ADVENTUROUS GIRL

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 17, 21 January 1936, Page 15

ADVENTUROUS GIRL

WOMEN IN MANY COUNTRIES

A twenty-two-year-old American girl left Los Angeles under a year ago with a steerage ticket to Japan and 15 dollars, about £3. Now she has reached London after some remarkable experiences (states an exchange). She is Gwen 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, 1934, I bought a steerage ticket in a Japanese ship and left .with 15 dollars and a trunk of clothes. I had an upper berth in a long room in which there were about 30 bunks and a long 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 Tokio was teaching children English, and I sang in clubs and cafes. I found the Japanese women ruled their men by gentleness. Nagging is unknown among the women. From Tokio I went 500 miles to Kobe to take a job as secretary to an Englishman. The journey there exhausted my funds, and I 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. Chinese women are much more emancipated than Japanese. But they 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 asa 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 play an equal part in public life with the men. ' They look' for no petting and pampering from the men, either. "The Finnish women seem to be just the opposite to the Russian women. They1 are gentle, charming, and domesticated. Their homes are clean and their family life serene. "From Finland I 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 intended 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 this year.