The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-07-25
the modern decadence !.


Other shrines and pagodas are re-
splendent In Jewel work OF stained
glass. others opuient in their covering
OF beat gold. All have figures of the
Buddha, and many have dozens of
them of all sizes and materials. Here
is a shrine covered with gold protect
ing q figure Of Buddha cut from ala
baster. 1t 10 neglected and no pill
grim kneeis before It. Adjoining 1t 10
q crude structure OF brick enshrining
o rude wooden Buddha- Before II
scores Of candles blaze, the Buddha Is
weighted down with fresh gariands Of
sweet smelling flowers and the pave
ment In front 10 covered with kneeling.
silk-clad men and women.
strikingiy ugly amid these surround
ings Of fairy-like Oriental beauty are
the new pagodas builded by men who
sought to follow after British ways as
well as to acquire merit in their effort
to escape the chaips cf Karma,, Some
Of them are like the Queen AIMEE cot
tages of q boom town suburb. from
their dirty brown paint to their cor
rugated iron roofs. Some have copied
the Greek styles as modified by several
centuries of English usage and the
peculiar notions OF a Chinese carpen-
ter. And one is built after the pleas
Ing architectural order of q cotton
mill tower. ornamented with q Con-
necticut clock on each side OF which q
carved wood English nag perennially
waves.
But fallen as may be their arts, the
Burmese people and their Chinese CO.
religionists lack nothing Of pictur-
sequences. The square about the great
pagoda swarms with worshippers, with
yellow-robed monks, with shorn nuns.
with astrologers and fortune teIlers
and with musicians and montebanks.
Rangoon owes q large share OF its
western fame to the fact that It Is
ION the Road to Mandalay" and Is
therefore sung OF Kipling. Here about
the Shwe Dagon is found every pic
ture that the retired Tommy Atkins
a-calfin".' The Burma girl 10 still here
with her yellow silk petticoat and her
little green cap, just as when:
IT seed her FIRST a-smokin' Of q whack-
In white cheroot.
An a wastin' Christian kisses on an
'eathen IDOLS foot.
The "whackin white cheroot'' is a dis
tinctive Burmese institution. 1t Is q
foot long, an inch in diameter and IL
cylindrical like q cigarette, not shaped
as cigar. It IL wonderfully made
OF a wrapper OF corn shuck. and q fill
ing compounded Of tobacco OF various
kinds, chopped sandal-wood, raw su-
gar and many incense bearing spices.
It Is lighted with some difficulty, but
after q few puffs Il is permitted to go
out. But the ''snipe" IL carefully pre-
served and one cheroot will last fru-
gal mother and daughter for a day or
two.
The pagoda square is the loaflng
place OF the Burmese. Here the girls
keep shop and the lads stop to chat
with them. Here the old ana young
come TO play at games or listen to mu-
sic, to take refreshment or to have
their fortunes told. In Rangoon not
more than a fourth OF the people are
Burmese and the streets are filled with
indian coolies and Chinese artisans
Here at the great pagoda the Burmese
are vastly IN the majority. and only a
few Chinese Buddhists ana an occa-
sional European intrude.
Here there IL no hint Of the hustle
Of the busy city over which the great
pagoda stands guard. Life Is sweet
and the people take II easy. They
are devoted to q religion which teaches
that desire for greater possessions and
higher station In life n q sinful waste
Of mental energy which surely will
be punished in succeeding lives. There
Is no worry, not even the metaphysics
OF the learned pr1oStnoOu Is given
passing thought. There IL no hurry
for suff1cient unto the day Is the evil
thereof, and no good come of hasting
another day. There is no dissension
for the happy Burmese goes his own
way and permits his neighbor to dc
likewise. There Is no politics. for the
Burmese of all the people In the In
dian Empire do not care hang who
rules over them, or how, so long as
there Is no forced labor to be done
Kipling caught the spirit of the people
when he made the City of Rangoon
sing to the Empire:
Hail Mother! Do they call me rich
in trade?
Little care I, but hear the shorn
priest drone,
And watch my silk-clad lovers. man by
maid,
Laugh meath my shwe Dagon."
The everlasting and unheeding East
looks on the young and thriving city
of sixty years unmoved, and turns t.
dream in the shadow of that pile un-
der which 1t has dreamed since Ions
before Light broke into the wilds OF
barbaric Britain