Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-07-30

ferent WOrkmen beng necessary to the
production of a piece OF the finest
ware. They terraced the slopes of the
mountains with walls of stone for the
growth of vegetables, as the shores Of
Lake Lcman are tcrraced to-day fol
the cultivation of the vine Mindful
of the, chemistry of the soil, they early
learned TO temper sandy lands with
clay rand clay lands with sand; and
they carefully gathered and applied all
manner of fertilizers at time when
the wealth OF the Roman plains was
passing through the great cloaca to the
Tiber and the sea. They were the first
to unwind the cocoon Of the silk-worm
and weave fabrics from its threads.
They We're the originators OF porcelain,
and Kao-lin, the name for the clay of
which it is made, has passed into the
industrial nomenclature of Europe.
They invented gunpowder, not only
for fireworks and for explosive mines
in war, but for firearms, for the em-
brasures of the Great Wall are fitted
for the reception of the swivels of wall
pieces; and more than six centuries
before the Christian era their cannon
bore the inscription 81 hurl death to
the traitor and determination to the
rebel" They discovered, too, in re-
mote times, that the best charcoal is
made from willow, fact recognized to
this day by manufacturers of gun
powder in all parts of the world.
They burned petroleum in lamps long
before such use was dreamed of among
the western peoples; they sunk salt
wells hundreds of feet through vary
ing strata and finding that inflamma-
BILE vapors arose in large volumes, they
led them to the furnaces for use as
fuel in heating the evaporaters. They
rendered potable the muddy waters OF
their rivers by treatment with alum
process employed in Europe with
effect for removing clay and and other
earths from water intended for use in
various branches of manufacture.
But these are far from all. They
adopted the decimal system for meas
ures of quantity and weight and val
tie, centuries before French legislators
recognized its utility or French scien-
lists formulated its application to the
traffic of Europe; and now, as in the
days of the first coinage of copper,
the lee or cash, disk with square
hole in the centre to permit it to be
placed on string, is the tenth of a
fen, and the fen is the tenth of chen,
and the chen the tenth OF the value OF
an ounce of silver Their units of vol
ume and length were literally native
to the soil, for the one is the cubic
contents of hundrd of the grains of
the Kow-leang or high millet, the Hol-
Gus sorghum of the botanist, and the
latter the linear space occupied by a
certain number of the same grains,
which also afforded standard OF
weight.
In minor industries the Chinese long
ago saved the culm and dust of coal
and mixed it with clay and soft earth
from the marshes, to form an artificial
fuel, an invention currently believed in
other countries to be of recent years
They were the first to make spectacle
glasses from sections cut from rock
crystal. They made cloth from the
bark of the nettle, project revived in
Germany as new within the past five
years; and they applied to the extrac-
ton of color from native plant the
process by which indigo is extracted
from the Indigofera. They Matched
the eggs of fowls by artificial heat, the
method by which ostriches are incub
ated on the ostrich plantations o
South Africa. They found food in the
roots and the seeds of the lily growing
in reedy ponds, and purified the nause
Gus oil of the Palma-Christi until il
became edible and sweet. They
trained the sheep to carry burdens
through the highest defiles of neigh
boring mountains, and taught the
brown cormorant to fish in behalf o.
his owner in the dun canals.
Such were the manifestation of the
Chinese intellect as applied to the use
full arts. Such were the implements
and methods by which the genius o.
China manifested itself in originating
the industries by which her constantly
increasing population has been sus
tanned, and which through almost un
numbered ages have formed the basis
OF her power and the foundations o.
her home and foreign policy. But il
is to be remarked, and the fact illus
trates not only the nature of the peo
pie but the policy of the government
that every art, every implement OF
method related only to the futheranct
of manual operations. Nowhere i.
there the slightest evidence of intent
to encourage labor saving machinery
which, by dispensing with the labor
of some, lessons the cost of the pro
ducts of labor to all; but everywhere
the ready devising and adoption O
whatever furnished employment fol
human hands or opened new sources
from which the individual could derive
food and raiment by personal labor
Within these limits all was devised