The independent-reporter., 1910-03-24
AROUND THE WORLD
AND HOME AGAIN
Early Events of the
Cleveland's S Cruise
From New York to the Foot of the
Pyramids.


of a part of the ''round-the-world
trip" taken by our friends on board
the cleveland" was written by Mrs.
Matte S. Goodwin and read before
recent meeting of the Woman's club.
1t is to be followed in our next issue
by the further record of the voyage
written by Mrs. Edith S. Shepherd and
read at the same meeting. We are
glad of the privilege of presenting
these interesting accounts of an inter
esting journey for the pleasure and
profit of our readers.
Our party of eight, after a pleasant
trip from Maine, boarded the Cleve-
land the evening of October 10. We
sailed from New York October Is at
6 a. M, and although 1t was very
foggy and cold we all went on deck
to join in the excitement and get
last glimpse of the Fatherland.
The band on our ship played fam
iliar airs, which were answered by
other ships in the harbor playing us
a farewell.
The next week we spent in explor-
ing the ship as well as keeping very
quiet, although none of our party
were very seasick. We all had
splendid opportunity for exercising
our German vocabulary as the crew
was German, but about the only three
words we could air were-"lch weiss
nicht." The second day out we dis
covered the log record, and for that
day it registered 35l miles.
npa
several card parties, dances, and the
organization of different clubs, such
as the camera, musical and travellers
clubs.
On October "a we landed at the
beautiful island of Madeira. We were
all very much excited over landing
unusually so because we hadn't seen
land for eight days. We were all
que, prosperous little city. 1t has a
population of about 100000 The
streets in this city are paved with
cobble stones laid 300 years ago
Here we had our first ride in the
OK carts. These carts have runners
instead of wheels. They are gaily
upholstered in bright colored calico,
with curtains at the sides. One man
walked ahead of the oxen leading
them, and another walked behind us
ing his body as a brake and gui0e.
We particularly noticed the lux
urious growth of the island and ap-
preciated this more when we learn
ed that the soil for all plant life was
brought from Sicily.
Every foot of ground had been
cultivated and had something green
growing on it, and 1t seemed almost
incredible that vegetation here is
sometimes killed by sand blowing
from the African desert $50 miles
away.
Our first sight seeing excursion
was up Mt Funchal. The land was
laid out in high terraces and these
were all green with either grape ar
bors, sugar cane or vegetables, and
there were pretty bungalows and
stucco houses with red roofs all COW
cred with vines. All the fruit had
a delicious flavor, and we tasted the
famous Madeira wine, as we'll as
the bananas, figs and grapes.
We took the celebrated slide down
the mountain in baskets which held
three. These baskets were on run
ners guided by ropes, attached to
each side, and were held by natives.
The ride wasn't so wildly exciting
as we had anticipated for we only
went part of the way as fast as
man could run. The ride Is two
miles long and we passed the natives,
many of them old men carrying the
baskets on their backs up the
mountain. We learned that their
wares were about 8 cents a day.
They didn't stop as Is their usual
custom and beg for wine, probably
because they felt that time was too
precious with so many tourists at the
top of the hill waiting for their ride.
Here we saw great deal of poverty.
The beggars, some blind and some
crippled, would run along by the OK
carts and beg for money. We had
luncheon at Reeds hotel, magnifi-
cent hostelry at the left as you enter
the harbor. Here we obtained
beautiful view of the bay. While
eating luncheon here our attention
was attracted to a peculiarly dressed
woman, and we were later told that
it was the Duchess Aosta, sister of
the Queen of Portugal. After lunch
con we went down to the shopping
district and there had our first ex-
perience of bargaining In a foreign
country. They accepted either Eng
lish or American money, to our sur
prise. so this facilitated our buying
greatly. There are few good stores
but they are mostly small and with
none of the conveniences of our own.
They all asked two or three times
more than their usual prices or what
they expected to get in the end. and
when we would say that 1t was too
much they would say We'll, we show
you cheaper goods" but when they
were particularly anxious to make a
sale they would follow us out to the
street and beg of US to offer them a
little more. Then we would very
sternly tell them that we would not.
pay them any more, and usually af-
ter so much talking we would get
the article for the price originally
offered. We found this a most un-
satisfactory way Of doing business,
for we never knew when we were
paying reasonable price. In many
places when we asked the price of an
article we were answered with How
much you give" and then would
commence the bargaining. We had
lots OF fun in our own party seeing
who could buy things the cheapest,
put 1t wasn't so funny when we
found that copno oua nod hOnUbt tho