Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1919-02-05
QUEER TRIBES OF
MANY RACES ARE
FOUND in CHINA

thousand miles from Broadway, in the
wilds of Western China where the
foot of a white man never before had
trod, according to the Rev DIR. Joseph
Beech, a Methodist missionary, lives
polyglot nation of more than 100000
persons "95 per cent of whom do know
that there has been a war"
DIR. Beech, who is president of the
Western China Union University at
Chengtu in the province of Szechuan,
maintained by five evangelical denomi-
nations of England, Canada and the
United States, and who recently ar
rived here to participate in the Meth,
odist Centenary, today told of a jour-
ney he took alone with a native guide,
last summer far into the depths of the
habitat of 1.-The 'tu-ren, or children of
the soil, the strangest people in the
Orient"
The doctor passed three weeks
among the twenty or more tribes in
the land, which is as inaccessible as
Thibet, he said, and while there found
almost every type of mankind, includ-
ing pygmies, men and women resembl-
ing negroes, American Indians, East
Indians, Gurkhas, South Sea Island
ers, Europeans and other races appar-
emily from all four quarters of the
globe These people, of course, he
said, have never been anywhere else
than in the country he found them,
namely, in a region about the size of
New York state bounded on the North
by the province of Kansu, the South
by Burmah, Yunan and Keechow, the
East by the Szechauan and the West
by Thibet.
II found land of beautiful valleys,
covered with fine farms and home
steads," said the explorer missionary,
while towering above them were
mountains from 5000 to $4,000 feet
high. The fronties of the country was
protected by queer looking stone forti-
fed buildings, manned by natives
armed with weapons resembling the
old-fashioned blunderbuss. 1t is not
impossible that these people were the
originators of gunpowder, for the
Chinese who for years have tried to
rule them admit it is of better quality
than the powder they make themselves
Although suspicious and warlike,
and hostile to some kinds of Chinese,
the 'tu-ren' proved to be the most
hospitable and fed and sheltered us.
Huge smokestacks in their communi-
ties gave them the appearance of thriv-
ing industrial cities When we arrived
we found they were employed solely
for the purpose of drying and curing
vegetables, meat and fish, which were
suspended tier upon tier the entire
uCI6AI Va IuS
''The architecture of the country
was distinctly foreign to China, re-
sembling in many respects the feudal
castles of Normandy In other re-
spects it was not unlike the structures
of Babylonia and Palestine. Grain, for
instance, after being harvested. was
threshed upon the roofs of the houses.
just as in the Holy Land. The houses
themselves are nothing more than
boxes with perhaps one window from
which the odors and smoke of cooking
escape.
On top of practically all the fbrti-
ned castles flag was flown. 1t was
told these were prayer flags and had
no special tribal or patriotic signif-
canoe. Every man in the country, ap-
parently is "a law unto himself. Each
tribe has its ehieftain, but there is no
national head and China exercises on
ly nominal sovereignty.
%NH@I AClo are settled nOTEEDacK
by means of blunderbusses, spears.
bags of stones and broadswords. The
enemies challenge one another and at
given signal ride FULL tilt on small
wiry ponies, at each other. 1t is sell
dom that both combatants escape alive
but the survivor is required to feed
and clothe the family of his dead ad-
versary as long as they live and this
'duels' rare. In many respects these
combats resemble the tournaments of
the middle ages.
Dr.Be ech said that while he believ-
ed he had penetrated further into this
section of Western China than any
er white man. he reg retted athhteoh
other white man, he regretted that ne
had not gone still further For my
guide he said, said That four or FIVE
days journey beyond there were
Awsk1rv,anxn -ooor tx,hn - -, s,sc@