The Oskaloosa herald., 1905-08-24
in AND AROUND China
Oskaloosa Boy Tells Of Life Aboard
U. S. Battleship.

The following extracts from jet
ter from Glen Meade TO his sister
Mrs. Frank Hamilton, OF this city
will be Of interest TO his many friends
here, Mr. Meade is connected with
the governments wireless telegraph
service, the Baltimore being the only
warship completely fitted with the
apparatus:
U. S. s. Baltimore, Shanghai, China,
May IS, 1905.
My Dear Slster:--Well, at last we
have had some mail,--the first since
at Manila. ! guess I'd better tell you
Of our trip down TO the Island Of Par.
aqua. We were looking for the Rus.
sian feet and were sent TO preserve
the neutrality OF tho Southern Philip.
pines, but they hadn't left Cochin,
China. / had a good ramble through
the jungles, II tearing your clothes 70
pieces can be called rambling. How.
ever, we visited Moro camp Of fish.
ermen. Everything was made OF
bamboo and cocoanut fibre. They are
fierce looking lot, though Some or
the men are very finely built and
rather handsome. We stayed there
for n couple OF weeks and then went
back 10 Manila We only stopped
there long enough 20 take coal and
provisions. When Te got under way
for Shanghai in, company with the
Raleigh, we we're caught in n heavy
fog OF the coast some place near
Arnby and laid at anchor eighteen
hours, waiting TO get our bearings.
After II cleared up we came up into
the Yangtse,Kiang river. AT the
mouth OF the river we passed tho
"Hai.Tin," n Chinese cruiser, which
ran aground in n fog. Her bow was
over 40 feet above low water mark.
Her captain IA Scotchman) had her
running at full speed (22 knots per
hour when she struck, so no wonder
she went 80 far up the Hill. The cap
tain committed suicide and the Chi.
nese navigator lost his head. mo
joke.)
We laid up outside Woosung bar
alongside Of the "HaLTin's" sister
ship, the "Hal.ChI" ThoBe Chinese
ships are marvel Of cleanliness. Al.
most as clean as we are. They carry
an enormous crew, but few guns.
The "Hai-Cbi" rs much larger than
the Baltimore, but hasn't half the bat.
terry.
After lying all night of Woosung
we got under way and proceeded up
the NIng.Po river. We are lying on
woOsung, n small town about twelve
miles from Shanghai. went ashore
couple Of days after we were here,
and we got on tho train.--bu such a
train! Just 'Engligh" was all you
would say for n. The first thing that
catches your eye IL large number
Of tiled mounds, some Of which are
built Of mud and covered with straw
They are everywhere, scattered at
random. Some in the middle Of rice
fields, and some in peoples front
yards. Everyone Of them is a grave.
Why they buy them any old place. |
don't see; but they DO, and there
are lot Of them. too.
We had fellow with us who had
been IN Shanghai before so the bunch,
Redhead, a yeoman in the engineer.
ing department, Morton, the canteen
yeoman, and myself, allowed our
selves 10 be placed IN "rlckshaws"
and we all started over 20 "0ld
Shanghai" We crossed the English
quarter Of the town. also the French
concession. We came 10 the old wall
and secured guide, after paying on
our rlckshaw men. Yeager, wire
less operator, who had been there"
before, commanded our pigtailed pi.
rate to lead us 10 the "Mandarin'g
garden After going through num-
erous gates, etc, we passed through
a small summer house, and came out
upon the yeranda which overlooked q
small lake. All around In miniature
we're crags, cliffs and rockey cayern5.
The whole affair only being about 80
feet high. There were paths leading
into small caves. The whole work
was 700 yeras old, 70 our guide said.
There were tea trees planted here and
there, and they, TOO, we're old. The
petrined trunk OF tree stands near
there still, showing the marks OF the
axe But the main feature was the
famous Dragon WALL There are
two dragons. one head on each side
u tho main gats. and their bodies