Evening star., 1901-11-09

and am told that they pay very well. Some
of the planters rent their lands of the ma
tives and others have estates leased from
the Dutch government. The best indigo is
grown in the central part of the island. l saw
a number of plantations on my way from
Solo to Soerbaia. They looked for all the
world like plantations of rag-weed grown In
regular rows. The indigo comes from the
leaves, which are picked off three times
year and put In watts of water to fer
ment. Enough water is put in to just cover
the leaves. Within short time the blue
cOloring matter or juice goes out into the
water and after a while the water turns
yeilowish green. 1t is now drawn off and
allowed to soak into powdered chalk
which when dried becomes the indigo of
commerce. The best indigo has fine pur-
pie blue color and it should have a sort of
a copper gloss.
Millions Working at 4 Cent an Hour.
So far j have not discovered trades unions
in Java, and the contrast between wages
here and in Australia is painful. 1t is diff
cult to find man in Australia and New
Zealand who is not making 81 or more for
eight hours work Here there are millions
who are glad to get 20 cents for ten hours
work 1t is only in the cities that the men
receive much this. In the noun
famous regions of the Preanger 1 saw men
and women laboring for less than a cent an
hour and in the tea plantations the regu-
lar wages are cents a day for six hours
Work. On the railways the trackmen get
II cents, gold, day and on the government
farms they receive less. Here in Soerbaia
some common laborers get Is cents day.
and this is considered high wages.
i am told that man can live on gulden,
or about $3.50. per month, and the man who
gets from 81 to 81 month has all he wants
and money to burn. The result is that with
all the low wages there Is little poverty in
Java. The people everywhere look fat and
healthy. They respect themselves, and, on
th2 whole, are, l think, happy. They spend
all they make and delight in gay clothing
In some regions they wear the craziest pat
terms of brown, red and yellow calicoes
The men wear CALICO pantaIoons a sort of
divided skirt, which has zigzag stripes
looking as though 1t had been struck by
lightning, Many of the patterns are beau
tiful They are the invention of the people
the work of printing them being done by
hand and in some cases the design being
sketched out of the head of the designer
The English ard Germans have copied these
patterns, even to their faults, and are ship
ping in printed cottons in vast quantities.
The homemade articles bring high prices,
but the limitations sell for a fair profit on the
cost of manufacturing To introduce Amer
lean prints it might be well for our fac
tories to obtain the original designs and
copy them.
Java's New OIL Fields.
l passed through Java's new oil fields on
my way eastward. They are situated not
far from the north coast. One lies near
Soerbaia and the other not far from Ba-
tavia, the two being several hundred miles
apart. None of the oil so far gotten is
equal to that from the United States, and it
is now selling for about 20 cents less per
case. The Standard Oil Company has the
bulk of the trade here. 1t has its agencies at
Batavia. Samarang and Soerbaia, and 1t
brings in oil by the ship load. The oil is
bought by the Chinese middlemen, who sell
it to the native merchants. who peddle 1t
out In small quantities. In the market the
average measure is tin cup about the size
of claret glass, and the usual pur-
chase would not more than fill an egg
shell. The oil is sold on a very close mar
gin, costing about Is cents a gallon The
Chinese use oil largely In their trade with
the natives, exchanging it for rice and other
articles.
How the Dutch Educate the Javanese.
During my stay in Java have looked into
the methods which the Dutch are employ
ing to educate the natives. They have quite
as big a job as we have in the Philippines,
and so far they are hardly at the beginning.
For years they did not educate at all, but