The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-17

men. As said, they are very modest.
When was in the forest l had to wear
masculine attire. It would have been ut
terly impossible for me to do anything
else. / had a loose blouse or tunlc, trous-
ers, and high boots to protect me from
snakes. Then l wore a sombrero and car
ried a revolver and a rifle That was all
very well in the forest but / always car
rled a petticoat, too and no woman ever
saw me without it. They would have been
Mortified and would have Stunned me as
they would the plague.
"Oh, the luxury of those clothes! be-
leve womens attire is the cause of most
of her i'll health, bad temper and timidity.
While / wore my forest clothes ] grew
strong physically got ria of nerves and
became self-reliant, because l had abso-
lutte freedom of motion. l hope l am a
womanly woman. / heartily dislike mas
cuIine woman. but, in my opinion, civiiza-
ton has nothing to compensate woman
for the bondage Of petticoats.
I'm afraid the life ! lived down there
has made conventional living hard for me.
You can't Imagine how long, sometimes,
to get back to freedom There's fas-
cination about life in the forest that
haunts me and calls to me. No one can
understand who has not known the depth
and tho breadth and the infinite calm or II.
All the fever and fret dies out of one UNI
der its influence, and oneis soul broadens
out into the world, soul. It is hard to
sit In a city room at sunset and think
how the dusk Is closing In on the forest
and the shadows are deepening and only
the night wind Is stirring the hush OF the
world"-and Nine. lie Plongeon sighed
wistfully. 'Listenl IN play you some of.
the Indian airs, Maya songs that were
sung before white faces were ever seen
in Yucatan."
She picked up a guitar and played one
weird minor melody after another. Some
Of them held a suggestion of the rythmical
grooming chants sung by the negroes In
the South; but they had, too, character
all their own.
''They are very effective when the In
dams sing them" said Nine. lie Plongeon.
IT used To think they sounded like signs
from the mighty race that Is dead There
is something poetic and pathetic about the
Indians in Yucatan. ] was fond of them,
and they were always good to us. ESQ
were the whites, for that matter. Every
one seemed ready to take US in and help
us and we never had 10 resort to the
casa reale What Is that? Well, there
are no hotels in many of the towns, and
the people will not open their doors to all
strangers but each town has little hut
where any one can go In and hang up his
hammock. Usually an Indian takes care
of 1t. and It is dirty and fun of vermn;
but il Is safer to sleep there than out
Of doors. A friend of ours went TO casa
reale one night lie had no hammock and
the old Indian In charge couldn't be per-
suaded. for love or money to give up his;
but the floor was so filthy that il seemed
impossible to lie down on It. There was
one other guest I'm the hut. His hammock
was swinging near the door, and the In
dian suggested that our friend would bet
ter tumble in with the stranger. He made
up his mind to try 1t, so he climbed In In
q eingerly way and w0s delighted TO find
that the sleeper didn't waken. Early the
next morning some men came to the hut
and announced that they had come for the
corpse
"'Its In the hammock growled the In
dim, and, sure enough, the corpse was our
friends bedfellow. The Indian was too old
to be thrashed and the only reply he
made to abuse was, What's the matter?
You slept we'll. A live man would have
kicked you out of the hammock II was
fortunate there was nothing contagious
about the corpse"
was the yellow fever the only illness
you had white you we're In YucatanT ask
ed the reporter
"Oh, no; l was often IN, especially at
Ak, where we had malaria In Its worst
form; but we took every precaution and
got along well"
"You were very brave"
Nine. lie Plongeon shook her head
mot in the least" she said in her crisp.
decisive fashion. II simply have never
known what fear is. l always have a pos
tive conviction that nothing can possibly
happen to me. Absurd, isn't Il? But I've
never been able to believe In danger
When we were going from Yueatan to
British Honduras we crossed the Carlb-
bean sea In a little boat. Oh. that boati
Will l ever forget il? 1t was the most
uncomfortable thing I ran across in all
the eleven years. was trying to sleep on
the cabin floor which / shared with a
cargo Of great 500-pound turtles. Poor
thingsl They did look pathetic, for they
we're all turned on their backs with their
hippers tied together. and they heaved
and tossed. but couldn't scramble. 1 put