The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-01-23

slightly Anfl-mongoliAn.
Nr. Hosie was the first EnRlisbman
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 q region
comprising nearly one-half Of the en-
pire Is capable Of sustaining but a very
scAnt population, and that in all proba-
biltty the figures ON the swar1ninR mil
lions are grossly exaggerated A nervous
man or one Of delicate susceptibilities
really has 20 hold his nose in reading
some parts Of this report, there is suoh
. painful monotony Of dirt and poverty,
kicks and cuffs, hunger and foul wealth
en-, 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, ne is compelled to conclude that
our California friends were quite with
in bounds, almost too moderate, in fact,
in their anti-MoDgolian invectives.
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 forward i'm
pulse. Then 1t degenerated rapidly to the
stagnant condition, and with stagna-
ton came cowardioe, after which there
were 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 trifling variation, and the most crit
ical western scholars allow her an au-
thentio history of near 3, 500 years 1
confess to being so impressed with this
fact that cannot form a lively concep-
ton of 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.
i am even more overcome by the ap-
palling figures in their accounts of war
and famine. Man seems but weed in
these awful regions. Some Is, 0CO, 900
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 900, 600
lives were lost in that struggle. The
British agents think that 9, 900, 600 died
in the last famine, and, as for the mil
lions on millions drowned in the various
overhows 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 Gen
Rhis Khan, first emperor of the Moguls
and Tartars. His history has been writ
ten by the Chinese, Persians, Arme-
mans, Syrians, Arabians, Greeks, Rus
slams, Poles and Hungarians, and we
may certainly credit each Of these when
they describe their own disasters and
humiliations. For 20 years he poured a
continuous stream of barbarians upon
all his neighbors, and the southern Mo-
hammedans admit that in the battle OF
Jaxartes they lost $50, 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 in the year 1212-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 conhagration 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
az 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-
cluded 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