Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1900-12-15
ELECTRICITY FOR The CHINESE
-S@eS-
Fortunes to be Made in Electric Lights Telephones and
Street Railroads.

CCopyrlgt. 1900, by Frank G. Carpenter)
Shanghai. October 20. lgO.-some Of
the biggest fortunes Of the future will
come from the electrical development
of China. 10 the powers by their new
treaties can make foreign property Sc
cure. a thousand cities and towns will
eventually be lighted with electricity,
thousands Of miles Of electric railroads
will be built, thousands OF telephone
companies established and the result
will be millions In dividends.
A LAND FOR THE TELEPHONE.
This Is a land for the telephone, not
the telegraph. 1t has already about A.
Cyg miles Of telegraph which is paying
WELL but this will be wiped out, and the
telephone viii take It's place. The rea-
son is plain. The Chinese Is an ideo-
graphic language II has no alpha
vet. Each word in Ii is represented by
lbs own sign, 80 that 1t takes tens Of
thousands Of characters to write 1t. 1t Is
impossible TO telegraph every charac-
ter, and SO, the common words are rep
resented by numbers and in telegraph.
ing only the numbers are sent. The
sending clerk takes down the telegram
BOO Chinese and translates II into num-
Utrs. lie has a regular code, consist
ing Of page after page Of figures and
signs printed In vertical columns.
There are ten columns on every page
and about ten thousand numbered
characters in the book. After he has
translated the telegram he transmits
81 and the receiver retranslates it into
Chinese This taxes "a great deal OF
time. and is expensive. II also causes
mistakes, and the result Is that the
telephone viii be used instead.
At'present there are telephone COM
paules at most Of the open ports. There
is one at Shanghai which has about
four hundred subscribers at $35 a year.
It's instruments are Of the Oldest style.
ANA the service IS poor. There is
a telephone company In Tien Tsln and
others at Canton, Hankow and else.
where.
] believe the telephone could be intro.
duced into all parts of China. We have
here business and manufacturing
population, and the demand for quick
communication IS great. There are
many large cities and countless vil-
lagos, When once the people see that
they make money out Of the telephone
their superstition IN regard TO II will
pass away They viii learn that the
wires are harmless, and not the homes
OF spirits. The native capitalists will
become interested, and the telephone
VIII be everywhere used.
BOYS TONGUES AS INsULAToRs.
At present the common people think
every telephone has q deyil in it. They
l0ok upon talking through wires as
work OF magic. They cannot understand
u, and they would surely mob the
hello girls II they were introduced
into a town without proper explaua-
ton. / heard last night how a Dutch
man living near the Grand canal al
most lost his life. He had had some
thing to do with putting up the tee-
graph line there, and was / believe,
one OF the repair men.
shortly after the wires were nut up
several OF the boys OF the neirhbor-
hood were found missing. II Is not
uncommon here for a man who has no
son 10 buy boy 10 raise and take his
name so that his ancestral line may 20
on without a break. Bows are kid
mapped FOR this purpose and sold. The
Chinese consider 10 a great misfortune
10 lose a son, and so when the keport
went forth that this Dutchman was the
hdnapper the country rose up I'm arms.
They gathered about the Dutchman's
cottage and accused him of stealing
Chinese boys and killing them. Said
they:
we know very well what YOU are
doing We know that each OF the glass
lnsulators on the telegraph posts con-
taln's a boys tongue, and that through
these tongues you are able to carry the
words from pole 10 pole"
The Dutchman protested but Il was
only by the aid Of the soldiers that he
escaped with his life.
Not long ago a new telegraph line
was built from Kuiang 10 Hanchang
about $50 miles northward. The people
objected and cut the poles down dur
Ing the night. The Chinese officials
arrested the offenders and bambooed
them, but It was all In vain. At last
they cut of the heads Of a gang caught
I'm the act, and stuck a head on the
top Of each pole. That stopped the
cutting.
The Chinese government had a SINH
lar experience about fifteen years ago
when they brought the telegraph into
Pekin, The citizens objected because
N the Feng Shut. They said that the
wires would destroy their luck and that
II the shadow OF a pole fell upon the
the graves OF their ancestors the lat
ter would rise up and howl and cause
trouble. At first the poles were dug
ont and the wires cut Then the em-
peror attached a decree 10 each tele-
graph pole 10 the effect that the man
who damaged Il would be killed and
there was no more trouble.
ELECTRIC RAILROADS.
China IS naturally fitted FOR electric
railroads. There Is coal In every one
OF the provinces, so that fuel for gem
Grating electricity can be had at low
cost
Tho people live I'm villages and cities.
They are not good walkers. and the
small-foOted women especially viii pat
ronize the electric cars.
There Is an enormous traffic between
VIC uAltltuN ituAtINs 1 ne country IhtNn
make you think there must be a circus
in the next town. They swarm with
FOOT passengers. The Chinese are "a
business nation. A large part OF them
are devoted 10 manufacturing and near
ly every house has its little industry.
This fills the highways with men car
wing freight. There are hundreds OF
gheelbarrows pushed and pulled by
men, carrying goods from village 10
city. or the reverse. There are cara
vans Of donkeys and long lines OF rude
carts In the extreme north the freight
Ing Is done largely upon camels. which
take all kinds OF goods from Pekin and
Tlen Tsln through the Nankow Pass
over the mountains into Mongolia and
Manchurla. There IL also an enormous
traffic on the waterways, which cover
China like a net. and a less traffic on
ponies
These methods OF transport are all
slow and some OF them very expensive,
\ gool electric railroad system could
take their places. The people would
patronize such roads. and the roads
would pay dividends from the start,
ne trouble would be I'm securing the
concessions, IN quletlng the supersu-
lions OF the people and last but By no
means least, IN fighting the labor unions
affected by the change. These unions
HIa.Hs 4 "a. ~ a..