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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of

William Little Stark

LETTERS OF
GILBERT LITTLE STARK

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LETTERS OF
GILBERT LITTLE STARK
JULY 23, I907-MARCH 12, 1908

PRIVATELY PRINTED
AT THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE
1908

COPYRIGHT, I90S, BY GILBERT M. STARK
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I To these who are cleansed of base Desire, Sorrow and Lust
and Shame —
Gods for they knew the hearts of men, men for they stooped
to Fame,
Borne on the breath that men call Death, my brother's spirit
came.
He scarce had need to dofiF his pride or slough the dross of
Earth —
E'en as he trod that day to God so walked he from his birth,
In simpleness and gentleness and honour and clean mirth.
So cup to lip in fellowship they gave him welcome high.
And made him place at the banquet board — the Strong
Men ranged thereby.
Who had done his work and held his peace and had no fear
to die. Kipling.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGK
I. Japan ...... 3
II. China . . . . . no
III. Diary of the Mongolian Trip . . 145
IV. Letters and Journal of the For
mosa Trip ..... 191
V. Canton, Java, and Malaysia . 286
VI. Burmah ..... 378
VII. India ..... 427
Appendix ..... 477

LETTERS OF
GILBERT LITTLE STARK

LETTERS OF
GILBERT LITTLE STARK
CHAPTER I
JAPAN
S. S. Shinano Maru, July 23, 1907.
Dear Family, — To-day we are three quar
ters of the way to Japan. A map of the world
hangs where I can see it as I write, and the red
line which traces our course has crawled slowly
past the Aleutian Islands that hang like a ham
mock between the oldest and the newest conti
nents, almost to Kamschatka — sounds like the
farthest end of the world, does n't it .? — and now
we are pointing straight towards Hokkaido —
the northern island of Japan. When I look at
the end of this red line and think that I am
there, and then look at the other edge of North
America and think how far off you are — but I
don't do it very often ; it is n't worth while.
We have had fog every day since we left
Seattle. Sometimes fog and rain, sometimes fog

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and sunshine, sometimes just common or garden
fog. Twice vie have had a sunrise, and one
memorable day a sunset. The weather has been
very cold, but only once did we have any wind
to speak of; that once it certainly did itself proud
in the wind Hne. We have had two fire-drills and
seen nine whales, had three meals and five
o'clock tea every day, and played two thousand
five hundred and three or seven games of shuffle-
board. There in a nutshell is our life on ship
board for two weeks to-day. And yet we have all
been contented, — more than contented, ac
tively happy. It is a wonderful, calm, and unholy
joy to have nothing to do but sit and watch for
fire-drills and whales. I am growing so fearfully
rotund under this schedule that I fear even
climbing Fuji Yama v?ill not be sufficient to
reduce my girth to normal proportions.
The routine remains the same as it was at
first : Bath — coffee — walk — breakfast —
diary — luncheon — book — tea — walk or
shuffle-board — dinner — talk — sleep. We do
absolutely nothing; but really can't find time
to get it all in. The meals continue to surprise
us by their excellence and freshness — and also
the inventive genius of the cook. "Toad in the
hole," "Bubble and Squeak," "Fried devilled

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 5
bones," and "Angels on horseback" march on
to the festal board in unblushing succession.
The day of storm that we had last Wednesday
was one of the most interesting of the trip. We
tumbled out of our bunks in the morning, to
find the water in the bath-tubs splashing over
in an alarming manner. The wind had veered
during the night and was now driving an endless
herd of great, unwieldy white horses straight
down through Behring Straits on to the side of our
poor ship. Big as houses were these wild white
horses, foaming at the mouth as they towered
over us, throwing us easily over their huge green
shoulders as they rushed from beneath us, and
flinging back their great snowy manes and tails
as they raced off towards the horizon.
We put on rubber coats and stood all morning
on the wind'ard side swallowing the wind in
great gulps, our faces numbed with the cold
and dripping with spray. The lower decks fore
and aft were swept continually by great clouds
of spray. Several times a wave would swell
higher and higher, and finally hurl a few barrels
of green water over the rail of our promenade
deck and slap up against the doors of the state
rooms. In the afternoon the sun came out suddenly

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and the whole black sea was instantly trans
formed into a floor of deep sapphire above which
the sky was a pale arch, paler than a robin's egg.
The white crests of the waves dazzled with their
brightness, and the wind boomed over the great
wave-hollows like a mighty organ.
Some of our fellow passengers are very inter
esting. At the head of the list is Juji Nakada
San, a Japanese Christian missionary now re
turning from his second trip around the world.
He is one of the brightest, joUiest, cleverest,
most cultured men that I have ever known. He
is a master of jiu-jitsu, and some of his early
conversions were accomplished by sitting on the
neophyte's head and talking to him of the glories
to come. He has told us invaluable things about
the religions and prejudices of the people, and
knowing him has revolutionized our ideas of his
people, of the possibility of introducing Chris
tianity into the Orient, and the present attitude
of the United States towards Japan.
Next in interest is Mr. C  , the man whom
I met between Chicago and St. Paul. He is
Scotch, and piece by piece we have learned a
little of his history. His brother is a famous
musician, and Mr. Oswald C  , for such is
his unfortunate cognomen, is a musician of no

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 7
mean education. Then it also appears that he
has painted pictures which have attracted wide
attention. In addition to his achievements on
canvas we are assured by Nakada, with whom
C  is travelling, that he is a very good archi
tect. Add to these accomplishments the facts
that he has taught philosophy and psychology for
twelve years, is an ordained minister, and intends
to spend twelve years in travelling around the
world, and you will appreciate the conviction
with which I repeat that he is an interesting man.
In the next stateroom to C  are two cal
low youths from Salt Lake City, Utah. Specu
lation was rife for several days as to what their
business could be in Japan, for they declared
that their stay was to be for three years at least.
Finally the truth came out with all the startling
eff"ect of an exploding bomb. Aged eighteen and
nineteen respectively, with hardly a grammar-
school education, and unmistakable proclivities
towards the Coney Island dance-hall type of
amusement, these noble youths are starting out
on a career as — guess if you can — Mormon
missionaries !
Exhibit number four is one that we are really
very fond of, but he must forgive us a brief smile
He is aged twenty-nine; but before we knew

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we should have believed any one who told us
he was fifty. He is Abraham Lincoln come to
Ufe, in appearance. Tall, gaunt, ungainly, with
hands hke hams, and a great oblong face that
looks as if it had been rather poorly carved out
ofa tough blockof hickory and then been severely
weather-beaten for several years. He always
wears a rusty black suit and a high black fedora
hat with a deep crease and a brim that imitates
the size and angles of his ears. He is to be seen
at any time of day or night twisting his mouth
around a toothpick just as some men chew a
cigar. He graduated from Vanderbilt Univer
sity at Nashville, and before embarking on this
noble ship he had never seen an ocean. He is
very shy, but rather lonely and inquisitive. The
result is that he never misses a trick. Whenever
a group of more than one is gathered on the
deck, you may see his dark clothes and toothpick
towering back of it like a brooding Fate. For
the first three days he did not speak. Now that
he feels more at home he is very willing, nay,
anxious, to talk, but he has nothing to talk about.
His life has been about as exciting as that of a
sponge. Under all the awkwardness, however,
there is a fine, solid character and fund of humor
too. This trip is making history for him, he is

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 9
learning to exchange ideas, to be flippant. The
least sally will draw an appreciative roar from
him, and he has even ventured one or two him
self. The other day, after a good meal, he lapsed
into baby talk ! Imagine it if you can ; it caused
the nearest approach to an attack of apoplexy
in me that I ever hope to have. Oh, yes, his
name is T  !
There are about as many Japanese as there
are Americans, maybe a few more, and they are
interesting and very friendly. They tell us that
a little coldness or slow service in the country is
absolutely the only result of the present trouble
that we are likely to experience.
Our captain is a delightful man. Commander
Kaware he is, and well known among those up
in naval affairs. During the late war he com
manded the transport Ceylon Maru, and he has
many interesting tales to tell. He has brought
out his pictures of the war for us, and danced
the samurai dance on deck, and made himself
entertaining generally. He has some wonderful
photographs of executions and battlefields.
He is a little taller than most of his race; I
think he is almost my height, but he is well
muscled and very heavy. His face is tanned a
rich apple red through the natural brown, and

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his teeth are very white. He is always smihng,
and his trim httle mustache curls way up at the
corners in consequence. I should call him a
very handsome man. In both the captain and
Nakada two traits have struck me. First, their
remarkable good nature and jollity and their
athletic activity; they are both Hke boys in their
teens. Second, the strange power of mimicry
and making faces. The faces they make while
they are telling a story are exactly the grotesque
masks that we see on their gods and demons. I
think the secret lies in the mobile mouth, for
they are both remarkably good-looking men.
July 26, 6.30 A. M.
Since I last wrote we have had beautiful
weather, two sparkling blue days during which
we lay around the deck with our coats off, for
the weather is now like the mildest, best Septem
ber days at the Lake. Yesterday we sighted
land at daybreak, and in a hazy, intermittent
way it has been with us ever since. About noon
a bold promontory came out to interfere vrith
us, and pushed a beautiful island almost in our
path. We passed so close that we could see the
shade under the funny gnarled pines that cov
ered the whole island, and we exchanged signals

GILBERT LITTLE STARK ii
for several minutes. Kinkwa San the island is
called ; it is a little cone-shaped mountain rising
straight out of the sea, with its sides covered
by a dark olive-green forest, a lighthouse on its
outer edge, and a shrine on its summit; the
inhabitants are sacred apes and deer. Kinkwa
San — Mount of the Golden Flower — our
first ghmpse of Japan.
This morning I got up at 5.30, just in time to
see the mast of the poor Dakota rising above
the calm water. We are now entering the Bay
of Yeddo, Yokohama harbor. We have passed
between two points, and the shore circles away
from us on both sides. The sky line is like the
sky line of a very stormy sea viewed from a deep
wave-hollow — the volcanic origin is easy to see.
All around us are the fishing boats starting out
on their morning trip. Queer junks, with bodies
like a hollow wooden wheel cut in two, and great
square sails at the back. The fishermen wear
kimonos and do their heads up in white towels.
Sometimes, too, we run past a flock of little
sampans with two men sculling as they stand,
Venetian fashion.
I will write fully of our plans in Japan as soon
as we have landed and gotten our bearings.
We shall be on shore in a very few hours, and

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you can imagine how excited I am ! Sad to say,
it is too cloudy to see Fuji.
I thought I had forgotten how to be excited
over things, but this is teaching me over again.
Loads and loads of love to all.
Your loving son, Gilbert.
Tokyo, July 27, 1907.
Dear Family, — This is the first morning
we have seen in Nippon — Land of the Rising
Sun — and it is a beautiful one. I have not yet
dressed, but am sitting in that cool dressing-
gown of father's, which, by the way, is one of the
most useful things I have with me, and look
ing out over the funny waffle-like roofs of the
Imperial City.
Our hotel is a big, roomy European building,
with verandahs and courts and gardens in un
expected corners. No elevator, but it is only
three stories high, so they don't need one. Our
rooms are on the third floor, and we each have a
single room about the size of both of our parlors
together. July 28, Sunday.
My letter yesterday was interrupted by the
announcement that it was time to keep an en-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 13
gagement at Shimbashi station; more of that
anon. On Friday the approach to Yokohama had
hardly anything foreign about it to make us feel
that we were really half the world away from
home ; but as soon as we got close enough to the
dock to see the people there to meet the steamer,
then the surprises commenced. The general
effect given by the crowd at the wharf was a
melee of very bare legs and chests, and a cloud
of light, blowy, floating draperies, all colors of
the rainbow.
After a great deal of talking and bowing and
scraping, we succeeded in getting our baggage
checked to Tokyo. Then we rode about the
town in rickshaws. Getting into a rickshaw for
the first time is like going back to childhood days
and the baby carriage. They are frail creations
on two wheels, vrith a pair of bare legs and ill-
concealed brown body between the shafts, the
brown affair being topped by an inverted chop-
ping-bowl, or possibly a great flat disk of straw,
perhaps an acre in area. As you roll comfortably
along the street you look right into and through
the houses and stores on both sides of the street,
and every phase of private life lies open before
you. We got a bite to eat at a little tea-house

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and then chmbed about one hundred steps tothe
Yokohama temple and had a magnificent view
of the harbor and the flat roofs of the city. At
5. 1 5 we caught a train to Tokyo, and here we are.
Tokyo is a fascinating place. There is very
little European architecture, and the streets are
full of more strange and interesting sights than
ever the Midway exhibited. Imagine yourself
in a soft, cushioned, easy-running rickshaw,
with a pair of legs twinkling swiftly along
in front of you. On each side are little one-
story stores open like caves, and full of china,
silks, flowers, vegetables, fish, and bronze work.
Right among the stores are the shops where
the things are made, and you see carpenters
or embroiderers at work in every block. The
streets vary from little alleys, where you can
almost touch both walls, to great broad thorough
fares that equal our broadest streets. Sometimes
you strike a residence district where an open
gate gives you a glimpse of a quaint garden, or
behind a bamboo grating you see a little maid
polishing and scrubbing for dear life. Every
street has the peculiarity of seeming to end in
open country. That is, if you look up or down
the street, you might think you were in a village
and that the street led out into broad fields.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 15
That is because everything is so low; it is hard
to realize that this is one of the great cities of the
world, but when you have been pulled for several
hours at a dog-trot and find the same streets
everywhere, the truth comes home to you.
Then the people ! There are two millions here,
and I think I must have seen every one. Imagine
if you can a street of the kind I have tried to
describe above, then fill street and shops as far
as the eye can reach with people. Old and
young, older and younger, some of them, than
any one you have ever seen before. Imagine
them dressed in kimonos, the men in a sober
blue or stripes, the women in all sorts of pretty
colors, with great sashes, and hair like the cream
whirls on a fancy charlotte russe all covered with
black shellac. Sprinkle in every color and shade
from almost negro black, through coffee and tan
shoes, to pure pink and white. Add a little live
Jap doll to every square foot of ground, until you
have created about three miUion babies, and
make every third man look exactly like H 
B  . Wherever you cast your eyes let there
be a flash of very white teeth from ten or twelve
people at once, and let there be a continual
undercurrent of audible laughter. Season well
with low bows on all sides and a great abundance

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of bare skin, and you have a Tokyo street com
plete. One thing I forgot, however, — just a
dash of sandalwood smell everywhere.
In all Tokyo we have not seen a really ugly
person, a frown, or a beggar, and now we know
what Nakada meant when he kept saying that
we are " too much civilized." Here is a people
intellectually our equal, every bit, and yet they
live in play-houses and wear night-gowns all day,
when they wear anything. What is the use of
our elaborate kitchens when we can cook fish
on a hot soapstone while sitting on the door
step ? Another surprise is the absence of Euro
pean costumes. I suppose they are worn more
in the winter, but now they are as rare among
the common people as kimonos are on Fifth
Avenue. Yesterday we met John, Ted, and their friend
Mr. Tsuika at the Shimbashi station as they
came in from Yokohama, and Mr. Tsuika took
us all to the Imperial University, where we found
Dr. Sato, to whom John had a letter. Dr. Sato
is one of the most famous surgeons in Japan,
and he has his own hospital and is the head of
the medical department at the University. That
department has two beautifully appointed hos
pitals, and an anatomical building that puts any-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 17
thing I have seen before to shame, with a patho
logical building as large. The doctor showed us
all over the University. (Called away.)
5 p. M., same day.
The University has more ground and more
buildings than our own, but about the same
number of students. At noon, Mr. Tsuika
treated us to a luncheon at the Seiyoken restau
rant in one of the city parks — Neyeno Park.
Luncheon was served in European style, and
we had no sooner gotten well started than in
came two of our classmates who are going to
teach in the Philippines !
At 5.30 we started out for a dinner-party at
the Maple Leaf Restaurant in Shiba Park, Dr,
Sato had asked us all 'to be his guests, and we
found him awaiting us with a friend. Dr. Sakai,
a professor of the University and a young man
about thirty years old. Neither ofour hosts could
talk English, so all our conversation was in Ger
man. This restaurant is the Sherry's of Tokyo.
It is a long, low building, with a large courtyard
in front for rickshaws. At the door our shoes
were removed and we proceeded to enter in our
stocking feet. Our host led the way through to the
back, over mats as spotless as our table-cloths

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and soft as velvet. At the back was an exquisite
garden, rocks, bridges, pools of goldfish, gnarled
trees, and masses of flowering shrubs. One wing
of the building stretched into the garden and
almost to the edge of a high cliff that gave a fine
broad view over trees and houses far below. Our
party had the whole end of this wing. The room
in which we found ourselves was a very large
rectangle without furniture or ornament. The
floor of beautiful soft mats, one wall and one end
of delicately painted screens, one end open to the
view from the cliff, and the remaining side all
open to the garden. Outside of the open sides
ran a little roofed verandah of teak-wood pol
ished like a piano-top. There were niches in the
one stationary side-wall, and in each niche was
either a single vase of flowers or a great bronze
dragon. After we had admired the room and view and
garden, in came a procession of geisha girls —
one for each of us, and two extra little butterflies
about eleven years old. They offered us tea and
then fixed cushions for us along the open end,
being the end of the room that was screened off.
We sat cross-legged without an)^hing to lean
against, and our geishas sat directly in front,
facing us. A tray was placed between each of us

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 19
and our geisha, and on that the supper was
served. As the light faded from outside, some
quaint, soft electric lights were turned on by an
unseen agency. Of course we used chopsticks
only, and our geishas had a great time teaching
us the art. Everything was served on little open
plates or in covered bowls. First we had soup,
then mushrooms cut lengthwise in thin slices,
next a sort of pressed meat, fat, cut in slices and
garnished with mushrooms and vegetables, then
roast fish with many vegetables, then raw fish !
This raw fish was really delicious, it was almost
the best dish that we had served us ! It was cut
in very thin slices and looked clean and white,
and the sauce in which you dipped it before
eating was a marvel and a triumph; you must
have raw fish at home. Next we had crawfish
and vegetables, and then chicken with vege
tables, mushrooms, and candied apricots. With
this they served thimblefuls of warm sake, the
Japanese wine made of rice. It is customary —
but I will tell about that when I describe the
geisha girls.
After we had waded through the dishes men
tioned above, we heard a few strains of the weird
est music you have ever listened to, and the screens
at the further end slipped back disclosing three

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women seated behind instruments like auto-
harps. They gave us a little concert and then
started to sing. At the first few bars of the song
we heard a rustle at the door and in floated five
more geishas in the most beautiful silks you could
imagine. I say floated in because that is exactly
what they did. The whole secret of the dance is
to hide all means of motion, and you can hardly
tell when the girls take a step, so smoothly do
they glide. All of the movements are in unison,
and there are no fancy steps — the girls simply
glide from one pose to another, illustrating some
love poem or some bit of history. Fans play a
great part, and the hands, which are the only
parts of the body visible, are most expressive.
The dance lasted about eight minutes. After
wards we were served with a different soup and
some more cooked fish, — tai, this time, a favor
ite species, — and then stuffed lobsters with a
mustard sauce. After this three still different
geishas acted a little play, with an orchestra of
five pieces in the background. The orchestra
kept chanting the story like a Greek chorus. The
three characters were i, an early Emperor;
2, his Shogun; 3, a witch who enchanted them
and threw magic spider-webs about them. The
costumes were gorgeous, and the expression of

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 21
their hands and face marvellous. They say the
training of these geishas takes infinite pains and
years and years of time.
After this second dance we were served with
rice over which green tea was poured, and then
we were given great round cakes.
The geishas sat facing us, and each one had
by her side a little bowl of glowing coals to offer
us as a light for cigarettes, a dainty china vase
full of warm sake, and a bowl of water. The
sake is very mild, and there is the following form
involved in drinking it : you sip it, empty what
you do not want in the bowl of water, wash the
tiny bowl you drink from, and then offer it to
the geisha. She holds the little dish and you pour
for her. She takes a sip and removes it with her
handkerchief, empties the rest into the water
bowl, and presents the cup to you. Some of the
girls drink it, but ours did not. The girls we
talked with are the highest representatives of
their class, many of them coming from good
families. Some are dancers and some conver
sationalists; they are hke the Greek Hetairae.
The good ones are among the most polished,
esteemed, and beautiful ladies in Japan. Their
speech is much more refined than the wives of
the men they entertain, and some are experts

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in philosophy and literature; all are masters
of polite small talk. Aside from the tiny ones of
eleven, our girls ranged in age from sixteen to
thirty, the oldest being the most beautiful and
by far the most accomplished. In fact, those
whose services bring the highest price are be
tween twenty-five and thirty years old. After the
last dance about eight more geishas came in, so
we had a very large party. We stayed over four
hours in all, and during the evening the girls
peeled great luscious peaches for us. We had a
delightful time, and laughed ourselves almost
sick. It was just hke a children's party. We
taught them several English words and they
taught us some Japanese phrases, and we got
along beautifully without a sign of an inter
preter, for it was all the doctors could do to get
their own thoughts through our heads in Ger
man. Whenever a new girl came into the room,
or when a girl changed her seat to sit before
another fellow, she would touch her forehead to
the floor and get off a long, very polite sentence.
We amused them with our American tricks,
eating matches and snapping coins from the
backs of our hands, and they taught us funny
ways of twisting their fingers together and ap
parently turning their arms inside out. They

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 23
laughed more than we did, but their laughter
was low and musical and their voices sweeter
than Occidental voices. They were very prud
ish when they handed us anything, for they
took terrific pains to keep from touching our
fingers. We left in a gale and whirlwind of
" Good-byes" and " Sayonaras," — all the girls
kneeling in the great lighted doorway and touch
ing their heads tothe ground, — a great crowd of
boys and coolies gathered around us, and each
of us in a rickshaw with a big paper lantern
lighted and swung from the shafts. Each "Say-
onara" on our part was greeted with a roar of
laughter from geishas and coolies, and as we
raced off into the night our rickshaw boys threw
back their heads and sent out peal after peal of
laughter. The road wound downhill through
great, tall pine trees, and a wonderful moon, al
most full, shone through the branches. All down
the road we could hear the laughter at the Maple
Leaf growing fainter, and we found we could n't
stop laughing ourselves ; so we dashed down the
hill all guffawing in chorus with the rickshaw
boys, a great procession in the darkness with
our lanterns. All together, we swung across the
road and around corners like a flock of traveUing
birds.

24 LETTERS OF
All afternoon and evening we had just been
waiting for the leading tenor of this great comic
opera company to step out of some little play
house and begin his solo ! And on that ride home
we decided that this is not Japan — we have
wandered into fairyland by mistake.
I suppose that living here has its drawbacks,
but we have not found them, and we are not
going to hunt them up.
Loads of love to all, Gilbert.
Tokyo,
Friday, July, or rather August i, 1907.
Dear Family, — Here goes for a yard or two
of small talk with my "geliebte familie." This
week has been like a long carnival. We have
spent our days wandering through parks, tem
ples, and shops, and our evenings in rickshaw
rides or calls on our friends here. We have
really seen a great deal of Nakada and his
young nephew, Yoshinari; the latter has been
down every day, and we have been at the Mis
sion twice.
On Sunday Yoshinari took us to one of the
town missions, and we visited a Japanese Sun
day-school, and later a church service. I wish
you could have seen the children at Sunday-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 25
school. They sang " Bringing in the Sheaves "
in the purest Japanese, and carried the tune
much better than our children do. The children
are just like little dolls; every one is as pretty as
a picture, and the way the little tots carry their
small relations around on their backs is a strange
sight. On Monday morning we took an electric car
to Nakada's house. I wish you could see us try
to make the conductors on these cars under
stand; by the way, none of them talk English.
We rode for about an hour and then alighted
at the prettiest little doll village of a suburb you
can imagine. Narrow lanes, clean as the pro
verbial whistle, with high hedges like boxes on
both sides. Tiny houses that you can look clear
through from any side, with all the screens
pushed back to let in the breeze, hidden in
gardens full of twisted pine trees and little gold
fish pools. Now and then we would pass a car
penter shop with three or four men with beautiful
bronze-muscled backs, working as Father Adam
worked, except for a necktie around the waist;
and once we passed four farmers in a field
threshing rice with flails. They had great peaked
straw hats tied under their chins, and were at it
so hard that they did not look up to see us.

26 LETTERS OF
After fifteen minutes' walk we came to Na
kada's house, and, slipping off our shoes, we
stepped in on the soft white mats. Mrs. Nakada,
her sister-in-law, and her mother-in-law came
in and met us, and then placed mats or cushions
for us to sit on. The whole family, including our
old friend, were in native costume, and none
of the ladies could speak English. When they
entered, they knelt and touched their foreheads
to the floor, and whenever we spoke to them,
they salaamed again and again. After we had
talked a little while, Nakada asked us to stay to
luncheon, and after the proper amount of refus
ing, we accepted, for it is an almost unheard-of
opportunity to be allowed to dine with a Japa
nese gentleman at his house. He always enter
tains at a restaurant, as Dr. Sato did for us.
We had been served with tea on our arrival
as is always the custom, and now we had tea
again. Then macaroni and buckwheat with a
strange sauce; next roast fish, then two kinds of
raw fish and rice, with several sweet cakes and
some great luscious peaches, blood-red through
to the stone. It was a regular family meal with
out any extra preparation ; the ladies served us
but ate separately.
After dinner, Mrs. Nakada showed us her

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 27
children's wardrobe. She has a boy of eleven
and two of the dearest babies in Japan. Their
clothes looked like butterflies' wings, they were
so airy and dehcate. She also showed us her
wedding-dress, a kimono of blue crepe silk with
her coat-of-arms on the back, a little blue chrys
anthemum. She is willing to sell it now as an
offering towards the tabernacles they are going
to build. We sent the family a box of cakes as
a present, and I gave Juji a nice silk handker
chief, but they have put us under obligations
that we cannot repay. Yoshinari gave me a
drawing by a famous artist who lived a hundred
years ago, and Nakada has not only given a
great deal of his valuable time to us, but has
hunted up two servants for us. We have seen
both of the boys, but they do not report for ser
vice until to-morrow morning. I will write you
all about them in my next letter.
Another favor Naky did us was to give up an
afternoon and take us to the great temple of
Kwannon in Asakusa Park. The temple is al
most a thousand years old, and is very large and
full of beautiful gilding and carving. The over
hanging eaves are so heavy with ornaments
that you are almost afraid to pass beneath them.
The temple is reached by passing through a gate

28 LETTERS OF
almost as high as Saginaw's proudest building
block; that is, the superstructure is very high,
the opening itself is ordinary size.
The temple itself is reached by a long flight
of steps, and inside and out on the porch are
hung monster paper lanterns of all shapes, some
of them as big as balloons, actually twenty feet
high. It is a poor people's temple, and you don't
have to take off your shoes. Inside are great jars
of incense and many, many gods, for this is a
Buddhist temple that has absorbed some Shinto
deities. The most pathetic of all is the God of
Healing. His features are all gone and his body
is polished a beautiful ebony color from the
rubbing of many hands. We saw people bring
little children and rub first the god's eye and
then the child's, or maybe the god's leg and then
the child's little lame foot. In front of all these
gods are platforms on which worshippers throw
money. Often thousands of dollars a day are
collected by the priests.
It means a good deal to us strangers to have
such dear friends as Nakada and Chambero
have grown to be, and it is a great concession for
them to give up so much time. Nakada is the
most distinguished preacher in Japan. In Eng
land he is called the Japanese Moody, or the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 29
Pocket Dynamo, We have heard him preach
in English and Japanese, and he is a remarkable
orator. He dresses in coolie costume for his
workmen meetings, in student costume for his
student meetings, samurai silks when he calls
on noblemen, and foreign costume for the new
fields to impress the people. He is a very pictur
esque figure in native dress. I enclose a picture
of Naky and his family. The elderly lady is his
mother. There are only seven native preachers
in Japan that have had native mothers, and she
is the mother of two of them. She is a wonder.
Mrs. N. at the left is much prettier than her
picture would indicate; she is quite a peach!
I wish, father, that you would write him at the
address I gave above and tell him how nice he
has been. Also, if you can think of anything nice
to send either himself or his little boy, it would
be fine. I think maybe a five-pound box of
Huyler's sent to Mr. Juji Nakada and Mr. Ugo
Nakada in my name would be about the most
suitable, for Jap boys don't use toys. The Jap
anese value such attentions much more than
we do, and they would never forget it.
I am glad that mother and my two economical
sisters have not as yet had the misfortune to
enter a Tokyo shop, for if they once got inside.

30 LETTERS OF
the Stark family would beg its bread for ever
more ! When you enter one of the fine shops,
your shoes are either removed by an attendant
or encased in a large cotton bag to each foot.
Then tea is served you and cigarettes are passed.
Afterwards a half dozen of the little brownie boys
that are grown here by the hundred fly around
like bees and unroll new beauties on each side,
until your head is in a whirl. Silks and crepes
heavy with great masses of embroidery, silver
and bronze, velvets and ivories, pearls and clois-
sonne. Three or four of the fellows have made
purchases in the shops. I shan't tell you whether
I have made any purchases or not; wait a year
and see. Wheel After you have
made your purchases, if you have
no rickshaw of your own with
you, the storekeeper usually sends
you home in his, free of charge.
seen several beautiful parks and
temples, but they are all much ahke, and I will
leave the temple subject until we reach Nikko.
At present it is the people and the life that fasci
nate us. We have been twice to the Jiu-jitsu
school by invitation of Baron Some-one-or-other,
yesterday afternoon and to-day. The school is
a large room carpeted with thick mats, and as

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 31
crowded with couples as a Charity Ball. Although
they are wresthng instead of dancing, there is
a great deal more politeness shown than is cus
tomary at a ball. There are always a number
sitting squatted along the wall, and when one
man challenges another, he crouches on his
knees in front of him and beats his head on the
floor. A match closes in the same polite way.
The remainder of time between the two bows
is occupied in hfting each other high in the air
and slamming one's opponent flat on his back
on the floor. Before you enter the building you
can hear this slamming process, and it sounds
hke a regiment of wash-ladies beating carpets.
To-day we fell into conversation with a young
wrestler who could speak English, and we dis
covered that there are three thousand pupils at
the school — most of them students or college
graduates. They are a fine-looking set of men.
The jiu-jitsu is quite different from our wrestling,
and there are three divisions to the art. First,
to throw a man. Second, to break a hmb or
hit some vital spot. Third, to strangle him.
This man was an expert, and gave us a fine
exhibition illustrating the different holds; and
when we left we exchanged cards and he said
he hoped to correspond with us. There is only

32 LETTERS OF
one teacher in all this school, and the men
practise with each other. They are divided
into classes, according to their proficiency,
and they are distinguished by different colored
belts. Our stay in Tokyo has been pleasant in every
way, and we are looking forward with a great
deal of pleasure to returning to this hotel on the
14th of August or about that time. To-morrow
— the end of our first week here — we leave for
Nikko, the most beautiful place in Japan, where
all the finest temples are located. It is only about
one hundred miles north, or less, but it takes
five hours to reach there by train and is much
higher. The country round about is very moun
tainous and is the summer district. We are plan
ning a trip from Nikko that will be almost the
most pleasant part of our stay in this country.
We are going from Nikko to Karinzawa on
foot and horseback, with possibly a short day in
rickshaws. The distance is about one hundred
and thirty-five miles, the country is glorious and
full of beautiful lakes and mountains, the people
are interesting and almost unacquainted with
foreigners, and the climate perfect. The trip in
cludes volcanoes, temples, hot mineral springs,
and real rural life. I think we shall take about

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 33
two weeks to the jaunt and then return direct
to Tokyo from Karinzawa.
After the 14th we expect to climb Fuji, then
go straight to Kyoto and make that our head
quarters as we have Tokyo. You will probably
hear next from me at Nikko, where we shall
probably spend Sunday.
I wish you could have seen us last night ! We
had a farewell evening together, for Wally, Ted,
and John leave for the North to-night, and we
shall not meet again until we reach Kyoto. We
went alone to a purely Japanese inn like the one
where Dr. Sato entertained us. If the Maple
Leaf was the Sherry's of Tokyo, then our last
night's hostelry was Delmonico's. It is in the
centre of a town block, and reached through a
narrow alley, but is even bigger than the Maple
Leaf, and the gardens that form interior courts
are very beautiful. We rattled up in rickshaws
and had our shoes removed by kneeling maidens.
Then we were escorted to a room like the one I
described before, only on the second floor, with
a teak-wood balcony running the whole length
and opening on to the garden. We had tea, cakes,
and peaches, and a geisha apiece. We made up
names for them, like Skidoo San and Cutey San
(San means Miss), and spent the whole evening

34 LETTERS OF
learning Japanese. You would be surprised to
see how well we get along. Not a soul in the
place understood English, but we ordered every
thing we wanted, and carried on such lively
and interesting conversation that it was 11.30
before we knew it was 10. The geishas are the
most entertaining little creatures I have ever
seen. Two of our guests (for they are sent for
and do not belong at the restaurant) were eight
een years old and two seventeen ; none of them
were over four and one half feet tall. Their hair
was elaborately done, and their costumes of
beautiful soft-colored silks. We played children's
games again, and five-in-a-row, which we had
learned on the boat, and learned a Japanese
song, in return for which we taught them " Here 's
to good old Yale, drink her down ! " We tried to
teach them the two-step, and I wish you could
have seen them learning with those tight kimonos
around their feet and their great big sashes. It
was interesting to see the deference paid to the
geishas by the maids of the house. They bowed
to them as they did to us.
When we left, we had the whole house on its
knees in the door and the same gale of laughter
as before. Each geisha left at the same time, in
charge of the old woman who trains and chap-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 35
erons her. This restaurant was called the Moon
and Flower.
More love than ever to all.
Your loving son, Gilbert.
Chuzenji, Japan, August 5, 1907.
Dear Familie, — Nippon Banzai! I have
found the place where I shall spend my honey
moon. It is named Nikko, and is one of the most
perfect combinations of the best that man and
nature can do.
On last Friday we left Tokyo, with many
regrets, and boarded a second-class compart
ment for Nikko — a five hours' ride to the
north. We were the only foreigners on the train,
and our travelling companions were two or
three Japanese gentlemen and a rather elderly
female party who smoked tobacco continually in
a funny little Japanese pipe, which she had to
keep filling after every second puff. The guard
in our car was a gpod-looking youth of nineteen,
and, as is always my custom in foreign lands,
I fell a-talking with him. He knew almost as
many English words as I know Japanese, so we
had a lively time. He was a bit shy at first, but
after a few applications of my effective taming
process, (equally useful with all races, wild or

36 LETTERS OF
mild) he thawed and flew to his baggage, from
which he produced an English dictionary. Like
hundreds of other young men, he is studying
English in all his spare moments, without even
a grammar, nothing but a dictionary. We dis
cussed the San Francisco trouble, in humorous
vein, and he said that all young men looked to
America as their ideal, and that we would grow
closer and closer in spite of difficulties. I shook
hands with him on leaving, and he was quite
overcome. His name was Handa.
Nikko is in the mountains at the mouth of a
very picturesque valley. To the southeast you
look off over the low foot-hills ; and on all sides
and up the valley are very high, magnificently
wooded hills. The trees are mostly cryptomeria,
and are the only trees I have ever seen that equal
the beauty of the sugar-pine forests. The village
is a small one, six thousand souls, and is com
posed of a few stragghng hill streets hned with
open-work houses and fascinating curio shops.
A small wooden bridge answ^Vs to allow ordi
nary humans to cross the Daija Garva (River),
and a stone's throw above it is the famous red
lacquer bridge that you have seen so many pic
tures of, and across which no one but royalty is
allowed to go.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 37
In all directions lead fascinating paths and
tiny roads bordered and roofed with these giant,
cedar-like cryptomerias. At about ten minutes'
walk from our hotel is a group of low wooded
hills, and these hills are crowned with a collec
tion of the most beautiful temples in Japan.
They were built about three hundred years ago,
and contain the bodies of the first Shogun, leyasu,
and his grandson, and represent the climax of
Japanese art in architecture, painting, bronze,
lacquer, and gold-work and wood-carving.
You wander shoeless and open-mouthed past
dragons and chimeras and more strange and
familiar beasts than Mrs. Noah ever saw; over
soft matted floors and across lacquered porches
that are like red ice ; through gates heavy with
giant figures and blazing with red and black and
gold ; up long flights of stone steps, hundreds of
them, with moss-covered stone balustrades, from
shrine to shrine, among more gods than there
are poor relations in the world.
The temple of leyemitsu pleased me most. I
visited it twice, and spent about an hour there
each time. To reach it, you pass through gate
after gate, through gardens, past shrines and
holy springs, and up hundreds of stone steps; all
this after entering the temple grounds. Finally,

38 LETTERS OF
on the highest point possible is the temple. A
simple oblong building with overhanging eaves,
so heavy with carving that the sag in the roof-
beams seems the most natural thing in the world,
and surrounded by a red lacquer porch. The
interior is all one room, bare of furniture except
for a row along one wall of Buddhist bibles, each
in an inlaid box on an inlaid stand. Directly
facing the entrance is a shrine in a deep recess.
This shrine has beautiful gold doors at the back,
behind which are some sacred relics. In the
centre of the recess are three wonderful bronze
dwarfs kneeling on the floor and holding great
pure gold bowls above their heads. These bowls
are filled with a great mass of lilies that perfume
the whole temple. Along the main wall on each
side of the shrine-opening are corresponding
figures. First, a bronze vase with black lacquer
across the mouth to imitate water, full of pure
gold lotus flowers. The vase and flowers are
about seven feet high. Next, a gold heron, some
six feet high, standing on a bronze tortoise; an
other vase with lacquer water and gold cherry-
blossoms and willow branches, then great bronze
lanterns presented by the King of Korea. The
whole interior was no larger than an ordinary
drawing-room, but every available inch was

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 39
completely and elaborately finished. The wall
and ceiling panels are Chinese dragons in gold
and color by Kano, a very famous artist. The
detail is the most elaborate I have ever seen, and
yet the first and last impression is extreme sim
plicity. All you see at first sight is the beautiful
blending of colors and the great gold bowls of
lilies. Nikko, Wednesday, August 17th.
I started this letter at Chuzenji, a little moun
tain lake some forty-nine hundred feet above
the sea and about ten miles from Nikko. We had
started on a hundred-mile walking trip through
Ikao to Karmizawa in the mountains, but at
Chuzenji, our first stop, we found a very heavy
rain that has been lasting several days already,
and every one told us it would be a waste of time
to attempt the mountain-passes, as we should
not be able to see a thing. So, like the King of
France, we all marched down again to Nikko.
The Chuzenji road was very interesting. Pretty
waterfalls, and now and then a wide mountain
prospect that was truly magnificent. The forest
growth is very luxuriant, and not unlike our own
woods except for the flowering vines that climb
way up into the trees, and the feathery clumps of

40 LETTERS OF
bamboo — so light a green that they look almost
yellow against the dark pines.
Our boy Tom was a failure. He was a great
success as a mirth-provoker and would be a
wonderful attraction for any side-show, but as
a servant, he was about as much use as a clothes
pin would be in the same capacity. He was
short, and twenty one. . . . His hair was long,
horribly long, and parted in the middle because
he considered that mode of coiffure very for
eign. His knowledge of English was infinitely
small. He was willing; oh, how willing he was ! But
he did not understand just what was wanted.
When we came to Nikko, Hervey stayed in
Tokyo another day to be tattooed, and I left
Tom for him, as Am.'s servant — a corker —
was going with me. Hervey gave Tom twenty
yen, out of which Tom was supposed to pay litde
things like rickshaw fares and trips. Tom im
mediately spent the whole amount in presents
for Hervey. A set of silver knives, two glass
tumblers, a can of peaches, and a box of coffee,
and a second-hand English book on Japanese
export trade pubhshed about 1870! Nothing
could stop him.
The first morning that I had him I started out

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 41
walking and he followed. I explained in the
choicest English that he was to wait at the hotel.
He said he understood. I walked on; he fol
lowed. I explained the same thing over in Jap
anese; he said he understood. I walked on; he
followed. For three mortal hours he dogged my
footsteps, and every five minutes he asked what
time it was. When we passed anything that he
knew the English name for, he would pluck my
sleeve : — " Horse, master, it ees so ? " " Every
morn he brought us" — no, not violets, but
black-eyed Susans and queer flowers that he
gathered by the wayside. It was pitiful, and we
always felt sorry for him — after we had gotten
into bed at night and did not have him around
to drive us wild.
We might have stood the creature, for he was
devoted to us, but worst of all he was a Christian.
I suppose that shocks you, but if you had had
a Christian of his stamp tagging about, you
would pray for pagans all the rest of your life.
He asked us what time it was, as I mentioned
before, every five minutes, and every three min
utes he asked when we were going to pray. It
was his custom to walk through the streets be
hind us clapping his hands and singing Christian
anthems at the top of his lungs. Hervey and I

42 LETTERS OF
^ould stride along in front, boiling with rage,
and keeping step against our will. He would
also fan us as we walked along, no matter how
•cool the day, and when he was n't singing he
Tvas crooning, ^'Master's boy. Master's boy!"
In our room we could get no privacy, he was
always on hand trying to amuse us. He had a
frightful habit of whistling hymns on a leaf by
the hour, and when that did not seem to amuse
¦ns, he would stand on his head or walk on his
hands. Whenever we said anything that he did
not understand, he would sigh deeply, and, slap
ping his chest, he would remark that his heart
was heavy. As he did not understand anything
Tve said, his heart weighed a great deal most of
the time. I found the only way to cheer him was
to clap my hands and shriek "Hallelujah !" sev
eral times- Then he would shake his long hair
and cry, "Glory, glory, my heart he sings!"
He also prayed often aloud, kneeling by a chair.
When he was hungry, when we did not under
stand him, and when it rained, were his stock
occasions for bursting into prayer. He also wept
about once a day. We called him Tearful
Tommy, or the Great God Pan, because of his
leaf-whistling tendencies. Yesterday Hervey
started for Tokyo with him, and he intends to

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 43
leave him in that great city, returning to Ikao
by rail to-morrow. We leave here to-morrow at
6.20 a. m. for the same place. I am glad to
escape the great weeping and praying'' scene.
When he gives Tom the shake, I quite pity Her
vey. Poor Tom, — a good creature, but a poor,
foolish, weak-headed heathen. More so than any
Buddhist I have met. Next I shall write you
about Minto, my bell-boy friend.
Good-night. Lots of love, Gilbert.
Ikao, Japan, August 8, 1907.
Dear Ones, — After I mailed the letter to
you yesterday, I fell into conversation with a
young American boy who is coming home from
Germany, via Japan, with his mother and sister.
His name is W  B  , and he is a cousin of
W  W  of New York, who "was in my
class. He is going to Yale. He and I ordered
horses, although there was a slight drizzle, and
rode to a beautiful waterfall — Kirifuri — high up
in the mountains. We took all day for the jaunt
and carried our luncheon with us, eating part
of it at a little wayside tea-house, with all the
family sitting around to watch and no one who
could speak Enghsh within miles, and the rest

44 LETTERS OF
of it at the foot of the falls. A coolie boy came
with us to carry our luncheon and look after the
horses, and he ran practically all day long. As
the path was a steep one, fully as difficult as the
Yosemite paths, although not so dangerous, the
feat was no mean one. It is marvellous what
these people can do, and I wish you could see
the kind of people that these mountains produce.
They are larger than those of the plains, and
darker, some of them almost after-dinner-coffee
color, but they all have red cheeks and very
white teeth. The views on the way were even
better than those on the Chuzenji roads. Am.
and Purdy had started on the mountain trip a
day ahead of us, and the rain evidently did not
start soon enough to turn them back; Scurve
had left for Tokyo the day before to get rid of
Kaniko — or the great god Pan — so that I was
alone in Nikko for two nights.
This morning I left Nikko at nine o'clock, with
many regrets, and took the train for Mayebashi.
At Mayebashi, at about three this afternoon, I
boarded a httle horse-car, not quite so large as
a Fifth Avenue 'bus, and rode for two hours up
a very steep track to the mountain village of
Shibukawa. The car was crowded with Japa
nese; there were only six, but they were at least

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 45
two too many for the size of the car. The road
was full of children along the whole way. It
seems that, when these mountain infants reach
the age of ten or twelve, they attain the dignity
of a string around the waist; clothes come at
about fourteen !
At Shibukawa I chartered a rickshaw with
two strong mountain boys to pull me, and for
two more hours we climbed up to this little
nest in the hill. Just as it was getting dark we
stopped at a wayside tea-house for a little rest.
Both the boys and I had tea, and I had a little
dish of sweets, and when I gave the old lady
twenty-five sen, the equivalent of twelve and
one half American cents, she nearly bent double
with gratitude. While we were resting, a ter
rific flash of lightning shot down into a clump
of bamboos just behind us, and the thun
der was deafening and almost instantaneous.
It threw the tea-house into great commotion,
and people ran about like ants in a broken ant
hill. The rest of my trip I made in the dark and
in the rain, so I have seen nothing of the place
or the surroundings; more of them anon. This
hotel is really a Japanese inn, but the hostess,
a fine, cheery, bustling little woman who speaks

46 LETTERS OF
good Enghsh, has installed all the European
comforts that even a finicky woman could
desire. There are only rooms for about twelve
European guests, however, and as they are full,
I am in a Japanese room. I hear vague broken-
English rumors that Hervey has arrived and has
been put up at another inn, but it is too late
and rainy to investigate. Am. and Purdy are still
on the way somewhere. Wally, Ted, and John
have gone on to Kyoto, where we shall join them
later. Now about Mino, the hotel boy I spoke of
in my last letter. He is just one of the boys of all
work around the hotel, his main business being
to show people the way to near-by spots of in
terest. He is fifteen, and a perfect type of the
healthy Japanese school-boy.
The first night we were at Nikko, Purdy and
I put on Japanese costumes, that we had pur
chased in Tokyo, and stole out of the hotel by
a back way. There was a troop of wandering
minstrels and sword-dancers performing under
the light of the hotel porte-cochere, so we squat
ted down in the shadow of the porch to watch
them; Mino saw us and sat down beside us,
thinking that we were real Jappies; when he
found his mistake, he was very audibly amused.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 47
He felt us all over and asked the usual polite
questions about the cost of the goods, and then
volunteered to go put on his kimono, for he had
on a little white jacket. We agreed to wait, and
he soon came back crowing over us because his
best kimono, which he had donned in our honor,
cost twice as much as ours. He took us for a
long walk through the town, and everywhere
we were greeted with cheery "Kumbamwaz"
(good-evening). The acquaintance that we thus started grew
rapidly, for Mino did not leave us again while
we were at Nikko, and mighty good fun we
had together, too, singing native songs that he
taught us and holding long talks with the Bud
dhist priests in some out-of-the-way temple.
Mino talks very fair Enghsh and our Japanese
is progressing, so we got along beautifully.
The night before I left, Mino slipped into my
room just before I had started to go to bed, and
gave me a little cardboard painted with a Nikko
scene, on which he had written his name. I gave
him my card and a few old neckties, whereat he
was quite overcome and disappeared for a mo
ment, returning with his photograph, which he
presented to me. He insisted on knowing every
single place we were going to, and said them

48 LETTERS OF
over until he had learned them by heart. " Please
— a letter," he asked. He wanted to come with
us, and sniffled a little when he said good-by,
also hugged me around the waist.
He is very anxious to come to America when
he is twenty-one. W  was so taken with him
that he talked a good deal about trying to smug
gle him in, and asked him one day if he would
come back home with him. The kid turned to
me and said, "Is it true ?" I think that all of us
will miss him for several days.
All the servants at the Kanaya hotel at Nikko
are related to each other and come from village
families. They are like feudal retainers, loyal
to the last chap, and Mr. Kanaya told me that
they have to watch them to see that they don't
overwork. He keeps sixty servants all winter,
although the hotel is closed, and every night he
teaches them English and Japanese history. He
is only twenty-six, and some of his servants have
been with his family thirty-five years. His
younger brother (twenty-five years old) is one
of the best wrestlers in Japan, and teaches the
men-servants, and even the little boys, jiu-jitsu
every afternoon; all the guests go out to watch.
He showed me some holds, and every time the
porter, a burly brute, came to my room for shoes

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 49
we had a bout. Long live Nikko ! you must all
go there some day. Lovingly, Gilbert.
Tokyo, Japan, August, 14, 1907.
Dear Ones, — In my last letter I think I had
just arrived at Ikao and had seen nothing of the
place. After I sent the letter off to you, I took
a hot bath and weijt to bed. The bath was a
wooden hole in the floor, waist-deep and almost
big enough to swim in. You know it is the fash
ion for several Japanese to get in the same tub
at once, all ages, sizes, and sexes at the same
time. So far, however, we have always been
able to have a bath to ourselves. The water is
always hot, and at Ikao it was hotter than usual,
for the water boils out of the ground in hot min
eral springs and flows steaming through stone
gutters in every street in the village. It flowed
along the outside wall of our hotel, and the
method of drawing a bath is simply to pull a
stopper out of the wall and let the hot water
gush in from outside.
Am. and Purdy showed up in the morning and
Scurve moved down to our hotel. Our rooms
were Japanese style, no windows, only sliding
paper screens; and the wall screens were bare

50 LETTERS OF
of ornament but covered with silk like that in
Mrs. H  's drawing-room. At this hotel they
gave us the luxury of real beds. At one end the
screens opened on a poHshed teak-wood porch,
just beyond which was the steep hillside; at the
other end they opened on a balcony, from which
we looked across the roofs of the village just
below us out over the wide valley of the Tone-
gawa, some two thousand feet below. Across the
valley rose a huge wall of rocky hills and one
monster of a dead volcano — Akagi San.
The village itself has one main street that runs
straight down the hill. It is called a street by
courtesy, for it is in reality a long flight of broad
granite steps over two hundred feet in height;
that is, there is a difference of two hundred feet
in the level of the top and bottom steps. The
houses overhang these steps, and the gutters on
each side send up clouds of steam, for the water
in them is almost boiling. Strange little inns,
houses, baths, and curio shops line the street,
and the village peters out in little side alleys in
all directions.
At our hotel, which has been the leading
hostelry for three hundred years, there were
twelve Europeans, mostly residents in Japan, up
for the whole summer, and one hundred and

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 51
fifty Japanese guests. Ikao is the leading sum
mer resort for Japanese people. There are about
six hundred spending the vacation there, and
they are all a very nice class of people. You see
the population of the village is practically dou
bled during the season. There is nothing to do
at Ikao but walk and bathe, but the walks are
fine, and the baths, which are used about three
times a day, very refreshing in spite of their
heat. Paths lead in every direction among the hills,
some of them long, steep climbs and some almost
level. Whichever way you go, you are sure to find
a little temple and a little tea-house. There is
almost every kind of scenery, — wild rocks and
steep cliffs ; long, grassy, highland moors covered
with masses of wild lihes and bluebells big as
asters; fine old pine forests and little thickets
around stream-beds, where you can always find
a cuckoo or Japanese nightingale that is willing
to sing; and every now and then you come to a
natural vapor-bath or hot pool, where people are
bathing, or the path leads you to a dizzy look
out, from which you could almost throw a stone
down for three thousand feet, and where a mag
nificent panorama miles in length is unrolled
before you.

52 LETTERS OF
These hills are full of people on a bright day,
for although the country is practically uninhab
ited, the summer population of Ikao chmb the
high hills behind it every day. They go together
in families and take it slowly, not as we do, to get
to their destination, but as one ought to do —
making the walk an end not a means. They stop
often and sit, while the little girls chase the butter
flies which they themselves rival in bright colors,
and the little boys scramble up the nearest rocks,
and the big boy whose hakama tells that he is a
student, probably at the University, gathers in
sects with a long net or studies some root with
his microscope. Father tucks his kimono in his
belt and sits down fanning his bare brown legs,
and mother and mother-in-law get their breath
and gossip, or pull a couple of big peaches out
of their sleeves and daintily fall to.
Towards night they all turn homewards,
dragging great masses of wild lilies or an arm
ful of flowering branches. Not a pair of trou
sers or an ugly collar besides our own to mar the
countryside. A great many of the gentlemen
and even more of the boys (who were mostly
students) could talk Enghsh, and we had many
pleasant though halting conversations with
chance acquaintances in the hills.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 53
On Monday we returned to Tokyo, and yester
day we visited Kamakura, to see the Daibutsu,
of which I am sending you some post-cards. It is
more impressive than one can realize without
seeing all the surroundings and setting. Kama
kura is a little fishing village on the seashore and
is very picturesque.
I should have saved the word picturesque for
the island of Enoshima, some three miles fur
ther down the coast. We reached it by train,
and then walked across a narrow neck of land,
which is exposed only at low tide, and found
ourselves on an island that I should judge is a
mixture of the beauties of both Saint Michel
and Capri.
Along the shore stretches a tiny fishing vil
lage, most of the inhabitants swimming or lying
on the beach au naturel. The sides are steep and
rocky, and the whole island not more than a mile
across. As you walk around the top, you catch
beautiful glimpses of the bay and sea through
deep gorges and between the branches of gnarled
pines and laurels which frame every view on the
island. We took luncheon at a Japanese inn
with a broad view, perched on the very edge of
the cliff; then walked across the island and
chmbed down to some great broad rocks, from

54 LETTERS OF
which we entered and explored the famous
caves of Enoshima. These caves are supposed
to have an underground connection with Fuji,
for a man who was pursued by his enemies once
vanished down the crater of Fuji and appeared
at Enoshima. Sounds like the legend of the lake,
does n't it ? The caves are very old, and with
our candles we could see strange carvings and
stone idols from times far gone. One idol was
in the form of a great coiled snake ! A prehistoric
relic indeed.
When we came out on the rock, we were
surrounded by a group of men and boys, the
oldest probably seventy and the youngest ten.
They were in the usual dishabille peculiar to the
Japanese seacoast, which may be described as
being absolute, and their natural dark red color
(for the lower classes are as dark as our Indians)
was sunburned to a negro black. Despite their
wild look they were very pleasant and most
polite, and requested us to throw a small coin
into the sea for them to swim after. We amused
ourselves to about the extent of ten cents and
then left them. They are very expert at diving
for money and never fail to get it.
The other fellows left early in the afternoon
for Yokohama^ where they had business to attend

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 55
to, but as I had nothing to do and was charmed
with our Japanese inn, I spent the night on the
island, leaving this morning at 7.30 and reach
ing Tokyo at 9 a. m., about half an hour ago or
longer. The inn at Enoshima was a large one, but of
very simple construction. It was built around a
court, the fourth side of which was the edge of
the cliff. The three wings were connected by
covered galleries and were two stories high. All
the rooms opened on to the court and had the
benefit of the beautiful view and cool breeze.
The screens are left open all day, so from the
court inside, the hotel looked like a double row
of paper caves or a long dolls' house. Outside
of each room runs the usual polished teak-wood
porch. Of course there was no decoration in my
room — spotless mats, silk-paper walls, with
cherry-blossom design in soft colors, in the usual
sacred niche a bronze cat, and a tall vase with
one flowering branch. The meals were delicious.
Lobster and fresh fish (all cooked, for a wonder),
soup, bean paste, potatoes, and eggs — almost
like a European meal, and a very dainty little
maid to serve it.
In the later afternoon I was sitting on the
opposite side of the island, under an arbor.

56 LETTERS OF
drinking the inevitable tea and thinking that if
there were only a very high mountain this might
be the Bay of Naples, when suddenly, above the
line of clouds in the west, appeared the crest of
Fuji. Our first meeting. It was bare of snow, but
none the less beautiful. Perfect, symmetrical,
too well proportioned and finished to look real
— it put the period to my first impressions of
Japan, and now I feel that I have really and
completely reached Japan; without Fuji there
was something lacking.
Iwent back to my inn at about five, bathed,
and donned the kimono that is always brought
a guest, and kept it on until I left this morning.
A kimono and nothing else is a very sensible and
comfortable thing. I sat squatted on my mat-
floor near the open side of the room, drinking
tea and enjoying the view, with a maid to fan me.
Several of the guests dropped in to talk, most
of them high-class gentlemen or students; one
little schoolboy could talk quite a lot of Eng
lish. The evening I spent in the court, under an
arbor of wisteria, talking with three Chinese stu
dents from Tokyo who had the room next to me.
They could talk excellent Japanese, and one of
them knew a few German words. I vdsh you
could have seen us; three Chinamen and an

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 57
American, clad in nothing but gossamer kimo
nos, sitting on the cliff of a beautiful island and
talking Japanese!
I think we shall leave for Kyoto on Friday or
Saturday, this being Wednesday.
Lots of love, Gilbert.
Just another word. Railway travel here is very
interesting and quite comfortable, although it
is usually hot as Tophet (Aunt Lydia, you taught
me that naughty expression). We always go
second-class and usually take luncheon with us,
buying a pot of tea from a station hawker at
some stop near noon. This tea is very refresh
ing, and costs one and a quarter American cents
a pot. It is Japanese tea of course, green and
without milk or sugar. We have grown very fond
of it, and prefer it to the Ceylon tea as a general
thing. Japanese railroad scenery is principally
little straw-thatched villages, connected by broad
rice-fields that are hemmed in by little fantastic
hills. Now and then a grove of pines, a stream
full pf laughing children, a lonely fisherman sit
ting by a pool about the size of Simple Simon's
tub or "mother's pail," and whenever you pass a
clump of trees, above the noise of the train you
can hear the shrill crickets or cicalas; this noise

58 LETTERS OF
is the background of Japanese hfe, so constant
that you become unconscious of it.
Love, Gilbert.
Kyoto, Japan, August i8, 1907.
Ho-ho! ho-ho! That is the way the Devil used
to make his entrance on the Elizabethan stage,
and as I feel very devilish this morning, I adopt
it. Ho-ho ! — one and all — ho-ho ! Our trip
in Japan has been a steady climax. Tokyo was
worth three Yokohamas. Nikko was the most
ideal place I have ever seen, and now Kyoto — ! !
Kyoto is almost halfway across Japan, and the
trip here took from 8 a. m. until 7.30 p. m. Our
train was an express, and because it was liable
to be crowded, we took first-class tickets last
Friday morning, Scurve, Purdy, and I ; Am. is
still in Tokyo waiting for some permits to visit
things here that the Embassy has promised us.
We checked our baggage, saving only the litde
pieces to carry, but Scurve's outfit is so elaborate
that we found a perfect stream of luggage shoot
ing through the car window — three porters
outside and two inside; it piled up on the seat
like grain from a hopper, and when the storm
cleared, we counted eleven pieces, great and
small. The car was crowded, but our many side

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 59
issues made such a tremendous hit with the train
boy that he led us to a compartment which we
occupied without extra charge. Then he re
moved our shoes and brought us slippers, and
about once an hour he looked in with a brush
and polished something, he did n't care what, so
long as he was polishing.
The railroad leads along an old highway,
the Tokkaido, which connected Kyoto and
Tokyo, and was the most famous road in this
empire of footpaths. We travelled for a long
time around the base of Fuji, but its top was
heavily cloaked with storms. We have given up
the ascent because it has been in clouds for days,
and we could not wait around for it to clear.
There is no use going up in a storm, for not only
is it disagreeable, but you may go up and down
without even having seen the mountain you are
climbing. Kyoto was the capital and Emperor's home
for years and years, until Commodore Perry put
an end to the old Shogun's rule and restored the
lost power to the Emperor by opening the coun
try to new ideas. It lies in a level basin sur
rounded by high, closely-wooded hills. The
basin is not quite large enough to hold it all, so
some of the parks and villas and temples have

6o LETTERS OF
climbed up the hillside out of the way and tried
to hide in the forest. Our hotel is quite high and
just out of the town. It is a low, rambling build
ing, one and two stories high, and it sprawls over
the hill like a weasel stretching. It is full of court
yards and galleries and bridges, with high stone
terraces on one side and a big Japanese garden
stretching up the hill behind. You can start at
the office and turn forty corners, cross a bridge,
and climb four flights of stairs, and still find
yourself on the ground floor.
Every time we come in from a walk or rick
shaw ride, a boy for each of us springs out into
the courtyard and rubs our shoes with a cloth.
Yesterday another boy stood behind me to fan,
and he fanned so hard I almost blew away. I
could feel my cowlick sticking straight up in the
breeze. These two youths escorted me to the
toilet-room and drew water for me, brushed me
and fanned me while I washed, offered me a
towel and fanned me while I used it; then es
corted me to a seat and brought me mineral
water !
The sights here are so many and varied that it
would take weeks to see them all. Most of them
are placed around on the hills in a circle about
the city, and if one ever finished the sights of the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 6i
city, there are dozens of delightful walks and
whole day trips in the neighborhood; and after
that — this is the centre for visits to Nara,
Kobe, and Osaka — the garden of Japan, the
Japanese call it.
The city is very quiet, and the only noises we
hear in our rooms are the usual roarings of lions
in the Zoo, hidden among trees at our right, or
the booming of some beautiful bell from one of
the innumerable temples. These bells are of
bronze and many of them cast in Korea; they are
never rung, for they have no clappers, — they
are struck by long wooden beams swung at their
sides like battering-rams, and the sound is as deli
cate and clear as a silver gong, but you can hear
it miles away. The streets of Kyoto are narrow
and have no sidewalks ; but why should they ?
They are cleaner than many sidewalks at home.
I have seen only two horses so far in Kyoto, and
they were on a carriage that the hotel owns. The
heavy loads are pulled almost entirely by men,
with all their sons pushing behind. Now and
then a great ox shoulders his way through the
crowd, dragging a heavy truck. The architec
ture is all old-fashioned and pure Japanese, and
the people were more polite and simple than any
we have met.

62 LETTERS OF
The town is intersected by little canals of swift,
clear water, and they are used as baths by the
people living along the banks. Any time of day
you can see two or three people splashing about
whenever you cross a canal. The river is a pretty
one, shallow but swift. In it are many little
islands and pebbly sand-bars. These are con
nected by bamboo bridges and covered with the
low, matted tables that the Japanese tea-house
offers for seats, and at night the people sit about
and gossip in the river-bed, drinking their tea
and listening to a group of musicians or singing
giris. Saturday was our first morning in Kyoto, and
Purdy and I started out to visit some of the tem
ples near the hotel. We saw first the Chion-in
Temple, which turned out to be the largest we
have seen in Japan. It was built by the same
man who designed the Nikko temples, but all of
the temples at Nikko could, I think, be placed
inside this one. Of course, the Chion-in Temple
has not the elaborate finish of the Nikko mau
soleums, but it has more dignity and impressive
power. While the Nikko temples are all of red
lacquer, this one is only bare, weather-stained
wood, but the effect of this dark wood and the
darker bronze work on its surface is beyond the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 63
powers of art to imitate. It was not painted be
cause the work was esteemed so complete that no
ornament was needed. Behind the temple is an
other large building, a sort of a monastery, con
nected by a covered porch with the main temple.
In it is one large hall, three hundred and twenty
mats long, and a number of small rooms that
have been occupied by famous abbots and em
perors. The screen decoration is marvellous.
Pine-tree branches loaded with snow, bamboo
forests, cranes, storks, landscapes, all in the
most delicate coloring and all about three hun
dred years old. In one room is painted a flight of
sparrows, but the sparrows were so real they flew
away, and you can only see slight marks on the
screen where they have been. The porches are
all built to give a musical sound as you walk
over them; that is known to Japanese as the
" nightingale squeak."
In the evening we attended a festival at Kio-
midzu-Dera, or Temple, but as I must stop now,
I will send this letter and start another about the
festival later. Love to all, Gilbert.

64 LETTERS OF
Kyoto, August 19, 1907.
Dear Family, — My last letter closed, I be
lieve, just as I was about to visit Kiomidzu-Dera.
In the afternoon we took rickshaws up a series of
narrow streets, full of life, to the foot of a very
steep lane, where we descended and commenced
to walk. Old men, nurses for babies, and Bud
dhist nuns with shaved heads were abroad in
plenty that afternoon. The steep street which
led up the hill was lined with shops full of crock
ery and porcelain — Teapot Lane, it is called.
At the top of the hill we found a collection of
temple buildings, galleries, and courtyards, over
hanging a beautiful valley and giving a fine view
of the cities. That day happened to be the most
important festival day of the temple year, so the
crowd was enormous. At every shrine were mul
titudes of worshippers, and the soft gongs and
droning of the priests mingled with the laughter
and joking of the crowd. Everywhere was the
smell of incense, and candles twinkled in the
dark temple recesses, while outdoors the sun was
very bright. A Japanese crowd is never noisy
or disagreeable ; it is more orderly than an Ameri
can sewing-circle meeting or church supper.
On the way back to the hotel I bought some

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 65
tabi or Japanese socks, with the big toe sepa
rate. At the shop where I bought them was a
very bright, attractive young fellow who could
speak a few English words. After dinner all the
fellows went again to the Kiomidzu Temple, but
I waited at the hotel and then walked out alone.
The beauty of Japan is that there is no rowdy or
mucker class, and even a lady can walk through
the narrowest, darkest streets at night and meet
only with drawing-room courtesy. I walked for
about half an hour, not much caring about di
rection, and I came out in front of the Gion
Temple, which I recognized. A few doors down
the street was the shop where I bought my
tabi, and on the bench in front were the old
couple that own it, enjoying the life of the
street. When I passed, they recognized me and
bowed very low. I walked down a little past
them and then retraced my steps, and when
I passed the second time, they rose and invited
me to sit on their bench. As I take every chance
for an adventure I sat down, and I wish you
could have seen me. There I was in this narrow
street, with paper lanterns of all colors vanish
ing in long lines in both directions, and the
street full of light from the little open-faced
houses and shops along the sides. At my right

66 LETTERS OF
the old gentleman and at my left the old lady,
a true old-school housewife, with her teeth
blackened. Both were standing and both were
fanning me for dear life, and whenever I looked
in their direction, they would laugh and bow.
In front, a crowd of ten or fifteen children star
ing open-mouthed. Behind, the children of the
family, all interested in the American visitor. I
ventured my few Japanese phrases, which were
received with great pleasure and surprise and
many polite compliments on my cleverness —
the usual convention. The old lady disappeared
and returned with a picture of her eldest son, a
student in San Francisco, and then she showed
me his diploma from some business college there.
Soon the nice youth who had waited on me in the
afternoon appeared, and when I asked the way
to the Kiomidzu Temple, he went with me. The
evening crowd was even more interesting than
that of the afternoon, and the boy — Kizo, Kizo
Moni — showed me a litde waterfall of very cold
water. We descended to its foot and there found
a crowd of devotees, some standing underneath
the cold stream, others waiting their turn. They
are supposed to acquire great merit by shivering
in the water for fifteen or twenty minutes.
I found Kizo one of the brightest, nicest Jap-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 67
anese that I have met. He is going to join his
brother in San Francisco next year.
Yesterday morning I was dressing in a lei
surely fashion when I received a note from J 
V  to hurry down, as we were all invited to
spend the day with Mr. Tshii and Mr. Inagake,
some people to whom he had letters. They es
corted us to the train in rickshaws, and there
some of their servants helped to settle us in a
comfortable compartment. We rode for about
an hour on the train, and then alighted at a coun
try station where another servant was waiting
for us with eight rickshaws. A short drive
brought us to the shore of a beautiful little river,
the Hodzu Gawa, where we stepped into a long
Japanese boat manned by three oarsmen, two
steersmen, and a man in the bow with a bamboo
pole to keep us clear of rocks. For an hour and
a half we shot down the river through a deep
gorge and over boiling mill-races and rapids; it
was just like automobiling, and quite exciting,
to say nothing of the picturesque scenery and
the interesting human and animal life along the
shores. At the end of our trip we found the Arashima
tea-house, famous for cherry blossoms in the
spring and maples in the fall. There we had an

68 LETTERS OF
excellent Japanese luncheon, and afterwards re
turned to Kyoto by train. But our party was not
yet over, no, indeed. We were met by rickshaws
and carried across the city up the hillside to Mr.
Inagake's country villa. Of all ideal villas this
was the most ideal! You enter by a courtyard
with strange-shaped pine-trees and a stone-paved
walk. At one side is a door for servants, leading
to a quarter where the visitors, coolies, and rick
shaw men are entertained, and right in front is
the guests' door. Our shoes were removed by
maids and boys, and then we entered. Directly
inside were two very large connecting rooms
with balconies on the side and end looking into
the daintiest, most complete garden we have yet
seen in Japan. From the farthest end a covered
bridge, polished teak-wood, leads to several
small reception-rooms and a large dining-room,
— that is, we used it for a dining-room. Out
side the garden is a thick bamboo forest that
completely hedges the place in.
After our entrance, servants brought us cool
ing drinks, fans, and each a box of cigarettes.
There were two young clerks from Mr. Inagake's
company, one of whom could talk a litde Eng
lish, and who, by the way, is going to dine here
with me to-morrow. Mr. I. himself could not

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 69
speak a word of our tongue, but Mr. T. could
speak a little. We had Wally's boy Bashi along
as an interpreter, however. Before us were the
gardens with grotesque trees and flowering
shrubs and waterfalls and pools of fish, ahd be
hind us were beautiful screens, flights of sparrows,
great gold screens for walls in one room covered
with painted chrysanthemums and waterfalls by
moonlight; beneath our feet soft white mats.
As a compliment to us, Mr. I. served us with
an American dinner on a table, with chairs,
knives, and forks. It must have cost him an im
mense amount of trouble. The appointments
were perfect, the courses without end, possibly
fifteen or twenty, and every description of wines
and accessories. After dinner we returned to
another room. Night had fallen, and the whole
house was now lighted by candles on tall, breast-
high candlesticks. These were placed in rows
down the verandahs and around the walls of the
rooms. Two maids passed along the rows snuff
ing them almost incessantly. At Mr. Inagake's
request we took off our coats and stretched
out comfortably on soft cushions placed on the
mats. Boys fanned us. After a few minutes'
pause, a little flurry was heard at the farther
end of room one, and in fluttered eight charming

70 LETTERS OF
geishas, a picked eight, the prettiest and most
accomplished in Japan, our host assured us.
They talked and laughed with us awhile, and
then gave us a vocal and instrumental concert
and four or five dances full of beautiful poses.
We are beginning to understand Japanese music
a litde, and to realize the pains and skill it takes
to produce the desired effect. The grand finale
was a dance of Friendly Relations between
Japan and America. Surely this was a royal
day's entertainment if there ever was one !
On my return I found Kizo waiting. He had
come to deliver some tabi at five P. m., and with
the usual oriental disregard for time, had waited
until ten to see us. I made an appointment with
him to go to the Japanese theatre at five the next
day, to-day, and will write later of the outcome.
This morning Purdy and I visited the two
Hongwangi temples, Nishi and Higashi, the lat
ter being the largest in Japan. They were beau
tiful and interesting, and the priest who showed
us around was even kinder than usual, and knew
more English than most of the others we have
met. We have gotten so we thoroughly enjoy
taking our shoes off and walking on the soft
temple and house mats ; we have lived in stock
ing and bare feet so much lately, that our feet

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 71
feel better and more comfortable than they ever
do at home.
August 21 St.
Night before last, at which point the last page
of this letter closes, Kizo, the Japanese Apollo,
appeared at five p. m., and he and I rickshawed
down the hill to Mina-Uni-Za, the big theatre
of Kyoto. We stopped before a building gayly
decorated with lanterns and flags, and, remov
ing our shoes, entered. We were led into a little
balcony box by two polite and very-willing-to-
be-smiled-at maids, and after we were comfort
ably seated on the floor — for I refused the
chair they offered — the same maids brought
us fruit, tobacco, and the bill.
The theatre was a large one, larger than most
of our New York theatres. Around the three
sides was a balcony, the two opposite portions
divided into boxes, but the end furnished with
"promiscuous mats." Behind this end section
was " nigger heaven." The floor stretched out
beneath us was like a gigantic tennis racket. In
each hole three or four people were squatted,
drinking tea and eating rice or peaches. The
strings of the racket were narrow raised divisions
which are used as aisles. A little toward the right
of the centre a wide raised platform, equal in

72 LETTERS OF
height with the stage, ran from the stage to the
back of the house. This was used for some
entrances, and between acts was a playground
for the children. I stayed at the theatre from
5.30 until 11.30 p. m., and found something of
interest every minute.
The plays presented were, first, a six-act
tragedy, and second, a three-act comedy, both
modern and very like American plays in plot
construction. The costumes were excellent, the
scenery better than all except the best American
scenery, and the acting realistic in the extreme.
The denouement of the tragedy was where
the hero attacks the villain in his (the villain's )
house. The attack is frustrated by the villain's
wife, who seizes the hero from behind and ties
her sash around his sword arm. The wounded
villain drags himself into the garden and disap
pears in the darkness; then the hero starts in
pursuit, dragging the woman behind him, for
she still holds the sash. The stage revolves
slowly and you watch the murderer grope his
way through the garden. At a stone arched
bridge he finds his strength failing, so he pulls
the woman to him hand over hand and kills her.
At last a litde temple appears, and at the top
of its steps lies the villain. His death is rapid.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 73
but horrible. Then the hero retraces his steps,
starting at every sound, mistaking trees for ene
mies and attacking them, past the dead woman
on the bridge (the stage turning the other way
now) to the house where he commits hari-kiri.
Every step of the search and the slaying is a
beautiful pose like a sword dance, and the atti
tudes of the victim and avenger during the whole
man-hunt are like a series of old prints.
Since that night we have seen several more
beautiful temples, but all of the same order.
Twice the priests have served us delicious cere
monial tea, and once they allowed us to feed the
carp in the garden — that was at the Golden
Pavilion. This morning our permits from Tokyo ar
rived, and we used them to visit the Imperial
palace and the Shogun's palace. These two
buildings were the seats of power until the mid
dle of the last century. They have no furniture,
only great rooms carpeted with spodess mats,
ceiled with panelled woods, and walled with
wonderful screens of gold and green and blue.
Lions and tigers, pine trees and bamboos, heron,
geese, and sparrows, kings and fishermen — al
most every screen is a masterpiece, and most of
them over three hundred years old. The Sho-

74 LETTERS OF
gun's palace was smaller but far more beautifully
complete than that of the Emperor. We had
heard it called a "dream of golden splendor,"
and on the spot we echoed the phrase instinc
tively. Last night Purdy and Scurve grew excited over
maps and decided to go from Shanghai up the
Yangtze River and across to Burmah overland.
It will take them about three months, and is
a trip of almost thirty-six hundred miles. Of
course, during that whole time, they can neither
get nor send mail.
I hate to leave Japan now that we are getting
acquainted with some of the people and the rudi
ments of the language, but as time may press us
in Indo-China, I am thinking seriously of going
straight to Shanghai and up the Yangtze, sailing
from Japan about September 7th. It is practi
cally a choice between Pekin and the Yangtze
trip, and from what information I have gotten
here the Yangtze trip is far the most worth
while. I will write definitely in a day or two.
Love to all, Gilbert.
Hakone, Japan, September i, 1907.
Dear Pamela, — You may remember that
some time ago I wrote you about a hotel boy at

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 75
Nikko named Mino. At Tokyo, after I came
down from Ikao, I found a letter from him all
written in Japanese. When I got to Kyoto, I
found another, and after a litde hesitation, I wrote
to the Nikko Hotel and asked them to let me
have him for a couple of weeks. They were very
nice and gave him a vacation, and he arrived in
Kyoto shordy after I last wrote you. He is very
much more useful than our first servant thought
of being, and he is a constant source of amuse
ment and pleasure.
Soon after he came I moved to a Japanese
hotel, the Matsunoya Hotel. Scurve Perrin went
down, too, and we had four very pleasant days.
Mino was a great help, as the hotel people could
not speak a word of English.
The building itself was much the same as
other Japanese houses I have described: large,
clean, soft-matted rooms, with scroll pictures
hanging on the walls, and two sides opening
on the inevitable and always charming garden
that sends great flowering branches and the
noise of running water into the room.
As soon as you enter a Japanese hotel you
take off all your clothes, with two or three ad
miring maids, whom neither love nor money could
drive from the room, to help you. Then you don

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a kimono and gird your loins with a silken obi
or belt, and in this costume you lie at full length
on the floor or sitwith crossed legs on litde square
cushions. Meals are served on little lacquered
tables about eight inches high, which the maids
bring in at meal- times, a separate table for each
person. The meals consist mainly of fish, raw
and cooked, several kinds always, and mush
rooms, potatoes, beans, eggs, and rice. When you
are quite through, you push the table a litde to
one side, and then the maids bring peaches and
tea. It was our custom to have tea about five
times a day. The native tea is green, and you
take it in little cups without handles, and never
use cream or sugar.
At night the litde Japanese doll-maids stag
ger in under great rolls of mattress, futan they
are called. These mattresses are about the size
of a single bed and maybe two inches thick. At
the Matsunoya Hotel they were covered with
silk. For our benefit they spread two thicknesses
of mattress. For bed covering they have one big
silk quilt with a sheet buttoned on to the edges
covering the side nearest your body. The Jap
anese pillow is like a small section of the hard
rolls we sometimes put on our beds in the day
time. The wooden rests we have seen pictures of

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 77
are used only by the ladies to keep their hair in
order. After the bed is made, a great orange-
colored mosquito netting with silk edges is fas
tened to the corners of the ceiling, so that your
whole room is made into a sort of cage.
The bath is a wooden opening in the floor,
full of very hot water, and is made use of any
time after four p. M. In the morning the water is
usually cold, as the Japanese indulge always in
the evening.
Mino is rich in a Japanese hotel. He sits in
the centre of the room and claps his hands in
regular Arabian Nights fashion; at every clap
in waddles a little maid, and with the air of
a Daimio he orders lemonade, peaches, tea, or
a clean kimono. Another of his specialties is
shopping. Every day he adds something to the
collection that he is taking back to Nikko, from
sweetmeats to a sword-cane. The other day he
appeared with a whole tea-set for his mother. I
was thunderstruck, for it was a very pretty set
and I could n't imagine where he got the money.
Later I discovered that it had cost him fifteen
cents in American money!
He is an expert at imitating the geisha dancers
and the Nikko temple dancers, and he amuses us
for hours with his antics. Another of his imi-

78 LETTERS OF
tations is what he calls "American shibai"
(American theatre). It seems that some man
once gave an American monologue of the Uncle
Silas type at the Kanaya Hotel. In his imitation
Mino pulls a hat over his eyes and walks up and
down with a perfect imitation of the American
hayseed. The words he utters, however, are an
unintelligible jumble meant to imitate our noble
English language. His English is another source
of amusement. When he says, " Mio nichi my
horse?" he means, "Do we make to-morrow's
trip on horseback ?" Or, "Yesterday night my
three hours' sleep, taihen woof-woof," means
that the dog's barking kept him awake last night
so that he only slept three hours.
For two days at this Japanese hotel it rained
so that we could not go out. In fact, they had the
heaviest rains for years, and towns and bridges
were swept away. Time never hung on our
hands, though, for every moment there was some
thing new and strange going on. I had a very
pleasant visit one night from my friend Kizo,
about whom I wrote you.
After the rain stopped, we spent one day in
making a trip by rickshaw to Lake Biwa, the
largest lake in Japan, about six miles north of
Kyoto. There we saw a quaint temple and

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 79
climbed a hill to see a famous view, then hired
a boat and came back by canal. The scenery
along the canal is very picturesque, and at one
place we went under a mountain through a tun
nel almost a mile long. We passed several boats
in the darkness, each one with a paper lantern
hung at the bow, in the light of which the bare
body of the oarsman gleamed red as he swung
back and forth over his scull.
On last Monday we left Kyoto for Kobe.
Kobe is a hustling port, with high-priced hotels
and shops, and nothing to see except one water
fall. On Tuesday Mr. Inagaki entertained us
again at another villa about ten miles out of
Kobe on the seashore. It is a very pretentious
villa, situated in an imperial grant, with a beau
tiful view over the tops of a pine forest out on
to the Inland Sea, and a long curve of sand
beach stretching towards Kobe.
Tuesday night we took a steamer from Kobe
to Miyajima, which place we reached the next
afternoon at five o'clock. The Inland Sea down
which we travelled is the finest sheet of water I
have ever seen, and the night view of it by the
light of the full moon, and the next day with an
Italian sky and a cool breeze, are two expe
riences I shall not forget.

8o LETTERS OF
The postal cards I sent you from Miyajima
do not give you any idea of the beauties of this
place. It is an island about eighteen hundred
feet high and thickly wooded. Itsikushima is the
old name for it, and it has been sacred for years
and years. No dogs or burials are allowed on
the island, and it is only lately that women have
been allowed to land on it. There is a huge tem
ple built over the sea on piles, and when the tide
is in, the whole building with its several thousand
feet of galleries and dancing stages seems afloat.
Out in front of the temple is the famous Torii
in the water, a really beautiful sight, to which
the picture does not do anything like justice.
Our hotel at Miyajima was a famous Japanese
inn, the Iwaso Hotel. It is a series of one-story
villas built in a scattered fashion throughout a
very beautiful maple park. Our room hung over
a litde rocky gorge, with a waterfall above and a
clear pool direcdy below. The rocky sides of the
pool were covered with a wealth of vines and
pines and maples, and queer litde stone steps
led to its edge. In the morning sometimes we
had the pleasure of watching a Japanese guest
paddle around in the pool in preference to using
the regular bath. The island is full of deer that
have been treated so well for generations that

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 8i
they are perfecdy tame and very friendly, and
wander around the streets and stream-beds quite
at home.
Am. and Mino and I made this Miyajima trip
alone, leaving the rest in Kobe ; but on the boat
we fell in with a very nice Japanese student, who
stayed at Miyajima with us for two days, and
with whom we took several long walks and a de
lightful swim in the ocean. I wish I could make
you feel the charm of that island, with its clean,
sand beaches, and masses of thick, green foliage,
and mountains, and temples, and quaint town
streets, and deer, and smiling people, and litde
brown babies tumbling about the surf all day;
but it is useless to try, you must come and see
for yourself. Love to all, Gilbert.
Hakone, September 2, 1907.
Dear Helen, — My letter to Pam yesterday
left me enchanted on the sacred island of the In
land Sea; before I tell you how I broke the spell
and got here, I must throw in another detail. On
our last night there, our Japanese student friend,
who had just missed his third boat on purpose
to stay with us, appeared, and our early evening
was spent in the village watching an annual

82 LETTERS OF
dance in which the village youngsters, in best
attire and masked, competed for honors in grace
and rhythm. After an hour of mingling with the
crowd (we had on our kimonos, too, you may be
sure), we returned to our nest above the pool,
and indulged in peaches and tea for the hundred
and seventh time that day. Before crawling
under our mosquito tents and stretching out on
the floor, we strolled through the park to the top
of a small hill. The sky was heavy with stars, and
below us the calm sea flashed back star for star.
Behind us rose the mountain we had climbed in
the afternoon, and everywhere the deep shade of
pines and maples, and the sound of running water,
and the never-ending shrill of the cicala. " Hear
the worms sing!" said our student friend, and
by performing one of the feats of will-power of
the century I did n't crack a smile.
On Tuesday we had said good-bye to Scurve
and Purdy, who sailed for Shanghai to make pre
paration for the great expedition overland to
India. We shall not see them again until Decem
ber. There is really hardly any danger, for the
road is well marked, an easy native trade route,
and the people are simple-hearted, kindly Chinese,
not like the Coast Chinamen. One man who took
the trip said he felt safer among them than in

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 83
New York. If I had three years to travel, I should
like to join them, but as it is — no, thanks.
On the same day we said good-bye to John,
Ted, and Wally, who have started across Siberia
on their homeward trip. Reese Alsop, Sheff.
'06, who has been here since March, is going
with them.
On Friday Am. and I parted at Miyajima.
He stayed there one day longer and then in
tends going north to Ama-no, Hashidate, and
across Korea and Manchuria to Pekin, thence
to Mongolia for a week's shooting. Mino and
I took the afternoon express from Miyajima for
the Hakone district, which Am. had visited a
few weeks ago. I will rejoin him either at Pekin
or at Hankow on the Yangtze. There is a rail
road from Pekin to Hankow, and as it is three
days* steam up the river from Shanghai, he
would wait there for me instead of coming to the
coast. Then together we will go up to Chang-
sha to see the New Yale. We heard very sad
news from there a short time ago : Warren Sea-
bury, a very young man and brother of an inti
mate friend of mine, was drowned while in swim
ming. He was one of the best men that New
Yale had — or old Yale, for that matter.
Mino and I had a very hot trip on the train

84 LETTERS OF
back through Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, and on to
Numadzu, which we reached at 10.30 A. M., hav
ing left Miyajima mainland station at 2.15 P. M.
the day before. If you look on the map, you will
find Miyajima in the Inland Sea just beyond the
city of Hiroshima. Numadzu, where we left the
train, is in the upper right-hand corner of Suruga
Bay, and the Hakone district is the whole pe
ninsula that lies between Suruga and Sagami
bays. It is a district of high mountains and
beautiful lakes, with picturesque passes and
villages everywhere, and from each portion of
the Hakone district you have a magnificent view
of Fuji, which is close at hand.
I had always thought of Japanese mountains
and mountain passes as, in a way, toy affairs,
but when you reach them, they are just as huge
and dizzy as the life-size Yosemite brand.
Mino had been made very ill and dizzy by the
train, so I let him take a pony to Hakone from
Numadzu, but I preferred to walk. First we
drove six level miles in a basha, a queer sort of
a covered cart, then the climb began. There is
a regular road up to Hakone, but such a road !
All I could think of was Rome. I have seen old
roads, but this must antedate them all by cen
turies. It is paved with blocks of stone varying in

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 85
size from two feet across to the diameter of an
orange ; some have sunk almost two feet below
the road level, and others have poked their noses
high in the air. The whole road is so worn by
travel that in many places it is ten or fifteen feet
below the surface of the ground.
Among the foothills the road is shaded by
aged pines that cast the weirdest shadows across
it. Later it passes through forests of bamboo so
thick that no sun ever reaches the ground, and
finally it emerges on a grassy rolling upland,
with big hills beyond and broad views over cul
tivated fields to the ocean far beyond. At the
left Fuji looms bigger and bigger every moment.
On the way I passed through three or four tiny
villages full of bare babies with tummies that
put  's achievement in that line in the deep
est shade. The last hour of the t^velve-mile
climb was through clouds; but I got above them
at last, and just when I felt so tired that I could
not climb another foot, suddenly I found myself
looking down on a beautiful lake nestled in
among high mountains; another Lucerne, with
the added glory of a great, perfect Fuji at one
end. There is nothing here but a tiny, primitive
village, a summer palace of the Crown Prince,
and this hotel.

86 LETTERS OF
The hotel is half Japanese, and you must take
off your shoes before entering. Beds and foreign
food are the only Americanisms. It is built out
over the water, with a neat grass-plot reclaimed
from the lake behind. My room has only three
walls, and the fourth side is open to the lake.
Mino and I are at present the only guests, and
our meals are served in my room on a table close
to the open edge. To-day is our third morning
here. The first it rained, and we took short walks,
interspersed with cups of tea. The second day
it rained, and we fished from a boat which I
rowed with mighty strokes about the lake. We
were rewarded with four minnows, which we ate
a few minutes ago for breakfast. In the after
noon we swam.
To-day is cool and sunny; we are now await
ing horses to take us up the famous Ten Province
Pass. (Ten Province Pass, so called because
from its summit Ten Provinces can be seen.) I
will add that expedition to this letter on my
return. Our evenings have been spent in English les
sons. Mino has a book of phrases that Mr.
Kanaya taught him, and he also owns the
First National Reader, which the Japanese
schools have adopted. It seems strange to hear

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 87
some of the first reader stories again. " Come,
Rover, I will run you a race." "Bad boy, bad
boy, come down from that tree, do not rob
the bird!" Stranger than all is it to hear them
from a Japanese boy who has great trouble
twisting his mouth around the syllables. He
would capture mother in an instant with his
love for cleanliness; a stain on a napkin is
enough to make him turn a whole hotel upside
down. , . , Later.
At ten this morning our ponies came and
we set off for the Ten Province Pass. A ride of
about three hours brought us to the summit, and
we spread our picnic lunch, which a coolie had
carried for us, on the summit of a breezy moun
tain pass that gave a glorious view of two bays
of the Pacific, one at each side, and the ocean
itself over the mountain ranges on the end of the
peninsula in front of us. Behind, row after row
of big bare hills rose above one another, and
behind them towered Fuji, just visible by fits and
starts through its crown of clouds. This combi
nation of sea and mountain views is something
I have never seen before. It is starding to look
over the top of a mountain as tall as the one you

88 LETTERS OF
stand on and see an island floating apparendy in
blue sky; and it is equally starding to look down
a long fan-shaped valley in which a great cottony
white cloud is rolling about, with the blue sea
for a background instead ofthe blue sky! At the
end of one valley we could see a broad pine-
fringed beach and the white line of the breakers
rolling in.
Perched in a recess of these windy heights we
found a quaint old temple, quite large and well
cared for. In the approach were some of the
quaintest gods J have yet seen, one seated like
Buddha, but with his mouth opened wide and
his eyes like Pamela's when she makes a face ; as
he was at least six feet high, the effect was start
ling. Another god was chiselled in oudine on a
big flat slab of stone.
To-morrow I think we shall go down to Mi-
yanoshita, another place in the Hakone district,
and one that is reported to have the finest hotel
in Japan.
I forgot to tell you that when we went through
the Miyajima temple with Mino and our student
friend, they both worshipped at several of the
shrines. This is done by ducking the head and
clapping the hands to call the God's attention.
Mino bought some candles and had them lighted

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 89
at the main altar. He also fed the sacred horse
some sacred beans. Love to all, Gilbert.
The Grand Hotel, Ltd.,
Yokohama, September lo, 1907.
Dear, dear Family, — This is the last letter
that you will receive from Japan, the last I shall
write from this delightful country, for to-morrow
morning at ten o'clock I sail for Shanghai in the
Yamaguchi Maru, Nippon Yuson Kaisha Line.
On last Wednesday Mino, the Russian cap
tain Riabbits, whom we had met at Hakone, and
I took sampan for an hour across the lake, and
then walked over the mountains, past the hot-
waterfalls and boiling sulphur pits of Ojigoku
— the Big Hell — to Miyanoshita. Miyanoshita
is charming. It is a little mountain village, with
one of the finest hotels in Japan, perched half
way up the side of a steep, deep valley. From the
village street you look down, far down over the
tops of maples and bamboos and flowering
bushes with glossy green leaves, to a white,
foamy mountain river that lies below you like a
strip of cotton cloth. Across the valley and be
hind the village are smooth hills of grass that
hide the sun at four o'clock in the afternoon and

90 LETTERS OF
look for all the world like lazy whales asleep. At
the upper end of the valley is Fuji, and at the
lower, five miles away, the sea!
I think you would enjoy a month there, for
there are countless rambles that take from fif
teen minutes to two days, and comfortable moun
tain chairs and ponies for those who like to sit
and watch the scenery walk by. Besides, there
is excellent cooking, and hot and cold baths of
soda or sulphur that spring from the ground right
into your tub. Every cottage has a cool, bub
bling fountain by the front door, and the Jap
anese Apollinaris — Hakone Water — is bot
tled in this district.
At Miyanoshita I got a few letters from home
that had been forwarded from Nagasaki. For
the next six days, the length of time the passage
to Shanghai occupies, I shall probably not have
a chance to write, as the port Moji is in quaran
tine ; I may get a line off at Nagasaki, however.
Just now I heard two gendemen sitting next
to me in the writing-room talking about a cable
gram from Vancouver about a riot there, in which
the Japanese quarter was destroyed. After a
month's residence, or rather six weeks, among
this gende, cultured people, I am not surprised
that the term barbarian used to be applied to us

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 91
by them. With their ready politeness, their re
spect for age, their desire to learn and quickness
at understanding, and the friendly good-will they
show on all sides, they make me ashamed of my
own countrymen and Europeans in general. I
fail to see the superiority of the so-called white
man. It certainly is not intellectual ; philosophy,
mathematics, art, — in all these branches they
can equal and surpass us. It is surely not tem
peramental, for the average Japanese farmer is
more of a gendeman and has better manners and
a more unselfish heart than the average traveller ;
and when you consider the different strata of so
ciety that the farmer and traveller come from,
the remark needs no comment.
Most people will tell you that the superiority
is moral. That is absolutely false. The same
standards prevail among the Japanese as among
ourselves, and these standards are even better
lived up to. The average tourist hangs about the
open ports the way a timid swimmer hangs to
the raft, and his long-range observation is as fol
lows : " Here is a people that has no beds, ta
bles, or chairs. Here is a people that shows its
legs in the street from the hip down. Here is a
people that takes baths three and four in a tub.
Here is a people that speaks openly of things that

92 LETTERS OF
are never mentioned in /Europe or America.
What a lot of heathen sinners tlsjeymust be!" All
this criticism is superficially triie, but the fact is
that our superiority of morals is a matter only of
forms. We think we are spodess if we do not
see or hear; the Japanese has no prudishness, but
the foundation is just as firm as ours. I have
seen ladies as cultured as Piety Hill's best, nurs
ing their children without concealment, and I
have been in the same tub with strangers of the
same social level as our own family, without the
least embarrassment. The seaport tourists only
think of what Americans would do if Japanese
customs were suddenly introduced into our land.
They do not stop to find out actual conditions
here. The Japanese bath, by the way, is a very
clean affair. Every one carefully soaps himself
and washes off with litde tubs of water before
entering, and soap is never used in the big
tub. These people consider us a very unclean race
with our great nailed boots and our loud voices
and our kissing tendencies. It makes a true Jap
anese shudder to think of exchanging kisses.
Yokohama is only four hours from Miyano
shita, but we stopped at Enoshima for the night

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 93
and I renewed some of the acquaintances that I
made on my former trip to that delightful island.
Here at Yokohama I have been busy securing
passage and buying a few odds and ends. In the
afternoons Mino and I have taken rickshaws out
along the shores ofthe bay, and last night I took
him to hear an American comic opera produced
by an English Company just up from Australia.
I wish you could have seen him; sometimes
highly amused, sometimes amazed at the sense
less proceedings of the chorus. Their stupid
marching and counter-marching seems like
baby play beside the Japanese dance, where
the slightest movement of the hand is full of
meaning. To-day Mino left for Nikko, and I am quite
lonesome without him. To-day . . . after see
ing Mino off at nine a. m., I rolled around town
for two or three hours in a Japanese overgrown
baby carriage and got quite away from the Eu
ropean quarter. Here at Yokohama are appar
ent the only disagreeable traits I have seen in
this people : a sort of New York persistency and
independence which is clearly the result of our
boasted "civilizing influence"; but away from
the hotel district and the main streets you meet
the same friendly smiles and overpowering bows

94 LETTERS OF
that the interior shows you. I don't see why
Japan does n't send missionaries to America ;
heaven knows they could do us a world of good.
The criticism of this politeness you always hear
from the globe-trotter, as he sits on the hotel ter
race with a whiskey and soda, and views native
life from this vantage-point, is that "the crafty
beggars do it all for trade." They probably do
keep their tempers under provocation for rea
sons of policy, but courtesy is so ingrained in
their nature that they never relax. You go to a
store, and spend an hour and three and a half
cents. Your true shopkeeper bows you to your
rickshaw and down the street, and thanks you
as though you had taken over his whole stock.
I shall never forget the send-off they gave us at
Hakone. We tipped only our maid and table
waitress, but the whole staff, from manager to
the third bath-steward, were on the float to see
us off; and there they stood, a bright-colored
little group of ten or twelve, and watched us out
of sight; for twenty minutes they stayed, and
not one left until we rounded the first point on
the lake, and the cheery litde group had been
reduced to dots of color.
I should like to give a big garden party, with
lots of paper lanterns and shaved ice and lemon-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 95
ade, and invite all Japan to come and live out
their merry little lives eating and playing Blind-
man's Buff. I should invite every soul, from
the litde babies, with shaved heads and tufts
of hair like a French poodle, to the courdy old
men and dear, wrinkled, old, blackened-toothed
women. This afternoon I put a fresh film in my kodak
and sallied forth on foot. I walked first past the
French Consulate and along the river-bank to
the native town. The river was full of sampans,
and the banks lined with funny litde monkeys
from five to fifteen years old, fishing or swim
ming in every garb. Long kimonos looped up at
the belt, coolie coats like Old World page's
jackets, with flowing sleeves and great Chinese
letters on the back, trunks, loin-cloths, and skin
like brown satin. I can't tell you the fun I have
had using the litde Japanese I know, and I
sauntered for an hour along the water-side, stop
ping now with one group, now with another,
asking how many fish they had or whether the
water was very cold to-day. Finally I reached
the bottom of the bluff, where all the foreign resi
dents live. A straight flight of stone steps led to
the top, right in front of my nose, so I climbed
up and drank a botde of lemonade at the Hun-

96 LETTERS OF
dred-Step Tea-house, with the town and harbor
stretching away beneath.
Coming down from the bluff, I took a curv
ing road some distance beyond the tea-house,
and halfway down I found a shady bit of fence,
whereon I perched and opened my camera.
I wish I could lead you all to that bit of fence
and sit with you for the afternoon. Above and
below, the road curves out of sight, and direcdy
opposite is a stone embankment about twenty
feet high, over the top of which a litde garden
peeps down at the road. The interest ofthe spot,
however, is in the stream of life going up and
down. Grunting coolies zig-zagging up from
below, pushing a heavy cart, or coming down
from above with long half-running steps, leaning
back to brace the load, and every muscle in the
broad chest and shoulders standing out like steel
rope. Around their foreheads they all tie figured
strips of cloth to keep the sweat out of their eyes.
Now and then a great ox with a straw-matting
roof built over his back would swing by, his
master at his head brushing off the flies with
a branch. Rickshaws a-plenty, and men and
women on foot there were, and peddlers with
their wares balanced on each end of a long pole
over their shoulders.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 97
The shady spot I had selected was a favorite
resting-place for tired coolies on the way up, and
so I had company all the time. They would be
very friendly in a polite way, and invariably
asked how much the camera cost. Judge my
pride when I understood and answered in Jap
anese. My few native words and the picture in
the finder filled them all with delight, and I think
I got some very good pictures, although when I
asked them to pose they usually showed great
shyness, and there was a good deal of "you first"
talk among them, and laughing shoving of each
other to the front. One boy hid behind his cart,
covering his face with his big straw hat. My
attempts to catch him, as he peeked over the hat
now and then, convulsed him and the crowd
around us. One little school-boy stayed with me
all afternoon, and walked part way back to the
hotel. I hope the pictures come out well, for the
subjects were excellent. Among the best was a
group of tiny girls, and then again two litde boys
in long kimonos, big sashes, and straw hats, who
were chasing a butterfly with long-handled nets,
with which they tried to hold it against the stone
wall opposite.
My visit here has been perfect. The weather

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about like a summer at Higgins Lake. More ex
ercise than I usually get at the lake, and abso
lutely perfect health. I have more intimate know
ledge of native life than I had imagined it was
possible for a stranger to get. Many native
friends, to six of whom I have promised to write.
Above all, the meetings with college students
(all of them in kimonos and bare feet), which
would have been impossible at any other season
than the summer vacation, and which my youth
and present student status never failed to assist
towards intimacy.
My memories of this land shall be memories
of gardens and temples and moonlight; of breezy
mountain walks and still nights full ofthe sound
of running water; of calm, sleepy Buddhas
dreaming their lives, or rather their eternities,
away in gloomy groves of huge pine trees, with a
lotus pond just a step beyond ; and in contrast,
an active, brave litde race of giants, busy as bees,
and yetwith strange Buddha-like depths at times ;
memories of gende kindness, warm friendships,
and smiles. A group of memories that will make
my life happier a great many times in days to
come. Good-night. Loads of love,
Gilbert.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 99
After dinner.
When I think of how litde my letters have told
you of all the strange sights and experiences of
the last six weeks, it seems as though I never
could end this last Japanese letter. I don't be
lieve I have mentioned the tiny silver pipes that
men and women of all ages and classes smoke
continually. I don't believe I have told you of
the shaved ice sweetened with fruit syrup that is
sold at every corner. I am sure I have forgotten
the high wooden clogs that make all Japanese
four to six inches taller than usual on a rainy day.
I have n't told you how this hotel looks out over
the harbor full of ships, with our U. S. cruiser
Chattanooga in the foreground. I have made no
mention of the boys swimming off the rocks at
Enoshima, who insisted on feeling my shoes to
see whether my feet were as pointed as they
looked. I have not told you of Mino's fondness
for botded lemonade, to the extent of about a
gallon a day; but never mind, some day we'll
talk it all over, unless you are by that time tired
of hearing about the East, or unless I have for
gotten — which is not likely.
I, have sent to father's care a box containing
most of my purchases here. Mr. Neuhaus, a
German friend of ours, has included the things

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in a shipment of his export company to Detroit,
so the freight charges will be very slight. There
will be considerable duty to pay, however. If
you can curb your impatience, please wait till I
reach home before opening, because I should so
like to have the pleasure of showing you the
things. Then, too, you would not know whom
they were for. About Christmas time I shall try
to send something that you can open. If you
feel, however, that you had rather see them now,
all right ; but don't do it if you can resist. Half
the pleasure in selecting them was in thinking
about showing them and explaining them to you.
Good-night, Gilbert.
Kobe, Japan, September 13, 1907.
Dear Ones, — Just a line or two to keep you
posted. You will probably start with surprise at
this letter-heading, but the explanation is that
after leaving Yokohama I discovered that my
boat was due to stop two days at Kobe. They all
do, but I had not been told of the fact before.
I was delighted to Ifearn that I could have one
more litde taste of Japanese comfort, and it has
been a very pleasant one, although very tantaliz
ing at the same time.
Our boat, the Yamaguchi Maru, is small, two

GILBERT LITTLE STARK loi
thousand tons, but a safe boat and a great fa
vorite with ladies because she is so steady. She
has accommodation for only ten first-class pas
sengers, and is as cozy as a bandbox. We came
to Kobe with a full table, but only four of the
passengers developed traits of interest during the
night and day on board.
No. I was a young Frenchman stationed at
Hanoy or Hanoie in Cochin China. His interest
lay in the fact that he had been to the Ankor
Wat and gave me a card to a man at Saigon
who can help us on our trip to the great ruin.
No. 2 was Mr. Matsujima, a leading Tokyo
barrister, taking a litde sea-trip as a bracer.
No. 3 was my room-mate, Mr. V  . He is a
Yokohama man, but a member of the Kobe Qub,
where he kindly put up my name yesterday.
He is sixty-four years old, and has been in Japan
for thirty-five years. He and his family would n't
live any place else. Of course, he was a mine
of information, and as he was willing to talk, I
learned a great deal. He has been a soldier in
Brazil, and was captain of a privateer that the
Russians fitted out years ago when they expected
to fight Great Britain. It was at that period,
he says, that a Russian and a British frigate an
chored opposite each other in Yokohama har-

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bor and each boat ran out its guns. A litde
Japanese gunboat, about one tenth their size,
dropped anchor between them and peace was
preserved. No. 4 was most interesting of all. He was a
boy going back to his school in Kobe. He was half
English, a third American, with a litde Spanish
and the rest Kanaka. He was a handsome chap,
with big Kanaka eyes that are like animal's eyes,
like a deer's. He is a grandson of King O'Keefe
of Guam, and he himself lives on Bonine Island.
These are South Sea Islands, but I had never
heard of them before. They are peopled by
refugees, deserters, marooned sailors, and pirates.
His grandfather had two partners. Pease and
Hayes. Pease was shot by a native woman, and
Hayeswas hanged at Shanghai by the U, S. Con
sul, the last pirate to be hanged. These details I
learned from the Encyclop, my room-mate. The
boy, James O'Keefe, was innocent as a lamb and
the pet of the boat. He was exceptionally clever,
and gave us some great South Sea yarns that I
will save for Higgins Lake.
We reached Kobe yesterday, the 12th, at
noon — three hours ahead of time. I did some
errands in the afternoon and later took the train
for Kyoto. On the way to the Matsunoya Hotel

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 103
I passed the tabi shop where my old friend Kizo
Mori lives, and he saw me pass and rushed out
to welcome me back. I asked him to come over
to supper, which invitation he accepted.
At the hotel I was welcomed royally by my old
friends Miss Stork, Miss Wisteria, and Miss
Pine-tree. It seemed almost like getting home,
for they gave me the same room and futans I had
had before. In the evening Kizo and I saw mov
ing pictures at Mina Miza. This morning I left
for Nara, the old capital, 1789 a. d., and Kizo
came, too. All afternoon we wandered about the
hillside at Nara, up and down paths that lead
through the heart of a cool green forest. Every
path is edged with stone lanterns ; not a row of
them but a thicket of them, shoulder to shoulder
and four to six deep. They are of different shapes
and sizes and mosdy covered with soft green
moss. Temples are at the end of every path, and
some of them are beauties, full of rare treasures.
At one temple two girls about thirteen, their faces
white with rice powder, did an ancient sacred
dance for us, and in another great pile we saw the
largest Buddha (or rather Daibutsu, not Buddha
at all, but Amida) in Japan. This colossus is
about twenty feet taller than the giant at Kama
kura, but not so beautiful.

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We took a late afternoon train for Osaka,
where we dined and parted, Kizo going home
to Kyoto, while I came on to Kobe. This hotel
is sort of a family house, and much nicer than
the Oriental, where I stayed last time.
To-morrow at lo a. m. we weigh anchor for
Shanghai, via the Inland Sea. The new moon
has appeared to-night, so that if it is clear to
morrow, I shall see moonlight on the Inland Sea
for the second time — wonderful luck.
Very, very sleepy, so good-night.
Love to all, Gilbert.
S. S. Nippon Yusen Kaisha,
Nagasaki Harbor, September 15, 1907.
Dear Pam, — I have just finished reading
your good letter written on July 28th.
My last letter home was from Kobe, just be
fore sailing. Well, all day Saturday we steamed
down the beautiful Inland Sea, and Saturday
night I saw the island and water-stretches again
by moonlight. On Sunday morning I woke to
find the ship anchored in a narrow swift-run
ning channel between Moji and Shimoniseki,
the western gate between the ocean and the In
land Sea. The cities on either side were nesded
at the foot of big green hills, and the scene, in the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 105
fresh morning sunshine, was a delightful picture.
At present Moji is suffering from a plague of
cholera, so we were not allowed to land, although
the boat remained at anchor until three in the
afternoon. The most interesting sight of all was
the coaling of the ship. All the coal, at Japanese
ports, is put on board ship by hand, and the
coolies do it much quicker than a machine could.
On each side of our ship two wooden sailboats
were tighdy fastened. Each boat or junk was
loaded full of coal, and swarming with coolie
men and women. As soon as the boats were well
fastened, they ran a flight of steps from each
boat to a hole in the ship's side. Along this stair
way a long row of men and women grouped
themselves, and soon they began to pass up bas
kets of coal and throw them into our ship's hold.
You would never believe that they could pass
up so many baskets a minute as they do. They
would be wonders at " Button, button, who has
the button ? "
For five hours these picturesque half-dressed,
or rather quarter-dressed, people stood in line,
and the coal-baskets shot up the stairs in a
never-ending flow. Some of the women who
were working hardest had babies strapped on
their backs the whole day long.

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At three, prompdy, we pulled up anchor, and
after a few sharp turns in the channel, we found
ourselves in the open sea once more, on the far
side of Japan, with Korea just to the northwest
of us. But we turned south, and as long as we
remained on deck in the moonlight our ship was
skirting the island of the western coast.
This morning we were called early, just in
time to see the entrance to Nagasaki harbor.
This harbor is said to be finer than the Bay of
Naples, and equalled only by the harbor at Rio
Janeiro. It is so surrounded by hills that it looks
like a great lake, and the oudet to the ocean is
guarded by steep cliffs and high, rocky islets.
After the quarantine inspection, we were al
lowed to go on shore, and I wandered about the
town, buying a few trinkets and some fine tor
toise-shell, for this is the headquarters for tor
toise-shell work.
The town is very old and quaint and has many
historical landmarks, for it was the Dutch trad
ing-post in the old days, three hundred years ago,
when foreigners were allowed to enter the land
only after they had trampled on the cross and
spit upon the images of Christ and Mary. Some
of the crosses and images that were used in the
ordeals are still preserved here in museums. The

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 107
Dutch used to go through these rites willingly,
for Japanese trade meant guldens for their
pocket, and to the Dutch that means more than
doubtful credit in heaven.
My fellow passengers are two English mission
aries to Ning-Po, China, just returning after
their summer vacation, and one Japanese gen
tleman who lives on Long Island and went for
two years to Yale College.
I am afraid I shall not reach Hong Kong quite
so early as I intended, but I will cable you all at
home from whatever place I happen to be on the
appointed date. Love to all, Gilbert.
Dear Pam, — I was unable to mail your let
ter from Nagasaki, so will do so from Shanghai
this morning. Last night we went below and left
the ship careening bravely through a beautiful
deep-blue sea. Sails up on bow and stern, for the
wind was dead behind and they could save coal.
Now, this morning (it is early before breakfast),
I have come on deck to find that we are sailing
through a sea of bright yellow mud ! The Yel
low Sea with all its beautiful blue discolored by
the waters of the great Yangtze-Kiang. Off to
the right are a few long, low islands, flat as pan-

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cakes, showing like thin emerald bars against
the yellow background. Indeed, I am coming to
a country that is different from Japan with its
sparkling seas and pine-covered hills.
Just before leaving Nagasaki I received a let
ter from W  P  , who crossed on the same
steamer with us from America. He has been
appointed private tutor to the Korean Prince in
Tokyo! If I had been able to see him before
leaving, I should have applied for some regal
tutorship, and stayed in Tokyo until Christmas
time. If I hear of a good job in China, I should
not be surprised if I took it for a few months. I
think it would be a fine way to learn real facts
about the country and gain valuable experience.
However, I suppose all jobs are for the year and
not a few months.
I am the only traveller on this boat, which is
now full ; all the rest are missionaries or business
men and their wives, returning to work after the
usual summer in Japan. Every one I have met
who lives in China would n't go home for worlds,
they like the people so well. The ladies say they
are scared to death by the rough-looking and
acting men at home; again, let me repeat that
the East has no rowdy class and the coolies are as
gende as highborn lords of old. I am now reach-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 109
ing the land of bedbugs, however; in Japan they
can live only a few months, so I have not met
them yet, but if I find them as scarce as I found
fleas in Japan, I shall not complain. Oh, how I
would like another month in the land of the
Rising Sun !
Your loving brother, Gilbert.

CHAPTER II
CHINA
Shanghai, China, September i8, 1907.
Dear Family, — For four hours I have been
in China, and oh, how homesick I am for Japan!
I know that after I have seen something of the
country I shall like it better, in fact I could n't
like it less, but just now I am going to write as
pessimistic a scribble as I can.
The city, at least what I have seen of it, is just
like a European city, and some of the buildings
are huge stone affairs with a great deal of orna
ment ; but I did n't come halfway around the
world to see a second-hand Europe. The streets
are filled with the ugliest lot of dirty coolies you
can imagine. Their clothes hang about them in
filthy rags, and they are swaddled from head to
foot. After the clean brown bareness of Japan,
this close-wrapped dirtiness is most unpleasant.
Instead of finding in every crowd a number of
handsome, smiling faces that make you feel you
would like to know the owners, as I have been
used to do, in every Shanghai crowd you see ugly.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK iii
leering faces with long yellow teeth. I used to
enjoy getting in a Japanese crowd and having
the people close to me, but I would give a good
deal of money to keep out of a Shanghai mob ;
and as for a Chinese hotel, you could n't drag
me into one in my present state of mind.
Of course this is all distorted to me now
because I am so sorry to leave the Island Em
pire, and in a few days you will be getting more
enthusiastic letters from me, or else you will
hear that I have taken passage back to Dai
Nippon. Good-bye, and don't think I am uncomfort
able, for this is a beautiful big hotel, and the
weather is almost as nice as that we left behind ;
only I hold my breath on the street.
Lots of love, Gilbert.
False alarm for tiffin, so I will give another
page of groans.
This morning, when the steamer reached the
dock, there was a great clear space just before
us, and beyond that a mass of howling yellow
goblins, with great, tall, Sikh policemen, that the
British have brought from India, holding them
in check. One Chinaman sneaked past the guard
and started to cross the space, but a great black-

112 LETTERS OF
bearded Indian sprang after him and beat him
back with great blows of his cane. Another man
slapped a Chinese coolie's face for jogging his
elbow. When the gates were finally opened, in rushed
the crowd of porters and rickshaw boys like a
great mob of pirates. Some had their heads
wrapped in old clothes and others wore their
pigtails on top or around their necks. There
were a few stripped to the waist, for while a Jap
anese bares his legs, the Chinaman bares his body
and keeps his legs covered with pantaloons
or mummy-like wrappings. What a difference,
though, in the color of their skins ! Instead of
the tan or bronze or sunburnt copper of Japan,
you see here a hideous, nightmare yellow. The
rickshaws are so dirty you don't like to enter,
and your coolie makes you shudder to look at
him. On the streets you see many wheelbar
rows heaped with merchandise, or with a man
enthroned in state and being trundled along like
a market pig. The young boys all look like
homely girls, and it took me about ten minutes
to realize that practically no women are seen in
the streets.
Another thing I miss is the ready politeness of
Japan. There the servants run to do things for

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 113
you with a smile. Here they stand around until
you call them. Every one says, however, that
the Chinese are the best servants in the world,
and the residents are very fond of the people, so
maybe I shall discover qualities soon that offset
their lack of beauty and attraction.
Fare thee well, Gilbert,
Shanghai, September 19, 1907.
Dear Ones, — Am leaving to-day by steamer
Hsiping Maru for Pekin to join Am. Pekin,
after all. The trip takes four days — will write
you immediately on arrival.
Yours lovingly, Gilbert.
Tientsin, China, September 23, 1907.
Dear Mother, — From Shanghai I tele
graphed Am. at Pekin to know when he was
coming down, and he replied (in a few hours'
time) that it was too hot south, and I had better
join him at the capital, especially as there were
many good trips to be taken in the neighborhood.
You know what my first impression of Shang
hai was, so I gladly complied. There was a boat
leaving at eleven the following morning, so after
one night's stay at my first Chinese city, I em
barked for another.

114 LETTERS OF
My boat was the Hsiping, China Engineering
Co. She is a neat little ship about eighteen hun
dred tons burden, maybe one twentieth as large
as the Adriatic. In this tiny ship I have spent
the last four days and nights on the ocean wave.
We were a jolly little party, — the captain, the
first officer, and the first and second engineers.
There was one other passenger, but he was the
company's agent at Hankow, taking a free sea-
trip for his health, so I was the only "paying"
passenger on board. I had a fine cabin all to
myself, with two port-holes, one looking forward
over the clean sweep of deck to the bows, one
looking across a narrow strip of deck to the side.
My door opened right into the cozy litde saloon
with its table about the size of our home dining-
table. The captain, the Hankow agent, and I
each had a boy apiece to wait on us, and the
steward filled in the chinks that the boys left
open. The meals were excellent, and altogether
it was more of a yachting trip than any of my
other "yachts" I have written you about. Of
course there was only the uncovered boat-deck,
just below the captain's bridge, but we each had
a reclining basket-chair, and there were awnings
overhead and cool mattings underfoot. The of
ficers and agent were all Scotch or English, and

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 115
had some great yarns about foreign life in China.
All of them had war experiences to tell, and
one was captured twice in the Chino- Japanese
War. We got under way about noon, and steamed
down the Whampoo River through a crowd of
junks and sampans, each native boat leering at
us with a great painted eye at the bow. "No
have eye, no can see; no can see and no can
walkee!" as the Ningpo boy says. The Chinese
junks and sampans have higher bows and sterns
than the Japanese, boats, and the method of row
ing or sculling is quite different.
All the first day we were in the sea of yellow
mud, but the next morning saw us back on the
ocean blue. But what a bumpy ocean it was!
We were right in the trough of the sea and rolled
like a tipsy sailor. I spent the day in my bunk,
as it was raining cats and dogs and I did n't feel
any too chipper, listening to the waves slapping
on the deck and sometimes banging against
my port-hole and cabin wall. I thought I was
going to be sick, but by confining myself to tea
and toast, I was successful in holding my own.
The agent did n't appear at all during the day,
and the captain did n't show up at luncheon, so
I was the only visitor at the tiffin table, where I

ii6 LETTERS OF
surveyed a long row of tempting dishes, and sat
isfied myself with tea and toast, and not any too
much of that.
Saturday was beautiful, warm and sunny with
a starding clearness. We sighted the low coast
several times and passed any number of fishing
junks and a little fleet of rafts ! Single-man rafts
way out at sea. Towards night we passed a litde
group of rocky islands that the Japanese made
their base in attacking Port Arthur. They are in
the straits leading to the Gulf of Pe-chi-li. The
highest is eight hundred and sixty feet, a sheer
cliff rising from the sea, and the others average
three hundred feet. In the light of the setting
sun they were brilliant orange-color, — no grass,
no trees, no houses, just great masses of orange
rock floating on a dark, rich-blue background
and looking as light and ethereal as sunset
clouds. Sunday morning found us off Taku bar, but
we were two hours too late for high tide, and had
to anchor until one o'clock before we could get
through the shallow water at the entrance to the
Taku River. This river is guarded by the rem
nants of two Chinese forts that have been par
tially levelled since the Boxer trouble. The coast
here is a mud flat that rises above the ocean level

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 117
to the majestic height of one foot. The river is of
a color that would make our noble home stream
look blue as sapphire, and the course of the
Taku River is like that of an extraordinarily
twisty angle-worm. Its width is such that you
could almost jump on shore from either side of
the ship. Tientsin lies forty miles up this mud
creek, and it took us over six hours to get up.
After an hour's travelling in a general inland
direction, the character of the country changed
from mud flats to fields luxuriant with grain
and criss-crossed by streams and groves of wil
low-like trees. Villages along the bank were
frequent and most picturesque. The houses are
built of mud, roof and all, and they usually
cluster around a tiny stream under a clump of
large, shady trees. The roofs were all loaded
with brilliant-colored ears of corn, drying, that
made flashes of fire among the masses of green
shrubbery. The day was like our most glorious
autumn weather, but there is no hint as yet of
autumn color in the foliage.
It was great sport to watch the wave that our
ship raised along the river-bank. A great sweep
of water followed us around every curve, and
quite flooded the low banks, curving over the
grass in a rush of foam like that at the top of a

ii8 LETTERS OF
glass of chocolate soda-water. Before this wave
children, pigs, and chickens fled shrieking with
delight and fear. Some of the small river craft
were swept about in a terrifying manner, and
one flock of ducks was washed squawking into
the middle of a tiny field. About dark a heavy
thunder and wind storm broke on us with trop
ical short notice, and we anchored just in time to
keep from being blown on top of the mud village
alongshore. For about an hour the rain de
scended like a cloud-burst, and the thunder was
so incessant that I took it at first for the roaring
of the wind. The lightning made the shore
look like a cinematograph picture. After the fire
works were over, we continued on our way, but
as we were late in arriving, I spent the night
on board. This city is now next to Shanghai in
importance as a foreign centre, and the foreign
concessions, with fine roads, shade trees, and
gardens, are very beautiful and not a bit Chinese!
Every building has a heavy wall on account of
recent troubles. I cannot reach Pekin (eighty
miles inland) to-day because it is a bank holiday,
and I must buy my ticket first, which I cannot
do on fifty cents Shanghai money. Each town
has different money here, and the value of each
coin varies every day in different ratio. Some

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 119
days ninety cents, some days a dollar and twenty
cents, is a dollar, and the dollar still a different
value in pounds.
All accounts are kept in taels, and there is no
such coin.
Oh, what a country!
Loads of love, Gilbert.
Just a few more details.
Coming up the river the village life was as
good as a side-show, and we could see every
department in action outdoors. Here, a litde
donkey walking round and round to trample
out grain or turn a litde mill, and there, a couple
of men filling irrigating ditches from the river by
swinging a bucket between them on a rope, turn
ing away like a couple of girls playing jump the
rope ; one swing to fill it from the river, and one
swing to empty it into the ditch above, and every
where pigs, chickens, and children. Now and
then a shore whiff told us that a closer acquaint
ance would probably dampen our artistic appre
ciation of the scene.
At places we saw great heaps of salt cov
ered with mats and well guarded. This is a
government monopoly and a great source of
revenue.

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The Chinese are not a picturesque people.
Their clothes, uniformly blue among the lower
classes, are in shape and material very much like
the overalls and blue coats that American work
men wear, except that the trousers are more
baggy. The nearest approach to picturesque-
ness is when they strip for action, tie a turban
around their heads, tie their trousers about their
ankles, and take off their coats ; then they look
like Turks. Their faces are very unattractive,
although you find nice bright ones at times, and
they are all undeniably dirty. Last night I talked
pidgin English with one of them for a time dur
ing the rain. He wanted me to feel his coat to
see how wet it was, and as I did so, my hand
touched his chest, which was as slippery with
grease as a pan in which you have just fried
potatoes. They wash three times a day but never
bathe — once at birth and once after death.
This is true of mandarins as well, and under
their silks they are as dirty as the coolie.
I have not yet become used to the pigtails lying
like snakes along every man's spinal column.
Some are very thick and reach below the knees,
where they end in twisted yarn and tassel. When
they are at work the coolies twist their tails into
a knot on the neck, for all the world like a wo-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 121
man's knot, and as all the women wear trousers,
it is sometimes confusing. The front of the head
is shaved, and young men usually have a fringe
of hair standing straight up along the edge where
the hair or pigtail begins.
I do not know what our plans will be for the
next few weeks, and shall not know until I see
Am. However, I will write you fully of our plans
from Pekin to-morrow or next day. To-mor
row I catch a 3 P. m. train for the capital, which
lands me there about 6.30.
I miss gready the daily intercourse with the
natives that we became accustomed to in Japan.
There we made acquaintances at every stop,
and always had two or three Japanese that we
could count on for a stroll or a meal or a talk.
Here one sits around European hotels or strolls
through European streets, and the intercourse
with the people is limited to giving them orders
or kicking them out of the way. I 'm afraid this
caste distinction between whites and natives, un
known in Japan, will last until we reach Persia.
I must say, however, that even if I knew the
language, I have not yet seen many natives that
I should like to approach familiarly. Here you
look on as though each native village were a
Midway side-show, and do not enter the life as

122 LETTERS OF
in Japan. I wish I had not left there quite so
soon. Love, Gilbert.
And yet another word.
It is now 7 p. m. and I have just returned from
a drive. As dinner is not served until eight, I
make haste to jot down a few more observations.
The Chinese city here was for a time, just
after the late Boxer trouble, under international
government. During that time the walls about
the city were levelled and the space used for a
wide road, in the centre of which a trolley line
runs. Around this road I have just driven. First,
as to the city itself. It is built of mud with a few
wooden or purple brick buildings, and between
the crowded mass of houses run winding roads
that you could reach across with both arms. Of
course, foot-travelling or a sedan-chair is the only
method of locomotion inside.
The houses, alleys, and broad surrounding
streets literally swarmed with people, so I had a
good chance to continue my investigation of the
race type. I have probably looked into hundreds
and hundreds of faces this afternoon. There
was plenty of interest, no one could deny that :
fortune-tellers, story-tellers, barbers, cooks, all

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 123
doing business in the street. Now and then a
man would pass carrying a bird in the cage or
a bunch of squawking ducks. Rickshaws and
sedan-chairs were plentifully sprinkled through
the crowd, and my mafoo (coachman) had to
keep up a continual shouting. But in spite ofthe
novelty and interest, I did not enjoy myself.
The hostility of the people, the dirt, and the smell
are too much in evidence, and you must remem
ber that this is supposed to be, by some, the
cleanest and best ordered of native cities. The
bare bodies that I saw now and then were streaked
with dirt and filth that you could see, and often
disfigured by skin disease, and the hair of many
looked moth-eaten and hung in litde patches on
their scalps. The smell was a horrible fried smell
that honestly makes me a litde sick now; a whiff
of it at sea would put a whole crew flat on
their backs, or cause a mad dash for the rail. I
was really glad, too, that I did not understand
Chinese, for many of the remarks yelled after
the carriage were evidendy uncomplimentary
and insulting. Then the deformed people, or
people with noses missing, were rather unpleas
ant, too. Of course there is no danger, for they
all know that injury to a foreigner would mean
swift, terrible punishment, but when you think

124 LETTERS OF
that even the litde children can remember the
Boxer troubles seven years ago, when it was al
lowed to take a stab at a foreigner, it gives you
an eerie feeling.
The old men with white mustaches and white
pigtails are funny, and so are the dirty litde brats
with their pigtails roasted red by the sun. To
day I must have seen fifty great fat men, —
great human porpoises with yellow, shiny skin
and great rolls of fat on their necks ; then, too,
there were many of the higher class in long silk
robes with drooping mustaches like rat-tails and
scrubby litde goatees, just like the picture-book
mandarins. The Chinese are not a nice-looking race at all,
but sometimes a kindly face looks out of the
crowd, or a tall, grave man passes by with quiet
dignity. If they were all clean, they might look
very different. Another strange sensation that I
experienced now and then was finding a face
in the crowd that looked exacdy like an Amer
ican face, a starding sight. Still other faces were
long and looked like horses.
You never meet smiles in China. Sometimes
they grin at you, but usually they just stare and
you have to look through them, not at them, for
if they catch your eye, they seem to feel they must

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 125
do something unpleasant as quick as they can.
I suppose an old resident would call this de
scription exaggerated, but it is a true, bona-fide
first impression. I may feel very differendy my
self before many days.
The women are pretty, I think prettier than
in Japan, but oh, their feet! They walk stiff-
legged, very slowly, as if on stilts, and every step
is painful. Sometimes, when they are young,
their feet bleed if they walk far. Almost every
girl, rich and poor alike, at least here in the
North, binds her feet. The only exceptions are
outcasts and beggars. The women wear trousers
and thick-soled shoes, with litde jackets that fit
tight. Sometimes long silk coats. When they go
out, the little girls and young women paint their
faces thickly with bright red, and rouge their
lips, and daub their necks with white powder
like flour. The poor people do it very unskil
fully and look like clowns, with red streaks even
on the forehead, while under their chins and be
hind the ears the skin is as brown as an Indian.
The lower classes here, by the way, are dark
brown, not yellow. Girls wear their hair in a
pigtail like the men, with bangs and long locks
hanging just in front of the ears, with a curl at
the end. Younger women seem here to wear the

126 LETTERS OF
hair in a long knot like a banana, while the older
ones wear it on top of the head like a Japanese
roof Both young and old women draw the hair
tight back from the forehead and hang
imitation gold, silver, and jade orna
ments in front of the ears. Old women
often wear flowers and knots of ribbon
on their heads. In the South the method
Girl was a mixture of the old and young

Young woman Old women
woman style here. Of course the women never
wear hats. When you come into individual con
tact with a Chinaman, you don't dislike him.
I like the servants I have met, and old residents
swear by their boys. The fact is, they attach
themselves to you like dogs, and even give their
lives for you. During the Boxer massacres many
a servant risked and gave his life, not to save
his master only, but sometimes to save an almost
worthless bit of his master's belongings.
There is no doubt that this race has a great
future, for it has the force of millions of people,
great perseverance, intelligence, and power, and

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 127
desire to work, but at present their dirt and hos
tility are great drawbacks. Education will cure
both, however.
Now is a fine time to visit Pekin, for to-day
an edict was issued promising the people a con
stitutional government. China is on the eve of
a great change, and the students are preaching a
revolution. Events will march quickly in the next
few years, and I am glad to be here to see the be
ginning of the change. I shall be able to under
stand the history that will be made in the next
five or ten years.
I expected to find here more glories of art and
architecture. I knew that the Japanese borrowed
the beginnings of all their civilization from
China, but I am disappointed. Japan is now
paying back the debt. The big curio stores and
art stores here and at Shanghai deal with Japa
nese articles for the most part. Schools and gov
ernment institutions are run on Japanese meth
ods, with Japanese advice, and every hotel table
is littered with pamphlets and guides describing
the glories of, not China, but the litde island I
have just left.
At Shanghai just before I left I bought two
books on China written by old inhabitants and
professed champions of the land. I hoped that

128 LETTERS OF
reading these books on the way up would in
spire me with love and veneration for this people.
They soon restored my good humor, which left
me at Shanghai for the first time, but which
has now returned for good, but alas for the mis
sionary work I hoped they would do !
The first author, after describing several
friends and model servants and lauding them to
the skies, says, " But on the whole I dislike the
people and loathe the country." The second
author describes a trip to the Upper Yangtze
and the Great Gorges, sixty days from Shanghai
by steamer and junk. He finally gave up walk
ing ashore at all, because ofthe filth and the great
crowds and the dogs, one of which bit a piece
out of his leg. All of his sailors and the "great
part of the people" he saw were covered with
sores caused by the dirt. Yet he revels in the
one or two instances of kindness he met for every
ten discomforts, and makes out quite a pleasant
trip, barring a few shipwrecks and accidents to
his coolies on the rocks. As I say, these books
restored my humor, though not my rosy antici
pations of pleasant days spent in native huts
talking with the kindly farmers, that I conjured
up, based on Japanese experiences. I believe it
is true, however, that the farm-people are more

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 129
friendly than the city rabble. My experience
so far, you must remember, has been only with
the lowest class, corresponding to the tenement
people at home. Again I affirm that, although
the class is low as low can be, it is not a rowdy
or mucker class.
Ask Pamela to remember our experience in
Chinatown, — to make the streets, in her im
agination, five or ten times narrower, to fill them
with dead cats, decayed fish, rotten cabbage,
garbage, to imagine thousands of people crowd
ing about instead ofthe dozens we saw, to plaster
the mob with a litde of the street mixture, to set
them all yelling, and to season with smells that
are different and worse than you ever dreamed
at home, and she will have some idea ofthe coun
try I am going into the heart of to-morrow.
The buildings she and I saw were American.
Let her substitute flimsy wood and add lots of
pigs. Your loving son, Gilbert.
Pekin, September 27, 1907.
Dear Family, — My last moan, you may
remember, came from Tientsin, where I was
waiting for the bloody bank to open. (Of course
I threw in that adjective to show you I have

130 LETTERS OF
been associating with "The English-") On ten
o'clock Tuesday morning it didopen,and I forth
with drew enough money to buy a ticket for
Pekin, and at 3.15 P. M. I set sail in a most
comfortable train, which landed me in the arms
of Am. at about 6.30.
The Chinese city is surrounded by thick walls,
and the Tartar city is protected by a tremendous
wall, with huge forbidding towers of pagoda
shape over the gates. The Imperial city has a
wall, the forbidden city has a wall, and the lega
tions have each a separate wall, as indeed has
every house and most ofthe stores ofthe natives.
For a few moments my train skirted the lower
wall of the Chinese city, then, making a dash
through a narrow break, it crossed to the oppo
site wall, and doubling along the Tartar city
defences, came to a halt. When we first en
tered the Chinese city, I expected to dash into
the midst of a busy capital, but to my great
surprise the country inside the wall was ex
acdy the same as it had been all the way
from Tientsin : low, slighdy wooded and culti
vated by turns, with here and there a mud hut.
This sort of scenery followed us clear round to
the station where we finally dismounted. The
fact is that the walls of a Chinese city always

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 131
include a great deal of the surrounding country,
for protective purposes, and in many places in
side the Chinese walls you would not imagine
there was a city near.
The Chinese city has one wide road that bi
sects it, and the Tartar city has a wide road on
each side of the Imperial city; there is also a
broad road running at right angles to the two
main ones and passing between the Imperial city
and the legation quarter. For the rest, all the
streets of Pekin are narrow, crooked alleys, in
the usual state of filth, except throughout the
legation quarter. With the exception of the wide
streets mentioned, which are lined with stores
with open fronts, a ride through Pekin shows
you nothing but a line of high walls on both sides
of the street. From one of the city towers, how
ever, the whole area gives the appearance of a
green forest with hardly a house to be seen ! This
is because the houses are all surrounded by trees
and gardens, which are absolutely hidden by the
outer walls when you are on the street level.
Am. has been here for two weeks to-day, and
has become acquainted with practically every
one in town. The foreigners here are limited to
diplomats, a few missionaries, and some privi
leged business men or capitalists, for the city is

132 LETTERS OF
not open to foreigners for residence, and special
permission is required to settle here. Therefore,
the place is absolutely free from the gamblers,
adventurers, and free lances that haunt Shanghai
and Tientsin. Ladies are in great demand, for
there are only seventeen in town.
After dinner on my first night, Amasa took me
across the street to call on Mr. J  . He is an
old inhabitant and a very well-known man here,
— a civil engineer who has put through many
works for the Chinese government. Outside of
the diplomats, he and Mr. M  , the elderly
correspondent for the London Times, who is said
to be the best-known man in China, and Sir
Robert Hart, head ofthe Imperial Customs, who
has lived here sixty years and is the most distin
guished of all foreigners, — these three men are
the most respected at Pekin.
Mr. J  lives in a Chinese house and is very
hospitable. Am. has spent most of his mornings
lounging about his library. From the outside
nothing is visible save a high stone wall with a
massive roofed gate. Passing this, you are in a
litde stone-paved room, with the gate-keepers'
quarters at one side ; facing you is another heavy
gate. After passing this second gate, you cross
a large garden, and passing down a shady arbor.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 133
are confronted by another wall. The boy who
guides you opens a small door and admits you
to an inner garden, around which are built the
rooms of Mr. J  's house. A couple of bed
rooms here in one low building, a stable there,
and library and dining-room in the main build
ing up a little flag-stoned path to your right. In
side are soft leather chairs, a fireplace, and a
great jumble of books, old embroideries, Chinese
gods and lions, that make an ideal place to
lounge. We talked to the owner for an hour, and
then strolled up Legation Street to our American
compound. The soldier at the gate presented arms as we
passed into the large moonlit square around
which the barracks were grouped. The whole
atmosphere was full of strange sensations, and I
felt for almost the first time that I was in a for
eign land. Japan and the China ports have been
familiar sights like old friends, but Pekin is a
new experience.
On Wednesday we called on Mr. R  , the
American minister, and he gave us some good
advice as to trips in the country. Mr. J  has
also been very kind in helping us oudine expe
ditions, and soon we start for the interior; but
more of that anon.

134 LETTERS OF
In the afternoon I took a rickshaw to the Yel
low Temple, which lies about a mile outside the
upper wall of the Tartar city. The ride was a
treat in itself. Down the broad, bumpy street we
rolled, past trains of loaded camels coming in
from the Gobi Desert or Manchuria, past great
fat men astride tiny donkeys that jingled mer
rily along nevertheless, past the springless Pekin
carts, with elaborate Manchu ladies peering out
over the driver's head, street-barbers, peddlers,
gamblers, and now and then a mandarin, his
chair or cart surrounded by a group of retainers
mounted on shaggy China ponies.
The temple itself is a large group of marble
buildings in semi-ruined condition, set in a weedy
but beautiful park. There are great tortoises
bearing huge marble columns on their backs and
gilded Buddhas of all sizes, but the main sight is
a towering dagoba of pure white marble, with
every inch of its surface elaborately carved.
After the siege Japanese soldiers were quartered
here, and amused themselves by chipping off
heads from the bas-reliefs, but they could not
destroy half of the marvellous work.
I was accompanied by two priests and ten or
twelve boys, all clamoring for money at every
gate. Some of the devices they resorted to in

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 135
order to open my pocket were very funny.
They would perform acrobatic stunts, or pre
tend they had thorns in their feet, or fall down
on purpose and then cry piteously. I escaped
for a comparatively few cents, however.
Our boy Lin, who is an old servant of Mr.
R  's, the minister, has just arrived with his
credentials, so I will postpone finishing this until
later. Later. Young Mr. D  , a Harvard 1907
graduate, who is out on a trip like ours and
who is visiting Straight, the American Consul at
Mukden, came down yesterday to join us in a
trip, and at the instigation of Lin and Mr. J 
we start about daylight to-morrow morning for
Kalgan! Kalgan is across the Nankow Pass,
through the great wall, and is about five days'
march from here. It is the big distributing depot
on the route to Mongolia and Siberia, and through
it come all the camel trains from the North. We
are taking a cook and a coolie, donkeys, and two
Pekin springless covered carts. Lin is an old
boy of Mr. J  ^'s and Mr. R  ^'s, and they
got him for us, so we are in the safest of hands.
He is about seven feet high and acts like a foster-
mother to us. We three will have a wonderful
time, although the trip will be hard jogging on

136 LETTERS OF
the donkeys. I will send you my diary of the trip
with all the minute details. It will be about ten
days before you hear from me again, so don't
worry. Love to all and lots of it,
Gilbert.
Pekin, October lo, 1907.
Dear Family, — Back in Pekin safe and
sound. We reached here yesterday, but were so
busy finding out about times of boat-sailings and
arranging our immediate plans, that this is the
first chance I have had to write you.
Our trip was a perfect success and quite un
usual, and Mr. J  tells us that now we have
ceased to be globe-trotters and have become
"travellers in China."
This afternoon or early to-morrow morning
we leave by train for Ching-wan-tao on the upper
shore of Pe-chi-li Gulf, and to-morrow evening
we sail for Shanghai, where we make a rapid
change of boats for Hong Kong. The next
steamer for Saigon leaves Hong Kong on Octo
ber. 30th, so we have a litde over two weeks to
use up. At Hong Kong we shall try to catch a
boat to the Philippines, if we can get back in
time to catch our Saigon boat. If we cannot do

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 137
that, we shall probably visit Formosa, which is
very near Hong Kong.
I have kept a full diary of our twelve-day trip
for you, and am getting it in shape to send. It
will fill several envelopes, and will give you so
much to read that you will forgive me for this
skimpy letter and the one I wrote just before
starting for Kalgan. Some of them are written
in pencil and have rubbed so that I must rewrite
them. I shall have to do it on the steamer for
Shanghai, and will mail them there so you will
get them almost as soon as you get this.
We have met many delightful people here in
the different legations, and feel almost as much
at home as among Saginaw people. I have more
on that subject in the diary.
To-day is a busy day with packing, telegraph
ing for berths, and good-bye calls, so I must
hurry to breakfast and work.
Love to all and lots of it,
Gilbert.
Shanghai, October i6, 1907.
Dear Ones, — Am. and I left Ching-wan-toa
for this place last Friday night by the steamer
Kaiping. We were due here Monday, but eight
een hours out of Ching-wan-toa we ran across the

138 LETTERS OF
S. S. Kwang-Ping of the same company, which
was helpless, having broken her propeller. After
some excitement, including the capsizing of one
ofour small tenders and the confusion of pulling
the men out of the water, we attached two cables
to the unhappy K.-P. and towed her all the way
to Shanghai, reaching here yesterday after a
pleasant voyage. The Kaiping had five passen
gers besides ourselves, and our accommodations
were luxurious. Lin is still with us. We dis
covered to-day that he has served not only Mr.
J  and Mr. R  , but the distinguished
Sir Robert Hart.
Now that I have seen the real China and
grown very fond ofthe good, simple-hearted peo
ple of China, I apologize to Shanghai for my first
slanders. I am enjoying it this time very much,
and this hotel is much better than the house
where I first stayed. Shanghai is just as foreign
as New York or Paris, and about as gay, but we
are only here for a brief stay and do not mind the
little glimpse of home, for we are beginning to
think of home very often now.
President Thwing of Westem Reserve Univer
sity is here with his wife, and Professor Smith
of Columbia and his wife are travelling with
them. We spent last evening with his party and

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 139
Mr. Nu, head of the Chinese government ar
senal works, — a Chinaman of great culture,
educated at Exeter, New Hampshire !
After long deliberation on our schedule and
talks with many men, we are not going to the
Philippines, although it costs us a good deal
mentally to cut it out. We leave to-night by
steamer for Foochow, China, and on the 21st
leave Foochow by steamer for Formosa! Mr.
James Davidson says, "Of all the dominions
which have ever acknowledged the authority of
China, no corresponding portion of area can be
compared with Formosa in interest and future
importance, and that equally whether we con
sider the richness and variety of its soil, its stores
of mineral wealth, its scenery, grand and pic
turesque; or the character of its inhabitant tribes
of savages, as wild and untamed as can be found
in all Asia and sufficiendy unknown to please
the wildest ethnologist."
We have good letters to A  , the American
consul at Tamsui, Formosa, and are going to try
to get up to one of the Japanese frontier posts.
The trip is as safe as living in Saginaw, but will
be entirely out of the beaten tourist-track.
At Pekin we met a great many people and be
came great friends with Mr. R  , Mr. J  ,

140 LETTERS OF
the legation secretaries, Capt. R  , the mili
tary attache, and the officers of the American
Guard, as well as with Mr. McC  of the
Associated Press, a young English merchant,
and a French banker, Monsieur C  . Life at
Pekin is interesting, and I was glad to meet the
people there and get a taste of diplomatic life,
but Shanghai is full of tourists and society, and
I am glad we are going to a country where there
is neither. At Pekin we had made plans to
take a trip into Mongolia and Manchuria with
D  , Mr. S-  , the Consul at Mukden, Capt.
R  , the attache at Pekin, and M  , As
sistant Consul at Mukden, who is just out here
for a year's vacation. He, by the way, is a master
at Groton, and Dick D  is filling his place
now. This trip would have occupied three weeks,
and would have been made by S  in his of
ficial capacity with a big retinue and guard of
soldiers. It was a wonderful chance to see the
country, but special orders from Washmgton
have made S  postpone it a month, and in
spite of his urging. Am. and I cannot wait.
This morning we had a very pleasant visit
with Mr. D  , our consul-general here. He
asked us to dinner to-night, but we are going on
board our Foochow steamer early, and so refused.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 141
At Foochow there is no hotel, so D  gave
us a good letter to the consul, and he will prob
ably entertain us until our boat leaves for Tam
sui, Formosa.
I am sending you to-day my diary ofthe Mon-
gohan trip we have just finished.
The boat on which we leave has only two
staterooms, but is a nice, comfortable craft, I
am told. I have not had letters from home in so
long that I am wild to reach Hong Kong, where
I know I shall find a big packet. Although we
are now behind time on our schedule, don't
change your writing schedule, as I think we shall
cut out some things and catch up, and anyway
it is better to have the mail ahead than behind
one. We find that we shall have to sacrifice a great
many ofour plans, and are trying to omit wisely.
So far, I am sure we have acted for the best and
do not regret anything that we have done, for
every day has given us some new information or
pleasure. From the point of view of health and rest the
trip is a great success. In the East there is
nothing to do at night, and our bed hour varies
from eight to ten, averaging about 9.30. I am

142 LETTERS OF
also getting more exercise than I have had in
years. Besides the pictures of Mr. S  , please find
enclosed some Mongol cheese and a strip of
Mongol money. On this cheese we practically
lived while our carts were lost.
Loads and loads of love, Gilbert.
P. S. At Pekin we were filled full of informa
tion about Manchuria, present affairs in China,
Japan, and Korea, and many stories of war-rime
and the Boxer trouble by eye-witnesses and per
sonal sufferers. For instance, the man who was
in the carriage with Baron Ketteler when he was
murdered, and who, himself, ran half a mile with
a bullet in his hip, pursued by the crowd, is still
in Pekin.
We are also buying and reading books on
recent eastern history, and careful reports of
travels by men who stand high here and some
of whom we know personally, so the educational
side of our trip has been thoroughly justified
in China, as I am sure it will be all the way
around. Love to all, Gilbert.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 143
Later, October i6, 1907.
Dear Family, — Yet another word or two.
In this envelope are the pictures taken by Mr.
S  . On looking them over, I think that the
one of the Mongol Queen, of the three belles,
and one of the three groups I have marked I, li,
III are good. In iii, notice the two deer facing a
large crest on the first roof of the temple. These
deer are a distinctive mark of Mongol temples
and are gilded. In Mongolia we found numbers
of larks and a kind of red-billed blackbird almost
as large as a crow, with a musical caw. Although
it was late for flowers, we saw lots of larkspur,
clematis, and edelweiss, and earlier the plains are
carpeted with flowers. Mr. S  says that on
a three days' trip he has collected fifty varieties,
as a side-issue of the trip.
Looking over my notes and the pictures has
brought back very clearly those kindly, red-
cheeked, healthy souls who were so kind to us.
My detailed notes may bore you, for I feel how
cold and bare they are, and how they fail to give
you any idea of the warm color, the bracing air,
and the simple, kindly folk that we lived among
for twelve days, but if they interest you at all, I
shall be very glad to know it, for I thought of you

144 GILBEUT LITTLE STARK
at every new interest that revealed itself, and
thoroughly enjoyed making a record of it for you.
Formosa will be fully as interesting, and I hope
to send you readable letters from there.
Loads of love, Gilbert.
Look for the edelweiss in this envelope and
save it if you can. Gilbert.

CHAPTER III
DIARY OF THE MONGOLIAN TRIP
A Thousand Li on a Donkey
Nankow, China, September 28, 1907.
Dear Family, — A thousand // sounds hke
a tremendous distance, and that is why I wrote
it at the top of this page instead of writing
"Three hundred and thirty miles " on said quad
ruped, which would mean the same thing.
To-morrow we start across Nankow Pass,
along the great Mongolian trade route to Kal
gan on the Chinese frontier. We decided quite
suddenly to come, and our boy Lin arranged our
whole outfit for us in half a day. When we de
cided on Kalgan as our objective point, we heard
the most contradictory reports. We could reach
there in any length of time from two days to five,
according to our different advisers. We could
go in a cart, and yet the road was impassable for
anything besides donkeys, and a third assured us
that ten days on Chinese donkeys would lay us
under the sod without fail. We chose donkeys,
however, to carry ourselves, and carts for the
baggage, and our retinue left Pekin this morn-

146 LETTERS OF
ing and has just drawn up for the night in the
inn-compound here at Nankow. We, ourselves,
did not come by caravan, but started at eight from
Pekin by train, taking with us Lin the boy, Lee
the cook, and the coolie. We left the train at the
end of the line, and a mile walk brought us to
this inn, which a charcoal scrawl over the gate
informs us is the "Nankow Hotel — Master's
name, Lu Su Chung." We tarried only for a cup
of tea, and mounting in haste, clattered down the
stone-paved street, forded a shallow stream, and
were off for the Ming Tombs before that fast
"Seth Thomas" I treasure could race around
to half-past twelve.
We were four : Lin the loose-jointed. Am. the
amiable, Dick, a Harvard man of last year's out
put, and myself. Lin being neutral, the bull-dog
blue has it two to one on the crimson, but Dick
keeps us working hard to catch up. Our mounts
deserve honorable mention; they furnished va
riety if not speed. Dick rode a zebra. It was
officially a mule, but its legs and haunches were
the regulation convict pattern. Am. rejoiced in
a donkey that really looked like the beast whose
name it bore. My horse was a small black pony
(my Irish will crop out), and Lin rode a mouse.
They called the mouse a donkey, but it could

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 147
have strolled about under Am.'s donkey without
the slightest inconvenience to either party, and,
as Lin has a tendency towards seven feet, the
spectacle they presented when in action was like
Secretary Taft trying to ride a jack-rabbit, if you
can imagine it. Our path was full of stones and
great rocks, and soon resolved itself into a mere
trail with widening spasms now and then, but it
led through beautiful country. The railroad is
stopped at Nankow by a range of sharply ser
rated mountains that rise abruptly from the
plains. We skirted the base of this range, keep
ing it always on our left, with the great Pekin
plain stretching away to our right, level as the
ocean to the horizon. The country seemed rich,
and is well cultivated with corn and millet, and
the tiny mud-villages we passed through nestled
very comfortably beneath large green trees and
formed a pleasing contrast in alternate patches
of tree shadow and white sunlit wall.
After two hours we crossed a low outlying spur
of hills and looked down into a level basin, almost
round, and about three miles across. At the back,
the mountains shot up steeply, with bold, jagged
outline against a cloudless blue — bare rock —
except where a fringe of rich green foliage hid
their bases. From out this green belt gleamed

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the gold roofs and scarlet walls of the Ming
Tombs. The art of choosing situations is a science
and a religion in China. They call it Fengshui,
and of all the deep-rooted superstitions of China
this one has the deepest roots. Towns, temples,
graves, houses, all are placed where they will be
safe from the thousand demons, and where they
will not offend the Dragon, the Tortoise, and the
Snake, those mighty dwellers in the earth by
whose forbearance we mortals live on its surface.
The Fengshui of these tombs is perfect. For six
hundred years the Ming emperors have slept
soundly on this slope, protected by the high
mountains from the cold winds of the North,
looking out across the waving grain-fields and
orchards of the basin and over the low east
ern hills, along the great plain, to their own
capital Pekin, invisible, but straight before
them. Strange changes they must have seen in
that capital, but up here in the pleasant hills it
cannot have troubled them greatly.
The tombs are scattered, perhaps half a mile
apart, and some woman has said that they peer
out like golden pheasants from their native
copse. The phrase is fantastic; of course they
don't look a bit like pheasants, and no one but a

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 149
woman would say so, but there is a suggestion in
it of the color scheme that lies before you as you
cross the protecting spur.
Another twenty minutes through millet-fields
and persimmon orchards found us on a broad
weed-grown avenue paved with large stone blocks.
Up this avenue we rode, across marble bridges,
to the very gate of the tomb of Emperor Ming
the First.
A generous pink wall with an overhanging
roof of yellow tiles and a strong locked gate
barred further progress, and while one of our
donkey boys beat it, on the mouse, down to the
village for the key, we had plenty of leisure for tif
fin, which we spread on some marble fragments
in a near-by grove, and a careful study of the blue
and yellow frieze of porcelain dragons above the
archway. A small crowd of men and boys came
from the fields with their clumsy reaping-hooks
and squatted around us on their heels. Ripples
of amusement in the audience greeted each stage
of the tiffin, and great was the consternation
when luxurious Lin opened a bottle of beer he
had brought from Pekin, and the froth poured
down the bottle's side.
At last, an old gentleman, with five long
whiskers, a skimpy pigtail, and a long staff, un-

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locked the gate with a tremendous iron key. Our
entire party, including the audience and the me
nagerie on which we had travelled so far, passed
through the open gate into a grassy park. At each
side was a small square tower, and in front of
us a temple-shaped building open to the winds,
through which we passed to another part of the
garden. This section holds some fine hardwoods
and evergreens, and at the right a marble tor
toise, large as a piano, stands under a stone can
opy, holding on his back a shaft of marble taller
than two tall men, on top of which is crouched
a leering dragon. Underneath, they tell us, is a
living tortoise who has breathed through two
tiny holes at the base of the monument for the
last six hundred years. When we reached the
tortoise pavilion, our smallest donkey had clam
bered in ahead of us and stood defying the mon
ster bravely. He refused to be coaxed or pushed
away, and so we left him, but he soon rejoined
us. In a direct line with the outer gate and the
temple-shaped gate is the main building, a huge
stone temple with a triple terrace leading up to
its broad gallery. Along the edge of each terrace
is a marble balustrade with elaborately carved
posts at frequent intervals. Peacocks, griffins,
geese — every design seemed to be unique. This

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 151
temple was bare except for a forest of large
wooden pillars of teak-wood from Burmah, and
one tiny shrine in the centre. From the back of
the temple the marble path leads straight on past
a yellow porcelain shrine, through two gates, or
rather arches, around both sides of a long stone
table supporting marble urns, and then directly
into the centre of a massive stone tower with
a red superstructure of cement-Uke substance.
Above, in an open arch and under a flawless red
marble shaft inscribed with his royal name, lies
the founder of the dynasty of Ming. Lin says
his body is in the little shrine of the big temple,
but I am sure he is in the huge windowless tower,
solid masonry except for the slanting tunnel
which leads to the upper platform.
Back through the gardens with our retinue,
back through the temple with its marble balus
trades full of luxuriant bushes and flowers that
have sprung up unplanted under the temple
gate, a garden growing between the gold-colored
tiles of its roof; a dish of tay with the gatekeeper,
and a little excitement recapturing the menage
rie, and we were off down the marble high
way. We followed this old road beyond the place
where we had first joined it, and half an hour's

152 LETTERS OF
riding brought us to a triple arch, a proud red
edifice where ancient pilgrims dismounted from
their horses and continued on foot, in the days
before the Manchu reign.
"Present arms, hi!" There were eight mar
ble mandarins performing that honorable ma
noeuvre for us as soon as ever we had passed the
archway. Dignified princes they are, about ten
feet high, with lots of elbow-room, fifty yards of
it, between each one. Then four giant soldiers,
complete in marble armor, two on each side of
us to see we maintained proper dignity, and then
begins a menagerie that puts ours to shame. First
horses, then griffins, elephants, camels, some un
known beast like a unicorn ; last, fierce lions, four
of each type, the first pair of each standing, the
second sitting; all marble andil^U much larger
than life size. They must extendsfor over a mile,
and very effective they are, standing in the edge
of the millet, with never a fence, or a signboard,
or any other ugly artifice to show that they
did not grow there. For six hundred years those
patient elephants have stood there without feel
ing in the least tired, and for six hundred years
those supercilious camels have sat peacefully
oblivious of the mighty emperors with glittering
trains who have visited their fathers' shrines.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 153
A good many millet crops have ripened behind
them, and the farmers that plant them have been
renewed almost as often as the crops, but nothing
has changed and, barring a few picturesque
weeds in the roadway, Marco Polo could stroll
between the marble sentinels and never know
that this was the twentieth, not the fifteenth cen
tury. (I 'm not sure that Marco lived in the fif
teenth century, or that he ever came up from
Pekin to see the tombs, if they existed in his time,
but the point is the same, nevertheless.)
It took us about three hours to reach Nankow
again from the avenue of beasts, but it was an
interesting ride and only too short. Am. insisted
on greeting the peasants with English remarks,
and they answered like an echo with a perfect
repetition of his words. " How the hell are you ? "
he called to a reaper on the hillside, as he scuttled
past on his donkey. " How the hell are you ? "
came back the reply in perfect English. Pro
viding the sentence was short enough, it was
mimicked syllable for syllable.
The sun had just set when we passed the city
gate, and the narrow stone-paved street was so
dark that our animals floundered and shpped
from rut to puddle.
Our inn is probably the best we shall strike

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on the whole trip, as foreigners come here com
paratively often. The entrance is through an
arched gateway into a large, muddy courtyard
full of carts, with donkeys and ponies standing in
mud stables along the sides. A gate at the back
leads into a clean, stone-paved court, with a mat-
roof held above it on pole scaffolding. In the
centre of this mat-roof is a square opening to
the sky, and directly underneath are some small
potted trees. The rooms ofthe hotel are grouped
in one-storied buildings around this court. We
have taken possession of the proudest room,
situated opposite the gate. One ofthe side rooms
is occupied by our servants and another is our
kitchen. Everything seems very private and
quiet. Our room has in it a square Chinese table
and some equally square Chinese chairs, and one
half of the room is occupied by a brick platform
three feet high, covered with a thin grass mat.
This is our bed, and if it was only cold enough,
they would build a fire underneath to keep us
warm. Although we have only made twenty
miles to-day, I am sleepy, and bed sounds hke a
mighty good place. Good-night.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 155
Whei-lei-chen, Chili Province,
September 29, Sunday.
Lin called us at five-thirty this morning, and
by half-past six our valiant cook had prepared a
feast for us — good coffee, bacon and eggs, and
a little chicken left from yesterday. We started
on foot, leaving the donkeys and carts to follow.
Our cavalcade is now of quite imposing pro
portions. Two covered springless carts, with a
driver and two horses tandem apiece, to carry
the bedding and guns. Four donkeys — two
gray and two black — with horse-hair bridles
and great red pads instead of saddles. Two
donkey boys, one cook, one coolie, Lin, and we
three pilgrims. The cook presides over one cart,
while the coolie crouches on the shafts of the
other; the drivers walk.
Our road led, first, straight into the moun
tains beside a clear running stream. The ground
is too steep for cultivation, but villages are fre
quent and the hillsides are covered with flocks
of sheep or herds of goats and camels. Just as
we were entering one picturesque walled town,
with a ponderous, frowning gate, a mass of sheep
rushed towards us from the other side. For al
most ten minutes they poured out like a great

156 LETTERS OF
river, and the rubbing of fleece against fleece was
like the sound of rushing water. The shepherds
told Lin that they had twelve hundred animals
in their flock.
The life ofthe road is always changing and al
ways interesting. Lumbering two-wheeled carts,
from the covered depths of which some painted
and be-flowered Manchu lady peers; trains of
soft-footed camels; strings of donkeys carrying
loads of grain three times their own size; beg
gars in ragged cloaks; mounted farmers from
the hills trotting down to market — one could
never tire of it all.
About half-past ten we reached the summit of
the pass, and on the ridge ahead of us, curved
like a long snake and climbing the steepest crests
as far as the eye could reach, was the Great Wall
of China.
We soon reached the tower through which
the road passes, and, turning our donkeys loose
to graze, we climbed the wall. The top is as
wide as an ordinary road, and grown with grass
and flowers. On one side you look down the
pass and even catch a distant ghmpse of the
Pekin plain. On the other side you look over
parapets, across a fertile plateau, to a srill higher
range of jagged peaks. To left and right the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 157
wall winds up and down over the mountains,
out of sight.
While Lin spread the tiffin in a shady ruined
tower, we climbed along the top of the wall to
another large tower perhaps eight hundred feet
higher. At some places the angle of ascent was
more than forty-five degrees, and instead of a
slanting roadway we climbed steep steps of stone.
We lingered perhaps an hour over tiffin, then
pushed on for fifty-eight li to this inn at Whei-
lei-chen. From the wall, the road led through
the valley we had looked into from the wall, over
a desert-like plain on which the frequent villages
made green oases. The first startling sight was
a dead camel by the roadside, with eight men
squatting about, skinning the creature with long
knives. As we approached one village, a wild-
looking horseman rode up on a gaunt, long-
legged pony. His clothes were padded like quilts
and he wore a fur cap, for it is cool here even at
midday. Over his saddle were draped blankets
and sheepskins. Am. took off his belt and started
beating his little donkey, and the wild horseman
took up the challenge; so off we dashed in a mad
race for the gate. The Mongolian won, and van
ished in a cloud of dust down the road.
Towards five o'clock we sighted a large temple

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or monastery covering the top ofa small hill, and
just behind it the battlements and wall-towers of
a large city, with three stone arches of a ruined
bridge reaching out at the side into a river that
ran along the wall.
The streets of this town were neither paved
with ill-sorted stone slabs, nor filled with deep
mud ruts, but they were level, clean, and gravelly,
and the houses had a stone terrace along the
front covered by the house-roof, supported with
slender pillars at the outer edge. Nearly every
house had at least one cage of birds hanging
out in front, and some of the men were sitting on
the stone porches holding twigs on which were
perched birds tied by the foot. I think that these
birds are larks or thrushes.
The inn where we are quartered is a large one,
but all of the rooms open on the court where
fhe animals are kept. While we were eating
dinner by candle-light, two donkeys alternately
peered in the door or danced a clog on the brick
platform outside.
It is very cold, almost like December nights
at home, but the weather has been cloudless for
two days, and so clear that the tiniest details of
distant hills are visible.
It is remarkable what our cook manages to

GILBERT LITfLE STARK 159
do. We brought with us only salt, pepper, but
ter, tea, coffee, sugar, and a little bread and jam,
expecting to rough it, but we are living hke kings,
entirely off the country. To-night we had millet
soup, fresh fish, roast mutton and green peas,
broiled chicken, apples, grapes, and dehcious tea.
Beat that if you can.
Hurrah for the wilds of Mongolia ! they have
Sherry's lashed to the mast! Good-night.
Ching-ming-ee, Chili, China,
September 30, 1907.
This morning at six o'clock Lin brought in
candles and told us it was time to get up. A dim
gray light filtered through our paper window,
and the brick floor was clammy to the foot. Old
South Middle was draughty, and the mornings
in New Haven are sometimes very cold, but this
morning was a record-breaker. I think I shall
surely invest in a fur coat at Kalgan. Am.
stripped and stood out in the courtyard, while I
threw buckets of icy water over him, to the great
delight of the animals and drivers that were
awake. After a good hot breakfast we started
down the road.
This has been the third cloudless day, and the
air has been crisp and keen, so that even at noon

i6o LETTERS OF
our hands were stiff with cold, and the wind
sweeping down from the mountains fairly sends
your blood bounding through your veins.
All day we have been travelling down the val
ley we entered yesterday, with high rocky peaks
on both sides of us, shutting us in behind and
ahead. There is no vegetation on these hills,
and the colors are like Colorado and Arizona.
The valley floor is perhaps fifteen miles broadj
and I should judge over fifty miles in length,
and it is planted with fields of millet and buck
wheat. The frequent mud villages have disappeared
in this more exposed country, and all the houses
are gathered into walled towns about four miles
apart. The character of the valley formation is
exactly what I have always imagined Palestine
to be. A road now spreading out into a broad
caravan track, now cutting down into the soil,
with high mud sides perpendicular and broken
fantastically. Strings of camels, and tall, graceful
trees forming oases around a little pool or stream.
The people hide their pigtails under turbans or
round caps, and it is hard to believe that this is
China. We stopped for tiffin at a large town, with high
walls in excellent preservation. As the sunny

GILBERT LITTLE STARK i6i
side of our caravanserai was teeming with flies,
and the shady side too cool for comfort, Dick and
I sat in the street to write. I think there must
have been twenty spectators gathered close
around each of us, and we could easily catch the
sense of their remarks. "What a stupid man!
see, he writes across the page, and backwards at
that ! Oh, these foreigners ! " Just before we left
the inn, I saw our cook calmly sawing off the
heads from two or three hens with a carving
knife, so I guess we shall have chicken for some
time. All afternoon we had a companion. He was
a little Mohammedan boy returning home from
a visit to neighbors. He wore a black round
brimless cap with a red button; a long gray
wadded coat belted at the waist; white baggy
trousers tucked into green shoes with thick soles
of white felt, and his tiny stiff pigtail was wrapped
with red string. He was very sociable, and en-
enjoyed travelling with us because he could
watch our queer ways. We called him Commo
dore, and that tickled him so that he gave us
some dried beans to chew.
During the afternoon we bought some fresh
dates. They are about the shape and color of
pecan nuts and taste a bit like an apple. The

i62 LETTERS OF
real apples you get here are small, but excel
lent in flavor. The pears are mostly wood and
water, like the Japanese nahi, and the grapes
are tart and very refreshing.
We reached Ching-ming-ee at five o'clock, and
turned into the yard of an inn built outside the
city walls and right against them. It is the most
picturesque inn we have yet seen. The battle
ments on this wall, which is perhaps twenty-five
feet high, are in much better repair than usual.
I did not see even a broken parapet, and the
towers are frequent and imposing. Before the
inn is a pleasing view over the whole valley, with
a river at the farther side, overhung now by long
shreds of mist. Above the parapets, under which
we are resting, is the top of a very high, steep
table-mountain. We can just make out the form
of two clusters of temples on the summit, with
a bridge connecting them, a great arch through
which we can see the light, but so far above us
that it looks like a pin-hole through the rock;
they tell us it is all of marble. It would be an in
teresting ascent if we had time, but it is so steep
that it would take at least one whole day for the
expedition. To-night the colors are like a picture by Max-
field Parrish. A yellow sky behind the jagged

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 163
mountains, and all the rich browns and greens
of wall and valley melted into a misty blue,
through which details are lost and the passing
camel magnified to a tremendous shadowy size.
These beasts always travel at night so they can
have a clear road, and they start their day's work
just as we end ours.
They have closed the courtyard gate, candles
are lighted, and supper is on the table; after
supper — bed. Chuen-Wha-Fu, Chili, China,
October i, 1907.
A very cold day it has been. We started while
the valley was still misty and ascended a river
gorge, behind the sacred mountain, on to a small
plateau that is evidently submerged at high wa
ter. Here we forded several small streams, whip
ping our donkeys back to bring the boys over,
although at one place a human ferry saved us
the trouble; we also got some good pictures of
a large herd of camels drinking. We see from
three to six hundred of these beasts daily, and if
our average keeps up, will have passed from three
to six thousand of them on the road before we re
turn to Pekin. A pass, with a wall built along
the outer edge ofi the sohd rock roadway, led us

i64 LETTERS OF
to our third plateau, a sandy, mountain-enclosed
plain possibly thirty miles in length and dotted
with willow trees. In the hills of the pass we
heard pheasants chuckling at us from every
ridge, and saw a large flock of wild geese.
We ate tiffin at an unusually small and poor
village, and hurried on about one o'clock. Dur
ing the afternoon it rained very hard for an hour,
so we did not make such good time as usual.
Towards evening it cleared, and we saw the walls
of a very large city, Chuen-Wha-Fu, where we are
now resting. The walls enclose a space that must
be three miles square, and are in perfect repair.
The wall itself is about forty feet high, and the
corner towers and two-storied gates are twice
the height. The town is busy and interesting,
and seems to drive a thriving trade in sheep
skin coats. Our noble cook has just invested in
one. We were escorted on our ramble through the
streets by about fifty mild barbarians who caused
no trouble at all. Am. turned at one corner and
gave them a long harangue on the joys and merits
of supporting the PopuHst party. "What has the
Repubhcan party done for you ? " he shouted.
They appeared politely interested, but did not
pledge their votes. Many of the shops had im-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 165
ages of monkeys with red faces guarding the
goods. Our evening meal is a never-ending delight.
It is always served in a bare, plastered room, with
one or two fantastic Chinese prints pasted on the
wall, and half the room occupied by the big
stove-bed. Lin spreads the table with a snowy
cloth, and the two candles we allow throw great
shadows over the brick floor and into all the cor
ners. Lin ghdes quietly about in the darkness
behind our chairs, and places course after course
of fresh, well-cooked food before us, which the
coolie brings from the kitchen. All this luxury
at about half the price per day of a poor hotel at
home. We are all in perfect health so far, and fit
as fiddles. *' Full of Health and Hunger," as
Dick says. To-morrow we reach Kalgan and
the Mongolian frontier.
Kalgan, Wednesday, October 2, 1907.
This is the strangest, most interesting place
we have seen in China. It is well worth coming
to see, even if the country along the road were
deadly dull, which it is not. The town is very
large, one hundred thousand inhabitants, and is
not confined to the city walls, but spreads over
the surrounding country. It is the great depot.

1 66 LETTERS OF
the clearing-house between China and Mongolia,
and a large proportion of its population is float
ing. Whole streets along the outskirts are filled
with temporary shops and tents, and look like
circus encampments.
We left Chuen-Wha-Fu rather later than we
usually start on the day's journey, and have
travelled much more leisurely than our custom
is, for the day's stage has been only sixty li.
Towards ten o'clock Dick became excited by the
flocks of pigeons wheeling above the millet-fields,
and the pheasants chuckling on the ridges, and
unlimbering his shotgun, took to the fields. He
was followed by one of our donkey boys leading
Dick's beast, expecting in the simplicity of his
Chinese soul to bring the donkey back loaded
with game. All the peasants within sight left
their reaping and joined the procession, and as
they drew farther off across the open country,
we saw two wild-looking individuals with long
red tasselled spears come sprinting over the lea
towards our luckless Dick. Lin informed us,
however, that they were not bandits, but only
part of some official's escort, who were curious to
see what the foolish foreigner was up to. When
Dick rejoined us with a bag of pigeons, he told
us that it had been very difficult to avoid adding

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 167
several farmers to the day's kill, as the gentle
rustics insisted on peering down the barrel when
ever he made ready to shoot. Wanted to watch
the bullet come out, you know. Then, whenever
he dropped a bird, the whole procession would
beat it to the spot, to watch the death-struggle,
and every empty shell that he threw away almost
caused civil war.
The life of the road is more and more inter
esting day by day. Travel a sample mile of it
with me. A long train of camels, sixty or a hun
dred of them, loaded with wool and grain. Some
of the drivers are walking and some are being
tossed about like ships at sea on the summits of
the swaying camel-packs. Each beast is fastened
to the one in front by a rope through its nose, and
the hindermost wears a deep-toned brass bell a
foot long. All through the night we hear the slow,
solemn bells ofthe passing camel-trains. Usually
they take no notice as we pass, but sometimes
they swing their long necks toward us and
wither us with a supercilious stare. I can bear
anything but the contempt of a camel !
The camels are no sooner past than a party of
northern farmers trot by on shaggy ponies, wear
ing round black caps or fur hats, and sheep or
goatskin coats, with thick, quilted trousers that

1 68 LETTERS OF
stick out hke a Dutchman's breeches. Far ahead
we see a cloud of dust and a low line like an
advancing army stretching across the road, and
before long we are struggling through a sheep-
jani, with long-necked, Roman-nosed, fat-tailed
beasts packed close against our legs. Droves of
hogs, herds of square goats with long blue hair
and curly horns, droves of ponies, lines of riny
donkeys buried under great loads of millet,
Pekin carts, sedan-chairs, palanquins swung
between two mules walking Indian-file, two-
wheeled open carts with five strong mules to
pull them, foot-travellers or porters with loads
balanced on each end of a long pole. These
things we see not once a day, but as many times
a day as there are fingers and toes in the party,
I was going to add eyes, but we are not well
furnished with eyes. We have ten humans, if
you count the coolie as one, and eight animals
in our train, but, instead of thirty-six eyes, we
content ourselves with thirty-two. One of the
cart mules has none, his mate has only one, and
Bat-Eyed Bill, the first donkey agitator, leers at
us with one glistening orb, the other being of an
opaque whiteness highly valued in a pearl, but
not much esteemed in the human eye.
, At noon we lunched in the Holy Land. We

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 169
had been crossing a desert-like plain, from which
we looked back on the far-off walls of Chuen-
Wha-Fu surrounded by groves of willows and
red-topped millet-fields. Atlastthesefaded away,
and not a green bush did we see, until towards
noon we drew near a group of wide-spreading
elms. Beneath their shade was a pool, with
wash-women kneehng at its edge, and three
camels standing like statues; on the farther bank
was a rambling inn and a crowd of carts and
donkeys. During the hour we allowed for rest I
sat under one of the great trees, writing and eat
ing grapes. A simple occupation one might think,
and yet it furnished mild amusement to no less
than, forty persons who stood about me, five
deep at least. Two or three soldiers >vere in the
audience, with muzzle-loaders strapped on to
their backs, several spearmen from the train of
some official who was taking tea at the inn, sun
burnt farmers, camel-drivers, a priest with shaven
head, a prosperous-looking trader who made
a friendly speech of great length, not one word
of which I could understand, and three children
for every grown-up ofthe party. Funny children,
with red worsted pigtails sticking out in every
direction, like Topsy's, a ring in one ear, and
pantaloons like overalls without any seats at all.

170 LETTERS OF
It was a very polite crowd, and if I wanted to
see an object in the distance in any direction, I
had only to wave my hand, and the crowd rolled
back like the Red Sea, opening up a lane wide
enough for the Lord Mayor to pass through.
We reached Kalgan early in the afternoon, and
found the good rooms at most ofthe inns already
taken, but we discovered that the Catholic mis
sionary was away, and finally persuaded his ser
vants to admit us to the mission compound, where
we were very comfortable. We soon learned that
there are only five foreigners here, and two of
them are Americans. As we wished to get some
information that our boys could not discover
about the return route, we set out about five
o'clock to visit these Americans at their com
pound, a mile distant.
Mr. and Mrs. S  received us heartily, and
told us that they were missionaries and had been
in Kalgan for thirty years. Mr. S  assured
us that we would be very foolish to return to
Pekin without pushing on for a little way into
Mongolia. The result of the visit was that Mr.
S  has decided to take a vacation for three
days and lead us into Mongolia, to visit an old
Mongol priest that he has known for years. It
is a windfall of good fortune for us, as Mr. S 

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 171
is excellently well informed on things Mongolian.
He fled the whole length of the country in 1900
to escape the Boxers, reaching the Russian rail
way at Lake Baikal after two months' travel in
camel carts with women and children. We start
to-morrow at 6.30, and shall be back in Kalgan
on Saturday night.
The street on which we are quartered is awide,
dusty thoroughfare with a double row of shops
and tent-stalls on each side, where you can buy
furs and brasses of all descriptions. They have
even Russian samovars that have travelled down
from Siberia. The street is full of life and sun
shine, and noisy with the jangle of bells and
shouting and clatter of traffic. As the twilight
deepens, long, soft-footed trains of camels steal
out of the inn-gates like shadows, and the
mournful "tonk-tonk" ofthe camel-bells begins
and lasts until morning. Da Shoya's tents, Mongolia,
Thursday, October 3.
This morning we were up before the sun, and
Am. shivered in the courtyard while I applied the
Swedish cold-water treatment to his spinal col
umn, to the great glee of the inhabitants of Kal
gan. Mr. S  appeared with his white pony

172 LETTERS OF
and a roll of bedding before we were through
breakfast, and we were off without delay. We
have not carried out our threats to buy fur coats
here, for Mrs. S  with kind forethought sent
down three. We have invested in heavy gloves,
however, and they are not a luxury but a necessity !
Just before leaving the city this morning, we
entered a delightful quarter, with neat houses
and abroad street, in the centreof which bloomed
flower gardens. Birds in cages hung at every
door, and a temple on the city wall gave an air
of calm protection. "What sort of a paradise is
this ? " cried Dick, and imagine the cynical joy
with which we three embryo bachelors learned
that it is an Eden without an Eve. It is a "Men-
only" district, and the fair sex may not settle
therein to sow discord among men; and yet I
imagine the dwellers therein must be rather lone
some, for all their flowers and birds and quiet
houses. Just beyond this quarter we passed through
a gate in the real Great Wall of China and were
in Mongolia. The wall at Nankow is a modern
wing, we are told, a garish new thing of a slightly
later date than the Crusades, but this is the
outer ring, the-one-and-only-all-others-imitations
Great Wall, antedating the Christian Era.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 173
It is not a massive crenellated fortress like the
Nankow wall. It was built before men knew
how to shape blocks of stone, and is a monument
of almost prehistoric times. It is triangular,
about fifteen feet high and fifteen feet wide at
the base, with hardly room at the top for a man
to walk. It is a grim pile of loose cobbles and
boulders that have clung together some way for
more than two thousand years. It walks over
mountains that rise half a mile straight in the
air, and on every hill-top it shoots up a formid
able tower. It is a rude, elemental thing, but
you feel like taking off your hat to it.
Just beyond the wall they were holding a pony
fair, and we saw our first real Mongols — red
men, with broad faces, narrow eyes, and teeth
white as milk. All that we saw at the fair wore
long quilted robes of yellow or purple and had
short hair; horse-trading priests, faith land they
looked like jolly men as well.
Kalgan is at the end of a bhnd valley leading
up from the main plateau, but the hills before
us opened up at our approach, and for five hours
we ascended a pass, more interesting than the
Nankow Pass. The only village that we passed
was a village of cave-dwelhng Chinese, and inns
were rare. High above the pass is the perfect

174 LETTERS OF
arch of a natural bridge in the rock. When
Genghis Khan first came their way, he shot an
arrow through the crest of this hill. If any stupid
foreigner doubts the tale, let him come and see
for himself. It must be true — there is the hole !
Trains of primitive ox-carts wound down the
pass, loaded with stiff skins and hides. These
carts are the second form in the development of
wagons from rollers to pneumatic tires. The two
wheels are solid and the axle turns with them.
The road is very rough in places, and we passed
two carts with wheels in air and the unfortunate
ox struggling in a tangle of harness.
We stopped for a short rest at the summit,
five thousand feet above sea level. There is a
small lake here, a very rude inn, and a ruined
tower of the great wall, — Haknoor, Mr. S 
called it.
A descent of five hundred feet led to a broad,
rolling plain that stretched to the north as far
as we could see ; the nearest edge was broken by
scattered fields of oats and mustard, but the
plain proper is clean grass-land, an Asiatic Mon
tana, without a tree or even a sage-brush scrub
in sight. Only grass, tough yellow and green
grass, and distant herds of grazing cattle scat
tered over it like grains of black pepper.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 175
The roads became manifold and hard to fol
low, and at one of the worst tangles of track we
left a donkey boy to show the carters which way
we had taken, for the rolling hillocks were so
frequent that we could not count on their keep
ing us in sight. Mr. S  was rather in favor
of waiting for the carts and keeping together,
but we insisted on pressing ahead. The boy re
fused to stay at first, saying that he was afraid,
but we insisted, for the only possible danger was
wolves, and they are not in evidence until win
ter. After half a dayof steady travelling, we came
in sight of our destination. A brick wall and
gate enclosing three or four low buildings and
six round felt tents. Our approach sent a cloud
of sparrows, swallows, and pigeons wheeling into
the air and all the dogs barking. The servants
greeted us and led us into one of the buildings,
where our host welcomed us as heartily as
though we had come at his invitation instead of
our own.
He is a short man with a large, close-cropped
head. His face is broad and high-cheeked and
scarred. He is the eldest son of the former gov
ernor of this part of Mongoha, in days before the
Eight Banners paid taxes at Kalgan to Chinese
officials. He was made a priest as half the Mon-

176 LETTERS OF
gol boys are, but later he married and became
what is called a business priest, losing the head
ship of the family by his act. He left the old
home in possession of his brother, whom we shall
visit to-morrow, and built this place where he
now lives with his family and several famihes
of servants. The Mongols are called nomadic,
but they do not move often, and rich men like
Da Shoya, who have comfortable quarters and
broad lands, never move.
Mr. S  did the necessary talking, and ex
plained who we were, while our efforts were
turned towards Mongol curd cheese and salted
tea. The cheese was very good, and the tea thirst-
quenching in spite of the salt.
After tea we went out to look for signs of the
carts, but although we had been in an hour and
the sun was sinking rapidly, there was no sign
of our stores and bedding. After a little longer
wait, Mr. S  saddled his pony and started
off in search. The rest of us were helpless, with
our ignorance of the country and language, and
could only wait.
Mr. S  had been out of sight only half
an hour, when a black cloud swept dovm from
the north and poured a flood of rain and hail
on us to the steady accompaniment of thunder.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 177
The big Siberian dogs chained under a cart in
the compound came out and growled at the
storm, but the fierce hail drove them back with
their tails between their legs. It was a beautiful
storm, with the setting sun gleaming through it
on each side and a double rainbow in the east,
but it caused us a great deal of alarm on Mr.
S  's account. After the storm it grew dark
almost immediately, and was bitterly cold. The
ground was slippery, with an inch of ice which
showed no signs of melting, and the roads, so
puzzling in daylight, would be almost impossible
at night. Besides, although he seems as strong
as any of us, he is sixty-five years old, and the
exposure in that storm would not be pleasant
for the youngest of men.
We hung out a lantern and shot off guns at
intervals, taking turns at standing out in the cold
to listen for a call. At last we heard some
one shout, and all rushed out and led Mr. S 
back in triumph. No news of the carts or of the
donkey boy we left behind.
We are gathered in one of the round felt tents
which is floored with thick mats. A bright fire
of dried manure is glowing in a brazier in the
centre of the tent and filhng our eyes with acrid
smoke. We have just finished an excellent stew

178 LETTERS OF
and some oil-cakes which our host sent in, and
a pile of shaggy goatskins promises a comfort
able night for us without our usual blankets. A
young Mongol priest in bright yellow and a red-
cheeked, white-toothed boy are sitting with us,
to blow our fire when it dies down. The top of
the tent is open and we cah see the stars. Our
carters will have a cold night on the plains — if
we were not so comfortable, this would be almost
an adventure ! Da Shoya's tents, Mongolia,
Friday, October 4.
Another glorious day without a cloud.
This morning we visited a small group of
Mongol priests who live a few miles to the west
of Da Shoya, in hopes of learning something of
our carts. Our first stop was at the tent of a
small caravan which had not yet begun the day's
travel. The owners asked us to enter, with the
true courtesy that very poor people have, the
world over, and as a polite form, they asked us
to share the soupy mess which they were all eat
ing out of the same pot. We learned from them
that our donkey boy stopped at their tent this
morning very early and asked if they had seen
any foreigners. As they could not give him news

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 179
of us, he travelled on to the north. So he did not
meet the carts after all, and had been alone on
the plains all night. We stopped for a short cup
of tea with the priests, who looked like convicts
but treated us like old friends, and then hurried
back to our tent to plan a campaign. We three
were useless and Mr. S  's horse was tired and
had not been fed for hours, so we left the search
for carts and donkey boy in the hands of San
Lama, the young priest who had sat with us last
evening and who proves to be Da Shoya's head
servant. He willingly saddled his horse and was
off at a dead run. All of these Mongols ride as if
they had been born in the saddle, the women as
well as the men.
At noon we made our third Mongol meal on
scalded milk, curd cheese, tea, and eggs, with an
oatmeal cake, which these people use as freely
as most Orientals use rice. During our noon
meal we heard a great commotion outside, and
looking out saw a crowd of people bobbing at
each other and shaking their own hands, and
in the centre of it all was the lost donkey boy and
a Chinaman who had found him some fifteen //
away and guided him here. He had spent the
night with some friendly shepherds and had not
seen the carts. This place is very hard for a

i8o LETTERS OF
stranger to find, for it is not near any settlement
nor on any regular road, and the name Da Shoya
simply means "elder brother."
In the afternoon we rode across country to the
old home of our host's family, which he was
forced to leave when he became a "marrying
priest." The younger brother who lives there is
called Su Shoya, or "temple brother," because
adjoining the house grounds is an old temple
where the family ancestors are worshipped.
The priest willingly led us through the building,
which is full of treasures that no price could buy
from them. The interior is dimly lighted and full
of rugs and soft carpets and hanging flags or
draperies and the smell of incense. There are
half-seen gilded idols, with tiny lamps gleaming
before them. The seats for the priests are low,
soft cushions, with rug-covered backs, and on
the tables before them are gold and silver bells
and bronze incense-burners. The priests showed
us their ceremonial robes and tall, yellow-plumed
hats like Grecian helmets, and the telescope
horns twenty feet long that they use in great
ceremonies, and the little silver trumpets with
gold figures in relief. The priests were very kind
and a fine-looking set of men, and I could not
help thinking how interesting it would be to live

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 18 1
in one of these Mongol temples for half a year
and study their lives and ceremonies and reli
gion. The Buddhism in Mongoha is untinged
with Chinese philosophy and comes direct from
Thibet. The ceremonies and prayer wheels are
pure Thibetan, and the prayers are all in that
strange language.
Su Shoya's house is much more pretentious
than his elder brother's, and he has some real
jade and carved crystal which his father owned.
We were received by his sister, a remarkable old
lady, who has been the wife of a northern tribal
king, and who was lately sent home in all honor
and with a suitable allowance, for the same
reason that an emperor once set aside Josephine
Beauharnais. She is a queen in her own house
hold, and is much loved by all the family and ser
vants. She is an apple-cheeked old lady, who
dresses plainly in heavy silk and does not use the
beaten-silver ornaments at all that her humbler
sisters wear, even when milking the cows; but
there is an air of dignity about her jolly, bright
flow of talk, that all women have who have been
used to being obeyed always and without ques
tion. She had the servants hustling about, and
soon we were dipping our cheese into bowls of

i82 LETTERS OF
thick, sweetened cream, the greatest delicacy a
Mongol host can offer.
The head servant at this house looks just hke
one of Cooper's Indians, a thought which struck
us all. Among these people, the head servant is
held to be a member of the family, and some
times takes precedence over even the elder son.
The head servant and the kind old lady pressed
us to spend the night, but while we were mak
ing our excuses, up dashed Polyphemus, better
known as Bat-Eyed Bill, the half-blind donkey
boy, with the welcome news that San Lama
had returned with the carts after an all day's
search. To-night Lee the cook did his best, and we
invited Da Shoya to a foreign dinner. After
wards we gathered in his house and amused him
with some American close harmony. Am. also
recited a string of nonsense from " Alice in Won
derland," accompanied with extempore grimaces
of a startling character which tickled them all,
from our hosts to the tiny serving-boys ; the lady
of the house, who was hiding in a dark corner
of the brick stove-bed, where we could dimly
see her silver ornaments reflecting the candle,
could not repress a few titters.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 183
Kalgan, Chili, China,
Saturday, October5.
This morning we left Da Shoya's and made
the 105 li to Kalgan in very good time, about
eight hours of actual travel.
Our brief glimpse of Mongolia has certainly
been a pleasant one and profitable, and we all
feel that we shall come back some time, as one
always feels on leaving a pleasant place. The
people are so healthy and simple and kindly that
you cannot choose but like them and want to
know them better. About half of the men are
priests, and they wear short hair and yellow,
purple, or red robes. Their priesthood does not,
however, prevent their dealing in cattle and
horses, and making horse-racing a great feature
of their temple festivals. The men who are not
priests wear pigtails and dress in long robes of
a soberer color. Both classes wear heavy leather
boots lined with felt or fur. The women wear
boots, and robes that are a little looser than the
men's, but instead of round caps, they wind their
heads in cloth turbans. Even the poorest women
wear heavy ornaments of red beads and beaten
silver, which they hang, not in the ears, but from
a band across the forehead. All, except the very

i84 LETTERS OF
wealthy, live in round felt tents with open tops,
which are closed by a flap in stormy weather.
The only fuel is dried manure, and the only oc
cupation is stock-raising. Already the Chinese
have begun to cultivate the edge of the plains,
and the Mongols are slowly tending to move
northward and westward, where there is more
room for their sheep and goats and horses and
camels to graze. It is a bitter pill to a race that
has had its own rulers sitting on the throne at
Pekin in the days of Kubla Khan and his an
cestors. There is also no money among these
people; coins are used only as ornaments for
women and boys, and the nearest approach to
currency is the strips of silk which are presented
to the priests as offerings. These silk strips are
used in exchange by the priests at a value cor
responding to four American cents.
When we left this morning, the only payment
which our hosts would accept for their trouble
and shelter and provisions was a spoiled kodak
film, a celluloid soap-box, and a pair of scissors !
Shan-si-fu, October 6, 1907.
To-day we left Kalgan for Pekin, lunched at
Chuen-Wha-Fu, where we spent our last night on
the way up, and pushed on to this place, a meagre

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 185
village, with mud walls and a small inn. The
weather continues to be a series of blue and gold
days, and the crisp, keen air makes it not only
possible but pleasant to travel ten solid hours.
Before undertaking this trip I expected, from
what reading I had done, that the inns would
be filthy, the people insolently curious, and the
towns reeking with offence to eye and nose. On
the contrary, we have not once discovered any
unwelcome guests in bed or room, except two
donkeys and one rat, and the only dirt that we
have had to put up with has been the dust of
travel. The village streets here are clean and
broad, and every house has one or sometimes
four or five cages at the door, in which are larks
as big as robins. We have walked by the noses
of hundreds of big shaggy dogs, without having
them turn a hair, and yet we were told that these
peaceful creatures make it impossible to pass
through a country-town on foot! And as for
crowds, although our every action has been fol
lowed by a rather large assembly, never once
have we met with anything but courtesy and
good-will and friendly advances. Even when
Am. insisted on making Enghsh political speeches
to them.
To-morrow we shall make a very long day of

i86 LETTERS OF
it, and arrive at Nankow on Tuesday night,
shortening the down trip by a whole day.
Whei-lei-chen, October 7, 1907.
This morning we breakfasted at a little after
four and travelled for over an hour before sun
rise. It was very cold, but the changing colors
and growing light in the rocky gorge down which
we travelled toward Ching-ming-ee were beau
tiful, and the morning star remained in sight
until we reached the river bottom just behind
the sacred mountain.
At Ching-ming-ee the landlord of the inn
where we had stopped on the way up returned to
us 180 Mexican dollars which Am. had lost, he
did not know where ! That was the last blow
to our preconceived notions of the Chinese, for
our inn-keeper did not even know that we were
returning this way. Of course the recovery is
probably due to the severe penalties against
stealing, but, nevertheless, the occurrence is
remarkable. This Whei-lei-chen is the town with the ruined
stone bridge and the monastery fortress on a
hill, where we stayed the first night on our trip
up country. We have made one hundred and
forty li to-day and are all a bit tired. You should

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 187
see the sunburn on Am. and Dick, but I suppose
I am just as much burned as the rest, for if I
look cross-eyed, I can see the end of my nose
glowing like a live coal.
To-day the air has been full of wild geese, and
we have passed pheasants and blue cranes innu
merable. It has been our tenth almost cloud
less day, and the light and color and vigor in the
air cannot be described. There is no charm
about this country of the sort that you feel in
Japan. It is a hard, rocky, briUiant, treeless
land, where the people work hard from sunrise
to sunset, and sleep hard from sunset to sunrise,
and have no luxuries; they do not even try to
amuse themselves, these people ; they have none
but the crudest arts or comforts, and yet they
are as happy as any people I have ever seen.
No, there is no charm about this land, but there
is certainly great fascination. The boldness of
outline and the pure cold air and clean sunlight
do not tire you, as mere prettiness often does;
and although we do nothing but walk and eat
and sleep, it has never once occurred to us to
be bored, as one is often in the cities.
All of these walled towns like Whei-lei-chen
are surrounded by groups of beaten clay floors
like tennis courts, and on these floors whole

i88 LETTERS OF
families work, just as families worked while the
Bible was being written. At one end ofthe floor
the boys are unloading millet from the donkeys
and stacking it in heaps. In the centre a blind
folded donkey is dragging a stone roller round
and round over the grain. The young men are
using flails on other heaps of millet, and the old
men help with lighter paddles. The women take
the threshed grain in long willow trays and toss
it high in the air, so that the chaff is blown away
in a light cloud and the grain falls in a neat pile
on the clean, hard floor. As we drew near to
Whei-lei-chen this afternoon we passed group
after group of these threshing-floors, six or eight
clustered together under heavy masses of willow
foliage. Each floor was gay with the bright
clothing of the women and children and the bare
backs of the men, and from each floor we caught
scraps of laughter arid the quavering falsetto
songs that the Chinese love. The light was a
mellow glow, like those rich floods of late sun
shine that Corot poured into his landscapes; the
piles of dry stalks gleamed with warm reds and
browns, and the clouds of chaff that the win
nowers threw into the air, a dozen clouds in sight
at once, caught the sun and showed like puffs of
golden smoke. A pleasant picture with a back-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 189
ground of crenellated wall and jagged moun
tains, and a rich deep blue above.
Nankow, October 8, 1907.
To-day we have finished our thousand li, with
a trifle over to our credit. To-morrow we shall
catch the early train for Pekin.
To-night we have seen the last of Bill Bat-
Eye, who is always cold, and the wilhng Sheep
skin Boy, as we called the other donkey-beater,
because of his fur clothes. Lee is now a thing of
the past, too, — Lee the cook, the dandy, the
three hundred and fifty pound beauty with a
double chin thrice repeated. Lee is a man of
great eloquence, I should judge, for I have often
heard him haranguing an admiring group in
some inn-yard, with his fur cloak hung brigand
like on one shoulder, and his portly person ill
concealed by figured yellow pyjamas, which he
much affected as an afternoon costume. Lee is a
man of distinguished manner, and the way he
sweeps the ground with his battered felt fedora
when we pass his cart would be the despair of
any Spanish cavalier that ever wore plumes.
Lee's only vice is the banjo, which he plays every
evening for half an hour after dinner. He sits
on the stove during the concerts, and wears his

190 GILBERT LITTLE STARK
yellow pyjamas and felt fedora. He is also alone,
for reasons that are immediately evident to the
auditor or audible to the spectator. I know, for
I peeked at him once from the dark court out
side. He sometimes sings as he plays, but he
cooked excellent meals so I will say nothing
further on that point.
To-morrow, civilization, beds, bath-tubs, tour
ists. Well, it is better to be very sorry that a
thing is over than to be sorry that it is not.

CHAPTER IV
LETTERS AND JOURNAL OF THE FORMOSA
TRIP The Yellow Sea,
One day out from Shanghai,
Thursday, October 17, 1907.
Dear Mother, — Hi 'opes as 'ow you are
quite chipper. I 've heard so much Scotch brogue
and Cockney accent from the officers on this
boat that I daon't knaow 'aow to talk proper
nao mowr.
Yestreen Am. and I said farewell to the
T— — s and the S  s and started out to find
this worthy ship — the Loksang. Lin and the
baggage had forestalled us by about two hours,
and so we had no worries or responsibilities
besides getting ourselves on board. I had a dim
idea of where the craft should be, and we walked
along the wharves until we reached a lonely dis
trict — great, dark warehouses on one side and
the river on the other. The wharves became dis
connected floats on to which we clambered, across
narrow gangways, and water-slips barred our
way ; but we always managed to get across some

192 LETTERS OF
way on barges or locks. Finally a wall stopped
us dead and we were afraid we should have to
retrace all our steps, but hearing voices some
where in the darkness, we hunted them up ahd
broke in on a gambling party of Chinese watch
men and wharf-rats. They were a tough-looking
crowd and it was a black, ruinous district, but
they were very courteous, and unlocked a gate
for us after we had explained our trouble by
signs. Finally we discovered our little boat out
in the middle of the river, and climbing over the
sleeping inmates of a couple of big barges, we
jumped into a sampan and were soon aboard
the Loksang.
She is a rather small vessel, 960 tons net, with
only two staterooms, but our cabin is twice the
size of that on a liner and the food is excellent,
as it has been on all the boats we have struck
so far.
When we came on board, the saloon was
lighted by the conventional dimly-burning ship's
lamp, and underneath it were seated a black-
visaged, square-jawed man, the mate of course,
and a small German with pointed beard, broad-
reaching mustachios, and a quick, nervous eye
and twitching mouth. He was forever starting a
story, which the mate would ponderously inter-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 193
rupt with another of his own. On these coast
ing boats we get well away from tourist travel
and meet a set of characters that I have never
known to exist anywhere else, outside of story
books. Our officers have the greatest string of
yarns imaginable, and have spun us the hst of
their adventures — whaling in the north, sea-
lion and penguin-hunting in the Antarctic Ocean,
" black-birding" or "nigger-stealing" for the
French Government in the South Sea Islands, —
a novelist would cry over these men, as a forty-
niner might have done over a new gold field.
Friday, October i8.
All day we have sailed over a dreamy blue sea,
with hundreds of rocky islands drifting about
us far and near in a rich golden haze. From
Shanghai to Hong Kong the coasting route leads
through these islands; one continuous archi
pelago, like Japan's Inland Sea. These waters
are the famous haunts of Chinese pirates, who
still lurk in some of the rock-bound bays here
abouts. The great, goggle-eyed junks we pass
are all in groups for safety's sake, and the inno
cent-looking fisher boats, whose orange sails dot
the blue water, need only opportunity to make
them turn sea-rovers.

194 LETTERS OF
Saturday, October 19.
This morning at nine we cast anchor at Pa
goda anchorage, thirty miles up the beautiful
Min River, and fourteen miles from the city of
Foochow. The Amoy Maru, which is to carry
us to Formosa, lay near us at Pagoda, and we
put most of our baggage aboard her, taking only
toilet articles to the city. We received rather a
setback, however, when we learned that she is
not sailing to-morrow as per schedule, but on
next Tuesday. Such is the East, as we have
learned already, so we did not waste any rime
crying over our troubles, but took a handy launch
to Foochow. Aboard the launch we met Mr.
W  , the consul at Hong Kong, who is work
ing north on a vacation leave- of several weeks.
We discovered that he is a Yale man, class of
'84, and were soon friends.
There is no hotel at Foochow, but we estab
hshed ourselves comfortably in some rooms over
"Mr. Brockett's General Store," and then set
out for the Consulate, with Consul W  as
chaperon. Foochow deserves a great deal of study and
description. It is one of the largest cities in
China, and is much more important from a
native point of view than Shanghai, which the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 195
Chinese look on only as a foreign settlement.
Foochow is a city of one million inhabitants, na
tive, and very few foreigners ; in fact, only those
connected with the consular service, the customs
(Chinese), the missions, and the tea trade. Foo
chow is approached only by the thirty miles of
river which we have just traversed, and every
turn is well protected by modern Chinese forts
armed with Krupp guns. For years Foochow
has been the centre of the tea trade, but Formosa
is now superseding it, and last year the tea ship
ment from Foochow dropped to four million
pounds, which is, however, a tidy lot of tea.
We landed, not on the mainland, but on an
island where all of the foreigners and many
Chinese live. The water-front is edged with a
stone pier and a row of thick shade trees, and the
houses are on a hilly part of the island behind,
to reach which you must traverse native streets
for about twenty minutes. The few homes of
foreigners here are beautiful and luxurious, and
are hidden in masses of shrubbery; but as our
consulate is a fair sample, I will describe it only.
The hill-top is not thickly settled, but is like a
luxuriant park traversed by hard white paths.
One of these paths leads through a grove of trees
to the consulate wall. The building is large and

196 LETTERS OF
square, and entirely surrounded by a deep tiled
porch on the ground floor and a corresponding
balcony above. The garden is beautiful, and
stretches downhill at the back to the river's
edge. The consul. Dr. G  , is a delightful old
gentleman, with white mutton-chop whiskers,
white flannels, shoes, hat, and twinkling black
eyes. He welcomed us cordially, and immedi
ately gave orders for three extra places at tiffin.
We stayed gladly, and talked all morning with
Dr. G  and Mr. B  , his young vice-con
sul, about Foochow. It seems that Dr. G  's
work is of a diplomatic rather than a consular
description. He has two hundred missionaries
in his province, for whose safety he is responsi
ble, and he has much official work to do, as Foo
chow is the capital of Fuhkien Province. Shang
hai has only one official, a Taotai, while Foochow
has four Taotais, a Taotai-General, and a Vice
roy, who rules over fifty-nine millions of people !
The Japanese are settling thickly in this district,
and are turning many Chinamen into Japanese
subjects by sending them across to Formosa for
a few months, giving them papers, and then al
lowing them to return. Many Chinese merchants
take out Japanese papers, as they can then ex-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 197
ercise the privileges accorded to foreigners and
withheld from the natives. The Japanese con
sul openly stated at a meeting of Chinese that
in five years Fuhkien province would be Jap
anese, so it is easy to see which way the wind
blows.
Mrs. G  , a charming, motherly Massa
chusetts woman, appeared at tiffin and we had
a jolly time. After tiffin we sat out on the terrace
behind, and she pointed out some of her garden
treasures, among them the hibiscus trees, whose
blossoms are snow-white in the morning, rose-
color at noon, and crimson at night. From the
terrace we could look across the river, swarming
with junks and sampans, to the native city,
which stretches away for miles to the mountains
that shut us in all around. The hills and moun
tains here are very beautiful, the vegetation is
luxuriant, and the stunted banana-palms in
every mass of foliage give a very tropical touch.
Altogether, Foochow is the most attractive place
we have seen in China, and I am glad we must
stay longer than we had planned.
After tiffin President P  of Foochow Col
lege, over in the native city, appeared and greeted
us warmly; for he is Yale '85 ! He took us back
with him in chairs, but as we are going to spend

198 LETTERS OF
Monday in the city and at the College, I will
reserve descriptions until then. At 8 P. m. we
returned to the Consulate for dinner, which we
attended in soiled suits and soft shirts, with Mrs.
G  's permission, as our proud clothes are
not with us.
Dr. G  was a preacher at Salem, but his
health broke down seventeen years ago, and he
secured this appointment, which he has held
ever since, barring two years at home. He is hale
and hearty now, appearing to be about sixty,
although rumor hath it that he has turned
seventy-six. He has a beautiful home and twenty
servants, a work which he loves and which gives
him plenty of chance to indulge his religious
tendencies, as he looks after one of the richest
missionary fields in the East. Altogether it is a
good exchange for life in a Massachusetts sani
tarium. The G  s told us of many delightful trips
in the neighborhood, and as the season is just
right to take them, it is very tempting. House-
boating up the river and tramping among the
beautiful hills with the chance of a tiger — every
place we go we have to leave dozens of pleasant
and instructive trips undone.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 199
Sunday, October 20.
One of the famous places near Foochow is the
old Kushan Monastery, and this morning at eight
we tightened our belts and started out to pay it
a visit. We took a coolie with us to carry tiffin,
and crossed the river in a sampan which the
whole family helped to propel. Once across, we
scrambled up a muddy bank and made straight
for the hills across the rice-fields, on a little
raised path of flag-stones, which kept our feet
out of the muddy water of the fields, but which
was like walking a fat tight-rope. The monas
tery is two thirds of the way up the highest
mountain on the direct border of the valley, and
so we had a stiff morning's climb. As the mon
astery is an old and rich one, there is a stone
stairway all the way, and I should estimate the
number of steps as very near five thousand, for
the stairway zigzags and the steps are only about
four inches high. We were the only pilgrims on
the way up, but we passed long lines of coolies
balancing loads of mud-bricks at each end of
the customary carrying-pole, for the monks are
building an addition. These coolies were of
both sexes, and ranged in size from the tiny, sil-
ver-ankleted tot of seven years, who struggled

200 LETTERS OF
along with two bricks, to the well-muscled man
who carried twenty with ease.
The monastery is a picturesque group of build
ings in a sheltered hollow just beneath the moun
tain's summit, and there are courts and carp-
pools and fountains and galleries and bells and
huge gilded idols enough to satisfy the most
romantic. There is also a secondary group of
temples, sort of a retreat, clinging to the edge
of a deep chasm near by. About two hundred
monks live here, and they seem to have many
servants and to live in great comfort.
We ate our tiffin in a gallery overhanging a
large pool, which wrinkled continually with the
splashing tails and gaping mouths of the great
carp which live therein. We must have spent
nearly five hours at the monastery, wandering
about and poking into odd corners. The monks
were very friendly, and whenever we blundered
into some brother's cell, we were never permit
ted to withdraw without a cup of tea.
We poked about the great vaulted kitchen
with its blackened rafters and rows of huge iron
cauldrons filled with rice. We wandered into
the spacious dining-hall, open to the winds with
its bare walls and tables, just in time to hear the
solo chant and droning chorus response of the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 201
Buddhist grace. We cracked melon seeds and
lichee nuts with the old bell-ringer, who let us
try our hand at swinging the wooden fish whose
nose beats the deep tones out of the great bell.
We sat on the bench with the young priest who
was paying off the coolies as they arrived with
bricks, and at every stop we drank a cup of tea.
Finally we dozed over the Oxford Book of Verse
in a cool cloister overlooking a sun-flooded court
yard, and it was only the sun sliding towards the
west that sent us back to Foochow.
The young priests made friends with us very
quickly and felt our clothes and tried on our hats
with childlike excitement, and the old bonzes
with fans, and one long tooth left in their heads,
mumbled and nodded as they passed, and stopped
on the outskirts to raise one hand in some sa
lute that was very like a Catholic blessing. Bud
dhism, by the way, is the very counterpart of
Catholicism in its forms and rituals — it has a
prior claim upon them, too.
Two boy priests stayed with us all the time
we were on the mountain, and we got a picture
of them which ought to be a corker.
Just before we went. Am. got started doing
sleight-o'-hand tricks, and we soon had a large
audience, who greeted each trick with hand-

202 LETTERS OF
clapping and shouts of laughter. One old fellow
in a broad straw hat, with a rosary of beads the
size of hickory nuts, waddled up to Am. after
each trick and shook his finger in his face with
a toothless grin, as though to say, " Oh, my eye !
but you 're a sly dog ! " Another aged priest was
somewhat of a conjurer himself, and capped
every performance of Am.'s with one of his own.
It has been a delightful day and has given us still
another regret, for nothing could be pleasanter,
cheaper, more feasible, or more instructive than
a week's stay at Kushan with the shaven priests ;
"but our boat sails Tuesday," as Frank Daniels
used to say in the ," Ameer." Monday, October 21.
The news of our arrival has spread abroad
in town, so when we descended after break
fast this morning, we found the little courtyard
in front of Mr. Brockett's General Store filled
with the wares of native brass-workers, silver
smiths, embroiderers, and lacquer-makers. Each
owner squatted by his little pile and made his
bids. At ten o'clock we went to the bank by ap-
pointmentVith President P  , and there met
him and Consul W  of Hong Kong, and the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 203
four of us started out for a day's spree, — Yale
'07, Yale '84, and Yale '85!
We took sedan-chairs, which are the most
comfortable conveyance we have yet met with,
and bobbed merrily across the Bridge ofa Thou
sand Ages to the mainland. It might be better
called the Bridge of a Thousand One-horse
Merchants, for the narrow bridge is jammed
with peddlers of all descriptions, squatted be
hind their piles of old junk.

Foochow woman Foochow man
You see the type of woman's headdress and
man's hat-line approaches what we expect to
find in Indo and Cochin China. The features
of both sexes are more refined and intelligent
than in the North, and the men are lithe and
small-boned, with dainty hands and feet; in fact,
many of them are effeminate in appearance,
though not so in character. The Chinese women
are some of them very good-looking indeed.

204 LETTERS OF
Although the city walls are four miles from
the river-bank, the suburbs have filled up the
intervening space, and there is no difference in
the character of the city inside and out. On
reaching the other end ofthe bridge, our bearers
pushed down a flight of stone steps, and plunged
headlong into a chaos beside which the Tower
of Babel or even a church sewing-circle would
seem the embodiment of law and order. The
main street, down which our bearers slipped and
slid over stone paving-blocks wet with whatever
the million Foochowites chose to throw upon
them, is an alley nearly seven feet wide. Tall
wooden buildings rise on both sides, and their
overhanging roofs and swinging signs make a
dim twilight at noon, so that every shop that
can afford it burns oil or wax even in the day
time. The street is bordered by open-fronted
shops, where idols, silverware, gobbets of red
meat, furs, brass, varnished ducks and split fish,
china, silks, and rawhides flash impression after
impression on your bewildered brain. In every
shop you see not only the finished goods, but the
makers at work and the maker's family at play.
Rope-weavers, cloth-spinners, blacksmiths, tan
ners, and jewelers, working hard, and among
the workers are crowds of children rolling about

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 205
and screaming, and the servants boiling steamy
messes in great pots. All the men are stripped
to the waist, and all the women have great silver
hoops in their ears that reach the shoulder.
The narrow street is crowded with porters
and busybodies and sedan-chairs, which pass
with great difficulty. We swung along over boil
ing kettles and tables of merchandise set in the
street, with our bearers keeping up a continu
ous shouting that was drowned in the roar of
street-life. I can imagine how this would have
set my nerves on edge a month ago, at the date
of my first letters from China; but now I re
cline in my easy sedan, and gaze with calmness
and pleasure at the wild faces and naked bodies
that surge about within inches, and nearer
space, of my own. I can now listen to the wild
cries and shouts undisturbed, since I have
found that these swarming people are a gentle,
peaceful race, full of prejudices which a kind
word will remove, and of affection which is
easily awakened, and with a power of industry
and love for work unequalled by any race on the
globe. After some three miles of seething humanity,
we darted up a narrow side street, in which I
could touch both walls by stretching out, not

2o6 LETTERS OF
my arms, but my elbows ! Luckily we met no
thing coming down, and safely reached Dr.
V  's. I am not sure of this good man's name,
but I am sure of the welcome that he and his
good wife gave us. These people have lived here
for thirty years, curing the poor natives where
cures are possible. He is a skilled surgeon and
she a trained nurse, and with a few self-trained
Chinese assistants these people work from morn
ing till night, opening every day with an average
of forty applicants at their door.
The doctor led us to a little hill behind the
house, where a weed-grown common exists.
Scattered over this common are dozens, possi
bly hundreds of coffins, some in the open, some
under a straw roof, each with an occupant inside
waiting for the family to earn money enough
to buy a grave. We crossed the hill with our
twelve chair-coolies following (for they are too
superstitious to visit the place alone), and on
the other side we saw a small stone tower, per
haps six feet high, with two or three big birds
perched on the roof and a hungry dog sneaking
around the foot. Not a very formidable sight,
you may think, but one that I'll warrant you
would n't stop long to look at, mother, for this
is the Foochow baby-tower ! It is a new one, for

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 207
the old tower was filled to overflowing, and no
one wished to clean it out. It is built over a deep
well, and the only opening is a small hole in the
side, just under the roof. Into this hole the poor
people of Foochow drop the girl-babies which
they do not want ! Lately a law has been passed
forbidding people to throw live babies into the
tower, but like most Chinese laws, it is only to
look at and is broken every day. Around the
foot of the tower are some mat-wrappers, in
which the babies are wrapped; it was these that
the dog was worrying. Against the tower is a
line of pitiful wooden dolls with set, painted
smiles; these dolls are to amuse the girl-babies
in the spirit world, so that they will not come
out of the well and haunt their parents. Al
though this tower is a new one and has a deep
well, it is filled full of babies within three feet of
the top. I know, because I looked through the
hole myself, although the smell was so strong
that I soon withdrew my head. I think this plain-
looking stone tower made us all a bit sick.
Before getting into our chairs again, we in
spected the doctor's hospital. It is a rickety
Chinese building, open to the street. First is a
waiting-room, a chamber of horrors in all truth.
On each side is a narrow ward with cots, and

2o8 LETTERS OF
behind, an operating-room : a bare place with
one wall open to the weather, and three common
tables. On one of these tables was a leper with
his foot and leg swollen and partly eaten away;
on another, a man about to have his eye removed ;
and on the last, a bloody sight which I will not
describe. The whole place is open to the passing
crowd, and every operation is viewed by as many
ofthe street rabble as can jam their way in. The
doctor has money for a decent hospital, but is
having trouble in buying land, so must worry
along for the present.
Half an hour more in our chairs brought us
to the college, where we had tiffin. This mission
college appealed to us as the finest institution
we have visited in the East. How I wish I could
leave a big check at every one of the worthy
places we visit, or could welcome the offer we have
had several times to accept a five-year contract
and help them in their work. It would be no
hardship at all, but a great pleasure and an in
teresting experience. Dr. P  has very large
grounds and beautiful brick and stone build
ings, right in the heart of the native city. There
are three houses, large and comfortable, for the
teachers and their families, and I think four col
lege buildings. The site is hilly, and the different

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 209
sections are hidden behind walls and masses
of flowers, palms, banyans, and acacias. Dr.
P  and his sister Miss H  were born here,
although educated at home, and their mother,
Mrs. H  , has lived right here for fifty years.
Mrs. P  is from Middletown, Connecticut,
and is delightful, the best New England type.
The kiddies are mighty attractive, too, and I
wish we could accept their invitation to stay
with them a long time. Dr. P  would go
house-boating with us if we could stay.
After tiffin we visited several classes at the
college. Here they give an eight-year course to
two hundred Chinese students. They teach
English, Chinese classics, mathematics through
trigonometry, psychology, and the sciences. The
higher mathematics and sciences are taught
in Chinese, and only about half the school
study English. We visited the chemistry class
and two English reading classes, then looked in
on the mental arithmetic class, conducted in
English. We also met two interesting Chi
nese teachers, whose English is as good as our
own. Dr. P  had made arrangements over Sun
day, so that the Taotai, who is the Fuhkien Min
ister of Foreign Affairs, would call this after-

210 LETTERS OF
noon. He was to arrive at four, but we had
to leave before he came, in order to catch the
launch out to our steamer, which leaves early
in the morning. You may imagine how sorry
we were to miss the official, but we were each
presented with his caUing-card, which he had
sent ahead.
To-night we are aboard a comfortable toy
boat of six hundred tons, the Amoy Maru, and
early to-morrow we shall sail for the wild island
of Formosa, called by the heathen, Taiwan.
There I shall mail this long-drawn scrawl. As
I said before, there must be long desert stretches
in my letters, but I feel that I owe you the best
return I can make for this great pleasure and
opportunity that you home ones are giving me,
and I am so afraid of missing the one thing that
will interest you, that I find myself telling every
thing without discrimination. When you are
right in the heat of new impressions, it is hard
to separate the important from the unimpor
tant, and if you delay until time does the sepa
rating, you lose the distinct outlines of the
impression. Good-night. Your loving son,
Gilbert.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 211
HoKUTO, Formosa, Shotoyen Hotel,
Friday, October 25, 1907.
Dear Father, — The little Amoy Maru
brought us safely across the Formosa Straits, and
landed us at Tamsui, on the north end of the
island, at about midnight last Tuesday. Tam
sui is a small Chinese town with about three hun
dred resident Japanese, and is much hke towns
on the mainland. We spent the night there, and
on Wednesday morning we left by train for this
village, which is a health resort for the Japanese.
The train runs up country along the shores
of the clear-running Tamsui River, and passes
between two precipitous green mountains, about
four thousand feet high, which guard the river-
mouth. Hokuto is only seven or eight miles
from Tamsui, and half an hour's puffing and
snorting of the little engine landed us here. We
sent Lin to the hotel with our luggage, — minus
Am.'s gun and my revolver, which the police
have seized for the time being, — and we con
tinued eight miles further to Taipeh or Taihoku,
the capital. Here we have the great concourse
of foreigners, about thirty all told, i' faith !
We got our little dot from the merchant who
acts as agent for the Hong Kong and Shanghai
Bank, and then called on Mr. A  , the Amer-

212 LETTERS OF
ican Consul. He invited us to stay to tiffin and
introduced us to Mrs. A  , a California girl.
They are a fine young couple, and we had a jolly
meal. Mr. and Mrs. A  are planning a wonder
ful forty-day walking trip through the wild part
of the island, and he wanted to get some sup
plies which were in their bungalow in the hills,
so we joined him for the afternoon. We took
the train back as far as Hokuto and then walked
up to the bungalow, which is about one thousand
feet above our hotel. It is a little box of a place,
made of bamboo, camphor-wood, and straw, and
is perched at the top of a ridge which commands
a broad view of ocean, river, valleys, tableland,
and the high mountains of the head-hunters to
the east. We brewed a cup of tea and took an
extempore shower-bath, then returned to our
hotel. This inn, the Shotoyen, is Japanese, but they
have two rooms with beds, which we occupy.
Our rooms face the semicircle of mountains
behind the town, and immediately before us is
the downward slope of a fascinating garden full
of shady trees. Our very porch-rail is swept with
branches that are heavy with golden pumeloes,
a fruit like our grape-fruit, and palms, acacias.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 213
morning-glories, and brilliant red flowers fill up
the vista. Halfway down the hill is a little bath
house with a tank full of ever-changing sulphur
water, hot as blazes, and a soft-matted lounging-
room. We live in kimonos, and, whenever we
feel warm, all we have to do is peel and drop
into the water. The house has no sides to hide
us, but, pshaw ! who cares in this happy land ?
At the foot of the garden runs the clear hot
stream itself, its banks heavy with sword-grass
and rank, glossy, green leaves gleaming with
flowers. There is a pool with steps leading to it,
and a hot waterfall about ten feet high, and if
we prefer, we bathe there with the peasant boys.
The people in the country are all Chinese, and
are kind and hospitable. By the way, we are the
only guests at Hokuto just now, not even any
Japanese guests here. In the cities are a few
Japanese, now the ruling class, and in the moun
tains are the famous Formosan savages, who
have held the island for over two thousand years,
and who are now causing the Japanese such
great trouble in the northern mountains about
twenty miles from here. On account ofthe hard
fighting and treacherous nature of the jungle
warfare, the government will not allow us to visit
the near-by posts. Imagine our joy, then, when

214 LETTERS OF
Mr. A  , with whom we tiffined again this
noon at Taipeh, invited us to go part way on his
trip with himself and wife ! A young Harvard
'04 chap, who is here in the tea business, is going
with them for ten days, and we can return with
him. We called on the Minister of Police (a Japa
nese Harvard graduate) this afternoon at Tai
peh, and got the necessary permission, and day
after to-morrow, Sunday, we start at six in the
morning. We shall take the train for about one hundred
miles straight south, and then strike off towards
Mt. Morrison, which we shall climb. This
mountain is 13,800 feet high, almost 2000 feet
higher than Fuji, and the highest mountain in the
Japanese Empire. Only about five Europeans,
maybe not so many, have ever done it, although
it is an easy trip. We go right through jungle
country, but the savages there are friendly, in
fact we get about thirty of them for coolies. We
shall take with us Consul A  's cook, our boy
Lin, and a Japanese interpreter, besides our
savage horde of servants. We shall have also a
guard of Japanese soldier-police. At night we
shall live in grass huts, which our coolies will
build as we halt.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 215
This is the opportunity of a lifetime, dear
people; a private individual could never do it
now, and it has taken the consul a year to ar
range it. We shall do in comfort and safety what
almost no one has ever done; more people have
followed Stanley's track in Darkest Africa than
have done this trip, — and in ten days you will
get a letter or flock of letters describing the
whole thing.
The boats for Hong Kong leave here, or rather
Tamsui, on Sundays, and we shall have about
three days, to lounge here and put the finishing
touches on our home letters, before our boat sails,
two weeks from next Sabbath-day. Of course we
are now living on Japanese food entirely, and
manage to eat double rations, with gusto. We
have made many friends among the Chinese
peasants and Japanese villagers. We are the
only white people between Tamsui and Taipeh,
thank goodness, and are enjoying every minute.
One strange feature of the Formosa landscape
is the great water-buffalo, whose picture I en
close. He does n't like foreigners, but native
boys two feet high do what they please with him.
Loads and loads of love,
Gilbert.

2i6 LETTERS OF
S. S. JosHiN Maru,
Formosa Straits, November ii, 1907.
Dear Ones, — The great trip is over, safely
over, and it far exceeded our most enthusiastic
expectations. We reached the railroad day be
fore yesterday at Kagi, in the southern part of
the island, and travelled all day to Taihoku, the
northern capital, where we were busy to dis
traction paying our bills, buying tickets to Hong
Kong, and calling on Japanese officials to thank
them for their assistance. We spent the night at
Hokuto, where we collected our luggage and
clean linen, and yesterday morning we came to
Tamsui and established ourselves on this boat.
Finding we had some time before sailing, we
went up the hill to the British Consulate, and
sat for an hour or so with Mr. and Mrs. C  ,
charming English people, on their cool, deep
verandah. We are leaving Formosa with many regrets,
for it is a delightful spot, full of romance and
interest. For instance, it is the best place in the
world for a study of the comparative value of
the two races, Chinese and Japanese, which you
see here side by side. The foreign community
is very small, about forty men and six women,
and is centred in Taihoku, except for the Brit-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 217
ish Consul, who prefers his fine home at Tamsui,
and two or three others in like circumstances.
They are very hospitable and open-hearted, and
made us feel very welcome among them.
Dr. M  , the German Consul, is a fine
young man, very popular here. His latest fad is
taking care of four South Sea Islanders who were
washed ashore not long ago. They had been at
sea in an open boat for five months, living on
raw fish and rain-water ; and although there were
six at first, two died shortly after they reached
Formosa. They are dark, unclothed savages
with tattooed legs, and of course no one could
speak a word of their language. Dr. M  took
them in and has cared for them for six weeks,
with the result that the four survivors are almost
well. He is learning their language from them,
and has discovered which island they come
from. They make fine docile pets for him, and
sit on his verandah, munching bananas from
morning till night.
The foreigners and officials at Taihoku were,
I think, a little disappointed that we came
through so well, for they prophesied awful
things ; but sail through we did, with tired mus
cles but happy hearts. It was a trip, as many
Formosans told me, worth travelling way out

2i8 LETTERS OF
here only to take. The best part of it all was
the savage life with which we became so well
acquainted. You '11 have to take my word for the great
pleasure of the trip, for the account I am sending
you soon is pitifully inadequate and reads like a
dry catalogue or time-table. I dpspair of making
you feel the charm of it, but read between the
lines all you can. Love and lots of it,
Gilbert.
Hong Kong, Victoria,
Sunday, November 17, 1907.
Dear Father, — God Save the King !
Brief history from the end of my last letter.
One day at Amoy spent at the U. S. Consulate;
one day at Swatow spent on board ship — pic
turesque places, both of these Chinese cities. A
few tea warehouses and half a million Celestials
plunked down beside a river among rock-strewn
hills, boulders the size of court-houses sticking
up in the middle ofthe town, a different language
and type of junk and sampan in each harbor,
and no sign of western encroachment, beyond a
few white, deep-verandahed houses.
I hoped to finish my account of Formosa be-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 219
fore reaching Hong Kong, but I have finished it
here, and mail it to you now. Read the. letters in
the order I have marked, and use your imagi
nation to clothe the stilted recital with life, color,
flesh, and blood.
On the day before landing here, poor Am. and
Lin, the Chinese boy, were taken ill with chills
and fever. I got them to the hotel and had a
doctor for them. It seems that exposure to the
cold and wet on our late exploring tour gave
them both a touch of malaria. Their fevers kept
rising, so on Friday we took them both to hos-
pitalsi Lin is at the government hospital in a fine
airy ward, and Am. is in a private place on the
Peak, eighteen hundred feet above us. They
were both very weak and miserable, with tem
peratures approaching 104, but have rallied
quickly and were both normal all day yester
day, and will be up and out by Tuesday. I
have spent all my time at the bed of one or
the other, and have seen nothing of the surround
ings here, except as I go to and from the hos
pital. There is a beautiful view from the Peak over
the harbor and the ocean on the other side of the
island. Last night I took a sedan-chair down
from the top, instead of using the railway, and

220 LETTERS OF
had a beautiful hour down a smooth road be
tween heavy drooping banks of palms, ferns,
and flowers, with a sunset, a great white ghost
of a moon, and changing views across the town
and harbor, where gunboats were sa,luting each
other with white cottony puffs of smoke, and
sending across the water clear bugle-calls that
floated way up to my chair almost two thousand
feet above them. The climate here is ideal now,
and on the Peak very cool and windy. Even in
the town I sleep under a blanket and spread.
We had engaged passage on a Dutch boat
leaving to-morrow for Java direct ; it was a sav
ing of time and money, and we were congratu
lating ourselves, as the boats are three-weekly
only, but Am.'s sickness has forced us to giveup
our tickets.
For the last month our great quandary has
been the Philippine question. Am.'s family feel
as you do, and we have turned the subject inside
out. I should certainly enjoy seeing them, and
should like nothing better than a month of
careful investigation. Late as we are, however,
the most we could afford would be a week. Now,
just what that week would be I know as well as
if I had been there already. We should land at
Manila, a familiar type of modem town, and

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 221
should find the time too short to visit the interior
and learn anything personally ofthe native char
acter or practical working-out of the present
theories of government. We should present let
ters and ask questions ; we should dine with some
very nice people, who would give us their opin
ions as final, definite facts, and the next nice
people we dined with would tell us the exact
opposite. We should then form our own opin
ions, which, by virtue of our week's stay in Ma
nila (a city about as Philippinaic as Saginaw),
would remain unshakable the rest of our lives.
We have seen Philippine foreign residents here;
in fact, one dined at my table last night, and we
talked about the islands all through the meal.
It means a round trip on the ocean of six days,
for we must return here. On the whole, it hon
estly seems to us a very pleasant waste of time
and money.
Nevertheless, we have decided that if Am.'s
health permits, and if we can make connections
with a very irregular steamer that runs from
Cebu to Borneo, and then make connections
with a little monthly boat to Java, we are going
to take in Manila. It is doubtful, however, if
we can get through that way; I shall know in a
day or so, and of course will write you fully. If

222 LETTERS OF
we did that, you would not hear from us for
about a month.
A trip like this is not all a bed of roses, if
you are at all interested in making it worth while
and not merely conventional. You must plan
and think and worry over "what is best" all day
long. Here in my room I am surrounded by
books of information (not travellers' impres
sions, — I have done with those), heavy steam
boat and railway guides to all sorts of places. We
have to work far ahead, and I am now living
among the Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, and
Burmah. You see we want to adopt the best route,
and therefore have to cover half the world's sur
face in detail. If I were getting pay for this trip,
I should consider it hard work, but it is meat and
drink for me. When I get back, there won't be a
corner of the world that I can't direct you to, with
steamboat times and fares and a brief account
of what you'll find there.
The few pictures I enclose are very poor, for
my films were old and got wet ; but Mr. A  ,
the Consul, took a great number, which he is
having developed in Japan and will send to us
at Bombay, so that in two months' time I can
send you some magnificent views of the country,
the people, and the mountain-top.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 223
According to our latest plans, we shall return
from Java to Singapore (necessary), and then
go straight to Colombo, visiting Burmah later
from Calcutta. This plan saves travel. It leaves
the Indian travel exactly as it would be if we
took in Burmah on the way to Colombo, and
the combined trips from Singapore to Colombo
and from Calcutta to Rangoon and return are
cheaper than the combined trips from Singapore
to Rangoon and from Rangoon to Colombo.
I suppose before I leave Hong Kong I had
better write you a Christmas letter. This ought
to reach you about the 20th of December.
A great deal of love to everybody.
Your son, Gilbert.

224 LETTERS OF

SAVAGE LIFE IN FORMOSA >
" Well, well," said Am. "I did n't know that ! "
We were spending the morning very com
fortably in Mr. J  ^'s library at Pekin, and
as my book was absorbing, it was more courtesy
than interest which prompted me to grunt, —
"What's the matter now?"
"Why, here's a mountain in Formosa that
has Fuji lashed to the mast. Mount Morrison,
almost fourteen thousand feet high, — the tip
top point of the Japanese Empire."
"Is that all!"
That was all the book said; but later on
Am. brought up the subject again. "Formosa,
— let me see, an island off the coast of China,
is n't it?"
"Yes," I added, "full of wild-eyed head-
hunters and snakes. I read all about it in a Jap
anese steamboat circular."
Anything "wild-eyed" appeals to Am., and I
could see the idea beginning to grow.
"I don't suppose there 'd be many tourists
there," he murmured diplomatically.
' The story ofthe Formosa trip, written by G. L. S. on the
steamer and mailed at Hong Kong, November 1 9th.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 225
The one great effort of our callow young lives
is to avoid the guide-book-bearing stream, with
green glasses and solar-topees, and to lift our
selves from the substratum of "globe-trotter"
to the exalted heights of " traveller." It is a dis
tinction with a difference, and we stand firm
upon the conceit, so that Am.'s final shot told
well. "When shall we start?" said I.
"When does the next boat sail ?" said he.
"To-morrow," said I.
"We're off," said he; and so we were.
There are three ways of reaching Formosa.
You can go up from Hong Kong, via Amoy, in
three days ; you can go down from Shanghai, via
Foochow, in the same length of time, if you are
lucky in making connections; or you can drop
down from Nagasaki in four or five days, across
a very, very bumpy stretch of ocean.
We teetered down the China coast in a suc
cession of cozy little coasting-steamers, entirely
innocent of other passengers; and finally one
moonlit night we saw the twin peaks that guard
the mouth of the Tamsui River loom black
against the stars. There is always a fascination
in reaching a new land, and when the new land
is one that has not been smeared with printer's

226 LETTERS OF
ink and first impressions, then Romance broods
over its most common commonplaces, and the
spirit of adventure gathers round every step
you take. The crowning touch is to reach such
a land by moonlight, in the midst of strange
sounds and strange fragrances that steal out of
the darkness and float away and lose themselves
under the shadows of great trees.
That is the sugar-coating, here is the bitter
pill. It is hard to think of facts and moonshine
in the same breath, but facts have their use as
well as moonshine, so here goes for facts.
Formosa is an island two hundred and sixty
miles long and about seventy miles broad at the
widest part. It lies off Fuhkien Province, China,
and had been owned by the Japanese since 1895.
This may seem to be an unnecessary bit of in
formation, but be it known that during the past
year a large packing-box arrived at our con
sulate, sent by our own State Department at
Washington, addressed to Formosa, China!
The island is very rich, producing a fine quality
of tea, delicious bananas and pineapples, rice,
camphor, sulphur, and gold. Most of the mineral
wealth and valuable timber is in the savage
country, however, and has not yet been ex
ploited.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 227
The east coast is high and rocky, without
harbors; in some places the steep hills rise over
seven thousand feet. These hills are usually re
ferred to as perpendicular cliffs, but I was assured
at Taipeh, the capital, that the cliffs existed only
in an old Dutch print, which Mr. Davidson has
included in his book on Formosa. The moun
tains run the length of the island in three parallel
ranges, growing lower to the west until they merge
into a fertile plain on which the Dutch, Spanish,
Portuguese, Chinese, and Japanese have in turn
fought for supremacy since the sixteenth cen
tury. The mountainous eastern half, however,
has been in undisturbed possession of the abo
riginal savages since they were first washed
ashore there, storm-tossed from the Philippine
Archipelago. They are supposed to be of Malay
origin, of the same stock as the Japanese; but
more of them later.
In the north are the two ports, Tamsui and
Keelung, and between them is Taipeh, or Tai
hoku, the northern capital. In the south are the
ports An-ping and Takao, and the southern cap
ital, Tainan. The two groups are connected by
a railway that runs the length of the island.
Travelling is perfectly safe anywhere on the
western plains, and the Japanese inns are fully

228 LETTERS OF
as comfortable as those in Japan. There is no
foreign hotel or boarding-house on the island,
but the Shotoyen Inn, at Hokuto Hot Spring
in the north, has two rooms with beds in them.
At this inn they will also furnish foreign food to
the traveller who wishes to pamper himself, but
the Japanese cooking is much better than their
foreign attempts, and one may live luxuriously
at any place on the island on fish, shell-fish,
mushrooms, and fruit. The autumn weather is
perfect, the Japanese courteous, the Chinese
peasants friendly and hospitable, the country
beautiful, and the hotel charges ridiculously
small. We dropped off at Hokuto on the way
from Tamsui to Taipeh, and finding these ideal
conditions, we turned lotus-eaters for several days,
strolling about in kimonos and dropping into
the hot stream whenever and wherever we chose,
in company with farmers and peasant lads. We
were the only white people in the village, and
we hated to break the spell.
Finally we mustered ambition to visit the
capital, Taihoku, and there we found our consul,
Mr. A  , and his wife, in the midst of prepa
rations for a long trip around the island; a
walking trip of forty days, the first twelve of
which were to be consumed in climbing Mt. Mor-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 229
rison, our old Pekin friend, Morrison. During
tiffin we listened to their plans with green envy
eating at our hearts. It seems that it had taken
Mr. A  a long time to arrange the trip, be
cause Mt. Morrison is well within the savage
country and a great deal of government assist
ance was necessary, especially now that the
northern tribes are fighting so desperately; for
while the tribes around Mt. Morrison have
stayed quietly in their own territory for five or
six years, there is no telling what the example
of their northern kinsmen may inspire them
to do.
After tiffin, when Mr. A  kindly asked us
to join them on their expedition, it took us just
one fifteenth of a second by an accurate stop
watch to accept thankfully without conditions or
reservations. Two days later we started by the six A. m.
train for the south. There were five of us : Mr.
and Mrs. A  , I  H  , Harvard '04,
who is out here learning the tea business, and
Am. and I, who have been parted from the
apron-strings of our New Haven Alma Mater
by a short five months. In tow we had one
Chinese cook, the real true hero of the party, by
the way; our Chinese boy Lin, whom Am. and

230 LETTERS OF
I had dragged down from Tientsin much against
his will ; and two fox terriers, Peanuts and Dusi-
bus, ferocious eaters, whom A  refused to
trust to the tender mercies of his Chinese coolie.
There was to have been another, one Imamura
San, a Japanese interpreter, kindly loaned us by
the government; but the hour was early and
"Stephen" did not put in an appearance, so we
left without him. I don't remember who gave
him the name, but it seemed apt, and " Stephen "
he remained to the last chapter.
From six in the morning until four in the af
ternoon we watched the level fields at our right
and the blue mountains at our left grow slowly
more and more tropical, and when we left the
train at Toroku, we found ourselves in a land of
palm trees and betel-nuts. Our approach had
been heralded by notices from the government
at Taihoku, so we were met by the local prefect,
who established us in a comfortable inn. Owing
to the absence of the unhappy Stephen, who
put in an appearance about bed-time, our inter
course with this official was limited to numerous
bowings and drawings-in of breath, until he dis
covered that Mr. A  could talk Pekinese,
which he also knew. Later, the pigeon-toed Me'
San spread our silk futans on the mat-floor, and

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 231
we fell asleep, watching three lizards busding
about the ceiling after flies.
The next morning, Monday, we loaded our
cases of tinned meats and bundles of blankets
on to the train again, and travelled back north
to Rinai, the next station. There we transferred
ourselves and effects to little flat cars, and
were pushed across rice-fields for two hours by
perspiring coolies. We left the push-cars at the
village of Rinkiho, and after cooking our tiffin
in the yard of the police station, we girded up
our loins and prepared to start. But not so
Stephen. It seems that he had counted on lin
gering overnight in the cozy police station, but
a few vigorous prods to his ambition from Mr.
A  soon started wheels moving, and by two
o'clock our procession marched off towards the
foot-hills, which seemed very close at hand.
We were a motley crowd, and I think our own
friends would have stared at us fully as hard as
did the good Chinese of Rinkiho, who gathered
about us in large, quiet crowds.
First were two of our soldier-police, neat and
dapper in their buff uniforms and tasselled
swords; next Am. strode along, towering almost
head and shoulders above the Japanese in front
of him. He had invested that morning in a

232 LETTERS OF
peaked dried-grass hat, the kind that the coolies
wear here, and it made him look like a remark
ably tall candle wearing its extinguisher. The
rest of us strung along, draped with cameras and
aneroid barometers, while the rear was brought
up by three more Japanese policemen, two Chi
nese police orderlies, and eighteen Chinese coo
lies stripped to the waist, bearing our luggage on
creaking shoulder-poles.
We walked all afternoon at a good pace, and
rested at a picturesque police station at about five
o'clock. The path had led almost all day across
fine rice-fields and through the rich clumps of
foliage that spring up about every litde stream.
The villages were frequent, but unless the path
happened to pass through them, they were en
tirely concealed by surrounding shrubbery. The
villagers here protect themselves by planting a
square of betel and banana-palms about their
houses and filling in the spaces with thorny
shrubs and creepers, until the wall of living
green is almost impenetrable. Men, women, and
children all chew the betel-nut, with the result
that their teeth are stained red, and the whole
mouth looks as if it were bleeding.
While we were drinking tea at our resting-
place, the dark fell suddenly, as it has a habit of

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 233
doing in this land. One moment we saw the
betel-palms stand out black against the yellow
sky, and the next moment we were looking
through them at the stars. Still Stephen did not
come, for he had dropped behind early" in the
day, and with him were most of our coolies. An
hour of rather impatient waiting finally pro
duced him, and by seven we were ready to press
on, supperless, to Guenroka, where we were
billed to spend the night.
It was a long and tiring walk in the dark, but
It was a walk never to be forgotten. The path
led first through thick black jungle, spangled with
fireflies, then across a broad river, cold and al
most waist-deep, and finally for an hour and a
half up the side of a stony valley, where we could
hear the river rushing along beneath us in the
darkness, but could only catch a flitting gleam
of torchlight or starlight on the foamy crests of
its rapids.
At Guenroka (fifteen hundred feet high, ac
cording to our aneroids) we found a police station
and a few Chinese houses, the last semblance
of a village we were to see for a number of days.
While we restored our energies with cup after
cup of tea, we could hear the thud of falling pu
meloes which somebody was shaking out of the

234 LETTERS OF
tree for us ; and, sure enough, before long a little
Chinese boy appeared with a big platter of
glistening pink triangles, cool, acid, and meaty.
The pumeloe can certainly teach several points
to its first cousin the grape-fruit. We had invited
our police escort to dine with us, not realizing
at what hour we should finally arrive ; but the
good cook did his duty, and we sat down to meat
at exacdy a quarter of one o'clock on Tuesday
morning. A pretty worn-out tableful it was, but
Mrs. A  gracefully did the honors of our onion
soup and tinned corned-beef hash, and Stephen
bravely interpreted, when he was n't too busy
with the food.
On Tuesday we were up early in spite of our
dissipation ofthe night before, and by the morn
ing light we could see that we were at the head
of the valley up which we had travelled the day
before. Direcdy behind us was a steep cross
ridge that connected the lofty side-hills and
closed the valley. Our first spurt in the morning
carried us over this hill or ridge, and down the
other side into a valley with a slighdy higher
floor than the one we had left. Once over the
ridge, we left the outposts of civilization behind
us, and for nine days we did not see a cultivated
field, a water-buffalo, or a Chinese house.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 235
This second day of walking was very hard for
the whole party, although the climb was gradual,
and the end of the day found us only at the
twenty-eight-hundred-foot level. The path, how
ever, if path you could call it, led along the side
of the river, crossing it so frequendy that from
our knees down we were never dry. At the be
ginning of the trip we had discarded shoes,
which are impossible on account of the wet, the
wear, and the precarious footing, and adopted
Japanese tabi, socks with the big toe separated
from the rest, and waraji or straw sandals. Our
first day in this unaccustomed footgear had left
us with a plentiful crop of blisters, skinned toes,
and embryo stone-bruises, and, as the footing
on this second day consisted entirely of small
pointed rocks, every step was painful.
When we could forget our feet and lift our
eyes to the mountains, then indeed we were re
paid. All day long we travelled up the same nar
row valley, hemmed in by steep mountains that
rose higher and higher as we climbed into the
heart of them. From ridge-crest to valley-floor
these hills are rich with foliage, — acacias, betel-
palms, bamboos, curving tree-ferns or fern trees,
whichever they may be; and every chink in the
jungle is filled with flowering shrubs, flowering

236 LETTERS OF
trees, flowering vines; but at the valley-floor all
foliage stops and droops luxuriously over a mo
notonous level of jungle-grass. Sword-grass it is,
higher than a man's head, higher than a man on
horseback, green at the root and yellow at the
top; an ugly grass that reaches out a gentle whis
pering blade, sharp as a Toledo, and gashes the
cheek or the arm till the blood flows ; and yet it is
most useful, for the natives make of it mats and
houses, sword-belts and hats, and maybe other
things. About the time that the sun saw fit to dis
appear behind the mountains at the right hand,
by which you will know that we were travelling
south, we found ourselves at the foot of a steep
hill closing this second valley (Doone Valley, Am.
called it, with John Ridd and the Lady Loma in
his mind), just in the same manner that our first
valley was shut in by a ridge. Twenty minutes
of scrambling showed us a small plateau thinly
timbered and rolling, and towering all about us
were real mountains, ridge behind ridge and peak
behind peak, that had been hidden until now
by the close, steep hills about us. To the left,
which means southeast, the brave litde mountain
stream we had followed so far had split them
asunder; the valley cleft was filled with gray roll-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 237
ing clouds, but against the clear sky, high above
the clouds, high above everything else in sight,
we had our first view of the mountain which we
had come to climb — Mt. Morrison, it is called
on the maps, in memory of the first Englishman
who caught a glimpse of it and said so. Nii-
taka-yama, the Japanese call it; the New High
Mountain, their beloved Fuji being the Old. We
had served our two days' apprenticeship and
initiation; behind us, a dull foot-weary day's
march, were the last outposts of Formosan civ
ilization, and before us, suddenly revealed, an
unknown land of beautiful mountains and for
ests and strange people; a blessed virgin coun
try, far from the influence of Baedeker and
Cook's Tours.
There is a lonely police outpost here, and ten
minutes across the plateau brought us to the
stockade, a tall bamboo fence armed with four
rows of protruding bamboo-spikes, to discour
age besiegers who might be inclined to crawl
through or climb over; the gate-posts had
sprouted green boughs ! Inside was a house, with
walls and doors and a wooden box full of hot
water. "Mon Doo," as the English clerk says
when he wants to be cosmopolitan, " Mon Doo,
a bath!" Furthermore, we found tea and

238 LETTERS OF
oranges, and an officer who was to join our ex
pedition. Kurota San, his name, and he has
lived here seven years, knows the savage lan
guage, and has been up the mountain. Here too
we saw our savages for the first time : the yard
was full of them, for Chinese coolies refused to
go farther, and from now on we were to have
savage bearers.
The information published about these savage
people is very slight. Mr. Davidson, a former
United States Consul, has them divided into
tribes and briefly described in his huge volume
on Formosa. The Japanese gentleman who
wrote "Japanese Rule in Formosa," for Baron
Goto, has also the same material slighdy con
densed, and there is an account written by the
correspondent of the Hong Kong Daily Press,
who went from Taihoku to a northern police-
post and back, in the same day, and recorded
his observations. All other books that I could
find simply said that the mountains of east For
mosa have been since the beginning in the hands
of fierce tribes of head-hunters, supposedly of
Malay origin. Practically the only visits made
to the savages have been brief calls of a few
hours at one ofthe border police stations of semi-
civilized coast-villages, at which the steamers

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 239
stop, where the visitors' intercourse with them
is limited to the haggling purchase of a loin
cloth or a string of beads.
The gathered facts I was able to glean are that
in the mountains live seven tribes of savages
differing slightly in dress, appearance, and cus
tom, and differing greatly in language. On the
plains lives an eighth tribe, the Pepo or Pephu-
ans, who have become reconciled to Chinese
dress and customs. All of the hill tribes were
left undisturbed by the Chinese, who drew a
trench along the edge of the plains defining their
country; and in return the savages kept mainly
to the hills, descending now and then for a few
be-pigtailed heads, for no youth could sit in
council or take unto himself a wife until he had
presented the village with a fresh head. In 1895,
when the Japanese took possession, they passed
a law that the savages should retain their old
lands, and Japanese subjects were forbidden to
settle in, or even to enter, savage territory with
out permission, under penaltyof fine or imprison
ment. They also established a series of border
police stations, to protect the people ofthe plains
and to gain the friendship and confidence of
the savages. Of course there was fighting, but
the matter mended gradually, and the southern

240 LETTERS OF
tribes gave up head-hunting and ceased attack
ing the stations. Just now the northern tribe,
the Atayals, are making a desperate struggle, and
are gleaning a very large number of Japanese
and Chinese heads for their village collections;
but although the trouble has threatened to
spread further south, it has not, as yet.
The section of the country in which we found
ourselves, at the Namakama police post, has
been quiet to all intents for the last six years,
although as late as last January (1907) a China
man was found, almost at the stockade wall, in
the unfortunate condition of having had his
head removed.
The savages in the courtyard watched us eat
and watched us bathe and watched us prepare
for bed. They did this, not with vulgar crowd
ing and talking, but aloof, in silence. Their
bearing was a strange mixture of suUenness and
dignity, and their attitude was that they might
as well watch us, having nothing better to do.
We watched them too, a little afraid to do so
openly; for we had been warned that we must
let them severely alone; they would stand no
"fooling." Our first meeting with them gave us
nothing definite, it was only an impression ; but
you shall have it for what impressions are worth.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 241
They stood mostly in the dark, but we could
see that the men were well-built and graceful,
wearing very few clothes. Their faces were fine
but stern, their mouths cruel. All of the men
wore beads and swords, or rather, ugly long
knives in open sheaths. Even the boys, children
of twelve, carried these knives and wore the
same sullen, old look that their fathers had. The
girls were covered decently from neck to ankles,
and stood by twos and threes with their arms
about each other; they were rather pretty. At
our door I noticed two savages talking with one
of our policemen, a quiet, straight-nosed man
who had walked in front of me during the day
and had never smiled. I went out and asked him
in phrase-book Japanese whether he under
stood their talk. He pointed to the nearest sav
age: "Kyodai," he said, "my brother." Then I
noticed that his ears were pierced, and two of his
teeth removed, and his nose straighter than any
Japanese nose, but the rest of the man was as
civilized as Kobayashi San, our sub-prefect, or
as you or I. A hopeful sign for the future of his
race. As he pointed to his savage companions,
they bowed very low, without smiling or speaking.
I grunted, because I did not know what else to do ;
they grunted back; it seems we were friends.

242 LETTERS OF
Here, you see, the Japanese have no color-
problem or race-problem, as we have with the
Filipinos or American Indians. Pacification,
education, and absorption or cooperation, seem
to be the wisest course, and have many Japanese
advocates. The tribes have shown no signs of
degeneration as yet, and will most probably
escape the fate of extinction which has fallen
upon nearly all other aborigines.
Before going to sleep I thought of the account
that the Hong Kong newspaper man wrote. "I
was received in a very friendly way," he says,
" but at the same time I felt that no trust could
be put in the savages, whose faces bore the stamp
of treachery and bloodthirstiness." That night
I agreed with him, but now his conclusion seems
tourist-like and superficial; for his impression
and mine, while very true as impressions, were
very false as facts. He also said, referring to the
northern post he visited : " Beyond this spot no
one can go; the silent forest stretches for mile
after mile beyond the ken of civilized man; its
denizens, man and beast alike, savage and un
approachable." Here we were at a correspond
ing border-post, and beyond that spot we were
about to go, for several days ; there was food for
pleasant dreams in that reflection, and on it I fell
asleep.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 243
" Does the road wind up-hill all the way ?
Yes, to the very end." "
Such are the opening lines ofa poem by Chris
tina Georgina Rossetti, and they are an apt com
mentary on our third day's climb, except for the
fact that there was no road, and the track we
took did not wind at all but went straight up,
like a fly's track on the wall.
We started shortly after daybreak, and made
straight up the new valley, above which Nii-taka-
' UP-HILL
Does the road wind up-hill all the way ?
Tes, to the very end.
WiU the day's journey take the whole day long ?
From morn to night, my friend.
But is there for the night a resting-place ?
A roof for when ihe slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face ?
Tou cannot miss ihat inn.
Shall I meet other wayfarers at night ?
Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight ?
They will not keep you standing at the door.
Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak f
Of labor you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek ?
Tea, beds for all who come. Christina G. Rossetti.

244 LETTERS OF
yama showed itself for a time and then withdrew
behind a curtain of light clouds. We left all our
coolies at Namakama, without being able to per
suade one of the lot to continue with us as assist
ant to the cook, whose duties, we could see, were
going to be very heavy. Offers of double pay
and presents to boot were of no avail ; they only
looked at the savages, and shook their heads
decidedly. Lin, our Pekin boy, was frightened
and very much exhausted, and would have
turned back if he had known the language; but
the Formosa Chinese speak the Amoy dialect,
and Lin talks only Mandarin and Cantonese. It
was funny to hear him talking with the cook in
pidgin-English, their only means of communi
cation. The cook, bless his soul ! was a rock of
determination; it was a bad business, but he
would see it through; and every night, when
we straggled into camp and dropped on our
blankets, tired out, there he was blowing his fire
andppening tins of food. The only answers he
ever gave to our commands were, "Awright,
Master," "Cando, Cando," or, "That belong
proper." This third valley was full of large boulders,
which made walking easier for our feet, and the
river was one long rapid. Two savages and a

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 245
policeman had gone on, one day ahead, and had
thrown two or three saplings across the torrent,
where the banks were high and the river too
swift to ford. Rather unsteady crossing it made,
but safe if you were n't dizzily inclined. The
valley was so narrow that it was almost a gorge,
and often we left the river-bed and had to
scramble up steep places or over great obstruct
ing rocks. At several of the worst of these de
tours the advance party had hung long strands
of looped wire, which helped greatly. Shortly
before noon the river entered a gorge, with two
very large steep-sided mountains as walls ; there
was not room for both our party and the river in
the gorge, so we started up the mountain on the
left, and reached by tiffin-time a collection of
savage huts, known, or rather unknown, as the
village of Tumpo.
Our party on this third day was considerably
larger than it had been, for we had exchanged
our eighteen Chinese coolies for fifty savages.
Most of our savages were grown men, but we
had eight women and four children between
twelve and fifteen years old. The savages car
ried loads of from twenty to forty pounds only,
in net Iwgs attached to a " tump-line " across the
forehead. They climbed at a rapid gait, and

246 LETTERS OF
seemed to cast away the restraint and dignity
they had worn at the station, talking and laugh
ing freely among themselves. Early in the morn
ing two old men stopped and guffawed to see
me drinking water out of my hat. " What ho,"
thought I, " this augurs well " ; but we were still
wary and let them severely alone. Whenever the
climb was a bit steep and slippery, one ofthe old
men at the rear would throw back his head and
bellow, *^'Ye-e-e-o-oh-ho-ho," and those in front
would answer, "Yo-ho-ha-ha," running down
the scale from his note. It is a great cry, and
from a little distance sounds like a far-off en
gine whisde heard through the forest. It was
always given in the same order and with the
same notes.
By daylight we could see the details of their
costume. Not that there were so many, — far
from it, — but very different from anything I
have ever seen. The women wear jackets, and a
flat vest-cloth hangs over the breasts by a cord
about the neck. Around their waists they tie a
cloth that falls skirt-like to the ankles, with an
opening at the side ; a garment almost identical
with the sarong of Burmah, Java, and Siam.
As they walked with a fine free swing, youi could
see another piece of cloth, tied about the legbelow

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 247
the knee and falling over the calf. On their
heads they wear simply folded turbans, and
about their necks string after string of hard red
berries. As the day grew warmer, they discarded
their jackets, but nothing else.
The men wear nothing on their legs and no
thing on their bodies. About their waists they
have a wide wooden belt, sometimes four inches
in breadth. This they draw tight like a corset,
the largest man measuring only about twenty-
six inches about the waist, and the result is that
their chests stick out like Sandow's. I suppose
this belt makes them breathe through their upper
lungs when climbing. Into the belt they tuck the
upper corners of a stitched blue loin-cloth. Their
other garments are one or two bag-like pockets
hung by strings about the neck, strings of bone
and colored beads, and very rarely a small chest-
protector. At night and in the early morning
they wear loose jackets of deerskin with the hair
inside, but these garments are resorted to only
for warmth. On their heads they wear tight caps
of leather, with a flap hanging over the back of
the neck and on to the shoulders ; these bonnets
tie under the chin like an old woman's night-cap.
But the crowning glory, and by far the most in
dispensable article in the outfit, is the sword. It

248 LETTERS OF
is a rude, sharp knife, about twenty inches long in
the blade, with a simple wooden grip; it is sharp
only on one edge, and is fitted into a sheath with
a wooden back and metal strips in front; it is
slung over the shoulder on a grass or leather belt.
This sword is worn constandy when away from
the hut, and the owner is supposed never to let
another handle it. It will be noticed that, from
behind, the male attire appears to consist only of
a wide belt about the waist. Both sexes climb
barefoot. We did not stay long at Tumpo, but continued
our climb for an hour and a half after tiffin. The
path was merely a succession of footholds or toe-
holes in the steep bank, and the heels ofthe man
direcdy in front were always above my head.
The thick jungle-grass about us made it a bit
easier, for it was strong and could be used to pull
up on, but it took heavy toll for its usefulness in
the shape of cut hands. Near the top we reached
a long vertical scar of rock, and apparendy our
way lay up its surface. Am. and I were climb
ing together, some way behind one division of
savages and ahead of the rest. We scrambled
up some twenty or thirty feet, but could get no
farther, for the rock shaled off and crumbled at
every move, and there were no holds above us.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 249
Just then the rest of the party appeared below,
and showed us by shouts and signs that we had
mistaken the path, which turned up the right
side of the scar where the grass gave foothold ;
and there, sure enough, was a long-looped wire
dangling along the side from a stunted tree. Am.
had been working to the right, and by strenuous
effort reached the grass ; but I had worked to the
left, and could not move up, down, or across. I
had no foothold, and was holding up by the pres
sure of my body against the steep rock, and a
grip on a tough clump of grass which seemed al
ready to be giving way. One of the savages, who
had reached a point opposite me on the other
side, handed his pack to another below and
walked out across the scar as easily as you or I
would walk a log. The grip of one toe seemed to
give him secure footing, and with his assistance
I reached the opposite edge easily.
Ten minutes more brought us to a level place
with an altitude of 6000 feet. For half an hour
we crossed a steep slope around the shoulder of
the mountain, with the river gorge below us, —
a slip and a slide of fully 3000 feet by the ane
roid glass; then we climbed down 1500 feet, and
struck the river at the upper end of the gorge.
We were to sleep this night at Laka-Laka,

250 LETTERS OF
where we had been told triumphantly that there
was a hot spring; so our hopes ran high and we
scrambled and splashed up the edge of the river
with desperate good-will. At one point the val
ley widened by maybe a hundred feet, and there
were three large rocks the size of small cabins ;
the rest of the narrow valley was foaming river
and jungle-grass. On one of the mighty boulders
sat Humpo San, a warm-hearted policeman, who
always spoke in a loud voice as though he were
very angry, presumably to hide the fact of his
tender heart. " Laka-Laka," he bellowed, as soon
as we were within hearing, just as if it were our
fault and he were scolding us. Then it began to
rain. As usual, Stephen" was not to be found, so we
could do nothing but sit by in the drizzle and
watch proceedings. The savages hid the bag
gage under a rock and set to work on grass and
saplings with their swords. Before long Laka-
Laka was a small village of grass-huts, and fires
were starting up sullenly, with much heavy wet
smoke that stung the eyes. The cook patiendy
set to work to build his fire and cook in the
rain ; but A  persuaded four savages to stand
in the wet and hold the corners of a sheet of
heavy oil-paper, thus keeping the water out of

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 251
the soup. Our tent was made of canvas that we
brought along, and leaked like a sieve, while the
grass-houses, as we found later, were quite dry.
After the difficulties had smoothed over and
supper was ready, Stephen showed up. He had
spent the time of chaos and confusion sitting in
the hot spring.
A gray drizzling morning followed the wet
night, and the roof of our tent sprayed water like
a gende shower-bath.
"Impossible to proceed," said our escort
through Stephen.
"Impossible to remain," said we through Ste
phen. " The climbing will be dangerously slippery,"
said Stephen.
"We shall drown in this shower-bath," said
we. The upshot was that we decided to layoff dur
ing the day and following night, at the village of
Laka-Laka (there was one, after all, 500 feet
straight above us), where we could be more com
fortable. By such lucky mischance came about
the pleasantest feature of the trip. We climbed
and climbed, with wet leaves slapping us in the
face, and were soon comfortably sheltered in a
grass-shed, with three open sides and a blazing

252 LETTERS OF
fire in the centre. Then our escort returned to
the river below, and left us five unarmed stran
gers, with two scared Chinese boys, in a village
of one time head-hunters, who had never before
seen a white man. The first thing they did was
to come out through the rain and crown us with
flowers !
Heavy, solid wreaths of marigolds they gave
us, and the older men of the village wore them,
too; there was a great store of marigolds, I
noticed, under the eaves of the big house. Then
they asked us in to sit by their fire.
The village of Laka-Laka is not a metropolis;
it is a provincial city. It comprises one big house
and three litde ones, built of stones, with a heavy
grass-roof loaded with boulders against the
strong winds, for it is over 5000 feet high here.
Besides these four dwellings, there are three
sheds, two empty and one full of bones. Deer
bones, antlers, monkey skulls by the dozen,
and wild-boar skulls, with cruel tusks, by the
double dozen. We left Mr. and Mrs. A  in
possession of the hut we first seized ; the three
of us with the Chinese boys occupied the other
empty one ; the third shed we left to the bones.
Am. and I followed the head man into his big
house while it was still drizzling. It was very

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 253
dark inside, for there were no windows and the
smoke-holes in the roof had been closed to keep
out the rain. There was only one room, a rec
tangle ten by twenty feet; the door being in the
centre of one of the long sides. Overhead were
strings of lean maize, shelves of bags with some
sort of grain, and dusty hides hanging together
in dim oudine. Underfoot was an earthen pave
ment, and at each end of the room a sunken fire
was burning. Direcdy in front of the door were
two large wooden mortars, in which the women
were pounding grain with pesdes four feet long.
There were three women to a mortar, and they
pounded in one, two, three order, just as circus
men drive stakes for the tent. In a dark corner
behind the fire two men were standing and work
ing their feet, as if they were walking a treadmill
or trying to clean them on a doormat; I could
not see what they were standing on just then.
There were six or eight people grouped about
each fire, and they made room for us, placing
billets of wood for us to sit on ; the people at the
other end of the room came over to our fire. Our
clothes interested them at first, and then our
skins. We must roll up our sleeves to show them
that we were white all over. One litde fellow
kept rubbing his cheek up and down my arm.

254 LETTERS OF
There was a good deal of laughter as we grew
better acquainted, and the children patted our
hands and played with them, whereat the elders
smiled indulgendy. My eyes saw more clearly
now, and I made out that the men wiping their
feet in the corner were treading deer-hides rolled
into a ball, working them over and over to make
them soft.
Tire sun came out brighdy, and the women
carried their mortars out-of-doors, and we fol
lowed ail together. These Laka-Laka people
were of the same tribe as our fifty porters, and
their dress and appearance was the same. The
men are fine-looking, with high foreheads,
straight noses, straight eyebrows, good eyes, and
small mouths for the most part; the chin is very
determined and projects, and the color of the
skin is a dark tan like that ofthe Japanese coolie.
Both sexes knock out one tooth on each side of
the upper jaw, leaving the two front teeth iso
lated ; it is a disfigurement to which you soon be
come accustomed ; they also pierce the ears and
wear earrings made of mother-of-pearl shell cut
into half-moons and hung from the ear by wire.
We saw them make a pair here; it was an all-
day task. The hair of the head is worn long to
the shoulders; the men sometimes tie a cord

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 255
about the end; there is no hair whatever on the
body. I might add that, although the nose is
fine and straight, it is broad at the nostrils, and
when looked at from the front, makes the unmis
takable Malay triangle. Adults and children
seem to be very healthy; there were no bald-
headed children, scarred and pitted with dis
ease, such as you see in every Chinese village;
but their legs below the knee were badly scarred
and cut, and many of them had open wounds,
so that for an hour we were very busy with anti
septic vaseline and torn handkerchiefs. One
old hunter, in particular, had almost severed his
great toe by a stroke of his sword. We left him
a supply of vaseline in a big green leaf. While
we sat about on rocks, the children brought us
roasted yams and cracked nuts for us, and as
a final proof of friendship, set to work on our
heads to relieve us of unwelcome guests. Great
was the surprise at not finding them. One boy
of about ten sat behind me and gravely rubbed
my back for twenty minutes.
The savages apparently live on sweet pota
toes, a millet-like grain, nuts, and game. We
bought some very good venison of them. They
also have chickens and a few healthy-looking
pigs. We relieved them of two chickens, and

256 LETTERS OF
hardly knew how to pay them; for they wanted
clothes, but we had none to spare; money they
did not care for, until we showed them how they
could string the silver coins for a necklace. At
that, they preferred the big copper pennies to the
silver twenty-cent pieces.
The voices of these savages are low and gen
tle, and they never speak hurriedly or angrily,
but answer the loudest shouts of our soldiers
with a quiet good humor. They treat each other
with kindness and consideration, and no matter
how small a gift of cloth or food we gave to one,
he shared it with as many as possible. They
treated us without servility, as absolute equals.
After dinner the entire village gathered about
our fire, and we held a grand pow-wow. There
we were, one white woman, the pluckiest I have
ever known, four white men, two Chinamen,
and twenty or thirty bare-bodied savages, miles
from anywhere, huddled together around an
open fire under the open stars. There was much
sharing of food with the patriarch of the village-
family, and then we sang all together, we white
people. The savages laughed and roared at the
funny sounds we made, and cried "Mashiach!"
which we had discovered means "good." It was
not good singing, but you can't expect savages

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 257
who don't even know their own ages to be expert
musical critics.
After the ice was broken; two or three young
braves, gay with necklaces and heavy brass brace
lets, had recognized us as kindred spirits and in
sisted on having their arms over our shoulders.
They escorted the three of us to our lonely shed
at a little distance from the houses, and as a
crowning favor one stayed to sleep with us. He
grew cold, however, as he had no blanket, and
went back to the fire for the rest of the night. It
was very dark and cold and still In our open
shed, and we could hear the river far below and
the owls answering each other in the jungle close
about us.
I had barely closed my eyes after listening to
the owls, when I heard sticks crackling near at
hand, and opening them again, I saw a growing
light on the leaves about the shed. It grew
brighter, and out of the thick grass stepped one
of the children of the village with a piece of
blazing pitchwood in his hand. Sure enough it
was five o'clock, and time to be up and doing.
There was no sign of sunrise, but there was a
cold moon in the sky, and by its light I stumbled
down to the big house and soon warmed through
at the chief's fire. Three ofthe men were looking

258 LETTERS OF
to their weapons ; they had one long gun as tall as
a man, and told me by signs that they were going
to hunt deer higher up the valley; while It was
still dark, they set out.
We gathered in our hats and extra coats, which
had been adorning our friends the young bucks,
and started our march shordy after sunrise. As
a final honor Mrs. A  sewed a button on the
patriarch's chest-cloth, and pinned a big safety-
pin just beneath; the old fellow swelled like the
frog in the fable, and evidendy felt that his Im
portance had now reached human limits. A
moral, a moral ! All the pride of Lucifer over
a button and a safety-pin; just as worthy hon
ors truly as some we civilized people break our
hearts or swell our chests over.
This fifth day was a tough climb, but not over-
long. For three hours we kept to the old valley,
with the very high peaks close ahead now; then,
near the end of the valley, we turned sharply to
the right and climbed up a litde tributary. The
main valley had been steep, and the swift river,
through which we carried those blessed fox-
terriers so often, was a succession of rapids, but
this litde stream was one long waterfall or series
of waterfalls, and so cold that the clear gray rock-
pools we stepped into stung our feet. It was

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 259
hands-and-knees work, some of it, up a smooth
rock or a steep fallen tree, or a notched stick, or
pulling yourself up on a wire, with your toes
catching at cracks and ledges.
We had tiffin at a place where the top man of
our procession was perhaps sixty feet of vertical
height above the bottom eater. After tiffin we
left the water and struck straight up the moun
tain, which was wooded to the crest. We were
high above the opposite wall of the ravine, and
could look for miles to the west, over the peaks
and ridges we had been travelling through for
the last few days. There was nothing to block
the view straight off towards China.
The footing of this afternoon's climb was
rather uncertain; projecting rocks, clumps of
moss, and tree-roots on the hillside were the
best we could expect. In several places where
we were forced to straddle nothing, our advance-
guard had lashed saplings to the hillside, which
afforded good footing If you held on by the vines.
At one of these places a slight accident occurred.
One of the savage girls slipped and would have
fallen, had not Am., who was just behind,
caught her by the arm. As it was, her load
slipped and crashed down through the small
trees and bushes. She was wild with excitement

26o LETTERS OF
and had to be held for several minutes, during
which she screamed and tried to jump down
after her pack.
Early In the afternoon we pulled ourselves up
over the edge of a small grassy plateau where we
were to camp for two nights, making the ascent
and descent of our mountain In the day between
them. We had left the tropics two days behind
us, and here it would be an easy matter to per
suade yourself that you were in Switzerland —
If you could only teach the savages to wear knee-
breeches and to yodel! Behind us the litde
ravine led down like a ladder to the main valley
2500 feet below, and the lower mountain-ridges
lay stretched out like the roofs of a German vil
lage. Before us was the cozy little plateau, pos
sibly a quarter of a mile square, bounded on
the left and at the back by high mountains, and
at the right by a deep, cliff-sided valley, across
which rose the triple peaks of Nii-taka-yama.
Here we met our advance-guard for the first
time, and built our huts in a litde grove of
twisted pines where there was water. This place
Is called Hat-su-gang. The glass registered 9300
feet, and It grew cold even while the sun was
shining ; but our huts were of thick, fragrant pine-
boughs, and the fire blazed merrily at the foot

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 261
of a centuries-old pine tree that looked as If it
were trying to shelter the whole plateau under
its great gnarled branches.
The savages were cold and crowded about our
fire, clothed In all the odd garments we could
spare. It was a funny sight to see a young flower-
crowned brave, with nothing on but his sword
and a pair of long cotton underdrawers ; or to see
another trying to get warm In a panama hat and
a pair of white woollen gloves. I sat on a log,
reading, with a blanket over my shoulders, and
a boy named Uschlung, who had grown very
friendly, crept under one corner, holding on with
an arm about my waist. His teeth were chat
tering, but his little brown body felt as warm
as a stove against mine. His running mate, Ibi,
monopolized the other end, so I closed the book
and had a lesson in savage dialect. By this time
I had collected about forty words, and the boys
never tired of bringing new objects and telling me
their names, or going over their own anatomies
in search of some unnamed finger or toe. They
tried to learn the English equivalents as well,
and pronounced our words with far greater ease
than the Chinese and Japanese beginners do, in
spite of the fact that their own language has very
few sounds. The most noticeable sound In their

262 LETTERS OF
language is ch pronounced like the German ch
In Ich ; they use this sound in almost every word,
sch at the beginning or in the middle of the word,
and chi at the end. The result is a sibilant
sound running all through their talk; and as
their voices are low and musical, and the intona
tion gentle and varied, the effect Is very pleasing.
The night was bitterly cold : we suffered under
our blankets, and In the morning there was a
heavy frost; but we got under way as soon as
there was light enough. Most of the savages
remained in camp with our Chinese boys, who
were sadly in need of rest, but we took with us
six strong young men, and one old hunter as
guide. Six policemen and our five selves made
eighteen in all.
I have said that there was a valley at the right
of the plateau. This valley runs from east to
west almost to the western edge, over which we
had come ; then It turns south into the very heart
of Nii-taka-yama and its three peaks. The lowest
peak is at the right ofthe valley, east; the second
peak is at the left, west ; and the third is straight
ahead, south. It was the second peak which we
were to climb.
Our route first led along the side of the deep
valley-cleft, working towards its southern end.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 263
For an hour we crossed the steep slope of slippery
grass without rising more than 100 feet. There
was barely foothold for the side of the foot, and
loose rocks, dislodged by our feet, reached the
valley-floor beneath by great leaps. I should say
this valley was not over 1000 feet deep.
At the valley-head there was a lofty waterfall,
above which the stream was only some 300 feet
below us ; we descended to it and scrambled up
Its course for half an hour. At our left the first
peak rose abruptly, a wall of gray rock with
quartz streaks; directly ahead was the third
peak, a reddish precipice with a curved top ; the
second peak, which we were to climb, was at our
right, but we could not see the top, only a steep,
tree-covered bank that rose up to meet the sky.
An hour's climb cleared us of the forest at the
10,500 foot level. An hour over grass slopes,
steep as a slope can be and remain a slope at all,
brought us close to 12,000 feet. Here we found a
level spot to breathe in, and a trickle of water,
and soon after leaving the water, we struck bare
rock and reached the crest of a ridge that led
straight up to the peak, like a spinal column.
This ridge was not by any means narrow enough
to straddle, but It would be possible for any one
so inclined to fall off either side If he chose. The

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day was beautiful, — windless, cloudless, cold,
• — and the view opening about us on all sides
seemed infinite ; but the climb was muscle-tiring,
throat-parching, head-throbbing work, and there
was not much conversation. I think the last
thousand feet on rock was the easiest part of the
climb, however, for footing and hand-holds were
good, and when you placed your foot on a ledge,
you knew that both the foot and the ledge were
going to stay right there.
A  , our Consul, was the first American
ever to set foot on the top, and the rest of us
followed in quick succession.
" Over the Bunch," said Am., as he sat himself
down on a comfortable rock.
Of the view I suppose I must speak, for it was
the great feature of the expedition ; but a view
from a very high mountain does not lend Itself
to the limitation of words. Too many elements
enter Into it. There Is the fatigue of the climb,
the exhilaration of the altitude, the humming of
blood in your ears, and all the fleeting glories of
sunlight and atmosphere — there Is also a sug
gestion of Infinity that transcends juggling with
the alphabet. Suffice It to say that, near at hand,
were the mighty sister-peaks, and round about,
a host of lesser dignitaries like lords about the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 265
throne, less than the king but very mighty men ;
behind them, peaks and peaks, north, south, east,
and west, and far away, both at the right hand
and at the left hand, quivered a hazy ocean. The
forests below were masses of cool green, and In
every valley gleamed a thread of silver; the rock-
ridges were glowing browns and reds, with clear-
cut blue shadows; there was a haze of smoke
in one valley from a forest fire, and the light over
all was glorious. For half an hour we had a
clear view, then clouds blotted out everything
and rolled about the valley, while the peaks still
glowed In sunlight.
Both of our aneroids became dizzy and rather
lost their heads, for one registered over 14,000
feet and the other 13,300. The highest peak
is officially supposed to be 13,880 feet, and
our peak is most probably between 13,500 and
13,600 feet.
There was not room for us all on the very tip
top, but we perched as near It as possible and
patted each other on the back. It seems that we
were the first foreigners to ascend this second
peak, and the second party; for two Japanese
gendemen and one of our own escort, Kurota
San, had preceded us by one year. We were the
second party of foreigners to ascend the moun-

266 LETTERS OF
tain at all, and the fourth party to try, but, best
of all, the first Americans ever to enter the dis
trict. Ten years ago a German party succeeded In
reaching the third peak, which Is about 200 feet
higher than the one we climbed. Some time
later, an English party under Captain Goodfellow
made the attempt, but in one of the lower valleys
the Captain fell Into a trap that the savages had
set for wild beasts, and was forced to return for
treatment at a hospital. Last year a party from
the British Museum, according to Kurota San,
although I imagine it was the Royal Geographic
Society, made the attempt, but they got no fur
ther than Hat-su-gang, where they were delayed
for several days by bad weather.
The climb In Itself is tiring, and Its length,
five days, makes It quite an undertaking, but
there are no real difficulties In the way, and
no skill or knowledge is required for the work.
There are plenty of places where a misstep might
prove fatal, but it Is always easy not to make the
misstep. While the island was under Chinese
government, there was no protection guaranteed
against the savages, and now so much govern
ment assistance is required that a private indi
vidual hesitates to ask for it; this, rather than

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 267
the natural difficulties. Is the reason why the trip
has been so rarely accomplished.
The descent of the mountain through clouds
was rather more tiring than the ascent; but we
reached the camp at Hat-su-gang before dark,
and slept deeply.
The next morning we started back, favored
by perfect weather. We travelled fast, sliding
with seven-league steps down slopes of loose
rock that we had toiled up Inch by Inch. So fast
we travelled that we lunched at Laka-Laka, the
hot spring in which Stephen so loved to wallow,
and spent the night at Tumpo over the steep hill.
It was a wearing day, but we finished It with an
hour of daylight to spare.
Am. and I sat on a fallen log In a grove of
banana-palms at the valley's edge, and talked
feelingly (a banana in each hand) of the time
when these beautiful silent places, disturbed only
by the sound of winds and rushing streams and
birds, would be spoken of as the "Japanese
Alps," and Included In every globe-trotter's Itin
erary. Just opposite us a short valley branched
off to the south. Its green mountain walls 8000
feet at least, and a brawling torrent creaming
along Its floor. We watched the shadow steal up
to the top of the eastern wall and the lazy clouds

268 LETTERS OF
crawl around each jutting shoulder and along
the valley-bottom, until the whole beautiful
scene was just a formless, solid jumble against
the tender western glory. Hotels and pordy
ladles en grande tour seemed a long way off just
then. In this village, Tumpo, we were rummaging
about the bone-shed, among boar jaws and
monkey skulls, when we came quite suddenly
upon three human skulls.
It was the last night we were to have this tribe
of savages with us, and Uschlung hung about in
an access of affection, even suggesting sleeping
with us, but the quarters were narrow as It was.
I told him about the skulls, for this was his village.
He laughed and nodded, pointing to his sword
and his neck, then he cuddled closer and drew
my arm over his shoulder. Truly, crime is more
or less a matter of latitude and longitude, and
missionaries ought to be able to do wonders with
these gende people, who now look on murder as
a cardinal virtue. By this rime we had grown
quite expert at sign-language with our savage
friends, and they told us at length of their daily
life. They showed us how they hunted deer, and
lay In wait with knives for the wild boar; they
pointed out long tusk-scars on their legs and

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 269
arms, and showed us the round tunnels or run
ways that Baboo, the wild boar, makes In the
jungle-grass; and they broke off the leaves of
the fleshy elephant-ear plant, to show how they
drink the sap. We learned nothing, however,
about their religion, except that they believe
impllcldy in signs and omens. They would not
permit Stephen to pick a certain flowering grass,
lest all their tribe fall sick. One day we passed
a tiny hut of stones, not more than a foot square,
and in it were offerings of wild fruit and scar
let berries. They hide their graves, and seem
to believe that there are spirits in the trees
and rocks. Dacho and Oomush had joined our
group of intimates in the last day or two, and
when we parted at Hosha, we went through
their ceremony of friendship, drinking out of the
same cup with them at the same time, — a skill-
demanding performance that Is gone through
with cheek to cheek.
On the day after we left Tumpo, we turned
up a branch valley to the south, leaving our up-
trall, and returned to the railroad by a four days'
climb over Arl-san. Mt. Ari is a trifle over 8000
feet high, and the two days' climb to Its summit,
up the Hosha Valley, was as rough work as we
had on the Mt. Morrison trip ; but the two days

270 LETTERS OF
down the other side to Kagi and the railroad
were on a real path, two feet wide, at least.
The new tribe of savages that we took for por
ters at Hosha (sounds like a large town, but it
was only ten grass and bamboo huts with a few
banana-palms) were of a, slighdy different type.
They wore long feathers sewed to their deer
skin caps, wore more jewelry, stuck flowers
through their pierced ears, when they did n't
have the pearl half-moons, and talked a language
which seemed to have no points in common with
the language of our old Namakama friends.
Their village had a large open council-shed on
stilts, that you reached by climbing up a notched
stick. In the centre was a stone platform for fire,
and around this the boys and unmarried braves
sleep. No woman is allowed to enter the shed,
and no article of woman's manufacture is used
there, for fear of making the young warriors
effeminate. They knock out their teeth In the
same way and have the same general type of
features, but are on the whole a handsomer lot
of men. One of the youths had a profile like a
cameo or a Greek coin, and when he lay about
camp after the day's work, in graceful long-
limbed poses, with a wreath of white flowers and
golden ferns, he looked for all the world like

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 271
a young Athenian ready for some fashionable
symposium. This classic youth had a fidus
Achates as well, who followed his every move
and walked up impossible tree-trunks to gather
the ferns growing on the branches, for his friend.
The Hosha people sang, too, at night. One man
would extemporize a verse, and all the rest would
raise their voices in the chorus, until it ran the
whole length of the line of camp-fires gleaming
through the long grass. A long-drawn chant of
three notes, ending in a throaty slur down scale
thrice repeated. No falsetto, but full chest-tones
and very musical. In music and appearance, in
disposition and their love of flowers, these people
remind me of what I have heard ofthe Samoans.
There Is also a Samoan or Tongan village
named Laka-Laka! I went to sleep with the
music in my ears, and early the next morning I
turned In my blanket and looked out the tent-
door, just In time to see the Athenian rise from
his camp-fire, stretch his arms wide, black against
the starlight, throw back his head, and wake the
camp with a verse of his own to the old chant.
Back came the answer, rather a sleepy chorus,
but droning off to the very end of the camp. Dim
figures rose out of the grass, and the day's work
was on.

272 LETTERS OF
Just over the windy crest of Arl-san, at a
height of 7100 feet, is the pioneer office of the
Fiyita Lumber Company. It will be eight years
before they begin to cut, but they are working
hard, and by that time expect to have a narrow-
gauge railroad, 30 Inches, connecting them with
Kagi. They have 40,000 acres of pine, cedar, and
live oak; about 2,000,000,000 timber feet, they
estimate ; and the wood samples they showed us
were excellent. Here we returned to the luxury
of a soft Japanese floor.
The two days from Fiyita to Kagi are long
ones, but, as I said before, there Is a real path,
and the way is all through beautiful forests, with
occasional sorties on the edge of valleys 2000 and
3000 feet deep, as the stone drops; The first day
was all through conifers, and we did not see a
house or a clearing until we reached the litde
station which the Fiyita Company keeps for Its
own convenience. Tall, beautiful trees they
were, one of them, near the office, measuring
seventy feet in circumference. Great swinging
creepers drape from tree to tree and hang in
hundred-foot loops from the branches; ferns
grow profusely on all the trees, and huge glossy-
leaved parasites or air plants fill the branches;
the place is alive with pheasants and partridge.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 273
and you often hear them whir away from the
path at your approach.
The second day was pardy through live oak
and partly through a bamboo forest, where the
green sun-streaked stems were so close together
that they looked like a hedge lining the path
ahead of us, and their heavy plumes meeting
overhead made the way dark at noonday. In
this forest we passed several tiny houses, where
Chinese live to make paper from the bamboo,
which they soak In big pits beside the path. The
final descent of almost 4000 feet Is a rapid one,
and Is over with in a litde more than three hours ;
a sort of a run-and-jump affair.
The savages carried all the way to the rail
road for us. It was a great lark and a new
experience for them, and they raced along the
level country singing and shouting under their
loads, to the consternation of the Chinese coo
lies who lined up by the roadside to let them
pass. Back again to the bleeding mouths of the
betel-chewers ; the wide-horned suspicious water-
buffaloes ploughing under the old rice crop, or
cooling their blue-black hulks in wayside pools,
with only the muzzle and horns above water.
Back to the fawn-colored humped oxen, steered

274 LETTERS OF
In their ponderous courses by Chinese babies
straddling their necks.
When we left civilization, all Formosa was
bending Its rice crop over by hand, to forestall
the expected typhoon (which never comes, let
me whisper) ; now all Formosa was threshing, —
pounding bunches of rice against the edge of the
tub with a net back-stop to guide the flying
grain aright; or ploughing under the stubble
of the last crop. All the climbing, all the toils
and pleasure of mountain and forest, all the
Uschlungs and Ibis are "Finish," as pidgin-
English hath it, and we are the richer by a
few memories and savage trinkets, and the
poorer by two blankets and an extra coat,
which Oomuch now flaunts to the envy of all
Namakama.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 275
Hong Kong, Victoria,
November 19, 1907.
Dear Old Soak, — Your blessed yellow en
velope and contents has been lying here since
October loth, and only a few days ago did I re
ceive It, for contrary to plans and expectations,
I have been spending September, October, and
half of this good turkey month In the grass
plains of Mongolia and in the savage fastnesses
of Formosa, — Ihle Formosa, — the beautiful
Isle, as the Portuguese called it. We have just
returned from the latter, where we joined our
young consul, A  , In an exploring trip
through the jungle to the top of Mt. Morrison,
Japan's highest point of land, almost fourteen
thousand feet.
I suppose you are now deep in the mysteries
of Pennsylvania law, and I imagine you are mak
ing a great name for yourself in Quaker-town,
especially as the fate of Kirl II is at stake on
your success. I can see you humped over a desk
with a green shade bound to your noble dome,
and a headache brewing therein, as the torts and
retorts dance across the page. I suppose that by
this time you have become re-acquainted with
Fred, the Pride of Pennsylvania, and begin to
feel at home in the great new house, where I

276 LETTERS OF
intend to break a friendly crust some day, the
Lord and the Ballards being willing.
Hugh I have not heard from since I left home,
but shall write him as long a letter as I have ink
for, on the boat between this port and Singapore.
Dick wrote me a steamer letter, which I answered
from Japan. I have hopes of a reply. Out here
where my feet are pointing straight up at the
soles of all my friends' feet. It gives me great
pleasure to think and wonder what you are all
doing, and howthe winter that I am going to lose
out of my life is beginning to set In at home.
Here we have palm trees and great hedges of
flowers along the roadside.
There is one part of our trip that I know you
would like — the water. I know that you turn
up your nose at anything longer than forty feet
or anything with a propeller, but you would like
these boats. We have been on eight craft for
over three days to a week apiece. In the Yellow
Sea and North China Sea, and not one has been
over two thousand tons burthen, while some
have been under one thousand. Broad-decked
litde cargo ships, with Chinese crews and Scotch
officers and two passenger cabins. The captains
and mates and engineers are usually old adven
turers with wonderful yarns to spin. Wonderful

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 277
nights we have had, with the spray flying and
the masts reeling among the stars; wonderful
days sliding over a turquoise ocean in the haze
of an Indian summer, with the red islands
gleaming through it, and mat-sailed junks on
every hand, in which naked fishermen were pull
ing In their nets.
Wally, John, Ted, and Reese Alsop, who were
with us in Japan, went home a long time ago
across Siberia.
Purdy and Scurve went mad during late Au
gust in Japan, and showed their insanity by giv
ing up the whole wonderful Orient, and starting
up the Yangtze for India, which they will reach
at the same time we do, — about January. They
will have thirty-six hundred miles to travel by
junk and donkey, but there is a good trade-route
all the way, and the country Is perfectly safe.
I wish you could have seen Scurve's outfit. He
started with thirteen pieces of luggage, all cata
logued and numbered with big red figures. Ask
him for anything and he would pull out a book,
puzzle over it for half an hour, and then announce,
— " Box number ten, tray three, case four, com
partment six." The joke of it was that he never
put things back in the same place, and after a
week his system was useless. He had one trunk

278 LETTERS OF
full of photograph supplies, and it weighed more
than a grand piano. It was a little innocent-
looking box, and we used to watch the coolies
tackle it in a gay, debonair manner. At the first
attack it usually refused to budgej and finally
two of them would stagger off under it, groaning
like cameh.
I meant to write you a merry letter, but this
tract Is neither merry nor instructive. For a
week I have seen nothing but a sick-room all day,
and my bedroom at night, and I am very tired
and a little homesick for you all ; hence the medi
ocrity of these sheets. I am going to Java by
way of Singapore In a day or so, and maybe
I can write from there something to make you
laugh. Send me a letter care of Thomas Cook,
Bombay, India. If you write it by the New Year,
I shall get It safely, but don't feel you must wait
till then.
Please give my love to your mother and to
Mary, and my warm friendship to your father
and Fred. For yourself, I am sure you remember
our talk, and that last mournful supper you and
Dick and I had, too well to need any messages.
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
to you all, old Speed. Yours, Gil.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 279
Hong Kong, November 19, 1907.
Dear Mrs. G  , According to the rules of
epistolary give and take, this letter should be
addressed to Philip, who is, I suppose, by this
time my most mortal enemy ; but please tell him
that he Is often In my thoughts and I am waiting
to write him from Java, where, if rumor speaks
truly, I shall find matter to interest him withal.
The debt I owe to you is not so trivial as the an
swer to a letter, — It Is a debt of many happy
hours and pleasant memories, which I shall never
pay in full.
I found here a letter from Lawrence Mason,
written months ago, in which he mentioned hav
ing spent a Sunday at Glazierbury. The refer
ence raised such ghosts of by-gone week-ends
about me, that I was moved to put pen to paper
straightway. Our party of four is rather scattered at present,
although we shall meet next month, I hope. For
two months Amasa Mather and I have been
alone with our Chinese boy Lin, whom Minister
R  kindly gave us at Pekin, as he was leav
ing shortly for home. We have been avoiding
tourists and their haunts, and have been trying
to prove ourselves travellers, not mere trippers.
By which I mean that we have tried to get Into

28o LETTERS OF
the heart of the country and of the people we
have been among, that we aim for facts rather
than Impressions, that we leave prejudice at
home, seeking a new point of view at every step,
and giving up the threadbare "grande route" to
Mr. Cook's Shepherds and their flock.
Our last achievement was an exploring trip
with our consul at Formosa, Into the head-
hunters' district.
Formosa Is terra incognita, even to those who
live here and along the China coast not more
than one hundred miles away from Its shores;
but It Is so beautiful that people will soon dis
cover It.
The mountains are filled with aboriginal sav
ages, the plains with peaceful, hard-working
Chinese peasants, and the villages of the extreme
north and extreme south are well sprinkled with
Japanese, some of whom, like Mioshi, Minister
of Foreign Affairs, are Harvard men and delight
ful companions.
There are no hotels on the Island, but plenty
of clean Japanese Inns, and any one who Is fond
of Japanese food, which Is delicious after you
get used to the taste of the sauces and raw-fish
dishes, and can sleep well on the mat-floors, can
be as comfortable in Formosa as In Connecticut.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 281
At Hokuto, however, there Is a large Inn, which
boasts two foreign beds and a Chinese cook, who
can make omelets and souffles ! Hokuto Is a cool
little village, not far from Taipeh, the northern
capital, and here we lay lotus-eating, while the
government completed arrangements for our
trip Into the Interior.
The village Is strung out through feathery
bamboo-clumps along a smooth white road, with
here and there an ugly Chinese joss, or a pool. In
which huge water-buffaloes are wallowing, while
the Chinese youngsters that tend them are
squatting on the bank. Our inn faced the head
of this road, but the rooms opened like wide-
mouthed caves on a deep gallery at the back.
Here you could lounge all day and never tire of
resting. Just below is a gende slope, more park
than garden, full of thick green trees heavy with
golden pumeloes, flowering bushes, and hanging
vines. Through them you look across level rice-
fields to a semicircle of high green mountains
that make a new horizon, not over three miles
distant. Let me give you a sample evening.
It grows dark early here, and after we have
finished our fish and mushrooms and turnip-
pickle and seaweed, and chased the last grain of
rice about the bowl with our chopsticks, night

282 LETTERS OF
has quite fallen. We are the only white people
this side of Taipeh (there are only about forty on
the whole Island, — tea-people), so we dress all
day In kimonos only, at Hokuto, and slipping
the thong of a straw sandal between our bare
toes, we shuffle out to the road at the Inn door.
The night Is full of strange odors and tropic
sounds, and insect motor-cars whizz by over
head. There Is a little open shed at the Inn gate,
where a family of Chinese peasants sell fruit;
they are all sitting on benches, in the shadow of
the heavy foliage, outside of which the road lies
white in the moonlight; but they make a place
for us as soon as we appear. There are no Eng
lish-speaking natives, even at our inn, nearer
than Taipeh, but we know a few Japanese
phrases and so do the Chinese peasants, so con
versation is easy but not eloquent. One of the
young fellows brings out a wooden banjo with
three strings, and plays for us, while another,
stripped to the waist for coolness, with his head
on the player's shoulder, sings a long quavering
song in high falsetto. Then a neighbor boy
strolls by, his cue bound across his forehead like
a wreath, and with a calm Buddha-like face,
delicate and almost beautiful, — a common type

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 283
among the healthy peasants. He has a big bunch
of fire-crackers which he Is going to offer to the
grinning joss across the road there in the acacia
shadow. Everybody takes a handful, and In an
instant the air Is full of brilliant explosions that
quite put out the big Formosa fire-flies, and a
dozen crackers tied together are spluttering at
the Idol's feet. There is much laughing and
jumping about and setting off of crackers under
one another when not looking. Afterwards one
of the boys tells me that he set off his crackers
for the success of our trip Into the savage coun
try; they all shake their heads over this trip,
and try to persuade us not to take it.
Later we take a paper lantern and towels, and
all stumble downhill through the dark, to where
a mountain stream brawls through the rocks and
skirts the bottom ofthe inn garden ; and the won
der of It all is that it Is a mineral stream, so hot
that you slip into it by degrees ! The place we
choose is a broad pool, as large as the Glazier-
bury dining-room or larger, with high banks and
a foaming waterfall at one end, to beat down on
your back if you so desire. We put the lantern
on the bank, and, throwing off kimonos, slip into
the warm stream and pick out a shallow place
where we can sit lazily on the sandy bottom and

284 LETTERS OF
keep our heads above water. A new sensation
It Is, in this worn-out old world, to lie there in
luxury with the brown peasant boys splashing
about, and look up at the open stars and the
sheltering banks, heavy with drooping ferns and
wild morning-glories.
After a time we troop back to bed, and just
at the right moment, for not far from the pool
we pass an old Chinese woman and her tiny-
footed daughters, stumping down on their litde
sheep feet for an evening plunge, with a big
dragon-sprawled lantern bobbing merrily ahead
of them.
Do you wonder that we take the trouble to
avoid the clubs and hotels and tourist-twaddle
of the beaten track, if we can spend evenings
like this one by ourselves ?
Do write me a letter, and thereby add a jot to
the heavy load I owe you already; care Thomas
Cook, Bombay, India, will reach me if you send
It before the new year gets too old, and It would
be a welcome Christmas gift. Please give my love
to M  , and my best regards to Mr, G  ,
P  , and the renowned, redoubtable, and
otherwise engaged S  . For yourself best
wishes and a very Merry Christmas,
Sincerely, Gilbert Stark.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 285
Enclosed please look for an earring made of
brass and jade; It is a worthless bauble, but may
interest you, as It once adorned the ear of a
Manchu lady In Pekin. I did not get It at a
globe-trotter's shop, but picked it up for a song
from a native Manchu at Pekin.
Gilbert.

CHAPTER V
CANTON, JAVA, AND MALAYSIA
S. S. Kurong-sai,
Lying in the Pearl River at Canton,
90 miles from sea,
Friday, November 22, 1907 — 4 p. m.
Dear Mother, — For one week and one day
my life has been as follows : Sunrise and coffee
simultaneously at six-thirty, a bath, then two and
a half hours of writing, in pyjamas and dressing-
gown. At nine-thirty, breakfast. Every other
day I have returned to my room and written
until tiffin-time; between days I have spent the
morning doing errands for Am., Lin, or myself,
engaging steamer passages and giving them up
again, and then visiting Lin at the hospital. On
these days I would go up to the Peak to see Am.
at about eleven, and tiffin at the Peak Hotel.
My afternoons have been spent every one with
Am., coming down to the hotel in time for din
ner at seven-thirty. In the evening I would
walk for half an hour, read for an hour, and then
to bed. Twice dropped into a Chinese theatre,
and once to an amateur dramatic event, at which

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 287
I butted Into the midst of Hong Kong decollete-
gown-and-boiled-shirt society, arrayed, myself,
in modest Brooks Bros.' flannels. In attending
said dramatic event I sought diversion, but was
so successful in not finding It that I left after Act
One ! Had I been fortunate enough to possess a
teacup acquaintance with the lady who played
Diana Vernon and sang Scotch songs ever and
anon with a throaty warble, or a tennis friend
ship with the pordy person who impersonated
the hero, and filled the tide role, Rob Roy, by
concealing himself behind a bushy pair of red
whiskers, — then I might have stayed for Act
Two, and possibly, who knows in this age of
marvels, for Act Three. But I could not even
claim a bow and smile from one of the long-
necked English matrons who, attired with care
in short skirts, shirt waists, Scotch plaids and
bonnets, played the Highland Lassie chorus
among painted rocks to the wild notes of the
pibroch, played in a different key from the piano
accompaniment; so I went home to bed.
I have grown to feel very well acquainted with
the view from the Peak. I have seen it on gray,
cloudy days, when the harbor is like a sheet of
polished steel dotted with black toy steamers. I
have seen it in blazing sunshine, when the eye

288 LETTERS OF
Is dazzled with a sapphire sea unrolled below
agate rocks, emerald hills, and a pale turquoise
canopy over all. I have seen it through mists
and rain, and blotted out in clouds, and after
dark, with the whole black basin full of starry
lights on the shipping and In the town, till it
seemed as though the men below were trying
to make a copy of the starry basin Inverted
over all.
I have made a second Philippine acquaint
ance, and he shares my table, so dinner is spent
in torturing him with questions. My evening
ramble is always Interesting, for the streets are
full of Chinese strolling about, holding hands like
children. Here and there a Sikh policeman
stands like a gaudily-trimmed statue, and maybe
an Indian gendeman in frock coat and turban
passes with his servant close behind. There are
no horses on the streets, only rickshaws and
sedan-chairs. A cricket match Is being played
this week with Shanghai, and one night they had
an Illumination at the athletic field, which I saw
from afar. There you have my story.
Yesterday Am. was again normal, and re
mained so for ten hours. Thinking the time
was ripe for a litde vacation, I caught the 9 p. M.
steamer for Canton, and woke up here this mom-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 289
ing amid a babel and riot of tongues, which my
travelled wisdom told me was only the throng of
sampan-owners about the ship, bidding for trade.
I landed, and being provided for, by telegraph,
by a friend I have made In Cook's office, I set
out at once with chairs and guide to see the
sights. The city and its streets show no points of dif
ference from Foochow; narrow, stone-paved,
slippery with filth and wet, crowded with two
opposing streamsof sedans and half-nude coolies,
roofed with mat-awnings and a forest of heavy
gold signs, venders shrieking their wares, chair-
boys shouting for room, and children whining
" Kumshaw," with hands stretched out for cop
pers. Two months ago I should have been filled
with fear and a litde disgust, but, as at Foochow,
I enjoyed it all, and saw in the seething, yelling
crowd only a section of the greatest hive of this
nation of bees ; this calm, peaceful-minded race,
in spite of appearances; the most numerous,
hardest-working, easiest-governed race on earth.
We saw the water-clock, which tells time by
the trickling of water into four successive jars,
one of which is fitted with float and scale to tell
the hour; we saw the Temple of Six Hundred
Genii, one of whom is a fat Buddha, crowned

290 LETTERS OF
with an Italian beaver hat, said to be an image
of Marco Polo ; we saw the Confucian Temple
and the Temple of Ancestral Tablets, the City
ofthe Dead, and the Flowery Pagoda ; hardly one
of these sights younger than six hundred years.
We tiffined at the Five-Story Pagoda, rode
along the great crenellated wall, and entered the
executive ground, an alley full of drying pottery,
earthen jugs containing murderers' heads, wooden
crosses for the "slicing " penalty by which a man
is doomed to be cut up alive, and with huge
brown blood-stains on Its pavement; we han
dled the executioner's sword and saw him slice
with it an imaginary head. At the advice of Dr.
Swan, head of the Medical College, whom I had
met on the boat, I spent most time seeing the In
dustries for which Canton is famous. The king
fisher feather-workers, the brocade-weavers, the
ivory-carvers, the jade-cutters, the embroiderers,
the rice-paper painters, and the lacquer-work
ers all showed us how they make their works of
art, which the rest of the world cannot duplicate,
but can only admire.
The Canton shops are more showy than any
others in China, as indeed they should be In a
city almost the size of New York proper. All of
the different dealers group their shops according

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 291
to the trade, and so you have Jade Stone Street
and Silk Alley, and pass rows of stores of feather
fans, or a district In which there are only fancy
caps, or an avenue of silver filigree. All the
shops are of brick with open fronts.
Some stores are full of great coffins shaped like
Noah's Ark. Some have varnished ducks, bloated
bladders, entrails, pigs'-heads, and bloody livers
In tempting array. The fish-dealers keep their
ware alive In tubs, into which falls a spray of
water; or else It is dried and twisted out of all
shape and countenance. Anon you see a man
wending homewards with a raw sheep's heart
tied in the middle with a string.
As I sit writing on the top deck, waiting for the
boat to sail, the whole river-life is surging close
around and just beneath. Canton's floating pop
ulation is famous, but much as you expect It, the
swarm of sampans takes you by surprise. Ugly,
shapeless craft they are, with arched mat-roofs,
and a whole family on board : mother and sister
to do the work, father to drum up trade on shore,
little brother to stand in the bow with a big pole
and shout insulting remarks to other sampan-
owners who happen to collide with his boat, the
baby tied to the thwarts by one foot, and the
older babies with big lumps of wood tied to their

292 LETTERS OF
necks as life-preservers. If a girl baby falls over
board, they don't bother to pull her out. It is
very unsafe to take a sampan after dark, without
the advice of a policeman, for, although your
ship Is not two hundred yards from shore, you
may never reach her. The Inhabitants of this
whole river, even here alongside the quays of
Canton, are pirates bred and born, and so late as
yesterday the city of Canton received from the
Pekin Government 2,000,000 taels to extermi
nate the pirate leaders, urged to this tardy move
by the threat from the British that, if the Chinese
did n't make the river safe, they would seize and
purge it themselves.
Canton is one of the great cities of the world,
and to the tourist who sees only the English
cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong, it Is a ver
itable plunge Into the wilderness; It Is a real
untouched Chinese city, but I did not enjoy it
so much as Foochow. Here at Canton you are
taken by guides over the exact route that five to
fifty tourists travel every day in the year. You
visit shops whose show-rooms are not empty of
foreigners for more than twenty hours at a
stretch, and you see temples that have been de
scribed In every book of round-the-world travel
that has ever been written. This sort of thing Is

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 293
all too cut and dried ; you can read about it, and
learn almost as much as by coming here to see
It; there Is none of the contact of the people,
that we have been so fortunate In having; and
there Is no new point of view or broadening of
sympathies In It, any more than there Is In walk
ing through the streets of the Midway. Pure
sight-seeing it Is, which is nothing but selfish
pleasure, for It does not help you to help others,
and after a few hours it ceases to please. I get
very tired of looking at things, and then rushing
a mile further to look at something else for five
minutes, unless the sight-seeing be mixed with
the beauties of nature and the always fresh plea
sures of good exercise. The one thing that I
never tire of, and which is making this trip an
era in my life. Is the acquaintance with new and
strange races of people, the entering into their
points of view, and feeling the living force of their
thoughts and affections. Temples and shops
and pagodas, seen in company with a native
friend whom you like and understand, become
transformed. In connection with him they be
come symbols, not mere queer-shaped buildings.
I could live weeks In a native village of one hun
dred souls and never tire, but a great guide-book
city like this would weary me in three days. I

294 LETTERS OF
have probably only succeeded In making myself
Incoherent, but I hope you grasp my point.
The truth is that, except for one day at Shang
hai and a short time at Yokohama, Canton and
Hong Kong are the only points at which we have
touched the trail of the Cook sheep, and until we
struck it here, I never realized how blissfully far
off we had been able to keep from It, both men
tally and geographically. I now realize more
than ever what a success the trip has been so far,
furnishing all the elements we expected it to, in
quantities far beyond our hopes. I am rather
proud of the serious attitude towards it that we
have been able to keep, never once making the
mistake of thinking that we were travelling for
amusement, although we feel every moment that
it is the pleasantest thing we could be doing.
This reflection is prompted by having seen, again
at Hong Kong, some of the most usual class of
young men travellers, who never go to any place
where there is not " something to do at night,"
and who search Baedeker for clubs and theatres
In picking out their itinerary.
If things go as well as I expect they will, we
shall be able to leave on the French Mail, Tues
day next, and shall have a day at Saigon on the
way to Singapore. My present determination is

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 295
not to rush. I find that to complete the rest ofour
Itinerary In anything like the proper time, we
must use speed like to that of the new subway
electric engines, and that our letters of credit
would dwindle like snow in July; so with as
much wisdom as I can command, and with Spar
tan-like fortitude and heedlessness of pangs of
regret, I am going to stay In places which seem
most full of meat, long enough to gain some accu
rate, worth-while knowledge, and cut the merely
curious, side-show sights with ruthless hand. I
shall take care, however, that the places where
I stay will be pleasant, healthy, and cheap.
I suppose this Is the last time I shall be in these
waters for a long period, but some day I want to
bring you all to the Orient, and see mother bob
bing up and down In a sedan and buying all the
embroidery In sight, father on a camel, and my .
'andsome sisters ogling a pair of head-hunters
for their beads.
Here Is another trip we must forego, oudined
by Dr. Swan, a twenty-five years' resident. Six
teen days up the North River, to a country where
there are two million aborigines as different
from the Chinese as you or I, living among
beautiful, fertile hills; we should go by special
permission of the Chinese Government.

296 LETTERS OF
If I ever find I can't make a living at home, I
can come out here; they need men more than
anything else In this country. I should n't half
mind teaching in a mission college, or enter
ing the consular service. At every college mis
sion we visit they ask us why we don't stay a
year and help them out, to the tune of board
and lodging. I'd do It, If It was n't for law
school. I think my next letter will reach you before
Christmas, so will not harp on that subject.
Love and lots of It for all,
Gilbert.
Hong Kong, November 25, 1907.
Dear Father, — I am sending to-day to your
care a small Christmas packet by parcel-post.
I find it impossible to pay the duty here, so you
will have it to pay there, I suppose, but it will be
trifling. For you, 0 Pater familias, there is a letter-
holder of Foochow lacquer. This lacquer Is all
of the same color, is made nowhere else in China,
and is esteemed the best lacquer in the Celestial
Kingdom. They say that you can soak It in boil
ing water without the least Injury, but there Is
really no use putting it to the test. Don't let the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 297
decoration give you a nightmare, for I assure you
the creature thereon depicted is harmless as a
kitten. For mother there is a lunch-cloth and a dozen
dollies. The material Is grass-cloth made In Can
ton, and tough as iron ; it Is said to acquire beauty
and brilliance after frequent washing. I bought
It In Swatow, In which place the drawn-work Is
made ; and ladles here tell me that It Is superior
to the Canton work.
For  ,  , and  there Is a Christmas
card apiece. These cards are painted on rice-
paper which Is imported from Formosa. It is
really not made of rice, but of peach-tree wood,
and is very tough. The pictures are painted by
hand, and I bought them at Canton at the work
shop Itself, where I saw the artists In action.
One man makes the drawing, another colors the
dresses, and a third paints in the face. They are
really Chinese New Year's cards, but the verses
have been added above to please the foreign
devils. For Helen there is a pair of embroidered
sleeves, which she may be able to use In some
way to adorn her wardrobe. They are made for
Chinese Mandarins, but some ladles here use
them as cuffs or collars or lapels to opera-cloaks ;

298 LETTERS OF
I hope they will please her. Notice the scenes of
Chinese life that are depicted on them. There
Is also a little brooch. This brooch is made
of pure silver covered with gold-leaf, and the
blue portion Is entirely made of — you could
never guess — kingfisher feathers ! The piece of
wing enclosed Is from the same bird. There is
only one shop in China where this work Is done,
and I saw the process. The feathers are chipped
very fine, and applied to the jewelry by a pointed
brush first dipped In a cement-like gum. Only
young men are employed in this art, as It soon
ruins the eyes ; and beautiful brooches, pendants,
and jewel-settings are turned out.
For Pamela is a box of Japanese bean candy
made at Nikko. It was given me by my boy Mino
and his father and mother, along with three
or four more boxes, and he asked me to send it
to my sister, of whom he saw a snapshot that I
had. It is famous candy throughout Japan; be
sure to taste it even if the ants have reached It
during the voyage ; don't save It, but eat it. There
Is also a silver chain. The stones on the chain
are Amoy cats'-eyes, and I bought them loose
at that place ; the carved stones are apricot pits,
and are done by hand; I also bought them loose
at the same place. Look at the carving with a

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 299
magnlfylng-glass, and then realize that these
clever people carve them without microscopes,
with simple tools, in their own homes. I had
them mounted and put on the chain here at
Hong Kong.
I have also almost a hundred very beautiful
gray cats'-eyes, with green and purple lights in
them, but could not get them pierced In time to
send home, as the work Is very delicate. I shall
save them for Mr. G  's operations.
It has been great sport for me to buy these
things, bargaining and cutting prices half a day
over an article. I should n't be surprised if I had
several more baubles and trinkets tucked away
in my luggage, but I want to see you all look
them over and hear your comments on them
myself, so I won't give them to you until I come
home, and then only if you write me lots of nice
letters, and tell me just what Aunt L  and
the rest think of Chinese workmanship.
We have again been in luck, and have secured
passage on a fine Dutch trader bound for Ba-
tavia, Java. The boats of this line are as com
fortable and well appointed as any boats in the
East; the officers are a fine set of Dutchmen, who
are compelled to learn English.
We leave to-morrow (Tuesday, November

300 LETTERS OF
26th) at three p. m., and land in eight days,
touching only at one Island (between Borneo and
Java), whose name I have never before heard,
— Billiton, It Is called. If you care to read about
Java, and don't mind a lot of foolish gush, get
Mrs. Scidmore's "Java, the Garden of the
East," out of the library. Don't buy it, for I
have a copy.
You see the voyage will be as long as or longer
than from New York to London, and letters from
me will have to go up by Singapore and prob
ably via Suez, so It may be two weeks before
you hear from me again, although be sure I shall
despatch a letter at the first mail-box we strike
after leaving Hong Kong. If you want a real
book on Java, get Professor Qive Day's "The
Dutch In Java." It Is the authority, although
Clive Day has never been nearer Java than New
Haven, where I had him one year in Economics.
That book I do not own, so it would be worth
buying if you are interested.
I expect to learn a great deal in Java, for it
is the model colony of the world, and the
Dutch have made a tremendous success for them
selves, and brought comfort and peace to the
natives. I have been watching Am. shop this afternoon,

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 301
for he left the hospital for good yesterday (Lin
has gone back to Pekin). The sidewalks here
are all under deep arcades, and the shops full of
priceless treasures of ivory, silver, gold, jade,
silks, and rare old hawthorn vases, or blue and
red porcelains and enamels. Am. was looking
for an amber snuff-botde with a jade-stopper,
which would be within reach of his letter of
credit, and we fingered and examined a king's
ransom In our search. No sooner would we
leave one shop than the scent of sandalwood and
cinnamon and a dozen other spices would draw
us Into the dark, cool, inner rooms of the shop
next door, to wander among old chests of spiced
wood and brass-bround incense-coffers, while
the gentle yellow owner busied his delicate long
fingers In unwrapping some treasure, — a slim
agate vase with loose ring-handles, a pale ruby-
colored affair, translucent as alabaster, or an
amber box with a heavily carved cover, through
which you could see the owner's hand beneath
the bottom of the box. A heavy ring of 20-carat
gold tempted me greatly; it Is a snake with ruby
eyes and tested pure, but I have resisted bravely
all day and may get on board ship without fall
ing. We went to church yesterday morning in

302 LETTERS OF
frock coats and silk toppers, at St. John's Cathe
dral, which lifts its gray towers out of a tangle
of palms, banyans, and acacias. They sang the
whole litany and some very good anthems, and
the whole proceeding made us seem farther from
home than ever before, because It reminded us
of home so strongly.
Fare thee well, and may plum puddings and
the Heathen's Huylers leave you all free from
pains and torments.
A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New
Year. Your loving son, Gilbert.
S. S. Tjibodas, December 3, 1907.
Dear Mother, — One week ago to-day. Am.
and I came on board this steamer and estab
lished ourselves luxuriously in a roomy cabin
with two narrow, four-posted bedsteads, one on
a side. The boat was supposed to leave at three,
but It was nearly eight when she finally weighed
anchor, and so we were able to see Hong Kong
by night from the water, a sight equal to New
York by night from the Cordand Street ferry.
The city is built on a side hill, as Is the city of
Duluth, and across the lamp-starred harbor full
of shipping, It gleamed like a field of jewels, with

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 303
a handful of emeralds and diamonds tossed care
lessly halfway up the slope. Above, far above,
the great Peak cut a dark semicircle against the
stars. After we left the harbor, we could see the villa
lights and road lamps along the outer edge ofthe
Peak, It looked a long garland of stars, some
strange new constellation ; and as we drew farther
and farther south, it lay along the horizon like
a golden snake, which finally dived beneath the
waves. For four days we drove south with the steady
northwest monsoon booming at our heels, and
our smoke streaming straight before us to point
the course. There was rain and there were high
waves. But on the fifth day the sun came out,
the monsoon swept around to the east, following
the rigid course that It blows for six months at a
time, and we have ever since been ploughing up
a sea smooth as plum-skin.
We passed within twenty miles of Great Na-
tuna Island, within five of Flock Island; we saw
the distant hills of Sarawak or North Borneo,
and this morning at daybreak we anchored three
miles off the coast of Billiton, and dumped about
thirty Chinese coolies into a Billitonese craft that
came out to get them.

304 LETTERS OF
The Equator we crossed yesterday at 9.51
a. m., without hysterics, gush, or cracking a joke
on the subject, which performance I humbly
submit to your approval as a feat worthy of note.
It Is usually quite the thing to tie a string across
the lenses of a pair of binoculars, and then get
people to look through them at the Equator. It
is also en regie, among writers of the Scldmore
type, to boldly assert that "now we felt we could
defy old Equator with Impunity ! " or to confess
to a strange feeling of wrong balance and im
pending disaster as long as they were below the
belt, or some such tommy-tiddle. Although we
have passed the centre of the tropics, and are
still hanging about In latitude 30 below, we have
felt no heat. Scldmore mentions noticing the
heat as she approaches the Equator and Java
from Singapore (S'pore she calls It, to show how
well she knows it); "the heat," she says, "that
makes jelly of the white man's brain and that
leaves you exhausted by the effort expended in
peeling a banana." I do not doubt but that we
shall feel it hot enough in Java in all conscience,
but as yet we have not dampened our brows with
perspiration, although I am wearing a New
Haven cloth suit and long-sleeved undergar
ments.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 305
This boat Is of almost three thousand tons
burthen, and carries three first-class passengers,
our companion being a Japanese lady taking
seventeen steerage Japanese to the East Indies
to dive for pearls ; her husband is an Australian,
in the pearling business. The boat Is large, with
roomy decks, and clean as Holland itself. Our
crew Is Chinese, our servant boys Javanese, and
our officers Dutch. The officers are a fine lot of
men, especially the captain, and they all speak
excellent English.
We spend most of our time on the upper deck,
where I am now writing. The forward portion is
covered with a broad awning, and fitted with big
Dutch easy-chairs and leg-rests and litde tables.
At one side Is a long wide chest, full of growing
chrysanthemums and dwarf pines from Japan.
A tame Japanese rooster and a magnificent
golden pheasant walk the deck at will, and peck
at our shoes while we are reading, and a cage
of monks'-caps compete for attention with a red
and blue Macassar parrot. Here we read, write,
sip lemonade, fruit-juice, and chocolate, or talk
philosophy, theosophy, or vegetarian diet with
the captain, who is a keen thinker and a man of
great natural culture. He loves music as well as
discussion, and sometimes brings out his zither

3o6 LETTERS OF
and sings for us as he plays, or opens his cabin
window, which commands the upper deck, and
turns the big horn of his Victor towards us. Then
we lie back and look at the blazing tropic stars
and phosphorus-streaked water, and hear Melba
and Fames and Plan^on and Caruso to our
heart's content.

We are now passing from the South China Sea
into the Java Sea, and are threading an acro
batic passage through a tangle of reefs and
islands. Above Is a small reef and the distant
shore of Billiton, which scene now lies before me
If I raise my eyes above this paper. The sea be
tween me and the reef Is wrinkled and streaked
by the soaring of a school of tiny flying-fish,
getting out of our boat's way.
The food we have on this boat is very good,
and has two distinctly Javanese features which
we find delicious. The first is using molasses or
syrup with the oatmeal in place of milk. The
second Is the rice-table (rijst-tafel) at tiffin. The
first requisite for the rice-table Is a large soup-
plate. This you heap with rice. Then on the rice

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 307
you put a slice of roast chicken, a bit of pressed
meat, a cut of mutton, some roast fish, half
of a hard-boiled egg, a spoonful of cabbage, a
brussels sprout, a roast banana, some chutney,
shredded red pepper, cucumbers and mayon
naise, powdered cocoanut. Macassar red fish, —
all this and more you heap on the rice at once,
then eat it with a spoon. The rice-table in time
ceases to become a meal and becomes a passion.
(As I write this, a gende, barefoot, turbaned Ja
vanese is drawing near me with an humbly bent
back, a pleasant smile, and a tall glass of cool red
currant juice. . . . M-m-m — that was a good
drink!) The truth Is, mother mine, that we have fin
ished, completed, and put behind us the first
stage of our trip about the world. For over four
months we have been studying the great Mon
goloid races ; people of the temperate zone and a
latitude about the same as ours. People who are
destined by nature, as far as we can judge from
historical experience, to rule themselves, and be
a great power In the world. We are now leaving
this section of the world, the Yellow Hell as
Pierre Loti so unjusdy calls It, and are entering
the part of the world where the dark Aryans live ;
the Malays and the Hindus; the great colonial

3o8 LETTERS OF
division of the world, a section where the people
are all under white rule and will be for years,
maybe centuries, to come. The change between
these two parts of the world Is as great as the
change from America to the far East, and. If you
look beneath the surface, far greater.
Your loving son, Gilbert.
S. S. Tjibodas, Java Sea,
December 3, 1907.
Dear Father, — You will see from the
superscription, and from mother's letter, that
we have left the Far East for Malaysia and the
Archipelago, Netherlands, and India, without
visiting the Philippines. The question of our
visit to those Islands has been, as I mentioned
before, the constant theme of our thoughj:s and
conversation for weeks and weeks. We felt so
strongly that you and Mr. M  would be
intensely disappointed to see us omit them, that
we became almost morbid on the subject, before
it was partially decided for us by Am.'s Illness.
We were both fully convinced^ that it was not
best, but it seemed almost as if the only way to
prove our point was to go and then say, "I told
you so," which would hardly be wisdom. We
are writing to several prominent men in Manila,

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 309
enclosing letters of Introduction to them, asking
for their opinions on certain Philippine ques
tions, and information concerning the late devel
opments In the Philippine politics. Our Manila
acquaintance at the Hong Kong Hotel has also
promised to mail us the latest publications of
the Merchants' Association when he returns to
the islands.
Because we have omitted this trip from our
itinerary, do not think thatwe are deficient in in
terest in the future of the Islands and of America
as a colonizing power. Far from it; that Is the
question which now interests me more than any
public question has ever Interested me, and It Is
precisely to gain useful information and light on
that question, that I am going to Java Instead of
the Philippines.
I believe that a thorough knowledge of the
methods employed In the most successful colo
nies In the world will help more to an intelligent
constructive opinion In regard to the Philip
pines, than would a superficial or even an inti
mate knowledge of the defects in our Philippine
methods. The English at Singapore and In the Federated
Malay States have had a great success with one
method of government. The Dutch in Java have

3IO LETTERS OF
been brilliantly successful on an entirely different
method. Now the United States, In a country
peopled by men of the same race as In Java and
the Malay States, is trying an experiment on a
third line, the basis for which Is only hope, not
experience. My Idea is to study the successful colonies,
find why they failed at first, and latterly suc
ceeded ; learn what difficulties they had and how
they overcame them; understand the skeleton
details of their administration, and, most im
portant of all, the underlying principles on which
they are governed. I have a very good book on
the subject written by an Englishman who spent
two years studying these colonies for the Chicago
University, and who devotes almost half the work
to the Philippine problem In connection with
other colonies, and I shall get other books to aid
and direct personal observation. When I get
through, I shall have a well-founded knowledge
of colonial problems and their solutions, with
personal observation of the present results of a
century's application, or, in some cases, almost
three centuries' development.
Now, suppose I ever entered the Philippine
service, or had a voice In deciding any Philippine
problem. My two weeks or a month's visit (had

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 311
I made one) would be rendered useless to me
after two weeks or a month's residence or inves
tigation. I should catch up and surpass myself,
and would be no better off than If I had never
gone there; but In the same case, see of what
value my colonial knowledge would be. It would
form a valuable precedent for many difficulties,
and would enable me to look Into the future
results of proposed measures ; and it would be
knowledge that I could not stop to collect at any
period after I had started hard work. We have
seen Japan's methods in Formosa, and now
England and Holland are going to teach us what
they know.
I firmly believe now, that it is the fate of tropic
races to be ruled by whites, or at least by people
from the temperate zones (or Japanese), and I
firmly believe it Is the duty of our great nations
to possess colonies and to see that they are given
the best possible government; and this should
be done by our great nations without thought of
personal profit, but for the benefit of the com
mercial world and the tropic races themselves.
I am convinced that In no other way can the
resources of the tropics be developed, and the
mass of Inhabitants protected from slavery and
oppression. In many cases, no doubt, it will be

312 LETTERS OF
found that all details of government may be left
to the natives, but there must be a white protect
ing power for reference and final authority. The
tropical people possess the Intellect for self-gov
ernment, but not the character; that, we must
supply for a long time, at least. I wish I could
swing back from India, through French Indo-
China, where they are beginning to mend their
hitherto slovenly ways, and spend, say. May and
June In the Philippines on the way home via
Honololu ; but I think It will be better to keep
on around the globe. By that time I shall hav
earned a vacation on horseback in Persia or In
Egypt, too, for I am doing more brain-work now
than ever I did in Senior year.
Behold the list of books I have consumed in
their variety during the last fortnight, besides all
I have seen, and all the reams I have written to
you about Formosa, Hong Kong, and this boat,
and long letters to many friends; and now ban
ish forever the picture of my Idling away a year
In pampered ease!
"Westward Ho!" Kingsley.
"Among the Immortals," Marion Crawford
(philosophy).
"The Food of the Gods," Wells.
"A Cruise through Eastern Seas," A. G. Plate.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 313
"Java, the Garden of the East," Scldmore.
"Nederlandlsche India," J. F. Van Bremmelen
and G. B. Hoogor.
"The Tracer of Lost Persons," Chambers.
"Alice In Wonderland," Carroll.
"Through the Looking-Glass," Carroll.
"The Queen's Quair," Maurice Hewlett.
"The Far Eastern Tropics, or Studies in the
Administration of Tropical Dependencies,"
Alleyne Ireland.
"The Real Malay," Sir Frank Swettenham
(Governor of Straits Settlements).
And I am now reading "The Life of Toyo-
tomi HideyoshI," Walter Demlng. In addition I
have written up my diary in concise form for
two omitted months.
My letters home are for the most part merely
describing the frills and decorations of the trip,
with now and then some litde of the anthropo
logical and ethnological facts that interest me so
intensely, as for instance about the Formosa sav
ages. To write fully of the opinions and facts and
points of view that are thrust upon us would only
plunge you In a whirl of chaotic Information
without perspective, for It takes a long time to set
tle the mass Into convictions, like the conviction
about colonies that I have admitted to you above.

314 LETTERS OF
It strikes me that America has two great prob
lems to solve In the next half-century, which are
of as much Importance to the world as they are
to herself, and which rank together as the third
great movement of the Christian Era. The first
being the Renaissance In every department of
life, that the Middle Ages saw; the second being
the humanitarian movement of the eighteenth
century, which resulted In the French Revolution,
the American Revolution, and the freedom of
slaves all over the world ; and this last era split
ting Into the two questions of Socialism : the rela
tion of labor to capital, and Eastem policy,
which will finally setde the fate of over two
thirds of the world's population.
This Eastern-policy problem splits Into: (i)
the question ofthe duty or right of great civilized
nations to protect and control tropical countries,
which I wrote of above; and (2) the question of
our treatment of and relation to the self-govern
ing Mongoloid races of Northeastern Asia. In
this connection, notice the article I enclose on
American trade In China. I wish, by the way,
that I had kept a scrap-book of the excellent
newspaper articles out here on the subject of
Eastern policy, but it is too late now.
We are, as you know, over a month behind

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 315
schedule time, and would be two months behind
If we had not omitted Cochin China and the
Philippines. You may think that we have spent
too much time in Japan and China, but I assure
you it was all too litde for the Important know
ledge to be gained, and the Important Issues at
stake. One month longer in Japan and two
months more in China would have tripled the
value ofour visits to those places, and If I should
ever find myself In a position to do it, I should
like to spend a whole year In Japan, China,
Korea, and Manchuria, for there are tremen
dous interests for our country Involved in an
Intimate touch with that portion of the world.
Write me what you think on these topics.
From now on, to at least the middle of Febru
ary, and possibly later, you had better write me
at Bombay. As soon as we meet Scurve and
Purdy, and perfect our Persian plans, or give
them up, I will advise you further.
As to our Immediate plans, we are going to
stay In Batavia for several days to talk with the
men there (we have a consul), and plan our
campaign with their help. After getting the
opinions of men in the capital on political and
administrative matters, we want to go Into the
interior to some mountain village, among the

3i6 LETTERS OF
plantations of the Preanzer regency in Central
Java, and make that our headquarters from
which we can quietly observe the results of the
Dutch system, the nature of the people and their
customs, and also make an excursion to Djok-
jokarta, a semi-independent native state with a
Dutch resident, and the neighboring Buddhist
ruin of Barabudur, the mightiest ruin In the
world, with the possible exception of the Angkor
Vhat in Cambodia, which we had to give up. If
we are assured that It is well worth while, we may
go to Surabaya and the Tengger Mountains of
the southern end ; but we hope to spend most of
our short time stationary In the country, with
good books of reference to guide us.
In British India, which looms up more and
more wonderful and interesting as we approach
it, we shall be more concerned with religion and
the people themselves, for they are a mine of
gold to any one who knows anything about the
races of the world, and their relation to history
and to each other.
Before starting out, I thought that this year
would be In some degree a year of self-indul
gence, but it is a year of almost daily self-denial,
more severe than the self-denial of giving up the
whole trip would have been before starting; for

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 317
we have not visited a single place where we have
not had to forego some more pleasant and In
structive trip or expedition beyond. Here in
Java the temptation Is a cruise through the
Moluccas, Bali, Laubock, Celebes, Borneo,
Ambonia, New Guinea, — the most beautiful
Islands In the world, where we could see the
Dutch colonizing work at every stage it has ever
passed through; but It would take a month, and
in four months it will be April first, and we shall
have to begin to move northward towards Eu
rope; and before us still lie India, Burmah, and
Ceylon, as well as Netherlands India and the
Straits Settlements. We shall reach Colombo
straight from Singapore, and as near the first
of January as we can get there. We want to
try, however, to spend Christmas on shore in
pleasant surroundings. I hope this letter has n't
tired you with Its long explanations.
Love to all. Your son, Gilbert.
P. S. As additional weight to my remarks I
should like to quote some concluding words of
Mr. Ireland's book, which I had not read when
Iwrote the above.
He says he found officials in the Philippines a

3i8 LETTERS OF
fine, earnest set of men, but with a broad Igno
rance ofthe established facts in relation to tropi
cal administration, and an absence of informa
tion of the neighboring colonies, which could
scarcely fail to Impair most seriously the useful
ness of the most conscientious and hardest-
working official. To give a single example : —
" I was shown in the Philippines some of the
most wretched roads I have seen in fifteen years
of colonial travel, and was asked with pride
whether the English had ever done anything like
that for the benefit of their colonial subjects;
and when I replied that you could travel one
thousand miles in an automobile in the Federated
Malay States, on roads as good as the Massachu
setts state roads, my statement was met with the
last degree of surprise. Had any nation except
the United States ever governed a colony with
any other object than deriving a revenue from
It ? And so on, through the entire range of co
lonial administration!
"If, Instead of going straight from San Fran
cisco to Manila, the higher officials were ordered
by way of Suez, taking a trip through Egypt,
Ceylon, and the Malay Peninsula by the way,
they would arrive in the Philippines better
equipped for useful work than they are now.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 319
even after some years' residence in the islands.
Nearly all the faults in Philippine administra
tion are due to one of two causes — either the
pernicious influence of American home politics
on Philippine legislation, or the narrow vision of
the officials."
You see I am supported by an authority, al
though I did n't know it.
Love, Gilbert.
Batavia, Java, December 6, 1907.
My dear Father, — Our captain is still in
port, and Is with us constantly. He has presented
us to many of his friends here, and they have put
us up at both the Civil and Military Qubs. We
have also seen our Consul several times, and he
presented us to some English tea-men, who are
dining with us to-night, by the way. The hotel
has also given us five acquaintances : four young
Dutch noblemen of our own age, and one Ameri
can bachelor of sixty-four years, who has been
around the world three times and Is a real trav
eller, not a tourist. The Dutch boys I mention
are young officers in the navy, and are stationed
here for three years, their ship being now at this
port. They speak English beautifully (one of
them says his family lives in London all winter).

320 LETTERS OF
and we have had several meals with them and
some long talks In the evenings.
The American, Mr. C  , has travelled for
eighteen years, and Is a crank, or rather a special
ist, on archaeology and classic history. He gets
all excited over it and pounds the table.
"Did Pompey ever cross that pass through
the Caucasus ? Did Alexander ? Did Mithri-
dates ? No, sir ; not one, sir, by God, sir ! "
Then he leans back and chuckles until he
shakes all over.
" Pompey ! — MIthridates ! " he mumbles scorn
fully between chuckles; "not one of 'em, no,
sir!" He is going to leave Bombay about March ist,
going up the Persian Gulf and Euphrates to see
the ruins lately unearthed at Babylon. He Is then
going to return to Bushire, taking our outlined
Persian trip, continuing over into Turkestan,
and reaching Europe in September.
I have thought it well to add another sample
of Mr. C  's characteristic remarks.
"A liberal education, sir. Is directed energy,
but culture — bah ! culture Is refined lassitude !
Cultuah, Indeed; ha-ha! refined lassitude, sir!"
He says that In Constantinople, at the mu
seum, is a great marble coffer, beautifully carved.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 321
that is authoritatively supposed to be the tomb
of Alexander, or rather his sarcophagus. "It Is
not usual, sir," says he, "that I long to revisit
places I have seen; there Is always so much still
to draw one on ; but that beautiful piece of stone,
sir, with all its associations, " — here he would
shake his head, and then continue with emo
tion, — "I have been there twice to see It, and I
feel I must stand beside it once more before I
die. Yes, sir, once more, and that shall be this
autumn ! "
He says we have planned too short a time for
Persia, and advises us to give up the trip, going
Instead to Babylon with him, then continuing
our trip up river to Nineveh, and across by cara
van to Aleppo; he says this is a much quicker
route to the Mediterranean. He has been to
Babylon and Bagdad before, and it would be a
treat to travel with him. He left last night for
Burmah, but we shall see him later at Bombay.
He, C  , was part way up the Yangtze
shortly after our friends had entered the Gorges
In their house-boat, en route for India, and told us
that he had heard some report of a disaster to
them because of high water; he said that Chi
nese bodies were floating down the river then, at
the rate of about twelve every three days. You

322 LETTERS OF
may Imagine our joy at receiving a letter to-day
from Purdy. The letter was posted at Chunk
ing on the Yangtze, after they had overcome
every peril, and had nothing before them, except
two thousand miles in sedan-chairs, on foot, or
on donkeys. They were both well, and expect
to reach Colombo the first week In January; so
you see reunion is imminent. Purdy adds that
Herve has grown a huge beard and looks very
fierce, but is not quite satisfied, for below a cer
tain line on his face the beard Is all black, while
above that line it is bright red.
From the captain and his friends we have re
ceived our club-introductions; one of them has
stored our luggage in his warehouse, another
drove us about the city, and with all we have
had pleasant and instructive chats, for all the
Dutch talk English You may be interested to
learn that not only has Germany stolen the
Chinese trade from England and ousted Eng
lish merchants from the interior of English col
onies, but even here In Java, most conservative
of all countries, they are the masters of the ex
port trade. All of the planters are Dutch and all
of the capitalists Chinese, but the big exporters
(excluding Enghsh tea) are German.
Our Consul has been very kind. Mr. T  ,

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 323
the Enghsh tea-man, has made arrangements for
us to visit the greatest plantation In Java, and
so we are to be Baron H  's guests at the
most Ideal place in this Ideal country, ten miles
from the nearest semblance of a neighbor.
Love to all, Gilbert.
BuiTENZORG, December 8, 1907.
Dear Mother, — We awoke on Wednesday
alongside the wharf at Tandjong Priok, Bata-
via's harbor, and about twenty minutes by train
brought us to the capital.
Batavia has had two names conferred upon
her by the English ; first they called her, " Queen
of the East," and secondly, "Grave of the
Dutch." The last name was well earned by a
few years of ravaging plagues, but she has now
outgrown the scandal, and he must be a sour
traveller who will dispute her title to the regal
honors she claims.
After the years of sickness which transpired
as a natural consequence of the fact that Old
Batavia was huddled together in the midst of a
swamp, a new city was built on higher ground.
All Europeans evacuated the lower town and
moved in a body to Weltevreden, as It Is called ;
so now Batavia has two distinct quarters.

324 LETTERS OF
The old city is a replica of the seventeenth
century Dutch Town — solid white buildings,
mason-work, canals, and Holland roofs; it is
used only for business purposes, and contains all
the banks. Important offices, and government
buildings, but no European would think of
sleeping there.
The new town, which is reached easily by a
steam train or a short drive along a fine broad
road bordered with native shops and houses, is
one huge park. Its streets are broad, white, and
hard, and in the centre of the main roads are
roomy canals. Along the roadside and canal-
edges are rows of trees, mountains of cool green
shade, any one of which would be a curiosity by
itself in a less luxuriant land. The houses are
white and low, open on all sides, and often one
can look through marble porticoes and cool, dark
rooms to the gardens behind. The larger houses
are like palaces, and the smallest are a tempt
ing glorification of love in a cottage. Without
exception they are set far back from the road,
under spreading trees, and the riotous foliage
that covers lawns and gardens Is hke a botanist's
dream. Even the stores are housed In white, low
buildings, with porches and easy chairs, and
each shop has a front lawn and driveway, some-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 325
times as roomy as grandfather's. The result of
all this space and greenery is that you do not
fancy yourself In a city, but rather driving past
a sociable group of charming country houses.
Everjnivhere you see evidences of the remark
able success with which the Dutchman has ac
commodated himself to the tropics, and espe
cially Is It noticeable in the clubs and hotels.
Batavia has two clubs, the Concordia, a civil
club, and the Harmonle, a military society.
Both have fine structures, with high-ceiled rooms
and marble floors, and are open on all sides,
through deep, pillared terraces, to large gardens.
At the Concordia, on Wednesday night, we sat
under a great warlngen tree for three hours,
and listened to the best military band of the
East, while all about us the steady citizens and
bemedalled officers sat quietly at tables with
their wives, and the children chased one another
between the slippery palm-trunks. I like the
Teutonic habit of admitting the whole family
to their clubs and cafes. The military is very
prominent here, and it is not a toy army, either,
for there is always fighting on Celebes, or Bah, or
in Achin over on Sumatra.
On each side of the new town Is a roomy open
plain, — Waterloo- Plein at the left as you enter

326 LETTERS OF
the town, and Koenigs- Plein at the right. On one
are the Concordia and the Government House,
on the other are the Governor's town palace and
the Museum, full of native curiosities and the
gold crowns and krisses of the native rulers,
treasures crested and overloaded with big uncut
jewels in Oriental lavlshness.
The Hotel des Indes is a fair type of the style
you meet with all over the Island, except that It is
the most comfortable of all. Usually, all that you
care to know about a hotel Is whether it is good
or bad, but the hotels of Netherlands India are
unlike those of any other land on earth ; they are
as distinctive as the Japanese Inns.
The Hotel des Indes covers as much ground
as an ordinary university in the States, and
within Its sacred precincts one finds a happy
wedding of Science and Art that would do credit
to any university; the science of right living in
the tropics, and the art of comfort. It Is a long
stroll from the gate to the low marble steps, and
the green lawn is dotted with trees, among them
two tremendous banyans, or a kind of banyan,
each a whole forest in itself; the circle of dense
shade they cast would measure a hundred paces
in diameter. The office, the reading-room, the
dining-room, and a marble out-of-doors sitting-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 327
room occupy the main building, and the bed
rooms are in a series of one-story wings that
radiate to the sides and back, making squares
and rectangles, connected by tiled loggias. The
rooms are stone-floored, white-walled, and lofty,
and the only hangings are the necessary mos
quito-netting on the bed ; you sleep without cov
erlet, and the whole interior gives and maintains
two impressions, clean and cool. On this tiled
porch that runs the length of each wing, just out
side each room-door is a table, a rocker, and an
easy-chair. Here the guests take morning coffee
and afternoon tea in sociable proximity; the men
in pyjamas, and the ladles In sarong and kabayas
on each occasion.
This unconventional costume has called forth
some comment among visitors of the type that
carries all its home prejudices to Ashantee land,
but It has nothing shocking about It, except that
it is unusual In colder climes, and, most shocking
of all, the only sensible thing to do here. A pair
of pyjamas covers a man as well as does a dress
suit, and a sarong is much more modest than a
ball-gown ; and what, prithee, is the objection to
a bare foot, if only it be a pretty one ?
Here a man lives two days for every one on
the calendar. At six or thereabouts the gende,

328 LETTERS OF
barefoot boy, who makes you his charge, ap
pears with coffee ; you emerge, having donned a
clean and unused suit of pyjamas, on the tiled
porch, and gaze upon a clean, green world cooled
by the overnight shower-damp, and glistening
under the rising sun. Coffee Is brought to you
cold In a bottle ! You pour a little into your cup
and fill to the brim with hot milk ; a rich caramel
beverage Is the result.
Then the world bathes ; not by wallowing In
a tub, but by standing in a little stone room, with
a shower in the ceiling, and ladling water over
itself with a dipper from a stone reservoir in the
corner. I always did like to splash water about.
Men put on coats for breakfast, but ladles use
the sarong until they dress at night for dinner.
The morning is day No. i a. In it you walk
or drive or transact business, and at twelve or
one, you Indulge in the rice-table — a variegated
meal heaped on a single plate of rice, very much
more pleasing to the palate than to eye or ear.
The rice-table ends day No. i a, and after it
Netherlands India goes to sleep.
Day No. i b commences at four o'clock, and
again you emerge on your porch, for tea this
time, to find a world full of hints of a cool even
ing breeze, and golden with the late sunlight.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 329
You bathe, and dress in European clothes, drive,
walk, or sit In a club or cafe to hear the music,
until nine o'clock, at which advanced hour you
dine, and dine well, at the Hotel des Indes.
Another feature which Batavia alone pos
sesses among Eastern colonies Is an excellent
group of cafes. They are built along the great
canal-road, the Noordwyjk, which is Batavia's
Broadway and Fifth Avenue combined, and
leads across town from one plain to the other.
The spacious front yards of these cafes are filled
with little tables, and there you may sit and sip
an ice or a long cool drink, and munch pastry
as delicate as Malllard's, and watch the flow of
social life and ordinary people's life along the
Noordwyjk, while the band plays, not "Annie
Rooney," as per old saw, but Strauss waltzes and
bits from the operas.
In Batavia there Is no newness or colonial
unfinishedness ; it Is as quaint and old-world as
Holland itself, and just as minutely complete.
The Dutch inhabitants, men, women, and chil
dren, are happy and loyal to the colony, prefer
ring not to return to Europe. Moreover, they
are prosperous even as the oft-mentioned bay-
tree, which, I believe, is said to have flourished,
and, thanks to their sensible custom of making

330 LETTERS OF
conventions suit the climate, they are healthy, —
healthy beyond the conception of the word at
Hong Kong, although Batavia Is some ten de
grees nearer to the Equator.
The natives of Java are of three distinct tribes,
although the mere physical differences, aside
from dress and language, are almost impercepti
ble at first. Malay, Soeudanese, and Javanese are
the accepted divisions, and around Batavia the
Malays predominate.
The men wear round velvet caps or battek tur
bans, loose trousers, or a sarong, which is simply
a long cloth wrapped about the body from the
waist down, and a thin jacket. The ladies —
or women, I suppose you would say — wear
the sarong folded above the breasts, and their
jackets are long, reaching almost to the knee in
some cases, buttoned across the breast, and open
from the waist down. Both men and women
affect bright colors, — canary yellow, scarlet,
deep shades and Intricate designs of brown and
purple, — so the green-walled, tree-arched road
way Is at all times a kaleidoscope of color. The
cloth used for the sarong is painted and waxed, a
native process known as battek-work, and some
times one sarong Is worth forty or fifty gold dol
lars, although the majority are of trifling value.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 331
The people themselves are brown and well
formed, with gentle features and large dark
eyes. They are very clean, and you can see them
at all hours splashing about In the canals ; they
keep their teeth remarkably white.
They are friendly but not at all demonstrative,
and the most noticeable thing about them is
their quietness ; there is never a noise in the most
crowded street. They gather by hundreds along
the roadside to listen to the cafe music in the
evening, but a blind man would never guess that
they were there. They make no sign, but quietly
listen and enjoy, and often In the daytime you
will hear a few bars of some European opera, and
discover a native boy whistling them at his work,
which shows that they listen well. Their voices
when they speak to a foreigner, or even to each
other, are as gentle as a girl's when she is trying
to make you think that she has never spoken
that way to any one else, and there is music in
the way they say "Sia," which means "Yes,

sir."

We were lucky enough to see the celebration
of Santa Claus Night on December 5th, and the
Noordwyjk was In a state of high carnival until
after midnight. Hundreds of natives watched
proceedings without comment, except when a

332 LETTERS OF
well-aimed shower of confetti drew from them
a little quiet laughter. The next day, however,
native children In the side-streets acted the
carnival over again, chasing one another about
with scanty handfuls of confetti, which they had
scraped up from the street. It was a little pitiful.
I don't know why, though, for they were having
a good time.
There are large numbers of Eurasians or half-
castes in Batavia, but their social position Is ex
actly what they choose to make It, and instead of
being outcasts, as they are in British India, the
highest positions are open to them. -Here, as in
other parts of the East, the Eurasians take most
readily to work of a clerical sort. Although the
Dutch policy has been to make the native beheve
that the white man is a superior being, and al
though natives are not allowed to marry white
women, or to wear European clothes without
either the turban or sarong as a badge of native
blood, and until very lately have not been allowed
to learn the Dutch language, — notwithstanding
these facts, the sharp line between the Orient
and Occident seems almost to disappear here,
and the races appear to be Intermingling with
excellent results.
The rickshaw is unknown here, and the com-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 333
mon mode of covering ground is in the sado
(dos a dos), a low dog-cart drawn by a rat of a
pony. The elite, however, use huge "my lords,"
drawn by great Australian horses, and there are
several big French motors in town.
The wonderful Chinaman has come here in
great numbers, and come to stay. He Is the Java
capitalist, and there Is one at Surabaya worth
1^15,000,000 gold. He dresses himself in Euro
pean clothes, and his wife In Paris gowns (and
very sweet she looks, too) ; he drives every even
ing along the Noordwyjk in the best turnout In
Batavia, and In some cases he drives his own
motor-car; his children are Oriental Buster
Browns, with bare knees, and he sends his
grown-up sons to Oxford and his daughters to a
Parisian convent. Some day I believe the China
man and the Anglo-Saxon will understand each
other, and share the world between them.
Love to all, Gilbert.
BuiTENZORG, December 8, 1907.
Dear Ones, — On Saturday, yesterday, we
came to Bogor, Buitenzorg, Sans-soucI, or Free-
from-care, as you may choose to call It. It Is about
eight hundred feet above Batavia, and can be
reached in an hour by express train. It Is Java's

334 LETTERS OF
hill-capital, for the Governor and his officials
have palaces here, where they live most of the
year. Our balcony overlooks a fertile valley, the
TjI-damI, with its river just below us. Native
houses, of white matting, line the banks and nestle
at the foot of tall cocoanut-palms. A broad
stretch of level country, rich with the most luxu
riant forms of tropic growth and the most de
lightful shades of green, reaches out towards the
horizon, and behind It all Is a towering blue
volcano — mighty Salak.
All day we can watch the life in the village
below. A continual tumbling In and out of the
swift river, it seems to be, varied with occasional
walks up the trunk of a palm tree after cocoa-
nuts. The feature at Buitenzorg is the Botanical
Garden, and in it we have spent most of our
time. It is the finest garden in the world, a fact
admitted by scientists and laymen alike. The
first striking feature Is an avenue of immense
kanaro trees that meet In a green arch, over a
hundred feet above the ground. Their trunks
are twined about, and. In some cases, completely
covered with vines and red-flowered creepers of
endless variety ; clumps of orchids spring from
every bole.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 335
Turning off this avenue, which leads the eye
down a straight aisle to the distant palace of the
Governor, you may wander at will through
stranger plants and trees than ever grew In fairy
land. One narrow path leads to the section
where giant creepers writhe from tree to tree;
one huge liana, that has half a score of warlngens
in Its coils. Is as big round as a man's body.
Then the palms, — cocoanut-palms, banana-
palms, areca-palms, little palms, big palms, palms
with leaves like plumes and leaves like swords
and leaves like elephant's ears ; palms with stems
like bamboos, stems like beeches, stems like
peeled wands, stems like pineapples, stems like
tennis-racket-handles, stems like bottles, stems
like almost everything you can think of, except
sewing-machines; screw palms, with their roots
above ground, looking as If they were trying to
dance on their toes, or walk in the mud without
wetting their feet, and Royal Brazilian palms,
a whole avenue of them, tall as church steeples.
Then the banks of the River Tjiliwang tempt
you to linger, and the ponds of water-plants and
Victoria Regia lilies, with pads large enough to
float a baby, offer you seats on their banks, but
the rose garden calls you and you cannot stay.
Before you have been half long enough in the

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rose garden, you must leave, because you have
not yet seen the orchids, among which, by the
way. Is one single plant that bears ten thousand
blossoms. There Is, moreover, a spacious section of for
est trees, dark glades, and aisles where strange
species from strange forests in the farthest
parts of the globe are gathered together, even as
the strange trees are met In the magic wood
of Spenser's "Faery Queen," a passage which
critics have laughed at as presenting no picture
to the mind, because it Is so Impossible.
Before the palace Is a broad green lawn, acres
of It, dotted with banyan trees that cast almost
half an acre's shade apiece. Some of them seem
to have no connection with the earth, but to be
great living canopies held aloft by prop after
prop ; for in some cases the main trunk has van
ished and the tree Is held aloft by the shoots and
secondary trunks that Its branches have sent
down Into the earth. Here, among the tangled
heaps of roots that seem to claim as much right
In the air as In the earth, herds of spotted deer
rest. In the shade, or follow each other In long
flying leaps across the open.
Trees and vines, fruits and flowers there are
by hundreds, whose forms were as unknown to

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 337
me as their names are, but among them were
many old friends, and some like the lotus and
the frangipani, the waxy-white, sacred bo-flower
of the Buddha, with its golden centre, were ac
quaintances we had made in China.
Tropical fruits are found here In Java in the
highest degree of excellence, but I really think
that we have more fruits In the temperate zone
that are delicious. The tropics have nothing to
console one for the loss of the apple, the pear,
the peach, and the plum at one fell blow. I think
that our oranges are much better than the Java
oranges. Bananas, however, are found here in
all their excellence. You can find them of every
size, from the "buffalo-horn banana," as long as
your forearm, to the pee-wee, no bigger than your
thumb ; you can find them of every color, from
pale green to deepest orange, and of every con
sistency, mealy, stringy, chewy, and smooth as
cream. There is such a multitude of fruits that
It would only confuse you to name them ; suffice
It to say of the common herd that they have, for
the most part, hard, spiny exteriors and small,
unsatisfying insides, which are packed away In
unlikely corners and are either too sweet or too
sour. Some Java fruits, however, deserve a word of

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praise or damnation all to themselves. First
there Is the jamboa, a pear-shaped, delicate thing,
shading. In the same fruit, from purest white to
tenderest pink; It almost makes your mouth
water to look at it, but as for taste, there Is not
the slightest. The ramhutan Is a red, prickly,
burry growth that discloses an ellipse of semi-
transparent white meat about the size of a date,
with a hard stone therein. It tastes like lemon-
jelly, and has a faculty of growing in your favor.
Every one In China spoke with such respect and
admiration ofthe mango that we quite looked for
ward to crossing the Equator, where it Is now in
season ; but lo ! the Java mango Is merely pleas
ant to the taste, and It is the Philippine mango
that they have in China during the summer
months. The mangosteen, however, makes up
for all the deficiencies of Its sister fruits. It is
a round, hard, purple fruit as large as an apple;
open it, and behold a snowy white cushion of five
or six sections fitting closely against the thick red
inner rind. It tastes vaguely of all the fruit sher
bets and scented Ices you have ever eaten, and
melts Into a tartly sweet juice as soon as you
close your mouth on it. Laugh if you like, but
let me hear you describe a peach.
The Dun aw — yes, a capital D — Is a prickly

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 339
fruit as big as your head. Its smell has been
likened to a mixture of the aromas of dead dog,
onions, aged eggs, and stale cheese, but this com
bination does not do justice to Its peculiar pene
tration. There are those who write poems to It,
call It darling Durian, and describe its meat as
a delicious, nutty custard, and there are those
who leave the table when it appears at the pantry
door. I do not commit myself, farther than to say
that I do not write poems to it, by any manner of
means. Of all the fruits thatwe have tasted here,
the one I like the best is our old acquaintance,
the pineapple. Java pineapples are the apothe
osis of that fruit ; they have the color of cream,
the odor of roses, and the consistency of butter,
and what is best of all, they grow wild by every
country roadside. Midday, December 14.
On Monday morning we left Buitenzorg at
sunrise and drove across the valley, between rice-
fields unending, towards the Gedeh, another
volcano of over eight thousand feet, which com
mands that quarter of the sky that Salak does
not occupy. Every possible Inch Is cultivated
in this little Island, with its thirty millions of
natives. Terrace after terrace rises up the hill-

340 LETTERS OF
side; some, acres in extent, others, a few feet
across, and everywhere the water of the flooded
fields runs over the terrace-wall to the lower
levels, in a hundred miniature Niagaras. It Is
always harvest-time and always seed-time here,
and next to a field of reapers we saw two buffa
loes dragging a plough, with a riny boy balanced
on the single handle. The buffaloes In Java are
gray or pinkish, and not so large as the mighty
blue-black carabaos of South China and For
mosa. Our road was straight and planted with pri
meval trees ; beside us ran a mossy stone wall ;
an older, more finished highway than Massachu
setts has to show.
Our driver was a Chinaman, and he kept the
three ponies, all hitched abreast, on a steady
scamper. At the foot of the spur of Gedeh that
our road crossed we added two more horses and
a foot-boy, and the road wound up so steeply
that Am. and I preferred to walk. For an hour
we climbed the broad, steep road through an
Ideal tropical jungle. Palms and forest monarchs
rising out of a tangle of green, only to mingle in
a riot of foliage above; every vista filled with
flowering streamers and writhing liana cords. A
wealth of orchids and commoner flowers of every

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 341
color, not on the ground alone, but everjrwhere,
even to the highest tree-tops; and against the
dark background flashed the living jewels that
make every clump of leaves In Java musical.
Two snakes only has It been our fortune to
see, one a yard long, green as grass ; the other a
living chain of rubies, but much smaller than
our green friend.
From the summit of the pass, Poontjak It is
called, we looked down upon a new regency, the
Preanger. New and larger ranges of mountains
greeted us, and the same terraced fields we had
left behind were at our feet. The Preanger is a
mountainous country, full of game, and famous
for the best tea and the prettiest girls In all Java,
More of the Preanger later on, when we have
visited the Baron at Sinagar,
From Poontjak, where there is a little lake
which completely changes its color from time to
time, so the natives say, we rattled down a steep
road, and an hour later drew up at the Sanato
rium Sindanglaya, a quiet, comfortable, pastoral
place, with beautiful views of the Gedeh and
several fantastic mountain ranges. The Gov
ernor has a quiet residence here.
Tuesday morning we again rose betimes,
whatever betimes may mean, and drove, still

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downhill, to the railway station, Tjandjoer,
where we caught the through express towards
Surabaya and the uttermost ends of the earth.
The scenery through the Preanger Is varied and
beautiful, especially the fertile, mountain-en
closed plain into which we peered as we rushed
along a lofty hillside. A little time after noon
we descended from the hills, and all the rest
of the day we travelled through a gloomy
jungle-swamp, where the tiger and rhinoceros
and python lived in grumpy majesty, until the
railroad drove them Into still deeper recesses.
Towards evening we reached Maos and all
alighted for the night, as the excellent Java trains
do not run at night. We found a government
hotel here, a big marble-porched pasangrahan,
where we lived In luxury overnight for the mod
est stipend of four florins, about a dollar and
sixty cents. The host was a young Dutchman,
very fond of hunting, and he told us that so far
this year he has bagged one banteng or wild buf
falo, — an animal more dangerous than the riger,
— eight stags, twelve deer, and sixty wild pigs.
His hunting-ground Is within half an hour of the
hotel. A few months ago, a friend of his came
from Europe to get a Javanese rhinoceros, which
is reputed very rare, but after six weeks In the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 343
country, he bagged an excellent specimen of the
ferocious one-horned type.
At six on Wednesday our train continued. We
travel second-class here, and find that every one
who lives here does the same, unless he Is travel
ling at the government expense. The road-beds
are good, the cars very comfortable, and the trains
run a little ahead of schedule time. At shortly
before ten we reached Djokjokarta, capital of
the largest of the protected Native States.
Love to all, Gilbert.
Djokjokarta,
Monday, December i8, 1907.
Dear Famille, — At Buitenzorg and In the
Preanger we saw the Soeudanese people, about
whom I will write you later when we return to
their district, but from Maos on, we have been in
the Java of the real Javanese. Djokja, as this
place Is called, is the centre of real Javanese life,
and we have certainly enjoyed our visit here.
The city Is a beautiful one, with avenues
shaded by the immense trees that are such a fea
ture of every town on the Island. Most of the
three hundred foreign inhabitants live on the
main streets, where the hotels and government
buildings are gathered, leaving the rest of the

344 LETTERS OF
town an untouched native capital. Towards the
end ofthe broad central avenue Is an open square
with tiled roofs, where the native market is held
every morning, and all of the luxuries and neces
sities of native life may be seen, piled in loose
heaps on every hand. You, mother, would ruin
yourself buying big copper-trays and jars, I know
full well. Beyond this market is a small park and
the barracks, and just across the road the roomy
house of the President hides at the back of a
garden, which Is filled with carved gods taken
from the neighboring ruins. The avenue ends
shortly beyond, at a wide-open gate leading Into
the kraton, or enclosure of the Sultan, "Regent
of this world and Vice- Regent of the Almighty."
The kraton is a very large affair, and within
its walls lives almost a quarter of the population
of Djokja. The stranger Is free to wander every
where within the enclosure, except Into the pal
ace of the Sultan, which occupies the centre.
Just after entering the main gate, a large square
lies before one, the aloen-aloen, with warlngen
trees in the centre clipped to represent the state
umbrella. Other smaller squares beyond contain
the leopards and the elephants of his majesty.
The stock sight of Djokja Is the Tamansari or
Water-Castle, built in the last century, and now

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 345
in picturesque, jungle-grown ruins; but the real
sights of Djokja are the streets, and all that in
them is.
The little cafe on the main avenue Is a splen
did vantage-point, and we have made it our wont
to sit there In the late afternoon, after the daily
rain. The great part of the crowd Is Javanese, but
there is also a plentiful sprinkling of Chinese,
who are the merchants, and Arabs, who are the
money-lenders ofthe Island. The Javanese wear
their sarongs very long in front, so that they
have to be held with one hand sometimes, and
the elaborate pleats and folds show the rank of
the wearer, as does the kris, which all, except the
lowest coolies, wear thrust through the girdle at
the back. Some of these krisses are of elaborate
workmanship, in scabbards of precious metal.
The turban Is folded tighter than is the custom
among the Soeudanese, and the contour Is very
different. Some of the men wear the hair long,
with a circle comb and knot behind.
When a gentleman or small official walks
abroad, he is followed by a servant bearing a
state umbrella, the size and color of which tell
plainly the man's rank and station; and when an
official of prominence, or a prince, drives down

346 LETTERS OF
the avenue, there is much galloping about and
commotion of liveried servants.
Although by this time we are accustomed to
the most startling native deshabille, which, by the
way, is much less frequent among grown people
here than It Is In China and Japan, It Is never
theless startling to sit on the piazza of a minia
ture Parisian cafe and see a graceful, slender girl
of ten standing on the curb, with her bronzed
arms stretched behind her head, and no pre
tence of clothing beyond a silver anklet. Her
brothers dodge automobiles, themselves in the
same state of unencumbered activity as little
sister. The Javanese seem to me the darkest-skinned,
the gravest, and the most refined in feature of the
island races, but they are not so good-looking as
the Soeudanese. They wear sober colors, dark
blues and browns, and only the wealthy slip their
bare feet into sandals. You can never catch a
Javanese man without his turban. Indoors or out,
unless you surprise him dressing or bathing; if
he wears a hat, it is over the turban.
The women carry their babies slung by a
cloth astride their hips, and most of the fair ones
have a large chunk of betel-nut tucked away In
their cheeks. A great variety of life goes on

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 347
along the curb, where sellers of sweet drinks and
pastries vend their wares from group to group,
or a jewelled dancing-girl gives her dramatic
sing-song on a tiny square of carpet in the street.
It Is a strange sight to see the servants of a
native chief approach him, as he stands talking
to a friend. Within a certain radius the servant
may not stand, so down he squats on his heels
and waddles up to the Presence, and when he
speaks to his master, it Is with joined finger
tips raised to the forehead. The dodok and sem-
bah, these measures of respect are called.
Driving In the country near here is best In the
early morning, but pleasant always. In spite of
the daily rains, the roads remain smooth and
rutless. We have driven through countless rice-
fields and kampongs, with an ever-changing
series of buffaloes, babies, country passers, and
out-of-door theatres. There Is a strange long-
necked bird that haunts these rice-fields. It has
a black body, yellow head, and a curved, snaky
bill. The hens In the road are the largest hens in
the world, and look like young ostriches. As our
carriage rolls by a group of natives, off come
their sun-hats, and down on their heels they
squat until we have gone by.
For the last three days we have been at the

348 LETTERS OF
ruins of Barabudur near here, and I have written
a separate account of the temple, as It seems too
serious a subject to be treated along with the
other tattle of an ordinary letter. If the style of
the account seems rather pedantic and labored,
it Is because I dreaded to be flippant In such sur
roundings. Captain Erb, who has charge of the govern
ment work going on there, was kind enough to
let me see the photographs of the sculptures,
burled under the first terrace, which photographs
are inaccessible to the general public; and he
also showed me photographs of the Ceylon
temples, which formed an excellent comparison,
as they treated the same subjects. He also gave
me a great deal of general information. Aside
from a few facts gleaned from three travellers'
accounts of the temple, I got all my information
about the explanation of different groups from
Dr. Groneman's treatise on the Tyandl Bara
budur. I was able to buy some excellent pictures from
the government photographer here In Djokja,
but they do not Include the reliefs I should most
like to have, and I could not find a single view of
any of the giant volcanoes round about, whose
beauty it is Impossible to exaggerate. They are

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 349
as detached as Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier on the
coast, and you have the full advantage of their
height from a little above sea-level. Merbaboe Is
like a great arrowhead, and Soenbing, 10,464
feet high. Is not a second Fuji, but a duplicated
Fuji, with an ever-changing foreground of palm
groves, villages, rivers, and flooded fields, as you
change your point of view. I shall send you the
photographs I have from Batavia, where I can
get cardboard wrappers. Please read the arti
cles In connection with them and save them, as I
intend to have them framed in groups. Having
seen the originals, I suppose they call up much
more to me than they will to you, but I am de
lighted to have them.
Near Barabudur are two smaller temples.
There are several other groups of Buddhist and
Brahman ruins near here, one comprising a
thousand separate small temples. On the pla
teau of Dieng, which Is itself compared to our
Yellowstone and Yosemite combined, there are
the remains of a holy city, and several fine moun
tain villages; this plateau is only seven hours
from here on horseback, and Its floor Is over five
thousand feet above the sea, but duty — or Its
substitute, our schedule — calls us, and we leave
on the return trip to-morrow.

350 LETTERS OF
To-morrow night we shall return farther than
Maos, stopping at Bandoeng in the Preanger,
and Wednesday (day after to-morrow) we shall
dismount at Tjibadae and drive to Sinagar, the
finest tea-plantation on the island, where Baron
Von H  has Invited us to visit him for a
day or so. Then Batavia, Singapore, and Co
lombo. I have not attempted to tell you half that could
be told about the temple. I simply want you to
know how it looks, a little of what It means, and
how it impressed me. As we are going to see the
ruins of Ceylon and some of the great temples
of Southern India which rival the Barabudur, it
will be interesting to compare my Impressions,
so I will write up each great temple separately In
this form, if it seems feasible after I have seen
them. Although this Is the rainy season, we are hav
ing beautiful weather, with a heavy shower for a
few moments every afternoon. We take things
easily, and I have not once been so hot as we
were all summer in Japan, or are usually on the
road between the Lake and Roscommon. There
is generally a cool breeze, and at Sindanglaya the
thermometer dropped to 60 degrees at five In the
afternoon. It seems strange, though, in this land

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 351
of palms and orchids and heavy fragrances, to
think of father slipping home from the office with
sleet blowing in his face, and Pamela snow-
buried at Briarcliff, as she was one time last year
when I visited her. Although it Is December, It
still seems last summer to me, and when I reach
home, I shall never know I 've missed a year, but
go right on where I left off last July.
If, father, you would like to have my opinion
on the Chinese, who are still with us and will be
until we strike British India, I think that they
are the most wonderful, most attractive, most
puzzling, most unapproachable, and all round
best race of the world, except our own. Come
over in May, meet me at either Constantinople,
Rome, or Hamburg, and we will take the Sibe
rian railway to Pekin, have a month there
roundabouts, and return home via Korea, reach
ing there (home) in August. It may not be wise
or prudent, but I will guarantee you more fun,
pleasure, and instruction than you ever had in
three months before, and also that you will not
regret it. Be a sport, come ahead; my letter
of credit is at your disposal, If you want to buy
tons of Chinese mandarin coats for mother. It
would be as cheap as Europe, except for the
Pacific passage, and we should take a Jap boat.

352 LETTERS OF
It Is the only chance of our lives to go on a big
spree together, and we could devour dozens of
works on the train going across about Man
churia, where we could stay with my friend
S  at Mukden, and altogether conquer China
in the north. I have decided that after America,
China is the one country In which I had rather
live, work, or study. (Cf. my first Shanghai let
ters.) If Pekin does n't strike you, come any
way In May, and I will lead you into trouble in
some other quarter of the globe. Bring a tooth
brush and pyjamas, nothing else (except a dress
suit for Pekin and Mr. R  's dinners, or Sir
R  H  's). I will send all my baggage
home except two hand-pieces, and then we shall
be free to go any place we have money enough
to buy a ticket to. Come, be reckless, for once.
Pater. As I go on, I am less and less content with the
superficial knowledge I have of the history of the
places we visit, and the knowledge I can cook up
with the books at hand. I almost dread to go to
Greece and Italy, without a few more years of
special preparation ; I should like to have all the
myths and heroes and battles of classic history
under perfect command when I go there to spend

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 353
any time. For Asia Minor or Egypt I am a little
better prepared, as I read largely about them last
spring. Lots of love to every one at home.
Gilbert.

354 LETTERS OF

THE RUINS OF BARABUDUR
Once upon a time there was a smooth, green
hill that rose in perfect proportions from a tiny
plateau on another larger hill, which. In turn,
lifted gently from a sea of waving palm-fronds
and billows of Kamari foliage.
All this was a hundred years ago In the Dutch
colony of Java ; then the Dutch colony became
English for a time, — not a long time, but long
enough to enable Sir Stamford Raffles and his
men, who were prying about with un-Teutonic
haste and energy, to scratch a bit of earth from
the sides of this perfect green hill and reveal,
to the wonder of all men, a mighty ancient temple
of the Buddha ; the most perfect monument that
Buddhistic art has given to the world.
There are ruins that cover more ground, and
the great Khuner monument In Cambodia, the
Angkor Vhat, Is more imposing from a distance,
but In its purity and unity of design, in its wealth
of detail and the finished execution of Its miles
of sculpture, Barabudur stands alone In all the
world. Fifty years and more of research and compara
tive study of the temple have established the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 355
fact that It was built about the tenth century of
the Christian Era, and completed just before
Buddhism, the religion of the intellect and
peace, was stamped out by Mohammedan con
querors, who preached a religion of blood and
war and all the fiercer passions. It was the final
production of the Hindu civilization, which was
higher and wealthier than any civilization that
the Island has since seen; and, after Its fall, the
temple silted over slowly, or, some say, was cov
ered by the faithful for protection, and even the
natives In the village at the foot of the hill forgot
that the Barabudur had ever been anything other
than a smooth green mound.
The ruin stands in the centre of the old king
dom of Mataram, now the protected Sultanate of
Djokjokarta. To reach it one rides for almost
two days on the railroad down the centre of the
island, from Batavia, the capital, to the city of
Djokjokarta. From there, the pleasantest way
to accomplish the remaining sixteen miles is by a
carriage, drawn by four Java ponies, who race
along the well-shaded roads, biting at each other
and giving now and then a tentative kick in the
direction of the foot-boy, who cracks his whip as
he runs beside them.
For three hours you drive between rows of

356 LETTERS OF
fine old trees, through villages of mat-houses,
through native markets (fassars), bright with
fruit and flowers and gay colors, with glimpses
of broad padl-fields and green hills cultivated to
the top, and finally you skirt the base of the hill
you have come to find, and a last dash of your
ponies, shouted at and cracked at by your coach
man and foot-boy, lands you on the tiny plateau
at the door of a comfortable rest-house, within
a lame bird's flutter of the Barabudur, the House
of Many Buddhas.
The first sight of the Barabudur Is disappoint -
Ing ; but It Is with all things as It Is with friends,
the best and greatest are those that reserve
hidden beauties for a closer acquaintance. This
ruin first presents Itself as a heavy mass, a chaos
of cold stone, streaked with gray and black. Some
one has called it the photograph of a building,
and a wag likened It to an old stove In which the
fire has long since died ; which latter description
may seem funny to some people, but Is not true.
Let the newly-arrived traveller crack all his
jokes and talk about his stoves and photographs
and tell the old Mynheer, who luckily does not
understand English, how much bigger buildings
he has seen at home, and then let him sit himself
down in a comfortable chair in the rest-house

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 357
portico — and look. Let him look lazily through
the sleepy haze of the early afternoon heat, and
through the shifting veil of rain that follows, and
he will see this chaos of broken stones resolve
Itself into a massive temple rising terrace upon
terrace and gallery above gallery to the giant
dagoba that crowns it all. He will seethe jagged
spires and cones that break the sky line range
themselves Into orderly rows, and he will see
long tiers of Buddhas smiling in their temple
niches. On the day of our arrival the rain lasted far
into the evening, and after dark we sat look
ing out where the ruin had been. Now and
again the lightning would flash It in lines of fire,
perfectly restored, on the dark background; a
striking contrast of light and shade, dark gal
leries and arches, wide-mouthed monsters and
Buddhas deep in meditation, that no storm could
disturb. A rose-colored palace rising, complete
In all details, out of the night, only to fade before
the eye could grasp it.
The base of the pyramid is thirty-six-sided,
that is, a square with two rectangular projections
on each face. The first terrace, as the ruin now
stands, is a broad open platform about ten feet
above the ground. The inner wall ofthe terrace.

358 LETTERS OF
however, rises above the level of the second gal
lery and forms a parapet for It, twice higher than
a man's head; the Innerwallsof the second, third,
fourth, and fifth terraces, in like manner, rise to
form a parapet for the terrace above them. The
sixth terrace forms the top of the square pyramid
and has only a parapet, no inner wall; from it
rise three circular terraces bearing seventy-two
dagobas of stone lattice-work, each one over five
feet high. In the centre of the topmost circle
rises the great single dagoba of solid stone, a
closed bell thirty feet high. In the centre a
straight stairway, guarded by lions and monsters,
leads through ornamental gateways to the sum
mit of the central dagoba.
Nine terraces, then, there are In all. The first,
an open platform ; the next four, narrow canons
with walls of sculptured stone open only to the
sky ; the sixth, hidden from the world by a high
parapet and open only to the zenith ; the seventh,
eighth, and ninth, circular in form and open on
all sides ; and above all the great closed dagoba,
the secret, sacred place.
The mornings in Java are always the pleasant
est part of the day, and early In the morning we
chmbed the ruin for the first time, up the damp
stone stairs to the tipmost top, one hundred and

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 359
twenty feet above the hill. At our feet lay great
masses of foliage and acres of close-huddled
cocoanut-palms, sending forth glittering lances
of white light from their hard, polished leaves ;
flooded padl-fields mirrored the lines of spindle-
stemmed palm trees that march along their
boundaries, and the broad valley-floor was cheq
uered with every shade of green by the young
rice, the growing rice, and the yellowed crop of
ripened grain, which flourish side by side In this
eternal summer. Hill ranges rose In a circle about
the level basin, and behind them towered the blue
cones of nine volcanoes; Soembing, symmetri
cal as Fuji, Merapl, with a wisp of cloud trail
ing from its crater, and Merababoe, each rising
perfect and alone, a thousand feet above us.
The morning sounds of the village drifted up
through the trees, roosters' crowing and chil
dren's laughter, and a great flood of light poured
over the eastern hills. All of the temple Buddhas
had their backs to us and their faces to the glory
of the morning. This was the three hundred
and sixty-thousandth odd morning since first they
had looked out over the valley, yet a million
mornings are as a flash of time to the dwellers
in the House of Many Buddhas, for here Is Nir
vana, which Is Everlasting Rest.

36o LETTERS OF
There is a great work of restoration going on
here at present, under the enthusiastic direction
of Captain Erb. Fragments are carefully studied
and replaced in their original positions; the
old drainage system is being repaired, and weak
spots rebuilt with the old material.
Some years ago It was discovered that what Is
now the first terrace is not part of the original
design, and when a portion of this stone plat
form was removed, a series of one hundred and
sixty beautiful sculptures around the real base
was revealed in a perfect state of preservation.
Some of these sculptures were unfinished, which
proved the fact, until then only a theory, that all
of the carving on this remarkable temple was
made after the structure was completed. It is
supposed that, while the artists were still at work
on the base, they discovered that the foundations
were insufficient for so great a mass; so they
carefully packed the finished bas-reliefs with
earth, and added the stone platform, which Is now
the first terrace. To leave these reliefs exposed
would have endangered the life of the struc
ture, so they were carefully photographed and
re-buried beneath tons of stone. They portray
scenes of the common life of the times, hunting,
love-making, dancing, with a few torments of

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 361
hell thrown in, to give the series a religious flavor ;
but no connected meaning has as yet been dis
covered in them.
The inner wall of the first terrace has a high
sloping base of ornamental curves; above this
runs a single line of bas-rehefs; and above the
bas-reliefs Is a tier of arched niches, little open
temples, flanked and surmounted by solid stone
dagobas, and In each niche sits a life-sized
Buddha, and the back of this Buddha-tier forms
the parapet of the gallery above. The outer and
Inner walls of each successive gallery are cov
ered with a double row of bas-reliefs, and each
inner wall is surmounted by a tier of arches like
that on the wall of the first terrace, so that five
rows of Buddhas on each side rise, one above
the other's head; four hundred and thirty-two
Images of the Lord In all.
On the three open terraces above, which bear
the dagobas of stone lattice-work, are seventy-
two more Buddha images, screened off from the
world, but open to the four winds of heaven;
and lastly, in the great closed dagoba above all,
walled in by twenty feet of solid stone, was found
a solitary Buddha, of the same size and posture
as the others, but unfinished, although the sur
rounding dagoba was perfectly complete.

362 LETTERS OF
There have been many theories advanced
about this unfinished Buddha, from the most
complicated and hair-splitting deductions to the
absurdly simple one that perhaps the builders
thought It useless to finish a figure that was never
intended to be seen. There are as many theories
about the other Buddhas, general opinion decid
ing that they are the five DhyanI Buddhas, ofthe
Mahayana or Northern Buddhist church; the
saviours of three long vanished worlds, this pre
sent world, and a fifth world still to come; and
that the unfinished figure Is AdI-Buddha, — the
Ur-Buddha or Father Buddha, from whom the
DhyanI Buddhas all came, and into whom they
will all return.
But this theory finds contradiction In many
Internal^evidences in the temple, and the simplest
and most reasonable one seems to me to be that
of Dr. Groneman. He divides the Buddhas Into
three groups: (i) those of the open arch-temples ;
(2) those of the stone-latticed dagobas ; and (3)
the unfinished Buddha of the great dagoba.
The Buddhas of group one, who ornament the
first four tiers, differ slightly in the position of
the hands, according to the point of the compass
that they face. The Buddhas of the fifth tier,
who look out upon the zenith, are all identical.

GILBE3RT LITTLE STARK 363
but differ in the position of their hands from all
those of the tiers below. Dr. Groneman believes
that all of these figures are of the same Buddha,
Amitabha, the Saviour of this world, known to
us as Gautama or Sakya-muni, and that the five
positions of the hands show his dominion over
the four quarters ofthe globe and the sky above,
to typify which he took five steps in each direc
tion named, just after he sprang from Maya's
side In the grove Lumbini.
The figures of the lattice-work dagobas are
Images of the same Buddha, but show him re
moved from this world and Its affairs. In a state
of heavenly meditation. These Buddhas show a
sixth position of the hands.
The final Buddha of group three Is still the
same Gautama, in a state of pari-Nirvana per
fection, infinite non-existence, the goal of life.
If the figure Is Intended to portray this exalted
state of being or non-being, It is no wonder that
the artist felt his limitations and the profanity of
any conception he could conjure up, and left the
work Incomplete.
The great glory of the Barabudur, however, is
its bas-reliefs, which cover every available surface
of the mighty pile, — over two thousand separate
groups, of a perfection of finish that makes the

364 LETTERS OF
art of Ceylon's buried cities look like the work
of children. Since Mrs. Carrie Nation informed
the world that the saloons of a certain section of
our noble country. If placed side by side, would
reach from New York to Chicago, the formation
of fictitious lines has been a popular form of giv
ing an idea of great numbers of any object. An
imaginary line has been formed of these care
fully executed bas-reliefs, and we are assured
that it would stretch for three miles !
There is plenty to Interest even the amateur
for days in the endless picture galleries of the
five stone valleys In the temple's sides, as I found
after three days' experience; and after he has
once seen the outlook from the top platform, he
will never think of leaving the ruin after a morn
ing spent there, without climbing up for another
glimpse of the blue circle of volcanoes, gathering
their clouds about them, and the smiling valley-
floor beneath. Truly, I think that this view is one
of the world's fairest.
Many of the groups are interesting In them
selves, without the least understanding of their
real meaning. There are some that are funny : a
monkey teasing a bull, and an elephant imitat
ing a dancing-girl; and there are plenty that are
beautiful, according to the same rules that Greek

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 365
Art Is judged by. You will find purity of outline,
exquisite modelling, free natural poses, and
graceful proportions. Jewelled princesses among
their ladles, lovers reclining beneath palms, wise
men talking to their disciples in the shade of the
sacred bo-tree, gorgeous pageants with elephants
and chariots, sword-bearers and dancing-girls,
follow each other up and down the passages ; and
when you see them so full of life and beauty, it Is
hard to realize that not only the men that fash
ioned them, but the civilization they portray has
passed away as though it had never been.
Interesting as single groups may be, as simple
works of art, there is a deeper interest in read
ing through whole series a connected story, and
learning what they meant to the pilgrim of a
thousand years ago. Here you will find all the
fabled former lives of Buddha, before he was
Gautama. How the Lord was once a turtle, and, perceiv
ing a ship about to sink, surrounded by hungry
sharks, saved the passengers upon his back, car
ried them to a desert island, and there offered
them his own body for food.
How the Lord was once the king of a tribe of
monkeys that lived in a great fig tree. The tree
was attacked, and there was no escape except

366 LETTERS OF
across a deep cleft, which none but the Lord
could jump. He reaches the mountain-side
safely and finds there a long bamboo ; out of this
^nd his own back he forms a bridge across which
the monkeys all escape. But the Lord is faint
from loss of blood, being badly tom by the mon
keys' feet, and falls Into the hands of his enemies,
the hunters. They have watched the scene with
great astonishment and nurse him tenderly, and
to their questions he replies that it is a prince's
duty to serve, and not be served by his subjects.
Best of all, however. Is the series on the inner
wall of the second terrace, — the series that tells
the tale of Buddha's life, from birth to death.
Around the whole terrace runs the story of his
sufferings as the Saviour of the world, and his
achievements at the end. You see his miraculous
birth, the adoration of the wise men, the trial of
the bow, the first sight of the sufferings of the
world, as he rides past the beggar by the city gate.
Then comes his resolve to give his life to man
kind; the long discussion with the disappointed
king, his father, which lasts so far into the night
that all the guards about the palace fall asleep ;
the parting from his wives ; and his escape on the
magic sun-horse, in spite of locked gates and
armed guards. Many of the Incidents next por-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 367
trayed resemble incidents in the life of Christ,
although Buddha lived four hundred years b. c,
and Incidents in the life of the Hindu Vishnu as
well. He is seen seated on a lotus cushion in
structing the Brahman teachers, although he Is
but a youth. He goes Into the wilderness to fast
and meditate, and then he Is tempted of the
Devil, "with the aid of his daughters the Rosy
Morning Mists." He is followed by disciples,
who leave their homes and the religion of their
fathers for him, and finally he becomes a wise,
loved teacher, dying in the midst of friends. His
life lacks only the crowning glory of the Cross to
make It a close counterpart of our highest ideal.
There is almost nothing to detract from one's
romantic enjoyment ofthe Barabudur. It stands
In the open country in the midst of farm-life
which is much the same to-day as it was when
the temple was built ; there are no guides about,
no curio-shops, no tickets to buy, no fees to gate
keepers, and you are free to wander over the
whole pile at will, at any hour of day or night.
Of course there are many broken arches and
parapets, some of the reliefs are cracked and
broken, the floors sag, and some of the Buddhas
are headless or armless, and some have vanished
altogether; but in studying the perfection that

368 LETTERS OF
remains, you notice only the ruined condition in
a subconscious feeling of awe and reverence and
mighty age.
It must have been an epoch in the life of every
devout pilgrim to climb this hill and walk past
the carved groups, every one of which spoke to
him a living truth. And when, saddened by the
sufferings of his Lord's life, he turned away won
dering, "To what end; to what end?" which
ever way he turned his eyes, there was one of
the five hundred Master Images, to answer him
with Its eternal smile: "Peace, Rest, Peace!"
So that, finally, when he emerged on the upper
platforms among the Heavenly Buddhas, with
the glorious view of the world before him, and
the Unseen Presence of the closed dagoba close
at hand, he must have been In just the frame of
mind to receive all that was best of this great
teacher's cult.
For it is a great cult, and Buddha was a very
great teacher. One cannot spend even one
thoughtful hour on the ruins, without feeling that
this slender-waisted, smiling man, who sits cross-
legged on a lotus-flower, Is no mere stone con
ventionality, but a living force to-day; for he
taught to the East the same principles of Love
and Peace and Tolerance that Christ taught us

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 369
In the West, and those who believe In him to-day
are more In number than the followers of any
other religion on earth.
One day, while I was on the spot, there came
a party of tourists to the Barabudur, rejoicing
in the fact that they were doing the polite un
usual. They sprang from their carriage with,
"Oh, there it Is ! " and were off at a dash. They
climbed the ruin as though It were a mountain,
and eternal salvation awaited the first to reach
the top. They had left Djokja after breakfast,
had done another ruin on the way out, and
were back to Djokja in time for tiffin ; a thirty-
four-mile drive, with a couple of old temples
on the side. Off they drove, happy that they had
added one more object to the list of things, on
which they could now discourse exhaustively and
finally, "from personal experience, my dear!"
for the rest of their lives.
The old Mynheer shook his head with a know
ing smile as they whirled away, and "Pouf !" he
said with a shrug, as he clapped to the ledger in
which they had just inscribed their names. The
old Mynheer can talk no English, but his remarks
are always brief and to the point. "Pouf!"
How the dust flew as he banged the ledger
covers together!

370 LETTERS OF
On the last night there was a moon, and under
it the ruin loomed mightier than ever against the
sky. Not a dead relic, but a living symbol; and
now, after having seen them, there Is always
about the ruin the presence of the kings and
princes, warriors, maidens, the spreading trees,
the tangled flowers, the wise elephants and forest
creatures that live in Its long silent halls. Like
Keats 's sculptured urn, they "tease us out of
thought as doth eternity."
Somewhere, some one was playing the game-
Ian and another was singing an endless, plaintive
song. Perhaps It was the village-singer, rehears
ing the past glories of the Sultans to a quiet
audience beneath the palms at the hill's foot,
behind the ruin, and perhaps — who knows ?
— it was the music of the Rosy Morning Mists
In the second gallery, who have been tempting
Buddha with their beauty and their songs for
the last thousand years.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 371
Mandalay, January 4, 1908.
Dear Ones, — From Djokjokarta we de
parted at the hour of seven on Monday morning,
and after riding all day through a tangle of jun
gle, with palm-leaf huts buried here and there
In the reeking wilderness of green, we climbed
again into the Preanger country and left behind
us the ancient kingdom of Mataram and the
quiet, sober Javanese peasants.
We spent the night in comfort, nay luxury, at
an excellent hostelry in the provincial capital of
Bandoeng, a flourishing, attractive city of green
lawns and arching aisles of waringens.
I don't think that I have given you In my let
ters a full sense of the excellent accommodation
which the Island hotels furnish. Your room is
always on the first floor, and to reach It there
is no crowded office to pass through, but you
step right from a garden to your marble terrace,
or the tiled porch on which your room opens.
Many a dreamy siesta have we spent on these
verandahs, with the blazing world beyond our
cool, shadowed retreat, panting for the daily flood
that never fails to come ; and many a quiet even
ing have we sat in our easy chairs, after our late
dinner, and looked out upon the beauty and mys-

372 LETTERS OF
tery of a tropic night through clouds of delicate
tobacco smoke, with all the strange night noises
filling our ears, and the swift flash of a lizard
crossing the white streak of light on the stone
floor beside us.
Good food, unfalling.courtesy, and quiet, bare
foot service complete the charm of the Javanese
country hotel.
Tuesday morning we took train again, still
towards Batavia, and climbed higher and higher
Into the mountains, past many prosperous towns.
The contrast between the Javanese and Soeu
danese people is very marked Indeed. These
mountaineers, with their light skins and fre
quently rosy cheeks, their pleasant laughter and
chaffing, their picturesque turbans with long
streamers down the back, their pinks and greens
and purples, are of different clay from their low
land cousins. The Soeudanese sarong is not a
square of cloth folded about the body hke the
Javanese sarong ; it Is a bag-like skirt, and often
it Is worn over one shoulder and under the other
arm, like the Scotch tartan.
Early in the afternoon we dismounted at a
small station called Tjibadak, and there found a
carriage, with big Australian horses and a foot
man, waiting for us. We piled our luggage Into a

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 373
near-by sado, and as no one else appeared to
claim the carriage, we trusted to luck that the
Baron had sent It for us and so jumped in and
rolled off, leaving quite a crowd of villagers gaz
ing after our departing glory.
The drive to Sinagar took about an hour, and
for the latter half of the time we drove through
broad fields of tea-shrubs. A last dash down a
shady avenue brought us to the Baron's steps,
and we dismounted to meet a warm greeting
from our host, under the inspection of a gor
geous peacock, perched on the railings, and a
cage of Austrahan wallabies near-by.
I did Intend to write Sinagar up for you in de
tail, but I have decided that I will keep that for
reserve material after I reach home. Suffice It to
say that the place Is ideal: gardens and lawns
surround the group of porch-connected buildings
which make the residence; rare birds of all
shapes and colors fill the aviaries in the big court
yard ; beyond the rose garden is an open stone
swimming-pool, bordered with a mass of palms
and polnsettias. The feature of the house Itself
is a great hall, at one end of which the meals are
served. This hall is decorated with heads, ant
lers, python skins, savage spears and weapons
from Borneo and Bali, tables of elephant skulls.

374 LETTERS OF
and innumerable trophies of the master's skill.
Four elephants, five tigers, seven rhinoceroses,
eighteen wild bulls, and many deer, leopards, and
wild boar, have fallen to his gun, which the na
tives regard with awe, and address by an honor
able title. In the stables are Arab and Australian
horses (at one time as many as ninety), from
which we took our pick for the morning ride over
the endless acres of tea. There Is also a pond for
wild duck and waterfowl.
The plantation lies at a trifle over two thou
sand feet in altitude, so it Is cool and pleasant,
both day and night. On its several thousand
acres live three thousand people, over whom the
Baron rules as absolutely as a native prince.
They give to him the same reverence and sa
laams that they would give to a native ruler, and
In return he Is a father to the whole community,
settling all disputes, even to the most Intimate
and religious questions. He pays them well,
cares for them when they are ill or in trouble,
and even goes to great expense to amuse them,
maintaining a troupe of native dancers and play
ers to perform In the litde villages scattered over
the place. At his house is a big phonograph;
while in a corner of the factory Is a fine bio-
graph .machine, which he brought back from

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 375
Europe two years ago. The native houses are as
neat and clean as our farmers' houses at home.
White basket-weave Is the material, and some
have bamboo verandahs and neat cloth curtains
at the windows, and all are half buried in flowers
and vines.
Sinagar is eighty years old, and Its first master
introduced tea-culture Into Java. They are still
picking from the first plants on the Island, vet
erans of eighty years. We went through the fac
tory several times, and rode over the plantation
with Von H  , so we have a complete know
ledge of tea-culture and manufacture, from plant
ing to packing. One million pounds and over of
tea are exported every year from Sinagar, one
twenty-fifth of the production of Java.
We left Sinagar early on Friday morning, and
caught a boat from Batavia to Singapore the
same night at ten, reaching Singapore Monday
morning. On the boat were Mr. and Mrs. T  from
Austraha, whom we had met three times before.
They are delightful people, and are visiting the
places that Mr. T  saw on a bachelor trip
many years ago.
At Singapore, an interesting and beautiful city,
but primitive as to stores in comparison with

376 LETTERS OF
Shanghai and Hong Kong, we spent our Christ
mas uneventfully, and on Christmas Eve I
cabled you requesting an answer which has not
yet arrived.
Singapore is one of the busiest shipping ports
In the world, and Is the trade depot for the entire
Malay Peninsula. It is practically a Chinese
city, although Indians, Malays, and dozens of
other races are met at every turn.
We expected to go straight to Colombo, but
there was no boat for almost a week and the
local fare was excessive, so we decided to leave
for Burmah on December 26th, as we found it
was actually cheaper to reach India via Ran
goon. The T  's were again on our steamer, and
we saw a great deal of them. There were also
other Interesting people: three young miners
from Korea, and a fine young American with a
Russian wife, a princess. He had been prospect
ing In Siberia all summer, and the Princess had
been helping the cook at their camp and learning
how to shoot big game. They were enthusiastic
and are going back. Just now they are bound
for Calcutta, where Lady M  Is going to en
tertain them In vice-regal splendor.
We stayed overnight at Rangoon, and learned

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 377
that Purdy and Scurve had not yet arrived.
Tuesday evening we left for Mandalay, arriving
here Wednesday afternoon. We have been here
ever since (It is now Friday), but as yet no news
of the boys.
At Rangoon I found a telegram for Scurve,
telling him to reach home by March 1st. I
cabled you again from Rangoon, requesting an
answer. We have been invited to visit Hsipaw
from here, in the Shan Hills, and will probably
do so soon.
This is just a skeleton letter; descriptions will
follow. Suffice It to say that Burmah, although
not so beautiful as Java, has much more charm.
Your loving son, Gilbert.

CHAPTER VI
BURMAH Mandalay, January 5, 1908.
Dear Famille, — This Is a continuation of
the same skeleton schedule of my actions, which
I am sending by the same mail. Forgive me for
the scanty and uninteresting form, but I will
make It up in a day or so. Just now the spirit of
description Is not on me ; if I could only see you
all face to face, I should talk you to death, but
sometimes I get tired of this year-long one-sided
conversation. Am. left this morning for the Shan Hills, but
I am going to Bhamo, on the Chinese frontier,
by the afternoon train, and there I shall stay
until I get in touch with Purdy and Scurve, who
are about two weeks overdue. Am. will join me
there, unless they arrive in time to enable us to
join him In Shan-land.
We are now at the End ofthe World, and need
the services of a boy to spread our beds, cook
at times, and wait on us at table. Am. has an
old Hindu named Ahmed-a-garry, and I have
a Burmese youth who speaks six languages —

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 379
Burmese, Tamil, Hindustani, Palaung, Enghsh,
and a little Shan. He has never served a traveller
before, so he Is unspoiled. He was Interpreter for
a British general last year, and I am very lucky
in his company. His name is Maung Tun. He
wears a gorgeous red skirt, a white jacket, and
a pink silk turban. He calls me master, and
takes off his shoes when he enters my august pre
sence. Hoop-la !
I am writing on the hotel-porch, and at my
elbow a monkey about eight inches high Is en
gaged in slapping a dog's face and pulling his
ears; the dog seems to hke It.
This is a city of pagodas and gorgeous, flimsy
palaces. The days are cloudless and the nights
cold. I am delighted with it.
If this letter contains but litde Information, It
carries much love.
I am more than ever Interested in the Chinese
problem, and would give a great deal to return
that way. I have been seriously considering the
matter, and If the Persian trip does not mate
rialize, on account of the present unrest there, I
am strongly tempted to get Purdy to go back
from Colombo with me. I should go straight to
the Philippines, then either to Changsha or
Pekin, where I should put in almost a month.

38o LETTERS OF
then home via Korea and Japan. I should reach
home early In August. Europe is nearer than
China, and grows nearer every year. Europe
has an interest that hes in the great past, while
China's interest lies in the great future. I also
feel that I am now ready to visit the Phihppines
intelligently. These are my reasons in brief for
thinking of the above plan.
Now, father, although it would be a sacrifice
to give up Europe, full, as It will be next summer,
of my old college friends, the biggest sacrifice
would be giving up your company.
Could you join me either at the Phihppines or
at Shanghai ? If It is within the limits of possi
bility for you to join me on such a trip, please
cable me at Bombay the word "Possible," or In
the opposite case the word "Impossible," and
accordingly I will make my plans; also please
write, as soon as you can, exacdy what you think
of the affair. I am sincerely concerned about
this question, for I am more anxious than I can
tell you to make the best use of my time, and I
strongly desire your free and detailed advice,
which I shall welcome equally whatever it be.
Do be sure to send both wire and letter, care
T. Cook, Bombay. Your loving son, Gilbert.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 381
Bhamo, Burmah,
January 7, 1908.
Dear Ones, — At Singapore we spent our
Christmas day very pleasandy, but very quietly,
and with constant thoughts of what "they are
doing at home at just this moment."
We were not quite alone, for the T  's
were with us, and we met four San Francisco
ladies who are travelling together. Christmas
Eve we all attended midnight mass at the
Catholic Cathedral, and saw a very impressive
service, with an Archbishop as the leading at
traction. The street-life furnishes the chief Interest In
Singapore, and the Botanical Gardens and the
Reservoir make charming drives, while a half-
day is sufficient to see the capital city ofthe Sul
tan of Jahore on the near mainland. Singapore
roads are excellent : the hard soil takes on a sur
face like an asphalt pavement, and gleams bright
red. In contrast to the banks of heavy green on
either side. The city is only one degree above the
Equator, so the foliage is much like that of Java ;
and, strange to say, the temperature during our
four days' stay was a mild, pleasant 80 degrees
In the shade.
Singapore is of course in the Malay country.

382 LETTERS OF
but, although there are many Malays there, the
Chinese predominate; there are ten thousand
rickshaw coohes alone; and during our stay we
were served at table, waited on in stores, offices,
and banks, and pulled through the streets by
Chinamen alone ! My admiration for the Indus
try of this race is still increasing, and their per
sonality attracts me more, the more I see of it. I
do hope that father cables me the word "Pos
sible," and then writes that he will meet me in
Shanghai or Nagasaki on, say, June ist, prepared
for a look Into China and Korea, which, by the
way, is the only foreign country where Ameri
can enterprise, capital, and prestige outweigh
that of any other country; I have so much to
talk over with father, — theories, the knowledge
I have acquired this year, law school, — I do
hope he will come.
The ocean trip up the Bay of Bengal, past
Penang and the Andaman Islands, was very
pleasant. Smooth seas and sunny days and a
freshness in the air that we had forgotten In the
moisture-laden air of the equatorial regions.
On Thursday we sailed, and on Monday we
awoke in the Rangoon River, with the low allu
vial banks of the Irriwaddy Delta about us.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 383
RANGOON
Burmah forms a part of British India ac
cording to law, but from the point of view of
plain common sense, it Is no nearer India than
is Pekin. The Burmese people are light in
color, they call themselves a white race, are
distinctly a Mongoloid people, and should be
grouped with the Siamese and the Inhabitants
of Cochin China.
As we drew near to Rangoon, the first object
that lifted Itself above the level land about us
was the golden spire of the Schwe' Dagon Pagoda,
and the next distinctive feature was the elephants
piling teak-logs along the shore. If one of these
beasts has a log balanced on his tusks in mid
air, and the breakfast gong sounds, down with
the log, and off he trots to be fed.
Rangoon is broad-streeted and dusty, and has
a new, unfinished appearance everywhere, except
In the hotels, which appear to be of about the
same date as the First Crusade. The population
is even more cosmopolitan than in Singapore,
and Klings, Tamils, Bengahs, Punjabis, Sikhs,
Ghurkas, Jews, Chinese, Arabs, Armenians,
Malays, Shans, Karens, Persians, and Singha-

384 LETTERS OF
lese jostle one another In the noisy streets, where
barbers and cooks ply their trades on the curb,
and every third shopkeeper Is reading aloud out
of the Koran. The strange fact Is that about one
man In a hundred Is a Burmese ! — south India
has seized the town.
Rangoon Is gradually completing the most
beautiful park In the East, Dalhousie Park, and
In connection with It Is a chain of ponds called
the Royal Lakes. We drove out with theT  's
to see sunset across the Lakes, and it seemed
as though all Rangoon had done the same, for
there was a great concourse of carriages, with
Indian syces and footmen. We drove back by
way of the Gymkhana Club, where they were just
completing an afternoon dance, which attraction
we successfully resisted. From every turn we
saw the sunset gleaming on the golden pagoda,
Schwe' Dagon.
As Sir William Scott says, " for every one that
does not earn his bread there, Rangoon Is the
City ofthe Pagoda." It stands on a small hill In
a pretty suburb of the town, and dominates the
surrounding country as the cathedral spires dom
inate Cologne. It was commenced hundreds of
years before Christ, and when the Parthenon was
built. It was a simple dagoba of earth and stone.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 385
about twenty odd feet high. Now it reaches
a slender spire upwards for three hundred
and sixty feet, and around Its base are terraces
and arcades, crowds of temples, and enshrined
Buddhas; beneath are eight hairs of Gautama
himself, and the begging or praying bowl, staff,
and robe of the three former Buddhas of long-
vanished worlds. Its graceful, swelling sides are
covered with gold-leaf, and the spire Is sheeted
with solid gold, while the hti or umbrella-top Is
hung with rubles and precious stones, which
sometimes send their gleams way down to earth
where the worshippers crowd the lower terraces.
There are three of these narrowing circles of
grass and trees, before you reach the broad stone
terrace at the pagoda's base, and covered stair
ways and arcades, crowded with flower-stalls
and relic-stands or confectioners' booths, line
the sides. Behind each stall sits a Burmese girl
or woman clad in pale-hued silks, a flower over
one ear, a gold brooch or chain at the neck, a
small cigarette stuck through her pierced ear,
and a white club of tobacco eight inches long
held to her lips with lazy grace, while she sends
clouds of smoke curling among the gilt pillars
of the passage. These Burmese women are the
business men of the country.

386 LETTERS OF
Before the booths a constant stream of wor
shippers travels up and down, and in its eddies
are borne along the strangest people from all
countries of the earth. Now and then a Bur
mese priest, a poonghee, walks slowly by in a
Roman toga of saffron color, his right arm and
shoulder bare, and a big palm-leaf fan in his
hand, to shield his eyes whenever a pretty girl
passes by ; a whole race of St. Anthonys, these
poonghees. Every entrance and each successive flight of
steps Is guarded by immense white leogryphs
with red eyes, beasts twice the size of a big ele
phant and very fierce, to frighten all the devils
who might come poking about.
The main platform has one broad, clear pas
sage all around It; the side towards the pagoda
Is a cluster of small spires and pagodas, shrines
and altars, and the outer edge is a labyrinth
of temples, big and little, three and four deep,
with Buddhas of marble and Buddhas of brass
and Buddhas of gold and porcelain ; all sizes of
Buddha, from four Inches to twenty feet high;
black-faced Buddhas, yellow-faced Buddhas,
and white-faced Buddhas with cherry red hps.
Around the temple-cornices little doll-figures are
suffering the torments of hell, and other doll-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 387
figures are fleeing over the temple roofs pursued
by grinning devils. The crowd in the open pas
sage is gay with flowers and jewels (for not even
a pauper in Burmah will wear imitation trinkets)
and soft-colored silks. The temples and shrines
on each side gleam and glisten In the rich sun
light, for their pillars and open halls and fantas
tic roofs are alive with gold and glass mosaic.
The tinkle of wind-bells on the eaves and htis,
the deep boom of gongs struck with a deer's
antler, and the merry talk and laughter of the
crowd, make up the voice of the Schwe' Dagon.
And out of the glittering chaos the great Pagoda
rises like a tongue of flame Into the dark, infinite
blue above.

388 LETTERS OF

MANDALAY
Twenty hours on the Burmah railway from
Rangoon to Mandalay, the capital of Upper Bur
mah, a city whose age is less than that of many of
its Inhabitants, but which has won for Itself a
place in history and literature, and in the romantic
Imaginings of every westerner who thinks at all
of the Orient, all in its short half-century of life.
It was quite the fashion for Burmese kings to
build a new capital, just as the old mikados did
in Japan, and about the year 1857 (reference-
books are not at hand) Mandalay was built
according to the old approved rules for capital
cities. The palace In the centre; walls so many
paces In length, gates at such and such Intervals,
towers so many cubits high. Under each tower
it was customary to bury alive a virgin or an un-
tattooed boy; but the king who built Mandalay
thought that the hearts of his subjects made a
stronger foundation for his throne than did their
bodies, so the sacrifice was probably omitted,
although accounts differ on this point. The old
palace was in part removed to Mandalay, and
hundreds of pagodas were built within and with
out the city walls.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 389
Here good King Mindon ruled for many years,
and when he died, the machinations of one of
his wives placed Thibaw, one of the least signifi
cant of his twoscore sons, on the throne. Thibaw
was a weak, attractive boy, and he dearly loved
Supayalat, whom he straightway married. The
fair bride was jealous, and instead of enjoying
the company of thirty or forty dearly beloveds,
Thibaw was forced to limit his affections to his
first love. Under her advice and that of her
mother, who was an old fox, Thibaw had all
of his brothers and sisters, a goodly company,
put to the sword and buried in a big pit. After
three days the heap began to swell and rise, and
Thibaw sent his elephants to tread it down
again. For seven years Thibaw and Supayalat
never left the golden palace. The British repre
sentatives were treated with scant courtesy, the
country was overrun with robbers and petty
pretenders, but Thibaw reclined at ease in the
geometrical centre of his perfecdy proportioned
capital, until the British came, took him pris
oner, and annexed his misgoverned country.
Thibaw and Supayalat are still living in a quiet
Indian fortress town, and they are only an irri
table, querulous old couple. Alas for the glory
of the Peacock Throne I

390 LETTERS OF
There Is a great deal of empty space in Man
dalay; quiet bungalows stand In the solitary
midst of five-acre squares, and the broad, dusty
roads are bordered with trees and grass like the
roomiest of country turnpikes. Most of the
houses and all of the business he outside the city
walls, which now enclose only the palace, the
club. Fort Dufferin, and vast park-stretches,
dotted with pagodas and now and then a bun
galow. Except for the great Bazaar, however, all
travellers' interest In Mandalay centres about
these empty walls. They are so unhke anything
else in the world, and have nothing In common
with the grim-walled cities of China or of North
ern Europe. Everything at Mandalay was built
for effect, because the natural course of events
would have created a new capital before a cen
tury had passed, and there was no need to build
for posterity. The walls are not very high, and
they are of a deep pink brick, with a crenellated
top. On each side are three gates with towers
and buttresses of briUiant white. At frequent
intervals pagoda-like towers, vsith delicate spires
and bells and curved eaves, rise llghdy from the
battlements. Trees mass their rich green tops
behind, and a broad, clear moat full of lotus-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 391
flowers surrounds It all, spanned by white
bridges leading to the central gate on each side.
The scene hghted by the clear, soft sun of Bur
mese winter Is beautiful indeed.
The palace is of wood, and seems at first a
jungle of spires and curved roofs, open audience-
halls and pillared porches; but In reality the plan
is simple. The Burmese throne was a round
pedestal against the wall, high above the floor,
and shaped like a lotus-flower. The King en
tered through latticed doors of gold at the back,
and sat cross-legged on the brilliant flower, while
all the nobles and princes prostrated themselves
among the pillars of the Audience-Hall. Every
thing is of wood and gilt and glass, and rickety
walls give an impression that is, at the same
time, magnificent and tawdry, — but fascinating,
fascinating. That Is a strange quality that is innate In
everything that touches Burmah, for, with all its
dry and dusty stretches, the land breathes charm
and leaves you always longing for more. Tropi
cal Java with all its wealth of life and vegetation
satisfied you. I have seen Java, and to revisit it
would be pleasant, but I do not long to revisit It,
nor did I feel a real pang at leaving, although
there were many things I should have enjoyed

392 LETTERS OF
doing there. It may be because Java Is so com
plete. All Its problems are solved. Its gende peo
ple present no great possibilities, they are merely
a very, very pleasant race; but Burmah, China,
and Japan are ahve, and the thought that you
must leave them there with a hundred ques
tions unanswered, dozens of problems unsolved,
and their attractions barely tasted, grips you
•with a feeling strong as homesickness, a true
pang. I have talked lately with numerous travellers
from India, and I am strengthened In my belief
that, while I would not miss India for worlds, and
while months could be spent there with profit,
we shall only be able to visit the famous build
ings and temples and the usual native capitals
in our limited time, so I regret all the more leav
ing a place like Burmah, which fulfils exacdy the
requirements I desire. It Is not a country of
lotus-eaters, although the Burman Is the lightest-
hearted of all men. It is a rich, husding, unde
veloped treasure-land. Ruby-mines, jade-mines,
teak lumber-camps, gold-nugget fields, and gold-
dredging operations, are crying out to be visited ;
a score of kindly wild peoples on the border-land
are waiting patiently to be named, classified,
studied, and civilized; the Burmese are flocking

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 393
to school and calling for the best the West can
give, and as side-issues there are ruined cities and
wild-river gorges, caves and palaces, a laughing,
silk-clad population, forests teeming with tigers,
elephants, rhinos, leopards, and monkeys, to
lend Interest to every square mile, and the glori
ous light and cool winter air transfiguring every
hour of the day. Again let me wish that I had
planned to spend my whole year among the Mon
goloid people of Asia !
At Mandalay we again saw the T  's and
met many pleasant people, travellers and resi
dents. With one man I had a very valuable talk
on Colonial Government and the Philippines,
and our Ideas coincided beautifully. I discovered
later that he Is Professor of Colonial Govern
ment at Columbia.
As we could learn nothing ofthe boys in China,
we separated at Mandalay. Am. has gone for a
short trip into Shan-land, and I have come north
to Bhamo to discover the whereabouts of Purdy
and Scurve.
The missionaries and telegraph officials have
been very kind, and yesterday I discovered
through missionary letters that the boys sepa
rated on December 5th, Scurve going south from
Yunnan-fu to Tonkin, In Cochin China, and

394 LETTERS OF
Purdy continuing to Bhamo. I was a little wor
ried about him, as he Is overdue, until I received
a telegram from a British official at Tengueh in
China, saying that he had left that place for
Bhamo on the day before. He Is due here in six
days, and I am going to start for China to-morrow
and surprise him on the border. I am taking
four mules, two China boys, and my Burmese
boy, who is a treasure. Our road Is as broad as
Michigan Avenue and has a telegraph wire
alongside, so don't worry. My, but Purdy will
be surprised! He thinks I am In Ceylon! If I
have time to-night, I will take up the tale at
Mandalay and tell you how I got here and what
Bhamo is hke; if not, I shall do so on my return.
In six or seven days. I have a good incident to
tell you : it is called "The Adventure of the Bur
mese Bishop."
Loads of love and more loads of the same. I
am quite well and am among good American
missionaries, so don't worry. Gilbert.
Mandalay, January 19.
Dear Mother, — Here is the tale I pro
mised you In my last letter.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 395

THE ADVENTURE OF THE BURMESE BISHOP
We little know when an adventure Is going
to befall us, and It was with no thought of
anything but an uncomfortable railway journey
that I boarded the train at Mandalay, bound for
Bhamo. Usually the trip to Bhamo Is made by
steamer up the Irrawaddy, but it takes about
five days, and, as I was going north to find the
whereabouts of Purdy on the great China cara
van-route, I felt that I must choose the quicker
and less pleasant route by rail to Katha, and
then by steamer for twenty-four hours. In an
access of economy I bought a second-class ticket,
which Is unwise when you are about to spend
the night on a frontier railway train.
I crossed the Irrawaddy by ferry, and climbed
the sandy bank to the village of Sagaing, with Its
ruined pagodas and Its shady streets.
At first I was alone In my compartment, but,
as the shadows were lengthening, we pulled up
at a tiny place, where a Japanese in the railroad
company's employ was waiting to blast my hopes
of privacy. He was a pleasant chap, however,
and as there are two six-foot seats In each com
partment, I did not mind.
Just at sunset, however, the Bishop appeared.

396 LETTERS OF
First came a coolie with two rolls of matting.
Then a little Shan boy, perhaps thirteen years
old, and then the Reverend Sir. We did not know
what a delightful old man he would prove to be,
and we did not enthuse over his advent. He was
dressed In the simple flowing robes of the poon
ghee, and one wasted arm and side were bare.
Over his shoulder was a heavy yellow cloak, the
same shade as his robe. His head was small and
close-cropped, his throat was withered, and his
skull looked out through the tight, wrinkled skin
of his face ; but his eyes were like black beads and
his teeth were white and even. At the corners of
his mouth were deep smile-wrinkles, and he gazed
at the coolie and the world In general with an
all-embracing smile that showed every tooth. He
tittered audibly as he settled himself, reclining at
length on one elbow; he tittered as the coolie
withdrew backwards ; he tittered when the Shan
boy placed a jar of holy water on a wreath of
rushes on the floor. Then he looked at us, and
remarked in Burmese that he was going to a fu
neral at Katha — and tittered. He seemed a httle
nervous, and his whole manner was apologetic.
" I am sorry that I must take up so much room,"
he seemed to say, and every time the train jolted,
he tittered towards us, as if it were all his fault

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 397
and he would try to prevent It next time. He
must have been eighty years old.
The Shan boy, who was almost as pretty as
a girl, curled up at the Bishop's feet, and looked
reflectively across the car, as though he did not
know whether it was quite wise to be friendly
or no. After about an hour he evidendy decided
that It was wise, and broke the Ice by grinning
broadly. He wore a gray coat and yellow silk
skirt, and his hair was coiled In a little knot
on the top of his head, vrith a narrow ring of
bare scalp around It, and a fringe around that
like the fringe of hair on a Japanese doll. He
wore gold earrings, and his arms were tattooed
in red.
As the evening wore on, it grew very cold in
our draughty compartment, and our compan
ions both suffered visibly, for the Bishop's sheet
like robe was his only covering, and the bare
brown skin ofthe Shan boy showed between his
skirt and jacket; but the Bishop tittered merrily
through his chattering teeth, and meditated on
the emptiness of life In general and the glories
of Nirvana. When his old legs grew numb with
cold, he stretched them out on the seat and the
boy massaged them with his elbows. The poon
ghees never give a direct command to their boys

398 LETTERS OF
for food or service, but when they wish anything,
they repeat the formula, "Do what Is lawful,"
and the boy guesses at the need.
That night I gave the Bishop one of my blan
kets, and he kindly accepted it, that I might re
ceive the credit in Heaven for a good deed ; but
he only spread It over his feet, and preferred to
show his contempt for fleshly feelings by shiv
ering the night through. The boy slept under a
corner of my own rug, curled about my feet. It
was a long night, and several times I was dimly
conscious that the train had stopped at a station,
and that there were people in the carriage, to
whom the Bishop was talking. Pious lay villagers
who had waited up all night for a word with
him while the train stopped at their station ; for
the good people of this country honor their priests,
and, unlike the Buddhist monks of other coun
tries, the Burmese poonghees merit this respect.
They lead chaste, austere lives, and teach boys
at their monasteries; in fact, every Burmese
boy becomes a poonghee for a period varjnng
fro one to seven days, and until he has passed
through the brief novitiate, he is not esteemed a
man. The monks live entirely on charity, but
they never return thanks for any service or for the
most lordly gift, for the layman who assists them

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 399
acquires merit by the act, and the acceptance of
any service by them is in Itself a favor.
As yet I had not suspected that our companion
was other than an ordinary priest, so simple did
his wants seem and so meagre his possessions,
and I thought of giving the boy a few pice with
which to buy him food for breakfast; but early
In the morning the train was boarded by two
poonghees, an Indian and a Kachin, who had
come two hours by train to meet him; and the
carriage was piled with fruit and cakes and tea
pots and hot rice which the villagers had pre
pared, and Instead of being allowed to cast my
pice upon the waters, I shared the monk's break
fast at the public expense.
During the morning the old gendeman pfied
me with questions about my country and why
I had come to his land, and when I told him
that I was wandering about the world because
it brought me happiness and knowledge, he
thought that I must be a sort of poonghee my
self. I learned that he was journeying to the monas
tery called Sapandye at Katha, to attend the
burning of the body of an old friend, another
bishop, who had been dead a year, preserved in
honey. This cremation ceremony is one of the

400 LETTERS OF
most elaborate of festivals and would be well
worth going miles to see, but unfortunately for
me, it was to take place several weeks later.
When we arrived at Katha on the banks ofthe
Irrawaddy, the whole village was at the station.
Here the Bishop was revealed to us as a mighty
man Instead of a poor shivering monk, but his
manner never changed. He appeared at the car
riage door, feeble and stooping In his yellow
draperies, and every one on the platform knelt.
He descended the steps, a little insignificant old
man, and two youths sprang forward with gold
umbrellas which they held over him. His feet
were not allowed to touch the common soil, for
kneeling maidens spread their delicate silk scarfs
before him ; and down the shimmering path they
made for him he walked gingerly, tittering the
while, as though he would say, " These silly peo
ple ! Do excuse them ; they are only children and
must have their fun ! "
The last I saw of him was a huddled yellow
figure seated on a rude station bench, which had
been covered with silken robes, two gold um
brellas behind him, the ground about him piled
with presents and offerings, and the population
of Katha kneeling before him In an adoring semi
circle. Just as I was boarding my steamer for

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 401
Bhamo, the Shan boy came running down the
bank with a big bunch of bananas, a final pre
sent from my friend the Bishop.

The trip up river was very pleasant. I was
the only passenger, and all day long I sat in the
bows, watching the changing banks. Tiny vil
lages alternated with long stretches of jungle.
Porpoises rolled about In the shallows near shore,
and strange waterfowl of all shapes and colors
were thick as flies, or as Burmese pagodas, which
adorn every knoll from Thibet to Arakan. Great
rafts with httle huts built on them floated past
us, and canoes came slowly out from shore, fight
ing the current to discharge passengers on our
lower deck. Once I saw two huge elephants
taking a bath, and again a dusty baby Jumbo
burst through the grass at the top of the bank
and raced madly along the shore, with a halloo
ing youngster astride his neck.
Before reaching Bhamo we passed one night
tied up alongshore, and traversed the second
defile ofthe river, which is pretty and interesting,
but not at all magnificent.
Bhamo is a straggling village, full of Hindus,
Mohammedans, and Wild Kachins from the big

402 LETTERS OF
hills nine miles to the east. The Burman Is not
much in evidence. There is a regiment of Sikhs
here, and there are several government offices
and mission headquarters, and numerous ruined
pagodas and monasteries are scattered through
the town. As Bhamo is the end or beginning
of the great overland route to China, there are
many Celestials living there, and passing In and
out with dusty mule-trains.
My next yarn will be entitled "The Road to
China," which I have travelled and returned
from in safety. Love to all, Gilbert.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 403
THE ROAD TO CHINA
January 17, 1908.
Dear Helen, — At first I had wanted to take
a cook, but Maung Tun said he could cook bet
ter than any rural Bhamo chef. I had wanted
an Interpreter, but Maung Tun said that I could
talk English to him, he could talk Burmese to
the mule-driver, who could talk Chinese or Ka
chin as need arose. I had intended to secure a
guide, but Maung Tun said that if he could n't
find the way, I need n't pay him his wages for a
week. I had greatly desired three mules and a
pony for my outfit, but Maung Tun would not
let me spend the money, and allowed me only
two mules and a pony. Maung Tun stayed up
late on Monday night to roast a chicken, which
he persuaded the dak bungalow chowdikar to
slaughter for him, and he arose before hght on
Tuesday morning to cook a strange meat-cake,
which he called "side-dish."
" Some men are eating this side-dish for their
tiffin, sir," he said with a pitying smile, when I
asked concerning its use and aim In life.
Maung Tun Is only eighteen, and he has never
served as a traveller's boy before, but he is Solo-

404 LETTERS OF
mon and Nestor and the Encyclopaedia Britan
nica in one.
My outfit was furnished by Mr. Fan Ta Sho,
a portly Celestial, loaded with gold seals and
speaking no English. He drove up to the bunga
low at six in the morning to see me off, and he
charged me only twice as much as I ought to
have paid, so I can recommend him heartily as a
Furnisher of Mules. At seven o'clock we moved
through the bungalow gate. An Indifferent yel
low pony bore me past the familiar fence-posts,
at about the speed at which a Swiss glacier trav
els. Maung Tun rode an animal whose father
might have been a hippopotamus, and whose
mother was undoubtedly a door-mat. The third
creature was concealed beneath piles of bedding
and canned food, so that It was Impossible to
surmise its nationality and antecedents.
We moved off down the highroad through a
cold morning mist, and I was quite starded by
a tall white dagoba, which suddenly appeared
like a ghost at the roadside. Three litde boys
marched by on their way to school, singing at the
top of their voices. Then the mist cleared slowly
as the sun grew hotter, and we saw that we were
fairly started for the hills.
For nine miles the road was straight and level.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 405
with Imposing teak trees rising on all sides,
straight as pillars, to a height of over a hundred
feet. A short way out of Bhamo there is a sign
post by the roadside, on which one may read the
legend, "To the Chinese Frontier." Imagine
how you would feel if you were strolling along a
country lane near home and asked a passer-by,
"Where does this road lead ?" and received the
answer, " To China " !
The broad highway was quite populous this
morning, and a stream of people passed us bound
for market. Ox-carts there were in plenty, with
spindle-shanked Indians crouching on them,
shoAvIng off the ugly blackness of their skins by
wearing draperies of white or red, and hanging
gold-rings in the sides of their noses. Several
Northern Indians with long coats, towering tur
bans, and canes, strolled past us, followed by
a whole family of Burmese In holiday attire,
bumping merrily along in a boat-shaped festival-
cart drawn by two trotting oxen with humps and
swinging dewlaps. An old man was wending a
snail's way to Bhamo, driving a black pig. Be
hind the pig's ears was a collar of wooden sticks,
to which was fastened the string held by the old
man. It never seemed to occur to the pig that
the quickest way to Bhamo was to walk straight

4o6 LETTERS OF
ahead, for It made expeditions to the right and
to the left with mechanical regularity. These
embryo explorations were nipped by the tap of
a switch, and the pig's master talked to it cease
lessly, as one talks to a very small child. I have
often wondered whether the old man ever lived
to reach Bhamo, for he had five miles more to go.
Kachins and Shans added Interest and variety
to the life of the road, and here and there a pig
tail and a dash of blue — the old, ugly, sober,
national blue of China — recalled the legend
of the sign-post and gave It life and meaning.
The big trees Increased In frequency as we
drew nearer to the hills, and their huge, perfect
columns dwarfed the approaching ox-carts and
loaded coolies to mere toys, and the occasional
refreshment booths, where old women sell the
pink and green syrups so dear to Oriental taste,
were doll-houses, nothing more.
Before noon we passed through a fair-sized
village of perhaps a hundred houses, all built on
stilts. The inhabitants seemed to be Kachins,
with a mixture of Burmese and Shans, and many
were in Burmese costume. An elephant was
busily piling logs in a vacant lot, and the drone
of boys studying aloud floated out of the doors
and windows of the village monastery. There

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 407
was a small, tawdry pagoda of gilt and plaster,
and a group of tall poles with flapping streamers
stood In the monastery enclosure.
The hills rose quite close at hand now, and our
road turned north, • so that we travelled with
them on our right. The teak trees grew farther
and farther apart, and great clumps of bamboo,
giant bamboo, threw delicate plumes across the
roadway. The leaf of the bamboo is so tiny that
at a distance this foliage seemed a beautiful green
mist with the rich sunlight filtering through, and
when the clumps were detached enough to show
the entire outline, they looked like spraying foun
tains or huge bouquets.
While we were eating tiffin by the roadside,
a black buffalo with magnificent horns, fully six
feet from tip to tip, came slowly down the the
atrical roadway, stopping now and then to sniff
at us. At a distance of about one hundred yards
he charged away into the bamboo-jungle, at right
angles to the road. I confess It gave me a httle
start, five minutes later, to see his eyes and those
great horns of his gleaming through the leaves at
the roadside, not ten feet away. These beasts
from whom a tiger will run, and who in a wild
state are considered a close third to the elephant
and rhinoceros for dangerous ferocity, have an

4o8 LETTERS OF
extreme dislike for the smell of a white man, and
will often charge as soon as they catch his scent;
and although I have passed close to the nose of
many a water-buffalo without offending his deli
cate nostrils, I have heard so many tales at first
hand of adventures with them that I like to
keep to leeward if possible. This fellow was
merely curious, however, and soon crashed away
through the trees.
After tiffin I walked for nine or ten miles and
left the outfit far behind; there was not much
travel at this point, and except for a few small
parties of Kachins, who stole quietly by In their
barbaric red and blue clothes, with swords across
their breasts or backs, and bows and arrows in
hand, I had the road quite to myself. The foliage
grew more and more dense, and the arch of
graceful fronds was thirty to fifty feet above
my head. The road was hke a painted vista,
so fresh were the colors of forest and sky and so
regular the patches and fretwork of shadow; a
painted scene of blue and green and gold. There
was no sound except the creaking of bamboo-
stems as they swayed or rubbed gently against
each other, the murmur of frequent streams,
and the incessant music of bird-calls. The birds
here were more numerous and beautiful than I

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 409
have ever seen them In one place before. Great
blue and white birds with long tails, wild doves,
tiny flitting things, that gleamed like rubles and
sapphires, flaming orioles, flocks of yellow birds
that filled a whole bamboo-clump and made it
look as though heavy with golden fruit, enchanted
fruit that sang and kept flitting from branch to
branch. There was, moreover, a red bird that
darted through the greenery like a live coal, and
a friendly little creature, something like a quail,
that kept running along just ahead of me. Tip-
ups ran along the stream-banks, and birds with
curly bills and long necks balanced with open
wings on the tree-stubs of the larger waterways.
Every tiny clearing — there were only three or
four — had Its solemn regiment of white egrets
that walked about the buffaloes, solemn as drill-
sergeants, pretending they were managing the
great beasts, and long-legged brown things who
contemplated the distance with their heads sunk
between their shoulders. High up in the stainless
blue there were always two or three hawks and
kites, sailing round and round on motionless, out
spread wings. And hke the Vice ofthe old Moral
ities, the Launcelot Gobbo of the feathered world,
screamed and blustered the ubiquitous crow.
At the point where the road turns again towards

410 LETTERS OF
the east and enters the hills, I remounted and we
climbed several hundred feet, with the clamor
of a distant troop of monkeys sounding in our
ears. Avery fair bridge bore us over a wild rocky
river-gorge, and another climb up a road or path,
full of boulders and torn and broken as though
it had been blasted with dynamite, brought us
to a low saddle of the first range of hills, where
stands the dak bungalow called Kalenkyet, or,
as it Is pronounced, Kalengchet. Here we un-"
loaded for the night; I had expected a small vil
lage like the village of Mornauk, which we had
passed through during the morning, but here
was only the bungalow and a big crystal spring.
To the north and south rose higher hills of the
range on which we stood. To the west was
level forest country, leading off towards the blaz
ing evening sky. To the east a deep valley, com
mencing at our very feet, led the eye over fine
forests, past a series of mountain buttresses,
where It cut through several parallel ranges to a
high mountain-shoulder that closed Its upper end,
beyond which lay China. The whole scene lay
bathed In a rich glow, full of purple shadows, and
the distant mountain was ringed with rose which
faded slowly. While the sunset tints were still at
their brightest, the sky above grew black and the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 411
stars leaped Into view, and the red glare of the
open fire In the cook-shed threw Maung Tun's
shadow far out Into the night, reminding me that
I had still to taste a first sample of his cooking.
The bungalows on this road are built by the
Burmah Public Works Department, and they are
all exacdy alike — two bedrooms and a larger
room to sit in, built of whitewashed matting, and
standing stiff-legged about four feet above the
ground. They are usually In charge of a Hindu
chowdikar, who furnishes cooking-pots If the
traveller does not carry his own. The charge is
a nominal one of one rupee a night, a bare bed
stead being furnished you, for In India and Bur
mah all travellers carry their own bedding.
The first sign of dinner was a glass of water
borne In by my Chinese muleteer, a jovial soul,
who was so used to calling to his mules that
he prefaced and concluded all his human con
versations with a mule-call hke the whistle of a
steam-calliope; the effect was startling at first,
but I think Its producer was quite unconscious
of the habit. He shambled Into the bungalow
with a sheepish grin, bare-legged, with his broad
trousers cut off below the knee and his flapping
straw hat still on his head. He bore the glass
gingerly In both hands, and wrapped about It

412 LETTERS OF
were several yards of cotton cloth. I thought
at first he had brought me hot water, but Inquiry
discovered that he had merely been afraid of
soiling the glass. Maung Tun next came with
a cup of tea, which looked as though a cyclone
had been playing with it. Cup and saucer were
covered with white lumps, and others floated
about In the tea. The cream had curdled, and
had all come out of the tin at once ; all of the tins
were the same, so we had a week of milkless tea
and porridge to look forward to. The butter was
the next disappointment. It was so rancid that
even a determined washing merely alleviated, but
could not remove, the hair-oil flavor. A chicken
and some eggs purchased from the chowdikar
did much to help out the meal, however.
On the road one should never attempt to do
anything but walk, eat, and sleep. Having suc
cessfully accomplished the first two operations, I
proceeded to the third •with equal distinction.
The night was bitterly cold and the morning
bath almost took my breath away, but we were
up and off In good season. I walked all morning
down a cool, shady road, that gradually chmbed
higher and higher on the side of the valley that
we had seen from the bungalow. A large river,
full of rapids, filled the valley with a sound hke

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 413
the rush ofa great wind, and the green and white
of its rock-tortured waters flashed through the
trees upon the bank. At one place a httle hill,
possibly five hundred feet high, stands quite
alone in the centre of the valley. It is a perfect
cylinder-cone, and is plumed with waving bam
boo to the very top.
After our cold tiffin, eaten by one of the many
little brooks that tumble downhill into the river,
the road climbed by short zigzags over a cross-
spur a thousand feet high, and from its grassy
top I had a broad view of a new branch-valley
and several parallel mountain ranges. The big
shoulder, which had closed our view the night
before, loomed up across the narrow valley,
quite close at hand.
I sat down on a stone by the roadside, to enjoy
the view and wait for my mules, which were
three quarters of an hour behind; and as I sat
lost in thoughts, mainly about Purdy, whom we
hoped to meet the following day, I became con
scious of a heavy breathing near-by. I turned my
head, and twenty yards away I saw a very large
white buffalo, that had come quiedy around
the corner and was standing hke a statue, flank
towards me. So silently had he come and so
motionless was he, that he might have just risen

414 LETTERS OF
through the ground. He was pretending to look
across the valley, but I could see his ugly red eye
turned In my direction.
Each waited for the other to make the first
move, and his patience outwalted mine. There
was a steep bank behind me, about ten feet high,
and I determined that its flowery crest was a
much pleasanter place to sit than this roadside
boulder. I commenced to climb it slowly and
deliberately, so as not to startle the beast; but at
my first movement, he commenced a lumbering
charge, which ended at the bank belowme just as
I drew my feet out of reach. A creature the size
of a piano, with two sharp three-foot horns and
wicked red eyes, is a great assistance to activity,
I find. He kept me on the bank for five minutes,
then moved off down the road. As he neared the
next turn, a few yards distant, I leaned forward
to see the last of him. At the first rustle of the
grass, he wheeled and lowered his horns, but as I
held my breath, he considered It a false alarm,
and proceeded just around the corner, where he
waited for five minutes more, as I could see by
his shadow on the road. Then he chmbed up the
other side of the fifty-foot ridge at my back and
surveyed me from above, where he crashed about
for some time.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 415
When my pony came up, I remounted, and for
the rest of the day was borne slowly along with
out interruption, other than being pitched over
his head on a bad stretch, where he stumbled flat
over a log. I think we were both asleep. It was
rather lucky that he was not headed towards the
valley, or I should have gone over the edge, with
nothing between me and the river and valley
tree-tops except eight hundred feet of thin air.
I asked Maung Tun to spring over the edge, so
that I could see how it looked, and learn through
him how It felt, but for the first time In our
acquaintance, he refused to obey me, and even
resisted my offer of three pice for a performance.
We compromised with a big boulder, which
grew steadily smaller, and then disappeared amid
a great swaying of tree-tops and circling of dis
turbed birds. Towards evening our pace de
creased so much that I threw chips overboard
to see whether my steed were moving or no. Sev
eral violent applications of an old Kachin bow
to Rosinante's flanks finally produced a stately
trot. I thought I must have been cruel, so tried
the bow on my own leg, and the only way I
knew that I had hit myself was by the sound;
so I determined that my steed must have
heard the racket when I was beating him, and

4i6 LETTERS OF
moved forward, to get out of range of the firing-
line. The great roads ofthe world have a fascina
tion for me that is greater than the fascination of
great rivers, and this Is one of the world's great
roads. The stretch we had been travelling, al
though a newly built section. Is still the same
route by which all overland trade and travel has
passed between Cathay and Ind, the land of
spices and the land of silk. It Is the very route
followed by the army of the Great Khan and
Marco Polo, when, after the batde of elephants
at Yungchang, they moved victoriously through
Burmah to Ava or Pagon, and stood amazed at
the pagodas, covered with plates of gold. It Is a
road which, having left the Irrawaddy valley and
these Kachin hills, passes through the moun
tains and lake plains of Yunnan, across the head
waters of the Salween, the Mekhong, and the
Dragon River, Loong, through the fertile plains
and rich cities of Szechuan Province, to the banks
of the Yangtze-Kiang, the River with Sands of
Gold. How I envied the friend I had come
to meet, who had just passed along its entire
length, and seen the country of the Horned Wha
Miaous, the Lihsoos, the Chinese Shans, and still
other strange peoples of whom the world as

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 417
yet has heard only vague rumors and travellers'
tales. All day long we had passed caravans of loaded
mules and strings of fifty to one hundred coo
lies with carrying-poles, aU Chinese or Chinese
Shans, and sometimes there were Shan women
with them, soberly dressed, with cylinders of black
cloth on their heads and heavy ear-ornaments.
About four o'clock we entered a heavy forest
of large trees, growing thickly on the almost per
pendicular hillside, and although the mountains
across the river were flooded with sunlight, we
were in a dark twilight with the evening chill
gathering about us. At every stream, we passed
a caravan busy building fires and spreading
branches for the night's encampment, or already
stretched about the glowing logs vrith their rice-
bowls and chopsticks In their hands, while two
or three of their number had unpacked the one-
stringed fiddle and the tiny hand-drum, and were
torturing the night with that wild chaos of sound
that makes up Chinese music. I never know
whether they are tuning up or are in the midst
of a tune, but when we learn that they have thirty
odd tones Instead of the meagre eight that we are
content with, it is easy to understand why it is
beyond our comprehension.

41 8 LETTERS OF
The bungalow Mafongkha, where we stopped
for the night, stood on a shelf above the river, far
above, and was surrounded by three or four
grass-huts, in which about twenty Kachin people
were living ; the bungalow was also in charge of
a semi-civilized Kachin man who spoke a bit of
Hindustani. I was very glad to have a chance to
observe these wild people more closely, for apart
from the village Mornauk, which we passed on
the first day and which is entirely modelled after
Burmese civilizing Influence, we had seen no vil
lages, and had only passed the people by the road
side now and then. Indeed, we often saw distant
huts high up on the hillside, or a lonely, rickety
watch-tower on an outlying spur, but the vil
lages are all In well-protected and well-concealed
retreats, and the only evidence of their proximity
is a tunnel-hke path leading away from the main
road. The Kachin people are a short, sturdy race,
with dark skins and Mongoloid features. They
seem to be healthy in the main, but both men
and women suffer commonly from goitre. They
hve on rice, which they cultivate, small animals,
dogs, and birds, which they shoot with bows
and arrows. The men pierce their ears and
stretch the holes with cylindrical plugs of wood,

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 419
metal, paper, or a sort of velvet; they are great
tobacco-smokers and betel-chewers. On their
heads they wear an elaborately folded turban,
sometimes of great proportions, made of sober
blue cloth. A jacket and short trousers, evidendy
borrowed from the Shan style, and a large red
bag decorated with beads, shells, buttons, metal-
disks, and fringe, together with a long sword In
an open sheath, complete the costume of those
men I saw near the trade route. In the hill fast
nesses they may dispense with some of the arti
cles, — I do not know.
The women are rather more picturesque.
They wear a jacket, leggings, and a short skirt
with a deep border worked In barbaric red.
From the waist to the mid-thigh their bodies are
wrapped with hoop after hoop of bamboo,
painted black, and about their necks they wear
from one to six or more large rings of thick silver
wire. Their hair is a bushy shock, cut like an
Elizabethan page's hair, and their arms, legs, and
ears are loaded with what jewelry they can afford.
The Kachins are easy to get along with, and
although they have developed no startling mer
its, they take kindly to education and to Chris
tianity. In fact, there Is at Bhamo a flourishing
mission-school under charge of Mr. Roberts, an

420 LETTERS OF
American missionary, who has worked there for
years. The night before, I had been rather cold and
had mentioned the fact in the morning, and in
consequence, this night I discovered that Maung
Tun had tried to hide one of his meagre rugs
among my bed-clothes, but I discovered It and
made him take it back, along •with my overcoat;
he was quite chagrined.
On the third morning we continued to travel
through the hillside forest that we had entered
the previous afternoon. The trees were magni
ficent old specimens, twined about with great
parasites that wrapped them around with thick
white cords as large as a man's leg. Wild plan
tain or banana grew among the heavy under
growth, out of which the teak trees lifted their
straight columns, and from every branch cord
like streamers hung swaying for eighty feet.
From every cleft In the hillside came a cool
breath and the tinkle of water falling over rock,
and through the ferns and heavy red flowers we
caught the white spray of a dozen waterfalls.
Golden pheasants and red-shouldered jungle-
fowl hardly troubled to get out of our way, rab
bits and bushy-tailed squirrels whisked around
comers just ahead of us, and large monkeys

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 421
swung along the hana cords and took unbeliev
able crashing leaps in the tree-tops. Tiger and
elephant never penetrate the too open forests of
these hills, but leopards abound, and with every
rustle made by a timid mongoose or other tiny
beast there was the wild, never realized hope
that we might catch a glimpse of spotted hide.
At last we descended a deep ravine, forded a
pretty stream, and climbed to a tumble-down
group of huts on the other side. Kuhkan, the
first soil of China, the actual frontier where, if
calculations were at all correct, I should meet
Purdy, who for four months had been travel
ling from Shanghai towards this border. I did
not expect him until night, however, and In
tended to spend the afternoon In making the
place habitable.
I rode over the rise into the collection of huts,
and there a strange sight met my eyes. Two
rudely-made mountain-chairs slung on poles, a
collection of packs and bundles on the ground,
and squatting near them, seven ragged, dirty
coolies. At one side stood four coolies with red-
trimmed coats In the last stages of dissolution,
and beyond them a group of villagers. In the
centre of this mob stood a Chinese gentleman In
a long yellow robe, with his litde red-buttoned

422 LETTERS OF
cap at a jaunty angle, and beside him — Purdy.
His left hand held a can of cold tongue, from
which he had been taking an odorous and un
savory luncheon, his right hand was employed
In giving medicine to the villagers, who think
evety foreigner Is a doctor and come up for
treatment all along the route. At the same time
he was trying to give a great string of cash to the
tattered red coolies, who, I discovered later, were
soldiers presented by the Chinese Government as
an honorary escort to the Great Foreign Trav
eller. When he caught sight of me, he was
almost struck dumb, for he supposed that I was
In Ceylon, about twenty-five hundred miles or
more from the Chinese frontier.
It was a very happy meeting for both of us,
and after a bite to eat we started to return to
Mafongkha, where I had spent the last night.
We walked the whole way, and the afternoon
passed as quickly as the usual half-hour. I don't
think that either of us saw anything of the road,
for we had so much to ask and to tell about our
different adventures during the last four months.
Our trip back was made on rather short rations,
for I had only provisioned myself for the three
days to the border, reasoning that Purdy would
have a cook and plenty of food with him. But

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 423
ever since he had parted at Yunnan-fu with Per
rin, who had taken the cook out through Tonkin
and Cochin China, he had been hving on Chi
nese food prepared at the village Inns, and he and
Wong, the yellow-cloaked Interpreter, had fared
excellently up to the moment we met, for thirty-
two days of hard travel. Just at the border,
however, all Inns stopped, with the exception
of two hovel-like places where we secured some
half-ripe rice for the coolies; so our trip back to
Bhamo was made on two cans of lunch tongue,
one can of sardines, a few eggs, and a chicken
which we secured from the "Wild People," as
Wong called them. Plenty to support life, but
not very satisfying to our ravenous appetites.
I have always held that any road which Is
worth going over at all Is worth going over twice.
You get an entirely different point of view and
see many beauties which at first escaped notice,
and our trip back to the Irrawaddy was even
more interesting than the trip up, especially as
it was enlivened by the company and strange
experiences of my new-found friend.
How they had spent forty-five days coming a
htde over four hundred miles, through the gi
gantic gorges and swollen rapids of the Yangtze ;
how they had broken adrift again and again, as

424 LETTERS OF
they were being pulled upstream by forty or
fifty naked singing coolies; how they had been
caught in a whirlpool and swept down river, los
ing hours of work in a few minutes ; how they
used to send a soldier ahead with a yellow flag
Inscribed with their Chinese names, to seize a
whole inn for their caravan; how they travelled
all day through a heavy snow-storm, and had
the gates of Yunnan-fu opened for them after
dark, a thing never before heard of; how they
had been very great men in China, because their
huge red calling-cards had been made Viceroy's
size by mistake ; how country people used to beat
their heads on the ground before them In the
time-honored kowtow; how they had been asked
to settle disputes that were beyond the power
of local authorities to deal with; how they had
looked on the snow-clad mountains at Tall-fu,
which are the foothills of the Himalayas, and
how they had been tempted to make a dash into
near-by Thibet. No wonder the days passed
quickly, and we found ourselves out of the hills
and back in Burmah proper before we knew It.
It was a pleasure to see Purdy's delight at the
sudden change which had come over the sur
roundings that he had grown so used to. No
more mountains to cross, no more counting of

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 425
days, and looking at great stretches on the map
still to be traversed. There were his first golden
pagodas, his first loaded elephant, moving hke
a mountain towards us along the same painted
vista where I had seen the black buffalo. There
was his first cart, full of laughing Burmese girls,
aU flowers and silk and gold bangles, with eight-
inch, white cheroots pressed to their dainty hps.
A rickety tikka-gharry, a bicycle, the out
skirts of the village of Bhamo, the old dak bun
galow, and there 's an end on 't.
Love to all, Gilbert.
S. S. Kapurthala,
Bay of Bengal, January 28, 1908.
P. S. After leaving Bhamo we rejoined Am.
at Mandalay, where we had a great Burmese
dance in the hotel yard to celebrate our reunion.
Am. left the next day for Rangoon and Calcutta,
where he Is to join us, having investigated all
sorts of trips and made plans for us in the mean
time. Purdy and I waited for pictures to be
developed, and to dispose of the servants and
caravan he had brought across China with him.
Purdy got a Burmese boy; I still have Maung
Tun, who Is an orphan and swears he will follow
me to the end of the world. We are now on a

426 GILBERT LITTLE STARK
coasting steamer, and have been seven days mak
ing a roundabout coast-trip from Rangoon. We
stopped at two places In Burmah, i. e. Chank-
pj^ and Akyab, and one In eastern Bengal, i. e.
Chlttagong, and to-morrow we reach Calcutta.
At Akyab we took our boys and went about three
miles out of town for an all-day picnic In a cocoa-
nut grove by the seashore, where we four caught
crabs, swam In the surf, ran races on the beach,
and chased strange adjutant birds among the
palm trees. On our return we found the place
was famous for both sharks and tigers — more
careful in the future. Purdy and I are crazy to
return to the Phihppines and Pekin; now that
we have got in touch vrith Professor WiUiams
(Yale Oriental History Professor), we could have
his company. We also met H  K  at
Rangoon, and he wants to join us If we go back.
Gilbert.

CHAPTER VII
INDIA
Written on S. S. Kapurthala,
in the Bay of Bengal, at the Ganges' mouth,
January 29, 1908.
Dear Hugh, — Do you remember the old
Belgravia, or whatever she was called, that bore
us over briny seas to Hamburg ? WeU, since I
have been away from home I have been on only
two boats as large as she was, and on twelve vary
ing in size from nine hundred to three thousand
tons. This particular drownlng-machine Is about
the size of the Richard Peck, but she has carried
us for eight days around the coast from Burmah,
over glassy seas. There are only two other pas
sengers, each married to the other, and Purdy
and I are almost sorry that we reach Calcutta this
afternoon. We are alone at present, as Scurve
has been called home, and Am. got resdess in
Burmah and beat It to Calcutta, with the object
of breaking the heart of the Viceroy's daughter.
Lady R  , before I had a chance at her. We
shall rejoin him this day.
Before I go any farther, dear old Falstaff, let me
hope that all your family are well, and that you

428 LETTERS OF
are having a happier, more care-free time than
you did in the summer. Once my own father
was dangerously ill, and I shudder now when I
think of it, and my deepest sympathy goes out to
you and your brothers. I hope that somewhere
on my long road over here I shall find a letter
from you which will answer all the questions I
have been asking myself about you, since I last
heard from you in June.
I was the last of our group to leave Japan,
and stayed on until September 15th. Wally, Ted,
John, and R  A  , with whom we had been
having a splendid time, went home over the Trans-
Siberian Railway. Purdy and Scurve suddenly
went Insane and left Japan for India by way
of Shanghai, the Yangtze-Kiang, and Central
China, a long walk of thirty-six hundred miles.
Am. went to Korea and Manchuria, and I joined
him on September 2 ist In Pekin, where we stayed
a month, making a long trip In carts and on don
keys through the Great Wall into Mongoha. At
Pekin we met lots of fine men who have made
great names for themselves, and they passed us
on to friends, so that our trip down the China
coast, through Tientsin, Ching-wan-tao, Shang
hai, Foochow, Amoy, and Swatow, was very
pleasant. In November we went to Formosa,

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 429
and joined our young consul there In an official
expedition of two weeks among the head-hunting
savages, who became great friends of ours.
On this trip both Am. and our Chinese boy,
Lin, caught jungle fever, and for two weeks they
were in a hospital at Hong Kong. Then we went
to Java for a month, where the main feature was
a visit of several days to Baron Von H  , on
his huge tea-plantation.
We finally tore ourselves away from Java and
went to Burmah, via Singapore and Penang,
and there we recruited Purdy, but I went from
Burmah to the Chinese frontier, with a mule
caravan, to meet him.
India is our next spasm, and then — Heaven
alone knows. It may be Egypt, may be Persia,
and may be back home through China. I will
let you know which, when we decide.
I have not heard much news from the fellows.
You probably know all I do and more. . . .
By the way, our boat is ploughing through
muddy Ganges water, which our sailors think is
so holy that a bath in It will take them straight
to Heaven, or to a place that corresponds to our
Heaven. The Ganges banks also have come In
view, and they are low, muddy excuses for banks,
with scrubby bushes and mangy palm trees.

430 LETTERS OF
Among the dozens of pleasant features of the
last half-year Is one which I know would tickle
you, and many times have I wished for you to
help me enjoy It. The feature I speak of Is —
the kids. They have quite captured me, and I
know that you, who have room in your big heart
for all the smelly, ugly, htde, Jewish ragamuffins In
the world, would never tire of the brown-bodied
litde monkeys with white teeth and black eyes,
who are scared to death at first, but gradually
grow bolder and cuddle up to you and pat your
hand, as though you were the only friend they
had ever had In the world. Let me Introduce you
to a few of the pleasant memories I have stored
away. "Mr. MacWhirter MacWhylees — Mino
OhashI of Nikko, Japan."
Mino was a little peach. He was a sort of
guide to the neighborhood at Nikko and knew a
little English. I met him one night when I was
strolling about in Japanese costume. He Imme
diately went home for his best kimono, and then
took me out for a long walk, and we became
great friends. He was the pet of the whole crowd,
and I took him with me for three weeks. It was
almost like being married, for he would wait up
for me at night and scold me when I was out late,
and then put me to bed on the floor (where you

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 431
have to sleep In a Japanese Inn), and bring me
tea and cigarettes after I was all fixed. He was
a great mimic, too, and used to amuse us every
evening by acting out different things he had
seen during the day. We had an English les
son every evening, too, and he also taught me a
bit of Japanese. I missed him greatly, and he
cried when I sent him back to Nikko, and I
have a queerly spelled letter from him every
month. Next, shake your own hands ^n true Chinese
style) at Ah Sin Ko, a little Chinese boy with
thick-soled shoes, gray robe, black cap with red
button, and long, shiny pigtail. He had been on
a visit to some friends near Pekin and was
walking home, a several days' journey, when our
caravan bound for Mongolia overtook him. He
at once joined us for protection, and from his
manly bearing and self-rehance we called him
"the Commodore." He could not speak any
English, but he learned his name, and we had
great fun with him. Am. and I used to walk a
long way ahead ofthe animals, and he joined us.
We taught him to salute like a soldier, and when
we saw a camel caravan coming towards us, we
would all fall into step and march up to It, then
Une up by the roadside and salute as it passed.

432 LETTERS OF
much to the amazement of the camel-drivers,
and to the great glee ofthe Commodore.
The most affectionate of all the kids I have
seen, however, was, strange to say, one of the
Formosa head-hunters. On this trip In the jun
gle we had fifty-six savages to carry our supplies,
and among them were women and children. One
of these, a boy of fourteen, showed an early desire
to make friends, and soon he spent all his time
In camp, sitting at my feet. On the march
he would not walk anjrwhere except directly
behind me, and several times during the day
he would reach forward for my hand and touch
It. He was very anxious to have me learn his
language, which Is very easy like most savage
tongues, and did teach me about eighty words.
He would keep touching parts of his body and
repeating the name, and then make me say It
after him.
I wish you could have seen him ; Uschlung was
his name, by the way. He was about four feet
tall and very well built, as any one could plainly
see, for his only clothing was a tiny square of
cloth, not a loin-cloth, simply a loose curtain.
He wore also a wide wooden belt, bent tightly
about his waist like a corset. His neck was cov
ered with necklaces of beads, wild-boar bones.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 433
and brass rings, and In his ears were half-moons
of mother of pearl. Two of his very white teeth
In front had been knocked out. Every man
knocks these teeth out to make himself more
beautiful. His eyes were big and round, his nose
straight, and his chin weU modelled — altogether
he Was a noble-looking little savage. I must n't
forget his sword, however, which was a long,
sharp, home-made knife in an open wooden
sheath. This sword they use for killing wild
beasts, cutting off heads, cutting their food,
or cutting bamboo grass for their huts. As we
spent every night at an altitude varying be
tween six thousand and fourteen thousand feet.
It was very cold, and our savages nearly froze,
with their naked bodies unprotected. Every
night Uschlung would creep under my blanket,
and want to sleep there, but I always sent him
off, as soon as I felt his strong little body grow
warm. I did lend him a coat, however, while we
were in high altitudes.
Since then we have made acquaintance with
children in Java, the Malay States, and Burmah,
and have left a tiny friend behind us everywhere.
We are living a cheap but luxurious hfe here
in the East, and at present we each have a ser
vant with us. Mine is a Burmese youth of eight-

434 LETTERS OF
een named Maung Tun. He wakens me In the
morning with a cup of tea and some toast. He
lays out my clothes, he folds up what I take off,
and keeps my clothes packed in order, and sees
that they are washed and pressed, and my shoes
blacked. He waits on me at table In the hotels,
and walks behind me all day to act as interpreter,
if I want to ask questions or buy anything. He
rides behind like a footman whenever I get into a
cab, and he tends to all tips and small fees, por
ters, and checking of luggage. He helps me dress
for dinner, and turns out the lights after I go to
bed. Then he rubs my back and tells me funny
stories until I am ready to go to sleep. On coun
try expeditions he also cooks, and on the railroad
trains he gets out rugs and pillows and makes
everything comfortable. These boys make a
regular old woman out of you in the East; why,
they even take off your shoes for you !
Maung Tun wears a pink silk turban, a white
jacket, and a gorgeous silk skirt, called a
lungyi. On his bare feet are slippers, which he
always takes off before entering my presence.
Just like a comic opera. Is n't it ?
Many things have reminded me of our trip to
gether in 1904, and I find that that trip, together
with our close friendship at college, forms one of

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 435
the pleasantest memories of my life. Do write,
Hugh-gins; send your letter care of Thomas
Cook, Bombay, If you get It off before March.
Love to your family, and Dick and Ern when
you write them. Yours always, Gil.
S. S. Kapurthala, January 29.
Dear Father, -^ We are now steaming up
the Ganges, or one of its mouths, towards Cal
cutta, where we shall rejoin Am. to-night. India
at last lies before us.
Several matters await our attention here, and
most important of all Is the decision as to our
future plans. It seems that three courses lie be
fore us.
I : India until early in 'March, then Constan
tinople via Persia; this would give us a chance
for Northern India only.
2 : India until May, Including Southern India,
and Kashmir when the warm weather grows un
pleasant; then Europe via Egypt.
3 : India until March, then through Southern
India to the Philippines direct, and later North
China, Manchuria, and Korea.
This third is the plan which Purdy and I are
eager to adopt. I have also heard lately from

436 LETTERS OF
Professor Williams of Yale, who wants us to join
him. He Is working towards China with Mr.
B  , a distinguished Connecticut lawyer, and
we shall see them next week. Their plans and
advice will be a big factor in our decision. We
also expect to meet Professor Woolsey, and he
Is heading towards China.
Am.'s African trip, on which he has set his
heart. Is the only thing that keeps him from tak
ing this same plan.
There Is no doubt that the second plan would
be the easiest, laziest, and pleasantest, but there
is also no doubt that the third plan would be most
fascinating, most instructive, and fully as cheap.
As I have said before, Europe appeals to my
sense of beauty, of romance, and calls up Images
ofthe past; but just at present Is not my business
more with the tremendous problems ofthe future
that are just beginning to swell on the shores of
the Pacific, and that are sure to fill the horizon
for the next generation at least ?
We are just on the eve of great doings. The
Evolution of Civilization and that of the Races
of Man have simultaneously reached a critical
climax. The point is that Science has outstripped
nature. The east and west have been abolished,
but the East and West remain. The geographi-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 437
cal barriers have been cast down, but the differ
ence between the Orient and Occident in mind,
body, and Institutions still remains as rigid as
before. Something must happen, and as the
greatest factor In this coming problem Is peace
ful China, knowledge and skilful legislation and
diplomacy are going to settle matters, not force
of arms. You see it Is not a question of military
supremacy at all. Conquer China a dozen times,
or divide her Into a hundred slices, and her In
creasing hundreds of millions remain, spreading
to the farthest parts of the earth ; and the prob
lem Is as it was before. I do not think there Is a
Yellow Peril at all, but there is as big a problem
as the world has ever seen and grappled. When
I think of these things, the soft sun of Italy and
the train-ride from Cairo to the Pyramids seem
things that can wait for my first two months
with nothing to do, after I become a lawyer, how
ever long that may be.
Persia does not seem practical on account of
the troubles there, but we shall hear this after
noon, for Am. has had a week to make inquiries
and plans at Calcutta. He will have some wild
scheme afoot sure. I will continue this letter
after we have landed and I have read the mail
which I ordered forwarded from Bombay.

438 LETTERS OF
I am more than grateful to you and mother
for your Christmas present.
Thank you so much, too, for sending Ugo
Nakada the candy ; the address was quite correct.
I suppose my third cable, of the late series,
told you that I had finally received both of yours,
which were stupidly delayed at Singapore and
Rangoon, I am surprised that you could not
read my first — It meant "Merry Xmas and
Happy New Year, Let me know that you have
received this." Calcutta.
On arrival here, we found Am. hobnobbing
with Lord M  and the rest. He had secured
invitations for us to the great Durbar, for which
we arrived a day too late, and for a ball given
by the Countess of M  , for which we are not
going to wait. We have been here one night, and
leave to-day for Darjeehng In the Himalayas.
H  K — — Is again here with us, but has
decided not to return via Pacific, Am, has
planned so much for us in India that it almost
looks as If we had better stay here until May,
and then beat It for Europe, and a month's study
of languages there, before going home. A wire
from you saying that you could not go to the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 439
Philippines, but might come to Europe, would
absolutely decide me to adopt the above course.
Our plans here. If we stay, Include a visit to the
Maharaja of Gwallor and a month In Kashmir!
Darjeeling, February 3.
Hooray! the most magnificent place I have
seen since leaving China ! Wonderful mountains,
fascinating natives in furs and pigtails. Hordes
of Lepchas, Bhutias, Nepalese; and, best of
all, real Thibetans, loaded with silver and tur
quoise ornaments ! Am. has gone down for a two
weeks' hunt with Prince Hiti, son of the Rajah
of Kuch-Behar, and Purdy and I are leaving
for a two weeks' trip into SIkkIm, the Heart
of the Himalayas, the country of the Lychas,
and the vestibule of Thibet. Although we shall
be among the highest, grandest mountains of the
world, our road Is a broad one along valleys, and
the trip will be very easy. The Lycha people
are also the kindest, most primitive, and hos
pitable people under the sun; so don't imagine
we are In the least danger.
SIkkim Is closed, as are Thibet, Nepal, and
Bhutan, but we have secured passes from the
British Government that will enable us to cross
the border of British SIkkim, in which we are

440 LETTERS OF
practically now, and enter the Independent King
dom. In all the time I have been away, I have
not been so enthusiastic about a trip. We have
four ponies, our two Burmese boys, a young
Thibetan Interpreter, Chhodhar by name, who Is
a little peach, seven coolies, and four syces or
pony-boys. We shall stay each night In a gov
ernment rest-house, with a roaring wood-fire,
for here we are having proper February weather.
It is our purpose to visit Gangtok, the capital,
Pamiongshi, the biggest Lamasery this side of
Thibet Itself, and Kalimpong, where there Is a
missionary. I will not tell you more, but save the
rest for the actual description ofthe trip. In two
weeks you will hear all about it. I have received
the Xmas presents from all of you, — many,
many thanks; they delighted me.
Loads of loVe to all of you. Gilbert.
By the way, our syces are to be Nepalese Ghur
kas, and our coolies Bhutias and Thibetans.
How about that, — Is n't It good ?
Darjeeling, February 17, 1908.
Dear Ones, — Back again to civiUzation
after a magnificent, easy trip in mountains that

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 441
filled us full of health and enthusiasm. I am
working at an account of It for you, from fuU
notes I made every night. If you only have
patience. It will arrive In large doses ; but I 'm
afraid there will be more quantity than quality.
However, it will tell you how we put In our time
during these two weeks of silence.
Professor WiUiams and his classmate and com
panion are here with us, and we are constantly
together. It is a treat to be with these fine, schol
arly men, especially as Professor Williams Is a
distinguished Orientalist. This morning we all
rose at four and rode ponies to the top of Tiger
Hill, six miles distant, to get a peek at Everest
and to see the sunrise. The view was glorious
and beggars all description, but a handful of
cloud was sufficient to hide Everest, one hundred
and twenty miles distant. All you can see any
way Is a white dot, and the only object of see
ing it is to be able to talk about it afterwards ;
a ridiculous object. Only forty-five miles away,
however. Is a half-circle of snow peaks, 180 de
grees of solid snow and Ice crowned with twelve
distinct peaks over twenty thousand feet high,
and many others just under that altitude. In the
centre rises the majestic mass of Kinchln-junga,
only a few feet lower than Everest, itself over

442 LETTERS OF
twenty-eight thousand feethlgh. Just before sun
rise the entire snow mass gleamed blood-red. It
was magnificent, and Professor Williams, who
does not take breakfast, remained behind until
ten o'clock, over four hours, and has just re
turned. The view is practically the same as
the one from our hotel, and from every other
spot in Darjeehng. Tiger HIU Is twelve hundred
feet higher, and so the intervening valley across
which the peaks rise Is deepened to six thousand
feet straight down. From my back window I
could apparently drop a stone five thousand feet.
Full details and future plans In a day or so.
Love to all, Gilbert.
Delhi, March i, 1908.
Dear Helen, — ... The beautiful pin you
sent me arrived safely, and smuggled Itself
through the customs In fine style. It has since
gleamed resplendent In my ragged and crumpled
neck-gear, and has been the envy of all India.
It was great of you to think of me way out here,
and I thank you ever so much.
At Darjeeling Purdy and I lingered two days
with Professor WiUiams and Mr. B  , and
were with them constantly, walking, eating, and
riding. Professor Williams and I had some great

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 443
talks about Eastern questions, and filled In the
chinks swapping stanzas from Omar Khayyam.
We hated to say good-bye to them, and I do wish
I could join them In China; but I have about
given that plan up, as I should not think of going
back east without fuU approval from home, and
the time is too short for that.
Am. had finished his visit to the Rajah of
Kuch-Behar long before we came down to Cal
cutta; and as he grew tired of waiting for us, he
proceeded to Agra, to wait there.
On the 19th we finally returned to Calcutta,
and stayed for only one night. Calcutta Is a nice
modern city, but not a bit more Indian than
Montreal or Toronto, except for the color of the
people In the street. Finis Calcutta.
Our next stop was Benares, and there we put
In two full days. Benares Is the sacred city ofthe
Hindus, and there are over one thousand temples
there; but, as some of them are n't any larger
than a cheese-box, they are not so much In evi
dence as you would imagine.
The city is built on the holy Ganges River, and
is for the most part a coUection of mud-walled
houses; but along the river-bank, and for some
distance back, the buildings are of stone and rise
three or four stories in height, almost meeting

444 LETTERS OF
over the narrow, winding rat-holes that take the
place of streets.
We did the usual things. Visited first the Mon
key Temple, a sort of stone backyard, with a
stone shrine In the middle under a carved canopy.
At one side is a big bathing ghat, with stone steps
on all sides ; at the gate are the usual loathsome
Indian beggars, and swarming all over the place
are big, filthy monkeys. I bought some grain for
them, and they could n't wait, but jumped about
and tried to knock the plate out of my hands.
There are almost two hundred of them, and they
are thought to be very sacred and close friends of
the goddess Durga, whose temple this really is.
I scratched one on the back with my cane, and
the people almost mobbed me. Horrible place.
The only spot that I have ever seen that is
dirtier is the cow-temple adjoining the Golden
Temple of Siva. These shrines are a collection
of small carved-stone buildings, so huddled and
tangled up with the surrounding structure that it
Is hard to get an idea of their shape. Being out
casts and pagans, we were not allowed to enter
the holy places, but we peeked through doors and
gateways Into slimy courtyards full of carved
figures of bulls and other beasts, live cows, and
aU kinds of Hindu people. I also looked through

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 445
a hole In the wall into the ladles' department,
and here was even more confusion. A jam of fat
and ugly females, with nose-rings like oxen, were
throwing flowers and water over the emblems of
the god Siva and making an awful racket about
it. By climbing up on a building near by I could
see the gold roof, which gives the temple Its name.
It would be hard to Imagine a greater contrast
than these temples present to the Buddhist tem
ples I have seen.
The great sight at Benares Is the river-front.
The banks are about forty feet above the water
at this time of year, and magnificent flights of
stone steps and terraces stretch for two miles
along the water's edge. These steps are topped
by strong fortresses and grim, bastioned palaces;
for all the Hindu rajahs have houses here. Be
tween the palaces and temples you peer down
the black mouths of the narrow streets.
The river-steps are dotted with big mat-um-
breUas, under each of which sits a fakeer; un
clothed holy men these are, who sit on spikes, or
never speak, or look forever Into a mirror as did
the Lady of Shalott. A mass of people, in bright
robes, crowd always up and down, and the
water is fuU of praying bathers. There are young
and old, weU and sick, widows and brides, the

446 LETTERS OF
dying and even the dead. After the bath the holy
fakeers paint a fresh caste mark on the bathers'
foreheads. In two or three different places are great stacks
of wood, with bodies lying on them ready to be
burned, and in other places you can see the
attendants with long poles poking charred bits
back Into the flames, or rajring over the ashes
before flinging them into the river. All Hindu
bodies are burned, except those of the fakeers,
and on our first trip to the river a dead fakeer
rubbed against our boat as he floated down
stream, followed by a dead dog and a monkey.
There Is no doubt that Benares Is Interesting, but
I think you would find It a bit disgusting.
On our last afternoon we made a trip up river
for a few miles, to visit the Rajah's palace. It Is
a magnificent fortress rising sheer and grim out
of the river, and its forbidding towers and but
tresses are capped by graceful galleries and ar
cades. The Interior is elaborately furnished, but
without much taste.
His Highness was out hunting, and had
twenty-five elephants with him, so the palace offi
cials could not offer us an elephant to carry us to
a neighboring temple; but they put at our dis
posal a queer sort of conveyance with a pair of

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 447
good horses, and we drove a mile or so to the
temple and the royal gardens, where the gardener
gave us fragrant boutonnleres of rosebuds and
mignonette. We had a proud coachman, two
footmen, two liveried attendants vnth resplen
dent turbans, and, as we had an Arab guide and
my Burmese bearer, Maung Tun, with us, our
carriage looked like a Barnum and Bailey's band
wagon, or a float In the firemen's parade.
After we left Benares, we went straight to Agra,
to rejoin Am., and although we did not see the
Taj until the second day, I am going to write
you about it, as you mentioned It In one of your
letters. It was built, you know, by Emperor Shah
Jehan, the third of the Great Moguls, as a
tomb for his beloved •wik, the "Jewel of the
Palace." It took twenty thousand men over
twenty years to bmld, and although the beautiful
marble and the precious stones of which it Is
built were aU presented to the Emperor by his
servants, the Indian Rajahs, and although labor
in this country is very cheap, only a trifle a day,
it cost Shah "Jehan over a million dollars In gold,
according to some accounts. It has been claimed
that an Italian designed the tomb, but now it
seems clear that, although there were some

448 LETTERS OF
French and Italian assistants In the inlaid de
signs, the credit and the glory belong to Persian
and Indian Mohammedan architects. Now that
you have swallowed the bare facts, you can look
at the building Itself.
Before reaching India I was sick of the word
Taj. Everyone spoke ofthe Taj, the Taj, just as
they used to talk about the Wizard of Oz, and I
got to think it very cheap to mention the word.
I read so many descriptions of it and saw so many
pictures of It that I knew I should be disap
pointed. I had no doubt that It was a very pretty
little building, but I felt sure that seeing It would
be an old story and would give me no pleasure.
But I knew nothing about the matter. The Taj
Is one of the few things in the world that noto
riety and vulgar praise and hackneyed descrip
tion are powerless to spoil. You cannot be dis
appointed in it, and to all alike It reveals Itself,
fresh and pure and new, as though it were newly
born, and quite unspoiled by the feeble attempts
at praise that the world has made for the last
four hundred years.
We went at sunset. The approach Is through
a broad, rather dusty park. Then you enter a
large green square, surrounded by fine walls of
red sandstone, and at one side Is a beautiful tow-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 449
ering gateway, hke the face of a great cliff, all red
stone, inlaid with fine designs In white marble.
You are now in the vestibule of the Taj garden.
In one corner Is a stone caravanserai, and several
fine red stone mosques are clustered near the
walls. Here traveUers found a welcome, and the
poor were cared for in memory of the loved wife
and Empress.
As soon as we stepped through the great gate,
the Taj burst on our sight. It is so sudden that
it almost hurts. The picture I enclose is taken
from the gate, but It gives no Idea of the beauty
of the view. High stone walls surround the spa
cious garden and absolutely shut out the rest of
the world. A mass of green trees and flowers,
divided by a marble canal with a wall on each
side, fiUs the foreground, and beyond rises the
Taj. The great surprise is the size ofthe build
ing. It is huge like a great cathedral. Each of
the four towers Is a massive monument, one hun
dred and thirty-seven feet high. The platform
on which It stands Is no mere pedestal, but a
broad field of dazzling white; the dome, like an
Imprisoned balloon, seemingly on the point of
breaking away and soaring Into the sky, is one
hundred and eighty-seven feet above the ground,
and the whole is of marble, white and pure as

450 LETTERS OF
snow. The only color about the building Is the
tracery of precious stones, which you can see In
the picture. Cornelian, agate, lapis lazuli, mother
of pearl, and jade worked Into beautiful flowers
and delicate Persian letters that sing the praises
of the dead Empress. The evening light trans
formed the marble Into cream-colored ivory, and
filled the hollows with warm, glowing shadows.
I was honesdy moved. I did not think a building
could ever have power to give me a thrill, but the
three hours I spent there were almost dreamlike.
We walked closer and saw the marble screens
that fill the openings in the alcoves. Carved
stone that looks like cobweb or the softest lace.
We entered the tomb with a group of Indians
clad in green velvet and gold, and stood beneath
the great dome beside the tomb. The light filter
ing through the carved stone was soft and dim,
there was a smell of sandalwood, and the beau
tiful tombstone was heaped with roses. One of
the Indians stepped forward and cried, "Allah!
Allah ! " and the clear musical sound rose to the
dome and circled round Its smooth white walls,
making the marble ring like a bell; again and
again it sounded, and then crept whispering
down, as though it could not leave so beautiful
a place.

GILBERT LITTLE 'STARK 451
Direcdy behind runs the river Jumna, and we
sat for some time on the broad marble field that
forms the platform, and looked far down on the
river, or across to the miles of flat ruin-dotted
country beyond. Then as the light faded, we
wandered off to one side Into the Persian rose
garden, heavy with fragrance and blessed with
frequent glimpses of the Wonder rising close at
hand among the trees. We did not leave until
after dark, and starhght was even more beautiful
than the evening sun.
The next day I saw it again at high noon,
when It was ablaze with light. It rose out of the
dark greenery about It like white fire, and was
as glorious as on the day before. The effect it
makes on all kinds of people from all countries
proves that beauty Is not relative but absolute.
My boy was overcome by It, and the gardens are
always full of wondering natives. I saw an old
American man, white-haired, wandering about
alone with his hat on the back of his head, and
when he saw me, he could n't hold in, although
he probably thought I was English, and he
called out, "WeU, I guess this is big aU right!"
That was just his way of paying tribute, and I
felt kindly towards him.
I think that the Taj, set as It is In perfect sur-

452 LETTERS OF
roundings, is the most beautiful single object
of any sort that I have ever seen.
When we reached Agra, we found that Am.
had driven out to Fatehpur Sikhri, a ruined cap
ital of Akbar near-by, so we drove out, twenty-
five miles, to join him. We found that he had
been hunting around the dak bungalow, and
had secured six buck and two peacocks, besides
Innumerable hare, pigeon, and partridge, so we
lived well for a time, both at Fatehpur and at
Agra. The bungalow was comfortable and I
spent the night.
The old city, vrith Its mosques, baths, au
dience-halls, and palaces. Is in almost perfect
preservation, but Is absolutely deserted. Every
thing Is of stone, — fine, hard, red stone, carved
so richly that It Is like embroidery or tapestry.
There is only a tiny village nesded beneath the
walls, so I had the place quite to myself, and
at sunset, by starlight, and at sunrise, I wan
dered about the deserted rooms and courts, and
explored the underground passages and rooms
with which the hill Is honeycombed.
Maung Tun Is a great lover of the country
and quite a naturalist, and together we went
hunting without guns. He showed me a wild
pigeon's nest with eggs, a peacock's nest, the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 453
cool places In some neighboring ruins where the
leopard cats spend the hot noons ; and we flushed
twenty-five wild peacocks and a small kind of
wild boar. Altogether It was a delightful two
days. I enclose also a picture of one of the great
gates of the deserted city. These buildings are
just the sort that children imagine. The palaces
and fortresses of fairy tales, massive. Imposing,
and romantic beyond description or Imagina
tion. At Agra, besides seeing the Taj, we saw the
fort. It is a formidable enclosure, crowded with
palaces that put Versailles to shame for luxury
and magnificence. There are two types of build
ings, — those strong, massive, red palaces of
Akbar, the fighter, and the delicate, dreamlike,
luxurious, white-marble buildings, added by his
grandson Shah Jehan, — the pleasure-loving.
Akbar's palace has something of Egyptian
grandeur, and is full of towers and courts, and
balconies, from which he used to watch tiger-
fights and battles royal among his elephants.
Shah Jehan's palace has marble passages
lighted by the sun shining through the stone!
Boudoirs Inlaid with onyx and emerald and
pearl, scented baths, and marble brooks run
ning through the rooms, and fountains with

454 LETTERS OF
beautifully carved basins that used to spray per
fume. Broad marble courts for flowers and
grape-arbors, tiny marble mosques, audience-
halls, zenanas, the jasmine tower built out on a
rampart ofthe grim wall, all of marble, — white,
unspotted marble. He had one white court laid
out like a parchesi board, and he played with
slave-girls for pieces, directing their movements
by a throw of the dice.
Underneath Is a labyrinth of rooms and dun
geons and passages leading, they say, to the Taj
and even to Fatehpur, twenty-five miles away.
These Mogul triumphs are well worth a trip to
see. Until I visited them, I thought that Oriental
magnificence was a fable, but it must have been
something beyond belief. Here at Delhi the
greatest Interest to me lies In the street-life, — a
crowd of veiled ladles In flowing skirts or trou
sers, Hindus, Mohammedans, Pathans and Af
ghans from the North, sacred cows as big as
buffaloes, that stand majestically in the middle
of the crowded streets, thoughtfully chewing
what they have stolen unrebuked from the way
side stalls, wedding processions, street-dancers,
jugglers and hawkers, all In one grand jumble.
Pekin is the only other place I have seen with
more interesting street-life.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 455
There are also fine palaces here, and miles of
ruins outside the city, the Imposing Kutab Mi
nar, the Jama Mazid, India's greatest mosque,
— many things of interest for the student of the
Indian mutiny, and shops galore.
India has certainly many Interesting sights,
and is well worth a visit, no matter how short a
time one has, but it Is very tiring and depress
ing, and the distances are enormous.
I think I shall go from here to Amritsar and
Lahore, then to Bombay, by Jaipur and Udai-
pur, passing again through Delhi on the way
down. Purdy and Am. are leaving shordy for
two weeks In Kashmir, and wiU then proceed
south to Ceylon, but I shall not see much more
of them, for they have now decided to remrn
through China, Am. having given up all his
other plans. Unless they change again, we prac
tically part company for the rest of the trip.
Scurve has already sailed for Europe. With
Maung Tun, who Is well educated and Is a de
voted companion, I shall not be lonely, I hope.
India, while a cheap country in which to live, is
proving a very expensive one in which to travel.
The hotels and railroads are very reasonable,
but to reach the native city in each place, one
must always drive about two miles, and as the

456 LETTERS OF
heat and dust prevent walking. It means that a
carriage must be hired for each day and for the
whole day. None of the drivers talk English,
and for the places we have visited so far a guide
has been an absolute necessity. Then there are
fees to the keepers of each place, for India is
cursed with seekers after backsheesh.
The English live an English life here, in com
plete Isolation from the native, and the easy
Intercourse and chance to know the native, so
pleasant In China and Japan, Is here absolutely
Impossible. I am hoping against hope that
the native capitals Jaipur and Udalpur may be
different. I think I am a bit homesick to-day and do wish
I could sge you all; but Europe Is next door to
America, and I shall be in Europe, I think, be
fore the end of April. As soon as plans definitely
mature, I shall cable where to address your let
ters from home. Do not send any to Teheran or
Constantinople, for I shall probably not visit
either place. I wish I could take Maung Tun to
Europe with me.
Loads and loads of love to all. I '11 write a
better letter In a few days; to-day the words
don't flow well. I am In fine health and will soon
send the account of the SIkkim trip. I have re-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 457
ceived a letter from home dated January 19th,
so feel quite in touch with you again.
Yours, Gilbert.
Udaipur, March 6, 1908.
Dear Ones, — At Delhi I separated from
Am. and Purdy, who went north into Kashmir,
but I trust that the first of April wIU see us to
gether again. Father's fine letter, in which he
tells me that I may return through China, came
after they left, so they do not yet know that there
is a possiblhty of my joining them ; I had defi
nitely given up the Orient.
In father's letter he does not say whether or
no he could join me in Italy this spring, and I
am hoping that in a few days at Bombay I shall
find letters that will clear up that point. At pre
sent my plans are as follows : To-morrow I shall
proceed to Bombay, reaching there on Monday
the 9th. From Bombay I shall go straight to
Colombo by rail, if it is not too murderously hot,
otherwise by water. I shall spend a week or two
In the hills of Ceylon, resting after the exertions
of Indian travel, and waiting for Purdy and Am.
If I find that father wIU join me In Italy, I shall
then proceed to Europe early in April. If I find
he Is not planning to join me, I shall sail for
Mamla about April loth.

458 LETTERS OF
If I go east, I shall simply hit the high spots,
I should like to make Manila and Pekin and
Seoul the three only real stops, and if I found
time before the steamer sailed, I might climb
Fuji, a three or four days' trip, to get a bit of ex
ercise before the long sea-voyage. If the steam
boat fares are too steep for this schedule, I may
cut out my admired Pekin, and substitute a week
with friends at Canton College and a week's
visit to the Peets at Foochow College, At both
those places I should meet Intelligent men, who
have spent their lives among the Chinese, and
could introduce me to many English-speaking
Celestials in the schools and cities of Canton and
Foochow. While Pekin is the most picturesque
and interesting place In China, and the political
centre, and while I should there have a chance to
talk to more famous and Influential foreigners
than In the South, I should not meet English-
speaking Chinese.
Canton and Foochow, on the other hand,
pride themselves on being Intellectual and com
mercial centres and call the Pekinese barbarians,
and as both these cities lie on my direct route
home through Japan, they would Involve no
extra expense. If I have to substitute them for
Pekin, I should proceed direct to Moji in Japan,

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 459
and from there visit Seoul, an Inexpensive side-
trip of one night on a ferry and a short day on a
slow train. I expect that Korea would be fuU of
meat. From Delhi I had planned to visit Lahore and
Amritsar, then to start south, passing once more
through Delhi, and taking in Jaipur and this
place on my way to Bombay. But father's letter
made me anxious to reach Bombay, to get the
rest of my mail and get Into cable communica
tion with you once more. If possible ; then, too,
the Idea of " doing" Amritsar and Lahore alone,
and spending two extra sleepless nights on these
bouncing, dusty trains, did not appeal to me, so I
started south from Delhi on last Monday night,
reaching Jaipur at five In the morning, pitch-
dark, without having had one minute's sleep all
night. As I said In my letter to Helen, although
India Is distincdy worth while, it is not pleasant
and is very tiring. Darjeeling Is a garden spot,
the buildings at Agra are magnificent, and this
place, Udaipur, Is a typical Eastern city, whose
equal no imagination could create unaided. I
should not care to have missed these things at all,
were the unpleasant features doubly accentuated,
but I am panting for Ceylon. Before I proceed
to give you the jewels I have packed away In my

46o LETTERS OF
memory during the last few days, let me outline
the unpleasantnesses.
In the first place, India is a sight-seers' coun
try and I am not a born sight-seer, in fact, dis
like It as a rule. If I can run across a " sight " on
my daily ramble or ride, I absorb It and am
thankful for it and take it as one of the plums
of life; but to spend weeks stalking through
mediocre and tawdry old piles, with a garrulous
commission-hunting guide egging one on, and
a rabble of beggars and children shrieking for
"backsheesh," Is not my Idea of self-develop
ment at all. The natives of India are either
cringing or Insolent at first acquaintance, and to
treat them all as servants and shoiit monosylla
bic orders at them in a loud, frowning tone is the
customary and really the best way to treat them.
If you don't do it, they think you are afraid of
them. The educated Babus are full of words and
meaningless phrases, and those I have talked
with have universally condemned British rule,
with arguments less logical than the parrot-like
war-cries ofthe rabid socialists at home. Heaven
help us if our educational system In the Philip
pines produces anything hke the Bengah Babu !
Of course, there are fine men among them, and
in some sections the natives are splendid gende-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 461
men throughout; but long residence and a know
ledge of the language are absolute essentials to
getting any first-hand Information about them,
or forming acquaintance with them.
Hence, travel in India resolves Itself Into look
ing at the picturesque cities and monuments with
which the country Is dotted. That many of these
are worth seeing at any cost In comfort, I not
only admit but staunchly maintain, but to reach
them one must travel hundreds of miles over
barren, dust-choked wastes.
The hotels are all built in cantonments two or
three miles from the cities. These cantonments
are dreary collections of fields, with stunted trees
rising at sparse Intervals from the baked and
cracking earth, each building being from an
eighth to a quarter of a mile distant from all its
neighbors. The roads are without paths or side
walks, open to the deadly sun and ankle-deep in
red dust. The result Is that exercise is almost
Impossible (although I have managed a walk al
most every evening, swearing each time I would
never do It again), and you go from point to
point in rattling carriages that move along in a
plUar of fine dust. The hot sun throws you Into
a perspiration, and the cold wind stiU blow
ing, north of Agra, chills you at the same time :

462 LETTERS OF
result, bad colds for all of us. The dust, which
hangs In the air and makes haloes about the
lights at night, parches you Inside and outside :
result, chapped hands and face and cracked lips,
smarting throat and nostrils. The glare is unre
lieved by a cloud the size of a man's hand : re
sult, a continuous squint and tendency to head
ache. Do you wonder that I regret the ocean
travel we have been able to make use of almost
exclusively for the last seven months, and the
freer stretches and more attractive and more
easily studied questions of the Far East ?
With an Interesting party of people, ladies in
cluded (for this is a Mem Sahibs' land, full of
shops), and a special train and plenty of ice and
soda, I should like to attack India once more;
but for the present I am satisfied to leave. Now
for the plums.
Jaipur and Udaipur are two native capitals
of two adjoining Rajput States. Their rulers are
among the proudest of Indian kings, and trace
their descent through generations of princes,
stretching back to times when the ancestors of
European kings were long-haired brigands.
Jaipur Is a walled city of about one hundred
and fifty thousand Inhabitants, lying In the midst
of a sandy desert full of peacocks, black buck.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 463
and ruins, all of which you can see In almost
every direction you cast your eyes.
A stroll, or rather drive, of a mile from the
hotel brings you to one ofthe gates In the crenel
lated wall about the town. There is a waUed
outer courtyard, with a gate on the side, built
around each of the main entrances. The town
is well laid out — a broad main street bisecting
It, and three cross avenues one hundred feet wide
trisecting its length. The huge blocks Into which
these avenues divide the town are pierced In all
directions by a network of picturesque alleys,
overhung by balconies of pierced stone, from
which the ladies can look down unobserved upon
the passing throng. The whole town is painted a
dehcate pink, and the type of architecture Is or
nate to the last degree, sometimes beautiful, but
more often a bit tawdry and spectacular, hke the
stucco buildings one sees at our Expositions.
I went through the palace, after having ob
tained a pass from the president, but did not wax
enthusiastic about the huge pile and Its scat
tered courts and gardens. Two things within the
sacred precincts did Interest me intensely, how
ever. One was the lake of crocodiles. We stood
above the lake, on a platform belonging to some
pavilion or other, and a wild-looking Rajput

464 LETTERS OF
stood on the bottom step below us, at the water's
edge, and uttered a series of wild cries, belting
the water meanwhile with an Inflated bladder
on a string. Soon we saw ripples on the surface
drawing closer to the steps, and a big tortoise
and two crocodiles, eight or ten feet long,
climbed on the steps. They opened their huge
jaws, and the wild Individual who had sum
moned them up from the depths threw great
chunks of meat down their gullets, with such
force that it seemed as though the gobbets of
flesh must drive to the tips of their tails. When
the beasts grew ugly and snapped at him, he
rapped them on their noses with a big cudgel,
and the blows sounded as though they were
delivered on a steel plate.
The second Interesting sight was the Mahara
jah's paymaster exercising his functions. Two
of the curtains screening the arches of the Di-
wan-I-Khas, or great audience-hall, were heavily
looped up, giving ghmpses into Its cool dark re
cesses where one caught the gleam of gilt and
glass mosaic. On the outer edge of the hall-
platform. In a strip of brilhant sunlight, half a
hundred gay retainers of the palace were seated
in a semicircle around the paymaster, an impas
sive fat man gorgeously dressed, squatting with

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 465
his back against a plUar. Facing him, and
within the semicircle, sat five scribes, who wrote
simultaneously the name of the man caUed and
the amount paid him. Between them and the
paymaster was a great heap of silver coins, and
on either side a man with scales weighing each
amount as the crier called the sum due.
Outside the city gates Is a park, full of pretty
walks and drives and tiger-cages; the Mahara
jah spends a large sum on It yearly.
The street-hfe of Jaipur Is jusdy famed, but
we could not judge its full Interest, as the city
is now half deserted on account of the plague.
Many shops are closed, and a comparatively
small traffic Is carried on in the great pink
avenues; the Maharajah himself has fled, leav
ing behind his four vrives and two hundred sub-
wives, and of those remaining seventy to eighty
are dying every day. There Is one gate through
which all the bodies are carried to be burned;
and when I first entered the city through that
gate, I met a victim borne on a stretcher under
a red velvet robe. In one of the main thorough
fares I saw a buffalo freshly sacrificed in front
of a wayside shrine to appease the angry gods.
It Is almost unheard-of for Europeans to catch
the plague, but I took every precaution and

466 LETTERS OF
stayed only one night. I also forbade Maung
Tun to enter the city, except with me In the car
riage. On our last evening we visited the old capital.
Amber, now deserted for Jaipur. It Is distant
a drive of five miles Into the barren hills, and the
first sight of it Is most impressive, swung as It Is
above the road between two higher hills, vrith
lofty gateways, high blank walls, and carved
turrets. The Interior Is interesting, too — there
are some fine apartments with beautiful views
through the hills and across the desert to Jai
pur. The garden Is pretty and the baths under
ground; the inlaid work, the carved marble, and
the doors of sandalwood inlaid with ivory, are
better than any I have seen outside of Agra and
Delhi. Opening off from one of the lower courts
Is a temple to Kali, the goddess with a necklace
of human skulls, and on the stone floor was a
pool of undried blood, where the morning sacri
fice of a goat had just taken place. They say
that the greedy goddess used to claim a man In
the brave old days.
I rather dreaded the trip to Udaipur, and my
worst fears were realized, but one interesting
feature was the quantity of black buck we saw
from the train. I think we passed at least a thou-

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 467
sand between five In the afternoon and sunset,
shortly before seven.
During the long, arid crawl from the second
junction, Chltorghar, to Udaipur, the next day,
I was beguiled by the company of Major I  ,
the Resident Surgeon of this Mewar State, who
gave me a great deal of valuable information, and
asked me to call.
It seems that the Maharana of Udaipur is the
proudest of the proud. He is direcdy descended
from the Sun, and is the only man In India who
did not bow his head when the proclamation
of the King-Emperor was read ; neither threats
nor persuasion could Induce him to admit King
Edward as more than a brother sovereign, and a
foreigner at that. His wife, the Maharanee, has
never looked on the face of a white woman (ex
cept possibly from behind her marble fretted
screen) ; and last year when the Princess of Wales
graciously sent word that she would call, the
spirited old lady said that she would n't for a
moment think of seeing her !
The old gentleman Is a fine ruler, but he hates
innovation, and despises the post-office and the
little one-horse railroad that creeps across the
desert at ten miles an hour and connects him, after
a fashion, with the outside world. He will not

468 LETTERS OF
allow the horror within three miles of the palace,
so the visitor bumps for three miles In a tonga
(the only sort of vehicle or cart here available),
to reach the meagre shelter, owned by the rail
road and humorously dubbed "hotel."
The Maharana has an income of ;^i,ooo,ooo In
gold a year, and out of this he pays all expenses
ofthe State. He really governs himself, and does
not even allow budgets to his departments, but
passes on each expenditure separately. He goes
into camp all winter, with a court of three thou
sand followers, and shoots tiger and leopard to
his heart's content, transacting all State business
in his royal tent. He has two daughters, but
there Is a curse on the house of Udaipur, and for
centuries no son has succeeded his father. The
present prince — there Is only one — is an inva
lid, and suffers severely from tuberculosis of the
spine. At the "hotel" I had a chance to absorb my
surroundings. I had pictured a fair countryside,
with emerald hills and gleaming lakes, but no
such Kashmirian Idyll met my gaze, as I stood
on the painfully bare and unsupported knoll on
which the tiny hotel rested, looking like a grim,
stone powder-magazine, or smallpox camp, in Its
loneliness.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 469
We had crawled for six hours across an arid
desert, and had entered the hills only at the last
moments ofthe journey. Now I gazed on a mass
of disordered hills and broken ranges running in
every direction, and behind the shoulders of the
nearest elevations peered others and still others,
drawing the eye away to the west, where the wild
Bhils live. One ofthe hiUs bears a white fortress
or palace so far away as to seem a toy, and
down the flank of a range to the south wanders a
snake-like wall. The prevailing non-escapable
withered yellow of a famine year Is over every
thing the eye can see.
But In a hollow, not very far to the west, floats
a mirage, low-lying like an early morning mist.
A phantom of the brain it must be, or a strange
illusion born of the sun and the dust-haze. A
fair strong city, with flat roofs and minarets and
temple-towers. White and dazzhng it Is, and
bound with mighty walls and girded about with
gardens of great green trees ; and out of It rises
a marble palace that seems half the city in Itself.
It seems as though the whole desert of Rajpu-
tana must have been created just to form a set
ting for Udaipur, the City of Sunrise.
In the mellowness of late afternoon I ventured
in a tonga through the streets of the dream-city.

470 LETTERS OF
Everything was as It should be. The Arabian
nights became real. All of the streets were nar
row and twisted about, uphill and down. All of
the houses were white, and elbowed each other
about, and some stood In the middle of the road,
and others leaned across the way to whisper se
crets, and the upper balconies were pierced with
tiny loop-holes and screen-work so the ladles
could watch the passing show unseen. At Udai
pur It Is very stylish to have a life-sized tiger or
lion, or an elephant, or horse and rider, painted
In brilliant colors on the white wall of the lower
story, and nearly every one Is In style. The crowd
in the street was gayly clothed and quite self-
satisfied and self-assured. Children ran shout
ing after my tonga ; fine-looking men, with their
beards brushed straight out on each side like a
cat's whiskers, strolled by carrying heavy swords
in the hollow of the arm ; lines of women carry
ing brass jars on their heads wound downhUl,
and as they passed, each statuesque figure drew
her draperies over the face and peered at me with
one bright eye.
Camel-riders looked down on me from their
swaying heights, and a line of ponderous ele
phants, loaded with straw, came out of the great
palace gate moving like mountains, their great

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 471
backs level with the balconies over the street.
Beyond them I could look through three suc
cessive courtyards, thronged with retainers and
hangers-on of the majesty of Udaipur.
In the great rambling palace, huge even ac
cording to our Ideas of a large building, there are
some modern apartments, with glass chandehers
and mechanical toys in cases, and French furni
ture; but these are mere curiosities; the great
suites of rooms, the audience-halls, the old
courts and palaces, the blank-walled zenana,
with ridiculous slits and stone-screen balconies
instead of windows, are pure Indian, as befits
the lineal descendant from the Sun, by a thou
sand generations of pure-blooded Rajputs.
One of the princesses is going to marry the
Maharajah of Jhodpore In May, and in one
courtyard all the Imperial jewelers are hard at
work, each In his little stall, creating magnifi
cence for the bride. At another place the court
painter phes his trade, and all about are cour
tiers and messengers, servants and soldiers.
In a balcony overlooking a quiet corner the
Invalid Crown Prince lies all day on a silver
couch among his gentlemen and friends. A
lonely, hopeless boy, heir to the curse of Udaipur.
The outer western walls of the palace rise ab-

472 LETTERS OF
ruptly from the waters of a large artificial lake,
a briUiant blue sheet of water, with three Island
water-palaces resting on Its surface. It would be
hard to imagine anything more idyllic than these
white marble pleasure-halls, with dehcate bal
conies and arches and a mass of greenery rising
from their inner courts, the whole apparently
floating on the blue lake.
These lakes are a feature of the country round
Jaipur, There are several, and one Is one hun
dred miles In circumference. They are held In,
walled-up in steep valleys by Immense dams and
marble banks, relieved with cool pavilions. Tri
umphs of ancient engineering, — but the old ex
perts dared not impair their solidity by admitting
frequent sluices, so the great pure lakes remain
shut up in the valleys, and the hills rising above
them remain brown and bare, and the desert
round about remains arid and unproductive. If
the dam ofthe great lake should burst, the coun
try would be flooded halfway to Bombay !
The gardens at Udaipur are the finest I have
seen In India, and form a broad-reaching park
system. It makes one realize what a great land
this India would be. If the British could produce
rain as well as they confer peace upon it.
One afternoon I drove halfway around the

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 473
city lake to see the wild boar fed. Great buUocks
passed us drawing heavy loads, and each beast
had Its horns painted green or red. On the way
through the city I passed a wedding procession.
A boy gorgeously dressed being driven through
the streets, at the end of a velvet cord, by his
bride, a tiny veiled girl of eight or ten; a strange
sight, even in India.
At sunset we stood on a tower across the lake
from the city, and watched the Maharana's sol
diers pour maize from great sacks to a fighting,
squeahng horde of wild boar beneath. Hun
dreds gather from the open jungle about the
tower to partake of this charity, and pigeons,
doves, and peacocks lurk about to pick up the
crumbs. I counted sixty wild peacock In sight
at once; the boar were coundess. Bombay, March 12.
It took me part of three days to reach Bombay
from Udaipur, but I had a chance to see the great
fortress and tower of victory at Chltor, and the
temples and mosques of Ahmedabad on the
way. I also met some dehghtful Anglo-Indians,
I had the pleasureof a veryinstruc.tive and enjoy
able six hours' conversation on the train with
the Right Reverend Bishop of Nagpur, who has

474 LETTERS OF
charge of all Central India and Rajputana. He
Is a charming Enghsh gentleman ofthe best type.
I have also joined forces for the time being with
a young Scotchman by the name of Dick, Mur
ray Dick. He has been tea-planting in Ceylon
for two years, and Is now going home on a visit,
but first he thought to see India. I met him at
Udaipur, and we are going on to Colombo to
gether by steamer to-morrow.
We are taking a slow British-India coast-boat,
and will not reach Ceylon before ten days' time.
We stop, however, at five or six interesting places
on the Malabar coast, and also at Cochin, a city
of Travancore, the Interesting native state at the
bottom of the Indian peninsula.
Dick's acquaintance with and in Ceylon will
make my visit there pleasanter than under ordi
nary circumstances. The length of the voyage
will also enable Am. and Purdy to catch up with
me, I hope.
Although I would not have missed India for
worlds, I am delighted to be through with it; It
has not been a pleasant month and I have been
dreadfully homesick, although my health Is ex
cellent. The home mail came to-day with a letter from
father dated February i ith, and one from Helen

GILBERT LITTLE STARK 475
enclosing some Interesting pictures ; It was very
thoughtful of her and I appreciate it. I am hav
ing all mail forwarded to Colombo, and from
that place I shall cable you definitely which way
I am going and where to send letters. I am fear
fully torn by duty, pleasure, and diverse ambi
tions. The SIkkim trip Is a poor, lame account which
I will finish on the steamer. I think I can send
you post-cards from some of the ports In Malabar
to keep you au courant with my doings. I hope
the sea-air vrill blow the cobwebs out of my brain
and freshen my mental appetite, for India has
put me stale for the time being. My enthusiasm
Is unimpaired, but It Is not enthusiasm for the
things at present about me.
I saw the Parsee towers of Silence yesterday,
but I will spare you a description of them.
Bombay is another Montreal. A fine, busy
city, however, and Interesting from the point of
view that makes Chicago Interesting.
Love and hugs to all. I am growing very anx
ious to see you.
Gilbert.

Message by Cable
Mangalore, India, March 26, 1908.
Gilbert M. Stark,
Saginaw, Michigan.
Gilbert died to-day. Everything possible done.
Immediate funeral necessary. We separated
three weeks ago and only rejoined him to-day.
Mather. Stout.

APPENDIX

Extracts from Journal of the Voyage between
Seattle and Yokohama
THE SCARLET WOMAN
She Is the only woman on the passenger list,
and she Is deeply In love with the Japanese boy
who brought her on board ; he does not love her.
She pays the bUls for both !
She does not look hke a bad woman ; she has
great dark eyes, and under the paint, which
seems necessary to her Ideas of elegance, her
face is pitifully young. She behaves herself ex
cellently, except that her manners are modelled
after the servant girls' Ideal of what a perfect
lady should be. On this boat, where every other
man is a missionary, her presence Is regarded
with about the same complacency as that of a
Russian bomb, with time-fuse lighted, would be.
One Sunday night she appeared for the first time
in finery, — a lace dress, just the kind you see
In department store windows on wide-eyed wax
ladies. Every one treats her with icy politeness,
and one cannot help admiring the pluck she
shows, for she Is neither brazen nor callous ; she
Is simply unused to anything else. Later, when
one of the missionaries brought his folding organ

48o APPENDIX
on the deck and started a song service, she came
out to listen, and as she came she two-stepped
unconsciously to the tune of the old hymn they
were singing.
She was cold in her lace gown, and some one
gave her a steamer rug. It was a strange picture.
At the organ three Japanese, one playing, one
turning the leaves, and one leading the singing.
Behind, a dozen men singing, hard-working
missionaries and college youths that had never
worked. In front, facing them, alone — the
scarlet woman. Lips red with rouge, eyes big
and dark and a little tired looking; the high,
cheap pompadour above them looked strangely
out of place. At first she beat time gayly, but the
tunes were strange, and she sat quiet on the foot
of a steamer chair. She still shivered under the
heavy rug, but stayed until the end. Just beyond
was the fog, and the sea.

APPENDIX 481
Nakada San.
Juji Nakada Is his fuU name. San Is simply a
much prettier way than ours of saying Mister.
He Is short even for a Japanese, so short that he
could never enter the army. He is a Christian
missionary and owns a school In Tokio where
Orientals are trained to preach. His Idea is that
each country must be Christianized by native
missionaries, and It Is his aim to supply them.
He is very jolly and very active ; in fact, he was
expelled from one mission school because he
spent so much time in learning jiu-jitsu. He Is
now returning from his second trip to Europe
and around the world, and is carrying home with
him a traveUing organ, an Americanized Jap to
teach music, and an Englishman to teach Eng
lish Literature and philosophy.
We talk with him a great deal, and have
learned many more interesting things from him
than from any of the books we have read. He
is a samurai, was chaplain under General Kurokl
in the late war, and Is a cousin of the " Hero of
Port Arthur."

482 APPENDIX
Samurai spirit.
The samurai spirit Is a strange thing, one that
a foreigner can scarcely grasp. It cannot be put
Into words, but neither can it be destroyed, Na
kada says that while he may go years without
feeling It, at every crisis In his life, pouf! he Is
again the old samurai. Its two great demands
were loyalty to the Emperor and piety to the
parent, and as the samurai were the warriors,
it was aggressive In the extreme. The old jiu-
jitsu motto Is the essence of samurai spirit —
" If your opponent cut your skin, do you cut
his flesh; If he cut your flesh, do you cut his
bone"! "My mother," says Nakada, "my mother
very nervous woman, she all-a-the tears," And
yet, when her son died and Nakada, who had
been alone with him at death, brought the news
home, and when all the household broke into
loud crying and lamenting, the old lady, usually
so weak, dashed aside her tears with her hand
and cried, "Why you-a-make so much the noise,
he wiU not come back!" "Samurai spirit," says
Nakada. "Old samurai spirit, for she was cry
ing In-a-the heart ! "
Now that the old classes have been abolished,
the samurai spirit animates the whole nation.

APPENDIX 483
and of late years It has coined the word " pa
triotism," very popular now, unknown before.
Poetry. The other morning Hervey happened to say
that he had never been able to discover any
meaning In Japanese poetry; he quoted the
translation of one poem — " It Is night, the frogs
jump Into the marble pool." Nakada says that
just such simple lines convey a wealth of mean
ing to the Oriental mind. They are pregnant
with this will-o'-the-wisp — samurai spirit, that
seems to cover every phase of life, from blows to
meditation. The characters In which the words
are written also add to the beauty ; some char
acters are whole pictures In themselves. Words
worth is the foreign poet most read by Japanese
— Byron next. . . ,
Races of Japan.
There seem to have been five different im
migrations to Japan from four directions —
from the southern islands, from India, from
China, and from Korea. Traces of the different
races are quite distinct to-day, and of some men
you can say with surety at what immigration
their families entered the country. Our friend

484 APPENDIX
Nakada has a Malayan cast of countenance,
others are plainly Chinese.
Most Interesting of all is the Imperial immi
gration, and those belonging to the Imperial
race are easiest to detect. The characteristics
are long, narrow, low cheek-bones, high-bridged
nose, and a well-developed moustache or beard.
This race entered from Korea and the north,
and are supposed to have been the first comers.
On their arrival, the Islands were Inhabited by
the AInus, the "hairy AInus," the Japs call
them, who now survive in scanty numbers on the
island of Ezo, or Hokkaido, as the natives call
It. "A most-a-the shaggy people," says Nakada.
The Imperial race intermarried with these peo
ple — hence their tendency towards beards. In
Japanese Inns the charge made Is according to
a person's rank, and the beard is so universally
esteemed a sign of high rank that only the rich
can afford to wear a beard while travelling.
Asia Minor — home of the Imperial race.
The Emperor is almost sixty, and is a very tall
man, — contrary to newspaper reports, — in fact,
almost six feet high. He is the one hundred and
twenty-sixth descendant in a direct line, and his
sacred possessions are a sword, a mirror, and a

APPENDIX 485
large pearl. These were brought Into Japan by
his ancestors, and it is a significant fact that the
sword is a Damascus blade, the mirror has a
Chaldean inscription on its back, and the pearl
is unmistakably from the Red Sea. The con
clusions are obvious, and the usual number of
enthusiasts claim that here Is the lost tribe of
Israel. There seem to be as many lost tribes
of Israel as there are descendants of Jonathan
Edwards, and a tribe so well and so frequently
found ought, I think, to lose once and for all the
appellation "lost." There Is, however, excellent
ground for believing that the Emperor's race
came more or less directly from the old cradle
of the human race, between the Tigris and the
Euphrates.

486 APPENDIX
Partial Account of the Sikktm Trip found
among the papers of Gilbert Little Stark^
A short railway journey In the late afternoon,
a ferry across the Ganges, a night in the cars,
travelling always to the north, and you are at
the very spot where the great plain of Bengal
first rises into the foothills of the Himalayas.
It was a warm, pleasant morning, the last in
January, when we made a hurried change at this
spot into a toy train standing across the station
platform on a little two-foot track. We crammed
our odds and ends in somehow, under our feet
and behind our backs, and up we went Into the
hills like a fly up a wall. This litde railroad
performs the most marvellous feats during Its
six hours' climb to Darjeeling: It crawls along
precipices and around jutting promontories, zig
zags up vertical slopes, and crosses itself in loop
after loop. As It puffs on, rising over a thousand
feet an hour, the air grows perceptibly cooler
and the vegetation completely changes Its char
acter. Not only the vegetation but the people
^ G. L. S. intended to finish this story of the Sikkim
trip during the voyage from Bombay to Colombo. It was
on this voyage that he fell sick, being put ashore at the
city of Mangalore.

APPENDIX 487
change absolutely in type. A few hours ago we
were surrounded by half-nude coolies, with black
or brown skins and sharp noses; now we pass
htde villages where all of the inhabitants wear
trousers and heavy coats, and have flat noses
and httle Mongoloid eyes.
Our companions were two French priests and
an Australian, an elderly gentleman with a tre
mendous propensity for asking riddles. Be
tween riddles he divided his attention, giving
some notice to the broad views of the Indian
plains, which were opening out down the valleys,
but betraying far more interest In a series of
whitewashed inscriptions on the rocks, which
exhorted the passer-by to "Come to the Lord
to-day," with many variants on that excellent
theme. Our Australian friend acknowledged
tremendous admiration for the activity which
prompted this embeUishment of the landscape,
and repeatedly announced his Intention of look
ing up Its possessor on his arrival at Darjeeling.
A day or so later I met him In the Bazaar, and
he told me that he had kept his word.
"A most excellent man he is, too," our friend
announced, "a lovely man, a reformed drunk
ard, to whom the Lord sent a special message to
reform Thibet."

488 APPENDIX
Another peculiarity in which this old gende
man rejoiced was the habit of addressing all
natives In the language of the Australian abo
rigines. He would lean from the car-window and
electrify a whole village by pouring forth his soul
In a string of syllables that sounded like the pop
ping of corn.
Our first Impressions of Darjeeling were a
jumble of steep, misty streets, bordering on bot
tomless pits of wreathing clouds. On every side
strange pigtailed people, men and women, in
heavy robes, thrust towards us knives and
battle-axes, prayer-wheels and amulets, and
through the fog still other shadowy figures hur
ried towards us bearing heavy silver ornaments
loaded with turquoises, and about us was much
laughter and many cries of, "You buy this!"
"Master make bargain!" A little further on,
we ran the gauntlet of pony-boys and double
rickshaws, and finally warmed our hands over
the cozy fires in our hotel room; for Darjee
ling is over seven thousand feet in altitude,
and in January the weather is cold even at mid
day. For three days we gathered information about
SIkkim, the country we were about to visit, and
arranged for our passes, coohes, and ponies.

APPENDIX 489
which we secured easily, thanks to the valuable
assistance of the kind Scotch missionaries.
Darjeehng is built on the side of a spur run
ning out into a deep valley. Behind is the first
range of the Himalayan foot-hills, which rise a
few hundred feet above the town ; on three sides
is nothing but atmosphere, and almost six thou
sand feet below Is the tropical valley of the Run-
geet River. On the third morning we had a
glorious view at sunrise, and to the north we saw
for the first time the mighty snow-peaks of the
Himalayas. Six or eight lower ranges of rock and
forests lie between Darjeeling and the snows, but
these are barely noticed, and the eye travels at
once to the great masses of ice and snow tower
ing behind them, only forty-five miles away.
The whole range makes a glittering arc of 180
degrees, comprising twelve peaks over twenty
thousand feet high, and massing glacier and
snow-pinnacles together In the centre to form
KInchln-junga, twenty-eight thousand feet and
more above the sea. From a height behind the
town, Everest, eighty miles away. Is visible, but
only Its peak appears, and Kinchin-junga domi
nates the view.
Am. was forced to leave that very evening to
join a shooting trip on which the Rajah of Kuch-

490 APPENDIX
Behar had Invited him; so we considered our
selves remarkably lucky to have had this morn
ing glimpse. By breakfast-time the mists had
shut In all about us, and the rest of the day was
cold and gloomy.
It was Sunday, and the usual weekly Bazaar
was in progress In the village square and stretch
ing far down the main road. Most of the trade
was carried on by women, although throngs
of men from a dozen neighboring hill-tribes
wandered back and forth before the stalls. The
street was lined with vegetables, oranges, cooked
food, Thibetan boots and jewelry, and warm
home-made garments piled In great heaps on
colored blankets, behind which squatted pordy
dames from Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, and Thibet.
A greater variety of ornaments it would be hard
to find in one place. The Nepalese women pierce
the left side of the nose and Insert a large gold
button ; around their necks they wear thick cylin
drical necklaces of red plush, circled with brass
rings. The women from the Mongoloid tribes,
including Thibet, wear heavy silver earrings,
whose weight Is supported by a band across the
forehead, and about their necks are chains of
silver and coral, supporting silver boxes studded
with turquoises. Sometimes these boxes contain

APPENDIX 491
prayers or images, and sometimes holy rehcs. I
also saw earrings of gold In the shape of arrow
heads three inches long. At Darjeeling the tribes
are mixed, and have often partially adopted the
dress and ornaments of their neighbors ; so it Is
hard to draw correct distinctions between them.
All In all, the Bazaar showed a laughing, good-
humored crowd, a bit unwashed it is true, but
delightfully free from the whining servility of the
Indian plainsmen.
Half of the fun of any trip lies In the prepara
tion, and Monday morning was full of that par
ticular type of fun. There were tinned goods and
supplies to buy for two whole weeks, for eggs,
and anon a chicken, were all that we could
safely trust to find on the road. There were ex
tra blankets and gloves and woollen head-pieces,
with a hole In front, shaped like King Arthur's
helmet, to buy, and all our belongings must
be packed In loads of just the right weight for
coolies to carry.
There was great bustle and stir on the litde
terrace outside our room. Fur-dealers and curio-
hawkers forsook their haunts under the hotel
porte-cochere, and came to offer suggestions as
to the loads and ropes, and to see what foohsh
things the Sahibs found necessary to lug off into

492 APPENDIX
the mountains. One old rake in a sky-blue coat
and fur cap poked his pigtail Into everything. He
was just as drunk as a man can be and stand on
two legs, and he felt it Incumbent on him to tell
me the nationality of every man on the terrace
over and over again, as If It were all an Interest
ing anthropological exhibit of which he was the
show-man. At last we were packed and strapped, and
could review our little army. Lowest of all on
the social scale came the carrying coolies : three
slovenly young Bhuria women, swaddled In dirty
red robes and muscled like ploughmen; three
burly Thibetan men, pigtails, top-boots worked
with red cloth, and belted gowns, big turquoises
In their ears, charms about their necks, and
jaunty caps with the brim turned up all the way
around ; two ragged but pleasant Nepalese, who
carried the grain and blankets for the horses,
topped the lower strata. Next In Importance
came the four syces, one for each pony. They
were all Ghurkas from Nepal, and with their
slight forms and InteUigent faces they made our
Thibetans seem more like good-humored bears
than men. Our Burmese boys, Maung Tun and
Maung Hia, rode ponies and were distincdy the
aristocrats of the outfit. Maung Tun, I knew

APPENDIX 493
well, was a fine young fellow, faithful, willing,
and far above ordinary InteUigence, — a boy to
be trusted at aU times. Maung Hia was stiU an
unknown quantity, middle-aged and reticent,
limiting his conversations with us to vehement
"Yes, sirs," and "Very well, sirs." We had been
lucky enough to pick up a Thibetan boy of fif
teen, who spoke excellent English, as well as
Thibetan, Hindustani, Nepalese, and Lepcha,
the native speech of Sikkim. He was to be offi
cial Interpreter on our visit to the Lamaseries of
Sikkim. With the usual hberty allowed boys, he
chummed with every one, from the most be
nighted coohe to the honored Sahibs, Purdy and
me. Chhodhar was his name, and I shall have a
great deal to say about him, for he was an un
usually Interesting subject of an unusually inter
esting nation. We sent the coohes ahead under
one Dowa, who outshone the rest in dirt and
jewelry, and acknowledged Nani Babu as cap
tain of our Nepalese servants. As the first stage
was to be a short one, we delayed our own de
parture until three in the afternoon.
The weather was fine and cold when we
started. The snow-mountains rose in a ghtter-
ing wall to the north, and Darjeeling was sur
rounded by a sea of tossing billowy clouds that

494 APPENDIX
completely filled the valleys beneath. Down Into
this cloud-belt we plunged; our horses, fine,
strong Bhutia ponies, were In high spirits, but
the steepness of the descent soon caused us to
dismount, for In places the road was a mere
stairway and the stone steps very abrupt.
One of the Scotch missionaries, who had been
so kind in helping us with our arrangements,
travelled with us during this first afternoon. The
heavy clouds about us blotted out the fine view
we should otherwise have enjoyed, but after an
hour's descent we reached the lower edge of the
belt and caught glimpses of the river below, at
first hazily and then clearly as we emerged Into
clear air.
About four thousand feet below our starting-
point, we reached the cozy bungalow of one of
the tea-planters, whose round clipped bushes
cover these first slopes of the Himalayas; and
here we stopped for a short chat and an excellent
cup of Darjeeling tea. Mr. Duncan was to spend
the night here and take a different route In the
morning, so we said good-bye, and dropped down
another thousand feet to the Badamtam dak
bungalow, where we found our boys and coolies
awaiting us. As we approached, the Thibetans
made ducking bows, hfting their caps, the boys

APPENDIX 495
and Ghurka syces salaamed, and Maung Tun
presented us with piping hot cups of tea. It was
quite Uke a proper home-coming. Maung Hia
hung about in the background hke a huge bird
of prey. He had purchased an old frock-coat at
Darjeeling, and that garment, together with his
pointed silk turban and withered face, made him
look for all the world hke an old vulture.
The bungalow was built on a ridge at the
junction of three valleys, and the river was stiH a
thousand feet below us. By daylight the wooded
flanks of the great hills and mountains about us
looked like virgin jungle, but as the night grew
darker, twinkling cottage-lights and smouldering
camp-fires appeared thickly sprinkled on their
dark surfaces, and the ridges towered above us
so that It was hard to tell where the real stars
ended and the lights began.
Early in the morning we sent off our coolies,
and an hour later we followed. The road led
down a pretty wooded slope, and above and
below us, through the tree-trunks, we could see big
mounds of earth, smoking like volcanoes, tended
by charcoal-burners and their wives and chil
dren. Most of these people were Nepalese, whose
costume, language, religion, and cast of feature
show that they are more closely allied with the

496 APPENDIX
Hindu plainsmen than with the other hill-tribes,
which are all distinctly Mongoloid. On the road,
which continued broad and well-banked, we
met strings of Nepalese coolies or bare-legged
Simboo people, with great baskets of oranges
on their backs. For more than an hour we de
scended, and after reaching the valley-floor, we
left the main road, which here crosses the Run-
geet on a narrow suspension bridge, and turned
up the left bank of the stream. By noon we had
left the tea-gardens of British Sikkim behind us
and were at the very edge of the Rajah's own
country, the wedge which pushes Its point Into
Thibet and is bounded on the east by Bhutan
and on the west by Nepal, — three lands closed
absolutely to the traveller. To enter Sikkim it
self one must secure a pass from the British Gov
ernment of India, and in this pass your entire
route Is oudined, and you are warned not to visit
any place not named in your permit.
The spot we chose for tiffin was a point of
wooded land between the Rungeet and a small
tributary. To the south were the massive shoul
ders of the Darjeeling range, dotted with tea-
gardens, and to the north was the second tier
of the Himalayan advance-guard. The spit of
land on which we paused to rest bears a small

APPENDIX 497
collection of wooden stores, all built In an open-
faced group about the vlUage green. The inhab
itants are Nepalese and Hindus, with a touch
of the sans culotte Simboo. Our actions were all
carefully inspected by the good merchants of
Singla Bazaar, as the hamlet is caUed, who
gravely squatted on their heels among their
treasures and puffed religiously at the asthmatic
hookah. Two young specimens of the same
breed, warmly clothed in a pair of zinc com
posite anklets, popularly beheved to be silver,
executed a war-dance about us, and tried to see
how closely they could approach us without
being bitten. The remarkable part about these
youths was their faces, which, for some undis
covered reason, had been painted a fresh spring
like green.
Shordy after noon we were stopped by a lordly
Sepoy and relieved of one copy ofour passes, and
then allowed to enter Sikkim across an extremely
wobbly bridge, hung by spider-threads above
the Singla River. Immediately before us rose the
second range of hills, and we attacked it at what
was apparently Its boldest rise. After a good
three hours we conquered It, having again re
moved ourselves from an altitude of scant two
thousand to over six thousand feet.

498 APPENDIX
These abysmal valleys are a striking feature of
the Himalayas. A thousand feet below us was a
cottage-crowned hummock, which we had sup
posed to be the summit when we were below, and
the banana trees, that an hour before had been
outlined against the sky above, now lay spread
out like starfish below us. The valley-floor was
in deep shadow, and against this shadow, far
below us, the sun gilded the outspread wings of
a motionless hawk, and to the good people of
Singla Bazaar this same bird no doubt seemed
poised immeasurably above In the very zenith of
the heavens. To the north lay a valley just as
deep, and across It — we had but to stretch out
our hands to stroke the forests on its ridge —
was a third wall waiting for us.
As we rode along the crest of the second ridge
to the bungalow at Chakung, a Lepcha wedding
party crossed our road and wound down the hill
side below: a single line of gayly-decked men
and women, headed by the lamas of the neigh
borhood, with pipes and conches, cymbals and
sheepskin drums. Long after the individual
wedding guests had dwindled Into black ants on
the long slope, the piercing notes of the pipes, so
hke a Scotch bagpipe that a Highlander would
fall homesick at once, rose clearly to our ears.

APPENDIX 499
A steep scramble up a further rise on the crest
of the range brought us to the Chakung bunga
low nestled under a clump of giant bamboo-
plumes. It was a golden evening, and through the great
silence of the mountain-tops rose an undertone
of life from the valleys. The eyes wandered over
jungle and precipice and tilted field, down, down,
down, past oak and laurel to the land of palm
trees, lost in purple haze below. Not a living
figure appeared over all the vast slopes, but on
every hand, out of the shadowy valley and from
its glowing sides, rose the music of the herders,
caUing home the goats and cows, a long-drawn
yodel, a snatch of song In a fresh, boy's voice ;
the sounds of pigmy life but served to accent the
majestic quiet of the upper air.
Near Chakung there are two ruined chaits
containing Buddhist scriptures, a tupa in ex
cellent state of preservation, and a long stone
mound, rectangular in shape, containing the
body of Minnhopet, a lama who died about
eighty years ago at the age of twenty-one. This
tomb Is made of large, smooth stones fitted rudely
together without mortar, and about halfway up
its surface Is a band of stones, carved with pic
tures and the sacred formula, " Om mani padme

500 APPENDIX
hum," which means In English, "Oh! the jewel
in the lotus!" and is probably the most often
quoted phrase In any language In the world.
This decorative line of stones, which runs en
tirely around the tomb. Itself twenty paces long
and about nine feet high. Is protected above by
projecting eaves of Irregular flat stones. The
solid but primitive character of the architecture,
and the naive Inscriptions translated by Chhod
har, the beauty of the Thibetan characters
carved in high rehef, and the mass of tall grasses
and tangled flowers growing from the top of the
tomb and crannies in its sides, threw a charm
about the narrow ridge and made us loath to
leave. The night was cold, and the roaring wood-fire
in the bungalow successfully roasted our hands
and faces, without making any impression on the
chills that ran merrily up our spines; so we
sought warmth and oblivion under a mountain
of blankets.
A flood of sunlight woke me, and hurrying to
the door, I saw the snows, which had been cloud-
wrapped the night before, gleaming high above
the ridge across the valley. However magnificent
a view may be. Its fascination soon weakens
when one is clad in gossamer, so to speak, and an

APPENDIX 501
icy breath steals up the leg of one's — shall I say,
nocturnal apparel ? Hence It Is that I was think
ing seriously of again retreating to the Inner
depths of two heavy army-blankets, when a
clucking noise, of which I had been subcon
sciously aware for some time, caused me to drop
my eyes from eternal winter to the strangest
group of suffering mortals ever bound to Bud
dha's wheel of life.
They were six, and two of them wore shaggy
mops of snow-white hair, and two of them wore
painted fans projecting from each ear, and two
of them had no superstructure to relieve the grim
monotony of their faces. They were Thibetans,
that I could see, and some were booted and some
were barefoot, and their robes were more gayly
colored than the common, ordinary Bhutia sees
fit to wear. As I looked, they gravely scratched
each man his ear, and stuck their tongues out
at me; and such a length of tongue as each
man possessed! At first, I was rather inclined
to take umbrage and to advance upon them
in wrath, all unarmed as I was; but something
in the dim recesses of my mind told me that I
had heard a Munchausen tale somewhere to the
effect that that was a friendly mode of greeting
practised in Thibet, and so I spared their fives.

502 APPENDIX
Chhodhar appeared around the corner, with his
mouth full of rice, and explained that these men
were Thibetan dancers bound for some merry
making where their services were required, and
that my coolies had persuaded them to stay and
give us a matin exhibition. We reconnoitred the
ridge for a level spot, — It Is hard to find a level
spot in SIkkim large enough to support a bowl of
goldfish, — and when semi-success crowned our
efforts, the troop sprang at once into action. The
two unadorned proved to be the orchestra. The
first vigorously clanged a pair of cymbals, and
the second played the drum. I say played, but
what he really did was to hold the drum aloft —
It was shaped hke a gigantic baby's ratde — and
tap It ever and anon with a drumstick shaped
like a shepherd's crook.
The dancers wore, hung from their belts, long
cords with tasselled ends, and as they leaped and
whlrfed about, these cords stood out like wheel-
spokes and made every turn seem twice as rapid
as It was in reality. The usual method of pro
cedure was for two of them to stand on the side
lines and sing lustily, while the remaining two
leaped and sprang about, growling and mutter
ing. Sometimes, however, all four would advance
together and execute a rude ballet, and each in-

APPENDIX 503
dividual performer gave us several solo dances.
The step was rather comphcated, and some ofthe
leaping and whirling in mid-air was quite re
markable from an acrobatic point of view. They
gave variety, not by varying the dance, but by
changing the head-dresses, and lions and pea
cocks appeared before us in the same gyrations.
The ground on which they danced was very
much hke the top of an A tent, and on each side
there was a sudden slope of at least three thou
sand feet. On account of these natural obstacles,
they informed us, they could not leap and whirl
so well as they would like, for a sudden trip to
the valley on the part of one of the performers
might seriously Interrupt the sequence of the
dance. Down again to the valley-floor, and up the
third ridge to a rocky saddle. Our coolies were
carrying at this time a large bundle of paper
strips printed with the sacred "Mani," as the
phrase Is called, and whenever our path crossed
a stream, Dowa would bend a sapling at the
water's edge and tie two or three prayer-strips to
Its top branches. The Ghurka syces laughed at
this proceeding as mere superstition, but they
plucked bunches of green leaves, which they laid
on the edge ofthe rickety bridges we passed over,

504 APPENDIX
and felt sure that this was the only true way to
ensure a pleasant journey.
The ravine up which we travelled was full of
flocks of small parrots, red and green, that flew
noisily from tree to tree ahead of us ; and once a
graceful red deer trotted up the path before us
for a few yards, and then vanished up a preci
pice, as lighdy as though he had winged hoofs.
TraveUing In SIkkim Is a bit like walking a
treadmill, for you surmount range after range
only to find before you a narrow valley cleft to
the bowels of the earth, and another wall of hills
towering before you. The valleys, however, and
the succeeding ranges are ahke only In their mas
sive proportions ; the details and vegetation, even
at corresponding altitudes, are constandy chang
ing, and the fresh barriers constantly arising are
so different and so beautiful that they inspire the
traveller instead of discouraging him. From the
summit of the third range we looked down Into
a funnel-shaped valley. Its walls covered with
thick jungle, broken In places by the rocky scar
of landshps and mountain torrents, and scat
tered patches of yellow mustard-flowers, bril
liant as the daubs of ochre on a painter's palette.
It was not necessary to descend to the bottom
of the valley to reach the fourth parallel ridge ;

APPENDIX 505
we were able to work along the sides of the
funnel, and we achieved the fourth saddle after
a short climb of fifteen hundred feet. The road
during the entire day had been a mere bridle
path, but It was in good condition, and always
afforded secure footing for the horses. We rode
with one foot over a precipice, however, and at
some corners the pony'p neck projected so far
over the edge that I could look between the reins
and his shoulders and see the bottom of the
valley, three quarters of a mile below.
From the saddle we turned east and rode for
two miles along the hillside, maintaining ap
proximately the same altitude.
Rinchinpong, where we spent the night,
boasted eight houses, a KhazI, and a temple.
The Khazl's house was a very good example of
Thibetan architecture, and pots of geraniums
along the balcony railings showed pleasantly
against the white plaster walls.
The bungalow was a strongly-built native
house, with a floor of thick planks roughly
shaped with an adze. The temple on the hiU
behind the bungalow was a grim stone buUding,
with an avenue of sixty flag-bedecked poles
leading to it. These flags are inscribed with
the characters, "Om mani padme ham," and

506 APPENDIX
whenever the breeze flutters them, the prayer
Is given efficacy. It was dim twilight before we
reached the temple, and so we postponed our
examination of it until the following morning.

GILBERT LITTLE STARK was born on
April 28, 1885, at Saginaw, Michigan.
He attended the public school In Saginaw, and
during his High-School course competed In a
State Oratorical contest, winning first place In
the local, district, and state competition, with an
oration on MIrabeau. He prepared for college
at the Phillips Academy, Exeter, New Hamp
shire, entering Yale with the class of 1907. At
Exeter he was awarded the Merrill prize in Ad
vanced English, for having shown the greatest
steadiness of interest in his work and the most
Intelligent appreciation of the authors read. In
college he contributed to the Tale Literary Mag
azine and the Record; he was a member of the
Cercle Franfaise, Deutscher Verein, Folio Qub,
Exeter Qub, Pundit Qub, University Qub,
Corinthian Yacht Club, Dramatic Association,
the Yale Chapter of the PsI Upsilon Fraternity,
and Wolf's Head. He was vice-president of the
French Club, president of the German Club
during his Senior year, and coach of the French
play for two years. He was prominent in dra
matics during his entire college course, taking a

5o8 APPENDIX
part In the French play during his Freshman
year, and the part of Isidore in "The Magis
trate," presented during the spring term of the
next year; he played the part of Prince Hal in
" Henry IV," presented during his Junior year,
and the part of the King in "The Pretenders,"
of his Senior year. He held a first-dispute schol
arship appointment. Immediately after graduat
ing, with a party of classmates, he sailed from
Seatde, Washington, for a trip around the world,
and these letters were written during that trip.
He died at Mangalore, India, on March 26,
1908, In the midst of his trip.

Professor William Lyon Phelps of Yale, writ
ing for the Tale Alumni Weekly soon after Mr.
Stark's death, said : —
" In the death of Gilbert Stark, Yale has lost
one of her most promising young graduates, and
I have lost a friend for whom I had the highest
respect and the warmest affection. I had the
privilege of an Intimate acquaintance with him
during nearly all of his college course; and
wholly apart from his well-earned distinction In
dramatics, English and French literature, and
multifarious outside activities, he was one of the

APPENDIX 509
most Interesting and thoroughly attractive young
men that I have ever known. His personality
had an extraordinary charm; and he was ex
acdy the kind of man that we like to see go out
into the world and represent Yale. His influence
cannot die. *No work begun shall ever pause
for death.'"

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