Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-09

! la veil same population as st. Louis
lGA M and being about $50 times as
| IlKMl old as the Missouri metropo-
lE@NA@4l lis. Soochow was here, so
scholars are forced to believe,
before Romulus and Remus quarreled
over the first foundation wall of the
eternal city of Rome. Many interest
ing things have happened here, no
doubt, in the two or three thousand
years of Soochow's municipal exist
ence; but two of them are of signifi-
cant interest. About two centuries be-
fore Columbus sailed on his great voy-
age of discovery a certain emperor of
China, Kublai Khan by name, devel-
oped a streak of Jim Hill genius which
cried aloud that empire building was a
matter of transportation. His grand
father, Ghengis Khan, the great Tar
tar conqueror, had subjected all Asia
to his will by the power of the sword,
and had even penetrated into Europe
as far as the gates of Vienna. Kubla1
Khan tried to make the most he could
out of his grandfather's estato, and one
of the biggest things he did was to
systematize the Chinese canals and
connect the north and south by an in
land waterway extending 500 miles
from Hangchow to Peking. The open
ing of that grand canal made Soochow
place of Importance.
About two years ago the railroad
came to Soochow and connected 1t,
through Shanghai, with all the outside
world. No doubt the history of 500
chow is full of good stories, but just
now the most important thing so far as
we are concerned is that 1t is the most
accessible of all really, truly, Chinese
cities. only two hours by train de luxe
from Europeanized Shanghai the traV-
eler will find Soochow to be in the very
heart of China, entirely unchanged and
all but untouched by the men and man
ners of the western world.
Graspng tightly in your right hand
a bit of paper which you suspect is
laundry ticket, but which you have
been assured is the Chinese name and
indication of the whereabouts of the
University of SoochoW, you alight from
the luxurious train to find yourself in
a railway station which would be a
credit to even an American town. II
it were not for the swarms of chatter
ing Chinese about you it would be diff
ficuIt to fancy yourself on the very
edge of two thousand years ago. Then
you walk out of the station, you try
to pronounce the Chinese name of the
university where you are going to stop
with kind missionary friends, you ig-
ANONYMOUSLY fail, and you have recourse
to your laundry ticket. You take your
seat in a sedan chair which looks like
a cracker box with a blue cotton
canopy over it, and then four big,
husky coolies pick up you and the
chair, place the poles on their shoul-
ders and start off.
Over a high arched bridge built with
a view to the accommodation of the
canal traffic under it rather than of
the land travel across it, down dusty
bypath along the side of a high gray
wall. and, all of a sudden, you dart
through a narrow gate in the wall and
find yourself inside the ancient and
honorable city of Soochow Wonders
multiply upon wonders as you are
rushed through the narrow little
streets, through market places, through
open fields, over bridges, by temple
gates, until, after long hour, you are
set down within the walls of the uni
versity where the buildings and the
campus lawn and the atmosphere re-
mind you of nothing SO much as De
Pauw university at Greencastle, IND.
Letters of introduction to the mis-
sionaries at this university settlement,
which is under the control of the Meth
odist Episcopal church, south, or to
some of the members of the Presbyter-
ian or Episcopal colony in Soochow, are
necessary to an enjoyment of the city
lot lIeI6 Is llO liOlCi anu az NpN'hA9S
agency of any kind. Lucky the tray
eler who knows a missionary.
There are so many things to see in
Soochow that you hardly know where
to begin. Perhaps you decide to see 1t
all at once from the dizzy heights OF
the tallest pagoda in China. The city
is spread out below you, its high wall
marking it's confines with sharp dis
tinction. The wall is about twelve
miles long and the city would be
square if it We're not for the right angle
cut out of the northwest corner. There
is no northwest corner to Chinese cit
les, at least in this part of China, be-
cause it Is a well known fact that
devils dwell in that quarter of city.
If there is no northwest section there
will be no deVils-simple. isn't it? But
somehow or other the devils got into
Soochow anyhow, for in front of the
door of every house is high brick wall
built in screen fashion, few feet re-
moved from the house and so wide that
one cannot see into the door from the
outside. Everybody knows that devils
can travel only in straight lines and
that people see in straight lines. There
fore, If the screen is so situated that
one cannot see in the door, then the
devils cannot go in because they can't
turn a corner or describe a curve. Per-
fectly simple, now, Isn't 1t?
You go shopping with your mission
ary friend. He speaks Chinese like
native and he knows many of the mer-
chants. The furniture shops are en-
trancing, the silk and linen stores en-
thrall even the masculine interest, the
candy shops and the cooking shops are
tempting both to smell and taste, the
fan stores are bewildering with their
wonderful variety, but the most inter-
esting of all is the pearl shop. The
Chinese esteem pearls above all other
don't have to marry beasts just to be
supported. even if ii does worry S. j