BACK TO CIVILIZATION 373 



course of a talk between residents of Java at the 

 beginning, in the middle, and at the end of sen- 

 tences. 



"I think it will rain to-morrow, but never 

 mind." 



"I missed the train, but never mind." 

 "I'm not feeling well, but never mind." 

 You hear it all the time, all through Java. 

 In Java we had the best coffee we had struck 

 since leaving Paris, in fact, the first real good cof- 

 fee we had found. Even worthy Abdullah, our 

 camp cook, was considerable of a failure at coffee 

 making. The Boro Boedoer ruins are among the 

 most stupendous in the world; the volcanoes of 

 Java are like chimneys in Pittsburg, the terraced 

 rice fields are beautiful beyond belief, but never 

 mind. I think I shall remember Java chiefly for its 

 delicious coffee and for my house-to-house hunt for 

 a waterwheel. 



I was sitting one day in the Singapore club talk- 

 ing to Colonel Glover of the British army, when 

 a hand tapped me on my shoulder. I looked around 

 and there stood the King of Christmas Island. I 

 no more expected to see him than I did the great 

 Emperor Charlemagne, for it had been many years 

 since we were college mates at Purdue University. 

 His story is romantic. He is the nephew of Sir 

 John Murray, who owns immense phosphate de- 

 posits in Christmas Island, two hundred miles south 

 of Java Head. Years ago he went out to help work 

 these great deposits and has climbed up until now 



