The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-10-02
HUF WIEDERSEHEN.
some Reflections Preliminary tn n
Proposed Trip Around the World.

To the Editor OF the indianapolis Journal:
When on the afternoon OF Oct. 9 the good
steamer the Empress of India casts off its
moOringS in the straits of Vancouver the
writer Will be on board, expecting 10 reach
Yokohama two weeks later. After six weeks
in Japan he will cross over TO China and
Picking, thence from Hong-Kong to the
Philippines, thence to Ceylon and upper
India, where he will spend the winter
months. expecting TO leave Bombay for the
Holy Land in time to spend Easter at Jeru-
salem and in sight of Calvary. From
Beireut, in Syria, he will turn west again.
calling at Malta and passing through the
Straits of Gibraltar, finally stopping at
London and the worlds fair At Paris.
Dewey and the Spanish war have made a
trip To the Orient almost a necessity to
the Travelled American. The standardization
of Japan, the impending partition of China
and our recent foothold in the Philippines
marks the new era with which the TWEEN
tieth century so soon begins in those far
off countries. The maxim, 'One world at
a time" and with the United States. THE
new world only" has gone the way Of
Washington's farewell address.
Six thousand years ago history and civili-
cation began upon the Euphrates and the
plains of Persia. From that day to this
they have both been slowly marching west
and north. From Assyria and Persia to
Egypt. from Egypt westward to Greece and
Rome, thence north and west again over
the continent of Europe, thence four
centuries ago across the Atlantic to the
new world. thence west 10 the Mississippi
and the Rocky mountains, thence west
again 10 the Pacific slope, thence TO Japan;
Such has been the stately march of empire.
which march has by 10 means ceased, but
Is SflI moving fOTNy ri No IN u-lr I'd Tho
next century will witness the redemption
OF emma ana the adjoining countries. The
great IranSSibcrian Railway is only a far
seeing Russian device to bring this west
ward movement to its own doors and over
its own highways.
Nor are the political questions by any
means the most interesting of the Orient.
L have long believed that all religions are
akin 10 each other and spring from the
same source, viz, mans inextinguishable
spiritual nature.
| am slow TO think that our Creator has
CHOSEN that traction OF the race TO which
we belOng-lesS than one-fifth of the human
~family-and revealed His will TO us alone.
There are bibles and bibles, and prophets
and prophets. For undevelOped nations
there are documentary religions adapted 10
their capacities.
Zoroaster, Mohammed, Guatama were and
are as much the saviors of their respective
peoples as the Man of Gaiilee is and has
been the Savior to Saxon, Gaul, Slav and
German. The difficulty is that We are quite
as ignorant of the real religions of Asia
49, NfoF 49, e'OtN
or less notifications, If not creations. Of
race, climate. soil, government and civiliZa-
ton, and must be studied comparatively
and as parts OF the great study of human
development, otherwise we shall find our
selves lapsing into bigotry.
Then there are almost innumerable other
questions which a trip to the Orient sug-
gestS. Why are the Chinese almond eyed?
Why the great changeless East the parent
of great religions and the seething. revolu-
tionary West? Why the pagoda in China,
the cathedral in Europe, the mosque in
Turkey and the gigantic temple in India,
dim and heavy with the mysterious and
the abnormal? All these questions / go to
study and ponder over, even though in a
small way.
A successful traveller must have the see
ing eye and the hearing ear. While 1T is
impossible within the short period of six
or eight months TO get more than a glimpse
of Asia. still. one can make a beginning
traveller in foreign lands sees. only what
he Is sent TO see or sees only through eyes
of prejudice and habit.
/ have crossed the Atlantic six time and
each time have said with all my heart:
The United States is the poor mans coun-
fit for the poor woman to live in" 1t may
be that we are yet in the green, but the
beginning is here of a splendid future, Such
as is possible nowhere else In the whole
world. England. the most advanced nation
on earth, is superior to us in government
and public order and social organization,
but vastly our inferior in popular educa-
ton, in general intelligence, and, above all,
in opportunity.
| hope to study the question of expansion
in the Philippines, of colonization in India,
OF races in Japan and China and of music
and religions in all of them and report what
] see and as l see ii. d. +. BALDWIN,.
Logansport. Ind, Oct. /.