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

Mr. Cnun vi ing was 1or years conSui-
general of China to Cuba, and he is now
in charge of the coal mines here, managing
a capital of millions, and Mr. Tong. his
secretary, is a graduate Of Yale College.
and one of the brightest young men of the
empire. Both of these men are clad in
official dress wearing gorgeous silk gowns,
big cloth boots and black silk caps with
red buttons in the center of their crowns
They are good takers and are full Of
information concerning China. The special
train which we have might be that of an
American railway president, and we travel
In it with as much ease and comfort as we
would have were We a congressional party
travelling to the funeral of a Senator of the
United States at the expense Of the govern
ment. The train consists of an engine
built on the English plan at the Chinese
works at Tong Shan, of open car in
which are carried the sedan chairs and the
coolie bearers needed for the transporta-
ton Of the ladies III our trips away from
the railroads, of a second special car
which can be used for smoking or loafng;
of an open observation car, in which we
can sit outside and watch the every vary
ing panorama of Chinese farming scenes
and of the vice regal car proper.
This last is made of Siamese teak finished
in the natural wood. 1t is as hard as eb-
ony. and il takes on the rich dark color of
oiled chestnut. 1t contains half a dozen
rooms. which are furnished i'm foreign
style The sofas are upholstered with the
finest of blue and silver brocaded silk,
and there plenty of tables and easy
chairs. The walls of the car are in blue
and gold. The windows are large. and
those at the top of the car and serving
ventila tors are of stained glass. Pictures
of the finest Chinese embroidery hang upon
the walls. and the larder is filled with a
plentiful supply of all sorts Of things.
liquid and solid. 1t was after a good din
ner that we took our trip TO the great
wall. We spent some hours in walking
about it. We climbed to it's top and ex-
amned the great towers which crown it at
every few hundreds yards and in our
American shoes tramped over the brick
pavements which were trod by the Chinese
warriors who built il, now more than two
thousand years ago. We made measure
ments and examinations of 1t at the breach
where the railroad is to pass through it on
it's way into the Manchurian wilds and
with our own hands pulled from its sides
four great bricks which we will carry back
to the United States as mementoes of the
trip.
AN AMAZING STRUCTURE.
The great wall of China
What wonderful structure it is and how
mighty it must have been before the days
of gunpowder and cannon. / have seen the
pyramids, but this massive wall impresses
me more forcibly than they. The greatest
of all the pyramids is immense pile of
stones, covering thirteen acres and reach
ing to a height less than that of the mon
ument at Washington. The great wall of
ha lsr;o nj 20
could be carried to the valley OF the Nile.
would carpet the best parts of Egypt, and
it is a work intellectually greater than the
monuments of the Egyptian kings. l visit
ed it where it runs through the Monaghan
mountains, about ninety miles fronI the
city of Picking, and I found there an even
more solid structure than that at Shan Hal
Kwan, on the edge of the sea. 1t begins
here at tho head of the gulf OF Pechili and
runs up and down the mountains, clear
across the boundary of northern China,
separating the country from it's vast tribu-
tary provinces of Mongolia and Man
churia till it reaches the great desert of
Cobb above Thibet. 1t is more than 1900
miles long in straight line, and with its
windings up the hills and down the valleys
it measures all told distance of more than
1900 miles. This wall is about thirty feet
in height, or as tall as a three-story city
house Its width at the points where L
have visited it ranges from fifteen to
thirty feet The average parlor is not
more than fifteen feet wide, and if you
will imagine a solid block of three-story
| houses fifteen feet deep, built across the
| United States from New York to Omaha,
| you can get a faint idea of the size of this
| great wall Such block, however, would
| the work needed for this vast fertilization.
| 1t would cut the plains of New York, Ohio.
| Indiana. Illinois and Iowa where the soil
| has much clay and where the railroads
| could carry the materials
The great wall of China is built right
over the mountains. 1t climbs up crags so
steep that the bricks had lie Is said to be
| carried on the backs of goats. 1t crosses
| peaks taller than the Allegheny mountains,
and at one point goes over one which is
| five thousand feet above the sea. large
part of it has foundation of granite blocks
| from two and half TO four feet thick. and
| the base of the wall is ten feet wider than
the top The bricks of which it is made
| weigh from forty to sixty pounds as
| much as a siX-year-old boy and the clay
for these bricks had to be transported long
distances from the interior at some por-
tons OF the wall. These bricks are of a
! slate color. According to measurement
they are fifteen inches long, nine inches
| wide and about five inches thick They are
| put together in a solid masonry by means
| of lime mortar and they are built up from
| the foundation in two walls, each about
| three feet thick, running parallel with each
| other, the space between being filled with
| earth and stone well rammed down. The
| top of the wall is paved with these bricks,
| and its average width is about fifteen feet.
| 1t is everywhere wide that two two
| horse wagon loads of hay could be driven
| along it and the hubs of the two teams
! would not touch. Six horses abreast could
| be easily driven upon it's paved highway.
| and each side of the road along it's
whole fifteen hundred miles OF length there
| is a brick crenellated wall high your
head which would prevent them falling off
| i'm case of a stampede. At short intervals
| the wall is crowned by great two and
! three-story towers, made of these big blue
| bricks, and at the passes in the mountains
there are arched gates of stone, some of
which are beautifully carved. Here and
ming over the country some distance back
| from the first, and on the peaks near it
| there are often watch towers, in which the
| guards stood in times past and warned the
| soldiers stationed on it's top OF the advanc-
ing hordes which they spied coming from
1