The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-26

serpent and changes its channel witt
| regularity and despatch. 1t IS always
navigable to light-draught boats and dur
ing the spring. to steamers Of twenty
and twenty one- feet draught. There is {
river population as upon every stream
in the Celestial Empire, but on account
Of the bitter winters and the spring
freshets its habits are very different from
those which prevail on the Yangtse and
| the Si-kiang.
In the early fall the junkmen .lraw
their clumsy crafts high up on the banks
and build around them walls of mud. FIRE.
quently the walls will be higher than the
gunwaes. The first frost changes the
mud to crystalline hardness, making it a
capital defence against cold and storm.
This practice has been copied by civilized
nations, and many are the men of-war
English and American, which have gone
into mud quarters during the winter at
Tientsin station. Our own people have
developed the Chinese practice into a
science and have won the admiration Of
the Mongolians.
One winter the Palos. which was light
draught gunboat. ran on mud nat at
high tide A mud wall. eight feet higi;
and ten feet wide. was built all around it.
Between the walls and the boat the sail
ors put straw. and on the straw coating
of mud eight inches thick. From the port
and starhoard gangways they ran out
wooden platforms to the top of the wall
and thence light bridge to the land.
Over the deck they built q barnlike struc-
| ture containing windows and covered all
the joints with paper. While building the
deck cover the early frost converted the
mud into adamant. and so gave them an
| outside wall to their craft which was
proof against cold. rats. and thieves. They
next made q skating pond along the wall.
| and there during the winter they held
| high carnival.
Junk Trade Crushed by Steam.
At one time there was large junk trade
on the Peh-ho. especially of big freight
junks bringing rice. beans. bean-cake,
bean-oil. and foreign goods to Tientsin.
| This was almost wholly destroyed by the
coasting steamers. At the present time two
| Chinese, four Japanese. six English, and
one German line of steamers call regularly
at Tientsin. and at least two tramp steam
ers visit it every week. AS single steamer
will bring ten to fifty times as much cargo
| as junk, the decadence of the, junk trade
| is easily understood.
The junkmen, who even today are
powerful element in the working classes,
IL
and his vessels, and even more bitter
against the Chinese merchants who are
| now SO largely interested in steam naviga-
| ton. 1t must be remembered that these
coasters are manned by Chinese crews,
chiefly Swallow men. with Malay quarter
masters. TheSwatow men speak language
utterly unintelligible to the people of Chi
| Ii, VINO regard them as foreigners of
worse type than those who have red heads,
/. e., English or Luzon men tSpaniards), or
Flower-fiag men, that is Americans.
Chinese steamship sailor receives S.
gold month, while the junkmen. even in
his paimy days, got but 81 or S1.5O. To
the resentment occasioned by the destruc
ton of the business is added the Jealousy
produced by seeing rival receive what
is to him a prineely salary. This may
account in some measure for the fact that
most of the disturbances of the present
insurrection have thus far taken place on
the great internal waterways, which have
been SO profoundly affected commercially
il the past decade.
The native soldiers at Taku are no bet
ter and no worse than those of other ports.
At one time when Lii Hung Chang was in
power they were well drilled. and were
thoroughly familiar with modern weapons,
but during the war with Japan his famous
army corps was broken up. and when he
was displaced and degraded the efficient
organization which he had created at Tien-
tsin and Taku was utterly demolished by
his conservative rivals
Only one regiment and a brass band re-
main at Tientsin to tell the story Of their
former greatness. For the last five years
the Taku garrison has consisted of poorly !
dressed, poorly fed. and poorly drilled raw
lev:es, with their pay generally six months
in arrears. and with no medical attendance
except that which they could secure from
a medical missionary.
Unnccustomed to Fircnrms
Many Of them have never fred a rife
nor handled cartridge. So far as is
known, they have never used the big guna,
the only firing they have done being the
salute from light ieldpiece whenever
man-of-war passed the forts en- route to |
Tientsin The present officers are on a |
par with the men. Under the couserva- I
tive administration of the Empress Dow !
ager, all the foreign drillmasters have |
been discharged from the imperial service. |
and their places filled with graduates of |
the Manchurin Military College at Pekin |
This school. its system, and graduates, |
would be ridiculously funny IL they were |
I Ut SO pitiable. Their chief textbook upon |
than Loco years old. 1t abouno.5 in such |
extraordinary recommendations as these:
A wise general plays sweet music be-
lore going into battle in order to lull his
enemies into deep sleep
"A good commander should insist upon
his men practicing with the bow to shoot |
backward as they ride on their horses and |
should at times lead in the exercise him
self"
mo general should go to war without
,aking with him an extra red umbrella
and an extra umbrella bearer"
These graduates are supposed to have
mastered craftsmanship, bow and arrow,
the spear, the sword, and martial music,
these being even today the chief features
Of the Manchurian curriculum.
The Taku garrison is supposed to con-
sist of 5000 soldiers, commanded by a TT
Tai or major general. If Taku is like most
of the garrison cities of China the 5000
soldiers existed only upon paper, except
ing so far as drawing their salaries from
the national treasury was concerned, and |
are represented by LOCO or 1900 poor
wretches no more entitled to the name of
soldier than the little Washington boys !
who parade up and down the street with
wooden guns and paper hats.
OF SERGEANT DARCY.
to be Inferred Mt Arlington
Cemetery |