Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1894 — MOUKDEN THE GOLDEN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MOUKDEN THE GOLDEN.

China’s Sacred City and lts Imperial Treasures. The Fabulous Wealth Believed to Have Been Stolen by Chinese Officials. - - Victoria. B. C.. Special, Nov. 25. A strange story comes from Moukden, the ancestral home of the Chinese imperial family and their ancient treasure house. It is told in letters brought by the steamer Empress of China, and is to the effect that when the Japanese reach Moukden to posses themselves of the fabulous fortunes accumulated there during the past century they will not find the billions of taels supposed to be safely stored in Moukden’s great vaults. The treasury, according to the story, is empty now and has been for years. Some one has removed the hoarded wealth of the imperial house, and this theft of the price of

empires has remained undiscovered, thanks to the confidence reposed by the superstitious Chinese in the protecting power of their many gods. “We were considerably startled on learning that the Japanese were marching here to take the store of gold and silver locked in the imperial treasury.” says the Moukden cor- ‘ respondent of the North China Daily : News. “It is popularly supposed to ’be sufficient to not alone recoup I Japan for the cost of the present war, but also to buy the entire king- : dom. Surely the Japanese are aware ■ that no earthly power save that of ' the Chinese Empire can move a ■ single shoe of silver from the Moukden treasure house. This city, and, more especially, its treasure, is under the immediate care of the ‘fox ' god.’ Moukden is the headquarters of the worship of this deity, and his temples are decorated with tablets containing accounts of, cures: wrought by him, before the recital! of which the miracles of Lourdes' must hide their diminished heads. I His chief office is, however, to act as , custodian of the treasures which so* long as he remains unmolested must, according to the Chinese belief, forever remain untouched.” “I imagine that Americans will grasp the correspondent’s meaning,” says Mr. J. Elliott Gordon, who sends this clipping: “It cor-i roborates what residents here have; believed for years—namelv, that the; the treasuries of Moukden, instead 1 of containing countless millions, are well nigh empty. The ‘fox god’ who will thus defeat tie aim of the Japanese is the cunning Chinese. In fact, we have no doubt that some of the most powerful enemies of the present Chinese dynasty would rejoice to have the Japanese invade Moukden. It would furnish a splendid explanation for the disappearance of treasures which, if the tales of the Orient be true, have been removed in a series of gigantic thieving operations covering many years, the thieves being among the highest in the land. The purpose is pre sumably to use the treasure of the ruling house to accomplish its overthrow. The appearence of the Japanese at this juncture may spoil a quietly but not less skillfully arranged revolution, which otherwise would have attracted the world's attention to China this year or next.”

MOUKDEN, THE SACRED CITY OF MANCHOORIA. [Witnin these walls, it was believed, was stored the imperial treasure, the accumulation of more than 200 years, and amounting to about $2,000,000,000.