Omaha daily bee., 1902-02-23
Carpenters Letter
EIGHT Al
Continued from Sixth Page.) q.

NCOnIluueu from SlAIn faBe.J
there is a foreign settlement and the Eng
lish, Germans and Japanese are already
beginning 20 do business.
Right near Soochow is the great Taihu
lake, which is connected with the Grand
canal by a marble bridge with hfty-three
arches. 1t is one of the finest bridges
In China. 1t is very long and its arches
are as perfectly made as though cut with
a sculptor's chiseL. 1 sailed by this bridge
on my way to the city.
Soochow has many pagodas and 1t is also
celebrated as a literary center. One group
OF pagodas has a queer story connected
with it, which shows the superstition OF
the Chinese. Originally the group con-
tanned but two pagodas, with a pool OF
water near them. Shortly after the pa
godas were built it was noticed that the
students from Soochow always failed In
their examinations when they were in
Pekin. The necromancers were asked to
determine the cause. They found it in the
pagodas. Said they:
you have here the water" pointing to
the pond; you have also the ink brushes"
pointing to the p~agodas; but you have no
ink pot or ink block. How can your schol-
airs write essays with only brushes and
waterl"
Aug baAu ~ hAhNoNt W. W
that" And so they built a third pagoda
in plain black, the shape Of a Chinese ink
pot. This changed the fortunes Of the schol-
ars Immediately and Soochow since then
has become the ATHENS Of China"
It took us a long time to get around
the walls Of Soochow into the city. 500
chow has at least twelve miles Of wall
about 1t. The wall is as hiR'- as a three
story house and as wide as the ordinary
country road. 1t is today almost as per-
feet as when it was built, and there are
parts of 1t which have been recently re-
paired. other parts are being torn down
and rebuilt. The Chinese have walls about
all their cities and II a new city were built
today 1t would have a wall about 1t. Not
long ago some hundreds of thousands of
dollars were spent in repairing the wall
of Marking, and l suppose that one Of the
first appropriations made by the govern
ment, after they have arranged for the
interest on the foreign debt brought about
by the late war, will be to repair the walls
of Pekin.
Soochow fills the most of the space within
this wall, and in places the city has gone
outside. All along the banks Of the canal
under the wall are beggar huts. sheds o;
straw, in which live people more ragged
and filthy perhaps than any beggars OF the
world. Many Of them go about In boats
and whine for aims while they thrust out
at you long poles to which are attached
little baskets or bags in which you are ex-
pected to put your gifts.
Biggest Drug store of the World.
In Hangchow the other day l went
through the biggest drug store Of China
and one which Consul General Goodnow
says is the largest drug store In the world.
1t covers a vast area and is made up OF
many rooms In which Chinese clerks are
selling drugs of all kinds and making rem
edieF for all sorts of Chinese ailments The
store was filled with purchasers, wholesale
and retail, and the talk was SO noisy that
It made me think Of the stock exchange in
Wall street during a panic. In the factory
l found them grinding roots and bones to
powder for piIfs. The grinding was done
in mill stones moving one on top OF the
other and fed through a hole in the top
stone. The motive power Of each mill was
a half naked man, perfectly blind, who
pushed round a pole attached to the top
stone, like a horse in the bark mill OF a
tannery. asked why blind men were en-
ployed and was informed that 1t is for
two very good reasons: One that It ID
considered charitable to give blind men
work, and another is because 1t is cheap.
Leaving the grinding. / went into another
department, where scores Of men were