Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1902-11-06
LETTER FROM
LANCASTER BOY
Ed Morse Writes Aboard Ship
In Foreign Seas.
DESCRIBES A JOURNEY
Enjoys Trip From Shanghai to Hong
Kong. Interesting Details of
Oriental Life.


y d
arrival in Shanghai on the Pompey,
which. though only a few days ago,
seems quite a while. We came to
anchor off Woosung at about $50
Tuesday evening, which was Sept. 10Th.
Early the next Monday before l had
timc to dress) we were boarded by the
quarantine doctor and went on deck
in my pajamas. We, the captain and
I, went ashore in sampam and he re-
ported to the Senior Officer Present,
Commander Drake, of the Monterey"
I went on board with him as we had
missed the first train to Shanghai, and
saw monitor for the first time. The
"Monterey'' is pretty good for her type
of vessel-double turreted monitor. |
went from the Woosung on the 1858
train, arriving in Shanghai about half
an hour later. The train, [ think, was
American made as | saw other cars
and engines 50 marked, but the cars
are small, not one-third the size of one
of ours, and are very simple affairs,
hardly as we'll equipped as the narrow
guage cars they run to WOodman. 1t
certainly did seem good though to see
trees more like those of the temper
ate zone) and fields of wheat lit looked
like and cabbages and other vegetables
and fruits. The Chinese, you know,
are good farmers. While in Shanghai
I stopped at the Hotel des Colonies, a
French hotel, where did not see an
American. The food was very good
and the service was good, although the
hotel lacked the conveniences of
American hotels as is true of all East
ern hotels [ have so far seen. l went
around all the time | was in Shanghai
and saw what I wanted to in two days.
So Friday [ commenced to look up
steamer to Hongkong. There was no
boat going till Tuesday, the 23rd, till |
noticed this boat to sail for Bombay.
got passage yesterday afternoon,
came aboard last night, and when l
awoke this morning we were we'll start
ed though we did not drop our pilot
until after breakfast
| liked Shanghai very much and
think it would be nice place to live.
It is generally considered the finest
city in the east. New Shanghai is laid
out like modern city; the streets are
we'll paved and electric lighted and the
buildings are mostly new and Ghere
seems to be lots of building going on.
There are thousands of juirieshas SO
that it is very easy to get about, some
thing one particularly notices after a
taste of Manila, where they have no
street cars that anyone but natives
use) and carromaters are few and far
between and where you find it ex-
tremely difficult to get anywhere.
They have fine public gardens and the
people all seem to turn out at o'clock
to hear the band and for a promenade.
Mother, [ do wish you could have gone
shopping with me among the silk stores
where they have thousands of bolts of
silk to show you, and amongst the var
ious Chinese and Japanese stores.
There are plenty of department stores
too run by English, Germans, French
and Russians. So far as [ could see
America had sort of back seat in
everything except iron goods. l en-
ioyed my stay in Shanghai very much,
though I did not form single ac-
quaintance nor feel the need of one.
As [ say, had finished seeing the city
and was glad of the opportunity to get
away. Friday afternoon I took guide
and saw old Shanghai-th old Chinese
city which has wall around it. Itwas
terribly crowded and dirty but well
worth seeing. There are nothing but
Chinese inside the walls. Was taken
through some fine Chinese houses and
into a loss hOuSo
1t seems that in this little trip of
mine am doomed to be solitary. |
came up on the Pompey as the only
passenger but had good social time
all the way with the captain and here
am I on the Steamship Tirol, the only
passenger This is by far the finest
boat / have ever seemingly fitted out
for the passenger service. The accom-
modations are fine and the stateroom
conveniences are excellent. There
must be berths for at least two huns
dred first class passengers. have the
pick of the rooms all to myself. l eat
in big dining saloon where there are
three or four long tables, all fitted with
electric lights and nicely finished in
every way. There is not much passage
between Shanghai and Hongkong and
the French mail left only yesterday.
The boat has cargo for Europe. am
more than satisfied with the accommo-
dations and service but wish there
we're a few passengers. This has been
very fine calm day. | have found a
little use for my German-what little
[ can recall. But my German and
Spanish are quite sadly mixed. There
goes the dinner bell and | must ring
off. Have already eaten three meals
today.
1880 P. MI have just finished dinner
and very good one it was. How good
everything tasted. I have had good
appetite all the time since leaving Ca
vite, except for the first few days when