The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-12-15

never mention their religion and do not
profess to have any extraordinary NOR
ais. but merely want to find out how
the people live and how much they can
whack mp.
Slightly Anti-sTongoIian.
Mr.. Hosie was the first Englishman
and probably the first Aryan since Mar
co Polo to explore the province Of Yum
nan and all its bordering regions, and he
finds that a very large proportion of the
people are not Chinese; that a region
comprising nearly one-half Of the en-
pire is capable of sustaining but a very
scant population, and that in all proba-
bility the figures on the swarming mil
lions are grossly exaggerated. "A nervous
man or one Of delicate susceptibilities
really has to hold his nose in reading
some parts of this report. there is such
a painful monotOny of dirt and poverty,
kicks and cuffs. hunger and foul wealth
er, with the most debasing superstition
and utterly reckless and indiscriminate
lying. In the western part of Yunnan
he seriously questions whether any man
really believes his most intimate friend
In short, if one reads and believes Mr.
Hosie, he is compelled to conclude that
our California friends were quite with
in bounds, almost too moderate, in fact
in their anti Mon golian inyectives
All who talk on the subject seem to
agree that there is some radical moral
defect in the present day Chinaman.
And truly the history of the country
seems to indicate that it needs a revo-
luton and the infusion Of a fierce and
vigorous element. There appears to have
been a regularly recurring cycle in Chi
nese affairs First, there was an inva-
sion by a barbarous but energetic race,
which gave the country a forward i'm
pulse Then it degenerated rapidly to the
stagnant condition, and with stagna-
ton came cowardice, after which there
We're decay and retrOcession till the next
invasion or revolution. All the world
has heard of China's extravaganza claims
to an antiquity SO great that a little
discrepancy of 20, 900 years is accounted
a trifiing variation, and the most crit
ical western scholars allow her an au-
thentio history Of near 3. 500 years I
confess to being so impressed with this
fact that 1 cannot form lively concep-
ton of a young Chinaman. Every man
Of the race looks to me as if he were
thousands Of years old The knowledge
of age in the race completely overcomes
the sense Of youth in the individual
War and Famine.
am even more overcome by the ap-
palling figures in their accounts Of war
and famine. Man seems but a weed in
these awful regions Some Is, 600, 600
were slaughtered in war when the
population Of the country was supposed
to be scanty. Our own civil war caused
Us to overlook the great Tai-Ping rebel
lion IN China, and yet at least 7, 600, 600
lives were lost in that struggle. The
British agents think that 9, OOo 600 died
in the last famine, and, as for the mil
lions on millions drowned in the various
overflows of the Yellow river, it makes
one sick and fatigues the imagination
to compute them.
To understand the present condition,
however, we need only begin with Cen
ghis Khan, first emperor of the Moguls
and Tartars. His history has been writ
ten by the Chinese, Pefsians, Arme-
mans, Syrians, Arabians, Greeks, Rus
sians Poles and Hungarians, and we
may certainly credit each Of these when
they describe their own disasters and
humiliations. For 20 years he poured
continuous stream of barbarians upon
al his neigh bOrs. and the southern Mo-
hammedans admit that in the battle of
Jaxartes they lost 100, 600 men. He
overran all the present Chinese empire
except that part known as Yellow Chi
ma and IN view OF what IS probably 60
ing on IN that region now it IS inter
esting to read that at the siege Of Pc
king II the year 1912 the inhabitants
were compelled by famine to devOur
their slain fellow citizens. The Chinese
historians add that they fought as long
as they could stand, and when their reg
ular ammunition was spent they dis
charged ingots Of gold and silver at the
foe, but the Moguls undermined the
city, and the great palace was destroyed
in a cOnfagration which lasted 80 days.
This was the beginning Of MOgul or
Tartar rule in China, but there have
been several revolutions, and the pres
ent, or Ming, dynasty dates back but
20 centuries. The very latest docu-
ments at the state department show that
our relations with China were at their
very best just before Chinese affairs
reached their worst The treaty con
Guided here the 18th Of last March by
the signatures of Secretary Gresham
and Minister Yang Yu has been ap-
proved by the Chinese government, and