j CHINESE DISCOVERY OF | 8 pekin's Startling PeVelation of Oriental Exploration Uncxpect- |p gH edly Corroborated by Evidence Four\d irv Mexico. h*SSSEE»SSBSSEHSHBEEEEEE» T -V" a~r AS the real Columbus a \/\ / Chinaman? This astound- Y \ tag question is raised by a statement that has just come from I'ekin, reinforced by re cent remarkable discoveries in Mexico, says the New York Herald. In the loot of one of the palaces in the For bidden City there was found an au thentic historical document telling of the discovery of this continent in the fifth century of our era by five Bud dhist monks, who voyaged from China to a distant land now deemed certain to have been Mexico. The document is from the pen of n historian named Li Yen Shan, who lived in the beginning of the seventh century, and it tells the story as it was related by one of those monks, who, more fortunate than his companions, returned from the New World in safe ty, in the year 40!) A. D. lie described the newly discovered country, which, he called Fu-Sang, as situated some seven thousand miles to tlie east of China. The distance is stated in li, three of which are about equal to one of our miles. The wonderful discoveries of the capitol of the ancient Montezumas by workmen who were making an excava tion for a sewer in Escalillerns street, immediately back of the great cathe dral in the modern City of Mexico, a few days ago, corroborate to an amaz ing degree the statements in the his torical document of Li Yen Shan. In the first place, no less than a thousand genuine jade beads were un earthed. Now, these beads were known as "Aztec diamonds," the most prized of all their possessions. The possession of these jade objects by the Aztecs is regarded by archaeologists as the strongest link in the chain of evidence indicating the presence of Chinese in Mexico hundreds of years ago. No jade lu its natural state has ever been found 111 Mexico. China is MEXICAN CARQODORES WEARING RAIN COATS LIKE THOSE CHINESE USE. the ouly place where it is found, or ever has been found, so far as is known. The very fact so well known to all historians that jade was so high ly prized by the ancient Aztecs—prized far above gold and silver and all pre cious stones—further indicates that ii was not a native product, but a rarity from some foreign country. Second—The ancient Chinese were as fearless seamen as the Norsemen. It is a well known fact that the mar iner's compass is of Chinese origin. Time and again Chinese junks have been found stranded on the shores of Alaska, British Columbia and as far south as Oregon. This proves the sea worthiness of their craft. T1 ird—The great oceanic current which flows northward up the eastern coast of China passes along the south ern edge of the Aleutian Islands chain and then sweeps down to the sou lb again, past the shores of Alaska, Brit ish Columbia and California. Every thing set adrift or dropped overboard on the coast of China comes to Ameri ca by this route. Fourth—Pictures of old thatched roofed shelters in Oaxaca are striking- J PAC JIMRUC OR TKZ/>I BOW MIRFCECI.VI>KI£I F VAKEM^RSWI WHKH RUE RAA.OVFCE'VY .;■ L HODERM OF AMK*ICA /R.;'R W." LCHOREAI: CHARACTER ** w - * *® JJR .SANG &X RABBIT 2 PEPPER FF ■FOSFSSG) I;ILMM.I G BEAN JL CRCAT DRUM tL ■ ♦ KHWE YA HAM S *)< HOUSE H COUNMRV TT MAGUEY @ (MCAMINO I Q DOLL L£ IB -NTC CAST FT .> -J, £ ROAD £ TWICE MW ■55 NW A NOBLE ffl u ?P BALL-ITZY 2 MSS^ OM 8. I^ S I GOWN * FCSFSSJSSF TREES QUATT. _1 CHINCIC FACE SHOWN OM R* CS IMA&( PISH S J CWRTALAHUBUOIMTLFCL L ly *tuillnr t«» 'hi* tlinlcbcd roufa of the rltlniaiv The |HTUll*r ruin nmit wurii l.jr tl*«- old MeiUmi purtera an- altiioal prri'lwly llki' Ibe ruin i-uata of tb>- CbIONO. k'lflb-In Soutbiiu Mcsli-u ara found a numerous aboriginal people possess ing the only true monosyllabic lan guage—a language in structure singu larly like the Chinese—found in that part of the world. The hieroglyphic characters used in writing by the May as of ancient Yucatan and Mexico somewhat resemble those employed by the Chinese. The Chinese characters of to-day are merely modifications of hieroglyphics which are more or less pietographie. Sixth—The ancient Chinese symbol representing the male and female prin- VTOECK. OF A ' ■ —A**J, - JUNK, FOUND ON THE COAST A? ALASKA ciples of generation, which is distinct ly Oriental, was found carved in a block of stone, which seemed to have been part of an ancient altar. Profes sor E. T. Hnmy, of the Trocadero Mu seum, discovered this long before the recent discovery in I'ekin of the Li Yen Shan document. Other Mexican images, with figures having Chinese turbans and Oriental features, have been found in Southern Mexico, ac cording to Professor Saville, of the American Museum of Natural History. He does not think the Chinese ever lived on tills continent, but admits that there is striking evidence of Mie knowl edge of tilings Chinese in old Mexico. Here is tlie original document: "Fu-Sang is situated about 20.000 11 to the east of the country of Tahan and an equal distance to the east of China. It has many trees, whose first sprouts resemble tiiose of th« bamboo, and which serve the natives as food. The fruit is red and shaped like a pear. The bark of the tree is prepared in the same manner as hemp, to be manufactured into cloth and flowered stuffs, and the wood serves for the construction of houses. The inhabi tants have a system of writing, and make paper from tree bark. They pos sess neither arms nor troops, and they never wage war. "According to the laws of the king dom, there are two prisons, one in the north, the other in the south. Those who have committed trifling faults are sent to the latter, those guilty of graver crimes to the former. The male and female prisoners are allowed to marry each other, and their children are sold as slaves. When a man of superior rank commits a crime the people assemble in great numbers, seat themselves opposite the offeudcr, par take of a banquet, and take leave of the condemned person as of one who is al>out to die. Cinders are then heaped about the doomed man. For alii; lit 112 <lllll a the ertiulual alone la |tun lahttl, l>ul for a arrloua i-rluie bla rbll ilr«n nitil urauili-blMrt-u auflVr with It I in. au«l lu aouie extraordinary bla aiu la vtalie«t u|ku«i bla itaK-eudauta lu ibe M*«uib geuvratioa "Dacr nrc raised Just as cattle ara In China, and cheese is made from the milk of the females. A kind of red pear is found there which Is good at all seasons of the year. Grape vines also are plentiful. There Is no Iron, but copper is met with. Commerce Is free, and the people are not given to haggling about prices. "This Is the manner of their mar riages: When n man wishes to wed a girl he erects his cabin just before the door of her's. Every morning and evening he waters and weeds the ground, and this he continues to do for a whole year. If by the end of that time the girl has not given her consent, to the union his suit Is lost and lie moves away, but if she is willing ho marries her. The marriage ceremony is almost the same as that observed in China. "Images of the spirits of the dea<7 are placed on a kind of pedestal, and prayers are addressed to them moru- ing and evening. The King does not meildie with affairs of government un til he nas been three years 011 the throne. "In former times the religion of Bud dha was unknown in this country, but in the fourth of the years taming, In the reign of Hlao-wou-tl, of the Soling dynasty, live missionaries from the country Kl-pin went to Fu-sang and there diffused the Buddhist faitli. They carried with them sacred books and images; they introduced the ritual and inculcnted monastic habits of life. By these means they changed the man ners of the people." Naturally, the most striking remains MAYA INDIAN OF YUCATAN, SHOWING ORIENTAL PIIYBIOONOM Y. left behind by the ancient people of Yucatan and Southern Mexico are architectural, some of the ruins being in h very fair state of preservation. Many of the buildings look like Bud dhist temples— vast caves of stones, dark and wiudowless. One finds in the carvings on the auclent buildings of Yucatan and Southern Mexico a no ticeable likeness to grotesque Chinese carvings, walls and pillars being adorned with countless human heads, OLD O" Al> AI-J AH A HI T WITH THATCHED Hoor I.IKK CHIKBSB HI T. inure or lex* en r lon lured, and witll other fauiiiktie de»lKii*. 'l'lie arilHtM of that vnuUhed race appear lo have had a ureal fancy for making masks for e<>r|uM'M and dentil's heads of Iticrustcd work. KepreMeiilntioiis of sunken and inatiikt-y m are numerous. I,lke the Chinese, the Mayas had a wonderfully clnliorate calendar sys tem, which euitxHllcd so many e'e lueiils uf accural* chronology tlmt it nuiases Kuro|H-an scholars today. HiS UMWI. ft. raid's, Loudon, lias a dome ll'j fee 1 lu diameter, Hi IVur #, Uuiue. i* IW feel across. REVEALED THE COAL'S VIRTUES. Obahlah Gore Haiti to Be tlie First to Use tlie Black Diamonds. There are a number of stories as to the way In which the valin of coal was first discovered, and the Buffalo Express adds to the number by print ing in a recent number the picture of Obndlali Oorevwho, it is claimed, was (Tlin first man who mails use oi aiitbia olta coal.) the first man to make use Qf anthra cite coal. Obadlah Gore and his brother Dan iel, says the Express, discovered that anthracite coal would burn; conse quently they made known its value. Obadlah served in til; army of Wash ington from the beginning of the Rev olutionary War, and lived after the war in Sheshequin, Bradford County, Penn., where he was judge of the local court for some years. Daniel Gore had a farm and dwell ing three miles north of Wilkesbarre. On a farm adjoining his to tlie north was a bed of rock, which came to the surface. A question arose as to whether it was a form of coal. It was tried in fireplaces on wood tires and failed to be of use. Daniel Gore experimented with it in the blacksmith's forge and established the possibility of its com bustibility. It should be remembered that black smithing was an important industry In the early days of the settlement of tliis country. The local blacksmith of the Wyoming Valley was no excep tion to rule. Implements of farming, also fixtures of houses, such as hinges, door handles and latches, nails, etc., together with kitchen utensils, and irons, cranes, hooks and trammels, such as were then in use, were made in the blacksmith shop. The Gore family in question, when the American colonies revolted against the tyranny of England, proved them selves sturdy patriots and defenders of their country's cause. The Oyster Girls of Arcaclion. There is a quaint little town in France where women do a great share in the natural industry of the place, and though no claim is made for them as advanced women, they wear male attire when pursuing their trade. Ar caclion is the name of this little French village, and it lies on an Inlet of the Golfe de Gascoigne, not far from Bor deaux. It consists of two towns, and is said to be unique of its kind. The one situated on the shore, with its shops, markets and streets, is tlie sum mer, or Ville d'Ete, the winter town, or Ville d'Hlver, nestling cosily above amidst far extending pine forests on sandy hills or dunes. With the excep fYPICAL orsTEIl OlKti or AUCACHO S lion of two hotels, the Ville d'Hlver Is composed of about ;!'«• independent villas, standing amidst their own ear lens, the pines I icing all around. The aveuues are laid out serpentine fash lon, to avoid air currents; nothing but low hedges or light feines separate the different gardens. Neither tcr raees of hous— are tolerated, nor •hops, the result lieing quite park like, snd the eye, even In full winter, is re freshed by IIV litis masses of green Froui the heights one gets a Hue view of the Ville d' Kle, the fishing IMUUS mid "Oyster l'ark." Ilere Ihe oyster gills follow tlieit trade. When the In mis tiuu« 111 Iliey work on the floats near lite shore, and present a picturesque sppearanee iu iheir kuit kerUiekers, !>tg hats aud sa IHJIS. TIIV atviimpanylug picture shows them a| receuiijr phtflofc.spiled. DR. TALMAGtfS SERMON SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE BR THE NOTED DIVINE. Subject: Apples of Gold—An Appropriate Word May Decide One's Destiny The Power of Llttlo Things Value of Sympathy. (Copyright 1901.: WASHINGTON, D. C.—ln this discourse Dr. Talmage shows an open door for any one who desires to be useful, and illus trates how a little thing may decide one's destiny. The text is Proverbs xxv, 11 (re vised version), "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of silver." A filigree basket loaded with fruit is put before us in the text. What is ordinarily translated "pictures" ought to be "bas kets." Here is a silver network basket containing ripe and golden apples, pip pins or rennets. You know how such ap ples glow through the openings of a bas ket of silver network. You have seen such a basket of fruit on many a table. It whets the appetite as well as regales the vision. Solomon was evidently fond of apples, because he so often speaks of them. While he writes in glowing terms of pomegranates and figs and grapes and mandrakes, he seems to find solace as well as lusciousness in apples, calling out for a supply of them when he says in another place, "Comfort me with apples." Now you see the meaning of my text, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in bas kets of silver." You see, the wise man eulogizes just one word. Plenty of recognition has there been for great orations—Cicero's arraign ment of Catiline, the phillippies of l)e --mosthenes, the five days' argument of Kd mund Burke against Warren Hastings, Edward Irving's discourses on the Bible and libraries full of prolonged utterance — but my text extols the power of one word when it refers to "a word fitly spoken." This may mean a single word or a small collection of words—something you can utter in one breath, something that you can compact into one sentence. "A word fitly spoken" —an encouraging word, a kind word, a timely word, a sympathetic word, an appropriate word. I can pass right down the aisle of any church and find between pulpit and front door men whose temporal and eternal destinies have been decided by a word. I tell you what is a great crisis in every man's history. It is the time when he is entering an occupation or profession. He is opposed by men in middle life because they do not want any more rivals, and by some of the aged because they fear being crowded off and their places being taken by younger men. Hear the often severe and unfair examinations of young lawyers by old lawyers, of young doctors by old doctors, of young ministers by old ministers. Hear some of the old mer chants talk about the young merchants. Trowels and hammers and scales often are jealous of new trowels and new hammers and new scales. Then it is so difficult to get introduced. How long a time has many a physician had his sign out before he got a call for his services and the attor ney before he got a ease! Who wants to risk the life of his family to a young phy sician who got his diploma only last spring and who may not know measles from scarlatina, or to risk the obtaining of a verdict for $20,000 to an attorney who only three vears ago read the first page of Blaekstone? How is the young merchant to compete with his next door bargain maker, who can afford to undersell some things be cause he can more than make it up by the profit on other things or has failed three times and had more money after each failure? How is that mechanic to make a livelihood when there are twice as many men in that trade as can in hard times find occupation? There are this very moment thousands of men who are just starting life for themselves, and they need encour agement—not long harangue, not quota tion from profound book, not a page, not a paragraph, but a word, one word, fitly spoken. Why does not that old merchant, who has been forty years in business, go into that young merchant's store and say, "Courage?" He needs only that one word, although, of course, you will illustrate it by telling your own experience and how long you waited for customers, and how the first two years you lost monev, and how tlie next year, though you did better, illness in your household swamped the surplus with doctor's bills. Why does not thnt old lawyer go into that young law yer's office iust after he has broken down in making his first nlca before a jury and say that word with only two syllables. "Courage?" He needs only that one word, although, of course, you will illustrate it by telling him how you broke down in one of your first cases, and got laughed at by court and bar and iury, and how Dis raeli broke down at the start, and how hundreds of the most successful lawyers at the start broke down. Why do not the successful m«i go right away and tell those who are starting what they went through, and how their notes got protested and what unfortunate purchases they made, and how tliev were swindled, but kept right on until they reached the golden milestone? Even some who pretend to favor the new beginner and say they wish him well put obstacles in his way. There are so many men who have all the elements of usefulness and power ex cept one—courage. If you can only under Cod give them that, you give them every thing. In illustrating that one word show them that dverv man that ever amounted to anything had terrific struggle. Show him what ships Decatur had to fight, and what a mountain Hannibal had to climb, and what a lame foot Walter Scott had to walk with, and that the greatest poet who ever lived— Milton—was blind, that one of the grandest musicians of all the ages—Beethoven—was deaf, and that Stewart, in some respects the greatest merchant that America ever saw, began in his small store, dining on bread and cheese behind the counter iu a snatched interregnum between customers, he open ing the store and closing it, sweeping it out with his own broom and being liis own errand boy. Show them that within ten minutes' walk there are stores, shops and factories and homes where as brave deeds have been done as those of Taoniilas at Thermopylae, as that of lloratius at the bridge, as that of Colin Campbell at Isala klava. Tell them what Napoleon said to his staff officer when that officer declared a certain military attempt to lie impossi ble. "Impossible!" »an| the ureal com iiiaudcr. "impossible is the adjective of fools!" Show them also that what is true in wofldly directions is more true in spiritual directions. Call the roll of prophets, apos tles and martyrs and private Christians from the tuue the world began and ask them to mention one man or woman greatly good or useful who was not depre ciated and (tailed and made a laughing stock. Hacks and prisons and whips and j •hipwrecks and a*«*s of hrhradmrut did lheir worst, yet the heroes were more tbsu conqueror With such thing* you will illustrate that word "courage," and they will go out from your pu-seitre to s;art anew and right, challenging all earth and hell to the eoinhat Tht word "courage," filly sp»<en with compressed bps and stout grip of the hand and an intelligent Hash of the ey» aell, the finest apple* that ever thumped on the gruuad ia an autumnal orchard jtd were placed ia the Must beautiful basket of sil ver network before keen appetites could not be more attractive. Furthermore, a comforting word spoken is a beautiful thing. No one but God could give the inventory of sick beds and bereft homes and broken hearts. We ought not to let a day pass without a visit, or a letter, or a message, or a prayer consolatory. You could call five minutes on your way to the factory; you could leave a half hour earlier in the afternoon and fill a mission of solace; you could brighten a sick room with one chrysanthe mum; you could put a postscript to a let ter that would bring the joys of heaven to a soul; you could send your carriage and give an afternoon airing to an invalid on a neighboring street; you could loan a book with some chanters most adapted to some particular misfortune. Go home to day and make out a list of Ihinirs you can do that will show sympathetic thoughtful* ness for the hardly bestead. How many dark places you might illumine! How many tears you could stop or, if alreadv started, you could wipe away! How much like Jesus Christ you might get to be! So sympa luetic was He with beggary, so helpful was He for the fallen and so stirred was He at the sight of dropsy, epilepsy, paralysis and ophthalmia that, whether He saw it by the roadside, or at the sea beach, or at the mineral baths of Bethes da, He offered relief. Cultivate genuine sympathy, Christlike sympathy. You can not successfully dramatize it. False sym pathy Alexander Pope sketches in two lines: "Before her face her handkerchief she spread To hide the flood of tears she did not shed." There are four or five words which fitly spoken might soothe and emancipate and rescue. Goto those from whose homes Christ has taken to Himself a loved one and try the word "reunion," not under wintry sky, but in everlasting springtide; not a land where they can be struck with diseasp. but where the inhabitant never says,"l am sick;" not a reunion that can be followed by separation, but in a place "from which they shall go no more out forever." For emancipation and sighing, immortal health. Reunion, or if you like the word better, anticipation. There is nothing left for them in this world. Try them with heaven. With a chapter from the great book open one of the twelve gates. Give them one note of seraphic harp, one flash from the sea of glass, one clatter of the hoofs of the horses on which victors ride. That word reunion or antici pation fitly spoken— Well, no fruit heaped up in silver baskets could equal it. Of the 2000 kinds of apples that have blessed the world not one is so mellow or so rich or so aromatic, but we take the suggestion of the text and compare that word of comfort fitly spoken to apples of gold in baskets of silver. Or the man astray may have an unhappy home, and that is enough to wreck any one. We often speak of men who destroy their homes, but do not say anything about the fact that there are thousands of wives in American who by petulance and fretting and inconsideration and lack of economy and all manner of disagreeable ness drive their husbands into dissipation. The reason that thousands of men spend their evenings in clubhouses and taverns is because they cannot stand it at home. I know men who are thirty-year martyrs in the fact that they are awfully married. That marriage was not made in heaven. Without asking divine guidance they en tered into an alliance which ought never to have been made. That is what is the matter with many men you and I know. They may be very brave and heroic and say nothing about it, but all the neighbors know. Now, if the man going wrong has such domestic misfortune be very lenient and excusatory in your word of warning. The difference between you and him may be that you would have gone down faster that he is going down if you had the same kind of conjugal wretchedness. Besides that, you had better be merciful in your word of warning, for the day may come when you may need some one to be lenient and excusatory to you. There may be somewhere ahead of you a tempta tion so mighty that unless you have sym pathetic treatment you may go under. "Oh, no," says some one; "I am too old for that." How old are you? "Oh," you say, "I have been so long in active busi ness life that I am clear past the latitude of danger." There is a man in Sing Sing penitentiary who was considered the soul of honor until he was fifty years of age, and then committed a dishonesty that star tled the entire commercial world. In mentioning fine arts people are apt to speak of music and painting and sculp ture and architecture, hut they forget to mention the finest of all the fine arts, the art of doing good, the art of helping oth ers, the art of saving men. An art to be studied as you study music, for it is music in the fact that it drives out moral discord and substitutes eternal harmony. An art to be studied like sculp ture. for it is sculpture in the fact that it builds a man not in cold statue, but in im mortal shape that will last long after all pentelican marble has crumbled. An art to be studied as you studv archi tecture, for it is architecture in the fact that it builds for him a house of God, eter nal in the heavens. But an art that we cannot fully learn unless God helps ns. Ourselves saved by grace divine, we can go forth to save others, and with a tender ness anu compassion and a pity that we could not otherwise exercise we can pro nounce the warning word with magnifi cent result. The Lord said unto {he prophet Amos, "Amos, what scest tliou? ' and he an swered, "A basket of summer fruit." But I do not think Amos saw in that basket of summer fruit anything more inviting and luscious than many a saved man has seen in the warning word of some hearty, common sense Christian adviser, for a word fitly spoken is "like apples of gold in baskets of silver." So also is a word of invitation potent and beautiful. Who can describe the drawing power of that word, so small ami yet so tremendous, "Come?" It is a short word, hut its influence is as long as eter nity; not a sesquipedalian word spreading its energy over many syllables, but mono syllabic. Whether calling 111 wrong direc tion or right direction many have found it irresistible. That one word has tillt'ii all the places of dissipation and dissolute ness. It is responsible for the abomina tions that curse the earth. Inquire at the door of prisons what brought the oftender there and at the door of almshouses what brought the pauper there, and at the door of the lost world what was the cause of the incarceration, and if the inmates speak the truth they will *.ty, "The word 'come' brought us here." Come and drink Cotne and gamble, tome ami sin Come and die Pronounce that word with one kind of inflection, and \• xt ran hear in it the tolling of all the bells of conflagration and The chief hiker in prison in I'haraoh'i tune saw in dream something uuite differ en I Irom apple* of gold in baskets of sil Ver. for he na id to Toneph, "1 Mas aUo in a dream, and. behold, I had three white boskets on my head, ami in the upper most basket there was all manner o| hiked meals for I'haiaoli, and the bird* did eat them out of the basket* on m J head " Joseph interpreted the dream and suid it meant that the chief baker should lie beheaded, and the birds would cat hu hi* Ifeah Ho many a man ha* in hia own ba>l habit* omen* of evil that p#«k at hint anil lorewll 4wu and death.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers