The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1888-02-03
JOHN CHINAMAN.
SOME THINGS IN WHICH THE
HEATHEN IS PECULIAR.

Incidents and Customs Described by
Man Who Hns Been There-How the
Streets Are Kept Clean-A Pointer in
Sanitation.
There Is probably no country or people
about whom so many popular misrepre-
sentations exist as the Chinese This
singular state OF things is due to two
chief causes. In the first place, most
newspaper writer's on the subject write
first impressions from very superficial
data, and without understanding the SUBJ
jects upon which they write Theme again,
the Chinese themselves in this country
are not disposed to lose sleep, whether
they are understood or not. Then many
books have been written by people with
political or other kinds of axes to grind,
and have given only such facts and inter-
probation of facts us tended to accomplish
'their purposes. There are many Incl
dents and customs in the aowery king
dom which have been ignored in both
books and newspaper articles.
STREET CLEANING PROBLEM.
am asked how the Chinese keep their
! cities clean. It may be that aldermen
might get q hint as to the best solution of
the street cleaning problem from the prac-
tices of the "hathen." The conditions are
so different there and here as to render
comparison misleading. In the first place,
the principal source of dirt in American
cities is absent from Chinese cities. I
refer to horses, here SO numerous and
such prolific sources of t'dirt" There are
no horses seen on Chinese streets drawing
carts or other vehicles. What few horses
are seen are ridden by officials or soldiers.
The government owns all horses Freight
is transported by men, either upon their
shoulders or on wheelbarrows. The streets
are not over six to ten feet wide, and the
sidewalk is in the middle of these narrow
lanes. The stores and shops are open TO
the street line on either side, and each
shopkeeper cleans the street to the center
in front of his shop This is ali the pro-
vision for street sweeping. No garbage is
thrown into the streets, and cash barrels''
are unknown; hence the chief sources of
dirt in our cities are unknown. There are
no underground sewers, and no need for
them. Residences are provided with other
| means of disposing of filth than either
dumping or draining into rivers
Every residence, however humble, is
provided with earthen jars, or large stone-
ware vaults, into which all otherwise un-
usable refuse is cast, and the contents of
these family jars" unlike our ssfamily
jars" is convertible into cash. No peo-
pie fertilize in agriculture to such an ex-
tent as the Chinese. This creates ready
market for what we cast in sewers and
pollute our waterways. A common street
sign posted over large earthcn vessels
sunk in the streets do not warn the stPub-
lic' TO commit mo nu.sance," but re-
spectfully invite the public to 'tPause
here" These peculiar and odoriferous
institutions are owned by men who make
it their life business to deal in the COM
modify which the aforesaid ''public" de-
posits in the receptacles. This is sold at
SO much measure" to farmers, who
carry it to their homes, often many miles
away, where it is put into earthen tanks
or vats to ferment Geader, hold your
nose) until it is required to fertilize grow
ing cabbages and other ''truck." This is
one of the characteristic institutions of
China and the good results from it are
apparent in the yields of food plants.
Every COW herder carries basket into
which he or she gathers up the "frag-
ments" which are used as the city sewer
age for fertilizing purposes.
A UNIQUE SPECTACLE.
AS one saunters through Chinese city,
his eyes are greeted with what at first
forms, to say the least, a unique spectacle.
1t is the public patronage of the dealer in
sewerage. Is the air pure? Well, hardly,
Have you ever observed the uniformly
small nose of the Orientals in this coun
try? If you have, and will accept nv So
luton of that feature, it is that the smell
ing organ has been exhausted by inhaling
the street odors Of China. One thing can
be said in favor of thus disposing Of the
sewerage of cities, VIZ: It does not pollute
the water, which is more vital to health
than the air. Then the air has greater
self cleansing powers than water, and,
taken on the whole, it is the better plan
| to protect the water than the air from i'm
purities. 1t is also true that no poison is
| SO malignant as sewer poison, and that is
unknown in China.
| Have you ever figured the commercial
value of the contents of our sewers,
which is daily and hourly, like Tennyson's
brook, flowing on forever to pollute our
own Niagara river? If SO you have been
surprised that some method of utilizing
this source of wealth has not been devised.
1t is not my purpose here to dish up fig
ures or statistics on the value of all ar
| ticle daily going to waste and for which
| the soil of the surrounding country is suf-
| fering. Under the existing regulations
inc CI1ncSe Iarlner IS aD1e To harvest
three crops from every foot of ground
every year. In no other way could such
| q population be fed. Winter wheat ro-
| tates with either rice or cotton. During
winter, when the wheat is getting its
start, radishes or turnips are grown on the
same soil. Then around the margin of the
| ground seeded to wheat, beans or peas are
grown. AS soon as the wheat is harvested, if
rice is to succeed it, the ground is irri-
gated and planted with rice. If cotton is
| to rotate with the wheat, the seeds are
| planted before the wheat natures, by
digging between the drills of wheat, and
when the latter is harvested, the cotton
| plants are well under growth. Then the
space between the cotton plants is dug
up, and the succeeding crop is sole tenant.
| When these summer crops are gathered,
wheat is again sown. Not foot of soil
| is left non-productive. This state of
! affairs could not last, but for the rich
fertilizing methods, and sewerage is the
| principal and almost exclusive source Of
fertilizers. The "Benighted (sic) heather"
has learned lessons in economy and cleanli-
ness from which the American people
might learn q thing or two.-Pen Hwa
Lin in Buffalo News.
Decrease of Courts Martial.
There have been 1.640 general courts
martial in the army during the year end
ing with Oct 1, 1887, according to the re-
| port Of the acting judge advocate general