The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1907-05-24


his wonder gave way to amazement and
his amazcment became "as elastic us the
elastic currency about which we heard
so much about Il few weeks ago, but
don't hear of now" The largest stone
used was "a feet long and IA feet wide,
and there was one cut in the quarry
but not removed that was ~ feet long
and ID feet wide, that weighs 900 tons
and would make fifty carloads of sawed
stone. Yet these great stones had been
moved from the quarry without ma
chinery.
They had found temples in Use as
well as in ruins. Mr.. Bryan told of Il
visit to the Altar of Heaven near Pekin,
China, at midnight, where twice Il year
at midnight the emperor goes to offer
Sacrifices to heaven. Since learning more
about Confucius Mr.. Bryan said that his
reverence for COnfucius was declining
and his reverence for western institu-
tions was growing. The more he had
seen of Confucius' philosophy the less
he had thought of Confucius. The
golden rule of COnfucius is do not
unto others as you would not have
them do unto you," which is the mega
tive of the Christian golden rule. \ per-
son could watch IL child drown without
Offering aid and obey the Chinese golden
rule. Our religion teaches us to reward
evil with good, but Confucius teaches
his disciples to reward evil with justice
and good with good. The reciprocity
is the calculating seltishness which a
man would build on morality. \ man
who keeps book account of the good
that he does never does enough good to
make buying book worth while. Con
fucitls' ideals are so low that they might
be embodied in the life of nation and
it would not rise to higher plane. This
is the reason why China does not adj
vance. 1t overlook Confucius 1000
wears ago and has remained there ever
since. satisfied. We in America have
the highest civilization the world ever
saw because we have no limit to our
advancement. We seek better things
continually.
The greatest problem before Japan to-
day is, having borrowed our higher
ideals. will it adopt our religion or build
a state without religion? Buddhism is
diving and Shinaism, the religion of the
state, is empty.
Among the Hindoos. Mr.. Bryan saw
people cultivating psychic power i'll va
rious strange ways. He saw the
monkey temple with great greasy mon
KEYS lolling about, and the sacred cattle
garlanded with flowers. The people bury
their dead in the sacred Ganses by sink
inc them on stone slabs, the population
battles in the river, diseased people dip
in it to be healed, and people drink
this water as sacred water, and Il
prince recently took. some of it to Lon
DON The fakirs are held in such high
regard that during a procession when
800 naked men walked along the shore
several people were killed in the crush
to get some of the sand that they had
walked over. One fakir had sliced Il
child as he passed by and had crushed
its brains out on Il rock, claim
ing that he had received divine
instruction to make the. sacrifice
He was arrested and was placed
in Jail to stand trial. Since leaving that
country, Mr.. Bryan said that he had
acquired greater regard for the efforts
to bring light to these deluded peo-
pie.
In China part of their philosophy is
to pay proper respect to the dead rather
than take care of the living, and in one
city he had seen more coffin stores than
anv other kind of stores. People buy
collins and keep them for future use.
In Japan the men are adopting our
dress, but the women are not. He did
not wonder at the latter when he had
spent good part of twenty-five years
of married life in hooking and unlock
ing dresses. On the Gauges woman
will battle and come out and don an
other suit and remove the wet one with
out exposing her person and do it all in
two minutes. The Manchu woman paint
their faces but do not bind their feet
as do the Chinese woman proper. The
Indian women wear jewelry in profusion,
nose rings, bracelets, ankIets
and finger rings.
In Asia the greatest hardship of a
traveller is to get pure food and pure
water. In India Mr.. Bryan's family
had reduced their menu to boiled eggs,
toast and coffee. and the coffee was poor.
Boiled water and bottled water were
used for several months but they could
not be sure that the bottled water was
pure. "The boiled egg is the one thing
that can be gotten in Asia that tastes
good. All nations meet at the break
fast table and the egg makes the whole
world akin" said the speaker.
MIR. Bryan gave some glimpses OF
royalty. He had seen it high and low,
but the lowest was in the Philippine
Islands. where he was entertained by
the Sultan of Sulu. who is doing the
hest. that he cafi with the salary that
is paid him." Mr.. Bryan told of an am
using visit to Datto Piang. His party
was presented with twelve brass cannon
Dy the DattO and it was said to have
been the most successful expedition
against the Moros. Seeing the Filipinos
in their helplessness. one can see that
The only excuse to keep them is to, help
hem and not exploit them.
Mr.. Bryan had ''salaamcd' before the
emperor of Japan, but the most salts
factory half hour that he had spent with