Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1917-07-25
THE MEN ARE HITCHED
TO CRUDE PLOWS
The Man is the Beast of Burden and
His Appearance Bespeaks of
His Hard Life.

place. Here we found ourselves sur
rounded by men and women almost
perfectly naked, women carrying
naked children. Women naked to the
waist carrying these naked children
with hands out pulling at you and
with imploring faces that bespoke
their hunger and poverty. Here we
saw crawling on all tours a creature
human with a bundle on its back;
this bundle was a human being with
hands eaten by leprosy, the stencil of
the surroundings such that one must
feel to hold his nose. Our ricksha
man could not move ahead and there
we sat while they pulled at us and
had we given them anything we no
doubt would have been pulled from
our seat. There are $4,000 beggars
in Shanghai. AS / sat there think
| ing how / was to escape from these
surroundings that feeling of pity
came over me such as before / had
never experienced.
Oh you poor sons of Han, what can
be done to relieve this awful condi-
ton. Is there not some great mind
that will arise and find a way to lift
these people, the most Industrious on
the globe, to that situation where
they will at least have labor to earn
sufficient tn SuStain fhenn
After extricating ourselves from
this theater of poverty we again rode
in the outer city taking in the bank
ers Buddhist temple. an edifice which
in an ordinary one could pass a day
in new discoveries. We understood
it was the gift of the bankers of
Shanghai the reason for the name.
The throlg of men harnessed to
heavy loads, with CALLED shoulders
from the rough ropes from which
they hauled their loads, the poverty
of dress, their quilted clothing so
worn that the cotton with which it
was padded made them look like a
dirty roll of cotton; the general pow
erty had fully satisfied the writer
that here he was not to find that land
of flowers and beauty he had so Of
ten read of, but rather that place of
awful poverty.
We had rooms engaged for our
party at Nankin some months before
and now when we are ready to go
get word that no Accommodations
could be provided. Five of our COM
pany decided to risk going even
though we were obliged to sleep on
the walls of this city of history.
1t is 1913 miles from Shanghai to
Nankin. 1t is not often that in trav-
cling in these countries that one gets
a first class car except that he has a
special which we had at all times, ex-
cept on this trip, but fortunately
there was car with a white stripe
along the side first class, second be-
ing blue and third red. AS we rode
out of the city we are soon travelling
among countless graves like stacks
of hay on all sides with many collins
not yet given the lucky day by the
astrologers. Surrounding many of
the graves we see circle of earth in
horse shoe form placed there to bring
good luck.
We are now travelling through
great China, twice as large as our
country, having an area of about 81
100000 square miles and about
400, 100000 people.
Our route does not follow close to
the Yangtze, but back, touching the
important city of Soochow, walled
city of over 100000 people having
a most interesting ancient history.
This city is situated at point on
large lake and back from the Yang
TIE nearly fifty miles. Here is the
most thickly populated part of China,
humanity on every side cultivating
with crude tools the fine silt soil.
You see them making fertilizer as you
pass each canal Canals are the only
means of transport in most of Chi1a)
beside these canals you see large
holes filled with mud from the canal
and the rubbish that can be gather
ed into which they put quick lime
and other digesters Of the mass that
they may fertilize their so long cul-
tivated lands.
Great earthen jars Of water in
some places covering acres, the coun-
try is subject to drouth and these
are kept filled to be used in time of
lack of moisture.
There are no wagon roads in China,
only wheel barrow tracks about two
feet wide and along these we see
them wheeling their products to the
canals to be there transported to the
river and thence to foreign ports.
Here you see men hitched to a
crude pillow hauling it and others