Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1895-09-19
LIFE IN SUMATRA.
Friend Writes as Follows Concerning Lifs
in the Far OFF Island Of the East
Indies.

Tobacco is the only thing that
pays here and this entire vicinity IL
given over to that kind of a crop.
This is shipped from here to London
and Amsterdam, and sold to the
highest bidder, running often as high
as 60 cents an American pound. this
we get of course paid i'm gold, and az
such credited on our bank accounts
there and as we use silver here, to
pay our hands and i'm general trans
actions, you can imagine the profit
there is made here on this crop. A
great deal if not the majority of the
tobacco raised around here is con-
sumed i'm your country; they mix ii
with the inferior kind grown there.
In 1893 the annual dividends was 100
per cent on the stock of the COM
pany.
We tried to- raise coffee, but
whether il il the climate or the
stupidity of the help we have here, 1t
did not seem to he a success and we
have given that up and cOnfine us
now entirely to tobacco, keeping
nearly 5000 hands to work, the
biggest part of the year.
1t seems SO queer that no one
starts up independently of the COM
pany to raise vegetables. Most OF
those things we import from Java
and use considerable of canned stuff.
The ordinary Irish potato does not
thrive here; | presume it is too hot,
but tropical fruits we have i'm abund-
ance. Meat il not as good as i'm the
u. s., it il tough, the native cattle
being of an inferior quality, but the
price is very low. We get consider
able meat from Singapore where
they have slaughter houses, and
have a finer quality, we have also tO
send there for our oxen, as they are
larger and more docile then those
raised ON the island.
Horses we get from the Battok
lands and are like your broncos,
treacherous and full of ginger,
though sometimes one gets hold of a
team that il pleasant to have
around. l bought one little while
a go; they are both coal black and
make a nice appearance. on the
streets. sent to Australia to gel
some horses for the youngster. a
small kind somewhat like the Shet
land ponies.
You need not think that we have
no fun here; i'm our literary club you
will find all the papers of the world
i'm all languages that have any note
at all. The New York Herald makes
it's daily appearance. while the Sun
day Chronicle of San Fransisco. the
Boston Globe, the Australian papers
Chinese and Japanese, Dutch, French
German, Spanish, and as ! stated
all papers having any reputation
can be found here to say nothing o
our quit extensive library.
Then we have horse racing ant
bicycle racing, and all sorts of sport,
which would do credit to the New
York clubs.
1 1tr. luSSCtSs l. 81. 4
You can imagine and some yol
would not know existed until yol
came here. OF course by using tn,
proper preventatives and protection
one gets along very well. Snake,
are i'm considerable abundance i'm tn,
woods, but since the ground hai
become cultivated they withdraw t.
more quiet quarters. In the park o
the city there is a tree with apes
monkeys mostly, retained there ol
purpose by the city for the amusement
of the children. Away from town IL
the interior are quite n number of lar
ger apes. II one likes to go out hunt
ing big game such as wildcats, an,
even tigers can easily be encountered
l am getting to stout for that kin,
of fun. A couple Of friends of our
went out last week to get "a rug
as they said and came home witt
a pelt measuring seven feet from til
to tip.
Some wild elephants and croco
diles, with countless squirrels com
plete the different kind of wild beas
we have around, hut none aresittinl