Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1910-02-04
Dr.. Gel Tells Of His Travels
Along the Great Wall and Its
Little Known Neighborhood
REASON WHY THEY ARE DWARFS
Legend Has It that They Were Stunt.
ed Through Fear of Being Buried
Modern Awakening in China.


er and writer, recently reached New
York from 9 quest in China that in.
yolved travelling the whole length OF
the Great Wall and the discovery OF
200 miles of that barrier that never
had been mapped before. He says
that he has confirmed the story that
in the remote northern mountains of
China there lives a race of hairy
pygmies which has been there since
210 B. c.
Dr.. Cell started out in 1901 to study
the primitive races of the world
wherever he could find them. lie
crossed China and Africa in the course
of his search and ventured further
into the pygmy forest of Africa than
Stanley had gone He was gone for
four years and trayersed l20, 000 miles.
This recent expedition of about
twenty-five men, headed by DR.. Cell,
started in May of 1893 from Shan Hia
Yuan, where the Great Wallis eastern
extremity is washed by the Yellow
Sea. Its purpose was to reach Tibet
by sticking to the wall for all of It's
1870 miles. Crawling along with pack
OF the wall, at Khan Ku Wan, north of
the Nan Shan Mountains. in Septem-
Der, 1908. DR.. Cell does not know
that anybody ever did the trick be-
fore: it is certain, he thinks, that no
white man ever did. The whole trip
was about 1,S00 miles. 1t took the
the explorers into Tibet, where Dr.
Cell fell Ill and had to be carried along
by his men for several days.
The explorer said that he made
sure of the existence OF the pygmy
people by getting Chinese pundits to
translate for him inscriptions in half
a dozen dialects on the sides of the
Great Wall These learned men tod
hiN that it was part of their folklore
that whenever one of the millions of
man who worked on the construction
OF the wall was found to have erred at
his task he was Immediately buried
alive in the wall at the point whore
he had made his mistake. 1t was
about 2lo b. G.. according to the L.
2,nd that body of workmen tired
Of seeing their comrades and friends
TRANSMITTED into building material,
dcd with their mives and children into
the interior and kept on until they
cay-e to the deep forest where their
descendants now live. Some of them,
uadition said, had become demented
because of their frightful experiences.
Tho interesting folklore that I
studied through interpreters" Dr..
Cell said, gave me a line on these
Wild men. We located them far in
fhe interior. I have a man among
tlem now, and am interested to know
ho~ he is faring.
The Great Wall experience of the
Chinese who ran away stunted the
growth of their progeny. according
to the folklore experts. and that is
why they have kept to themselves as
q race of dwarfs."
The explorer contributed the furth-
er information that the pygmies ''liye
like animals, and their long nails Gnd
terrible faces give them the appear
aDCe of being of a lower type animal
family than the monkeys OF Africa"
DR.. Cell said he found evidence of
the existence of at least ten great
walls in addition to the famous one
that he followed. He reasons that
the energy that went into the con-
struction of all this masonry is the
measure of China's true strength. He
believes that the empire presently |
will be in a position to reassert itself. |
He found that in 2,0G0 cities and near
ly 100000 towns the Chinese were be- !
ing instructed in the use of arms. and |
heard that an army of from 100000 |
to 4,000000 men could be put inc the |
field before long. DR.. Cell is one of |
those who believe that China is doing |
a good deal more than merely turning |
over for another nap.
The members of DR.. Cells party |
had no serious trouble with the ma
tives, although they met many TO |
whom a white man was novelty The
hard going in one place the trail led |
to an altitude of 1900 feet-seems to |
have been more hazardous than en-
counters with the men of Tibet. There |
was difficulty also in understanding /
the maze of dialects.
Dr. Cell crossed China six years
ago, and he says that in many other
ways than the upbuilding of a stand t
ing army there has been wonder
ful advance
The traveller remarked that he had
been in the African country where
Roosevelt is to hunt and that he could
not see any great danger ahead of the
former President in so high an alti
tude unless he should fail to protect
himself against the tsetse fly, which
the sleeping sickness is said to prefer
as a common carrier,