The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1897-12-18
CHINA AWAKENING.
She Follows the Example OF Her
Civilized Sisters.

which TO u~nc0unted centuries mas
shut herself within her walls, self-sat-
isied and confident of the superiority
Of her civilization, Is about to hold an
international Industrial exposition, and
has invited the heretofore despised out
side nations to exhibit their wares. 1t
Is not, of course, intended to be nm e x
position on the lavish and extensive
scale of those of the Western nations,
but 1t is to show to the Chinese Mt their
own doors the labor-saving mechanical
c~ontriyances by which America n
Europe have made such rapid strides IN
material development.
The surprise with which the an
nouncement Is at first received Is nat
ural, yet this move Is in keeping with
the more modern tendency of China
1t Is basely ten years since willingness
to accept outside ideas or to lilo
communication between the natives
and outsiders, beyond what was abso-
lutely necessary and forced upon
China, has developed, yet In thai Drler
period much progress has been made.
The difficulties to be overcome In In
Producing these innovations are enor-
mous-how much so 1t Is difficult Tor
those unfamiliar with the conditions
to appreciate. The Government Is
overburdened with a complicated and
corrupt bureaucracy, which Is neces-
sarily conservative, since change may
curtail the Illicit of the ofiice-
holders; the people are fanatically sus-
picious of foreign Influences; and the
cohesion of the different parts Of the
empire Is so weak that revolutions are
almost continuous. The building OF
railways encounters these obstacles,
and there are, besides, the engineering
difficulty Of constructing bridges over
great rivers and viaducts over net
works Of canals; the economic dificulfy
arising from the fact that the new
method of transportation will compete
seriously with the business of the large
proportion of the natives engaged In
water transportation, and will reduce
the revenue of the mandarins from
tolls on the canals and roads; ana the
even more serious ethnic difficulty re-
sulting from the worship of ancestors,
which holds 1t as sacrilege to disturb
or remove the graves which dot the
whole face of the land.
Despite these obstacles, some rail-
ways have lately been built and others
are In contemplation. The first line
constructed was in 1876, connecting
Shanghai and Woosung, its port. The
nnvf unap hau-nUaP In 6nfnrann0 IN
popular prejudice, it was purchased by
the Government and torn up. A short
railroad from the Kaiping mines to the
Penung River had been In operation
for some years for the transportation
of coal. In 1888 1t was continued down
the river to Taku. n thence up the
Peiho River to Tientsin, giving n total
length of cighty-tiye miles, and in De-
tober of that year 1t was opened to gen.
eral traffic. During the next few years
this road was continued north along
the Cuff of Pechili, until now it has IA
total length of about 200 miles. 1t Is
being pushed along the same line, and
Is intended ultimately to join with the
Chinese extension of the Trans-Caspian
Railway. Another road is projected
south along the coast to Shanghai. In
1889 n royal edict was issued sanction
ing a railroad from Picking to Hankow,
a distance Of about 800 miles, but imam
cial difficulties have, as yet, delayed its
construction.
The progress In railways has been
significant of the inclination of those IN
authority rather than on account of
what has been accomplished. The prog
ress with the telegraph system has
been more marked. The difficulty ex
perienced in communicating with the
distant parts of the empire in 1880, dur
ing the Russian war scare, opened the
V e of the Chinese and gave an i'm
petus to telegraph construction. The
system Of lines now connecting Picking
with the seaports and all the principal
cites of the interior Joins with the
Russian system at Its Amoor termina'
ton. and with the British system al
Port Arthur, in Burmah, and British
India. 1t has a network of 10,O0C
miles. In other directions, too, the
adoption of Western methods Is seen
Chinese capitalists are learning and
following the methods of Western
finance as applied to industry; joint,
stock companies have been organized
for the manufacture Of such articles as
silk, cotton, wool, glass and iron; two
large and weil-equlpped steel plants Oh
The Bessemer and Siemens-Martin
methods have been established at Han
kow; and the first bonded warehouse
was opened at Shanghai In 1888.
The convention recently entered into
with Russia, granting railway and ever
military privileges to that country Oh
Chinese territory and making mutua,
concessions intended to extend the
trade relations between the two coun.
tries, offers further evidence of this
general awakening, and a treaty witt
France, entered into a few years
earlier, grants similar though not sc
extensive privileges in the southeast
Much of this work had been done be
fore the war with Japan, but the ex
periences of that conflict will increase
rather than curb the tendency.
Two Images Through One Glass.
A certain wonderful mineral found
in Iceland possesses the strange prop
erty of producing two images of a sin
Gle object. On looking through il at