Norwich bulletin., 1916-02-29
INTERESTING LETTER
 WRITTEN AT SEA
Norwich Boy Describes Visit to the
 Philippine Islands.

| While aboard the U. s. s. St. Thom- as, en route from Honolulu to Manila, Second Lieut. Cecil G. Young wrote his mother, Mrs. Lillian Young, of Norwich, the following interesting let ter:
 | I came upon deck and far in the distance saw the mountain islands of l Hawaii. They are much larger than you get any idea of from map and the islands stretch out for many miles. As you approach Oahn the island seems to run right up out of the sea till its peaks reach the clouds. There is always mist hanging on the high est peaks. It Is called Liquid Sun shine" and often drifts down near the plains. It took us six hours after seeing the land before we got to our port. There was no sign of it even l then till about one hour before we got in as a big extinct crater shaped like a huge punch bowl cut off all view of Honolulu till we got around the pontoons from San Francisco to raise the submarine F-4 followed in | directly after us; the place where the l submarine went down was marked went in. It made one realize the tragedy more when looking at those | two black markers. To think that underneath there was a submarine WILT 70 men Who never got out. Sights of Honolulu. Honolulu lies in a plain surrounded on all sides by a chain of steep vol canic peaks. AS the ship approached | the wharf Kennakl boys swan out to dive and get any money thrown over | board. We finally got tied up and a large number of people awaited us on the wharf carried off various hus- | bands, wives, etc, etc.
 Surf riding at Waikiki.
 Thursday afternoon I went down to | Waikiki and went in swimming This | Is where the famous surf riding is done. You get a board about 4 feet | long and feet wide and Gf you are ! a native kanak) you can come in riding on it at railroad speed on the crest Of 8. big wave. But no Ameri- can can do it.
 | Thursday night we all put on white uniforms and attended a ball at the Alexander Youngs hotel (the biggest in HonolulD on the roof garden.
 Sight seeing by Automobile.
 Friday afternoon a. party of us took an automobile trip over part of this | island Oahn, going by beautiful bun galows surrounded lby all sorts of strange trees and flowers of all col ors. We took a road which twisted and wound up one of the volcanic mountains till we reached a place called "the Pole" From here you could look far out over a valley below | to the indigo blue water of the Pa cific. On both sides of this valley the rough peaks shot up. Some of their | tops hung around with mist. Pali is Hawaiian for precipice because the place where we were was at the top | of a 1000 foot drop, a stone wall at the edge of the road being the only barrier. The wind blew there con stantly in gusts which would almost turn you ever.
 It is a historical place also, as two 1 Hawaiian chieftains had a big bat tie there in which the fighters of King Kamehaha pushed all the opposing troops off over the precipice. We f. nally left here, descending on another road and passed by miles of guavos growing wild banana trees. off which we picked some and field after field of pineapples.
 PineappIes Abundant.
 Pineapples grow in the ground I | found out. You can get all you want at 3 for 10 cents, delicious and sweet l We passed many Japanese and Chi their own country. The woman, es- pecially the Japanese, wear all sorts of bright colored kimonas, with san dals, etc, and carry their children around on their backs. We passed some of their rice patties, on which they were working in about two inches of water. We took pictures at various places which I will get de- veloped and printed as soon as I get a chance. We came back to the ship put on white and went out to a place called Heinis, pretty place on Wai- l kiki beach. There we had dinner with a Hawaiian orchestra playing and the surf breaking right alongside us.
 Met Pretty Girls.
 l To hol have met in army circles so far. One of them has lived in Virginia all her life practically, and has the Virginia drawl, which having one heard you would like to listen to as long as they will talk Her sister, who was there, has it little, is pretty and an interesting companion. The other one, Miss Frank, is pretty and very clever. A captain and my two roommates were there also. After dinner we danced:
 Visited Old Volcano.
 Saturday morning we took another trip up an old volcano side and Hono- lulu was spread out before us It was wonderful view. We came back down by prtckly pear trees, sugar and trees in bloom, of which I don't l know the name. We went to the aquarium, a place where in tanks with glass sides they kept specimens of the fish that live in these waters, and such fish you never dreamed of-col- ored, indigo blue, scarlet, deep vel low, striped and spotted in ali com btnation of colors. You would almost think somebody must have taken a brush and painted them. the combi- nations were so startling and bril- liant. Imagine for instance a tank full of deep blue colored fish with yellow dots on them, swimming around. or 8 bright yellow fish with a Fainbow-coFored strtns ,.s talnnlng