Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-12

which dozen old ones lie in q heap, show
ing that at one time the road was seriously
defended at this point. A rough stairway
leads to the top, which is about 20 feet wide,
with crenellated parapet on each side, and
you can walk along it as far as you can see,
with here and there scramble where it has
fallen in little. On the whols it is in ex-
cellent repair, having of course been mended
and rebuilt many times. Every half mile or
so is little square tower of two stories. The
wall itself varies a good deal in height ac
cording to the nature of the ground, aver
aging probably about 40 feet. On one side
Mongolia, as you see it, is a vast undulating
brown plain; on the other side China is a
perfect sea OF brown hills in all directions,
and across these stretches the Great Wall.
On the hill top, through the valleys. up and
down the sides, it twists in an unbroken
line, exactly like huge earth worm sud-
denly turned to stone. For many miles it is
visible In both directions. and when you can
no longer trace its entire length you can still
discover it topping the hills one after an
other into the remote distance.
A COLOSSAL ACHIEVEMENT.
And when you reflect that it is built of
bricks, in nalmostinaccessiblep places, through
uninhabited countries, that each brick
must have been transported on a mans
shoulders enormous distances, and that it
extends for 1900 miles, or one-tweltth Of
the circumference of the globe, you begin to
realize that you are looking upon the most
colossal achievement of human hands. The
bricks are so big and heavy that I had to
hire little donkey to carry off two of
them. This is the only piece of Vandalism
to which 1 plead guilty on this trip, but
the temptation was irresistible, and 'they
never will be missed" NOWADAYS of
course, the wall serves no defensive pur.
pose whatever and is not guarded in any
way. Not soul lives within miles of it at
most points, and it is but land mark for
the Mongols' camel trains, a stupendous
monument to the great past of China, and
an evidence of Celestial greatness and en-
teTprise gone never to return.
After taking dozen photographs, and re-
fecting how comical were the learned argu-
ments produced in England couple of
years ago to prove that there was no such
thing as Great Wall of China, we turned
back to Nank 'ou, reaching there at night
fall. Next morning before daylight we
started for the tombs of the great Ming
dynasty, 13 miles away, and as famous in
China as the wall ITSELF These lie in a
pleasant green valley surrounded with an
almost complete circle Of high wooded hills
an ideal spot for an Emperor's grave.
There are 13 of them, called the Shih-san-
ling, disposed in the form of crescent, but
the crescent is so extensive that only four or
five of them can be seen at once, visited
the largest, the tomb of Eung-lo, who reigned
about 1400. A square of perhaps 200 yards
across the face is surrounded with high
wall of plain red brick. The side of the
hill forms the fourth side and entrance is
had through pair of ordinary wooden
doors. When you enter, the spectacle is not
at all striking. There are a few little
pavilions on either side of you, each cover
ing a carved stone tortoise or ar inscribed
tablet and in front long low temple
shaped building with an approach of steps
and balustrades in carved white marble.
GLOOMY MAeNIFIcENoE.
: Inside is gloom, throughwhiehy you family
discern the magnificent outlines of 80 enor-
nous wooden columns. each a solid log of |
1ewn and polished teak IL feet round and
q feet high. Where they came from-un-
ess it was from Burmah-or how they were
hither, nobody knows, but their |
grandeur is lndisputable In the center.
1pon a sort of stone table, stands perfectly |
plain tablet of red lacquer, q couple of feet |
nigh and foot wide, bearing the posthumus
title of Yung-lo, "The perfect ancestor and |
literary Emperor" But the ancestor him
self is not here. Passing out behind the |
great columns and again crossing the gar
den, at the edge Of the hillside there is a |
'olid square tower of brick and granite, sup
porting kind Of obelisk. The sarcophagus
itself is deep il the hill, and upon the obe- |
isk long inscription narrates the deeds
md extols the virtues of the long-departed
Ming. On the whole, however, China dis
ppoints you here once more, as everywhere
nd always. The situation is finely chosen
or the last resting place of immortal en-
,erors, but mans handiwork rather weakens
han enhances the effects of nature. There
IS no suggestion, for instance, of the solem-
lity Of that cathedral aisle:
Where the warriors in the gloom
Watch o'er Maximilians tomb;'
md there is nothing to arrest the hasty foot
tep lest even ''the hushed tread"
Should burst the bands ofthe dreamIess sleep.
That hold the mighty dead"
AS you ride away you pass through an
venue OF stone carvings, where pairs of
nights and courtiers and stone lions and
amels and elephants glare at you from each
ide. They are enormous, being some Is
eet high and carved out of solid block of
tone; and wonderful, for you cannot imag-
ne how they were transported But they
re utterly dwarfed by the hills around
hem and soon your only recollection of
hem is only that your pony positively re-
used to pass between them and ended by
olting with you. And 1 may as well con-
lude by giving my little Polar bear of a
ony credit for the way in which he trotted
ack to Picking, so as to get there before the
ates closed in all 40 miles in four hours.
18th three-quarters of an hour for rest and
)od. have known costlier horsehesh
lake poorer progress. And when we got
ack again at last to Tientsin my mafoo sold
i'm to the innkeeper for twice what he paid
" him. HENRY NORMAN.