Boy Scouts on Motorcycles | Page 9

put bathtubs in their
houses and garbage cans on the street comers."
"Well, there certainly is an odor about the East," grinned Jack. "Perhaps
it is the hot weather."
"Hot weather has nothing to do with the sanitary conditions of this part
of the world," Frank went on. "Peking is in the latitude of Philadelphia,
or New York. You wouldn't think so to hear people talk about the
Orient back home, but you'll change your mind if you don't get out of
this before winter sets in."
"Somehow I never associated cold weather with the East," Jack said.
"Why," Frank continued, "this river freezes over about the middle of
December and they run sledges on the ice until the middle of March. In
summer it is often 106 above zero, while in the winter it drops to about
6 degrees below. If the natives were half civilized, you might get the
idea that you were in Ohio, because of the fields of corn."

"We don't know much about China, do we?" mused Jack.
This was Frank's opportunity. Before reaching the coast he had spent
many hours studying up on the history of the strange land he was about
to visit. His father was owner and editor of one of the most powerful
newspapers in New York City, and the boy had had plenty of
inspiration for historical research from the time he was old enough to
read. His father's library had supplied him with all the facilities
necessary to the carrying out of his inclination, and his travels with the
Boy Scouts had brought him into contact with many of the countries
whole history he had studied so enthusiastically.
Now he saw an opportunity of talking China to Jack, and started in at
once. Jack listened eagerly, for, while interested in the past of the
strange land, he was too busy a young man to spend much time in any
library. His father was one of the leading corporation lawyers in New
York, but the boy's inclinations pointed to mining as a future
profession--when he had investigated the wilds of the world!
"We don't know much about China," Frank began, "because for
centuries China has shunned what we call civilization. This is said to be
the most ancient and populous nation in the world, although it seems to
me that history goes back farther on the banks of the Nile and the
Euphrates than on the western shore of the Yellow Sea.
"The authentic history of China goes back 2207 years before the birth
of Christ, while Egyptian records and the data found along the
Euphrates and the Tigris point to a much older organization of men into
communities. However, it is said by some that Fuh-hi founded the
Chinese empire eight hundred years before the date given, when Yu the
Great began to make history.
"One reason why the story of China is so short, comparatively, is that
Ching Wang, the old fellow who caused the Chinese wall to be built to
keep out the Tartars, ordered all books and records previous to his time
to be destroyed. This was to dispose of the stories of wars, in which
China, before his time, was always engaged.

"China has always been at war with the Mongolians. In 1300 A.D.,
Genghis Khan raised a Mongolian army and captured Peking. Later,
one Kublai Khan overthrew the Sung dynasty and established a
Mongolian empire. The members of the defeated royal family drowned
themselves in the river at Canton. This Mongolian dynasty lasted until
the middle of the fourteenth century, when it was overthrown.
"The Chinese governed their own land, then, until 1644, just before
which time the emperor was murdered by native sons. Then the Tartars
got to Peking, in spite of the Great Wall, and established the dynasty
now on the throne.
"One cause of the growing revolt in China is the fact that the Tartars
are still in power. But the Tartars who were warlike enough when
China lay before them for conquest quieted down as soon as Sun-chi
took the throne. Peace has been the rule since then.
"It seem strange, but it is true, that China has not progressed, has not
been given the respect conferred on other nations, because she would
not, or could not fight. Talk about peace all you like, but it is the
fighters that win whether in private or national life.
"China has been kicked about by all the nations of the world, large and
powerful as she is, because it was understood that she could be insulted
with impunity. England put the opium curse on her against only feeble
resistance. She has stood for peace, not conquest, and had been treated
condescendingly, like a big booby of a boy at school who is afraid of