Geographic Literature 



337 



Manchuria and Korea. By H. J. Whig- 

 ham. With map and illustrations. 

 Pp. 245. 6x9 inches. New York. 

 Imported by Charles Scribner's Sons. 

 1904. $2.00 net. 



This book is the record of a journey 

 through Manchuria made in 1901, and 

 is one of the best of the many accounts 

 of Manchuria that has appeared. Mr 

 Whigham, of course, looks at every- 

 thing Russian from the English point of 

 view, but nevertheless he shows much 

 appreciation of the order and stability 

 that had been widely introduced in Man- 

 churia, while lamenting the circum- 

 stances that had made Russia predomi- 

 nant. He speaks with much admiration 

 of Harbin, particularly of its geograph- 

 ical position at the center of railway 

 and river routes. The city will eventu- 

 ally become the Chicago of the Far East. 

 At the time he visited the city he found 

 it "chiefly remarkable for the number 

 of its generals and its phonographs. 

 The phonographs are imported so freely 

 from America that every house seems to 

 be haunted with an aged crone singing 

 the music of ' El Capitan. ' The generals 

 come from St. Petersburg or Moscow by 

 every mail." 



The author on one occasion accompa- 

 nied a Russian expedition sent to escort 

 some junks down the river to Niuch- 

 wang. He gives an interesting account 

 of the trip. As many as 5, ooojunks at- 

 tached themselves to the escort and thus 

 reached the city without paying toll to 

 bandits, who exact regular tribute from 

 every j unk plying up and down the river. 

 The boatmen regard the blackmail de- 

 manded by the pirates exactly as they 

 regard likiu or any other tax. One rob- 

 ber with a gun appearing on the bank of 

 the river is quite enough to stop fifty 

 boats. In ordinary times the tax levied 

 by the brigands is not very great, or at 

 least not prohibitive, because the whole 

 matter has reached the state of perma- 

 nent compromise so dearly loved by the 

 Chinese. The brigands have agents in 



Niuchwang, where the blackmail can be 

 paid in advance at a reduced rate. ' ' In 

 the city there are several hundred rich 

 men dressed in silks and satins, moving 

 in the best Chinese society, who make 

 their living entirely by piracy." A 

 large part of the brigandage had been 

 stopped by the Russians since the author 

 was in Manchuria. 



Mr Whigham repeatedly refers to the 

 easy way in which the Russians mingle 

 with the Chinese. Everywhere he saw 

 Russians and Chinamen traveling in the 

 same car, and Russian women and girls 

 at the stations selling bread and drink 

 to the coolies. Foreigners of other na- 

 tionalities ' ' would no more have thought 

 of traveling on the same truck with 

 Chinese coolies than a Southerner in the 

 United States would think of sitting 

 down to dinner with a negro." It is 

 unfortunate that such an excellent book 

 should be marred by a wretched and 

 entirely inadequate map. 



Steps in the Expansion of Our Territory. 

 By O. P. Austin, Chief of the Bureau 



of Statistics, Secretary of the Na- 

 tional Geographic Society, etc. Pp. 

 258. With many diagrams and maps. 

 New York: D. Appleton&Co. 1903. 

 $1.25. 



This little volume summarizes the ter- 

 ritorial growth of our country. The 

 story is well told, the main facts being 

 singled out and marshaled in striking 

 manner. Mr Austin aims throughout to 

 show wherein our growth has differed 

 from any expansion in the past and what 

 the main elements of this phenomenal 

 territorial and commercial development 

 have been. A special feature are the 

 many diagrams introduced, illustrating 

 clearly and in detail each step in expan- 

 sion. The following paragraphs are 

 quoted, the first from the introduction 

 and the second from concluding chapter: 

 ' ' The process of our national growth 

 has been unique. Nations have usually 

 been constructed by the conquest and 



