Omaha daily bee., 1901-01-06
THE ILLUSTRATED BEE.

man. Others we're shipped to the sugar
plantations of the West Indies and the
GuiaLas and others under contract to the
United States and Australia. In all about a
half million Chinese were thus carried
away. The emperor at Pekin objected again
and again, but 1t was not until 1875 that
the traffic was stopped.
Macao is well governed How much the
governor saves out of the colony's income
l don't know, but he spends enough to have
good roads and good order. The city Is as
clean as a new pin. The roads are smoother
than the asphalt streets OF our national
capital and as beautiful as those Of Central
park. About the harbor runs a wide
boulevard shaded by banyan trees, the
branches of which nterlook overhead. The
water is kept back by walls of stone, and
there are seats here and there where one
can sit and enjoy the beautiful views.
The roads leading up the hills into the city
are well paved and those which go out over
the peninsula are as well kept as the
boulevard about the bay.
The road metal of Macao Is macadam
over which you glide in your jinriksha as
on a path of velvet There Is not stone
nor a rut to be found anywhere. The roads
are made and kept in order by human Ia
Dor. Horses are as few in Macao as in
Venice. The chief animal employed Is the
human animal that queer two-legged bird
without feathers. The dirt carts are pulled
by men, the jinrkshas have human trot-
ting horses, and every dray is pushed or
pulled by men or women. Much OF the
dirt for the roads Is carried In baskets.
The most common carriers are the women,
each of whom is loaded with two half
bushel baskets full of stone or earth, which
a. IL. - ,A1n
which rests on her shoulders. The aver
age wages for women are about cents
day, and am told that human muscle is
cheaper than mule muscle. The stamping
and pressing down of the road is done by
men and women with hand stamps. The
material Is pulverized to dust and then
straw mats are laid down and the last
stamping is upon these and not upon the
dirt itself.
oldest Cathedral In Asia.
Macao was for centuries the center of
Christianity in Asia. The troubles which
the missionaries are now having with the
Chinese, and especially the Roman Catho-
lies, calls attention to the fact that right
here was where the Christians began their
first work. They had missionaries here
before there was a church on the North
American continent. l spent an hour the
other day in wandering through the ruins
of a great hedral which was constructed
here eighteen years before the Pilgrims first
set foot on Plymouth Rock This was the
Church Of Saint Paul, founded in 1902 and
burned in 1888. A roadway thirty feet wide
leading up granite steps to platform 100
feet high brings you to the site OF the ca
thedral. There is. a court in front Of 1t
tagged with stone covering one-fourth Of
an acre, and back of this rises the mag
nificent facade of the church, adorned with
life sized statues Of the saints in bronze
and with the carvings Of angels and devils
in granite.
l wandered for some time about the court
1t Is now grass grown and given up to the
Chinese. Indeed, its condition today is
sadly typical of the trouble the missionaries
have had in Chrstianizing China Upon the
court across which the Christian worship
ers of 300 years ago passed are trays filled
with incense sticks spread out to dry, in
order that they may be used in worshiping
the heather gods in the Chinese temples.
The platform was covered with these yellow
sticks, some IS big around as a lead pencil
and others as large as knitting needle.
Some are straight and others of spiral shape,
like the pin wheels our boys use on the
Fourth OF July There Is an incense factory
beside the church and its workmen use the
platform as a drying ground.
Next to the church rises the great fort
Of Saint Paul, an enormous mass of stone