The morning call., 1894-12-30

markets of China are as fine as any In the
world. There are long streets in Tientsln
which are filed with furstores, and there
is a square in Picking which is devoted to
fur market. Every morning about 4
o'clock you may find there several hundred
wholesale fur-dealers with their goods
spread out on the ground, and you can
buy all sorts of skins. from the cheapest
of SQUIRRELS to the finest of seals. There
are lots of econd-hand-fur stores, and old
furs are bought and cleaned ana resold.
The Chinese do not use fire to keep
warm. and it is only in the rarest of in
stances that you will find well-heated
houses. Fuel is remarkably scarce. and
everything is carefully saved. / saw hun
dreds of women pulling up stubble and
gathering straw and old weeds in order to
make fires, and one of the chief businesses
along the Yang tse- Kiang is the cutting
the reeds which grow on the low shores
and tying them up in bundles to be car
ried into the cities for sale. l saw no iron
stoves in China. and the rooms which they
pretended 10 heat were furnished with
what are called hangs. These are lodges
or platforms of brick about two feet high,
which fill one side of the room. They
are heated by fues, and fire of straw is
started under them, and is kept burning
un til the bricks are hot. The people sleep
on the kang, but the trouble found with
them was that when they were fired up
they roasted me. and as soon as the fire
went out the kang became as cold as a
stone. | slept on them many nights dur
ing my interior trip. and was continually
afflicted with a cold. Had the fuel been
wood or coal they might be better. but
with straw they were worse than no fires
at all. The stoves of China are usually of
clay, and charcoal is largely used for cook
ing. There is said to be coal in nearly all
parts of the empire. but only little is
carried on the backs of camels, and l saw
many coal merchants VINO sold nothing but
coal dust. They mixed the powdered coal
with dirt. and nodded IL up into Jumps of
about the size and shape of baseball. II
was sold by the basket and 1t brought high
prices.
Still, China has some Of the largest coal
fields in the world, and German geologist
who has examined into the matter says
that the extent of the workable coal beds
of China Is greater than that of any other
country. There is coal right near Hankow,
which is now being used in the making Of
iron. and every province in the empire is
said to have coal in it. There is. however,
only one mine which is being operated on
anything like scientific principles. This is
at Tong Shan. a bout eight miles from Tien-
tsin, and the Chinese have been mining
about 1000 tons of coal a day here
for years. visited the works last sum-
mer and took look at the miners. They
receive about 63 cents week, or cents a
day. aud the mines pay very well. The
coal is bltuminous, and it is about the only
source OF supply which China had during
the trouble with the Japanese. The rail-
road runs right through this region, and it
was first built to carry this coal to the sea.
There Is said to be good anthracite coal in
the hills near Pekng, and when China Is
covered with railroads coal will be- the
cheapest of fuels.
l was surprised at the way the richer
Chinese suffer from the cold. l almost
frozs during my talk with Ii Hung Chang,
and he wore fur gown during my in
terview. In some Of the Chinese homes
which / visited there were little bowls OF
charcoal in the best rooms. but there were
no signs OF open fires anywhere, and the
Chinese know nothing of the joys of the.
Preside. Their buildings have many