The Washington times., 1901-10-06
Burmah Not n Paradise,

| Hurmah Not Parudise
Except for cocOanut palm here and
| there and a good deal of bamboo about
the houses, an oil town on the Irrawaddy.
In Burmah, is not very different in an
pearance from one on the Allegheny. Ap-
preaching from the river, the green of the
4 trees Is surmounted by a forest of oil
i derricks, exactly like the ones that disfig-
Ife so many western Pennsylvania land
scapes-for they are built by western
pennsylvania mefi. The Burmah Oil Com
pany seeks its skilled labor in this coun
try, and S. c. Sampson, a driller whose
home is IN Pittsburg, is one of the Amer
leans who has been in the employ of the
company for a long period Mr. Sampson.
who went to Burmah for the first time in
1895. Is home at present. and tells of his
interesting experience ON the Irrawaddy.
The town of Yenang-Yat, in which Mr.
Sampson has been working. is in lower
Burmah, on the Irrawaddy River. 700
miles from Rangoon, the nearest seaport.
1t is quite a typical oil town. for there
are about $50 wells in the neighborhocd
and In the town there are about twenty
americans. They are in the employ of
the Burmah OH Company. which is a Bur-
mese corporation. though the head OF the
company is in Glasgow
The country is under British rule and
English is spoken a little in the larger
towns, but everywhere else it is neces-
sary TO understand a little Burmese or
Hindoostani in order to get about com
fortably. Mr.. Sampson has learned so
much Burmese as pertains to oil wells.
and can tell his men how he wants 4
piece of work done; but he has no thor
ouSh knowledge of the language in gem
eral.
The coolies who work about the wells
are either Burmese or Indians. The Bur-
inese are a yellow, thick-lipped race,
While the Indians are darker and with
more delicate features.
Handsome? Well, no. / couldn't call
them that" says Mr.. Sampson. They
are too dirty for that. but their noses are
small instead of fiat, like the Burmese
and their lips are thinner The Indians
working on the wells are OF the class we
call bumpers over here. They never seem
to learn much about machinery. They
don have the ambition to go into auy
sort of business enterprise; if they have
enough to eat they are satisfied: they
don't need much in the way Of clothing.
But they are dirty lot. They have
epidemics of cholera or smallpox there
every once in a while, and there are lots
of lepers. No one thinks much about
these things there. over here a smallpox
patient Will cause panic, but In Burnnah
people go around among smallpox victims
and never worry about 1t at all If they
catch il they catSh it and they can't |
guard against II very well The British |
Government tries to enforce a quarantine |
but the people are so dirty there is no |
use In 1t. OF course, we al got vaccinat- |
ed. The Burmese people vaccinate their
children; they do it with the virus from /
sick people and. of course, IT gives the
children a mild attack: it kills a good |
many of them.
And there are Iepers everywhere; no.
body minds them at all, though they are |
horrible~to look at. l have been among
them and rubbed clothes with them
while I was out there I stayed pretty
steadily at work and didn't travel around
much. I~didn't go hunting at all, though
there is plenty of game not very far
away There are wild elephants fifty or
sixty miles north of our place A friend
OF mine shot several of them and a tiger
and several cheetahs. cheetah is a
kind of small leopard and there are a
great many Of them In Burnah
I
we have those in the town where / lived
Yes some of them are big. killed milk
snake ten feet long; but it is the little
mes that do the harm. Cobras and vipers
ire only four or five feet long. but if they
bite you II is sure death. These vipers
ire only four feet long or So but they are
wo inches thick over almost their whole
ength; about three inches nearest the
all, which tapers down to point. They |
nave a diamond-shaped head, and they
ire very poisonous.
The cobras have a hood that they !
wen up when they are going to bite but
leither Of the snakes gives any warning :
'efore it strikes; there is no rattle, nor !
nything like that If you step on a cobra
bites you, and If ii draws blood YOU | t
viii be dead in twenty minutes. and moth
ng save you. Thirty thousand peo-
lie die in India every year from snakes
nd wild animals, and the British Coy
offers a standing reward Of eI5.-
no for the discovery of an antidote for v
he cobra's bite. That is enough to temut Il
ny man; but the reward goes unclaimed
There are white ants there too. They
eep eating away the timbers Of the der y
icks. The only thing you can do is to d
eep replacing the timbers as fast as they
at them.
The soil out there is the meanest | eycr
rilled In. There is so much blue clay and
. much water comes into the hole that
gu have to keep putting down pipe TO | q
eep II out G,
But the country is something ike "A t.
esert there; II is very dry We have |
iree months winter there when the tenn ~
arature does not get lower than 50 and b,
Inc months hot weather. when 1t runs
p to 100 in the shade. There Is no rainy
'asGn there. Down in Ringoon it rains
retty steady through three months in |
ie summer, but we only have occasional /
bowers In that time up where we were. a
we only work eight hours day. We | re
ork from to 10 in the morning and | nj
ON / TO 3 in the afternoon. From 10 to | u
we rest and stay in the shade. II is too III
II to work. BY ! 1t begins 20 cool a 1T | sa
2. | wouldn't want to live in that coun- | pl
y all the time. II Is too hot 7 have not qc
t decided whether shall go back again | 10
not. | would never go hccaI5' | l!ked 10
II would he only for 'he money tlCre | W
in it.'-Pittsburg Leader. ca