The National tribune., 1889-05-16

in sitting posture and slide down the hills
when going over mountainous DISTRICTS and In
riding the elephant one andergoes similar
motion to that on the back of camel. 1t
makes many people seasck and it is by no
means an easy method of travel.
1
This town of Rangoon is 9, 900 years old, and
it bids fair To be one of the great cities of In
dia. 1t is the great seaport of Burmah, and it
will in the future be the capital of this whole
country. Mandalay contains several hundred
thousand people; but it is nearly 500 miles
above Rangoon, in the interior, and its only
claim to greatness is in the fact that it was the
residence of the King It is two miles away
from the river Irrawaddy. 1t had originally a
wall around it, but the city has outgrown this,
and the suburbs are equal almost to tho walled
city. The city proper is square, each side of
which is a little over mile long There is a
moat about it, and the houses are nearly all of
one story. The Burmese do not believe in two
story houses. They think it is a disgrace to
have persons feet over their heads, and King
Thebaw did not approve of his subjects having
houses which would approach the grandeur of
his own. There are many Chinese in Manda-
lay, as there are all over Burmah, and great
part of the business of this town of Rangoon is
done by the Cinnamon. predict that the Chi
nese will eventually be the predominant race
in Farther India, and I find them everywhere
| CO. There are no people like them for indus
try, economy and business ability. They can
live on two cents a day, and always want all
the money that the markets will bring.
The greatest sight of Rangoon is the Golden
Pagoda. 1t is one of the greatest of Buddhist
monuments and it consists of solid pyramidal
tower of brick and mortar covered with gold
leaf, and rising to hight of $40 feet from a
high stone platform of IA acres. 1t has since
its first building cost millions of dollars, and
the gold leaf which is now upon it would plate
the Capitol ut Washington with pure gold and
leave enough over to gild the great Liberty
Statue in New York Harbor. For 2,300 years
the Buddhists have been praying on its SITE
and for more than 1000 these Burmese have
been pouring their money into it, 1t has been
| regilded again and again, and it has been added
| to throughout the centuries, so that there is
| gold dust mixed with its mortar from center to
circumference. The Burmese cares nothing foI
| money. What he makes he spends, and when
! he has accumulated few thousand dollars he
| devotes it to the salvation of his soul by put
| ting up pag0da or building q shrine to Bud.
! dha. All over Burmah you will find these
! shrines and throughout all the streets of the
! city you see little houses not unlike an old
| fashioned well-curb, by which stand two jars
| one filed with cooked rice and the other with
water. These are furnished by the charity o
! the Burmese and everyone has the right tC
eat and drink from them. There is no excuse
for beggary in Burmah, and the beggars are
few. There are some at the Golden Pagoda
but l saw none in the city, and the Burmese
people are, all told, about as well off as those Of
any land in the Orient. They are more intel
ligent and less sordid than the average native
of the East, aud they impress me in some re
spects as being like the polite people of Japan
/ leave tonight for India, and my next letter
will be dated at Calcntta.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.