The National tribune., 1889-01-24

rate, can't sec anything OF his head but the
tips of his ears" II
Still, these donkeys are good riding animals.
They 90 like rocking horses, and they are the
only animals that Gould pick their way up the
ragged mountain and through the broken, stone
paved highway of the Nankow Pass.
As we went out of Peking they carried US up,
in and out of the great jam of the city. We
passed scores of coolies, half naked, wheeling
yellow dirt in Chinese wheebarrows and
spTinkling this upon the black mud of the
streets. We noticed that thin cloths were
being hung up before he windows Of the stores,
and certain parts OF the streets were covered
entirely with this yellow mud. We afterwards
learned that the Emperor intended to go out
the next day, and as he is too holy to ride upon
anything else but yelow-the Imperial color
this dirt was put there for his royal procession
We were told that orders had been given that
the natives should all keep indoors along this
street. and the various legations were requested
to tell the people of their respective national
tues not to 90 upon the streets during the time
of the procession We went by the barrows
through part Of the Forbidden city, which is
drtier, by the way, than the flthicst barnyard
out by markets where live fish were being sold
in great tubs, and on into the country. 1t took
US over an hour TO pass through the city, and
outside the walls we found the roads lined for
great distance with mud hnts
In one village not far from the gate was the
sheep market Of PekiHg, and thousands of the
fine, white, fat-tajled sheep of Mongolia were
being sold by hundreds of rough-l0oking men,
dressed IN sheepskins. The fur or wool of their
clothing was sometimes out and sometimes III,
and 1t gave them singularly fierce aspect. We
pushed through these, and weres0on on the great
plain of North China For miles on every side
stretched fiat, muady plain, marked here
and there with scraggy trees, and at wide dis
tances spotted with villages of mud hints. The
land was well farmed and tits OneOf the most fer
tile parts of China. produces good crops with
very little manure, but it has none of the aspects
OF the country in the United States. There are
no fences, no barns and no cattle grazing. The
farmers all live in villages, and the farms are
marked out by stone slabs, which are set up at
the corners OF the land. They are small, and
are generally not more than two acres, while
at times the holdings are as small rs the sixth
Of an acre. Laud is high and taxes are heavy,
and the land is made to bring all that it will
possibly produce. Everything is taken from
it, and the stubbe ard dead vines are gathered
for fuel We saw everywhere boys, sharp
tocd women and men pulling up the stubble
and raking it Off the ground for Winter use,
and this work goes on all over China.
The only variation in the monotony of the
landscape was the graves. l had imagined
that the t0mbs of the Chinese ancestors, in a
country where ancestral worship prevails,
would be fine monuments and works of art.
They are nothing of the kind, and as a rule
they consist OF round mounds of earth about
the size of a hayceck, with no monuments of
any kind. The owners of the tombs farm in
and around them, and the grass is cut from
their tops as regularly as the fields are harvest
cd. These mounds dot the whole surface of
China. They are found by the tens of thousands
in every district, and they form one OF the
great impediments to railroad building in China.
The Chinese think if they wrong their graves
that bad luck will come upon them, and they
fear that the building of railroads will anger
their ancestors. 1t is only the Kings and the
rich Mandarius who can afford to put up any
other monuments than mounds