SOAKING THE SOIL WITH LIGHTNING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5056, 15 September 1894, Page 1

SOAKING THE SOIL WITH LIGHTNING.

NOVEL DANGER FROM THE ELECTRIC CAR. Another curious penalty of our growing civilisation is brought to light in Cassier's for June by Mr J. H. Vail, who states that the soil of large cities is being saturated with waste electricity. Says Mr Vail :— " Destruction of gas and water pipas and underground metal work, generally due to the aoticn of electric street railroad currents, ia sn evil of growing magnitude. In the early days of electric railroad construction it was assumed by experts that the earth and the buried pipe systems would, when combined, form »n ample return for the electric current. At that age of tho art exports did not fully appreciate the immense quantities of current that would require to be carried, and therefore did not foresee that these currents, when disseminated would produce the sarious Jesuits that have been caused by electrolytic action on systems of pipes buried in tbe earth and owned by other companies. Frequent tests prove that the earth itsslf cannot afford the free path fcr the current that was anticipated. Earth conductivity hasbeenover-estimated. Within the pasb year strong evidence of damaging electrolytic action has been produced. In one case a section of iron wafcer-pipa showed complete perforation, caused in four weeks' time. Lead coverings of telephone cables also show sarions damage. In another case a plumber in a city ia Pennsylvania was repairing: a waterpipe in a house, and on breaking joint, on electric arc formed across the separating ends of the pipe." In another place the returned current formed an arc between a water-pipe and & gas-pipe, burning a hole through the gaspipe and setting fire to tho gas. " Inatences are numerous proving that the electrio current is present on tho gaß anj water pioes in buildiugs contiguous to electric railroad linss. Even those of us who are familiar with handliug electric currents, hesitate to draw a combination of electricity with our gas or water. We know that the gf>B and water pipes entering our houses may be charged with such a current, and that it only rem»ius for the circuit to be completed by a passible acoident through our bodies, or the occurrence of a fire by automatic action between vibrating pipes/' Mr Vail explains the remedies he has devised:— " "The only proper system ia cue that affords a well-insulated and complete .metallic circuib of low resistance, that will give an ample path for the complete unrestricted circulation of the entire currenb from pole to pole of the dynamo, thus offering no inducement for the current to follow such conductors as gas- or water pipes, but, as it were, actually robbing the earth of any desire to carry the current."

CHINA'S GRAND OLD MAN LI HUNG CHANG, THE PREMIER OF T HJ__|MPIRE. (P. G. Caipenter in the Detroit Free Press.) I have just returned from the palace of the greatest man in China. I refer to Li Hung Chang. He is the Premier of the Chinese Government, the. Viceroy of the Imperial Province of Chihli, and the power behind the throne which governs the fate o£ nearly five hundred millions of people. la his own Province he has almoat supreme control of a population more than half as large as that of the whole United States, and here a wink of his eye can cut off a head. He has more power than any ruler in Europe, with, perhaps, the single exception of the Czar, and he is almost tap sole representative of the Government jn its dealings with foreign nations. Ho has control of the Chinese navy. His army is hy all odds the best in the empire, and he has at his beck ten thousand more troops than tbe (standing army cf the United States. Theae troops have been trained by European military officers. They are all armed with the latest of modern guns, and they know no master but Li Hung Chang. They are, in fact, practically his slaves, and when an officer of the army disobeys his orders or makes a false move he is called to the palace and asked to explain. When he cannot ihe Viceroy sometimes grows very angry, and there are instances I am told, in which he boots the kneeling official clear out of the yamen. II HUNG CHANG IS THE MOST PROGRESSIVE CHINAMAN OF TO-DAT. He was the eon of a great scholar in the province of Anhui. His father was, however, poor, and he had no official rank. Li was given a good Chinese education, and he soon jumped to the front as one of the greatest scholars in China. He passed three public examinations.. Twitch means that he was three times one of the two hundred successful men out of the fifteen thousand competitors, and at his last examination he took the highest degree of the whole fifteen thousand. He is a member of the Hanlin College, the most learned body of China, and he had a great deal to do in the education of the emperor. His scholarship gave him ;the position or military secrotary to'' General Tseng Kuo Fan, one of China's most famous statesmen of the past, and from here he rose to the governorship of the state-of Kiangei. He was acting an such during the Tai Ping rebellion, and it waß he who, in connection with the American adventurer, Wardj and Chinese Gordon, put down this rebellion. Li Hung Chang was the commander-in-chief of the Imperial forces, and the rebels were slaughtered by the millions. It is estimated that 10,000,000 of people were tilled during tlm rebellion, and when it was over Li's fortune was made. Tins was away back in the fifties, and Li Hung Chang has since then been the leading figure in Chinese history. He rose from his governorship to be viceroy of Wuchang, nod as eueh controlled millions of people in central China. He was next made the viceroy of this, the imperial province. His capital here is one of the biggest cities of China/ and it contains more than a million people. It is the centre of the northern trade of the empire, and Li fy^ control of everything that comes into North China.' This trade amounts to many millions of dollars a year. HE IS A FUSE CHINAMAN, but he has adopted many modern methods. He manages his great official force much like one of our western executives, and he has a staff of interpreters who keep him posted on what is going on over the world. He subscribes to the clipping bureaux and everything that is printed in Europe and America concerning China is sent here and translated for him. He haß control of the Chinese telegraph system and it was he who introduced the electric wire into China. From his capital now runs more than 8000 miles of wire, connecting him with the emperor and with the governors of all the provinces, And he has the news of all the world cabled to him daily. SEEKING AN IHTEBVIEW. But let me describe the interview I had with this great statesman in his palace. It was arranged for me through the American conaul to Tien-Tain, Mr Sheridan P. Eeade, and the secretary of the Chinese Navy, the Hon Lo Feng Luh. This last man is the Dan Lamont of Earl Li. He is his private secretary and confidential emissary in all matters connected with foreigners. He speaks English and French perfectly, and is well p»sted on English and French literature. It was he who acted as my interpreter with the viceroy. I rode to the palace in state in a box-like chair covered with the finest of blue cloth, with linings of light-blue satin. This was swung between two poles, each twenty feet long, and was carried by four Chinamen in a livery of blue and red cotton. They wore high black caps with turned up brims, and on the top of each cap was a taßsol of silk of the gaudiest red. It is about four miles from my hotel to the palace and the route ' lies through the busiest part of this, one of the busiest cities of China. Leaving the hotel we went past mountains of merchandise stored in bags and lying on wharves along the Pei-Ho, and cub our way through the narrow streets of TieiiTsin. We paßsed hundreds, I might say thousands, of Chiuese stores and workshops of all descriptions, and going through wall after wall and gate after gate, crossing great bridges which closed to let us go over them, until at last we came to a big one-story building, the front gate o? the wall which Burrounds the hundred odd houses which make the residence of Earl Li. These houses are of one story and axe built about courts. The ! first court is guarded by soldiers and by two green wooden lions with hideous faces, and beyond this are great doors on which are painted the Chinese gods of war. Before these my chair waa set down. My Chinese card, a strip of red paper six inches long and three wide, bearing the Chinese characters " Kow Ping Teh " (Carpenter), aud nieaning, I was told by the man who wrote the card for me, " energetic, bright, brilliant," was carried into the yamen, and a moment later an official motioned ma to enter. THE RECEPTION KOOM. I was first led into two reception rooms, and was given a seat in the more honoured one of the two, tho place reserved for Chinese mandarins of high rank. It was rather ragged for a palace and for the ruler of such a vast people. Ifc was, I judge, 30ft square and 12ft from floor to ceiling. Arouud the wall ran a divan 3ft wide, and so high that when I sat upon it my toes j just touched the floor. This divan was j covered with the cheapest of red cotton ! cushion?, each of which was about an inch I in thioknesa and about 3ffc square. Above J these againßb the wall was a strip of Japanese red and blue flowered goods, porhapa a yard wide, and from the ledge oi the divsn huag down a Turkey red cotton curtain Hft long. There was no carpet on the floor, and the paper on the wall cost, I venture, eight cents a roll. The whole outfit of the reception room could be knocked tip in America, for 25d015, and there was nothing ostentatious about it. The callers, however, made up in the gorgeousness of their costumes for the lock of splendour iu their surroundings. There were mandarins in f ura which must have cost hundreds of taels. There were officials in the fiae.st of silks, wearing the costlieut jewels, and a

moment after I arrived a servant brought in two cups of tea of a variety too precious to be exported to the United States. Thia tea was placed upon a little table which rested upon the divan, and it had not had a chance to cool before the secretary of the navy entered. He was clad in dark Bilks lined with the finest of fur, bucH as our belles use for the lining of their opera cloaks, and he had on his head a cap with a bntton of rank. He chatted with me aa we sipped our tea, making a loud noise with our mouths in doing so, according to Chinese etiquette, and the conversation ranged from politics to photography. THE GREAT MAN. After a timo the word came that the viceroy was ready to receive ua. We rose and nalked out behind a gorgeous but sombre official, who held my red card high up in the air before him and strutted like a drum-msjor. We walked through long corridors running round open courts, and at last came inte a large parlonr furnished in half Chinese, half European style. Here, near a Japanese screen by a table, stood a tall old man to whom the secretary of the navy bowed low aa he introduced me. It was Li Hung Chang, the great viceroy of China. His personality impressed me even more forcibly to-day than when I met him in the same room five year3 ago. He is now Beventy-four years of age, but he stands firmly, and his long gown, which reaohes to hia feet, makea him look like a giant. Ho is, in fact, six feet two inches in his stockings, and the thick soles of his Chinese shoes add another inch to his stature. He has a slight stoop. His shoulders are broad, and in hia prime he must have possessed great muscular power. He ia by no means an old-look-ing man to-day. There are few wrinkles in his cream-coloured face, and his straggling beard is black, mixed with silver. His eyes are black, bright and piercing, and the eyelids are of the pronounced almond shape. He has high cheek bones and a full forehead. His black queue is mixed with gray, and his head when I met him to-day w»b crowned with a black satin Chinese cap, in the front of which glittered A SOLITAIRE DIAMOND AS BIG AS THE END OF TOUR THUMB. Li Hung Chang received me with a otataly bow, slightly bending his body, but not offering his hand. He then motioned me to follow him. and conducted me into the second parlour, where he receives visitors of State. Here he seated himself at the head of a long table and placed me on the left, which 13 the Chinese seat of honour. The Secretary of the Navy sat on hia right and aoted as hia interpreter. The American Consul laughed at me when I told him I expected, to get an interview out of the Viceroy. He said the Viceroy would do the interviewing and that I would be the subject. I found it even eo, but between his questions I managed to interject enough of my own to get a deal of information concerning himself and his country'. The talk commenced with his asking me how old I was. I told him, and thereupon said that I hoped that if I lived to be seventy-four I would look as Healthy and be able to work as hard at that age as he did. I said to him that he looked no older than he did when I was here five years ago, and asked him what was the secret whereby he was able to retain his wonderful youth. - As this was translated to him the viceroy's eye brightened. I could see the remark pleased him and he replied: "You are right when you think £ have good Health. Ido a great deal of work and I expect to do a great deal in the years to come. In your country people say that a man should divicje His day into three pacts. Eight hours should be devoted to sleep, eight to out of door exercise and eight to work. I sleep only five hours a day. I work about twelve Hours and I take a regular amount of exercise every day. I think my Health ia largely due to my temperance and to the regularity of my habits. £do everything by rule and I plan my work systematically. I don't worry and I sleep well. I required eight hours' sleep until I was thirty years ef age, liut now I find, that five are sufficient; for me. Ido not exercise in the opan air, but take a walk within the yamen every day and limit myself to a certain number of steps." Here Mr Lo, the interpreter, added: "His Excellency takes 5000 steps in the way of exercising daily, and Mb finds this exercise keeps his muscles in good condition, I hear elsewhere that he does not like to go out of his palace because of the pomp which must always attend Him. . THB FUTURE OP CHINA. I referred to the future of China, and asked the viceroy whether he thought the country would be developed by Europeans or by the Chinese. He replied that there would undoubtedly be a great development, and that railroads would cover China aa with a net. He believes that it will eventually do all its own manufacturing, and that in the future it will enter the markets of the world as a great manufacturing nation. Already, He told me, the Btatosmen of the empire are making experiments of all kinds in this line, aad their cotton factories are to-day among the largest of tbe world, and other vast worko are planned. He gave me to understand, though he did hot use these words, that the motto of China from now on would be " China for the Chinese," j and intimated that the Chinaman could I Hold His own against the world as a worker and manufacturer. He was very gracious in Hia treatment oP me, and the interview lasted for nearly an hour. It was closed by the bringing in ol three glasseß of champagne, after the sipping of which the viceroy walked with myself and Mr Lo Ib'eng Lull out to the outer door of the yamen and shook my hand in American fashion aB He Baid good-bye. THE GLADSTONE OF THE ORIENT. From further enquiries I learned something more of the habits of this wonderful man. He is, as you know, the Gladstone of the orient— the grand old man of all almond-eyed Humanity. He does aa much work as Gladstone, and at more than three score and ten He is intellectually and physically sound. He worka all day and lies down at night and Bleeps like a baby. He rißes very early, and His first meal ia taken at *J a.m. This consists of birds' nest soup, rice congee or rice soup, and a cup of coffee without milk or sugar. He adds to this one or two grains of quinine and takes these at the close of the meal. After breakfast He goes at once to work. Hia office .is next to His bedroom. He finds about a bushel of dispatches from all over the empire and the world on his table as He comes in. He glanc9s over theae, rapidly telling hia secretaries how they should be disposed of. Sometimes He jots down a note in Chinese characters upon them, indicating the action to be taken in regard to them, &vA at others calls in the men who have charge of the departments to \7hich they refer, and gives his orders orally. By eleven o'clock he has looked through the pile and bas dealt with such others as have come in. Hia private businesa now commands hia attention for a time, and at twelve o'clock He is ready for his luncheon. Thia is a sort of Chinese dinner, and ib usually comprises about eight courses. First, there iB a soup served in a little bowl. Next, some shark's fins, which he eats with hia ivory chop* otioks, and following theae, other dishes of meats and vegetables, all cooked so well that they may be picked apart with the chopsticks, and so that His teeth have

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practically nothing to do. After dinner he goes to his work. He next takes his exercise, and during the day, when he wants to rest his brain, he amuses himself in copying the best specimens of the .Chinese characters. In other words, HE WRITES THE ALPHABET OVER AND OTEB AGAIN. The Chinese language, however, contains, all told, something like 40,000 characters, so you will see he has a variety even in his play. He goes back to his work after supper, bnt spends a part of every evening with his family. His favourite wife died a year or so ago, but his second wife, a woman of about forty, is still living, and I am told he manifests no disposition to take a third. He has now three eons and two daughters, and about a dozen grandchildren. He is very fond of his grandchildren. They play with him, crawl all over him, pull his beard and queue, and tyrannise over him just as they do their kind in the humblest families of the empire. His cbildren have all a good education, and they have been brought up under a foreign tutor, an American, who is a graduate of one of our beßt colleges. The brightest of the lot is the younger of the two boys, Lord Li Ching Mai, who is still with his father, but who has been given a place in the official service of China by the Emperor. He is only seventeen years of age, but he jjpeaka English as well as any American college student, and he has already a good English education. He takes after his father in his physique and in his intellectual ways. He is already nearly six feet in height, and I see considerable resemblance between his features and those of the old viceroy. He is, I am told, possessed of great natural abilities, and it is predicted that he will do much for modern progress in the China of the future. >^ B> "^»' B »S*S^MSaWSSISWSWSSMWSWWWSIi» ,". •