Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-04-20
away. with q baby OF about two years old
tied on her back.
On some Of the larger boats at Can
House Boat on the Peiho.

House Boat on the Peiho.
ton the children fairly swarm, and little
ones of two and three years play about
their decks. 1 saw a number of boys on
these boats who had little round barrels
or drums about foot long and six 1nches
in diameter tied to their backs. l was
told these were life preservers. and that
II the child fell overheard ne couid noa'
till his mother or father came to ms res
cue. was surprised to see that many oi
the girls of the boats had no SUCH protec-
ton, and upon asking why was told tnat
1t was considered by some of the people
piece of good fortune to lose siri, as >
they would in this way save the expense OF
raising her. I doubt this. however. IL Is
a fact though. that poor girls are OF httie
account in China. This is especially SO
among the boat population.
Each of the high officials who live along
the Chinese rivers has his own boat. This
is decorated with flags, and the bigger the
man the more flags and bunting. Ii Hung
Chang has a steam launch When his VIE
died. not long ago, a gorgeous funerai
barge was made for her. This was deco
rated with white. which is the Chinese
color for mourning, and 1t looked gorgeous
to American eyes. The Chinese have boats
which are worked by the feet, and which
are shaped just like slipper These are
used as dispatch boats. They are not
much bigger than the ordinary canoe, and
they can be made to go very fast. At
Canton l was shown boats which had pad
die wheels at the sides, and which were
worked by man power. The men turned
the wheels inside the boat which connect
ed with the paddle wheels outside, and a
half dozen men were doing the work of
an ordinary gas engine. l could NIL TINS
column with descriptions Of the differ
ent kinds of boats used by the Chi
nese. Each section has it's own pc
culiar make of boats, and a Chinese
sailor can tell to what part of the country
a ship belongs as soon as he sees it. There
is a vast boat traffic in the far interior of
China. l saw boats at Hankow which had
&C ME down almost from the borders of
Thibet They were made so that they
could Jump the rapids and work their way
through the great gorges of Ichang. These
gcrges are 270 miles above Hankow and
nearly thousand miles from the sea. The
great Yangtse river here flows through i'm
mense canons the rocks of which rise for
hundreds of feet straight up above the
water. The gorges are in places less than
thousand feet wide. and the great river
rushes through them at the rate of nine
miles an hour. 1t rises and falls ten and
twelve feet in single night, and it boils
and seetheS as it goes through. Here is
an EDDY. there whirlpool and there against
the rocks 1t dashes in spray almost like
that of the sea. The rocks are filled with
all kinds of ferns: they are of granite, and
along the edges blue-gowned, pig-tailed
workmen are quarrying great blocks of
granite. which are shipped down the
fangtse-kiang. There are miles of these
gorges. and the scenery about them is the
most beautiful in China. The boats are
quite a population along them whose main
support is from such work.
The queerest boats l saw during my trip
on the Pearl river were those devoted to
the raising of geese and ducks.
Salt Boats.
One of the chief resources of the Chinese
government is through the sale of salt, and
the taxes on salt will be now greatly in
creased. The salt trade in China is
oil
it without license from the salt COM
missioner. There are salt boats and salt
junks on all the rivers. The salt is car
ried i'll junks through the larger streams,
and is taken to the villages through the
canals in smaller boats. The country Is
divided into circuits, and the salt in each
circuit is supposed to be produced there.
1t is made from water around the
coast and from brine in the interior. Just
above the mouth of the Peiho river I
passed vast salt works. The ground looked
much like the marshes near New York, and
the salt was produced by evaporation.
There were wiHdmills for pumping the
brine from the sea, and there were great
mountains of salt which had been piled up
ready for shipment. The government re-
quires that all salt shall be sold a fixed
rates to government agents 1t is distrib
uted through salt merchants. and over
these there is special salt conlnissioEer
for each district. The salt commissioners
pay for their places, and good office OF
this kind is worth from $4,000 to $4,000.
The salt, after having bean landed in
district is kept in bonded warehouse, and
the government fixes the prices. 1t makes
a profit on every sale until the salt reaches
the hands of the retail dealer. 1t has the
right to increase the prices. and there
will undoubtedly be a rise in .nis respect
as soon as this war Is over.
During late years the government income
from salt has been less than $1O,0O0,O0O
year. but I was told that there had been
great deal of stealing on the part of the
commissioners and that 1t ought to bring
in fully twice as much as 1t does. If the
taxes should be collected by foreigners in
stead of by Chinese. as Is possible in case
of a foreign loan. the salt revenue will be
doubled. At present the marine customs
are collected by foreigners under En-
sish inspector general, Sir Robert Hart.
All of the officials get high salaries, but
since they took charge of the customs they
have tripled the receipts from them to the
government. The same would be the result
If they had charge of the other taxes of
the country. The government would get
all the money instead Of one-half of it
going as stealings to the Chinese officials
who collected 1t. If China, in fact, was
under the administration of a foreign gov
est of countries. Even a slight tax upon
it's many millions of people would net
vast revenue. and revenue taxes could be
put upon many things without the people
really knowing that they were taxed.
believe that they would stand being gov
erned by foreigners without much trouble.
ana, thougn the OfnclaiS ana the noDieS
would object, the people might be glad of
the change.
AT present China does everything in the
most expensive way. Travelling costs ten
times as much as 1t does here There are
no railroads through the thickly settled
parts of the country, and you have to take
ma, sak,.,,r,,,