The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-05-29

%Siructing Il Building
-BuddIiSt Priesthood, II Great
est McndiCant Order in the World
An EnCliShman Turned Priest Ex-
plains to Mr.. Bryan That Budd-
hisn Does Not Require You to Be
iicvc Anything "Worl<S, Not
Faith" l. Preached - Niryana.
Blissfui UnconsciOuSness, Is the
Coal Of All NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Spread Of the Religion in Past
Ycars-Si,O 900 Missionaries Sent
out by one kinc-EVidcnrcs OF
Decay Now MISUNDERSTANDING
Offers II Promising Field for
Buddhi,n." Says One Writer of
That Faith.
Copyright. 1906, by Joseph b. Bowles
Copyright in Great Britain
ALL Rights Reserved.)
Calcutta, India, March /. Of
Burma is another country which was
added to our list after leaving home.
hut as its people are quite distinct
from the inhabitants of India. and rs
il is one Of n str~onghOIls Of Budd-
hiSm, we turned aside to visit it en-
route from Ccylon to Calcutta. on
the map it occupies a part Of the
east side of the first of tho three great
peninSulas that stretch down from
Asia to the indian ocean. and is sep
arateI from India proper by the Bay
of Bengal. It's principal stream is the
lrraWaddy, famed in story for the
magnificent scenery along its course.
and for the fertile valley through
which it passes on it's way to the sea.
Eangoon, the seaport of Burma. is
situated some 20 miles inland upon Il
river of the same name, and has n
harbor quite different from those at
Singapore and Colombo. At those
places the passengers on the incoming
and outgoing steamers amuSc them
selves by tossing silver coins into the
transparent waters and watching the
divers catch them before they can
reach the bottom. but at Rangoon the
water is so muddy that a diver would
have difficulty in finding an electric
light. The depth of the water, too, is
insufficient, except when the tide is
high.
But the city OF Rangoon is substan-
TALLY built and has q nuDnber of fine
business blocks and excellent public
buildings. y municipal hospital now
in curse of construction surpaSses
anything which we have seer in the
east. The park system at RangoOn is
very attractive, and one sees the we'll
TODD element of the city fully repre-
scented there in the early evening. The
roads about Rangoon are good, but
not equal to those of CeNlon and
Java. | have lready spoken of the
Java roads, and those of Ceylon are
not behind them. No one can see
these well-graded, w~ell-draincd and
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES highways without
having his interest in good roads
uuiCk ened.
At RanGoon we saw the elephants at
work in q lumber yard, and they did
not attract anything like the attcn-
ton from the natives that Jumbo
and the "Baby Elephant did in the
United States during my boyhOod
days 1t is not necessary here for the
head of the family to take his wife and
all the children to the circus in order
that the younger members of the fam
lily may catch q glimpse of one of
these unCainly beasts. In Burma the
elephant is simply III everyday beast
of burden and earns his food as faith
fully as the horse or the OK. We saw
three at work in the lumber ward
which was visited, the Oldest of which
is more than three score years and
ten and has labOTed nduStriQusly for
more than so years. \ native rides
upon his back and directs him by
word. sometimes emphasized by an
1Ton-pointcd stick, and the huge fell
ioN liitS. pushes ana INlSiS the logs
about with almost human intelligence.
The elephant has an eye for n~e3tncss.
and n WOuld hardly believe from
h~carSay with what regularity and
carefufness he works. moving from
one end of the log to the other until it
Is in exactly the right place. In lift
Ing he uses his tuskS. kncelinc when
his work requires ii. In carrying
large blocks of wood he uses both
tuSks and trunks Sometimes the ole
ph3nt pushes q heavy log along the
ground With of his forefoct. walk
ing on the other three. but generally
the logs are drawn by a chain at
ta"hcd to broad breast strap. An
1S-year-old elephant. working in the
same yard. was thus dra wing heavy
timbers and went about his work I'M
Complainingly so long as he was per
united to draw one at a time. but
when two of these timbers were fast
ened together, he raised his voice in
pathetic lament which grew even moro
touching when he received a pointed
suggestion from his driver. These
t~rumpetingS were really terrifying TO a
. stranger, but die not seem to alarm
the burmese. The cars of the old Gle
plant showed signs of age: in fact.
they We're thin and frayed with fajy-
ping and looked like dropping bego,
MIA leaves.
The elephants which we saw
weighed about two tons each and coli
sumed about 500 pounds of food per
day. When | was Informed that an
elephant ate regularly one-ffth of his
own weight per day, | could under
stand better than ever before what it
meant to "have an elephant on ones
hands" The fact that they can be
prohtab bly, used in business how then
capacity for work. The old song that
credits the elephant with eating all
night as we'll as all day is founded on
tact, for the animal requires but two
hours sleep out of "a, and when not