The National tribune., 1889-01-17
loorrnrenrED BY FRANK c. CARPENTER, 1881
Special Correspondence NATIONAL TRIBUNE
PEKTNG, December 28, 1888

PEKING, December %, 1888.
My last letter l wrote in the Capital of
Korea to-day ] am in the Capital of China.
The two great cities are less than 500 miles
apart, but it takes more time and trouble to go
from one to the other than it does to travel
from London to San Francisco. Leaving the
walled city of Seoul l was carried by eight of
those big hated Koreans in chair to the sea-
coast, and it took a whole day to make the
journey. At the port of Korea, Chemulpo, l
took a Japanese steamship manned by an
American Captain, who has been for the last
quarter of century navigating the Western
Pacific, and with him spent i've days IN cross
ing the Yellow Sea to China. This mans name
was Capt. Hussey. He comes from Bedford,
Mass, and he is an improved representation of
Ben Butler in miniature He is good seaman
and a safe Captain, but even his experience
could not calm the boisterous Yellow Sea. The
tail of the typhoon which almost ruined our
naval ship, the Juniata and which tore the
clothes Off of the sailors aloft, on the south
coast of China, wrapped itself around the
Tsuruga Maru, and rolled it from one side to
the other for FIVE days. was forced to keep
in bed the whole time, and when we ar
rived at Chefoo l felt as though l had gone
through a spell of sickness Chefoo is the
Newport of China. 1t is here that the foreign
ers and some of the noble Mongolians come
during the hot months of the Summer, and it
was here that we saw our first Chinese In China.
They came by hundreds to unload our boat
and the difference between them and the lazy
Koreans was marked. They worked as though
they meant business, and after nearly a months
stay among these people of north China l am
convinced that they are one of the strongest
and most business-like people of the world.
From Chefoo we sailed through the Gulf of
Pechili to the mouth of the Peiho River, and
went past the forts which prevented the en-
trance of the British forces when the first
ministers came to China score and more
years ago, and when one of our Commodores
came to the support of the British, with
the remark that Englishmen were half Ameri-
cans, and that blood was thicker than
water" There is a sand-bar at the mouth of
the Peiho which one could almost wade across
at low tide, and which at certain seasons keeps
the ships waiting for days before they can sail
up TO Tientsin. 1t took US full day and a
night to get to the city after we had passed
over this, and from Tientsin to Peking, though
the two cities are only so miles apart, is trip
of from two to seven days. Tientsin has nearly
million people. Peking contains perhaps
million and half The first is the great trad
ing center of north China. 1t might be called
the New York of the 171,000,000 of people
living in the great plain. Peking is the Capt.
tai of the great Chinese nation, to which all
the yellow-faced mortals bow their yellow
knees 1t is the Washington of China, and
Tientsin and Peking, if located in America,
would not be more than two hours distant from
one another.
Still our trip of continuous travel took us
four days. 1t was made by house-boat and
donkeys, and our expenses were enormous.
We hired a house boat at Tientsin and had
crew of six sailors, with Captain, cook and
interpreter. We had to buy small stove for
| the voyage. We took our own bedding, and we
laid in enough meats and other provisions to
last us a week. Our sailors worked day and
night, and half the time they pulled the boat
along by rope attached to its mast and extend
| ing to the shore, where they, harnessed up
! like so many horses, leaned over and sweated as
| they pulled. The house-boat was about 40 feet
| long and II feet wide. 1t had little oval tent
of mating about IL feet in length in the cen
| ter, and under this we slept, while at the
! back our cook made us delicious meals on two
| little stone bowls of charcoal not bigger than
wash-pan. We had everything from soup to
| dessert, and we began our breakfast daily with
| Chinese persimmons, which are about the same
color aud size as the largest tomatoes, and among
the most delicious of Chinese fruits.
| At Tung Chow we left the boat and took
donkeys and carts for Peking. The carts car
ried our baggage and cook, and we rode the Is
| miles upon donkeys. We reached Peking be-
fore the gates closed for the evening, and got
| through the great wall in time to ride several
miles through the city before nightfall. Had
we taken ponies from Tientsin and ridden
| about Is hours a day we might have made the
trip in two days, but the roads are the worst in
the world. And the Chinese inns are such that
one travelling in the interior must take his cook
/ and bed with him. The only other method of
going to Peking is by cart, and if you will take
the clumsiest American cart and ride in it over
the Toughest of corduroy roads, you will not
1,4t ocC
travel. An old French lady, who has a costume
| covered with shoe buttons, and who | am told
! is worth about $4,000 for each button upon her,
| went to Peking in this way last week. She is
a crank and miser, and she went without bed
ding, and her sole provisions were four eggs
and six boiled potatoes. The trip nearly killed
her. She came back to Tientsin with broken
arm andsprained shoulder, aud with enough dirt
upon her to subsoil farm. The Chinese do
not bathe at their native inns, and, as the Eng
lish express it, the whole nation is in an
untubbed state. These methods of travel and
comfort, however, suit the Chinese. They
have no stoves to warm them, and the only
means of heating is the kang.
We get our idea of China much from the
south, for Chinese emigration to America ha:
been almost entirely from Canton. But Canton
is as far south from PekiDg as New Orleans is
south from st. Paul. The climates are as diff
ferent. and while the southern Chinese can
go half naked in the Winter these people of the
north dress in clothes of waddcd cotton anC
sheepskins. If you will take quilted blue
comforter and make it into the baggiest of pan
falcons, and add to these q gown of the same
material reaching to the knees, you will have
the dress of the poor of north China. The
rich wear the finest Of silks of the brightest o
colors and the most delicate shades, lined will
fine furs, and it costs more to fit out the Chimes
swell than it does the American dude. Still
, rich and poor have no fires, and the whole ma
tion seems to exist on animal heat.
Peking is the most filthy city of the world
l and there Is no Capital among the nation
a which has so far gone to seed. 1t is made up o
!, three great cities surrounded by immense wall
of brick, upon the tops of which five farm
wagons could be driven abreast and give room
to spare. These walls are from % to so fee
high, and they have IS gates. These gates ar
IS deep openings with oval tops, closed by door
Of heavy wood, and during the day they ar
Q crowded with the motley mass which, movin
o to and fro makes up the inhabitants of thi
Chinese metropolis. There are donkeys with
10 out number bearing pig-ta merchants an
urged on by the blows of other pig-taile
donkey-boys who follow behind. There ar
Chinese mandarins in silks in sedan chair.
"a borne by round-hatted coolies in wadded col
d ton. There are Chipese carts carrying the big
|, footed daUUhters of Tartar nohlpmen attandt