Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1902-03-20

hurried off to the railroad station. You
have ride of half an hour to Lower Batavia
where you take steam train or carriage
to the Upper Town.
The hotels are first class with most beau
tiful grounds. The Grand Hotel Java stands
some 200 feet in from the main street with
beautiful garden in front, the buildings one
story high and each room has in front We
randall with table and easy chairs and hang
ing lamp, back of it private bath. The
beds are Immense being u feet square; the
floors are of cement in patterns resembling
marble. Cement floors are used to keep
away rats, mice and ants. The latter are
ere very hard to deal with.
Batavia, without exception, is the most
beautiful place we have yet seen. The streets
very wide lined with beautiful trees mostly
eucalyptus brought from Australia; their
growth is much encouraged in Java as it Is
known where they abound little or no mala'
rial fever prevails. All travellers are COM
PEELED to take great care and not be out too
much after night many resort to quinine on
their arrival.
Places of interest in Batavia are the two
Clubs and the Museum and Library of the
Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences, but
the whole place ahounds in interest and
beauty. The Dutch are so clean and so well
adapted to rule these 10000 900 of natives
that they have made their beautiful tropical
island park in every sense of the word; not
an acre of It that is uncultivatcd unless 1t Is
the extreme tops of the volcanoes; their won
derful system of irrigation, taking the water
up the mountains that it may pass through
fields Of rice each one two feet below the
other until the stream reaches the plains and
vet it keeps on until 1t is absorbed. Coffee,
rice and sugar cane are the chief products OF
the island and occasionally you see small
plots of our Indian corn; the latter IS boiled
on the cob and sold In the streets with salt:
the natives seem to enjoy it and we have
have been tempted to try an ear MS 1t reminds
ore so much of home.
In gaining information in regard to the
coffee crop from the Dutch residents we find
no Java coffee is exported to the United
States. The coff e we get which IS called
Java comes fr'm Sumatra, another of the
Dutch East Indies Every pound of coffee
raised has to pay fifteen seus, equal to six
cents of our money, to the Dutch government
yet here one cannot get good cup Of coffee;
the extract is used, one tablespoonful in a
cup and filled up with hot milk.
The drives throughout the island are as
| fine as those in our parks, lined with the
most beautiful trees, in some instances two
rows one being tall trees, then inside of them
gigantic palms. the leaf starting up from the
earth to the distance Of 80 to 40 feet
The native Javanese present different types
We found those in Batavia not so tall ms in
mid Java, nor so well featured; here the men
are taller and the women more beautiful; the
children have nice faces with clean cut feat
ures and is particularly so with the boys.
There is no mistaking the youngsters, they
wear no clothing: the grown people are par.
tally clothed as is the case in all Eastern
countries, but one becomes, after short
time, accustomed to the nude figure that the
absence of clothing is not noticeable
STAYING two days in Batavia we travelled
by rail distance of 40 miles to Buitenzorc
through perfect paradise ofiropical country
in clean, cool car, without dust and a well
built road. The trains run about 25 miles an
hour, such change from the slow ten miles
an hour trains in Japan and China.
The Hotel Bellevue with its beautiful
rooms looking down the valley OF Tjiliwong
with the clear moonlight MS we first saw i,
made an impression we shall not forget
The pearl in the crown Of Bui,enzorg is
the Botanical Gardens, which cnclo.c the
wood. They were established in 1917 by
Renwardt, and are celebrated all over f r.
rope as the best scientific tropical horus; il
takes full two hours good walking to get a
superficial view Of them, and you are well
repaid tor the exerton The gardens of the
same kind in Hong Kong and Singapore
sink into utter insignificance in comparison
to this great work of bringing from ali parts
of the world plants and trees as well as flow.
ers that have grown together in seemingly the
widest confusion, and yet every plant, tree
and flower is distinct, plainly Tabled and
easily found. The entrance avenues line
with canary trees fully l20 feet in height the
trunks are covered with all kinds of climbing
blade plants. Amongst these your eye
is attracted by the gigantic orchid, the
grammatophyllum speciosum which bears
three thousand blossoms at a time and the
monstera delici va with perforated leaves ..
! This main entrance leads to the Governor s
palace, beautiful white building kept spot
less and looks charming in its setting OF
green. The rose garden 10 the left next oc
cupied our attention; hundreds of the bushes
were IN full bloom the sweet odor and the
colOrs made 1t y very attractive place and
yet we felt we must move on to the tulip
beds that were bowling their graceful heads
and intlmating they, too, were beautiful and
deserved some of our attention.
One cannot, in a letter, give you any idea
of the palms. Every known palm Of the
world is found here; the upright growing
Emperor palms Indigenous to Brazil, bullying
out below in the form of pear attracted our
al tppIin tyall Qomp nj he re W lin a fpa H.