OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 237, 30 June 1908, Page 11

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

THE PACIFIC COAST. . • CANADA'S AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS. . [FROM OCR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] For weeks now tho coast cities have vied, with each other-, in their fetes of entertainment for the members of tho battleship fleet, these fetes culminating- in tho welcome givon by San Francisco early in May to tho combined Atlantic and Pacific fleets. Tho. Atlantic fleet will cruiso northward into I'uget Sound', and visit the larger port cities like Seattle and Tacoma, . returning to San Francisco in July, when it will start for Hawaii and its cruise around tho world. The fleet is scheduled to complete its cruiso and sail into the harbour of New York on February. 22,'. 1009. ' Navigation of the Air. ' Coincident with the visit of the battleships to the' Pacific comes the news of successful experimentation with air-ships, of, various kinds' at the' Government's practice grounds. -The scientists say tho next war will be fought in'the clouds. ' American inventors arc in the forefront, in tho race for supremacy through the successful invention and manufacture of dirigible balloons. Tho latest improvements aro. in the " heavier-than-air " machines, and practical aroplanes aro now being manufactured. Tho desire of governments to lessen tho enormous expense connected wjth navies has helped to inaugurate the ago of air-ships and indirectly the cruise of the Atlantic fleet will be of benefit quite beyond calculation. Air-ship 3 will bo cheaper than "automobiles, and everybody may take a ride.

The Weston Walking Club. Besides the sailors of the fleet San Francisco has been entertaining ai celebrity of no mean note—Edward Payson Weston, . tho world's" champion walker. A quiet, unobtrusive man, who has seen seventy'years come and go, .and is'still hale and hearty, Weston is ever on tho move, teaching a lesson in. sdbriety and health. We are'all interested in the battle against ill-health—tho stoop-shouldered, 'narrow-chested habit of . the .young, the. stiffening joints and unweildly frame that mark the passage of our first youth, v the decrepitude that creeps on with advancing, years! In his own experience Weston has demonstrated the success of his idea that right walking is the cure for most of our evils. 1 He is now in San, Francisco giving lessons in walking to the' school children of the city, and organing walking clubs for young men and old. The Greek Theatre at .the University. The University of California boasts of a magnificent Greek Theatre—an open-air auditorium built on the linos of tho ancient theatres. In this climate the building is thoroughly practical, and for musical recitals and plays of tho' higher -sort the largo open stage is particularly well adapted. Not . long since • a Sanscrit 1 play was presented \by student actors, constituting an. event of considerable The play was tho Mrcchakatika, or "Littlo Clay Cart,!! a composition .attributed to King'! Shudraka, • and first' acted ' about 600 a.d. It pertains to the love between Charudatta, a rich merchant, and Vasantasena, and tho love plot comes into,contct,with a political intrigue pf the realm which furnishes a subplot to .complicate the course of love.- ; More than twenty actors and a chorus of a hundred voices were necessary for the presentation. -Before the play began a student offered.to several visiting Swamis an address of:welcome',saying in part: "This is truly a meeting of tho East and the West. The two . races are of the' same original stock, but back in remote ages there was a separation, , and you have gone your way-and we have "one ours. \ What, we have done wo have done.by. ourselves', and'what"you'ihave done you have done by yourselves. But to-night we ssie these two-threads of culture brought - together, again,." The play, was started in Hindu - fashion' by : a benediction' upon the audience, - spoken in Sanscrit by an Indian student' at -the University. After this the action .began, and was ■ carried through five acts with;great spirit by the student actors. The general effect was wholly new to Western audiences; betokening a " Hindu invasion" of a, sort,very different from the kind seen in Vancouver,and the Northern States., . ' The .great scene of this play is the final act, which represents, a street' festival in the crowded; streets of Avanti. A throng' of people/enter with a troop of Oriental musicians'playing weird native music. The procession was.lieaded by an elephant and two zebras secured from a local "Zoo." In the midst of 'their, festivities the people are interruptedl by the .. call 'to worship of a Brahmin priest. The priest 'consecrates an imago, a symbol for the god Shiva," the lightning, the .; destroyer, while a crowd of worshippers prostrate 1 themselves. After this ceremony a troop of dancing girls onters, and entertains' the people. ' Tho play concludes with the entrance of the king in high pomp, who sets all things-straight.:-In, California all things Oriental find their first Introduction. Sbmo Oriental things wo' like, and some ,we do not like. The higher ■Hindu culture finds many admirers and some devotees. .