The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1924-03-05
A Travelling Restaurant in Singapore.

prepared by the National Geographic 8,
ciety. Washington. d. c.
Singapore is a tip of Asia. Tha
greatest of all continents, seemingl
not satisfied with its own great bull
stretches out fingers to every othe
continent except South America. Th
peninsula reaching for Australia
Singapore, which is an island as wei
as city, Is the nail of the finger
Though the grasp falls short Of Aus
tralia 1t is long enough to gather a
Its tip the ships of the world.
S'pore, its languid, perspiring resi-
dents call it. The reason for theil
abbreviation is only so miles away
the equator. Any man who can bring
himself to live ION the bump is en-
titled to his whims even If he insists
on squeezing the essence out of one
of the most poetic names ever given
to city. But S'pore must have It's
amenities, for more than 100000 souls
now call this great turnstile Of COM
merce their home town.
1t has amassed this population, the
greatest to be found in any city near
the equator, In just 100 years. About
1920 Sir Stamford Raffies discovered
Singapore and decided to make this
tiny fishing village world port.
Raffies was u British administrator in
Java during the five-year period of
British control in that tropical domain
wrested from the Dutch. He died q
broken and dlsgraced man, but his
vision was sound, as Britain has tar
Oily discovered. The two early COM
petitors of Singapore, Penang and Ma
lacca, have become satellites of the
great port, which may be fortified as
the Gibraltar Of the Pacific.
On the Singapore wharf is market
of models and life-class for a hun
dred painters; and sculptors, too. may
study there all the tones of living
bronze and more of repose than of
action, perhaps. Japanese,
Siamese, Nalays, Javanese,
Burmese, Cingalese. Tamils, Sikhs, |
Parsees, Lascars, Malabars, Malagasy,
and sailor folk of all coasts, Hindus
suasion, are grouped In a brilliant con-
'usion of red, white, brown and pat
erned drapery, of block, brown and
Fellow skins Behind them, In ghost
Y clothes, stand the pallid Europeans,
Who have brought the law, order and
ystem, the customs, habits, comforts
nd luxuries of civilization to the
ropics and the jungle. All these
lien heathens and picturesque unbe-
levers, these pagans and idolators,
'uddhists, Brahmans, Jews, Turks
I'm and fire worshipers, devil dancers, ,,
nd what not, have come with the I.
'hite man to toll for him under the :
luatorial sun, since the Malays are
lie great leisure class Of the world,
nd will not work.
WeII-Built and Clean City.
Singapore today is well-buiit and
ordered city, and the mu- a
cipal housekeeping is an example TO p
any cities of the temperate zone. k
ven the untidy Malay and the none p
o-clean Chinese. who swarm to this a
'ofitable trading center, are held to c
tier cleanliness and strict sanitary p
VS. ii their allotted quarters. The 7
ltely business houses, the marble d
lace of a bank, the long iron pavil- fl
MS shading the markets, the splen- lo
i Rafiles museum and library, are nj
regular and satisfactory sights tt
/ the street life Is the fascination 81
d distraction of the traveller above ri
erything else. The array Of tslrbans ri
d sarongs gives color to every thor pc
ghfare: hrt the striking md most Sc