The Savannah morning news., 1900-07-11
HOW PEKIN Is FED.
Conditions Affecting the Possible
Starvation of the Legation Inmates.

CONDITIONS Anecun2 the Possible
Starvation of the Legation Inmates.
From the London News.
Among the dangers 10 which the foreign
population OF Pekin is exposed must be
included that Of its food supplies being
entirely cut off by the insurgents. AT or
binary times the city is very greatly de-
pendent upon frozen meats brought in
! from Mongolia on the hacks of canes.
The Mongol market, adjoining the British
legation, is the rendezvous for innumer-
able Strings of camels and their half
savage drivers, and on this unshelertd
l-plot of sandy soil. just within the city
walls may be seen, exposed for sale the
carcas- es of sheep. strangely c9ntortod,
which have been skinned while warm and
left out to harden in the severe frost of
a Monaghan night prior to transporta-
| ton to the Chinese capital. Partridges
and other game are similarly prepared
for transit to Pekin, and are purChasable
in the frozen state throughout the long
North China winter 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 supply
is at all times derived from places at
distance, even from beyond the Grsat
Wall there being but little produced
within the confines of the vast city itself
save root crops. and those on a small
scale, derived from the fields that occupy
part of the space known as the Wal
chung. l. e., the Chinese portion, and Sc
parated b. cross wall from the Nui-
! chung or Tartar City.
How important is the daily supply by
camel caravan of the necessaries of life
to the Pekinesa may be guaged from the
fact that over ten thousand ships of
! l,a IT nFf
leave the gates of the capital every TWEEN
! ty-four hours. Ride out at whatever
| time one may choose. il is certain that
long strings" of these useful BEASTS of
| burden, the leading quadruped bearing
| between its humps a Manchurian driver
and at It's throat a bell, and followed by
a score or so of its fellows, the head OF
each animal roped to the tail of the pre-
| cedng one, will be met with beyond the
walls either bound inward to market or
bound outward to the hills. The last of
! the string likewise bears a bell. and its
| tinkle assures the leading driver that
none CT his charges have broken loose.
In the plight of the Chinese capital to-
| cay It is almost certain that the ordinary
| traffic canot be carried on. The roads to
! the northward, as well is those entering
| from the east and south, are in the pos
| session Of the Boxers as witness the DIS
/
| British Ambassadors summer residence,
which was situated little to the north
west of Pekin, at the base of the near
est range of hills.
| 1t is true that the camel traffic has OF
| late years been apprecia bly, diminished by
| The facility with which supplies could be
brought up from the coast by railway,
| but it has by no means been abolished,
and the railway not having been avail
| able for some time past, owing 10 the
operations of the Boxers, the probability
| is that the inhabitants of the capital have
| to rely more than ever upon their Mon
| golian market for the mfans of existence.
| If it be true that the rebels secured the
approaches to Legation street" and the
| quarter in which all the foreigner resi-
dents were congregated, last week, it is
certain that provisions cannot have been
conveyed to the beleaguered garrison, and
save for the trihing stocks that may have
| be accumulated within the com
| rounds of the various embassies, there
3 nothing, unless relief comes. but star
| walton or submiss on to look forward to.
| Submission to a Chinese mob, ii is almost
| needless to say, would be only another
| form of extinction.
So long as the ammunition for the Max
inns held out. however, and so long as the
| Chinese were unable to mount cannon
| uron the city walls to play upon the le-
! cations from the adjacent and command
! ing heights thereof it is certain that
stout resistance to the onslaughts of the
| bowling rabble will have been offered,
| Reyond this all is conjecture and the pos
| sibilities are too appall ng to be contem-
plated with calmness.