Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-07-26
HOW PEKIN IS FED.
Conditions Affecting the Possible Star
walton of the Legation Inmates.

Conditions Affecting the Possible Star,
walton of the Legation Inmates.
Among the dangers to which the
foreign population of Pekin is exposed
| must be included that of its supplies
being entirely cut off by the insurg-
ents, says the London News.
At ordinary times the city is greatly
| dependent upon frozen meats brought
IN from Mongolia on the backs of
camels. The Mongol market, adjoin-
ing the British legation, is the rem
devious for innumerable strings"
of camels and the half-savage drivers,
| and on this unsheltered plot may be
seen exposed for sale the carcasses of
sheep, strangely cOntorted, which
have been skinned while warm and
left out to harden in the severe frost
Of Monaghan night prior to trans
portatiOn to the Chinese capital Par
tridges and other game are similarly
prepared for transit to Pekin, and
are purchaseaple in the frozen state
throughout the long north China win
ter and well into spring. In the hot
season live animals are driven into
Pekin and slaughtered according to
demand, but the bulk of the food sup
ply is at all times derived from places
at distance, even from beyond the
Great Wall, there being but little pro-
duced within the confines of the vast
on small scale, derived from the
fields that occupy part of the space
known as the Watching, i. e., the
Chinese portion, and separated by
cross wall from the Nui-chung or
Tartar city.
How important is the uaiIy supply
by camel caravan of the necessaries
OF life to the Pekinese may be
gagged from the fact that over ten
thousand ships Of the desert" on an
average, enter and leave the gates of
the capital every tWenty-four hours.
Ride out at whatever time one may
choose, it is certain that long
strings" of these useful beasts of
burden, the leading quadruped bear
ing between its humps a Manchurian
driver and at it's throat a bell and
followed by a score or 50 of its fell
lows, the head of each animal roped
to the tai! Of the preceding one, will
be met with beyond the walls, either
bound inward to market or bound out
ward to the hills. Tie last of the
string likewise bears a bell, and it's
tinkle assures the leading driver that
none of his charges have broken loose.
In the plight of the Chinese capital
today it is almost certain that the or
binary traffic cannot be carried on.
The roads to the northward, as well
as those entering from the east and
south, are in the possession Of the
boxers, as witness the destruction, re-
ported some days ago, of the British
ambassadors summer residence.
which was situated a little to the
northwest of Pekin, at the base of the
nearest range of hills.
1t is true that the camel traffic has
OF late years been appreciably dimin-
ished by the facility with which sup
plies could be brought up from the
coast by railway, but it has by no
means been abolished, and the railway
not having been available for some
time past, owing to the operations Of
the boxers, the probability is that the
inhabitants Of the capital have had to
rely more than ever upon their Mon
golian market for the means Of ex-
iStence.
If it be true that the rebels secured
the approaches to Legation street"
foreign residents were congregated,
t is certain that many provisions
cannot have been conveyed to the
1eleaguered garrisons, and save for
he trif1ing stocks that may have been
accumulated within the compounds"
If the various embassies, there is
nothing, unless relief comes, but star
Tation or submission to look forward
o. Submission to a Chinese mob, it
5 almost needless to say, would be
my another form of extinction.
So long as the ammunition for the
Iaxims held out, however, and so
eng as the Chinese were unable to
Mount cannon upon the city walls to
lay upon the legations from the ad-
AGENT and commanding heights there
f, it is certain that a stout resistance
D the onslaughts Of the bowling rab-
Ie will have been offered. Beyond
lis all is conjecture, and the posi-
iIities are too apparent to be con-
emplated with calmness.