Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1917-07-25

Travelling through these surround
ings brings us to Chinkiang another
very large city on the Yangtze and an
hours ride from there and at two
fifteen We are il Nankin.
The meaning of the word Nankin
is south capitol and Pekin north cap
itol, these two cities have always
striven for the seat of government
and it has been around these places
that war and instructions have TAX
en- place.
On arrival we were met by three
one horse rigs that were owned by
the small hosiery we stopped at. Up
on arrival at this hotel we were CIV
en- such accommodations as they
could provide and fairly comfortable.
1t was kept by a lady from Austria
liza, her husband having been stab
bed and killed by one of the servants.
Securing a guide who spoke English
we ride through this one of the most
historic places in Asia.
The city has population at pres
ent of aout $4,000. Many times it
has had surging population but
wars have destroyed and driven out,
leaving it at this number.
It's wall is the largest / have ever
seen and / doubt if any other city in
the world has one of such dimen-
sions. 1t is twenty-five miles long.
l measured it on top and found it 40
feet wide and it was fully sixty at
the bottom and eighty feet high. In
many places the bottom OF the wall is
cut stone but the most of the wall is
of burned brick, fourteen inches
long, six inches wide and four thick.
This is the usual size of brick in
their walls and other undertakings
built of brick These brick are lain
il a very hard mortar and this wall
will stand until the end Of time I'M
less blasted down. The clay from
which it was made was taken from
the moat which surrounds the city
on three sides, the river being On the
other. The moat is three hundred
feet wide and twelve deep and on it
much of the traffic is carried by wat
er.
Our first ride is to the tombs of
the kings erected by the first Ming
kings; these tombs are seven miles
from the city.
AS we ride through the city
towards it's gate we pass hundreds of
those heavy wheelborrows loaded
with brick from the Monaghan city
which they were tearing down and
using the brick in other places.
These men staggering under their
load presented one of the most pitt
able sights the writer has ever seen
in human exista1ce. Again / could
not help but bemoan the fate of these
poor sons of Han.
We pass the wall dividing the
Monaghan city from the Chinese,
thence through the ruins of the Mon
golian city out through the great
wall and over the moat and are in
the Land of graves as far as the eye
can reach. Looking back at our
wall we notice many irregular cor
ners and asking our guide for an ex-
PLANTATION he told us that to turn the
devil from his course the geomancers
had made these many turns. Oh
mortal man you poor superstitious
creature.
Passing through these mound
graves we soon come in sight of the
|avenue Of stone animals These carv-
ings are Of elephants, lions, camels
horses and finally after all animals
men in armour. These carvings in
stone were in pairs facing each other
and the writer's picture was taken
standing holding on to the trunk of
an elephant and it was considerable
over twice his height. In my eyes
measurement it was fourteen feet
high and eight in width and one piece
of stone. Others correspo1ded with
this size the avenue running be-
tween about twenty feet wide and
through this was carried all that re-
NAMED at death of the fool that en-
shaved his people to carry on this
work. should think this avenue was
about a mile long and the animals
about forty feet apart.
Following this avenue for about
a mile we first come to temple con-
tanning an immense bronze turtle
The turtle being the longest lived OF
any living thing. This is the creature
used by the Chinese to represent long
life. Our route leads to another OF
these immense bronze turtles.
At this point we were followed by
so many beggars that it was almost
impossible to proceed and noticing
one of those begging, girl perhaps