People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1893 — THE DRAGON’S BACKBONE. [ARTICLE]

THE DRAGON’S BACKBONE.

Some of the Obstacles Pat tn the Way of Railway Development in China. The obstacles which the railway development of China encounters from time to time are well illustrated by an incident which recently occurred in connection with the construction of the line between Kirin and Newchang, the seaport of Manchuria. It was proposed to make a junction at a place called Lanpien, outside the city of Moukden. For this permission had to be obtained from the Tartar general of Moukden. This functionary at once proceeded to call in his geomancers—a species of soothsayers who give information concerning the good fortune and ill fortune of sites and are supposed by the Chinese to know what demons and dragons inhabit the earth under the surface. These wise men reported that the dragon whose body encircles the holy city of Moukjien lay coiled up in such a way that, if the railway came through Lanpien, the long nails driven into the ties would pierce his backbone and in all probability set him to raging violently, to the great detriment of the inhabitants of Moukden. The general consequently refused the application of the railway people and directed them to carry the road in a straight line from Kirin to Newchang, avoiding Moukden. The engineers thereupon appealed to Li Hung Chang, the imperial viceroy, showing that, as this proposed route would go through a marshy and uninhabited county, it could not be profitable for their enterprise. Li Hung Chang wrote to the general of Moukden highly commending him for his discretion in consulting the geomancers but suggesting that these sage persons go over the ground again and see if they could not find a place where the nails would not be likely to strike into the dragon’s back. As a word from the viceroy is law in China the general had his geomancers indicate a spot for the junction at Lanpien where they thought that, after all, the dragon’s backbone would be safe and there the railway will be built, if no other peculiarly Chinese obstacle intervenes. —Chicago News.