e--how such a train was
crowded, how accommodations could not be secured at such a hotel, how
poor the hotels were, and how long they would have to wait to get a
berth on some outgoing ship. There were many people hung up in Bombay
and Calcutta vainly trying to get away, but the boats were booked full
for two or more voyages ahead.

One of the peculiarities of Indian travel has been the fact that most
tourists plan to be in India during December, January and February.
Hence they arrive in bunches, and try to get away in a bunch, which is
impossible owing to the limited capacity of the steamships. This year
the swarms of tourists have been so great that many of them could not
get out of the country until late in March and along in April.

The Americans have become the great travelers of the world. In India
there are two American tourists for one of all other nationalities. The
hotel registers bristle with U.S.A. addresses and the shops and hotels
regard the American trade as being the most profitable. One desirable
result of the American tendency to fare afield has been the steady
improvement in hotel and railway accommodations in the Far East.

We said good-by to India without much regret; in fact, we were elated to
secure accommodations on a small Indo-China boat that made the run to
Penang and Singapore in about eight days. No berths could be secured on
the ships that go by the way of Burma. Those ships were booked full for
several trips ahead. So we settled down comfortably on the good ship Lai
Sang and droned lazily down through the Bay of Bengal. There were
accommodations for only twelve first-class passengers, 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 distinct 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 imaginations and cupidity of every one who heard them. I
mentally jotted