The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-07

anu some roasted CneStnutS.
The husband said something to her in
Chinese.
'T am telling her." he said to me, ito
see how the foreign ladies can travel about
alone. and take care OF themselves" The
young Czech talked necessarily. and he.
too. made repeated proffers Of refresh
ments. They were declined. but, nothing
daunted, he at last disappeared and pres
emily returned with tea and hot hard
boiled eggs-the chief supplies OF a buffet
in Chinese railway train. At Tien-Tsin one
runs the gauntlet of hordes of clamorous
coolies. who fall upon you. seize your hand
luggage. snatch your trunk, and swing it
with ropes upon pole and trot off with
it. before you can say Jack Robinson. The
only practicable means of evading their
peculiar methods is to tie all your small
luggage on your person with strong strings
and sit on your trunk until you can select
one or two hirelings who seem little less
vociferous and villainous than the rest
This sounds easy, but nothing could be
more difficult, for IL involves a stimulation
Of total deafness to their bowls and yells
blindness to their filth and inpudence, and
-insenslbility to their general bad smell.
TIEN-TSIN VS.. PICKING.
or Tien-Tsin I have already written-its
resemblance. in the Chinese quarter, to the
narrower streets of Picking, with the same
shops. the same restaurants and the same
throngs swinging along in chairs or. best
of all, in the blessed jinrikasha To get
back to macadamized streets, after the
horrors Of Picking, is like returning to the
upper regions after temporary seclusion
In the neither world. For, being made pos
sible by the splendid streets of the foreign
settlement, the jinrikasha Is in general
use. the Chinese being among it's most
liberal patrons, as they now are of the
railways. Light. comfortable, if one can
ever become reconciled to the toiling,
sweating human being as a beast of bur-
den; the charge is Is cents Mexican or
~ cents in American currency an hour.
Too much cannot be said in praise of the
foreign part of Tien-Tsin. There are a
number of excellent hotels where the food
and service are much better than could be
found in an American town of the same
size. The business houses, English, Amer
lean and French, have been well and SOL
idly built, while the private residences are.
many of them, very handsome, surrounded
by walls, the gates standing open. through
which one has glimpses of sunny courts
filled with plants and flowers-chrysanthe-
mums-at this season of the year in all
their magnifcence. Tien-Tsin is the most
important open port in north China-the
point of distribution for two-thirds of the
imports from the United States, especially
cottons, which are widely distributed
through regions adjacent to the gulf Of
Pe-chi-li. This region is bordered by the
Russian concession on the north, and by
the German on the south Tien-Tsin is the
door to Picking. and until the last two years
was accessible by the Peiho, the yellow,
muddy stream flowing like canal between
low, reedy shores. down to the gulf at
Taku.
AS every one knows who has studied the
geography of China, the rivers have no
fixed channels; they move in the impetuous
floods that come pouring down from the
mountains in the rainy season, sometimes
as much as hundred miles from their old
beds, leaving the intervening tracts buried
deep under the sand. destroying life. max
ing a desert of cultivated fields over an
ing the farming population into terrible
poverty and famine. The enormous canals.
constructed by the government to correct
the evil, have been of no avail in this direc-
ton, although they have formed in the past
great waterways crowded with craft. along
which supplies of food and merchandise
can be carried to the markets at very
trifing cost Modern engineering, when
the breakup of China comes, will find the
subsection Of Chinese rivers problem that
will challenge all its genius and persever-
ance. and it may accomplish here what ii
has failed to do with other great streams
where the alluvial soil is carried down by
the current 10 block the mouth and place
tantalizing obstacle in the way of navi-
CATION. The Pe-Ho is as crooked as a
penuon fiuttering in the wind, and the
present lowness of the water is due to the
lands to the north, where it rises. Two
years ago steamers that now anchor al
Taku, twenty miles or more down stream
ran to Tien-Tsin. where they could take
their cargo and where passengers could 60
on board comfortably and conveniently
The change, under the present circum-
stances, constitutes the chief difficulty on
reaching the capital. for at Tien-Tsin the
passenger landing at Taku must change
cars continuing the journey to Peking from
the former point. OF Taku shall speak al
length presently.
ORIENTAL TRAFFIC.
The bund, or water front, gives one
some adequate idea of the commercial i'm.
portance of Tien-Tsin. The docks of Liver
pool or New York. although many times
greater in extent as a matter of course
are not more crowded and busy. Here the
| lighters, anchored in the river just acros:
| the way from the great warehouses. are
loaded with cargo to be sent out, or which
has been just received from the ships Al
Taku. There are mountains of bales done
up In mating and bound securely with
iron for their protection in their Ions
journey to the uttermost quarters of the
globe; there are boxes and casks of Chi
nese make marked London or Hamburg
anu I'm the midst of all this merchandise
throngs of half-naked coolies swarmins
| like massachusetts furnished with lusty
and never-silent voices. There are ton.
of wood from Mongolia. camels hair
| skins, charcoal and soda from Siberia
mats and grain. One now and then has
whiffs of musky perfume-the breath o.
Oriental bazaars, spice and sanda
wood 1t is one of the busies
| spots in the world, and can fur
nish succinct object lesson TO one a