Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1903-10-01

trade is feathers and they are really cheap By
this time have learned not to pay what is ask
ed. or half ofit for any article except post cards.
which two cents. But feathers Here if
a lady is fond of feathers can revel at little
expense. l am almost afraid to tell you the
prices, for fear you will say Don't" But you
could buy handsome white ostrich feather at
least eighteen inches long for dollar less, Gf
you don't believe it call on me when home and
Will show YOU ice boa four feet long for
$2.59, or nice fan for from fifty cents to three
dollars. could by fde white tips for / did not
need them and less cared to swell Uncle Sans
treasury more than necessary. The town is built
at the foot of some very high barren mountains:
together with the garrison and fortst looks very
pretty from the ship. The writer will be glad to
show you pictures of this town, as well as
others. After delivering mail and receiving other
we sailed for Colombo, Ceylon, six days sail, or
2093 miles across the Indian ocean. The first
night out from here was the first time we could
see the north star low down on the horizon
north, and the southern cross low down on the
horizon south. All the time since leaving Port
Said we have noticed the days get shorter, until
at present the sun sets about six O'Clock and at
six-thirty it is dark. You know that at the equa-
tor night and day are of equal length the year
around. We expected quite a shaking up ON the
Indian Ocean and were not disappointed. up
this time we had been sailing in inland seas;
now we are in the open ocean in the very worst
time of the year for the Monsoons are on The
wind blows across the Indian Ocean from south
west to northwest for three months, not always
with the same violence but at all times sufficient
to cause you to wish you were somewhere else.
These winds together with the heat, cause O
great amount of evaporation, the water evapo-
rated is carried across the sea to India and gives
them, the Hindoes their rainy season. We'll, the
monsoon is now at its height This causes a
very heavy sea and for two days our ship was
tossed about considerable and rolled much, often
rolling as much as thirty-five degrees-once
thirty-nine degrees. You almost expected the
snip to roll over, or as the sailors say turn
turtle" After two days of this fearful! rolling,
the sea became much camer and living was
again decent, after six days, or yesterday MORN
ing. we came to anchor in the harbor of Col
ombo, Ceylon. Upto this at no time had the the
mometer shown over 95 deg. fah., but We suppos-
ed when we came to anchor here and had on sea
breeze it would be much hotter, but at no time
during the day was the heat excessve-the the
mometer not registering over S5 deg.
Here as elsewhere, as soon as the ship came to
boats. The chief barter here was precious
stones, Saphires taking the lead 1t would take
pages to give even feeble description of this
people and country. There you see the native
clad or naked. as you please; the fishermen wear
only small cloth around their loins. You
might almost call them naked. The common
coolie wears only cloth around his loins Hun
dreds OF them coolies came around the ship and
aboard for here we took on much freight and
coal The native fishing boat is peculiar affairs
1t looked to me as if they took two logs and
squared them to make the length and three
shorter logs for width; any way the boat looked
IKE small pointed raft. Scores of these passed
our ship far at sea in full sail, the water even
flowing over the boat. Each boat had five or
SIX men ON board, all standing up, apparently, at
distance, naked, but as they came closer we
saw they had a small cloth around their loins.
There they have boat called the Catermerans
1t is the funniest looking object ever saw it is
perhaps 20 feet long, "a feet high and about one
foot wide. The native kneels in this boat to sail
or row it. On one side of this boat, at each end
a long, bent pole is run out and fastened to a
pointed log, which gldes ON the water as the boat
sails along, and prevents it from capsizing.
These boats are wonderful sailers and are taken
to sea quite distance; we met them every twenty
miles from land. Here, as at Port Said, boys and
men swan along side the steamer ard will dive
in the sea for any coin you may throw them.
One boy clmed up the ships side at Colombo, a
distance of twenty-five feet from the water and
dove from there for a six-pence and caught it in
the water, swan to the surface with it in his
hand. Here had to laugh, for these divers, to
attract our attention, all at once began to beat
their sides and arms and sing "Tra ra, ra, boom
da ra." 1t was very comcai to see them. Just
AFTER lowering the anchor, my attention was
called to white ship entering the harbor firing
of her guns. She turned out to be one of our
cruisers, the Raleigh, just entering port was
glad to see the old flag floating once more-it was
the first sight had of it since leaving home I
afterwards saw some more stars and stripes and
soon learned that the Cincinnati and Albany
were there. 1 did not feel so lonely after that
and talked with some of the crews on land Can
you fancy an Americans feelings, ten thousand
miles from home, gazing on his flag, the first
one seen in weeks. OF course asked my Eng
lish friends if they did not ink it was beauti-
ful flag, ETC., etc., and we had quite friendly
chat about Uncle Sam and John Bull About
eight O'Clock in the morning Sunday the Com
pany's steam launch came alongside and took all
who desired ashore. forgot to say that here we
change ships and go on board the Valotta as our
good staunch Victoria goes on to Australia while
we are now bound for China. We wanted to go
first on boaud the Valetta and look up our new
quarters, but she flying yellow flag. We
knew if we went on board her we could not go
ashore again for she was in quarantine. She
came from Bombay, where the buboncs plague
RACES and no one on her was allowed to land.
There was no sickness on board, neither then or
now. We landed at the regular landing wharf
where we at once saw the native in all his glory;
some overdre essed and some underdressed in all
colors and styles. We, six of u.s. concluded to
go to the hotel, three miles away, on the sea-
shore, for breakfast. We caught ride in
ricSershaw, small two wheeled vehicle pro-
PEELED by native COW, and start. on a slow run
the entire distance. We of course start ough
the business part of the town, then part of the
native quarters, passing their shops. The street.
or road, lined with cocoanut trees or banana
trees, bread fruit some other, bicycle riders,
men on horse back or in carr iages, natives driv-
ing the sacred COW of India in wogons etc. We
say sacred COW, but from the way they are worked
here judge they not very sacred.