Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1897-11-03
CHINA AWAKENING.
She Follows the Example of Her
Civilized Sisters.

which fo- uncounted centuries has
isfied 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 an ex-
position on the lavish and extensive
scale of those of the Western nations,
but 1t Is to show to the Chinese at their
own doors the labor-saving mechanical
contrlvances by which America and
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 barely ten years since willingness
TO accept outside ideas or to allow
communication between the natives
and outsiders, beyond what was abso-
lutely necessary and forced upon
China, has developed, yet in that brief
PNAiOt Auuti ploSItSo udS DCCh h1oNS'
The difficulties to be overcome in in
Producing these innovations are enor-
mous-how much so 1t Is difficult for
those unfamiliar with the conditions
to appreciate. The Government Is
overburdened with complicated and
corrupt bureaucracy, which is neces-
sarily conservative, since change may
curtail the Illicit revenue of the office
holders; the people are fanatieally sus-
piclous 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 yiaducts over net
works of canals; the economic difficulty
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
the revenue of the mandarins from
tolls on the canals and roads; ana the
even more serious ethnic difficulty re-
sultlng from the worship of ancestors,
which holds it 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
next year, however, in Difference to
popular prejudice, 1t was purchased by
the Government and torn up. A short
railroad from the Kalping mines to the
Penung River had been In operation
for some years for the transportation
Of coal In 1888 it was continued down
the river to Taku, and thence up the
Peiho River to Tientsin, giving a total
length of eighty-five miles, and in Oc-
tober OF that year it 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 n
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 royal edict was issued sanction
ing railroad from Picking to Hankow,
a distance of about 800 miles, but man.
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
eyes 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 at
Port Arthur, in Burmah, and British
India. 1t has a network of 10000
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 wel-equipped steel plants on
the Bessemer and Siemens-Martin
methods have been established at Han
kow; ard the first bonded warehouse
was opened at Shanghai in 1888.
The convention recently entered into
with Russia, granting railway and even
military privileges to that country on
Chinese territory and making mutual
concessions intended to extend the
trade relations between the two coun-
tries. offers further evidence of this
general awakening, and treaty with
France, entered into a few years
earlier, grants similar though not so