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TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL, SATURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 11, 1900.' THE TRAIL OF IN CHINA'S THE Chinese have- been brutally frank in chronicling the misdeeds of their sovereigns, for even the reigning rulers could not pervert the statements of their historians, which were not published until the dynasties of which they wrote had ended. One of the first instances mentioned of punishment meted out to negligent offi cials was the famous case of Hi and Ho, astronomers, who went on a spree and omitted to notify their emperor of an imminent eclipse of the moon. It, therefore, took hiin unawares, so that he could not avert the impending dis-. aster by having his archers shoot off arrows at the big dragon which was de vouring the sun, and he ordered them THE NAEEOW NAKKOW PASS. About a day's journey north of Peking lies that famous Nankow pass in the mountains, through wtilh lh Tartars invaded China and eventually car ried their arms triumphantly all over the country. The road thither, which is wild and broken all the way, is traversed by hordes of camels, mules and horses, for it is the great caravan route toward Siberia. Over this road the Kussian army may march, if it carries out its scheme of invasion in connec tion with the Chinese disturbance. , The Nankow pass is sometimes called In Russia the northwestern gateway to China, and in addition to being a natural pass through the mountain range it is the ancient gateway through the great wall, that mighty engineering work 1,500 miles in length and more than 2,000 years old. The pass, which is 15 miles in length, is rugged and grand in its wild scenery, passing most of the way through a sort of canyon and beneath great, frowning cliffs. Beyond the pass lie the great grass plains of Mongolia, where the Chinese horses are raised and whence, centuries since, came the invading Mongols under Genghis Khan and his successors, who changed the character of China. to turn their weapons against the un lucky Hi and Ho, who were promptly executed. The Chinese astronomers khew what to expect after that, for an imperial edict proclaimed that "when they give notice of an eclipse too soon, let them be put to death without any forgiveness, and when after the time let the same thing happen to them."- That event occurred about 2150 B. C, and a thousand years later the imperial heart had not softened, apparently, for mention is made of one Chow Sin (per haps a remote ancestor of the modern "Ah Sin"), who was the first to use ivory chopsticks and who was so cruel that all his subjects feared him. He became Infatuated with an abandoned woman, and to. please her invented several kinds of torment, with which he experimented upon his victims. One was called the "heater." This was a piece of redhot metal which the un fortunates were compelled to hold in their hands. Another was known as the "roaster," which consisted of a well greased copper pillar over a pit full of burning charcoal. On this the condemned . man. was. compelled to. walk, and .when his feet slipped he fell into the fire and was roasted alive, to the great delight of Chow Sin and his lnamqrata.; Jn or der to settle a discussion as to which had the most marrow in their bones, young men or old men, the king caused a number to have their legs broken, and these are the first victims mention ed as having directly suffered In the sause of science. Accustomed as they were to deeds of cruelty, the Chinese of every age have reveled in bloodshed and shown an amazing insensibility to suffering. From the earliest times also they have displayed an insensate hatred of for- j iiu iiuiu i iic xirsi mey termed "barbarians." It waa in the reign of Muh, about 1000 B. C., that the decrees were enacted known as the "five great punishments," which were cutting off the noae, ears and feet, branding and death. A thousand different kinds of crime were punishable by the first two, 500 by the third, 300 by the fourth, while there were 200 which incurred the death penalty. But all these could be com muted by money payments, according to a published scale, and this system of compounding with crime has operated to the enrichment of the mandarins and the corruption of the courts up to the present time. One of the greatest fighters of his age was the Emperor Wu Ti.; who was vic torious in more than 70 battles, but who was so superstitious that he always carried with htm- a famed magician. Wu, being desirous of -receiving -a mes sage direct from the gods, the magician at last told him he would find it inside a certain cow, which he ordered killed. The message was found as foretold. PROCESSION but as it was in the magician's hand writing, Wu Ti had him killed, too. In the third century, A. D., there arose a certain queen whose acts pro claimed her a worthy predecessor of the present empress do-wager of China, for she set up and pulled down rulers galore, starved her rivals to death and murdered an uncle of the empror be cause he opposed her. She was finally overthrown, and her husband took his revenge upon the mandarins by confis cating the wealth of Sun-sin, who was the Croesus of that time. About the middle of the fifth century China was ruled by a wily emperor who, when opposed by herds of trained elephants on the Tonquin border, put them to flight by setting up a row of wooden lions, which caused them to. turn tail and charge upon their owners. He it was who massacred all the Bud dhist priests in his empire and destroy ed their idols and their temples. Hut he was no more enlightened than, the others, for his soldiers, when they marched through the enemy's country. Impaled tender babes on their pikes and gloated over their agonized writh lngs while held high in air. A suc cessor of his. a hundred years later, while suppressing a conspiracy against his throne, seized the ringleaders and boiled them in a caldron of oil. Karly in the Beventh century a rebel lion was suppressed by the reigning emperor, who murdered more than 30. 000 people in cold blood.. . The most sanguinary insurrection that ever dev- hue SHE G n : a- nu , l . . I ' ttZW -inr F.i. iff f.vnT'TC- J . - FACADE AND GRAND STAIRWAY OF THE STATES' astated China occurred toward the end of the ninth century at the insti gation of Li K'eh-yung, the "One Eyed Dragon," when, it is said, 8,000,000 peo ple perished, and blood flowed for a thousand miles And so the tale of blood went on through the centuries, human life being held of no account. In the last decade of the fourteenth cen- CHINESE VICEROY BLOOD ' tury the Emperor Hung Wu extermi nated a noble family and sentenced to cruel deaths 15,000 men and women merely on suspicion of plotting against his throne. All the emperors of China were chips off the same block, if the historical record! are true all cruel, relentless, merciless. Even so late as 1S13, during the reign of Kia K'ing, a conspirator who came near to seising the emperor suffered death by the horrible process of "slicing," which consists in cutting off small portions of the culprit's body, face or limbs at stated intervals, until he. literally dies by inches. . This same Kia K'ing sent 20,000 rebels to the exe cution block, and it was he who, in 1816, because of some trifling breach of court etiquette, refused to see Lord Amherst and his embassy from England and compelled them to retrace their steps to the coast in deep humiliation. Although the Chinese looked upon all outside peoples as "barbarians" and their hatred of them was deeply in grained, they had not made them ob jects of attack except in certain spo radic cases of local origin. Always, however, there existed the hatred of the native convert, and many thou sands of Chinese Christians have per ished by the sword. When war broke out between Eng land and China, about 60 years ago, the Chinese promptly offered rewards for the heads of all Englishmen cap tured. A party of six foreigners was murdered near Canton in December, 1847, and stray travelers were put to death wherever found; but for all these outrages the government was sternly called to account and made to pay in demnities. During the Taiping rebel lion the cruelties practiced were of the most horrible description, both by the rebels and the imperial troops, and proved conclusively that mercy has no part in the Chinese composition. One of the first official acts of Kvvang-Su, the present emperor, was to order an indemnity of 200,000 taels for the murder of an Englishman who was killed in a remote part of the empire, followed by a proclamation . that for eigners should everywhere receive pro tection. In 1860. 28 English subjects were tak en and tortured on the road from Tien tsin to Peking. Thirteen of them died from their injuries. The Chinese gov ernment disavowed all responsibility for or connection with this act, as it did for the later horrible massacre at Tlen-tsin, but it was forced to award compensation and . punish the alleged perpetrators. The Tien-tsln outrage was the first attempt upon the lives of unarmed foreigners which had reached the proportions of a massacre in many years. It took place in June, 1870, but a few months after the death of Mr. Burlingame, who was then on his fa mous mission of peace in behalf of China to foreign lands. It may have been occasioned indirectly by the In evitable revulsion to which Chinamen are subject whenever they have made any concession to foreign opinion, but was directly owing to the fanaticism of the lower class people of Tlen-tsin. As many of the children in the found ling asylum conducted by the Sisters of Mercy had died of an epidemic, it was given out that they had been murdered for the sake of their eyes, which were to"be transmuted into silver. This ab surd story was believed, and the fa natics attacked and destroyed the or phanage, cathedral and French consul ate, murdering 18 French, including several Sisjters of Mercy and two Rus sians. France at that time was unable to exact reparation, but by imperial effli aw US' I Ens E a edlet the French were paid 400,000 taels as compensation, 20 of the chief rioters were executed and a deputation of Chi nese proceeded to Paris to make a formal and humble apology. After the war with Japan, in' 1895, the Chinese government did not afford sufficient protection to strangers, par ticularly missionaries, and several out- ON THE WAY TO A FOREIGN LEGATION. rages occurred. Our minister at Pe king requested a guard to protect the legation, and 50 marines were sent from United States war vessels, while early in the war the four great powers had made an agreement that their forces should protect each other's cit izens or unite for common defense if necessary. It was in January of the present year, shortly after the outbreak, that Mr. Brooks of the north China mis sion was killed by Boxers at Tai-an-fu, being the first martyr of this uprising. Later two others, the Rev. H. V. Norman and 'Rev. Charles-Robinson, were murdered at Y-ung Ch'ln, and in addition thousands of native converts have been reported killed at various missions. TRUMAN L.JAMIESON. A DEAL JAPASKSB Dl.VXEB, To a European, given to stiff joints and corpulency, a Japanese dinner is a tedious experience. Hut a real Japanese dinner, including chopsticks, lacquer trays and tiny cups, it a thing never be forgotten. The guests remove t'.! entering the hnup provided with & shoes, must s inged feet, tinl an extra pair. v iif i- ...!(? in stot.'k . ;.iy the host has wife of a Japanese lr-rlde at his table gentleman does unless there are ladies in the party, but appears with the tin and sweetmeats which always precede a dinner. She merely greets the guests and appears again only when the goodbys are Wid. Silken cushions are scattered about the floor, and the guests are arranged ac cording to rank, for the Japanese are, of course, great sticklers for form and ceremony. Little tables, some six inch es high, are placed before each one, and barefooted waitingmaids in graceful and prettily tinted kimonos bring in lacquer trays with several tiny covered bowls. Before leaving the trays on the tables they set them on the floor and, drop ping on their knees, make their best bow, touching their , foreheads to the floor. The host sets an example by remov ing the covers from the tiny bowls, and the guest, doing likewise, finds an as sortment of food quite new and gener ally most distasteful. Mustering up much skill, one attempts getting the food on chopsticks from the tables to one's mouth. The first few times most of it falls on the floor or In .one's lap. The wretched sticks wabble and. cross each other as if fbrused. When almost desperate, the good host is apt to come to the rescue by suggesting lifting the bowls and, with the aid of a chopstick, shoveling the food In, as one would po tatoes into a barrel. In each course there are half a dozen dishes, and the host tells what they are. First, a bean soup; chestnuts boiled and crushed: fish, picked fine and roll ed into little balls and baked; raw fish, cut into thin slices and covered with ice. This is dipped into rich sauce called soy, and is really very good. Little cups of warm sake, the native brandy made of rice, are served with each course. Napkins and bread are unknown quantities. The second course, is a small fish boil ed whole; bits of fowl boiled with pota toes or lotus root; a salad of onions; peas and beans, with a few leaves of lettuce; sea snails served with eggplant mashed, and a thick soup made of fish and vegetables, with mushrooms for a relish. The third course is a curry of rice and picked vegetables, and for a fourth and final course you have a sort of vermicelli served with soy and a sweet liqueur called mirinr shiruko, rice cakes, seaweed and confectionery of, all sorts, which are very sweet and tasteless. During the dinner each, guest rises and proposes the health of the host and one other guest until the whole party is disposed of. This custom, is rather hard on the guests, for sake is i 1 'tiBBi a 'a BUILDING SUGGESTED BY P. fiery stuff, and goes to one's head more quickly than brandy. To make matters worse, after one aas drunk the health of all the company, it is customary to drink the health of the waitresses, who bow their foreheads to the floor in ac knowledgment. When all is over, one feels very hungry and tiff in the joints. Willi " 1 " I I i I,. I Ill MM .1 II II - II I I II A States' Building At Washington. THE people- of the country at large and the citizens of Washington particularly are just now wonder ing what scheme or ceremony will be decided upon to fittingly celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Washington as the nation's capital. The centennial committee of govern ors outlined a programme for this pur pose some time ago, a part of which was the carrying out of Architect Cobb's suggestion to cut a grand "Centennial avenue" through the Mall or Central park along its northern edge, and that would leave between it and the first r'---t north of it a strip of land block or so, wide that congress as to dedicate as slt-s for fur . h lilacs J-.r govern ment u i.wii tti-frv, 'ing a sum suffl cr t ."V f - -I1 .; preliminary surveys i " ' i . n been enacted, and next ses- ion that grand avenue may be ordered completed. About a year ago, and In connection with this scheme, I suggested that a great states' building be built In this city and that a fitting ceremony to help celebrate the centennial would be the laying of its cornerstone, or, at least, the very active agitation of such a building project. The lot I have in mind for that build ing would be the present Central mar ket (United States government proper ty) site, added to the small part of the Mall between the market and the pro posed grand avenue a lot of 500 by nearly 800 feet, bounded by .the new av enue, Pennsylvania avenue. Seventh and Ninth streets, northwest. A word aa to the purposes of this building. The states are represented here by their senators and their representatives tM; mm fM - , &$ ; SI! let.!,. 1 mmmmmim-mms i a ii a a a W. FITZPATRICK. at the capitol. The functions of these bodies are legislative, yet the capitol to all intents and purposes is a federal institution, and the sovereign American people as individuals have little to say or do there. We keep consuls in pretty nearly every city of importance in the world, but In this capital, the people's yery own, there is no one of their eerv- ! ants charged with any such duty. What I suggest is a grand states' build ing not a Federal institution in any sense, but a people's building, where every man from every state may feel at home built for his comfort and in his interest principally. The plans for such, a building should be made by the very best .architect in the land, and he-should be; chosen in an honestly managed, clean competi tion open to all the architects of the country.. The site Is a magnificent one a grand opportunity for an architectural dis play, fronting, as it does, one face on the proposed government thoroughfare and one upon Pennsylvania avenue, the principal commercial artery of the city. It is directly opposite where it is pro posed to erect a mammoth union rail way station, and therefore will be about the first thing one sees upon reaching town and should also be every stranger's objective point. On the first floor, fronting; the new avenue, there should be tire, states' rooms, also great ."reception' rooms, checkrooms,' toilets and a bureau of inquiry, where guides may; be obtained to "do" the city, and also the names of hotels, boarding houses and all other useful information. The states' rooms would fill the first and pretty nearly all the second story, these rooms to be regular offices for each state a meet ing place for all visitors from that state, a sort of ''home for- the way farer.V in charge of a state officer noted for his good humor and patience, whose duty it would be to be of as much serv ice to his co-citizens as possible. There would be registers In each room, where every one from that state would give all the information concern ing his whereabouts and the duration of his visit that he might see fit; a post- offlce, where letters may be addressed to its care, the principal newspapers of that state kept on file, writing ma terial, etc in fact, a room for the par ticular comfort and use of every one visiting the nation's capital from that state. These large rooms would open into a grand hall, lighted from above the sec ond story and the full size of the light court of the building. In this hali or "states' court," there might be por tioned off sections for the display of ex hibits from each state, its products, etc., but it - would be chiefly a . great lounging room, where people from the four comers of our country might meet, get acquainted and feel at home. Oft this court and closed from it by drop screens in ordinary times would be the auditorium, fronting on Pennsylvania avenue. A great, galleried amphithea ter, seating 8,000 people at least, and seven - wide exits and broad stairs would " allow of quickly emptying its crowds directly to the street level and in immediate proximity to. all the car lines. This auditorium would be for the use of all the great conventions assem bling here, each to arrange a long time ahead for dates, etc., with the board of control. Scattered over the various floors would be the congressional committee rooms. The reason for their being in this building is that, although congress when in session meets at noon, until then the congressmen are at their of fices, scattered through the business blocks of the city or in their committee rooms at or about the capitol. Having these committee rooms near their of fices would be a wonderful convenience. These men are here in the interests of their states; it is but just that those states furnish them an office where oth er than the purely legislative business of the state may be Attended to. Ev ery day, too, there is growing a greater objection to their 'writing letters and attending to their constituents in the halls of congress. This building would be splendidly situated for their purposes. Just mid way between the capitol and the ..big departments. While each congressman would have a workroom, ample recep tion rooms, parlors and waiting rooms would be provided, where they could give ear to their constituents' appeals and indulge in social converse. In the top story there might be a res taurant, barber and bath arrangements and other features of club, life. We owe it to our congressmen to make their life here as comfortable as possi ble. It may also tend to improve, or, rather, to keep up, the present high standard of legislation. It ought to be the object of every state to keep on file in its quarters in this building a mass of useful facts and figures about its commerce, etc., from which its representatives might get any data at a moment's notice that they may need. This would ultimately cre ate an exchange bureau here, where one might find out anything he wants to know about any or every state. It would tend to unify the states, keep them in as close touch socially and commercially as the capitol does polit ically. To the nation as a whole one can readily see how infinitely more beneficial such a building with such purposes would be than is even our beautiful library of congress. According to my plan, when the screens are raised the auditorium and the grand hall may be thrown together, the exhibits, desks, etc., in the latter lowered to the storerooms in the base ment, and you would have one vast hall capable of accommodating 25,000 people for great conventions and as semblies. You would decorate this room every four years and have an in augural ball there that would be some thing to remember. As it Is now, the work of an entire branch of the gov ernment has to be virtually stopped for a couple of weeks in order that its building may be prepared for that cer emony. S.urely we are wealthy enough to afford the luxury of one such hall, owned by us Jointly, at the Federal capital of our country! F. W. FITZPATRICK. ATI ASTOlflSHED DtKB, The Duke of Cambridge and his friends have many stories to tell of his recent stay in Rome. One of his experi ences is specially characteristic of all the parties con cerned. On the occasion of a visit to the Vat ican the duke, hearing from a friend that it was proper to talk Latin there, brushed up a few phrases and passwords. The Vatican, on its part, was equal ly punctilious. All guards who could speak Eng lish were order ed to the front. The chamber lains of English nationality or speech were re quired to at tend, and the pope himself prac ticed the "Well, I'm" something or other. English sentences he had learned from Mr. Neld, an English resident in Brus sels, 50 years ago, much priding him self on the vernacular of his "Seat down." the gallant duke, when he arrived at the outer portals of the Vatican, was addressed by a guard, who said, "This way, your royal highness." The duke started with relief; he was rid, for the moment, of his Latin. The same expe rience met him at each turn, and In the anterooms it was repeated. Reaching at last the door of the pope's private apartment, the duke was. met by a mon signor whose mother was English and whose own accent Is native, as he of fered to take his royal highness hat. "Well, I'm" something or other, blurt ed out the astounded visitor. But it was & word the pope did not remember to have learned from Mr. Neld. MR. BALFOIR ATfD THE OOLF CLUB. A rather amusing story Is going the rounds in London of Mr. A. J. Balfour and the Cassiobury Golf club. The oth er day Mr. Balfour and Lord George Hamilton went down to have a game of golf on the Cassiobury golf links, near Watford. There is rather a sensioie rule In force at this club which enables members to always get into a cab which is going to the club from the sta tion by paying sixpence, llie rule, however, on this occasion was the cause of rather a surprise for a golfer and the two right honorable gentlemen. The expectant golfers haa ensconced themselves in their cab and were Just driving off when an excited looking in dividual, with golf clubs, rushed out of the station and stopped the carriage, merely uttering a mumbled phrase about there being room for another, and got in. Mr. Balfour and his friend were considerably surprised, as they were unaware of the rule. But when they arrived at' the end of the short Journey and their fellow traveler calm ly offered Mr. Balfour sixpence as his share of the fare, their surprise quickly changed to amazement. However, when the bylaw was explained Mr. Balfour not only laughed at their experience, but commended so exceedingly con venient an arrangement. - where: policemeji arhj busy. Japan has a police fores modeled something after the French system. In various places throughout Tgkyo there are small kabanchos, which are something ilka the British sentinel boxes, but larger. Three men are attached to each box daily. One remains inside, resting, while another stands at the door, and the third patrols a beat and returns at regular Intervals to the box. Stations are changed every eight hours. After 24 hours' work the three policemen ara given the same length of time to rest, and three other men are sent to the box. During their "off" days the men are employed in taking; a census, making reports regarding .the condition of streets, bridges, embankments, drains and cemeteries. They also report wed dings, births, deaths, theatrical per formances and the presence of suspi clous peopla '