Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-03-14
THE BIGGEST STATUE IN THE
WORLD.
A Bell That fias Not Been Rung I'm Twelve
Hundred Ycars.
ISan Francisco Bulletin.l

We are now 10 the heart of japan.
This city was for many centuries tho
Mikado'a capital. end until ten years
ago, when the overthrow of the Sho-
zuD left the capital of that ruler de
facto open, it's greater advantages
led the Mikado and his Cabinet to
occupy it. This old capital, at one
time with a population said to have
been 1000. 900, 10 now reduced to
$50, 900. l arose carly and was glad
to find clear morning. | walked
out at side door of the inn, and
found myself in one of the approach
es to Shinto temple. l was almost
under the granite tout, or monu
men:s. This one is about sixty fee,
high, and four stone lanterns at the
corner OF the square are of great size
and Older than any | have yet seen.
Just as the sun was rising above the
eastern bill | watched the men and
women az they came in front of the
open temple door, and threw their
offerings in. Then clapping their
hands they fold them, bow the If
heal in der ot'on, and then 90 away
TO tho duties Of tho ds? For a mo.
ment the temple WAS deserted, and
man came out with his face turned
full to the rising sun-the temple
faced the south. He went through
the same devotional exercises that
| had just seen, but he remained
longer, bowed with his head to the
ground and exhibited more fervor.
We have visited several temples
situated On the hili-sides, on the eas,
side of the plain on which the city is
spread out. The Oldest and largest
is known as the Chionin, and belongs
to the Jouio sect 1t is very large
measuring in its front over 200 feet.
This scot never paint their temples,
and this one presents dreary as
pect OF weather stained wood It's
age is given as 270 years, only,
and 1t occupies ths site Of an Older
one destroyed by FIRE. Stone stena
lead to the bell tower, where hang
the great bell, said to be the largs-,
in Japan. 1t is sounded on the 18th
and 10Th Of each month. 1t is SUI
pended about seven feet above the
ground. The metal at it's rim il
eleven inches in thickness. We saw
another bell in size little less near
the site OF another temple, resting
on granite supports, on the ground
near where it fell. The bridge lead
ing to mountain temple is of great
beauty. 1t has two arches and each
arch double, one inverted under the
other, SO that the passages form cir
ustrade is of cut granite. 10 strong
contrast with their religious estab- |
lishments lie the architecture of the |
town. The streets arc narrow ana
unpaved, the houses small and squal-l
id, and poverty is written every
where.
We have just returned from visit
to Nara, one of the old capitals of
the empire, distant about thirty-six
miles. We drove at brisk trot for
an hour before q break occurred 10
the line of houses, when We crossed
a branch of the Vii river by bridge
about thousand feet long. We en-
tered long street of what was once
thousand years ago, great city.
Away up the slope of the hill it is
covered, wherever we went, with
walls and pavements as indistruct-
able as the bill itself. Granite stairs
lead into the wild forest, which now
covers the site of vast temples OF
wood-broad avenues, whose rocky
payemeuts were worn smooth
by the feet of devout pilgrims before
Christ was born.
Here was erected 200 years ago,
the largest bronze figure the world
has ever known. 1t weighs $50 tons
and the the third temple DOW COW
ers it without apparent injury to
the immense statue. We went around
| it, but could form no estimate of its
size. Our minister at Toxic told me
that it was sixty feet from the seat
of LOTUS leaves to the top of it's head
and that o man could climb through
the nostril. An officer is said to
have taken q chip of the casting, and
an analysis of it gave 500 pounds Of
| gold in the alloy. A great halo Of