Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1896-04-18
THE NEW OLD WORLD.
Changes That Arc Taking Place On,
fIoatilo powera.


Hostile Powers.
While the roar Of victorious japanese
cannon Is still sounding In our cara
we are apt to think that somehow q
other the east Is being awakened from
. slumbcr Of centuries, and that the
older Asia Of fable and legend and
mystery Is about to be modernized 10
some striking way, and for the first
time made over into the likeness OF oui
own progressive west II may be we'll,
therefore. TO bear in mind the enormous
changes which. not always accom-
panied by the shock OF war. have been
going on for tho past fifty years In the
less accessible regions OF the planet
Most Of MS regard the east as the
cradle Of human civilization, and yet
for a century or more the colonies
which II sent out to all the ends Of the
earth have been drifting back to the
old home. now on warlile. now on
peaceful crrands. to teach there the
lessons learned in happier chimes and
more favora bic conditions
To people who lived In tho days OF
Columbus, the vast territories that
constitute Asia AMI Africa. rs we know
them, would be scarcely recognizab BILE.
Some have exchanged native for Eu-
ropcan rule in one form or another.
but nearly NIL have come more or less
under the influence of modern ideas.
The dark continent" for example,
has in the last few wears fallen almost
wholly into the hands OF the great
powers. ana Is thus in n fair way of
being civilized. India, once the scene
Of constant feuds between native
potenta.es, rival races and hostile re-
lisions, now supports four hundred
newspapers ana has all the machinery
Of u modern state.
Further north. the Chinese wall no
longer shuts ont foreigners, and peo-
pie who formerly refused TO trade with
outsiders boast to-day of their twenty
three ports open 10 the commerce Of the
world. In central Asia, up to fifteen
years ago given over TO nomad robbers
and fanatical, slave-holding Mussul-
mans. order has been established and
the arts Of peace have been introduced,
until the desert blossoms like gar.
den.
In thirty years Of effort and progress
Japan has risen from state of help
less infcriority to that of one of the
most advanced civilizations of our time.
In sluggish Persia the air of new
epoch is stirring; even in wcll-nigh
hopeless Turkey, the voice OF the en-
ligh;encd west from time to time finds
n way Of making itself heard. The
Pacific itself-those ''magic isles
of reef and pllm"-where the trader
never came and no European flag ever
floated. has yielded up TO the modern
spirit much OF its idlcness, its ignorance
md its cruelty.
The general result of changes like
these has been marked. Influences
hostile to life have been removed,
among them the scourge of wild ami
mails, cannibalism, slavery and other
savage practices. A !sno Wedge of san
itary and medical science has been
and famincs. as we'll as epi-
denies of disease, have either been
made impossible or been greatly dimin-
ished.
Vast stretches of territory have been
irrigated. brought under cultivation by
improved methods Of agriculture and
laid down to crops with special refer
encc to the worlds needs. At the
same time. millions of human beings,
not long emerged from the savage
state. have received at least an ele-
mentary training in modern schools;
willie justice, with its courts and pro-
ccsses Of law, has been set MP where
before their rcigned only anarchy and
caprice.
Not only are the nations of the east
undermined in ideas; they are
teing bound more closely than ever
with roads OF iron and cables that run
beneath the sea. The locomotive. for
years n familiar object in the land of
the Pyramids, now crosses the Urals
into Siberia; already its whistle is
heard in the very heart of the desert,
at Merry. In the Flowcry Land its
wheels are beginning to follow in the
track of Marco Polo; ere long they will
carry the couriers of the tsar to the
very u;tcrmost parts OF Siberia.
The leyraph, too, now sends its
message from ST. Petersburg far out
10 the mouth OF the Amur; it connects
Europe with Pekin and Shanghai.
When the new cable under the Pacific,
now projected, has been constructed,
the electricians girdle round the world
will be complete. Youths Companion.