The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-04-21
SHE HAS TRAVELLED FAR
MISS FxROCT HAS RECORD OF 30
600 MILES IN 4 SINGLE YEAR.
Talk with the WelI-known Indiana
Woman About Her Journeyings
Her Views ON China.
New York Sun.


the very few more or less dry spots on
the globe that she has missed For the
last six years she has fitted from con-
ordinary folks dizzy. Moreover, she has
done her fitting all alone.
And you went to Australia all alonei'
That is the way people begin.
"Oh. yes says Miss Krout indifferently.
Then l went to New Zealand and Tas-
mania. I've been TO the Sandwich isls nds
five times, lived in London three years,
been to the North Cape. done the usual
thing on the continent and visited Japan,
China. Charlottesville, Ind, the Philip
pines and a few other places"
"All in six years.
Not counting lucid intervals here at
home i'm America
How many miles have you travelled
Haven't any idea. The year | went to
Australia | Travelled $4,000 miles That Isn't
the big thing-the number of miles"
"Indeed?"
No. The biggest thing about my globe
trotting is that I've earned every cent for
it. | went to New Zealand TO investigate
the workings of the franchise and taxation
laws there. l went 10 Australia to look
into the wool growing and exporting
did this for a Chicago newspaper The
first time / went to Hawaii was for the
revolution there. | acted as newspaper
correspondent again."
How about Gilman
"Well. | got home from somewhere early
in 1899 and went to my old home in Craw-
louisville, Ind. When | got there | said to
my sister Do you this nickel? That
is the extent of my fortune. | have Just
cents-and I'm going to China
Your credit must be good
Perhaps. because il doesn't have much
wear and tear l earned the China money
by writing a lot Of things. chiefly a school
book"
(which of the countries you have visited
has been the most interesting?"
China by all means. I'd go back to-mor-
row if had the chance. There is nothing
| like so much to study as the evolution Of
governments. They're making history in
China, and I'd like to be there to see it
made. My visit was toward the end of 1892
and ] wasn't content to visit only Shang-
hal, Taku, Tien-Tsin and Peking l took
an inland Journey of $50 miles in the prov
ince OF Chilli"
Surely not alone that timer"
mo. though / think ] could have done it
all right. Luckily | could go with Mrs
Gamewell, who had lived years in China
and could speak the language OF course
we had 10 have interpreters, though, for
each locality has it's own dialect Mrs
Gamewell rode in cart. | went in a litter
Litters cost about ten times much as
carts, but | have only one life to live-at
least that's all / know of at present-and I
didn't care 10 end it ANONYMOUSLY in an
out-of-the-way corner of China.
TRAVEL IN CHINA
IF you are made Of india rubber or If you
are a missionary you can perhaps stand 1t
to be carried over Chinese roads. 1 suppose
the missionaries are sustained partly by a.
submissive spirit and partly by getting
used to it. Q'll tell you some more about
missionaries after while) l had neither,
so l hired litter.
eve were a regular caravan when we
started There were guides, Interpreters,
drivers. servants. bearers. provisions, bed
ding cooking utensils, dishes. the cart and
the litter and US. There were inns at which
we stopped. but the food was impossible.
SO we carried our own provisions and
cooked them. The inn people don't care
much for foreign guests. They make their
profit from the food they sell, not from
lodgings. l think we paid 10 cents for
three large rooms.
'Of course we could have bought their
food and not eaten II or have given ii to
our servants. But anyway you fix it they
are bound to have their feelings hurt unless
you eat the stuff. Feelings or no feelings,
we couldn't eat it. 50 we , cooked our own
"Once On our way out we came TO a
place where the men in charge of the litter
took cutoff across the fields, leaving Mrs
Gamewell and the cart to go around by the
road. We wound around among the graves
you know there are graves everywhere in
China. oh, yes they just bury people here.
a
Sometimes they don't even take the trouble
to bury them at all; just take the coffin
out into field and set 1t down there.
"Well. we meandered among the graves
until we finally came out to the road again
and rejoined Mrs. Gamewell. She was
rather quiet and told me when we reached
the inn that she had been warned against
that particular region, as IL was a nest or
robbers, and we must no account pass
that way alone or after dark.
1.-THE danger was over then and thought
no more about il. But our return trip
we left the inn about o'clock, and again
the litter men took the way across the
fields. 1t began to grow dusk. the sun went
down. and then / remembered that this was
the place OF which we had been warned.
Had you a revolver?
mo. What good would it have done?
The people are as thick as flies. IL wouldn't
have done much good to shoot anybody
except myself. i've always been like the
soldier going into battle-hOped that
would escape and always have. Nothing
happened that time We threaded the grave
mounds. passed through little villages,
crossed the sagging log bridge and came
out into the road again.
1--WE went up into the country because
Mrs Gamwell had TO see some people up
there. Among them was a rich farmer. a
money lord as he was called We stayed
there one day. They invited us for several
DAYS but il was so noisy and crowded that
we preferred the inn. You see ali the sons
of a family bring their wives home to the
paternal mansion and there they al. live,
each family in separate quarters around
a central court.
MOTHER-IN-LAW REIGNS.
"And talk about mothers-in-law. You
should go TO China TO see the real thing.
Over there, though. /. is the husbands
mother who lords II over her daughter-ln-
law She rules the entire establishment.
At the house of this money lord, for in
stance. the old lady sat on the bed and
smoked her pipe and talked while the hum
BILE daughters-in-law stood until she asked
them to sit down, and never spoke unless
they were spoken to.
What did you think Of the condition of
the Chinese women?
THAT ii is often pitiful. And let me tell
about the happy contentedness Of the Chi
nese women you may just be sure that the
wish with that author was father 10 the
thought If he could he'd like TO have all
women enslaved. They write of the happi-
ness and satisfaction of the Chinese wom-
en- Why, thousands Of them commit sui
eide every year in Picking alone because life
is absolutely uncomfortable 70 them.
Sometimes. II there is one daughter and
I.~.., ~