The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-02-28
JUST HUMAN NATURE.

Philadelphia Ledger

Philadelphia Ledger
II fear that my stay in the tropics has
made me useless" said an army officer who
recently came to Washington after three
years of duty in the low altitudes-one year
in Honolulu and two in thS Philippines,
most of the latter service having been de-
partmental duty in Manila
The officer had just left the War Depart.
ment at o'clock, and although the after
noon was balmy and pleasant, and many
men were carrying their overcoats on their
| arms, he had his heavy ulster buttoned
/ tight, with the collar turned up about his
ears, and his face looked pinched and blue.
| ''B-r-ri I'm cold,'' he went to say.
| ''And L haven't been even decently warm
| since the transport on which | returned to
| the States got 20 degrees above the line.
| Which, by the way, is the devil OF the trop-
| les, saving your presence. Now, / weigh
more than two hundred pounds, and I'm
/ fairly well padded with fesh-my irreverent
| companions in arms call ii 'blubber, but
| don't notice them. 1 was born and brought
| up in the far north, and before l went TO
| the tropics l could stand the bitterest sort
of cold without being In the least bothered
by it. I've served in Northwestern posts
| where the temperature not infrequently got
| down to 40 degrees below zero, but the nip
| ping cold of these posts never faxed me.
| And here / am now, on sunny afternoon
| in Washington, with the thermometer stuck
| somewhere around the 60 mark, and, with
| lively chattering-b-r-r!
mo, l had no fever down in the islands
not even a touch of it. My health was great
all the time / was down there, and never
| had to report at sick call even once But L
got used to what the enlisted men call the
'dopey' weather of the tropics. that's all.
The medical men will tell you that the
blood of white men born in the temperate
zones becomes thinned out when they live
| in the tropics for a spell, and that after
| ward Ii takes them a long time to again
| acclimatiZe themselves when they return to
the temperate zones. And very right the
medical men are In this.
| Anyhow, when the transport that
brought me up pulled into the harbor of
San Francisco 1 was so cold that almost
shook my frame to pieces, and yet the tenn
a month ago a was higher than it is right
here In Washington at the present moment,
and I've been hearing men say all dayethat
| warm for the seasOn-b-r-r.
There is something peculiar about the
| effect of the tropics upon men from this
corner of the world. 1 was enormously
Fascinated with Honolulu and the Hawiian
| islands, and / never wearied of my berth
| there. Then, when / went down to Manila,
where the climate and surroundings are
still entirely different from those of Hawaii
i enjoyed the first year of it immensely.
Then / gradually began to weary of the
tropics. missed the procession of the sea-
sons-the expansive, glowing spring, the
hot, yet endurable summer; the hazy and
dreamy autumn, and the sharp cold and
4 the snow of my own, my native land
Il began to hate the palms. Last Christi
mas for example, how willingly would
have exchanged all of the gorgeous royal
palms of the whole Philippine archipelago
spruce tree. or for a glimpse of bit Of
holly or mistletoe growing-or even spread
out invitingly in United States market
stall.
1.-The lotus life began to prey upon me-
The succession of turquois skies began to
make me sore when the season arrived for
snow clouds up here In the States, The
warm. very wet rains Of Manila made me
wrathful when / thought of the brittle
snow and the sleigh bells up in the State
where L was brought up.
'The inactivity of the people. their meth
cd of taking things easy. their everlasting
smananau ,hnir not spoken-their
tons-their don't-cars-a- durnatveness, to
put 1t more effectively-began to get on my
nerves as the last year of my stay in Ma
Mia wore itself away. longed to get back
to the land where folks were stepping out
and doing something all the time wanted
to mix up again with hustling, aggressive
men, lively, vivacious. animated women
not dreamers, not mere amiable human
sloths of the Land of the Always After
noon. And l wanted to get a move on my
self! The steamy hot redolence of the trop
ical flowers, even that had captivated mt
when L first got into the low ATTITUDES, be
gan to Cypress me. / wanted TO see strong
cold resisting chrysanthemums. late Ameri
can autumn roses that bloom fragrantly
right in the teeth almost of frosts-big win
dow sill geraniums-apple blossoms-hard,
open air blooms with modest. norma
. arenas. Yes. L grew to despise the insist
emily sensuous fragrance of the gorgeou.
tropical flowers, and / longed for the ar
rival of the day when L should leave then
all behind.
well we are all mere children, anC
hopelessly discontinued children, at that
holidays right at hand: tons of holly ant
! mistletoe. within a few minutes walk: al
of the old familiar sights and sounds o.
the temperate zone around me-and yet
find myself sneakily longing-twenty times
hour-to be back in the tropics, 1 miss
the natural splendor. the color of the Orien
East, if you please-the world up her,
seems commonplace And you are all toe
Internally busy, If you must have It'll wan
, my two-hour nap in the middle of the day
: and i can't get il, of coursei ! want tn,
: languorous, spicy airs again. and, abov'
: all, want TO get warm-b-r-r!
! l. "Do you know where l should like 10 b'
tonight? Well, L should like to be in tn
front room of my little bungalow on stills
In Manila stretched out I'm the big bamboo
z | easy chair that had modelled itself to m,
| conformation; a gentle, warm orizzle ran
ing unsteady on the roof the plate or man
: | goes and plantains the table, the che
roots and pipes scattered about shoulS
: like to be sprawled out In that bambo'
: chair, I'm japanese silk shirt, white lcang
ing trousers and slippers. reading a French
. | novel or a volume or Lafcacio Hearn
{ | Japanese sketches,
. "Eheul how utterly useless the tropic
: have made me. and how wish were bacl
| I'm the fropics ~