The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-02-05

| and smoke untold cheroots. But they
inlgnty soon change all this--gct into
ioose linen clothes, eschew stimulants.
everything in strict moderation, If they
would live at an One ofilcer of my ac-
n ,an,l told me that ne. always
empty beer bottles, hootjacks. brooms.
PTS OF WOOD and pebbles (anyth'ng
that was handy to bed with him with
he fell asleep. Relays Of such we're
then on duty ali night. It was impos-
s 81 to sleep without the constant
| movement OF q punkah. No doubt they
are run by electricity now. And after
/ such nights to face a day-yes. weeks.
months, With the thermometer at 120
Joke. Panama. the Philippines. Porto
RICO and our Gulf of Mexico States give
us trouble enough. but India is worse
One wonders how anything can -four
ish in them OF our blood. and as a mat
ter Of fast they don't either though.
Ike the English. we pluckily make the
best of them, when we are obliged for
any reason to live In them do our
outy and by our energy and intelli-
phoons. malaria. insects and predatory
animals as much as possible.
In The Arctic RcEions.
| down to New York once III midwintcr
complained bitterly .of the heat there
| and then. They were thoroughly used
come a block of ice. ANYTHING above
20 Is. for them. discomfort They ac-
tnally look forward with pleasure to
their ideas OF we'll being. all their
sports and business and Interests arc
/ bound up 18th intense and prolonged
cold which they so little feel that 1T Is
said that they turn their little chill
dren out TO play In the snow naked
with instructions not to sit down. but
to come in when they get overheated!
Isn't It wonderful what flesh and blood
can bear and get used to? No doubt
generations of folk VINO have
breathed that icy air and lived on
hlubber and seal fat. have made them
like whales and penguins and seal
and polar bears. In that finc clear,
pure air In which microbes can't live.
they say that they feel intoxicated
with the glorious mere breathing. as
if it We're cordial. and run and race
and leap for JOY, when the thermome-
ter refuses TO register another degree
| of anything In new winter and find
even their short summer most trying:
| its vertical sunrays, It's mosquitoes, its
warm winds they heartily dislike. One
| would think that each summer day
! would be jewel and of great worth
/! there; priced when possessed, and
mourned when gone. But ii is not
| So al all.
So little do the Chinese know of Ice
anu snow, that some years ago. when.
for the first time within the memory
yards got dislocated and fell upon
Honghong, a great excitement ensucd
The country people gathered up the
| snow and took II to market The chill
dren went wild with delight, and in
stinctively took to snowballing The
very aged thought the end of the
world was at hand. The grandfathers
took paper boxes and put in them
icicles and sealed them up for posterity
to see. and We're amazed by tho subse-
Guent drip, drip, drip. the Wife Of the
! English commissioner there wrote
home, and everybody expected it 70
| stay forever.
The arid heat Of some parts Of the
Flowery Kingdom is extremely hard TO
| bear. The whole skin becomes parched
! and often cracks; the eycballs feel as
| II they were on fire. The very gar
ments become SO heated that when
! laid aside overnight they still retain
morning. The tongue dries and swells
| up and Tolls out. as if in search Of
! moisture, and on long marches men
| drop by the road and cannot he beaten
/ into moving again They lie there and
| suffer and die terrible death. unless
| they in some way get relief. We never
Know what thirst means. II is an
awful thing-even worse than hunger
| the thirst OF the Chinese plains, of the
| Great Desert of our Western plains.
! Of some parts OF Incatan. makes men
mad. even before they are conscious
1 OF an Overwhelming need, and Stays
| them as certainly as n dagger, only
more slowly and cruelty But the other
| parts of China are we'll suited to sus-
tain human life. as their huge popuIa-
/ ton abundantly demonstrates, espc-
| ciaily along the const. where the sea
maintains an immense sampan popu-
| lation--pcople who for Heaven KNOWS
| how many thousand years have not
| lived on land at all, but In boats. and
may have lacked many things, but
never water. Many Of them have never
been either to sea or ashore in their
| whole lives, only in harbor. where they
+, conten, cdly dwell with their families:
plant small gardens on their decks;
and worship In floating temple: sell
t their wares to the various fleets, and
find mother sea fruitful and kind
| as mother earth.
| The New England Climate.
| In this country, New England has.
| by universal consent, been given the
| title of the Exercise Ground for the
! Elements" Mark Twain says of it. II
! OF weather in twenty-four hours
| There is sumptuous variety about 1t,
that commands the strangers admi-
ration and regret l met a man at the
| Philadelphia Centennial who was going
all over the world. to study weather
| said 70 MIN, Don't you do 1t! You
spring taY!' Well, he came, and he
| made his collection in f.ur days And
| ne not orly had weather enough, but
| weather to sell, TO invest, to spare. 10
/ the. people in New England xiii a lot
about !" Beautiful Sprlng" Casual vis-
/ itors, who have got their ideas from
| some other places. Dazzling uncertain
| y! Plenty OF It, too. Thunder awful.
| It sends a stranger down to the cellar
and puts Ills head in the ash barrel.
| Weather that sticks out hundreds of
miles all around New England She
! is packed as full as she can hold. but
| she can't accommodate the one hun
| drcdth part of ner weather. Rains.
| halls, mizzies, drizzlcs. ice, frost, snow.
thunder lightning, winds from every
| quarter OF the worst possible descrip-
| non, mild heats, fiery glows, red hot
| blows, We've got en- all. And then
GENES day so lovely that we say:
! There! forgive YOU" There is moth
ing IN weather that we haven't got, III
Hmltless quantity. variety and Infer
! nality.
Rufus Choate had very much the