The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-01
T7Uo Bachelor Maids
Go A-GlObe Trottin4
What Couple of Brilliant Southern Women Find Abroad to
Tell Their Friends About At Home-Through the Philip
pines India, Egypt and Europe Unchaperoned

we returned TO the steamer he plunged
into love with the widow. Madge man
aged things adrotly during the early
stages, so that he seldom had chance
to see her again, alone, and whenever
the two of them were in the Widows
presence she made point of offering her
such absorbed attention, such inspiring
appreciation and such hearty applause,
that the widows social gifts were slim
ulated to the top notch of their power,
and all of us again fell under her merry
spell.
l am not going to say much about
| Nagasak-just because | feel SO much
about it. 1t Is too picturesque and lovely
for cheap gush and description would be
injustice.
Our trip to Mog and back consumed
the whole morning. We passed through
| beautiful bamboo forests, and saw the
yellow sunlight sitting through the deli
cate gauze and lacework of the foliage.
| we came close to the weary, weather.
beaten peasants and fishermen, bearing
their burdens across the mountains on
long poles, to which baskets are attached
on each end. 1t is curious thing to see
them managing the heavy loads they
carry, by dancing and prancing along on
their toes, with a false semblance of gal
ETY. in their motions, while their faces are
drawn and tense with the effort.
! Women. bare-legged and half-clad,
ranging from gray-haired old age down to
immature girlhood are at work just as
the men are. hauling loads of fish, garden
truck, brush, wood and bamboo stalks
over the pass. Some of them whose poles
bear smaller baskets. have babies, also,
strapped to their backs.
| One of the sights of Nagasaki is the
coaling of the steamers by little. Japan
csc women and young girls. They swarm
about the big steamers in little sampans.
filled with coal, and pass the coal In
small baskets up the gangway with such
astounding rapidity that they are able
to put In the coal at the rate of 372 tons
an hour.
The bare, primitive lives of the Japan
esq classes you see about the fishing viii
lagos and through the country is ALMOST
appalling. Comfort Is an insiduous ac-
quaintance, from whose celebrating in
| f1uences they have been scrupulously pro-
tected, and the hook worm has never yet
found his chance to gain ingress into
their necessarily active little feet.
| Their faces have the dignity of stocism,
which, added to their high cheeks and the
ruddy, copper glow of their skins, sug-
gested to my mind sort of dwarfted and
stunted tribe of American Indians; and I
wondered If Investigations into ethnolo-
| gy, of which l am densely innocent,
might not offer some explanation for the
| likeness which impressed itself so strong
| ly upon me.
After spending some time in the tor
| toise-shell and ivory shops, where we dis
covered prices to be very high, l dashed
off on another rickshaw trip to do an
other temple. This one is the most ia
nous one of Nagasaki, and Is vulgarly
called the Bronze Horse Temple by trav-
elers. because there is a native offering
of q long-headed bronze horse in it, There
are also souvenirs of the Russian war
but the view and surrounding picturesque
tea houses are the most interesting fea-
lures.
This excursion of mine very nearly
ended in disaster, because it caused me
to miss the tender, and gave Madge a
| bad quarter of an hour. Nothing could
persuade my rickshaw man to hurry; he
| kept turning into one street and then
| into another one. polSing along,
while I held my watch in my hand and
shouted to him. Finally, when he did
arrive at the landing, I had the pleasant
experience of seeing the Chiyo's launch
way out upon the water, more than half
way to the steamer I jumped into a
sampan and entrusted the entire respon-
sbility of 1t to a rugged-looking Jap
sailor who, If he understood anything
at all. failed to encourage me by any in
timation of it, other than an inscrutable
smile which crumpled up his parchment
face. l pointed dramatically to the Chi
20, and put all the eloquence / could
muster into an appeal from the eyes,
snatchng off my glasses, with great pres
ence of mind SO that nothing should in
terfere with the message.
The sailor calmly piled his paddle and
by and bye I was soothed by seeing that
he really was taking me In the direction
of the Chiyo. Just as I was beginning to
quiet down again, as we nearly reached
the steamer, l saw the gangplank relent-
lessly lifted and folded back into its ac
customed place. 1t was a hideous mo-
ment! l stood up in the boat and waved
my arms and screamed with all my
might. There was Madge, looking down