MUKDEX, THE MAXCHU HOME 



297 



THE GORGEOUS STREET SIGNS OF MUKDEN : THE MAIN STREET AND BEEE TOWER 



(see page 301) 



One rides into the walled city and 

 around its shimmy streets on the most 

 comical man-power tramway, two small 

 benches on a tiny truck, some poles and 

 cotton curtains constituting the standard 

 rolling-stock. A husky Manchu in a 

 loose dressing gown of wadded cotton, 

 long, flopping trousers, and cotton shoes 

 runs and pushes the clumsy toy for a 

 while, and then jumps on and enjoys the 

 ride until "the old cat dies," and he has 

 to speed her up again, \\nien one meets 

 another special on the single track both 

 cars stop, exchange their passengers and 

 return on their same routes, the passen- 

 ger paying another five cents at each 

 transfer and at most switches. 



One is jolted around the uninteresting, 

 unpaved streets, with their blank walls 

 and poor shops, avoiding innumerable 

 head-on collisions, until he reaches a 

 mountain of rubbish, a hillock of garb- 

 age, ashes, and brick-bats quite 30 feet 

 high in the very heart of the city — a 

 fitting altar to the deitv of Dirt, which 



the Liaoyang people seem to worship 

 with their whole hearts. From this lofty 

 scrap-heap, as from the city walls, one 

 sees the whole panorama of the battle 

 plain, surrounded by low hills that were 

 ideal for purposes of defense, "if the de- 

 fenders could throw stones," one Amer- 

 ican officer said, after a tour of the battle- 

 field. Yet the two armies shot away 

 more ammunition in those three days 

 than the combined French and German 

 armies used during the whole war of 

 1870! 



The Japanese children in the settlement 

 can point to the strategic spots in the 

 great plain — where Kuroki came out 

 from the hills ; where Kuroki cut through 

 and was cut off for hours ; where the 

 Russian retreat began — and tell how the 

 Russians fled, setting fire to the moun- 

 tain of stores they had to leave behind, 

 and burying cases of champagne, music 

 boxes, and other delightful munitions of 

 war for their pursuers to resurrect at 

 their leisure one whole winter long. 



