Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-05-18

furnished sometimesIin the form of syrup,
and with it on the table we could keep our
lvers in order and still have the luxury of
buckwheat cakes in midsummer. The Japa-
nese make a very cheap black varnish
which might be imported at a profit, and
| they have the softest' and most beautiful
papers known to the world. / know of one
bright American who made fortune out
of little japanese boxes. He bought these
by the hundreds of thousands, shipped them
to the United States and filled them with
lacks. The tacks were sold at the regular
price, and the women bought them in pref
erence to other brands, in order to get the
boxes. There are numerous other things
of this same nature that might be done.
One thing is in the making of clock cases.
Such cases as we have from Germany and
France made in porcelain are very high
priced. The Japanese could produce these
very much cheaper, and they could make
carved clock cases which would sell at
high prices. mention these things merely
as Indicative of the vast field which is now
open to America in Japan. Remember, the
Japanese can do anything that We can do,
and if you show him picture of anything
| under the SUP he can copy it. He Is pack
ed full of ideas himself. and he is an in
ventor as well as an imitator. From now
on he will want more foreign clothes and
more foreign machinery, and America
| ought to supply a great portion of his
needs.
The Chinese Market.
The settlement of the war will bring
about a great change in China, and from
| now on the empire will probably be slowly
| but steadily opened. The making Marking
| a treaty port will give new foreign set
| Element at that point, two hundred miles
up the Yangtse-Kiang. The government
| will be obliged to cede certain amount of
| land here to the foreigners, and little
| foreign city will spring up at This point
such as have 2lready sprung up at every
open port. In Canton there is an island
w jS
Hankow the foreign concession covers,
judge, at least square mile, and at
Shanghai many foreigners have made for
tunes out of the rise OF the real estate IN
the foreign concession. There are foreign
settlements at Tientsin, at Kiukiang and at
Chinkiang, and in these property is worth
much more than in the Chinese cities them
selves. These concessions are governed by
the foreign consuls and the Chinese like
to obtain property within them'if they can
as this frees them from the exactions of
the Chinese officials and puts them under
foreign law. These concessions are much
like foreign cities. They have modern
houses. Their streets are macadamized
and they are kept in order by being
drawn by hundreds of Chinese. They have
their own policemen, and are by all odds
the most desiraf lie places in China in which
to live. The city of Marking is about five
miles back from the river, and is one of the
richest cities in China. 1t was for years
the capital of China, and it is in the heart
of one of the richest of the Chinese prov
inces. The foreign concession may be on
the river, or it may bel on the edge of the
city. Wherever 1t is, the land Is almost
certain to increase in value, and an invest
ment in it ought to, be good
China and Military Supplies.
Those best posted on the Chinese charac-
ter say that this war will be followed by
great military activity throughout the
Chinese empire New tunworks will be at
once started. A new navy will be con-
structed. and there will be a great demand
for all kinds of machinery for the making
of arms and the munitions of war. There
are now more than 1000 men at work in
the shops at Shanghaii An equal number
| are probably employed in the gunworks at
Tientsin, and the Foochow shipyards Will
be pushed to their utmost capacity. The
Chinese have seen their necessity for rail
reads, and their lack of ability to move
| their troops without them! The first road
to be built will probably be one from Tient-
sin to Hankow, and thence to Canton. This
has been planned for years, and 1t will tap
| a territory containing hundreds of millions
of people. The work of getting such con-
| cessons will be slow, and it is very doubt
| full whether foreigners will be allowed to
| build railroads. If they should be permit
ted to do so, the field for electricity and
steam is practically unlimited and such a
| revolution in railroad building and manu-
| featuring will take place as will turn the
remainder of the industrial world upside
down. 1 don't believe the Chinese will do
this at present. They move slowly, but it
will come eventually. They will, however,
have great trouble in raising the money
| to pay Japan, and there is no telling what
| may be squeezed out of the government at
this time. Think of cities of a hundred
thousand. five hundred thousand and a
million within few miles of each other.
Think of a country as big as the United
States and containing about eight times as
many people with no railroads whatever
and no decent wagon roads-a country in
most places as fiat as A floor and well fitted
for railroads without grading and you
have something of the condition of China
today. 1t is 2 country which has four thou
sand walled cities and countless villages.
A country where locomotion is expensive
and where the people squeeze money hard
er than they do anywhere else in the world
There is no land on the globe where cheap
transportation would pay better. The har-
vest is ripe for the Spectator and the in
weston if the fence of Chinese conservatism
and exclusion can be torn away. Take Pc
king, with its million and a half of people.
1t has not line of street cars. Tientsin,
eighty miles away, has a million of people,
and is one of the great trading centers of
the empire. Those who ride go about in
chairs, carried on the shoulders of men,
and all goods are carted around on wheel
barrows. Tientsin supplies Peking with
goods, and there is no railroad between
them. 1t is the same all over China.
Cotton, Lumber, Wheat.
The Chinese are beginning to make their
own cotton. They have a number of large
factories, and Ii Hung Chang proposes to
build others. In these they have modern
machinery. A great part of the cotton used
is made by hand. not more than one-fif-
teenth being imported. Our cotton cloths
are more popular than the English or the
native cottons, but they cost too much, and
hence we send but little manufactured cot
ton to China. The market, however, is
enormous. One of the consuis made an
innate of it not long ago. He said that the
Chinese are clothed principally in cotton.
There are at least four hundred millions of
them, and they use about twenty yards
apiece every year. This would make con-
sumption of eight billion yards year.
The Chinese are low using quite lot of
American lumber The lumber comes
from Oregon and Washington, and it
goes as far north as Peking. I saw
American pine Yin the lumber yards
of Japan, and I met AMMAN who was try
ing to introducenit into eastern Siberia.
During my stay in Taldivostock an Amer
lean ship loaded Nth California wheat
was lying at tfR wharves, and quite
good deal of our flour is now used in China.
Strange as it may seem. to many, rice is an
expensive form Of food, there. and in the
oF too