Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1908-10-02
TRIP TO THE Orient
Clarence E. Edwords Touring the
Eastern Countries.
HE IS OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.
INTERESTINGLY WRITTEN IN WEEK
LY LETTERS, WHICH WILL AP.
PEAR IN THE RECORDER.

LII LEIlEho, w hlCH w ILL ar
PEAR IN THE RECORDER.
: Papetee, Tahiti, July l3.--Often
as | have watched the Maripesa
steam out through the Gold
en- Gate, at San Francisco, | have
had the lines of Kipling ring in my
mind, and / have thought "she's
carrying tired people to the island
of the best" Ever since when as
a small child | sprawled on the
floor looking at pictures of scenes
in the South Sea islands, and all
these mysterious lands below the
equator, / have long for the day to
come when /, too, could 60 to the
islands of the blest," and rest in
that wonderful dreamland. Now
the dream has come true and mys-
terry no longer surrounds the tropi-
cal islands below the equator, for |
sitting on Lovina's porch, surround
ed by tropical foliage, and breath
ing an air redplent with the per-
fume of all these tropical fruits
which we hear about, but seldom
see in temperate zones.
The charm still remains, howev-
er, but / have been one of these
tired people" and have come to
the "island of the blest." | have
seen these things which we of the
prosaic temperate zone are vouch-
safed only in dreams, andno there
is left to me longing that will
never be satisfied until l can so ar
range my affairs that | can return
to these islands of the blest and
pass my declining years. July IA
is the French Fourth of July, and
as these islands are under French
domination, the more to be regret
ted, have reached here just in
time to be in the midst Of the cele-
bration. This is the evening of
the great day, and all around are
the sounds of such a merry making
as only these supplemented, tropi-
cal children Of nature can devise to
express their pleasure. We cele-
brate our Fourth Of July in the
States with much noise, speech
making and music, and a liberal al
lowance of drunkenness mixed in
to show good faith.
On the Maripesa, coming down,
we did not escape this idea, for we
had our celebration in the social
hall, music, speechmaking, hilari-
ty and even the drunkenness
thrown in for good measure. There
are always few Americans who
seem to think that when they are
aboard ship, or in foreign land,
they have license to do many
things that would disgrace them if
they were at home, and we had a
few of these aboard. Captain Hay
ward permitted much license be-
cause it was the Fourth OF July,
and he even went SO far as to per-
NIT the display of few fireworks
from the bow of the ship in the
evening. But all this almost faded
from our memories when we watch
ed the natives of Tahiti show their
patriotism to France by celebrat-
ing the fall of the Bastille.
1t seemed as if Fate stepped in
to assist the people of this far
away land in the South Seas in
their effort to provide ample enter
tainment for the visitors on the
Maripese, for fairer weather and
smoother seas could not be mag
ined than those which marked the
closing days of the twelve day voy-
age from San Francisco. Twelve
days is a long time at sea, especial
ly when in all that time there is no
sight of land; nothing but the ev-
erlasting, continually rolling and
tossing, consequently when we did
spy out a bit of low lying land in
the evening, yesterday, it was a
sight that took all of us eighty odd
passengers to the bow of the ship
and even the ordinarily welcome
sound of the dinner gong failed to
draw us down below until we had
Toasted our eyes to the full on the
T.