The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-06-27

I write this letter in almost the center
of the Chinese Empire. I am within
less than q hundred miles of the Chi
cago of the celestial land, the vast
city of Hankow, and am passing
through the country where the Chinese
mobbed the foreigners year or 80
ago, burning down the houses Of the
missionaries, and killing some of the
English officers Of the Chinese Gus
toms. Last night left Kiukiang, a
big trading center at the mouth OF
the Poyang Lake, and during the past
two weeks I have passed half dozen
cities OF the size of Cleveland or
Washington, and have travelled through
about the same number of great States,
having an aggregate population OF
something like one hundred and fifty
millions of people. All the towns I
have visited I have found packed with
q throng buster than you find on low
er Broadway at MONDAY, and I am
amazed at the immensity of this great
Chinese Empire and it's enormous pop
ulation. I entered the Yangtse at its
mouth, where it flows through the
Chinese Province or State of Kiangsu.
This is in the center of the east coast,
and it has an area about as big as that
of Pennsylvania. 1t contains more
than half as many people as the whole
United States, and its population is
equal to that of the British Isles. The
State of Ganhui, which I next entered,
is no bigger than Kansas, but it sup
ports twenty-seven million people:
and the State of Hupeh, in which 1 am
now travelling, has over twenty mill
ion. This great river itself has mill
ions who are born, live and die upon
it's waters. and at every landing l see
a thicket of poles, each of which
springs from the home of ono of the
millions of families which make up
China's boat population. 1 am amazed
at the wonderful resources of the
country.
My eyes bulged out at the muscles
and industry of its people, and my
head buzzes in trying to understand
the curious sights which are crowded
upon me.
China's great rivers are among the
wonders of the world, and the Yangtse
Kiang is the king of it's kind. 1t has
greater volume of water than the
Nile or the Amazon, and it has built
up greater country than Egypt along
the low lands of China. In approach
ing it from the ocean I found the
waters discolored by its muddy fluid
many miles out at sea, and it turns
the salty brine yellow for sixty miles
from it's mouth. Here it is about as
thick as pea soup. You draw up
bucket and in a moment its bottom
will have thick sediment of mud. 1
had been warned not to use the spigot
which runs from the bottom of the
boat into my bath, but this morning
the boy had made it too hot and 1
tried to cool the barrel of filtered
water in the tub with about gallon
from the Yangtse. thought the
amount was 80 little that it could not
affect the rest. The result was that
the clear water became the color Of
mud and my bare foot left an i'm pres
sion on the bottom as marked as that
of the savage which so scared Robin
son Crusoe on the desert island. 1t
is sort of a gritty silt, but am told
that there is no river on earth which
brings down a sediment more fertile.
The whole of the great plain Of North
and Central China has been made by it.
This plain is seven hundred miles
long, and it supports more than a hum
dred million Of people. The Yellow
River runs through it hundred miles
north of this point, and this river, in
combination with the Yangtse, has
built the foundations of one-fourth OF
the Chinese Empire. To-day it is
estimated that the amount of dirt they
carry down from the highlands OF
Thibet and of China is so great that it
forms every two months an island
mile square in the sea and at the
mouth of the Yangtse. I sailed by
the Tsung Ming Island, which is
thirty-two miles long and about ten
broad. 1t has been built up within a
hundred years or so, and now has
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