i

P\

r»~^

A V^

* *•-• .

^ y^^

fTf

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2008 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/burtonholnieslect09holm

THE

BURTON HOLMES

By

yj/.MHZ}!;) OV/T

BATTLE CREfK,

TLE-PRESTON LIMITED

M L' M I

'ii0^l^

.0

,.^'r

THE

BURTON HOLMES

LECTURES

With lllust?^atio?is f?'o//i Photogj-ciphs
By the Author

COMPLETE IN TEN VOLUMES

VOL. IX

BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN

THE LITTLE-PRESTON COMPANY, LIMITED
M C M I

Copyright 1901
BY E. BURTON HOLMES

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

URL

The " E(iition Original " of The Burton Holmes Lectures
is Limited to One Thousand Sets.

The Registered Number of This Set is

DOWN THE AMUR

the Amur

IN JULY. 1901, the Cossack settlement
of Stneteiisk, in the heart of Siberia,
seemed, to us. — three American travelers there
detained because of the low water in the Shilka
River, — the very end, extremity, and ultimate ed.ye
of the antipodes. Twice every week there come to Str\"etensk
groups of trans-continental travelers who have journeyed from
Moscow to Irkutsk in the famous Trans-Siberian Express,
crossed Lake Baikal in the wake of the ice-breaking: ferr\", and

6 DOWN THE AMUR

worried over a thousand versts of Trans-Baikalia in a train to
which even strained courtesy could not give the name of
"accommodation." The limit of speed is fifteen miles an
hour for the Express, and for the other train ten miles an
hour, if all is going well. Even thus, Stryetensk is less than
two weeks east of Moscow — nine days in comfort, without
change of cars to Irkutsk, half a day cl transfers and tribula-
tions on the Baikal branch, from Irkutsk to the pier where
the great ferry waits ; half a day on the icy waters of the
' ' Baikal Sea ' ' ; half a night of waiting at the port of
Mvssovaya, and then three days and nights in the Trans-
Baikal train to Stryetensk. All this is merely provisional,
pending the completion of the Manchurian line and the per-
fecting of the pier arrangements at the two lake terminals, —
Baikal and Myssovaya. But thus it was that w^e came to
Stryetensk in July, 1901. Easy to get to — given time and
patience — is that settlement upon the banks of the Shilka
River, but not easy to get away from, as we learned even

ON A " PLOTT "

DOWN rili: AMIK 9

before we reacliLMl it. Kiimors of low w;iter and siisijendcil
traffic had come to our ears while at Irkutsk. W'e tind these
rumors but too well founded. The river appears shrunken,
its shallow waters tearinj^ nervously down their too broad
channel as if in fear of bL-inj.; U'tt stran<U'd hij^h and dr\' 1
The last regular Post-Steamer has been gone three days, —
the next is grounded somewhere many miles below and may
not get up to Stryetensk until autumn. Scores of fellow-
travelers are litt-rally "camping out in the corridors of the
inadequate inns, and hundreds of emigrants are sitting in
disconsolate discomfort on the shore — waiting for sometliing
to turn up. Fortunately, we are favored in this extremity by
the cheery companionship and linguistic aid of our devoted
and indefatigable Professor, a geographical savant from St.
Petersburg. With him as our guest we have duly celebrated
the Fourth of July in feasting at the inn, and over our cof-
fee we discuss the feasibility of making the down-river trip —
a run of a mere thousand miles or so, on a raft or " ploll

A PRIVATK " YACHT

lO

DOWN THE AMUR

whicli we are to beg, borrow, or build, if needs be. To our
subsequent regret the ' ' plott ' ' plan was not adopted. In fact,
it was forgotten in the excitement occasioned by the discovery
that the good ship " Rurik, " a sad old corpse of a steamer,

g^yiiggl^C^lflyfrHf^gF^^^g*^^-^"^^^^

THE " RCRIK

had been resurrected and would attempt the impossible voyage
down the Shilka as far as its junction with the Argun.

The "Rurik " appears to lack every qualification usually
deemed essential in a steamboat, but she (/razjs only trco
Jcct ()/' -.■(i/cr. She can glide or drift where other boats
strand or stick, and to the " Rurik " we confide our twenty-
seven pieces of baggage and our four selves. The trunks are
stowed away in the damp leaky hold, where they serve as
cots and couches for sundry fellow-passengers. There is one
first-class cabin, — eight by ten feet, in which are five bunks
and a dininj^-table.

DOWN TliL AMUR

I I

We secure one corner of the table and one of the bunks,
each of us, according to aj^reenient, having a cjuarter interest
in that one bunk on rainy nij^hts ; at other times we are to
sleep as third-class passengers on the deck. The ftnir other
berths are occupied by a middle-aged married couple, and a
very young and very affectionate bride and groom who, we
subsequently discover, are on their wedding journey.

We endeavored to arrange with the Captain for the
e.xclusive use of a part of the forward deck, where we might
spread out our belongings and make ourselves as comfortable
as possible. But this was found to be impracticable. As
the commander explained, the deck is not always tenable,
owing to the fact that the ship is propelled by a "machine of

FINAL PIKCHASKS

12

DOWN THi: AMUR

lii.i;h prc-ssiu'L'. " throwin.i; incandescent cinders with \'esuvian
energy. So proud was he of that ''machine of hij^h pres-
sure" that he never missed an opptntunit}' of making it
manifest its eruptive powers — invariably driving all hands to
cover. Therefore we became, as it were, nomads on the
liecks of the " Kurik, ' camping wherever the volcanic hail
was gentlest, and in event of fiercer outbursts, even seek-
ing shelter in the musty hold. Our pretensions to exclu-
siveness soon gave way before the kindly courtesy of our
fellow-passengers, and by the second evening out a spirit of
'' <'(n?i(n'a(/('r/r " had broken down class-barriers, and the
first-, second-, third-, and fourth-class passengers overran
one another's quarters, becoming friends and fellows, united
by the common terror of the "machine of high ]:)ressure "
and. bv the common aspiration toward a speedy arrival at

I HI'; AC H)K

1K)\\.\ riij^ AM Ik

M-.l.l.OU-PASSK.NGliKS

Fi)kr<)\"kci. Pokroxka is a villaj^e just below the point where
the Shilka meets the Ari^un, these two ri\ers fonnin<4' the
Amur. At Pokrovka we are to tiiul deeper water and the
regular steamers of the postal-line.

Meantime, life on the " Kurik " is not half so dull as it
mij^ht be. To be pitied are the people who travel on private
yachts, — the\' ha\"e no food for study in the way of fellow-
passengers. .\ volume could be tilled with an account of the
doings of our little world, compact!}' stowed between and on
the " Rurik's " decks. We are glad to have known them all.
those kindl}', courteous, patient, and good-humored folk. We
are thankful for the beauty of the delicate, dark little bride ;
it was a pleasure to have her there to look at. to see her
smile at ///;;/. to know that happiness sailed with us on the
" Rurik. " We shall always recall with pleasure the e.xample
of maturer martial felicity afforded by the other kindly pair,
nor shall we forget the Thespians of our ship's company, the
soubrette. with her coquettish touches of rouge, so sadly out

14

DOWN THE AMUR

of tune with the ^rav dawn of those Siberian mornings, and
the comedian, with his stagy antics — so amusingly incon-
gruous on the deck. We owe a debt of gratitude to the hun-
dred, more or less, of sober. self-sacriHcing, uncomplaining
settlers, colonists, or emigrants, poor folk in family groups of
six and eight, for their examples of good-temper and philo-
sophic facing of discomforts. And above all we are grateful to
the Professor for his unselfish devotion, for his interpretations.

THE PRKTTY HRIDK

DOWN 11 li: AMI R

'5

for his tinned soups, and for his edifyinj^
serenity. Nor must I omit words of
thanks to the two companions of
my travcils, for the many thinj^s
that I shall not set down, and
for their skill in preparinj^
I respectively the oatmeal
porridge and the strong
black coffee that daily
cheered the chill hour of
waking on the fo^-soaked
decks of the " Kurik. "
/ We slept on mats of pressed

cattle-hair, only a trifle less un-
yielding^ than the wet planks of
the deck. Sometimes we ringed a
shelter, spreading an old tarpaulin
,-er the railings on the bridge ; but
through the holes in that improvised tent the rain and
cinders were sure to tind their way. We were usually
awakened hv one or the other, or by the wind that began

'BREAKFAST IS READY!"

i6

DOWN 11 ii: AMI K

to tnj4 at our covers as soon as the " Rurik " j^ot under
way in the niornini^, after her usual all-ni{^ht rest, tied up to
the bank near a friendly wood-pile. The Shilka steamers
always tie up for the night, navigation after dark being out
of the question on this uncertain stream. One evening halt
is very like another. There is but little difference in the
places and the incidents. No sooner is the gang-plank out
than all hands rush ashore with towels and soap to bathe in
the refreshing waters of the Shilka, women upstream, men
downstream, and children all along the shore. Then bon-
fires are built, iiiid pipes are smoked, and stories are told.
The hardworked crew meantime demolish huge wood-piles
and heap upon the decks the wherewithal to feed the insati-
ate maw of the "Rurik" on the morrow. Sometimes the
rigging of the plank is no facile thing, esjjecially when the

DOWN THi: AMUR

17

SKTTI.KKS

boat must moor in the shallow hut swift water some distance
from the shore. Then two planks are required, precariously

IHK FIRST Slop

iS

DOWN Till-: AMIR

f

supported inielway 1)\' a portable wootleii pier like a bifj;
carpenter's horse. lint no difficulties daunt the husky crew
of which the Chinese member is the most skilful and active
and indefatigable. They all worked well, but the pig-tailed
" Kitaiski " was worth in actual results three of the brawny
"Kusskis. 1j\- da\' we steamed with cautious deliberation

down the shallow stream, tcjllouiiig with ditli(Milty the uncer-
tain channel, grating our keel on the newly formed gravel
bars, but happily escaping mishap until the second afternoon
when, grounding firmly, we remained for eighteen hours in
mid-stream. Meantime a rival craft that had left Stryetensk
twelve hours later than the " Rurik, " went i)utrnig \rAst us
triumphantl}'. The muggy heat was oppressive and the Hies

DOWN Till': AMI K

2 I

fearfully insistent, and, bulky luid crustaceous as beetles,
would dart at us, plunge a fanj^ into the tfesh, and buzz away
again with a sound like that of a receding automobile. After
escaping from this plight, the Captain was even more careful
in making soundings. Three sailors are stationed in the
bow, two of them j)lunging long i)oles into the stream,
almost in\ariabl\- strikin"' bottom and at the instant cr\ing

out the measure, "Three feet, — three ami a half. — four, —
four, — ^ two and a half," — or, as they sing it; " Trc — Ire
sftoloviiioi — chcicria — r/ir/rn'a — (^x'ct s' poioi'/iioi. "
And at " r/iv/ s' po/ovn/oi '' we slow down, and at 'V/:v/,"
or "two " we are pretty sure to stick. They call this "sit-
ting on a pcrricatl. ' ' We sit on every perricatt that
humps its gravelly back between the shaggy banks of the
Shilka, sometimes remaining for an hour, sometimes for a

DOWN THE AMUR

(.la\- ami a halt. I'irst. efforts are made to force the boat
over the bar b\- means of poles and iniileys. These efforts
are alwavs una\ ailin,i,^ Then the anchor is carried ashore
and buried, ropes are rigged, and all hands man the winch
and circle madlv round until either the boat or the anrhor
yields to the strain. The anchor usually gives up lirst,
whereupon the difficult job must be done all over again.

I'ASM.M. A " PtKKlUATT "

Sometimes during these delays we manage to get ashore
in a small boat. The ladies do their laundry work along the
bank, and the men build bonfires to dispel the gloom created
by the pall of smoke from burning forests that overspread
this region. This smoky fog lends the charm of mystery to
our journey down the Shilka. Out of the smoke there came
one day a floating emporium — a department-store on a plott,
and thereupon all hands >(ranibled upon the raft at the risk

DOWN 11 IL AMUR

23

of sinking it, and, rurnniaging over the diversified stock,
"shopped" for an hour or more.

SI I UNO ON A "PtKNlCAlI

24

DOW N THE AMUR

sii;NAi.iNr.

An interesting^ incident marked another day, as we were
steaming downstream in this haze. Since leaving .Moscow
we had been on the did vivc to encounter the San I^^rancisco

\Vf)RKlNf; THK WINCH

DOWN THK AMUR

THK " RURIK " ON THK SHALLOW SHILKA

school-boy and his journaHstic companion, sent out to run
around the world by one of the American newspapers. No
signs of them, until at noon on July 8, as we rounded a bend
two hundred versts below Str\'etensk we saw three fi.i^ures

THK RL S^.O-A.\n-.KKA.N LALNUUV

26

DOWN Till': AM IK

dimly outlined on the bank. Instantlx

we reco^ni^^ed the poet-journalist.

the Western school-boy, and tlu'ir

guide. We shoutetl and \\a\eil

frantically ; they replied ; and

then without wasting precious

moments resumed their task

of towin.i^ a baj^gage-laden skiff

along the stony shore. We

learned, later on, that they had

abandoned their " perricatted "

steamer, and started to foot it all

the wa\- to the first railway station,

more than a hundred miles upstream.

Warned by their fate, our captain hits

upon a clever scheme to get his boa^ past the perricatt on

^\■hich their boat has been sitting obstinatclv for several da\s.

klVliR NV.MPIl

"WILL SHE GET 0\"ER?'

DOWN 'llli: AMIR

29

He orders all haiicls ashore to lighten ship. A hundred of us
are scattered along the bank watching with anxious eagerness
for the resuh of tlic att(iiii)t to cross the bar. Down through
the fog conies the " Rurik, " panting as with suppressed excite-
ment. She glides behind the other boat, sitting there on the
perricatt, then we hear her throbs grow heavier and faster and
then — see her sweep out into deep water with a shriek of tri-
uini)h which is echoed b\' the happy passengers along the shore.

A RA.NGK LUilir

But to regain the "Rurik" we must make an Alpine
ascent, for the only place where she dares to approach the
shore is at the base of a tall cliff, around which there is no
path. It therefore behooves us to climb right over the cliff,
and half an hour later we are on the summit. A merrier lot
of climbers never reached a more inviting height. Prisoners
so long on the congested decks, we find a keen pleasure in

30

DOWN TH1-: AMUR

looking down upon the " Rurik " as she gHdes around the
point. It is ileHcious to breathe the mountain air, drink in
the grandeur of the scener\', and rise superior to the cinders,
the flies, and the heat, and the other petty torments of navi-
gation on the Shilka. We drink also draughts of most
di'licicnis water, for our companions find a spring, which

affords the first, and only, cool refreshing drink that we have
had in all Siberia. Siberia being a "land of ice," we had
forgotten that there is such a thing as ice in all the world.
until reminded by the welcome chilliness of the water of that
nameless spring hidden away on the banks of the river I

Laden with \\ild tlowcrs plucked on this steep descent,
we again embark. ph\sically tired, but delighted and refreshed
by our unexpected experiences upon the cliff tops of the
Shilka. To enhance our content and satrsfaction we over-
take and pass the haughty post-boat which left Stryetensk
three davs in advance of the "Rurik." We had been more

DL)\\\ THE AMUR

33

than human had we not jeered in triumph at our friends on
the official boat, who regarded us as consigned to the upper
Shilka ports for a long period. But owing to our lighter
draught we are first to pass the buo\' that marks the spot
where the Shilka meets the Argun. The two rivers, con-
founded in a watery embrace, lose their identity, and by
virtue of their mutual absorption become the mighty Amur,
the great water-way to the Pacific.

1

1

ji^St^t^BSk

^■f^^V"^ %'^

^^K*»« r^-

^^V'< <"-"--

■v-''-"-:Tr?/>y...;i=i

"^

mmr^^'^'^

W%.<^,-:*^<^ ^ ,,-

\ .'W ■ ^' ^ -i-

^vjjjijSi

•jjr^.-^

,^<e:^4i0^m^

\ ■

a- • ■■■■■

. \

V ' ' .■■•"'

ON THK CLIKK

34

DOWN THi: AM IK

But all this is seen throuj^h a thick veil of smoke, beyond
Nvhich. however, we occasionally distinjifuish the tall pine
forests of Manchuria, for we are now upon the northern edf^e
of China. We touched the southeast edj^e of China at
Canton and Hongkon.s;, two years a^o. How different the
approach — then a huj^e trans-Pacific liner, a splendid Eng-
lish seaport, now the rattle-trap old " Rurik, " and a wilder-
ness. But in the foreground, here as there, stand figures
tvpical of China, for on our deck are pigtailed Celestials, clad
in blue, with the sweat of toil upon their brows, and the
instinct and habit of industry, as their inheritance.

Meantime the sounder sings the song, " Trc dvci spolo-
vinoi, " and then comes a crunch, a grinding of gravel under

ON THK SI.OPK

DOWN Tin: AMUR

35

the keel, ami we are firmly seated on our eleventh perricatt,
while the official post-boat is towed by in triumph. One of
our crew steps overboard, for the water comes only to his
knees, and wanders around in search of the lost channel.
It is found some minutes later, and we reach the village of

LOOKING DOWN-STREAM

Pokrovka almost simultaneously with the rival craft, despite
its three days' start. Pokrovka is not a cheerful place. We
felt at Stryetensk that we had reached the limit of the habit-
able world ; that there we had seen and crossed the hump
upon the other side of our bi^ earth ; that we were beginning
the downward portion of our trip. I^ut experiences on the
Shilka proved that our path was still uphill ; while Pokrovka —
I love to dwell upon the word, we had so often murmured it in
waking dreams as the name of some distant paradise that we
might reach some day if we were very good and very fortunate
— Pokrovka, I say. exists merely to prove that Stryetensk
is not the limit, not the last, farthest, and most hopeless
place of earth ; that it does not mark, in a gastronomic and

36

DOWN THE AMUR

sybaritish sense,
the antipodes of
the Waldorf-As-
toria. And here
at this end-of-aU-
things we are
compelled to quit
the " Rurik, " for
she. with her light
draught, finds it
more profitable to
navigate the shal-
lows of the upper
Shilka than to
venture below.

But there is gaiety even in Pokrovka, for a tribe of gypsies
are encamped near the boat-landing. They do their best to
lift the gloom, atmospheric and actual, in which Pokrovka

OFF THK KDGK OF CHINA

LOOKING FOR TMK CIIANNKL

«l

"^

p-- - m

^

1

V

vlH

«

^^^^^B ^

4

\f^il^^^^t

DOWN Till': AMUR

39

UK WATER Rl'LLKT 1
AT POKROVKA

and its unhappy stranded popu-
lation have been plunged
by a superabundance of
tire in the forest, and a
record-breaking lack
of water in the river.
The .i^reat bulletin-
board set hi^h on
the bank tells of
low water below as
well as above the
\illaf^e. Seven or
eij^ht hundred people
are con^^re^ated along
the banks. There are no
inns, and the few houses of
the villagers are full to overflow-
ing, while the shops zre empty — stripped of all things edible.

STRA.NDKD

40

DOWN THE AMUR

We could not buy even rice or sugar ; tea and tobacco were
the only staples left in stock. Army-officers, some of them
accompanied by their wives, are in an even sadder plight than
the rough mujiks, who are accustomed to fasting and exposure.

But thanks to the lucky star that follows us even through
the Siberian fogs, we glide away next morning from all this
dimness and uncertainty, for friends upon the post-boat
unselfishly make room for us in their cabins. I say
"friends, " for such they were in fact, although our acquaint-
ance dates only from the railway journey. They were Rus-
sian civil-officers '" chi)iov)iiks,'' two in the diplomatic serv-
ice, bound for Peking and Tokio, one a titled emissary of
the Interior Department. We should have been content to
sleep upon the roof abaft the wheelhouse with the score of
emigrants who could not find space between the decks.

Dcn\N Tin: AMUR

4'

Anything to get a\\a\- from Pokrovka I Yet as the viUage
vanishes in the smoky haze, we cast regretful ghmces at the
faithful Httle " Rurik. ' As she, too, fades from view, we
are conscious of our ingratitude, for among her one hundred
passengers, of \arious classes, we felt that we counted just a
hundred faithful friends, whom we have faithlessly forsaken
at the hrst chance of escape.

Another voyage of uncertain length has now begun. Our
boat, the ' 'Aurora, ' ' is simply a barge with no power of her own,
in which we are to be towed downstream some seven hundred
miles to lUagoveschensk — where all troubles are to end : for

':-09^^*^

42

DOWN THi: AMUR

Blagoveschensk
marks the limit of
low water, and
there the splen-
did deep-drauf^ht
boats are said to
be in waiting.
Therefore it is to
Blagoveschensk
that we now look
forward. Blago-
\- e s c h e n s k be-
comes to us what
Pokrovka had
been to us during
the Shilka trip, a
paradise to be at-
tained in some

AN EMPTY SHOP

BRbAD FOR SAI-K

DOWN thj: amir

43

distant future, —
how dim and dis-
tant we little
dream as our
sturdy tow-tug,
the "Admiral
Possiet, " turniiij<
her wheels with
exasperating leni-
tude, drags us
around curve aft-
er curve, gliding
from bank to bank
to swing herself
and us free from
^'^JM the perricatts that
lie in wait for
careless keels.
Never was so mo-

TEl.KliRAPH STATION ttOtOUOUS a trip SO

full of incident and interest. Do we grow wearv of the endless

MLSIC HATH CHARMS

44

DOWN THE AML'R

LKAVING POKROVKA

curves and palisades ? — the fates provide distraction. There
comes a warning cry from the captain of the tow, and in an

THE BARGE " AURORA "

DOWN Tin: AMUR

45

FOLLOWING THE TOW

instant all is excitement and confusion. The Admiral Possiet
has grounded in mid-stream — and after making vain efforts to
propel herself over the perricatt, vomiting tons of water from
her paddle-boxes, she has swung across the channel, blocking
the path of our big heavy barge, which, carried on by her

THE TOU-KOAT

46

DOWN THE AMUR

AN IMF'KNDING CATASTROI'HK

AN ANXIOl"S MOMICNT

THE TOW-BOAT GROrXDING

DOWN Till-: AMUR

49

W I.; \ K 'l' I 1 1 1 1 K ^

momentum, and aided by the current, threatens to strike the
"Admiral " amidships and cut her scjuare in two. Four times
this same thin,!,' happened, but the threatened crash was always
avoided bv quick work, and some startling freak of luck. I am
not superstitious, but it really seemed as if my camera were a

kii:n im, ki sic.na 1 il>n

^o

DOWN THE AMUR

talisman, tor the pressing; of its button apparent!}' averted
many an impending catastrophe. " CHck ! " it would j^o at
the most critical moment, and promptl}' the "Aurora"
would swerve a little, as the "Admiral " would swing a few
feet more, and we would find our barge unharmed, and either
helplessly adrift in the swift stream or seated safely upon
some kindl\- perricatt. Then would follow hours and some-
times days of labor and delay. First the tow-boat must be
released, then she passes haw^sers and steel cables to the
barge and tries to yank us adrift. From morn till night the
"Admiral " yanks and yanks in vain at the "Aurora, " shaking
us up at every ' ' yank, ' ' breaking hawsers, snapping cables, but
always failing to budge the bow, or to shift the stern, until it

l\ !•; o'clock " CHAI

DOWN 11 II' AMUR

51

seems as if the bar^e had taken root and must remain
forever. All this of course is exasperating to the four impa-
tient Americans on board, but to the Russians these delays
are merely the expected incidents of trax'el. llC tvv to take
command and tell the captain what to do next to extricate

us ; //irv gather round the samovar, and to the music of its
; vaporv song forget that they are stranded in the Amur.
Among our fellow-passengers are two generals and several
officers of lower raid<, and (piartered on the deck are several
cossacks whom the officers treat with a hearty familiarity
that does not breed contempt but on the contrary wins the
respectful affection of the men. One of the lieutenants
would frequentlv borrow our little motion-picture machine,
the " Kinora, " saying. "I want my children to see the pic-
tures, too"; and wouKl stand at the window manipulating
the instrument until all his overgrown infants had looked
with astonished eves into the magic box.

DOWN THE AM IK

01.

>','■■■

COSSA<."KS Willi I IIK KINORA

Thus pass the
chi\s ; long' peri-
ods of iiiiniobile
monotony, brok-
en by short runs.
as far as the next
wood-pile or ])OSt-
station. We be-
f^in to hate the
sight of corded
wood, for invari-
ably it means a
long delay ; while
the announce-
ment that arrival
at a post-station
is imminent is
hailed with sighs,

lllli CDUM AND I HE COSSACKS

DOWN Tin, A.MIR

3D

ON A " PKRRICATT "

for the exchange of mail-bags in Siberia is a matter of grave
import, calhn;^- for at least two precious hours. Then one
fine day we moor to the Manchurian shore and make no

AKKUAI. AT A I'l i^ I -S I A I loX

DOWN Till-: AMLR

effort to proceeil. No Russian asks tin- reason wh\' but
finally American inquiries brinj; out the fact that a l)acl perri-
catt is just below, and that the captain has resolved to wait
for the river to rise six full inches. We j)lant stakes near
the siiore to measure lln' e.\j:)ected rise. Ne.xt morning the
water had risen three eighths of an inch, accordinj^ to one
stake, but a fall of half an inch is recorded by the other.

While ti^^urint^ on the prospective period of dela\', which
may extend e\en to a fortnij^ht, we hear \\]c s|)iasli ot oars
and — behold! — a boat that can defy all perricatts touches
the shore ! It is a crude rowboat manned by three rou^h-
lookin^ oarsmen. .\ council of war is held ; Hlagoveschensk
is still tive huncired miles awa}' ; the current flows sixt}' miles

I. ATI". MI KKNOON

DOWN Tin: AMTK

a (lay, and witli three oars we can cover a liinidnil miles a
day. Alter a i^aricy tin- bnatnicii a^ree U) take us and mir
bag^a.q^e for si\t\ rubles. We are aided in niakinj^ this
ban^ain not only h}" the Professor, but also by a disintere^ti-d
Polish k'llow'-passen^er who helps make the proj)osition clear
to the boatmen. In fact, the Polish j^entleman leads the men
aside, talking" earnestly to them, \vishin<i[ to make the details of
the contract clear and plain. Meantime, happy at the thought
of liberty, we strip and plunge into the river for a swim.

Still, vaguely suspicious of the exaggerated courtesy ot
the gentleman from Warsaw, I suggest to the Professor
that possibl}- the Pole is trying to secure the boat for himself.
"Oh, no! I cannot admit the thought," is the reply in a
tone of mild rebuke. Presently, back come the boatmen,
aiul in great haste they cast loose and start upstream toward
the barge. To our protesting cries they answer that the Pol-
ish gentleman has offered them five rubles more than

DOW N THE AMUR

we, and that they have accepted his offer and agreed to con-
vey him and his baggage to Blagoveschensk. Indignant at
this underhand proceeding, we offer to treble the remunera-
tion. But in vain ; for the courteous and clever Polish
gentleman has secured the passports of the three men, who,
deprived of their papers, are quite
helpless, for no Russian sub-
ject dares to move without
his official documents of
identification. Dress-
ing in haste, we reach
the "Aurora " in
time to see the po-
lite Pole lowering
his luggage into the
boat he has so craft-
ily chartered. \\\
stand upon the bank in

'■ I THINK SC

DOWN THi: AMUR

59

impotent an^cr. hurling- sarcastic phrases in French at the
departing Chesterheld who responds with courteous smiles and
salutations. With exquisite politeness, he declines the <.,nft of
our luncheon basket, mockingly proffered him. Finally,
with a leer of triumph, the Pole vanishes in the smok\' haze.
The story Hies from mouth to mouth and provokes warm
discussions. Some think the Pole has acted cleverly within

his rights, others condemn him as a hypocritical deceiver,
while the pained Professor is obliged at last to "admit the
thought." .Vll are at a loss to understand the sarcastic
courtesy with which we saw him off. "Why," asks the
Count, "did you salute him and wish him ' bon voyage."
and offer him your basket ? He had done nothing kind to
you ? ' ' We had our revenge on the morrow. The perricatt
was passed successfully, and when we overtook the Polish

oo

DOWN THi: AMIM

TAl KING IT OVER

gentleman, our captain, who possessed a sense of justice,
refused to let him board the hav^e a^ain. leavinj^- him to
stru^^le downstream against a strong- head-wnid. Pnit he
laughs best who laug-hs last, and the Pole was continually

THE POLE IS REI'L'SED PASSAGE BV THE CAPIAIN

DOWN THi: AMIK

r,i

GETTING ASHORK TO MAKK A MOTlO.N-l'IC I I 'R K

lau^hinj^'. He reached Blaj^oveschensk forty-eij^ht hours
ahead of us, h)r tlie day following; his rejection we met
another post-boat, tlie "Admiral Putyatin, "" and thereb}'

I'K I 1 KIMii K rvSSKNT.KR

62

DOWN THi: AMIR

han^s another tale of iiiisinaiiagenicnt, vexation, and delay.
The "Admiral Piitxatin ' has been moored near a woodpile
for just two weeks and tb.ree days ! Seventeen suns have
risen and set since she first stopped, ostensibly to take on
wood. Two hundred people have sat and waited patiently
for the Amur to rise. The neighboring village has been eaten

THK " ADMIRAL PUTYATIN "

out of house and home, the last loaf of bread and the last
string of Siberian pretzels have been purchased. No one has
thought of telegraphing a complaint to the administration for
sending out a boat with a three and one-half foot draught to
ascend a river two feet deep. It is not the Russian wa\'. It
is not considered good form to criticize an\thing. The

DOWN rill. A MIR

63

I ,\ -I'ASSKNtiKRS

proper attitude is one of absolute indifference, the proper
thiiij; to say is '' jVi/r/icvo." The word means hteralix'
"nothing," and yet it means everything. It sounds the
kevnote of the Russian character — "nitchevo. "' There's

IN A COSSACK VILLAGE

64

DOWN THE AMIR

THE LAST LOAVl
OF BREAD

nothing to be done. Nothing is wrong.
Nobody is to blame. What's the use
of bothering.' It will be all the same
in a thousand years. " Nitchevo.
Our captain moors his tow-boat
and barge alongside and calmly
proceeds to drink tea, and mur-
murs "nitchevo "' with the other
captain. After waiting thirty-
six hours longer for telegraphic
instructions from one of the officials

not mori; than a hundred miles
awa\'. the captains finally de-
cide to do the very thing that
the all-w ise Americans had been
advising from the very first.
They transpose the two lots o

TIIK LAST STKI.NG OK l>RKTZFI.S

DOWN THi: AM IK

passengers. We take the " Pat}atin " to continue down-
stream. The " Putyatin " people will try their luck up-
stream upon our barge which is of lighter draught.

But in what confusion is this change effected ! Two
mobs of two hundred people each — trying to carry tons of
baggage from boat to boat over a single, narrow, rail-less
gangway. After it was all over, a second gangway was put

IK MKIMIM, Al -
CO.M.MODATIONS

66

DOWN THE AMUR

across. The wonder is th;it lialf of us were
not pushed overboard during' the rush
and crush of transfer, for there was
no system, no order, just a hopeless,
frantic struggle to secure the best
places on the other boat. We
emerged from the double stampede
so exhausted that we never thought
to find fault with the accommoda-
tions that had fallen to our lot.
There were only half the necessary
number of cabins, and as a consequence

MK e AC I A IN
\N1J THK ClfJAKI-.TTE

wt' found (jurselves again reduced to
the rank of third-class deck-passen-
gers, and on the open deck we lived
and cooked and ate and slept, un-
mindful of the sun by day or of the
chilling fogs by night — happy to
have a place to lay our heads.
Delays are still our portion, and
if it be \uA a perricatt, it is a woodpile

.NTKMIKVf)

THE lUKMXC. MOINTAIN

DOWN Till-: AMI U

69

or a post-port that consumes time and patience. Our
new captain, daintily arraxed in a suit of yellow silk, is
distressingly gentle for a sailor. When aught goes wrong,
he grips his cigarette-box tirndy and orders a glass of tea.
I fear that we became a tritle ill-humored and disposed
to ridicule Russian methods, contrasting them unfavorably
with American ways of doing things. We began to find
fault with i\-er\thing, usualK' voicing our criticisms in the

-^i^^ar*-

S.MOLDERING CLIFFS

70

DOWN THE AMIR

hearing of a kindly, courteous, old gentleman whom we
had nicknamed "Mr. Nitchevo. " He was the typical
Siberian man of affairs, a prominent citizen of Irkutsk, and,
so it was rumored, a part-owner of this steamboat-line,
the management of which appeared to us inexcusably incom-
petent. He had traveled in America, bui. averred that he
did not care for our fast trains. "When I travel, I like
to employ plenty of time, " is his only defense of his attitude.

One day we spoke harshly of some inexcusably slow
transfer. Mr. Nitchevo protested with these words :

"Remember, gentlemen, it takes as much time as it
requires. '

"Yes," my friend replied, "but it doesn't require as
much time as it takes. "

Scenically, the Amur offers little that is stupendous, but
much that is mildly interesting. The great sight of the voy-
age is the so-called "burning mountains," cliffs of hgnite
where strata of coal deposits are smoldering. At night the
spectacle may be uncanny, but by day it is tame and disap-
pointing. At last, ten days after leaving Pokrovka, we reach

A PASSING RAFT

DOWN Tin: AMI K

71

AKRIVAK AT HI. AGOVKSCJHE.Nsk

the metropolis of the Amur, the city with the name that
twists the tongue unmercifully until one learns to say it trip-
pingly, Hlagoveschensk. It is the most
attractive city in Siberia. It has
an air of enterprise about it that
is refreshing, after the hope-
less crudity of the Cossack
settlements along the riv
er, and, best of all, it has
an excellent hotel, with
good clean beds, atten-
tive servants, and a
fair cuisine. But this
is not so astonishing
when we discover that
it is not a Russian en-
terprise ; the owner is a
Frenchman. Two large,
ambitious stores front on
the public square, the hner

A VOTIVE CHIRCII

/^

DOWN THi: AMUR

AN AMl-klCAN KSI AIMISHMICNT

one bein^ that of a German firm. Germans are found everv-
where in this new land, dev'eloping its commerce, putting in

DOWN Tin-: AMUR

73

THK GRAND HOrKI.

its electric lit^hts, making the German lan.i^uage the commer-
cial lanj£<uage of Siberia, just as English is the commercial
language of China and Japan. In Siberia the Englishman is

INK THEATER

74

DOWN THE AMUR

conspicuously absent; the American is represented by vast
quantities of imports from the United States, handled, how-
ever, with but few exceptions by German traders.

But what of the convicts ? This is the question that will
be asked by every reader. Without denying the existence of
the horrors described by those who have studied the penal
system of Russia, we must reply that we saw no sign of them.
We examined several prison-barges — en route to the new
penal settlements on the island of Saghalien at the mouth of

A CONVICT BARGE

the Amur. The prisoners — men, women, and children —
were to all appearances better cared for and far more com-
fortably installed on the barred decks of the barges than the
free and independent poor folk who were our fellow-passen-
gers on the overcrowded post-boats. The prisoners were
assured of shelter and food, and they had sufficient space.
The emigrants with us, as sometimes we ourselves, slept
with no roof above their heads, frequently ran short of food,
and so scant was the allowance of space when all laid them
down to sleep at night that it was not possible to walk the

DOWN Till-: AMUR

/3

TlllRD-ri.ASS

deck without treading- on the serried mass of shnnberinj^
humanity. The prison-cars on the railway were, also, so far
as we could judge, preferable in point of comfort to the
third- and fourth-class cars assigned to the prospective set-
tlers who traveled under government protection. But it
should not be forgotten that Siberia is no longer the destina-
tion of Russian convicts and exiles. Bv the establishment of

PRISONERS

76

DOWN THE AMIR

the new penal set-
tlements of Sa-
ghalien, Russia
has removed the
stigma from the
name " Siberia,
for Siberia is no
longer a land of
prisons; it has be-
come a land of
promise; it is the
" Great East of
the Russian Em-
pire. Itisdifhcult
to realize that we i\ii., rants

are within gun-shot of China, for on the Manchurian shore
that we follow for more than a thousand miles, there is not
a Chinese town or village visible. The Cossack has marched
along that shore, and it is now a wilderness unpeopled save
by little groups of Russian soldiers sheltered during the
"temporary occupation" in tents, — made not of canvas.

THE PRINCIPAL SQUARE

DOWN 'nil-: AMIR

n

but of brick and stone. From yonder shore the Chinese
liired upon Blagoveschensk during^ the Boxer outbreak. The
governor, fearing a rising of the local Chinese, ordered
them to be transferred immediately across the river to the
Chinese shore. There were no boats, but orders must be
obeved, and the hapless, scared, and inoffensive Celestials
herded together, were marched several versts upstream, and
hurried into the river at the point of the bayonet. They
were told to wade or swim to China. But the Amur was
too deep for wading and too swift for swimming — three
thousand corpses floated down the Amur to the sea. Those
responsible for this outrage have been punished by the
Tsar, but Russia will have no further Chinese question on
her Manchurian boundary. Although a ferry now runs to
and fro, no white man may cross the river without a special

DOING THK ENVIRO.NS

78

DOWN THi: AMUR

>l.ME.MORATIN

THK VISIT OK
rHK HEIR APPAR-

KNT IN I--CJI

permit ; but a few Chinese traders and
gardeners go back and lorth between
the city anil the Cossack barracks
on the other shore.

Contrary to all promises and
predictions, the navigation of
the Amur below Blagoveschensk
proves as difficult as that of the
upper reaches. The post-boats
are stalled between perricatts.

is compelled to
lease an in-
dependent
stern-wheel-
er, which is
named the
"Siever " to
carr\' the mails ^
and us to meet
the official boat,

MANCHTRIANS

DOWN rill': AMUR

79

GKNHRAl. DIKDRICHS,

\I. ITNtTIONAKIKS

said to be detained at a bar three days run downstream.
But to our delight and surprise, on the second morning"
out, the long-looked-for boat comes tearing upstream at a
tremendous pace. We signal it to stop. Both steamers are
soon made fast to the shore. All hands on the " Siever " in

TMK i;KNKRAI. S IMAM

8o

DOWN Tin: AMUR

■i^

great excitement pack up bedding and baggage, and make a
mad rush toward the other boat to secure good places. l^ut
there seems to be a hitch ; the other captain has received no
orders to transfer his passengers, and supported by them he
flatly declares that he is bound for Blagoveschensk, and that
he will not turn back. And then with a resignation that is
one of the most astounding characteristics of the Russians,

WITH BA(; AM) HAI.l.AGIi

DOWN THE AMUR

8i

STfJRMINr; THE
11 'ST-BOAT

THK
SIBKKIAN MAIL

REPLLSED BIT RKSUiNED
0

8.

DOWN THE AMUR

" Nitchevo ; the
captain has no or-
dcrs, nitchevo. "
Kven when our
captain announc-
es that he will not
proceed another
verst, there is no
protest. His con-
tract was to niett
the post-boat ; lu
has Diet it. The
fact that it scorns
us and proceeds
up-river, does not
alter his attitude.
To all e.xcept our-
selves it appears
quite proper that
we should wait

M.L IHAl IS I.KKT OF THE MANCHl'RIAN TOWN OF AIGIN

here one and one-half days for
orders from some oflicial,
somewhere, who has evi-
dentl}' forj^otten all about
us. A freij^ht-barj^e
happens to be in tow,
and to it we are
transferred, and on
it floated down-
stream to a point
where another
post-boat is sup-
posed to be waitinf^.
The deliberation with

BCLKV MAIL-SACKS

Down 11 u^ amlk

«3

rRANSFERRED TO THK BARGE

which the transfer is effected is almost maddening. A hun-
dred unwieldl}- leather mail-trunks are one by one extracted
from the " Sie^•er " and stowed in the hold of the bar^e, each
trunk taxiu!^' the streni^th of four men. " \\ li\- not use small
mail-bags, more easily handled? " we inquire.

DKIKTIM. IJOUNSIREAM ON A 1 hKk.HI BARGE

84

DOWN THE AMUR

POLING OFF

"Because," replies Mr. " Nitchevo, " "there are so
manv larg-c toxi'us that small sacks would not suffice. "

All day we drift, aided a little by a score of men, trudg-
ing along the shore with a long tow-line. Still no complaints.

H

iNi

1

l^;^||[

SP^,^:'^"'

^^^»^-»<

i

I^Fv^l

M^^H

t

mi. UAIIINC. I'O.ST-IiOAT

OUR WAKE

DOWN TH1-: AM IK

87

OLR '■ CABIN '■

no murmurs. Officers and emij^rants, actors and tourists,
cossacks and mujiks, are alike submissive to the hardships
imposed by a most reprehensible lack of management and
forethought. The passengers are even asked to man the poles
with which the barge is kept off-shore when rounding points or
passing shallows. This they do with hearty good-will. Would
that we nervous, fretful foreigners could profit by this example.

88

DOWN THE AMUR

WILL THE CAPTAIN EVER COME?"

At last the post-boat comes in view. With its two hun-
dred much-abused but equally patient passengers it has been

A LONKLY LAMPLIGHTER

DOWN THE AMUR

89

THE GATHERING STORM

waiting for orders for five days. To shelter the decks from
the sun, young trees have been fixed to the upper raihngs,

ARRIVAL AT KHAHAKOVSK

90

DOWN THE AMUR

and a big canvas has been spread over

the forward deck. We fall heir to

an arbor over the port-side pad

(llL-l)t)x. The cabins arc in-
sufferably close, and we

gladly leave them to the

Russians who are afraid

of draughts. Through-
out the remainder of the

voyage we "camp out

on the top of that paddle-

bo.x. sleeping by night

under the glorious moon

and stars, by day killing

time in cooking our own

provisions, and thus sustain-
ing not only our own lives

but those of the young Russian

chinovniks who had so kindly

shared their cabins

with us on the barge "Aurora

They in

DOWN TH1-: AMUR

91

HOTEL Dli KHABAROVSK

return become in-
terpreters to our
expedition ; their
linguistic attain-
ments placed at
our disposal com-
pensate in a meas-
ure for the loss of
the Professor,
who resigned his
post and escaped
from Blagoves-
chensk on anoth-
er steamer.

We are now in
our fourth -.:cck
on the Amur, and
the days begin to
succeed one an-
other with less

UIK MClluLAh AKCU

92

DOWN Tin: AMIR

THE MILIIAKV BAND

and less strain upon the patience. We are actually getting used
to Siberian slowness. We begin to feel the charm of the long
stretches of peaceful monotony, scenic and incidental. The
wide lower reaches of the Amur are indeed impressive, their

A CABBY

DOWN THE AMUR

93

vastness broken by fantastically shaped sand-pits that look
like continents on a hu^e relief map of an unfamiliar world.
The shores and islands appear almost uninhabited ; but
every day we see a lone man, somewhere on the bank, or
else rowing along in a small boat — he is one of the lamp-
lighters of the Amur, charged with the care of the range-
lights upon the treacherous watery highway. But we are

now beyond the reach of perricatts, and our staunch, rapid
boat gives us a splendid exhibition of her powers, running at
express speed along this watery track, like a thoroughbred
who knows that the road is sure and the destination near.
Khabarovsk is her destination, for from Khabarovsk a
railway runs due south to X'ladivostok. We have been
twenty-eight days on the river ; that is, four weeks have in-
tervened since the arrival of our train at Stryetensk, thirteen

94

DOWN THE AMIR

liundred miles a\va\'. Of this
time seven days were spent
in waiting for steamers at the
ii\ er ports ; twelve da\s were
spent on perricatts, or at
woodpiles, or in waiting for
the tardy orders of an inef-
ficient management ; and the
remaining nine da}S, which
should have been the limit of
the entire river trip, were
employed in actual travel.
So much time has been
lost that we ' ' do not even
hesitate" in Khabarovsk.
Hiring two baggage- wagons
and two cabs we make a
frantic dash across the grow-

ing, thriving town to the railway
station, two long and muddy
miles away. In honor of our
fellow-passenger, the General, a

THK GKNKRAI.

DOWN THE AMUR

95

Ol"R I.ONG-LOST FRIEND

dumped ? Into
the ven' state-
room of our lon^-
lost friend, the
pohte Pohsh gen-
tleman ! Well,
— we made the
best of it, greet-
ing each other as
if we had never
met before! Two
men cannot sit for
thirty hours with
drawn swords of
malice in a com-
partment measur-
ing less than five
by seven feet.
The Pole ama^^es

band is at the station
to play the morning
train out of ttnvn.
The train is packed,
people in the third-
class cars are stand-
ing in the aisles. An
energetic porter,
however, secures for
us the only berths
that remained. And
into whose compart-
ment do you suppose
my baggage has been
u n c e r e m o n i o u s 1 v

1111. I SSI Kl UlNING-CAR

96

DOWN THE AMUR

• *

I^ALt

ON THH LSSURI LINK

THK OLD ROAD

DOWN THE AMUR

97

me by asking if the pictures that I took of his boat have
turned out well? He begs me to send him copies. "They
will be so interesting for my wife, in Warsaw," he explains.
And when we came to part at Vladivostok, he seized my
hand and said condescendingly, " lYoi/s )i()ii.s par(/())n/o}/s,
n 'cst-ce pas f " W'e pardon ourselves, do we not ? ' ' and

A TKOSPEROUS REGION

I said, " Oi(i\ " and he said, " An phiisir, " and left the car.
And then I found some of his footwear under the berth, and
chased his cab up the street to throw his old shoes after him !
— and this closed the incident of the polite Polish gentleman.
The final stage, by the Ussuri Railway, so named from the
great river, the Ussuri, that is crossed en route, occupies

7

98

DOWN THE AMUR

thirty hours, the ilistance covered bein^ about li\c huiuhiHl
miles. The road has been in operation since 1S07. for it
was the first section completed, wxnk ha\ ini; been bet^un at
Vladivostok in 1891. It traverses a fertile and attractive

EASTKKN KND OF THK MANCIIIKIAN LINK, NKAR NIKOLSKOVK

coast jirovince, rich in possibilities for Russian colonists.
The \ iilayes look thriftv. the roads are better than in Russia,

AN OlIllKR

DOWN THK AMUR

lOI

and ])roinisc smiles upon even the newest comers, large
groups of whom we find encamped along the line waiting to
be sent on to the districts to which they have been assigned.
The colonization of Siberia is managed on military prin-
ciples ; regiments of farmers and artisans are sent where they
are needed, not where llicy think they want to go.

NIKOLSKOVE

It is not often that an ordinary railway-switch commands
the rapt attention of the traveler, yet I confess I looked
upon one at the junction of Nikolskoye, with a sense almost
of awe, for it is one of the most important mile-stones that
mark the eastward advance of Russian domination. It
marks the eastern end of the new line called the Eastern

I02

DOWN THE AMUR

Chinese Railway — nominally Chinese, actually Russian —
that cuts across Manchuria from Kaidalovo, near Stryetensk,
to this junction of Xikolskoye.

At the station we witness a scene that is remarkable as
an illustration of the confusion of races out of which Russia
is evolvinjs: her eastern empire. On the station platform a

crowd of Chinese, Manchurians, Koreans, Cossacks, and
mujiks, surges around a group of Russian officers who are
receiving with military courtesy the little General, who has
come direct from St. Petersburg to inspect the garrison
maintained by Russia at this front door of Manchuria.

Soon after leaving Nikolskoye, we see with a thrill of
pleasure, there in the east, the waters of the western

I

DOWN THE AMUR

105

TWO GENTLEMEN OF CHO-SEN

ocean, an arm of the Pacific. Our seemingly interminable
journey is to have an end at last. Of this we have had
doubts for many days, for the lazy Amur and its lazier boats
had made the continent seem wider than the world itself.
The immensity and endlessness of Siberian space oppressed

mmtmmmmmmaM

APPROACHING \LA1)I VOSTOK

io6

DOWN THE AMUR

us aiul made us feel as if we were the prisoners of some vast-
iiess, across which we could travel and progress forever, but
from which there was no escape. Hut the sea means free-
dom, antl we rejoice in the thought that ovcv yonder waters
lies the billow\- road that leads to San Francisco.

■ VLAUIVUSIUK lO SI. I't-I liKSliUKO y,t)77 VliKSlS"

An hour later we enter Vladivostok. Had we arrived
by sea direct from America we should have spent long weeks
in this wonderful new city, with its ugly architecture and its
lovely situation ; we should have devoted half the lecture to
our impressions of this splendid port. But we arrive by land
after an intensely interesting, but intensely weary journey
from wonderful old Moscow, and the more wonderful and

DOWN rilE AMUR

107

THK PRINCIPAL THOROIGH FARE

more ancient city of Peking awaits us. We are eaj^er to
reach the Chinese capital before the gates of the Forbidden
City be again closed to the "foreign devil." Therefore we
may not linger in Madivostok. But at the moment of arrival
we experience one of those great thrills that now and then
reward the traveler and mark the accomplishment of some
long-dreamed-of undertaking, as when we read these words

io8

DOWN THE AMUR

in Slavic characters on the wall of the station " Vladivos-
tok to St. Petersburg 9.8/7 versts. " That is about 6,500
miles. These 6,500 miles we have covered in forty-two and
a half days. But we are perhaps among the last to make
the Trans-Siberian journey as it has been described here, for
with the completion of the Manchurian line the time from

liy perm

St. Petersburg to the Pacific should be reduced to less than
sixteen days, all rail-travel save for the crossing of Lake
Baikal. Those who in future suffer and enjoy the delightful
discomforts of the shallow Shilka and the broad Amur will do
so from choice and not necessity, for the hurried traveler
will soon be enabled to cross all Europe and Asia by rail in

DOWN THE AMUR

109

less time than it now takes to ^o by sea from California to
Japan. Hastily we scan the splendid harbor which, thouj^h
marred by the ragjs^ed temporary town around its rim, is one
of the most beautiful in the world. The ships of the Asiatic
squadron of the Russian fleet rest like a line of floating for-
tresses upon the waters of the land-locked gulf. Forts crown

By permi

THE RLSSIAN ASIATIC SQUADRON

every hill-top. batteries bristle at every point, but the police
keep a watchful eye on wandering alien photographers who
must have recourse to the windows of hotels for points of
view. Permits to photograph in Vladivostok, applied for
the day of our arrival, promised for the morrow, were deliv-
ered to us in Yokohama six weeks later ! Nature, too,

no

DOWN TIIK AMIR

conspires with the authorities to balk photographic enterprise,
for soon masses of fo^' come rollinj^' in from the sea. veilinj<
the city and the port, nio\in^ about as if in obedience to

lllK KASrl-.KN lUKKSmjLl) OK SIHKKIA

military command, obscurin<^' now
the contour of the hills, now
the outline of the harbor,
making it impossible for
one to form even a mental
picture of the wonderful
scene in its entirety.
We look with amaze-
ment at the blocks of new
buildings lining the steep
streets, at the handsome
structure of the Russo-C'hinese
bank, at the well-stocked depart-
ment-stores, crowded with customers.
We gaze with interest at the Chinese

COSSACKS

DOWN THE AMUR

I I I

By 1

TllK N1£\V P(JST-OKFICE

and Koreans whose lands we are soon to visit, and we look
with never-failing admiration at the sturdy Russian soldiers
everywhere in evidence. Never shall we forget the chanting

THE RLSSO-CMINb-SK BANK

112

DOWN THE AMUR

of the battalions that pass by night beneath our windows, with
a harmonious roar Hke that of a strong wind amid the tops
of tall, firm trees. Soldiers who sing as they march seem
more than soldiers, and the song of those marching Cossacks
sounded like the voice of a conquering race. ' ' Vladiv- ostok ' ' —
" Dominion of the East, " are the words that ring in our ears
as we listen to that music of the many-throated columns.
And as the silence comes again, our thoughts go back to the
vastnesses of Siberia, across which all these Muscovitish men
have made their way, and we realize as never before, the
great fact that Riissia has reached the Pacific.

Her slow eastward advance across the Urals into Asia was
begun three hundred years ago by Yermak and his Cossack
bands — the Cossacks are still advancing eastward, singing as
they march the song of "The Dominion of the East. " Con-
quered slowly and for the most part, peacefully, Siberia is
to-day a colossal monument to Russian patience, persever-
ance, and endurance, the three qualities by means of which
the Muscovite is working out the splendid destiny of his
ambitious race.

TMAO ;./.u:-n /. "^-'-pMV:^^--' ''"''''•'■" '

PEKING

PEKING, capital of the Celestial Empire — fortitied camp
of the Manchu conquerors — acres of dead maj^nihcence
and living desolation, half hidden in a ^dorifying" haze of incan-
descent dust — dominated by sixteen towering city-gates —
shut in by miles of jealous walls now breached and tunneled
for the invading locomotive — the troops of many nations
cjuartered in her sacred places — her iimerinost "Forbidden
City " become the playground of the curious — the palaces of
the absent "Son of Heaven " profaned and despoiled of their
empty mysteries — her population cowed and embittered.

ii6

PEKING

ref^arding with mute defiance the exodus of the avengers and
the rebuilding of the fortress-Hke legations — this is the
Peking of the present — of the year of Our Lord 1901.

Christendom at last made herself felt in Chma, but heroic
as was her entrance upon the scene, her sojourn and retire-
ment can be recalled by lovers of humanity with naught but

TlIK GII.K OK PE-CHI-LI

regret. Attenuate it as you will, allow for the exaggerations
of the press reports, the extravagances that the rolling story
gathers as it travels from Oriint to Occident, the fact
remains that Western Civilization stands disgraced in the
eyes of universal Justice. Foreign occupation has confirmed
the Chinese in their l,)elief that Western nations are barbarian

PEKINC.

I I

A glorious opportunity to give light and health and life to
four hundred millions of our fellow-creatures was neglected
by the enlightened powers, robbed of their initiative for good
by selfish jealousies. True, the chastisement of China was
imperative. China has been chastised. But how.' Thou-
sands of innocent folk have suffered ; hundreds of peaceful
villages have been destroyed ; a few of the supposed guilty
have been punished ; but the actual instigators of the Bo.xer
outbreak and the more powerful ones who supported and
encouraged the fanatics still sit in high places, or, at the
worst, loll in a luxurious exile. Christendom now abandons
China burdened with debt, and officially invites the old re-
gime to resume its blighting s\\ ay in the Forbidden City. The
last state of the " Sick Man of Asia " is worse than the first.

I do not question for a moment the statement of an
officer who said on lea\'ing Peking in August, J 901, " It is
not good-by. We shall all be back before long, the job is
only patched up, it is not finished."

The story of the Boxer outbreak, of the siege of the lega-
tions, of the relief-expeditions, and of the capture and occu-
pation of Peking by the international forces, has been already
told a hundred times from a hundred points of view. In
these pages we are to follow, merely as interested travelers,
the route from Taku to Peking, to look upon the scenes
made memorable by these events and other scenes that are
significant because they throw a little light upon the prob-
lem of the East — the mystery of China.

As one evening early in
August, 1 90 1 , we approach
the Chinese coast, en
route from Nagasaki to
Taku, we see the sun
of progress gilding the
celestial skies. It is the

ii8 PEKING

same glorious orb that in its daily course has h^hted up the
finished, splendid capitals of modern Europe, smiled upon the
new-born cities of the broad United States, glanced at fair
Honolulu, and marveled at the rapidly progressing cities of
Japan. It is now looking down upon the capital of China to
see what England, German}', F"rance, Italy, Austria, Amer-
ica, and Dai Nippon have accomplished, yonder in Peking,

&te

M

in the name of humanit}' and progress. Our steamer touches
at Chi-fu, a busy ]Jort. picturescjue, semi-European, abound-
ing in missionary schools and institutions, and foreign banks,
with the consulates of the great nations crowning the bluff,
and with ships from the four corners of the earth at anchor
in the spacious harbor which is aliw? with smaller native craft.
But at Chi-fu we shall not disembark. We steam on
westward all night across the gulf of Pe-chi-li, and find our-
selves at sunrise off Taku, the famous port of Peking — a
long way "off Taku," for we are amid the warships at the
outer anchorage, so far from shore that we see nothing but

PEKING

ij I

A CHINESE CKAKf

the sea, the sky, and that amaz-
ing archipelago of war-ships
— the huge fleet of the Alhed
Powers. On all sides lie
the sullen cruisers, the
watch-dogs of Europe,
crouching at this wa-
tery threshold of de-
crepit China. Nearly
-dl the great powers
are repre-
sented in
this tlcmting
congress of
■ avengers ; but

'.ve have intercourse with
but one iron-clad, the tiag-ship of the French, the "Redoubt-
able. " We accost her on washing-day, as is evidenced bv
the aspect of the yards, half concealed by the clothes of the
crew hung out to dry. Had it not been for the courtesy of
the French naval-officers Tamong whom was numbered Pierre
Loti, author of " Lcs Dcniicrs Jours dc Pckiii''), we should
have suffered
great inconven-
ience in reaching
shore. We ar-
rive on a steamer
chartered b \^
the French gov-
ernment to carr\-
mails from Naga-
saki to the ships of
the French scjuad-
ron off Taku.

1 22

FHKINC;

We travel on sufferance and without any assurance of being
put ashore in China, for there are no tenders save the launches
of the fleet, and the port is seventeen miles from the anchor-
age. Our onl\' alternative would have been to hail one of
the lazy fishing-junks, making their shoreward way to the
slow dip of tired oars and the flapping of listless sails com-
posed of heavy mats of straw. But fortunately we are
spared the threatened six hours of that sort of thing ; after
some delay and four thrilling transfers in a rough sea, from

rKMN(. TRANSFKKS

tugs to launches and from launches to an improvised tender,
we finally go speeding over the yellow waves toward the
celebrated mud forts of Taku. They rise, menacing and
repellent, from a shore so low and featureless that it appears
merely like a thick yellow scum lying upon the waters.

The forts are ponderous walls of yellow clay, raised to pro-
tect the entrance to yellow Pei-Ho River — and to be taken

PEKING

•23

repeate(ll\' l)\ foreij^n foes. The initial act in a war with
China is usually the takinj^ of the Taku Forts. They served
their ))urpose as well in 1900 as they did in
1.S61 ; that is, they fell at the jjroper
moment but, it must be confessed,

this \\' a s
alter a brief
defense that
cost the al-
lies dear.
Thereupon,
however,
the ^ a r r i-
sons adhered
so success-
full\- to the
tradition of

THE SOUTH FORTS AT TAKU the T a k U

garrisons, that the war-correspondents
could cable their papers to use the old ime
in stereotype, "The Chinese ran away." Between the forts
the Pei-Ho River
empties its soiled
and dingy w'aters
into the soiled and
dingy yellow sea.
We hear the epi-
thet of " noble "
applied so fre-
quently to famous
rivers that it is the north fort at taku

almost a relief to hnd a stream which does not call for that
most dignified of atljectives. The Pei-Ho is eminently an
ignoble stream — a turbid, turgid canal of yellowish mud,

124

PICKING

creeping in awkward curves between low slimy shores, which
seem to be a portion of the ugly stream itself, solidified and
raised a few feet above the general level. The town of Taku
on the right bank is one of the most hopeless places of human
habitation I have ever seen. Its houses are of yellow mud,
its people of yellow^ clay, its streets appear like furrows in a
plain of mud — the whole seems like some horrible haunt of
amphibious maggots, uncovered by a sudden subsidence of

TAKU TOWN

the dirty waters. Our hearts sink at the thought that fellow
human-beings can exist in such a place. Along the w^ater-
front, naked children are wading in the slime, where only a
few months before had lain the myriad corpses that came
drifting downstream to tell of the unspeakable horrors that
attended the advance of the imaders.

A little way above that soggy village of Taku we see a
trim white ship-of-war at anchor ; it Hies our flag ; it is the
veteran keel of Chinese waters, the antique of the United

fi-:king 127

States Navy, the antetliluvian, " Monocacy. ' She was >riit
out to die in China ; but Hfe is strong in the sturdy old craft.
and she will continue' to spend her declinin^f days at rest
upon the N'ellow tides of celestial rivers. She played no part
in the taking of the forts ; but we need not discuss the j^ros
and cons of the commander's attitude. We know that it
was not want of pluck that kept her out of the initial row,
for later on she did the state much service in the shallow
upper reaches of the river near Tien-Tsin.

The Pei-Ho is alive with junks, all flying the flag of one
or another of the Allied Nations, or a banner bearing
the legend, "Licensed by the Provisional Government."
Foreign flags flutter protectingly above many of the hovels in

I2i

PEKING

the muddy wilderness of Taku. We are put on shore on the
left bank, at a place that bears the name of Tongku. We
wade through mud as deep as our disgust, following a long
procession of coolies who have with pirate-like ferocity pos-

\

sessed themselves of our belongings. Tongku is not a pleas-
ant place. There is an unsubstantiality about its thorough-
fares that inspires a vague dread of sudden sinkings into an
even more infernal region. It is \\ith thankfulness that we
find ourselves and our possessions safely housed in the Tivoli

-,„ Hotel which lies, I was about to say,

IPgNMHttHlii^^ within a few paces

of the station ; but,
to be more exact, it
lies within four mud-
puddles and two ref-
use-heaps, of the
railway-yard. To

PORTKRS

PEKING

'3'

our surprise, we tiiul that in spite of all we are still hunfj^ry ; in
fact, our appetites have waxed so strong that even Taku and
Tongku cannot overcome them. Accordingly we dine upon
the best that the Tivoli can offer. And here, even in this
hopeless place, the genius of the Gallic race asserts itself,
for the proprietor is a Frenchman, and the dinner that he
provides is excellent, — well cooked and well served by a
diminutive Celestial. Vive la cuisine Frunqaise I

THE RAIl.WAY-STATION. TON'GKf

Tongku is the starting-point of the railway-line to Peking.
We find the line restored, and operated under the direction
of the British. The station-guards are Sikhs of the Hong-
kong regiment ; the conductors are Australian man-of-war's
men ; the ticket-takers are Chinese, and the station-master is
an Englishman. We know all this because the combined
force turns out to arrest us. We chance to be wearing our
Russian military caps, bought in lUagoveschensk on our
recent journey across Siberia. The Russians and the British

1 V

TEKING

had come almost to blows, a short time
before, in a dispute about railway
pri\"ile;^es and control. We are
planting tripods and taking pho-
tographs. This arouses the
suspicions of the Sikh sentry
" who reports that Russian agents

are surveying the line. He is
ordered to call the guard by the
station-master, who meantime rushes
out to remonstrate with us. Bitter is
the chagrin of the Sikh who started
the alarm, when it transpires that we
are not minions of the Tsar and that we
have no designs upon the transportation sys-
tem of North China. While we are laughing
over the discomforture of the zealous Indian,
so jealous of British intiuence as opposed to
Russian, a train comes rolling down from Peking with a regi-
ment of Germans, in khaki uniform, with golden eagles in their
helmets.

GliRM^NS

PEKING

133

AT THt; TO.NGKl.' STATION

The exodus of the Allies
has hcf^'un. To-rnorrow they
embark for I>rernen ; but i.iany
of their officers will travel
homeward via San bVaucisco
and New "\'ork, stutlyinj^ the
homeland of their greatest
connnercial rivals. Every
hour there comes to this busy
station a crowded train from
some point up the line, bring-
ing detachments of all sorts
and conditions of soldiers, and
usually a string of native pig-
tails long enough to reach from
Tongku to Peking. We start
from Tongku in the late after-
noon, ourselves in one of the
bare, cool railway-carriages
and our luggage in an oven-
like vdu made of metal, where
it is placed in charge of a tall
Sikh who represents the only
checking-system operative in
these disturbed days.

Toward sunset we approach
Tien-Tsin, be\"ond which the
evening train does not pro-
ceed. We have traversed
about twenty-five miles of
desolation in one hour and a
half. Our train is tilled with
officers of half a dozen nation-
alities, and men of diverse

134

PEKING

HUMAN FREIGHT

regiments, from the trim, well-groomed "Tommy Atkins " to
the badly soiled soldiers of France and Italy ; from the im-
maculate little Japanese, to the smelly, brawny Russians.
Five lines of military telegraph parallel the railway, establish-
ing instant communication between heacUjuarters at Peking
and every outpost of every nation along this highway now
controlled by the military forces of the Allied Powers.

In Tien-Tsin we receive again that impression of unending
toil — which is to me the first, the last, and the most endur-
ing impression that I brought from China — toil that knows

NEARI.NT. TIKN-TSIN

pi:kin(;

135

110 be^innin^, for it bej^ins before the toilers have begun to
think ; toil that iic\ er ceases, for without it there would be an
end to life ; toil that racks muscles, tears flesh, hxes on every
brow of bronze a crown of ))earls of sweat ; toil that would
be heroic were it not utterly unconscious of itst;lf.

Well may we call the Chinese "ants," and their cities
"ant-hills. " The heel of Europe may crush and scatter the

heaps raised by these busy toilers, and grind out a million
busy lives. It avails nothing. Other millions of toilers
recommence the task, and build again — instinctively as ants
• — another city after their own fashion. The native city of
Tien-Tsin, now in ruins, is policed b\- foreign troops. Its
ramparts have been razed ; smooth boulevards have been
created where useless city- walls once stood. The ants look
on without wonder or complaint, and those who toil in

130

PEKING

transport choose
the new unob-
structed road
made by tiie "for-
eign devil ' ; but
never would they
have made it for
themselves. Left
to them-
selves
they will
in time
obliterate
all traces of

this foreign occupation, and forget the days when European
and Japanese patrols marched through their streets, hindering
the progress of the creaking wheelbarrows, the swinging
baskets, and the green sedan-chairs of pompous mandarins.
Although it strikes us as an unfamiliar fact, we can
accept without a question the statement that this city of

TIEN-TSIN TOILERS

PEKING

137

Tien-Tsin is the second largest
in the empire ; larger than
Peking, and smaller onl\-
than Canton, the south-
ern metropolis. Esti-
mated roughly the re-
spective populations are.
Canton two million souls;
Tien-Tsin one million, and
Peking, the capital, once be-
lieved to be the most populous city

A Sl'NSHADK

in the world, only five
dred thousand, or

SITK OK THE DKMOLISHKD CITY WALLS IcSS. TleU-d SUl WaS

the residence of Li Hung Chang during his Ion
viceroyship of the Province of Pe-chi-li. His
xaiuiDi is now occupied by the Provisional Gov-
ernment, and there we find the mess-table of the
hard-working, conscientious Europeans, who
in this critical time are ruling wisely and
justlv the unnumbered millions of this
devastated province. But the "P. G.,' ^^

as this provisional government is called.

huii-
even

MIDDAY REPOSE

138

PEKING

lina too well to alter the
ways — in the court-
yard two Chinese po-
licemen are ' ' bani-
booing ' ' a Chinese
malefactor, to the
obligato screeched
by his protesting
wife — and this is
done by order of
the all power-
-■ ful'T. G."

An illus-
tration of
the Chinese

THE JAPANESF. PATROL Way Of dolng

things is afforded at one end of the bridge that spans the river
at this point. There is a difference in the levels of street and
bridge. No one has ever thought to ease the bump by the

DESOLATION IN TIKN-TSIN

PEKING

139

VAML-N OF I-I HUNG CHANG

placing of an inclined plank. All day long the patient human
horses of Tien-Tsin waste their strength in butting at that
bump with rikishas, laden carts, and over-laden wheel-barrows.
In one sense, at least, much of the salt of the earth
is gathered at Tien-Tsin. Although our officers and soldiers

IN THK VAMfN COMPOUND

I40

PEKING

pictju: --

MHSONES5

merit weii the title. I do not al-
ude to General Chaffee and
his men ; of them, and of
their almost unique atti-
:'jde of honesty during
:he period of intema-
lional thie\Tng. I shall
r.ot attempt to Sf)eak.
I was not in China
durinsr those times of

confusion. I
know only from
hearsay what
was done, and
hearsay has it
that Chaffee
and our boys
controlled by
him were then

AT THE BBIOGE

PEKING

141

about tlie only clean-handed folk in
China. The salt I speak of is real
salt, mountains of it heaped upon
the banks of the Pei-Ho, each
saline sierra covered with
straw mats. It is the tribute
salt, — the salt of the gov-
ernmental monopoly, one
of the chief sources of in-
come for the Imperial Ex-
chequer.

There are two cities of
Tien-Tsin, one Chinese and
the other international. We

THE

ASTOR HOl"S
HOTEL

SALl.NH Slh-KR AS

142

PEKING

lodge in the French ciuarter, where we sleep on the floor at
one end of the hallway at the Hotel des Colonies. But
although beds are dear and hard to find, — harder yet when

H' ' I F- I DKS COLONIKS

PEKING

143

we do tiiul them, — there is 110 lack of
cheap conveyances, as we discover
whenever we step to the door-
way to hail a rikisha man — a
veritable avalanche of rikishas
invariably descends upon us.

Straight away from the end of
the Rkc where the French quar-
ter terminates, runs [ let aria Road,
the chief thoroughfare of British Tien-Tsin

klKISIIA KIUINC
IN 1 IhN-TSlN

We have time

GORDON HALL

only for a glance at Gordon Hall, the municipal building,
memorable as the refuge for the foreign women and children
of Tien-Tsin during the siege, — a siege not one whit less try-
ing than that experienced by the Peking legationers. For
many days shells were falling in this foreign settlement,
dropping in at meal-time, making sunrise calls at the bedside,

144

PEKING

or whizzing overhead hke shrill messengers of terror, deliver-
ing with screeching emphasis the expressions of hatred sent
by exasperated China to the despised "foreign devils."

The world knows how an end was put to that brief
reign of terror — how Russian, Japanese, and British troops
stormed and took the native city, then surrounded by its

formidable wall, while the ill-fated Ninth Infantry — fresh
from a hard campaign in the Philippines was cut to pieces
amid the niarshes between the foreign (piarter and the
native town. We visit the spot where Colonel Liscum fell.
Whose was the blame it will be difficult to say. A general of
the Allies, directing the assault, ordered our men here with the

PEKING

'45

vague coiiiiiKind, "Advance left or ri^ht, it iiuikes no dif-
ference; but hurry!" It did make a difference — an
advance to the right was to prove fruitless and fatal. But

WUkKl-- Mil!. M.Nlll Klii.lMI-N I \\ AS Ul'.CI.MAU-l)

the Ninth went to the right and to decimation in obedience
to the command. The walls and houses were alive with
Chinese sharpshooters, the marshy
ditches were too deep for ford-
ing ; there was practically
no shelter, retreat was
impossible, and our
men were shot down,
hopelessly, miser-
ably, while the other
troops won glory at
the gates and on the
walls.

From Tien-
Tsin to Pe-
king the dis-
tance is about

10

RAILWAY-STATION, TIEN-TSl.N

146

PEKING

A PEI-HO HOirSEBOAT

seventy-five miles. We cover it in five hours in a comfort-
able train. Formerly the usual mode of travel to Peking was

r

[^£

^

H|

1 '^Mr'

H

1

^^ s

1^1

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ii

AN OBSERVATION-CAR

Pi: KING

•47

I.ANG-FANG STATION

b}' junk or house-boat "tracked" up the muddy Pei-Ho by
a gang of cooHes, the voyage demanding several days. Our
Chinese fellow-travelers in the flat-cars are not the least

KKCDVERI.NG SIU.MEKGKM KAILS

148

PEKING

A WANDERING MINSTRI-I,

interesting feature of
the trip ; packed in
by hundreds, they yet
maintain a certain
poise and dignity pe-
cuhar to the Orient-
al, even under the
most adverse condi-
tions. All foreheads
are closely shaven,
all pigtails neatly
braided, and every
man has his sun-hat,
his sunshade, or his
fan.

At every station
we are reminded of
the wave of destruc-
tion that swept along

this line as almost the first
indication of the coming
Boxer storm. The build-
ings are mere shells, with
roofs and windows eaten
by the flames. It was at
one of these stations that
Admiral Seymour was
compelled to give up hope
of reaching Peking by
rail. Bridges were down
and rails were up, and th^;
relief expedition aban-
doned the train and
started on its disastrous

VKNDKKS

PEKING

I ;i

rill-; TEMPLE OF HEAVEN TERMINAL

march toward the capital. It was turned back by weight of
Chinese numbers and European \vounded. But the Chinese
are paying" for the havoc wrought and for the sufferings
endured by the victims of their rage.

We see large bands of ex-Bo.\ers toiling waist-deep in the
slimy pools along the line, — diligently bringing to light the
English rails which they had so gleefully Hung down from
the embankment a few short months before. During the
long stops at the ruined stations we study with interest the
crowds of native venders — men and boys from the neighbor-
ing villages who are recouping their personal losses by selling
fruit and bottles of beer or mineral water. Man\' of them

AKKI\AL Al Ffc.klN>.

1^2

PEKING

also jingle handfiils of silver ten-cent pieces, crying,
"changee dollar, changee dollar! " and to our surprise they
gladly give eleven Japanese dimes for every Japanese or
Chinese silver dollar ! The Chinese regard only the bullion
value of precious metals — they know full well that there is
more silver in one big dollar than in eleven little dimes.

We roll from station to station, each one more miserable
than the last, on across the fields of towering maize or sor-
ii'hum stalks with tlir \\\ c parallels of trlcgraph poles to keep

PEKING !

us company, until after five hours of interesting monotony,
there rises before us — as suddenly as if it had been thrust
up from the earth — the great South Gate of Peking. The
west end of its curving roof is partially wreck 2d ; otherwise
the portal is intact, and to right and left stretch the mighty
walls of the Chinese city. But the train does not even hesi-
tate at sight of the frowning walls ; to our amazement it
rolls on as if in a revengeful fury it would batter down that
range of medieval masonry, behind which has always lurked
so much of ignorant pride and supercilious superiority. We

pi:ki\g

33

brace ourselves for the expected shock of colhsion ; — but no
shock comes. A^aiii we lean far out and look ahead ; and
looking we see that which our generation scarcelv hoped to
see — a locomotive rolling triumphantly through the breached
walls of the Celestial Capital ! The isolation of Peking
is ended ; that breach w ill never be blocked. It does but
figure the deep cut in China's national pride — a cut that
never will be healed. With a loud shriek of jov the locomo-
tive sweeps proudly across the vacancies of Peking's great

ALLIED OFFICERS AKRIVINC. IN THE I I KIVATK CAR

southern plaza — an enormous waste place so broad and long
as to appear like a suburban wilderness, belted by walls,
blotched with miry ponds, and glorified by a flood of sun-
shine, pure and dazzling above, but, near the ground, yel-
lowed and actinically attenuated by that wonderful dust-sea
in which Peking appears to be submerged to the depth of
three or four feet. A moment more and our train halts at
a platform before the very gate to the Temple of Heaven
converted for the moment into a railway terminal station !
Think of it ! The unapproachable, inviolable Temple of
Heaven, dehled by the smoky breath of the Iron Horse.

154

PEKING

Any doubts that we are really in Peking are set at rest
by a signboard, — bearing the word " Pekin " — to which we
take exceptions because the pronunciation of the name calls
for a final "G. " It is Pe-king' and not Pee'kin, the railway-
company to the contrary notwithstanding. Still, the railway
administration should certainly be well qualified linguistically,
for another interesting signboard tells us the ' ' Railway Staff

RAILWAY STAFF OFFICER

EISENBAHN STABSOFFIZIER

OFFICIER DELETAT-MAJORDE

CHEMINJE FER

IIEJlt3H0-AOPO}l[HAfl
IIITACJHblMjDltlMHEPb

UFFICIALfl CAPO |^

THAT ALL MAY KHAD

Officer ' ' must not only answer to his title in English, he
must also know that he is '' Eisoihcilui Stabs Offizicr,''
'^ O Meier de V Elal Major dc Chcmin de Err," '\A'/-
yc2)io Dorojnaya Slaonic Ofiztcr,'' '' UJficialc Capo
SUi//o?ie," and several other things, in Japanese, Chinese,
and Hindustanee. And all these various tongues are not
glued to the printed board, they are wagging wildly in the
mouths of the mixed multitude assembled at the station, the

PICKING

D5

polyglot chorus dominated by the endless and persistent sing-
song of Celestial speech — interrupted only by grunts of pain
as the stick of a British-Indian sentry falls on the bare bony
back of some too eager native.

Sons of the Heavenly Itmpire have meantime seized our
twentv-seven boxes, cameras, and tripods, and are now
engaged in solving the Chinese puzzle, — how to stow them
all into two Peking carts.

The Peking cart has furnished many an amusing chapter
in tales of Chinese travel, but although we have had our first

\

A PKKING CART

impressions of it discounted by description, we find it still, as
it has always been, one of the wonders of the earth — and
it is of the earth earthy, despite its sky-blue canopy. Its
favorite garb is mud, its best-loved haunts the ruts of hope-
less roads — its sole ambition, to show how far over it can
lurch without capsizing, and its only pride, its indestructi-
bility. Onlv the Pekingese know how to enter into and
enjoy the Peking cart. Foreigners find it impossible to get

1^6

PEKING

aboard without instruction or example, such as is furnished
us bv a lady of the Manchu clan, who may be seen in an
illustration. She gracefully glides in, stepping up, turning,
sitting, and then sliding backwards on the inclined floor to a
position just above the springless axle. She sits there, tailor
fashion, her children on either side — her lord and master
taking up his position where one shaft joins the body of the

.01. N(; VP TOWN

cart, while the driver perches on the other shaft, whence he
can prod the mule at his ease and dangle his feet in the dust
cloud raised by the yellow wheels.

The point of view enjoyed by the passenger is more or less
peculiar, as will be proved by a glance at a picture made
while sitting cross-legged under the arching canopy of my
first Peking cart. To me the mule looked more like a kan-
garoo ; it even appeared to make tremendous leaps, but this

PEKING

159

was an illusion
caused by the sud-
den droppinj<s of
the cart into the
cracks or mud-
holes. Then, too.
the passing pan-
orama, framed by
the awning and
the mule, f^ave me
much the same
impression as a
very jerky mo-

THK PASSENGER'S POINT OF VIEW tlOn-piCtUre prO-

jected by a shaky cinematograph — this effect is due to the
cruelly continued jolting of the cart, painful not only to the
eyes, but to every fiber of the foreigner. For the Peking cart
is absolutely springless, and the Peking pavement resembles
the debris of an avalanche. It seems as if the cart itself were
imbued w^ith the spirits of ten thousand Boxers ; it boxes
you up, it boxes you down, it gives you upper cuts and

i6o

PEKING

A BRIDGE

left-handers, knock-out blows
and ^^eneral punishment,
and every blow as
if by I>oxer magic
seems to attain
the solar plexus.
One's first trip
in a Peking cart is
a veritable voyage
of discovery, — dis-
covery of unexpected
kinks in one's own mortal coil.
But seriously, the initial experience is attended by actual
pain ; so rough are the pavements and so racking the
jolts of the springless car of Juggernaut. I made attempts
to soften the shocks by riding on the hands, thus lifting
the body from the Hoor, but
in vain ; every now and
then up comes the
floor, giving the
shrinking pas-
senger a blow
that more
than compen-
sates for all the
little shocks to
w h i c h he has
managed to rise si
perior. It is not
sible to rise with success to

the trot of this two-wheeled mustang. The victnn crawls
out from the Peking cart, stiff, racked, and riven, but rich
in a new experience of which he is reminded every time he
lifts a hand or moves a foot, or sits or rises or tries to turn

fi:ki.\(;

i6i

the head. Forewarned of this, we deferred the experience
just described until our hist day in Pekin}<, and wiselv took
jinrikishas, recentl}' introduced, for the long ride to the hotel.
W'e formed almost a caravan, three rikishas for ourselves, one
for a British soldier who had volunteered to f^uide us, one for the
cameras and breakables, and two carts for the heavy bagj^age.
The Peking streets are either submerged in a sea of mud
or buried in a Sahara of ^"ellow dust. We find them an

CHIEN-.MEN STREET

unhappy combination of bog and ash-heap. "Indescrib-
able " is the word that best describes one's first impressions
of Peking ; other words that help a little are "bigness,"
" busy-ness, " "desolation," and "dirt." Signs of the
times are seen on every side, — the "signs" are in English
and German, and refer to soda-water, beer, and cigars.

The main thoroughfare, the Chien-men Street — bisects
the Chinese City from south to north, from the South Gate,
11

l62

pi:KiN(i

where the railway enters, to the Chien-nien, the principal
^^ate in the wall separating the Chinese from the Tatar City.
This j^ate, once one of the most fanious and familiar features
of Pekin.i^. is now in ruins. The formidable lower walls are
still intact, but the elaborate superstructure, with its red
pillars and its great roofs of tile, was swept away by the fire
started by the Boxers in the adjacent commercial quarter.

the rich shops of which were pillaged during the confusion.
Thus the most conspicuous landmark of Peking presents an
unfamiliar and significant aspect to the arriving traveler.
The Chien-men is in fact two gates, separated by a bu.sy
court ; but ere we enter it, our ))rf)gress is imi)ed(<l for a
moment by the opposing stream of Peking traffic so .Asiatic
and so picturesque. Only the magic of the motion-picture
can reveal the peculiar fascination of the scene. The

PEKING

if>?>

camels, carts, and wagons
tilled with tribute rice having
tiled by and disappeared in that
low-lying ha/e of golden dust,
we pass through the first arch-
way and hntl ourselves in the
broad court between the gates,
where surrounded by gigantic
walls lies the busiest of all the
busy cross-roads of Peking, the
whole wonderful scene envel-
oped in a deeper, denser, more
tawny flood of Peking dust.
Signs of the times again on
every side ; above us is the
ruined tower of the gate, where
gallant Reilly fell while shell-
ing the Imperial City ; on the
left we see a little railway-car
belonging to the Emperor's
private train, in which he used
to go careering round the gar-
dens of the Winter Palace.
It stands now in this conniion
court as a shelter and resort
for connnon folk. It would
not be here had it not proved
to be one of the rare lumps of
loot that were too bulky for
successful abstraction from the
city. Through the second
arch we make our way, strange
sights calling our gaze in all
directions ; then turning to the

THK PASSIM. TllKONl

164

PEKING

right we find ourselves in Legation Street. It is a trim, well-
ordered, and official-looking avenue, strangely un-Pekingese.
What foreigner can \nok upon that thoroughfare without
emotion ? For sixty days it held the anxious attention of the
world. The gaunt forms of Death, Torture, and Horrors
Unspeakable strode up and down that avenue, then isolated
— cut off from the world as thoroughly as if it had been

•UNKRAL CORTEGE

swallowed ujj by tlie l^ood of barbarism that was beating with
cowardly fury round the walls of the legations.

A mile dash over the new, smooth pavement of this
resuscitated street and a turn to the left brings us into the
Ha-Ta-men Street, where we are crowded into the ditch by
a funeral procession ; but this we do not resent, for the pro-
cession is spectacular and worthy of the right of way, and
the ditch leads to our hotel. The only hotel in Peking,
in 1901, was the Hotel du Nord, established soon after the

pi:i\i.\(;

167

occupaJoii of thu city, by a German, who had brou<(ht his
crockery. siippHes, bed-clothes, and "boys" from Tien-Tsin
on a fleet of fourteen river-junks, in the wake of the Allied
Armies. The proprietor himself is on the threshold rebuk-
ing a drunken German soldier who has just smashed two
jinrikishas after brutally kickinj^ the coolies, because, in fear,
they had refused to serve him — knowinj^ from experience

HOTEL DV NORD

that their only pay would come in the form of kicks. Simi-
lar occurrences were pitifully common.

The entrance to the new caravansar\- is not Waldorf-
Astorian in splendor. In fact, the courts and buildin.i^s now
occupied by the hotel were formerly the precincts of a pawn-
shop. The German hotel-man was saved the trouble of
movinfj^ out the pled<jes — the noble army of international
looters looked to it that nothinj^ of consequence should be

i68

PKKIXG

left to litter the apartments of the future Hotel du Nord.
But we find the old traffic in brocades, bronzes, and cloi-
sonnes proceeding nierril}- in the first court, where merchants
gather every day to sell to tourists rare old curios, their
manifolded values justified by the whispering of the magic
but misleading word "loot." There is little good loot left
in Peking. Look for it in Bond Street and Fifth Avenue.

The rambling groups of low, one-story buildings that serve
as sleeping-rooms are scattered round about what looks like
a small vacant lot or courtyard, — called a "compound."

To cross that "compound "at night requires careful pre-
liminar\' calculations, for there are no lights to guide us
between the slimy little lakes and the hills of empty bottles,
or past the logs and carts and rubbish with which the

pi:kin(;

169

THE HOTEL "CO.MI'CHM

monotony of the compound is diversified. These are, how-
ever, matters of no moment to us ; we come from comfort-
less Siberia. Moreover, the cuisine is marvelously good,
well worth the four j^old-dollars charj^ed per day ; and our
rooms, or rather, separate little houses, ranged about a
brick-paved, mat-roofed court, are fairly clean and comfort-
able, though at times damp enough to merit the epithet
"soggy." As for the service, there is no end to it.
"Boys" of all ages Hit by do/ens past our doors. carr\ing
water for the Anglo-Saxon tubs, polishing militar\' boots and
chalking canvas shoes, pressing and repairing clothes, and hus-
tling tardy laundry-men. One is well waited upon in China.
Being at last housed in tolerable comfort, having dined
excellently well, the fatigues and cares of arrival are for-
gotten, and there comes the imperative desire to sally forth
to see in what manner of a city we are, and in what quarter
thereof we are lodged.

iro

PICKING

In the contusion and excitement of our hurried ride from
the station to the hotel, we had noted httle save the oppres-
sive distances and the all-per\a(Hnj4 (hist. The streets of
Peking demand a chapter to themselves. The chapter
should be written with a fountain-pen that would flow mud,
and trace disgusting characters upon such crumpled scraps or

OIR KOO.NTS AI TlIK HOTKI- Dl

rags as would be rejected by the picker, and then the dust,
born of the mud, should be sprinkled on to blot the writing
lest it tell too much. The main streets that stretch from
gate to gate are as broad and dusty as deserts, or as wide
and wet as oceans, according to the weather. The narrow
intervening alleys are usually nothing more than fetid ditches.

im:kin(;

I r I

Our first experience of Pckinj^ streets was such as to
impress itself forever on the memory. We had arrised in
the late afternoon by the com])aratively smootli and well-
traveled streets that lead Iroiii the railway terminus to the
legation quarter. The night came on darker than pitch
before we had time to venture out in search of first impres-
sions. Peking was new to us, and we could not sleep until

A I'KKIM. I'l nm.K

we had made more intimate acquaintance with its thorough-
fares, and sniffed its oriental smells. " lUit no one ever
ventures out at night, "' they tell us. " Why ? —is it danger-
ous.^ " we ask. "No; there is not the slightest danger.
The Chinese are completely cowed ; but there is absolutely
no ])lace for vou to go : the city is dead, and the streets are

172 PEKING

empty, iinlighted, and impassable." "Splendid!" we
exclaim ; "no danger and no lights ; no people. Peking by
night all to ourselves! Magnificent!"

"Accordingly we order three rikishas, three men to every
rikisha, and set out to cross the silent savage city and present
our letters of introduction to one of the missionaries of the

THE IIA-TA <;aTK

American Board whose address is so remote and so indefinite
as to give to our projected outing the character of an explor-
ing expedition into the depths of darkest Peking.

It is impossible to suggest by means of pictures made by
day the impressions of that ride across Peking by night in
utter darkness. Despite the superlicial dustiness, we find

I

PEKING

W5

A THOROIGHI ARI-:

that recent rains have rendered the streets ahiiost impass-
able. At hrst our human horses found a httlc terra hrma by
hugging the walls, where at least one wheel would find a
track, while the other wheel was lifted by the perspiring

i;4

PEKING

helpers o\er abysses that looked bottomless. I state it as
a sworn fact that several times when it became necessary to
cross the street, we tiaretl not attempt to do so until a man
had been sent out with a sou }nUui>- pole to discover if there
were a practicable ford across the thoroug'hfare at that point !
To prove that this is not a too fantastic statement, one of
the pictures shows the difference in level between the miildle
and the side of one of those streets. . Imagine the upper
road reduced to a ridge of almost fluent mud, as it would be
in wet weather, — and the lower channel flooded as it is
invariably after a heavy rain, — and you wnll agree that the
)Hivis^'alio}i of the Peking streets by night is not without its
difficulties and dangers. And then the bumps! — the ups
and downs encountered even on the firmer border-strip that
serves as sidewalk, and is usurped b}^ the rikisha coolies.

ThK VVAl.KINi; IS WET

PICKING

^n

Iniaf,Mne hoverinj^^ in a rickety two-wheeled chair, in the
blackness of ni;;ht, on tiie brink of a inu<l-]ioie that may l^e
bottomless for all that you can see for as a rule you
cannot see at all. Sometimes the rikisha drojjs s(juarely on
two wheels with a sharp jolt on firm level ground ; some-
times it sinks in yieldinj^ clay up to the axle ; sometimes
one tire strikes a rock and the other splashes into a pool
of slimy ooze, from which the passenj^er is saved as if

by miracle, the coolies plungin,^' in up to their knees and
"boosting" the vehicle along until dry land is gained.
These are not extraordinary incidents. We stopped count-
ing similar hair-breadth escapes long before we reached our
destination, which was the "' Fh " or palace occupied by the
American Board of Foreign Missions. The houses formerly
occupied by the agents of the board had been of course
destroyed bv the Boxers, as one of the preliminaries of the

12

178

PEKING

1 ^®.

iy

BHifefei^^^^

outbreak — the missionaries and their native converts taking
refuge with the other foreigners in the legations.

PEKING

iSi

THE BLDDHA OK THK l.A.MA TK.MI'l.K

W'u knocked
repeatedly at the
uiili;<}ite<l, teiii-
ple-like pc^rtal of
the Fu. At hist
an old Chinese
appears, lantern
in ha n d . We
gather that the
man we seek is
not within ; but
as we turn to go,
a cheery voice
hails us, and from
out the darkness
of the street
comes Mr. Stelle,
returning from an
evening visit to
another mission.
A long, intensely
interestinjr talk of

BUDDHIST PRIKSTS

lS2

PEKING

recent misfortunes, struggles, and victories and of noble
plans for nobler future battles with ignorance then a return
voyage in our jinrikisha, as eventful as the hrst.

We visited a few days later the site of the annihilated
mission. There we found heaps of gray brick ^ — all that
remains of the many costly and commodious buildings.
Who can blame the men who have seen the results of their
life-labors reduced thus to heaps of charred and broken
brick, for taking possession of the neighboring palace of a
Tatar Prince, who was one of the chief instigators and
backers of the Boxer movement ? It is but justice that those
who have lost all through the criminal connivance of the
princes with the lawless element, should be sheltered by
the verv roof beneath w'hich schemes were hatched for the

AT THE TEMPLE OF CONFUCIUS

pj:king

i«3

WITH i.u.y ]■]■}■]

destruction of the " foreij^n devil. " Meantiine the princelv
owner of the palace is traveling- "for his health " in the remote
interior provinces. We hear it often urged against mission-
ary efforts, that China has a religion of her own. suited
to her people, — that foreigners should not interfere with
their beliefs. As for Buddhism, in the abstract it is jjeautiful
— but to what depths of degradation is it not sunk in the
Celestial liiiipire.^ There it is represented by a horde of
ignorant, lilth\ priests, droning in the dilapidated temples,
looking with hungry eyes at the inquisitive foreigners whom
they pursue with savagely insistent demands for offerings of
money. Pla\ ing upon the abject superstition of a populace

1 84

PEKING

more ignorant than themselves, these shaven-pated Lamas
are among the curses of the land. If one would be convinced
of the utter demorali^^ation of the priesthood of Gautama's
faith, let him visit, as we did, the great Lama Temple in the
far northeastern corner of the Tatar City, and study there the
inane, vicious visages of the "holy men." It is like enter-
ing the haunt of birds of prey — now frightened into harm-
lessness. but retaining all the instincts of the vulture and the
buzzard. Within the temple a Buddha — big as the Jupiter
of the Acropolis — rises in its disdainful immensity above the
petty thievery and fraud committed in his sacred name —
a new curl of disdain added to his almost supercilious lip by

.MANCHU WOMKN

i'i:kixG

I.S:

the memory of recent depredations practiced bv the invad-
ing Christians, who have carried off innumerable artistic
knickknacks from his shrine. But even those who have no
sympathy with mission-work confess that IJuddhism has
betrayed her trust in China — that Taoism has sunk to the
level of fetish-worship, and that Confucianism is not and
never has been more than an influence, tending at first to a
higher hfe, but now become the chief impechmeiit to the
intellectual emancipation of four hundred million people. If
one would know that there is no life in things Confucian, let
him visit as we did the abandoned Temple of the Great Sage,
and feel the chill of death that broods in those somber and
forgotten courts. Even the irreligious must admit that
China needs a new religion if only as a ))ii'(i)is of escape
from the thralldom of tradition.

A cruel thralldom it is, that of Chinese tradition. One of
the most painful proofs is — the martyred feet of Chinese
women. Revolting to the foreign eve, the so-called " Lilv

'• COME AWAY, CHU.DRKN '

i86

PEKING

Feet" are deemed both beautiful and fashionable b\- four
hundred million Asiatics. What matter the sufferings of the
child ? her baby feet wrapped in the crippling bandages
during the years of growth, — bandages that are folded
tighter month by month as the violated little foot strives to
assert its rights to live and grow — making childhood one
long martyrdom of intense, never-remitting agony ? What
matter the inability of the crippled woman to move without
a twinge of pain? She is a Chinese woman, and Chinese

A PEEP-SHOW

women must have "Lily Feet. " The very walk of the Lilv
Footed lady — a stilted, uncertain toddle — betra}'s the
suffering resulting from a simple promenade. Some cannot
walk at all without a cane. And in this cruel custom she
persists, despite the good example set by her sisters of the
Manchu race, the wives and daughters of the confjuering
Mongols who subjugated China three centuries ago, imposed
the pigtail on the men but did not take the bindings from the
feet of women. A Manchu woman is distinguishable not

FANTASTIC SIGNS

PEKING

189

only by her bi;^^ natural feet, shod ahnost hke the feet of men,
but also by her curious coiffure, a fanciful arrangement of
the hair ri\alinj^ in fantastic outline the capillary architecture
of the Japanese mousme or of the maiden of Moki Land.

Impression-gathering in the Peking streets is a delightful
occupation. I cannot conceive of anybody being bored in
Peking. For him who has eyes to see and ears to hear and
a nose to smell there is, in the language of the continuous-

A PAU.OVV NKAK 1 llli CHIEN-.MEN

vaudeville advertisements, "something doing every minute. "
The conmion. continuous passing throng is in itself enough
to hold the attention for hours at a time ; and to vary its
marvelous monotony of brown body, blue trousers, and
upheld paper fan, there are the vehicles, of many sorts —
the low carts laden high with military supplies, drawn by
small ponies, driven by half-nude teamsters ; the familiar,
but ever-astonishing passenger-cart, with its blue arched

igo

PEKING

roof, its taut-stretched awning, shielding mule and driver,
and its yellow wheels, tired with corrugated metal and thus
equipped for the eternal task of filing deep grooves in the
Peking pavements for other wheels to deepen, until the
stones be cut in twain, and the roadway reduced to the Chi-
nese ideal of what a road should be ("good for ten years and
bad for ten thousand," runs the proverb) ; the frail jinriki-
shas, modern competitors of the perennial carts, with their

A BKIDAL-CHAIR

unhappy passengers, swaying and clutching at nothing as the
bare-torsoed runners pull and propel the quivering vehicle
over the rutted granite-blocks and through the ab\'smal
puddles ; the ambulances of the foreign armies, trim, well-
equipped and, by contrast, stylish, serving as carriages of
state for the commanders ; the loud-voiced native wheel-
barrows, squealing their woful song, uttering the mortal com-
plaint of the poor dumb human brutes who push them : —

PEKING

191

all these wheeled thinj^^s <^^o by as we stand watchinj^ and
watching beneath one of those strange street arches known
as '^ paiknvs, " memorial structures erected in honor of some
great or good personage of whom we never heard. Nor is
this all, for in that ever-passing river of unfamiliar things, we
now and then distinguish awkward dust-colored masses,
moving slowl\-, rhythmically — they are the ships of the Asian
deserts, fuller-rigged apparently than those of Africa, for the
Mongolian camels are shaggy as lions. Then suddenly a

mStt ■^^^SrV m^

iiHI^BkH' J

I<

'^^j^^^nEt ' ^ ^

/

• " . . ■:^^^^^^^H

»^

f

N', I ikk I \i

A SfiNTKNCK

glare of scarlet flashes in the crowd — it is a bridal-chair,
borne swiftly toward the house of some expectant bride-
groom, by carriers in festal garb ; or, again, it is the somber
green of an official chair, the equipage of one of the few
princes left in Peking to parley and make peace with the
intruders ; or, turning once more to those who pass on foot,
we see a miserable man wearing about his neck the heavy
wooden collar of the criminal, which frames his haggard
face, while upon it are pasted written papers, relating his
offense. Meantime the uniforms of seven allied nations add
spots of red and blue and khaki to the kaleidoscopic crowd ;

192

PEKING

and finally, to give a comic climax to it all, there dashes past
the one unique conveyance of Peking, the contrivance of a
foreign private soldier — a pony harnessed to a rikisha ! and
in Occidentalized Orientalism, that ingenious lad in khaki
threads the maze of Peking — looking for all the world like a
Norwegian peasant in a cariole!

The street life of Peking being so fascinating and dra-
matic a spectacle, it would seem a waste of time and money
to patronize the theater. Yet we found it well worth while,
if only for the sight of the half-nude audience perched on the

1 1

' w^'^^^i^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^l

iLi's

, ' -'^^

mli

IN THE THEATER

comfortless seats — narrow benches without backs, no more
luxurifjus than a string of carpenter's horses. But the Celes-
tial has at least a few good practical ideas ; he is sensible
enough to take off his loose and scanty clothing when he
attends the theater, while we put on our tightest and most
cumbersome apparel. The play may be the thing — but in
Peking as in the San Francisco China-town, noise is the only

pi:kix(}

•93

tiling (iistiiif^uishable to the dazed foreigner; the din of kom^s
and cymbals is so loud and thick that one can almost srr it.
F'rom tragedy upon the staj^e we may turn in our swift
shifting of Oriental scenes, to the passing of a spectacular
funeral-procession. The hired mourners and attendants,
arrayed in soiled and tawdry finery, carrying gay parasols

N TAWDRY FINERY

and baldachins and banners, precede what looks to us at
first like a compact group of football players in the throes
of a protracted struggle. It is, however, only what is best
described as a "gang" of pall-bearers, working in two
shifts, for the cotTin under which they struggle weighs more
than a piano and the streets through which they advance so
painfully are, when good, more than ankle-deep in mud,
and when bad, bottomless. Were they to drop their burden,
a premature interment would take place then and there !

194

PEKING

One of tlic pleasantest of our experiences in Peking
was our brief acciuaintancc with Mr. I. (". ^'anJ4", a Chi-
nese gentleman. Mr. Yang, as the sign before his door
announces, is a manufacturer of aerated waters. He is also
proprietor of the largest general foreign-goods store in the
Tatar Citv. We were introduced to this progressive manu-
facturer and merchant hv the commander of the American

1 UK PAI.L-Bh.ARKkS

guard, whom Mr. Yang had served as interpreter on several
occasions during the critical period just closing. He speaks
English perfectly. In talking with him we forget his nation-
ality, and speak to him of " the Chinese " and " the natives, "
as if Mr. Yang himself were of our race, not theirs. He is
one of the few Orientals who seem to understand the Occi-
dental point of view. He devoted several days of his valu-
able time to showing us about the town. His cart and

1'i:ki\(;

195

saddle-horses were at our disjxjsal, his servants ran errands
for us, and when he had not time to }<o with us, he sent an
intelli^i'nt interpreter who "rikishawed ' with us ami talke<l
for us as willinj^ly and enthusiastically as an old friend. We
had but to express our desire to see or do a j^iven thinj^, and
arranj^ements were made at once. Do we care to investij^ate
a i)awnsh()p ? Mr. Vanjj^ is stocklujlder in one of the incjst

A.N KLABOKATE CATAFALQUK

prominent loan-establishments, and we are invited to take
tea with the manaj^ing directors, in whose office we experi-
ence for the first time some of the curious forms of Chinese
hospitality. Arrivinj^ hot and dusty from the glaring streets,
our host greets us with a steaming towel, freshly wrung out
in hot water, which we press to our faces, finding much com-
fort in this kindly custom. After the towel has made the
complete round, tea is brewed in beautiful porcelain cups

196

pi:king

MR. YANG

with covers on, the covers beingr used to
hoUi back the leaves as we sip the
fragrant infusicMi. Wedges of water-
melon are then driven into what
remains of our thirst, and finally,
beinj^- thoroughly refreshed, we
are escorted to the court, or
compound, where the choicest
articles belonging to our Chi-
nese ' ' uncles ' ' have been spread
out for our inspection. We
select a few distingues snuff-bot-
tles of jade, crystal, or cornelian,
— all of them (piaintly beautiful,
but none of them (|uite equal to one
that had caught our fancy in the office.
We ask its price and find that it is price-
less, for the owner refuses to sell it, but at the same time

sMftA-'-

!|^|^^

l^i^;^-'- ■■ - -

■*fc. !
■ ^

mm

HE

IK

H|. ^' P^^^^^l

i^>

^^■^^^^^i^ftsjj^

A l'l<Oi,rl-.K(JI S I'AW -N-.SllUl'

PICKING

199

refuses to let us f^o away without it — he forces it uj)Oii us
as a ^ift ! The temptation was too f<reat — we accepted it.
Then follows an invitation to dine at the best surviving;
restaurant in town; I say "surviving" because few of the
fashionahk- establishments lixcd thr()u;4h the siege. There
for the first time in our lives we eat a complete Chinese
dinner. It was a revelation ; new flavors, new gastronomic
sensations ; a cuisine utterly unlike our own, but no less
highly developed — no less indicative of culinary skill, experi-
ence, and genius. I cannot tell }'ou what we ate perhaps it

llOSPI lALl 1 Y

would not sound quite appetizing ; in fact, we did not ask
— we were content that nearly every dish was novel and
delicious. I tasted here the most e.xquisite meat-flavor that
has ever appealed to my palate. It was associated with a
dainty slice of mutton, streaked with fat, but so much more

200

PEKING

THK PROPRIETORS

delicious than any meat morsel I had ever eaten that it
seemed as if I were tasting- some new, unknown kind of food.
The secret of its preparation I could not learn. We ate, of
course, with chop-sticks, long wands of ebony ; to clean them
there were paper napkins, three inches square. Innumerable
courses were brought on in confusing continuity. We tried
one strange creation of the Chinese chef after another, and
then went back to the beginning of the nu'iiu for "just one
more" walnut fried in sugar, and one more lotus-bulb, or
slice of pickled egg. As beverages there were hot tea and
warm rice-wine, the latter poured from heavy pewter pots
in form like tea-pots. To our surprise we lived to digest
the dinner and tell the tale — and to regret that Celestial
culinary skill should be handicapped by a disregard of clean-
liness that would have shocked us had we not been fresh
from the unwashed table-services of Siberia.

pi:kin(;

lOl

A CHINESE DINNKR

Anotlit T Pekingese — a teiiijK)rary
resilient — who shows us
much kindly courtesy is
a well-known corres-
pomleiit whose dis-
patches to the As-
sociated Press and
R e u t e r ' s Agency
keej) tile English-
speaking world in-
formed of what is going
on in Peking. He has
adapted a Chinese house of the
middle-class to the needs of a fastidious bachelor, and dwells
amid his books and papers, quietly, as behooves the man

2o:

PICKING

whose profession is to iistcMi to histor\- as it is niadc, and to
transmit what conies into his ears to expectant millions — ■
who discnss it over their morning coffee on the other side of
the globe. Despite the fact that Peking boasts the oldest
daily paper in the world, tlu' otruial /\ki)/i^>- G((~clU\

I'KIK'I AMA I ION IIV I UK I'OKHIl.N IJKVII.S

local journalism does not appear to be flourishing. The
newspapers of Peking are found upon the walls in the form
of placards — the latest proclamation being a warning from
the new governor to those who are attempting to reawaken
animosities, just as the late unpleasantness is drawing to a
close. "Whereas," it read, "foolish men have stirred up

pi:kin(;

20:

strife and attacked the foreigners, calamities have heer
brought upon our people, therefore refrain, etc." liut the
proclamation that w ill be longest remembered was the one
posted by the Allies after the occupation of the city. For
the first time in the history of the capital, the Pekingese
were addressed directly and authoritatively in the name of
the government of the despised foreign de\ils. This e.\-
traordinary proclamation related to the Pekingese in very

GATK-HOLSK OK THE AMEKICAN LKOATIUN

2o6

PEKING

moderate and sober terms how the}' had been wicked,
wrought havoc, and brought punishment upon themselves ; it
informed them that foreign troops would occupy their city
until tranquillity should be restored, and it warned them that
any future indiscretions would be even more severely dealt
with. These historic posters were printed in the ordinary

THK OFFICIAL CART

Chinese fashion from a large wood block on which the com-
plicated characters are cut by hand. The impressions are
taken laboriously by pressing big sheets of paper upon the
sculptured board which has been smeared with ink.

If there be one place in Peking that interests us more
than another, it is the Legation of the United States. As we

MINISTER CONGER

fi:kixc;

209

THK WATliK-GATl-; lUROLLiH WHICH I'HE FIKSI ul IHK KliLIEl-' 1-OKCli liMEKl-U

approach the gate-house, we note with interest the significant
cuts and scratches made so recentlv bv Chinese bullets. But

2IO

PEKING

little dainaj^f was done here, for, as is indirated 1)\- the hori-
zontal slashes in the brick and mortar, the hail of lead came
from right and left, from the barricades thrown up b\' the
Boxer assailants at the extremities of Legation Street.

In fact, in August, 1901, one year after the siege,
there is little to remind us of that period of terror. Lega-
tion-life goes on as calmly and luxuriously as of yore.
Even the women do not hesitate to ride abroad in the official
pea-green cart. Peking is daunted, the Boxers are for-
gotten, and, for the present, to be a white man or woman
is to command respect, and to inspire fear — in fact, to be
almost a god in the eyes of the disgruntled natives, who have
had at last a lesson that has made an indelible impression.

^ . 1

Maijj^.^

UAi.i. ()!■ r HI-. i;i; i iisii i ij.a i i

Jf • -.'.■"5

ri:Ki.\(;

213

We can scarcely realize that a few months before, the cf)urt-
yanl of our Ic.i^ation, where we now stroll about with one
who was "anion;^ those present, " was under almost con-
tinual tire. Had not the gallant little band of defenders, led
by Me}ers, taken and held the section of the Tatar Wall
immediatelx in the rear of the lej^ation, the place would have
been untenable. Our minister, Mr. Conger, was one of the

towers of strength and courage during that awful period.
One of the women who lived through the siege assured us
that a word and a smile from Mr. Conger did the hungry
defenders as much good as a beefsteak, that his cheery com-
ments used to make palatable even the polo-pony cutlets and
other war-time table luxuries. We found that people in
Peking who know and value Mr. Conger were amazed at the
criticism directed against him b}' a portion of the press at home.

214

PEKING

PROCLAMATIONS

Although the American Legation was ne\'er abandoned to
the Boxers, its inmates took refuge in the British com-
pound, which was surrounded by a stouter wall. Moreov^er,
the British Legation was more commodious ; it was farther
from the city gates where the Chinese guns were mounted,
and it fronted on a canal which served it as a moat. A
glance at one corner of that improvised fortress shows how
severely it suffered from the effects of shot and shell. Sand-
bags still lie thick on the top of the wall, telling of the defen-
sive industry of the besieged — and there uj^on the seared and
riven wall some thoughtful survi\-or of the siege has traced
the words, "Lest we forget."

pi:ki\(.

At t'\tr\ turn we note reminders of the struf(j<le — stones
chipptd 1)\ shells - the scattered debris of recentls' deinol-
islu'd barricades and the scaffoldinj^s of buildinj,^s in recon-
struction, for the surroundinj^ (|uarter. save the buildin^^s
innnediately adjacent to the center of the defense, was utterlv
destroyed by incendiary tires. The property loss was enf^r-
inous ; the loss in life ainon;; th(,' Europeans, about three-
score. It seems incredible that the legations should have
withstood for hfty-six days the combined attack of the mobs
and of the military forces of the Chinese government whose
cannon dominated the entire foreign quarter. It would
appear that ha<l the ("hinese dared to make a real assault
before the defenses were developed, the legations cmild liave

IN THE BRITISH CO.MPOIND

2l6

PEKING

been taken in a day. But the braggart Boxers were content
to ban.i^" away from the security of barricaded walls, and to
assemble iniiltitiidfs in the surrounding streets to terrify the
foreign devils witli their insistent cries of " SAa, sha f '
"Kill, kill!" If crying could kill Christians, Chinese Chris-
tendom would be to-day depopulated — for the melodrama of
the siege was played to a demoniac chorus of murderous cries
and nuitterings from a fanatic populace.

The defenders need no eulogy, their deeds speak for them.
Men who were men, and women who were more than men —
dared and suffered and fought and lived when it had been
far less laborious and far less brave to die.

The defense and relief of the Legations occupied so com-
pletely the public mind that little attention was given at the

\ I \-i . \ I IIIN l-:l,Sllll'Ml.,

PICKING

219

tiiiu- to tlu' separate sie/<e and ultimate tardy deliverance of
the Pei Paii^, the Cathedral and Mission of the I'rench
Catholics. L'nder the direction of the venerable Hish(jp of
Pekinf4, Monsei^neur I^^'lvier, the Catholic tlock, to the num-
ber of ai)()iit three thousand, hrld at hay the hostile poj)ula-
tion of Peking for two lon^ months ; for the siege of the
Pei Tang began before that of the Legations. Moreover,
relief was later in reaching that faithful band of French
Feathers, Sisters of Mercy, and tlieir helpless charges and
con\erts, the Chinese women and children, who thronged
the spacious buildings of the Catholics' vast enclosure. P"or-
tunatel}- a military guard had been sent to them at the last
moment, — thirt\' P'rench and ten Italian marines; — and with

IHK WORK OK SHOT ANO SHKI 1.

220

PEKING

the forty rifles thus providentially secured, the Pei Tan^
Christians prevailed against an army and a mob. The
church was bombarded continuously for twenty-four consecu-
tive days, durinj^- which time more than two thousand shells
and cannon-balls fell within the mission walls. They were
called upon to defend more than fourteen hundred meters of

THK PEI TANG

walls ! The enemy used every means, save courage, to
compass their destruction. A forlorn-hope of priests and
wounded marines, led by a bishop, made a sortie, and actu-
ally took a cannon from the despicable enemy. Burning
brands were shot over the walls ; but the resulting fires were
extinguished by the weary, watchful, famished defenders ;

PliKING

'.2 1

EFKECT OF A MINE KXl'lOSI'iN

ONE OF THE SISTI

PICKING

breaches made by the Chinese, who were countless, were
blocked a^ain by the Christians whose number hourly ^rew less.
Then mines were laid, and despite the efforts of the
defenders to meet them with counter-mines, four of them
were successfully completed and exploded with horrible effect.

SITE OF THE ASSASSINATION OF

We never before realized what could be done by the
explosion of a subterranean mine ; but one glance at the
^apinf^ crater near the Cathedral f^ave us a thrill of horri-
fied amazement and of indignation. We saw a ca\it\ \)V^
as a house, markinj^ the spot where one of those artificial
volcanoes, made by the cunning Orientals, had vomited
death and destruction, annihilating the hospital of the Sisters
of Mercy, killing and mangling more than a hundred people,
including hft\-three sick native children. Subsecjuent explo-
sions caused a total of four hundred deaths !

pi:KiN(i

223

At the Pei TaiiK, woincii wltc in the iiiaj(jrit\ ; l>ut. as
one of the sisters said, when \se expressed surprise at this,
"Yes; there were many women; that in itself was an ele-
ment of strength, it gave more courage to our defenders. "

The shattered and defaced Cathedral is, however, being
rapidly restored ; many of the laborers iKnv shaping the new
stones or reshaping the old ones, being the very Hoxer
fanatics who a year before were battering down its walls.
Although it was on Sunday that we visited the Pei Tang, the
chisels were playing their industrious staccato round about
the house of worship ; and ere long the imposing facade will
again dominate, with its Christian emblems, the rebellious
pagan city whose citizens love not the sight of it.

Peking will not be without conspicuous reminders of the
futility of her attempt to cast out the hated alien.

The restored splendor of the Catholic Temple ; the great
memorial " Pailow, " erected in the Ha-Ta Street at the
cost of the Chinese government, to mark the site of the

THE NEW HERMAN BARRACKS

224 PEKING

assassination of the German Minister ; the new railway-sta-
tions in the shadow of the Tatar Wall — these structures bear
witness to the fact that assaults upon the representatives of
the foreigner's religions, governments, and enterprises, can
a\ail nothing" : cannot but bring humiliation to the Pekingese.
But even more significant to the eyes of the now pacified
population of Peking is the new aspect of the legation-
quarter, for it has been transformed into an international
fortress. Germany has erected spacious barracks for five
hundred men in an enclosure that is practicall}' defensible ;
the United States has provided similar quarters for a hundred
and fifty men. Other nations are preparing to garrison
Peking with what is virtually an army of defense — under the
euphonious title of "Legation Guards."

Western Civilization has profited by the lesson of 1900.
^^'ill China profit by the lesson of 1901 ?

HHT HO rlZHdMAO MHZ/II HHT '^^

7Tp ;/:acKiia^.o^ ^^j-p^,

X rin-. INKKK (GARDENS O]' TIJI^;
FOKHIDDICN CITY

m

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

Forbidderv
Cit;y

PEKIN'G is paradoxical. It is one of the uj^liest cities
in the world — it is one of the most beautiful. It is
hideous, stjualid, abject, and it is at the same time lovely,
magnificent, and glorious.

Looked at from the level of the toiler in the filthy thor-
oughfares, Peking seems an interminable sprawling village,
semi-ruinous, poverty-stricken, unspeakably dilapidated.

\'iewed from the massive towers of the City Gates, from
the broad ramparts or from the once prohibited and semi-
sacred artificial hills in the Imperial City, Peking reveals

228

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

SIDE ARCH

THE CHIEN-MF,N

" Son of Heav-
en, " the Peking
of the Celestial
princes, and im-
perial ministers
— the Peking of
the privileged and
semi-sacred few.
Peking is planned
upon a grander
scale than any of
the world's great
capitals.

Our cities have
grown and spread
haphazard ; and.

itself to the ama/ed onlooker as
a splendid wall-girt metropo-
lis, perfectly preserved,
fabulously elegant, in-
credibly artistic, unut-
terably superb.

We have already

seen the Peking of

the miserable

many, formerly

the only Peking

known to the alien

intruder. We are

now to see the once

invisible Peking of the

rm, !•< )Ki;ii)|)i:n crrv

.^i

mtm

having waxed rich, plans have been devised to give them
beauty and symmetry, these plans being invariably sub-
servient to the existing streets and structures.

Ihit Peking has developed within the
rigitl limitations of a plan designed
to emphasize the in\iola-
bility and sanctity ^^
and glory of the Im- -^

perial Person. The builders of Pi-
king hrst c'vohed a plan, then in strict
accordance with it the Celestial City was
created. The center of that plan is the Dragon
Throne of the Son of Heaven, Emperor of the
Middle Kingdom, ruler o\er four hun-
dri-'d nnllions. .Vruund that throne

A PKKI.NG PARASOL

232

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

are ranged the palaces of the I'^orbidden City: — an isolated
parallelogram of splendor, shut in by jealous walls of purple
hue, having a circuit of two and a quarter miles.

Outside of this, on four sides of the square, are spread
the leafy groves, the lotus-lakes, the islands and the parks,
the hills and the shrines, and the aristocratic dwellings of the
Imperial City, — a spacious enclosure, irregular in form, sur-
rounded in turn bv a wall that has a circuit of six miles.

Beyond that wall lie the wide precincts of the Tatar City,
the vast, nearly square Manchu metropolis, bounded on four
sides by a mighty wall, fourteen and one-fourth miles around,
of inconceivable massiveness, rising like a mountain-range of
geometric outline between the inner desolation that is Peking
— the stronghold of the Manchu masters, — and the outer
desolation that is China — the toil-cursed land of a subject
race. F"rom this wall, which is about fifty feet high and has

I'ANUKAMA OUTS

Till-: I'OKr.IDDllN ( ITV

233

a Icvtil suiiiinit forty fcc-t in width, huf^e buttresses are
thrown out at intervals of sixty yards.

To north, east, and west the level, well-tilled country
stretches away toward the Great Wall, the seashore, the
mountains, and the desert ; but alon^ the south side of the
'I'atar citadel lies another walled wilderness of houses —
another parallelogram of S(jualor and splendor. It is the
Chinese City, nearly as vast and populous as the Tatar City,

E SOUTH GATE

for the slightly less-imposing wall, that, branching from the
corners of the Manchu fortifications, completes the defenses
of this great enclosed suburb, is ten miles long.

Thus the ramparts that enclose the dual city have a total
length of nearly twenty-five miles. And in the creation of
these walls, and of nearly all things within them, the builders
have kept always in view their relative position to that of the
Dragon Throne, in the innermost Forbitlden City.

234

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

INSIDE THE TATAR WALL

INVADING RAILS

Tin- I-nixM'II)l)l..\ ( \'\'\

235

The throne is in the very
axis of the two cities;
the principal gates
in the great walls
are in that same
axis - the axis
itself being rep-
resented by the
chief thoroughfare
of Peking, extending
trom the South Gate
of the Chinese Citv to the

AMKRICA ON GLARt)

2^6

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

THK HA-I A l,A r I

SOL'TUWARP KKOM TIIK IIA-TA (,ATK

THE forbii)I)i:n city

239

successive gates of the " prohil>itc(l " rej^ion, whence it is
continued by the stone-paved approaches that lead through
countless other gates and ccnirts to the flights of marble
steps that ascend to the "Hall of Highest Peace," within
which, raised upon a dais of red and golden lacquer, rests
the central object of the Celestial Capital — the Imperial

FROM BRITISH INDIA

Chair of Manchu majesty. Until the foreign invaders, in
1 90 1, broke down the barriers of tradition and penetrated to
the very heart of this unseen abode of the Invisible, it was
one of the world's mysteries, guarded by the world's most
wonderful walls. But quite as wonderful as the old walls,
quite as epoch-marking, and cjuite as significant of conquests

240

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

INDIAN TONGAS

and of changed conditions
are the British rails that
are now being laid by
stohd native toilers
in the shadow of
the medieval ram-
parts. Through
the breach, near
the Ha-Ta gate,
express- trains
from St. Peters-
burg will glide
within a }ear or
two. A passenger-
station is now building

A BI.IK-IILKU IKMl-LK

THE forhii)I)i:n city

241

^^^M^^

irninediately behind the
American le^'ation, but
separated from it by the
Tatar Wall; and although
the Empress has several
times ordered the tracks
removed and work upon
the buildings stopped,
Imperial orders appear
to be of no avail ; the
road is in Peking to stay.
Peking is already a Trans-
continental Terminal ; it
awaits only the organi-
zation of through serv-
ices. Sleeping-cars from
Paris will erelong impede
the passing Peking bar-

A MANCHU FAMILY

16

242

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

rows, those clumsy, creaky bicycles of Cathay, and the Mongo-
lian camels will soon become accustomed to the locomotive.
At the Ha-Ta j;ate we may ascentl a ramp that leads by
gentle inclines to the summit of the wall, whence we look
southward into the Chinese City. It appears like a wilder-
ness of roofs, low and irregular. There are few landmarks

THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE

rising above its dull monotony, save the monstrous walls that
bound it, the towering city-gates, and the Temple of Heaven
isolated in a vast silent park, one mile square, in the south-
eastern quarter. That sacred enclosure to which no for-
eigner had been admitted for many years, served during the
occupation as the military headquarters of the British. It
was at the time of our visit, in 1901, the camping-ground of

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

!45

the Beii^'al Lancers. Hut bciiif^ white men we pass freely
ahnost everywhere in PekinJ,^ The British-Indian troopers
invariably salute respectfully ; white soldiers j^ive us ri;^'ht of
way, and the Chinese are still too frif^ditened to protest at any
profanation of their sacred places. We follow a lonj^ shaded
avenue that leads us to a graceful, blue-tiled temple, resting
on its marble base like a lacquered jewel casket upon a stand

IN THE SACRED PARK

of alabaster. Though sharing the neglect common to all
things Pekingese, the shrine is wonderfully well preserved,
its beauty possibly enhanced by the green things that are
sprouting from the roof tiles and from the marble pavement.
Directly south of it rises the most sacred altar in all China,
the "Altar of Heaven," where the Emperor, surrounded by
his court, makes annual supplication to the only power that
he regards as higher than himself. The altar, like the

246

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

^^^trn'-^'j^i

I Hli ALTAR UK

1 111'. I I'-MI'l-K AN

THi: i'()K'I'.ii)I)i:n citv

247

THE ALTAR OK HEAVEN

!48

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

courtyard, is paved with marble slabs, the central disk being
regarded as the very center of the universe. Formerly as
inaccessible to the ordinary mortals as the north pole itself,
this unique spot now feels the daily touch of foreign heels and
the soft tread of barefoot Chinese coolies, who attend the
desecrating visitors. And as we stoop and look intently at
that marble disk, we find to our amazement and amusement

I HI-: II-.MPLK OF HEAVKN

that a "Tommy Atkins" autograph is scratched there on
the stone that marks the Middle of Creation ! Nearby we
find a group of metal braziers and a sort of furnace, still
choked with the half-cremated carcass of a sacrificial animal,
the odor of which offends even our rikisha runners.

llll', I'ORIilDOKN CnV

2;i

KXyLlSlTE DKTAIL

The rikisha men of the
l)reseiit are eiijoyin}< un-
ilrcaiiK<l-fjf privilef^es. They
are always eaj^er to be chosen
as camera-bearers for these
excursions into the forbidden
regions, yet they are half
afraid to look on these thinf^s,
lest on the return of the Im-
perial court they be punished
for having dared to violate
with the gaze of common
men the holy places of the
capital.

A similar marble con-
struction, called the ' 'Altar of
Prayer for Grain, ' ' rises a few
hundred yards to the north ;

it is crowned by
a three-roofed
temple, the most
beautiful piece of
architecture in
Peking. It is
called the "Tem-
ple of Hea\en. "
and though the
cult to which it
is dedicated is the
most ancient re-
ligion known in
China, the tem-
ple itself was built
onlv ten \ears

A MAKVkLwLS CtlLlNG

2^2

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

ago, to replace an earlier structure that had been destroyed
by fire. Exquisite indeed are the details. The ceiling is
one of the most elaborate and beautiful I have ever seen ;
the rich and harmonious decoration of the walls prove that
Chinese art is not yet dead, that Chinese architects and
painters have not failed of their artistic inheritance from

AN AKIISTIC STAIRWAY

the masters of the olden time. Nor have the Chinese sculp-
tors lost their cunning. Witness the delicate treatment of
the marble balustrade, the strong pictorial treatment of the
huge marble slabs that break the stiff lines of the four stair-
ways of approach. These decorative panels are not, how-
ever, merely ornamental. They form what is called "The

Till': i-()Ki;ii)i)i..\ ( irv

253

BKHIND THE TK.MPLE

liiiperial Path
for the sacrc<l
feet (;f the ruler
who III list not
tread the steps
like ordinary
mortals ; " the
Son of Heaven "
ascends the in-
clined marble
plane, trampling
upon the carven
draf(ons. And
Nature, too, has
done her part
to beautify this
place of worship,
where prayers
are breathed for
fertility and in-
crease ; for she
has planted, with

GATE OK THE TEMPLE OK AGRICfLTURE

254

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

rare discrimination, bouciuets
of green at just the proper
places to soften the geomet-
rical rigidity of this charac-
teristically Chinese composi-
tion. And lest the pictures
^ fail to convey an impression
of the isolation of these altars
and temples and of the vast-
ness of the secluded park in
the midst of which they stand,
let me repeat that they are
separated from the haunts of
men by walls which have a
circuit of four miles. But

THK STARS AND STRIPES

'ini: I''()KP,ii)1)i:n crrv

255

those walls are, of course, within the cit\' walls of Fekiiif^, as
are also the walls surrouinliii^ the iieif^hhorin^ "Temple of
Agriculture," which served (iuniij^' the occupation as the
American military headquarters. We find there r)nly the
legation guard — one hundred and tifty men of the Ninth
Infantry, ready, however, to vacate the sacred buildings on
the completion of the new barracks in Legation Street. The
Temple of Agriculture is another of the forbidden places of
Peking ; its spacious precincts were sacred to the Imperial
Son of Heaven, who came here every \ear to put his own
hand to the plow, to turn eight furrows as an e.xample to his
people. His ministers then emulated the Imperial act, thus
setting the seal of official approval upon agricultural pursuits.

2;6

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

We come to this heretofore unseen place of rites and
secret ceremonies to take tea with the wife and daughters of
the American commander, who have improvised a home in
the most sacred temple.

SACRED BARRACKS

It seemed a very simple matter to roll in here in a riki-
sha, and in the course of conversation to ask Major Robert-
son for a permit to visit the Forbidden City guarded by his
men. But as we ride away with the coveted paper in our
possession, we realize that what we have already done and
are about to do in Peking, are things which a year before no
foreigner would have dared to dream of doing. The traveler
who reached Peking in the first year of the twentieth century

riii: i"()Ki;ii)1)i:n ( rrv

257

was fortunate indeed. Uoors that had been closed for
hundreds of years, stood open. The empty mysteries of
Peking's palaces and temples were bared to the j^aze of any
man who caretl to peer into the dark recesses of a past that,
shrouded in the dust of aj^es, had never ceased to be the
present. In China we find the anomaly of a present that is
in reality the past — and of a past that still remains the
present. The thou.^ht is vague and — since we speak of
China — most appropriate. \'agueness is a Chinese charac-
teristic ; even the streets of Peking are vague — so vague that
sometimes children lose their lives by falling, unnoticed, in-
to abysmal mud-
puddles. Were
you to judge Pe-
king after seeing
only its dirty
streets and tum-
bledown con-
structions, you
would probably
declare it the
most hideous and
repellent city in
the world. This
is a misconcep-
tion, based upon
a too minute ac-
quaintance with
insigniticant de-
tails. True, the
thoroughfares are
not in perfect or-
der, nor are the
dwellings kept in

2;8

THE fori^ii)1)i:n city

good repair ; yet, as I have already said. Peking in certain
aspects is the most lovely city in the world, a paradise
of beauty, verdure, and niagniticence. In the Inij)erial
Park the muddy sloughs give place to lotus-ponds ; the
crumbling gates to graceful marble bridges, the dingy pai-
lows to green-tiled gates resplendent in lacquered coats of

IN Tlir-: I.MPKRIAI. CITY

many colors, while monuments of strange undreamed-of
forms crown graceful artificial heights, and offer points of
vantage that command entrancing views. Among them is
one of the loveliest vistas that I have ever beheld - a vista of
the Lake of Lotus and the Marble Bridge -a bridge of

THi: i"()Ki;ii)i)i..\ CUV

261

spotless marble spanninj^ a sea of j^reen, where waves of lotus-
leaves are flecked with the white foam of lotus-tlowers. Soft
outlines, luxuriant \er(hirf, and luxurious pavilions complete
the j)icture, and help it to blot out from memory the horrid
vistas of the sordid streets so near and yet srj far removed
from this enchanted rej^ion.

The eye can turn in all directions without meeting an
ugly outline or an ungraceful curve. Peking viewed from
above appears supremely and completely beautiful. More-
over, it appears to be, at least from certain heights, not a
city at all, but a carefully groomed forest. We are amazed
to see how many trees are hidden in the courtyards, invisible
from the streets ; revealed only to the privileged spectator

N TIIK IMPKKML CITY

262

THi: FORBIDDEN CITY

who surveys the city from points where in other days only
princes were supposed to stand. The most conspicuous
height witliin the walls is called the Me Chan, or "Hill of
Coal,' for it is said to be a heap of coal accumulated there
by the Emperors of old as if in preparation for a siege. No
one has yet sunk shafts in the reputed carbon pyramid to

1 \(F1 111 Till- Mill

determine the truth or falsity of the tradition. Upon the
summit is a paxilion which is in a direct line with the north-
ern and southern gates and the long range of Imj^erial
palaces ; this pavilion, formerly inaccessible, connnands a
superb panorama of the Forbidden City. The purple-walled
Forbidden Citw with its innumerable structures, roofed with

TH1-: i-()ivr.ii)i)i:N t:iTv

265

bright yellow tiles, with its \ast, complicated, yet symmetri-
cal groupings of palaces and halls, j^ates and temples,
covered corridors and isolated courtyards, is one of the most
mar\'elous, most fascinating,', and most mysterious enclosures
in the world. I say "mysterious," but it is so no lonj^er ;

N(IK I IIW AKIi 1-KO.M 1 IIK COAL HILL

its mvstery is no more ; it evaporated in the smoke of
Reillv's j^unis ; but its beauty, splendor, and fascination
remained to delight all who were fortunate enough to reach
Peking during the days when the gate to the Forbidden City
was held by the Ninth U. S. Infantry, successors by right of

266

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

NIN I K 1 M A N I K ^ , I . S. A.

ini: i-()Ki;ii)i)i:.\ ( ri^

20;

conquest to the Chinese Imperial Ciuaid who formerly l(ji-
tered at the threshold toying with obsolete weapons.

War brought strange doorkeepers to the palace of the
Son of Heaven. Who would ha\e dreamed, a few \ears
ago, that permits to visit the Forbidden C"it\ oi Peking, then

NORTHWEST ANGLE OF THE II Kl

never violated by foreign intrusion, could be had in 1901 on
application to an officer of the Ninth U. S. Infantr} ?

But before we present our permit let us glance once more
at the imposing ensemble of the Imperial citadel as it appears
to the spectator standing by the curious urn-like monument
that crowns the hill upon the island in the Lake of Lotus.
The approach to the Dragon Throne leads through a long

268

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

series of gates and courts, beginning with the hrst yellow-
tiled portal on our extreme right. It is a gate to the Impe-
rial City, as is likewise a second of similar construction ; the
third is the main portal to the innermost enclosure, called
"Forbidden. " Then follow, always in the axis of those
marvelous parallelograms of the double city, a series of great

LIKK WAVES OK YELLOW TILES

halls or audience chambers behind which, on the left side
of the picture, are the gardens and family temples of the
Emperor. The private apartments are in the low buildings
adjacent to the western walls. (See illustration opposite.)
Bearing this plan in mind, we approach the outer gate
through the middle arch of which the second gate is visible.

-

■•H,4:l 0

r

\

1

. -fTr ^

M

4

i.

i«

^w

y,-. ^ ^rl

i
1

- ''fc

(■.

1

r ... « 1 a

Till, !•( )Kr.Il)I)l.N ( 1 TY

Let us advance as ra[)i(ll\ as possible, for the ai)i)roach is
lonf(, and we have still many hundred yards to }^o before we
reach the next iinposin;^ portal. How splendid in conception
was this scheme for lending awesome di^^nity to the Imixrial
dwellinf^-place ! The lonj.^ wide courts are, even in decay,
tremendousl}- impressive. In olden days the ambassadors of

Ml KMAi IIIM, TIIK FORBIDDEN CITY

China s tributaries — Korea, Mon<(olia, and Tibet must have
felt that they were indeed approachinj^ the abode of the ver\-
Master of the Universe. The second portal loses naught of
its impressiveness as we draw nearer ; if anything, it seems
more lordly and forbidding than before. From fantastic
sculptured colunms of white marble, cloud-shaped wings

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

A lAMASl IC lil^ASI

Stand out, their flut-
terings fixed in mar-
ble— strange of form,
immobile, unalter-
able, and age-worn,
like the thoughts of
the Chinese. Mar-
ble bridges curve
gracefully over an
empty moat ; seared
war-stained walls,
the color of dried
blood, rise to a half-
demolished marble
balustrade whence
reddish pillars spring

AN l.VlfOSINO APPROACH

1 111. l"()KmiM;l.N (..11 V

27

/ D

ONK OF THE MANY OITER GATKS TO THE FORBIDDEN CITY

to the upholding of a double roof, covered, like all the
roofs of the Irnpi^rial buildinj<s, with tons of heavy yellow
tiles. But underneath all this we may pass freely and

THE GREaI GATE OF THE FORBIDDEN CITY

2 76

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

MAkBLK STAIRWAYS

Tin: i'()Ki;ii)1)i:n c nv

277

find ourselves in still another court - at the far end of which
rises still another K'lte, similar to the last, but hij^her and
flanked by wings and towers, all of which show the marks
of foreif^n shot and shell. Awed b\' the savage, frowning
splendor of this "Gate to the Invisible, " we draw near to

ENTRANCE TO THE FORBIDDEN CITY

2 7S

TH1-: FUKl'.Il)l)i:X CITY

demaiui culinission, wondcrin.i; what inaiiiu'r o{ .i^uardian will
confront us at the low tunnel-like portal. We should not
have been surprised had we been repulsed by a monster or a
dragon. Xo sentry would be too fantastic (n- too terrible
for such a portal — and yet there stands a sentry too fantastic
for belief — no grinning", awful creature, no awe-inspiring

giant, but simply a smiling, tired looking, khaki-clad Hoosier
boy, who hails from some unknown little town on tiie banks
of the Wabash, very far away. But there he stands with
power to admit and to exclude, for the time being virtually
dictator of the situation, in absolute control of the palace of
the Emperor of China, who claims to be the Son of Heaven,

THE I<'()kIUI)l)i:N ( IT\-

!79

and master of the lives and destinies of a third part of the
inhabitants of the earth. IJnt, as the sentry tonlidentialls'
informs us, "It 's a darn dull job ! "

Beyond this j^ate another court, with marble bri<lj.(es,
terraces, and balustrades. monotonousU' like the bridges,
terraces, and balustrades we have already seen. This is the

;T COIRT OF THK KORHIDDEN CIT^

first court of the Forbidden City, the threshold of mystery,
the verge of the unseeable. Even now this court is neutral
territor}' between the Ainerican and Chinese lines ; for while
our soldiers command the outer gate, the inner gate is held
by the servants of the Emperor, left to care for, and, if pos-
sible, to protect, the sacred palaces. They hold the keys and

28o

THE FOKr.IDDF.N CITY

keep the doors jealonslv closed, but arc compelled to throw
them open at the coininand of the American private who
accompanies all visitors. There is considerable delay ; the
sleek, uncanny personages in imperial employ are evidently
distressed at the th(Mi.i;ht of another profanation of their
secluded stronghold by another band of prying, inquisitive,

A BEAST OF BRONZE

uncontrollable "barbarians." Nevertheless, needs must.
The huge door, with protesting creakings, is at last swung
open and the eunuchs with fawning smiles offer us tiny cups
of fragrant tea which we accept with some reluctance.

We are amazed at the cordiality of our reception ; but in
the words of the American private, "These here ducks are

Till, I ( )Ki;ii)i)i..\ ( [\\

2X^,

THE EUNUCHS SERVING TEA TO VISITORS

RKKRKSHMRNTS AT THK liATE

2S4

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

so glad that we ain't murdered 'em that they always treat
our folks tine. "' Preceded by two Imperial officials and fol-
lowed by a group of those tall, timidly effeminate retainers,
we make our way through court after court, mounting more
marble stairways, passing through a succession of stately
audience-halls, descending other stairways at the rear — until
it seems as if there were no end to this Forbidden City.

IMPERIAL SERVANTS

And to our surprise, there is no center, or rather, there are
three centers ; for the throne which stands in the midst of
this secluded city is not unique, it is triple. There are three
great thrones, rising like ornate altars in the religious dim-
ness of three vast temple-liRe, and almost vacant halls of

'1I11-: 1'()Ki;ii)1)i:n en v

2S;

AN AIDIKNCK-HAI.L

A (VW II.ION

2SS

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

audience. Through the tirst throne-room we pass, only to
tind ourselves in another stone-paved court, bounded on the
northern side by a second huge impressive structure, be\ond
which lies another court, upon which a third throne-hall
looks down. In each court}"ard are floods ot shimmering
sunshine, a<^itated bv the heat waves rising from the grav

WRACK AND RUIN

stone flags and the white marble terraces ; and on four sides
the gracefully majestic upward sweep of those splendid curv-
ing roofs, sheathed in their time-defying armor of enameled
yellow tiles ; in each hall of audience the dimness, stillness,
and coolness of a sepulchral cavern. This is the first impres-
sion. Then, as the darkness melts before the eagerness of

11 ii: 1'UKi;ii)I)j:\ city

2 89

our {<azL', \\r bcToiiic conscious of a host of lmf,'c columns of
reddish j^old. which, risin;; from a refuse-strewn floor, are lost
in the confusion of the car\en ni;;htmarc overhcaii, where
dragons writhe and threaten amid the sculptured beams and
rafters. Despite the impatience of the attendants we linger
to examine things hitherto unseen by foreign eyes.

N 1 IIKei.Nl-:

The hall is vacant save for the throne raised on an elabo-
rate platform, approached by several little flights of steps
bordered by railings of red lacquer. To right and left are
ornaments in gilded bronze and bluish cloisonne — incense-
burners, and vases, tortoises and storks, set each upon a
table or a stand of lacquer, ebony, or teak elaborately carved.

19

zgo

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

The throne itself is so delicately and so deeply sculptured
that it inii^ht almost be said to be the immaterial ghost of the
rare wood from which it was evolved by some unknown
chiseler, whose skill was equaled only by his patience.
Behind the most gorgeous of those seats of the mighty in one
of the three throne rooms, rises a screen of golden lacquer,
so exquisitely dainty in design and execution that it appears
to be a bas-relief of lace woven in threads of gold.

IN THE KMPEKOR'S GARDEN

But lest a wrong impression be conveyed, remember that
all these splendid things are old — not with the mellow old-
ness of time, but with the hopeless oldness of neglect. Pho-
tography is always kind to things that have lost their fresh-
ness,— from professional beauties to Imperial thrones, — and
these soiled and dingy halls appear in pictures as splendid as
when they were first built, three hundred years ago. But in

rm: i-oki'.iddkn cri \'

293

reality they arc in a sad conditioii. the rich soft carpets are
soileil and torn, covered with a hiyer of (hist and refuse sev-
eral inches deej) ; wild liirds nest amid the rafters and on our
entrance fill the dim t,iiita>ti<- \()id above us with their fri^dit-
ened fUitterinj^s. The lac(|uered railinj^'s of the dais are
cracked and broken ; e\erytiiin^ tells of a loni,^ period of

HKIIIMi Mil I !■ Mil 1:

abandonment and s^ross neglect. All this is not the result
of the foreign occupation. When the conquerors first
entered the F'orbidden City, they found it polluted with the
dirt of a decade and cursed by the nial-administration of the
corrupt palace officials. Only the gilded great thrones of
the Son of Heaven stand forth almost untarnished amid this

294

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

dilapidation. Would that Christendom when she was mis-
tress here in 1901 had dared to do right. Dared restore the
Emperor — who althouja:h younj; and inexperienced, had
tried a few years before to assert himself and to prove himself
a champion of progress — to his rightful throne ; dared to sur-
round him with wise, enlightened councilors, insuring thus the

TIIK AKOBE OF THE " SON OF HEAVEN"

advent of the reign of enlightenment and justice, that a new
era might begin at last for China. The emancipation from
Ignorance of four hundred million people should have been
the first indemnity claimed by the conquerors. But Civiliza-
tion, as we are proud to call it, is not yet thoroughly civil-
ized. The war which should have done so much for China,

Till-: i"<)Ri;ii)I)l:n city

295

ended with protit and dishonor to many of the victors, Ijut
with glory to very few and with histing benefit to none.

Behind that imposing suite of structures designed for piil)-
Hc ceremonies we find the private gardens of the; Mmperor,
rich in fantastic conceits — stones of odd shapes, lions, and
dragons of ferocious mien, beautiful ]^r()u/A- inceiisc-hiirners.

II'HKOK S in\ Kl I IS.

and curiously carved monuments and tablets. There is also
a tree said to be older than the palace ; it supports the
weight of its five centuries only by the aid of props. After
glancing into a temple so dark that we could scarcely dis-
tinguish the mob of deities massed inside of it. we are led
through man\" high-walled alley-ways and many yellow-tiled

296

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

gates to the private dwellings of the Emperor and of the
Empress Dowager. They consist each of a suite of buildings
glass-walled and transparent as acjuariums, surrounded on all
sides by stone-paved courts and covered galleries and cor-
ridors. Bronze phenixes and dragons, and gilded water-jars
and finely chiseled incense-burners, give to these courts the
air of a museum, while the interior rooms are furnished with
so many clocks as to suggest that His Celestial Majesty
Kwang-Su shares the passion of Louis the Sixteenth for
fantastic, extraordinary, and ingenious time-pieces. We
counted in one room twenty-seven clocks, and there were
four gigantic clocks on the adjacent veranda ; and doubtless
many of the smaller and more precious ones had been

1

■Ml

^^^^^H^

W -^

il^ - -^

SPLENDID BRONZES

Till-: I'(jki;ii)I)i:n i \\\

297

abstractcti or concealed in closets. We are alhjwed, or
rather we presumed, to enter the very sleepinj^-chaniber of
tile sacred I'^mixior. \\ C look upon the couch where he

SLEEPING-CHA.MUKR OK THli li.MPEROR

once dreamed his dream of an independent and progressive
reign, where doubtless he has tossed in the insomnia born of
disappointment and of the bitter consciousness of his ambi-
tious helplessness. We force the unwilling attenilants to
open a tempting little door that leads into a sort of play-
house,— a suite of tiny closet-like apartments, low ceiled and
cosy and mysterious, — a fascinating hiding-place for the now
childish, overawed, and will-less youth whose kingdom covers
one fourth of the habitable globe, whose subjects represent

298

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

one third of the earth's habitants. He is now Httle better
than a prisoner in the hands of that marvelous old woman
who for so many years has been in her own person the
Government of China. The private chambers of the Em-
press Dowager are far more luxurious than those of the
puppet ruler whom she rules.

Anni NCE-CHAMBKR OF THK EMPRESS DOWAGER

Still, modest indeed are her quarters as compared with
the unheard-of vastness and splendor of the seldom used
ceremonial structures which we have seen. Her boudoir is
a room of ordinary dimensions ; her bed is in a stuffy, airless
alcove ; and there is in it all a musty suggestion of the "spare
room ' ' and an absence of what would be termed comfort
by Europeans. The ornaments are chiefly clocks of foreign

1111. i'( )Ki;ii)i)i:N CITY

301

make. Of Chinese art-objects tliere are some that are mag-
nificent and some that are as tawdry as the things we see in
the common shops of Fckinj,'. 'I'hc onl\ really regal thing is
a broad cliair (ir dixaii upholstered in Imperial vellow. Yet
w^ithal We look upon this room with an interest keener than
that aroused by the most splendid of the public buildings ;

IRTYARD OF THK EMPRKSS DOWAl.KK

we realize that we are at the very heart of China, for this is
the abiding-place of the controlling mind. In yonder bed
the mistress of countless millions has waked as other human
beings often wake to wonder and to ask, "Why am I.
/ and not another.^" "How came I to be what / ani ?
On vonder divan the owner of the hugest earthly empire has

302

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

sought repose of minci, realizing as other mortals often do,
the unreality of earthly things. Between these four walls
has lived, loved, suffered, hated, schemed, and triumphed
the woman who has proved herself stronger and greater than
any man of all her nation, — a nation that doggedly clings to
the belief that women have no souls.

wai.i.I':d avknues

We leave the Forbidden City by the same route as that
taken when we entered, passing again the private gardens,
the stately temple-like structures, and the many courts which
lend to this Imperial abode its air of spaciousness and splen-
dor and of mysterious remoteness from the world of ordinary
men. But the mystery is gone ; the spaciousness has been

TIIL I'()Ki;iUl)i:X CITY

305

(>

THE NORTHWliST GATE

THE AMERICAN AMBII \NC:;

20

3o6

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

MONTANA MULES

measured and surveyed ; the splendors have been catalogued,
and the remoteness is appreciably reduced by the obtrusive
presence of the soldier-boy from Indiana standing guard at
the threshold that was once impassable.

But we must not forget that on the 1 7th of September,
1 90 1, the American detachment retired from the gate and
turned over to the Chinese troops the violated sanctum of

THK STONE ROAIJ TO THK SfMMKR I'ALACE

Tin: l'()Ki;il)|)l.N CITY

307

A blBURBAN VILLAGE

IHK Hill. OK TKN THOCSAND AGES

3o8

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

China, which has aj^jain become, though in a sense less abso-
lute, "forbidden" to the foreigner. Never till war shall
bring another foreign army to Peking, will foreign eyes look
upon its courts and palaces, save from the distant towers of
the massive city-gates, so impressively suggestive of the past
strength and glorv of the Manchu dvnastv.

w

Even at the time of our sojourn in Peking many of the
Imperial possessions were already closed to foreign curiosity
— among them the celebrated Summer Palace, Yuen-ming-
yuen, situated amid the foothills of a range of mountains about
twelve miles to the northwest of the Capital. Fortunately,
special permits are securec for us ; and one glorious August

PAILOW OF

THi: i''OKi;ii)i)i- N ( 1 1 \'

509

morning we start from the hotel in the Ha-Ta Street, in a
vehicle that is new to the Celestial City thorou{<hfares ; it is
an arm\-aiiil)iilance drawn l)\ four Montana mules, placed at
our disposal by Major Robertson, the connnanding officer of
the American guard. We are brought in safety through sev-
eral miles of the awful Peking streets, where the navigation

MMl-.K PALACE

of a high, four-wheeletl craft calls for a skill in handling
reins possessed only b\- men who learned the art of stage-
driving in the far Wild West. Such a driver is old Connors.
"Miraculous ' is the word that best describes old Connors'
cleverness in bringing us across Peking without upsetting us
a dozen times. We shudder everv time that we recall the

3IO

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

risks we ran at every one of the half-hundred rij<ht-angled
turns we were obHged to make in that apparently top-heavy
trap. But thanks to Connors' coolness, we slipped over
slumps, slid through sloughs, dodged ditches, descended de-
clivities, and, scaling all manner of obstructions, arrived well
shaken down but right-side up at the Northwest Gate of the

\KK OK Tlllv SIMMKK I'AI.ACK

Tatar town. Once outside the walls the way is clear and
smooth, a marble road extending the entire distance for the
comfort of the Imperial Court, which passes this way many
times a year. As we roll on across the peaceful, fertile
country in the swiftest vehicle in China, old Connors tells us
that it was his painful duty, while serving in the Philippines

iiiK 1"()Ri;ii)1)j:.\ ( i\\

313

with thi>; very anibulatice, to briii^ l);ick to catnp the brxl)' of
our f^alhmt Lawton after he had fallen, like the true soldier
that he was, in an attempt to help a wounded comrade at
the front. Stranj^e, is it not. to hu whirling' l)et\\een the
palaces of the Celestial ruler in this historic wa^on, so

THK IMPKKIAI. BAK<,K

uncompromisingly American, and so striking!}" out of keep-
ing with the lovely Oriental landscape ? But if the com-
mon countrv-side appears to us beautifully curious, what
words may we use to describe the object of our outing, the
Summer Palace of the Emperor of China. "Oriental,"
"beautiful, " "fanciful," "curious," "impossible." carry

314

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

not half enough of meaning to reveal the wondrously strange
charm of this world-famous site. Again the eastern adage
comes to mind, "Once to see is better than a thousand tell-
ings. " Therefore let me attempt to make you see with your

A PICNIC ON THE MARBLE JUNK

own eyes the quaint details of the assembled works of man
and the pure beaut\' of the surrounding works of Nature.
Quaintness, beaut}', and wonder are everywhere com-
bined ; — witness the curious Imperial barge of marble,
graceful in outline, and marvelous because it seems to float
as lightly as a craft of wood upon the lovely artificial lake.
Above, are grouped pagodas, temples, shrines, and summer
houses. Below, their tinted forms are mirrored in the

Tin: I'X)RP,IDDKN CITY

315

blue ; and just astern of the white marble marvel is a bridj^e
with curvinf^ roofs of tile, uni(iue in form, rich in coKjr, and
exquisite in workmanship. The junk, we are told, was the
peace-ofYerin^ of a corrupt naval official wh(j, discovered in
diverting appropriations for the building of ships into his
private pocket, built for the forgiving Kmperor an everlast-
ing ship on board of which the Son of Heaven could forget
his cares and, incidentallw the roguery of his officials.
To-day that colossal, conspicuous bribe given by the thief
to the very man whom he had robbed serves as a convenient
rendezvous for picnic parties organized by visitors who have
had the good fortune to obtain admission. We discuss our
fruijal niilitar\- rations there on the marble deck of the

A DM' IN FDKBIDDKN WATERS

3i6

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

Imperial barj^e, crowninj^ ourselves for the occasion with
gorgeous lotus-leaves culled from the lake in the course of
an anteprandial excursion in a rowboat.

Then we set out to climb the famous Hill of Ten Thou-
sand Ages, covered like the Palatine at Rome with palaces
and temples. But how unlike the Roman piles are these
unheard-of architectural forms ! How fascinatingly foreign
to the art that we inherit are the designs, the coloring, the

THK STAIKWAY

Till': i'()ki;ii)i)i:N crrv

3>7

noble enscniblf, and tlic luiivc details. Confused by the
multiplicity of stair\\a\s. terraced courts, and winding paths,
1 cannot see how best to reach the hei^^ht that is our K"'iK
and turning to our companion, a pious, learned missionarv,
I say, without wei^hin^ my words, "Which is the wav ?
You have been here before ; leafl on, you ou^^ht to know the
skyward course." His smile tells me at once that he is
quite familiar with the term "sky-pilot."

K \1- WONDKRI. \ND

i8

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

LOOKING TOWARD PEKP

LOOKING TOWARD THE MOIMAL".

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

319

I THE SUMMER PALACE

I THE SL.MMER PALACE

;20

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

Breathless with achniration and with exertion, we climb
the countless steps that lead up through this architectural
wonderland, until we reach the topmost floor of the paj^oda.
There what little breath remains is taken from us as our
^aze leaps out across the lake and lights upon the dainty

SOLTllWAKL) IROM Illli I'AOODA

BEI.OW THE PORCELAIN TEMPLE

Tin: i-()Kr.ii)i)i:N crrv

323

little island linked by a dainty hridf^e to the {^rcen fertile
shore. The beauty of the scene surprises us. We pictured
China as an u^ly land, — a land of graceless shapes and of
forbiddinj< aspect. But where could we find hills richer in
pleasing'' lines, greener in summer verdure, than the heights
which rear themselves there in the west to shelter Peking

THK PORCELAIN 1 tMl'LE

from the cruel winds of the adjacent Gobi Desert. We are
told that far up on yonder slopes there are delightful tem-
ples, buildings which are leased every summer from the
priests bv the Diplomatic people, who then fly to the hills
to escape dog-days in the Capital. There also on the nearer
crests are the pagodas and fictitious buildings erected to

324

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

propitiate the great Earth-Dragon and the spirits of the
region, to turn into fortunate channels the powerful influence
of the Feng-Shui, or wind and water spirits that bless or
curse the neighborhood, according to the reverence or neglect
with which they may be treated by its dw^ellers.

1^51

A FANTASTIC BRIDGE

Looking still farther to the right, we see, crowning the
Hill of the Ten Thousand Ages, the gorgeous Porcelain Tem-
ple, rival of the pagoda upon the balcony of which we stand,
but hidden by it so that we did not at first observe it from
below. And all these things are fresh and bright and new
in aspect, for the existing structures have been reared within
the last decade, replacing the earlier but no less exquisite

THE I-OK HIDDEN CITY

325

buildiii^^s that were dcstrovL'tl by the Alhes in the campaign
of icS6o. Within the Porcelain Temple, before the war of
1900, sat a colossal nuddlia cast in bronze. It was sur-
rounded by all the elaborate and costly paraphernalia of the
Buddhist cult. To-day the interior of the temple looks as if

N I 111'. RiK il-S

it had been the scene of an anarchistic outrage. The marble
casements are splintered, the ornate walls are seamed and
cracked, the pavement is a mass of debris, and the great
Buddha, overthrown, lies almost prostrate, his outstretched
finger barely touching the rear wall, as if the god in falling
had in some miraculous manner saved himself from mutila-
tion, by the outstretching of a protesting linger. All this is

326

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

THE IMPERIAL YACHT

BRONZES AND MARni.KS

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

329

the work of tlu; Italians who have rcvL-led in destruction
here, while the En-^lisii who ;4iiar(l anotiua- quarter have
scrupulously refrained from acts of vandalism, workinj^ off
their ennui, not in destroying thin<(s artistic, smashing new
plate-glass windows, ruthlessly ripping out the recently

1 in: MARBLE briD(;k (ji- i ni: simmi^k palace

installed electric \\ires, and making targets of the incandes-
cent lamps, but in rigging and sailing little boats upon the
peaceful lake. Tommy Atkins, if he lacks appreciation, at
least has respect for art ; but the art-loving sons of Italy
wreak their vengeance for the deeds of Attila and his barba-
rians upon this unprotected earthly paradise. Happil}", they
did not destrov the famous curvin^- bridge called b\' the u^lv

330

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

name of "camel back." It deserves a fairer name, for it is
the loveliest bridj^e in all the world. Its niarl)lc arch is un-
speakably beautiful ; it satisfies the eye as completely as any
of the architectural creations of the past. Even the Taj
Mahal and the Parthenon are not more perfect of their kind,
more true to the traditions of the arts from which they
spruuj^-, and of which they are the hij^hest, noblest products.
From ever\' point of view, the lines of this choice crea-
tion of Chinese genius, combine to form a Chinese ideograph
that should read "perfection." Let us not forget that there

THE STAIRWAY OK TMK MARHI.K HKIDGK

'iiii: roKiiii)i)i:.\ (vw

331

are perfect tliini^-^s in C'liina. Isolation, i^Miorance, perver-
sion, and suj)crslition liave snbnier^^ed sufferin;^ China in a
slouf^h of despond. l'>ut from its dcpttis, like lilies from the
mire of the lotus-ponds, rise these fair reminders of a distant

THK LOTfS-LEAVKS

age when China's civilization was the most perfect in the
contemporary world. China merits our pity and our sym-
pathy, not our contempt and ridicule. These misguided
people of Peking, whose streets seem yet to run with blood
as we retraverse them on our return (for the flooded ruts and
trenches reflect the gory glare of the sunset) did but attempt
to carry out what they believed to be a righteous crusade.
From the darkness of their medieval minds came what

THE 1-ORHIDDEX CITY

\\ i-S 1 SI Kir;

THK MAKIil.l-. liKlUGt:

THE FuRlilDDEN CITY

555

=?fe^^.

334

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

seemed a holy inspiration to cast out "foreign devils" and
to have done once and for all with these strange harbarous
folk, who by force and fraud were jiossessing themselves of

RKl'l.ECTIONS

the Chinese seaports — sending their spies and emissaries
up the courses of the Chinese rivers, and along the projected
railway-routes — desecrating graves — giving offense to })rcju-
dices older than history — portioning out the emj^ire — pre-
paring some vast scheme for the enslavement of the ("hinese
people. It cannot be denied that this was the point of view
of the uneducated masses. Horrible indeed the methods
they employed to rid themselves of tlie intruders -murder
of helpless children, torture of C'hristian women, slaughter of

Tin-: i'()Ri'.ii)i)i:x city

33 5

unaniu-el im-ii. lint all this \sas (Idiu; in tlu; iiaiiic of what
they deemed reli;;ioii and lo\r ct fatherland. Kcincnibcr,
deeds no less revoltinj^ were done in medieval Europe in the
name of C'hristianity. China is still medieval. The (Chinese
believed that the lioxers were inspired reli^^ious patriots and
that they were invulnerable. Man\- Pio.xers believed as abso-
lutt.'l\' in themselves as the one wluj allo\ve<l himself to be
shot in cold blood, saying that bullets could not harm him.
Others, by scores openly faced the fire from our barricades,
and, armed with fans, charged into the muzzles of Mausers —
not because they were brave, but because they were ignorant
and superstitious — they did not A'?/(>z,\ and they /n'/icrci/ a
priestly lie.

But China has been chastised. The armies of the world
have marched to Peking. l^arbarity has been meted for
barbarity ; for every eye and tooth, ten e\es and teeth have
been demanded ; for every life, ten lives. Losses will be
indemnified many-fold. But the real enemies, the txrant

CEl.KSTIAL ARCHl I KCTIRK

336

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

masters of the Chinese multitude, the chief inciters of their
passions have not yet been attacked in force. Thtir names
are Ignorance and Superstition. While Ignorance breathes
its dark breath upon the land, while Credulity haunts the
yellow brain, there is no hope for China. A few valiant
knights have been long in tiie field, the few well-armed,
heroic, and broad-mindetl missionaries who tight under the
common flag of education, spurning the vainglorious banners
of sectarianism, forgetting the strife-provoking details of
dogma. And until Christendom shall reinforce these noble
men, that the monsters. Ignorance and Superstition, may be
overcome, and that our yellow brothers may at last k)ioxv
and think, the duty of Christendom to China remains unful-
filled and our aggression shamefully unjustified.

La Superstition, chose aff reuse,

Cette fiile de I'eur, cette cruelle gueuse —

L' Humanity est son ^sclave,

Sauf ceux qui osent d' etre brave,

Qui osent penser au lieu de croire,

Croyant ciue ie supreme devoir

Est d' (^eraser ce spectre noir.

— E. Blrton Holmes.

I

s^ ^

- Y'

' vij '^

^■\/^

WV..

/

^\^^

-^t^:

^: ^

>

%_^

'^^ ii^

-v/

AA 000 274 552

.^-4