St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-04-30
He Is Now Engaged Building
a Railroad in the Celes-
+ tial Empire.
Judge Kerr Disposes Of a
Number Of Unsavory Di-
voPce Cases.
Preparations for the Observ-
anee Of the Centennial
in st. Paul.


by MesSrs. Horace B. Kane and Will
lam Harrison, of Helena, Mont, ar
rived in the city yesterday afternoon
and took quarters at the Ryan. The
marquis is on his. way home to Paris
from Tonquin, China, where he has
been spending the winter surveying a
railroad. 'Thls Railroad" said the
marquis, sis the first line in China.
TOnquin is politically French territory,
but geographically Chinese, and we are
building road from the mouth of the
Song Tien-yen river in shape of V
into the interior of TonQuin. The adj
vantage of building to the mouth of this
river is that it gives us a good harbOr
with five fathoms of water, whereas
the Red river, which is much larger,
ends in delta with no harbor
at all. The road runs 125 miles
into the interior and strikes the
Chinese frontier at point near Lung
Chow where the Canton river crosses.
We go sixty miles further into the IN
terror, which brings us to Po-se-ting.
Lung Chow is one of the frontier trad
ing stations opened by the Franco
Nanning-fu by stream called the Tso
Chang. According to Mr.. Bourne,
who surveyed large part of the coun-
Try, and from what have seen myself,
this is the only route worth mention
ing between Kwang-Si and Tonuuin.
The trade on the Tso Chang is enor-
nous, consisting of cotton yarn, piece
goods and Canton goods, timber, beans,
rice, staranise and drugs. The cara
vans from the Meiksong. from Yunnan
and from SZechuen tranship their mer-
chandise into jnnks, by which it is car
fed in thirty days to Pakhoi at cost OF
five francs per ton per mile. By our rail-
way we can carry the goods for one centa
mile. The population of this part of
this part of the country is much vaster
stance the provice of SZechuen has a
population of 67.712.S97: Kwangtung.
80, FOG. 249; Kwang-Si. 5,151,327 Kwei-
chow, 1869. ISL, SIC; Youman, 11,721,-
576. Of this population 120,S00,-
600 does not interest us, the districts
they inhabit not being in communica-
ton with our base, but S0,00O,OOO re-
main whom we shall supply with for
eign goods and whose exports we shall
receive. The rapids on the rivers are
so dangerous that they necessitate fire.
quent and costly reshipments, so that we
can take two-thirdS of all the trade and
bring about pacific revolution in Ton
Quin. The local traffic will be immense,
and We shall construct the road on the
Tienyen-Binchi section from the sea to
Lungchow at once. expect to get back
there by September, when grading will
be started. The road is a very easy one
TO build, as we follow the side hills, and
have no steep grades Speaking of the
inhabitants of Tonquin, the marquis
said: ''0n the borders of China are
curious set of people called the HuongS.
They are the aborigineS; on the north
are the Chinese and on the south the
Annamese. who inhabit Tonouin. The
Chinese are very fond of making
raids for the Annamese women
and the country is consequently in a
constant state of war. The Huongs live
on the tops of hills; and by the way the
hills are Just like those you see on
Chinese screens. They have narrow
path leading to the house and five or
stones which are arranged so that they
can be dropped at will by the master of
the house. Their houses are entirely of
bamboo and their women very virtu-
ouS." The marquis told some very
funny stories about the habits and Gus
toms of the Chinese and showed one
peculiarly of their government in this
way. AN inundation occurs, for
instance" he said. 1.-The emperor
orders a mandarin to build a
dam. A short time afterwards
the mandarin sends word back that
the dam is built and is allowed so much
money for it. But the dam is not built
at ALL" He described the money in use
N VnnnnIn of nd
mony: it takes 6G0 of the standard coin
to make 25 cents, and he needed reg
ular procession of men to carry his
money. He says that Hong Kong and
Singapore are the two most prosperous
cities in the world to-day, and have
been made so by English capitalists
getting numbers of Chinese interested
in paying investments. The railroad he
is building is entirely owned, however,
by French capitalists. The marquis
leaves this evening for New York,
whence he goes direct TO Paris via Lon
don, and expects to return to Tonquin
by next September.