THE SUNDAY OREGON"! AX, PORTLAND, JUNE 17, 190G.
TRAVELERS OFTEN
CROSS STREAMS ON
INFLATED BULLOCK
Y0tf TAKE YOUR LIFE
Ili YOUR HANDS ON
SEVERAL REGULAR
rri pjii?va Kir? e
SKINS.
'fa
40
-fPHSMlfflKei
1 13 HIGHNES3. the Maharajah, Gaek-
war of Baroda, who has been tour-
ins In this country since the middle
of last month, should be thoroughly ac
quainted with the American methods of
travel by this time. Perhaps some appeal
to him as strangely unique. Perhaps his
opinion of our sleeping-car would not be
flattering, if he could be surprised into
revealing it. Poor, indeed, his opinion of
it would be were' he to say that It Is far
less comfortable Jhan the shigram of Hin
dustan. The shigram, one of the numerous trav
eling vehicles of India, is favored for dak
posting, especially by night, and may,
therefore, be compared with the Occi
dental sleeping-car.
It Is nothing more or less than a large
palanquin on wheels. A palanquin is an
oblong box of light, strong wood, about
six feet long, half as wide and four feet
from the cane bottom to the top. As a
general rule, the front Is of glass, while
eliding doors occupy much of the space
on either side. These can be opened or
dreed at the pleasure of the occupant,
who stretches out on a straw mat thrown
upon the bottom. For the comfort of back
end head, a curved support and pillow are
placed at one end; at the other is a shelf
for small articles. In the Bombay palan
quins this shelf folds and Is equipped with
a lamp.
In place of the palanquin's bamboo carrying-poles,
the shigram has a tongue, or
pole, to which a pair of Mongol ponies is
usually hitched, though bullocks are some
times used to drag a shigram from dak to
dak. A dak corresponds to our stage
house, and is provided and supervised by
the state.
Difficulties of Shigram Travel.
Were It not for the cussedness of the
Mongol ponies, traveling by shlisram
would not be among the most uncomfort
able methods of getting over Hindu
ground. They never start off without a
lot of urging. Then they begin the Jour
ney In eo violent a manner that the trav
eler is in momentary danger of being
spilled to the ground.
When the situation is verging on the
unbearable the ponies stop as suddenly as
they started, and the traveler finds him
self frantically trying to keep his body
from shooting through the glass front of
the hox of torture into which ho so confi
dently ventured, perhaps 15 minutes be
fore. The trick now is to get the ponies In a
frame of mind for further traveling. A
groom arms himself with a piece of bam
boo about two feet In length. At one end
of this stick is a looped horsehair cord.
Ooing up to the head of one of the ob
streperous little devils and a few paces In
advance. the groom proceeds to twist the
cord around one of its ears. Then he
braces his feet and pulls with all his
might. Next, he Jumps hastily to one side
while the ponies plunge past. It is now up
to the traveler to hold fast and to pray
that this time the ponies will take it into
their heads to keep on till the first dak
post Is reached. Sometimes they do. More
often they do not.
There is one other little matter that
is liable to disturb the peace of mind of
the stranger making a night Journey in
a shigram for the first time. He awakens
in the dead of night to find, in all likeli
hood, the vehicle motionless, the groom,
the minor attendants and the ponies all
missing. There is no sign of life any
where outside the shigram. and the trav
eler, stranger that he Is to the ways of
the country. Instantly makes up his mind
that he has been abandoned between dak
posts in the middle of the road. The ex
perienced traveler, however, wrathfully
scrambles out of his berth, I was about
to say and as wrathfully makes for a
clump of trees near to the roadside. In
another minute he gains a group of men
sitting about a campflre. He strides
up to one and begins calling down
on his head all the choice native impreca
tions he can think of. The effect is mag
ical. The groom and other attendants run
hastily to hitch up the ponies, and. if they
have good luck at this, the traveler Is
again under way in half an hour. As for
the bullock drivers with whom the travel
' era people stopped to swap tales in "the
wee sma- hours." they are used to such
scenes, and in no wise ruffled by the sud
den appearance of a European at the
car.ipfire.
The Time-Killing Chopaya.
The best way under the sun to kill time
bar none Is to travel in a chopaya.
This vessel Is as cumbersome as it is
picturesque. In appearance it as a
cross between an autumnal festival
float and a king's triumphal car. Its
body is rectangular. Four carved posts
support a double roof. Between the
roots is space sufficient to hold one's
baggage and body servant. The body
la usually brilliantly painted sky blue
is a favorite color and elaborately or
namented with flowers and divinities of
ludicrous lines and features.
The sides, whicli are open, are hung
with curtains. The traveler sits in the
center of the body, while four white
oxen, their backs covered with red
cloths, carry him over the ground at
the leisurely rate of two miles an hour;
that Is, 'on level stretches. It is considerably-less
going up hill. It Is de
cidedly mWe going- down. As soon as
the descent is begun the driver goads
the oxen into galloping, and down the
hill the chopaya careens madly. The
wise traveler never goes down two hills
in a chopaya. He gets out and walks
after negotiating his first one in this
lmir-raising fashion.
The unusual sensations attendant on
this little experience are heightened by
thg circumstance that at the foot of
the average Indian hill road a minia
ture torrent runs. This is crossed only
by a narrow foot bridge, and into .the
stream the oxen plunge, to fetch up
panting on the rising ground on the
opposite side. It is needless to state,
perhaps, that the occupant of the cho
paya also fetches up panting, and co
piously bruised from head to feet, at
tho same point.
Such is the effect of a trip in a cho
paya that even soft-hearted Europeans
who have ridden Jn it do not think it
incumbent on them to warn their
friends and acquaintances against trav
eling in the same manner. The only
way to keep the Incidents of a chopaya
trlD from rankling forever in one's
mind is to know that some friend or
acquaintance Is Innocently preparing to
undergo similar torture.
Bad as is the chopaya for making
the traveler ache sorely in every mus
cle and Joint, it Is not to be anathema
tized in the same breath with the In
dian mail cart.
After Rousselet, the famous French
traveler, had covered the first stage of
a certain journey in a chopaya, he be
gan casting about for another mode of
travel, was told that the mail cart
would soon be along, and at once de
termined to take it. In the interval
if the cart's arrival and departure from
the station. Rousselet scrambled on to
tho high box set on two immense
wheels.- and seated himself with his
back to the driver. From the time the
driver cracked his whip until the next
station was reached he had to hang on
for llf itself. Up hill and down the
H
K 4f .' . v-
'" V vt
. k
bcart shot. It took curves on one wheel.
It leaped. It swayed from side to side.
It did everything that the handiwork
of man could do to bruise poor Rousse
let. So that when the driver's trumpet
blew to clear the road, and, a moment
later, Rousselet got a grimpse of his
chopaya, with his baggage, pulled up
by the roadside, he implored tlte driver
to let him get off, that he might con
tinue the journey in it. To his great
sorrow, he learned that an Indian mail
cart does not stop for anything short
of a Bmash-up between stations.
Crossing a River on AVater Jugs.
Surprises, adventures and novel sen
sations are .frequently the portion of
the traveler when he finds himself con
fronted by an unbrldged river or other
formidable body of water.
When Rousselet one day, while trav
eling by carriage, reached the banks of
the Parbuttl, he found the ford impas
sable by reason of the swollen condi
tion of the stream. His attendants
thereupon rushed of to a neighboring
village. Soon the entire population ap
peared at the ford and began construct
ing a raft out of about 30 gurhas,
ff5-- ' VfiMZw- INFLATED BULLOCK ' SKINS .
frwpiB ill
V - -- . . x rr A
StRtf :ZI fishermen is by all odds the most extraor- won!
V'-"
,.f 4
y'v - 7? A ,
"light spherical pitchers which the
women use to fetch water from the
spring. These gurhas were coupled to
gether, and solidly attached to poles in
such a manner that their orifices were
uppermost." On this raft the men of
the village placed the carriage and in
vited the traveler to seat himself. "In
this manner, pushed forward by the
arms of these good people, our vehicle
glided smoothly over the water, and
reached the opposite shore. The con
struction of the raft and the passage
of the river did not take more than
half an hour."
In some parts of the Punjab the only
means of crossing the rivers are bullock
skins inflated with air. A man wanting to
get to the opposite river bank carries a
skin on his back to the water's edge,
straddles it and so drifts or paddles his
way across. Rafts are also built out of
these skins and poles, and on them mer
chandise, vehicles and animals are trans
ported. Natives who have to do much
traveling away from the railway lines car
ry bullock skins with them for crossing
bodies of water. There are also stations
along some rivers tho Beas in particular
where the bullock skins can be hired in
sufficient number to take a caravon across.
" ? J I..-
t.svs at "j
r 1 -V-i-sW
European travelers have been known
to study these bullock skin ferries closely
before trusting their precious bones to
them. The Himalayan rope bridge has
caused many a traveler to give up his
journey and turn back on his tracks.
Terrifying Rope Bridges.
This primitive bridge is thrown over
torrents that rage, boiling, toward the
sea. Across it the traveler, swung in a
loop, suspended from a block and tackle,
is pulled by a bridge attendant stationed
on the bank. A bridge Is usually of sev
eral strands of rope, each theoretically
capable of bearing the weight of a man.
The bridgekeepers do not think it worth
while to report when a strand gives way
for any cause. Are not the other 11 still
whole? And when another breaks, are
not ten still whole, and Is not one suffi
ciently strong to bear the weight of a
man? The traveler who does not hesi
tate to cross a rope bridge all too evident
ly sadly neglected is a brave man indeed.
If he himself does not feel this on start
ing, he will when he finds himself dang
ling over the center of a torrent, raging
perhaps 50. or 100. or more feet below him.
To te precipitated therein by the giving
tW"V a . 1 lite.
$ r
way of rotten ropes would mean certain
death.
While it is rarely employed by Euro
peans as a method of travel, even in emer
gencies, the catamaran of the Madras
fishermen is by all odds the most extraor
dinary of Indian water vehicles. It is
simply three logs lashed together and
flush with the surface of the water. On
these a fisherman (sometimes two or more
fishermen) stands, and with a single oar
paddles himself far out to sea. A Madras
fisherman will venture out when boatman
will not launch their craft, and even in
weather when boats cannot be launched
he will go through the surf and out to
ships with letters, for the delivery of
which he gets a few pence. In order to
catch their ships, a few belated travelers
have been known to trust themselves on
catamarans. They are united in the state
ment that the ride on the logs was the
most nerve-trying experience they had un
dergone in a land that holds a new thrill
for the stranger at every turn.
The Curious Thoppa.
A curious traveling arrangement, seen
only in the Assam hills, is the thoppa. It
is used by Englishwomen, and in appear
ance is somewhat like the Summer resort
wicker chair with projecting ' sides to
break the wind. The thoppa is of a light,
woven material, and minus legs, as it Is
strapped on a man's back. The fair occu
pant travels backward, of course. This Is
all right until her thoppa man, ascending,
stops on a narrow ledge of a footroad to
pass the time of day with a fellow
thoppa man, bound down. Then the trav
eler finds herself looking over the edge of
a yawning precipice. As one traveler has
expressed It, "it is awkward" to find one's
self so situated, especially as one's posi
tion in the chair makes it hard to com
municate with the thoppa man.
A much more comfortable vehicle for
mountain traveling is the jampan. It is
universally used In the neighborhood of
Simla.
In the last .analysis the Jampan is
the unimproved Hindu idea of a sedan
chair. It is a wooden chair, placed be
tween four double shafts. As a shel
ter from the sun and inclement weath
er, there is a light oilskin roofing. In
ascending, the porters in the rear place
the poles on their shoulders, those in
front bear them on their arms, so that
the traveler is not obliged to assume
an uncomfortable attitude. In de
scending, the porters, of course, re
verse their holds. For traveling in
mountainous country, the jampan is
much to be preferred over the palan
quin, in which the traveler is contin
ually struggling to get into the least
uncomfortable position possible under
the circumstances.
For short trips and journeys about
town, there is the Indian carriage and
pair. "What with its shutters swing
ing outward and up and its barred
sides, the carriage looks strikingly
like a circus cage. The circus effect
Is heightened by the fact that the mo
tive power is usually bullocks.
The ekka, or road cart, is simply a
survival of the first sulky. The railka
is the Hindu improvement of the ekka.
but that is not saying much in favor
of the railka. In both, the two occu
pants sit almost on the pony's or bul
lock's tail. This is especially true of
the driver. There are single or double
rallkas, the latter being 'generally
drawn by bullocks.
These are but a few of the many
queer vehicles of travel roost of them
coming down unimproved from prim
itive days to be met with in India. A
brief stay in that land of mysteries
d serve to acquaint an Occidental
many more methods of travel.
undreamed of by him even in his mo
ments of weirdest fancy. (Copyright,
1906, by Homer Sprague.)
H. E. CLAYTON.
The Days "When the Gods
Rained Gold
Continued From Page 3 7.
ing the foundations for a factory, or
braving the heat of a tropio forest, or
conquering the cold of an Arctic Winter.
Young man. rejoice in your marble arms.
Young woman, give thanks for your
cheeks of rose. Youth is strength, and
beauty and recuperative force to recover
all wastes. Through rich physical gifts
all the gods rain gold during the days
when the heart is young.
To all other gifts the gods rain golden
gifts through youth's noble impulses and
enthusiasms. For young hearts, looking
forward to marriage, the business that is
to be founded, the fortune that is to be
made, all the days are roseate. Bach
morning Comes with a new glint of gold
gleaming in the sky. Each sun sets with
some new plan that has arisen like a
new world on the horizon. The very word
enthusiasm means theos, a god dwelling
within. When some new Inspiration kin
dles within the soul, some new vlsia is
born, some new hope and joy stirs, then
the gods rain gold upon the soul. Indeed,
the reason why the youth is a pathfinder. ,
a voyager, a discoverer. Is that his heart
is full of enthusaism, and he has confi
dence in his own resources. Much of tho
conservatism of old age is born of a con
sciousness that the resources physical and
nervous and mental are well nigh ex
hausted. Youth is full of hope, optimism
and ambition. It has boundless resources
on which it can draw. For all these rea
sons the hope of the Nation is in these
young hearts and lives. Before them
stretch all the continent of the years.
What the fathers could hot achieve, the
sons and daughters will behold. The mis
takes this generation has made, the
next will correct. Youth has time and to
spare. Its materials, physical and intel
lectual and spiritual, are materials of gold
and marble, or bronse and pearl, out of
which temples of infinite beauty can be
builded. Only these gifts that come from
the gods are for temples of art and in
dustry and liberty. They ought not to be
wasted in the nalonn. the gambling-house
or racetrack. Strange, that a son of God
should leave his father's imperial palace,
and start straight for the pig sty and the
husks that swine do eat! To every youth
comes a celestial visitor, whispering "Ix,
I give to you gifts from the soils, ma
terials out of which you can found a city,
or beautify an empire." Remember, there
fore. , that during these days when the
heart is young, all the gods, by day and
night, are raining gold.
NEWEU, DWIGHT HILL.IS.
Monologue of
a Politician
By Marcus W. Robbins
THE day after election is like New
Year's day a fellow always de
clares that he is going to swear off
on politics forever and get In and make
some money. But when the Spring time
comes around again and men gather in
bunches on the street corner and you
hear such remarks as; "Bill Jones is
coming out for Sheriff"; or, "I heard it
rumored that Tom Adams was thinking ot
running for the Legislature," then the
fever get Into your blood and you begin
to think there Is some show for you.
You get out on the streets and begin to
buzz around. You meet a crony, button
hole him and whisper:-. "Some of my
friends have been to me and suggested
that I run for County Judge." Your
chum nods his head, looks wise tnd says:
"You would make a good one. Oo in and
win!" After you tell this a few times,
you begin really to believe It. And a lit
tle later you get out a nominating peti
tion. Everybody signs and you begin to
.conclude that you are one of the most
popular men In the county.
Then you put in about 20 days traveling
over the county, shaking hands with the
farmers, discussing the weather and blow
ing about the fine cooking of the lady of
the house. You have to go around and
see the editor of the county paper and
put in a card. This costs you ten. Then
you make a little statement of what you
propose to do for the people and he prints
It for 10 cents a line. (You may be sure
the country editor will never stand for
the repeal of the primary law.)
Primary day rolls around and then you
have to hustle. Hire notaries to swear
in voters; get rigs to bring the. old men
to the po"s; hand out cigars and be in
several places at once. But when the
returns are all In, you find that you have
been nominated. Then comes a short
breathing spell arid you are at it again.
Your opponent now belong.- to a differ
ent party, and the way he goes for you
Is scandalous. They rake your past with
a fine tooth comb and then some. You
are accused of beating your wife; of not
paying your debts; and if you ever marie
a horse trade, you may feel assured that
in some ot the outlying precincts the re
port will ppread that you were once ar
rested for horsestealing.
Your personality is discussed with the
greatest freedom. You hear, remarks
about the shape of your head, and if you
happen to be'bowlegged, woe be unto you.
Some people intimate that you are not
competent to fill the office: others that
you are nothing but a low-down grafter,
and that you have been hunting after of
fice ever since you have' been in the coun
ty. The unkindest cut of all la wnen you
learn that Fred Ames, your next door
neighbor and a man whom you have al
ways befriended, has bet S"0 to $25 that
your opponent will beat you by a hundred
votes. This makes you swallow hard and
damn the ungratefulness of man from
Dan to Beersheba.
. But through It all you have to wear a
smiling face and claim everything in
sight. When a friend asks: , "How are
you running?" you proceed to explain that
Blue Frog Precinct is for you solid; that
you-will get 75 majority in Peach .Run
Precinct: that perhaps Boulder Creek may
be close; yet you expect to carry the
County by 3(10.
Ten days before election the fellows be
gin to "touch" you. Jones comes to you
and says that he can carry Pine Flat for
you with a little effort. You hand over
a twenty. Somebody tells you that the
storekeeper at Three Pines has a lot of
influence in that precinct, so you "see"
him and hand out $10 for cigars and inci
dentals. You make the rounds of the school
houses and halls, and tell everybody that
you are no speechmaker, but that you
will give everybody a square deal. This
always brings down the house. More ci
gars are handed out, and maybe you ha-e
a Jug out back, in charge of some faithr;:
friend.
Election day dawns bright and clear and
everything seems to be going your way
with a rush. You have got it all figured
out how your opponent can't get the
church vote, and you think that you have
fixed the saloon vote and the labor vote
has been for you all the time. Nobody
pays any attention to the kid gloves or
the silk stockings, for they can't deliver
the goods.
You come down town after supper and
go around to the different polling places
and watch the returns. Towards 11
o'clock, your opponent appears to 'have
the better of it. and you go home in dis
gust. The next morning, you have to
confess your defeat, even though two or
three precincts remain to be heard from.
For the next few days, you put In your
time explaining how it all happened, and
swearing that there are more liars to the
square mile In the county than in any
Other in the state.
Politics: Forget it, for two years
at least. MARCUS W. ROBBINS.
Groat's Pass, Or.