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Show I The Founding Of A Dynasty I ABOUT the time that Moses was being cradled in the rushes; one Chin Gong Woo was LL governor of a Province in China, which is H now known as Shen-se. He was a cultivated gen- Hj tleman, given to study and was known as a writer H of great repute. His people were mostly tillers of LL the soil, humble manufacturers and fishermen in M the great Yellow River. They raised flax and 1 made clothing of it, they had learned the value M of the silk worm and how to weave silk; they M raised all the vegetables and fruits to pertectlon; m they worshipped Tien to whom they ascribed the H creation of the world and whose home was in the H H Their community was the most enlightened in H the world. They had a written language and had LL learned to make paper, and their scholars had H written many books. From these books Confu- M cius, who came five hundred years later, obtained LL most of his education. M They had learned how to reduce iron ore to LL metallic iron; In the mountains next to them they J had mined much silver ore and learm ' pro- B cess of reducing the ores and running t" .lver LWt into bars. They had done a good deal of placer H mining and had accumulated a good deal of H gold. They had found out that it required about ft twelve times as much labor to obtain a bar of H gold as it did a bar of silver of the same weight, H hence their currency was 12 to 1. Learning by m experience that while fruits and cereals were M about all consumed as fast as produced; that their fl flax cloth and silk had but a temporary existence, M but that their gold and silver were imperishable M and that they could not, try as hard as they might H obtain a surfeit of either; that moreover, they, LWM measured by the labor required to produce them. 1 were perfect measures of value; they were gladly B accepted by the people as perfect measures of LLn value, and the best possible mediums of exchange H They were enlightened beyond all the other M tribes around them and because they had invent- M ed a rude plough and many smaller agricultural m implements; they could cultivate more ground M and obtain better crops than their neighbors. M Hence, as is always the case, those neighbors were M envious of them, and so when the Tartars came m down and pillaged their fields, their neighbors H would not help them. M They were a non-combatant people; they or- M ganized the first Hague conference and invited M their neighbors to come and discuss with them M the advantages of universal peace, but the invita- 1 tion was ignored. m There was no great wall then to protect them M against the Northern Tartar robbers, and for M years they were harrassed, their crops pillaged, M their herds driven away, their men killed and m their women carried away into slavery through M Tartar raids. M At last a great army of the Tartars came down M upon them, devastated their fields, burned their fl factories and killed so many of their people, that LM the remnant determined to migrate to some new H land where they would be unmolested thinking M that if they retreated south, overland, their enc- M mies would pursue them. They determined to M escape by the Great River. Then they loaded two Hj hundred junks with food, clothing and seeds and M added to the rest, some calves, sheep, pigs, dogs M and young colts, and at last, being ready, the iflrfl remnant, some two thousand people In all, em- B barked and floated down the Great River and out M upon the sea. Their thought was to follow the M coast for a few days, then land, and if everything H was propitious, plant a colony. Hi1 But once outside they were caught by a ty- Bfl phoon and d. 'ven far out to sea. Fortunately the HH storm was so fierce and steady that it did not m call up any great waves, but just blew them on LLm and on. When at last it had spent its force, a gentle breeze sprung up from the northeast and not knowing where they were, they remained passive, said their prayers to Tien and drifted. At last one morning after many days, land rose out of the sea before them; it grew in size as they neared it, and presently they beheld a shore lovely in tropical trees and flowers, and marked where a great river, coming out of the hills on shore and pouring its water into the sen. Then nnnHnwra&slilic JpWm. y sHi iHHRIIKSSHSiB J nnnwnumSlilSili ' ic Ifiv WsmSSMXSSBBmKwMM M mWmW 'JSmm IIbH I JH MB nflnHnni 1 5 Ci . i jiii & .STammmma !, Hi. WW w9 mm mmWmwSmmmmmm "1 yF S HmW'ySsBmW tH WW r lmmWmwmwmW JBS itL kBB Wm 3BBCTJIiBwRE if .-, 'JBLaBBBBBMBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBMjTJBwrABBBBBBBBBBBBBl H l'hiti Undtrwtid & Uudtrwctd, N. f. B FIRST PHOTOGRAPH OF THOS A EDISON WITH HIS WONDERFUL NEW STORAGE B BATTERY IN HIS LABORATORY. U U'J . 4 W.H.11 V10, Perfoctlon of Mr Edison's new Storage Battery a revolution of Mm TCioptvin Automobile Industry and an Innovation In Electric Oar operation will take place Electilc B i ,ny,P,f W10 extensions of the suburban Electric Railways In tills countrv are bolnir third mil Wh th "0W E(Us0n SlornB0 Battcry cars (l0,nff awny wlth K" h"uS T trolleys and mmdii 'SSTieon "ohiSS'of iiBXoo-.,,iade a Journey over roush roatls of ,noro Umn two they took their oars and made for this river, entered en-tered it and for the rest of the day drove their junks along its banks. Then they tied up their boats and went ashore, said their prayers, and laid down to sleep on the blessed earth. They had been blown east for eight days at great speed; then southwest .or twelve days: They knew the direction direc-tion they had traveled by the sun, and by a few Uars whose places in he sky they had learned, "o they cumputed tlwu the hypothenuse of the two sides of the triangle they had sailed would na- H turally point to the northwest, but how far away B they were from their native land they could only H guess. One thing they were certain of was that 91 they could not be followed by the Tartars. BK When the morning came they looked about H them, and sent out exploring parties, to spy out H the land. There were instructed to mark their H way so -that they could return. H One party ran upon a tribe of wild inhabitants. H and persu&led them to return with them to the W boats. From them the Governor learned that ILm the island was twenty days march long and fifteen H days march wide, and that it contained some few H thousand people. They were utterly barbarous H but gentle and strick'en with awe and fear at the H presence of a new race and their ships. jH It was an island of hills and valleys, under a H tropical sua, the soil was wonderfully rich and H H Chin Gong, the Governor, saw at a glance that the H making of a litte empire was before him. There H were fruits and roots and wild game in plenty. H There was nothing to do but to begin the build H ing up of that empire. In a beautiful valley each H family took up a homestead and planted a gar H den. But there were roads and bridges and H houses and factories to build. The demand for H work was insatiable. Moreover, there was a H simple government to establish and maintain. H Their supply of gold and silver was limited, for H the Tartars had robbed them. The natives had Hj no ornaments but worthless shells and the feath- H ers of birds; they were willing to work for beads, H or clothing, or glass trinkets but In their own H way they insisted that the laborer was worthy of H his price. H Gong Woo, saw clearly that it would be easy H for the colony to maintain itself; that the man H who raised tea or silkworm could exchange with H the man who raised grain or had a stock farm; H that the fruit and vegetable raisers could ex- H change their products for rice or wheat, but that H would be mere barter and no people ever become H great through barter. H Moreover, his people had been accustomed to H money and knew the value of it. In the com- H pany he had some miners and prospectors and he H fitted them out and bade them explore the island Hk for traces of gold and silver and iron. M In a few days they returned bringing samples m of silver and iron ores, but no gold. These mines m were reported to the extensive, but several miles 1 inland and up canyons, where. roads would have M to be constructed to reach them. M Then Gong Woo called the people together and M explained to them the situation, how they could H live and vegitate on barter, but never become a B great people; pointed out that a government must M be established and schools for their own children M and the children of the barbarians; that roads B must be built to the mines, and reduction works M erected, and asked for expression of opinions. M One wise old man, Sing Lou, arose and proposed M that Gong Woo should be Governor and that two M solid men, High Wise and Lee Sing, should be M his counselors and they should be the government; that for money they should issue paper notes to be redeemned after ten years in silver; that as the government was to issue the notes, and with them pay for the public works, the silver should go to the government that it might be able to make redemption sure. This plan was submitted to the people and the response was a unanimous "aye". The iron mines were first opened, a good deal of ore taken out, reduced and rough picks, gads, hammers and shovels made. The colony harvested a fine crop, but the worms and grasshoppers were a failure and the natives suffered for food and were glad to work for grain and salted meat and the skins of animals for clothing. They made the roads up to the silver mines, and packed down the ore an their heads. The ore was a chloride, easily reduced and at the end of the first year the Government had on hand quite a stock of silver bars Then Gong Woo called the people together agaui, and explained that he had on hand a good deal of silver and was willing to begin the redemption of the paper notes. Then Sing Lou again arose and opposed the proposition. He said a bargain was a bargain, that the people had agreed to wait ten years; that the paper money answered every purpose, and was more convenient to carry than the silver, but offered two amendments to his original proposition, pro-position, one that at the end of the ten years, the Government should in redeeming the bills, pay eleven cowries for every ten issued ten years before, and tnat in the meantime the paper notes should be declared a full legal tender for all debts. This was joyfully ratified by tne people. An ingenious youth had prepared the notes. They were yellow, on the right hand upper corner was a picture of the sun indicating life and light on the left hand upper corner, the North star was fixed, indicating steadiness, on. the lower left hand corner was an ant-hill, showing that the real reliance was on labor, while the lower right hand corner were the signatures of the Governor and his counsellors. In the center were two dates, the dates of issue and redemption. Many of the people had accumulated a good deal of this paper money and wanted a place H where it might be kept. H Then a great depot was fixed for this purpose H and old man Sing Lou was put in charge. That B was the first great central bank. Sing Lou was H paid a salary by the Government, but it was not H long until a good many men needed help to tide Jm things over until narvest, and Sing Lou conceived H the idea that it would not be wicked ii! at his ! own risk he loaned a little of that money and W made a charge for the rent of it. H Like most wise men he had not a cowrie him- H self, but he reasoned, that if he loaned his neigh- K bors money it was only right for the neighbor B to reimburse him for his trouble, and reckoned B shrewdly that as the depositors would not all B want their money at the same time, he would B always have on hand enough to meet the demand. B The colony grew wonderfully and after three B years there was on hand great quantities of rice M and silk, and dried fish and birds-nests and tan- B ned skins, and tea and many other products. Many B of the young men had gone out of the river to B fish in the open sea and were expert boatsmen. B They, too, wanted to see the world, and many B remembered the girls of a neighboring tribe that they knew when they were children and for several sev-eral reasons wanted to see them again. Finally five new junks were built with especial care; forty days' provisions were put on board and the rest of the space filled with merchandibe and they sailed away to the Northwest. In twenty twen-ty days they sighted land and nearing the land they saw houses such as they were born in and a little later got in communication with the people; the people of their own race, so they worked up the coast to the mouth of the great river, entered it and in a few days were back to the scenes of their boyhood. They sold their cargoes for an immense sum, for there was a famine in that part of China that year, got their pay In silver, each bought a wife from the girl's father, and then they took again to their junks and struck out for home. They were thirty days in returning but they arrived all right. That was the begin nlng of a great trade, which augmented the silver sil-ver supply of the island, faster even than could (Continued on page 74) THE FOUNDING OF A DYNASTY (Continued from page 54) be obtained from the mines. This went on for ten years, when Gong Woo died. His son, a youth named Go Yip was elected to succeed him, when the first notes came due, not half of the people , presented them for redemption. They preferred to hold them for the interest they carried. Go Yip was not at all like his father. He vas a born fighter; moreover he knew how hl3 father and people had been driven from their native na-tive land, and knew that the love for the old home was still strong in the hearts of the people. peo-ple. He had been back to China two or three times and had seen how men were trained for war. So he began training the young men of thy island and when he had a thousand of them under discipline and a great store of weapons made, he left his government to his counsellors, loaded a hundred junks with food, weapons and silver and with his 1 000 fighters sailed away. Reach- ' ing native land he made a camp on the banks of the great river and with a little silver and the promise of much loot, enlisted and trained thousands thou-sands of men. Then he started on his raid north; by forced marches he came within two miles of the ene-mey's ene-mey's central city just at dusk one evening. In the early dawn he made his assault upon the stronghold, swept away all opposition, killed thousands and utterly broke the power of the wretches that had plundered the lower country so long. Immense spoil fell Into his hands. He carried away all he could and burned the rest. On his way home his followers appropriated the country. He went back to his father's land and organized a government. He sent the junks back to their island. When the people there learned what had been done, the old longing for their native land come upon them with irrlslstlble force. In the meantime the silver and iron deposits de-posits had been practically worked out, and the thin soil of the island under constant rotation of crops and no fertelizers had ceased to yield half what It did at first, and the demand to return to their old home on the big Yellow river became be-came Imperative. The hundred junks were loaded load-ed with people and sailed for home. When they reached there and the Governor learned the situation, sit-uation, a happy thought struck him. He determined deter-mined to bring home all the people who had been with his father, all the people and their descendants, descend-ants, and to make a final colony out of the island. This was done. In the meantime he had established estab-lished the same financial system that had been inaugurated on the island. The Government retained re-tained the gold and silver and gave to the people the paper money redeemable at will in spices. Under the system the new nation thrived wonderfully. won-derfully. The lands were cultivated, the mines worked, manufacturers sprung up everywhere. After a few years some junk loads of prison- W ers were sent out to the island. By this time its position was well known, but when the junks reached the spot, there was no island. They sailed around the spot for many days, but were forced at last to conclude that the island had disappeared. There had been many earthquakes in China proper, and it was evident that the island had sunk. ft It is supposed that it went down in the same 1 series of cataclysms that sunk Statontls, on our 1 side, in the Caribbean sea, no vestige of which I was ever found. Go Yip was Governor for forty years, and so wise was he, the people so prospered, that when he died he was declared to me a supernatural mortal, and was apotheosized as a God, and the rule of his dynasty continued for three hundred and fifty years. |