The Spokane woman. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1921-1935, 1928-03-22
Senator Reba J. Hum Takes "Road
to Mandalay'' to Auoid Regret

Senator Reba ]. IIurn who is enjoying a trip
around the world writes To the members "f the
Thursday Group from the Great Eastern Hotel Cal
rutta, India, as follows:
Having been in the tropics since | left Hong
Kong early in December. il is hard Ia visualize
the trees. hut il would look good To
me. If | dug out whole lot more clothes than |
have been wearing lately. Tonight am going up
To l'arjeeling, taking chance on glimpse al
Mount Everest, and ! believe fires in the rooms
will he necessary there. am not taking n servant.
Ever since have started out on the "trip. il has
been ffty-hfty-hfty that absolutely had to
have one in India. and fifty that he wasn't neceS-
sary and would be nuisance. Here i'm this hotel
apparently more than half of the guests have their
servants. they sill out in the halls in front of
their masters door and sleep there blanket
the floor and it doesn't strike at all to
my liking. They say in the Darieeng Hotel they
don't even furnish Il man To sweep out the room or
make the bed. hut have them available that you
hire for that purpose All room work
here is by room "b"ys", not chanhernaidS.
Well. Went 10y train to Kuala Lumpur whic',
is the capital Of the Federated Malay States and
was the first place have visited built on M"hant-
medan lines. the buildings reminding one of pie
lures of moSques-eNen reminding me, you
see ii wasn't mere suggestion. When went To
school. il was the Malay Peninsula and that is
all | remember about it, But il seems there are
some ten STATES, each ruled over 10y its sultan
and five of the largest Federated. under some sort
of British joint rule. am informed that the fed
Grated states have government ownership tn the nth
powerful land and all utilities owned by the
government. but they have wealthy tin mines and
big rubber plantations, which leased only
the government ram III net profit of over eighty
million dollars last year. Granting that they
Straits dollars. worth sixty cents our money. still
IL makes an interesting experiment to watch. But
| don't know where else n government could start
and not bankrupt itself buying up private prop
prty first try the government ownership. Kuala
Lumpur is accordingly modern city There
some Interesting caves near by, that look like pie
lures of Dante'S Inferno. and we visited an Ameri-
can tin mine, to find the manager from q. A. &.
and his wife Laura Larson. who taught in the
Cheney Normal for five years and is great friend
of Jeanette DOnadson's.
Went on to Penang. which is the same aS Snga-
pore in government, and Ia my mind, very similar
i'm appearance. In both there tremendous
mixture of peoples. In the Malay States. the Chi
nese do all the work there lots of Indians and
Il few MaayS. Penang is often called the Gem
of the Orient" but | couldn't it. Like Hong
Kong it has mountain railway Hong Kong lies
in the hills and has beautiful harbor but Penang
one has to go several miles by auto to get to the
trani-way up the mountain.
1t was IA thirty-four hour train trip from there
to bangkok. in railroad operated by the SiameSe
government. | forgot to say that the sleeper ou
of Singapore was like bucking broncho the springs
were so strong that thought might he thrown
clean out of bed Il few times. Envied the heavier
people. thinking they might be able to hold their
springs steady. but they had the complaint !
did the next morning. The Siam train is good. II
has two berth compartments. which / occupied
alone, and even bath room in each car. But these
earthenware iar-n dipper baths that we had around
relief in hot weather. The dining car service was