, 1925-01-03

long days flight from Siam ;
Burma some Of the words came back
to him:
Elephants a pilin' teak
In the sludsy. squdggy creek,
Where the silence Jung that 'eavy.
You wuz arr afraid to speak"
Look ng around TO see whether
Kipling was right, sure enough
there on the shore, only a short dis.
lance away, were the elephants Of
the Bombay-Burma company carry
ing huge logs of teak on their tusks
and stacking them in piles. One old
elephant, after putting down his
load n starting off. glanced back.
Noticing that the end of his log was
not quite even with the rest in shc
pile. he gave a final kick with one
OF his hind feet.
Elephants Have Trade Union.
Then" added Jack. while we
were serviclns up the planes, the
6 O'Clock whistle blew over there in
the teak yard. and every elephant
dropped his load and trotted off.
The English aviators in Rangoon
explained TO us when we got ashore
that the elephants engaged in the
teak piling business have their own
trade union Inc refuse to work
overtime!"
Instead of accepting the invita-
tions Of the millionaire Scottish rice
and teak barons. who wanted TO
put them up at their bungalows,
the boys decided to stay at the old
Royal Air force clubhouse a few
miles out Of the city, where they
could be nearer the pAnes. In fact,
the British nyins men insisted upon
1t. Monkey Point was the name
Of the place where they stayed.
Whenever We recall our expert.
ences In far on Rangoon there are
I'VE things that come to mind FIRST
says Les Arnold; the narrow
escape we had from losing our com.
mander when Lowell took down
with dysentary. the most dreaded
disease in the orient; the collision
of the New Orleans and a Burmese
river boat, the club life OF the Euro
peans exiled out there. the charm
OF the maidens OF Burma, and the
marvellous golden pagodas.
Native Water Causes Illness.
When ~dysentary hits a man It
usually lasts for weeks. and our
first night in Rangoon, Lowell took
down with a serious attack. The
English doctor whom we called said
that II was undoubtedly the result
of his having drunk some of the
water that the natives had brought
out the afternoon of our forced
landing in the lagoon in Indo-China.
While l was zone for hours trying
to wheedle the priests at a nearby
village into selling us enough of
their sacramental wine to keep us
going until a r~escuing party could
find us. the heat was so intense and
his thirst so great that he decided
to risk a few swallows OF the water
on which tho natives seemed to
thrive. But centuries of living in
the tropics makes the native a
tioally immune to many OF the dis.
eases that worry the white man.
The doctor advised that Lowell be
taken TO a bungalow In Rangoon
he could be kept quieter. And
We saw ourselves faced with a DOS.
sible delay Of to or three weeks.
That same night another III wind
blew Il way. A party OF sailors
had been detailed TO stand by the
planes during the night. But along
after midnight, while we were all
sleeping of the effects OF our nerve
racking flight across the MALAY
Jungle from Siam. an unwieldy
Burmese river boat came drifting
down the Irrawady from MandaIay
with her huge sail bullying. We
had already gotten of to one side
the main course or this mighty
which is to Burma what the
Nile is to Egypt. We had done this
to escape these very boats that
down to Rangoon with their
cargoes Of rice. and to keep the
from being smashed into
matchwood by the enormous RATS
Of teak logs that drift down from
the forests OF upper Burma.
Another Close Shave.
hut tue Bufman at the r 4der
this particular boat mus, have
been SHOCKING, realizing that no mat
Ter II he did collide with some other
1t would have little affect on
his heavy timbered Levlathsn of the
When the sailors saw this
huge hulk, with its queer shaped
sail, s%ilhouetted against the starless
II was almost too late for them
to prevent her from riding down
all three planes. The Burmans on
board paid nc attention to the
shouts Of the guards as they dashed
UP TO tho great rice boat In their
Tho New Orleans was the
nearnat Mana In DANGER Realizing