The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-01-30

ting through their own doorwayS But
| even at one suit of twenty yards to
each person per year the amount OF
cotton used is so great that at least
s,00o,00O.OOO yards are required This
| amount is beyond comprehension. 1t
| would carpet pathway sixty feet
wide from the earth to the moon, or
cover one more than twenty miles
] wide from New York to Chicago. Our
total shipments! of cotton goods tc
| other countries Is less than S33,000,00t
year. and all we send to Asia sells
| for less than S13,000,000. That which
goes to China would hardly patch the
knees Of the Cclestials, let alone make
| their clothes.
How American OIL Lights CHM.
II our cotton interests could handle
| this market as the Standard Oil does
| the exports from our Southern States
might run into the hundreds OF mill
| lions year. Tho Standard Oil Conn
| pany has its own agents in all the
provinces. and 1t is pushing it's bust
ness in every city. Twenty years ago
the oil was shipped here in tin cans
1t Is now brought In tank steamers
which carry 10000 tons at load. The
vessels start from San Francisco and
land at half-a-dozen different ports,
where the oil is pumped out into great
storage tanks. I found such tanks at
Hankow, 600 miles up the Yangtze XII
ang, and saw the steamers unloaded
by means of a pump. The tanks there
hold tens OF thousands Of barrels.
They have factories connected with
them. where the tin plate is made into
tive-gallon cans. These are filed with |
oil and are distributed by the Iangtze |
and its tributaries. The stuff Is eco
nomically handled. being sold in
smaller and smaller, packages as
It gets farther 1s sa away iron, from the the
most by the spoonful. Tic Standard |
Oil Company has tanks at Tientain |
and Hongkong. 1t does by far the, |
biggest oil business in China, although
the Burmese, Russian and Sumatral
companies compete. i
Within the past year one of these
latter companies has opened up a newil
oil territory about 200 miles north OF /
Pekin. The oil is carried in cans on
wheelbarrows over 100 miles to u canal
and thence floated down to the capital |
The wheclbarrow men go in caravans OF
fifty barrowss each. They arc paid
something like cents gold a day. and
other labor Is proportionately cheap.
Our Tobacco Trust.
Another American institution which
Is doing big business in China is !
Tho tobacco trust. 1t has its agents
in all OF the cities. and has established
several big factories, There is onel
in making and packing cigarettes.
There Is another at MukGen, and al
THIRD at Hankow. Indeed, the Amer |
leans are changing the Chinese FRONT
Pipe smokers to cigarette smokers. |
and machine-made cigarettes arc now
to be bought as far West as Tibet. |
The business is done under the name |
OF the British-American Tobacco COM |
pany, and it has in It's employ both
British and American officers, Thel
lives here at Shanghai. He tells mo
the Chinese are nation OF tobacco
smokers, and that they have been
raising and using tobacco for over
from Manila less than fifty. years al
ter Columbus discovered America, aud :
it has been i'll use ever since. although
many Of the Chinese Emperora havel
tobacco is. still smoked In pipes, Two !.
kinds OF, which are in use everyWhere.i !,
One or these is dry pipe, which may
be OF bamboo or clay, or wood. Its II
bowl is small and seldom holds more
han apinch Of tobacco. The otheri.,
oipe Is q metal box filled with water,
through which the smoke is drawnI'.
before ~ enters the, mouth. 1t, has a +,
lube about a foot long, aud this bends /,
,yer 1T the mouthpiece. This pipe ISL,
Usually made Of copper and silver or 1,
m alloy of copper zinc. nickel and n
ron. IT Is used by both men and wo- Ia
men,
The natives make cigarettes Of corn i
lusks and bamboo leaves. They ALSO ,
oil tobacco In brown paper, OF late, {
years, however, the rice paper cigar | I
ate has come into vogue, and Il is | q
ised more and more every day by
both men, women and children,
Strike Of Tobacco Girls.
One OF the Americans employed in ,
.he tobacco factors at Shanghai tells
no they had q bis strike the othef day.