The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-07
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V82&HN an itinerary in consecutive detail of a trip through China, but in order to properly group many of the odd. interest ing and little known features of the Ce- lestial republic have selected as the fo- cal point for an accurate description thereof Hankow, a city with population of considerably over half million and situated well inland, southwest of Pekin, where almost every peculiarity charac- teristic of the country may be seen and Inspected.
 There is far more to be noted of inter- est in Hankow than in Pekin. for in truth the latter is quite disappointing to the traveller, though he may be loath to ad- init the fact Here so much is forbidden access to by the foreigner. the Yellow, or Imperial City, within the Tartar, or inner city, and the Purple Forbidden City within the former. each separated from the other by high, thick and forbidding walls; but at Hankow all is open and the visitor, irrespective of his nationality, may wan der around at will.
 Probably one of the quaintest features of Hankow is its boats. It must be re- membered that China became intellectual far too early. It was probably the first nation to invent and employ writing and the fact that it did so at such an early period has been to its lasting detriment Writing serves to stereotype a language and the Chinese language was stereotyped far too early; language at that time had not sufficiently progressed and hence the 400O0 characters employed in it's express sion have not diminished in number since their inception. Thus s1 their boats the Chinaman anticipated Fulton in principle by over 1000 years, but since that invention he has marked time in the manipulation of water craft as we'll as in almost every thing else. I refer to the f0ur-wheeled junk which has two wheels at the stern of the boat and two at the prov.
 But the manner of taking the craft up stream, or against the current very swift is where the Celestial exercised his in- genuity. The wheels are equipped with broad paddles and upon these paddles stands man who propels the craft by his feet-in other words, the boat is simply a water tread mill
 There is a large population of China that lives perpetually m boats. These boats are their ever-shifting homes. for the inmates subsist by fishing and they must follow the finny tribe in its migra 0ons. They are assisted in locating the schools by bird which feeds upon the nsh and the people watch and follow the bird. Many, if not all, of their craft have . large eye painted upon the boat and for signers are told that the symbol indi- . cates a native belief that a boat must possess such an optic organ in order to zee where 1t ies sGei9dk tet this is a mere preasantry aA P! aicates the char aster of the ot IT. z rTs a part in the taxation lawse4 1o A In the matter Of dodging taxXu4 E are as good as the YankeVs& - law of the land taxed alX Ing to their breadth of beaN 11d the willy Celestial met thu 1 eontracting . the middle of his I hing 1t ex- rctly in the shap& - ~ <51p that to- 6ay they are know o6 Ats.
 In Venice one my - = 1r1et in a boat. but in HankoV l16 m upon boat, that Is the rtf< T v U1elng one. The traders come tdt TIT M1k their wares in junks and t ~ G1I hrksd along the rivers edg( SO that the customer step to another in his marked bds himselR considerably r@ (hs