The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-07-22

sought to protect their homes and those
of their descendants from the savages Oh
the north for all time to come. NO one
can stand upon its ramparts and not De
impressed with the strength OF this great
Chinese nation. Seventeen hundred years
before America was discovered; at une
when our blue-blooded ancestors. half
naked and altogether savage. were wan
dering through the wilds of France. Ger
many and England, when Rome was still
a republic, fighting her last battles with
the Carthaginians two hundred years be-
fore Christ was born, these same Chinese
people built this mighty wall. Their MS
tory states that il required an army OF
10000 men to protect the builders. and mil
lions must have been employed in the I'M
dertaking / have seen enough or the
building of railroads and other works IN
China during my present tour TO UNDER
stand how il was probably constructed.
There was no machinery used, ana
few cattle and horses Every foot
of it was built by man, and in It's
1900 miles of mountain climbing there are
to-day bottled up within this structure the
vital force of millions of the Chinese or
the past, a monument to the thought that
while man dies his work remains, as does
the hand that carved the Venus oil Medici
and the pen that wrote Shakespeare and
the "Aeneid." These Chinese of two thou
sand years ago probably carried the earth
and stones which formed the filling of the
greater part Of the wall in baskets, and
this earth was rammed down by means
of discs of stone or iron as big around as
a half-bushel measure, and from six 10
eight inches thick. 1t is in this way that
the entertainments of the railroads are being
built to-day. 1t takes eight men 10 each or
such discs There are holes cut about its
circumference, and in these ropes about ten
feet long are fastened. The men stand at
equal distances about the disc, and by
pulling back raise ii and throw 1T upward
often to a height above their heads and 1t
falls upon the fresh earth with thud.
ninth man often sings a song while these
men thus work. keeping time to his music
with the weight and joining in the chorus,
the weight falling at the end Of every verse
and line. 1t is the same with the packing
of the earth with wooden stamps. Each
man has one of these of about the weight
of the dasher in an old-fashioned churn,
and the gang of stampers sing as they
work The bricks were made by hand, and
men and women aided in their laying. Such
wood as was used in the towers was pulled
and the saving of the timbers was with
| crosscut saws.
The organization required for the build
| ing and the defense of such an army OF
| laborers shows a high state of civilization
| The man who began the work was one OF
| the great men of the worlds past. He has
been called the Napoleon of China, and he
to a large extent was the founder of the
| Chinese empire. His name was Tsin Oh
| Hwangti, and he consolidated the many
| kingdoms of China into one. He built al
| his capital a vast palace, with many build.
| ings, which were connected by colonnadeS
\ and galleries. Each set of these buildings
he had made the exact counterpart OF the
| palaces of the rulers he had conquered, ano
| when the whole was completed he brought
/ them TO the capital and kept them there in
state. He built this great wall in ter
| years. and organized many public works
Like Alexander and Napoleon, he grew
| vain as he went on in his conquests. and
| he decided that Chinese history should be
| gin with him. With this view, he com
mitted an act which has made him in th'
| eyes of the Chinese the most despised anC
| detested of their emperors. This was th'
collecting Of all the Libraries and histories
Of China together and burning them. II
had all of the copies of Confucius and Men
| cius that could be found committed to tn
| flames and for fear that there might b'
| other books written than such as he de
sired he killed the five hundred most emf
nent of the scholars of his empire. 1t il
said that not a single perfect copy of th'
Chinese classics escaped destruction, an'
| such as iexist to-day are made up from
the parts remembered by scholars wh'
were not known TO the Emperor, ano
which were written out after his death.
FRANK c. CARPENTER.