The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1928, Page 105

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

105

reaches the Orient, that peculiar odor of unclean-
liness and lack of sewerage becomes noticeable and
remains with one at all times.

You can imagine what indescribable sicknesses
and contagious diseases are caused by lack of clean-
liness in such overpopulated and unsanitary cities.
During a heavy smallpox or cholera epidemic
I have seen piled up on street-corners from two to
four hundred corpses of people who had died
during the night; and they remained there until
they were taken away for burial the next day.

Out in the country, civilization such as we read
of in the Bible is still prevalent to-day. The
farmer plows his field with a little rude plow
made of sharp stones or even a hard piece of wood,
drawn either by coolies, oxen, or, if he is well-to-do,
by a water buffalo. His threshing is done by hand.
The grinding of the grain is done by hand.

Travel facilities in China there are none. You
must either walk or be carried in a chair or ride
a donkey. If your journey leads you along the
river, you travel in a small rowboat or house-boat.
In China a journey as far as from St. Louis to
Chicago means at least four to five days. And there
are no comfortable hotels where you can stop for
the night. The inns are dirty and filled with in-
numerable vermin.

Sconomically China is a country of great
wealth. The natural resources of China can very
favorably be compared with those of the United
States. We have been told that in one part of
China, in the province of Shensi, there are coal-
beds that could supply the world for a thousand
years. There is much oil, gold, and silver to be
found in various parts of China. But in spite of
all this, poverty exists in China which is almost
indescribable. Over 50 per cent. of the Chinese
people are said never to get enough to eat. The
daily salutation is not, “How do you do?” but,
“ave you eaten?” These two things, the natural
wealth of China and this indescribable poverty, do
not seem to harmonize. But why are the Chinese
people so very poor in spite of their wealth? It is
due to their superstition, their religious belief. It
would take us too far afield to go into the history
of the various religions of China — Buddhism,
Taoism, and Confucianism. The religion of China
to-day is a conglomeration of all these; I might
say that it is a hodgepodge of idolatry, astrology,
necromancy, devil-worship, and belief in evil and
good spirits. Every living act of the average
Chinese to-day is connected with some form of

superstition or other. They dare not do anything
without first consulting their millions of gods,
devils, evil and good spirits. The first thing that
a Chinese does in the morning after he gets up is
not to wash himself, but to fall down in front of
the family altar which one finds in every home and
pray to the souls of the deceased members of the
family which he believes to be residing in the
family-spirit tablet which has a place on the family
altar. After this he will take some small cups of
rice and a little fruit and place them on the altar
as food for the departed spirits. Over the door of
the house is a looking-glass. This is used to scare
away the devils. Eyery Chinese roof is built on
a slant. First it slants down and then curves
upward. The Chinese believe that the whole atmos-
phere is filled with evil spirits. These spirits fly
around in the air, looking for whom they may
devour. They perch on the roofs and as they climb
down with the intention of entering the house, the
roof curves upward, and in that way the evil spirit
curves upward also. If perchance he does get to
the entrance of the door, he sees his reflection in
the looking-glass and in that way is frightened
away.

Little boys are dressed the same as little girls.
Why? It is again a clever way in which the
Chinese mother seeks to outwit the evil spirits.
The devils do not care about the little girls because
they have no souls. They are after the boys. So
the mother takes the little boy, puts girls’ clothes
on him, and calls him, let us say, Margaret; and
when the evil spirit sneaks around and sees the
little boy dressed as a girl and hears the mother
calling him Margaret, he is made to believe that
it is a little girl. (To be concluded.)

Another One at Lamison.

It seemed as though this community would not
get a Lutheran church. Several years ago Pastor
Schmidt was invited to start work here, and he and
the writer made several attempts in that direction.
Well do we remember one Sunday leaving our Ford
about eight miles down the road because it was
absolutely impossible for even that “mud-eater”
to flounder through the stretch of “prairie” and
“gumbo” ahead of us, and taking to the train to
complete the trip.. The meeting was held in a sort
of dance-hall in a shack passing as a Negro hotel.
John 3,16 was preached to the motley gathering
seated along the walls of the room. But the fol-