Free press., 1901-11-02
SUPERSTITION SAW 5 COAL.
{ Lles in China and Near the Coast, But i:
Not Adined.

Because OF superstition one of the
.ichest coal beds in the world lies IN
| worked. This will not be the case long
after the great powers have partitioned
China, for the mine lies near the city of
Annoy in that unfortunate country, and
it may be imagined that modern greed
will not hesitate to go after the coal.
Fengshui comes with the birth and is
never-ending. 1t attends every import
| ant act and combines the functions Of
fortune. fate and destiny. One may not
| undertake an enterprise unless that
spirit faVors it. It sets the time for
marriage, and it must be propitiated be-
fore burial.
The compound is made Of words that
! mean wind and water, Or the- ahich can
not be seen and that which can not be
grasped. No amount of speculation OF
research Of foreign inquiries has result
ed in making much more of it than this
definition. Since it thus symboIizes what
the humand mind can not easily COM
prehend the Chinese not only accept it
without question, but as reality por-
tanning TO their own life and govern
ing it.
Annoy needs little fuel except for
| cooking, but the supply hardly satisfies
| the most sparing Use of wood. In some
| places women and children by hundreds
find means Of 1ivIihood by gathering
| stems, sticks and leaves, and in digging
for roots, which will always bring good
| prices in copper cash. The work has
become almost an industry in the ad-
| joining province, where the searchers
| for fuel trudge miles for it daily. On the
way to the hills where they gather Il
! they have made a path which has be-
| come so worn that it exposes a coal bed
/ along most its entire length. Outcrop-
| pings elsewhere in the same section
| show coal at hand over a vast area,
ready for use and to be gathered at in
tanned from the hills
But doctors have declared that there
/ must be no disturbance of the coal beds.
| The people bow, as if to an inspired law.
| 1t is permitted to deforest some Of the
hills for fuel, ana they are kept contin-
ually stripped by the thousands who
make living by gathering wood and
| carrying it back to the settlements. The
| spirits generated by the wind and water
! and which occupy and envelop the earth
exact this burden upon toiling millions
who bear it patiently and without COM
plant.
It is an essential purpose of Fengshui
to preserve the harmonies of nature. II
aims at placid conditions. The welfare
Of the people is best to be served, so fal
as anything approaching philosophy en-
ters into this sort of calculation, By
leaving things as they always have beer
in order that the spirits of earth and all
which they have@beeome accustomed, 81
that there may be no distraction or an
noyance to provoke or ruffIe them. L
they are driven out of their courst
through human agency, the penalty ii
exacted in human suffering.
Hence all possible precautioD is takel
] to avoid that which will disturb them
and the Interpreters of Fengshui mus
be consulted on every occasion. It ma!
well be that the high reward which tn
Chinese have for precedent, their n
! tense conservatism, and the quality @
| self f-satisfaction which enables them t
| feel superior to the outside affairs 0
even their own mishaps is engendere
| by the faith that makes them fatalist;
London Chronicle.