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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1931-11-19, Page 6*£HU1W>AY,. A’OVEMW „ A Letter From Formosa Mrs. Graham, of Fomm» Interest lug AcraW of Summer Va cation Spent in t’hiniv nnd Japan. Keeling, Formosa October 7, 1931 >car Mrs. Blayney,— I can’t tell you how much we eu- Joyed your last letter. We are al­ ways so interested in home news. }B«t we were sorry to hear from ;Miss Jeekell’s letter that you had been III. I do hope you are feel­ ing well again now. Please don’t work so hard but consider yourself a little. We are nearly home again after jpur months’ vacation. We left For­ mosa on September 5th with the children for Kobe. We intended to place Donald in school there at the Canadian Academy. However when we arrived both boys begged to re­ main together, so we finally left Grant also, on trial. The day we left Ronald said, “You know, I don’t think I could stick it without -Grant.” If Grant was dissatisfied -we were to hear in Shanghai but we received most enthusiastic letters •from them there. They liked the hoys and their school and loved their teachers. There are seven Junior boys and they have a matron ■whose sole duty is to look out for their welfare. We met her many times and found her most delight­ ful,—a Miss McLean—a woman of about 55 years, formerly a teacher in* the school. She seemed to pu­ ff erst and boys thoroughly. She also -wrote to us in Shanghai and the -boys were well, enjoying school, their food, etc. Grant . a little after we left and then ’ •“Please don’t think I am a baby, but you know, I have never been away from my mother before.” And she said, “That’s quite all right Grant. I always cried when I left my mother, which comforted him a good deal. Visit Former Friends TV© stayed four days in met the MacKays there and "had a -good talk with them about their ex­ periences in Canada. Then we set .nail for Tientsin—a four day trip, cue day of which lay through Ja­ pan’s inland sea—most beautiful scenery and a gorgeous sunset. We arrived outside the harbour at 3 .a.m. but had such a heavy cargo we had to wait until small boats came ■out for the freight before we could -cross the sandbar. Consequently we landed at 6.30 p.m. to find a train leaving at 7.00 p.m. for Peiping {Peking was its name formerly which means Northern Capital, But ■^since the Capital has been moved to Nanking the name of the. c'ity has •been changed. You can imagine -what a wild flurry it was to change money, buy tickets, pass customs and have our passports examined, all with no language. However one -of our fellow passengers, a mission­ ary returning from furlough, came to our assistance and so we made it. Chinese trains are like English trains (so ms’- husband tells me) very wide gauge and divided into -.compartments. We bought 2nd gclass tickets, second class service is -excellent in Japan) but found it most unpleasant, aeing in with many Russian and Chinese soldiers, j&o transferred to first and had with ns a Japanese family, father, mother and three children who had come -over on the boat- with us. The bet­ ter class Japanese are most attrac­ tive, ■' Arrives in Peiping ’ When we reached Peiping we took rickshaws to a boarding house recommended to us. Peiping rick­ shaws are the most comfortable I •profusely polished a thrill to moonlight the said, their cried said, Kobe, Peiping has two or three very large foreign hotels where the rate is much higher, Peiping is* a cHy of walls- rather walls within walls, do wish you could see these walls and the gates that guard them. Outside all is the huge city wall 30 or more feet high and.about 2b or 30 feet wide—built of brick with earth in between. JThe only open­ ings are at gates piassive structures of brick, built pagoda fashion 60 or Sb feet high and 50 or rnoua. feet square. The actual gates are of iron and are opened at sunrise and closed at dark. This outer wall is many miles in length. Inside it are the Tartar City at the North, the Imperial City enclosing the Forbid den City and the native city. With in the Imperial City dwelt th' nobles of olden times, but within the Forbidden City dwelt the Em­ peror himself and no commoner was allowed to enter it on pain of death. Now within the Forbidden City are magnificent museums consisting of largely of former possessions of the Emperors—'paintings, potteries, etc. —massive golden Ibowls studded with jewels, By paying an admis­ sion fee anyone may enter, We vis= ited all the points of interest in the Forbidden City. One thing that struck me very forcibly was that the Emperor's beautiful, -private gardens have been turned into a public garden for the despised people. We also visited the Temple of Heaven—now deserted and fall­ ing into ruin—but once the centre for all China of the religious life of the nation. The to represent the sky er comes green to earth and lowest of presenting man. Then the roofs of the multitude of buildings in the Forbidden City are all of a most brilliant yellow tile. Shave seen—-lower, and -decorated with highly brass. It gave one such think of riding in the through this ancient city of Chinese emperors. The next morning we hired rick­ shaws by the‘day and investigated everything we could. And, by the Tray, the charge per rickshaw per •May was $1.00 Mexican money, the •ssame as 25c. Canadian. Our hotel was a regular Chinese house built •around a courtyard fragrant with •’flowers. .•cellent baths and meals and the charge per person was ^-4.00 Mer. i>r $1.00 Canadian money. Of course We had good rooms, ex­ THE .EXETER TIMES-ADVOCaTE on your only foreigners on particular brand oi good in China, so came we intimated Of ex- to a o KEEP THE CMdrera j When they’re '“off colour” give ■ them Dr. Carter's all vegetable- Little Liver Pills. Safe, acting;, gently on the bowels and liver*, they soon bring back smilesandE' high spirits that healthy young­ sters should show. 25c <Sz. 75c red packages And I roofs are blue God, then low- represent the all yellow re­ On to Weihwei We visited a Llama Temple where we saw a Buddha 715 feet high and were fortunate enough to find 500 -much like a they read from or rather writ- Chinese charac- from India. We market priests at prayer— Catholic service, .but manuscripts printed, ten by hand, not in ters but in' a dialect also vistied an immense where we picked up several pairs of brass candlesticks for a mere trifle. The bead shops are also ex­ quisite but prices much higher than in Shanghai. * ’On account, of ban­ dits and the time required we were unable to visit the Great Wall, much to my sorrow as it was one thing I was most, anxious to see-. We spent two days in Peiping then at 9.30 p.m. left by train for Wei-, hwei in North Hanon, where Dr. MacKinlay, a friend of Mac’s from for We the not re­ Dr. Sarnia has been substituting two doctors home on furlough, were a little undeetded as to wisdom of this step for we did want to run into danger but in spense to urgent messages from MdKinlay decided to go. We car­ ried armed guards on our train and at every station were greeted by armed soldiers, which didn’t make us any easier. All northern China is very flat and so dry with a few trees dotted over the ‘country. There are no fences and no individ­ ual dwellings. The people dwell together in small villages or in towns. The towns are surrounded by high brick walls, the villages by walls of mud. Many of the dwell­ ings are made of mud, in fact, most of them. They are a simple, kind­ ly people, tilling the soil and con­ stantly harassed by robbers, ban­ dits'and prowling bands of soldiers. It -would be difficult to say which of the three is most dreaded. They were preparing- their land for wheat using oxen, mules .and donkeys. They keep no livestock beyond that necessary, except a few goats or sheep. The donkeys turn the water wheels- to bring up water for irri­ gating a little garden patch. They raise wheat, millet, corn, a kind of sugar cane and vegetables and their main food is millet. And, of course, everywhere one see chickens. China exports millions of eggs annually. We had taken a first class sleep- For the past 52 years 1 MANUFACTURED ONLY BY fTHE T. MILBURN CO*, Limited Toronto, Ont. Mrs, D. McLaugllan, 169 Char­ lotte St., West St. John, N.B., writes:—“I suffered from indigestion for many years and seemed to have a terrible, distressed feeling after my meals. I had been to Several doctors, but could not seem to get any relief until a friend told me to take Bur­ dock Blood Bitters, and after taking two bottles I Was completely re­ lieved of my trouble. I Phil now cat anything I like and feel years younger. ’ J have fold many of my friends about your Wonderful medioiiie and they afi feel the same as I do about Presbyterian, now It is a lunge com- a large o hospital, now operating) pri- and middle schools At one time mg compartment and I had an ex­ cellent lower berth, I couldn’t ima­ gine why Mac was so restless until morning when I discovered he was sleeping on the boards above. Evi­ dently the mattress had ibeen stolen when the line was cut through by the bandits earlier in the summer. We were the board and our Chinese is no when morning by gesture our need of food, and (here is one of the surprises China) they prepared for us an cellent foreign .breakfast, even Mac’s oatmeal porridge, and lunch later to match. Dr. MacKinDay, of Sarnia, At 6,30 p.m. we reached Weihwei and were received with open arms by the MacKinlays, Weihwei is the centre of the North Hanon Mission Field formerly United Church, pound having (only one half mary schools, for boys and girls, there were about 400 pupils in at­ tendance—now all * is- desolation. There are some dozen or more sub­ stantial brick dwellings. When the Missionaries were warned by the British Consul to leave in 1927 they were able to take only a few personal belongings with them and went out on box cans on the rail­ road. They left 8 Chinese in charge and these worked day and night at­ tempting to hide things. But the soldiers came in only two days and looted the whole place. Before they had time to do much damage they were 'moved on and the Chinese guardians again went to work. This first lot of soldiers decided to carry a piano with them ‘by boat but when they reached the river .b'ank decided it was too heavy and ' dropped it down in the mud. The guardians retrieved it and gathered all the pianos in one end and built in a false wall, which they smeared with mud to make it look old. IThe pianos were never discovered but awaited the owners when they re­ turned fifteen months later. They took dishes up to the flat roof of a tall building and nailed up the trap-door. 'Some months later the soldiers moved in they discovered the door and word was brought to the head guard that the soldiers were breaking down this door pre­ paratory to going up on the roof. He wondered what he could do. Then he went to the general and said. Now, word has just been brought to me that your soldiers are going' up on that roof. Oif course, it’s none of my business, but- I thought I should tell you that roof has been condemned. Don't blame me if anything happens to these men.” The General at once sent word that no soldier was to go up on that roof under penalty of death, and were Invited out to dine on these same dishes while we were there. They buried some trunks in a •back-yard not far from one of the gates. One day word the soldiers were digging there to make a toilet. guard went again to the general and said. “Did you know your sol­ diers w6re making a toilet 'in such and such a place?” He said, “No.” “Well,” this man said, “I thought I’d better tell you, for I really did­ n’t think you would want a toilet there, You know your friends coming to see you will use that gate and you wouldn’t want them to be greeted by such 'an order.” Orders were instantly given to stop dig­ ging and the trunks were saved. The buildings were badly torn out make fires, etc. Travelled by Moonlight While We were at MacKinlays discovered a cousin Of mine Ste­ wart Forbes and his wife were only 30 miles away so we went to see them. We took a train hour then had a 7 mile rickshaw under the most moon. In fact if it hadn’t the moon we couldn’t have gone as the rickshaw men will not travel after dark and it is very dangerous. We wete two hours making the trip and found the city gates Closed but Stewart had arranged to have came that The same head to we for an drive by gorgeous been for them opened again. (Stewart and his wife are living in a Chinese house which differs from its neigh­ bors only in being clean. 'They are the only foreigners in a city iof fifty thousand Chinese and are try­ ing so hard to spread the Gospel. He has a bicycle and covers an im­ mense territory while his wife vis­ its the women in their homes, teaches them to read the Bible, etc. They find it very disheartening and seemed to enjoy our visit so( much. The next day we visited a big Chinese temple and saw a Buddha 80 feet high and inuimerable gods and goddesses. In the afternoon we went up on the city wall and had a three mile walk around it. The first convert to Christianity in this mission field lived near this city. An'd yet, even, now, poorer families throw the bodies of dead infants out on the garbage heaps to be eaten by the dogs. And be­ heading a man fancied crime is Loft for We'were up at at 4.00 a.m. the to catch our 6.00: a.m, to Weihwei. And at 6.00 p.m. that night left for Shanghai. The more direct route by Hankow was impos­ sible on account of floods and the possibility of fighting in that area, so we were obliged to “make the journey in stages. until 12.00 were met by sion'ary (to had written) at 7.00 a.m. •our next- junction, Later in tire af­ ternoon the engine'developed some trouble and we missed our next connection, arriving at 10.30 p.m. in a Chinese city with only Chin­ ese hotels. However the China Travel agent took charge of us, put up cots cin his station and put .us on our next train at 9,00 a.m. the next morning. The weather turned very cold and the country was en­ tirely different with low ranges of hills. About noon we came to the flooded area, with hundreds of people living around the railway ..stations or on little patches of high­ er ground. One could see that the water had been much higher. At 9 p.m. we reached Pukow where we had to cross the Yangste River to Nanking, Following our usual cus­ tom we loaded a porter up with our bags and set off at a trot to keep him in sight. We followed our baggage all over China, just as in Japan. But in Japan you follow ‘it to reach your destination. In China you add that reason to the fact that you’d also like the 'bag­ gage to reach the same destination. It isn’t safe to let anything out of your sight for a minute. One Mis­ sionary sliped -off his new shoes to rest liis feet for a few minutes- and never found the shoes again. An­ other had the whole end cut out of his bag while it his feet. been my ___ _ while Mac made all inquiries. Well we followed our porter to the river where he let us down into a small ferry boat literally jammed with people where we were packed in between decks with no windows and only a kerosene lantern for light (and it went out aS s’Oon. aS the boat started). In the midst of it, all something started flapping furiously just behind my legs- and when some one turned on a- flash­ light there were three hens. I had visions of the boat going down, die. but in about ten minutes we arriv­ ed safely. We were paraded first on temporary wooden sidewalks (everything was flooded) then load­ ed into rickshaws with the coolies up to their waists in Water. And . then. we sat in the rain, going we knew not whither. I was ahead and ever once in a while Mac .would call out, “Are you there, Jean?” I think he was afraid they would kidnap me. On every side weke people sleeping out in the- open on these same wooden, sidewalks. A Holp-tp In the very deepest part of the water ask ng yes,” Here’s more nourishment at less money ' for you'. . Delicious, appetizing Syrups full of health and energy. Serve them in place of expensive desserts. The CANADA STARCH CO. Limited MONTREAL Ask your grocer And be- for some real1 or quite common. Shanghai 3.00 a.m. and left following morning train back We travelled pan. that night and a Free Methodist Mis- whom Dr. MacKinlay slept in his house and boarded the train for and the contents stolen rested on the floor beside lS«Oi on this trip it has duty to sit on the bags my me and cdolie halted and started something, I said “Yes; we moved on. X think 1 i it was a hold-up for more money as they asked an exorbitant price at the station., see that station? Here for sleeper leaving about an hour, immediately and til morning. We were in Shanghai from Tues­ day morning until Saturday morn­ ing,- and enjoyed every minute of the time, ful —. big stores, stores, smaller things are remarkably low due to the low level of Chinese currency, $1.00 Canadian being worth $4.30 .. The air was so that we walked all visited Were we glad to ' I should say so! s good luck rejoined us again we found an especially good for Shanghai in We went aboard slept like logs un­ The shops are wonder- British and American also Chinefee departmental- There are a multitude of shops* Prices in some Mexican dollars, cool and crisp day long, and shows. We went on at night and at 6 a.m. morning set off for Formosa. Mon­ day morning we reached Foochow where w© were to remain until noon the next day. The city pro­ per is two hours ride by laun'ch up the river and we went up to the Methodist (American) Episcopal Mission with some -of their mission­ aries who were on board with u.s. Had a very delightful day—they have a very fine institution rang­ ing from kindergarten through Uni­ versity training. On the way pass­ ed a dead body floating in the river. The Chinese will not pull these bodies out—in fact will not rescue anyone from death as to do so means the rescuer is in future re­ sponsible for the one he rescues. Arrived at Keeling this morning and here we are being detained in quarantine until to-morrow as there is a Cholera epidemic in Shanghai— so near home and yet so far. It’s most annoying hut can’t be helped. This is not a letter its really a newspaper. And how I do hope you have completed recovered. Jean .Graham a. couple of board our steamer on Saturday OF Phone for prices. DELIVERY MADE ON QUANTITIES' , " Phono 12 GRANTON.. ONTARIO R ■ El rK B____ Mix equal parts of MittarcFs ] and sweat oil, castor oil, or cream. Spread on bro-tvn ] paper. Apply to burn or J scald. 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