Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1884-02-22

of ice. But, whatever this information
may BE- worth. they are all agreed in
one thing-that it is . land of maryels,
and that China is savagely jealous of in
trnsion upon the stronghold of the
faith. Here. in this priest-goyerned
country, hierarchy of monks admin
listers the laws. and . spiritual sovereign
is supreme. Pekin is represented, in
its temporal aspect, by . yiceroy and
many garrisonS; but they are there to
support, not compete with, the sacer-
dotal authorities, as guard Of honor
and punishers of sacrilege, rather than
the actual representatives of superior
power. The priesthood assist the sol
diers to maintain their holy seclusion
inviolate, for they know that once out
side influences have crept within the
temple precincts their twilight life of
ease and ohscurity would cease. The
people. the hardy little Thibetans, have
wandered southwark with their strange
wares into British India in such mum
bers that they have come to under
stand that commercial prosperity and
individual wealth require greater free
dom OF intercourse, and il they could
would gladly enlist the rupees and en-
terpriSe of Anglo Indian merchants in
return visits to their own markets at
Lha>sa and the other temple-towns on
the Roof of the World. They have TO
drag their caravans all across the Nepa-
leSe lungies, paying toll as they go To
Nepalese officials, and they grudge both
the time and the money they are CON-
PEELED to waste. From their own heights
they can look across TO the Indian Him
alayas; and they know that on the
southern slopes lie British towns that
would soon become emporiums of traf-
fc; but 1t is forbidden route, so they
have to turn away from the straight,
short road and wander through the
wild Ghoorka country before they can
reach the frontiers of commercial
people. Whether their longings will
ever be satisfied and the tabled wealth
of the land of the lamas DO thus easily
exchanged for the products of our hill
plantations and the goods of Indian
markets, remains to be seen; but China
Is so ponderous to move. so inert, that
nothing probably save violent pressure
from several powers ut once would force
the passage Of this reputed FL Dorado
and open up what the Chinese call the
silver road to the city of tho unap-
proachable child.
1t would. no doubt, be in time
great benefit to India TO have traffic
with Thihet unrestricted; but the
whimsical might regret it rs DESTROYING
one OF the last Of our geographical mys-
teries. There is some advantage after
all in having something to wonder
abont, in knowing that the Himalaya
Mountains bar the passage to an un-.
known land, the land of eternal
winter, where frost-giants may perhaps
still hold their silent courts. and sotuu-.
helm be no myth. Yet spices and gems
come from it, SO perhaps there are the
Detachable Mountains, and beyondi
them lies Beulah, very sweet an.,
pleasant" White men have travelled
up to a certain point shot tho great
mountain sheep upon their native
peaks, and tracked the -lcopards,
to their dens among the rocks of ice.
But further they could not go. There
was mystic charm which they might
not pass. No rainbow bridge, like
the Scandinavian Bifrost, or that
which Zeus threw across the Empyream
for his messengers TO descend to earth
upon, offered itself Anything would
have sutliceG to serve the purpose of
these adventurous travellers; they would
have ventured upon the Zorastrians'
hair bridge. or hazaIded even the r.zor's
edge of FL Sirat. Mongol soldiery, how
ever, faced them whenever they APP
peared, and the answer to petitions was
always the same: $50 back No open
sesame or other talismal of admission
proved of avail. The intruders were
from the outside world. and that was
enough. The fiat faced scntries shifted
their earthiness affair off, rs the giant
shifted Jack; their thumbs pricked like
the witches in macbeth" at the APP
proach of the ordinary mortal; their
ears were as quick as Cerberus' to rec
ognize the footsteps of arrivals from
another place" So Thibet. thus faith
fully guarded, remains to this day a
land of speculation and surmise, and to,
expect that China will ever voluntarily
surrender its secrets to British India is.
to expect the dragon to have pluckedl
the golden apple for Hercules. --Londom
Telegraph.