Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1904-07-01
LIFE IN THE ISLANDS
Walter Nichols Writes of His Ex-
periencc With Natives in
the Philippines.

DAGUPAN, p. I. May 81, 1904
(To the Editor) If you will
spare me a little space in your
valuable paper, I will try tC
briefly describe our trip to the Philli
pine Islands. AS you may have
previously learned, we lefs Seattle on
the 1st day Of April. That day being
Friday seemingly effected 'hoodoo'
upon our entire trip, for we were just
six weeks in making a trip that
ordinarily requires but four and one
half weeks.
The weather was very good when we
left Seattle, and contir ued fairly good
until the end of the first week out,
when we encountered heavy squall
on the night Of the 7th. In the mean
time, the weather was cold and wet at
intervals, but not very disagreeable.
On the night Of the 14th, just as Mrs.
Nichols was recovering from her sea-
sickness, we were made to face an 80
mile wind. / have seen the wind blow
very hard, but have never seen a
harder one than that. If a person
were walking on the deck alone the
wind would send him running at half
speed until he could manage to get a
hold to the rail or other firm object.
Seasickness bothered me but three
days, until we had the severe storm,
already mentioned, then nearly every
one on board was sick again.
There were nine Red Cross nurses
on board. They were bound for Japan,
there to nurse the japanese soldiers.
From what one can learn from the
Japanese papers, it seems that their
government accepted the service of
these nurses, only as courtesy to the
United States government. Well, on
the 21st day Of April, Gust one month
ago today)we sighted the cape on the
eastern coast Of Japan called Inoboy
Saki. You can readily imagine how
glad we were to see land, even if it
were foreign territory.
The next morning we were piloted
through the mines in the outer harbor
of Yokohama and were soon at anchor
in one of the busiest cities of Japan.
We had hardly made fast to our moor
! ing when the Governor Of Yokohama
and the japanese Red Cross officials
came on board to get our nurses. That
afternoon one of the members of the
Red Cross Society of Japan said in
her address of welcome that they (the
Japanese people, were glad to be so
| fortunate as to have the United States
nurses with them, but they would not
expect the United States nurses to go to
the front, because the japanese govern
ment had an abundance of trained
nurses. This feeling is of course
rather humiliating to our nurses, but
L cannot see how anyone is to blame
but themselves.
We were ashore both days we were
in Yokohama, and enjoyed the sights
in the business part of town very
much. 1t was in this city we had our
first ride in ajinrikisha. a We enjoyed
it much better than walking, but there
is very little comfort to be had in rid
ing in one Of the "go-carts,"
About o'clock Saturday afternoon,
April 23, we sailed for Kobe. This
city at present is the great shipping
center Of Japan. All army supplies
for Japan come to this point and are
then distributed by Railway or boat to
the points needed. The harbOr is pro-
tected by breakwater so boats can
remain there in any weather. We
found that in Kobe and Yokohama
the majority Of the business houses
are built on American and English
plans. The sidewalks in these cities,
except in the European parts, are not
more than three feet wide and the
streets probably 25 or 80 feet in width.
From Kobe to Moi, through the In
land Sea, the scenery was grand.
Many Of the mountain sides are cult
waited and the traveller can see barley
growing sometimes to the summit of
these mountains. The vegetation on
these hills and mountains (and
through all of Japan we were able to
see) is of very different green than
the color of vegetation in the states.
At Moi, our next STOP we saw the
house in which Ii Hung Chang
signed the treaty ending the Chinese
and Japanese war. This house is in
the town called Shimonesaki just
across the bay from Moi While in
Moi taking on coal we did not go
ashore because of the continual rain.
It seems rather strange to our
Americans to see women shovelling
coal the same as men. They do not
seem to care for rain; it was not an
uncommon sight to see a woman pass
ing coal, in that drenching rain, with
little Jap on her back fast asleep |
the rain fairly beating the face off it, |
Leaving Moi, May 2, we arrived in
Hong Kong May s. Hong Kong is
decidedly metropolitan. We saw more