The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-07-01


developed the Chinese practice into a sci
ence and have won the admiration of the
MongoHans. One winter the Palos, which
was a light-draught gunboat, ran ON
mud fiat at high tide. a mud wall eight
feet high and ten feet wide, was built
all around it. Between the walls and the
boat the sailors put straw, and on the
straw coating of mud eight inches
thick. From the port and starboard
gangways they ran the wooden platforms
10 the top of the wall and thence light
bridge to the land. over the deck they
built barnlike structure containing win
dows, and covered all the joints with pa
per. While building the duck-cover the
early frost converted the mud into ada
mant, and so gave them an outside wall
against cold, rats and thieves. They next
made skating pond along the wall, and
there during the winter they held nigh
carnival.
At one time there was a large junk
trade on the Peh-ho, especially Of big
freight junks bringing rice, beans, bean
cake, bean-oH, and foreign goods TO Tien
Tsin. This was almost wholly destroyed
by the coasting steamers. At the present
time two Chinese four japanese, six
English and one German line of steam
ers call regularly at Tien Tsin and at
least two tramp steamers visit it every
week. AS a single steamer will bring
from ten to fifty times as much cargo
as a junk, the decadence of the junk
trade IS easily understood. The junk-men
who even today are a powerful element
in the working classes, are very bitter
oil ,cT+ ~ md nc
and even more bitter against the Chinese
merchants who are now so largely inter-
ested in steam navigation It must be re-
membered that these coasters are manned
by Chinese crews, chiefly Swallow men,
with Malay quartermasters. The Swallow
men speak language utterly uninteili-
gible to the people of Chilli, who regard
them as foreigners Of a worse type than
those who have red head i. e., Eng
lish or LuZon men (Spaniards), or flower
flag men, that is, Americans. A Chinese
steamship sailor receives IS gold a month,
while the junkmen, even in his palmy
days, got but 81 to $50. To the resent
ment occasioned by the destruction of
the business is added the jealousy pro-
duced by seeing a rival receive what is
to him a princely salary. This may ac-
count in some measure for the fact that
most Of the disturbances of the present
Instruction have thus far taken place
on the great internal Waterways which
have been so profoundly affected COM
merially in the last decade.
The native soldiers at Taku are no bet
ter and no worse than those OF other
ports At one time when L Hung Chang
was in power in Chilli they were we'll
drilled, and were thoroughly familiar
with modern weapons but during the war
with Japan his famous army corps was
broken up, and when he was displaced
and degraded the efficient organization
which he had created at Tien Tsni and
Taku was utterly demolished by his con-
sentative rivals. Only one regiment and
a brass band remain at Tien Tsin to tell
the story Of their former greatness. For
the last five years the Taku garrison has
consisted of poorly dressed, poorly fed,
and poorly drilled raw ewes. with their
pay generally six months in arrears, and
with no medical attendance excepting
that which they could secure from a med
ical missionary. Many Of them have never
fired rife nor handled cartridge. SO
far as is known they have never used
their big guns, the only firing they have
done being the salute from a light field
piece whenever a man-of-war passed the
forts en- route to Tien Tsin. The present
officers are on par with the men. I'm
der the conservative administration of the
Empress Dowager, all the foreign drill
masters have been discharged from the
imperial service, and their places filled
with graduates of the Manchurian Mill
Il re
system and graduates, would be .ridicu-
lously funny if they were not so pitiaole
Their chief textbook upon military sci
ence is a literary classic more than one
thousand years old. 1t abounds in such
extraordinary recommendations as these;
"A wise general plays sweet music be-
fore going into battle in order to lull his
enemies into deep sleep"
"A good commander should insist upon
his men practicing with the bow to shoot
backward as they ride on their horses,
and should at times lead in the exercise
himself"
'.No general should go to war without
taking with him an extra red umbrella
and an extra umbrella-bearer."
These graduates are supposed to have
mastered horsemanship bow and arrow,
the spear, the sword, and martial music
these being even today the chief features
Of the Manchurian curriculum.
The Taku garrison is supposed to con-
sist Of 5000 soldiers commanded by II
Tai or major general. If Taku is like
most of the garrison cities of China,
the 5000 soldiers existed only, upon paper.
excepting so far as drawing their sal
aries from the national treasury was
concerned, and are represented by loo
or 300 poor wretches no more entitled
to the name of soldier than the little
New York boys who parade up and down
the street with wooden guns and paper
hats.