The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-10-07
The Banks, Stock Exchanges. and the
Government Departments and the
Ideas Held by Their Clerks.
CONTEMPT FOR FOREIGNERS
They Think Legations Are Sent
to China to Pay Tribute.
Giants of North China and Information
About the Filthiest and Most Inter-
esting City OH the Globe.

Copyright. 1894. by Frank G. Carpenter.)
The destruction Of the Chinese army at
Pinyang, in Corea, and the Gripping of
their fleet at the mouth of the Yalu river,
indicates that the Japanese threat that they
will march their soldiers into Picking be-
fore winter is by no means an idle one.
The Yalu river is the boundary between
Corea and China, and. as it is now the
Japanese practically control the country
The territory of North Corea is very poor,
and the Chinese will have 10 bring their
supplies of food with them if they attempt
another invasion. The Japanese will not
need a large army to keep them out, and
they can now center .@leir forces upon
China. Picking is by no means hard to
reach. The ground between it and the sea
is as fiat as a floor, and if the japanese
can be landed on the east coast of the Gulf
of Pechili they will be within q few days
march of the great Chinese capital. The
only thing that prevents them from getting
near it by water is the big forts at the
mouth of the Peiho river. These are
manned with Krupp and Armstrong guns.
and Ii Hung Chang's army is behind them.
Wherever they land they will have to fight
what remains of this army, but a victory
would mean the capture of Picking and the
practlcal SuDJugatlon OF emma.
Picking is, perhaps, one Of the least known
cities of the world. 1 have paid two visits
to it, and L spent a month in it six years
ago. During the present spring / prowled
about its streets for days and devoted N.Y.
self to making a study of the town and its
people. 1t is an immense city. 1t contains
about fifteen hundred thousand, but these
are scattered over. an area of twenty-five
nttar npi1oc and Tho poonla oC n r,,la 1ixya
in one-story houses. The city is surrounded
by walls which were built hundreds Of
years ago, and which must have cost many
millions of dollars. These walls are in good
condition with the exception of one or two
places where the floods of last winter I'M
ermine them and carried parts of their
facings away. 1t is hard to give an Ameri-
can an idea of one Of these walled cities
of China. The walls of Picking are sixty
feet thick at the bottom. They would fill the
average country road or city street, and
they are as tall as a four-story house. They
are so wide at the top that you could run
three railroad trains side by side around
them, and they are so solid that the cars
would move more smoothly over these
tracks than they do on the trunk lines be-
tween New York and Chicago. These walls
are faced inside and out with bricks, each
as big as a four-dollar Bible, and the space
between them is filled with earth and stones
so rammed down that the ages have made
the whole one solid mass. They are built,
in fact, much like the great wall of China,
and the bricks of the two are almost exact
~ the same. 1 have before me a brick
which 1 brought from the great wall. 1t
weighs about twenty pounds, or as much
as a two-year-old baby. 1t is blue-gray in
color, and it is covered with patches of
white lime mortar just like those that 1
saw in the broken places of the walls of
Picking.
APPROACHING THE CITY.
In approaching Picking, long before You
get to the city, you see the immense towers
which stand on the top of this wall over
the gates which enter the city. These tow
ers are as tall as a big New York fat.
They rise nine stories above the wall. and
they have roofs of blue tiles. They were
used in the past as watch towers. and they
have many port holes for cannon. There
are thirteen gates which lead into the city.
and the towers and the walls near these
are plastered over with proclamation and
bills much like a theater bill board. The
gates of Picking are merely holes through
the wall, and they are about as wide as
the ordinary street and perhaps twenty
feet high. They are lined with stone and
are beautifully arched. They are closed at
night with great doors sheathed with iron,
and they are paved with heavy slabs Of
stone. The walls of Picking are twenty
seven miles long, and the area which they
inclose is irregular in shape, and it con-
sists of two big parallelograms. The one
at the north is the real capital of China.
for it contains the Tartar city, the great
government departments, the foreign le-
cations and the imperial city, IN which,
surrounded by from five to ten thousand
eunuchs, the Emperor lives. The lower par
! allelogram joins the Tartar city 1t has
half a dozen temples, including the Tenn
pie Of Heaven, which was burned not long
ago, and which is now being rebuilt OF
Oregon pine.
The Chinese city is where all the mercan-
tile business of this great capital is done.
1t is cut up into narrow streets, and il is
filed with all sorts of stores. 1t has mar
kets of all kinds, and its fur market covers
several acres. 1t has its wholesale as we'll
as its retail fur market. and 1 have gone
out at 6 o'clock in the morning and found
perhaps a thousand almond-eyed merchants
dressed in gorgeous silks moving about
through great beds of furs of ali kinds.
The furs are piled upon the ground, and
you can buy sables for about Sc a skin
and tiger skins for $75. which will be worth
twice that amount anywhere else in the
world. You can buy the finest Of ermine,
and for SO you can get a coat OF lambs
wool of the kline that our ladies use for
long opera cloaks. This Chinese city is a
city OF banks and OF stock exchanges. ]
visited one morning the silver exchange.
1t was a room like a barn, and tie people
were buying and selling stocks just as they
do on Wall street, yelling and bowling and
pushing each other like mad as they did
so. 1t is a city of book stores. and there
are some streets which contain no other
shops. We have the idea that the Chinese
merely live upon rice and on rats. and tina
their chief industries are the making OF
mating. of fans and OF silks. The truth
is that China does a vast business and she
produces all sorts of commodities. Nearly
every one of these Chinese streets contains
shops Of all kinds. and the main business
OF China Is not the supplying os goods
for the foreiga markets. but the making
OF those required for her own people. They
have as many wants as we have and they
require ~ good goods. The noblos dress