The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-11-19

the architecture Is often very pleasing. The
Rallies hotel, a new structure, has a faint
resemblance to the Alhambra- This hotel is
| owned by an Armenian. These people are
| quite numerous and influential here The
Rallies library and museum is Moorish in
| architecture also. Rallies, by the way, was
| the founder of Singapore, and a great
| bronze figure of him stands in the midst of
the plain, with arms folded, and complaeent
| eyes looking seaward evermore. Back of
all this, half mile deep. one may drive
| from north to south three or four miles
| along streets packed with native shops
| that is Chinese, Japanese and Indian chief
| ly Wonderful bargains could be gotten in
these streets once-fne India muslns, rich
Silks, famous cashmere shawls for mere
songs. But now, alas! the heather has
| learned western prices and, the Hindoos
| excepted, he has a cunning and a cupidity
Isaac of York could not equal.
Europeans have their residences much
| farther out. But more true is it of Singa-
! pore than of Honolulu that you can not
| see the town for the trees You realize its
size only after driving many miles along
| laoyrmthine roads, deeply shaded by tall
| trees, around hills and up them, casual
| breaks in the foliage revealing the great
| TWO story white houses half verandales and
| pillars apparently, every one with a green
| girdle at its base of orchids, ferns and
other potted plants.
| Sometimes you turn from the main thor
| oughfare into what seems a wild lonely
| ROAD, but which its perfect order and ex-
| qulsite hedges of bamboo and helatrope
| show to be private driveway. Here you
| go quarter of mile more less. on either
! SIDE, the jungle a mangosteen orchard a
| DURAN grove, or 1t may be nutmeg, CHINA
| mon or cotton trees. Suddenly there opens
| up clearer space where a member of at
| tractive homes are spread about each in its
| own spacious compound separated by the
| low bamboo hedge, and in often times by a
| thin fringe or ornamental jungle trees.
Many houses crown the hill tops command
| ing views that are dainty. dreamy and poe
| tic, for the numerous hills afford plenty of
| variety.
| Now with houses anywhere from a quar-
| ter to four miles apart you can imagine
what business. calling Is. Between half
| past four and five everybody goes out to
| the golf links, to the polo grounds, to the
| tennis clubs, to the Esplanade or to make
| calls. Under no circumstances can YOU call
| before this time, and as everybody is out
| after It, formal calling here Is one stupend-
| Gus joke You may not send your cards by
mail as you feel strongly inclined to do
when You drive down one long road and up
another and find at the foot of the carriage
ways small locked box bearing the resi-
dents name and the word. "Out" and into
which you slip your cards. However, you
soon know everybody since people are con-
stantly meeting
IL Is at dlnners, the only way of private
entertaining that you meet those among
whom your lines are to fall. Society of
course, centres largely about Government
house, where Sir Charles Mitchell and his
Wife maintain an etiquette, with slight
modi1cations essential to the environments
as formal as at the court of ST. James,
The Executive residence is a stately build
ing near the size of the white house There
are no young people in the governors
family. and except for official dinners and
regulation balls little gayety His Excel
lency and Lady Mitchell are very pleasant
people, and I found the governor. who
took me down the night of our initial din
ner there. exceedingly conversant on Amer
lean affairs His views on the negro prob
lem are interesting. If not adaDted to the
circumstances, being to the effect that our
American women should do missionary
work among the negro women in the inter-
ests of morality and better living When 7
spoke of the work of club women in edu-
cation and reformation. he asked what they
were doing for the reformation of the young
| negro! The old story that. Tt was not a
subject to be pursued at the dinner table
so he Is still in ignorance of many things
on the other side of the question SUD-
pose Tt is remarkable fact that the side
of 1t showing worse for the civilization and
culture of our southern people Is the one
that goes farthest abroad. Only a few days
after our arrival here. one of the daily
papers republished a long account from
some American paper of the mobbing of the
| monster Hose, but not one word that I
have ever discovered about the terrible
cause.
Society is made up almost entirely of
those who are in official life, of army Of
ficers and the wealthy European merchants
The half caste, who as the "mestizo' PLAYS
such a part in Manila circles, and known
here as "Eurasian" is seldom received in
society The event is always exceptional
and the faint far removed.
There are not dozen Americans here so
you can imagine what pleasure it is for us
to meet once in a long while such repre-
sentatives of the "best country under the
SUM- as men who fight that country's bat
ties. When the governor of Guam stopped
here enroute to the Ladrones we felt as if
we were welcoming a good big part of
America. Governor Leayy distinguished
himself in command of our warship at
Samoa. Captain Tde of the cruiser Yose-
mite which remains at Guam. was before
Santiago. until the evening before Cervera
came out VIXEN he was detailed elsewhere.
Major Delton, Captain RUSSELL Captain Tn
gate among the brave three hundred
Marines who held Guantanamo We had
seven of them altogether, to dinner and in
the words of the English women who met
there, "they were all lovely
You may be sure that in looking on the
governor of Guam and the consul-general to
Singapore I thought extremes had met,
both so far from nome, both In such strange
places. The poor fellows at Guam are far
Their from home than we, counting by the
mails. They said they would get letters
once in three months as their mails must
go by way of the Philippines. Think of
that! We get letters and papers from the
cities, Washington New York in one
month, from Alabama in a little longer
time. and that Is bad enough. BY the way,
Captain Ingate is from Mobile, and when
we found that we had not only mutual ac-
quaintances, but that I know the sweet
girl, who was to have been the wife of his
brother, now dead, we felt like old friends
indeed. Another of them interested us very
much, Major Kelton, whose wife and -
daughter are such boon companions of his,
he does not fear TO let them follow him
to such desert waste Guam. Their
home life must be eharmingly ideal. But as
he said they will have books and music, a
liking for botany in common, love for
nature invaluable where only nature is. And
nothing more fs needed than intellectually