Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-03-20
CITyOF DEATH
Several Wars Have Waged
 About Manchuria's Capital.
MANY WARRIORS VENTILATED.

diers Fought Asound Mukden In at Lenst Twenty Noted Struggles. One of the Worlds Central Battle | Points Since Eleven Hundred Years Before Christ.
 Mukden, the ancient capital of Man churia, now passed into the control of the Japanese, was described last Au- gust in this manner by an American war correspondent, says the Chicago Post:
 Most cities of China proper have 7,212 distinct smells. Mukden has but 6214. It has been Russianized, and wherever possible the Russian has in- troduced clean streets, some kind of a sewerage system and orderly houses; hence Mukden is now known as the , cleanest town of the many where the filthy Chinese have predominated in the past"
 Mukden, known as China's sacred city," belongs to the province of Shing- king, and on the line of railway run ming nortl>it is about half way be- tween Newchwang and Kuangchang tsu, which belongs to the province of Kirin. '. Now, aside from the fact that Muk- den holds the sacred tombs of the an cient Manchu, or pure" dynasty, it has other interest in that it has been one of the worlds central battle points since HOO years or more before 1 Christ. Where Russia and Japan have been contesting longer than a year race after race and nation after nation have hurled themselves against each other for certainly 5000 years. The soil about Mukden, the ranges of tho Long White mountain, the great stretches of gray plains have been soaked with the blood of tens of thou sands of warriors. It is Golgotha-a place of bones-and the wraiths. of men who have gone to their final judg- ment in conquest or plumber.
 Dates in Chinese or Mongolian his | tory are much mixed, but so far as ac- curacy can be depended upon Mukden was a settlement long before Christ was born. The Prince of Pohai had some possessions there about T10 B. G. and at one time Chinese allegiance was thrown off entirely and centralized government established with five royal residences, one of which rose at Muk- den. Then came Khitan from Hulan, and he established the Liao dynasty, and Mukden, not yet q very notable place, but already battle tossed, passed into other hands. Afterward thu Jurchin had their try. and they estab- lished the Kin Or golden dynasty and made Mukden great trading post \ on the central highways. '- | | These highways extended up to the boundaries of the savage tribes on the north-into Helungkiang and far along the Amur river-extended south the modern Picking. to Hankow, to Can ton and even into India. Princes of the royal blood left Mukden in those days of the beginnings and made two and three year pilgrimages to India to learn strange things from wise men and to trade in jewels and fabrics.
 Fifteen hundred years after Christ was born Nauhachu had his chief seat of government in the south of the Long White mountain, about 100 miles east of Mukden. Mukden itself had then risen to be one of the most important trading points of the north. It has been stated that it's annual volume of business rose into the millions and that the wealth and fashion of the north congregated there to bargain. play politics, love and hate.
 In l616 Mukden saw wonderful army for those days before its gates. Nurbachu had taken to himself the title of .'heaven decreed" and had de- clared war on China. An army of c0O.- 600 was sent against him. but, as the chroniclers related afterward:
 "He slaughtered all; none returned to say of how their end came"
 Mukden was captured by him in 1891 after terrific fighting and a slaughter, If we may believe the statisticians. that far exceeds what has recently oc- cured there. All prisoners taken were promptly beheaded. Liaoyang was cap tured and made the capital, and sev- enty other cities promptly surrendered. In 1644 the Manchus. risen to great power, marched into China and placed one of their own on the throne of that government. and a Manchu has ruled there ever since In the eighteenth cen tury Mukden rose to great commercial and political importance. but by the time of the opening of the nineteenth century. through causes largely due to the decay of the Manchu dynasty. the city declined in importance, and when the Russians began their active con- trol of the community after the Chi nese-Japsnese war of 1894 they found 1t place of squalor. filth and disease.
 The sacred tombs had been pre- l. served. but the city was almost isolat- cd from the world. its people indolent. careless. out of touch with the world.
 The Russians made it a base of con-
 mercial and military supplies. intro duced some modern methods of sanita. tion and proposed to make it the half way station between Port Arthur and
 Harbin.
 In 5000 years there have been fought
 in front of or about Mukden some