Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-09-30
FEATURES, OF MUKDEN
It Is the Most Sacred City Tn
 the Chinese Empire.
STREETS FULL OF FINE CARVINGS

Capital of NHanchuria, Japan's ob5ec-
 tive Point, Is Surrounded by a Great
 Wall With PicturesQue High Tow
 CTS at the Eight Gates and Angles.
 Burial Site of Mantchoo Emperors.
 Mukden, the Japanese objective, Is the most important of all the noted cities in Manchuria, says the New York Times. It is the capital and the wealth fest city of this great territory.
 The veneration of the Chinese for Mukden can perhaps hardly be realized by occidental peoples. The feeling of the English for Westminster abbey, of the Italians for Rome, may serve to give an idea of it. But in the far east the veneratton for the past, as express ed in the worship of ancestors, is actu- ally an important part of religious be- lief, and for this reason Mukden is the most sacred city in the whole great Chinese empire.
 Mukden is the ancient capital of the present dynasty of China. It was there that in the year 1925 Nurhachu, the fa- nous founder of that dynasty, estab- lished himself It was there that the ancestors of the Mantchoo emperors were buried.
 Mukden stands in the middle of a great alluv!al plain about 320 feet above the level of the sea. All the soil around 1t Is rich and highly cultivated. It is reputed to have a population of 26o, 900, chiefly Chinese. The houses, both those of the Chinese mandarins and merchants and those of new Rus sian construction, are built on mag n1fcent scale.
 There is forbidden city, in Muk- den like the one in Picking, but while the Boxer outbreak of 1900 was fol- lowed by the entry of the allies into the hitherto mysterious pa8aces within the inner walls of Picking, so far as is known no European or American has ever penetrated into the forbidden city of Mukden. It is believed to contain ] wonderful treasures of ancient art, and buildings which surpass in beauty and elaborateness even those at Picking.
 Judging from the popttons of the city which foreigners are allowed to sec, the place must . be a very treasure house of the art of the old Chinese Even the streets are full of carvings of a delicacy una&tatnabie in modern work, while the tonahs of the emperors combine purity of design with an elaboration of detaAi which show how far the art of China has deteEiOrated from the old standapds.
 The city is surrounded by a great brick wall with picturesque high tow CTS at the eight gates ands the angles. Outside are the suburbs, incsosed by a mud wall, while tn the middle of the city are the ancient palaces of the NSan6choo ernperors inside third wall. l The streets of MnAden are broad and straight. Like peking. the city pos sesseS drum tower and a huge he'll. The administration buildings and the hall of examinations are within the precincts of the forb4ddsn city.
 The early history of the WRr1ike monarchs whose chief city was Muk- den, and who in the seventeenth cen tury became the rulers of the whole Chinese empire, is yelled in legend, l Three heaven born maidens, SO the story runs, were bathing one day in 2 lake near the Shanalin mountains when a passing magpae dropped ripe red fruit into the lap of one of them. The maiden ate the fruit, and in due course child was born to her, whom she named Aisin Gioro, or the Golden When Atsin Gioro was lad he was elected chief over three contending | clans. His reign was not of long dura. ton, for his subjects rose against him and murdered him, together with all his sons except the youngest, Fancha who was miraculously saved from his pursuers. a.es | It was Aisin Gioro who named his people Mantchoo, which means pure His descendants, through the rescued Fancha, fell into obscurity until the middle of the sixteenth century, when one of them, Ntrhachi, born in 1559 the seventh in descent from Aisin Gio TO, welded the Mantchoo tribes into one great kingdom. The emperor, Nur hachi, toward the close of his long and illustrious reign transferred his capital to Mukden, and his tomb there is the most venerated of all the royal tombs l of the city.
 Tn 1917 Nurhachd drew up list o1 ''seven hates against the Chinese and declared war on them. The Chinese were defeated with great slaughter and seventy cities were captured. The war was followed by an alliance between l the Mantchoos and the Chinese, who were then ruled over by the Ming dy nasty. The later enperors of this dy nasty were weak and cowardly, and China was continually invaded by the Tartars. Tn the end the Mantchoos were begged to save the country. They consented with great alacrity to send an army, and the result of it all was that in 1644 the grandson of Nurhachi ascended the dragon throne without serious opposition on the part of the Chinese. He was Sunchi, the first oi { the Mantchoo dynasty, which has re esssned the throne of China ever since.
 Mukden is identified witk sa that is glorious in tho records of the MaETches l amnerorS and the Manfcho0 neonl@