The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-07-31
ORR OVERSEAS MEN.
pndvard Kipling Writes Of the
People Who Travel.
vure SOCIETY IN THE EAST.
,..., Has Perfect Climate . Lovely
country and the Poiitest Peo-
pie on Earth.

III.
80 af gain or sake OF peace,
70 ~. syeed OF golden fee,
xsrns. not cell your gailey slaves
shst row you over the sea-
-. ,hsx come Of your blood OF your own olooo,
20 o. vonr own gods they swear,
- ~ you must not sell them overseas,
becau's sA'' King Euric.
An things considered, there are only two
"a. of men in the world-those that stay
!. ,orne and those that do not. The Sec
"a 40 the most interesting. Some day
oa iii, hethink himself and write about
-. M. hr.ed in book called 1.-The Book of
81 overseas Club" for it is at the club
non.es all the way from Alden to Yoko-
Nam. that the life of the outside men is
-. .een and their talk best heard. A
.,,onr family likeness runs through both
tn;lainp and members, and large and
..-eless hospitality is the note. There is
.,ravs the same open-doored, high-ceiled
bouse. with mating on the floors; the
..m. come and go of dark-skinned ser
rants. and the same assembly OF men
taking horse or business, in raiment that
rouId fatally scandalize London COM
mittee. among files of newspapers from
tortnipht to five weeks old. The life of
n. outside men includes plenty of sun
,bne and as much air as may be stirring.
Al the cane, where the Dutch housewives
d;stl and sell the very potent Wander
ham and the absurd homemade cabs
ysddle up and down the yellow dust
d Abberley street, are the members
Of the big import and export firms,
the shipping and insurance offices, in
yentors of mines, and exploiters of new
territories. with now and then an officer
.trsyed from India to buy mules for the
government, government house aide-de-
camp. sprinkling of the officers of the
garrison, tanned shippers of the Union
and Castle lines, and naval officers from
the squadron at Simon's Town. Here they
talk of the sins of Cecil Rhodes, the in
science of Natal, the beauties or otherwise
Of the solid Boer vote and the dates of
steamers. The argot is Dutch and Kaffir,
and every one can hum the national an
them that begins "Pack your kit and trek,
Johnny Bowlegs." In the stately Hong
kong Club house, which IS to the further
what the Bengal club is to the nearer East,
you meet much the same gathering, minus
the mining spectators and plus men
whose talk is of tea, silk, shlrtings and
Shanghai ponies. The speech of the out
side men at this point becomes fearfully
mixed with ''pidgin English" and local
Chinese terms, rounded with corrupt
Portuguese. At Melbourne, in long ver-
anda giving on grass plot, where laugh
ing jackasses laugh very horribly, sit wool
a,nd .f
horses, after their kind. The older
men talk of the days of the Eu-
reka stockade, and the younger of
"shearing wars" in North Queensland,
while the traveller moves timidly among
them wondering what under the world
every third word may mean. At Yelling
ton overlooking the harbor (all right
minded clubs should command the seal,
another and yet like sort of men speak
Of sheep, the rabbits. the land courts and
the ancient heresies of Sir Julius Vogel;
and their more expressive sentences bor-
row from the Maori. And elsewhere, and
elsewhere, and elsewhere among the
Outside men it is the same-the
same mixture of every trade, call
ing and profession under the sun;
the same clash Of conflicting interests
touching the uttermost ends of the earth;
ing knowledge of your neighbours business
and shortcomings; the same large-palmed
hospitality, and the same keen interest on
the part of the younger men in the legs Of
horse. Decidedly it is at the oversee
clubs all the world over that you get to
know some little of the life of the COM
munity. London is egotistical, and the
world for her ends with the four-mile
CAB radius. There is no provincial
ism like the provincialism Of Lon
don. That big slackwater, coated with
the drift and rubbish of thousand mems
thoughts, esteems itself the open sea be-
cause the waves of all the oceans break at
her borders. To those in her midst she is
terribly imposing, but they forget that
There Is more than one kind of imposition.
LOOK back upon her from 10000 miles,
when the mail is just in at an Overseas
.iao, and she is wondrous tiny. Nine
tenths OF her news-so vital, so epoch
making over there-loses its significance,
ana the rest is as the scuffiing of ghosts in
back attic
Here In Yokohama the Overseas Club
mas TWO mails and four sets of papers
hhgiish, French, German and American,
@sults the variety of its constitution
ana The veranda by the sea. where the big
We Talescope stands, is perpetual Pentecost.
the population of the club changes with
.Ach steamer in harbor, for the sea cap
ANS swing in, are met with Hello!
shere did you come from?" mix at the
oar ana the billiard tables for their APP
PVihted time. and go to sea again. The
,s;nse-painted warships supply their con-
~ngeht OF members also, and there are
sohueriui men, mines of most fas-
.'hatlhg adventure, who have an in
wrest In sealing briggs that go to the
, nafiie Islands. and somehow get into
nyuo'e with the Russian authorities. Con-
sa's and judges of the consular courts
aicet men over on leave from the China
FRS or II may be Manila, and they all
:. .slA Yea, silk, banking and exchange with
.ns liked residents Everything is always
:; psa as 1t can possibly be, and every body
"on The verge of ruin. That is why,
lAeh they have decided that life is no
,l;ls er worth living, they go down TO the
,h "a aiiey-to commit suicide. From
az outside, when a cool wind blows
nohg the papers and there is a
sn aau OF smashing ice in an inner
,@'Nneht, and every third man
aiklng about the approaching
aWf .he LIE seems TO be q desirable one.
nnat more could a man need 10 make
ta en- hsppyf" SAYS the passer-by. A per-
rlsa climate, lovely country, plenty of
peasant f. society, and the poiitest people
80 earth to deal with. The resident
,h,a and invites the passer-by 10 stay
noush July and August. Further he
Uses MN 10 do business with the
:. t st people on earth, and TO continue
~. uolhg Tor term of years. Thus
,1s, traveller perceiyes beyond doubt
Va Va me resident is prejudiced by the
!. isct of his residence, and gives
/. his matured opinion that Japan
m. iaultiess land, marred only by
ans presence of the foreign community.
en rH YET let us consider. 1t is the foreign
tbs .ahiiy that have made il possible for
no., aseier 10 come and go from hotel to
"a ~ 70 get his passport Tor inland travel,
fr;ssgraph his safe arrival To anxious
n1euHas, and generally TO enjoy himself
a-Sh more than he would have been able