Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-02-16
LAND OF VOLCANOES.
MOnOtOnOus Samencss in the Climate
Of Picturesque Java.
Reception 20 the sultan of sOlO--.Im-
mense Crops OF Sugar, Rice, etc.---In-
mense Stone Structure Built to the
Great Ruddha.
SoERApARTA, (SoLo) MID JAVA, !
Jan. 1, 1900.

SoERApARTA, (SoLo) MID JAVA,
Jan. 1, 1900.
Contrasting your surroundings with
mine is surely interesting if not appreci-
able, for | now imagine YOU wearing cold
feet mid banks of snow and well developh
icicles, and to tell you I'm on the porch of
a little one-stored hotel facing a court of
palm trees and growing fruit unknown to
you, but verify too luscious to conceive of
parallel in America, is to make you men
tally wonder if my garb of thin duck, he'll
met and collarless shirt is so uncomfortable
as I'd have you believe. Rising bathing
and breakfasting before O A. NJ is not ex-
actly my style, but necessity in this cline
where a siesta is forced fact during mid
day and life only begins with the death of the
sun at night. go to bed tanning and get
up drinking iced Apollinaris
fear the introduction of a clothing es.
Enlistment in Java would be an utter fail
ure, for the popular suiting seems to be a
perfection of natures negligee, aud capital
punishment would be prescribed clothing
Prescriptions nerve on my part has secured
for me an invitation to the Dutch Resi-
dents" palace tonight to receive the Sui
tan of Solo as the guest of the festivity, TO
be held this evening celebrating the open
ing of the new year. To liken the popular
demonstrations of the natives as they imi-
tate our 4th of July on this occasion, would
be to belittle our noisy attempts of the 4th
For fireworks are well known quantity
here and their combustion is an art most
thoroughly performed during the three
days given up to this and other annual
! celebrations. Resembling the upper orient
I in many respects, the industrious Malays,
| Numbering in all Java "a, 900, 600, instead
g > I N,11 he
much more acceptable than their more in
dependent cousins of Asia, and their hos
pitality is equally as general although they
! have a high sense of natural rights and
! liberty and allow no drastic demonstrations
! or aggressive handling from foreigne rs
! Most peaceable, thrifty, coutented and
| subservieut TO the Dutch, the people have
not only an innate aesthetic appreciation of
/ landscape gardening, but with Dutch ideas
and ideals they have certainly fashioned a
country perfect in its picturesqueness and
a model for Americans in their reforma-
ton of the Philippines. Comparatively
| speaking the climate of Java with its
monotonous sameness the year round, a
! daily shower and an average temperature
of about 90 degrees during the day, is more
acceptable than the suffocating heat of Ma
Mia or Singapore at noon, and from this
/ you ii see the equator mas little 10 40 with
the climate and It's vicssitudes.
From Batavia to Djok jakarta land by
! the way, the names are not pronounceabe
and less easy to spelD the scenery from the
| train is untiring as it is varied and mag
nifcent. Up grades requiring two loco
motives, the valleys below are covered for
miles with tiers of rice paddles and waving
sugar cane (Java's export being 1000, 900
| tons a year, and through great tracts of
rich territory in coffee trees, tea, china, in
| digo and mark etable fruits which often ex-
tend in their cultivation to the very tops of
| the mountains, the journey of Is hours is
delightfully."- interesting and satisfactory in
its panoramic entirety.
From Diokja a train line to Moelitau,
where fve-mle drive through avenues of
| Warigen trees and roads of palm and BAN
boo jungles harboring neat little Javanese
villages on either side, brings us to the
stupendous stone structures built bv prince
to the Great Buddha ("Boro Boedor'y.
This wondrous heap of crumbling masonry
constructed about the ninth century is 500
feet at its base and in five terraces fttingly
! sculptured with representatives and char
acteristic conceptions of Buddha and the
deeds of ancestral glory, the monument
rises to the height of about 100 feet. All
the work is remarkable in its perfection and
the preservation of the larger figures -four
and five feet high is truly worthy of con-
| sderation, was it not that the few archae-
| logical vandals carried off a head and arm
| or complete group. Tradition accounts
| for the existence of the "Boro Boeder" as
the last resort of prince TO win the daugh-
ter of the Prince of Mendoet but when the
| inappreciative maid went to inspect the
wonderful creation of man she said it was
"beautiful but she could no more love him
than she could the stone images be had
| fashioned"
Again at Brambanam are the ruins Of
several smaller temples of remote antiquity
quite as picturesque and interesting as
those of "Boro Boeder," and when these
ruins of early times are compared with the
ruins of other lands, few even in India,
Egypt or Central America can be classed
with them for consummate perfection and
completeness. Rightly has it been said
that although these early peoples "built like
Titans they finished like jewellers" and
surely no monument to God or man can
have more inspiring picturesque situation
than these as they majestically crown a
little hill which seems to be nurtured by a
surrounding range of splendid volcanic
mountains, some temporarily dormant but
mostly Drowned and burned by remote
eruptions. Realizing, if you can, that Java
is the home of 40 volcanoes and that the
natives think the volcano of Soerdong is
the spike holding Java to the earth, you'll
understand how wondrous a work of ma
ture this little island is.
G. FRED CHILDs.