The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-03-13

house, the special quarters of the Off
Gals of the Panama railroad. In front
of me is the green Caribbean sea, whose
waves coming In on the evening tide,
are dashing up silvery spray almost
at my feet. A long row of cocoanut
palms runs between me and the beach,
and each of these Is loaded with great
lunches of green cocoanuts, every one
of me is the green Caribbean sea, whose
half-naked Jamaica negro baby who Is
playing there on the edge of the water.
The air from the land is that of hot
July at home, but the sea breeze is
soft, cool and delicious. When 1 left
New York a week ago it was in the
snow of 1nidwinter. Here l am in the
heat of midsummer and all my sur
roundings are those of the tropics.
$4,000 Miles for Letters.
For the next year 1 shall be travelling
largely in the tropics. During that
time l shall make a trip of $4,000 miles
for newspaper letters, covering much
OF the great continent of South Ameri-
ca and including some of the hottest
as well as some of the coolest regions
of the globe. Among the SHOWS of the
Andes I shall be nearer heaven than
you can get at any place on this earth
except in some parts of the Himalaya
mountains, and in the cold winter of
TERRA del Fuego, at the lower end of
our hemisphere, shall be at the south
ernmost point of the habitable globe.
AS to the red-hot tropics, it is warm
enough here, but few weeks from now
l shall be straddling the equator in
E,nnat for and within nine months IF I
succeed in eluding the yellow fever, l
shall sail right along the line of the
equator into the heart of South Ameri-
ca on the Amazon river. My trip began
ten days ago, when 1 left New York
on the steamer Advance of the Panama
Railroad Steamship line, for a 1000
mile sail to Colon. This afternoon l
shall cross the Isthmus of Panama by
railroad to the city of Panama. and
thence later on take ships from port
to port down the west coast of South
America to the Straits of Magellan. l
shall make a number of expeditions
into the Interior describing the coun-
tries of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bo-
hvia and Chile. spending some time in
the Andes and travelling quite extern
sively on the plateau of Bolivia. On
Lake Titicaca I shall steam about
above the clouds at an altitude more
than two miles above the cities of New
VI ~ VI w dSIllIlSl OI Oh ln6 nlSn6St
big fresh water lake of the world, and
in the rainless zone along the coast of
Chile shall be travelling through a
desert quite as wonderful as that of
Sahara. After a trip over the Trans
Andean road, which is now being built
to connect the Atlantic and Pacific de-
scribing the work that is now going on
In the Andes, and after having travel
ed extensively in Chile, / shall make
my way up the Atlantic coast of South
America with numerous expeditions
into the interior. In the Argentine l
shall visit the great grain and stock
raising plantations, shall travel over
the pampaS, where the ostriches run
wild, and from Buenos Ayres shall sail
up the Rio de la Plata, Parana and
Paraguay rivers for more than a thou
sand miles, stopping some time at
Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital
Uruguay will be my next country to
describe. and after that I shall visit
the cities OF Brazil and make several
long expeditions into the interior, visit
ing some of the biggest coffee planta-
tons of the world and travelling 1000
miles or more on the Amazon through
some of the least known regions of the 1
earth. After leaving the Amazon nv
itinerary is not fixed, but shall prob
ably sail from the mouth of this great
river for New York, stopping perhaps.
~ some of the West Indian islands on
the way.
Outfit of Il Correspondent
The primary preparations. for a
newspaper trip Of this kind are impor-
tant, and it may interest you to know
something of my outfit. You cannot
take tour Of this kind as one of
Cooks tourists does that to Europe,
putting all your necessaries In a va
Use. You must have different kinds
Of clothing for different climates. You
canont buy the books and Photographic
materials you want on the road, and
everything must be carefully packed
to Withstand the kicking of the obstre-
porous pack mule and the miasmatic
dampness of the tropics ] have five
Pieces of baggage, and as 1 already
Know by the excess baggage charges
they weigh just 400 pounds. Only 200
are allowed free from New York to
Colon, the excess being charged for at
cents a pound, and in crossing the
Isthmus on local ticket only fifteen
pounds of baggage goes free and all
above that pays 3 cents in silver a
pound. My photogra phic outfit is
comparatively light. I have two cam
eras, a 4x5 and a SKI. each fitted out
with good lenses and shutters. 1 have
a few glass plates, but chiefly cut and
prepared for the tropics, being sealed
up in tins to keep out the dampness.
Then l carry the small typewriter on
which 1 am now clicking out this let
ter and lot Of reference books, which
are as heavy as so much lead l have.
of course, plenty of letters of introduc-
ton from Washington, including a
special one from the secretary of state,
asking our consuls and diplomats to
render me every assistance in my
travels.
Money and Expenses.
My money I take in the shape of a
letter Of credit on London, for English
gold is best south of the equator. as
it will bring more silver in exchange.
My signature Identifies me, and all I
have to do is to present 1t at any bank
in South America and sign a check
and the money will be paid me- Here
on the ISthmus and in Central Ameri-
ca our gold is even better than English
gold, and L have ten $40 gold pieces,
which will, I hope, see me through
Panama. The expenses of such a
trip are heavy. In planning a new
expedition for newspaper letters I de-
bated some time whether South Ameri-
ca or Africa would be the more inter-
esting field and 1 got steamship rates
for both continents. I could have
gone to the Cape of Good Hope for
500 less than to the Straits of Magel-
Ian. The time is just about the same.
but the fare from New York TO Val
paraso in Chile is $255, and you are
still about $55 above the straits. The
fare to Cape Town is only $210 All
of the steamer fares here are D9Vahle