Show Written for tor thit tw Paper F er erTHE THE CHINESE WAY Copyrighted 17 by v frank G Carpenter 1884 1894 l HE most se- se serious serious se serious rious q ques question u es- es estion e s- s st tion t i o n which is i s troubling China day to-day to i in n her war with Japan is that oft oft of j r t ran r a n tion tion She has hasa hasa a big population population population lation but it itI itis iti it iti I is i s scattered f b over a coun coun- country country country try third one larger Jarger than the whole United States This vast extent of ter- ter territory territory ter territory has only one railroad about two I hundred miles long lone This runs through one of 01 the most sparsely settled parts of I It extending from the city of Tien Tsin to the point where the great Chinese wall juts down into the sea at the h head ad adof of the Gulf of All of the traffic I of the rest of the country is carried on in boats carts and wheelbarrows and China has bas no means of transporting large masses of men or provisions to feed them The roads are more like ditches cut through the fields than any any- thing anything else They are full of ruts and in ID IDI inthe inthe I the rainy season they are turned into rivers It is said that there are four thousand roads in m the empire empire but I ven ven- venture venture venture ture to say that not one is macadamized and the great highway over which the caravans pass in going to Mongolia is the bed of ot a rocky mountain torrent and the brick tea which to the amount of thousand of ot tons is carried into Rus Rus- Russia Russia Russia sia and is taken over mountain paths so rough that only men can travel over them All the information dis- dis dispatches dispatches dis dispatches patches and mails which go 90 to the cap cap- capital capital capital ital of ot China have to be carried over dirt roads and before the telegraph lines were put into Peking important I I I news was sent from all parts of tie the empire by messengers with relays of horses Such a messenger service exists is ia some parts of China today and it is said that Kublai Kahn had three hun hun- hundred hundred hun hundred dred thousand horses which he used for this purpose and his relay stations num num- numbered numbered numbered ten thousand Some of the pro pro- provisions provisions pro provisions visions for the palace at Peking are brought by relays from Tsin Tien-Tsin and today the service between China and is by ponies The couriers travel night and day Their clothes are sealed on them when they stan start and these seals cannot be broken until they have delivered their messages It is said that they are lifted from one horse borse- to another at the station and that they sometimes die on the way from fatigue Nearly all the money transactions of o China are done in silver and I saw boxes of bullion packed into carts and shipped from one town to another The bullIon was nailed up in pine boxes and such as I saw being shipped out of Peking did not have soldiers to guard it I was told at the banks however that all aU money that was sent far into the interior had to pay a commission to the bands of brigands and robbers A certain certain certain tain sum was given to some one con con- connected connected con connected with these bands and they fur fur- furnished furnished fur furnished an escort to go with the money The robbers in China have a sort ot of o union trades-union and there seems to be besuch besuch besuch such honors among Chinese thieves that other bands will wilI not molest caravans which have paid toll to the robbers Some parts ot of China are full of brigands and north of Corea there are all sorts or oil guerrillas The two greatest cities of North China are you know Peking and Tsin Tien-Tsin and these are the most interesting points in the present struggle If the Japanese could take them the war would be practically settled and the Chinese would change their rulers from Tartars to Japs Both of these cities are not very far from the sea Tien- Tien Tsin Tien-Tsin Tsin is about fifty miles back up the river and Peking lies about eighty miles to the northward Both cities are frozen up during the winter and from December to March there is no com com- communication communication except by rude carts and ponies Shanghai which go overland from Shang Shang- Shang- Shang hai and I made several trips this spring from Tsin Tien-Tsin Tien- Tien Tsin to Peking and it will give give you a good idea of the situation in China for lor me to describe the connections or trunk lines between these two mighty cities Peking is you know the capital of the great Chinese empire It contains between a million million- and a million and a half of people It Itis Itis is where the ruler of five hundred mil mil- million million mil million lion eyed almond mortals lives and it itis itis itis is the greatest seat of government on 00 the globe Tsin Tien-Tsin is the home of Li Hung Hung Chang It is the New York of ot North China It is the port where are landed all the goods which supply these hundreds of millions of the north and of those which are carried from it far beyond the borders of the great wall Into Manchuria Mongolia and the great province of Li Its inhabitants number more than a million and upon its wharves goods are stacked like hay aggregating in value every year hug hue of millions of dollars These tw cities are about as far apart as are N New NewYork NewYork York and Philadelphia and the land between them is as flat as t the e floor of 94 ball room All of the supplies of the capital pital thoS those of the n nobles bt s stad find the court come first to Tien Tsi and nd there is a Stream of goods flowing from one place to the other othet filly as large as that which passes over the railroads between New York and Chicago Through what channels does it flow and how long does it take to go from one city to the other I traveled nearly two whole days and nights in making my journey by land and the average trip by way of the riveris riveris river is from four to five days These two cities have not even a decent wagon road connecting them The slow freight is a wheel barrow and the fast express is a Mongolian pony or a Chinese cart The Pullman car is a house boat on the river but this lands you only at atthe atthe the city of Tung Chow and you have to tomake tomake tomake make the remainder ot of your journey by donkey or cart I have traveled both ways and I ran a race in my house boat with the boat of Secretary John W Poster down the We both had American flags floating from our mast mast- mastheads mastheads heads beads and my mr flag reached Tsin Tien-Tsin Tien first The river winds about like a snake It cuts in and out at places like the teeth of a saw and there are points where you can leave the boat walk a half a mile across the fields take a nap before it gets around the bend to where you are These house houseboats houseboats houseboats boats are for hire at Tien- Tien Tsin Tien-Tsin Tsin and at Tung Chow and it costs from ten to twenty dol dollars ars to make the trip to Peking Each house boat has a lot of sailors and a captain and you carry your own cook and your own provi provi- provisions provisions My captain was over six feet in height He was clad in wadded blue cOtton and his gown reached to his ankles He lives in the back of the boat and my quarters were in the middle I slept at night under a piece of matting and my servant cooked my meals When the wind was in the right direction we put up the sails and when it died down the sailors pushed the boat along with poles which they dug into the oed bed of the river or fastened long r ropes to it and dragged it along by w walking on the banks We did not know how long the voyage was going t to take and we considered ourselves happy in having made it in four days The Chinese cart is a surer means of locomotion but it is by no means so pleasant The roads are full of ruts Th she dust sweeps over you in storms and your bones are racks racked with the jolting Of the cart I doubt whether there is a clumsier vehicle in the world and certainly certainly certainly no other could stand such roads The Chinese cart has two wheels each as big as the front wheel of a buggy and each has a weight about ten times as great The wheels have massive iron tires Their spokes are as big around as a abase base ball club and the wooden axles are as big as your arm where they come through the hub The shafts are areas areas areas as large as telegraph poles and they are f fastened directly to the axle and the body of the cart rests upon them without springs The bed of one of these carts is five feet long and four feet wide You cannot stretch yourself I out flat upon it without resting your feet upon the shafts There is no seat con con- connected connected connected with it and you lie or sit flat on the floor A little like box wall abut bot th the edge of the cart and there is isa isa a blue canvas covering three feet high f stretched over it- it it Sitting upright your head ad grazes the roof of this and it would be be- impossible ible to put a sent seat of any kind within the vehicle Each of f these carts is drawn by either one or two mules which are fastened to the cart by a harness of rope and rawhide When two mules are used they always work tandem as the road is too narrow for a two-horse two team Th The driver sits legged legged cross on the shafts and directs the mules with a pair of rope lines and anda a long whip It was in such an outfit that I went to Peking I had two carts and four mules and the trip took me in the neighbor neighborhood hood of forty-eight forty hours I paid eighteen eighteen eighteen teen dollars for my carts and I had great trouble in getting them on account ot of the examinations which were going on in Peking I had secured two at twelve dollars While they were being brought to the hotel one of ot the manda manda- mandarins mandarins mandarins saw them and he forcibly seized them for some student friends of his I and I was left out in the cold The next day I had my Chinese servant go out on the road about ten miles beyond the city He waited their till two good carts came along and then smuggled these into the hotel in a roundabout way so that the mandarins could not see them We started at four o'clock in the morning and after some tea and toast by the light of the candle I inspected in inspected my outfit You will no see seemore seemore seemore more villainous faces in any rogues rogue's gallery than those of the two muleteers and as for the mules Barnum's woolly horse had a coat of silk compared to theirs My bedding and eatables were put into one cart and my Chinese boy cra crawled in on top of ot them I took the second and before daybreak we were ready to start We drove for miles through the city of Tsin Tien-Tsin just at dawn and had a chance to see how the poorest of these five hundred million people look when rousing themselves for another day of ot their everlasting hustle Men in sheepskin coats more like animals than humans filled tilled the streets Already coolies were pushing barrows over the rough pavements and other laborers were carrying mighty loads on poles across their shoulders In the suburbs we rode through long lines of hovels out of which disheveled Chinese men and women crawled and looked at us with blinking eyes We passed the homes of thousands of squatters and as we drove along the river river we saw that it was lined with little like like kennel sheds made of ot bamboo matting Many of ot these were not larger than a dog house and those of the size of a hogshead looked palatial beside them Many of them were half cylinders of matting just about large enough to cover a cider barrel and long enough for their owners to crawl in inand inand inand and sleep A screen of ragged blue cotton formed the front of these huts and all of the cooking of the owners had to be done outside It was could and andI I shivered in my overcoat I saw one family lighting a fire They had no matches and were trying to ignite the wood with a flint Another hut had a jinrikisha in front of it This was the size of a baby carriage and its top was wasa wasa wasa a foot above the roof of the house In some places there were holes dug into the earth and matting placed over them The walls of the city form formed d the back backof backof backof of many many- of these Se beggars beggar bo homes s and others were built against the banks baBIts of orthe the river riven You find beggars quarters outside every of-every Of every Chinese city but there are few places where the poor suffer more than they do in north China Tsin Tsin Tien-Tsin is as cold as Minneapolis and these holes covered with straw matting are the homes of thousands Passing these we went over the river on a bridge of boats and then drove through suburb after suburb until we came upon the great plain and began our trip over the Chinese Way The W Way iy I What a fraud What a travesty on the name Dame of road It was filled with ruts and the dust was was knee knee deep Here and there stood a ragged ragged who pretended t to keep to-keep keep the highway in order He smoothed the dust down into the ruts with a long-handled long flat hoe making it so that a cart could get a tumble with with- without without without out being aware of its danger The road in many places was so narrow that two carts could barely pass and no- no nowhere nowhere no nowhere where was it much wider than the average American alley It follows the telegraph lines and in some places it has been built above the surrounding country Here and there a pretense was made of repairing it and gangs of of- soldiers and naked half coolies were at work carrying dirt in baskets ands and spreading it over the holes These must have been thousands of these workmen They probably got less than ten cents a day as wages They worked under overseers and they they sang as they worked they worked I was much interested in the the- way the road was pounded down A Around Around round disc of ot metal or stone about three inches thick and about as big around as a tobacco keg was raised by eight men by means of ropes which were tied to holes in its edges A ninth man sang a song as the gang worked and at a certain note they would pull on their ropes sling the disc high in the air above their heads and let it fall with a thud In other places the road was pounded with mallets and stones were crushed by naked half half who raised heavy sledges high in the air and brought them down with a thump I was surprised how fast the men worked and what great quantities of earth can be carried ia in baskets They swarmed over the road like bees and each human ant added his mite to the pile The road was made entirely of mud and there was no pretense of or any sort of a permanent structure structure re The roads grow wOrSe wore from ye year r to year and they are by no means so fine today as they were three hundred years ago The ninety-mile ninety ride from Peking to Tsin Tien- Tien Tsin Tien-Tsin Tsin was through one continuous stream of carts wagons wheelbarrows and donkeys hitch hitched d in front of them and men pushing behind them and on some parts of the great plain they actually used sails in order to help the wheelbarrows along I got a photo photo- photograph photograph photograph graph of a scene of this kind and the stiff wind that was blowing materially aided this Chinese Cart on its There were hundreds of mandarins rid rid- riding riding rid riding ing on donkeys They were dressed in silk gowns of green yellow and blue and some of them sneered turning up their yellow noses and make faces such as are only possible to Chinese physiognomy physiognomy physiognomy nomy We passed many villages The Mariners farmers ot of China do not Hot live upon their the harms farms They have squalid houses b bunched up together with fences of mud about them and there are no signs sign of |