296 TWO YEARS Ilf THE JUNGLE. 



panj with other friends, the greeting is, " "VSTiat will you have to 

 drink ? " If you say you do not drink, or do not wish anything, 

 you are urged most urgently to " take something" until it becomea 

 positively disagreeable ; and really the easiest way is to compromise 

 by taking a glass of their beastly lemonade or abominable soda. 

 Furthermore, when your new acquaintances, or old ones either, for 

 that matter, call upon you at youi' hotel for half an hour's chat, 

 you are expected to order drinks for the crowd, until the crowd is 

 full of whatever it likes best. To omit this feature is to give posi- 

 tive offence in some cases, and even at the best to send your visi- 

 tors away saying that you are luicivil and not worthy the acquaint- 

 ance of gentlemen. 



Again and again, I have seen men sit down in a hotel and delib- 

 erately drink themselves drunk and helpless. At the old Sea-view 

 Hotel in Colombo, there is a room down-stairs kept for the exclu- 

 sive use of gentlemen who get too intoxicated to leave the 

 premises. Some get foolishly drunk at the dinner-table with their 

 wine ; some di-unk and quaiTelsome ; some destnictively drunk ; 

 others disgracefully, and many helplessly. It was painful to see 

 polished and intelligent young men make free exhibitions of 

 themselves in the public rooms, and become objects of contempt 

 even to the hotel seiwants. The curse of the East Indies is 

 brandyism. Wrecked livers and stomachs are always charged 

 to the "beastly climate," but in many, many cases the beastly 

 bottle is to blame. Of course no one wiU be so unthinking as 

 to suppose there are not hosts of good and true men in the East 

 who draw the hne at Bass' pale ale or claret, and who never think 

 of touching more fiery intoxicants ; there are plenty such, but I 

 fear they are in the minority. 



In due time, I called upon our consul. Major Studer, to pay my 

 respects, little thinking that in him I would meet a "fellow-citizen " 

 fi'om my own proud State, Iowa, and be received almost with open 

 arms. Yes, that was my good fortune, and more than that, I had 

 the pleasure of an early introduction to the Major's charming 

 daughter, then Miss Studer, but now a lass no more, a genuine 

 American girl — which is the highest praise I can bestow upon a 

 young lady. It was a great treat to me all around, and their kind 

 hospitality made my stay in Singapore, at the three different times 

 I was there, far more endurable and free fi-om social dulness than 

 would otherwise have been the case. 



I think Major Studer is one of the most efficient consuls with whom 



