The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-27
a CROWDED CHINESE PROVINCE.
Hnrdships of Life Where There Are
from. 500 to 1000 People to the
square Mile.
From the Overland China Mail.

empire. Half the province is more or less
mountainous, but on the broad plains live
from 500 to 1000 persons to the square mile.
Every village has some families of me-
chanics and artisans who own no land.
Trades unions exist in the germ, and even
In branches in which a bright pupil could
learn in few months all that a master
could teach him in a lifetime, it is neces-
sary to take three-years' apprenticeship.
with little chance OF being able to set up
for himself at the end of that time. When
the apprentice is at last free, and gets at
work, his master or boss receives per-
centage on his earnings for an indefinite
| period. The density of population makes
| It very hard to get a living in Shantung.
| There is a large class of men who have
neither land nor occupation. These sell
strensth," or hun as they call it, The
lack OF means to support a family is no
barrier to matrimony in China and GER
| talnly not in Shantung, where Mencius
| lived. 1t was he who uttered the dictum.
Ihene are three unflial courses, but of
these not to leave posterity is the chief"
| RMS view and the uniform procedure
| based upon il are held to have been for
centuries the curse of China
In every village are women and children
| Who have no visible means of support
| While the husband and father is away ty-
ing TO sell hun what is his family to live
on? If he sells strength he is doing well
II ne gets for years work his food ard
| ~ strings of cash, each string worth less
| tnan a Mexican dollar. 1t is impossible
for his family to exist on this pittance. If
| mis- wife knows how to weave cotton and
has q, loom, it is a clumsy machine made
| ages ago. Often two families possess one
loom, one using it by day and the other
| by night. Whenever there is a bad year
the loom has to be sold to buy food. and
then the night of despair settles down
| III you can't catch up In one STEP you
can't catch up in a hundred steps," says
| native proverb, and Ihis is the condensed
| biography of millions of Chinese. They
were born into the Menclan doctrine, and
| they starve in it, and are duly buried and
laid TO the only rest they ever know, to
be followed by posterity, which will re-
| peat the same round.
The prefecture of T'ao-chou-fu in the
| southwest corner Of sShantung. has always
! been a nest of robbers. They cannot be
eXterminated, for the reason that the
| farmers themselves unite highway robbery
with their ordinary occupations A peas
| ant who sees IN unprotected traveller pass
! ing on the highway will drop his hoe, seize
his club, and proceed to take money or life
MORALS often appear in the Pekin Gazette
complaining of the intractable disposition
of these people and their congeners across
| the Kiangsu border. The latter part of
| July and the month of August are periods
during which lawlessness Is at a maxi
| mum, for 1t is then that detection is next
| TO impossible. The sorghum plants which
| grow to a hight of from ten to fifteen feet
| practically obliterate all landmarks. So
far as knowing where one goes, one might
as well be plunged in a jungle. Even ma
| ttVes OF the region sometimes get lost with
in a few Ii of their own villages on a
cloudy day.
The autumn crops of Shantung consist
OF mIlet, beans, Indian corn or maize. pea
nuts, melons, squashes, sweet potatoes and
| other vegetables, hemp, sesame and es-
pecially cotton. OF all these products there
are barely more than two which do not
cause their owners anxiety lest they be
stolen from the field. The heads of sor-
! ghum and m.llet are easily clipped off
Nothing is easier than rapidly to despoil a
patch of corn or to dig potatoes. The lat
ter indeed, are not safe from the village
dogs, which have learned by ages of ex-
perience that raw vegetable food is much
better than no food at all. What requires
| the most unceasing vigilance are the wa
termelon patches and the orchards. Of
| watermelons especially the Chinese are in
ordinately fond. Every field is provided
| with lodge, and there is someone watch
ing day and night. The same is true of the
| fruit rows Birds, insects, and man are
the foes of the man who has apples, pears,
peaches, plums, cherries, apricots and
| grapes.
The darker and the rainier the night, the
more essential it is that the Waterman
| should be wide awake If the orchard is of
any size there may be collision between
the thieves, who appear at both ends at
once. Both sets cannot be pursued. The
crows and the buejays are the worst bird
robbers but they can be scared off, espec-
tally with a gun. The human pilferers are
not so easily dealt with The farmer S
hope is that. seeing that some one il on
guard, they will go elsewhere and steal
| from those not on guard. Hence everybody
is Obliged to stand guard over everything.
Where the population is denest the extent
to which this watching must be carried
passes belief. In such regions about dusk
an exodus sets forth from a village like
| that In the early morning to go TO the fields
to work. BY every path the men. women
and even children stream forth. Light
wooden beds, covered with layer of stiff
sorghum stalks are kept out in the fields
for constant use. A few sorghum stalks are
| twisted together at the top, and a piece
! OF old mating tackled on the sunny side.
and under such a wretched shelter sits a
toothless oldswoman all day and all night
| Female thieves are common, and no one
hesitates to steal from his neighbors.
-s-o-s-
"A Conscientious Womnn-Norah had
been told to say at the front door that
| her mistress was not AT hama v,ban GOV