The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-09-05
How The Old Chinese Capital Is
 Changing
Copyright. 1909, by Frank G. Carpenter.)
 Ilnl- -iraer

(Copyright, 1909, by Frank G. Carpenter)
 Picking, 1909. ~ oME with me this bright Sunday
 morning and take a look at the
 new capital of the new Chinese empire. We are in the ganglionic nerve center of one of the greatest movements of history. Old China, with its vast popu- lation of one-fourth of the whole human race, is being reborn, and Peking is throbbing with the young blood of the new civilization. From it are trickling the streams which are starting these mighty provinces into action. They are daily increasing in volume and promise to form a tidal wave which will engulf the whole world. Peking is the fountai- of the revolution, and it is already spout ing sky high.
 Old Peking.
 Let us sit in it's spray with the steam whistle of the railway cars aiming our ears. and the new electric plant turning the silvery drops into diamonds, while We think of the past and try to realize where we are. We shall have to shut our eyes and turn our minds back into tie ages We are on a spot where men were living under municipal government five cen turies before Romulus and Remus were sucking at the teats of the wolf to grow up and found Rome. There was a town here when the Israelites worked under their taskmasters in the valley of the Nile. That town fell into ruins and was rebuilt and destroyed again. Eleven hundred and twenty years before Christ, its place was taken by the city of Chi; and, during the days of Nebuchadnezzar, it was the capital of the state of Yen. At the time of the crusade, 1t was the chief city of the Kin Tartars and today vestiges of the Kins are still to be seen The Walls of Pekinq.
 The walls of Peking! What a wonder they arel Those which now surround the city were constructed by an emperor who reigned 73 years before Columbus tried to find a new way to China and discovered our world. There are about % miles of them; and they are so high that they can be seen for long distance outside Picking. They are as tall as a four-story house and as wide at the top < as country road. You could drive wagon loads of hay abreast upon their tops without crowding and, throughout, they are solid as stone. They con sist of two walls of gray bricks of 20 or 30 pounds each, laid in mortar, which has outlasted the centuries. These two walls are parallel, and within them has been packed mass of stone and earth, which the ages have cemented to granite.
 These walls were first erected almost 500 years ago. They have been kept in good order from that time to this and the Chinese are repairing them today While they were building their electric light plant and laying the tracks for their railroads they re-erected the great gate of Chien Men, which was badly injured at the time of the siege Right next to the station, this massive structure of red blue and gold has gone up. and it now forms part of the old wall. It is of brick and wood beautifully carved its roof being upheld by many red pill lars. It cost, am told. $50000O in gold It is on the lines of the wall, and in perfect harmony with them It shows how the old and the new are going along hand in hand.
 Picking in 1909.
 But come with me to the top of the wall and take a look at Picking as 1t lies out here on the northern edge of the Great Plain of China in this year of our Lord. 1909. Those hills at. the back fade away into the mountains of Mongolia, and the 1evei lands In front stretch on and on to the Yellow river. and thence down to the Yangtse Kiang. We can see villages here and there spotting the Iandscape. Hhe country is swarming with people and