Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-02-13

Even the ignorant Monaghan native
may be forced to think seriously on
the subject of conservation before
many years because some of the ami
mails whose pelts bring to him British
cotton and Chinese brick tea are be-
coming scarce. Mongolia's taxing
system is partly responsible. The pro-
wider of a Monaghan family is re-
CURED to pay to his government three
sable skins and one hundred and
twenty squirrel skins per thousand
head of cattle. This premium on sable
has made it scarce Furs are cur
rency in Mongolia much as they were
among the early French and English
traders in America. Thus a snow
leopard may bring twenty squirrels, a
wolf and marten; sable may equal
forty squirrels, or six wolves or six
martens.
Mongolia, however, has it's own Vel
loWstone Park a sanctuary for ami
mails of all kinds, guarded night and
day by two thousand Lamas Buddhist
prieStS) stationed around its confines.
This National Park is the sacred
mountain of Bogdo-ol, whose snow
capped peak stands guard over Urga.
To most people Mongolia means the
Cobb desert and vast plains. But a
mere recital of the pelts bought at
the Urga mart hints the existence of
some forests. Northernmost Mon
golia is largely a timber-land, not a
desert. Roughly speaking, Mongolia
is half as large as the United States
without Alaska. 1t is divided into
four parts; the southern grass plains
which are rapidly falling into the
hands of Chinese immigrants. the Cobb
desert comprising one-fourth the ter
ritory, another great plains district
similar to Kansas and Nebraska, and
finally Northern Mongolia which has
more climatic and topographic ties
with Siberia than with China.
Residence of the Hutukhtu.
Urga's position as a pelt mart Is
far overshadowed in the eyes of
native Monaghan by it's place in his
religion. In the sacred city the
Hutukhtu, third power of Lamaism
and spiritual ruler of Mongolia, is liv-
ing out the tag end of his life in near
blindness. His keen interest in the
mechanical contrivances of civilization
is the source of many local stories OF
the. glazing incongruity when west
comes east. High Priest Hutukhtu
heard about automobiles and insisted
that he have one
The story goes that certain mer-
chants having fitted the palace with
electric lights at the Hutukhtu's COM
mand called at the holy residence for
their money. crowd had gathered
around the portal and overhead a
bare electric bulb spread a white hard
light An official of the household in
brilliant robes finally brought out
stable hoard of silver to pay the mer-
chants. While they stood at the en-
trance a long rope was lowered out Of
an empty upper window and waggled
gently against the palace wall. About
the rope the faithful gathered, knelt
and touched it reverently since sup
poSedly it was dangled out of the win
dow by the holy Hutukhtu-all this
under the glare of a Twentieth cen
fury electric light
Electricity and automobiles are only
typical of the dignitary'sa passion for
devices of the Occident. His palace
is said to be stored with monographs,
typewriters, microscopes, sewing ma
chimes and other mechanical aids to
man. But to Hutukhtu they are more
like toys than instruments of con-
venience or culture and after a few
DAYS or weeks they go into the discard.
Like certain other religions, Lam
aism is divided under a fixed adj
ministrative and spiritual hierarchy.
The Dalai Lama at the Forbidden City
of Lhassa, located in the inner re-
ceSses of Tibet, is the head of the
entire church. Lhassa is the Mecca
of Lamaists in Mongolia. Next in
rank to the Dalai Lama is the Tashi
Lama, residing at Tashilumpo, also in
Tibet. Then follows Hutukhtu in far
off Urga. Tradition in Mongolia rules
that the Hutukhtu never dies. The
people believe his spirit reawakens in
the person of a newly born child. All
ecclesiastical intrigues for position are
swept aside by the effective method
OF Monaghan selection which is moth
Ing more or less than a lottery. Names
of infants who have been considered
as candidates are written on paper
slips and placed in a golden urn. A
slip is drawn and the infant whose
name appears on the paper is pro-