The record-union., 1893-02-06
MANS GREATEST WORK.
The Wall of China and How It Was
Built Ages Ago.
1t IS a Monument to the Most Thor
ouehly Hated Monarch in
All History.

All History.
The most gigantic monument that any
king or emperor ever left behind him is
the great wall of China. The Emperor
Chin Shih Huang, who set up the wall
1000 years ago, though he was as great
man as Caesar, or Alexander, or Napoleon,
is detested to-day by millions. So it is
that the hugest work of mems hands in
all the world, stretching half way across
the continent of Asia, breaches the same
sermon in stone through all its length
that you will read, written in words, in
George Eliots "Roumola"-the sad fool
ishneSs of selfish life.
The Emperor Chin Shih Huang was
not wicked or vicious man. He did
more for his people than any other ruler
before or since, giving them good gov
ernment, roads and canals, and drove the
robber Huns out far away to the north.
So great was he that the name of his
dynasty-the Chin dynasty-has ever
after been given to all the country
China.
But he was not satisfied. He wished
all future generations to think of him as
How could he do this when, scattered all
over the land there were books and his
tories telling of the great deeds and say
ingS of teachers and kings before him
There was only one way.
He ordered all books in the empire to
be burned. especially every copy of the
famous writings of Mencius and Confu-
cius.. Strange as it may seem, this was
done, and so thoroughly that Chinese
scholars believe that not single perfect
copy Of these books escaped destruction,
and what exist to-day are only such por-
tionS as could be written out afterwards
from memory.
Even this destructive edict was not
enough. There were men living who
could write histories-and all such schol-
ars, to the number of nearly 500, were
burned or buried alive, so that neither
book nor teacher might remain to tell the
world of any great Chinese before him.
He built the great wall though he died
before completing it, to make his MEM
ory glorious forever after; it only keeps
fresh in every Chinaman's heart the ma
tional hatred for its builder.
THE WALL IS NOT A MYTH.
1t was when Carthage was just begin
ming her last great struggle with Rome
that the wall was being built and it still
stands, though in ruins, and is still some
thing strange and wonderful to see.
Some have claimed that the story of the
Great Wall of China is only a story, and
that the world has been imposed upon by
travellers tales. But as Josh Billings
has said, 1T is better not to know so
much than to know so many things that
amt So"
Many times last summer [ wished that
could have taken one of the wise doubt
ers where we were camping on the sum-
nit of high mountain, for there along
the crest of the range before us, stretch
ing as far as the eye could reach, ran the
line of the great stone bulwark. and We
could count It's towers by many score. !
think his doubts would have fled at the
sight of that vast bulk of masonry, every
tower clear cut against the sky.
If you were to journey across the val
ley that then lay between our camp and
the WALL and you should climb the
mountain pass through which all the
travel of this region goes, you would
strike the wall at the gate in Nan Kou
Pass.
Under that great gate, where the rusty
cannon which once We're its defense now
lie tumbled in the grass, has been passing
for centuries an endless stream of camels
and mules and donkeys, the tinkling of
whose bells still fills the air with music
from sunrise to sunset. On either side
of the gate is the wall, climbing up pre-
cipitous nights where even mountain
goat could not find foothold. The top
of the wall is paved highway 'wide
enough for six horsemen to ride abreast"
exactly as the old biographies used to
say with perfect truth-except that no
horse could mount its long flight of steps,
sometimes hundreds of feet in hight,
which were built because the mountain
side is so steep that an even incline would
be as impossible as the diZzest house
roof. Every where on its outer side the
wall is more than twenty-five feet in
hight, faced with stone and topped with
brick battlements in which frequent en-
brasures for arches tell of the prepara-
tions once made for its defense.
The inner side, from which no attack
was feared, is not SO high above the
ground, and is pierced by occasional
doorways leading up to the top of the
wall by flight of vaulted steps.
Towers are placed at intervals of few
hundred feet; being no more of use to
shelter the soldiers of long since forgot
ten armies, they now furnish rare quar-
terS for camping out. 1t was against one
of these towers that our small exploring
party pitched our tent last summer; the
wall top was grass grown and scores of
wild flowers made coat of many colors
for the dull, moss-grown tiles.
THEN 1T WAS AN IdPASsABLE BARRIER
Perhaps it may seem to you childish
thing to try to wall in a whole kingdom
and wall out enemies, as one might fence
valuable orchard to keep out boys, but
it was not a useless thing The Roman
emperors built walls across Great Brit
ain to keep back invading tribes. The
great wall of China was perfectly i'm
passable to the robber hordes without
Before they could have the slightest
chance of making breach in it at any
point an overwhelming force was at hand
overhead to beat them back. Even in
the wild and lonely sections the system
of beacon towers was so perfectly organ
lied that the news of danger could be
flashed in an instant to the nearest camp.
What cavalry would dare to pass through
a breach in wall (even could they max e
it, knowing that there would be every
chance OF their being cut Off and impris-
oned IN a hostile country like rats in a
trap?
Not only was the great wall a protec-
ton against men; no wild beasts could
pass 1t. And this meant more than is
apparent to-day. Even in this year of
1892 plague of fierce wolves outside the
wall, made ferocious by much feasting on
the slain of last years rebellion, has been
able by crossing the wall at ruined places
to come over into the peaceful farming
land on the inner side and spread terror
far and near. All these evils the great
wall shut out; men and beasts might
prowl just outside, but they could come
no nearer.
1hroug b all its length the great wall is
not like the portion described above. 1t
has been repaired and patched in so many
places that probably no one knows ex-
actly the age of many of the newer por-
tions. The section l have described is
only branch OF the main line, and was
built by the Ming Emperors, about 500
years ago. 1t runs for several hundred
miles in the general direction of north
and south.