Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-03-01
HOTTEST ADEN.
EngIand's Stronghold at End
of the Red Sea.
A Good Place for Those Weary Of
Civilization.
A Place Where Perspiring Whites Pant
in Pajamas.

| in Pajamas.
All the world has agreed that Alden.
situated at the eastern end of the Red
sea, is the hottest hole on the face OF
the earth. That is one point upon
which all travellers and veraciOuS sea-
faring men agree, and it may be said
| in passing that it is not often there is
agreement among these people upon
anything. What, then, would you
think of the quality of nerve possessed
by the able Alden editor who devOtes
the leading article of his newspaper to
Expressions of pity for the people Of
America because Of the climate of their
country!
That was the first thing to greet us
as we steamed into this port, last sum-
mer. just one month after we left New
York, writes Joseph Oil in the New
York Press. The first person aboard
was a turbanned youth. black, with
copies of The Alden Weekly Gazette for
sale. 1t is an English paper and as we
were hungry for home news-news of
any kind, in fact-he did a land office
business. The Gazette is, as its name
indicates. weekly publication, has
twelve pages, each IL inches by 6. and
is doubtless a godsend to the Britishers
who are condemned for their sins to
serve the empire out here among the
sands.
The first article to catch my eye car
ried the title, "A City of Dreadful
! Heat" Naturally l expected that to
carry some statistics about Alden, but
the opening sentences were: I'VE for
tunate people in Alden perhaps do not
quite realize what an appalling time
our poor American cousins have been
having in New York. 1t seems an odd
reversal of all that Is natural for us In
Alden to be contemplating the suffer-
ings of our fellow men under an aff1ic-
ton which should properly belong to
us and not to them, but the facts fully
warrant it,
Then followed a reprint from The
London Daily Telegraph describing the
extreme summer heat in New York and
| throughout the country.
| Since that little experience l have
spent two days in Alden and in justice
to my editorial brother Of The Weekly
Gazette l want to acknowledge that
have been much hotter in New York
land Washington than have been here.
I had expected to find things unbear-
liable, but did not. When l started for
these tropical parts kind friends
lsounded notes of warning. Aren't
you taking big chances with the heat?"
they asked in terms of genuine solicit
tude | thought not, for, as l ex-
planned, a man who has spent sum-
mer in Washington can stand any
brand Of weather in the tropics. My
convictions on that score stand.
have found no place where the heat is
as oppressive as in the city on the Po-
tomac where the affairs of government
lare administered.
Not even in the Red sea. We had
Iexpected to find things unbearable
There. Tales of GREATNESS and sitting
Experiences had been poured into our
ears. We had been told of p. and o.
lsteamers that in order to give pas
Isengers the benefit of such air as
might be made by the motion of the
Vessel had turned around. going
through stern ahead, the passengers
arrayed each in a single garment,
painting breathlessly for hours; OF
sands from the desert that made
things positively unbearable; of lives
that had been cut off for lack of real
air to breath. Naturally we expected,
las we were going early in August, to
get it as hard as anybody had. but we
were most agreeably disappointed. 1t
was very hot for two days. Most OF
1.-THE passengers slept in cots on deck
for several nights, but l found it COM
PORTABLE enough below with some air
looming through my port hole and an
electric fan playing on me. A few or
/ <r.x-
lexcuse came on deck during the day
time in their kimonos, and l being the
Ionly workingman aboard ship, had the
temerity to go about CARRIED in my pa
iamas. None of the other men did
that but it happened that none had
suits that looked quite so well as mine.
But even with two days of pretty ex-
IRENE heat, we had the easiest kind of
a trip through this strip of water
which passengers dread so much. We
had not been uncomfortably hot any
where on land. but Alden was expected
to be a scorcher. AS l have said, it
has not proved so. The fellows who
have to live here are not inclined to
give ear to comments on this line. how
ever. When attempted to pour
words of consolation into the ears of
them | had known hotter places. they
looked at me suspiciously as if expect
ling to see horns and hOofs and a tail
La la Mephisto. Surely man who
lcould say these things must have come
from the place which Henry Norman
describes as the ultimate destination
lof the incorrigible unrighteous."
You see. they have no rain here and
1.-The nights are as hot as the days.
Hour after hour there are the same IN
lcessant heat waves pounding against
1.-The outer covering of the brain, and
linen have to grip themselves hard TO
resist temptation to feed their bodies
Ito the sharks that abound in the har-
lbor. No rain; no green things to look
Iupon: no vegetables to eat All
laround the sands of the desert. People
lido not drop dead from sunstroke as
Ithey do sometimes in New York, but
Imagine after being here while they
wish they did.
The first sight of Alden is interesting
lmainly because of the striking resem-
Ihlance to Gibraltar 1t is really re-