Catoctin clarion., 1917-08-16
THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 1917.
News From The Orient.

Somewhere on the Yangtsze, emma.
Dear R.
Up the Yangtsze to Yochow she
goes; whittier from Yochow, nobody
knows. Suddenly there came rapping,
a gentle tapping at my door; the hour
was just thirty after four. The shep-
herds warning made crimson the east;
to finish packing was work for beast.
But do it she did, the carriage had come,
and off to Sia Kuan they all did run
cook boy, Miss W. and myself. Reached
the bund at $50 to find that the 80 boat
would leave about 8 a. m. After the
pleasant formaltes of proving ourselves
Allies we boarded the vessel and was
fortunate in securing a state room to
myself. | soon discovered that young
married woman and myself are the only
women on board. The large list OF
foreigners on board is as follows: officers,
one married couple, one young man, and
your humble relative. At the table the
captain sits at the head, the young couple
on one side, chief engineer at the foot
and the gentleman and myself on the
other side. The young man and the cou-
pie have been in China just few days
and as an ancient missionary | have great
fun talking to them, for even my hum
blest statements, ahem! are supposed to
be seasoned with age and judgment. We
really are having great time together
swapping the latest American and Chi
nese news. feel less antiquated after
talking with these newly arrived ones.
Now l can look back and see dear Nam
king. How it grieves me to leave. Both
shores of the river are visible. There are
some beautiful, low rolling hills at the
foot of which stretch the rice fields and
the masses of thatched huts.
Our captain is quite pessimist. He
is telling the new people dire tales about
the posts to which they are going, and
to impress me with the desolation of my
destination, but as our boys would say
las yet he hasn't got mygoat.'
Our gentleman has just left US, having
arrived at his post. We are now trio.
Some class indeed, the whole boat to our
selves, excepting of course, the poor
packed in Chinese. The sun has just
gone down and I'm not sorry. At one
time today the thermometer registered
92 degrees and another time SO degrees
in the shade. The breeze that is blow
ing is not a cool one.
June %. What frolic we are having
We read, write, and talk with the officers
who are not much buster than we are.
This morning we passed Anking, where
there are many foreigners. The boat
doesn't stop at all. They cut off the en-
gines, Chinese boat comes out, drifts
along beside and passengers and cargoes
are thus transferred. Just outside An
king we passed beautiful white pagoda,
which was quite feat of architecture.
All along the banks of the river grows
the tall reed. There are many small
villages and farms where we see men
and women ploughing with their water
buffaloes. One interesting thing is that
the boat sticks so close to the shore.
The water there is almost as deep as in
the middle, but the boats stay near the
shore so as to avoid the swift current in
the middle. For many miles out from
Marking the river was very straight but
now it is a series of graceful turns and
is much wider.
wish you could have seen the Little
Orphan Island. On one side the river
are high peaks, the other side is fiat,
marshy ground, and right in the middle
is this huge peak. AS the boat ap.
proaches it seems to be only barren,
rocky structure, but on the southern side
it is bower of lovely green trees, in the
heart of which is an immense red and
white temple. So often we see temples
built up against the rocks on preciptous
peaks. How they ever got the material
there is marvel to me, but you can
imagine how picturesque it is. Very
noticeable, too, are the many shrines all
along the shore. As some one remark
ed, "there seems to be one for every
other farm house." Several miles be-
yond Little Orphan Island, in Poyang
Lake, which empties into the river, is
Big Orphan Island. Years ago, so the
story runs, Big and Little Orphan quar-
relied so the Big Orphan went off to
Poyang Lake. Then the Chinese placed
a great chain around the Little Orphan
to keep her from running off, but no one
sees the chain.
June 29.-Last night we had dinner
served on deck where it was cooler and
where we could watch the lovely sunset.
About ten o'clock we reached Kinkiang,
the city at the foot of the Kuling mount
aims. Here left the ship and took my
baggage to the Kuling house to be called
for on my return from Yochow. 1t was
SO hot and so many mosquitoes were
about that we were in misery until the
ship left, and when it did we were indig-
nant because they pulled away and left
a lot of Chinese there who hadn't gotten