The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1900-08-02

/ oAiPpSu " Siilnd ~ guns VI pOSitlOll
! Ia3 field guns and 2o7 machine guns ant
! q German firm has supplied China viii
100000 Mauser fifes and 100000,
roundsiof hthmunitioh in the same peri
3D. From this it will be seen that tn,
Chinese are not as backyard, as regards
/ war material, as has been supposed
/ Supplies of tammunition for the guns have
been adequate. The Chinese navy dur.
ing the war with Japan disappointed
those who regarded1it as an effective
fighting force. Some modern vessel.
I have since been added to the fleet.
II Peking is at once interesting sdespica-
4 BILE, stiperlatiyely beautiful, disgustingly
filthy, and, in. short. a city Of contradic.
tons. Originally Tartar encampment
iibegun by the hordes that swarmed ID
the eastern part of China Picking soon
became a fortified cityof much strength
Here the Tartar rulers lived surrounds
ed by their Manchu oilowers--tearlne
the white mans usurpation far less than
the numerical preponderance of the Chi
nese. So,iin order to protect themselves
from unexpected assault, they construct
ed a huge wall around their city--tor
China is land of waIls-and for time
lived in tolerable security. Tsmo#
Gradually, however, the Chinese, real
izing to some extent their power, began
rival city adjoining the Tartar fortress.
They. too, built wall, and as the Tar
tars did, whenever workman died, his
body was entombed within the wall In
this manner, it is estimated, that one
million human beings found their last
resting places in the walls surrounding
\ Pekinga 17srsl ,1.- mftegf.fe -t.-s....-I
I While the Chinese city is of much in
terest, both from a sociological and ARCH
ltectural viewpoint, yet the Tartar city
is the more important, for within its
precincts is the forbidden" or Purple
City, where lives Kwang Su, the unfor-
tunately progressive monarch of the Chi
nese. The Forbidden City is a city of
night, for there the denizens of the PAL
ace of the Son of Heaven awaken and
begin their life.
Little is known of the Forbidden City,
for within the memory of man not half
a5dozen whites have entered, it Ali that
is. known is that it contains. the palaces
of the Emperor, and. what is perhaps
still more interesting, the famous coal
hill! This immense heapaof coalatwaS
accumulated for use9ini case the oity.fWas
besieged, The hill biS,7several, hundred
feet high and =, contains hundreds OF
thousands of tons Of coal. I'd '"hs'i|o
Whenever, the Emperor 8 was ab6dt to
leave the Forbiddetf City, for some ireligs
iods or State 1fuhctiohj the legations of
thetforeign nations have been notified,
so that no unholy eye might rest upon
the, puny form and sallow face Of Kwang
-Su,- The entire, route to be traversed
was .curtained' off and thousands of lsol-
edierS line the So ed'stfeets, so thatno
oPeeping IT ON couldbply his traded But
despite eall sitch precautions, the we'll
known Oriental propensity for, money,
exceptionally strong in the Chinese, en-
rabied Foreigners to see Kwang Stt p
clase range ] They beheld "a shrinking,
Slight figure, dressed plainly and utterly
reclipsed by the gorgeous apparel Of his
= retnueo oE1ad3o1d 20 sF5 RlfE .u7cig
sgf The rest Of Peking7i is very much like
all Chinese cities-picturesquely confus-
ing and terribly dirty Streets run in
the most bizarre fashion, totally obliv-
ious of their beginning and end, aim
lessly wandering from bad to worse,
!. fringed on both sides by novels and pal
aces, in confusion Dogs and pigs me-
ander about, jostle equally offensive beg
CARS and unlempt children; stuffy itters,
y Suspended on long bamboo poles and
carried by coolies, make life a burden;
odors, concentrated beyond the power OF
descriptive writing to portray, over
whelm the nostrils; the effluvia OF ages
of non-sanitation, drawn heavenward by
the torrid sun, spreads disease; the chat
ter of thousand glutteral Mongols ana
Chinese IS intermingled with the yelping
of the dogs, the squealing of the pigs,
the screaming Of the children, ana the
coolies-such is Picking. '... .
Of course, there are parts in the out
lying hills where the rich mandarins and
"A .ercharts live, where true Oriental lux
ury can be found There, magnificent
,palace-like dwellings dot the landscape,
surrounded BY idylic gardens. The art
and imagination of the Chinese archl-
tect have found full scope for his talent,
anu DIS lCSull tiISSG LdDiLdhiOho oiS q
credit. externally and internally--all save
the sanitation, of which the Chinese are
in blissftl ignorance. Yet the wealthy
Chinese has luxury, even though coolie
takes the place of an electric fan to cool
his fevered brow.grsE
Taken all in all, China and the Chi
nese make an interesting study from any
viewpoint, but it is wrong to underesti-
mate their brain power in such study,
for they are far more advanced than is
generally conceded. Let China be civ
ilized, and the world will witness as
great f1etamorphasis as that which so
astonished theM world when Japan
/ emerged from her chrysahs of Middle
GAGE conservatism and provincialismn
'aae"iBAsO nj do1lhg II IN isgjUaJ .
tw sUgRs,iW il a WiraeIeaL odT
F ."The marvellous cure of Mrs. Rena ].