GIRL'S WORLD TOUR

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 299, 18 December 1935, Page 14

GIRL'S WORLD TOUR

WHAT SHE HAS NOTED. "BROKE" BUT HAPPY. LECTURING IN LONDON. (Special.—By Air Mail.) LONDON", November 23. A twenty-two-year-old American girl loft Los Angeles just under a year ago with. a steerage ticket to Japan and 15 dollars. Now she has reached London after some remarkable experiences. She is Owen Van der Kik, a graduate of the University of Southern California. "Before I left California," she said, "I was teaching children to act for the screen. In December last I bought a steerage ticket in a Japanese ship and left with 1") dollars and a trunk of clothes. I had an upper berth in a long room in which there were about 30 bunks and a io.'ig table. My fellow passengers consisted of Japanese men, women and children. I was the only white girl. The food consisted of raw fish, rice, pickles and fish soup. We ate in the same room. "My first job in Tokyo was teaching children English, and I sang in clubs and cafes. I found the Japanese women rub d their men by gentleness. Nagging |is unknown among the women. From Tokyo I went 500 miles to Kobe to take a job as secretary to an Englishman. The journey there exhausted my funds and T arrived penniless and homeless. My employer had meanwhile died. For three days I had nothing to eat and slept in a mission house. Then I went to the American Consul. He helped me find a job teaching. I was in Kobe four months. Then I went to Tientsin. Emancipated Chinese. "Chinese women are much more emancipated than Japanese, but they I don't take advantage of'it. They interest themselves only in their culture and ignore public life. My next place was Korea. I stayed there only a few days, then I went on to Siberia. To get to Moscow I sold all my clothes, bought some cheap Russian garments, and dressed myself ,as a peasant girl. There I lectured* on the Japanese drama and taught American dancing. "I found the Russian women the most emancipated of any country I have visited. They hold positions of responsibility and piay an equal part in public life with the 'men. They look for no petting and pampering from the men either. It struck nie, however, that they have lost much of feminine charm. Their homes are not very clean and there seems generally to be a domestic apathy. "The Finnish women seem to be just the opposite to the Russian women. They arc gentle, charming and domesticated. Their homes are clean and their family life serene. From Finland 1 went to Scandinavia. There I met and was entertained by the wife of the American Minister. I found the Scandinavian woman to be the ideal woman. She possesses wit, charm, and indulges in everything of interest. In Paris I went broke and had to live on bread and cheese for a. week. Then I walked to Geneva and looked in on the League of Nations conference." Miss Van der Kik intends to stay in England until Christmas lecturing and studying English feminine culture." She will go to Abyssinia: India. China, Japan and return to Los Angeles during next veaV.