Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1922-05-26

6OCietJ, WdsHihStOH, -. III
Picking. China's capital, which after
many months Of leisurely civil war
seems the definite goal Of the south
ern Chinese rebels. is Tatar rather
than 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
Picking 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
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 Picking 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 a 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 Picking every street is alive
with beasts and vehicles.
Down the smooth, tree-lined, ma
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.
churlan ponies, triplets Of donkeys
hauling lumber, brick, coal and crock
cry, portly old gentlemen straddling
diminutive asses, blue-canopied Picking
carts, and caravans Of camels OUT Of
the north.
Queer Carts and Animals
Almost as fascinating as the camels
are the carts Of Peking, or rather the
little beasts which pull them-ponies,
donkeys, mules and nondescript, elu-
sive creatures that are neither horse,
mule, nor ass, but subtle, indistin-
guishable 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.
II 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 Picking enters the Inn
posing South Gate prepared for archi-
.ectural raptures. But he finds the
broad, straight highways of the city
lined with Insignificant one-story
shops or with equally Insignificant
! gray, windowless, one-story house
walls, or long, unlovely, stretches Of
duIl-red plastered fence walls.
AS soon, however, as the traveller en-
tiers gateway, through one OF the
! gray or dingy brick-red walls, he
comes suddenly and Unexpectedly up
on palace, silent in the sun. yet
shouting aloud In the barbaric bril-
lance of Its color-crimson columns,
friezes Of flashing gold on green, wide
fiaring roofs Of resplendent yellow,
all above triple-terraced platform OF
i marble, white like snow. Or 1t may
be a many-courted temple, where a
hundred llamas drone chants before an
inscrutable Buddha; or q wooded
/ park, where emperors once took theil
pleasure, where century, old cedari
shade pathways and pleasant lakes
Shrines, nestle in mulberry groves and
hlliocks are crowned by Buddhist TOPICS
from whose marble bases one looks
out over the roofs Of the city-miles
and miles, It seems, of gray roofs
and in the center Of all great spIotcf
| Of Imperial yellow. the once forbid
don city" where dwelt the emperor
/ hia anns and his daughtsrs his wivel
] and his concubines