noticeably in excess of other towns.

The whole building was a picture of neatness and cleanliness. The walls
were made of bertam (a kind of plaited reed) so as to be easily
destroyed and replaced in case of infection. The floors were of cement
and raised off the ground. This hospital has only been started two
years, and, at the present time, possesses fifty beds. The bathing
places in particular merited attention, the floors being tiled, while
large tanks of brick and cement contained the water supply--baths are
provided for feeble patients. The most elaborate building was the
dead-house, where all the latest improvements were to be seen. There
was, and is, a European ward where patients can be treated for three
guilders a day. Another building, standing a little apart, was for
Europeans of a better class who could afford to pay six guilders a-day,
"but," the doctor added, "they never come." The hospital is free for all
natives, and, contrary to what is frequently the case elsewhere, the
authorities seem to experience no difficulty in inducing them to go
there. The doctor has one assistant to help him in managing the
hospital. He spoke very highly of the native dressers, and said that
they frequently turn out well. To X., accustomed to see similar
hospitals crowded with Chinese, it was curious only to find one in the
whole hospital, and he was the cook.

After his visit to the hospital the traveller went to the post office to
ask if his registered letter had come, and was considerably depressed to
find that, though the post had arrived, there was no letter by it for
him. There was nothing to be done but to accept the information and
return to the hotel and think it out. He was alone--servants and luggage
had gone, and some ten guilders of money only remained. Where could he
find a local Schmidt. The landlord suggested that perhaps the people at
the Factory might change his cheque. X. was not certain, but believed
the Factory to be the name for the offices of the chief trading firm in
Java. Acting on this advice, he took a carriage and drove there. The
haughty young gentleman who presided behind the counter received him
suspiciously, and at once disdainfully and very firmly refused to have
anything to do with the cheque, which he turned over and over in his
fingers as though it might bite him, and then returned to its owner.

Bowed out and baffled, the traveller returned to his hotel. The
situation was now growing se