Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 261, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1919 — AROUND WORLD NEXT AIR FEAT [ARTICLE]

AROUND WORLD NEXT AIR FEAT

Some Aviator Expected to Emulate Magellan by Long Cruise - VI STILL NEW TO MANY LANDS National Geographic Society Says There Are Many Places Where Airplane, Automobile and Even Horse Would Be Curiosity. Washington.—“ Now that the Atlantic has been crossed and there are plans afoot to fly over the Pacific, the day may not be far distant when some aerial Magellan will make an airplane tour around the world,” says a bulletin of the National Geographic society. “There are still many corners of the world Vhere airplane, automobile and even the horse would be curiosities. And If a man set out to tour the globe ( and ‘do as the Romans do’ in respect to adopting native conveyances he would have to: “Resort to a donkey In Spanish America .and in the Holy Land. “Climb’ aboard a camel to traverse African deserts. “Cross some rivers of India on the inflated skins of bullocks, and others by a bridge of one rawhide rope. Using Elephant as Taxi. “Submit to the sea-going motion of an elephant when he continued his journey on land. “Get into a man-borne palanquin at Calcutta. “Jolt over far Eastern roads in a non-shock absorbing cart drawn by oxen. “And in China he prepared to climb into a jlnrlklsha. a sedan chair or a wheelbarrow.” < A few of these curious means of travel are described in a eommuniefttldn ld the so<jlety by follows: “In all parts of that great line of deserts, stretching from North Africa across Central Asia to Northwest China, the camel is everywhere In evidence; the total number in the

world being estimated at about three millions. “Not only is the camel a valuable freight carrier, but he serves as the_ travcling car of the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, the Morgans and the Harrimans of the desert. When he is chosen for this more pretentious service a light framework is placed upon his back and covered with cloths to screen the occupants from the sun and the observation of the passers, and decorated with pompons of various colors. In this gorgeous compartment, which may be not inaptly termed the ‘palace car of the desert,’ the master of the camel train places his wife and children, his choicest merchandise, his cooking utensils and dally requirements, and travels in state, the observed of all observers, the envy of the wandering native of the desert' Craft on the Euphrates. __x “On the Euphrates and the Tigris are still retained the curious water transports of centuries ago—the raft of skins and the circular boats. These rafts are sustained by inflated skins, prepared for this especial purpose, and after the raft floats down the river to its destination the inflated skins are removed, the air permitted to escape, and the skins carefully folded and carried back to the upper waters, w-here they are again Inflated and used as the support of another and still another raft. “Even more curious to the eyes of the traveler from other parts of the world are the circular boats, made of wickerwork and covered with skins,

or made watertight with pitch, which are still in daily use on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. . “The three principal methods of transportation of people in central and southern China are the sedan chair, the jlnrlklsha and the wheelbarrow. “Probably more freight and more passengers are transported in China by the wheelbarrow than by any other land method. The wheelbarrow there used differs from that used by us In the fact that the wheel is set in the center and thus supports practically the entire load, while the handles are supported in part by a strap or rope over the shoulders of the man who operates it. As a result, the wheelbarrow coolie in China will transport nearly a half ton on his vehicle.”