BACK TO CIVILIZATION 
369 
gers, and there were only six on board. We had 
elbow room for the first time since leaving Africa. 
When we stopped at Penang there were two dis¬ 
tinct sensations. One was that Georgetown, the 
capital of the Island of Penang, is the prettiest 
tropical city I have ever seen; and the other was the 
first shock of the rubber craze. From that time on 
we were constantly in a seething roar of rubber talk; 
everybody was buying rubber shares and everybody 
else was talking about starting rubber plantations. 
The fever was epidemic. Planters were destroying 
profitable cocoanut groves in order to replace them 
with rubber trees. Nearly every local resident was 
putting his last cent in rubber shares and the tales 
of suddenly increased wealth inflamed the imagina¬ 
tions and cupidity of every one who heard them. I 
mentally jotted down the names of one or two com¬ 
panies that are going to declare enormous dividends 
soon, but that’s as far as I’ve got in my rubber in¬ 
vestments. 
Penang, like Hongkong, is an island. The city 
on the island is Georgetown, while the city on 
Hongkong is Victoria; but you will never hear any 
one speak of Georgetown or Victoria. It is just 
Penang and Hongkong, and the other names are 
useless incumbrances. 
Singapore was crowded with Americans fighting 
for accommodations on the China and Japan steam¬ 
ers ; other Americans fighting to get reservations on 
the Java steamers; still other Americans who, in 
despair, were going to Hongkong by way of Bor- 
