TOUR OF ADVENTURE

Evening Star, Issue 22248, 28 January 1936, Page 11

TOUR OF ADVENTURE

GIRL GRADUATE SEES WORLD A twenty-two-year-old American girl left Los Angeles just under a year ago with a steerage ticket to Japan and 15 dollars, about £3. Now she has reached London after some remarkable experiences. She is Gwen Van der Kik, a graduate of the University of Southern alifornia. “ 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. T 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. 1 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 mo 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 1 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. “ 1 found the Russian women the most emancipated of any country I

have visited. They hold positions ot 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. They 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.