The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-02-09
Prettiest City in the Tropics.
Says Tourist Howe.
Little Isle of CeyIOn Seems Like
an Enchanted Land.
is Ikea VAST GARDEN
Queerest Sight Is Carriages
Drawn by Meek Little Oxen.
Native Peddler Tries to Sell the
Editor a Snake.

/ Wednesday, December %.
Kansas City is mighty big and pros
porous, and proud, now. but it may
have a fan. You can't tell. There is
Thebes, up the Nile from Cairo. (You
leave Cairo at s O'Clock in the evening
and reach Thebes at 8 the next morn
ing. Sleeping and dining cars; not
American of course, but so SOD
Thebes was once the pr0udest city IN
the world: it was not only as bad as
Kansas City: it was as bad as Chicago.
1t had a temple called the Temple Of
Ammon, and it received two-thirds of
/ all the slaves captured in war. On one
/ occasion 10000 slaves We're captured.
The Temple of Ammon renewed 1907
/ 600 of them. In course of time the
/ priests who ran the Temple of Ammon
/ became SO proud that they entered into
+ a contest with the king for supremacy.
/ Inc Temple of Ammon was SO large
i that no building now kno7Rn equals its
! dimensions But tlleHe Is nothing left
/ of Thebes, or of the Temple of Am
/ mOn except a lot OF runs. The wild
! jackals play in the deserted streets of
once proud Thebes, and every time the
river Nile comes UP, it overfiows
! Thebes, and the scraWny natives fish
/ in the once magnificent temple.
I Singapore, and they are doing their
best to make me regret that I didn't
/ visit the Island of lava. They not only
[ visited Java. but Cochin China and
siam. The most beautiful places, they
say, the sun ever ShOne upon. But
/ these men will not succeed in making
/ me regret did not stop a t Java. Siam
/ and Cochin China. Indeed, I told
them today, I regretted had not met
/ them earlier, and heard them tell
/ about Honolulu and Japan and. Ma
/ MIA, and thus saved me the EroubIes OF
a personal visit.
Some men are crazy on the subject
+ OF travel They cannot attract atten-
ton except by talking of their travels
and some of them are immense bores
/ they are so anxious to talk I know
one man / run from, he has Travelled
so much
I have heard these two men tell
their Java-Siam- Cochin China story a
+ dozen. times. At Siam they attended
a dinner given by the king. When ]
pinned them down, they admitted thai
the king was not present. (Anothel
+ traveller I met boosted of attending e
garden party given by the mikado OF
/ Japan, but when ] pinned him down
ne admitted that the mikadO was nOi
I present) They were invited through the
/ American minister How the Anepi.
can ministers must be bored bv letters
OF introduction carried by American
travellers No American minister OF
consul has been bored by me; this
much may be said to my credit, Al
least.
1t is only question of time wher
EnglIshmen travelling at sea will ca
breakfast in their pajamas They now
sit about the deck, wearing pajanas
as late as $40, and my guess is thai
next year the English will eat break
fast in their pajamas, and in theil
bare feet In five years, there will bt
no English law against what we cal
n1ghtgOwns. met an American from
tIoledo, Ohio, yesterday and he con
i fessed, that While he had started on
with nightgOwns, he had been com
PEELED to abandon them, and substitute
pajamas. ] would as soon sleep in my
clothes as pajamas, which are not un.
like pants and coat
Sunday. December q.
The Indian ocean is acting up today
and the ''Simla" seems determined t
beat the "Tean" as roller.
The captain of the "Simla' looks very
much like David Lukens. the Atchisor
miller. The captain wears a white sui
and gilt straps on both shoulders, but
the chief officer the man next in com
mand, wears only one shoulder strap
on the right shoulder. That's another
entirely new idea. The crew was in
spected this morning, and the sailors
dressed up in as many gay colors as Wo-
: men.
I have stated elsewhere that the din.
ing room walters and room stewards are