prize, the earliest Christian monument in China dating from 781 A. D., has long been acknowledged by students and missionaries, he is the first who has had the enterprise to cause a copy to be made and conveyed to the Western world. Casts of this replica may now be made as frequently as there is any demand for them, with as absolute accuracy as if made from the original stone which is now jealously guarded in the most remote quarter of the earth.
Mr. Holm, who was only twenty-five when he started on his expedition, was formerly special correspondent to the London Tribune in China, prior to which period he had received an officer's education in the Royal Danish Navy, and so was already a traveler and explorer of repute when he entered on this latest mission. It was in London in the early part of 1907 that he formed the idea of procuring a replica of the famous tablet with the scientific and historical value of which he had made himself acquainted during his previous residence in China. Obtaining the support of some friends, whom he persuaded of the feasibility of his plans, he came out to China again, and proceeded to Tientsin, where he completed his final preparations for the expedition. He left Tientsin in company with two Chinese attendants, an interpreter and a boy, on the 2d of May, 1907, and traveled in a house-boat to Taokow, where the Peking Syndicate had an establishment, and thence continued his journey on horseback westward to Weichingfu and Honanfu, where he organized a regular caravan. Setting out again when all was ready, he reached his destination, Sianfu, on the 30th of May, and then proceeded cautiously to put his long-cherished plan into execution.
Taking up his quarters as unostentatiously as possible he engaged the services of a skilled Chinese draughtsman and three stonecutters, explained to them what he wanted, and made a bargain to pay them 150 taels (about $100) for an exact copy of the famous tablet. The contractors, as they may be called, were obliged to proceed with the task very cautiously indeed. First of all a suitable piece of stone had to be procured; Mr. Holm stipulating for a slab of the same material and dimensions as the original. This being procured, it had to be conveyed to a shed without attracting notice, which was done; it then had to be shaped and dressed, and afterward the stone-cutters, chiseling from the marvelously accurate drawings of the Chinese draughtsman, slowly and tediously proceeded with the task of carving it.
It is said that the foreigners in Sian, missionaries all with one exception, did not view the enterprise with any great favor; still no opposition was offered and at length it was finished.
