The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-10

dtiioIctIdliOn tina III .lnt paris w "
equal the whole. Ten lO-cent pieces do not
make 81. Five will pass easily enough for
half a dollar. but when more are rendered
the buyer is likely to be reminded that
small money is at n discount. A dollar
handed to a native money changer will pro-
duce eleven 10-cent pieces and from six
teen TO twenty-four cash, equal 10 2 or 8
cents. The money dealer gets HIS living by
trading cash for the small silver that the
natives gather in the settlements. They
wish cash because they can supply their
needs with 1t better than in any other way.
II the dollar were quoted at 1000 cash the
dealer would give 500 cash for 1t or its COM
ponent parts and make 20 per cent. by the
exchange; and the average native can &C
complish more with 500 pieces OF copper
than with a single silver piece stamped as
81. The lender wishes all the dollars he
can get because he has means of buying
in a large "a at very close TO quotation
rates. Small silver will not enable him 20
make such purchases except at a discount
of 10 per cent, and then only in limited
amounts. So he will gladly give Sl.13 in
small silver for a c~art-wheei dollar and
profit by the operation. That premium of
12 cents furnishes a visitor to China with
his one small comfort in money affairs.
FEW RAIL ROUTES.
Chinese have always travelled by water,
and that way is good enough for a people
with whom time does not count. Railroad
lines in the north, connecting Picking with
coast points at Tongku and Shan-Hai-Kwan
with an extension to New-Chwang, whose
operation was Indefinitely deferred by last
..o.~s. - H. <-~-- 1ro -
Woosung, fourteen miles away, constitute
the only Chinese equipment. The Chinese
Eastern Railway, reaching down the Lao
Tung peninsula to Port Arthur, is Russian
property, and so far has been devoted to
military use. Should it become a COM
mercial line 1t will be as a branch of the
Siberian system. The distance traversed by
routes strictly Chinese does not exceed 400
miles.
Germans are laying rails in Shan-Tung
province, near Kiaochou, but the prospect
points to military use for some time. This
enterprise may become a considerable one,
because Germany looks upon Shan-Tung
as its special field in China. Should Eng
land cater to that sentiment and cement
good relations by turning over Wei-Hai-
Wei to the Germans, the road would no
doubt be extended to Wei-Hei-Wei, and
possibly to Chee-Foo, becoming 200 miles
long or more. The road from Picking to
Hankow is further advanced thar any
other railroad enterprise that may still be
classed as a scheme, having been surveyed.
Rails were laid for a short distance out of
Peking, and some embankment work be-
came fairly advanced at the other end
uyhan fha trop11a booo- "
gineers fixed the gauge at five feet. which
is Russian, thus Indicating at least a view
to some relation with the Siberian line.
There is nothing yet except paper to show
progress with the American enterprise for
a road from Canton to Hankow. Various
other plans calculated to shorten time Of
travel by spoke construction from here to
Ning-Fo and Hang-Chow, On the south,
and Soo-Chow. Chin-kiang n Marking
on the west and north, are in the same
condition. except for a little digging which
unearthed on the outskirts of this settle
ment a sandal wood coffin that had been
buried 400 years and came out in good or
der. 1t lies now in an open lot near the
French camp, where relic clippers and
the wet season threaten to put it's quality
Of endurance to supreme tests.
OF course, the purpose of railways is to
facilitate foreign trade. They would never
be built on Chinese initiative. The native
is not by instinct a traveller. Few Chinese
go outside their own provinces or nave the
slightest wish to do So Railroads strike
them as so much of a nuisance that in the
official concessions, or in nearly all of them,
a clause provides that track shall not be
laid within two miles of a town. Hence
the station at Picking is three miles outside
the south gate, and along the route usually
Travelled between Tien-Tsin and Picking the
railway ~embankment is out Of sight half
the time. Since travel is provincial and
time never has value, natives are content
to go about in their boats at two or three
miles an hour. Even the steam lows that
carry water trains do not exceed six miles
an hour.
Although the Yang-Tse r. the main
waterway. 1t is doubtful If 1t carries more
traffic than the Grand canal, which is
simply a great thoroughfare from which
radiate countless waterways, completely
traversing the country. III. I. Wade, who
knows this and the adjoining provinces
better doubtless than any one else. having
travelled over them for forty years and
having prepared the only detailed map of
them. saws that between Kashing and 500
Chow. sixty miles or less apart and both
on the Grand canal, there are at least fifty
different routes.
Nearly all the land is fiat in the district
bounded by Shanghai, Hang-Chow and
soo-Chow. Since there can be no thought
of abandoning the waterways, bridges over
them must be built high enough to permit
boats to pass under. There are too many
boats In motion to make draw bridges
feasible. The water train trip TO Hang
Chow, $50 miles, takes thirty-six hours,
and that to Soo-Chow, eighty miles. may
be made between late in the afternoon and
the next morning. When a native wishes
to go from Shanghai to Soo-Chow he can
get a berth in some part OF the train for
30 cents. or the equivalent of about 10 cents
in American money. There is always ample
accommodation at this rate. How a rail-
road is to be built over such a country
other thar on stills, or how it Is to become
a paying investment has not been yet fig
ured out for the information of the public.
UP THE YANG-TSE VALLEY.
A road projected to Soo-Chow direct and
then on to Marking. following the Yang
Use. presents physical difficulties not un-
like those mentioned, but at Marking II
1919 --- --&~~~. - -.