Wichita eagle., 1889-12-29

| m &sAcHmA SEA.
| RAILROAD MAP 1T CHINA
comn,eted roads are shown ~ crossed lines
| authorized roads by black Hne$' son'e1ni"A'es
roads by dotted lines
financially interested in the enterprise, while
a 'ssad fact'' in itself is yet so very AnlSrl
can-like as to furnish additional proof tina,
the country is adopting western ways.
They had a railroad ten miles long In
| China in 1876, built by the English from
| Shanghai to the seaport town Of Woosung
but thu emperor notified the owners to re-
move it after few trains had been run, and
it was removed to the island of Formosa.
| The Chinese seemed to have insuperable OBJ
| jections to labor saving contrivances, and it
is said that the emperor feared an insurrec-
ton if the cheap porters and transporters
were thrown out of employment Another
reason was still more powerful in the iate-
rior. The Chinese religion is, in its last anal
ysis, simply a worship OF ancestors; the
| graves of the empire are sacred In the high
est degree, and the construction Of a road
| bed would necessarily disturb many of them.
1t was not to be thought of. In China, as in
some other countries, the present Is still un-
der bondage to the past.
Nevertheless another set of Englishmen
went to work in 1873, and this time in the i'm
perial province. The Chinese Engineering
and Mining company owned valuable coal
mine about seventy-five miles northeast OF
Tientsin, and after much delay secured per-
mission to build seven miles OF railroad from
the mine down to the canal; but they had to
call it tramway and stipulate that horses
and mules only should be the motive power.
Nevertheless the engineers constructed a loco
motive out of odds and ends, ran 1t about the
yard for awhile, and finally put 1t on the line.
Il was named the Rocket Of China, and its
first trip was on the centenary OF George
Stephenson's birthday. The Imperial officials
looked on and frowned, but daily use soon
reconciled them to the sight
At length Ii Hung Chang, viceioy On the
province of Pi-chi-li, in which Peking is sits,-
ated, was induced to take an Understanding
presumably ''Iet in on the ground foor"-
and thereafter devoted all his talents to gain
ing the imperial consent. At last the en-
peror consented that the English should have
line sixty miles long from Pekin to the sea-
board at Taku; others rapidly followed but
all short and detached sections from one
treaty port to another. Ii Hung Chang
continued to work on the imperial intellect,
and, finally, on the 26th of August last, the
decree was granted for the construction OF
the ''Great Western railroad" from Pekin to
Hankow, something over six hundred miles.
At that point the officials in charge Of rice
transportation On the grand canal protested
in body, as the road would interfere with
their monopoly, and for the present the per-
mission goes no further than Hankow.
Nevertheless the great north and south
line is an assured fact, for Ii Hung Chang
has given out that the road is to be extended
as far as Canton, the great southern port Of
the empire. Thus the line will connect the
capital with the extreme south, and run
through the richest and most populous sec
TONS 1t will thus be as important as a line
from Chicago To New Orleans would lie if it
were the only one west of the Alleghanies.
The new line viii connect the richest cities of
the empire and traverse the most populous
sections, from the imperial capital down
through Shangshi, Honan, the Han, Yangtse
Kiang, Pc and Ieang valleys, and finally the
great rice field of the south and the sugar
lands, to the port and city of Canton.
Its entire course of 400 miles will be
through regions of unsurpassed fertility, and
while there cannot be doubt as to the cor
rectness of the emperors approximations, yet
the temporary displacement of laborers must
be followed by improved conditions for ALL
In no long time it will strengthen the govern
ment by bringing it into closer contact with
remote provinces. 1t is queer anomaly that
the capital of China is in the extreme north
east, and is practically isolated during the
four or five months of winter The great
Tae-Ping rebellion, which caused the loss of
ZOO, 900 lives, began in the far southwest,
over 1900 miles from the capital, and had
made considerable progress before the en-
peror even heard of it.
Foreign loans will be negotiated TO build
the road. The greatest engineering difficulty
will be to bridge the famous Hoang-Ho, or
yellow river" which is 2,7O0 miles long,
and in the lower part Of its course often
floods many thousand square miles. The
bridge will no doubt rank among the engi-
neerlng triumphs of the world, and the open
ing OF the first long road must count as the
great modern epoch IN China.
Commissionef of Navigator.
Capt. William W. Bates, of Buffalo, who
recently appointed commissioner Of was
navigation by President Harrison, was
born in Calais, Me-, in 1927 He learned
in the towns of Washington
county, Md, and after a season at Detroit,
Sandusky and Huron, returned in lS46 to
Maine, where he entered into business with