a bamboo." In a day or two he was going to meet his wife, who was
just coming from England with a little three-months-old crown prince
whom he had not yet seen. Then, together, the royal family was going
back to Christmas Island on one of the king's ships.

[Drawing: _The Call of the East_]

The China coast is distinguished for its excellent United States
consular officials. And it hasn't been so for many years. Our
representative in Singapore, Mr. Dubois, is one of the best men I have
yet encountered in one of our consulates. He is a new-comer in Singapore
and yet in his few months he has added more prestige to our consulate
general than all the former men put together. One can not but wonder why
he is not a minister or an ambassador, instead of only a consul general.

Hongkong has been fortunate in having an excellent representative in Mr.
Rublee, and his recent untimely death is a distinct loss to the country.
Mr. Wilder is in Shanghai and he is decidedly a man of the best mental
and temperamental equipment. So now an American traveler may go up and
down the China coast and "point with pride" to his nation's
representatives. How different it was ten or twelve years ago!

We barely managed to get on board the _Prinz Ludwig_--Singapore to
Hongkong. It is one of the N.D. Lloyd's crack ships and everybody tries
to take it. We got the last cabin, as usual, and spent hours thanking
our lucky stars.

The China Sea is chronically disposed to be disagreeable, but on this
occasion it was quite well behaved. There were three days of delightful
sunshine and then a sudden blighting chill in the air. We landed in
Hongkong with overcoats buttoned up and with garments drenched by the
rains and mist clouds that battled around the great peaks of this little
island. The hotels were jammed to the sidewalks and we got the last room
at the Hongkong Hotel, while throngs were turned away; the steamers for
the States were booked full for several voyages ahead and tourists were
rushing around in despair. The _Asia_ had been booked up to the limit
for weeks and it seemed as if we might have to wait a long time before
getting berths on any ship. But some one unexpectedly had to give up a
state-room and we were fortunate in getting it.

I had a great desire to see Manila again. It had been ten years since I
left there in the "days of the empire" and everything in me quivered
with longing to revisit the place where I spent my golden period