The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 9, 1898, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, -SUNXDA OCTOBER 9, 1898. 4 '\; i 5 Y A ) HEAD.. kN s QUARTERS OF THE 1. REBELS.. VICTORIA, B.G. Special to The Sunday Call. ICTOR never wa In these sing fa ive with but overth hasty this city se of re the prin in Southern assistance objects of viution. The r of detection, to .troubl the Occident, If he were China de- ssful beyond our most ons,” he said, with a ince the stand- ed south of Wu- day of the sixth ay, according h of July, ed citles We had al slipped ¥ through rs which 7.—That what this revolut m. Regardless of our t of Peking. andthe Ming dynasty, it e conqu: restoration of the means a commercial advantage to the rest of the w that is almost be- nd comprehension. If the Manchu ruling of Chi were broken down and a new dynasty substituted it would have a far-reaching effect 1 prove a stronger barrier against the Russiau advance, which is now causing su much talk in Europe, than all theorlip- atic machinations of _the world's smen. With such a dynasty Rus- hose dream is to succeed in Man- huria, would be forestalled. “But you want to see the flag.” A clap of his hands, and one of the men at the table went to a cupboard and brought out a red triangular flag rs inscribed with Chi- black. with gold bor nese characte To a majority of the Chinese the s on this flag are unintelligi- Two are hieroglyphics which the scholars are unable to ognize 3 , Manchu or Chinese. awracter is complete and ken to mean econd and second is characte ble The ing From the Cities Befcre il sesame-like by attend- 1 back room, where about , in their holiday garb, table, My guide, the in the chorus of voice »n of each sentence through thg dumb cutting off his queue. said my guide, pant “That “when the shed. come,” uccess of our cause is ac- compli. Then came a chant. I would like to have joined that, but the brogue ¥as beyond me. My guide shouted in screechy gutturals: “Out with the Ching, In with the Ming.” T joined with my little tenor and if I can_rely upon what I have been told of China under two hundred years of Manchurian misrule I meant it with all my heart. “This would be the expression of all the Cocnquering Rebels Advance. th of the character the Ching dynasty; - portion of s the word of the Ching lower part hing”'—that is, and the third is the low character used to expr “Manchu.” The top par and Manchu are dispensed with—that is, the heads are cut off. Making the character headl gives this interpre- tation: That the designers of the flag wish to convey to the native mind the fact that the rebellion isdirectedagainst the ruling Manchu dynasty; that they are fighting for Chinese as opposed to the corrupt Tartar rulers, and that they have bound themselves to decapitate the Manchurian rulers. There passed through this city a few days ago, on his way home after some years’ residence in Southern China, Carl Weiner, an Austrian engineer. ~ Mr. Weiner was at Wuchow when the re- port reached there of the Tebel ad- vance on that city, and he paints a strange picture of the sudden evacua- 21 y?/blhy of the Black J';/ays in China The Chinese representative of the imsurgents, who has just reached Victoria, tells what his friends hope to do in the attack on counts his very lively e o il iyl e i nese city attacked by the Carl Weiner, a returned American engineer, re= xperiences in a Chi- insurgents. / the Empire. tion of the town. fic He says the signi- nce of the outbreak cannot be ov timated, for, although apparently but provincial uprising, it is the child a play that must soon grow into a man affair, all of which throw of the present power. Those who are at the bottom of the trouble are members of the young China party, which during the last few years has ent emissaries abroad wherever there numbers of Chinese. They have ded most wonderfully in enlist- ing sympathy. This party has sworn not only to have a new government and policy, but.new ruiers and officials on every side. To accomplish this young China has gained the sympathy—much of it being paid sympathy—of the Tai- pings, a great many of whom are in the Wuchow district. It has been said at Hongkong and other settlements that the rising is but a local affair, and that importance is attached to it only on the ground that it began in the same province as the old Taiping rebellion. There are some, too, who, hearing the rumors, dismiss them, for they know that the people of this district are the most troublesome in all the empire. They are mostly Kwangs, and they are the people wWho cross the Pacific and after a few years’ residence abroad their characters are changed without being improved,. and on their return they become ultra-radical, always looking for_trouble. Mr. Welner was at Wuchow on the memorable Saturday when messengers arrived, announcing the news that the rebels were advancing with their ban- ners and the terrible “Black Flag” waving in the fore. On receipt of this information, which was mouthed about the city, all were thrown into a panie. Bullock carts were at a premium and long trains laden with goods and val- uables were soon on their way to Can- means the over- AN ton. Boats, junks and sampans were hired by evely one who could afford them, and as fast as possible their money and valuables were shipped to escape the looting and pillage which must be the inevitable result of the place falling into the hands of the in- surgents. Mr. Weiner joined the exo- dus, for he had no desire to be present at the fall of Wuchow. “1f 1 had remained another da he said, “I might not have been able to reach here and tell you the tale.” At Canton he found the Chin thorities had taken flight and were hastily making preparations to repel the invaders. But Chinese methods are notoriously behind the times, and the rebels were allowed to gain a fast hold on many districts before the authori- ties were prepared and the chance of nipping the revolution in the bud was lost. The authorities purchased 3000 Mau- ser rifles and a number of machine guns which were sent to Wuchow, but it is doubtful if they were ever re- ceived, for it is reported that the con- voy Jjoined the rebels and the arms were used against the very authorities who purchased them. The three or four native banks of Wuchow were taken by the insurgents when the city fell. “Rebellions in China,” Mr. Weiner continued, “generally come to grief owing to the Chinese greed for loot, all order being lost in the rush for per- sonal gain. The leaders are unable to restrain their followers even if, as sel- dom happens, they are not themselves a party to mercenary motives. The leaders in the present revolution are, beside Dr. Sun Yat Sen—the Chinese saved from the clutches of his country- men at the legation in London—two French adventurers and a German army captain. The ranks are full of Anamites and deserters from the / se au- French army stationed at Tonquin, and a few Black Flags, who have long been known as the best fighting men in China worthy of the name. This, coupled with the fact that they are being led by foreigners, is significant of what may result, for the Chinaman is a good soldier when given a good lead- er, as was fully demonstrated by Gen- eral Gordon's ‘ever victorious army.” “It is fully believed that the insur- gents can make matters very warm for the imperial troops and this was shown a short time ago when they succeeded in capturing nine cities of Kwang Si and swnally defeated the imperial troops in two great battles. ting the people “The rebels are treal ver well,”” said Mr. Weiner. “They distribute among the peasants and small shopkeepers a large portion of {he money and valuables seized In the captured cities and are distributing far and wide pamphlets setting forth the misery and wretchedness, even the degradation which has fallen to the lot of Chinese as a resuit of the greed, ig- norance and intolerence of Manchu- rian rulers. They declare their inten- tion to promptly regard each village, town or city that supplies fighting men without impressment. “At the battle of Wuchow the insur- gents fought a division under the com- mand of no less a personage than Lao a brigadier general in the Chinese yun, Zr‘my_ After the fall of the city fifteen hundred dead and wounded were left upon the field and according to Chinese ehstom the wounded were killed by the victors. A majority of the purple- cooee0 MINING FO Experiments on foot to gathe: The salt works said Francisco Bay. INING gold in concentrated sea water on a salt marsh is a novel proposition, yet that is what a California scientist in- ds to do very soon. ke light to calculate on l):ne gold floating around in hat the salt works of the bay of Those who del amount of loose the ocean figurc‘* ou(h(re . Alameda sho bay lh;fr'\nc\n'r\ are yearly throwing 1,000 3 more of gold after f the bay water 4 hat the ther, they figure 1] t o bay hold in solution 0 worth of gold. has conceived a way t a slight percentage of this gold is J. W. Pack. He _com; pleted a four years' term as assayer o the United States Mint at San Fran- cisco on September 1, and has since been retained as assistant assayer. He has been studying and experimenting quietly for years on the recovery of gold from sea water. - ‘11;1 Pack approaches the problem by indirection and proposes the novel idea of making it a by-product of the_ manu- facture of salt by evaporating sea water. His idea priefly is to start in with the high- ly concentrated “’bittern” which ijs thrown away at such salt works after the salt is secured, instead of be- ginning _opera- tions on the nor- mal sea water. He would start in with raw ma- terial having an assay value 100 times greater than plain sea water. This $40,- 000 worth of gold that s Alameda salt comparatively duced there is f the amount n the world’'s e method on san away $40,000 worth or evaporating 2 little o for salt; waters of the about $300,000,00 The man who recovering at leas thrown away on the marshes in making the small amount of salt prof but a small fraction o similarly thrown away i production of salt by this sam of obtaining salt. : 4 € Mmay be recalled that until 1872 men we s ignorant of the almost univer- Sfillrep?eflg\(‘e' of gold in sea water as they were then of the presence of argon in the air. In that year Sonstadt dis- covered gold in sea water. Silver hz\d been discovered in sea water in 1851, but that element may be ignored here. Other chemists in other parts of the world confirmed the discovery. The contribution to the discussion of the subject which has attracted the most attention was that of Professor A Liversidge of the New South Wales Royal Society, who found that the sea water off New South Wales contained from flve-tenths to ten-tenths of a grain of gold to the ton, or from two to four cents’ worth. Professor Liversidge estimated the bulk of the oceans of the world at 307,710,679 cubic miles. He figured it out that on this basis and at one grain of gold to the ton the world’s oceans held in solution $48,000,- 000,000 worth of gold. This is but a bagatelle compared with all the gold in the earth’s composition and awaiting prospectors and assayers. It illustrates the universality of this hard-to-get metal, which a smart assayer can now find in almost every brick and cobble- stone. ‘At only three cents a ton the gold in the waters of San Francisco Bay would be worth over $328,000,000. “T find the gold in the ocean water proper,” said Mr. Pack, “only in solu- tion and amounting to about 0.5 of a grain—in value about 2 cents—while the gold in the San Francisco Bay is probably about twice that amount, but OODOOOOQOOOOOOOOOOO R GOL coated corpses after being horribly mutilated, were cast in the Si Klang and for days after the people above the Tower dam gloated their morbld curi- osity by watching the dead drift down- ward to the sea.” ‘When Mr. Weiner left Canton the in- surgents were pressing forward toward the city. but it was not thought by Eu- ropeans that they would dare essay its capture, for the leaders know full well that such a course would result in for- eign intervention. There is, however, in Canton much sympathy for the rebels. Itwasin 1644 that the Mings, whomthe present insurgents are endeavoring to reinstate, were ousted by the Manchu- rians. This revolution began with a rebellion in the province of Honan and Shenshi. The rising spread, and in 1645 Peking was captured. The Empe- ror escaped with his daughter, but finding capture inevitable, stabbed her ~nd hanged himself. With the capture of Peking the power of the rebels waxed very strong and all the impe- rial forces surrendered, save the army of Manchuria, which was commanded by a general named Woosankwei. Fail- ing to capture the city, the rebels se< cured the brave general's father, bring- ing him in chains before the walls, where they threatened to put him to death by horrible torture unless his son surrendered. Woosankwei refused and the old man perished. To avenge his father’s death, Woosapkwei made an alliance with the northern tribes, and together they defeated the rebels. Af- ter the conquest the Manchurian mon- arch, who had meanwhile joined forces with the victors, remained in Peking, where he pronounced himself ruler of China, thereby founding the present dynasty against which the rebels of to-day are fighting. INSURGENT SOCIETIES In San Francisco. XCITEMENT in San Francisco’s Chinese quarter over the rebell- fon in China is more intens= than has ever before been no- ticeable, even during the periodi- cal highbinder riots. Placards written on gaudy colored paper are posted in every conspicuous place, and the usual- ly stoical faces of the liongols actually exhibit something like interest in the more than serious news that is being tossed about from mouth to ear. The various “tongs” (secret societles) are crowded both day and night, and all the members are anxious to hear some- thing in the way of confirmatory news of the Emperor’s death. At the Con- sulate little can be learned save the fact that they consider the situation very serious, but all are convinced that the death of the Emperor means an end to the rule of the Manchurian. The merchants seem more willing than usual to express opinions on the grave political condition of China. All seem to realize that the time has come when the people are to be heard, and c00000000 © r the ye! to be throwing away largely in a finely divided state, only a portion being in solution.” This additional value is due to the gold in its natural or pure state which floats in infinitesimally small particles in the water and is mixed with its muddy elements after having been borne downward from the gold fields of the interior valleys by the rivers The purely ocean waters of the bay present only the normal amount of gold in solution as a bromide, iodide or chloride of gold. In the practical process of evapora- tion at salt works the salts of the vari- ous mineral elements crystallize out of the solution at different periods. The caleium drops out first and then the water is drawn off to another vat where the chloride of sodium or salt crystal- lizes as evaporation proceeds. Before all the salt has crystallized out of the solution and before other salts crystal- lize and spoil the salt the solution is drawn off leaving the pure salt in the vat. The residue or “bittern” contains in a highly concentrated solution all the mineral elements except the cal- | a few sanguine ones are confldent that the fall of the hated northern Tartar is near at hand, all of which means a return of the Ching family to the throne, or the organization of & stronger and more liberal form of gov-~ ernment. Either change would be con- sidered a distinct gain for the people, for they all declare themselves tired of the corruption and misrule of the party in power. Li Hung Chang s thorough- ly hated by the Chinese of this coun- try, and they have less confidence in the wisdom of the Dowager IEmpress. At the offices of the Ghee Kung Tong —the simon pure revolutionary society of this country—the excitement has about reached the boiling point, and its members do not hesitate to say that they think the Emperor has been as- sassinated, and even intimate that the murder was done bv one of their num- ber. They claim to be thoroughly fa~ miliar with the visit of their agent to Victoria, and say his mission to that British province is to collect funds, and aid the Ghee Kung Tong In every pos- sible manner in its attempt to over- throw the present imperial Government of China. They say that shipments of arms from the port of Victoria has been going on for some time, and will continue so long as it is deemed neces- sary, or they are called to a halt by the English Government. Eli Tia Kee, a member of the firm of Wing Chong Wo & Co., and a very in- telligent man, born in this country but educated in China, gave his views on the subject as follows: “We are very much in the dark as to what has been done in China during the last few days. We all feel that something serious has happened, but we are unable, so far, to get anything like satisfactory news through the regular channels. The Minister at Washington, in reply to our telegrams, savs ‘I have not been officially notified of the Emperor's death,’ and we can’t get another word out of him. We all know that the in- surgents are 1 aking it very lively for the imperial troops in Southern China, and from all we can learn through private correspondence the rebels seem to have a shade the better of the game. “Yes, I think every Chinese who has seen anything of the world would very willingly take up arms asgainst the present dynasty. Of course you know that we do not consider them even countrymen—I say we with considera- ble reservation, for I am a native of California—but I mean the Chinese peo- ple. The Manchurians are in power, however, and have been for a few hun- dred years, during which time the country and its people have been stead- ily deteriorating, and I believe any change of rulers would be warmly wel- comed. Could we but have something in the way of a liberal and progressive government for China, you would see one of the greatest booms in trade that the world has witnessed for many a year. “The empire is rich in natural re- sources, and could be made the great- est mining and agricultural country on earth. Its many rivers offer the cheap- est of all means of transportation. All that is needed is steam, iron and a lot of Yankee enterprise to make China a great commercial power.” W. C. BUNNER. 000000000000 C0000 D IN SEA WATER Jlow metal as a by-product in the salt works around San $40,000 annually in loose gold. bromide, iodide or chloride on an in- dustrial plan and scale as is now done with its cyanide has ever been sought until Mr. Pack began. Most of the silver now produced is a by-product of copper, lead and gold mines which are not worked for the silver. “To me it is simply a practical busi- ness proposition,” said Mr. Pack, “and I shall experiment as I am abl> to in a practical way and without forming any companies. As a business proposi- tion I now regard this bittern as worth from 50 cents to $1 50 a ton. An elec- trolytic method appears to me most promising.” Almarin B. Paul, the well-known pio- neer mining engineer and writer on mining themes, was the first to intro- duce the cyaride proces this State a few years ago and he he given much study to this subject, which is kindred to Mr. Pack’s problem. In dis- cussing Mr. Pack’s idea he said: “I have read Mr. Pack’s article and I consider his ggestion worthy of consideration and experiment. If there The Black Flags Killing the Remnants of an Imperial Battaiion cium and sodium. The magnesium would crystallize next if the process were continued. The gold which is present is not discoverable by the or- dinary processes of chemical analysis and if it is not specially sought, gen- erally by electrolytic process, it es- capes observation. When the residue or bittern is run out of the vats in which the salt has crystallized it hac been reduced in vol- ume about 100 times. If the original sea water contained 2 cents’ worth of gold to the ton this residue would con- tain $2 worth to the ton. The problem set by Mr. Pack is the invention of a process which will prof- itably recover gold from a solution of bromide or iodide of gold carrying values of $2 a ton or a little less. There will be no element of speculation in the reduction because the values will be constant. No process for getting gold from its is $1 50 worth of gold in the material it can probably be recovered with profit, but the discovery of a process is a mat- ter for experiment and probably of loss in the early ¢ ges of development. “Everything depends upon how cheaply gold may be recovered from its bromide or jodide and upon the quantity that can be worked at onc Processes are constantly getting cheap- er. The cost of operating the cyanide process varies from 50 cents to $3 a ton according to conditions. A process that will profitably handle bittern for its gold must have a very low jcost in power, labor, time and so on. } regard Mr. Pack’s idea as a practical possi- vell as interesting in a sclen- At the Soda Fountain.—Party Walting— Where's my order? sir. Your wink is be- ‘Waiter—Comin, ing deciphered.—Detroit Journal.