The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-20
THE LAND OF THE SIESTA

THE LAND OF THE SIESTA
 "Im through with the tropics" said man who had spent large part of his mature years 'south of the equator" '" "No more of that life for me. l have come home to the states and here l am going to stay, among my own people. It is mistake to remain away too long from those parts of the world that are carrying forward the torch of civiliza- tion. Dwellers in the hinterlands sud- denly discover that they themselves are slipping back; that there is not as wide gap separating them from the dark skinned and scantily-clothed natives about them as they supposed when they first arrived, fully conscious of Anglo Saxon superiority and the ,responsibil- ity of the white man to govern, as best he may the subject races of the earth.
 This and more to the same purpose. Two months later this identic soldier of fortune, rolling stone or what you will, announced his departure for a pin point on the map of Central America. He had been offered Every good post. Yes, it is true, that he thought he would never go back to a tropical country. It was good to be in the United States
 
 congested centers of population, the re- newal of old acquaintances, leisure to 20 about, dropping into theatres, restau- rants and hotels and slipping into those conventional grooves by which civilized man shapes his daily conduct made an agreeable change from the heat, and the insects, and the tropical floods.
 It was disconcerting to discover how rapidly the world moves along while one is away It is astonishing how quickly man learns to make himself more com fortable and invents labor-saving devices for that purpose! "Why, almost any ot the newer hotels has conveniences," he said, "that a fellow who has been out of the country a few years doesn't know how to use. Only the other day, l rang for ice water, when could have had unlimited quantities by merely turning on faucet in my room! l hope the clerk knew I was an outlander, an hombre from the far, far South
 fertilization? It's fine, of course; with it's never ending streams of trolley cars and motors, it's subway and elevated trains, men roaring through the skies and flying along the gyound-all going the pace that kills. And there is the jazz, the hectic night life, the white lights all of the turmoil and tumult; the fever ish struggle for the means of existence, and the race to drain the cup of pleasure to it's dregs, lest the gray dawn come before the flask is emptied for hte last dance. This is your life. This is the life of the dwellers in the cities and on the plains. Enjoy it? Maybe l do, and maybe 1 don't. Anyhow, the novelty soon wears off. Perhaps, see the hollow ness and the uselessness of it all. l some times suspect that what to you and to many others seem to be the good things of life have made me an expatriate, dweller in, the far-away places.
 "Whatever the cause, am going back It is a new berth, but the tropics are still-the tropics. And we are not as lonely there as you may suppose. In most of the little towns where any business at all is done with the outside world there is always a group of cosmopolites drawn from many countries of the world, with Americans, Britons, Germans and Frenchmen predominating. We have our clubs, our social life, such as it is. One can always find someone to talk to, or to play a game of cards with, or to join one in a drink on a we'll shaded veranda, luxury denied to the citizens of the United States when they are at home.
 "Of course, we are out of touch with the main currents of life, but the world is getting smaller all the time and what with the telegraph and the wireless and the freight steamers that go everywhere, keeping up with the news is no longer difficult, nor subject to prolonged. de- lay. And the American in the tropics has advantages he may not enjoy in the Ao4n H. ye n prominence, an influential and often a powerful figure in his community. He can live on a moderate income like the proverbial lord, with servants to do his bidding and most of the comforts, if not the luxuries, obtainable in New York or Chicago.
 "I haven't spoken of the romance, but there is romance under the southern stars, and once it has cast it's spell over a man he is never more content to walk the crowded ways where people wear out their hearts in vain pursuits, when they might find peace and contentment in the land of the siesta"