The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., 1910-10-22
~ CLARENCE POE
VI.-Crossing the Pacific.

Ls, o. ',sty ,s,1 kindrea every tribe.
And crown Him Lord of ALL"
bNEk HAVE | heard the words of the old
~ hymn under circumstances so appropriate a.
on yesterday, for the voices of the singers
our steamer mingled with the low thunder of
the Pacihcs waves. was struck by the fact that
and my TOUR acquatntances who sat on the seat
with me. ourselves represented three continents
ana n'e hauons. On my right a Chinese
student. going home from America; on nv left a
German lawyer: my third friend with me was
born In Scotland. the fourth was a Japanese phv-
sieian-all Christians. Yet my Chinese friend Is
probably the first of his line in all the long CEN
turtles to recognize any God save the gods of
buddhism, Confucianism or Taoism; the Jan
anese comes from a land from which but a few
centuries ago Christianity was relentlessly rooted
out with fire and sword-edge martyr after martyr
dying for his faith: nor has II been so many CEN
turtles since ancestors of the Scotchman the Ger
man. and myself worshipped the strange wild gods
OF northern Europe.
As will be inferred. OF course. from what have
said. yesterday was Sunday. which In itself is not
a matter worth mentioning but II alters the case
when say that this was the second Sunday in
seven days; six days before yesterdays service I
~as also hearing the litany on Sunday morn
Ing. The explanation is that we had no Friday
laAN week. we went 10 sleep thursday night and
when We woke up next morning behold II was
Saturday,
Now perhaps my hardest task Is to explain this
explanation. and my limited space makes 1t neces-
sary TO leave the full discussion the
and encyclopedias. Let me say briefly. however
that all ships drop Day about this point in the
Pacific Ocean. and II they did not. American pas
sengers would get back home with day to spare
II you should start around the world at sunrise
In some Phmbus chariot travelling just as fast
the sun. IL would be sunrise everywhere you
should 20 the whole world round. and reaching
home sunrise still you would have known moth
Ing save one continuous sunrise and yet a whole
tweuty-four hours would have elapsed. So II is
in travelling slowly around the world westward
with the just In travelling rapidly with II:
we gain on IL the larger part OF an hour day.
and we have enough 24i-2Ah- or 25-hour days to
make up for the "a hours that lose. Going
from Raleigh TO Birmingham. or from New Or
leans 10 Denver. sets ones watch back an
hour for the time gained in travelling with the
sun: II you 20 round the world the gain is full
2f-hours, and IL simply saves trouble TO drop the
day out here in mid-ocean rather than elsewhere.
ought TO feel at home on the Korea" for a
conspicuous bronze tablet tells that she was
built In Newport News. Va, her timbers felled in
southern woods. and her unnumbered tons OF
steer ana wood wrought into gigantic harmony by
southern workmen. That is n Dixie achievment
TO be proud of; an achievement IL not more wor-
thy. at least much more needed now than any
high-sounding Grafton States rights or any
studied essay on what the South might have ac-
complished under other conditions This splen-
did vessel so her commander tells me- burns so
tons OF coal day. she starts out from San Fran
cisco with $500 tons In her hold, and her crew
alone consists of nearly 800 men.
w.