The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-05-06
volved in a war with Spain furnish ground for the apprehension or dismay. New York Journal of Commerce.
TIEN-TsIN.
One of the Great Distributing Centers
 of China-Its Queer Exports

One of the Great Distributing Centers
 of China-Its Queer Exports
 So far as notabilities and government are concerned, Tien-Tsin Is hetero- geneous place in the extreme. The original, the native city, is city of something like one million souls. The making of this native city was the dig ging of the Grand Canal, which was its northern terminus there, and formed the place into one of the great est distributing centers of all China.
 Here Lord Elgin, on June 26, 1858, signed the ever-famous Tien-Tsn trea- ty, which opened China to the trade of the world. Here Lii Hung Chang lived and ruled like an emperor, and between the years 1S74'94 managed the foreign affairs of the kingdom. Here, in 1870, took place the horrible massacres of Europeans, when the Sisters of Mercy were so brutally treated and murdered. It is a town rich in history, and its mil- lion souls are huddled together in an incredibly small space. One of the first railways in China was built from Tien- Tsin to the mines, and this opened up a rich country, so that, as things go, the inhabitants of the swarming city and the surrounding country are com paratevely well to do.
 But the Tien-Tsin that trades with Europe and America is not the popu- lous native city. It is the little town of some five hundred souls on the rim of the gulf. This town is in three-pos- sibly now four, if the Japanese have built-sections, and is quite slice of civilization dropped into barbarous China. The central section, and by far the most important both in size and in- dustry, is British. On the one hand, the French have settlement. and on the other the Germans But the Ger
 mans are in an unfortunate position. Between the British settlement and the German there is a strip of land owned by three men who are not inclined to sell at the price offered. They occupy strategical position and know the strength of their holding. Now banks, business houses and business itself are in the English and French settlements, and the Germans, unable to build a road through private land, are pretty | completely shut out. When they accu- mulate enough money to become pos | sessed of that aggravating intervening strip, and when the Japanese take ad- l vantage of the rights that have come | to them, the little place will be four l layer town with French, British, Ger man, Japanese layers.
 | Tien-Tsin is a place whence come peculiar things. It Is great center for I mud statuary, but, unfortunately, the little gods when they become dry are brittle, and cannot be exported in quan- l tity. They are very clever at modelling | in mud the Tien-Tsin Chinese, and some day may startle the hanging committee of the Royal academy. But away to the west and north are the great deserts of Mongolia, and from there and Siberia comes much tea. From Mongolia also come great bales of camels' wool, brought down by grunting camels themselves, by mules, by boats and even by wheelbarrows. | The journeys occupy months in the making. Perhaps no other people but l the Chinese could deliver the wares in 1 the free ports at a low enough rate to admit of outside trade, but the Chinese are patient and persevering almost be- yond belief. All over China strawbrad is made more or less, but Shan-Tun. l Shan-Si and Honan are the chief sources of supply. Kau-suh supplies
 wool in large quantities. Tien-Tsin it. self is famous for its carpets, shoes, glassware, coarse earthenware, and also makes speciality of the fireworks that please the heart of the quaint Chi nese so thorouphly The free nort also exports goatskins, bristles and large quantities of coal.
 I The European merchants do not deal
 with individual Chinamen. They make an arrangement with a comprador whose function is that of merchant
 broker-a great and important middle
 man, indeed. Thus the Europeans get
 over the difficulty of the language and the much worse difficulty of the trades guilds, which are exceedingly powerful all through China. This comprador- always native-is quite indispensable, and the cleverest man he is so much the better for the firm that employs him. He attends to everything, from the buying and collecting, for instance, on the rim of the great desert, to the settling of the many duties and paying ] off the different taxes met with during the long, laborious journey to the port. Long strings of shaggy camels, guided | by hardy natives, are continually
 vending their way from the far interi- or to Tien-Tsin and back again, carry ing loads that make up the Anglo-Chi- na commerce-Pall Mall Gazette.