Stories from Deli

They write us from MEDAN: I promised to tell you something about Medan. That it is a shadow of its former self, you will surely believe. The well-kept houses, the neatly trimmed lawns—no longer there. Everywhere that dirty gray war color instead of the bright white of earlier times. Here and there a front gallery…

By Gesiena Andreae On Easter Monday, March 28, the remains of the Chinese Major, Mr. Tjong A Fie, were laid to rest near Medan entirely according to Chinese ritual, as one would expect of a good Chinese, which the deceased certainly was. Already one and a half months had passed since his death—time that the…

TO MEDAN So far, the history of Medan. But we must now turn to modern Medan, which has earned the reputation of being the most European-like city in the Dutch East Indies. Medan can be approached from various directions. The most common route, naturally, is the one taken by foreigners and tourists arriving by ship…

17 Dec. 1896. I would like to pay off my debt to you before the end of the year and that is why I am already starting my epistle. It is evening, because I cannot write during the day, and I am sitting on the verandah again. The first thing I am going to tell…

The care for health in a region like the Delishehe, where thousands of immigrants from Ghina, Java, Borneo, Bawean, British India, etc. arrive annually to work in a climate that is more or less foreign to them, is naturally of the utmost importance. There, where forests are cut down, roads and drainages dug, swamps drained,…

In the fields. When it is “in the fields” again in January, every true Delian tobacco assistant comes to life. That recently completed work in the musty fermentation shed, that shuffling along the rows of sorting coolies, that staring at dark, brown, faded leaves, or whatever other nuances there are (his sister’s wool is nothing…

Foreigners sometimes claim that the Dutchman feels attracted to low marshy coasts when he is looking for places to settle in distant regions, while the Englishman prefers high and dry coasts with inlets that form good harbours. This is said especially by those who have seen the English flag flying on Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, Colombo,…

VI. The Workers. Polonia, Helvetia, Rotterdam, Danmark, Glenorchy, St. Cyr, Arnhemia, Germania, Saentis, Bavaria, Hessia, Grien Bervie, Frankfurt, Hilversum, these names of some of the tobacco companies on the east coast of Sumatra indicate the origin of some of the explorers of that promised land. Most of the nations of Europe supplied their contingent, because…

By J.T. Cremer Medan Our Medan was once a vast wilderness,A refuge only for tiger and elephant.Then came the planters with money in their pockets,Who cleared the forest and planted tobacco.They built their houses, and—it wasn’t too refined—Visited one another in Chinese-style tunics.But now fashion here demands as much as anywhere,Now it’s stiff collars and…

De locomotief 04-08-1920 One can be mayor and be called Baron Mackay and still lack in one’s conduct what is called “tact”. We read in the Deli newspaper that mayor Baron Mackay of Medan sent the following official letter to the wealthy Chinese council member Tjong A Fie:To my regret I discovered that you have…