Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1908-07-03
TRIP TO THE ORIENT
Clarence e. Edwords Touring the
Eastern Countries.
HE IS OUR SPECIA CORRESPONDENT.
INTERESTINGLY WRITTEN IN WEEK
LY LETTERS, WHICH WILL APP.
PEAR IN THE RECORDER.

PEAR IN THE RECORDER.
Shanghai, China, Feb. 25-When
| | left Manila some two weeks ago |
looked forward to my visit to Chi
ma with more than ordinary inter
est. Here is the beginning of all
things Oriental, so far as manners,
customs and religions are concern
led. Here is the strange people,
standing constantly as q menace to
Caucasian civilization, and as, |
sailed up the Yellow river to where
the vessel turned into the Shanghai
river, l could not help likening this
yellow contamination of the beau
tiful blue of the ocean water to
what may possibly happen should
the vast yellow horde of inhabi-
tants of China ever be turned tow
ard Europe or America,
| We sailed In the yellow sea, and
the waters were still as blue as the
ocean, for we were yet 40 miles
from the coast of China, within 100
miles of the mouth of the Yangtse
river. A few miles farther, howev-
er, the sea becomes a deep yellow
and the water Opaque from the
contamination of the detFitus
brought down by the great river
which flows through China formore
than a thousand miles. In my
boyhood l had speculated on the
mysteries of China, as ! pored over
my map at school, and thought |
had some idea of what all this
meant, but as we sailed out OF the
blue into the yellow / received an
object lesson that was more force
ful'than all the information gained
through books.
The Yangtse river, itself, is a
wonderful stream, and while we
, were several miles within its mouth
we were unable to see either side,
and it seemed as if we were still
, away out in the ocean. The river
here is 40 miles wide, and in order
that YOU may obtain some idea Of
, what it is, need but tell you that
| for 800 miles it ia deep enough tc
permit the passage of the greatest
0 battleship.
AS we approached the shore | was
|, surprised at the apparently barren
D condition of the country. Fol
: miles on either side of the river the
land stretched away with no slgr
of human habitation or cultivation
although l was told that this sol
: is the most fertile in all China
s Covering the land were innumera
|, BILE mounds of varying heights ant
!, | supposed them to be relics OF an
}. Gent peoples, something like thos
81 who built the mounds in Ohio, bu
y I learned that these mounds ar
5, the tombs of departed Chinese. an
ii which ancient custom forbids eve
:, being disturbed. Here was m.
y first lesson regarding the reason TO
d the arrest of development OF tn
= Il Chinese race. Superstition pre-
d cluded the use of this fertile lane
b, and also precluded roads or telt
!, y graph lines being built across tn
d country. Chinese superstition WI
$ not permit of a shadow of any kin
= = being cast upon the tomb of an al
IN cester.
lie One would imagine that this ver
- - Grafton would lead them to tax
n. exceptional care of the graves, bt
such is not the case. In Japan,
saw graves several hundred yea
old, which looked as fresh wit
y flowers and decorative offerings
% if they had been recently made. |
It China, however, it is entirely oil
a. ferent. When the grave is filled,
!, is abandoned, and n0care given
1t it at all. The only protection
< that given by superstition, and tn
= accounts for the abandonment
s. the best land in the empire, an
e. also for the lack of proceeds in tt
sExresu-zrzzzrruzsscnr .ss-SsA.ss....
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