The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1910-04-14
AROUND THE WORLD AND
HOME AGAIN
Continued from Last Week

Continued from Last Week.
At every station swarms of gentle
eyed singhalese, a few women, more
men and innumerable children crowd
ed around our compartments eager to
see the unusual sight of several hun
dred white people travelling through
their country, at the same time many OF
them Offering for sale cocoanut milk.
ripe cocoanuts, bananas and other
fruits. When the train began its climb
up the last thirty miles of our jour
ney the scenery became most mar
velous. More impressive | have seen
and grander, but nothing of such ex-
quisite and penetrating beauty. Flow
ers were blooming everywhere and
every spot of earth and stone was COW
cred with fern or flower or lichen.
Sometimes we were balancing on the
edge of a precipice where far, far be-
low in the valley, we could see white
road peeping now and then from the
masses of foliage which bordered it
on each side; at another moment we
were looking upwards at mighty
crag one thousand feet above us
From zig-Zags by which we climb the
mountain sides fresh views appeared
at every turn. Cascades of lovely
flowing creepers hung in festoons
from tree and tree and foaming wa
ter falls dashed their spray into mist
as they fell into the abyss below
Palm trees of all descriptions and a
medley of tropical vegetation were ev-
erywhere. Scattered huts and gar
dens and the quaint people about
them, SO primitive in their habits
that they vary little from the fash
ions of 1000 years ago. these were
some of the features of interest as
we journeyed towards Randy. The
beauty of Handy Is based upon its
naturalness. Everything connected
with the spot is fascinating. Every
body appears happy; there is no evil
dent squalor, few beggars and appar-
emily no genuine poverty. Uniform
contentment is everywhere visible
The naked babies looking like india
rubber dolls have apparently never
learned to cry" We took a rickshaw
ride through the park and around the
lake whose shores were bordered with
great trees as large as our elms, filleC
with gorgeous red and yellow bios
SONS. Flamboyant trees they called
them. Poinsettia bougain-villia
crotons, hibiscus and palms make
every possible corner of Handy 6
bower of beauty. In Randy is also
the famous Temple of the Tooth, one
of the most revered religious shrne
in all the world This temple, or more
properly speaking, this tooth, is ar
object of unbounded reverence tt
more than 40O,000,000 inhabitants o.
the earth Thousands of pilgrims
come yearly to offer to the temple
their gifts of gold and silver orna
ments, coins, jewels, vestments for the
priests and even fruits and flowers
and these devotees have travelled from
every hamlet in Ceylon and from ev
cry land where Buddha has believers
We visited the temple but the sacred
relic said to be the left eye-tooth o
Gautama Buddha and taken from thu
ashes of his funeral pyre twenty-five
hundred years ago Is not exhibited
except on special occasions. The won
derful Botanical Gardens of Perodeni
va, a suburb of Handy are said to b.
the finest in the world. For more thar
eighty years the Ceylon government
has been expanding large sums IL
these gardens, having established al
expert staff of agricultural scientists
men brought from the first scientific
centers in the world who are con
stantly experimenting in the growth
and cultivation of the island pro
ducts. 1t is at Peradeniya that tn,
tea planter, the rubber planter, CO
coenut planter and native agricultur
lists looks for help which must guild
him Alright in his industry and h,
does not look in vain.
Bewildering in profusion are tn,
specimens of every tree, shrub. plan
and vine known to tropical and sub
tropical chimes. Shrubs that produce
every spice, perfume and fiavorini
ever heard of, or that contribute t
medicine as we'll Orchids of end
less variety hundred kinds of palms
and everything arranged in the mos
artistic manner possible. All thes
make the air in Ceylon truly spicy. Ii
Ceylon tea is King. Elsewhere peopl
talk over their tea cups. In Kand,
they talk tea over every other kind o
cup. The English residents here ar
very exclusive and select. Sir Thorn
as Upton, who has tremendous tea in
terests on the island, is excluded
from the clubs, being what they styl
a laboring man.
When some of our party were eX
pressing their appreciation of tn
wonderful beauties of Handy to al
American dentist residing there, h
confessed to having been equally i'm
pressed when he first settled but stat
ed that he had lived there one yea
and six months, just year and fivt