Part 18

SUNDAY, MARCH 2.—I passed out of sight of land at Adelaide, South Australia, at 7:20 on the evening of February 12, and picked it up again at 7 o’clock this morning, when I awoke and looked out of the window to see how the weather was. The land was South Africa. The voyage we have just completed takes the passenger out of sight of land longer than any other now being made in steamships. There are longer voyages, but on none of them is the passenger out of sight of land for eighteen days. And during the eighteen days we did not see a ship; no signs of life whatever, except a few birds and a few flying-fish. It was a monotonous, dreary experience I do not care to repeat.... South Africa, as seen in the vicinity of Durban, is mountainous, and the mountains are covered with verdure.... By 8:30, Durban could be plainly seen, and it did not look unlike a portion of Sydney, with its residences scattered over the hills, and almost every house covered with red tile roofing imported from France.... The officers said we should tie up at the dock by ten o’clock, and that is exactly what we did, although we did not reach the hotel until nearly noon. The delay was caused, it was said, by the slowness of the doctor and the customs officer, but I did not see the doctor at all, and the customs officer, when I finally got to him, did not open one of my packages. However, he charged me $3.75 duty on a portable typewriter which I cannot learn to use, having so long been accustomed to a different key-board. Once out of the customs house, we called two negro ricksha men, and were soon on our way to the Marine Hotel; we avoided the Royal because we had heard Mr. Riley say he intended to stop there. Most of the passengers will spend the night ashore, as a relief from the long experience with ship beds and ship fare. The negro ricksha men who pulled us to the hotel wore cow-horns on their heads, and pieces of leopard skin on their backs. The rickshas were marked: “For Europeans only,” and the negroes carried us to the hotel on a keen trot, for a shilling each. Our men carried cow-bells, which they rang frequently as warning for pedestrians to get out of the way.... I have not lately been surprised as agreeably as I am in Durban. Instead of being a rough, crude place, it is one of the finest cities I have ever seen. The hotel at which we are staying is as fine in every way as the Australia in Sydney, a city of over half a million, and the price is the same: $3.60 per day, including everything. The town hall in Durban is almost as fine as the capital in some of the Australian states; and this town of sixty thousand people, half of them black, has parks, business blocks, zoölogical gardens, and private residences that would do credit to any city of any size anywhere. We hired a new Overland automobile, driven by an intelligent Englishman, and although gasoline costs forty cents a gallon here, the charge was only $3 an hour. He took us to one of the finest bathing-beaches I have seen anywhere, and many of the hotels around it would be creditable in Atlantic City. Durban is tropical, and the luxuriant growths of flowers and plants reminded us of Honolulu. Another thing I did not know about Durban is that it has thousands of Hindus; citizens of India. All the servants at the hotel where we are staying are Hindus, and wear the picturesque costumes seen in India; during our ride today we saw literally thousands of these people, and almost as many women and children as men. In certain sections of Durban you see only Hindus, and temples are almost as numerous as churches in other sections of the town. All sorts of strange shops are kept by men with strange names; and all the Indians we saw look much more prosperous than their relatives in India. The Hindus were brought here by the English a good many years ago, under indenture and promise to return them to India at the end of a certain number of years, but they liked the country, and most of them did not care to return. There are upwards of a hundred thousand of them in Natal, but their importation is now prohibited. The Hindus are like the Chinese in that they are willing to work and behave, and their entrance to most countries is therefore prohibited.... We passed a sugar mill during our automobile ride today, and were told that all the workmen in the mill, and in the great fields of cane surrounding it, were Hindus, or coolies. Just now the cane is being cut and hauled to the mills.... At lunch today, we saw the waiters serving roasting-ears. On the bill of fare they are called Mealie Cobs. We ordered some, and the waiter offered to cut the corn from the cob. I ate mine in true American fashion, but Adelaide had hers cut off the cob. The variety was Early Adams, and it wasn’t very sweet. The best thing they have at this fine hotel is pineapple. They also have alligator pears. The best alligator pears grow in the Samoa Islands, and we had them on the “Sonoma,” but did not care for them. They are eaten with pepper and salt and vinegar and oil; an alligator pear is more vegetable than fruit. Today we also had mangoes, which resemble the American paw-aw, but they are much better fruit. You peel them, and eat them as you do green corn, the seed representing the cob.... This being Sunday, we saw two Salvation Army meetings on the street. All the “soldiers” were negroes, and there was the usual drum in the centre of the circle, and the usual pleas for money.... Now that I am out of Australia, and off the “Anchises,” which carried Australian water, I am free to drink all the water I want. I saw so many false teeth in Australia, and heard so frequently that the bad teeth of the Australians were due to the water, that I never took a drink that my teeth didn’t ache.... We learned this evening that all the money Mr. Riley spent in gambling and drinking was loaned him by a Mr. Wilson, who came ashore this afternoon, and is trying hard to get his money. At a late hour, Mr. Riley had not been able to satisfy his creditor. You meet strange characters on ships. Think of a man going to sea without money, and being financed by a stranger.... We knew a woman on the ship who was so unhappy because of a big waist that she imagined her husband was mean to her, and she told a good many of the women that were it not for her children, she would seek forgetfulness by enclosing her head in a pillow-slip, and inhaling chloroform.... Durban had a small harbor which did very well in the days of small ships, but when big ships became fashionable the town was compelled to spend millions in improvements. The result is that ships drawing thirty feet can tie up at its docks. Good coal is found not far from Durban, and its coal trade is very important. Much of the coal used on the railways in India comes from Durban, and every ship coming this way coals here.... Before going to bed tonight, we went down in front of the hotel, called a ricksha, and went for a ride to the beach to cool off. The negro who pulled us was a huge fellow wearing a pair of cow-horns as a sort of head-dress; seven-tenths of the hundreds of ricksha men wear the same amusing head-dress. Our man trotted all the way to the beach and back, up hill and down. It is a considerable task for a man to pull a buggy and two passengers for nearly an hour, and always keep up a trot. On our return to the hotel at 10 P. M., the man did not seem very tired. The road to the beach was lined with hundreds of other people riding in rickshas, and there were many ricksha stands on the way. At the beach we saw thousands of people sitting around in chairs, or dining, or listening to music. Some of the restaurants had moving-picture shows to attract customers. And it seems to me I never saw such big rollers as came in from the Indian ocean at Durban beach. Four years ago this beach was a dreary piece of sand. Durban has lately been spending money like a drunken sailor, and has made it pay.

MONDAY, MARCH 3.—Owing to a tremendous rain and wind storm, we have been confined all day to our rooms at the hotel. Yesterday was bright and fine, and we were rather disposed to laugh at the statement that this is the rainy season in South Africa; but the storm today has given us more confidence in the guide-books. The wind was so strong that the “Anchises,” lying at its dock, twice broke its hawsers, and was only saved from drifting by the prompt use of the anchors. The passengers who were ashore found it very difficult to get back to the ship, and from our windows at the hotel we could see that the wind was doing considerable damage.... And this in spite of the finest, largest and brightest rainbow I have ever seen, this morning.... White women are scarce in South Africa. In the big dining-room of the Marine Hotel, at dinner tonight, all the guests were men, except four. Englishmen come to this country as Americans go to the Klondike.... The Marine Hotel introduces one feature that is entirely new to me; dinner is commenced with a _hors-d’œuvre_—a sort of salad of pickled fish, as an appetizer. Then follows the regular dinner, starting with soup. When a king dines, he begins with a _hors-d’œuvre_, the head waiter says.... One of the ricksha men who stands in front of the hotel has carried us three times, and regards us as his property. When we appear, he runs up to us, and bows almost to the ground; if other ricksha men appear, he pushes them angrily away. The negroes here are exactly like our negroes, except that they talk Kaffir; we have not seen any who are able to speak English easily. The negro women wear their hair in a peculiar way, and many of them dress as the men do. The ricksha men who stand in front of the hotel are always laughing and talking in a noisy, good-natured way. There are several tribes of negroes here, and all of them have different characteristics in dress.... Before Durban’s present harbor was completed, passengers disembarked from ships in baskets. The big ships, not being able to come into the harbor, were met outside by tenders. Passengers leaving the ship were locked in a huge basket, and this basket was hoisted over the side with a steam winch, and lowered to the deck of the tender rolling alongside. This method of embarking and disembarking is still used at many points along the coast, and we shall test it on our way to Zanzibar.... The amateur humorist is a great task not only in private life, but in books as well. Today I bought a book to obtain information of the East Coast route to England, but found it so full of jokes that I could get no information out of it. Every man, when he writes or talks, thinks he must use a great many jokes; everyone seems to make too much of the fun, fun, fun, and laugh, laugh, laugh idea. I often wish people were more serious.... My next ship journey will be up the East Coast of Africa to Aden, and thence through the Red Sea to the Mediterranean and Naples. I have spent considerable of my time in Durban in arranging for a cabin to myself on the German ship. Occupying a room with three others is the red flag that brings out the bull in my nature. I not only object to other men in a room with me, but I don’t like them very well in the hall outside. I am particular about having things of my own, and in the list, a sleeping-room is near the top.... In this fine hotel, it is impossible to get a good cup of coffee, and I drink tea instead, although I abominate tea. I have not had a decent cup of coffee in nearly three months. As I am accustomed at home to the best coffee in the world, the deprivation is a severe one. I have no doubt that all the hotels where I have lately been a guest use the best coffee obtainable, but their way of making it is not my way. You get the best coffee at home because it is made your way.... As in coffee, so it is in politics, religion, the choice of a wife, and a hundred other things: what suits others does not suit you. You want coffee made your way; and you are entitled to it.... I do not say my way of making coffee is the best, but I do say it suits me better than any other way I have ever tried. I venture to say that nine out of ten guests at every hotel abuse the coffee.... Every morning at 6:30 there is a rap on my door. I look out, and find a Hindu servant with tea. I tell him I do not want tea, but would appreciate hot water for shaving. This the Hindu cannot understand, so I now take the tea, and shave with it.... I was on the “Anchises” so long that I almost used up a cake of shaving-soap. I wonder I didn’t get the scurvy; they say that is the scourge of a long sea voyage.

TUESDAY, MARCH 4.—This day opened with genuine inauguration weather; the storm of yesterday continued all night, and seemed as fierce as ever at 8 A. M.... The Natal _Mercury_ of this morning devoted a full page to the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, as president. It also printed an editorial of a column and a quarter entitled, “The Future of America,” which was funny because of absurd statements. “Rural America,” the editorial says, “knows little of decent roads, well-organized police, or mail facilities, and consists largely of wide-spreading areas that do not contain one human being to the square mile.”... If newspapers print such statements about America, is it any wonder that the English people have absurd notions of the Americans? The editorial views with alarm the race problem in America; it also fears that the American people are today where the Romans were just before the decline began.... The Natal _Mercury_ contains sixteen eight-column pages, and is a more creditable newspaper than will be found in the average American town of 32,000 population. Durban has 66,000, but 34,000 are negroes who do not read or speak English. Nine pages of the _Mercury’s_ issue of this morning are devoted to advertising; the people of all the British colonies seem to be well trained in newspaper advertising. Although the _Mercury_ prints eight columns about the inauguration of America’s new president (most of it absurd, but probably not more absurd than would be my comments on a similar event in Africa), it says nothing about the “Anchises” breaking from its moorings during yesterday’s storm, or of its detention in the harbor. The local news is badly handled in all the papers I see over here; the people do not seem to care for local news, so long as they get telegrams from England.... Durban people are just now excited because His Majesty’s Ship “New Zealand” will arrive in a day or two. This is the battleship of dreadnought type which was built with New Zealand money, and presented to the English government. Canada will give three battleships to the English, and Australia three. All the other English colonies have been called upon to show their love for the mother country in a similar way; and this really amounts to an order. India, Ceylon, Africa, and all the other countries controlled by Great Britain, must assist the English in keeping ahead of Germany in the race for naval supremacy. It seems an absurd situation to me, but possibly I know as little about it as the editorial writer on the Natal _Mercury_ knows about America. (NOTE.—Since the above was written, Canada has balked, and refused to vote money for English battleships.)... Some writers say that Africa is the Coming Country; that thousands of years hence, when Europe and America have become as dry as India or the Sahara desert, Africa will be about right, and contain cities like New York and London. By that time, New York and London will have been deserted, as old Memphis, Thebes and Babylon are now deserted. This is said to be the history of the world: Countries wear out like men; the country around the Red Sea was once fertile and populous, but is now a desert, owing to slowly changing climatic conditions; the world is so old that mountain ranges have been worn level with the surrounding plains by the wind, rain, heat and cold of many centuries. This is what will finally happen to our Rocky Mountains. The country where we live was once tropical, and it will become tropical again, in the course of time. The one thing we do not realize is the great age of the world, having long been taught that it is ten or twelve thousand years old. It is more than ten or twelve million years old; some geologists say its age is certainly forty or fifty million years.... My father left Indiana because he believed fever and ague would always be a pest. Indiana is now one of our finest states. Africa is getting rid of the sleeping sickness, of the mysterious fly which causes death, of fever and ague, and of other menaces to health; it is said that South Africa has shown a greater development in the past twenty years than any other country has ever shown in a similar length of time. Johannesburg is as fine a town as Kansas City, and almost as large. Durban is a wonder, and Capetown claims to be a health resort. This in South Africa only, whereas the real growth in the future, many believe, will come from East Africa.... The mythical “Cape to Cairo” railway extends from the Cape of Good Hope, in South Africa, to Cairo, in North Africa, or Egypt. Capetown has built a railroad far into the interior, northward, and Cairo has built far into the interior, southward; some day it will be possible for travelers to go from Capetown to Cairo by rail. I am going from Capetown to Cairo, but, the “Cape to Cairo” line still being a dream, I shall go to Victoria Falls by rail, and thence to Beira, where I will take a German ship for a long journey to Port Said, the Mediterranean entrance to the Suez Canal, and only a few miles from Cairo.... I have been compelled to quit eating roasting-ears American fashion at the Marine Hotel in Durban. The Hindu waiters stood around and watched me in surprise, and other guests were also greatly interested. Finally a strange man appeared at the entrance, and seemed to be studying the lights with a view of getting a moving-picture of the performance; so I now have my corn cut off the cob, which is the universal practice here.... The “Anchises” will not get away for Capetown and London until noon on Thursday. The chief engineer and doctor dined at our hotel tonight, with two of the lady passengers, and they told us that when the ship left Adelaide, it was followed by a pigeon, which was no doubt attracted by the grains of wheat on deck. The first night out, the pigeon probably rested in the rigging; anyway it was flying about the ship the second morning. Then it was too late to go back, and the bird has been adopted by the crew. It flies about the ship while at sea, but soon returns to the deck or rigging. It has become quite tame, and will take food from anyone, and grumble for more, as pet pigeons do. The sailors thought the bird would leave them at Durban, but it didn’t make up with the other pigeons that called to see it, and will probably accompany the “Anchises” to Liverpool.... Mr. Riley slept on board last night, as he is in love with a married woman who detests him. His ticket read to Durban only, but he will probably attempt to go on to Capetown, in order that he may further enjoy drunkenness, love, and the Sports Committee.

[Illustration: Street in Durban, South Africa

Labor Day Parade, Johannesburg

Pritchard Street, Johannesburg

Port Said

Port Said Port]