The morning call., 1894-08-05

while putting to extinction and relighting
for a thousand times their little pipes,
show themselves in guarded monosyllables
masters of all the facts.
Joe Gar exhibited the morning papers of
yesterday with their conflicting stories
about Ii Hung Chang as completely vim
dicating his skepticism of the day before.
To be sure he shook no hyperian curls, for
Joe's hair hangs down his back in a tidy
rope, rs should that of any Chinaman
whose credit is good in Canton. Nor did
he make his bluff until the abstruse terms
of the teIeRrams had bsen cleared up for
him. Then he said:
See? One place say Ii Hung Chang
him no noah big man-Empla take him
poWah away; oda place him say Ii Hung
Chang have catchee plenty powah. Two
talkee same paper-how that Gomez"
And the discerning Celestial smiled as
one who had pointed out fatal weakness.
No, he continued, LEY don't know.
How ley get news fom Shanghai any
how?"
From correspondents and by telegraph,
of course-just the same as they do from
any other part of the world"
Joe received this burst of information
with plying condssension that required
full minute of silence to properly ex press.
Then he said: No; you do not know
China. No tlelegams allowed go out o. lat
county in wartime. Goyelment send all
tIelagams himself He not say noting
anyhow. Not say one ting one day, noder
ting next day"
But first allow Gee Hairn. who keeps
laundry on Commercial street, to explain
what he knows of the difficulty which has
resulted in war. Gee talks like a native.
be takes pleasure in saying 9Th" Just to
show how easy it is.
Korea, he said, is in arrears of taxes
some ten years. 1t pays certain tribute
to Cbina-or is expected to-every wear.
But japan has growing population in
Korea who have c0unseled default. They
said, why should you pay taxes to
China? Are you not an independent
country Do as we did long ago. Refuse
TO pay" So Korea listened, and when the
time for paying the tax arrived offered
some excuse instead of the cash.
This they did again and again." saws
Gee, China faithfully registering the
amount of arrears in her ledger and exer.
cisine patience. With ten years of book
keeping and nothing to show for it China
said in effect: Come, come, now, no more
fooling. 1t is money we want. Have we
been lending you our protection for an
!. o. UP
But Korea did not come. Japan had
courted her advice ali these years with
promise of aid when the ultimate Quarrel
came on. She kept preparing for it; build
lHR SulDS auu training lor soldiers, When
the difficulty broke out she had the adyan-
tage. but she will not maintain il long.
China may not have ships, but she has
money to buy them and men to sacrifice in
them when she gets them, and meanwhile,
for that matter. 1t will be a long and Bit
ter war. for she has ten men for Japan's
one. and when thoroughly aroused will be
implacable and will demand sacrifice for
every life she loses. She will fight bitterly
and insistently, for she has not provoked
the war"
Now to go back to Joe Gar, who sells
whisky graded down to a minimum of
cents on Sacramento street, and listen to
his learned but more difficult disquisition,
putting the 18th" for convenience sake
where he still insists upon using the ''r'
and otherwise helping him out.
Joe took piece of red pape. and with a
lead pencil drew sketchy map of the
Orient. Now. you see. there is ASIA" he
said. China is the greatest nation over
there. For hundreds of years she has
offered protection to all the neighboring
countries. There was Siam, Anam and
many others. Every year they sent to
China representatives to make their sa-
laams before the great Emperor, just as
the younger brother would dc to the older
ano stronger brother. When any of these
younger brothers got into trouble China
help them, but he not take them The
country OF LokO was one of these younger