Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-07-07
TRONTON. MO-. THURSDAY. JULY Z. 1904.

e u IL L g l. SOf.
was distinctly favorable. She
found in them many good traits,
and on the whole enjoyed her in
tercourse with them. Whatever
may be the case elsewhere, she
considers those she came in con-
tact with by no means the worst
examples of human beings to be
met with in the universe.
Returning to Soochow Miss Sloan
made an extended examination of
this ancient and most interesting
city. In spite of it's comparatively
small era-it is bounded by wall
only twelve miles in total length
Soochow contains something like
half a million inhabitants, and an
idea of it's reputation among the
Chinese may be formed from the
fact that they have a proverb which
says: "Above there is Paradise;
below there is Soochow and Hang"
The walls of the city are some
thirty feet in height, and taper
from thickness of fifteen feet at
the base to ten feet at the top.
Hiring one OF the Chinese ponies,
Miss Sloan rode the complete
circuit of the city on the WALL.
there being room enough for
equestrians to meet and pass one
another easily. AS few save white
persons take the ride, the wall is
never inconveniently crowded.
The cost of pony is fifty cents
per day, and to this must be added
ten cents for a boy to run ahead
and clear the way, horseback riders
being entitled to a clear passage.
For a rickshaw or a Sedan chair
with two porters the cost is a dol
lar day.
AS is the case with all oriental
cities, Miss Sloan found the streets
of Soochow very narrow when
measured by our ideals. The
houses also rarely if ever exceed
three stories in height, and there
was no living in cellars below the
surface as is done in the Chinese
quarter in San Francisco. Open
cutters at the side of the streets
took the place of underground
sewers, and of course with some
offensiveness to the American nos
tril and doubtless with some detri-
ment to the general health. Some
idea of the density of the popula-
ton in Soochow may be gathered
from the fact that it's 100000 souls
are packed into an era of only
twelve square miles-equal to a
strip two and a half miles wide and
reaching from here to Salem-and
even the whole of this era is not
now occupied, some part of the
city having never been rebuilt
since it's destruction in the TAPPING
rebellion in 1854. The missionary
compound, or walled enclosure,
containing the religious edifices,
the schools, hospitals and resi-
dences for the missionaries, is
situated outside the city wall at
the distance of about two miles;
and the curiosity of the unin-
structed native is such that, but
for the existence of the inclosure,
no privacy of any sort would be
possible to the white people. The
lower cast Chinese have all the in
quisitiveness of the Indian, and
are seemingly without any sort of
reticence. Hence the missionaries
have to protect themselves against
them by walling in the places in
which they live, In Soochow
there are sixty Christian white
missionaries in population such
as we have described, or about one
to every nine thousand inhabitants.
The rate of conversion therefore is
likely to be slow. 1t is interesting
to record that, since the quelling
of the Boxer rising, white persons
are allowed to enter and leave the
walled cities at any hour of the
night-a privilege which is not ex-
tended to the Chinese themselves.
The native must present himself
before the gates are formally closed
for the night, or after they are
open in the morning, or he is re-
fused admittance by the guards.
According to Chinese custom
which is really Chinese law-no
woman nurse is allowed to attend
a male patient, nor is any male
nurse or doctor allowed to attend
a. woman; and out of Difference to
Chinese scruples Miss Sloan says
a similar rule prevails in the mis-
sionary quarters.
On her return journey Miss Sloan
took British steamer-the En-
press of India-and landed in Van
1 =