Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-09-12
RICH MARTCHOO PLAIN
Garden Spot of North China
 Which War Is Ruining.
sPLENDIDLY WATERED AND FILLED

Tree1-Vhe Village or femtaA-Vhe
 Walled City of Mulxden, Rich I'm
 Historic Interest.
 The military expert of the New York Herald thus describes the scene of the late operations in the far east:
 From Liaoyang to Mukden in direct line the distance is about forty miles. The backbone ridge of Manchuria, which divides the Liao from the Yalu valley, withdraws somewhat to the east leaving wide, open plain be- tween the two cities. It was through this plain, which stretches down to the main valley of the Liao river, that Gen. eral Kuropatkin was pursued by Mar shal Oyana's three armies after the battle of Liaoyang.
 Immediately north of the wall of Li- aoyang comes the Taitse river, which is divided into two broad streams by a long sand bank There were originally pile bridges over these streams, built by the Chinese. They are now supple mented by the railroad bridges lit tie to the west of the town. Once across the Taitse, there are three roads across the plain to Mukden, that in the center being nearly straight, while the two others stra gle from one village to an other, for the plain Is densely inhabited and spleH didly irrigated and cultivated. Unlike Chinese landscape, 1t is abun- dantly supplied with trees, which grow in groves all over the plain, marking the villages, farms and tombs, which are generally cones of clay.
 The hills, heavily wooded, gradually recede on the right. The plain stretches away to the horizon on the left. Pres ently, some eight miles from Liaoyang and therefore twenty miles south of Mukden the considerable village of Hsiaoyantai, or Yentai, as 1t is often called, is reached.
 North of this is a further expanse of plain, with smaller villages, farms, trees and more mountain torrents - mere stretches of sand in the dry sea son, formidable rivers in the rains. The whole plain is liable to be turned into n wilderness of mud, and the Chinese roads are only deeper tracks of mud through this wilderness.
 Thirteen miles north of Yentai, twen- ty-one miles north of Liaoyang, Is an other considerable village or small town. called Paitapu, which is marked by lofty pagoda visible for miles across the flat country. Four miles farther, or twenty-five miles from Liao- yang, Is the Hwun, or Hun, river, with a wide, pebbly bed, just such noun tain torrent as the Taitse and, like it, finding its way westward over the plain into the Liao river. These streams are the main channels of Chinese com merce, which is carried in small boats in the season of high water, for many of them run dry or are frozen for sev- eral months each year, as Manchuria has extremely cold winters. The chief articles of Chinese commerce are beans, peas, hemp, millet, pears, plums, peaches and pigs. They are largely ex- ported through Newchwang. Hence the importance of possessing that port, since the authorities there can hold up the innumerable Chinese boats of prod uce and make them pay toll. This is 1 the prose meaning of being in posses sion of the custom houses at New l chwang."
 Two miles beyond the Hwun, or | of Mukdon, marking the point where 1 the imperial road meets the first houses of the city. Then come the suburbs ! and finally Mukden itself. Like all l cities In China, Mukden is four square, l and, again like all Chinese cities and l even all Chinese houses the walls face I the four points of the compass, and l there is a main gate at the center of each wall. Mukden is formed of three l concentric squares. The outermost, l whose sides measure about three miles, 1 is surrounded by a mud wall and con- tains the suburbs, congeries of farms and market gardens crowded so closely together as to form something like a | town.
 The second square has sides about half a mile long, with walls of stone like the great walls of Peking and, like them, crenelated at the top. These stone walls inclose the city proper as opposed to the suburbs.
 The third square, ill the center of the city proper, contains the Mantchoo pal ace and is the analogue of the Forbid den City of Picking. This is only one of the many metropolitan notes of the I royal Mantchoo city, which stands out from among the general monotony of ] the walled towns of China.
 Mukden is not an ancient city. On the contrary, it is younger than New York, younger even than Albany, and was founded only in 1925, a few years before the Mantehoos began the con- quest of the Chinese empire. Never theless it is rieh in historic interest and shows a blending of three architectur- al styles, all of high scenic value. There are the Chinese triumphal arches, or pailows, leading up to the gates and broad avenues of the city; there are the Chinese yamens, or government of- 1 fees, some of them with roofs of green glazed tiles; there is the Mantchoo pal 1 ace in the center, covered with yellow imperial tiles, as in the Forbidden City of Peking; there are also the Mongo- Han or Tibetan monasteries and la- maserais, with their bottle shaped bel