Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1909-12-11
Miss Lucy Startling Tells Of
Her Experience on Ship
board.
IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
A Description of Ocean Trav.
ell as Seen BY Hopkins
vile Girl.

= following interesting letter fror
Miss Lucy Startling to her parents
: Miss Startling sailed for a missio
field in Siam last September to be
come teacher in a PresbyteriaI
school. Other letters will be pub
lished from time to time. EDITOR.
; On shipboard Oct %, 1909.
have been on deck all afternoon
watching and taking part in tn,
athletic contests, so called, though
the term is misleading. There wa,
potato race. olive-rolling and egg
and spoon contests, sausage and beef
and cracker contests, besides many
others, ending up in the "tug-of-
war, in which the men chose sides.
and took hold of an enormous rope
and pulled. The games lasted about
three hours and were very amusing,
besides helping Kill time" Life
on board ship becomes very monoto-
nous. | am learning to play ping
pong very well, and walk several
miles day on deck When we got
to Honolulu | got set of dominoes
and we have played ''forty-two"
some, but even that pals upon one.
Fortunately they have very good
library of the latest fiction. Have
just finished Shepherd of the Hi Is"
Read it. first chance you get.
A ball is to be given tonight in
honor of Prince and Princess Kuni.
We are very fortunate to have roy
atty on board, for they have to be
entertained. and we get the benefit
of it. Monday evening a Japanese
play was given in their honor. 1t was
very grotesque. and of course | un,
derstood very little of what they
were driving at. The Y. M. c. A.
Secretary for Japan, Seijiro Nieva,
sat by me, and was very kind in ex-
planning. but he speaks very poor
English. and | found him almost as
hard to understand as the players.
Tuesday afternoon was given
wrestling contest. and this was real
ly very interesting Papa and Ed
mund would have enjoyed the mag
nifcent physique and work of some
of the sailors
Night before last we came within
signaling distance of wireless tele.
graph station in Japan (neariy
thousand miles, so we had our first
paper printed on the steamer, with
news from the outside world. was
disappointed that there was so little
news from America, as 1T has been
several days since we have gotten
too far from Honolulu for news.
never realized before how wonder
full an invention the wireless tele-
graph is.
We are due in YOkahoma Satur-
day morning, ending our longest
run. For the next few days we will
travel through the inland SEA, touch
ing at Kobe and Nagasaki, before
we leave Japan. So we will have
quite glimpse of this wonderful
little kingdom and its people. They
say the trip through the inland sea
is one of the most beautiful in all
the world.
But | think have never been so
entranced as by the glimpse got of
Honolulu. We were there about
twenty-four hours. and it seemed
like fairy land. All the houses are
bungalows, surrounded by palms,
ferns and gorgeous flowers of the
most brilliant hues. have never
seen anything as gorgeous as thu
green hedges of hibiscus, with theil
rich, scarlet blossoms: the red gera
NUNS, and the fire-tree, which de
served its name from the blossoms
that covered it. There was som'
bush that grew very much like tn,
mock orange in our back yard, blu
was covered with blossoms tina
looked like enormous pink or scarle
carnations. ! think it was the aza
lea.
/ had my first experience in noun
tain climbing when we climbed t.
the top of the Punch Bow" Ian OK
tinct volcine) and saw the sun set
The waters Of the harbor 10y far be
low US. glowing like an opal. anI
with all ita tinta ard nnora