Evening journal., 1914-07-29
YrAN,S RONFIRE.
From the Memphis Commercial An
neal

4 From the Memphis Commercial Ap-
/ peal
China is nothing if not spectacular.
4 Her history as the "Flowery King
DOM tapping over into that OF the
Republic Of Flowers" is full of vivid
incidents. each one Of which might
form the basis of tragic drama.
i There is always a touch OF stateliness
about the official life Of the country
that has charm for the outside OBJ
+ server. The formaliiy with which
4 the people take their recreation: the
punctilious precision with which they
chop off each others heads. both lend
an element Of aloffness to the ma
tional character
Under the new regime the great
4 object of national Improvement has
been to break up the opium habit
which had long held the country in
an intellectual stupor and a physical
inertness. The law forbidding the
use Of opium. was as stringent as ii
could be made, the penalty for VIC
latng being nothing less than death
When this penalty was announced
China. with the rest Of the world.
looked upon il as a gigantic scare
head. not as thing that would ever
be actually put into execution.
But the government was in
earnest; it was putting up no wordy
bluff from which TO recede under the
plea Of extenuating circumstances
The first violator arrested for and
/ convicted of the use of the drug was
a woman. but sex played no part in
the calculation of the government. II
7 bp off Il
one morning at sunrise the pitifuI
figure Of the drug "fend" was placed
against the prison wall and shot full
Of bullet holes. The spectacle startled
the whole world. while China took the
criticism heaped upon her with her
accustomed dogmatic silence. But
the next offender and the next shared
like fate, and the world knew at
last how desperately in earnest the
govern al was in its declared pur-
pose to break M the opium habit
Last week another illustration of
its grim determination was given to
the public. Emissarics of the courts
went through the dens and dives Of
Peking and conflscated all the para
phernaia of the opium resorts. For
weeks the search went on: and then
President Yuan Shi Kai invited the
Inhabitants TO witness great spec
tacle.
In the public square. on the cast
side Of which there stands the tom
lie Of agriculture and on the west
the beloved temple Of heaven. there
was great pile arranged FOR a bon
Gre. Everything gathered from the
Gens by the police was there-pipes
of every kind. benches ana mats on
which the smokers sat. and on the
great hundreds of pounds Of opium
The ceremonies opened with the
proclamation of more than 100 names
Of offenders Who later on would pay
tine penalty of their law-breaking.
Tien, with as much ceremony as
though the heap were a funeral pyre.
tho officials applied the torch and
the leaping flames ran in ribbons of
crimson TO the ton until the whole
was mass Of fire, which the crowd
watched silently as it burned to
ashes
Il was a bonfire never equaled in
significance in the written history of
the world for it was meant to typify
the destruction of a nations besetting
sin. AS the flames caught and
cracked. it was driven home to the
hearts OF the spectators that Yuan
Shi Kai was doing his part to break
the debasing shackles from their
rational integrity
Bv the light of that spectacular
tonfre the Chinese people-and out
/ side nations-read the Geath SEN
/ tence for the opium habit in The new
republic Of the Orient