Adventure Magazine Cover, October 10, 1921 — page 188: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

{78 facts home to your readers. Reports should be rendered in plain every-day English—snappy, in- teresting stuff that we can all grasp. Cut out all idea of “investment” or returns of any sort, put everybody interested on the same basis with the understanding that they pay the same as every one else and get their reward in the reports from the expedition and the pictures. This may be objected to on the ground that everybody who happens to buy a copy of the magazine will get the benefit whether they contributed to the expedition or not. This could be got around by publishing a special supplement for the benefit of contributors only, but a large number of your readers are not on the subscription list and (like myself) buy their copy wherever they happen to be. ITH wages declining and the general tightening up you will get more contributors at $1 a shot than you will at $5 or $10.. I have no idea how many members we have who would contribute, but if there are 25,000 who would put up even $1 each, that ought to start the thing. What I don’t know about the cost of such expeditions is plenty, but should say that sum would get things going. You might get a vote on the matter by inserting a coupon in Adventure asking those interested to say that they would contribute (if called on), where the expedition should go, etc., and then strike an average on the replies. As to who should go, I pass. But would say men of experience in and knowledge of the region selected and who are of the caliber to carry the thing through and get results —G. E. STRICKLAND. Space prevents publishing any more of the letters in this issue, so the rest will follow later. If you have any suggestion to make, send it in. That’s probably the nearest we can come to a general vote, but everybody is invited to say his say and we'll do the best-we can to work out a plan that will meet the approval of the majority. I’d like to add that John Held, Jr., sug- gests Easter Island for archeological ex- ploration. Most of you have heard of this Pacific island’s wonderful ruins left by an unknown race, and Mr. Held tells me only one scientific expedition has ever been sent there. on CEG his story in this issue a few words from E. O. Foster: Bunduk nang Kao, the Mountain of the Snake, lies near Los Banos on the Laguna de Bay a short distance from Manila. The Katipunan Society was a secret Filipino order, organized during the time of the Spanish occupation of the islands. At one time nearly every Tagalog was a member. Its rites were barbarous, but with a certain glittering splendor which appealed to the native imagination. The songs quoted are, as near as I can remember, correct. The following glossary may aid the reader if he desires to translate them: Dahun Kao, King snake; Ay yoco say yo, I do not like you; patay, Adventure kill; bejuca, rattan; halika, come here; masaimua, bad, wicked; iglesa, church. BUNDUK NANG KAO, mentioned in ‘‘Shattered Altars,”’ lies to the East of Los Banos. It is higher than the surrounding territory, is reputed, as all deep lakes are, to have no bottom, and al- though only slightly above the temperature of the Laguna de Bay, a half-mile away, its waters are slightly warmer. Los Banos stands on volcanic rock, and near it are a series of underground vapor baths cut from the lava, the steam arising from some subterranean source. The big snake of the Katipunan rites is said to inhabit its oily waters, and forty feet is the lowest estimate any native will put on the length of the scaly monster. A large female python, captive in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, incubated her eggs in the manner described in the story.—E. O. FOSTER. 4 ee YEARS ago, back in 1911, at my request Frederick Ferdinand Moore sent me some dope about himself for Camp- Fire. Probably it arrived too late to run along with his first story in our magazine; anyhow I found it today and here it is, to go along with the ‘‘The Picture’”’ in this issue. He wrote it in the third person for me to doctor as I liked, but it’s not doctored any. Now it’s up to Mr. Moore to tell us what’s been happening to him during the ten years since then. Frederick Ferdinand Moore is another writer who has lived many of the adventures he writes in fiction form. Mention Malta and he will tell you about the catacombs, speak of Singapore and he - will ask about Raffles ‘Square. He knows the docks at Durban as well as the water-front of San Francisco or Manila. He took Port Said apart and put it together, and as a soldier, sailor and war corres- pondent he looked this old world over—and liked it. He’s barely in the thirties, too, and isn’t done rambling yet, either. HE STARTED when he was sixteen, by shipping out of Boston in a cattle steamer for Liver- pool, and wound up by girdling the globe. He got back with a sugar bag for a wardrobe, and as soon as he got another pair of trousers set out again. He rode in exhibition in Madison Square Garden with a crack troop of United States cavalry, served - in the Philippines and has seen fighting under three flags. He has done his trick at the wheel in a “‘square rigger” and helped run banana boats to the West Indies—not always with cargoes of bananas. He hunted bandits in the Philippines with a flying column of cavalry as a correspondent, chased the Baltic fleet in the China Sea and romped over a good part of the Orient. He spent ten years of his life hunting trouble—and men. He was shang- haied in a whaler, and has had a couple of foreign commands and knows of the big ones in more than one army. When he writes adventure stories he knows something about the way things happen and how fighting men work and play. MICLOOOK C@