The Nome daily nugget., 1908-01-31
CHINA AWAKENING FROM
 LETHARGY OF AGES

writes. u.l of the Ea.-t 'ra, oor.- much new, h.a .,,s ..' ,.. t.. th" r3aerni2ed empire cG ...b5 ajla- | .1 %fo.o co. ,s5.-, 4 tt.dr,d millioa people.
 w" know that the empress dowagcr aged 7S finds il difficult to make tlr as q young damscl of 20. We know that the king of Sian-fo upon thcs" subjects the cables keep us fully ad- vis"d-has deserted shis traditional Eeats and lapdogs and become cnamor- ed of German daschund~, We are also informed that, in the opinion of many, tn" puppot king of Korea is a coneon- ial idiot But about the kingdom of the Great Khan" containing ou'- fifth of the worlds population. anl about their lively doings we do not hear ae much as about the sailors spr"cs in Shanghai and NaeasaN.
 Tn" last news from the land of the C"lestials which held public attention was some IS months ago, when Mir Wu. who k coming back to the United states, stirred up his countrymon t" rebel at the shirt-slccv diplomacy If our custom house and emigration of hcials by refusing to put Yankee shirt mgs on their backs.
 The boycott k oyer ur at least l' seems to be, but all observers agree that it has left behind It in the land between the four scas where all ar'' hrothrcu" dislike even more, a feel ing of deep hostility to the white races and all their works and ways greater than was ever pcrccptiblc before
 Today in China they are dumping the ancient idols of the fIachimcu temples into the Guttcrs the temples become school houses and former ped cetal> of the unsuccessful gods of war the seats of the modern ~cho0lmastor.
 "What Japan has dou,. We can d.. is the rallymg cry in China today IL is heard in almost every province ,f the long sleeping land that stretches it's continental cxpan@c from tn" Amoor to the MckonG.
 The man who first uttered it is Yu- an-Shi Kai, the great }jcoloy of CAi- Ii. The metropolitan province of the great empire, and on" that guards the gateway (" the capital Thousand- and indeed hundreds of thousands o" officials and students have taken up the great vircroy'e slogan. which ma> become war cry.
 Through it and hy il. Count Ohuma. that really forcciul statesman of .a- pan. says China at last will come to her own. and by her new armies mI schools furnish thc hest guarantee of the permanent roac" of the Far East. If this is true. or if it k to become trur In the next decade, China Wll bear watching by the press and by olIr consular officers more closely than sh. would seem to he watched at present. All the world of tn, treaty ports that loves pure guessing has already been convinced that China. one" she malr up her mind to do things, could du them more efficiently than the Japan csc. The treaty port people will soon have an opportunity of verifying their prophecy or of explaining how il rm,ut something quite different
 Yuan Sh-Kai. the master builder If this new world of China. is hardly mentioned in the little important news that does pass the Pacific. and the reason is not far to seek Ifc is not popular at court because he has proved himself to be q plain-spoken pcrsp and no admircr of the empress doWa- gers politics of her poetry. He has not-or he hides it thc-culturc which 1 is so dear to the literary cotcrio by which the empress and Prince Ching are surrounded He is pre- cmincntly the man who does things, but his , worse offcnse is his latest.
 | At pre- sent to enjoy, even in a frag- mcntary way. Chinese literature you must carry in your head some coco ideographs or public letters. Vice roy Yuan would simplify this by the introduction of a new alphabet of fifty letters. by means of which all who run may read and not ruin their eyes CT muddlc their brains by the purely mo chanical difficulties of the process,
 But the great vicoroys most striking policy is one which has for it's object the revival of the military spirit among a people who for untold generations have regarded the soldier as belong ing. with the harlot and the scavcn- ger. to the lowest social category. In his own province Yuan Shi had cxpcrimcntcd with the army re- forms before, but in 1905. after the Russian Japanese war and it's illus l tration of the value of military power. his opportunity came in a wider field. He was then made chief commissioner