Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1917-07-11
The City Where the Linens and
Silks So Much Priced by Our
Women Are Manufactured.
MANY OF THE PEOPLE
LIVE ON FLOATING HOMES
Rats, Lizards, Cats and Dogs and All
Animal Life Offered on the
Market for Human
Consumption.
CONTINUED from first page)

its 500 Buddhas was one of Marco
Polo, revering him as god, which
the Chinese have, since his coming
there, the first white man to have
visited the sons of Han in their then
unknown home. He was a Venetian
traveller and went through China
about 500 years ago, being shown
by the Chinese more than any white
traveller ever was before the boxer
revolution and in their many Buddhist
temples his statue resembling the
cuts we see of him in his memmoirs
are found. While his own people in
Venice disbelieved his stories and
put him in Jail one only has to visit
the Buddhist temples in China to
be convinced he saw what he repre-
scented.
We go to the great temple of the
Chin family costing over $1,000
10000, built forty-eight years since
and twenty-eight years in building.
Here one sees the reverence paid to
ancestors as this great family of
hundreds of thousands living in Foo
Chow annually visit this temple to
worship their ancestors. Tablets to
each one of their elders are seen in
the great temple.
We visit their highest Buddhist
temple, our guide says it is $40 feet
high, we think he exaggerated the
height, but it is very high, nine
stories, has Lightweight Buddhas. In
the entry at either side are the most
horrid images of demons or devils
possible to imagine.
ALI these immense old pagodas in
China are going to decay. They are
built of brick and covered with ce-
ment outside and on top the birds
have dropped the seed of trees and
the accumulation on the top they
have taken root and forced their
roots dow1 into the brick and quite
large trees are seen growing with
leaves showing vigorous health.
Wherever we went through China
these old pagodas tower skyward
from locations on high ground, you
are never out of sight of some OF
them but most of them are deserted
as all religious thought in China nas
resolved its self into the worship i
We go to the top of the wall of
the city and as one looks down into
its narrow streets, with sinking
ponds and filth on every side, he
wonders how humanity can become
and have the constitu-
ton that will allow him to exist un-
der such surroundings.
There are no animals allowed in
the streets of the city and one sees
~ l>;,,ds of onpyovopnoc haulad nv
men, their shoulders calloused from
The web wearing into the flesh, but as
though dumb, they plod on, putting
in every nerve in the terrible effort
TO move loads that a horse would
Dalk on.
AS we travel back through their
markets we see offered there for hui
man consumption dressed rats, liz
ards, cats, dogs, and all animal life,
by Europeans discarded as unfit, but
% them called delicacies. In the
fish market there were vast qua1ti-
lies of snails and all kinds OF wig
Cling life. Anything that will sus-
ain life is eaten.
As we pass through its narrow
streets our coolies, 45 Of them,
III LII ~ NSAe ~~~
never to be erased.
Like every successful, and where
perfection is found, these men OF
Canton have travelled that sure road,
one generation after another follow
ng the same trade and as near per-
lection has been reached in the line or
each as human skill can accomplish.
If you talk with wood carver he
will tell you that for hundreds OF
years his family has followed that
until those black chairs
and other furnishings have a carving
not found elsewhere. This applies to
the ivory carving, silks and many
other industries.
1t would have been my greatest
pleasure to have been able to have
spent a month here, but with so ex-
tensive a trip ahead we are Obliged
to move on so on the afternoon or the
2Sth of March, as we are to go 10
Macao from here, Portuguese colony,
we must have our passport vlsed 10
enter there by the consul at Canton.
He kindly wrote his name on the
back of our passport charging eacn
one $3.50 or 5000 for about hve
minutes writing and we were ready
to take boat at 1880 to arrive there
in the night, but sleep in our state
rooms until morning. -, Z.
AS we steam up the river among
the living throng Of odd humanity
we notice the remains OF destruction
of the Typhoon of 1915 which made
hundreds Of thousands homeless ana
100000 are said to have persisted.
These Typhoons are prevalent from
Japan to the equator and the des-
truction IN their wake is perhaps
greater than any of the destructive
agencies on the planet.
This conglomeration or dinerent
form of river crafts is sight not
soon forgotten. Here you see per-
haps a dozen stepping in the buck
cts of a water wheel and walking up
the wheel as It turns, furnishing the
mower to operate a large junk, again
YOU see men rowing with their FEEL
and hands at the same time, then you
see little children not over hve years
old sculling sampan while the mo
Their ia doing other duty on the boat
More of the sculling OF these sam,
mans Il done by women than men ana
their hardened faces present Q PAL
full appearance.
Towsrds evening yos could see the