Evening star., 1900-12-15
WHAT CHINA NEEDS
Great Demand for Electric Lights and
Railroads.
THERE Is CAPITAL IN ABUNDANCE
Why Telephones Work Better
Than the Telegraph.
OBTAINING CONCESSIONS
copyrighted, 1900, by Frank G. Carpenter,l
oP

copyrighted, 1900 by Frank u. Carpenterl
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
SHANGHAI, October 90. 1900.
Some of the biggest fortunes of the future
will come from the electrical development
of China. If the powers by their new trea-
ties can make foreign property secure, a
thousand cities and towns will eventually
be lighted with electricity, thousands of
miles of electric railroads will be built,
thousands of telephone companies estab-
lished and the result will be millions in divi-
dends.
This is land for the telephone. not the
telegraph. 1t has already about 1900 miles
of telegraph which is paying well, but this
will be wiped out, and the telephone will
take its place. The reason is plain. The
Chinese is an Geographic language. 1t has
no alphabet Each word in it is represented
by its own sign, 50 that 1t takes tens of
thousands of characters to write 1t. 1t is
impossible to telegraph every character,
and so, the common words are represented
by numbers, and in telegraphing only the
numbers are sent. The sending clerk takes
down the telegram in Chinese and trans
ltteS 1T into numbers. He has a regular
code consisting of page after page of
figures and signs, printed in vertical COL
umns. There are ten columns every
page and about ten thousand numbered
characters in the book After he has trans
iditt tit tt!SSFtHl he transmits II, ana the
receiver retrans!ates it into Chinese. This
takes great deal of time, and is expensive
1T also causes Mistakes and the result is
that the telephone will be used instead.
AT present there are telephone companies
at most OF the open ports, There is one at
Shanghai which has about four hundred
subscribers a SO a year. Its Instruments
are OF the oldest style. and the service Is
poor. There Is telephone company in Tien
elsewhere.
| believe the telephone could be intro
duced into all parts of China We have
here business and manufacturing papu-
iaton, and the demand for quick comm,lni-
cation is great. There are many large cities
and countess villages. When once the peo-
pie see that they can make nancy out Of
lhe teiephone their superstition in regard
to 1t Will pass away. They will learn that
the wires are harmless, and not the homes
OF spirits. The native capitalists will be-
come interested, and the telephone will he
everywhere used.
Boys Tongues as InsuIatOrs
AT present the common people think
every telephone has devil in it, They
look upon talking through wires as a work
OF magic. They cannot understand it, and
they would surrey mob the hello" girls
If they were introduced into a town with
out proper explanation. l heard last night
how Dutchman living near the Grand
canal almost lost his life. He had had
something TO do with putting up the tele-
graph line there, and was. L believe, one
OF the repair men.
Shortly after the wires were put I'D sew
eral of the boys of the neighborhood were
found missing. 1t is not uncommon here
for man who has no son to buy boy
TO raise and take his name so that his
ancestral line may GO on without a break
Boys are kidnapped for this purpose and
sold. The Chinese consider it a great mis-
fortune to lose son. and so when the re-
port went forth that this Dutchman was
the kidnaper the country rose up in arms
They ga hered about the Dutchman's cot
tage and accused him of stealing Chinese
boys and killing them. Said they:
We know very we'll what you are doing.
We know hat each of the glass insulators
on the telegraph posts contains a boys
tongue. and that through these tongues
you are able 10 carry the words from pole
to pole.'
The Dutchman protested but 1t was only
by the aid of the sold ers that he escaped
with his life.
Not long ago a new telegraph line was
built from Kukiang to Hanchang, about 100
miles northward The people objected and
Chinese officials arrested the offenders and
bambooed them but it was all in vain. AT
last they cut off the heads of a gang caught
in the act, and stuck a head on the top Of
each pole. That stopped the cutting
The Chinese government had a sim lar ex-
perence about fifteen years ago when ,hey
brought the telegraph into Pekin. The cit-
gems objected because of the Feng Shut
They said tha. the wires would destroy
their luck and that If the shadow of a
pole fell upon the graves Of their ancestors
the latter would rise up and howl and cause
trouble. At first the poles were dug out
and the wires cut. Then he emperor at
'achei decree to each telegraph pole TO
the effect that the man who damaged it
would be killed and there no more
trouble.
Electric Railroads.
China is naturally fitted for electric rail-
roads. There is coal in every one of the
provinces, so that fuel for generating cleo
tricity can be had at low cost.
The people live in villages and cities.
footed women especially will patronize the
electric cars.
There is an enormous traffic between the
different centers. The country roads make
you think there must be a circus in
the next town. They swarm with foot
passengers. The Chinese are a business ma
ton A large part Of them are devoted to
manufacturing and nearly every house has
its little industry. This fills the h ghways
with men carrying freight. There are hun
dreds Of wheelbarrcws pushed and pulled
by men. carrying goods from village to city
or the reverse. There are caravans OF
donkeys and long lines of rude carts. In
the extreme north the freghtng is done
largely upon camels, which lake all kinds
of goods from Pekin and Tien Tsn through
the Nankow Pass over the mountains into
Mongolia and Manchuria. There is also an
enormous traffic the waterways, which
cover China like net, and less traffic on
)nieS.
These methods Of transport are all slow
and some of them very expensive. good
electric railroad system could take their
places. The people would patronze such
roads, as they do the steam railroads and
the roads would pay dividends from the start
The trouble would be in securing the con-
cessions. in qu.etng the superstitions OF
the people and last, but by means least
in fighting the labor unions affected by the
change. These unions honeycomb China.
They extend to the cart drivers and wheel
barrow men, and dictate terms to both
capitalists and officials.
Electric Light Companies.
The electric railroad men could also es-
tabMsh electric light plants. At present
this country of 4OO,0OO.OOO people is lighted
almost entirely by kerosene, lard oil and
vegetable tallow. Even the yamens are
lighted with coal Oil. None Of the native
cities have gas, and 1t is only in the larger
cities Of the open ports that you find cleo
trio light plants. The imperial pa ace at
Pekin has one. There is one here at Shang-
hal and others at Hong Kong and Canton.