The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-12-12

MI I didn't feel a trip coming on
and when / replied very firmly
that did not she said she had told my for
tune and / was going on a journey where
there was a great deal of liquid about which
she discouraglngly interpreted as sea water
This made me very nervous, for she has
way of nagging you into all kinds of enter
prses so that she can triumphantly an
nounce that she had seen the whole trans
action in the cards some time ago
She began sending me travel books and
calling me up after sleepless night U was
developing sleepless nights as the fortune"
had said l was going away for insomnia
to ask If l had read them, although she
knows very well that books on travel are
never read until the voyager is on the way
home, and then just to check up the writer
in case he has misrepresented anything.
tried explaining TO her that wasn't well
enough to go forth adventuring. She at
once came back with that old wheeZe OF q
tchange doing one good-which Is a lie. MY
advice to the sleepless is to stop at home
/ shall never forget those dogs barking all
night on the roofs of the Garden of Allah!
While this argument Of mine made no i'm
preston on her it did on me-self-sugges-
ton, no doubt--for l began laying stealthy
plan to live up to the fortune" and stay at
home too. And the next day she received
a letter to the effect that / had gone on q
journey to New Jersey, so hoped she would
be content; that l was surrounded by and
surrounding liquid, for was at a milk cure
(proving the efficacy of the cards) and that
/ would travel with the authors, one might
say respectfully and de luxe.
How to Pronounce TAHITI
Is 1t Town or an Island!
The rest is the silence of rustling trees,
milk. cot in the SUM- milk student lamp
lo1 ,1,i1l- HoIffS
milk pitcher-splt milk. The first trip /
took was to Tahiti because we Americans,
after our struggle with European diplomats,
have a longing at present for extremely
primitive conditions. | chose 1T. too because
/ knew the word was pronounced Tlghtle 10
rhyme with niehte. ! liked to heave over
on my cot while pouring out my tenth glass
and tell some mystfied cotter on my lett
that / was reading "Tightie Days" Then
flon back and watch him struggle for
glimpse of the title
was interested in Tahiti Days also be-
cause found ii had been written by hector
MacQuarrie (Doran). Now it was this
Young man who set me right about the pro-
nunciation of Tahiti (Which stays insistentiy
in my mind as a town and not an 1slano). L
met him. as / seem to meet every one, in my
dressing room and / was not feeling as kind
ly toward him then as do now-having read
of his establishing the influenza hospital In
Papeete. He was a most delightful person
too delightful-for he had so filled my tenn
peramental star with stories of Udhtnes, land
crabs. eardenias and sharks that he-the
star-announced the immediate closing OF
the company and his prompt departure with
Hector 10 the isles OF the blessed. He called
him Hector and in tho bitterness over losing
nv salary thought II was very good name
for the dsturber.
The stars wife sat down on the whole
proposition. however: his manager never
bothered to listen to It. and three gallons Of
milk having eased down Tahiti Days"
again am soothed. AS invited by the author,
in the preface / went riding with him on
magic carpet-only Rupert Hughes puts II
better than that, Rupert calls it ruggy-ridins.
Yet such is the actual quality OF the young
mans discernment that ] did not find the
trip magical, or Of an unrealtty that was not
for Won or me If we would get off the carpet
and take the boat It was all quite possible.
7 have closed some books on the South Seas
with the determination never to go there
only disappointment could follow the printed
page Of loneliness. Ruggy-riding with Mr..
MacQuarre is a varied trip, his eye embrac-
ing what is beautiful, his heart what Is good,
while his mind-the mind of an old civiliza-
ton. bit worn, bit jaded-Is not to be led
into vain oblations over what the emouons
would grant frankincense and myrrh 1t Is
hard TO define the effect of sophlstication that
we get from the pen of a British subject
when he writes of other peoples. particularly
the brown races and New Workers. His
humor is tinged by It, yet In no way tainted.
He does not condescend: he loves the simple
things. IS quick to recognize the shams.
British like. he does not mind the shams and
;peints the scenes and Incidents with casual,
modern touches Of whimsical fancy.
"Tntsneibres"-O Glorious World
Always Make Allowances for Them
travelled-at my milk cure--to South
America with good deal Of misgiving. 1t
Is freely admitted that one had better know
Spanish IL buying tickets will be part of each
DAYS gymnastics. and ! feel good deal
about Spanish as a brother voyager did while
we were once approaching the rock bound
coast Of Spain IT can get along all right
with the verb TO be-" he confided, clutching
has little books. but the verb to are Is con-
fusing" If ever go at all TO south Amer
ica-beyond my six gallon visit at the milk
cure-it Will be under the guidance OF Mr..
r. A. sherwood-and wife Mr.. Sherwood
has written an Illuminating book entitled
"Gnmpses OF South America" Century
Company and, one could add, glimpses OF
the author ne well. FOR II there ever was n
man who would buy the right tickets for
the right place throughout the Southern
hemisphere and sec that his party had bed
rooms with windows 70 them, II is this mod
est man. I repeat modest although II looks
odd considering the noun it Is modifying In
his preface the author declares that his tin
orarv was not OFF the beaten track and that
no met with only tho usual experiences The
book was not designed for that--"in fact was
4. Ill nj fa = fa1 ~