The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-12-28
|American Tourists on Their Trip
Around the Globe Reached the
Island Of ceylon on Last
Of November.
THE BOTANICAL GARDENS
Visit to the Ancient Temple Where
The Famous Tooth Of Buddha
Was Supposed to Have
Been.
[Gate City Special Correspondent

IGate City Special Correspondent !
COLUMBO, Ceylon, Nov. e9.--We
landed on this beautiful island Nov.
"a, and lunched at the beautiful
Gale Fall hotel, going to the ship at
night to sleep for the pivitol point
Of the worlds commerce and passeng-
ers meet here from both hemispheres.
The money question had an entire
new face at Ceylon and all over the
island you could meet one of those
black vendors in the street make
small purchase. hand him five dol
lar bill on the First National Bank Of
Keokuk, Iowa and without question
he would proceed to count you back
fifteen dollars of their silver currency
less your purchase which would be
full value for your "bill''. Three hun
bred of our party took the train for
Handy at 5 o'clock in the morning,
about 100 miles up in the mountains.
Nineteen twentieths left the train at
Peradenia state, 8 miles from Handy
tos visit the Peradenia Royal Botani-
cal gardens These gardens are just
ly celebrated as the finest in the
world Near the lake on the main
drive stands two clumps of bamboo,
one from Java and the other from
Burma, the largest known cluster in
the world This clump is more than
100 feet high and look like huge
plumes from distance.
We were shown how the rubber was
obtained from the tree and the many
different kinds of palms which were
all in this garden and the fruit was
there for the taking which many par
took freely as the English soldiers
had cleared the garden from snakes
few days before our coming. To
describe the different kinds Of palms
and their fruit would require the writ
Zig of a palm history which by nature
belongs to a lady's work. One palm
laden with fruit we were warned not
to touch on account of its poisonous
qualities, but very tempting was
Adams apple and one tree that look
ed like the viceroy at the reception
was dotted all over the garden called
the Cannon Ball tree with it's large
SIZE beautiful shape understandable
beauty with its waves of odor float
ing over the entire island made al
sights of flowers dream to me ant
/ could see standing before my eye!
the king of flowers. We proceeded t.
Handy in rickshaws and carriages ant
lunched at the Queens hotel which
stands on a beautiful lake. Also OF
the margin of this lake stands the an
Gent temple of Buddha's Tooth. Ira
dition says the sacred tooth" wa
brought to Ceylon early III the thir
century by the Princess Kalinga, VIII
concealed it in the folds of her hail
1t was taken by the Malabars in 131
A. d. and again carried to Indis
Years later Balm the Srd recovere
it and it was hidden But in 1860
was rediscoyered by the Portuguese,
taken to Goa and there burned b
the Archbishop in the presence of til
Viceroy and Court Nothing discou
aged Wikrama Balm He manufa
tured another tooth from a piece
ivory.
This is very large and is encased
gold bands, guarded on an altar in IL
holy of holes and every evening
sunset receives the worship and {
ferings of the faithful women wi
crowd the corridors when the eve
ing bells are struck. I could s,
nothing strange or startling about
But many things interesting al
amusing about It's guardianship al
care. We are now 1850 feet above Il
sea in Handy, driving a few mil
north to the largest river on Il
island, we stood on the bank al
watched four elephants bathing. b
at the request of the party our guild
did not disturbe them, although lii
all wild beast, they are afraid of ma
The mountain and hill slopes a
covered with tea orchards and the
small bushy trees have their leav
plucked every ten days.
The cocoanut palm raises four Gro
of cocoanuts every year from SO
200 nuts on each crop, while t
banana stock only raises one.
We We're shown places near Kan
where the ruins Of depopulated cit
are in tea orchards.
The population is four million
historians claim this little island
one time had one hundred mill
population. and they still claim t