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Show LETTER FROM A WANDERER Former Logan Boy Now in the Navy Writes Splendidly of His Travels. The following Is from the pen of Charles itobcrtsou. brother of Mrs Wm. M. Smith, a- young man who once resided in Logan, ami Is well-known well-known to the ounger people especially. especial-ly. He writes from the far east as follows: I U. S. Concord, Third Kate. I I Canton, China, Oct 21, I noil. I Tho good ship Concord after making the usual cruse with the squadron of all the Important Chinese and Japanese Japan-ese ports arrived at Yokohama, where wc enjoyed a short stay, enabling those" who wanted to make a trip to Tokio The Concord was then detached from tho squadron and ordered to proceed to Chefoo, China, and prepare the target tar-get range for the annual practice of Undo Sam's good gunners We had accomplished all the duties assigned us, and wcie all looking forward for-ward to nothing better than a long stay at Chefoo until the cold weather und then a return to Cavlte, and many of us were wishing theConcoid would get stationed at some Japanese port Instead, as the cherry blossoms and maidens of Japan Interested us enough to make us wish to continue ourac qualntance longer. We had hardly become settled from our Fourth of July celebration when the unexpected orders to proceed to Tongu and give liberty to Peking arrived, and wc were all planning and borrowing to our limit for we had all heard and studied about Peking ever since we were old enough to remember, and now were actually going to see all the wonderful things we had studied about when we were kids, It-is only a short run fiom Chefoo to Tongu (the nearest port to Peking); In fact, we found no port at all, but simply sim-ply anchored as near In as the depth of the water allowed us, that being about llfteen miles out. It took a day for the paymaster to make arrangements arrange-ments and on the following morning at :'M a. m our chartered tug came alongside, the starboard watch was tlrst, so eighty-live wild and happy bluejackets were soon on their 121-mllc 121-mllc Journey inland to China's capital As we steamed in toward-Tongu, the forts that were destroyed by the, allied Meets In 1000 became visible, and as wc entered the river wc had a very good view or them, or I should say what remains of them, for they stand today Just as the shells from tho guns left them dilapidated and crumbling. Wo arrived at Tongu about 8:30 and then there was eighty-live hungry bluejackets looking forsome breakfast! some found It. others wero not so lucky, so tho unlucky ones could do nothing but loiter around tho station till train tlmo. It was here I saw my first. English compartment system of passenger coach, as all these railways are owned and operated to a great extent ex-tent tho same as In England. Our Journey from here was by rail, and somehow wc managed to get to Tientsin on a train much slower and more Inconvenlcut than tho Arkansas local. Wo arrived at Tientsin and laid over long enough to get on the outside of a good breakfast, leaving hero wo arrived In sight of the Peking wall abodt 4:30, and as I first looked at this wonderful structure I could not help but wonder how many men and years it took to build it, it beggars description, descrip-tion, so I will not attempt It; but Imagine Im-agine a mighty wall 100 feet, and In some places lf0 feet, high, whoso baso Is nearly as wide as the wall Is high und room on lop for eight horses to travel abreast; and at each gate a colored title roofed pagoda rising above tho top of the wall nearly Its own height again. Peking Is divided as everyone knows into four cities each, is surrounded by a separate wall, although the outer wall Is the larger. The outer eit Is the Chinese (Jit), next coming the Tartar Clt.v, next the Imperial City, and linallvlti the center of all the Purple, or Forbidden City. The railway rail-way enters the city through the water gate, the same gate that the American forces entered In 11)00 We were all glad to at last arrive, as the weather was very hot and tho dust was almost unbearable, so wo all hartl-ly hartl-ly climbed aboard a rickshaw and headed for the Hotel du Nordr, as per Instructions, and after a hath and good supper felt considerable hotter As it was too late to do any sight-seeing that night Iwe took in n circus (there happening tobeonc In Peking), and while It was poor as compared to thd circuses one sees hi the United States, It was a treat to, us exiles, as we had not seen anything In tjhat line since leaving God's country. Having mado all arrangements for our;uldo for the next day we all slept soundlyand were up bright .'and early next morning ready ;to see all that Peking offered us. Our guide could speak very fair En-gllsh, En-gllsh, bo was able to tell us a good many Interesting events connected with the different placesjwc were going go-ing to see, and It was from him I received re-ceived the Information and uses connected con-nected vlth the various temples that are described In this writing. As wc left the hotel the first place we stopped at was the Von Kettler monument, dedicated to the German ambassador who was murdorcd by the Boxers. 1c is a huge arch spanlng tho entire street with suitable words en-graved-nti'lt 'uT'e&mmemorato his memory. The LamaTemple. There aro fifteen temples in the grounds of theJLama temple, each oile dedicated to some special religious ceremony, and as these people are outside out-side the pale of the emperor's law, and are very antagonistic to all foreigners, we were allowed to see very little of the buildings, and only did seo tho lesser impoitaut by bribing the at tendants. The entire temple is presided over by a living Lima, and Jthls Is the only place I saw Chinese with no cues, all the priests bulng closely shaven. We saw only one temple building, the temple of the War God, he being ex-emplltled ex-emplltled in an Immense Josh of Teak wood about 100 feet inlhelght, with numorous Joshes of lesser importance, the tapestries Leing very gorgeous and I guess worth thousands of dollars. There was a prevailing odor of Incense and the guide told usj there wore always al-ways tho twojlghted candles and Incense In-cense before liltu. The carvings were something wonderful, and:;aroundJtho walls were to be seen , curious and anolcnt Implements war and torture that woro used bofora America was even thought of. The Confucian Temple. This temple was built and furnished by the great Chinese Confucius. Hero wc were taken Into tho Hall or Classics audsawthe marble slab J that Confucius Confu-cius wrote on, andherc;each emperor slnoj has strlvcd to write the same hand-writing. You can see the marble mar-ble tablets of each placed in a row all round the hall. Our guide pointed out some of the best and told us tho name of the emperor who wrote; but my memory being 'poor on remembering remember-ing names am unablo);to repeat thr.m. Wo saw the great hall where Conru-clus Conru-clus came to study atuP.sat In the chair used by him ou these occasions. Tho Examination Halls came next. These too woro founded byJConfuclus. They reminded me ofi a row of bath houses and are about;;as large. Hero all who wished to enter Jthe government govern-ment employ used to come and shut themselves in, rccolvlngi no food and very little water untli;the completion of the examination, which often lasted a week If he was successful a large marblo tablet was crcctedlto his honor stating tho clllclcncy of the examined, and for what degrco he was trying. This place rornlnded mo of an lm-menso lm-menso cemetery. There were, tho tablets erected to'all who'had hucccss fully passed the examinations for the past COO yearrs. Both of the above temples are never (Continued on Nth page) I, ROBERTSON'S LETTER H , Continued from 1st Hiiku H .tscd now, as the prcsiti I dynasty bo- H Ine; unfavorable to them and lias.il- H ! lowed them to fall Intodeca) and ruin H As you look at the vears and years Jc- M I -ummulatlonof dust, with the ancient B , .mil wonderful carvhiKsTind tapestries, H und listen to the guide telling of the H i different legends connected vvitli each, U ' jour mind unconsciously wanders back M the Arabian Nights rabies, and If a H I dragon came up through the lloor 1 H ylon't think he would seem out of H "place. H i Wcnovv continued onoui w,i toward fl tho Forbidden City, leaving the Tar- H tar City and Imperial City behind, we H soon came to Ian. towers In vyhlcli H from sundown to sunrise the) used to H keep tom-toms sounding all the time H 5 .-is a sign that nil was well H 1 ji riving at the wall of the Forbid- ! den t'lty we were compelled to stop, as this is the limit for foreigners, all (Jatcs being gaurded How ever, vvc had an excellent view of the Winter Palace Pal-ace as It loomed above the wall, also of Cole Mill Just out sidoof the Forbid-den Forbid-den ilty Here is where the Chinese emperors are carried to He In statu after death, It being the law that the emperor must be removed fiom the I'nrple City Inside of twenty-four houts aftr lie dies, and must He in state lOOdajs on Cole Hill before tin-ally tin-ally being taken to the tombs of his anccsters The wall surrounding the Forbidden city Is bounded by a moat about 75 feet wide and tilled with water to a considerable depth. It was completed tilled with Chinese water lilies all In bloom and was a very pleasing and refreshing sight after t tic dust ol the morning This completed out tour until aflei dinner, so we all went back to the hotrland dlnnet . . .. nrnnrlim. WW-IWllMllWiWUI' n piMMHp lllllpMWlim Temple of Heaven. The grounds of the temple of Heaven Heav-en are three square miles In area and embrace thirteen temple buildings. These giounds are well kept and covered cov-ered with large cypress and cedar trees, e'ich temple building Is surrounded sur-rounded by a wide moat whieh Is tilled witli water during the time the emperor Is here worshiping. He only comes here once eacl: yeai. The first building is the Temple of Abstinence. We all sat in the chair used on these yearly visits, and said to have been used by previous emperors for tlio p .st IW) j eats. The mountings of this chair are of Ivory uijri the carvings on It as well as on the screen that surrounds sur-rounds It aie something wondciful. We next went to see the bed used by the emperor, for tie remains In this temple for six davs alone, seeing and speaking to uo one, but goes to the temple each morning and praying to the Josh all day and returning to his room at night, waiting on himself, while tils entire court remain outside. At the end of six dajs lie is supposed to have received enough counsel on nil the matters of great importance to enable him to govern the empire with wisdom for thccnsuingycai The Temple of Music. Here Is where tils entire court remain re-main during Ills six days of abstinence. It is a huge pleasure hall and vvc were shown every kind of musical instrument instru-ment known to the Chinese. The Temple of Sacrifice. Tills temple Is an open air temple, being an Immense pile of pure white marble, circular in shape and about thru stories in height On top at night Is held a huge feast attended by the emperor, one prince of each house of ttic rojal blood and one. man-darlan man-darlan of each degree. The menu consists of every kind of Hesh, fish and fowl eaten by t lie Chinese, two of each being slaughteicd and sacrificed In huge sacrilicc pits forming a circle around the entire temple, the burning taking place while tho feast is In progress, pro-gress, The fuel used on this occasion occa-sion being costly silks. Incense and ttic usual symbolical paper slips used by the Chinese on all religious occasions. occa-sions. Wo were not allowed in the Temple of Sealed Tablets, as this temple tem-ple is only used on the occasion of a empcior coming to the throne. Outside Out-side however it Is something grand, being built of pure white marble with the usual elaborate carvings and n roof of colored tiles The last and most costly of the temples tem-ples here Is the Temple of the North Arter, this being ttic placo where the final ceremonies of the annual visit tako place, and whore tho emperor makes his gifts. Ileforc entorlng this place he enters a tent of silk made especially for this occassion and bathes In perfumed water and is further pur-illcd pur-illcd with Incense, then accompanied by all his followers he enters The ceiling Is covered with rare carvings in Ivory, and decorated with designs In pure beaten gold and silver, and the tapestries are bevond description Here is found thu Chinese Dragon In raaiblc, Ivory, gold, silver and, In fact, dragons of all material one can think of. The Temple of Agricultural. This is the' lust place vvc visited. The emperor comes here once a year to plant the seed of every fruit of tho soil used for food by thu Chinese nnd to pray for good crops. He Is accompanied accom-panied here by all the royal princes and each plows a furrow and plants his seed, the emperor taking the two center rows and the princes arranged on each side of him according to rank. The plow being drawn by sacred oxen who are sacrificed as soon as the ceremony cere-mony is over. The- plow used by thu emperor Is of gold as well as all the other implements tie uses Wc saw the patcli of ground plowed the pre-vlous pre-vlous spring and the crops were growing grow-ing nicely, although they did not look any different to any other, notwithstanding notwith-standing the royal blood of the planters. plant-ers. Thu only difference I noticed in regard to tills special piece of giouud and any other was that we were not allowed to get very close to it. Wc saw the golden plow and the sacred heard of bulls kept for the succeeding plantings. It was now growing near the end of thu day and wc were all tired and dusty, so vvc hurried back to the hotel to our batli and supper after which we felt considerable better 1 bellevu Peking Is the dirtiest city In China and when I spoke to our guide about It he said tli.iu showed to the Chinese Chin-ese Idea a very busy and prosperous city. The most people I saw at Peking were the attendants at the various temples wey visited, tliev certainly were busy bleeding us foi money from the time we entered until wc left, at first we commenced giving them ten cent pieces (Mcx), but even at tills rate we soon discovered our money would not last, finally one of our number conceived the idea of getting some Chinese cash (vou get 1000 cash for a Mexican dollar), sot aflei we had supplied sup-plied ourselves with a canvas bag full of cash it was easy for us but very unsatisfactory un-satisfactory to the attendants How- i ever, we enjoyed their discomfort as much as they hated us for doing It, besides tho fun we had with the beggars beg-gars to whom we throw handfulsof tho cash to and when there became too big a crowd we would say to our rickshaw man "chop, chopl" and away he would go like the wind and distance dist-ance them all. 'J 'lie rickshaw men are wonders, they can run around in the sun all day and seem to never get tired, ami If) on are In a hurry and he thinks ttierc Is a probability ol a few dimes extra pay, you have almost an equal to a 2:30 trotter. The following morning e turned our faces Concordward once more and I was Indeed glad to get away from tiie dirt and dust of Peking, and while I would have not missed the trip for anything, still nothing ,could Induce me to make the trip again, for even though the sights one S'.cs are Intensely Intense-ly Interesting the dust and dirt take away the pleasure As wo were leaving 1 stood on the rear platform of the train and looked at the great wall with as much Interest Inter-est as I did wlieti 1 first saw It and still decided that it was the only thing In Peking I would ever care to see again |