The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-16
TIE CITY or TIEN TsIN.
Its Importance to the Commerce of
Northern China.

Northern China.
II. w. Lawson. in the London Telegraph
Tien Tsin is the commercial capital of
Northern China, the port of Pekin, and
the great exchange and mart of Mongolia
and Tartary proper. Situate on the hat,
alluvial plain that runs up from the mud
banks of the coast to the foothills of the
Monaghan plateau there is uothing in the
site or plan OF the native city to dstin-
guish it from any other collection of squat,
tile rooted, ramshackle buildings inter-
sected with filth-laden bitches 10 be seen,
with slight variations for soil and eli
mate, from one end of China to the other.
The ferocity and turbulence of the Tien
Tsiu mob have been notorious since The
lamsntable massacre of 1870. which began
with the murder of the French consul and
his wife and eliminated in unspeakable
outrages upon the wretched Sisters of the
religious orders. Unfortunately. those were
the days of imperial forgetCulness, and
but little was done TO bring the u~spons-
BILE authors and abettors of the crime TO
account 1t was about the time when the
foreign office is said 10 have demonstrated
with our minister in China because no
dispatch had been received for six months
on any single subject. Write anything
you like but write something" was the
direction given.
a watersde population in China, as
elsewhere, embraces the toughest classes
or the community, and the character of
the people is not improved by the pres
ence Of the great army of Yamenl runners
and parasites, the small fry of the official
world, who hang on TO the Vceregal va
men of Chilli, of which Tien-Tsin is the
seat OF government. The city is said
according to the rough tests of Calcula-
lion which serve for the Chinese census
to contain over a million inhabitants.
Packed and compressed into the stone
boxes that serve for houses, it is mpos-
sible for a stranger to make any estimate
of the number of those who dwell in
them, but as one passes through the foul
and narrow streets and Shiny alleys they
seem literally to swarm and tester With
coolies, beggars and parti-colored soldiers
Like all other Chinese cities, Tien Tsin
has lis miles of encircling walls, with the
inevitable four gates and the regular sue
cession of towers and bastions Strongly
built OF mud, with facing of gray stone
these walls may have served their pur-
pose against bows and arrows in the days
of chronic rebellion and civil tumult but
they will prove useless to resist the small
est gun of a modern armament
Wretched Railway Service
The railway to Pekin, although con-
structed according to English plans, and
under English direction, belongs to the
Chinese, and is miserably managed so
far as Its finance goes. by Chinese off,
clais OF the normal type, corrupt, wrong
headed and fun of self-importance. In
the trains which run to Pekin the only
carriage decently sweet or clean is that
of the Imperial Maritime Customs in
which Europeans are usually allowed TO
travel The railway station at Tien Tsin
Is not in the European settlement, but
lies on the further side of the great
wooden pontoon bridge which separates il
from the native quarters. In the attack
made by the Boxers the other day on the
Russian force, it seemed that the river
formed the dividing line between the two
and II must have been in the attempt TO
cross the bridge that the Chinese ma
rauders lost SO heavily. The European
settlement is second to none in China in
the breadth and cleanliness of its streets
and in the solidity and comfort of Its
houses Like all the other "Bunds" it is
an 'imperium in imperio," with its own
municipal arrangements and its own DO
ice. In no part of the empire is local
government better understood or admin
lstered than in these so-called concessions
OF Chinese territory. Each has its own
city council, with officers and staff, reg
uiarly appointed and adequately paid on
the exact mode of an English municipa,
borough of the first class In fact a
town clerk of Birmingham would find
himself perfectly at home in the town hall
of far away European China
The severity of the climate. which cuts
off Tien Tsin from the sea for four months
OF the year, has made the merchants put
heavier weight of stone into the construc-
ton OF their houses here than further
south, and the general appearance resem,
hies nothing SO mitch as an -iruUortant
scotch town, even in the character of its
architecture, which the great Scotch firms
who farm out the Far East have brought
with them from their native land The
police force is composed of Sikhs and
Pathans-the black devils" the Chinese
call them-who look funny enough in the
thick blue clothing and white wooden
gloves of London Bobby but do their
Work to perfection. 1t will be q shock
ing catastrophe in the East quite apart
from the holrid probability of massacre
and outrage If the Boxers, or their pro-
tectors, the Chinese soldiery, are able 10
lay their hands on this admirable casis
OF Western civilization which strikes The
eye so curfously IN tie midst of the de-
cadent corruption of the Manchus. Tien
northern province and of Mongolia, and a
prominent feature in the streets of the
Chinese city Is the fur and skin shop.
which supplies the natives with every
sort OF coat, from costly sable sewn ard
put together from hundred scraps and
pieces, to the humble sheepskin for
coolie wear
The Picturesque Tartar.
The Tartar travels with his family and
his followers. Wives riding straddie-Ieg-
ged and children in baskets are mounted
on camel back, and only the actual lead
IRIS go afoot, with the long string of their
charges following in single file; tied To-
gethsr in line. Warmly clad in heavy
wadded underclothes. topped by enormous
sheepskins, their he ads covered with
long-eared fur caps, in addition 10 which
they put on fur earbags, and on their
legs "Moneol socks" that is, soft. high
boots of shcepskln, under felt overshoes.
thickly studded with iron nails, these peo-
pie look to the life the Tartar OF the chill
dren's book of lypes. Beyond KaIgan the
plateau rises 10 an eleva' ion OF four thou.
sand feet, and the icy blast that sweepa
across it cuts into the skin and pierces
through the stoutest cloth. The Tartar
differs considerably from the Cinnamon.
or even from his kinsman the Manchu
in The rudy yellow of his face and the
pleasant franknt IS OF his glance. He
seems to favor bright colors, and on the
top of his fur hood he often sticks the
gold buttoned cap OF Chinese official rank
while his women's jackets are of yellow