just peeping out of the Mediterranean, and Port Said was in sight. I
was the only passenger on deck, and although I expected Adelaide every
moment, she did not appear until we were tied up in Port Said, an hour
and a half later; the Suez Canal greatly excited me, although I had
been through it before, but it did not greatly excite Adelaide. Half a
dozen Arab sailboats, loaded with coal, passed in the canal; they had
the peculiar sails seen on boats on the Nile, and were so old that I
wondered they did not fall to pieces. On the larger boats were three
men, and two on the smaller ones. The masts were very tall, and in this
flat country the sails catch enough wind to push the boats along....
When Adelaide appeared at 7:30, I proposed that we go ashore before
breakfast. She agreed to the proposition, and we were walking the
streets of Port Said ten minutes later, as the ship was tied up within
a hundred feet of the principal street.... Port Said is said to be
a very high-priced and dishonest town, but the boatman charged only
six cents each to take us to land, and the price of a carriage is only
fifty cents an hour. We engaged a guide, because one followed us, and
began explaining things, and we could not get rid of him. Besides, he
said his price was only a shilling an hour. In no other town we have
visited have we found prices as low as in Port Said, which has a worse
reputation than any other town in the world. Port Said has regulations
for the protection of visitors, and enforces them. When you go ashore,
you do not pay the boatman, who may charge you any price he sees fit,
but you pay an official at the landing. Get rid of the notion printed
everywhere that Port Said is “tough.” In addition to being an orderly
place, it is very interesting. Sunday is not observed in the town, for
two reasons: 1. Ships arrive and send passengers ashore nearly every
hour of every day, and these want supplies on Sunday the same as on
other days; 2. The sixty thousand inhabitants are mainly Mohammedans,
and they have no Sunday.... There were several other ships in the
harbor, and the streets were crowded at 8 A. M. In front of one café,
an orchestra of fifteen men and women was playing, and playing well.
Most of the shops are devoted to tourist trade, but we visited an Arab
market instead of the curio stores. The older portion of Port Said is
as purely Egyptian as Cairo, and as dirty and oriental. The streets are
narrow, and the houses high, and the native shops are as interesting as
they are anywhere. Our guide was an Arab, and took us to his church: a
Mohammedan mosque, which we could not enter without putting coverings
on our feet. Everywhere we heard exploding fire-crackers; today is some
sort of Mohammedan festival.... We received a lot of mail from home;
the first in more than four months. After getting our mail, we lost
interest in Port Said, and went back to the ship to read our letters.
We found these so interesting that at 10:30, when the “Burgermeister”
left for Naples, we barely glanced at the famous statue to Ferdinand de
Lesseps which adorns the entrance to the canal.
MONDAY, APRIL 28.—We are approaching the Blessed Country of Bad
Weather again. This morning the sky is as threatening as it is on the
morning when you give a picnic, and when you wish it would do one
thing or the other. No country can amount to much without bad weather:
the trouble with Africa and Arizona is too much fine weather....
The Mediterranean, which we all dreaded, was as smooth last night
as a millpond, and shows no disposition today to change its pacific
character.... The first thing you think of, on boarding a ship, is
that funny people travel. We meet a few nice, normal, sane people,
but most of them are freaks. On every ship we meet the foolish son of
a rich man, who is allowed to travel to keep him away from home. The
woman traveler is nearly always peculiar; she is usually an old widow
with money, and as ugly as she is cranky. There is a professional
traveler always met with who has no sense, and very little politeness,
but he has been everywhere. It is a mistake to imagine that only
rich and agreeable people are met in traveling. The best people remain
at home; we have met neither dukes nor princesses on the trip, and very
few we remember from one ship to another.... There is a kind of
traveler who annoys you by his looks. A man of this type came on board
at Port Said. He is a faded-out old rat with gold teeth, very thin and
sandy hair, and a waxed moustache. He is quite impatient because he has
not created a flutter on board, since it is plain to be seen that he
has traveled a great deal; he is not content to wait a few days, until
news of his exploits gets about easily and naturally.... Another
man came on board at Port Said who is accompanied by a wife and three
daughters. The ship is crowded, and this man, who is paying five fares,
sleeps on the floor! People are that foolish about traveling. People
generally are as crazy and disagreeable about traveling as the English
are about Sports.... The women have great respect for the bishop
of their church, but they have greater respect for a woman traveling
with a maid. Every woman believes she is entitled to a maid. There is a
woman on board who has one. The other women say she is the slouchiest
dressed person on the ship. You may say that is envy, but it isn’t:
it’s the truth.... When you buy anything, pay for it in cash. It
is so easy to sign a check, or have it charged. When the passengers
buy wines, they sign their names to a slip of paper, and settle once
a week. One of the amusing things on board is to see the men studying
their bar bills. Every passenger thinks he has been robbed, but his
signature confronts him for every item, and he cannot get a fair start
at indignation.... The New York banker, Mr. Hepburn, mentioned
elsewhere as returning from a hunt, does not have much confidence in
the future of Africa. It has too many pests and too much dry weather,
he says. Besides, much of the country is volcanic, and the soil a thin
vegetable and leaf mold. Mr. Hepburn says that while hunting, one of
his guides was an Englishman who was once a member of parliament, with
an income of $60,000 a year. But he went the pace, and spent his money,
and is now a guide in Africa at $5 a day. Another guide in the Hepburn
party was a man named Cunningham, who was attached to the Roosevelt
expedition. Cunningham is a very noted man, and receives $400 a month
for his services. Although Mr. Hepburn is a New York banker, a former
comptroller of the currency, and noted big-game hunter, it is so dull
on board that he spends a good deal of his time teaching Adelaide card
tricks. He is an elderly man, and so modest and polite that we regard
him as a credit to his country.... A party of eight came on board
at Port Said, and I am glad they are not Americans. They are English
or Colonials, and have taken the ship. They are very superior in three
particulars: 1. They went to Port Said two weeks ago in the “Tabora,” a
larger and newer ship than the “Burgermeister;” 2. They were in Cairo
four days; 3. They have been in Palestine. They sit together in the
dining-room, and every other word they use is “Tabora,” a leviathan of
8,000 tons. These people are going to London, and this is their first
trip. There are three girls in the party, all of them in love with one
sweet young man, and they hold his hand on deck. The other passengers
look at them in astonishment, if not disgust. Americans are said to be
“loud.” I don’t believe they are half as bad as they are reported to
be. A German ship captain once said to me: “The Americans are, as a
rule, our best behaved passengers, followed by the Germans. The worst
behaved are the English.”... In the traveling I have done, I have seen
few “loud” Americans, but I have seen many “loud” English. And it is
the English who criticise us most.
[Illustration: A case of middle-age spread in Africa
Native Workmen, Kimberley Diamond Mine
Traveling by Machillas on the Zambesi
Native Village in German East Africa
Khami Ancient Ruins]
TUESDAY, APRIL 29.—We have seen no land since leaving Port Said,
except that we passed the island of Crete. Some say we passed it last
evening, and some say we passed it this morning: it has been pointed
out to me twice, and both sights of it were very hazy.... Ships
are not seen as frequently in the Mediterranean as in the Red Sea; we
have seen but one steamship in two days—a big P. & O. liner en route
to India. On the Red Sea, a half-dozen were frequently in sight at one
time. The explanation is that the Mediterranean is wide, and ships
keep a considerable distance from each other, whereas the Red Sea is
often almost as narrow as a river.... There are two women on board
from Johannesburg, but they did not know each other there; indeed,
they had never heard of each other before coming on board. Each says
of the other: “I cannot imagine who she can be.”... When a German
leaves the ship’s table, he bows very politely to those passengers
remaining. I believe this very pretty custom is confined entirely to
the Germans.... The barkeeper has been humiliated, and relieved
from duty; I don’t know what his offense was, but I hear he is charged
with becoming impatient while on duty. The Germans say that when a
man is employed to serve the public, impatience is a gross offense,
and I agree with them. For a day or two, the barkeeper did nothing,
and was the most contrite and penitent human being I have ever seen,
but this morning he appeared as a waiter in the dining-room, and is
trying hard to regain the favor of the chief steward.... There are
many foolish things for men to do, but probably the most foolish is
to buy champagne. Every day at dinner I see dozens of men pay three
or four dollars for a bottle of champagne, simply to “act smart.”
Boys are not the only ones who “act smart” in company, and force
their parents to whip them.... The passenger who has his wife and
three daughters with him attracts a great deal of attention from the
men. His women-folks have four pieces of fancy work under way all the
time; think of that man’s dry-goods bills! And I cannot sleep at night
from thinking what his laundry bill must be. There is a laundry on
board, operated by Chinese, who do excellent work, but their prices
are something to talk about. I sent out a little dab of washing the
other day, and the bill was $6. I pay for waists for only one woman,
whereas that other man must pay for waists for four. It should be
against the law for any man to take care of four women.... The
New York banker who is returning from a hunting trip in Africa, is
a director in the Texas company, which is trying to become as great
a robber as the Standard Oil Co. He told me today that a few months
ago his company let a contract to an American firm for an additional
tank steamer, at $590,000. A foreign builder offered to build exactly
the same ship for $380,000. The Texas company was compelled to pay
forty per cent additional because of our policy of protection. What
becomes of that additional $210,000? Does it go to American labor?...
Most of it, probably. When you pay high prices for meat, the farmer
is being benefited; when the Texas company pays a high price for a
ship, the workmen who fashion the ship, and mine the steel that goes
into it, are benefited. Taxes, however collected, mean a burden to the
consumer. When you pay twenty cents for an article which formerly cost
ten cents, three cents of the excess goes to the workman, and seven
cents of the excess is charged by the American politician for cost of
collection. It is the workers who pay taxes and the tremendous cost of
collection.... I have frequently spoken in these notes of hearing
the English everywhere compliment America. The notion that foreigners
sneer at us, is a mistaken one. In the London _Telegraph_, a copy of
which I picked up today, I read a page reference to the death of J.
Pierpont Morgan.
“The field of the American financier,” the article said, “is a country
sixty times the area of England, the most richly endowed territory
in the world, inhabited by ninety millions of the most energetic
wealth-producers on the face of the globe.”
In the same article I read that Mr. Morgan once called on the German
Kaiser. Afterwards the Kaiser said he was surprised to find Mr. Morgan
“not well informed regarding the philosophical development of nations.”
I often think the philosopher is an unimportant man; he looks into
the future, and sees many things that are not there. The philosopher
is a recluse; a thinker. He hides away from mankind, and writes books
about subjects he does not know much about. J. P. Morgan knew mankind
intimately, and benefited it because of his knowledge. He made bets
that the people would do certain things at certain times, and became
rich because of the accuracy of his knowledge; yet he is accused of
knowing nothing about “the philosophical development of nations”! He
had a tremendous fund of practical knowledge, and that beats all the
philosophy in the world. Morgan believed that in the human family,
character was everything; that character was the basis of all credit,
and that the simple doctrine of good conduct for its own sake, is the
greatest religion in the world. How superior Morgan’s simple religion
was to the Hindu’s philosophy! Morgan was an humble citizen, yet he
accomplished more than did Kaiser Wilhelm, a philosopher and a king. A
nation fought Morgan continuously and bitterly, yet he was undoubtedly
a public benefactor. Wilhelm had the love of a great nation, yet he
undoubtedly talks too much, and has been repeatedly humiliated for the
habit. Wilhelm is great in spite of his indiscretions, being a king;
but J. P. Morgan was great in spite of the fact that he lacked the
friendship of his own nation, and was compelled to do his good work in
the face of bitter and often malicious opposition.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30.—When I went on deck this morning, several of the
passengers were ahead of me, gazing at mountains off to the right:
Italy. By 9 o’clock we were close to the shore, and with a glass could
see many villages still in ruins from the earthquake of five years ago.
The sides of the mountains were terraced, and used as vineyards. In one
place, in a canyon far up the mountain, we saw a village which seemed
to have been built around an old castle. We were approaching the Strait
of Messina, and ships were as numerous as they were in the narrowest
part of the Red Sea; at one time, seven sailing-ships were in sight,
and several steamers. Presently, on the left, Sicily appeared, and we
gazed at Sicily awhile, and then went over to the other deck and looked
at Italy, unable to decide which was the more interesting. Both are
very mountainous, and much alike. Villages are thick, not only along
the shore, but the sides of the mountain are spotted with them, and in
both Italy and Sicily we saw many curious old castles and monasteries.
On both sides, also, we saw many ruins from the earthquake, although
they seemed to be rather more numerous in Sicily than in Italy....
Just before entering the Strait at the narrowest part, where it is
only two miles wide, we saw the town of Messina, which was almost
completely destroyed by the earthquake of 1908. Hundreds of the wrecked
houses seem never to have been rebuilt, and they present a scene of
desolation, but around them many new houses have been built. This is
also true on the Italian coast. Many of these new houses were sent from
America, ready to set up. Messina had a population of eighty thousand.
Its old citadel was not destroyed, and we saw a good many ships in its
harbor. Opposite Messina is the Italian town of Riggio, which is six
or seven hundred years older than the Christian era. On both sides of
the Strait we could see broad streams (perfectly dry as a result of a
recent drouth) coming from the mountains.... The captain said we
should be in the most interesting part of the Strait at 1 P. M., the
lunch hour, and ordered lunch postponed half an hour. His prediction
was exactly verified, and nothing could have driven the passengers from
the decks at 1 P. M., there was so much to see.... At 4 P. M. we
came to Stromboli, a volcanic island in the sea. Captain Ulrich said he
would pass on the south side of the mountain, that we might better see
the volcano; the distance was greater, but this change in the ship’s
course enabled us to get a very fine sight of Stromboli. From the
south side we saw the crater, and the smoke pouring out of it in great
volume. There is no lighthouse on Stromboli, as the volcano furnishes
a red glare by which mariners steer their course at night. You would
think people would keep away from a lonely island in the sea which
smokes all the time, and is liable to erupt, and destroy everything for
many miles around, but they don’t. We saw two villages on Stromboli:
one of them of good size. The larger one is located a considerable
distance from the crater, but the other is not a thousand feet from
the track of the lava as it descends to the sea. And these smoking
volcanoes not only bark; they bite. Only a few miles away is Messina,
where eighty thousand people were destroyed only five years ago. In the
other direction is Vesuvius, which has taken a greedy toll of human
life for many years; the last time in 1906.
THURSDAY, MAY 1.—I have seen many prettier sights than the far-famed
Bay of Naples. Many people say a look at the bay caused them to forget
the frets and worries of life, but I had no such feeling. We arrived
early in the morning, when the town was partly hidden in mists,
but later I saw the bay in bright sunshine, from several points of
advantage, but it did not greatly impress me. The Bay of Naples is
so large that it is not a harbor, therefore a breakwater has been
constructed, and behind this our ship anchored, in company with a good
many others.... I have spoken elsewhere of English becoming the
universal language. This morning I heard the Italian pilot telling
the captain of the ship a piece of war news. The pilot talked broken
English. A Frenchman, a Portuguese, a Belgian and a Hollander gathered
to hear the war news, and they all understood English.... After the
usual medical inspection, which always seems ineffective and useless in
the first-cabin, the passengers were allowed to land. We went to the
Hotel Vesuve, where I had been before, and were given two excellent
rooms overlooking the bay. In front of the hotel was a street, and
then the sea, and from my window I watched the fishermen at work;
they were so close that I could have hailed them, and asked what sort
of fish they were taking out of the nets. Directly in front of our
windows was an old castle and fort, and soldiers were always passing
in or out of the gate. The Hotel Vesuve is the best of the dozens at
which we have stopped, and the price is only thirty-six francs per
day; that is, we have two of the best rooms in one of the best hotels
in Italy, and the price is $3.60 per day each, including meals. Living
at the hotels in South Africa is pioneering compared with living at
the Hotel Vesuve in Naples. Living at hotels is a joke at home, but
living at the Hotel Vesuve in Naples makes a man think of breaking up
housekeeping.... Adelaide thinks Naples is the most delightful town
we have seen; and the list of towns we have visited includes Pompeii,
which was destroyed by an eruption from Mount Vesuvius in the year 79.
It was so completely covered up by ashes that its site was forgotten,
and it lay neglected for seventeen hundred years. Then the work of
digging it out began, and is still in progress, and will continue for
many years to come. Pompeii existed long before Naples; it was an old
city when Christ was born, and was a seaside resort of the Romans.
Probably everyone has read the story of Pompeii, and I shall not print
it again, except to express my astonishment over the fact that much
of the finest art work in the world today was found in the ruins of
Pompeii; the moderns have not been able to equal it. Everything of
interest found in the ruins may now be seen in the museum at Naples.
The people of Pompeii had excellent plumbing at the time of the
eruption; probably the ancients thousands of years earlier knew much
that we now call modern. In the museum at Naples may be seen jewelry
from Pompeii that would pass for an exhibit made in 1913; patterns
are the same, and the work equally good. The implements used today by
dentists and doctors may also be seen among the relics from Pompeii.
There is an ugly instrument known as the speculum, which may be seen
in drug stores and doctors’ offices; I have no doubt it was used too
much three thousand or more years ago, for I saw one in the museum at
Naples. It was found in the ruins of Pompeii, and it is exactly like
the instrument used too much today.... I will mention another thing
about Pompeii the general reader may not know. The Romans and Greeks
who occupied the town were a dissolute, pleasure-loving lot, and they
left many relics that are shown to men only. In the big museum at
Naples, there is one room probably forty feet long, and half as wide.
In it are preserved literally thousands of disreputable things found
in Pompeii. They include statuary and pictures in mosaics. I heard a
woman say lately that she despised Pompeii so much that she did not
enjoy her visit to the place; probably her husband had told her what he
saw in the Dirty Room, and she hated the people who formerly occupied
the deserted houses and streets. The people are certainly improving
in morals all the time; we are not as good as we should be now, but
we are better in every respect than the ancients were. I often wonder
that the ancients, who believed in so many gods, were not scared into
better conduct.... Pompeii is reached by railroad train from Naples.
If you take an express train, the twenty miles may be traveled in half
an hour. Electric cars also run there, but they make many stops, and
are much slower. When you are in Pompeii, you are near Vesuvius, the
mountain which has destroyed so many lives. It is particularly peaceful
just now, and I saw no smoke issuing from the crater. Seven years ago
it went on a rampage, and destroyed several villages and six or seven
hundred lives. At that time the mountain lost three hundred feet of
its top, and is so insignificant-looking now that a good many visitors
to Naples do not make the journey to the summit, which is easily
accomplished by electric and cog railway. A mountain near Vesuvius is
now higher than Vesuvius itself, but the wicked old pile will grow,
and no doubt will erupt at some time in the future, and kill thousands
again. Stromboli, which we saw yesterday, is a much more impressive
sight at present than Vesuvius.