Evening star., 1901-09-21
Travels About Hollands Best-Man-
aged Colony.
FREE COCKTAILS At THE HOTELS
Finest Roads in the World ano
How Kept So.
A VISIT TO A MOSQ u E
Copyright, 1901, by Frank G. Carpenter.)

Copyright, 1901, by Frank G. Carpenter.)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
BANDONG. Java.
1 am delighted with Java. 1t shows
what we might do in the Philippines and
Porto Rico. The Dutch have made this is
land a very Garden of Eden. 1t Is a para
disc of the tropics; and is. 1 believe, the
most beautiful spot on Gods green earth.
1t is of the same character as many of the
Philippine Islands. and it's mountains are
not unlike those OF Porto Rico, although
they are grander and higher
Java is nearer the equator than any of
our colonial possessions, but a great part
of it has a good climate. and the Holland
ers there thrive. 1t is not true that Amer
leans cannot live in the tropics. The high
lands of the Philippines are healthy: and
Bandong, from where L date this letter,
would be a health resort If 1t could be
dropped down upon the United States.
In the Mountains of Java.
This country is land of mountains
There is a range running through it from
one end to the other: and it has more vol
canoes to the square mile than almost any
land on the globe. 1 wish / could show you
the mountains through which I rode COM
ing here. On all sides of me were extinct
volcanoes covered with green almost to
their tops. The lower slopes were terraced
with rice fields and above them pines and
forests extending on and on until lost in
the clouds. Now we crossed plains fer
tile the Nile valley uncr which water
buffaloes and fat cattle fed: now we shot
through groves of cocoanut trees and
wound our way about through banana
plantations. Now the engine puffed and
puffed as it dragged us up through the rice
terraces. In Places the rice was flooded
and the trees which bordered the fields
nj furr 1ed
upside down in the water. We passed hum
dredS Of villages of huts made of plated
bamboo, went by tea plantations and cof-
fee plantations, and on past forests of
quinine trees, and at last came to this town
on beautiful plateau twenty-five miles in
width surrounded by mountains.
In the Heart of Java.
Bandong has about 10000 people, and of
these 1900 are Europeans. The remainder
are Javanese with a sprinkling of Chinese
and half castles. The city is a very botani-
cal garden. The homes of the foreigners
are shaded by the grandest trees of the
tropics. They are surrounded by lawns as
velvety and well kept those of old
England, and the wide drives which lead up
to the more pretentious homes are between
rows of royal palms, some more than hum
dred feet high. The foreigners live in viii
las, with walls and porticoes Of snow white,
rooted with red tiles Many of the houses
are large. They are all OF one-StOry and
exceedingly comfortable.
Even the stores are villas. They are set
back from the streets, with yards in front
of them and palms and tropical flowers or
namenting their verandas. There is one
just opposite my hotel shaded by a tree
whose ide-spreading branches cover about
One-fOurth of acre, while it's great
trunk scores of orchids are growing. At
the base of the tree are tropical plants in
pots of red clay, and as you go on into the
store 1t is by some curious dwarf palms
growing in tubs on the yeranda. That is a
jewelers. shop. A little farther on Is a
drug store in a similar garden. and If you
would buy groceries. clothing or books
you will have to walk through palm trees
and flower gardens in doing your shop
ping. This is so all over Java; 1t is delight
full.
They Live Well.
AS far as 1 can see the foreigners live
better here than at home. No city in Hol-
land compares with Bandong for comfort
and doubt whether there are any in which
the children are more healthy and the peo-
pie more prosperous. The Dutch girls are
plump. and fat babies abound The chill