The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-06-14
GREETINGS TO ST. PAUL
FROM FAR AWAY INDIA

CALCUTTA, India, May 14.-Having
many friends in your city, I deem it a
pleasure and privilege to drop them a
line by means of your valuable paper.
Again 1 am in the Orient, here where
I first landed nearly forty-three years
ago, after a voyage of 1873 days round
the Cape. A long time, yet how quickly
passed and the many friends I then
made nearly all gone.
Everything here is antipodaT to your
and my home land. The country, eli
mate, productions people, language
all are different. Yet all are very ia
miliar to me as If I had been absent
but a few months. The language is as
familiar as English. Words that have
not been in my mind for years come
UP, like good soldiers, just when want
ed. How and where have these words
been kept? Who can answer this as
yet unsolved question? Eternal mem
DRY, our doomsday book of good and
Ill, of heaven and hell:
I left New York, Feb. %, on the
steamer Cedric, 700 feet long and 81 900
tons, the largest vessel, and one that
will affect all my future voyages on
any inferior ship.
Majestic Ocean Liner.
Though the sea was rough at times
and vessels that we met were putting
their noses into the water, ours never
even bowed to the waves and no one
was sea sick.
From New York to Liverpool 2,934
miles. Time 7 days . hours and 81
minutes. Liverpool to London by rail-
POI miles. A delightful visit with wife,
daughter and son-in-law with sight
seeing and business. Left Charing
Cross at 9 D. m. via Dover and Calais
reaching Paris the next morning at
6. A cab ride across the city for the
train at Z. Then down the Valley Of
the Dion, the Garden of the World
past Dijon, Macon and Lyons, arriving
at Marseilles at midnight, 826 miles
from London. The next day at r.
March 20, aboard the P. & O. steamer
Passed the isle famed in Monte Cristo
through the Straits Of Bonefacio, past
the volcanic island of STRONGHOLD, by
Messina and the snow clad peaks of
Crete to Port Said, 1903 miles from
Marseilles.
Through the Canal.
CoaIed and took on mails from
Brindin. Then IS miles through the
canal. fine shower was very re-
freshing, the first I had ever seen in
O~N-AN~A'
to let steamers pass as they had the
r1ght-of-way, being first in the station,
each station about eight miles in
length. A desert Of sand on either
side that some day when watered will
be garden luxuriant. Every eight
miles the French employees Of the canal
have beautiful houses, gardens and
trees, GASES in the desert, irrigated by
water brought in pipes from the Nile.
Only water and fertilizers at first are
needed tc make this lower Egypt a
land Of beauty and of wealth. Passed
Suez and down the Red Sea.
A stiff wind from the south made
the passage very comfortable. Through
the Straits Of Babel Mandeb, the Gate
of Tears, where often vessels are
wrecked when a storm comes from the
south. The island Of Perrin is in the
straits. have passed this island
when there was neither tree nor plant,
bird nor insect there-nothing but a
barren burnt rock. An English garri-
son OF 100 men, with a small fort and
guns was placed there to hold the
place. Then a European company
placed upon it q. coal yard, to supply
passing steamers, and now there is
quite a little town.
Stories by the Way.
A story is told that once a, steamer
was stopped by man in a boat from
the shore. When he reached the
steamer he said that as 1t was Christ
mas day and he had nothing to bless
himself with, he hoped they would
give him something for a Christmas
dinner, which was done, not without
some strong words from the captain.
another story is that once the man
IN charge left his subordinate to look
aIeer affairs while he went home to
England. The monthly reports were
DC ent ~ MN and he forwarded them
turned after some months and # was