The Holbrook news., 1912-02-16

affords no more interesting
 study than that of the huge
 Chinese empire, which after
 slumber of many centuries is now bursting the shackles of her con servatism and aspiring to new life and new ideals. Starting in the prov ince of Szechuan, the revolt against the Manchu dynasty spread down the Yangtse valley and southward to the coast In the shaded portion of the map. showing the huge slice of the empire held by the rebels. Hankow and Ranking are the only important cities under imperial control.
 There was a time in her history when she was the most progressive empire in the world. Possibly, with in her territory first began the devel- opment and promotion of civilized Iife-the upward tendency of man from the cave to the palace, from the nomadic to the sedentary, from the loose system of tribal patriarchism to fixed laws and institutions She was the contemporary of Egypt, of Babylon, of Assyria, of Greece, and long before Rome was anything more than a primitive settlement China had a system of organized life and fixed literature.
 These ancient empires are no more, but China still is. The continuity of her racial life has been maintained for 5000, perhaps for 4.000 years; and this great Mongolian land, which was administering laws and justice when the slaves of the Pharaohs were erecting the pyramids is as virile as any nation in the world today. Then the progressive civilization of the Chinese was arrested and the whole life of the race seemed suddenly to crystalline. There was no advance from this position and apparently no retrocession. Therein the remarkable singularity of the Chinese is seen. With the west there is either progress or Hne-improvement or utter de- cay. There is no middle ground. But with the Chinese. on the contrary, everything has been stationary.
 Cause of Chinese Conservatism.
 This fxedness of Chinese life Is traceable to the teachings of Confu- cius, who lived in the fifth century before the Christian era and whose doctrines are accepted by practically all Chinese. He was not the founder of a religion, in the accepted western sense of that term, but rather of a philosophic system. Confucius. whose studies extended back to the begin nings of things Chinese. discovered golden state of happiness, and his philosophy sought the restoration of the people to this golden era and so circumscribed them by rules of con duct that the past became an estab- lfshed form and the desire for change was extinguished.
 Thus was the spirit of progress shackled in China Laws. usages, customs. manners, became crystal lfzed. Industrial life became fixed, and today husbandmen are using tools similar to those which their progeni- tors employed when Rome was con tending with Carthage for the su- premacy of the ancient world. China until recently has since been living with her face to the past, affording to the world a changeless phenome- non which has been the wonder of scientists and scnolars-
 Ceremonial rule regulates every act of the Chinese. It Is based on the so-called classics, which may be called both the constitution and the Bible of the Chinese and which binds emperor and peasant alike Polygamy. although to some extent practiced among the Chinese. is generally inter dicted and, of course. prevails among the Mohammedans of the empire But concubinage is common and the same double standard of morals prevails in China as elsewhere. In the Chinese | family girls are a burden. boys are a ioy. and hence female children are put to death.
 The industrial life of the Chinese is | one of great intensity. Into an area | of 100000 square miles comprised | in China proper is crowded a popula- | tion of 42e,000.000 human beings-a | fourth of the people of the earth. No | such vast homogeneous population | was ever before assembled in any sin | gle country in the world and the task | of supplying their numerous wants is |