The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1911-11-02
HOLD GRAVES SACRED
CHINESE ARE EXTRAORDINARILY
CAREFUL OF THEIR DEAD.
RereVenee Carried to an Extreme
In the yellow country--case In
Point Shows How Obstinate
They Can Be.

Better strike Chlnaman than step
upon his ancestors grave. They are
finding that out to the great detriment
q industry and agriculture all over
Cathay-for the Chinaman will simply
not allow a railroad or plow to pass
through what he suspects is the dust
OF one of his honorable forbears and
there is no condemnation law in China
10 force him to sell the graves
The instance of the Russian rail.
road from Hardin to Port Arthur
which made 26-mile detour to avoid
The ancient Manchu tombs at Muk
len. has been often cited to show the
expense and trouble that may arise
rom this cause This was many
years ago and there seems to be a
popular idea, even among old foreign
residents of China that the going for
he right of way" men and the build
ers of railways is much easier now
than then. AS a matter of fact, since
reople are dying right along and the
number of graves increasing as a CON
sequence, 1t is very doubtful II conGi-
'biiH dlt lOA utNOlllluk NOIhe rather
han better The Chinese have ac.
"epted the railway as convenience
n transportation. not as a destroyer
Of their beloved graves. They have
shown the greatest readiness to
ratronize It once II is built. but they
never have ceased, and never will
cease, putting obstacles in the way of
g line that disturbs so much as
single isolated ancestral resting place
Many of the foreign educational in.
stitutions of China have been years
acquiring the land for their grounds
principally on account of graves-and
he blue print maps of some of their
holdings reminds one of the drawing
of the original "gerrymander" con
oressional district in Massachusetts
The Canton Christian college. in South
China. has a striking monument 70
he obduracy of solitary grave-hold
or in the form Of an upright cylinder
% yellow clay in the middle of its
basketball field. Not the desecrating
'ouch Of the feet of the hated "for-
e'gn devils" not the turmoil of the
mad games that surge around Il. not
even the fact that its elevated crest
IS occasionally utilized by an ir.
reverent student as a coign of van.
'"ge from which to toss a goal. has
ed the old woman that owns II to ac.
cent the generous offer made her by
he college authorities for her little
six feet of soil" Her husband used
20 sleep with all the babies crying,
she says philosophically, and II Is
Hardly likely that a little noise will
trouble him now lie will let her know
through the priests when he is dis
'urbed and until then she knows that
he Will rest better where he is or
course, the obvious thing for the col
'ege authorities to do would be to pay
% visit to the geomancers and arrange
that the old lady should be instructed
that the "fengshu" decreed that her
late husband would rest quleter in
some other place; but as "subtlety"
of this class is hardly in the line of
Christian institution, It is not unlike.
~ that the strange looking cylinder
OF yellow clay may star the campus
basketball field until the game old
lady is herself numbered with her an.
cestors.