The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-11-08
CHINA'S CAPITAL
OF PRESENT DAY
Old Order of Things Is Great
Iy Changed
A SPIRIT OF PROGRESS
Struggled Through Ages of Studied
Exclusion-Awoke to Find an
Interesting and instructive
World of Nations.

From the London Times.
For the student of political and racial
questions, few places on earth can conf
pare in interest with the capital of China
today. To revisit after an absence of 10
years is to realize something of the forces
at work in and around the Middle King
dom, something of the results of the
deadly struggle for world-power which
has made Manchuria and North China
the cockpit of Asia, and of which the
end is not yet
To those who know the Picking of the
nineties, the contrast offered by the city
of today gives food for much reflection.
There are other phenomena in this part
of the world equally striking, such as the
creation and growth of the Russian rail
way city of Hardin, and the grim, silent
passing of China's sovereignty in all that
region sacred as the birthplace and cradle
of the dynasty, but none of these strike
the imagination so forcibly as the out
ward and visible signs of fusion and
change that confront one in Picking.
Before the Chino-Japanese war of 1894
heaval, the Peking known to travellers
and European diplomacy was much the
same slumberous, dust-laden medieval
city as that from which Nurhachu and
his Manchu bowmen drove the effete
Mings three centuries ago. Remote, de-
liberately inaccessible to all influence and
intercourse, holding haughtily aloof from
ha I'M nf
systems, Picking stood, above all, for the
home and headquarters of the Banner
men Chat eonquering race from whom
the instinct and power of conquest has
long since departedD, an anachronistic ex-
crescence clinging to the walls of the For
hidden City.
A Desire for Exclusion.
Long regarded by Europe, and particu-
larly by Russia, with feelings of super
stitious awe, by reason of a survival of
respect dating back to the days of Kan
ghsi, the capital of China has come to be
recognized, since the exposure of 1885,, as
the home of an alien race of rulers, eff
Terminate and slack after generations of
tribute-eating ease, the seat of a govern
ment Manchu only in name, and unchal-
lenged only by force of tradition. De-
spite the rude shocks OF 1860 and the near
er perils of 1895, PelSing at the close OF the
century had apparently learned nothing
and forgotten everything except its mex
tinguishable desire for seclusion, that de-
sire which found its final expression In
the DEGREES of 1900 ordering the extermina-
ton of all foreigners.
Isolated for want of all means of rapid
communication, innocent of sanitation,
police, and all other forms of civic ad-
ministration, the capital of China slum-
bered on only 10 years ago, amidst the
gathering forces of dsintegration.
Through her filth-strewn streets, axle
deep in dust or mud, still numbered the
rude vehicles of a primnite civilizatio
through her ancestral battlemented gates,
close barred at sunset, long lines Of slow
pacing camels bore the city's food sup
ply with a eongenial flavor of ancientry.
SquaIid Isolation.
Such was Picking in the nineties, city
we'll content in squalid isolation, brooding
on her empty dignities capital of the
chiefest of earth's peoples. What need
was there for the sacred city of the
Dragon Throne to change any of her an
cient ways because of the clamor of up
start nations on her borders? Was she
not still the center of the universe, and
suzerain of many great states, receiving
tribute, as of old, from Thibt, Korea,
Napal, and many other vassals?
ia ar.76,, 49,, eho,aad 90 A., oa,,tto, ,e
o,,t,,a No Iore,ar +,,n;eas +ha nnaIdar,na
traditions of the Mancbu hierarchy b,ft
The H. nov, ootIonol instincts and as
,,i.at;a,,s 20 a. Shinasa raon1a o. ~
i,i,aaiato oa,isos 81 tha teanseo,n,a to-,
W. raad ,ot du,eil for tbav arc Knew, 70
the world--the aftermath of the Boxer
noodrass 1,bich hrougbt tho railway and
~ go. a,ar,a ~ tie vary gatas ns tho
,aI,oo ~ aas,+io,,ad ooa,,netion of the
"a, -. a.. - 20 +ha 600 h., tha viii
60, sauoas ~ t,a o1Iiad rouars. tban
e., TTa4 ~ an,anaa o,,,a1,on,,,r -
IN 80 49, aorth-stal,,na faot thet
on;a,,ta1 a,.,,ia. had suocassf,,1l1, ohoIs
1onaad ~ hnastad sY,rrenacNs Of tbe ,vhito
-, %, - - 80, ,,;tal a. ,,os 49,, 80
sf I,,inasa ni,hIio oninion ortic,,
+, - .t.o,.a,, az ~, r,ass hr;n,Inr 20
49,. 49,, ~ haor,r tradtiops ~ Celastia1
.totarpst ;ts OVERWHELMINGLY derond for
80, ,,a4 oas ard nau, ideals
- N 49, ~ -