The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-22

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. M-wil-
liam F. Curtis, who is Washington
correspondent of the Chicago Record,
was a passenger on the steamer Gaelic,
which arrived from the Orient yester-
day. He went to Japan in May last,
to study the commercial and industrial
prospects afforded Americans in that
country and lately he has been in
China, which he describes as the pest
breeding center of the universe.
Fearful Proportions.
'The cholera has attained fearful
proportions in China" said Mr.. Cur
tbs. Chinese are dying by the thou
sands 1 passed through the streets of
Picking, Shanghai and Tien Tsin and
saw cholera victims dead and dying
on every hand. 1t is no uncommon
sight to see the dead bodies Of
cholera victims lying on the street il
one block and in the next a Et Of
Chinese gorging themselves with raw
cucumbers and melons. The cholera is
all attributable to the filthy habits OF
the Chinese and the weather. The sum-
mer was quite cool until August. Then
a spell of exceedingly hot weather
came on and with it the cholera.
I'm Picking they have a plan of is
suing permits for the removal of
bodies outside the city walls. AS is
probably we'll known no bodies are in
tered within the walls. To secure
permission for the removal of the re-
mainssof a deceased mortal outside the
walls of the city cash is dropped in
a box. A cash is a small brass coin,
worth one-twentieth of one cent
At nightfall the cash receptacle is
full. 1t contains from 1000 to 5000
pieces Of coin, and when it is consid-
cred that nearly all these deaths re-
suit from cholera, the enormous eX-
tent Of the disease can readily be
judged. The disease is as bad at
Shanghai and Tien Tsin, and is also
moving down Chinese by the hundreds
in other parts of the infected coun-
try"
Mr.. Curtis said the cholera, is con-
fined almost exclusively to the native
Chinese. In Picking, where very few
foreigners reside, he had heard of no
deaths among the white population. In
Tien Tsin only one death among the
foreign population had been reported
up to the hour he left China. In
Shanghai, where the cholera is raging
at an awful rate, the fatalities among
the foreigners have been much greater.
Mr.. Curtis said he had been advised Of
eighteen deaths.
No Market For Us.
Speaking of the subject which Mr..
Curtis went to Japan to investigate
the commercial and Industrial future
Of Japan-he said he has returned to
America convinced that America has
no market in the Mikado's realm for
manufactured goods.
The japanese make almost every
thing they want" he said. ''They are
stealing our patents and copying our
inventions and are now almost ready
to export their wares and thereby enter
into running competition with other
nations. There is, however, a splendid
market for machinery, as we'll as for
cotton, iron and other raw materials.
cotton particularly. The Japanese ere
now using cotton very largely and here
is pointer for American cotton pro-
ducers. While a great deal of Anleri-
can cotton is used in the Orient, it
goes through English hands before it
reaches the japanese, and the Ameri-
can grower is deprived of the coins
which so into the pocket of the English
middleman in Liverpool. Our cotton
ought to be shipped direct to Japan.
For that purpose we need the Nicara-
qua canal; we need the completion of
could sell a lot of cotton to Japan. In
p" or three years Japan will control
the cotton trade of the Orient"