A GREAT UNKNOWN LAND--MANCHURIA
Of all the lands in eastern Asia perhaps the least is known about
Manchuria of any of them. And yet one of the finest sleeping cars I ever
traveled in was on the South Manchurian railway. I had a large roomy
compartment to myself. In it was a comfortable bed, or berth, a folding
washstand and writing desk, electric fan, and various other
conveniences. While this was an eastern model sleeper, an American
pullman was also attached to the train for those who preferred it.
For two hundred and seventy years the Manchurians furnished the rulers
for the whole Chinese Empire. The Empress Dowager was a Manchu. Born in
a humble home, at the age of sixteen she became a concubine of the
Emperor. She was so diligent in study and self-improvement that she was
elevated to the position of first concubine and later became the mother
of the Emperor's son and was raised to the position of wife. When her
son was but three years of age the Emperor died and she swept aside all
aspirants to the throne, placed her son upon it with herself as regent
until he was of age. For forty-seven years, in a country where women had
scarcely any power, this marvelous woman ruled one-fourth of the human
race.
Manchuria is a little larger than the combined area of Iowa, Minnesota,
Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. It is located at the northeast of China
and until recently formed a part of the Chinese Empire. While nearly all
kinds of grain and vegetables are grown, the one great staple crop of
Manchuria is the soybean. Think of growing two million tons of these
beans per year! Before the war Manchurian beans were shipped all over
the world. In a Manchurian city I asked a business man to tell me the
chief sights of the city and he said: "We have nothing here but bean
mills. It is beans, beans, beans." In the hills and mountains nearly all
kinds of wild beasts are found. The Manchurian tiger is perhaps most
dreaded of all.
Perhaps the best known place in Manchuria is Port Arthur. Years ago the
Chinese had what they believed to be an impregnable fortress in Port
Arthur, but the wily Japanese battered it down in twenty-four hours.
Later on the Russians got it and worked seven years on the
fortifications and gun emplacements and really felt that they had it
secure. Although the forts were built on the Belgian plan and Port
Arthur was as secure as Antwerp, yet the unconquerable Japanese took it
with a loss of only a thousand or fifteen hundred men. Nature has been
kind to Port Arthur by throwing up the mountains of "The Chair," "The
Table," and the "Lion's Mane," but the best defense that nature provides
has to give way before the genius of the human brain.
Only a little more than four miles from Port Arthur is the city of
Dalney, also called Dairen. It is a beautiful little city of fifty or
sixty thousand people with a good street car system and many modern
buildings. On landing I went to the Yamato hotel and found comfortable
quarters at a reasonable price. The South Manchurian railway operates a
string of these Yamato hotels. This is a Japanese railway and operates
with a steamship line crossing the Yellow Sea and the great
Trans-Siberian railroad, or rather did so before the world war. In Dalny
I found a good Y. M. C. A. building with an American secretary. This
association has good buildings in nearly every large oriental city
especially if it is near the coast. One can hardly realize the debt of
gratitude civilization owes to this organization. These buildings are
oases on the great oriental desert where the American traveler can find
rest and a quiet home.
At the close of the war between Russia and Japan by the treaty of
Portsmouth, Russia agreed to transfer to Japan without compensation and
with the consent of the Chinese Government, the South Manchurian Railway
between Port Arthur and Changchun, a distance of four hundred and
thirty-six miles, "together with all rights, privileges, and properties
appertaining thereto in that region, as well as all coal mines in said
region belonging to or worked for the benefit of the railway." The
Chinese Government also agreed not to construct any parallel lines that
would injure the interests of this railway, so the Japanese have an iron
hold upon the whole proposition.
To travel the full extent of this railway in the late fall is an
interesting experience. The soil is of a reddish color and the fall
plowing was already done. The methods of farming used in China largely
prevail here. I saw many of them taking their beans, grain, and other
produce to market. Along the dusty highway the oxen slowly trudged,
drawing great wooden wheeled carts. On one occasion the engine had
frightened the oxen and they had their heads up and tails flying as the
loaded cart bumped along over the field with the driver doing all he
could to get them back into the highway. Women and children were often
sitting on the ground in the villages, seemingly without any work
whatever to do.
The Manchurian people are larger physically than the Chinese and are
better looking. But some one has said of the Manchu, "he knows not,
neither does he learn." They say that he only bathes once a year and
does not care who owns the ground as long as he can till it, and that it
does not bother him in the least to see his wife and daughter sit on the
stone fence for hours picking the lice from each other's head. The women
folks are largely slaves of fashion and still persist in trying to stunt
the growth of their feet. Even while they do this they often work in the
harvest field, wash their clothing along the streams, clean out the
donkey stable, and do all kinds of outdoor work. While baking bread,
spanking their children and doing other household duties, they are not
slow in looking after and waiting upon their lordly husbands.
Some years ago a plague of the most deadly description swept over
northern Manchuria. It was so terrible and fatal that when one was
stricken there was but little hope for recovery. It was so contagious
that when one member of a family took it, generally the entire family
perished, as simply a whiff of the breath of one stricken was sufficient
to give it to another. The government made every effort to cope with the
situation but the difficulties were tremendous and the scourge spread
like a prairie fire. More than forty-two thousand took it and it is said
that not a single one recovered.
The ground was frozen so hard that it was impossible to dig graves for
the dead and preparation was made for cremating bodies. This created
consternation among the Manchus. Every possible subterfuge was resorted
to to conceal cases of the plague and bodies were often hidden in the
snow all winter long. Dr. Jackson, a brilliant young physician of the
Irish Presbyterian Mission in Manchuria, was stricken and died, as did
Dr. Mesny, a splendid French physician. Early the next spring the plague
ceased as suddenly as it broke out and has never appeared again in any
country. However, many believe the "influenza" is a modification of this
plague.
Mukden, the Manchurian capital city, has been called "The Asiatic
Armageddon!" It is a walled city and contains a couple of hundred
thousand people. During the Russian-Japanese war a portion of it is said
to have been eight different times in the hands of the Russians and
Japanese. The streets are unpaved; dirt and filth abounds. There are
many big dirty restaurants. The Manchus are great feeders. They eat
between meals, soup and vegetables and most everything else. The
temperature of Mukden is about the same as Saint Paul, Minnesota.
The Imperial Tombs are not far from Mukden. The road to these tombs is
paved with stones. This is called the "Road of the Spirit." On each side
are six great life-sized stone animals. It is thought that these signify
the Emperor's rule over certain countries. Visiting the great Ming Tombs
near Nanking, China, one sees many of these large stone animals.
Not far from Mukden one can get a look at the great Wall of China, the
building of which is said to be the greatest undertaking of all history.
It was fifteen hundred miles long, fifty feet thick at the bottom and
from twenty-five to forty feet high. It was built over mountains, across
valleys and rivers and down into the sea. There were towers about every
three hundred yards and although built more than two thousand years ago,
much of it is in good repair to this day. It took a million men ten
years to do the job of building it. The Chinese and Manchus were great
wall builders. Their cities were always walled.
Mukden stands on a plain but its walls are forty feet high and thirty
feet thick at the top. At each corner, and over each of the eight
gateways there used to be a tower, and then the great Drum Tower and
Bell Tower were in the midst of the city. Nearly every city had its big
Drum Tower upon which drums were beaten if the city was in danger or an
enemy near. Here in Mukden nearly all these towers have been taken down,
but large portions of the old city walls remain. There are said to be
very many more men than women in the city today. Until 1905, it is said,
the city never had a policeman. The gates were closed at dark and the
city became silent as the streets were not lighted. There is not enough
light in the streets yet at night to hardly be noticed. The old
patriarchal family system often prevails. Sometimes a family will be
composed of a hundred people--several generations. The following from
Dugald Christie will give a glimpse of some of the strange customs of
these people.
He says: "There was in Mukden a wealthy family who had land in the
country adjoining that of some poor people. A dispute arose over
boundaries and they went to law. Having money to back him the rich man
won the case. The next day a son of the poor man committed suicide at
the rich man's door and he had to compensate the parents heavily. When
that was settled another son did the same, calling on all to witness
that he did this because of the injustice his parents had suffered at
the hands of this man. This time a much heavier indemnity was demanded
and after months of haggling it was paid. Then a third son killed
himself in like manner and the payment of the still further increased
blood money reduced the once wealthy man to a state poorer than his
rival. Again the law suit was heard and this time the country family won
the case."
Another Manchurian city of note is Harbin. This is located in the great
agricultural district of the country. Twenty-five or thirty years ago
this was open prairie, but one night two Russians pitched their tent on
the spot that is now the center of the city. Like Jonah's gourd, the
city almost grew up in a night. For years it was about the worst city to
be found, there being at least one murder committed almost every day.
After changing trains at midnight and rambling around a few hours I
would say that it is not filled with saints yet. During the
Russian-Japanese war it was one of the great gateways, more than a
million soldiers passing through it.
From Harbin west one passes through the Kuigan mountains. This is said
to be the coldest place of like latitude on the globe. Here grows in
abundance the Edelweiss, which is so rare and so prized in Switzerland.
Mr. Taft, in "Strange Siberia," calls attention to the fact that one of
the Manchurian towns here is named for Genghis Khan, who was one of the
great military geniuses of the old days. He united the vast hordes of
warring tribes of Siberia into one vast army and swept over this whole
country like a mighty conqueror. Our American soldiers who were sent to
this section of the Far East sure got a glimpse of Manchuria that they
will never forget.
Before the world war many of the Chinese and Manchus crossed the line
and worked in the Russian gold mines and grew rich, but they had a time
getting their gold out of Russia without being discovered. But their
cuteness is proverbial. Even Chinamen die, and they as well as the
Manchus must sleep their long sleep in their native land. In a certain
Russian city it is said that these Chinese were paying great attention
to the dead bodies of their kindred in preparing them for the journey
back home. The Russians became suspicious and peeping through a keyhole
at the embalming processes these policemen discovered that gold dust was
blown from a tube into the dead man's skull. This let the cat out of the
bag, for these Chinese were making the bodies of the dead the carriers
of gold, for as soon as the bodies reached home the gold was extracted.