The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1900-07-27
Sparks That Caused the Chinese Ex
pIOsi0n.
by CHARLES DENNY. Ex United States Min
ister to China

However well acquainted with
China an observer may be, unless
he has been on the ground recently
and has watched events his opinions
may be entitled to little weight.
Even the views of men now in China
should be received with many al
lowances, for all shades Of opinion
are represented there.
The missionaries, who constitute
a great-perhaps the most numer
ous-part of the foreigners, look
only to the spiritual side OF the
questions. To them the supreme
object is the spread of religion, and
they would welcome any govern
ment which would insure them and
their converts freedom and protec-
ton.
Consuls from other foreigners are
controlled by the influence OF trade
and commerce and by the action OF
their respective governments. The
merchants and promoters want
greater freedom Of intercourse, the
right to manufacture, to build rail-
roads and work mines.
To the foreigners generally the
Chinese are interiors. Nothing that
they do is proper, and they have no
right that any white man should re-
spect. 1t is perfectly natural, right
and proper to him that the empire
shall be partitioned. 1t is even the
duty of the white race to take this
inferior race under its protection.
Every European nation is supposed
to desire to do this, because Europe
is crowded and room must be found
for the young athletes OF the west.
Evidently the most of the foreign
ers in China are convinced that the
empress dowager is antagonistic tc
the foreign element. She has been
dubbed "Anti-Christ," and she is
supposed to stand in the way Of
progress and OF all foreign ideas.
She ruled China from 1861 tc
1889. 1t was a troublesome time
For the first time in the history ol
the empire diplomatic relations ex'
isted in 1861 between China and the
80 called barbarians. For the firsI
time the flags Of all the importan,
nations flew in the imperial city
For the first time there was a for
eign office. From an isolation as
deep as deep as that Of Thibet, China
suddenly entered the arena of inter
national intercourse.
The war waged against her by the
allies has left her overwhelmed by
her impotence. Up to that time hel
rulers believed that the whole world
was subject to the emperor. Now
she had to treat with foreigners; to
discuss international questions with
them; to protect their enterprises
to see new laws enforced by stran'
gers, in which she was powerless.
She had made treaties with the
European and American powers o
whose bearing and effect on her peo
pie she knew nothing whatever. l
she had known the true meaning
and the probable effects OF tn,
treaties she never would have signed
them. A few OF the Chinese Of
|ficials studied the treaties, but the
most Of the inferior officers and al
the people remained absolutely ig
norant OF their contents.
Great credit is due the Chinese
statesmen that they were able to ad
minister intelligently the provisions
|of the treaties, and they were great
|ly assisted by the foreign represen
|tatives.
Who can say, then, that Chins
did not do fairly well during hel
novitiate into the family Of nationsi
The electric telegraph was intro
|duced in all the provinces. Every
stream was open to the keels Of al
nations. The imperial maritime
customs and a national post office
we're established. Unfortunately,
riots we're common, but China paid
liberal damages. Missionaries went
where they pleased, settled down,
bought land and built houses. Many
fine institutions were started; com.
merce flourished; foreign BANKS be-
came common; elegant little foreign
cities were built here and there
railroads began to be constructed,
II did seem that China, like Japan,
would work out her own salvation,
1t seemed that with peace and tran
guilty the time would come when
in her borders the foreigners would
be as safe as in Europe or America,
But the Japanese war Of 1894
rudely broke into the pleasing con
temptation Of national progress. II
dissolved all illusions and left the
great piant shrivelled into a pigmy