The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-02
The GLOBES HOME STUDY COURSE

and where the nearest vessels and troops
were stationed-to Tien Tsin is about
l,100 miles. From Manila to Tien Tsin the
| shortest route for American reinforce
| ments is about 200 miles; say as far as
! from New York to New Orleans by water
Any large bodies of French, German or
British troops must come all the way
from Europe or Southern Africa, a dis
| tance equal to three-fourths of the cir
cumference of the earth, the route being
so tortuous. We think of the Jananese
being quite near to the scene of disorder.
yet their troops must sail a distance as
great as that from New York to Chicago.
However great distances were not the
| only natural obstacles which DELAYED the
allies, as will appear when we come to
consider the location of Tien Tsin and
Pekin, and the nature of the surrounding
country.
To the general reader there always ex-
lists one great artificial obstacle to learn
ing anything about China, and that is
those terrible outlandish proper names
1t was rocky road through the names
of the Sranish-American war, then it was
still rocker in the Transvaal, and now
| the Chinese zigzags a,e enough to make
one cross-eyed and dizzy
fortunately Chinese names are like
tier dragons, less terrible than they
look. 1t will be worth While. then, to
pause briefly for few. simple, general
rules which Will enable anyone to pro-
nounce ordinary Chinese names with a
| fair degree of accuracy.
| In the first place their names are COM
paratively easy because they are pro-
bounced just as they are spelled AS
there is almost 20 similarity between the
English and Chinese language. no at
tempt can be made to produce their SPELL
ing, but only to represent tEe sound of
the Chinese word. That is to say the
English spelling is altogether phonetic.
therefore, II you pronounce word just
as 1t is spelled, you cannot &C far wrong.
Pronounce ch soft, as in church, and
soft like the French j. equal to zh.
pronounce before a consonant as in
end of American, but never as in hat
| Short as in them; il given an acute
| accent, pronounce as in they
| Short as in thin; if acute accent pro-
nounce as in machine.
Pronounce before a conSonant as in
long, otherwise as in oh.
| Pekn must be approached over
marshy plain by the Pei IIo, a winding
shallow stream which frequently takes
UP it's bed and walks. At Tien Tsn it Is
less than $50 feet wide, and at it's mouth
there is bar only four feet below the
surface at ebb tide. Consequently the
and an invading force must overcome
not only the Chinese themselves, but also
many natural obstacles. The task of the
allied troops resembles that of a man
who undertakes to tear down a humble
ices nest. Individually the Chinese are
| not form idabe but there are such
| swarms of them that an invader must
| make himself invulnerable to attack on
| all sides. On the plain between Tien
| Tsin and PekiE there are said to be 100
| cities and towns, containing a million
| OF people, each eager to cut dixie, way
lay struggling soldiers, overwhelm a con-
voy of supplies, misead, poison, or by
| any treachery, destroy the hated foreign
devils.
foreign army must transport every
| thing, food. tents. even filtering and dis
| filling apparatus, for the water found in
the soil is not fit for a Christian to drink,
being largely solution of dead Chinau
men.
Copyright, 1909