Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1908-07-01
DR.. EDWORDS IN CHINA
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT LEAVES
THE PHILIPPINES.
His Trip Up the Yellow River. the Yanetse
River Navisable for Largest Battle
Ships for Eight Hundred Miles. An.
other Very Interesting Letter.

left Manila some two weeks ago
looked forward to my visit to China
with more than ordinary interest.
Here is the beginning of all things
Oriental. so far as manners, customs
and religions are concerned. Here is
the strange people. standing constant
ly as menace to Caucasian civiliza-
tion, and as I sailed up the Yellow
river to where the vessel turned into
the Shanghai river. could not help
likening this yellow contamination of
the beautiful blue of the ocean water
to what may possibly happen should
the vast yellow horde Of inhabitants
of China ever be turned toward
Europe or America.
We sailed in the Yellow sea, and
the waters were still as blue as the
ocean, for we were yet one hundred
and forty miles from the coast of
| China. within one hundred miles of
the mouth of the Yangtse river. A
few miles farther, however, the sea
became deep yellow and the water
Opaque from the contamination of he
detritus brought down by the great
river which flows through China for
more than Thousand miles. In my
boyhood had speculated on the n:ys-
teries OF China as l pored over my
map at school, and thought I had
some idea Of what all this meant, but
as we sailed out of the blue into the
yellow I received an object lesson
that was more forceful than all the
information gained through books.
| The Yangtse river. itself, is
wonderful stream and while we were
several miles within it's mouth we
were unable to see either side and it
seemed as, if we were still away out
| il the oceaa The river here is forty
miles wide, and in order that you
may obtain some idea of what it is
need but tell you that for eight hun
dred miles it is deep enough to permit
the passage of the greatest battleship.
AS we approached the shore l was
surprised at the apparently barren
condition of the country For miles
on either side of the river the land
stretched away with no sign of human
habitation or cultivation, although /
was told that this soil is the most
fertile in all China. Covering the
land were innumerable mounds Of
varying heights, and supposed them
to be relics of ancient people. some-
thing like those who built the mounds
in Ohio, but l learned that these
mounds are the tombs of departed
Chinese, and which ancient custom
forbids ever being disturbed. Here
was my first lesson regarding the
reason for the arrest of Developments
OF the Chinese race. Superstition
precluded the use of this fertile land,
and also precluded roads or telegraph
lines being built across the country.
Chinese superstition will not permit
OF a shadow of any kind being cast
upon the tomb of an ancestor.
One would imagine that this ven-
Grafton would lead them to take ex-
ceptiOnal care of the graves, but such
is not the case. In Japan / saw
graves several hundred years old,
which looked as fresh with flowers
and decorative offerings as if they had
been recently made. In China. how
ever, it is entirely different. When
the grave is filled it is abandoned and
no care given to it at all The only
protection is that given by supersti-
tiOn, and this accounts for the aban-
dOnment Of the best land in the
empire. and also for the lack of pro-
gress in the way of road building aud
development China is notorious for
its bid roads. and were it not for it's
wondrous water system of rivers and
canals the traffic of the country would
be at a standstill
1t took us several hours to sail up
the river through these miles of des-
erted tombs. to the Yangtse river, and
we were much diverted by and inter-
ested in the queer water craft that we
were continually passing. had seen
such boats in pictures. and models of
them in museums. but now felt that
at last | was in the land of my
dreams. Fishing boats. trading YES.
sells, and house boats of strange make
rubbed sides with war junks that
looked ferocious only because they
were daubed with paint and covered
with faces of fierce devils and dragons.
The fishing boats had huge dip nets
arranged on each side Of the mast, it
will be remembered that those l saw
in japan had them on one side only
and looked lop-sided. These boats,
one and all, were brown with dirt
and grease. and l here received my
first true impression OF the extreme
uncleanliness of the Chinese. What
this unclean condition is shall tell
| in my next better.