Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/347

Rh and tore up the tracks and stored the entire plant under sheds at Shanghai. Thus it is seen that this religion stands in the way of all innovations in that old country, and the first thing necessary in order to introduce railroads into China is to dethrone the priests and infuse a little common sense into the people.

Since this last paragraph was written, this point has had a characteristic demonstration. Through the influence of Li Hung Chang, the most intelligent and progressive Chinaman, and one or two other high officials, the emperor was prevailed upon to grant the construction of a railroad from Hankow to Pekin. Not many days had elapsed after the permit was given until the Temple of Heaven at Pekin was burned, and floods came in the Yellow and Yang-tse River Valleys, which were interpreted to have been indications of the disapproval of the proposed innovation on the part of spirits or the Taouist devil; and the press dispatches announce that the emperor has taken the timely warning and revoked his sanction of the proposed railroad. Any one having to make the journey between the two objective points of the proposed road will save time by starting on foot, or going around via Shanghai by water. Otherwise he is liable to have a long time to wait for the completion of the road.

During the prevalence of the great famine in northwestern China in 1874-'78 there was an unusual flood in the valley of the Yang-tse-Kiang. The priests endeavored to solve the mystery of this uneven distribution of rain. The censure fell upon the royal household at Pekin. It is the duty of the emperor to enter the Temple of Heaven twice a year and invoke the blessings of Heaven upon the people. He always asks for rain among other things, and the impression obtained that the emperor had hurriedly asked for rain, but had not taken the pains to state where he wanted it. The result was that floods came in some places, while famine from drought came in other parts of the empire. This feeling was producing a general spirit of revolt, when in 1878 the rains came to the rescue in the drought-smitten provinces.

At this time I had a conversation with a merchant at Shanghai on the subject. He exhibited an independence of thought which was exceptional. But it showed a tendency toward the inevitable break from the tyrannical rule of ignorance and superstition which must eventually come to awaken an age of reason. And when it comes, the Taouist high priest must fold his tent and silently march away.

The merchant said, "Chinaman, he all time chin, chin" (meaning that they resort to prayers and other priestly methods in time of calamity), "while Melican man, he build more stout walls to keep water back."

Thus had one man concluded that substantial sea-walls and