The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-03-04

| millet, which is the same as our sor
ghum. The giant millet, under the
primitive culture employed, repeats
itself 5000 times and the short millet
800 times, so that even scientific ag-
riculture can teach little to the Man
chus. Giant millet grows 10 and II
feet high, and can conceal man and
a man on horseback. This kaoliang
furnishes food and fuel and distilled
drink, mats for the floors and for a
thousand economies Of farm life, and
the stalks, daubed over with clay, pro-
vide good building material.
Mukden Is Fascinating.
Mukden, the permanent camp Of the
all-conquering Manchus, is an epitome
Of Peking-a smaller Tatar capital,
with lesser palace in an inner city,
with ancestral tombs to north and
east. 1t is picturesque, fascinating
place, it's street crowds brilliant in
color, and its street signs the most
bewitching and fantastic decorations
any Manchu can imagine.
Mukden has its DIR I'm tower and its
bell tower like Picking; each keeps
a grand crossroads, where city life
centers and gay street signs are thick
est; each keeps a solid old three-story
tower with faded red columns and
shabby old greenfield roof.
Once through the deep-vaulted gate
way of the Tatar city or citadel, color
and picturesqueness surround one, and
the streets are moving pictures Of
Manchu life-the life of brave horse
men and strong mortimer, OF bold
hunters and fighting tribesmen. but
lately come from nomad life on broad,
dry plains to this permanent camp
with it's high brick walls.
These hearty Manchus, descended
from northern Tungusic Tatar tribes,
are different people from the soft,
sleek, languid, lemon-tinted yellow men
of the steamy rice fieids of the south
the common Chinese of commerce.
Their women, when protected, are
creamily instead of greenishly yellow.
The Manchu women walk free and I'M
trammelled on their natural feet, and
their fine Manchu eyes are set straight
In their heads, their eyelids not
csught together at the corners.
Mukden's streets have an additional
glory in the shop signs that make
gorgeous cornices, shoot from the
door-posts, and stand on tall masts
outlined against the sky.
Mule Carts and Samovars.
Far better to the artistic eye than
the modern automobile is the two
wheeled Manchurian cart with three
mules straining at the traces ahead
of the shaft animal, and soft. boomy
bell sounding from under the body of
the cart. instead of being hung on the
animals necks. When these carts are
filed with country women rouged to
the eyebrows, and their headdresses
set with sunfiowers, Mukden shows
street sights unequaled outside of the
three provinces.
There is purely Manchu samovar
to be seen at every tea booth and
street restaurant in Mukden, which is
plainly OF the place and the race, and
undoubtedly parent of the Russian
samovar, which the Russians did not
have in Russia before the Tatar raids
and conquests.
The Manchu women are the most
stunning figures in all Asia, and the
tall lian-barh-to Of Manchurfa is one
of the most magnificent headdresses
to be SEEN In the last decade the
lian-barb-to has mounted and spread,
until it Is towering, gabled affair
that stands eight and ten inches above
the smooth, blue-black head, the gold
en- cross-bar with loops of black satin
instead Of hair The simple guam
Fan OF the old empress dowager, ball
anced across the head and held there
by loops of hair, has broadened as
well as mounted and its ends droop
like railway signal arms If they did
not, it would be impossible for a
Manchu lady TO enter house door or
cart without turning the structure
sideways.
This exaggerated affair is so heavy
that women must remove it indoors
and they cannot walk facing the wind
nor turn on their course without GER
tain sealping. On rainy and on dusty
days the maniflcent structure Of satin
and flowers, tinseI and Jewels is
shrouded in a cotton cloth, and the
brilliant silk robes and gay little jack
cts are hidden in long sheath garments
straight and tight as bolzter cases
~, 7arson'c coafa