Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-21
THE YELLOW DANGER
THE STORY OF THE WORLDS GREATEST WAR
BY M. P. SHIEL.
Copyright. 1889. ., r F. F.nso o.,

supplies from the rear Auxiliary conveys,
also in four echelons, and containing many
hundreds OF vehicles. took up deposits or
rice. biscuits and hay. made long before
tcnments which extended to the farthest
bounds of Chinese and Thibetan territory
They also carried supplies of preserved
meats and forage. and followed the army
corps at distance of two days march.
Each individual of an army corps, be-
sides, was compelled to carry seven pounds
OF food In some utensil correspond ng to
mess-tln or haversack; this to form a re-
serve not to be touched, except when every
other means of supply should fall.
During the process of mobilization each
division of infantry, and each army corps
headquarters. had already vast collections
of reauisltioned herds of animals. from
dogs to camels, sufficient for four days
meat but intended by the help of other
provisions to last for months. On the
march the cattle marched between the ad-
vanced column and the main body of the
column.
1t was grand with what smoothness the
Unreasonable machine slid into motion as
China began to flow In earnest; there was
no confusion: western army corps marched
first, and then the next in order took up
the minuet of nomadism, all cOnverging
and diverging in rhythmic invoiution and
evolution. like the tremendously inter
twining currents of stream. In the week,
on the day, at the hour that Yen How de-
signed, they moved, they passed away.
Through all that breadth of Thibet be-
tween the Himalayas and the Kuen-luns,
on a level equal to the height of Mont
Blanc. they came pouring and blundefing
ponderously. fifty army corps of them,
some abreast, separated only by short in
tervals of twenty or thirty miles, hun
dred millions of. them-and behind each
man a pigtail wriggling in haste.
Toward what do they press? What vague
, blessedness? They do not know. They do
not ask. When the Pied Piper played his
tune all the rats of all the cities went
pafly in after him eDtranceN they,
too. with wrigglng tail, and whisi1ers
cockeds and vaguest prospect. Yen HOW
is the piper of these prone, purblind. for
ward-shouldering multitudes of nations-ne
himself a dancer to another piping
Then, again, along the sources of the
Irish they poured. and. one night, all
round the inhospitable steppe-like slopes
which surround the lower level of Lake
BaIkash. there camped another fifty army
corps, some within sight OF others. m akinG
by far the largest collection of human be
ings covering similar area which the
stars had yet seen. And the next morning,
and during all that day and the next, army
corps after army corps, they moved, they
passed away.
The first (Thibetan) fifty southern and
western tribesmen, used to hard industry,
short of stature. their skin clear yellow,
almost of lemon. They are from farthest
Taiwan, from Fo-hlen to Iun-nan, and from
Kwang-tung to Ho-nan and they pass
between the sources of the Iang-tse-kfang
and the Mekong. and between the Hwang-
no ana the source OF the hldllilS, climbing
to the fiat roof of the world through
colossal forests bordering on everlasting
SHOWS, where glaciers and masses of angry
water tear and pierce the mountains, form
ing natural routes through the impossible
BY the time they reach the high tableland
of many rains and rushing rivers and
Astounding lakes. they find silent villages
and deserted groves of the mulberry. The
Thibetans have already passed away. Ana
on through the stripped and empty land
they go. shouldering and trunding-a hum
dred millions-and behind each man wrig-
giles pigtail in haste.
Then, by the caravan route which passes
from Picking through the Cobb desert north
of the southern Atlas, pass the second
(Balkash) fifty. They are kohdoans, north
western Mongoians $50 called, and tribes
men of the Chinese provinces north of the
Hwang-ho Except those of kan-su,- Shen-
81 and PechilD; men of duskier yellow, as
of weak tea and milk, tall, and nomads al
ready by instinct and habit, not averse to a
further -ftting-in plenty of COM
pany And these pass the sources of the
Irish to Balkash, and thence go swarming
down into the Iowands and desert places
round the Aral sea, where Russia had so
sWeated and striven in vain. Across the
Caspian they will follow at the right hour
the pioneering CThibetam fifty.
Then there are ten corps (the smallest OF
the four great branches), which, one by
one take the caravan route passing from
Picking north Of the bleak and bare Kuen
luns through all that rich agricultural re-
gion-an oasis in land OF barrenness-
which is traversed by the Tarim river, be-
ginning at Lob Nor and ending beyond
Kashgar. They are from the teeming prov
inces of Kau-su and Shen-si-twenty mil
lionS-behind each man wriggles a piStali
in haste.
But the fourth main branch-Pechili,
Korea, Kirin, Manchuria, Eastern Mon
golia-tarry long behind: for these are to
travel swiftly and in luXury-in western
civilization railway trainsi Not till the last
moment before mobilization is the Russian
garrison at Vladivostok shelled by Japa-
nese ships, and Vladivostok itself seized
from land by Chinese soldiers. From
Vladivostok runs railway to st. Peters,
burg: and outside Nladivostok harbor, while
the Smelling of the forts is proceeding, waits
a fleet of merchant ships crowded with
many thousands of large grade railway
carriages, such as are required by the Rus
sian lines all manufactured at Nagasaki.
And so to Nladivostok come the thirty
western corps, the sixty millions, the fourth
great torrent of that disemboguing Nile.
And as the crowded trains move out west
ward from the station, a shocking shrilI
scream of glee and terror from 1000
throats-the shriIl glee and terror of a child
in its first swing-fills all the air 1t is
1.-THE Chinese scream"
But how great a general Is that little
doctor! This large matter of his, which
would have bewildered and abashed the gee
MUS of Caesar. is all clearly perceived and
calculated III his intellect of ice When he
tHlUhS5 OI the WoIlu magnitude OF II all, ne
says, "Poh!' To God the world Is a grain
VT dust; to Yen How it is a geographical
globe: he metes it with compass; in mo-
ment he walks about 1t. With what ease
and thoroughness has his first thought
that thought which could have occurred
only to genius-been realized! BY few
scratches of his pen Europe has been pre-
pared to receive him. There will be no
more Maxims there he had said to the
Marquis Ito with screwed-up eyes; and
there are no more xaxms there, or none
worth mentioning. To lead ones troops
along the line of least resistance"-that
being the first maxim of the general how
great a general is this Yen in the first or
all creating line of no resistance at all!
But to guide that FESTIVE, rearing four
horse chariot even over the levelest plain
how iron-strong must be the wrist of its
jehu. and how sublime his gallant cailous-
ness.
Ito be continued tomorrew)