, 1889-04-24
CHINA AND IT'S PEOPLE.
ODD SUGGESTIONS AND noTIoNs
OF THE cEIESTALS.


liar Belief Concerning the Making OF
Medicine In America
Shanghai is about midway on the Pa
cilo coast between the northern and
southern boundaries of China. 1t is near
the mouth of, though not on, the great
river, the Yang-tse-Kiang, which divides
the empire into two equal portions, and
which forms the great central venus of
trade. This Is one of the greatest and
one of the longest rivers of the world,
and 1t vies with the Nile In the rich do
posits which 1t carries down from the
mountains of Thibet and spreads over the
rich plains of China. Its waters where
1t enters the sea are Us yellow as clay, and
their contents are, l am told, as rich as
guano. They form a fertilizer which the
Chinese use by irrigation, so that it is
spread over much of the $4,000 square
miles which forms its basin and makes
this land produce from two to three crops
per year.
uFR ON TEE YANG-TsE-KIANd.
The Yang-tse Kiang has a fall nearly
double that of the Nile or the Amazon.
It Is so wide at its mouth that when we
sailed up 1t In coming to Shanghai we
for a long way were hardly able to see
the banks, and this width extends up
the river for hundreds of miles. 1t is
navigable for ocean steamers to Hankow,
a city of tho size of Chicago, which is
situated on its banks 600 miles above
Shanghai, and river steamers can go
1900 miles up its winding course.
Above this there are gorges and rapids
which the foreigners now think can be
passed, and there will then be an open
Ing into the interior Of China by this
means for moro than 1900 miles. The
Yang-tse-Kiang Is 30 long that 1t would
reach from San Francisco to New York
and push its way out into the Atlantic
II 1t could be stretched out upon q plane
OF the face of the United States. 1t is
longer han the distance from New York
TO Liverpool, and 1t Is said to be the
best stream in tho world as to tho ar
rangement of its branches. Its boat
population Is numbered by hundreds of
thousands, and it is o city hundreds of
miles In length, made up of junks, ships
and barges. These Chinese junks are
gorgeously painted and carved. They
have the same style of sails and masts
that were used thousands of years age,
III u ala ~ llALAIlLoC VI
cotton patched together and stretched
on rods of bamboo which look like fish
ing poles. The sailors are pig tailed
men In fat clothes of cotton who sing in
q cracked gibberish as they work, and
who understand how to manage their
rude sails 30 well that they can often
pass ships of more modern make. All
Of the Chinese boats have a pair of eyes
painted on tho sides of their prows, and
the Chinese sailor would no more think
of navigating without these han he
would think Of eating without chop
sticks II asked the reason he replies:
mo have eyes, no can see- No can
soc, no can co.
Bishop Fowler, while sailing up tho
Pie 10 to Picking, happened to sit with
his legs hanging over the boat SO that
they covered up n eye. He noticed
that the sailors were uneasy, and they at
last came to him and asked him to move
bis legs, as the ship could not see to go.
CELESTIAL sU%PERsTTTIoNs.
The Chinese are full of superstitions
and many of them firmly believe hat
the foreigners make medicines out of
human beings. The massacre at Tien-
Tsin In 1870, In which twenty foreigners
were killed and among them a number
Of French nuns, was caused by the re-
port that the sisters were killing children
10 get their hearts and ayes for medical
purposes, and the trouble In Corea last
spring was caused by the circulation Of
the stories that the missionaries were
grinding up children's bones to make
medicine. This report was started by
the Chinese, and the latest attempt of
the kind 1 find today here at Shanghai.
1t appears In q tri-monthly illustrated
magazine which the Chinese publish and
which sells for five cents a copy. This
contains q full description of how the
foreigners make their medicine, with
CHASTITY illustrations of tho severed
trunks and the cut up limbs of human
beings. In n cut men In American
clothes are bending over great furnaces
In which the heads and legs of men are
boiling, and beside which great baskets
and tubs of cut up humans lie. The men
are stirring the steaming mass, and the
picture makes one think of the witches
caldron In "Macbeth."
The Chinese themselves do not believe
in dissection and there is no body snatch
ing here. They believe that the heart is
the seat of thought, that the soul exists
In the liver and that the gall bladder Is
the seal of courage. For this reason the
gall bladders OF tigers are eaten by sol
diers to inspire them with courage. The
Chinese doctor ranks no higher than the
ordinary skilled workman. He gets from
fifteen to twenty cents a visit, and he
often takes patients on condition that he
will cure them within q certain time or
no pay. He never sees his female pa
tents except behind a screen, and he
does not pay a second visit unless he
Is invited. His pay is called golden
thanks" and the orthodox way of send
ing 1t to him is wrapped in red paper.
The dentists look upon pulled teeth as
trophies, and they go about with neck
laces of decayed teeth about their necks,
or with them strung upon strings and
tied to sticks. Toothache is supposed to
come from a worm in the tooth, and there
are a set OF female doctors who mako a
business of extracting these worms
When the nerve is exposed they take this
u and call 1t the worm, and when not