Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1894-07-06
Kept cholef

A'p' oh0le
During the recent visit to Wash
| ington of Dir. Edward s. Bedloe, the
! famous rrconGeur OF the Philadelphia
| Glover club and late consul to Annoy,
| he RECALLED his friends with MANY
strange tales OF Chinese beliefs.
Some years ago." he said, 'the
steamer Nam-Chow sailed from Sing
apore in the straits for Annoy. She
carried several hundred Chinese as
passengers. On the second day out
! the captain, from his position on the
| bridge, saw great connection among
! the Chinese passengers forward, and
sent the mate to find out the cause
i OF the disturbance which arose,
seemingly, without reason and grew
with each moment. The mate short
| ly returned from his mission with a
look of mingled perplexity and
| amusement on his bronzed and
| weather beaten face.
Captain he said. this is the
| FUNNIEST lot OF heathens | have
| struck yet. Blow me out ii | can
make them out. The beggars have
yarn and they stick to it like lot
| Of sea lawyers lying under oath.
| They say that just before the rum
| pus began what they call a "blue
devil' came down on the deck right
out OF the smoke from the stack and
| walked up to them. The whole b'ilin'
| of 'em declare they saw him and that
/ he said the steamer was going to be
wrecked and nearly all on board lost.
Within week the cargo was dis
charged and the vessel was ready for
her return trip to Singapore. But,
| though the Nam-C Chow usually took
several hundred Chinese deck passen-
gers not one was booked or could be
induced to 90. The native cooks and
walters had all deserted the ship.
leaving their wages with the purser.
The story of the ..blue devil had
got around and not a Chinaman
would put his foot on the steamer for
love or money.
1.-The captain was in quandary,
but shrewdly set to work to find a
way out. He consulted the local
authorities, and in few hours had
every Chinese priest in Annoy down
on the steamer, beating tom-toms.
burning joss sticks, and raising a
| general hullabaloo to scare off the
| blue devil and exercise his evil
| influence. When this was done to
| the satisfaction of the priests they
| pronounced the vessel safe, and in
side the next twenty-four hours the
missing members of the crew and
the normal passenger list put in an
appearance, ana the Nam Chow
sailed. Within forty eight hours the
propeller shaft broke, and pounded
/ hole in the bottom OF the steamer
1t was at highland of the 400
! souls aboard only thirty-fve were
saved.
"The Chinese continued Dr.
Bedloe, 'sare firm believers in the
RECONSIDERATION OF souls. The dogs
in the streets may contain the spirits
of ones departed ancestors, and
they treat all animals with the
greatest circumspection.
81 once went with party on a
tiger hunt several days journey into
! the interior. We arrived at last in
I the tiger country and made inquiry
at village if there were any tigers
in the neighborhood. There vas
one, and it was very bad and most
dangerous one.
I'VE got on the track OF the tiger,
and with strong force of beaters
succeeded in killing him after about
four hours of cautious hunting. We
then returned to the village, leaving
our attendants the task of skinning
the tiger and bringing in the hide.
The old magistrate gave US a good
meal of curried chicken, bambo
sprouts, fish and some excellent tea,
and as we ate told us the following
story:
4" 'One cannot be too careful about
animals, he said. They may be very
good animals, and ones own parents
might have passed into them. Think
how sad it would be if ore should
kill relative thinking 1t was a
tiger. We had bitter experience
in this village once which shows the
truth OF what | say. Our village
had been guarded for many years by
q good tiger. He gave us warning
OF his first visit by stopping outside
the village and roaring. to give us
time to get into our homes and out
of the way. Then he came in leisure \
", looked around. and, Selling al
goat, made off We knew at once
he was good tiger, and did not att
tempt to drive him away. Once Of
twice week he would come and get
a goat or a dog, always roaring be-
fore he came and after he had gona
He generally came in the daytime,
while bad tigers usually come IT
night.
Zone night we heard our god
tiger roaring fearfully outside the
village, but he would not come ia,
staying outside and roaring .fearfuly.
We knew that something was wrong,
and we went outside and listenfd.
We heard the rushing of a fearful
flood in the river. and we had barely
time to escape into the hills befbre
the flood came and washed the Eil-
lage away. Then we knew that bur
good tiger had come to warn us, Ind
recognized that he held the soul bf a
great philanthropist who had lied
only few days before the tiger made
his first appearance.
The next autumn we missed the
tiger and we heard nothing fhim
r ". ~