St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-15

dragon" studying their customs and pc
cularities. He appeared in full celestial
costume of vari-cOlOred silk and other rich
fabrics of Eastern manufacture and around
him on the platform was arranged various
curioStieS from the land on which
he spoke. Along the walls were hung
large paintings from the brush of Chinese
artists Illustrative of the country, showing
the great wall that girdles Pekin and fea-
lures of home life. The lecturer has a de-
cided penchant for humor and mixes the
factiouS into his dissertation with pleasing
effect. He opened by ridiculing the modern
writer in estimating the dimensions of the
great wall that stretches across the northern
portion of the Chinese empire and separates
it from Chinese Tartary. 1t is generally
stated that this stretch of wall is $50 miles
long when it really is 1895 miles in length
and instead of being
BUILT OF BLUE BRICK
as is the general impression, is constructed
of red or pink granite, clay and pitch. In
many places it is eighty feet high and capa-
BILE of allowing from sixty to eighty men
standing abreast to walk along it. AT
Pekin there are two great gates, so large
that 1000 men are employed to guard them.
The wall was built oil years b. C. and in
its construction every third man in China
was employed, and it is a historical asser
ton that l, 900, 900 men died before it was
completed. In illustrating the peculiar be-
liets and superSitionS of the people, he said
they believed that the world is flat, and
when there is an eclipse they think a huge
and NEUROLOGICAL one-legged frog is at
tempting to swallow the sun. In China
there are 4,744,000 acres of land.
In the northern part of the empire the soil
Is sterile and the inhabitants are conse-
Quently lightly taxed; in the south it is diff
ferent, the soil is exceedingly fertile and the
taxes accordingly higher. The laws OF the
country are few, Oh the theory that where
there are many laws but few are kept. but
where there are few all are kept. The
greater than those of Australia or the
United States, the silver mines of the
province of Shing Shing being wonderfully
productive, while diamond fields that rival
Golconda are found i'll the southern terri
tory. In regard to the population OF China
he deemed that during the past tifty-seven
years it had doubled, and it
would double again in the next
thlrty-seyen years. The population
now amounts to 525, 900. 900, 60, 900, 900 Of
whom are living outside of their country.
He exhibited census report, which he
claimed was correct, inasmuch as
NO ST. LOUIS CITIZEN
had had hand in its compilation. He said
the Chinaman was voracious animal, eat
ing everything that came in his way in the
line of animal or vegetable life, and they
even went so far as to eat kind of blue
clay. in fact" said he, there is hardly
anything the Chinaman wont eat, except
ing his father, and he probably refuses to
masticate him because he is acquainted
with him." To every house in China there
are an average of 321a occupants. The
speaker referred to the late troubles be-
tween Americans and Chinese at Rock
Springs, Wyo., and criticised power that
would offer freedom to man and then al
low him to be murdered while accepting it
without Furnishing his murderers. In re-
ferring to the habit of smoking opium COM
mon among the Mongolians, he said it was
preferable to drinking whisky, as both led
to ruin and death, and the opium route was
much the easiest to travel. The lecture
was very interesting and instructive. This
afternoon he will speak on the children of
China, and in the evening renew his dis
course on the country and its people.