Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-16


board OF rites. the board of punishments, the
astronomical board, and the rest-are fac SMILES
OF the board of war. Professor Douglas says
| see, In the Encyclopedias Britannica that the
halls of the palace 'for the magnifcence of tbeil
! proportions and barbaric splendor are proba bly,
| not to be surpassed anywhere" l do not know
what is his authority for this statement. as nc
| foreigner has ever had an opportunity OF ex.
/ aiming them, but nothing else in Picking sug.
gests any magnihcence and splendor. The
| yeIIow-roofed buildings of the palace are
closely walled in and no foreign foot ever passes
the threshold of the Forbidden City" but
have looked at them through my glass from the
! top of the highest building in the neighbor-
| hood, and they appear commonplace enough
And a few weeks ago. when the emperor quilted
the palace i'll great pomp, and after him came the
! solemn procession of the records, an ex-
| perienced eyewitness says of the latter, like
| everything Chinese, 1t was disappointing
tawdry aud sordid," and adds, 1T is safe to
| conf ecture that the emperor's own retinue
could it be seen, would reveal a similar state OF
! affairs" The Temple of Heaven. with its semi
| circular marble altar and bright blue dome. as
! you look down upon it from the wall. seems to
/ be i'll good preservation. and a really impress
! slSe and beautiful structure, but not single
other place or thing have / seen here that sug-
| gests the gorgeous East i'll the remotest de-
| gree.
FROM THE WALL.
Of interesting places, however, there are GER
| tainly few in Picking. First among these
rank the wall itself. 1t is built OF large bricks,
filled in with sand. and is fifty feet high sixty
feet wide at the base and forty feet at the top.
Peking. seen from the wall, is a stretch of fiat
, roofs, more than half hidden in foliage. from
Which here and there a tower or pagoda or high
| rooted temple projects. Not trace of the ac-
! tual dirt and discomfort and squalor is visible
the air is fresh. the smells are absent and the
| Celestial capital is at its best Awalk of a mile
along the top brings Won to the famous Observ-
atory, and the marvellous brOnZes of the Jesuit
Father Nerbiest, who made and erected them
In 1868. Below the wall in a shady garden are
the much older ones which Marco Polo saw
less accurate astronomica!Iy. but even more
beautiful Tor their grace and delcacy, and link
ing ones imagination closely with the romantic
past. Tor this great globe and seZtant and ar
military zodiacdl sphere were constructed in 1878
~ the astronomer OF Khubai Khan. Either
the climate or their own intrinsic excellence
mas preserved them SO well that every line and
bit OF tracery is perfect to our eyes as il wa,
to those of the great Khan himself.
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS
Then there is the examination hail. The gov
eminent of China is a vast system of COMPETE
tive examination tempered by bribery, and
this k0O Chang is its heart. 1t is a miniature
city, with one wide artery down the middle.
hundreds of parallel streets running from this
on both sides. each street mathematically subdi-
vlded into houses, big sembance of a palace
at one end of the main street and little
elevated watch-towers here and there. But
the palace Is merely the examiners hall
the streets are three feet wide and on
one side of them is blank wall, the
towers are for the 'proctors' to spy upon crib
blng, and the houses are perfectly plain brick
cells measuring 80 inches by 50. In the en-
closure there are no fewer than fourteen thou
sand of these. After emerging successfully
a in, ~
OF his own province, the Chinese aspirant comes
TO Peklng to compete for the second degree
He Is put into one of these cells, two boards are
gwen him for a seat and table, and there he
remains day and night for fourteen days Every
cell Is full. an army Of cooks and coolies waits
upon the scholars, and anyone caught cribbing
or communicating with his neighbor is visited
with the severest punishment.
CONFINED FOR A FORTNIGHT.
The condition of the place when these IA 900
would-be btCr0ti are thus cooped up for a fort
night, with Chinese ideas of sanitation NAV be
imagined, and 1t is not surprising to learn that
many die. But what JOY for the successful ones
They are received in procession at the
gates of their native town, and every
body hastens to congratulate their parents
upon having given such son to the
world. BY and by there is another examina-
ton. in which the already twice successful
compete against each other the fourteen
thousand again flock to Peking, and the
winners are honored by the Son of Heaven
himself and their names inscribed forever
upon marble tablets. Better still, they are
provided with government posts and this is the
reward OF their efforts. But what Won will ask
Is the subject-matter of their examination?
Simply and solely the letter-perfect knowledge
of the works of Confucius, the history of
China. and the art of composition and char
aeter-forming practised by the great masters
of old. In the works of the masters. argue the
Chinese, Is all wisdom; he who knows these
works best Is therefore the wisest man;
whatever needs doing, the wisest man can
do it best. So the successful hterati
sent all over the country to be
magistrates and generals and commanders of
ships and engineers and everything else hap
hazard. without the slightest acquaintanokof
any kind with their subject densely and mar
yelonsy ignorant and impenetrably conceited.
The Marquis Tseng is almost the only one of
the great Cinnamon OF to-day who has not en-
tered public life by this triple portal to invinci-
BILE incompetence.
THE SHRINE OF THE MASTER
himself is really an impressive spot The
great hall and its columns are Of bare wood
the floor Is of plain stone, and no adornment
mars the supreme solemnity of the place. In
the middle. upon square altar, stands small
tablet of red lacquer, upon which is written
In Chinese and Manchu, 1.-THE tablet
Vi tilt SOUL VI illOsI UOly ancestral teacher.
Confuclus. Up the marble terrace to this hall
the emperor comes to worship twice year. and
the Chinese do really hold this place in some
veneration, for when l offered its miserable
guardian five dollars to let me photograph it
he repulsed the offer with much scorn Yet
five dollars would have been fortune to him.
Above all other characteristics, however of
Peking one thing stands out in horrible promi-
hence, and have put this off to the last Not to
mention it would be to wilfully omit the most
striking color of the picture. mean its filth
1t Is the most horribly and indescribably filthy
place that can be imagined. Indeed imagination
must fall far short Of the fact Some Of the
daily sights of the pedestrian in Picking could
not hardly be more than limited at by one man
to another in the smoking room. There is no
sewer or cesspool, public or private, but the
street; the dog, the pig and the fowl are the
scavengers; every now and then you pass a
man who goes along tossing the most loathesome
OF the refuse into an open-work basket on his
back; the smells are simply awful the city is
one colossal and uncleansed eLoacd. As have
said above, the first of the two moments Of
delight youchsafed to every visitor to the Ce-
lestlal capital is at his first sight of il. The
second-though must not omit to thank my too
kind host for one of the pleasantest and most
instructive fortnights of my life-is when he
turns his back, hoping it may be forever, upon
" the body and soul-stinking town" (the words
are Coleridges) OF Peking. HENRY NORMAN.
Not Altogether Lost.
From the Chicago Tribune
Jenkinson Wipedunks would not have ex-
changed situations with the President of the
United States, the prince of Wales or the drum