The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-05-19
Wichitan in China
he Tells About the Country.
the People and the Armies-


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The following letter has been received
BY the Eagle from Ebert 3. DeGraffen-
reid, a Wichita boy who served with the
Ninth infantry IN China II is dated
Tong Ku. March IS:
| Through the Invaluable columns Of
your paper ! viii endeavor 10 tell the
many OF my friends who read il OF China
and a soldiers life In the far east. First
! Of ali. viii tell you OF the natives: the
first thing that comes 20 my mind is the
exceedingly low price for which they
work The United States had somewhere
near a thousand natives working for Il
and the price they pay them is only equal
TO &c day and they make a great deal
OF money IN their estimation at this. The
poorest man IN our great United States
would think this was nothing. but OF
course these poor coolies never knew
what wages were until this war. This
has been the cause OF giving the poor
C--lnese a chance and OF keeping the
wealthy one down, for no coolie who Is
ave 10 work need be without It now;
but they have a crude and odd way Of
doing things. For instance the only way
they have OF transporting freight is the
two wheel carts and the wheelbarow. To
the cart they work from one to four
mules and a great many times you see
a Chinese with 2 or cows and one or
two mules as the case may be and all
these carts ar bearers OF some heavy
burden such as coal and wood.
The wheelbarrows carry all the ne--
chandiss and to these there are three
coolies. two FOR pulling and one for the
handles. The wheel is three feet in dia-
meter and the frame Is Just balanced on
it so that when it is loaded it does not
bear down on the man who does the
work in the shafts or handles. Tbs way
they have of transporting freight on the
Pie-Ho river IS BY 5unls. These are very
odd looking crafts. They are loaded at
Tongku with various classes Of merchan-
disc and put forth from ports up the
river. Most OF them 90 to Tien Tsin and
Pelln- The way these boats are pro-
PEELED is by a rope reaching from the
masthead to the bank OF the river, then
the coolies put a harness on themselves,
make II fast to the main line. and IN
this way they propell the junks. They
work Just Ike horses I only tell you
Of these few characteristics OF this pep
pie 70 give you some idea OK the nation
who challenged the world for fight and
were accommodated. They got more than
they expected. will now endeavor to
tell you Of the different nationalities who
are involved here, w1n take them as
L think they stand IN the estimation OF
the Chinese. First are the boys IN blue"
they are respected and loved by everyone
over here except the French, and no
one can get along with them, but they
can't handle the boys in blue" They
VIII not try TO whip an American unless
there IS Eve or six 20 one. All the French
carry side arms. and cur boys have
nothing but the weapons the Lord provtd-
ed them with. They always manage,
however, to get a Fhenchmah's arms
so9e way, and, each time one of them
loses his side arms he gets five years
in prison. They have not got enough
grit to satisfy them; Tor instance a night
or two ago, at Tien Tsin. four French
men attacked sentinel who was IN
armed at the time, but he took the side
arms or two of the Frenchmen and killed
ali the four Of them This shows their
grit. doesn't it? But, nevertheless. this
kind Of men France has over here to rep
resent her country. The soldiers that are
second are the English. I have quite q
great deal of fun with them. I find them
far above the average. OF course this per-
tains to the soldiers Of England who
can speak the English language. for
England, think, has several nationali-
ties IN her army. The next soldiers for
the boys IN blue are the japanese. They
seem to think there is no ons like the
boys who wear the big hat. That is
how they know Us more than any other. /
Last summer when they would see one |
Of Us they had to come up and hug US. |
u course we could not resent this II /
s said Of the japanese that they were I
he bravest soldiers on the 18th OF July. 4
when Ten Tsin was taken. And they /
ire SO quiet, you would hardly know /
hey were over here, that IS since peace !
vas declared The next soldiers are the /
Germans. can not mention these much, !
or I have never studied them a great /
Ieal. Next are the Italians. These are !
Tot very well represented. tust enough
o protect their rights. The Russian
nd Austrian and French come next. I I
ust want TO state have seen each army
represented here in their passing review
,arede. and each one Of them wero very
ice. I spent the winter IN Ten Tsin,
me Of the most beautiful cities IN this
,art Of China. Il was very cold here
,ut they say It was the mildest winter
or years. A detachment Of my company
vas sent here 10 guard reglmental prop
rty. which is being sent here prepare
DRY 70 being shipped 70 the Philippine
stands, where we wiz 90 By the 18th
f next month I win write from there.
II Ibid Z, II -rs A Z. r-E-h-Ilr LID