Evening star., 1901-02-25
LONGEST STEPS IN THE WORLD.
Extend Six Thousand Feet Up the
Side of Mountain.

From the Century.
The height of the holy mountain tTai-
schan, in China) is about 5000 feet above
Tainsan-fu, and the distance something
over sixteen miles. The road is probably
the best in all China. About a mile north
of the city walls a large gate stands amid
| the ruins of once fiourishing suburbs, and
after passing this gate I found myself in an
avenue several miles in length, and lined
with TEMPLES converts and holy Shrines,
where pilgrims stop and pray if they sue
ceed in shaking off the thousands of beg
gars who occupy this only road leading to
the summit. They are not ordinary modest
beggars but the real lords of the Tai-schan,
who levy a sort of entrance fee, which every
traveller is compelled to pay They not
content with crouching modeStly by the
roadside. for that would enable pilgrims 10
make their escape. In order to prevent this
each beggar builds "a sort of wall of loose
stones about three feet high across the
avenue. with an opening of only a yard in
the center, and in this opening he sits or
kneels. knocking his head on the ground,
and shouts, screams and howls at the ap
proach of every pilgrim. They make room
for nobody. Each traveller has To step over
them, and naturally enough few cash"
coins are thrown to them in order to avoid
being touched or pulled by the clothes with
their and filthy hands. They are most
numerous in the lower portion of the road,
but they asSail the pilgrims also a few thou
sand feet higher up on the mountain The
real ascent begins at stone portal at
which, according to its inscription. the great
Contucfus himself halted and turned back
1900 years ago. not having had the strength
to climb the 5000 stone steps leading to the
top. Imagine staircase leading to the top
of Mount Washington! These Tai-schan
stairs are by far the highest in the wide
world, for taking the number of steps in
one story of an ordinary house to be twenty,
the number of Tai-schan steps equals 300
stories. Still I had to climb up for these
in places I
dared not trust my bones to the care of my
two chair coolies; moreover. they were ex-
hausted by the fatigue and heat. and APP
parentiy unable to carry even the empty
chair. Their tariff for carrying one person
UP and down the Tai-schan a distance of
twice sixteen miles, is 600 cash. 30 cents
ID cents for each cooliei
After six hours of tedious climbing I
passed through the Gate of Heaven and
stood on the large plateau at the summit
which is covered with numerous temples
that of the holy mother, consisting of a
number of buildings surrounded by a high
wall. Magnificent bronze statues and
bronze monuments adOrn the several courts,
in the last of which rises the principal tenn
pie, with a huge statue of the holy mother
on an altar The doors of this temple are
opened only once every year for an imperial
commissioner who comes to collect the
money offerings Of the pilgrims. But
thanks to a substantial bakshish or, it is
called in China, "kumshah," a priest pushed
a loose bar of the main gate aside, enough
to let me have a glimpse of the interior.
The floor OF this large temple was filled with
a heap of coins three feet high-coins of
every description, size and value, ancient
and modern. mostly brass cash, but many
millions of them representing probably
SO 00e United States currency. The money
is divided among the converts and beggars
of the holy mountain, but the lions share
goes into the pockets of that enterprising
lady the dowager empress.
Still higher up stands a temple dedicated
to the sleeping holy mother and enter
ing found an elegantly furnished bed
room, with a life-size doll lying under silk
coverings on the bed. The accompanying
priest whispered to me not to speak too
loud. lest should disturb the young lady'y
slumber.