Interior of a Confucian temple. — Dust is everywliere — blown in from the (iolii ilist-rt by wliirl- 

 winds from the north. Stately throne and paneled screen are covered thickly with tlie fine desert 

 sand, which ha.s dulled the color of the red-lacquered wood and golden ornaments 



color of the red-lacquered wood and 

 goldeu ornaments. In other halls stand 

 classical texts engraved on stone, but 

 between the sacred tablets are piles of 

 boards and benches. An atmosphere of 

 neglect, decay, and dilapidation rests 

 on the Temple of Confucius. iSTot only 

 is the material dust of the Gobi desert 

 s]irinkled over it, but something like 

 mental dust as well, and one leaves it 

 with a feeling of sadness that China's 

 most precious treasures of wisdom and 

 beauty are left untended to perish from 

 the earth. 



A few hours' ride on the railroad 

 brings one to Nank'ou and the Ming 

 tombs. At the entrance to the valley in 

 which lie the mortal remains of the 

 great emperors stands a noble /A/i lou. 

 one of the most beautiful in China. A 

 magnificent road, once paved with mar- 

 ble slabs but now a crumbling ruin 

 grown thick with weeds and grass, 

 leads through waving fields of corn. 

 Passing down the "Avenue of the Ani- 

 256 



iiials. wlicrc 111 huge marble lignres, 

 standing and recuinbent, all the crea- 

 tures of the earth are symbolized in 

 mourning for the emperors, one arrives 

 at a shallow stream once spanned l)y a 

 l)eautiful marble bridge. This bridge, 

 too, is in ruins, and at the s])londid 

 temples and tombs beyond one finds 

 falling walls, weed-grown terraces, and 

 crumbling stairways. 



Throughout the h-ngtli and l)rea(h]i 

 of China the picture is the same — relics 

 priceless to history and to science 

 neglected and cruml)ling in decay for 

 want of the care which every civil- 

 ize(l nation of the earth lavishes u])on 

 the records of its antiquity. Fortu- 

 nately, the story is different in Japan, 

 where the temples and monuments are 

 cared for by the nation and its ])e:)])le 

 and stand today as permanent memo- 

 rials of her ancient civilization. In the 

 ■'Society for Preserving Landscapes 

 and Historic and Natural Monuments" 

 Jai)an has a custodian for her national 



