The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-09-21
SIR JOHN VAUDEVILLE AND THE
COOK TOURIST.

This day OF round-tr:p tickets to Jeru-
where else you choose IN the world, with
food and hotel accommodations Included,
has its disadvantages which are too often
overlooked To be sure we can see the
than apt in seeing them to lose the sense
of vastness and mystery that belong to
that age and those people who were cut
off from all hope of ever seeing much that
lay outside of their own parish.
Herein lay the abundant, opportunity for
living for Sir John Vaudeville, the writer
of travels, and Marco Polo, Of tourist
memory II is all very we'll to go to Paris
or StPetersburs or Berlin, but there is
nobody alive to-day who expects the Won
ders there that Sir John Vaudeville said
and believed existed in hundreds of
places. The Isle of Wight is yearly the
scene of magnificent yacht races, and all
along the New Jersey coast the sea ser
pent disports itself to the great benefit of
hotel proprietors during the months of
July and August, but where else is there
such a place 10 be found as the Island of
Tango? In this isle says Sir John
Vaudeville. sis yet the daughter of Ypo-
cras, in form and likeness of a, great
dragon, that is a hundred fathoms Of
length. as men say, for have not seen
her
And in that day of great beliefs ne
raised his voice against Cyprus, of which
he writes: Some trow that there is half
the cross of our Lord. but it is not so and
they do evil that make men believe So
Yet his general impulse, as the London
ever was extraordinary, nor does he ex-
plain his fairy stories in spirit of hesita-
ton. He gives them the form and sub
stance of scientific, incontrovert.ble facts.
He marveis at the Phoenix of Egypt with
the same simplicity that inspires Hero
dotus, Plny and the Fathers. The
priests of the temple he writes concern
ing Heliopols, have all their writings
under the date of the fowl that is yclept
phoenix; and there is none but one in all
the world. And he Scometh to burn him
self upon the altar of that temple at the
end of five hundred years; for so long he
liveth And at the five hundred years end.
the priests array their altar honestly, and
nut thereupon spices and sulphur VII and
other things that will burn lightly, and
then the bird phoenix cometh and burneth
himself to ashes. And the first day next
after men find in the ashes a worm; and the
second day next after, men find bird quick
and perfect; and the third day next after,
he fieth his way. And SO there IS no more
birds of that kind in all the world, but it
alone. and truly that is a great miracle
of Cod
But all of Sir Johns stories are not so
Tar afield nor so unlikely as that of the
phoenix. The account that he gives of
Java and the Bedouins are accurate
enough Especially noteworthy is his
description of Tartary and of the Great
CHAINS Court, which is his masterpiece.
So we are thankful TO the unknown
writer of these travels. for none know
who Sir John Vaudeville was, because in.
,h.s day of shrunken honyoris We are
eaab ,ed to read the travels, ina ginative or
real, of one to whom these We're mysteri-
GUS countries yet unknown and strange
PEOPLES and portents. which evolution has
not created and which science could not
explain.
our FINANCIAL STRENGTH.
We are very partial to the ColuHbia.
S. c.. State. Although we do not agree
with this esteemed contemporary in the