Page 25 - To Dragma November 1924

20 TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

AROUND T H E WORLD

I IIAVE JUST had such a wonderful experience that I must tell
you about it. Have you ever had a dream that came true?
Well, that's what has happened to me. On the 14th of January,
a friend of mine and 1 sailed f r o m New York on the Cunard
liner Laconia f o r a cruise around the world. Our first port was
Havana, Cuba, and it was rather a shock to see practically every
other shop one of liquid refreshments, bottles and jugs every-
where.

From Cuba we sailed through the Panama Canal, making two
stops, one at either end of the canal. I t is truly a great engineer-
ing feat. A n d it gave one a thrill to think that Uncle Sam did
it. I t was almost spooky to see those great locks open and the
water flow through. A f t e r the vessel had glided through, the
locks closed again and nowhere was there a sign of machinery
or a human being.

Honolulu is a perfect place f o r romance. A large percentage
of the population is Japanese so they have given an artistic touch
to the architecture and landscape gardening. There are beauti-
f u l drives around the island, and nowhere i n the world is the
surf bluer than that which rolls in at Waikiki Beach. The naked
native surf-riders do all kinds of stunts on their surf boards.

We spent nearly two weeks in Japan, landing first at Yoko-
hama, or rather what had been Yokohama, because there was
nothing left but crumbled ruins. And it looked rather pitiful to
see these tiny little people carrying away the debris in two bas-
kets swinging f r o m a pole over their shoulder and dumping it
into the sea. W e spent a few days in Tokio. The great business
buildings in the European section built by Americans were prac-
tically unharmed by the earthquake but the native sections were
entirely destroyed. Tokio was rapidly being rebuilt.

I n Japan we also visited Koloe, Nara, which has felt almost
no European influence, and Kyoto, where we saw the Prince Re-
gent and his bride. They were on their way to their ancestral
home to tell their ancestors that they had been married. This
completed the marriage ceremony. The next day we were taken
through the palace where they had spent the night.

Sailing through the beautiful inland sea which is dotted with
hundreds of fishermen sailboats, we came to Shanghai. The