Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1900-07-26
HOW pEKIN IS FED.
Conditions Affecting the Possible Star
walton of the Legation Inmates.

Conditions Affecting the Possible Star
walton of the Legation Inmates.
Among the dangers to which the
foreign population of Pekin is exposed
must be included that of its supplies
being entirely cut off by the insurg-
ents, says the London News
At ordinary times the city is greatly
dependent upon frozen meats brought
in from Mongolia on the backs of
camels. The Mongol market, adjoin-
ing the British legation, is the rem
devious for innumerable strings
of cameis and the half-savage drivers,
and on this unsheltered plot may be
seen exposed for sale the carcasses of
sheep, strangely contorted which
haze been skinned while warm and
left out to harden in the severe frost
Of Mongolian night prior to trans
portation to the Chinese capital. Par
tridges and other game are similarly
prepared for transit to Pekin, and
are purchaseable in the frozen state
throughout the long north China win
ter 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 sup
ply Is at all times derived from places
at distance, even from beyond the
Great Wall, there being but little pro-
duced within the confines of the vast
city itself save root crops, and those
on small scale, derived from the
fields that occupy part of The space
known as the Watching, |. e., the
Chinese portion, and separated by
cross wall from the Nui-chung or
Tartar city.
How important is the uaily supply
by camel caravan of the necessaries
of life to the Pekinese may be
gagged from the fact that over ten
thousand ships of the desert" on an
average, enter and leave the gates of
the capital every twenty-four hours.
Ride out at whatever time one may
choose, it is certain that long
strings" of these useful beasts of
burden, the leading quadruped bear
ing between its humps a Manchurlan
driver and at its throat a bell, and
followed by a score or so of its fell
lows, the head of each animal roped
to the tail of the preceding one, win
be met with beyond the walls, either
bound inward to market or bound out
w rH n tho hills Tho 1aC Of
string likewise bears bell, and its
tinkle assures the leading driver that
none Of his charges have broken loose.
In the plight of the Chinese capital
today 1t Is almost certain that the or
binary traffic cannot be carried on.
The roads to the northward, as well
as those entering from the east and
south, are in the possession of the
boxers, as witness the destruction, re-
ported some days ago, Of the British
ambassadors summer residence,
which was situated a little to the
northwest Of Pekin, at the base Of the
nearest range of hills.
1t is true that the camel traffic has
Of late years been appreciably dimin-
ished by the facility with which sup
plies could be brought up from the
coast by railway, but it has by no
means been abolished, and the railway
not having been available for some
time past, owing to the operations of
the boxers, the probability is that the
inhabitants of the capital have had to
ralx- mr. fhon thnfs Mon
golian market for the means Of ex-
istence.
II II be true that the rebels secured
the approaches to Legation street."
and the quarter in which all the
foreign residents were copyrighted,
it is certain that many provisions
cannot have been conveyed to the
beleaguered garTisons, and save for
the trifling stocks that may have been
accumulated within the compounds"
OF the various embassies, there is
nothing. unless relief comes. but star
walton or submission to look forward
to. Submission to Chinese mob, Il
is almost needless TO say, would be
only another form OF extinction.
So long as the ammunition for the
Maxims held out, however, and so
long as the Chinese were unable to
mount cannon upon the city walls to
play upon the legations from the adj
jacent and commanding heights there
Of, it is certain that stor. resistance
to the onslaughts Of the bowling rab-
Bile will have been offered. Beyond
this all is conjecture. and the posi-
bilities are too apparent to be con-
templated with calmness.