The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-09-18


| ST. Lucia is an English island and a
very pretty place. We next sighted
San Barbados then St. Helena and
then Cape Town. We threw three
mules overheard on July Sd, as did
not want American mules to die on an
English ship on July 4th. During the
entire trip we had very pleasant
weather and I was sea sick only few
minutes.
We arrived at Cape Town on July -
and left that night after receiving the
halters to tie up with. There were
about 400 mules on board with no
halters and nearly all we're without
tie ropes. The natives in Hayti stole
most OF the halters and the mules also
eating the ropes and part of their feed
boxes. The night was very foggy and
the steamers whistle was blown every
few minutes. When rounding the
Cape of Good Hope the vessel rocked a
great deal and when I awoke in the
morning everything was piled up in
the middle of the floor. We were two
days going to East London, which is a
city OF 1000 inhabitants and right up
to date in manners and customs. From
East London to Cape Town we took
the railroad and it was the crookedest
and toughest track ever rode over.
Owing to the scarcity of good timber
for building purposes, the ties, tele-
graph and fence posts are made of iron
and steel. The accommodations on
the trains are nothing extra and are
nothing compared with the excellent
service of our own railroads.
The first night 1 was here it was
pretty cold and had to borrow some
bedding from the guard in order to
keep warm. l also had the pleasure of
seeing three inches of snow on July "a,
an unusual sight to the average Amer
lean. passed within plain sight of
the battlefield of Stromberg where the
| fighting was so disastrous to the En-
glish. I met a party who explained
the situation thoroughly. The freight
cars are very small, holding only 6, s
and II mules each. The mules we're
loaded into the cars and sent to the
front at once. 1t took us 60 hours to
cover the 900 odd miles.
When arrived at Cape Town went
directly to the, hotel and in to break
fast where l met an old schoolmate
who hal arrived few days previous
We were together all the time while
there and we also returned home to-
gether. Cape town is an up-to-date
city Of $4,000 normally, but a great
many more at present. Everything is
extremely high here. 1T is quite
pretty city lying just at the foot of the
Table mountains which make grand
back ground to look at. The farmers
in that country have snap in some
things. For instance, the government
ldig wells for them, but it does not keep
the locust away. About all saw in
the waytof live stock were sheep, goats
and ostriches, which do not require
much attention. consequently the
farmers do not have much to do.
On the return trip we passed St.
Helena, and by the aid of glass could
see the present home of Gen Cronje
and also the place where Napoleon was
held prisoner. We next passed
Ascension Island on the coast of South
America, Trinidad. Tobago, Jamaica.
Big and Little Cayman and Cuba,
arriving at New Orleans on Aug. 9th.
When we ran into the waters of the
Mississippi. which are easily distin-
guished from that of the gulf few
miles out, every American on board
began to shout and sing, for the jour-
ney of 10000 miles had been safely
made and tney were once more in their
own native country. Iwas glad to get
BACK to Denison which is good
enough country for me and where
am going to remain.