Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/117

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in the world. No doubt about it. In everything worthy and desirable, they are ahead of any other people."

This man was born in England, and lived in London many years, but is lately living in New Zealand. He believes the "Pennsylvania Dutch" he knew at Lancaster to be the best type of people he ever knew, and regrets that all the people of the United States are not more like them. . . . This gentleman also showed us how the English and Scotch eat oatmeal porridge. They salt it, but never use sugar. In the left hand they hold a cup of milk, and into this they dip a spoonful of porridge before eating it. . . . It seems there was a blizzard yesterday; the thermometer got down to fifty-six above. But we went about in our usual summer clothing, and did not know it was a blizzard until this morning's papers appeared. . . . In the botanical garden, this morning, I believe I saw the finest display of flowers I have ever seen. You hear much of the famous gardens of Japan, but I have never seen a Japanese garden as beautiful as that I saw this morning. The Japanese gardens are grotesque rather than beautiful. On the way back to town we visited a big department store, and remained an hour, watching the crowds. Doctor Beeson and I followed Adelaide around among the crowds of women, and enjoyed the experience. There was a special sale on, and postal cards had been reduced to a cent each. The store was a big one, but not nearly so large as the big ones in Kansas City. All the clerks were girls, and it was about the usual thing in special sales, except that prices were in pounds, shillings and pence. . . . In the