202 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



conditions in parts of China uninfluenced by foreign presence, and so 

 far the civilization of the interior is a real thing. That the Chinaman 

 allows his handsome buildings to fall into disrepair; that his narrow 

 city streets reek with foul odors; that the pig has equal rights with 

 the owner of the pretty farm-house; and that the epicure takes delight 

 at his dinner in sharks' fins instead of terrapin — these are merely differ- 

 ences in details; and if they are faults, as we consider them to be, they 

 will naturally be corrected as soon as the Chinaman, with his quick wit, 

 perceives his errors, when the opportunity to study Occidental standards 

 comes to him. 



Chang-sha, the capital of Hu-nan, is one of the most interesting 

 cities in the whole Empire, as marking the very highest development of 

 Chinese exclusiveness and dividing with Lhassa in Tibet the boast of 

 shutting its gates tightly in the face of foreign contamination. In a 

 previous chapter an account was given of how the present conservative 

 governor had closed the schools organized by his more liberal prede- 

 cessor, and had tried to root up the budding movement toward reform 

 and progress. But he made one interesting and highly suggestive omis- 

 sion in allowing the electric-light plant to continue. When, at the end 

 of our first day at Chang-sha, as I stood on my boat watching the city 

 wall, the picturesque roofs, the junks on the shore and the surging 

 crowd slowly lose their distinctness in the twilight, and then saw them 

 suddenly brought into view again by the glare of the bright electric arcs 

 as the current was turned on to light the narrow streets, I smiled as I 

 realized the utter impossibility of stopping the onward march of nine- 

 teenth century progress, and that the Chinese themselves, even at the 

 very heart-center of anti-foreignism, are ready to turn from the old to 

 the new. 



In the shop-windows at Chang-sha there are displayed for sale arti- 

 cles with American, English, French, German, Japanese and other 

 brands. One shop, I noticed, displayed a good assortment of American 

 canned fruits and vegetables. This is the condition of affairs, not in 

 Shanghai or Amoy, open ports, but in the most exclusively Chinese 

 section in the whole Empire. That the Chinaman will buy, that he 

 will adopt foreign ways, there is no question; and he is just as ready to 

 make the greater changes in his life that must result from the intro- 

 duction of railways as to buy a few more pieces of cotton or a few more 

 tons of steel. 



But in order to buy more the Chinaman must be able to sell more; 

 for no matter what his inclination may be, unless he has something to 

 give in return, he cannot trade. The exports from China have been 

 expanding gradually, and in step with the imports. In 1888 they were 

 92,401,06? tails: had increased to 116,632,311 taels in 1893, and had 

 further advanced to 195,784,332 taels in 1899. The two great items 



