The Ocala evening star., 1922-11-21
The Carts of Pexinq.


Society, Washington, D. c.
Peking, China's~capital, which after
many months of a leisurely civil war
seems the definite goal Of the south
ern Chinese rebels, is a Tatar rather
than a Chinese city. To this fact is
traceable its marked difference in ap-
pearance when compared to other
cities in China.
AS one passes within the walls of
Peking he expects to find, as in other
Chinese cities, the hammered signs of
shOpkeepers throwing gay canOpies
across narrow, tOrtuOus, huddled
streets; but behold; broad avenues
three miles long. crossed. by other
broad avenues three miles long, max
ing squares as regular as those of a
checkerboard.
The visitor wonders whether the
builders of this city saw in prophetic
vision the streets of Chicago, Denver
and Philadelphia. Then he begins to
realize that Peking is the one spacious
Chinese city because it was built by
the adventurous barbarians of the
north, men who lived in the saddle,
upon steppes and plains, whose feet
were set in large room.
Wonder does not stop with the
length breadth and regularity of the
streets. The traffic upon them is equal
ly unexpected. In the cities of south
ern China, sedan chairs edge their
way with difficulty through the crowds
of pedestrians and carrying coolies,
! who jOStle each other in the narrow
lanes. In Peking every street is alive
with beasts and vehicles.
Down the smooth, tree-lined, ma
cadam center roads autos, cabs, rick
shaws and bicycles speed past slow
moving catafalqueS and crimson we'd
ding professions. On each side, be-
tween sidewalk and trees. along a
highway Of turf, go mule-mounted
equestrians, soldiers on sturdy Man
churian ponies, triplets of donkeys
! hauling lumber, brick, coal and crock
! cry, portly old gentlemen straddling
| diminutive asses, blue-canOpied, Peking
! carts. and caravans of camelS out of
/ the north.
OuCCT SdEl6 anu AIItiidlSs
Almost us fascinating as the camels
! are the carts. of Peking, or rather the
! little beasts which pull them-ponies,
| donkeyS, mules ami nOndeScript, elu-
sive creatures that are neither horse,
mule, nor ass, but subtle, indistin-
gui shable mixtures. On first sight one
is sure they are horses on the second
he is sure they are mules, ON the third
he is equally sure they are Zebras
with the stripes worn off. One his
torian of China speaks of the ancient
Tatars as possessing horses, asses,
| mules, and ''other peculiar breeds of
the equine family" These ancient
other breeds still trot about the Tatar
city.
If streets and traffic, carts and
camels are unexpected, no less so are
the buildings. The traveller who has
seen pictures of the majestic temples
and palaces of Peking enters the i'm
posing South Gate prepared for archi-
tectural raptures. But he finds the
broad, straight highways of the city
lined with insignificant one-story
| SHOpS VI Will equally luslSuIIItdhI
gray, windowless, one-story house
walls. or long, unloIely, stretches OF
dull-red plastered fence walls.
AS soon, however. as the traveller en-
ters a gateway, through one of the
gray or dingy brickred walls, he
comes suddenly and unexpectedly up
on a palace. silent in the sun, YET
shouting aloud in the barbaric bril-
lance of its COlOr-crimS0n columns
friezes of flashing gold on green, wide
tiaring roofs of reSplendent yellow
all above a triple-terraced platform OF
marble, white like snow. Or it ma!
be a many-cOurted temple. where {
hundred llamas drone chants before al
inScrutable Buddha: or wooded
park. where emperors once took theil
pleasure, where century-Old cedar:
shade. pathways and pleasant lakes
Shrines nestle in mulberry groves anC
hiIlocks are crowned by Buddhist topes
from whose marble bases one look:
out over the roofs of the city-mile:
and miles. it seems. of gray roofs
and in the center Of all great splotcl
, of imperial yellow. the once forbid
den city" where dwelt the emperor
his sons and his daughters. his wive
| and his cOncubinRs