Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1890-06-27
Letters from Distant Points.


In letter to his father, who lives IN
Butler. George Heydrick who is now dong
some surveying in Kentucky, rel ated an
exciting experience that he had few days
apo. He was riding along the road, and
as he neared log cabin he noticed glrl
hiding in fence corner; moment alteF
an old man came out of the cabin with
Winchester in his hands and began blazing
away at him. The first shot whlZzed past
his face. the second struck the fence along
side him and a third struck AMI shghtly
wounded the horse he was ndlng, whlch
turned and galloped off for all IL was
worth As soon as he reached TOWN nc
went to Justice of the Peace ana tola
his story and wanted the man arrested, Dut
the crowd that gathered talked hlm out ol
il II appeared that the girl had gone out
IN meet her .sfeller." whom the old man
didn't like and whom he thought he was
shooting at-a little mistake that don't
count in that part of Kentucky.
In n letter to his sister at Petrolia Joe
Burkhard then on his way to Peru, said
After leaving Panama we went on
board the Spanish American ,. ,. Llnerl
and stopped at every port between there
and this place, Talara Bay The hrst port
Is called Buena Ventura, meaning bonny
fortune. so-called by Morgan, the pirate,
after his successful raid and burning oil
Panama. The finest scenery | ever saw
in nv life is at Tamaca. At Bahia we
took eargo-all cocoa beans, which are
raised here in great quantities. ohocoiate
is made from these beans. AT auta lney
manufacture Panama hats OF KIND oi root
which grows here. 1t is so finely woven
cannot be broken; you can crush them up
and nut them in your pocket; they last
lifetime and cost from 81 to $3.50 a piece; 1t
takes is high as a year to make them.
The largest place we stopped at was
Guavaouil. in Ecuador, where L saw some
of the most beautiful women l ever saw:
They are both white and black, small and
finely built. and have small but regular
features In fact, they are daisies when
voung. but perfect looking old hags after
becoming 80 years of age. They all were
high -heeled shoes and walk very ODDLY;
Guavaquil is a town Of about 2000O, and
there is not pane of window glass III the
whole place that / saw. There are at least
u or 20 churches in the town-All Roman
Catholic. | went to mass and heard some
very fine singing. AT some OF the churcheS
they don't provide any seats. You see the
hi0her class of Spanish and Indians going
to church. their servants following them
with chairs. 1t looks funny to an Ameri-
can. The country round is low and
swampy and covered with heavy forests
The place is very sickly. Fruit Is at a
discount here; you can buy dozen OF
pineapples for 10 cents and the largest
lunches of bananas / ever saw are sold Tor
40 cents, dozen of cocoanuts for l0 cents,
and so on. But food is dear. At the next
mort we stopped, the character of the
country was all changed. The climate is
very healthy, the only fault have with 1t
there has been no rain here for seven years
There is not blade of grass, tree, nor
ANYTHING green in sight--nothlnS but SAND
and hillSon one side and the Paclhc ocean on
the other. You have heard song 1.-The
I,iobtbouse bv the sea-" / not only sing
it. but sleep in it. | tell you it is very
nice to see the looming of the big waves
as you 90 to sleep, but the romance is all
knocked out of it when you go to bed and
find lizards and sand ants that are worse
than bedbugs in your bed. But | am
pleased with the trip and am in the best OF
health. | am going 1900 miles farther
south very soon. Good bye with love to
all. From your loving brother.
Gust Scbmuck, who is now in Burmah.
with some other Americans drilling an oil
we'll. writes to a friend in Emlenton as fol-
lows: This is the poorest country L ever
lived in, | am certain. 1t is nothing but
sand hills all cut up with water courses,
called chaungs or mullas. These are all
dry at present and have been ever since
we came into the country; have had but
two light rains in all this time. The rainy
season will commence about the 10Th of
this month (May) then water will be run
ming in every direction for the next five or
six months. Our water for drinking, cook
ing and bathing is all brought three miles
fromtheIrrwady River ON bullock carts One
barrel is a load for two oxen and they
AXE two trips q day. The oxen are about
the size of Jersey COW and have q hump
on the shoulders The OK driver manages
his oxen with two lines, the same as team
sters do team of horses, except that the
native has no bit to put in the oxs mouth,
but punches hole through its nose, that
is, from one nostril through to another,
then passes thin rope through the hole,
brings the two ends up on the head close
behind the horns and ears and ties it firm
IL. as there it remains till rotted away.
The line is tied into this loop or bride, |
don't know the proper name for it. Their
carts are made entirely of wood.
There is not one bit of iron in the whole
outfit, except sometimes a driver will put a
brass bell on the neck of one of his bull
locks, but for every brass bell you will see
a dozen WOODEN ones.
There is no native blacksmith shop near
here that know of. | saw one at a town
named Mihlah when we were coming uD
ON the boat.
The Burmese think We are wonderful
people, in fact supernatural, and think we
ought to go to their pagodas (places of
Worship and allow them to pray to us.
Of course we cannot talk to them nor they
to us, but the Company's agent, who talks
the three languages, told us that they had
told him this. One day shortly after our
arrival here we were placing some sills.
While two or three of us rolled over the
man sill number of Burmese oil pro-
ducers were standing by with the agent
watching Us and they exclaimed, "Can
three white men roll that timber over?"
The agent said, ''Yes, easily" and at the
same time asked them how many Burmans
is would take, and they said it would take
Is or 20 at least.
Some of them pray that we get dry
holes. They say the white devils should
go back to their own country and let them
get their own oil out of the ground.
have see very little vegetation in this
country There are few cocoanut trees,
a few palm or palmetto, l don't know
which; some cactus, and some large trees |
don't know the names of. Natives raise
corn and rice in part of Burmah but not
here. Beans and onions are all | have
seen under cultivation in this country.
The thermometer has registered from