The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1889-05-02

Special Correspondence NATIONAL TRIBUNE.
OK BOARD TIE BRITIsH-INDIA STEAMER
GoING FROM SINGAPORE TO BURMAH,
March, 1889.
] have left the land Of tails, and am on my
way 10 the land OF turbans. The squint-eyed
M0ngolians of the Pacific are behind me, and
the great Oriental world of black-faced Turks
Indians and Persiaus are in the direction that
this ships PROV is turned. Our servants on
ship-board have changed their complications
and for the lean, lithe-limbed yellow Chinese
boys in blue gowns we now have sober faced
men dressed In long, white coats, or skirts,
reaching to below the knees. with white linen
pantaloons below these TO the ankles Of their
black, bare feet They have dark bearded
faces, aud their short black hair, combed IN
curls back from their foreheads, is covered with
white tnrhans. At dinner they wear white
hats with rims, around which are the brightest
OF blue bands and their white skirts are bound
round with girdles OF blue. They talk Eng
lish. aud there is no more Of the pigeon dialect
OF China TO he used. The English. who have
been IN India since the days Of 1000, have
trained up hundreds Of English-speaking serv-
ants, and the traveller is almost as much at
home in Calcutta as he is in New York. These
servants are all men; still, the name for each of
them, no matter whether his head be white or
black, is boy" Ii is " boy do THU" and boy
do tnat' and had a boy coachman at Singapore
who was ut least 20. aud who nodded his gray
beard with Yes master" when l asked him
to 90 in different direction.
This ship is nearly as large as one Of the At
lantic steamers, and il viii surprise you to
know that you travel in comfortable ships all
over the world. Japan has lines OF steamships
managed by American, English and Danish
officers. and the food and service is as good as
that Of frst-elass American hotel. 1t is
served In French style. and the native Japan
ese who travel usually have a table TO them
selves where they eat with ch0psticks. A
Chlnaman is employed as cook IN all Of the
Pacific steamers, and as a rule the servants and
stewards and sailors are Chinese. The Chinese
have a number Of passenger steamers trading
with different parts Of their big Empire, and
the great English mercantile houses have
Others. These are all fitted out for foreign
travellers, and their Captains are Englishmen.
] sailed from Hong Kong to Bangkok in a
Scotch steamer, and came from there 10 Singa-
pore in one belonging to the North German
Lloyd Steamship Company. The trip from
Bangkok to Singapore is 500 miles, and IN the
roundabout way that we came TO Siam from
Hong Kong we covered nearly 1000 miles Of
sea travel.
Since I left America have been, by actual
count, more than so days upon the water and
am just about bali way around the world.
Steamship travel in these southern seas is
pleasantor far than the voyages across the At
lautic or the clustering trips through the
billOwy seas on the coast of North China. The
ocean Is al this time like glass, or al best but
gently moved into waving mass OF molten
steel by the soft. warm winds. all nature is
changed, and the SKY and the sea have put on
the clothes Of the tropics The stars are
brighter than they have ever appeared before,
ana Venus and Mars east rays like those of the
moon upon the water. The moon is closer to
the earth, and il bends down over the
ship at night larger aud brighter than any
moon you ever see in America. You get q
glimpse Of the stars OF the Southern cross and
near them the star which iss said to be the fixed
star nearest the earth, but which astronomers
say Is far OF that travelling at the rate Of the
dis anee between the earth and the sun in a
Eingle day would require 57S years to reach it.
The milky way grows brighter here, and the
grandeur Of the heavens and nature becomes
the more oppressive One can easily see in the
tropics how nations wOTshiped the sun and
moon, and he whole Of ones surroundings is
Il the midst Of the mysterious and the super
natural. The sea itself puts on different col
Oring- Before the moon rises the ph0sphores-
cent flashes Of the lightning bug fishes of the
Ec2 often make the pathway Of the ship a wide
road Of hre, which loses itself now and then in
the darkness, but which springs alight again
OF every wavelet that washes the side of the
vessel Inc sun, so not az midday that It's
rays are binding, sets in a gorgeous splendor
unknown 70 the North Atlantic, and its dying
rays turn the water TO a thousand bright tints
OF gold, which fade one into the other, and.
finally, when his majesty has departed below
the horizon, turn 70 a delicate purple, and then
fade away lnt0 a rich, dark blue, to change
again under the bright tropical splendor OF the
moon and the stars. When there are clouds
IN the sky the sunsets become the grander by
their reflection, ard as you near the coast or
enter the rivers the last rays are filtered
through palm trees. and their requiem is sung
by thousand birds, the voices of which are
sweet and the songs new 10 the ears Of the men
OF the temperate zones