Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1896-08-04
FIGHT WITH SUPERSTITION.
How the English in China at Last
Got a Summer Resort.

Got Summer Resort.
One Of the most pressing needs of
foreigners resident at the various
treaty ports along the Yang-tsze has
been some place at a considerable
elevation to which they could con-
veniently go during the hot season,
says the London Times The diff
Guilty is that there is an almost to-
tai absence of hills in proximity to
the river below Ichang.
A little to the south OF the treaty
port Of Kiu-Kiang is a range called
the Lu3han, and after a hard strug-
gle site has been obtained among
these hills at a place called Kuling, a
name which for many months past
has become familiar to every reader
Of the English papers published in
the far east.
For some years sites for bunga-
lows at this place were easily OBJ
tainable by foreigners, but during
1894 proc!amations were issued by
the local authorities forbidding the
renting or sellingof these sites with
out official permission. In Decem-
Der, 1894, however, Mr.. Little, a
resident of Kiu-Kiang, leased site
on temple property on Lushan from
the responsible temple authorities,
and forthwith the district magis-
trate arrested all the natives con-
cerned and sent them To jail until
the lease was given ur. Mr. Little
gave up the lease and lost his money,
on the promise of the magistrate to
obtain another site for lin, and Ku-
ling was selected.
1t was at the time waste and own
erless land on the mountain top, and
the consent of all the officials and
people concerned having been OBJ
tanned, Mr. Little got his lease in
January 1895 Europeans in the
various ports on the river went
shares in making road and prepar-
ing for putting up houses on the
spot, but in April secretary to the
district governor (who had approved
of the lease being granteD and some
others joined in a petition against
allowing foreigners to build, on the
ground that they would interfere
with the geomatic influences of the
neighborhood.
Placards to the same effect and
urging the people to attack the for
eigners and the workmen were put
out in Kiu-Kiang. In consequence
the district magistrate ordered all
work to be stopped. April 25 a mob
from a village ten miles away ap-
peared at Kuling, drove off the work
men and destroyed two houses and
all the building material. A num-
Der of persons who had assisted the
foreigners were arrested and SEN
fenced to be kept in Jail till Mr. Lit
tie should give up the deed Tor
ture is said to have been applied to
some of the poor people, and their
relatives besieged Mr.. Titles resi-
dence day and night, weeping and
tearing their hair.
Sir Nicholas O'Connor demanded
the release Of the innocent prison
ers and the punishment of those who
melted the mob, but for many months
in vain. The local authorities OBJ
stinately demanded the return Of the
deed and promised still another site;
but ultimately the presence Of the
minister, Mr. Beauclerk, and Mr.
Brady, the consul at Kiu-Kiang, was
successful, and Mr.. Little retained
his site.
1t is described as an upland, 5000
feet above the sea, in the heart of a
beautiful range of mountains, and is
five and one-half hours distance
from Kiu-Kiang. The range is cele-
brated in Chinese history and poetry
A rest-house, called Community
Bungalow, " has been erected at the
foot of the range, and a suitable
road has been made to the summit,
where it may be hoped that the for
eign communities are now in pos
session of the site for a sanitarium,
which they have long sorely needed.