The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-08-05
FUTURE G The ORIENT
MAY BE EXPECTED TO BECOME
THE WORLDS SHOEMAKER
AND CLOTHIER
NOTHING CHINESE CANNOT DO
Her Inventions I'm the Past Prove
That China Is Only without
Incentive at the Pres
ent Time.

a
manufacturing country" said Prof w. J.
MCGEE, Of the bureau of Ethnology." Her
present territory will be gridironed with
railroads, her deposits of coal, which are
said to be vast, will be contributing MIL
Hons of tons per annum to the fuel SUD-
ply of the world, and the products of her
Iron mines will govern market prices in
such commodities. She will build machine
shops and ships and in certain lines Of in
bispensabIe. she will be pre-eminent. It
seems 10 me not at all unlikely that
China may be the shoemaker and cIothier
Of the world half a century hence.
There is not anything the Chinese can
not do II they are told how to do IL. Left
TO themselves, they would have no indus
trial future. The Chinese br;9n is not up
10 an appreciation of industrial progress;
1t does not know how to take hold of in
dustrial problems. Today the empire is an
Immense aggregation of stored energy
waiting TO be utilized During past ages
1T has been developing a vast population,
which Is capable OF doing one-fourtn the
manual labor of the world. Add to this
population one-tenth of one per cent of
Intelligent foreigners, and the Chinese will
soon find themselves in the front rank of
progressive nations. They have the physi-
gal ability and sufficient intelligence to do
what they are told beside which they are
remarkably capable of Industrial organi-
Eation. They can initiate any process
bnd reproduce any product. All they need
is proper instruction, the requisite control
Ind a little time.
THEIR EARLY TRIUMPHS
The Chinese consider themselves our su-
periors on many grounds, but largely be-
pause they Were the first inventors of var
lous arts which are fundamental in our
bwn civilization. They were the first dis
eoverers of ink, though at the present day
they employ by preference what is COM
monty known as India ink, which is
solid substance composed mainly of lamp
black and gum, rubbed in a saucer to
make the requisite solution. In place of a
pen they utilize the camers hair brush,
which is much better adapted for produc-
ing their hieroglyphics.
Paper was first manufactured by the
Chinese in the first century A. D. Up to
that time they wrote on thin slips of bam-
boo. the instrument employed being not a
pen or brush, but a pointed tool The
books Of those ancient days were made by
cutting the bamboo, after removing the
bark, into thin sheets, which were strung
SO5CA1tC4 80 DIS " COLupOSS d ldlTly conf
pact though clumsy volume.
Later on il was found better to pound
the bamboo to a paste in a mortar to-
igether with water, and the resulting sub
stance was spread upon a fiat surface to
dry. This, in fact, was the first paper,
in the modern acceptation Of the term.
Though the Egyptian papyrus made from
a kind of weed that grew along the banks
of the Nile, antedated it by several cen
turtles. After while the manufacture of
this spaper was improved by adding to it
silk and other materials. The Tartars
borrowed the art, substituting cotton, and
from the Arabs acquired it, using linen
instead Of cotton. 1t was in this way that
paper making was first brought into Eu-
rope, beng introduced by the Arabs
LED IN ART OF PRINTING.
About the year 900 A. D. printing was
discovered in China-nearly 500 years, that
Is to say, before the art was known In
Europe. The first step was the engrav-
ing Of characters on stone, the marks
being transferred to the paper In white
on a black ground. Then came wooden
blocks, with raised letters, which are en-
ployed even at the present day in China,
1nasmuch as about $4,000 characters are
recognized as in good usage among pee-
pie in that country. The Chinese were
a reading people many centuries before
books We're comm Jnly known and eead
by he lower classes in Europe.
So late as the third century in China
cotton was known only as the product
of rare and curious plant in the gar
dens Of the great. At that period tea
had not begun to be cultivated in that
county, and so late as 1000 A. D. 1t was
not an item OF export, though largely
used by the natives. AS will be remem-
bered this herb was unknown In Eng
land 25e years ago.
The art of making porcelain was dis
covered IN CHINA In the fifth century of
the christian era, though common earth
enware had been manufactured from
time lmmemoIial. Not H7til the middle
or the seventh century, however, did the
Ceiestials begin to produce In a large
way 9tle beautiful Semi-transparent ware
Whlch excited So much admiration In En-,
rope. Probably the process was discover
cd by an accident and at first the prod
uct was known as limitation gemware."
zine name porcelain" is of Portuguese
origin. About the year 1000 A. D. were
established the famous porcelain furnaces
at King-te-Chin, In the province of
heang-Sy, where all the best china is
sui made, employing several thousand
operators.
ROYAL SILKMAKERS.
Silk Is said to have been discovered by
q lady named Chalg-Ti wife of the
Emperor Hoang-Ti. Since her day the
expresses of China have bred, reared
and fed sill0Worms as an amusement.
Teeling the coceons and weaving the silk
In the garden of the palace at Pekin
IL little forest of mulberry trees and
on the occasion Of an annual festival the
empress, with the principal ladies of her
court, gather mulberry leaves for the
worms. Silk in China is so cheap that
even the uniforms Of the soldiers are
made Of it
The story of the way in which silk
worms were first brought to Europe Is
quite romantic their importation being
attributed to a couple of HISTORIAN
monks who were employed by the En-
peror Justinian, In the sixth entury,
to procure some Of the eggs of the
worms. large reward was promised
them in case of success, and they are
Paid to have brought the eggs, which
they stole, to Constantinople. inside of a
hollow cane Having learned the art
of rearing the worms, they were able to
give the necessary instruction, and thus
the industry Of silk makers was intro
duced. Silken fabrics had been brought
10 Europe and marketed there for cen.
turies before 1t was understood that the
fabric was derived from an insect.
one OF the most notable of the arts n
vented by the Chinese was the manu-
Facture of gunpowder. The date of the
discovery is wholly in doubt, but Marco
Polo, the famous traveller, who visited
the far East in the thirteenth century.
paid of the people: They raise tenn
pests with flashing lightning and peals
pr thunder" AT that period the explo-
FiYe substance was used only for fire.
works, however.
FGREEN FIRE WAS GUNPOWDER.
FROM China knowledge of the art was
sarried to the Byzantines, who were the