Page
April 14, 1900.]
CORRESPONDENCE.
(We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.]
NURSES' MEMORIAL FUND.
J
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "WEFELY PRESS,"
Hougkong, 9th April, 1900, Sir.-On behalf of the Committee of the above fand I shall be grateful if you will kindly insert in your paper a statement of accounts as en- closed
It is now so long since this fund was started to commemorate the two nurses at the Govern. mout Civil Hospital who lost their lives in the discharge of their duties during the epidemio of plague in 1898, that some explanation of the delay in closing the account is due to those who subscribed towards the fund.
It may be remembered that after erecting monuments at the graves in the cemetery it was decided to put a coloured glass window in St. John's Cathedral. The design for this had to be prepared at home and submitted here; then the work had to be executed, sent out and erected. Subsequently it was found that the expenditure had been considerably in defect of the amount subscribed, and it was decided by the Commit- tee to purchase with the balance some useful memorial to be placed in the Sisters' Quar: ters at the Hospital. Consequently, and after consultation with the matron, we pur- chased through the kindness of Messrs. W.
G. Humphreys & Co. a handsome clock and a large case of plate and cutlery. These were especially ordered and engraved at home and are now in use at the Quarters, where they will be shown to any subscriber who wishes to see them. Miss Barker writes to the Committee that the memorial is very highly appeciated by the Sis- ters, both in memory of their deceased fellow- workers and also of the kindness of the com.
manity. The small balance remaining has been spent in adding a few books to the Sisters' Li- brary.
The inscription on the clock and on the larger pieces of plate is:-
|
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPÓRT.
TIENTSİN.
[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.]
Tientsin, 27th March 1900. REPORTED ISTURBANCES. We have been much disturbed by exciting telegrams from Shanghai and the South urg ing us to wire details of Northern events. Uutil to-uight our ignorance of the occasion of such telegrams-has been absolute. We have, however, just heard from Peking an item of news which may give the clue, viz., that an action has taken place between the Boxers' and Imperial troops | at Jen-chiew (P), a township lying about sixty miles S.S.W. of Tientsin, to the west of the Grand Canal. All that is known is that "losses were severe," but neither the issue nor the details are to hand
If the site of the disturbance be Jen.chiew, we shall of course 'soon have verbal accouuts from the combatauts, No anxiety is at present felt in Tientsin on the subject. For some time past the Viceroy, at the instigation of the Con. suls, has been taking measures to deal with the Ho-chuan and this is probably the first-fruits of his energy.
46
OFFICIAL SANCTION TO PUBLIC
OPPOSITION,
The Peking authorities have been seduously and deliberately inattentive to all the representa- tives of the Ministers on this matter. The reason is not far to seek. Yü Hsien, late governor of Shantung and present governor of Shanst, emphatically assured the Dowager that the Boxers" and "Big-swords " were patriots who ought to be encouraged This man considers that Yuan-shih-kai, now promoted from acting to de facto governor of Shantang, has jockied him out of office, and, as Yuan's pet antipathy is the Boxers," Li has thought it his duty to do as much for them as possible. Moreover, the said Yu is the most bigoted anti-foraigu official in the Empire, and as the I Ho-chuan promise to make foreign trouble he has done his best for them..
It is no secret in Northern official circles that
259.
(amateur) talent just now, a really excellent representation was given. Ihe chief honours - fell to the accomplished prima donna who was responsible for the innovation, Frau von Hanne- ken.
MANILA.
Manila, 3rd April. 1900.
Was
THE MALOLOS Yalley -120 MILES BY KAIL..
A year ago General McArthur was fighting his way up the Malolos Valley and taking pos session of the railroad as fast as a limited" num- ber of troops and the most wretched transporta tion would permit him. It was the transporta- tion more than the insurrection that delayed his progress. To-day the Government is at- tempting to carry on the ordinary business of the valley and in addition to supply and trans- port, as circunstances change, an army of ten thousand soldiers. About one half the rolling, stock of the Manila-Dagupan railroad baried by the insurgents and des'royed in the numerous wrecks that have taken place all along the line. Very few miles of the one hundred and twenty that stretch from Manila Bay to the Gulf of Singayen are without the evidences of wrecks, and, and the debris of running gear and scrap iron from in many places the roadside is strewn with
freight trucks and passenger coaches. In some portions of the side-tracks or in the ditches at the side of the roadbed, whole trains of cars are still coupled and uprigt but only the iron and steel parts are left, as the woodwork has long been burned away. Both sides of the road are littered with overturned coaches and nearly everyone of them has its tale of death and
wounds.
The bridges have been repaired with tem- porary wooden structures that serve to support the trains in a rickety fashion but the whole thing is slipshod and merely an extensivé patch- work. Some of the larger bridges, especially the one that orosses the great river near Bamban, will be carried away with the first heavy rain and as two of the spans were down serious and difficult undertaking.
In Memory of Elizabeth Frances Higy in this man is going to Shansi for the same pur and the big steel pillars with them, it is a
(Sister Frances) and Emma Gertrude Ireland (Sister Gertrude) who died of plague contracted while on duty at the Government Civil Hospital, 1898. Presented to the Sisters' Mess by the Community of Hongkong."
pose of hindering the working of the mining and railway concessions given to foreigners and especially those granted to the Peking Syndicate (Italo-British, initiated by Siguor Luzzatte). This may seem a most gratuitous and amazing statement, but I am quite sure of its truth Y Hsion hopes especially to defeat the opening of Mines by locally applied l-gal restrictious and ac-by the stronger measures of popular (but yamen
instigated) sedition if other meaps fail.
And every piece of plate and cutlery is en- graved "S.Q."
counts.
!
Mr. C. S. Sharp has kindly audited the
I am, sir, yours faithfully.
R. F. COBBOLD.
THE NORSEY MEMORIAL FUND.
In Account with the HoygkoNG AND SHANGHai Bank.
To T. Jackson (sundries)
Dr.
To Pa'mer and Turner (w adow)
To Ah Sing (fixing same)
To Brown, Jones & Co. (monamente)
To Ah Ping (stand for plate chest)
To Falconer (repaira to clock).
To balance
To W. G. Humphreys & Co. (clock and plate)
Cr.
By subs riptions By interest
Examined with vouchers and fould correot.
0.
$
.10.00
560.32
THE REACTIONARY PARTY,
In the
present state of affairs the railroad might ba States are about to restore the road, or what is said to be in a transition period. The United left of it, to the British owners. Agents of the company are at present inspecting and making inventory of the remaining stock. It is probable that the company will soon commence work on the most necessary repairs.
In the Philippines, brick and stone seem to Reac-stations, cartsbeda, angine-houses, waiting rooms burn almost as readily as wood, and many of the and other buildings have been completely des- troyed., Some of the engines that were barned in the sheds can be seen sticking up throngh tangle of smoke-stacks, boiler-heads and bum- the ruids and others are looked together in a
pers, just as they remained after the "
head on collisions. At the river near Bamban the in-
At present in Peking that wing of the tionary Party identified with Hsu Tung (the Tator to the Heir Apparent), Jung-lu, and Kang-Ye, has everything its own way. The chief danger of its supremacy lies in the ap- 1,009. 1 palling ignorance of two of its chiefs. They 10.00 actually last week discussed the expediency of closing the Tsang Li Yamen, uot on account of the inefficiency of that amazing junta-this
surgents built a siding and ran dozens of cars would have been plausibly justifiable-but on
and several engines over the bluffs into the bed the ground that all foreign difficulty would be
of the river. obriated if the bated yung jen had nowhere to going upright, apparently on the point of its fep- One of the engines is still stand- to when they wanted redress of grievances, Jung der, out of a mass of wreckage. Lu suggested that commerce required some government department to attend to these matters. whereupon the sages said the Li Fun Yuan would do. This is an all but defunct
883.75 22.00 4.00 105. 5
$2,806.23
0.
2,546.00 60,23
$2,806.23
C. 8 SHARP.
The following telegram, head-d Bucyrus, O. 1st April, seems rather sudden"-James Le- drick, a Californian, who has just returned from China, is here arranging for the purchase of a number of ten-ton steel wagons and traction engines to draw them. He will establish a ser- vice across the desert in China, and will enter sotive competition for the carrying trade, which is now done by camels. He says the camels can carry only about 600 pounds sach and make only twenty miles a day, while his wagons will carry ten tons each and make sixty miles. He bas beam over the groun thoroughly, and he expects to have fifty engines and 300 wagons Botively engaged within a year. The first con-
igament will be shipped immediately.
obsolete and Colonial office.
With all his faults, be at lea t knew how to con- duct affairs in a non-parohial spirit. I may state that Li's friends here all believe that six
Many miles of the road run through lowlands and marsh country, and in the rainy season whole districts are under water. The original high. embankments put down by the Company were
Truly there is much need of Li in the North.mpletely shovelled away in numerous places by the insurrectos, who hoped sud did succeed in delaying the American troops. At Tarlac s river changed its bed and swept away several filled in by the army and the track was thrown hundred yards. These breaks were hastily down with all speed. Naturally the result is not very substantial and when the train passes over these places, one does well to hold on to one's seat. THE RUN TO DAGUPÁN—AN AMERICAN QUICK
months will see him transferred to the Liang Kiang, vice Liu Kung Yi resignea, r restored to his old satrapy in Chibli. The old maa's ambition is to die in his old barness.
Tientsin's trade is in full flood again, and we informed by wire that Nowohwang is
are
opening.
LOCAL EXCITEMENTS, We had the rare, excitements of a first class fire and a real Italian opera in one week. The Tientsin Trading Company's large store
was burnt out last week-the second such dis.
aster in four years. It is anderstood that there is to be a searching inquiry. The opera was Mascague's Cavalleria Rusticana. As our port is exceedingly rich in very extraordinary vocal
LUNCH.
I made the trip to Dagupan last week. Two sels of trains are run-a “gugu "or native train, which leaves early in the morning and the military express, starting from Manila at nine o'clock. I took the military train and was assigned to a seat in a second-class coach and the rest of the train was made up of the hospital and way cars and the quartermaster and com- missary freights.
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