The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-29
THE STORM CENTRE
 OF THE WORLD
(By Dr. R. Warren Conant)
 ARTICLE VII. THE CIVILIZATION OF CHINA,

| tableau vivant out of prehistoric so- eiety. As the inhabitants live now. so lived they before Rome was. Long be- fore Troy burned. or the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, China was a Kingdom. The cotempo -aries of the youth of China were Egypt. Babylon | and Nineveh ;she alone survives and changeth not. Every other. human in- stitution has sooner or later gone the | way of all flesh. ascending to a climax and then descending to oblivion: this strange people alone of all seems to l have discovered the secret of perpetual youth.
 The traveller into interior China in the Nineteenth century is able to see al- most exactly the same customs. agricui- | ture and architecture as might have been beheld by Alexander if he had | chosen to push on several thousand l miles beyond the Indus in search of | new worlds to conquer. There it Is still possible to see a crude. primitive civilization having many characteristics in common with that of ancient Greece and Egypt-the division of society into aristocracy and manual toilers, with no
 middle class. hut-oniy a great gulf be-
 tween; ignorance. superstition and vio-
 lent passions. side by side with smplic-
 ity and hospitality; strong but hazy be-
 liets in spirit world and a future life: <:
 the worship of ancestors and demisods: {:
 the coin placed in the mouth of the dead and food and drink offerings at | the tomb: the cheapness of human life and the prevalence and Justification of | infanticide-all these and many more combine to form a monstrous anachron- ism. aS it a section of the Nineteenth century B. C. had been transplanted | bodily into the Nineteenth century | 4. D
 The begnnings of Chinese civilization | are lost in the mists of antiquity ani the vagaries of tradition. Like all an- cient peoples the Chinese pride them selves on long record of glorious | events which to the foreign skeptia savor strongly of the mythical: they have their own version of the creation. of great subsequent flood. and of long and mighty dynasties which fill up enormous stretches Of time Most of these. if not all. are probably fictitious The first records which can he consid- cred at all authentic begin before the deluge. They contain long lists of dynasties of no interest except to the historia and are altogether destitute
 of history in our sense of the term. If
 the people Is happy which has no
 chronicles. then surely the Chinese
 should have been the blessed of the l
 with wars and the conflicts of rival
 kings, China has pursued through cen-
 turies the noiseiess tenor of her way
 suf"<-ient unto herself and proudly in-
 different to the rest of the world. The
 one thought which Is most strongly i'm.
 pressed upon the student of this de.
 partment of history Is the mendous
 immutability of the Chinese character
 Some have endeavored to account for I nH geographical environment. It Is true
 that this has not been favorable to so-
 ciability with the neighbors. On the
 east is the ocean. and on the other
 three sides are lofty mountains or des-
 erts difficult to cross. But that is quite
 as true Of other nations. The real ex
 planation is the ultimate fact that tho
 Chinese character is strangely conser-
 vative and self sufficient. beyond anS other in the world.
 Many inventions and discoveries which are at the foundation of our modern science and civilization were
 familiar to this strange 3aople thous- 1 ands of years ago: governmental and social reforms to which we are just be- ginning to aspire as the highest ideals were in full flower there before the flood. The first Chinese book still exis- tent dates back to 115o B. C.. or Q little later than the Trojan war; the art of printing dates from 595 A. D.. or eight and half centuries ahead of Guten- burg: movable types were invented about 1000 A. D. And so of many other inventions which will be described later in this series.
 Just now we are making d desperate struggle to introduce civil service re- form and the educational test in the hope of saving the state from disaster; yet that has been the requirement in China for over 5000 years. At a time when the sole test of fitness to rule in Europe was ability to give and take the hardest blows the Chinese were insti- tutinE civil service examinations as a requisite for holding public office. Of course. the requirements were suited to that early period. They included writ ing and arithmetic, music, archery, horsemanship. and familiarity with rites and ceremonies both public and private
 These requirements have been in- creased from time to time. and today this heathen country which we despise is the only one in the world where the one door to office is through educat ation. a doorwhich stands open to the humb- lest who has the brains and industry to enter it. As a consequence there is no other country where popular educa- uicu lS SO NIuCSpTcdu. AZ another consequence. no hereditary. feudal. or private class has ever pre- dominated in the native Chinese gov ernment.
 The present government Is not native but Manchu. having usurped its place | by force of conquest three and half centuries ago.
 Now turn the other side of the pic. ture. As has been already remarked, l China is a country of contradictions. In sad contrast with these excellent things stand infanticide and the opium habit. | The destruction of infants varies in | different parts of the empire, being greatest in the province of Tokien. es- pecially in Annoy. These places are in | the southeastern part.
 Of course it is impossible to obtain | any exact statistics in regard to this | crime. Some parents give evasive ans wers. others frankly state how many of | thelr children they have killed. and | there seems 10 be no public disapprov- | al. This also is relic of early bar | harism. which presents a striking H. lustration of the progress which Europe | has made during the Christian era. The | Chinese occupy almost exactly the | same position in regard to infanticide | as the ancient Greeks and Romans. who | not only practiced 1t. but many of | whose highest philosophers justified it.
 Although no figures can be given. it | cannot be doubted that thousands of