The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-10-04

Standing on the Pacific seashore at
English Bay, where the japanese cur
rent warns the water and the climate
so that the people go bathing in win
ter, when to our Southern magma
ton they ought to be gazing at ice
bergs, I am within two weeks of Ja-
pan, nearer than have ever been be-
fore, and nearer than I ever Will be
again. can step in a boat at the
wharf and go in futile search of
wealth to the Klondikes, or can go
out mountaineering To Australia. or
can meander TO the cherry blossom
orchards of Japan, or attend Lord
Curzon's reception at Calcutta; all these
things take place at Vancouver every
week, and SO a native poet, m Gu
thanasia Of California wine cries out:
THE sunset gate of the dominion
One has to recast his whole scheme
of geography and climate when he
comes up here TO this "far-away nook
1t seens-and I must have been "a long
time out Of college to have forgotten
St-that Japan has a very warm and
passionate Gulf stream of her own,
which she sends across the Pacific. ana
this conveyer of warm water souses
the shores of Victoria and Vancouver
giving you roses in winter. cool breezes
in summer and in general a sort of Arc
tic Florida, and when you talk of snow
and icebergs to the oldest inhabltant
he replies in a way that makes you
think he never saw a snowstorm or an
iceberg. Undoubtedly the Nancouverite
does possess a climate that brings
whole bed of roses to the sere and
yellow CountenanCe of the sickliest ma
1ariast And as with the climate, so
1t is just as easy to go astray about
the geography. Ii is difficult 10 rid
oneself of fxed ideas. I had supposed
Shat to go to the East one had 10 dive
through the Mediterranean and the
Suez canal; no such out the-waN
procedure. Go west and You viii go
east. Take the &. p. r. train to Van
couver and the c. p. r. boat TO Japan,
and there you are! In short in the
modern journey around the world this
road is an essential link. The tourist
now makes his journey around the
globe by coming to Canada not by
going 10 England, and taking into view
the pra tries and the mountains, and
the short steam on the Pacific, il is
a most delightful way of circumventing
old Mother Earth. civilization and
savagery are at elbows with each
other This fact has impressed me
vividly. We We're playing a game of
ping-pong in the cabin on one of the
river trips when the cry went up, there
is grizzly on the peak by the river.
We left our game and rushed to the
deck. One of the players picked up
his rife and shot the bear; think of it,
ping pong and grizzly, civilization and
barbarism.
The Gateway of Traffic.
Il is in consequence of this immense
passenger and freight traffic from the
East to the Orient that Vancouver is
undoubtedly a gateway. Instead of a
well dressed group of American tour
lists, you touch elbows with all the
world. Instead of conversation having
for its subject President RooseVelts
latest devotion to the negro and his
foolish academic theories about the
''colored citizen" you hear. in the sleep
er, discussions about the drought in
Australia. the death of the sheep, or
concerning Mr. Chamberlain's fiscal
policy. You ind car full of human
beings smoking opium. You go into
the drawing-room and there is a ia
panese ambassador with his wife. 1t