provinces
+were largely devastated. Somehow the people got an inkling that their
+land might go to Germany and at once they were up in arms about it. They
+sent a delegation of twenty-eight men to the national assembly at
+Bordeaux with the following appeal: "Alsace-Lorraine are opposed to
+alienation. These two provinces, associated with France for more than
+two centuries in good and evil fortune and constantly opposed to hostile
+attack, have consistently sacrificed themselves in the cause of national
+greatness; they have sealed with their blood the indissoluble compact
+that binds them to French unity. With one accord, citizens who have
+remained in their own homes and the soldiers who have hastened to join
+the colors, proclaim by their votes or by their action on the field, to
+Germany and to the world, the unalterable determination to remain
+French."
+
+When the decision was reached to give these provinces to Germany they
+sent the following appeal to the nations of Europe: "Europe cannot
+permit or ratify the abandonment of Alsace and Lorraine. The civilized
+nations, as guardians of justice and national rights, cannot remain
+indifferent to the fate of their neighbor under pain of becoming in
+their turn victims of the outrages they have tolerated. Modern Europe
+cannot allow a people to be seized like a herd of cattle; she cannot
+continue deaf to the repeated protest of threatened nationalities. She
+owes it to her instinct of self-preservation to forbid such abuses of
+her power. She knows too that the unity of France is now, as in the
+past, a guarantee of the general order of the world, a barrier against
+the spirit of conquest and invasion. Peace concluded at the price of
+cession of territory could be nothing but a costly truce, not a final
+peace. It would be for a cause of international unrest, a permanent and
+legitimate provocation of war."
+
+Even after this wonderful appeal, still another final plea was made, but
+it did no good. The heartless Bismarck had France by the throat and
+other nations seemed afraid to champion the cause of these helpless
+people. Thus the whole world reaped the reward of silence when great
+principles were involved. I have given the protest almost in full,
+quoting it from David Starr Jordan, that readers of this chapter can
+behold the evil effects of accepting a peace when the rights of people
+are left out of the question.
+
+A provision in this Treaty of Frankfort allowed those who wished to
+cross the line into France to go. Of course this would involve leaving
+their homes, their farms, their old neighbors and everything else that
+they could not take along. More than a year was given for this and on
+the last day of grace one author says: "All those who had means of
+transportation rode in carts, wagons, carriages, running over the black
+roads. Whole families drove their cattle. Old men dragged themselves on,
+leaning on the shoulders of young women who bore at the breast new-born
+children. Sick men, who wished not to die German, were carried bodily
+that they might draw their last breath on the frontier of Nancy and
+thank heaven to die on French soil."
+
+Then the Germans tried to blot out all traces of France. The French
+language was forbidden in schools, on advertisements or even on tombs.
+Police and secret service men watched the inhabitants and men were
+imprisoned for any demonstration whatsoever that exalted France. The
+frontier was closed, all communication with France was cut off and no
+one could cross the border without a passport that was vized by the
+German Ambassador in Paris. This was done until the death of Bismarck.
+In spite of all this, whenever a chance was given for the people to
+choose between France and Germany, they chose France. It must be
+remembered too, that a half million people crossed the line into France
+while they could and that a half million German immigrants had taken
+their places.
+
+All through the years France had mourned for her lost provinces and
+refused to be comforted. Many times I have seen the mourning figure of
+Strassburg, which is in the Place de la Concorde, in the heart of the
+city of Paris. This statue represents the distress of Alsace-Lorraine
+and "around this figure the war spirit of France rallied for forty
+years." It is said that flowers were placed at this figure every day for
+forty years.
+
+When General Joffre and the French army entered Alsace in August, 1914,
+the joy of the people knew no bounds. How they wept and rejoiced as the
+bands played the Marseillaise! French flags that had been hidden away
+for forty-three years were brought out and such scenes of rejoicing have
+rarely been witnessed. The same was true in Paris. A great company of
+Alsatians formed a procession and marched to the Strassburg statue on
+the Concorde. The procession was led by Alsatian women who carried palm
+branches. All marched bare-headed to the statue. Ladders were placed
+against the monument. An Alsatian climbed to the top and wound a broad
+tri-colored sash around the statue. The crowd cried: "Away with the
+crepe" and instantly all signs of mourning that had surrounded the
+statue for forty-three years were torn away.
+
+As might be expected, when the French army was driven out of Alsace
+later on, the people suffered untold misery. The Good Lord only knows
+what they went through. Thousands were condemned to prison for the awful
+crime of manifesting their French sentiments. A single word that
+reflected upon what Germany had done in any way would send one to
+prison. A lawyer by the name of Berger was sentenced to prison for a
+term of eight years for casually alluding to the invasion of Belgium.
+The number of women condemned to prison was enormous, for the women were
+more outspoken and less respectful to the Germans than the men.
+
+Neither did prison sentences end it; sentences of death were very many.
+The press was not allowed to mention those who were shot. It was
+reported that thirty thousand of the people in these provinces were
+imported into Germany. But those days have gone by and it is certain
+that never again will Germany wield the sceptre over these provinces. Of
+course in this brief glimpse of Alsace-Lorraine many very important
+matters could not be mentioned at all, but these are sufficient to show
+why they could not help hating the people who have been heartless in
+their effort to subdue some of their blood relatives.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE HOME OF THE PASSION PLAY--OBERAMMERGAU
+
+
+Nestled at the foot of the mountains in the highlands of Bavaria, is the
+little village of Oberammergau, the home of the world-famous Passion
+Play. Although of German extraction, these humble people were opposed to
+war with all their power, but when it came they were compelled to
+submit. One of the saddest pictures during the war was that of these
+people as it was given by Madaline Doty, which was published in the
+Atlantic Monthly in 1917.
+
+This writer said: "The village was silent and the people were in great
+distress. There were no carriages or even push carts; no smiling people,
+no laughter, and no gay voices were heard. Old people sat about as if
+dazed. Five hundred and fifty out of eighteen hundred population had
+gone to war." The village was bankrupt. There was no money. It was like
+a plague-stricken place. The theater building was locked up. The little
+stores had nothing to sell. No person was allowed more than one egg per
+week and but few could get that. People were on the point of starvation.
+
+During the season of 1910 the writer made the journey to Oberammergau on
+purpose to see the Passion Play and this chapter is but a brief
+description of it. Journeying from Zurich, Switzerland, to Oberammergau
+a stop was made at Munich. From that place there is but one little dinky
+railroad and one of the greatest mobs I ever got into was at the depot
+in Munich. A thousand people were trying to get on a train that could
+carry only a few hundred. Finding a porter who was persuaded to open a
+compartment with a silver key a half dozen of us had a comfortable
+place. The distance to the mountain village is less than one hundred
+miles, but it took from five in the evening until midnight to reach it.
+
+Having purchased a ticket for the play on the following day weeks
+before, and with it lodging for two nights, a gentleman took me from the
+depot to the home of one of the players and I went to bed. Early the
+next morning while eating breakfast at the home, on looking through the
+door I discovered that one end of the house was a cow stable. Going from
+the house all that was necessary was to follow the crowd, for people
+seemed to be coming from everywhere. Passing through the winding, narrow
+streets, soon the large theater building was reached.
+
+This building is one hundred and forty feet square. The roof is
+supported by six gigantic arches that are sixty-five feet high in the
+center. The floor is built on an incline so that every one of the four
+thousand seats is a good one. The stage reaches entirely across the
+building and is in the open air, the whole end of the building open. At
+each end of the stage are small buildings representing the Palace of
+Pilate and the Palace of the High Priest. Back about twenty feet from
+the edge of the stage is a covered stage with a curtain and in which the
+tableaus are arranged. There are fourteen entrances to the building.
+
+The large orchestra is just in front of the stage but lower than the
+people, so unless one happens to be near the platform the musicians
+cannot be seen at all. The end of the entire building being open, the
+rain beats in and the cheapest seats are those where one is likely to
+get wet should it rain. The orchestra is kept dry by a large canvas that
+is pulled out when the rain begins. Back in the inner covered stage is a
+network of ropes, pulleys, lances, arms for Roman soldiers, dishes for
+banquets, costumes and wardrobes for the players, all in perfect order
+and ready for use at a moment's notice.
+
+The play itself occupies about eight hours. There are six hundred and
+eighty-five people in it, but only one hundred and twenty speaking
+parts. The principal actors are not many, but during the play there are
+many children as well as old men and women take part. There are
+twenty-two tableaus; seventy-six scenes and in all eighteen acts. The
+tableaus represent Old Testament prophecies of the events portrayed. It
+must be remembered, however, that the play represents only the events
+that occurred during the last week of Christ's life.
+
+The music is simply wonderful. For generations these mountain people
+have been developing a tenderness and pathos that really grips one's
+heart. The music was composed by a man by the name of Dedler, about one
+hundred years ago, and while it gives expression to the composer's
+tender heart, yet experts say that it reminds them of Hayden and Mozart.
+The paintings in the building are those of great masters. It took an
+entire year to paint the scenery for the play in 1910, but they could
+not afford to spend so much upon it in 1922. The curtains and costumes
+are of fine material, nothing shoddy or cheap about it.
+
+The story of the beginning of the Passion Play is as interesting as a
+novel. It was in the year 1633. A pestilence was raging in the villages
+in the mountains of Bavaria and death rode down the valleys like a
+mighty conqueror. Hundreds were smitten and the hand of death could not
+be stayed. Whole villages were depopulated and even the dead were left
+unburied. For a while the village of Oberammergau was favored, while
+neighboring villages were stricken. A line of sentinels were stationed
+around the village and a strict quarantine was maintained. Finally, love
+of home and the desire to see his family caused a laboring man, Casper
+Schushler, who was working in another village, to steal through the line
+and spend an evening at his own family fireside.
+
+In a couple of days all was changed. The songs of the children were
+hushed in silence, for this man had brought the plague into the village.
+In thirty-three days eighty-four had perished and scores of others were
+smitten by the hand of death. It was a great crisis and looked as though
+that soon there would not be left among the living enough to bury the
+dead. A public meeting was called. It was a sad gathering of hollow-eyed
+men and women. They spent the whole day in earnest prayer. They vowed to
+the Lord that day that if he would hear their petition and save them,
+they would repent of their sins as a token of their sincerity, and that
+they would try to re-enact the scenes of Calvary and thus give an object
+lesson of God's love for humanity.
+
+The chronicler says that from that moment the hand of death was stayed.
+Not another person in the village died from the plague. Every one
+smitten recovered and by this they knew that the Lord had heard their
+prayers. At once they set about to carry out their vow. From that day
+forward they aimed to give the object lesson every ten years and have
+done so except on occasions when they have been hindered by war, as two
+years ago. In 1910 a quarter of a million people endured the hardships
+and inconveniences of a long, tiresome journey, sometimes spending many
+hundred dollars, to see the play.
+
+The day I spent there was one of the shortest days in my memory. Sermons
+not an hour long have sometimes seemed longer than this entire day. A
+strange silence was everywhere. There was no gaiety such as one sees at
+a theater. There was no applause, no laughter. Criticise it if you will,
+condemn it if you like, yet the fact remains that it is the greatest
+object lesson of the ages. It would be hard for any man to see it and
+not come away with a more tender heart and a better appreciation of the
+world's Redeemer. The late William T. Stead truly called this play "The
+Story That Has Transformed the World."
+
+No other story so fills and thrills the soul. I saw non-Christian men
+sit trembling with emotion and great tears rolling down their faces.
+Sometimes one's indignation was so aroused that it was hard to sit
+still. At other times the fountains of the great deep were broken up and
+one's heart would nearly burst. On this particular day every one of the
+four thousand seats were taken and five hundred people stood up from
+morning until evening. It is as impossible to describe the Passion Play
+as it is to describe a song. It is real life before your eyes. I have
+never yet seen pictures of it that did not make me heart-sick, for it is
+impossible to give a true picture of it on the screen.
+
+On years when the play is given it generally begins about the middle of
+May and closes the last of September. They give it regularly on Sunday
+and Wednesday of each week during this time. During the busy season it
+is often repeated for the overflow on Monday and Thursday and
+occasionally on Friday. Tickets for the regular play are generally sold
+out beforehand but as usual a great many reach the place without tickets
+and have to be accommodated in this way.
+
+All the years the highest ambition of the boys and girls in the village
+is to so live that they will be chosen for some prominent part in the
+play. No one can be chosen unless born in the village and this confines
+it to the village. No one is chosen for a prominent part if there is
+anything against his character and that places a premium on right
+living. Hence one can easily see their reason for hating war with all
+their power. While narrow in their peculiar religious ideas, no doubt,
+yet a more consecrated and devoted class of people are perhaps not found
+in another village on earth.
+
+All told there are nearly a thousand people who are connected in some
+way with the play and as the population of the village is less than two
+thousand, it practically takes in every family and sometimes every
+member of the family. The choosing of the important players is always an
+important event in the village. After a season closes no characters are
+chosen for seven years. At length the day arrives when the committee of
+fourteen who are to choose the leading characters for the play three
+years hence is elected. It is a great day. The assembly meets in the
+town hall. Every parishioner has a vote. The mayor of the village is
+chairman.
+
+After this committee of fourteen is duly elected a meeting is soon
+called. It takes several months to consider the problem. Every player
+must sign a contract to carry out his part to the best of his ability.
+Offenders are punished with great severity. Married women are barred
+from the prominent parts. It is said that more than one hundred
+rehearsals are held before the opening day.
+
+The receipts for a season are enormous. The sale of post cards and
+souvenirs greatly add to the sum. It is not surprising that these people
+are often accused for running the play for the money there is in it. But
+the leading characters only receive a few hundred dollars for the
+season's work. The church receives a large amount. The theater building
+and upkeep represents a fortune. To care for the thousands who attend,
+the town must have a good water supply, an up-to-date sanitary system,
+and many things that would be uncalled for in an ordinary town. Located
+as it is away in the mountains, it is very difficult to have the things
+that are necessary in the way of improvements.
+
+The people of Oberammergau are a humble, hard-working people. Their main
+business is wood carving and they are experts in this work. Without the
+Passion Play season the demand for their product would not be so great.
+As is said above these people are very religious. They have a very
+expensive church or two. On a peak of one of the highest mountains in
+the vicinity is a gigantic cross. This is kept polished and when the sun
+shines upon it the sight is very beautiful. Many journey to the top of
+this mountain and the view richly repays one for the difficult climb.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE COUNTRY WHERE THE WAR STARTED--SERVIA
+
+
+It was a Servian lad who started the war, or rather the fire was all
+ready to start and he lit the match. Whether he was hired to do this or
+not as has been reported may never be known as he died before the
+investigation had been completed. Nevertheless, this deed aroused the
+interest of the world in a country that was almost unknown before the
+war.
+
+Servia is not quite as large as the state of Indiana. The population is
+about double that of Indiana and the climate about the same as this
+state. The northern boundary is, or was at the outbreak of the war, the
+Danube river, on the east Bulgaria, on the south Greece, while on the
+west were Albania, Montenegro and Austria. She was shut away from any
+seaports all the years, and most of the time surrounded by enemies, the
+greatest of these being Austria on the west and Turkey to the east.
+
+In natural resources Servia is one of the richest countries in Europe,
+being productive of soil, good climate, well watered and having large
+mineral wealth. The Moravia river runs across the great plain in middle
+Servia and is to the country much the same as the Nile is to Egypt. Corn
+is cultivated everywhere in the country and is perhaps the greatest
+crop, while wheat also is largely raised. While various fruits are
+widely grown the plum orchards are the most numerous. Grapes also are
+grown extensively. Gold, silver, copper, iron and coal are found in many
+parts of the country. It is interesting to know that a Belgian company
+has perhaps the largest anthracite coal mine in Servia. Also, there are
+three and one-half million acres of forests in this small country.
+
+The Servians are a race of peasant farmers, eighty per cent of the
+people being tillers of the soil. Most of the farms, however, are very
+small. The average farm is less than twenty acres. Servia perhaps leads
+the world in home owners according to population. Nine-tenths of the
+farmers own their farms. This is largely due to laws and old customs.
+The law allows a man a minimum farm of five acres with a team of oxen
+and farming implements and no one can take these from him for debt no
+matter how just may be his claim. Another law requires everyone to
+contribute a certain quantity of corn or wheat each year to a municipal
+institution to be lent in time of need or for seed to anyone and at a
+very moderate rate of interest.
+
+Another old custom among the Servians is for the entire community to go
+and help any man, who may be unfortunate, harvest his grain. This is
+made a great day and singing and laughing can be heard all day long in
+the fields, and in the evening they have certain religious ceremonies
+which end in a feast with music and dancing. These are great events for
+the young folks. It is a custom among the girls for those who are open
+for engagement to wear a red feather in their hair. Of late years the
+farmers have an organization that is not unlike the grange that we used
+to have in this country. Through this they get better markets for what
+they have to sell and lower prices for what they have to buy. Many who
+read these lines can call to mind some of the great times that people
+used to have in the meetings and great days in granger times.
+
+The Servians have some queer customs in regard to death and funerals.
+Almost every Servian prepares boards with which to make his own coffin
+and keeps them in a dry place ready for use when he dies. Old women save
+up money and sew it in their dresses, to be used to pay their funeral
+expenses. If a farmer is able to afford it he generally keeps a barrel
+of whisky in his cellar, to be drunk at his funeral.
+
+When the body of a dead person is in the house no one eats anything and
+the floors are not swept. After the funeral the floors are swept and the
+broom thrown away. For a day after one dies a little bread and a glass
+of wine are kept in the room with the dead body. They believe the soul
+tarries awhile and might want to eat and drink. They also believe that
+the soul lingers on earth forty days after death, visiting old familiar
+places and on the fortieth day ascends to heaven.
+
+On the day of a funeral an animal, likely a sheep, but never a goat, is
+killed at the grave in the presence of one holding a wax candle. This
+animal is then roasted and those attending the funeral have a feast, the
+guests each bringing something to eat with the roast. Women never sing
+or wear flowers or jewelry during the first year of mourning.
+
+European civilization owes much to the Servians. For hundreds of years
+these people have fought to save Europe from invasion. They have been
+the bulwark of Christendom against the unspeakable Turk and his
+religion. The bitter trials and hardships of the Servians have made them
+brave, heroic and self-sacrificing. This is especially true of the
+women as the following incident among many will show.
+
+After all the hardships of the Balkan War, when diseases and suffering
+were everywhere; when the land had been left uncultivated and hunger
+stalked across the country and the women in both town and country had
+toiled unceasingly; after all these days of misery, when Austria was
+mentioned to a peasant woman she declared that she was ready for fresh
+sacrifices. Being reminded of what it would mean to have war again she
+said: "What matters the leaves and twigs that fall, provided the tree
+remains standing."
+
+There has been a very bitter feeling in Servia against the Austrians
+since 1908. In that year Austria had trampled under foot her sacred
+treaties and by brute force annexed Bosnia and Herzegovnia, Servia's
+neighbors, and had threatened the very existence of Servia herself. In
+the streets of Belgrade, their capital city, on that occasion there was
+a vast demonstration held almost in silence and every Servian pledged to
+do or die at his country's call. They well knew that a conflict was
+coming. In that war they had done a noble part but when it came to the
+settlement Austria practically refused to allow Servia an Adriatic port
+and other advantages she had justly earned.
+
+From that day until the world war broke out, Austria backed and assisted
+by German secret agents, tried to stir up Albania and Bulgaria against
+Servia. Turkey too was only waiting for a chance to plunder this
+country. But worst of all and greatest of all, Servia had the audacity
+to block the Kaiser's Berlin to Bagdad railway scheme which was to go
+through Belgrade.
+
+Now the time had arrived when something must be done to provoke a war
+with Servia and annihilate her. The self-appointed world ruler of
+Germany had decreed it. As he was dictating the policy of Austria she
+must find some excuse to do the job. Then came the fateful day, July 29,
+1914. On that day the Crown Prince of Austria and his wife were
+assassinated at Sarajevo by a Servian youth.
+
+Not a thing was done openly for twenty-four days. At once on the
+assassination of the Austrian Grown Prince, the Kaiser called in his war
+lords and financiers and other great men of his coterie. He asked if all
+were ready for war. The army and navy men said they were ready
+instantly. The financiers said they could be ready in two weeks. They
+were told to get ready. While this was being done the Kaiser with the
+Austrian war lords worked out a plan by which the act of this Servian
+youth could be laid upon the nation and be made an excuse for war. So on
+the twenty-fourth day after the assassination came the ultimatum from
+Austria. It came as a thunderclap out of a clear sky.
+
+The little country was only allowed forty-eight hours to concede the
+unheardof demands. Diplomats tried to get Austria to extend the time,
+but she refused to do so. Sir Edward Grey of England led in an effort to
+bring about arbitration after Austria had declared war, and he all but
+succeeded for Austria and Servia both agreed to submit their differences
+to arbitration and Russia agreed to this. But just here Germany openly
+butted in and declared that she would not arbitrate anything and thus
+the war went on until it had involved nation after nation and
+practically the whole world was into it either directly or indirectly.
+
+When the declaration of war came to Servia, their old king was in bad
+health and was at a sanitarium. He had appointed his son to the regency.
+But at the word of war, old King Peter left the watering-place and
+started for the front. With flag in hand he came to the troops and
+addressed the men saying: "Soldiers, your old king has come to die with
+you; if there be any who are afraid let him turn back." It is easy to
+imagine the result. Not one of them turned back, and they easily routed
+the enemy and swept all before them. But the story of these terrible
+years can only be mentioned. The year 1914 was a year of victory for the
+Servians. But later on came the tremendous reverses, the awful typhus
+fever and the heroic retreat over the mountains. This retreat is one of
+the saddest and yet one of the most heroic pages of history. Finally
+France was able to come to the rescue and the Servians found a refuge on
+the island of Corfu. Had it not been for France the Servian nation would
+have been all but annihilated.
+
+While Servia has never made a contribution to civilization as has
+Belgium, she has played such a noble part that she will always have a
+large place in the heart of mankind. She has kept the Turk from invading
+Europe for centuries and it is hard to realize just what that means. The
+Turk has always been a plunderer and has cursed everything he touched.
+But his cup of iniquity has been filled to overflowing and the death
+rattle is in his throat.
+
+Providence has thus used Servia in a most wonderful way. Her great
+vision has been a united country with all the Servians included, where
+they can work out their own problems and live in peace and harmony.
+These people are devoutly religious, most of them belonging to the Greek
+Orthodox church. They have great respect for learning. They are a most
+hospitable people and any foreigner is always made a welcome guest. They
+are well read in history but have never been favorably inclined toward
+either German education or language. They admire and love the French and
+invited the French Government to open a school in Belgrade. They have
+their own literature and folklore, their own popular music and national
+songs. The following are some of their bright proverbs of which they
+have a great many:
+
+"It is better to serve a good man than to give orders to a bad man.
+
+"It is better to suffer injustice than to commit it.
+
+"It is better to die honestly than to live dishonestly.
+
+"It is better to have a good reputation than a golden belt.
+
+"As long as a man does not dishonor himself no one can dishonor him.
+
+"Debt is a bad companion.
+
+"He who wishes to rest when he is old must work when he is young.
+
+"The lie has short legs.
+
+"An earnest work is never lost.
+
+"The unjustly acquired wealth never reaches the third generation.
+
+"A kind word opens the iron door.
+
+"God sometimes shuts one door that he may open a hundred other doors.
+
+"It is better to weep with the wise than to sing with the fool.
+
+"In the forest a tree leans upon tree, in a nation a man leans on man.
+
+"Where there is no fear of God there is no shame of man.
+
+"Where there is no wife there is no home.
+
+"Where the devil cannot cause mischief he sends an old woman and she
+does it.
+
+"Work as if you are to live a hundred years, pray to God as if you were
+to die tomorrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A WORLD-FAMOUS LAND--PALESTINE
+
+
+The most fascinating and lureful land on the globe is the little country
+we call Palestine. Since it was wrested from the unspeakable Turk during
+the world war, the eyes of the world have been focused upon it to a
+greater degree than ever. It is the dearest spot to civilization. From
+it have gone the greatest and most powerful influences for good that
+ever affected humanity. It produced the one great character which is
+today the great center of history. The date of his birth is the
+recognized beginning of the greatest era in the history of mankind. The
+calendars of the world have been changed by the Galilean carpenter.
+
+Palestine is less than one-eighth as large as Wisconsin. Smaller than
+Greece or Italy or England or even Belgium, it has a greater history
+perhaps than all these combined. The book it produced is the foundation
+of history, literature and law. The hills and valleys, mountains and
+rivers are hallowed by the memory of him who wore the crown of thorns.
+The writer of these lines will never forget the tender memories aroused
+when standing on the sacred spots in this world-famous land.
+
+The man who said: "Palestine is the world in a nutshell," told the exact
+truth. Between snow-capped Mount Herman on the north, which is ten
+thousand feet above the ocean, and the Dead Sea on the south, which is
+thirteen hundred feet below the level of the ocean, are found all the
+zones and climates that can be found on the globe. The geologist finds
+here not only all the formations of rock found on the earth, but all
+the geological periods and ages. The botanist finds here about all the
+plants, shrubs and flowers; the zoologist finds most all the animals and
+the ornithologist finds most all the birds, while the ichthyologist
+finds all the fishes.
+
+It used to be thought that there was at least one exception to the above
+named rule: that there was at least one type of fish that could not be
+found in Palestine. The exception was a type of fish found by David
+Livingstone in an inland lake in tropical Africa. Nature has provided
+the male of this peculiar fish with a large head and made him the
+protector of the school of little fishes when they are first hatched out
+so that in time of danger he opens his gills and the little ones swim
+into his mouth where they will be safe. The habit is unheard of and
+unparalleled among any fish in the world, so it is said. While for years
+it was supposed that this family of fish was found only in tropical
+Africa, yet some years ago one of this very type of fish was caught in
+the sea of Galilee.
+
+It was the privilege of the writer to visit Palestine some years ago
+with a converted Jew as a guide. We fell in together on an Italian
+steamship on the way from Italy to Egypt. On account of the bubonic
+plague which was raging in Egypt at the time we were thrown together
+again unexpectedly, leaving Egypt on the same ship bound for Syria. We
+were quarantined together on a ship in a Syrian harbor and became so
+well acquainted that he was persuaded to act as my guide through
+Palestine.
+
+Our first landing place on this sacred soil was at the city of Haifa,
+which is located at the foot of Mount Carmel near the northern part of
+the country. Haifa is a small city of some ten thousand people and to
+visit the market place in the early morning makes one think that the
+people are very much alive. Not far from the city are shown some
+rock-cut chambers in Mount Carmel that are said to be the very rooms
+where Elisha conducted his school for the young prophets.
+
+On the top of this mountain perhaps four or five miles from Haifa is a
+sort of a natural amphitheater and in this an old, old, rock-cut altar
+that is pointed out as the place where Elijah and the prophets of Baal
+had the great test to see whose god would answer by fire. At the foot of
+the mountain is a large mound which is to this day called the "Priest's
+Mound" and which is the traditional burial place of the false prophets
+who were slain at that time.
+
+From Haifa we went to Nazareth which is about eighteen miles in an
+eastward direction. We traveled for several miles along a railroad that
+the builders had started and then abandoned. The story told me at the
+time as to why this project was abandoned became quite significant when
+the war broke out, although it was told me several years before this
+happened. They said an English company secured the right to build a
+railway from Haifa to Damascus. About the time the work was started the
+Kaiser came to visit Palestine.
+
+Great preparation had been made for this visit and as a worshipper (?)
+he visited all the sacred places. On his return he spent a week in
+Constantinople with the Sultan of Turkey and that immediately after this
+visit this Turkish ruler decided that this railway would give the
+English too much power and the company was compelled to give up the
+work. Of course the railway was finished later on, but not by the
+English. As it developed after the war broke out, the Kaiser and the
+Sultan of Turkey had worked together for years.
+
+Stopping by the highway a Mohammedan woman was drawing water at a well
+and on request she cheerfully gave us a drink. These people never refuse
+to help even an enemy get a drink of water so I was told. The women do
+most of the hard work in Palestine. Where we stopped to pay the
+government tax that was always collected from travelers, I saw a man and
+woman building a stone wall. The only thing the man did was to sit on
+the wall while the woman mixed the mortar and carried both it and the
+stone to him. She even had to lift the stone up on the wall without any
+assistance from him, but he did manage to spread the mortar alone.
+
+Spread out before us was the great Plain of Esdraelon, which was often
+spoken of as the world's greatest battlefield. Here more battles that
+decided the destiny of nations have been fought than on any other spot
+on the globe. To behold the place where "The stars in their courses
+fought against Sisera" and a score of other world-famous struggles was a
+marvelous sight to say the least.
+
+Nazareth is a beautiful little city on the side of a mountain. The
+streets are narrow, the paving stones are worn slippery, and the shops
+are all open to the streets. In the Church of the Annunciation they
+point out "Joseph's Workshop" and "Mary's Kitchen" and with great
+solemnity show you the tools used by the Galilean carpenter and the
+cooking utensils used in the sacred home. There is in Nazareth one
+building the walls of which perhaps were standing nineteen hundred
+years ago. This old wall is hoary with age and the Hebrew characters
+above the door indicate that it used to be a Jewish synagogue. Possibly
+it was the place where the great sermon was preached which so enraged
+the people that they tried to mob the preacher, but he escaped from
+their hands.
+
+An amusing experience was when we visited the Hall of Justice. The
+officials found that we had come into their city without permission from
+the authorities at Haifa. At once we were held up and fined. The fines
+and costs amounted to sixty cents each and I had to pay one dollar and
+twenty cents for myself and guide. When this was paid they gave us
+permission to proceed on our journey. That all might know that we had
+this permission it was so stated upon the back of our passports.
+
+The last thing I remember before going to sleep one night in the city of
+Nazareth was the loud talk of a crazy man in the street near the window.
+As there were no asylums for these unfortunate people they often just
+wandered around. I visited the only asylum for crazy people in all Syria
+at that time, and Dr. Waldimier told me with his own lips that it took
+him nineteen long years to get permission from the Turkish government to
+found the institution.
+
+From the top of the mountain near Nazareth one has a wonderful view of
+the entire country. As Palestine is less than one hundred and fifty
+miles long and but one-third as wide one can see almost entirely over
+the land from some high elevation. To the east and southeast of the top
+of this mountain lies the great Jordan valley with the mountains of Moab
+in the background. It was from one of these peaks, Mount Nebo, that
+Moses viewed the landscape o'er. Only about fifteen miles to the
+northeast lies the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias and
+Lake of Gennesaret. One cannot see the water in this lake, but the
+depression where it lies is very marked.
+
+To the north is the "Horn of Hattin," where the famous Sermon on the
+Mount was given to the assembled multitude. Still further is Mount
+Hermon which was the scene of the transfiguration. Still farther away
+are the mountains of Lebanon. To the west is old Mount Carmel and beyond
+that the great Mediterranean Sea. Stretched out to the southwest is the
+Plain of Esdraelon, and beyond that the mountains of Samaria. Just east
+of this plain are Mount Tabor and Gilboa. One can stand for hours and
+not get tired of looking for every foot of the ground is historic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A WORLD-FAMOUS CITY--JERUSALEM
+
+
+The history of the world is largely the story of the rise and fall of
+great cities. In these great centers one can feel the heart-throb of
+civilization. Some of the great cities of today are famous for their
+size, such as New York and London; some for their beauty, like Paris and
+Rio Janeiro; some for their culture and learning, as Boston and Oxford;
+some for their manufacturing and commercial supremacy, as Detroit and
+Liverpool. But there is one city on the globe not nearly as large as Des
+Moines, not at all beautiful, its people neither cultured nor learned,
+has no factories and one narrow gauge railway takes care of most of its
+commerce, and yet it is by far the most famous city of all time. It is
+the city of Jerusalem.
+
+The site of the city was once owned by a farmer whose name was Oman. He
+had a threshing floor on the top of Mount Moriah. The city as it is
+today is on top of two mountains, but the valley between has been filled
+up so that it is almost like one continuous mountain top. Higher
+mountains are practically on every side so that the moment one sees the
+city he thinks of the scripture, "As the mountains are round about
+Jerusalem, so is the Lord round about his people."
+
+To get an idea of the city as it was when the war broke out you must
+imagine a city of about sixty thousand people, without street cars,
+electric lights, telephones, waterworks, sewer system or any modern
+improvements whatever. However, General Allenby's entrance into the city
+in December, 1917, was the beginning of a new era. In three months the
+English did more for the city than the Turk did in a thousand years.
+
+There is an old Arab legend which says: "Not until the River Nile flows
+into Palestine will the Turk be driven from Palestine." Of course this
+was their way of saying that such a thing would never come to pass for
+the Turk actually believed that he had such a hold on that country that
+there was no power on earth that could make him give it up. But when the
+English started from Egypt they not only built a railroad as they went
+toward Jerusalem, but not far from the Nile they prepared a great
+filtering process to cleanse the water, and then laid a twelve-inch pipe
+and brought the pure water along with them for both man and beast.
+
+Wherever they stopped for a length of time in the desert, "the glowing
+sands became pools," as the prophet had forecasted, and the desert began
+to "blossom as the rose." Sixty-five days after General Allenby entered
+the Jaffa Gate into the city of Jerusalem the water pipe or system was
+brought into the city and the Canadian engineer had made the Arab legend
+a reality, bringing the sweet waters of the Nile, a hundred and fifty
+miles away, into the City of the Great King.
+
+Jerusalem is to this day a walled city. The walls average some thirty
+feet high and are about fifteen feet thick at the top. It is a little
+less than two and one-half miles around the city wall, but the city
+itself has outgrown these limitations, quite a portion of it being on
+the outside of the wall. The hotel at which the writer stopped while
+visiting the city some years ago, was located outside the wall, as are
+many of the best buildings. The streets are narrow, the houses have
+flat tops and many of them are but one or two stories high.
+
+There was a time, however, when this city boasted of having the finest
+building ever erected by the hands of man, viz: Solomon's Temple. This
+was built on Mount Moriah which was a great flat mountain top of uneven
+rock. Great arches were built around the sides and then the top leveled
+off until the large temple area was formed. Below the sides of this area
+are still seen the massive rooms that are called Solomon's stables. The
+writer rambled for hours through these great underground vaults and saw
+the holes in the stone pillars where the horses were tied. Here
+multiplied thousands took refuge during some of the memorable sieges
+that the city went through.
+
+Not far away are the great vaults known as Solomon's Quarries. Here is
+where the massive stones were "made ready" and the master builder's
+plans were so perfect that, "there was neither hammer nor ax nor any
+tool of iron heard in the temple while it was in building." The marks of
+the mason's tools and the niches where their lamps were placed can be
+seen to this day. It is a remarkable fact that in sinking shafts
+alongside the temple wall, great stones have been discovered but no
+stone chips are found by them. There are numerals and quarry marks and
+special mason marks on some of these stones but they are all Phoenician,
+thus confirming the Bible account that Hiram, the great Phoenician
+master builder prepared the stones and did the building for King
+Solomon.
+
+Jerusalem has several large churches the most noted of which is the one
+built over the traditional tomb of Christ. It is called the "Church of
+the Holy Sepulchre." For sixteen hundred years there was no question
+but what this tomb was the identical one in which the body of Christ was
+laid. This church as it stands today is a magnificent building with two
+great entrances. The sad thing about it is the fact that it is divided
+up into various chapels, each held by sects of so-called Christians, and
+a large-armed guard has to be kept in the church to keep these fanatical
+people from killing each other. Before soldiers were placed there,
+scenes of conflict and bloodshed were very common indeed--a sad
+spectacle for Jews and Moslems and other enemies of the Christ to gaze
+upon.
+
+In the Church of Pater Noster I counted the Lord's Prayer in thirty-two
+different languages inscribed on marble slabs so that almost any person
+from any country can read this prayer in his own language. In this
+connection it is interesting to note that at the gate entrance to the
+Pool of Bethesda the scripture story of the healing of the impotent man
+is written, or rather inscribed, beneath the arch, in fifty-one
+different languages.
+
+One of the large churches in the city was dedicated by the ex-kaiser
+when he visited the city in 1898. It was later found out that this
+German church was built for military purposes. During the war a wireless
+outfit and great searchlights were found in its tower. This
+self-appointed world ruler is represented on the ceiling of the chapel
+of a building on Mount Olivet in a companion panel with the Deity. In
+this same building the ex-kaiser is represented as a crusader by a
+figure and the Psalmist is painted with the moustache of a German
+general. When the ex-kaiser entered the city of Jerusalem, a breach was
+made in the wall near the Jaffa Gate, so instead of entering through
+the gate like an ordinary mortal, he went in through a hole in the wall.
+He would no doubt be glad now to go through another "hole in the wall"
+to have his liberty.
+
+To the writer, however, perhaps the most interesting place in or about
+the entire city is the Garden Tomb and Mount Calvary. This is almost
+north of the Damascus gate and on the great highway from Jerusalem from
+the north. Mount Calvary is only a small hill. The Jews speak of it as
+the Hill of Execution, or the Skull Place, as the outline of the hill
+seen from a certain direction resembles the form of a gigantic skull. It
+is said that no Jew cares to pass this place after night and if he
+passes it in daylight he will mutter a curse upon the memory of him who
+presumed to be the King of the Jews.
+
+Near this Skull Place is an old tomb that just fits the Bible narrative,
+viz: "Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in
+the garden a new sepulchre wherein never man was yet laid." This tomb
+was discovered many years ago by General Gordon and is often spoken of
+as Gordon's Tomb, also called the Garden Tomb. When excavating about it
+a wall was found which proved to be a garden wall the end of which butts
+up against Mount Calvary. One writer who has examined every nook and
+corner says in regard to this tomb: "It stands in the mass of rock which
+forms the northern boundary of a garden which literally runs into the
+hillside to the west of Mount Calvary itself."
+
+One of the first things noted as the writer went into this tomb was the
+fact that it is a Jewish tomb. They made their tombs different from
+those of any other people. That it was a "rich man's tomb" is also very
+certain, as is the fact that it dates back to the Herodian period in
+which Jesus lived. There is also some frescoed work upon it showing that
+it was held sacred by the early Christians. Then the "rolling stone" and
+the groove in which it was placed is very interesting. This was
+something like a gigantic grindstone which rolled in the groove and was
+large enough to cover the opening when the tomb was closed.
+
+While in and about Jerusalem the writer visited the famous "Upper Room,"
+the "Jew's Wailing Place," the "Mosque of Omar," which stands upon the
+very spot where Solomon's Temple used to stand, the "Way of Sorrows,"
+the "Ecco Homo Arch," the "Castle of Antonio," "Tower of David," the
+"Pool of Siloam," and a great many other interesting places. The Garden
+of Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives as well as scores of other places
+were fascinating but it would take a large volume to describe them all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A WORLD-FAMOUS RIVER--THE JORDAN
+
+
+The great Mississippi and Amazon rivers are noted for their length; the
+Hudson and the Rhine for their scenery; the Thames and Tiber for the
+great cities on their banks; the Volga and the Dneiper for their
+commerce; the Nile and the Yellow rivers for their annual overflow, the
+former to give life and the latter to destroy; and the Euphrates and
+Tigress for the ruins of mighty cities of other days.
+
+But this chapter is a description of a river only a little more than two
+hundred miles in length, no scenery to speak of near it, never a great
+city on its banks, no sail or steamboat for commerce ever traveled upon
+its waters, no one scarcely ever cared whether it was within its banks
+or not, and not even any ruins worth while along its shores; and yet it
+is today and has been for centuries the most famous river on the face of
+the earth.
+
+It is the River Jordan, and a glimpse of it brings forth some of the
+most wonderful characteristics possessed by any river, as well as many
+historical events that make their memories dear to the hearts of men and
+women wherever civilization has found its way. Unlike all other rivers
+which rise in some elevated place and flow toward the sea level, nearly
+every mile of this river is below the surface of the ocean.
+
+At the foot of Mount Herman in northern Palestine there is a spring of
+water that is almost ice cold. That spring is but a few hundred feet
+above sea level. The water from this spring is joined by that of several
+other springs and small rivulets caused by the melting snows on the
+mountain, flows to the south a distance of a few miles, and forms a
+small lake which is about three miles wide and four miles long. This
+lake is just on a level with the Mediterranean Sea which is only about
+thirty miles to the west. This is spoken of in the Bible as "the waters
+of Merom." From the southern end of this lake the Jordan begins.
+
+The first ten and one-half miles the water falls six hundred and eighty
+feet to where it enters the Sea of Galilee. This pear-shaped body of
+water is a little more than a dozen miles long and half that wide and is
+surrounded by mountains. The river enters through a small canyon at the
+northwest and passes out through another canyon at the south end.
+Sometimes the wind will rush down the canyon at the northwest and in a
+few moments the waters of the lake are like a great whirlpool. These
+sudden storms often imperil any small boats which may be out on the sea
+as was the case in Bible times when the Master was sleeping and his
+disciples awakened him, saying: "Lord, save us; we perish."
+
+From this body of water to the point where the Jordan empties into the
+Dead Sea is only sixty-five miles by airline, but the way the river
+winds like a gigantic serpent, one would travel twice that distance were
+he to go in a boat. This Jordan valley is from four to fourteen miles
+wide and the mountains on each side rise to the height of from fifteen
+hundred to three thousand feet.
+
+Within this Jordan valley is what might be called an inner valley which
+is from a quarter of a mile to a mile wide, and from fifty to something
+like seventy-five feet deep. This might be called the river bottom and
+the river winds like a snake in this smaller valley. That boy was a
+wise lad who wrote a description of the Jordan as follows: "The Jordan
+is a river which runs straight down through the middle of Palestine, but
+if you look at it very closely, _it wriggles about_." When the river
+overflows it simply covers the bottom of this inner valley.
+
+As noted above, the Sea of Galilee is six hundred and eighty feet below
+the level of the ocean. During this sixty-five miles (airline) to the
+Dead Sea, it falls more than six hundred feet more, so that the Dead Sea
+itself is about thirteen hundred feet below the level of the
+Mediterranean Sea which is only forty miles west. Should a canal be cut
+across to the Mediterranean which would let the water through, not only
+would the Dead Sea and the River Jordan disappear, but the Sea of
+Galilee be included in a great inland sea east of Palestine.
+
+While the Jordan as well as other smaller streams flow continually into
+the Dead Sea, it is said that it never raises an inch. This, with the
+fact that this body of water has no outlet whatever, makes a problem to
+which geologists and scientific men have failed to give a satisfactory
+solution. Of course, the water evaporates very rapidly, but in the
+spring when the Jordan overflows and pours a much greater volume of
+water into it, how does it come that it evaporates so much faster than
+at any other time in the year?
+
+When the writer visited the Dead Sea the water was as smooth as glass.
+The water is so salty that a human body will not sink in it at all.
+Should the body go under it will bob up again like a cork. I have never
+learned to swim; in deep water simply cannot keep my feet up, but in the
+Dead Sea they could not be kept down, and of course I could swim like a
+duck. Nothing grows near this body of water. Everything about it is
+dead. Like some people, it is always receiving but never giving. At the
+mouth of the Jordan one can see dead fish floating on the water. When
+carried by the swift current into this salty water they soon die.
+
+The River Jordan runs very swiftly. It is about the size of the Des
+Moines river in northern Iowa, not nearly so large as this river in the
+southern part of the state. At the fords of the Jordan I waded out into
+the stream but the current was so swift that I did not attempt to go
+entirely across.
+
+Here at this ford occurred some of the greatest events of Bible history.
+On the plain just east of the river the Children of Israel were encamped
+when Moses went up on Mount Nebo, looked over the Promised Land, folded
+his arms and peacefully passed into the great beyond. It must have been
+an exciting day for the entire camp when they last saw their great
+leader become a mere speck on the mountain side and finally disappear
+altogether. They not only never saw him again but they never were able
+to find a trace of his body.
+
+There must have been much speculation among these people as to what
+became of Moses until in some miraculous way Joshua was informed that
+the great leader was dead and that he must now take charge and lead the
+people across the Jordan into the Promised Land. After thirty days
+mourning for Moses, the great company marched down to the river; it was
+opened for them and they crossed on dry ground. The record also states
+that this crossing was at the time when the river was out of its banks
+and this whole bottom, nearly a mile wide, was a rushing torrent.
+Perhaps this accounts for the fact that the enemies who had taken
+possession of the Promised Land were totally unprepared for their
+coming, feeling secure while the river was so high and dangerous.
+
+Another great event which occurred was when the old prophet Elijah and
+the young prophet Elisha crossed the river together and the young man
+came back alone later on for Elijah was taken up to heaven in a
+whirlwind. Now fifty young men had followed the two prophets to the
+river and when Elisha came back alone and told them how the chariot of
+fire came after Elijah they simply couldn't believe it and finally went
+across and searched the mountains for three days trying to find his
+body. Failing to find the body, together with the fact that they had
+witnessed the parting of the waters when the two men went over and the
+same when Elisha came back alone, was sufficient evidence to them that
+the young prophet had told the truth.
+
+Evidently this event created a great impression all over the country and
+young men came to the school for the prophets which was located near,
+that the buildings had to be enlarged. Every student borrowed an ax and
+went to work felling trees along the river bank. In one case the ax flew
+off the handle and went into the water. The young man was greatly
+troubled about this for it was a borrowed one. Word reached the prophet
+Elisha and he came out and caused the ax to come to the surface.
+
+But perhaps the greatest of all events that occurred at this place was
+the baptism of Christ. John the Baptist must have been the Billy Sunday
+of his day for the crowds that came to hear him were immense. One day
+among others who came was a fine looking young man who asked for
+baptism. But the preacher knew him and refused, saying that he was
+unworthy to do this, but the young man, who was no other than the Master
+himself, explained the situation and the preacher hesitated no longer.
+
+In connection with the River Jordan and the bodies of water at each end,
+it is interesting to note that the first man to take the level and give
+to the world the remarkable facts about the physical characteristics of
+this wonderful and world-famous river, was an American. His name was
+Lynch and he was a lieutenant in the American Navy. At the close of the
+Mexican War, our Government permitted Lieutenant Lynch to take ten
+seamen and two small boats and make this exploration. The boats were
+taken overland to the Sea of Galilee and launched and this man and his
+helpers went down the river to the Dead Sea in them, and thus gave to
+the world the remarkable facts about this wonderful country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE PLAYGROUND OF MOSES--EGYPT
+
+
+Next to Palestine, Egypt is perhaps the most interesting country on the
+globe to visit. For great antiquity and splendor no land surpasses this
+cradle of civilization. The science, art and architecture of the
+Egyptians is the marvel of leading men even to this day. The schools of
+Egypt produced the greatest characters of all ages before the coming of
+Christ. The wisdom of this ancient race as well as some of the
+engineering feats command the respect of these modern days.
+
+Take a map of Texas and California together, place a map of modern Egypt
+upon it and you will have enough left to make West Virginia. Ancient
+Egypt was only about one-fourth as large as modern Egypt. The greater
+portion of the land always has been and is today a desert. The thirteen
+million people practically live on the narrow valley of the Nile in a
+strip of territory from five to fifteen miles wide except down near the
+sea.
+
+Not far from Cairo is a place called Fayoum. The name means "A Thousand
+Days." A missionary told me how it got this name. When Joseph was an old
+man some of the younger officers wanted him deposed and they said that
+he was no longer fit to be at the head of affairs. They said that near
+the city was a great swamp and if he were capable he would have drained
+this land. They, of course, did not think this was possible, hence the
+suggestion.
+
+Putting their heads together they went to the old councillor and
+persuaded him to put the impossible task up to Joseph believing that his
+failure would be so ignominious that he would be deposed. At once
+Joseph called Egypt's greatest civil engineers, outlined his plan, took
+hundreds of laborers, went to work and in sixty days the swamp was
+completely drained. When the old adviser was taken out to see how well
+the work was done, he was so amazed that he exclaimed: "That would have
+been a mighty work for a thousand days," and it is called Fayoum to this
+day. Today the gardens and orchards of Fayoum are among the finest and
+most productive in all Egypt.
+
+No one can go over this land without walking in the footsteps of Moses,
+for Egypt was his playground. Of course I was shown the exact (?) spot
+where the little ark was found among the bullrushes in the River Nile.
+When Pharoah's daughter saw the little child she was touched and thus
+the destiny of a nation hung on the cry of a little child. Miriam, the
+sister of Moses appeared just in the nick of time and when the princess
+told her to call one of the Hebrew women her feet hardly touched the
+ground in her effort to get her mother to the spot. When the little
+hands were held out toward the joyous mother she was told to take the
+child and nurse him and thus she was paid wages for bringing up her own
+child upon whom the sentence of death had been pronounced.
+
+Not far from the spot mentioned above is the famous Nilometer that Moses
+looked upon many a time. As I went down the steps to get a nearer view
+of this measuring apparatus a panorama of the old days seemed to come
+before my eyes. The very life of the people depended upon the overflow
+of the Nile. June 17th was one of the great days for on that day almost
+as regular as the sunrise the upper Nile began to rise. A few days later
+an anxious crowd gathered to see the water mark on the Nilometer begin
+to come up. About July third the criers started on their daily rounds
+through the city announcing the measurement. If it was up to normal the
+people were happy and if not they were sad. When the rise was about
+twenty feet the "Completion" or "Abundance of the Nile" was announced
+and preparation was made for the opening of the canal which time was a
+regular jubilee among the people.
+
+All night long before this ceremony rockets were fired at intervals and
+in the morning at the appointed time the governor and those with him
+"cut the dam" and the inundation started. For more than a month the
+canals were full, and the fields were flooded and a thin coat of fine
+pulverized soil was spread over the ground like a carpet and when seed
+was placed in the ground it grew like in a hothouse. At Cairo the Nile
+would often rise twenty-five feet.
+
+During these days a great deal of irrigating is done all through the
+season. In some places ponderous machinery is used but to this day a
+large portion of work is done by hand. One of the most common sights
+along the Nile is the shadoof. This is a long pole with a weight on one
+end and a bucket on the other. Hour after hour half dressed men and
+women will dip up water and pour it into irrigation ditches. Great
+wooden waterwheels are also used and an ox or donkey or man or woman or
+a blinded camel will go round and round and you can hear this wooden
+wheel squeak for a mile. The little buckets on the waterwheel keep an
+almost endless stream flowing into the irrigation ditch.
+
+Another method is a sort of a paddle wheel on a windlass upon which a
+native will walk hour after hour. This turns a kind of an endless chain
+something like the old-fashioned cistern pump with which we are all
+familiar. In Egypt nearly everything is done by hand as man power is
+cheaper than machinery. I saw them grading a railroad with wheelbarrows,
+not even a cart or a donkey on the job. The great bridge across the Nile
+used to be opened by hand and boats pulled through by hand. It was a
+most interesting sight to the writer for a hundred or more men to get
+hold of a large rope and begin to heave-to. Soon the boat would begin to
+move slowly.
+
+As a rule people in Egypt are very poor. The plague of flies has not yet
+ceased in Egypt. Children are dirty and often diseased and the streets
+of the old portion of the city of Cairo literally swarm with them. While
+the people generally look quite hearty and well fed, yet beggars are
+everywhere. "Backsheesh" is about the first word the little child learns
+to speak and the last word an old beggar lisps before he dies. From noon
+until two-thirty or three o'clock shops are closed and thousands of
+people drop down where they are and go to sleep. Riding through old
+Cairo at this time of day my donkey had to pick his way, often stepping
+over people who were sound asleep.
+
+Many of the customs of Egyptians always have been different from those
+of other nations. Here women seldom pray to any god but men pray to all
+of them. Women carry burdens on their shoulders while men carry them on
+their heads. Women buy and sell in the market while their men sit at
+home and spin. The daughter instead of the son is supposed to care for
+the old folks when they become feeble and helpless. In kneading dough
+they use their feet while in handling mud they use their hands. Other
+peoples consider themselves above the beasts but the Egyptians made gods
+of the beasts and worshipped them. When an ancient enemy attacked Egypt,
+dogs, cats, and other beasts were driven at the head of the army and the
+Egyptians would surrender rather than run the risk of killing their
+sacred animals.
+
+The people in Egyptian cities do not eat their evening meal until from
+eight to ten at night. The restaurants have their tables in the streets
+and the people eat and shop at the same time. Watching the people at a
+large restaurant in Cairo, one night, I wrote down a list of the
+articles offered for sale while they were eating their evening meal.
+Here is the list: Alarm clocks, nuts, bread, lead pencils, fish, knives,
+cards, live chickens, cigars, cigarettes, cakes, eggs, mutton, matches,
+melons, watches, flowers, rugs, fancy boxes, stands, socks, perfumes,
+balloons, fruits of all kinds, slippers, canes, neckties, whips and
+guns.
+
+In addition to these venders, blind beggars and cripples, traveling
+musicians, gamblers with all kinds of devices, fortune tellers with
+wheels of fortune and many others were among the people all the time.
+After eating, many of the people drink wine and play cards until the
+early morning. All this time nearly everybody was talking at once and it
+was a regular circus to watch them. Several times hot words were passed
+but as a rule the people were in good humor and seemed to be having a
+good time.
+
+One of the much used and often abused beasts in Egypt is the camel.
+Riding a camel for the first time is quite an experience. The beast
+will lie down, but it is continually snarling and when it gets up you go
+through all kinds of motions. As I rode around the great pyramid and
+sphinx on one of these beasts the swing was not unlike that of a great
+rocking chair and while this ship of the desert did not seem to be going
+fast I noticed that the driver was running and the donkey alongside was
+on the gallop most of the time.
+
+At the time I was in Egypt one could purchase a fairly good camel for a
+little less than one hundred dollars. These beasts can live on next to
+nothing. They will strip a shrub of leaves and stems. A camel can eat
+and drink enough at one time to last it a week or ten days. The natives
+say that it lives on the fat of its hump. When a camel is weary from a
+long march across the desert the hump almost disappears and then as it
+eats its fill the hump becomes strong and hard again. It will carry a
+burden of from five to six hundred pounds.
+
+The city of Cairo is full of interesting sights. The streets of the
+better portion of the city are well paved and the buildings substantial
+and several stories high. The streets are sprinkled by hand. These men
+carry a skin of water--often half a barrel--and by means of a nozzle
+they throw it everywhere. There are many beautiful parks and drives in
+and about the city. The wonderful palms and other trees furnish shade
+and although the sun shines very hot it is quite cool under these trees.
+
+Runners go ahead of carriages containing prominent persons telling
+people to get out of the way for so and so is coming. Many people stop
+and look as they go by. An interesting sight was a wedding procession.
+It was headed by a band and an enclosed carriage with a black cloth
+over it contained the bride while the groom walked alongside holding on
+to the carriage. Following along behind on foot were the relatives and
+the rabble of the streets. My guide explained that when a wedding takes
+place a cloth is hung from the window and kept there for three days so
+one can go through the city and pick out the homes where they have had a
+wedding within that time.
+
+One of the lost arts is the Egyptian method of embalming the bodies of
+the dead. It seems that they believed that the spirit will return to the
+body in the course of time and they undertook to preserve the body as
+near perfect as possible until that time arrived. There are multiplied
+thousands of these mummies in Egypt. In the great museum in Cairo the
+mummy of the Pharoah who made the burdens of the enslaved Hebrews
+heavier can be seen today. Little did he think that in thousands of
+years the descendants of these people would spit in the face of his
+mummy, but they often do that very thing.
+
+In the old days it is said that they used to license robbery and govern
+it by law. The spoil was taken to the robber chief and the victim could
+go and claim his property and by paying a certain per cent of its value
+recover the property, after which the man who did the stealing could
+secure from the chief his portion of the proceeds. We laugh at this but
+how much worse is it than some of the things we license today?
+
+I had a most pleasant visit in the home of Dr. Ewing, a United
+Presbyterian missionary. The United Presbyterian people have done and
+are doing a most remarkable work in Egypt. A visit to their mission in
+Cairo was wonderfully interesting to say the least. I was presented
+with some coins there, the smallest of which was worth, at that time,
+one-sixteenth of a penny, but the missionaries assured me that those
+coins were seldom used except in church collections.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A COUNTRY WITH A THOUSAND RIVERS--VENEZUELA
+
+
+Years ago two miners worked together for months and finally came to know
+each other as Tom and Jack. One day Tom was not well and could not do
+much but watch Jack dig. After noting some movements of the body that
+seemed familiar he said: "Jack, where did you come from?" The two men
+sat down and talked of boyhood days and found that they were born in the
+same community and had played together when they were small boys. Here
+they had worked together for months without knowing that they were
+neighbors; they actually got up and shook hands with each other.
+
+Venezuela is our nearest neighbor to the south. This country is nearer
+to Florida than New Orleans is to New York and yet we have lived side by
+side for four hundred years and hardly knew we were neighbors. We might
+have been friends and greatly assisted each other all these years. Is it
+not about time we were getting acquainted and shaking hands with each
+other?
+
+It is surprising to know that Venezuela is as large as Maine, New
+Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York,
+Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, the two Virginias, North and South
+Carolina and Georgia combined. It is a country that has a thousand
+rivers. In some parts of it you can travel for days in regions where as
+yet no white man has ever set his foot. One writer says that of all the
+countries in the world Venezuela is the one for which God has done the
+most and man has done the least.
+
+This great country has been called the hunting ground of South America.
+This is not so much because of the abundance of game, although all kinds
+of wild animals are plentiful; it has been given this appellation
+because of its unstable government. Its treasury has been looted again
+and again. Even the president of Venezuela was for years a criminal. He
+robbed merchants of other countries who tried to do business with his
+government. He imprisoned those who refused to assist him and ran things
+in a high-handed way. Business firms of other lands found this out and
+did not care to do business with such a country or help develop its
+resources in any way.
+
+We are not ashamed of our revolution in 1776 for its purpose was to gain
+our independence. During the past seventy or eighty years Venezuela has
+had more than a half hundred revolutions but generally they were gotten
+up to give an excuse for pillage and robbery rather than to make a
+better country or government. Things are better now, however, and a new
+day is dawning for these unhappy people.
+
+The main port or entrance to this country is La Guaira and sailors say
+it is about the worst port to enter in the world. This port city
+contains about fifteen thousand people and has but a single street. The
+high mountains are so near the sea that there is only a narrow strip of
+land at the foot and on this narrow strip the city is built. The sea is
+nearly always rough and the weather always hot. How people can endure
+such extreme heat all the time is a mystery.
+
+All along this coast strip of Venezuela are plantations generally
+covered with cocoa trees. From the beans of this tree are made cocoa and
+chocolate. Coffee is also a staple crop. At the piers will be noticed
+bags of coffee and cocoa beans, great quantities of rubber and piles of
+hides. As we are nearer to them than other foreign countries we now use
+much of their products. The population of this great country is only a
+little more than that of the state of Iowa.
+
+Back only six or eight miles, in a direct line, from La Guaira and the
+blue waters of the Caribbean sea, high up in the mountains is a great
+valley in which is located the capital city of Venezuela. This city,
+Caracas, is about as large as Sioux City, Iowa, but to get to it is some
+job. It is only about twenty-five miles by rail and this railroad was
+about as difficult to build as any of our mountain railroads. The tracks
+cling to the mountain sides almost like vines cling to brick walls, and
+the curves are so short that one riding in the end coach can nearly
+reach the engineer. One can look hundreds of feet into caverns and
+gorges that seem almost like the bottomless pit.
+
+Venezuela got its name from Venice, Italy, in the following way. One of
+the earliest explorers sailing along the coast saw the Indian villages
+built on piles in the water along the shore and was reminded of the
+Italian city and called the country Venezuela, which means "little
+Venice."
+
+Here lived Las Casas, a priest who was the Indian's greatest champion in
+the early days and who is said to be the father of African Slavery in
+the new world. It was he who suggested that negroes be imported to labor
+in the fields and mines that the Indians might have an easier time.
+Brought from Africa to work that the Indians might rest, these black
+people became the slaves of all.
+
+Venezuela was the birthplace of the great Simon Bolivar and other
+patriots who were fired with enthusiasm against Spanish oppression and
+literally gave their lives that the colonies might be free. Even the
+coins of the old days were stamped with Bolivar's name and everywhere he
+is revered as the George Washington of that country.
+
+In one of the large museums is a room in which are kept the great
+liberator's clothing, saddle, boots and spears and these things are as
+sacred to them as the Ark of the Covenant was to the Jews. In this same
+room is a portrait of Washington upon which is the inscription: "This
+picture of the liberator of North America is sent by his adopted son to
+him who acquired equal glory in South America."
+
+Through this country runs one of the world's greatest rivers, the
+Orinoco, which with its tributaries furnishes more than four thousand
+miles of navigable rivers. This great river system drains a territory of
+three hundred and sixty thousand square miles.
+
+It is rather strange that in this country with lovely and productive
+valleys whose irrigated orchards and gardens make a regular paradise,
+that the farming classes should be poor and ignorant, without ambition
+or education and be satisfied to live in comfortless, tumble-down huts
+without furniture or any of the improvements that make life worth
+living. But such is the case. Here where there are millions of coffee
+trees, fields of sugar cane and orchards of oranges, lemons and all
+kinds of tropical fruit, where the farmer could be happiest, he is
+about the most miserable creature that could be found. In his miserable
+home he has no lamp or candle, no books or papers of any sort.
+
+While Venezuela is rich in mines and forests, grain and livestock,
+coffee and rubber, dyes and medicines, gold and copper, lead and coal,
+to say nothing of tropical fruits and vegetables, she has another
+product that makes her known the world around. This is asphalt, or
+mineral pitch as it is sometimes called. This makes the smoothest street
+paving of any material known. It is also used extensively for calking
+vessels, making waterproof roofs, lining cold storage plants, making
+varnishes as well as shoe blacking as well as in a hundred other ways.
+
+At the mouth of the Orinoco river is the Island of Trinidad upon which
+is the famous pitch lake. This is the most noted deposit of asphalt
+known. This lake is a mile and a half across and looks, from a distance,
+like a pond surrounded with trees. Nearing it, however, one soon
+discovers that it contains anything but water.
+
+This material is of a dark green color and at the border is hard and
+strong enough to bear quite a heavy weight, but near the center it is
+almost like a boiling mass. The asphalt is dug from the edges of the
+lake, loaded on carts, hauled to the port and from there shipped to
+nearly every country on the globe. Two hundred thousand tons per year
+have been taken from the lake and yet there is no hole to be seen. Negro
+workmen dig it to the depth of a couple of feet and in a week or so the
+hole is level with the top again.
+
+The government of Trinidad has leased the asphalt lake to an American
+company and the income amounts to nearly a quarter of a million dollars
+per year. Nobody knows how deep the asphalt bed is for borings have been
+made a hundred feet or more deep and there was no bottom. The heat is
+intense all around this lake.
+
+About fifty miles from the coast in Venezuela there is another asphalt
+lake and the material in it is of finer quality than at Trinidad, but it
+is hard to reach. Some believe that the two deposits are connected by a
+subterranean passage and supplied from the same source. It was from this
+inland lake of asphalt that the material was procured to protect the New
+York subway tunnels from moisture, so it is said.
+
+In the central part of Venezuela are the llanos which are said to be
+about the best pasture lands in the world. The chief industry here is
+cattle raising. More than two million head of cattle feed, upon these
+llanos, but they are capable of feeding many times that number.
+
+One reason why the people of this country have no ambition to lay up for
+the future or even get large herds of cattle has been because of the
+numerous revolutions of the past. Every time they have succeeded in
+getting large herds of cattle or stores of grain a revolution would come
+and their property be seized and often destroyed.
+
+No people can be prosperous and happy without a stable government,
+schools and colleges and the influences that are uplifting. This is the
+great need of many of the countries of South America today. Just here it
+is well for the farmers of this country to congratulate themselves. The
+writer of these lines has traveled nearly all over the world and having
+been a farmer all his early life it is only natural that he would try
+to study the problems of the farmers in all lands.
+
+It is therefore with pride that one can say that considering all the
+complex problems with which the American farmer has to grapple, he is a
+hundred times better off than his brother farmers in any country in the
+world. He is more independent, has more privileges, more opportunities
+for making the most of life, has higher ideals, and lives better than
+the tillers of the soil in any other country on earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A LAND OF GREAT INDUSTRIES--BRAZIL
+
+
+You could take a map of the whole United States, lay it down on Brazil
+and still have room for England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Denmark and
+Switzerland left. Walk around Brazil and you have traveled a distance
+equal to two-thirds of a journey around the globe. If every man, woman
+and child in the United States were placed in Matto Grasso, the state in
+Brazil where Roosevelt discovered the "River of Doubt," in 1914, that
+state would not have as many people to the square mile as England has at
+this moment. If all the people on earth were placed in Brazil the
+population of that country would not be as dense as that of Belgium
+today.
+
+Brazil could produce enough rubber to supply the whole world with
+automobile tires for generations and never have to plant another rubber
+tree to do it, that is, of course, if all her rubber forests could be
+utilized. From a single Brazilian port is shipped one-fourth of all the
+coffee used in the whole world. In a single Brazilian state there are
+ten thousand coffee plantations that have more than fifty thousand trees
+each and six hundred of them have more than one hundred thousand trees
+each.
+
+Brazil might be called the "jewel box" of the world. Her diamond fields
+rival those of South Africa. Her mines produced a single stone that sold
+for fifteen million dollars. One writer says: "Of all the fabulous tales
+related of bonanza princes the palm for extravagance belongs to the
+early mining days of Brazil, when horses were shod with gold, when
+lawyers supported their pleadings before judges with gifts of what
+appeared at first sight to be oranges and bananas, but proved to be
+solid gold imitations, when guests were entertained at dinner with
+pebbles of gold in their soup and when nuggets were the most convenient
+medium of exchange in the money market."
+
+Would you like to go nutting? Brazil has the greatest groves on earth.
+Some of these nut trees grow to a height of a hundred and fifty feet and
+have a girth of twenty feet, fifty feet up from the ground. A single
+tree is said to produce as many as three tons of nuts during a season.
+In the trees of Brazil are found sixteen hundred species of birds. There
+are parrots galore and sixty-five varieties of woodpeckers have been
+catalogued. One family of birds in Brazil are said to be devout
+Christians as they never work but six days in the week.
+
+One would naturally suppose that in Brazil the weather would be
+extremely hot as the equator runs across the great Amazon valley. But
+the nights are cool and sunstroke is unknown. Frost can be seen in the
+highlands at certain times in the year. While fevers rage in parts of
+the land, yet most of the country is conducive to good health. The very
+dangerous parts of the Amazon valley are limited to certain parts of the
+country.
+
+Some years ago at a contest in Paris between twelve hundred children the
+first prize for healthy appearance was given to a boy born in Manaos of
+Amazonian parents. This city is in the very heart of the jungle in the
+Amazon valley. There is one authenticated case of a man in this valley
+who lived to be one hundred and forty-five years old.
+
+In the dense forests of the uplands of Brazil there are people who are
+living in the stone age of culture. They are practically wild tribes who
+know nothing about the use of metal, in fact, they know but little about
+civilization. They are said to be ignorant of common food such as
+bananas and rice. They seem to have no idea of a supreme being, believe
+in a soul that goes wandering about after death.
+
+In some parts of Brazil rice is cultivated quite extensively and it
+makes a cheap food. It is said that in one place a man from Louisiana is
+running an experimental rice farm showing the Brazilian farmers how to
+cultivate Japanese rice. Rather strange, isn't it, that United States
+farmers should be teaching the Brazilian farmers Japanese agriculture?
+
+A peculiar thing about the land of Brazil is the absence of earth worms.
+In our country these worms improve the physical condition of the soil
+but there this lack is made up by the multiplied millions of ants that
+burrow down deep into the earth. In our country, too, the chemical
+changes of winter help prepare the soil for the coming crops, but in
+Brazil there is no winter season when the land "sleeps" and it does not
+seem to be necessary.
+
+While in the great rubber industry of Brazil the trees grow and produce
+with but little if any cultivation, this is not true of the coffee
+trees. They have to be cultivated and carefully looked after. Insect
+pests that are so destructive to coffee trees in many countries, are
+almost absent in Brazil and this fact has not a little to do with making
+this the greatest coffee country in the world. In the state of Sao
+Paulo almost the entire energies of the people are absorbed in the
+coffee industry.
+
+This state is a little larger than Colorado and is the most powerful
+state of the twenty that make up the United States of Brazil. The name
+of the capital is the same as that of the state and the city of Sao
+Paulo is about as large as Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is noted for its
+beauty and industry. The climate is delightful, always cool, but never
+freezing cold. With more than one hundred elementary schools besides
+numerous high schools and colleges it is perhaps the greatest
+educational center of the country. Near this city is the largest coffee
+plantation in the world. It contains something like eight million trees
+and takes about eight thousand people to run it. This one plantation
+produces twenty million pounds of coffee annually and there are thirty
+railroad stations upon it.
+
+A well kept coffee tree is about twelve feet high when full grown. The
+leaves are a shiny green, a little like holly. The trees bloom in
+September and fill the air with fragrance. As the white blossoms fade
+the berries begin to form. May is the harvest time. Harvest hands come
+in large numbers as they do in Kansas or the Dakotas during the wheat
+harvest. Workmen are paid according to the amount they gather and some
+of them gather fifty pounds a day.
+
+The coffee berries are first stripped from the tree then raked and piled
+into baskets. Next they are run through a machine that takes the bean
+out of the covering, then into tanks of water where they are thoroughly
+washed and then comes the drying process. It used to take weeks to get
+the coffee beans well dried and men had to watch and keep stirring the
+piles continually, but quite recently a new process was discovered by
+which they are dried by steam.
+
+After the coffee beans are thoroughly dried they are run through rollers
+that break the skin covering and great ventilators blow the chaff away.
+Then the beans are poured into a gigantic sieve with different sized
+holes which are chutes in reality and from which endless streams of
+coffee graded according to size run into a large room. At each stream
+stand women who pick out imperfect or damaged grains. The coffee is then
+sacked and is ready for shipment. The ordinary bag of coffee weighs
+about one hundred and twenty pounds. Santo is the great coffee port and
+here can be seen ships from every civilized land taking on cargoes of
+coffee. If it is well kept coffee gets better with age, so it can be
+piled in great warehouses for months or even years and not deteriorate.
+Nearly a dozen million bags of coffee are shipped from Santo annually
+and as we are the greatest coffee drinkers in the world about half of
+the entire crop comes to us.
+
+Formerly many of the coffee plantations were worked by slaves. Negroes
+were brought from South Africa, as they were brought to work in the
+cotton fields in the south in anti-slavery days. In the year 1888 Brazil
+freed her slaves and the sudden freeing of a half million slaves almost
+demoralized the coffee and sugar industries of the country. Many of
+these negroes thought that freedom meant that they would never have to
+work any more and they became loafers and often criminals. Of course
+thousands of them drifted to the great centers of population and Brazil
+has had and is still having her share of race troubles.
+
+Many of the workers on the coffee plantations at present are Italians.
+They come in large numbers to work on these estates. Each family is
+given a certain number of trees to look after; sometimes a single family
+will take care of several thousand trees. They have to do a lot of
+hoeing and weeding. The soil is almost red and these workmen take on
+largely the color of the soil as their faces and clothes are stained
+with red dust and water. Families are furnished houses to live in and
+they live their own lives as if they were in their home country.
+
+After coffee and rubber comes sugar. For many years Brazil furnished
+more sugar than any other country; now there are a half dozen countries
+ahead of her in the production of sugar. This is largely accounted for,
+not so much because of inability to produce, as because of the
+antiquated methods in use. There are places in the country where it is
+said that the same variety of sugar has been grown for two hundred years
+and that without any attempt on the part of the planters to restore the
+soil.
+
+One of the first things ever exported from Brazil was tobacco. This weed
+has been grown there ever since the country was discovered. Modern
+methods of culture are now being used so more of it will be produced
+than ever. They say, too, that Brazil produces as fine a quality of
+tobacco as Cuba. Cotton is also produced in large quantities.
+
+The Brazilians are an interesting people. I like them. They are always
+courteous and polite. Men often tip their hats to each other and kiss
+each other's hands. In Rio de Janeiro nearly everyone is well dressed.
+The women are good looking. The Brazil people are more friendly than
+any other South American people. The language, except among the Italians
+and other foreigners, is largely Portuguese while in practically all
+other South American countries the people speak Spanish.
+
+Although Brazil has millions of acres of the best timber in the world I
+never saw a wooden building in their great capital city. In Rio, nearly
+every automobile factory in the United States is represented. In this
+land of rubber they have no manufacturing plants to utilize it. Wages
+for common laborers are low and yet the people only work part of the
+time. In coaling a ship the men will work like beavers for a couple of
+hours and then sit down and smoke and talk as long and no urging them to
+work seems to do any good. One can make a living there with half the
+work it takes here and that is all they care for.
+
+The Brazilians have some odd customs. People always carry their burdens
+on their heads. Baskets as large as barrels are carried in this way
+without a bit of trouble. They say that four men will carry a heavy
+piano on their heads but I never saw them moving one. On almost every
+street there are venders of sweetmeats, vegetables, brooms, baskets and
+furniture. I saw one vender with two dozen brooms, a dozen mops, two
+chairs, and a lot of other truck on his head. He had the chairs hooked
+on the brooms, baskets on the chairs and a lot of other stuff piled up
+so that he looked like a moving express wagon.
+
+Streets in Brazilian cities are often named for days or months. I
+noticed one of the prominent streets in Rio named "13th of September,"
+another "15th of November." Rio de Janeiro means "River of January." I
+never saw a chimney in the city, yet the streets and many of the houses
+are washed every night. Everything is shining. They seem to have a
+wonderful appreciation of beauty and never in any other city in the
+world have I seen more beautiful or artistic shop windows.
+
+Everybody seemed to be in a good humor. Policemen are small of stature,
+but they direct the street traffic in a most wonderful way. Everybody
+smiles and there is no loud talking, or drunkenness. The national drink
+is coffee and there are coffee shops with tables and cups everywhere.
+Men often drink a cup or two of coffee a dozen times a day. There are
+hundreds of coffee shops in Rio. Of course, liquor is sold in many
+places, but it is mostly drunk by foreigners. I never saw a Brazilian
+drinking liquor in their capital city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+URUGUAY AND PARAGUAY
+
+
+Uruguay is the smallest of the South American republics. It is just a
+little larger than the state of Oklahoma. It is a little wedge between
+Brazil and Argentina and is, all in all, the most advanced country in
+South America. At the time of the visit of the writer it was the only
+country in South America whose dollar was worth a hundred cents. The
+population is about a million and a quarter--eighteen to the square
+mile. The principal industry is stock raising. The country has something
+like nine million head of cattle and fifteen million head of sheep. The
+meat packing business is enormous for such a small country.
+
+Fray Bentos, a town near Montevideo, boasts of the largest establishment
+in the world for the preparation of beef extract. The tall chimneys of
+this great factory make it look like a large city. The employees number
+thousands. They are well cared for and contented. There are no strikes
+there. They are well paid while able to work and pensioned when they
+reach old age.
+
+Thus, the Leibig company, has given all South America an example of the
+better way to treat men and women who toil. Schools are provided for the
+children. The religious nature is looked after, the company furnishing a
+church building. The company also provides hospitals for the sick. The
+cottages of the working people are supplied with electricity and are
+quite comfortable.
+
+This company has its own gas and water systems. In the great slaughter
+house many hundred head of cattle are killed each day. It only takes
+eight minutes from the time an animal is killed until it is in the
+refrigerating rooms ready to be made into beef extract. Every drop of
+blood is saved in this factory, being dried and made into chicken feed
+or something else that is useful. Chicago, however, goes Fray Bentos one
+better for there you know the squeal is caught by the phonograph and the
+records sold for grand opera.
+
+This establishment is not the only one of its kind in Uruguay. There are
+many other great plants where meat is chilled or frozen in the most
+modern, up-to-date way. In no country in the world is meat more
+carefully or scientifically cared for than in these great establishments
+and no one need be afraid to eat the meat that comes from Uruguay. The
+inspection is said to be the most rigid of any packing plants in the
+world.
+
+The Uruguayan boasts that every acre of ground in his country is
+productive. The grass is green the year around and stock does not have
+to be housed and fed in winter as in our country. All the grains and
+vegetables that will grow in our middle west will grow in Uruguay and
+there the farmers never have such a thing as a killing frost.
+
+The greatest city in Uruguay is Montevideo, the capital city. It is
+located on the Rio de la Plata river, which really seems more like a sea
+than a river, being sixty-two miles wide at this place. Buenos Aires is
+but a hundred and ten miles away and to reach it you just go angling
+across this great river. Montevideo is larger than Kansas City,
+Missouri. It has many splendid buildings, but no skyscrapers. The parks
+or plazas as they are called, are as pretty as nature and the hands of
+man can make them.
+
+These people claim that Montevideo is the most healthful city on the
+globe, but the traveler often finds the same claim made for other
+cities. Most of the streets are narrow but are well paved and generally
+quite clean. Their street car system is certainly a good one. When the
+street is wide enough for a double track the tracks are laid close to
+the sidewalks which leaves the center of the street free for autos and
+other vehicles. This plan could certainly be adopted by the cities in
+our country and be a blessing. I had no idea that any city contained so
+many beautiful homes and flower gardens until I took a ride into the
+suburbs of this city. Almost every home, or villa, has a rose garden and
+there must be many wealthy people for it takes a tremendous amount of
+labor to keep these wonderful flower gardens in such good order.
+
+The people of Uruguay as a whole are better educated and brighter
+looking than the people of most other South American countries. Their
+schools and colleges are said to be the very best. The people, as a
+rule, dress well and seem to be prosperous and happy. A ramble through
+the streets and plazas lingers in one's memory like a pleasant dream.
+
+Away to the north in the very heart of the south central part of the
+continent is the country of Paraguay. While nearly twice as large as
+Uruguay it has but few more than half as many people and a majority of
+them are women. This ought to be called a bachelor's paradise.
+
+Paraguay came to be a woman's country in the following manner. Years ago
+Paraguay got into trouble with Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, all her
+neighbors, at the same time. These countries combined their forces and
+all but annihilated the Paraguayan army. As all the able bodied men were
+in the army they were nearly all killed. It used to be said that there
+were five women to every man in Paraguay and from all reports conditions
+have not greatly changed yet. It is almost dangerous for an unmarried
+man to show his head.
+
+The country is naturally divided into two parts, eastern and western.
+The most of the people live in the eastern part for the western part is
+flat and the rivers overflow, covering a great portion of the country.
+No wonder that great swarms of ferocious mosquitoes make parts of the
+country almost uninhabitable, fever-infested and unhealthy. Besides
+these unpleasant features the heat is often almost unbearable.
+
+The summer in Paraguay lasts from October to March and the winter from
+April to September, July and August being the coldest months. The Parana
+river takes to the sea a greater volume of water than our great
+Mississippi. Near the place where the Iguassu river empties into the
+Parana are the famous Iguassu Falls which are twice as wide and fifty
+feet higher than Niagara Falls.
+
+In the eastern part of Paraguay are great orange groves and all kinds of
+tropical fruits. The oranges are delicious and are so plentiful that
+they are fed to the pigs. As many as thirty are sometimes sold for a
+penny. Wheat and corn are grown and tobacco and cotton plantations are
+numerous.
+
+They say that in Paraguay a great many of the women smoke, but I imagine
+that this is greatly exaggerated. The same has been said of other South
+American countries but after traveling more than twelve thousand miles
+in and around this country I here record the fact that in not more than
+a case or two did I see a woman smoking. My traveling company only saw
+two or three cases so we are forced to think that many talk who do not
+know. For if any large number, as is often reported, used the weed in
+this way we would have discovered it.
+
+There is a very valuable tree that grows in Paraguay that is not often
+found in other countries. It is called the quebracho tree. The name
+really means "ax-breaker," and the wood is almost as hard as iron. A
+quebracho log will not float upon water, but will sink like iron. This
+wood makes the most valuable railroad ties known.
+
+But a certain variety of the quebracho tree is much more valuable for
+another purpose, viz: the tanning of leather. For ages the world's great
+tanneries used the bark of oak, hemlock and other trees for that
+purpose. But it was discovered that not only the bark of this tree but
+the wood itself makes better tanning extract than any other bark or tree
+known.
+
+In the heart of the continent there is a vast plain that takes in not
+only western Paraguay but reaches into Brazil and Bolivia on the north
+and Argentina on the south. This is called the Gran Chaco and it is
+nearly as large as the state of Texas. Most of this region is as yet
+unexplored. In parts of it are tribes of wild Indians as well as wild
+and ferocious beasts, alligators and snakes that are usually found in
+tropical jungles. In other parts are grassy plains suitable for cattle
+and other livestock. Already there are many ranches here, one of the
+largest of which is run by a stockman from the United States.
+
+Here in this far away and unknown country are millions of acres of
+quebracho forests in which this tanning extract is already being made.
+Thousands of men are employed in the forest to cut the trees and others
+with oxen haul them to the factories where hundreds of expert workmen
+are making this extract and shipping it to all parts of the world. It is
+said that a single one of these companies owns two million acres of this
+forest land. More than ten thousand men are employed by this one firm,
+so it is said, and as might be expected it is a United States company.
+
+But perhaps the greatest industry in Paraguay is the tea called by the
+name of the country. In their country they call it "mate." It is much
+more valuable than ordinary tea. It is a stimulant that leaves no bad
+effect and is said to be more healthful than the tea we use. People who
+have a good supply of this tea can work harder and with less fatigue
+than by using any other stimulant known.
+
+The plant or tree from which this "mate" is secured often grows as large
+as an orange tree and the leaves are green and shiny. There are
+thousands of acres of this growing wild and the product made from that
+in the wild state is as good as any. Thousands of Indians, as well as
+white people, are engaged in the harvesting and shipping of this tea.
+
+The largest city in Paraguay is Asuncion, the capital city. It is nearly
+as large as Des Moines, Iowa, and a portion of it is simply the ruins of
+the ancient city that was ruled by tyrants. One can see the massive
+uncompleted tomb where the last of these rulers expected to be buried.
+The two million dollar palace in which he lived in luxury and
+unspeakable vice can also be seen. But another part of the city is
+modern and up-to-date.
+
+Before closing this article at least one man noted in the story of
+Paraguay should be mentioned. He was the first of the tyrants that ruled
+immediately after Paraguay freed herself from Spanish oppression. His
+name was Dr. Jose R. G. Francia and, according to the historian, for
+twenty-five years he was the government of Paraguay. In all history no
+man ever so dominated and controlled a nation as did he. He had no
+confidants or assistants. No one was allowed to approach him on terms of
+equality. He neither received nor sent consuls from or to any foreign
+countries. He was the sole foreign merchant of his country.
+
+This man was gloomy and peculiar and assumed supreme power without
+marrying, was against the educated classes and ordered wholesale
+executions. So fearful was he of assassination that he lived in several
+houses and no one but himself knew where he would sleep at night. When
+he walked the streets guards walked both in front and behind him. The
+very news that he was out was sufficient to clear the streets. And yet,
+powerful and cruel that he was, the humblest Indian could receive a
+hearing and justice from him. He was modest in a way, abstemious and
+never used his power for selfish indulgence. He was one of the wonders
+of history.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE WONDERFUL ARGENTINE REPUBLIC
+
+
+The wonderful Argentine Republic is a little world in itself. Take all
+the United States east of the Mississippi river, add the state of Texas,
+place them in the Argentine Republic and there will be room for more.
+Here you can find some of the highest and most rugged mountains and then
+you can travel two thousand miles and hardly find a hill worthy of the
+name.
+
+From the torrid heat of the north you can go to the cold, bleak glacial
+regions of the south, all in Argentine. The seasons are just the
+opposite from ours. July is their coldest month and the hottest time in
+the year is in January. The north side of the house is the sunny side.
+In the Argentine there are some of the finest forest regions imaginable
+and then you can travel a thousand miles across level plains and never
+see a tree.
+
+The southern part of Argentina used to be called Patagonia. This is the
+Alaska of South America. The extreme southern point is the island of
+Tierra del Fuego, which is divided between Argentina and Chile.
+Argentina's part of the island is as large as the state of
+Massachusetts.
+
+Argentina has nearly five hundred million acres of ground that can be
+cultivated and this great area is extended over well watered plains, all
+of which are so accessible to the sea that the simplest railway
+construction is all that is necessary. Of this vast area only about
+one-fifth has as yet been cultivated or brought within the present
+railway area.
+
+At present the country has less than one-tenth as many miles of railway
+as the United States and what they have is practically under English
+control. Engines and cars are all of English pattern. American
+locomotive works make engines for some of these lines, but everyone of
+them must be made strictly according to the English pattern.
+
+One-fifth of the eight million people in the Argentine live in Buenos
+Aires, the capital city. This city is the Paris of South America and is
+one of the great cities of the world. Here can be seen more extravagance
+perhaps than in any other city in the world. The advertised rates in the
+best hotels are from twelve to sixty dollars per day and these hotels
+are nearly always crowded. The writer attended a luncheon given by the
+United States Chamber of Commerce at the Hotel Plaza. The price was
+three dollars and a half per plate; there was scarcely anything to eat
+and the waiters expected a dollar tip from each man.
+
+These people buy their clothes in Paris and are only satisfied with the
+latest fashion. They drink French liquor in French style and demand the
+best Parisian comedy and opera in their theaters. The Colon theater is
+finer than anything in New York, and rivals any playhouse in Europe. It
+seats thirty-seven hundred and fifty people and I am told that a man
+cannot get in unless he is dressed in an evening suit.
+
+Buenos Aires boasts of the greatest newspaper on the globe and surely no
+other paper rivals it when it comes to service to its patrons. That
+paper is the La Prensa and it is housed in a beautiful building. The
+office of its editor in chief makes one think of a king's palace. This
+paper provides a company of the best physicians and surgeons who
+minister to all who apply free of charge. Its expert lawyers give
+council and advice free, its skilled teachers of music instruct all who
+enter one or more of the five series of classes. The prizes given
+annually by this journal for altruistic acts and deeds of heroism are
+worth a large sum. The chemical, industrial and agricultural bureaus are
+a boon to those interested in such subjects.
+
+This city also has the greatest race tracks in any land and the weekly
+races are generally attended by from thirty to fifty thousand people.
+The money bet on a single day's races often runs into hundreds of
+thousands of dollars, and the Jockey Club that owns the race tracks is
+so rich that it is embarrassing to get its money spent.
+
+Of all the cemeteries the writer ever visited, the aristocratic burying
+ground in Buenos Aires caps the climax. To be laid away in this ground
+costs a fortune. The tombs, many of them, are above the ground and
+nearly every family tomb is a little chapel. Here the living friends
+gather on certain days, visit, drink tea, and smoke cigarettes with
+coffins all around them. In many of these tombs chairs are always in
+order with flowers arranged, kept so by the servants of the tomb.
+
+There are thirty-six public markets in the city, some of which are very
+large. The wool market alone covers thirty acres of ground and the iron
+and steel building cost four million dollars. In it are seventy-two
+cranes and elevators and fifty million pounds of wool can be stored at
+one time. Not far from this building is another almost as large where
+the sheep are killed. The arrangements are so complete and the men so
+skilled that it is said a single man has killed as many as six thousand
+sheep in a day.
+
+Buenos Aires is a city of locked doors. People never think of leaving
+their homes even for a few moments without locking the doors. If a
+business house or hotel has a rug at the door on which to wipe the shoes
+it will be chained fast. Stealing and pilfering is carried on
+extensively all over the city. Shippers claim that there is an
+international organization for stealing at the port cities all along the
+coast and it is hard to get at. In one shipment of thirty automobiles
+twenty-nine of the boxes had been opened and the set of tools taken. It
+is the custom at that factory to pack the set of tools in a certain
+corner of the case. A hole was cut exactly in the right place and the
+set of tools neatly taken out. In two instances that I was told about a
+drygoods firm had shipments opened and ten thousand dollars worth of
+silks and velvets taken.
+
+Near the city is said to be the largest dairy in the world. They milk
+seven thousand cows and this is done with the latest and most up-to-date
+machinery. At an annual stock show recently the crowds were so dense
+that men paid five dollars each to get near enough to the judges to see
+them do their work. The sale at the close was attended by five thousand
+people. The champion shorthorn bull sold for more than forty thousand
+dollars of American money. The champion Hereford sold for $32,737.00 and
+a two-year-old bull sold for $23,643.00. One ram sold for more than four
+thousand dollars.
+
+The Argentine could be made a great sugar producing country, but for
+some reason this industry is not being developed very rapidly. During
+the war special inducements were offered but the 1919 crop was but
+little more than that of 1913. There are only forty-three mills and
+refineries in the whole country and the surplus for exportation for
+1919 was only three hundred thousand tons and that is insignificant when
+one thinks of the possibilities of this great industry.
+
+But one can hardly think of Argentina without thinking of cattle ranches
+and wheat fields. It is in these industries that she shines. She now has
+thirty million head of cattle, but strange as it may seem she had as
+many ten years ago. She has thirty million sheep which makes her the
+greatest wool producing country on earth except Australia and if I am
+correctly informed she is not far behind that country.
+
+In Argentina the country is called "Elcampo" and the large farms
+"Estancias." These great estancias often consist of thousands of acres.
+A single one of them is said to be as large as the state of Rhode
+Island. The owners generally have good houses but do not live in them
+much of the time. They are in Buenos Aires, or traveling in Europe, and
+their children are in the colleges and universities. A number of
+overseers look after the farm but the work is largely done by
+foreigners, mostly Italians. Their lives are far from easy.
+
+The homes of these workers are generally made of mud. The floors are
+often nothing but the bare ground. These people are generally called
+colonists and work the soil on shares. They are in debt to start on; the
+overseers generally manipulate things so that they often never do get
+out of debt. The poor man's children do not have much in common with
+those of the rich. They are generally kept entirely separate from each
+other.
+
+While the cities are filled with beautiful parks and clinging roses are
+nearly everywhere, yet I never saw a country town with any thing
+beautiful in sight. The streets of these towns are either mud holes or
+dust piles, no work whatever being done upon them. The houses and stores
+are one-story buildings and often look like hovels. The one exception is
+the railroad station and often that is quite well kept.
+
+There are no four-wheeled wagons like ours in this country. All the
+hauling is done on large lumbersome carts often pulled by oxen. But they
+sure load them heavy; how they get so much stuff on them is a mystery.
+Much of the farming is slovenly done. While England produces thirty
+bushels of wheat per acre the rich fields of Argentine only produce
+eleven bushels per acre. This is but little more than half as much per
+acre as is raised in Saskatchewan and Argentine soil is fully as rich as
+Canadian grain fields.
+
+I crossed the great Argentine plain in October. Wheat was just beginning
+to head. Corn planting was in progress. Alfalfa fields were green while
+both trees and flowers were in bloom. But in riding six hundred miles
+without a hill, or tree except those planted by the hands of man, the
+journey soon became monotonous. Thousands of acres were almost covered
+with cattle and sheep.
+
+On Sunday men and women were in the fields almost the same as any other
+day. At the towns almost the entire population came down to see the
+International train go through. This train only runs twice a week. The
+young women were dressed in their best but they were never with the
+young men. They would parade up and down the platform while the young
+men would go in the other direction and the lads and lassies hardly
+seemed to notice each other.
+
+The train ran almost on the dot. A hotbox delayed it thirty minutes on
+one occasion but it was carefully watched. At every stop for hours the
+train would hardly come to a standstill before a couple of men were at
+that box. The engines have no bells on them and the whistle is blown
+just before the train starts rather than before it stops as in our
+country. The train was largely made up of sleepers and a diner. The cars
+were quite comfortable. The berths are crosswise rather than lengthwise
+as in our sleepers. Everything on this train, however, from fare to eats
+was very expensive.
+
+On many of the larger farms the better breeds of stock are being raised,
+agricultural schools are springing up and scientific farming is being
+talked about. The government is taking a hand along many lines. Some of
+the great estancias are being divided and subdivided. The Welch people
+have a large settlement where better methods are being introduced. The
+Jews have a large colony and even the Italians are looking forward to a
+better day. Men from this country are entering in small numbers but with
+ideas that will revolutionize things, and especially the school house.
+An Englishman truly said: "Wherever the Germans go you find the arsenal;
+wherever the French go you find the railroad; wherever the British go
+you find the custom house, but wherever the Americans go you find the
+school house."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+YANKEEDOM OF SOUTH AMERICA--CHILE
+
+
+On account of their energy and enterprise the people of Chile have been
+called the Yankees of South America. They are a quick tempered people
+but often show a disposition to be whiter than their skin would signify.
+
+On a railroad train I saw a well-dressed young Chilean raise the car
+window. Behind him was an elderly man who did not like the wind blowing
+in and he evidently made some sign to the conductor, who simply put the
+window down.
+
+This angered the young man who raised the window again. A little later
+the conductor came back and said something to the young man who lowered
+the window immediately. The old gentleman had moved by this time and I
+supposed that the incident was closed.
+
+A little later the young man called the conductor and had him go and
+apologize to the old gentleman who came and sat down in the seat with
+the young man. Then they settled their differences, smoked and visited
+together like old friends. I felt a sort of admiration for these men
+that they would settle their difference on the spot and became friends.
+Such a procedure is much better than carrying a grouch.
+
+The country of Chile is a narrow strip of land from fifty to two hundred
+and fifty miles wide, but so long that if one end were placed at New
+Orleans the other end would reach to the Arctic Circle. The mighty ridge
+of the Andes mountains extends almost the entire distance. One of these
+peaks in Chile is nearly five miles high--the highest on the globe
+except Mount Everest.
+
+In Chile there are many rich valleys yet much of the land is a desolate
+desert. One writer suggests regarding this awful silent region that the
+Desert of Sahara is a botanical garden in comparison with it. I traveled
+five hundred miles along this desert without seeing a tree or a blade of
+grass. This was in the northern part where it never rains. Much of the
+southern part is covered with water-soaked forests.
+
+Yet this Chilean desert is almost as valuable as a gold mine. Here are
+the only large deposits of nitrate of soda in the world. While no plants
+of any kind grow in this desert yet from it is obtained the product that
+farmers all over the world use for fertilizer. Plants of all kinds must
+have food to make them grow and this Chilean desert alone furnishes this
+food in abundance and in suitable form.
+
+Many millions are invested in establishments to get this nitrate, or
+saltpeter as it is often called, from the worthless material with which
+it is mixed and railroads to carry it to port. Little towns have sprung
+up along the seashore where the nitrates make up cargoes of hundreds of
+ships which carry this fertilizer to all parts of the world.
+
+A gentleman who lives in Santiago told me how he could set out tomato
+plants in the best soil, take a little handful of nitrates that look
+like common salt, dissolve it in water and pour it on the soil and the
+difference it would make is almost unbelievable. But a spoonful dropped
+on the plant will kill it. It never rains on these nitrate beds--if it
+did they would be worthless.
+
+Of course, the people who do the work in these deserts or in the little
+ports along the shore have a hard life. No green lawns or trees adorn
+their villages. The dust is irritable and the people are a hard-looking
+class. In one of these towns which I saw, Antofagasta by name, the water
+the people use is brought nearly two hundred miles. The people used to
+drink champagne mostly for it was cheaper than water.
+
+Not far from Antofagasta are the great salt plains, said to be large
+enough to supply the whole world with this commodity for generations.
+The real nitrate beds are from fifteen to fifty miles from the ocean and
+at least three thousand feet above sea level. The largest beds are from
+four to five hundred miles in length so the supply is practically
+inexhaustible. When the nitrates are richest they are mixed with
+rock--about half and half. It is blasted out with dynamite, loaded on
+carts and dumped into great machines that grind it to a coarse powder,
+then thrown into immense tanks of boiling water where it forms in
+crystals on the sides and bottom. The water is then drawn off, the white
+sparkling stuff shoveled onto drying boards and when thoroughly dry is
+sacked and shipped.
+
+The liquid that is drawn off from these vats is made into iodine, which
+is so valuable that a cask of it is worth several hundred dollars. Chile
+owns about all the nitrate deposits yet discovered. She exports millions
+of tons of it annually, levies a tax on every ton of it and thus the
+government receives an immense income each year from this one industry.
+
+In addition to the nitrate industry, Chile has immense stores of copper,
+tin and other metals. At one port where the ship stopped a small boat
+brought out a few sacks of copper ore. It took but a few minutes to put
+it on board but one of the officers said it was worth thirteen thousand
+dollars. At another Chilean port six hundred tons of tin were added to
+our cargo. Chile is about the only country in South America where coal
+is found in anything like large quantities.
+
+Of course such a mountainous region is volcanic. There are many
+earthquakes but they seldom do much harm. My first night in Chile was
+spent in Los Andes and I had not been in bed five minutes until an
+earthquake shock made it tremble like a leaf. But the people are so used
+to it that they pay no attention whatever to these minor quakes. At the
+time San Francisco was ruined, Valparaiso was all but destroyed but you
+would never know it by a visit to the city now.
+
+Chile includes a large part of the island of Tierra del Fuego. At the
+very southern tip of this is Cape Horn. This is a gigantic rock fourteen
+hundred feet high that juts out into the ocean and the great waves that
+continually lash against it make it perhaps the most dreaded spot by
+sailors in all the trade routes of the world. On all sides are wrecked
+vessels and this rock has been named the Giant Headstone in the Sailor's
+Graveyard.
+
+It was the famous Magellan who discovered the water passage above Cape
+Horn and it is called the Strait of Magellan. While safer than the route
+around Cape Horn, yet many are the stories of shipwreck, hunger and
+suffering told by those who went this way during the earlier days. Here
+are some of the names of places along the Strait: "Fury Island," "Famine
+Reach," "Desolation Harbor," "Fatal Bay," "Hope Inlet," and "Last Wreck
+Point."
+
+No one lives down at this point but tribes of Indians. It was the
+signals and campfires of these Indians that caused Magellan to call the
+island "Tierra del Fuego." The name means "Land of Fire." These Indians
+are said to be one of the lowest classes of human beings in existence
+today. Although the weather is very cold these savages wear but little
+clothing--in fact, they wore none until of later years they began
+getting cast off garments from wrecks and are now making some of their
+own clothing from the skins of animals.
+
+On this strait is located Punta Arenas, which is the southernmost town
+in the world. It is directly south of Boston and farther south of the
+equator than Winnipeg is north of it. Only about a thousand people live
+here. Many of them are rough characters and live hard and comfortless
+lives. This town is the only port within a thousand miles.
+
+Although cold and cheerless most of the time, yet millions of sheep are
+raised in this southern land and Punta Arenas is the shipping point. A
+kind of coarse grass grows here that is nourishing and sheep thrive and
+live for weeks alone on the open plains. Wool, hides and meat are
+brought to this port and shipped to the outside world. Of course all
+clothing, building material and machinery must be brought in for there
+are no factories in Punta Arenas.
+
+Santiago, the capital of Chile, is located in a valley that has been
+called the "Garden of South America." This valley is seven hundred miles
+long, fifty or sixty miles wide and hundreds of feet above sea level. On
+the east are the snow-capped Andes and on the west the coast ranges. On
+the mountain slopes on either side are the great herds of cattle and
+sheep and lower down the rich fields of alfalfa and grain, fruit and
+flowers.
+
+Strange to say the farming is nearly all done with oxen. I counted six
+yoke of oxen in a ten-acre field. Women as well as men work in the
+fields. The fences are made of stone but in many parts of the valley you
+never see a stone in the field. If they have any modern farm machinery I
+did not see it. All the fields are irrigated, as it seldom rains in this
+valley in the summer time.
+
+Most of the best land is owned by wealthy men who live in the city.
+Those who do the work are mostly Indians or half breeds, and they have
+but few of the comforts of life. Many of the farms are great tracts and
+there is a store where the worker can purchase what he needs but the
+prices are high and he is kept in debt. A country can never really
+prosper where the tillers of the soil are ignorant and have no say in
+the affairs of the government.
+
+It is in this valley where most of the Chileans live. While in other
+parts of the country there are but two people to the square mile, here
+in this valley there are seventeen to the square mile. Here are most of
+the schools and colleges, cities, railways and manufacturing plants.
+When about sixty per cent of the people are illiterate and this class is
+almost entirely the laboring class it does not look as if conditions
+would be changed very soon.
+
+I saw more drinking in Chile than in any other South American country. A
+portion of the city of Valparaiso seems to be given over almost entirely
+to the liquor dealers and the people who throng that district are
+hard-looking folks. The fag ends of civilization seem to have gathered
+here. This is the only city in South America where I was accosted by
+both men and women and they almost try to hold one up in the streets in
+broad daylight.
+
+Nearly all the Chilean women dress in black. A black shawl is worn and
+you would think they are all dressed in mourning, but they are not. This
+black cloth is called a manto and all women, both rich and poor, wear
+them. The business portion of the city of Valparaiso is built on a
+narrow strip of land at the foot of a high hill.
+
+All along there are elevators or lifts as they call them. For a couple
+of pennies you can step into one of these lifts and be taken up a
+hundred feet or more. While one lift goes up another comes down as they
+are always built in pairs. There are winding ways where horses and
+donkeys can walk up but no wheeled vehicle can be taken up or down for
+it is too steep.
+
+For this reason the dairymen and venders all have donkeys or small
+horses. A dairyman will have a couple of large milk cans, one on either
+side of the beast, or perhaps a small barrel on the top of a frame or
+saddle. The man leads or drives the animal and they are so sure-footed
+that they can go up a place so steep that one not used to climbing could
+not make the ascent.
+
+There are but few North Americans in Chile. I had breakfast (they call
+the noon meal breakfast) with the American Club. There were but
+twenty-five or thirty present, mostly business men. But few of these men
+are satisfied to stay long in Chile.
+
+The American Y. M. C. A. is doing some good work in Valparaiso, as in
+all other South American cities. The rooms are well patronized and it
+was homelike to see the leading magazines of the United States upon the
+reading table. The Sunday afternoon program that I attended was well
+gotten up and very interesting.
+
+While in Chile you see more to remind you of the United States than in
+any other South American country but I was not favorably impressed with
+the people. They will not compare in looks or actions with the people
+east of the Andes. Lack of education, culture and refinement are
+noticeable everywhere. Religion and morality are conspicuous by their
+absence and one cannot but pity those who live among them although one
+sees some good traits in many of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE SWITZERLAND OF SOUTH AMERICA--BOLIVIA
+
+
+In the very heart of the South American continent there is a vast
+table-land nearly as large as the great Mississippi valley, that some
+titanic convulsion has boosted up nearly three miles in the air. This
+great plateau is hemmed in by mountains, the coast range on the west and
+the main range on the east.
+
+These mountain peaks rise as high as twenty-two thousand feet. In these
+heights, two and one-half miles above sea level is Lake Titicaca, which
+is one hundred and sixty miles long and thirty miles wide. This lake,
+which is the highest body of water in the western hemisphere, is fed by
+streams of water from the Andes and is so cold that ice is formed along
+the edge every night in the year although the lake itself is never
+frozen over. The lake has no outlet and the color of the water is a
+steely blue.
+
+This lake forms the northwestern border of Bolivia. Situated as it is,
+including both mountains and table-land, Bolivia has been called the
+Switzerland of South America. It is more than twelve times as large as
+the state of Iowa and is the cradle of the ancient civilization that
+made up the world-famous Inca empire which existed many centuries ago.
+
+The people of Bolivia today have the blood of this ancient race in their
+veins and they are an industrious people. Visiting a mission school in
+Buenos Aires I was much impressed by one young man who seemed to be the
+peer of the two hundred students in the school.
+
+On talking to this young man I found that he was from Bolivia. How he
+heard about this mission school I have forgotten, but the story of how
+he tramped two hundred miles over the mountains and then across the
+great Argentine plains determined to reach this school and work his way
+through, could not be forgotten. On Sunday morning I went to the
+American church and this fellow was at the door as an usher and the
+friendly greeting and winning smile he had for everyone gave me great
+respect for him and his people as well.
+
+Portions of this great Bolivian plateau are very beautiful. One noted
+naturalist coming from Paraguay said as he beheld this region, "If
+tradition has lost the records of the place where Paradise is located
+the traveler who visits these regions of Bolivia feels at once the
+impulse to exclaim: 'Here is Eden.'"
+
+Here grows the famous chincona tree from which we get quinine. Also the
+coca plant from which we get cocaine. Perhaps when the dentist pulled
+your tooth he used cocaine that came from this country. The natives chew
+the coca leaf as a stimulant. It is actually said that by the use of
+this leaf a man can go for many hours without food and perform feats of
+endurance that seem to us impossible.
+
+The cultivation of the coca plant is one of the important industries of
+eastern Bolivia. The plant grows as a shrub and must not be confused
+with the cocoa tree from the beans of which our chocolate and cocoa are
+made. The Bolivians produce eight to ten million pounds of coca leaves
+annually. The telegraph system of portions of this region is made up of
+fleet-footed Indians and it is said that with a supply of coca leaves
+and parched corn they can run fifty miles a day.
+
+Here too grows the quinna which is not only a substitute for wheat but
+more nutritious and easier raised if reports are true. Cotton and sugar
+are produced in Bolivia as are the nutmeg and castor bean. Oranges and
+all such fruit are also grown in some parts of this country. But the
+supply and variety of medicinal plants is remarkable. The list includes
+aconite, arnica, absinthe, belladonna, camphor, cocaine, ginger, ipecac,
+opium, sarsaparilla and a lot of others.
+
+But this great inland country is noted the world around for its rich
+mines. Mount Potosi is often spoken of as a mountain of silver. It is
+said that not only millions but billions of dollars worth of silver have
+been taken from this one mountain. There are said to be six thousand
+abandoned mines on its slopes to say nothing of the hundreds that are
+being worked today. The city of Potosi used to be the largest city in
+the western hemisphere and was ten times its present size when the early
+settlements of the United States were but small villages.
+
+While the silver in this mountain is not nearly exhausted by any means,
+yet it was discovered that deeper down is a mountain of tin. Bolivia has
+been furnishing more than one-fourth of the world's supply of tin for
+many years.
+
+On the hills back of the city of Potosi can still be seen the thirty-two
+lakes or reservoirs that used to furnish water for the city and mines.
+It took half a century to complete this great ancient water system. The
+largest of these lakes is three miles in circumference and thirty feet
+deep. Each lake is surrounded by five sets of walls and two of these
+reservoirs are sixteen thousand feet above sea level. All this mighty
+work was done before railroads were ever dreamed of. Only recently a
+railroad was built into this mining city and many of these abandoned
+mines are being opened again.
+
+The capital of Bolivia used to be Sucre. In fact, it is still the
+nominal capital of the republic. Here live many of the wealthy mine
+owners of the region. The Supreme Court is held here and the new
+government palace is a stately building. The richest cathedral in
+Bolivia is here and the image of the Virgin in it is made of solid gold
+adorned with jewels and is worth a million dollars.
+
+There are nine public parks or plazas in the city of Sucre and through
+one of these flows two streams of pure water. The one on the north side
+runs north and finally reaches the Atlantic Ocean through the great
+Amazon river while the other flows southward reaching the sea through
+the Rio de la Plata river.
+
+The capital of Bolivia as we know it is La Paz, but only the legislative
+and executive departments are in this city. Although La Paz is more than
+twelve thousand feet above sea level it is located in the bottom of a
+deep canyon. Back of the city is the giant peak of Mount Illimani which
+pierces the sky at the height of twenty-one thousand feet. While the
+weather is always warm in the day time it gets very cool at night,
+sometimes freezing cold. As they have no heating stoves it is very
+uncomfortable to sit quiet.
+
+The farmers of Bolivia live in little villages as a rule and know but
+little of the comforts of life. Their houses are built of mud and both
+people and animals often live in the same room. Their farms have to be
+irrigated and the people are skilled in this work. The plows used are
+wooden sticks and generally pulled by oxen. As in other South American
+countries the land is mostly owned by wealthy men who let it out on
+shares to common farmers who are generally kept in debt and have but
+little independence.
+
+The question of fuel for cooking purposes is one of their great
+problems. As our early settlers on the western plains had to use buffalo
+chips for fuel, these people use a great deal of donkey and llama dung
+for the same purpose. They bake their bread in small community ovens
+that are built something like a large barrel with a dome shaped top. On
+bread baking day they build a fire of moss, bushes and dry dung and heat
+the stove oven. Then they remove the coals, put their bread in and when
+it is baked you may be sure that it does not smell very good.
+
+The great beast of burden in Bolivia is the llama, which looks something
+like a cross between a camel and a sheep. Like the camel it can go for
+days without food or drink. It can be turned out and will make its
+living browsing on coarse grass, moss and shrubs that grow on the
+mountains. It is an intelligent animal and if loaded a little too
+heavily will lie down and refuse to budge until the load is lightened.
+
+The women of these Indian farmers and herders dress rather queerly. They
+put on many bright colored skirts all of a different hue. As the day
+grows warmer they remove a skirt showing one of a different hue. They
+are proud of their skirts and take much pride in showing each other
+their fine clothing.
+
+These women too are nearly always at work. If they are walking along
+driving llamas they are working as they walk winding wool into yarn or
+knitting some garment. With juices from plants the yarn is colored and
+by means of a loom which any woman among them can make they weave this
+yarn into a kind of cloth.
+
+In Bolivian cities there are large markets to which these Indian women
+especially resort. On the ground are little piles of fruit, coca leaves
+and other products. They have no scales and sell by the pile. The
+gardeners will sell their products of onions, beans, parched corn and
+all such stuff in this way.
+
+Thus the people of this great inland empire live above the clouds. One
+of their railroads is a half mile higher than Pike's Peak in places and
+one of their cities, Aullagus, lacks but a hundred feet of being as high
+as this. They have four cities more than fourteen thousand feet above
+sea level, twenty-six above the thirteen thousand foot line, and
+seventy-three cities above the twelve thousand foot line. Of the one
+hundred and fifty-one cities in Bolivia most every one is above the
+eleven thousand foot line. Truly this land is the "Switzerland of South
+America."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE LAND OF MYSTERY--PERU
+
+
+When we reach the backbone of Peru we are not only above the clouds as
+in Bolivia, but we are surrounded by mystery. Here can be seen today the
+ruins of temples that were richer perhaps than any of those of the
+countries with which we are all so familiar. This article, however, will
+largely have to do with the Peruvian country as it is today. You could
+take a map of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North and South Dakota,
+Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma, place them all on the
+map of Peru and have territory left.
+
+The country runs largely north and south, having some fourteen hundred
+miles of sea coast. In the north is a great desert plain, but in this
+almost lifeless desert there is a great valley in which is a most
+interesting city. The name of this city is Piura and it is on a small
+river bearing the same name. This river is more like the Nile in Egypt
+than any other river known. Up and down this river are farms and
+plantations with irrigation ditches leading to fields of rice and grain,
+sugar cane and cotton as well as other valuable farm products.
+
+But upon the rise of the water in the river depends the life and
+prosperity of the people. Like the people of Egypt and the Nile, these
+people look upon this river with feelings of reverence. They have a
+great feast day for the river. In their spring time when the snows melt
+the river gradually rises, spreading over the valley bottom and filling
+all the low places and irrigation ditches with water.
+
+As the time for this rise approaches every traveler from upstream is
+questioned and on the day the big rise is due the great feast day is
+proclaimed and the people, generally five thousand or more, march toward
+the coming tide to meet the water. If there is an abundance of water
+they are sure of a great harvest. With fife and drum they meet the
+oncoming flood and go back with it; if it is a great flood they are
+happy and merry, but if the tide is low they are sad and gloomy for they
+know that many will be hungry.
+
+It rains here about once in seven years and these are called the seven
+year rains. Following the showers there is a wonderful burst of life
+everywhere. Quick growing grasses cover the land with a carpet of green
+and fragrant blossoms fill the air with sweetness; but in a short time,
+except where the irrigation ditches reach the land, the entire region
+once more becomes a yellow, parched desert.
+
+In this valley grows the best cotton that is produced anywhere. It is a
+well known fact among cotton growers that Piura cotton has a peculiar
+strength of fiber that makes it sell for nearly double the price of that
+grown in our southern states. As goats can live where other animals will
+starve, this valley is also noted for its great goat herds which make
+their living on the dry mountain sides.
+
+The greatest seaport of Peru is Callao. If the sea were rough this would
+be a dangerous harbor for all ocean liners must anchor far from the
+docks as only very small ships can approach them. I counted forty-two
+ocean liners in the harbor so you can imagine that it is a busy place.
+These liners represented nearly every sea-faring country on the globe.
+
+The city of Callao has had its ups and downs. Some one has said that the
+chief product of Peru is revolutions and Callao has had its share of
+them. Also, nearly every earthquake along the coast gives this city a
+shaking up. At one time many years ago when the city had a population of
+some six thousand people there came an earthquake followed by a mighty
+tidal wave that only left two persons alive. The very site of the city
+sunk beneath the waves of the ocean and never came up, the present city
+being built upon a new site entirely.
+
+The short ride from Callao to Lima, the capital city, is interesting.
+Here one is introduced to the famous "mud fence," as the fences are all
+made of mud. Little patches of ground are tilled and bananas, pears,
+oranges, and all kinds of fruit and vegetables as well as corn and other
+grain grow in abundance. Everything looks ancient. The ground is plowed
+by oxen hitched to a wooden stick. The mud huts and houses of the
+farmers are almost as bare of furniture as a hen coop and almost as
+dirty. It hardly seems possible that people so near the port as well as
+the capital city could be so far behind the times.
+
+The railroad runs along the Rimac river, but this is nearly dry much of
+the time, the water being used for irrigating purposes. Everything
+smells bad and the people are even dirtier than in Chile. Of course,
+there are some beautiful spots in the country and plazas in the cities,
+but all this gush about the beauty and loveliness of things in general
+makes one tired.
+
+I saw more turkey buzzards and vultures in ten minutes in the city of
+Lima than I ever saw before all put together. At the slaughter house one
+can see a stream of blood running in the open soil and I suppose the
+offals are dumped out for the vultures to devour. The Rockefeller
+Foundation has set apart twenty-five million dollars, so I understand,
+to be spent in twenty-five Peruvian cities for the purpose of cleaning
+them up and providing sanitary systems for them. The leaders of this
+foundation have certainly found an appropriate place to spend money. I
+have seen four or five of the cities that are to benefit by this
+appropriation and they all sure do need cleaning up.
+
+In Lima, of course, I went to the great cathedral. Everybody does this
+for it is about the most outstanding thing to be seen. It is said to be
+the largest cathedral in South America. The corner stone was laid by the
+great Pizarro himself in 1535. His bones are in the cathedral now. I saw
+them. They are in a coffin the side of which is made of glass. The very
+holes that were made in the bones when they tortured him can be seen.
+The guide declared that such is the case and of course he would not yarn
+to a stranger in a sacred church.
+
+The houses in Lima are, as a rule, only one story high. The tops are
+flat and many of them are almost covered with chicken coops. They say
+that many a rooster is hatched, grows up to old age and enters the
+ministry without ever having set foot upon the ground.
+
+The small plaza in front of the cathedral is really beautiful and there
+are some good substantial buildings around it. The large depot is a
+modern, well built stately building. The streets are narrow and the shop
+doors are open to the street. The doors of these shops are corrugated
+iron and are raised up like the cover of a roll-top desk. Above the
+shops are the residences of the more well-to-do class. Little balconies
+are built out over the sidewalk and here the "idle rich" ladies sit and
+watch the crowds below.
+
+To me a very interesting place was a building that used to be a sort of
+a place of refuge something like the cities of refuge we read about in
+the Bible. In the wide door, so they say, there used to be a chain
+stretched across and any man who could reach this was safe regardless of
+the crime he had committed. No officers or law could touch him. Of
+course, he was in the power of the keepers of the refuge. They could
+enslave him for life or kill him and no law could touch them. At least
+this is the story told me by a resident of the city.
+
+But the briefest article about Peru should not leave out at least a
+mention of the wonderful mountain railways of the country. The Central
+Peruvian railway tracks reach the dizzy height of 15,865 feet above sea
+level, which is almost a mile higher than the famous Marshall Pass in
+the Rockies. This railroad too is a standard gauge. To reach this
+altitude the train passes over forty-one bridges, one of which is two
+hundred and fifty feet high. It passes through sixty tunnels, the
+highest one of which is the Galeria tunnel, which is 15,665 feet above
+the sea.
+
+This railroad, perhaps the most wonderful ever constructed, was built by
+Henry Meiggs, an American contractor from New York. Some eight thousand
+men were employed in the construction and in some places in order to
+gain a foothold to begin their work they had to be swung down from
+dizzy heights above and held while they cut a safe place in the rocks.
+
+As might be expected many men were killed during the building of this
+railway. Once a runaway engine crashed into a derrick car on the top of
+a bridge and the debris can be seen in the valley below to this day.
+Several Americans lost their lives in this one accident. It is quite
+remarkable, however, that there has not been a single accident where a
+life was lost since the construction was completed years ago. This line
+is two hundred and fifty miles in length and every mile cost a snug
+fortune. It takes a train almost ten hours to reach the summit and the
+average rise the entire distance is twenty-seven feet per minute.
+
+Near Callao are some islands which are very interesting to tillers of
+the soil especially. In passing them I noticed millions and millions of
+birds. For many centuries these islands have been the nesting places for
+these sea fowl. Not only have these birds lived and died here but
+multiplied thousands of seal have come here to breed. The droppings of
+these millions of birds and animals and the accumulating bodies of the
+dead have decayed and made a kind of grayish powder. This substance is
+called guano and it is hundreds of feet thick.
+
+Hundreds of years ago it was discovered that this substance is the best
+fertilizer known. In the early days the Incas took every precaution to
+distribute this guano to agriculturists in the country. Districts of
+this deposit were allotted to certain territories and the boundaries of
+each district were clearly defined and all encroachments upon the rights
+of others were severely punished. No one was allowed to go about these
+islands during the breeding season under pain of death and the same
+penalty was meted out to any man who killed either birds or animals
+here.
+
+Of late years millions of dollars worth of this guano have been shipped
+to all parts of the world. While the islands are closed to shipping
+during the breeding season and it is thought that many of the birds
+especially have been frightened away, yet they come in such numbers at
+times that it is said that the sky is darkened as they fly over.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE WORLD'S GREAT CROSSROAD--PANAMA CANAL
+
+
+Perhaps the greatest achievement of history, both in length of time of
+construction and in service to humanity, stands to the credit of the
+United States. The Panama Canal was dug in less time than it took to
+build the causeway in Egypt to get the stone from the quarries to where
+it was wanted for the big pyramid. This canal, too, is wholly an
+American achievement. It was planned by American brains, constructed by
+American engineers and with American machinery, and paid for with
+American gold, and every American has great reason to be proud of it.
+
+We paid the Republic of Panama ten million dollars for the lease on the
+zone through which the canal passes, and are now paying the same
+government two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year to keep them
+in a good humor. We bought the ground again from individual owners and
+have agreed to pay Colombia twenty-five million dollars to keep her from
+raising a racket. We paid the French forty million dollars for the work
+they did and the machinery they left so the whole thing, lock, stock and
+barrel, ought to be ours without any question.
+
+It was published on supposedly good authority that some of the machinery
+we used was purchased from Belgium, that we could not make it in
+America. While visiting Mr. P. B. Banton, the chief office engineer,
+some time ago I asked him about this and he said the only machinery
+Belgium furnished was to the French. We tried to repair and use part of
+this but it had to be discarded entirely.
+
+We purchased two gigantic cranes to use in the work from Germany, but
+one of them collapsed and both had to be rebuilt by American machinists
+before they would do the work they were guaranteed to do. The only parts
+used in the canal that were not made in America, according to Mr.
+Banton, are some gigantic screws which were made in Sweden. It so
+happened at that time that Sweden was the only country that had
+machinery to make such screws, and while we could have easily
+constructed such machinery, it was cheaper to get them from Sweden and
+this was done. After making this statement, Mr. Banton got the drawings
+and explained them, and later on I saw some of them in the Gatun-Locks.
+If I remember correctly they are about eight inches in diameter and
+forty or fifty feet long.
+
+Speaking of drawings and blue prints this official said: "There are more
+than eighty thousand drawings in this one room." Of course, the original
+blue prints and complicated drawings of the canal are sealed up in a
+great bomb-proof vault, kept dry by electricity. Although I had passed
+through the canal on a ship and rode up and down it on the train it was
+only after talking an hour with this engineer and then going into the
+control station tower and watching boats taken through the Gatun lock
+system, going into the tunnels below and watching the gigantic cog
+wheels and wonderful machinery, that I began to appreciate the real
+ingenuity and brain work of this colossal achievement.
+
+On his last voyage to the new world Columbus visited Panama and was told
+by the Indians that beyond a narrow strip of land was the "Big Water."
+He sailed up the Chagres river a distance, failed to find it, and died
+believing that they were mistaken. About ten years later Balboa climbed
+to the top of a tree not far from where Culebra Cut is located and saw
+the "Big Water." Four hundred years later almost to the day the water
+was turned into the canal and thus America united the world's greatest
+oceans.
+
+After completing the Suez Canal and thus uniting the world's greatest
+seas, the French people believed they could dig across the Isthmus of
+Panama, but digging through Culebra Cut thousands of miles from home was
+much different from digging across the level plain of Suez only a few
+hundred miles away. A canal without locks is entirely different from one
+where great ocean liners must be lifted eighty-five feet above sea
+level.
+
+Then Panama was a jungle, where disease-carrying mosquitoes were
+swarming in districts where heat was almost unbearable. True, their
+medical skill was the best and their hospitals of the latest design, but
+where they cured hundreds thousands died like flies. Added to all these
+disadvantages was extravagance and waste, greed and graft, mismanagement
+and misappropriation of funds to say nothing of palaces and princely
+salaries for officials.
+
+The result was that after spending more than two hundred million dollars
+of the people's money, the whole scheme collapsed, and the work stopped.
+De Lesseps himself was arrested, disgraced, and imprisoned and died with
+a broken heart a little later in an insane asylum. The French had worked
+seven years, and now for four years not a wheel turned. Then they
+organized a new company and worked at intervals ten years more until
+1903, when we bought them out. During these years a half dozen nations
+developed projects and made surveys but no digging was done except by
+the French until we took charge in 1904.
+
+The Canal Zone is a strip of land ten miles wide across the Isthmus of
+Panama, the distance being about forty miles from shore to shore. It is
+less than this, however, in a straight line. The canal runs from
+northwest to southeast, the Atlantic end at the north being about
+twenty-two miles west of the Pacific end at the south. This seems rather
+strange but we must remember that the Isthmus is in the shape of the
+letter S and it so happens that the shortest point runs in the direction
+named.
+
+Of course it would have been impossible for us to have dug the canal
+without a tremendous loss of life had it not been for the advance of
+medical science. Until we took charge this was one of the worst
+fever-infested districts on the globe. But just about this time it was
+discovered that the mosquito carries the germ of yellow fever and other
+contagious diseases. These pests breed in stagnant water and it was
+discovered that kerosene on the water forms a film on the surface that
+means death to the newborn mosquito. Then began one of the greatest
+battles of all history, the fight to eradicate the mosquito pest.
+
+Colonel Gorgas had charge of the forces and he was determined to do the
+job well. Tracts of the jungle were burned over, ditches to drain
+stagnant pools were dug, and every barrel was looked after. Hundreds of
+Negroes with oil cans sprayed almost every nook and corner of the Zone
+with kerosene. Houses were screened, every case of sickness was looked
+after, and the result was soon manifest. A mighty victory was won by
+Gorgas and today the Canal Zone is as healthful as any tropical country
+on earth. Of course, people criticized and joked about the mosquito
+brigade, but the colonel went ahead pouring oil upon the water, cleaning
+up filth, and compelling sanitary measures, paying not the slightest
+attention to the harping critics.
+
+At the north end of the Zone are the cities of Cristobal and Colon, the
+latter in Panama. The fact is they are practically one city, the
+railroad being the dividing line. While Cristobal is clean and beautiful
+much of Colon is dirty and rum soaked. Somebody said to me: "Colon is
+that part of the city where you can buy a drink," and it sure looks it.
+
+While it is only about forty miles across the isthmus yet the canal is
+fifty miles long. The fact is they had to dredge out to deep water which
+is about five miles at each end. Entering the channel at the north it is
+about seven miles to the Gatun locks. There are three pairs of these
+locks and they lift the vessel to Gatun Lake, which is eighty-five feet
+above sea level. It is twenty-four miles across this lake to Culebra
+Cut, which extends about nine miles through the hills, and to the first
+lock on the Pacific side. This lock lowers the ship about thirty feet to
+Miraflores Lake, which is a little more than a mile in length. Here are
+two pairs of locks which lowers the ship to sea level and then it is
+about eight miles or a little more to deep water. Counting all the
+distance occupied by the locks we have the fifty miles.
+
+Gatun Lake was made by a great dam across the Chagres river. This dam is
+a stupendous piece of work, being a half mile wide at the bottom, a mile
+and a half long, and more than one hundred feet high. A gigantic
+spillway allows the surface water to run over. During the dry season,
+about four months, the river does not supply enough water to run the
+locks so Gatun Lake must furnish the supply. This lake at present covers
+one hundred and sixty-four square miles, and last year it was lowered
+five feet during the dry season. The land has been purchased for the
+extension of the lake and the great spillway can be raised twenty feet
+higher if necessary so that a shortage of water is practically
+impossible.
+
+Each lock in the canal is a thousand feet long, one hundred and ten feet
+wide, and the average height about thirty feet, so they hold a
+tremendous amount of water. Every ship passing through empties two lock
+chambers full of water into the ocean at each end. It is an interesting
+fact that at the Atlantic the tide only makes a difference of two and a
+half feet, at the Pacific side the difference is more than twenty feet.
+While the low lock gates at the Atlantic side are sixty-four feet high
+the low lock gates at the Pacific side are eighty-two feet high.
+
+I was permitted to go into the control station tower at the Gatun lock
+system and see three ships taken through, also into the tunnels below to
+see the machinery in operation and it is a sight never to be forgotten.
+To take a ship through these locks the operator sets in motion twice
+ninety-eight gigantic electric motors and it is all done without an
+audible word being spoken. Every possible emergency has been provided
+for. Could an enemy ship by any manner of means get into the canal and
+undertake to ram the gates it would be helpless as far as any damage is
+concerned. Mighty chains guard the gates and it is impossible to get
+the gates closed without these chains being raised to their places.
+Emergency gates are provided so the water can all be shut off, the locks
+emptied and repairs made in the bottoms of the lock chambers, if
+necessary.
+
+At the continental divide the Culebra Cut is almost five hundred feet
+deep and more than a half mile wide at the top. The channel itself is
+three hundred feet wide and forty-five feet deep. There have been half a
+hundred slides and a single one of them brought down an area of
+seventy-five acres. Think of a seventy-five acre field all sliding in at
+once, every foot of which had to be dug out!
+
+The worst trouble was when the bottom bulged up from below. Some little
+time before my visit a large tree came up from the bottom. It had been
+rolled in by one of those fearful slides and long afterwards came up
+from the bottom. Somebody has figured out that if all the dirt that has
+been taken from Culebra Cut was loaded on railroad cars they would, if
+coupled together, make a train that would reach around the world four
+times.
+
+The canal cost about four hundred million dollars. The tolls now amount
+to almost a million dollars a month so it is more than paying expenses.
+The ship upon which I passed through paid seven thousand dollars toll,
+but it was one of the largest ships that pass through. Now that the
+danger from slides is practically over and trade routes are being
+established it ought to be a paying investment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD
+
+
+A few years ago the editor of one of the great magazines of America sent
+out a thousand letters to as many scientists and great men scattered
+among all civilized nations in an effort to get the consensus of opinion
+as to what might be called the seven wonders of the modern world. A
+ballot was prepared containing fifty-six subjects of scientific and
+mechanical achievement and blank spaces in which other subjects might be
+written. Each man was asked to designate the seven he felt were entitled
+to a place on the list. He, of course, was not confined to the printed
+list and could write in others that were better entitled to a place than
+those on the printed list.
+
+About seventy per cent of these ballots were returned properly marked
+and the result was most interesting indeed. At once it was discovered
+that a complete change in human intelligence or judgment has taken place
+since the ancient Greeks made their list of the seven wonders of the
+world. Today the standard of measurement as to what should be classed in
+such a list is _service to humanity_, while in the old days the standard
+of measurement was or at least had largely to do with brute force.
+
+It is not surprising, therefore, that wireless telegraphy should have
+the highest place on the list. Guglielmo Marconi is far more worthy to
+be remembered than the king who built the great Pyramid in Egypt. This
+brilliant Italian, when but fifteen years of age was reveling in the
+dreamland wonders of electricity and when but twenty had the theory
+practically worked out and his patience and enthusiasm were simply
+amazing. He actually tried more than two thousand experiments along a
+single line before he was able to demonstrate the truth of one of his
+own theories.
+
+No one crosses the Atlantic Ocean these days who is not impressed with
+the marvels of this wonderful discovery. Through it the seven seas have
+became great whispering galleries. One of the greatest races the writer
+ever saw he did not see at all. For three days and nights two great
+ocean liners raced across the deep and never came in sight of each other
+at all. Yet every few hours we all knew just which ship was gaining and
+it was really a most exciting race. A few hours after Roosevelt was shot
+in Milwaukee I heard the news by wireless although I was on board a ship
+in the China Sea on the other side of the world.
+
+The telephone was given second place in the list of modern wonders. It
+is hard to realize that the telephone only dates back to 1875. It was
+during that year that Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant, Thomas A.
+Watson, were making experiments in a building in Boston. Mr. Watson was
+in the basement with an instrument trying without success to talk with
+Mr. Bell in the room above. Finally the latter made a little change in
+the instrument and spoke and Mr. Watson came rushing upstairs greatly
+excited, saying: "Why, Mr. Bell, I heard your voice distinctly and could
+almost understand what you were saying."
+
+The next year the imperfect telephone was exhibited at the Centennial in
+Philadelphia, but for a time it was the laughing stock of most people
+and hardly anyone ever dreamed that it would ever be more than a mere
+plaything. One day Dom Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil, who knew Mr. Bell
+personally, came in. With him was Sir William Thompson, the great
+English scientist. The emperor was given the receiver and placed it to
+his ear and was suddenly startled, saying: "My God, it speaks." This
+amused all, but greatly interested the man of science and thus the
+telephone was brought into prominence. While at the World's Fair in San
+Francisco I sat with a receiver and heard a man speaking in New York as
+plainly as though he were in the next room. Sitting within the sound of
+the waves of the Pacific, I was connected up with Atlantic City and
+heard the waves of the Atlantic.
+
+The third largest number of votes were given to the aeroplane and since
+the birdmen played such a part in the world war these scientists were
+correct in giving the flying machine a place among the wonders of the
+modern world. The fourth place was given to Radium, the fifth to
+Antiseptics and Antitoxines, the sixth to Spectrum Analysis, and the
+seventh to the marvelous X-Ray. Had eight subjects been called for the
+Panama Canal would have had a place, for it lacked but eleven votes of
+tie for seventh place. It can, therefore, be called the eighth wonder of
+the modern world.
+
+How different were the ideas of men during the days of ancient Greece.
+It is a remarkable fact that among the seven wonders of the ancient
+world only one of them was of any real service to humanity. True, one or
+two of them served as tombs for the dead and one of them was a sort of a
+pleasure resort, but it proved a curse rather than a blessing. The one
+of real service was the Pharos, or lighthouse, at Alexandria, Egypt.
+This was a gigantic structure more than four hundred feet high on the
+top of which a great fire was kept burning at night, thus serving as a
+lighthouse. The structure was so large at the base and the winding
+roadway so spacious that it is said a team of horses could be driven to
+the summit. The entire building has long since disappeared, but while in
+Alexandria its location was pointed out to me.
+
+In the list of ancient wonders, however, the Pyramids of Egypt were
+given first place. There are seventy-seven of these pyramids altogether.
+Three of them are located less than a dozen miles from Cairo, the others
+being up the river Nile a half day's journey. The largest is known as
+the Pyramid of Cheops and is nearest Cairo. It covers thirteen acres of
+ground and is four hundred and fifty feet high. My first sight of it was
+a disappointment for after all it is nothing but a pile of stone, and
+seems smaller to the eye than it really is. When one walks along by its
+side and begins the ascent to the top, however, its immensity begins to
+grow and impress the mind.
+
+Heroditus, the Father of History, says a hundred thousand men worked on
+this pyramid at one time and that it took twenty years to build it. It
+was scientifically and mathematically constructed ages before modern
+science or mathematics were born. The one who planned it knew that the
+earth is a sphere and that its motion is rotary. It is said that in all
+the thousands of years since it was built not a single fact in astronomy
+or mathematics has been discovered to contradict the wisdom of those who
+constructed it.
+
+On the north side of the pyramid, about fifty feet up, there is a narrow
+tunnel that runs down at an angle of twenty-six degrees to the center of
+the field that forms its base. The tunnel is so true that from the
+bottom one can see the star, that is near the North Star, which is
+supposed to have been directly in the north when the structure was
+built. After you have descended eighty-five feet in this tunnel there is
+another tunnel that runs up to the center of the structure where there
+are some large rooms or chambers. The pyramid was supposed to have been
+built for a tomb and these rooms are called the king's chamber, the
+queen's chamber, etc. In these rooms there are large mummy cases, but
+they are empty at the present time. One great satisfaction for me in
+visiting the pyramids was the fulfilling of a life-long desire to see
+all that is left of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
+
+The third ancient wonder was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. These
+gardens were in reality a great artificial mountain built upon massive
+arches. It was four hundred feet high and terraced on all sides and
+according to historians beautiful beyond description. Not only were
+beautiful flowers and shrubbery kept growing, but large forest trees as
+well. On approaching it this great mountain seemed to be suspended or
+hanging in the air--hence the name. Water was brought from the river and
+the ruins of these vast waterworks are said to be the marvel of civil
+engineers even to this day.
+
+It seems that these hanging gardens were built to please the wife of one
+of the most powerful monarchs of the old days. This queen had been
+brought up among the hills, and as Babylon was located on a great level
+plain she was dissatisfied and pined away for the hills and forests of
+her home land. To please her the king accomplished this mighty work.
+Today the whole thing, in fact, the entire city of Babylon, is nothing
+but a pile of ruins. Portions of the city have been excavated, however,
+and old records have been found in the ruins that throw light on many
+customs and phases of life in those days. Even the paving brick were
+stamped with the name of the king and anyone who visits the British
+Museum in London can see samples of them today.
+
+The next in the list of ancient wonders was the Temple of Diana at
+Ephesus. It is said that this temple was two hundred years in building.
+It was more than four hundred feet long and half as wide. The foundation
+was made earthquake-proof. The temple proper was supported by one
+hundred and twenty-seven columns which were sixty feet high. Each of
+these columns was a gift from a king. They tell us that the great
+stairway was carved from a single grapevine and that the cypress wood
+doors were kept in glue a lifetime before they were hung on their
+hinges.
+
+The image on the top of this temple was said to have fallen from heaven,
+but in reality it was carved from ebony and the men who did the work
+were put to death so they could not deny its celestial origin. It is
+said that around this image stood statues which by an ingenious
+invention could be made to shed tears. Another invention moistened the
+air in the temple with sweet perfume. The treasures of nations and the
+spoil of kingdoms were brought here for safe keeping and criminals from
+all nations fled to this temple, for when they reached it no law could
+touch them. No wonder that when the preaching of the Apostle Paul
+interfered with the business of the tradesmen who sold souvenirs of the
+image that they gathered up a mob and cried out for the space of two
+hours: "Great is Diana of the Ephesians," and ran the apostle from the
+city. Today this temple with the city itself is nothing but ruins.
+
+Passing not far from the Island of Rhodes some years ago I tried to at
+least imagine that I could see the great statue called the Colossus of
+Rhodes which was given a place among these seven ancient wonders, but as
+not a vestige of it remains on the island it required a great stretch of
+the imagination to behold it. But although given this prominence it was
+not as large or as beautiful as the Statute of Liberty that graces New
+York harbor. It only took twelve years to build it and after standing
+fifty-six years it was overthrown by an earthquake and after nearly a
+thousand years the metal was used for other purposes. The other ancient
+wonders were the Statue of Jupiter that was made of ivory and gold by
+Phidias, and the Mausoleum of Artemisia. Both of these have long since
+passed out of existence.
+
+Brute force is no longer the measure of power or influence. Neither are
+towering structures or mighty tombs. The standard of measurement these
+days is the ability to serve. We are learning that the Galilean
+carpenter told the truth when he said: "He who would be great among you
+let him be servant of all." Service is one of the greatest words in
+human language. The man, or the institution, or the magazine that can
+render the greatest measure of service to the largest number of people
+is more powerful and influential than all the seven wonders of the
+ancient world put together.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Birdseye Views of Far Lands, by James T. Nichols
+
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 02:38:11 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 02:38:11 -0700
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