Waterbury Democrat., 1902-01-07
CHANGES MADE IN CHINA
Dr. Hykes Tells of Some Re.
 markable Improvements.
TROLLEY CARS IN OLD PEKING,

An Electric Railway Now Runs
 Right Up to the Tartar City-Big
 Field Surrounds the Legations,
 Which Are Defended by Mines.
 Proud Tfentsin Much, Altered.
 The American Bible society made public recently a report from it's agent in Shanghai, the Rev. John K. Hykes, D. D., who reports that wonderful changes have taken place in north Chi na since he was last there, just before the siege of Picking and Tientsin.
 The great mud forts at the entrance of the Peiho, he says, have been dis mantled, and over them still float the flags of the nations to which they were turned over immediately after their capture by the allied fleets. All of the guns have been removed.
 From Hangku to Tientsin, thirty miles, not town or village, not even a farmhouse, was left standing, and very few of them have been rebuilt. The country is desolation and a ter rible object lesson of the horrors of war. Ticntsin is so changed that Dr. Hykes scarcely recognized it. The large and populous village which had grown up around the railroad station was entirely destroyed and is now only a mass of mud walls. The entire Chinese quarter i'll the French conces- sion was burned during the siege, and wide streets have been laid out through what was, when Dr. Hykes last saw it, a very beehive of industry and swarm ing with people.
 A magnificent street has been laid out along the river from the French concession to the native city The city wall has been demolished and splen- did roadway made on it's site. This is a terrible humiliation to the Chinese, for it practically reduces the virtual capital of the empire" to the rank of q village It has been the custom in Chi na to punish cities for certain great crimes committed within their walls by tearing down one or more corners, so that the demolition of the entire walls of Tientsin will impress upon the people the gravity of the crimes committed against foreigners. The business men and the gentry of the city begged to be spared this humilia- tion and offered to pay large sum of money if the walls were spared.
 The great arsenal. which covered as much ground as the whole of the old foreign concession of Tientsin, is a mass of blackened walls and smoke stacks. The 'black fort in the na- tive city and the tower from which the Chinese shelled the concession dur ing the siege are being destroyed.
 Iii Picking breach has been made in the walls of the southern city and the electric railway carried up to the gate of the Tartar City nearest the lega- tions. The legation area has been ex- tended lcn all sides till it is now one mile square. It includes one mile of wall between the Chien gate and the Hata gate of the city. This is being macadamized and converted into q boulevard for the use of foreigners. At either end guardhouses are to be erected by the powers. One was al- most completed.
 A space of about 200 yards between the legation walls and the wall of the Imperial City has been cleared of houses, and it is to be left open, so that an attacking force can find no cover This open space opposite the British legation right up to and under the walls of the Imperial City has been honeycombed with tunnels for laying mines in case of necessity. Some of the legations are really forts. The walls are of heavy masonry, backed by earth and loopholed, with guard of it's own, at present 15O soldiers.
 If the empress dowager and her clique are to return to Peking and to power, then these precautionary meas ures are undoubtedly wise. Dr. Hykes doubts, if the empress dowager has been informed of what has been done by the powers within the legation area or she would hesitate to return to the capital
 China has had her last chance, says Dr. Hykes, and if she does not take it the partition of the empire is inevi- table. The antiforeign party now real izes that it is utterly hopeless to carry out it's programme and that there will be peace, so far as foreigners are con ccrled. for a long time.
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