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Show J j COST OF LIVING IN ASIA. bTS i 1 Modern Improvements Have Imposed BBJ j i' Burden on Natives. BBpl 1 i, During a recent tour In Asia of near- . fl t ' ly sixteen months, from February, ' BBBJ ' , 1901, to June, 1902. In which I visited ; BVM Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines, BBB t Cochin China, Slam and Laos, the BpB I Straits Settlements, Hurniah, India, BVM l j Syrln and Palestine, 1 found eery- I H 1 j where a deep Interest in the changing it economic conditions. Tho common : I peoplo In Asia care little for politics, but tho prlco of food and raiment , touches every man, woman and child BJ I at a sensitive joint. BVB ! Almost everywhere the obi iIiib of B cheap living nro passing away. Steam- B , I crs, railways, telegraphs, newspapers, Bj j , labor-saving machinery and the Intro- B jj ductlon of Western Ideas are slowly Bj . .j but suroly revolutionizing tho Orient. BBVB ' i (I Shantung wheat, which formerly had BJ no market beyond a radius of a few B . dozen miles from tho wheat field, can BY. Ill 'i now be shipped by railway and steam- BBVH '111 ship to any part of the world, nnd in BJ consequence every Chinese buyer has H , M to pay more for It. In like manner B i 1 new facilities for export havo doubled ) ! , trebled, nnd In some places quail- BJ '' rupled the price of lice in Chlua. Slam BJ ' and Japan. Century Magazine. |