THE HOLIDAY SEASON
How It Is Kept by Both Rich and
Poor in Chicago.
WORK OF SOCIAL SETTLE ME NTS
Salvation Army Provide* Chrlnlwni
Cheer for Mirny ThouxHiidn—The
Public .Mutt' the Turkey—l-'en
tivltles ot Middle CllltiHeH.
Chicago.—As the holiday season draws
near interests in the social settlements
and the missions of
every large city in
creases among the
ill missions that, thou
mas festivities and
even undertake to
provide Christmas
——presents especially
Miss Jans Addams f()r , he chil(lren>
and Christmas dinners, either at home or
at the settlement houses for the families.
At practically all of the social settlement
houses no discrimination is made so far
as creed is concerned, and all are given
an equal welcome without having any
special religious teachings forced upon
them. The same is true in the majority
< 112 mission churches and Sunday schools,
1 hough at times one will find ono that is
narrower than the general rule.
An instance of this kind may be cited
In the poor district of the South side. A
wealthy Michigan avenue congregation
maintains a mission there attached to
which is both a kindergarten and a sew
ing class as well as a Sunday school.
The pastor of the church objects to any
child receiving the benefit of the kinder
garten who does not attend the Sunday
school, or any mother receiving any
benefit from the sewing circle who is
not a regular attendant at the mission
church. At this mission a Christmas en
tertainment is to be given, but it is for
the members of the Sunday school only,
and the other little waifs and strays of
the neighborhood will not be permitted
to view the festivities.
T'Hull llouxe.
In the Ghetto district of the West side
IT nil House is the great rendezvous of
the poor at Christ- __________ I
mas time. Miss
Jane Addams ex
erts a wider influ- 112 rtt\ C^)
ence among the ( .
poor of Chicago \jj
than any other one /|jLO «01l
person engaged in / c r s J
philanthropic work
in the city, but she ufvzT frTl 3S
does nothing that Jj fi P
is not practical for i|j[niJ IHD- D3J
them. Every
Christmas ar- ~
rangement at Hull "
House is devised
for practical pur- *
poses, and though Huli Hou * e
the charities distributed through this
great institution at this time of the year
are manifold they are not indiscrim
inate.
Hull House as it stands to-day, with
its commodious buildings, its far
reaching influence, is a growth of a lit
tle more than 14 years. It is the product
of an European trip by Miss Addams
and Miss Ellen G. Starr. On that trip
they studied conditions among the poor
of Europe, and determined to do some
thing for the poor of Chicago. They had
nothing to start with but their own in
domitable courage, but they rented ona
floor of a building—a ramshackle affair
erected by Charles Hull in 1859, and in
1889 used by sweat shop proprietors, old
clothes and old rag men—and here be
gan attracting about them the poor and
outcasts of society who needed the guid
ance of a stronger personality than their
own to help them upward.
Miss Addams explains its object and
its methods in this way: "It must be
grounded in a philosophy whose founda
tion is on the solidarity of the human
race, a philosophy which will not waver
when the race happens to be represented
by a drunken woman or an idiotic boy."
With such a foundation it is small
wonder that Hull House is one of the
bright lights of the Chicago holiday sea
son.
TIIO Salvation Army,
Of all the many organizations which
work in His name for the poor of the
city none are more
i appreciated or ac
i complish greater
' results than the
? ' Iraf . Salvation Army.
W For ' lays past a
S Salvation Army
JillWki"' ft ■ lassie has stood on
every corner of the
Jill downtown streets
W 1 K,A{ holding a stick
I I ! from which was
1 <*l suspended an arti-
J j \ ficial turkey, into
&// JgejuL, which the public
were invited to
drop 1 heir spare
1 change as "stuff-
ing." The artifi-
S«ouring Stu'f n,: [or the { . ial turkey was em
blematic of the use
to which 'he money collected was to be
put—the purchasing of a Christmas din
ner for 10,000 or more of Chicago's poor.
Nor is the dinner all that is to be given.
The sad-laced child, into whose life
Christmas festivities do not come, Is
made happy by the present of a small
toy. The thinly-clad boy or girl or
man or woman is provided with some
article of suitable clothing.
This is the one time in the year when
the Army gives without demanding
something iu return. The rule of com
pensation for the assistance given at
other times is dispensed with during
this'one day. It is a Christmas present
in the full sense of the term that is re
ceived.
It was some five years ago that the
Christmas dinner idea was first at
tempted on a large scale by the Army.
At that time they undertook to feed 20.-
000 people in New York, and fed instead
50,000. From that the idea grew to a na
tional effort, and las', year it fed 300,000,
ranging from 200,000 in New York to
a few hundred, or even down to a few
dozen in the smaller cities and towns.
Families are provided with basket
dinners. Into each basket must go a
turkey, cranberries, mince meat, flour,
fruit, and in fact everything that goes
to make a Christmas dinner. In cases
where it is needed, the fuel to cook the
dinner is supplied, and even the car fare
needed to come and get the dinner is pro
vided. The basket dinner idea is grow
ing, and its growth is encouraged by the
army. It not only provides a eheeful
ness in an otherwise dreary home for the
day, but it helps to maintain a feeling of
self-respect on the part of the recipient
as well. For the homeless, including the
newsboys and other street waifs, the
great public dinner, with its after enter
tainment, is one of the bright spots of
the year.
ClirlHl til an Plenxnrea.
The Christmas festivities of those not
dependent upon the charitable organiza
tions for their
share of seasonable P" T ...... i
cheer is varied. In
the wealthy homes
it is becoming more
and more a day de- W tSjflMiSSgk
voted to Ihe ehil- •{
dren. The Chicago c Bay*
millionaire is a V fv \
home lover, a fam- 11 IS. \
11 y lover. On J V
Christmas day the
children and grand
children are gath
ered about the 'V'
home fireside, and / *-*
the little ones are ''
made happy with
an over-abundance I——
of cos 11 yto ys. ° Ltd ° or Chr.stmM
. . , , P.easurjs
With this class the
day is typical of the farm Christmas in
many ways—it is a family reunion day.
The middle classes take to the thea
ters in the afternoon and evening. The
Christmas matinee is one of the most
profitable performances of the year, and
for the evening every house is sold out
days ahead. Church entertainments
provide amusement for thousands of
others, and still others, especially the
younger element, turn to outdoor sports.
Should Jack Frost fail to cover the
park lakes with a heavy coating of ice it
would spoil the Chrislmas pleasure of
thousands. This is the most popular of
outdoor winter sport in Chicago, because
it is the most practical. There are no
hills for coasting, though in some of the
parks artificial toboggans are built. The
middle classes are «ot owners of horses
and sleighs, and the supply at the liver
ies are both limited and costly.
To no other city in America probably
has the country contributed so large a
percentage of the population, and back
to the country go thousands for the holi
day season, there to find a mirth and en
joyment that is not possible in the city,
and in the foreign settlements the
Christmas festivities are patterned after
those of the fatherland.
Chicago I'rovlnclnliam.
Chicago provincialism was illustrated
to a Harvard man, direct from the ef
fete east, during
— ~~~the recent stock
a}-T : 7Tr s^ow a( - the stock
:•«' i J£>rds - " was tll€
£jreasterner's first
jp&j J <i r visit to Chicaeo,
v\i J ant * ' ie came to be
- i IJJ A "< ve most any
thing of the woolly
©♦PI 1 west. Of course,
|p§ij| IJ I I he visited the
riHK I stock show, and
tiffs ~if\ Til white there met
IPSMA twoor three friends
college days,
~ no w prominently
connected with the
packing industries
~^r— —————'of the city,
A Bit 0. Chicago Pro- "Let all Of US go
vinc.alism , ,
in over here and
have a drink together for the sake oi
college days," said one of the Chicago
friends, pointing to a small saloon
across the street.
It was not a commodious place, and
there was nothing for it but to line up
against, the bar and drink.
"What will it be?" asked the Chl
cagoan.
"Is it possible to secure an old-fash
ioned cocktail?" asked the Harvard
man. with trepidation, after looking
about the place.
"Whisky can't go in this crowd," re
tured his friend. "Champagne isn't half
good enough. Give us a quart of it,
Mike."
The bartender opened up the bottle
just as though he was used to it, and ho
is, and the trio disposed of two or three
of them before quitting, but the Harvard
man pronounced that the lilit when he
told me of it.
"Drinking champagne, of genuine
French vintage at that, over a stock
yards bar," said he. "Why, I wouldn't
have believed it, even of Chicago, if 1
hadn't been there myself. Such a pro
ceeding is wilder and woollier than any
thing I ever dreamed of."
But drinking champagne over a bar
Is an every day occurrence in Chicago.
WRIGHT A. PATTERSON.
CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1903.
| The Making of a New 9
j Gity of Galveston |
How ih". Water Gateway of the Southwest I£to Be I
Protected From the Ravages of Storm and Tide.
€ALVESTON will within the
next three years bt in a posi
tion to bid defiance to the
' worst storm and tidal wave
which the Gulf of Mexico can
kick up. The 17-foot sea wall
facing the gulf side of the city has been
about completed, and the work of rising
the grade of the city to the level of the
top of this barrier is to begin, according
to the terms of the contract, within the
next CO days. The board appointed by
the governor has awarded the contract
for this work. The plan which the con
tractors propose is to construct a canal
20 feet deep from the bay inside and
about 200 feet from the sea wall. They
estimate that it will take 11,000,000 cubic
yards of filling to raise the city to the
level of the sea wall. This gigantic en
gineering feat will, when completed, take
its place as one e>f the nine wonders of
the world, and will cost the county under
the contract price of 18% cents per cubic
yard nearly $2,000,000, for which the
city will issue bonds.
At the time of the awful catastrophe
of September, 1900, when the city was
almost wiped out of existence and 6,000
residents perished, the prediction was
quite generally made that thecity would
never be rebuilt; that the thriving me
troplis had received a blow from which
she would never recover. Industrious
newspaper men and magazine writers
under such captions as "The Solving of
Galveston's Problem,'' "The Lessons of
Galveston's. Flood," etc., told how Gal
veston's site might be abandoned for a
safer location. La Porte, the only ele
vated point on the Texas coast, being
35 to 40 feet above the mean sea level,
was picked out as the probable location
of the new Galveston. Twelve members
of the rivers and harbor committee of
congress, with Chairman Theodore F.
Burton, of Ohio, at its head, inspected
La Porte. A ship canal was projected
I 1
* 30 O" «l ' J ° f' fi /70
~r> f—l I fi /112 /ft TKctte H WI9OO
, N —A ;
i \ !
?' T ? rMcHtV ' i7f 'EL 9OeiT*fNtHiV/t4f
1 _ - ]j
«- <r'C>>, </'£•So -j ,
P/LES V'O" CroC
IOVC ruOIA/A i.
2FTP 30FT Lohg. J J* I
IRAN VERSS SECTION OF THE GALVESTON SEA WALL.
which was to be 25 miles long and from
20 to 22 feet deep. Over eight miles of
the canal had been completed at that
time and the construction was being
pushed. It was proposed to establish a
dry dock and naval station at La Porte
which would cost from $8,000,000 toslo,-
000,000.
But Galveston refused to be pushed
off the island, or be run out of business
by a little thing like the Gulf of Mexico.
Something of the Chicago spirit possess
ed her. If Holland's 1,000 spare miles
of territory, much of it below the sea
level, and which supports 1,000,000 souls,
could be protected by .'OO miles of dikes
along the Zuydtr Zee, surely Galveston's
few miles, five to 17 feet above the level
of the sea, need not be abandoned be.
cause once iu its history the water had
risen to a height of 15 feet and the wind,
the fiercest known to annals, had blown
120 miles per hour. The protection of
Holland, the elevation of large portions
of Chicago, and of nearly the whole of
Sacramento, Cal., proved that the Gal
veston problem was merely one of engi
neering detail.
Never for a single hour, even during
the darkest period of the awful storm,
has Galveston entertained the thought
that the city would be wholly or in part
abandoned. Eight days after the stearin
vessels were loading at the wharfs. The
local papers never missed an issue, al
though for a few days their editions were
single sheets, the size of hand bills, run
off on job presses. The banks opened
for business on the' third day. Me ra
diants ordered new stocks of goods as
soon as the telegraph lines were opened.
It had been saidthattherebuildingofthe
railroad bridge would take two months,
but in 12 days trains were running regu
larly into the city.
Galveston is the natural water gate
way to the southwest. The city is built
on a narrow strip of sand 30 miles long
and one to three miles wide. It has been
well said that the city was born of geo
graphy and commerce and that she can
not die while there are a great west and
ships that goto sea. The economic
causes which made Galveston the fourth
general export port of the country still
exist. The year's business following
the storm showed substantial increase
over the year preceding. Cotton re
ceived to August 31,1901, was $2,177,983;
that received to August 31, 1900, was
$1,710,203. The grain exports for 1900-
01 were 14,010,378 bushels, that for the
year before the storm, 1899-00, were 13,-
531,839 bushels. At least $5,000,000 has
been spent in repairs and restoration of
the city since the storm of 1900.
But the all-absorbing problem has
been the protection of the city from fur
ther Inundation. In 1902 $1,715,217 were
spent for permanent protective improve
iixeyts. The appropriation made by con
gress lor deepening and widening the
channel in theinnerharborwas?3oo,ooo;
for repairing the jetties $750,000. In
the fail of 1901 a board of engineers was
appointed to study the problem and re
port on the best method for protecting
the city. This board reported in April,
1902, and work was soon after begun on
the sea wall.' This wall is built of con
crete and is to protect the east and south
sides of the city, with a levee to pro
tect the city on the west. The work on
the sea wall and levee has progressed
far enough to permit the beginning of
the work of rising the grade of the city.
The sea wall is 3Vi miles long with its
top 17 feet above mean low water. This
wall is founded on piles and protected
from undermining by sheet piling and
riprap. The sea face of the wall is
curved so that its upper portion is ver
ticle and its rear face is to be filled be
lli- * by an embankment, the top of
which will be paved with brick for a
width of 35 feit and planted with Ber
muda grass for a further distance of > J
feet. The levee portion of the protec
tive barriers of the city is to be 300 feet
wide with side slopes of one feet in 25
feet, and is intended to be built upon. In
brief, the city will be surrounded on
three side.- by a structure whose top is
higher than the high water in 1900. The
fourth or unprotected side is that facing
Galveston bay, and here the city is high
er than the highest water ever recorded
previous to 1900. The diagram produced
herewith show? a transverse section of
the sea wall and is self-explanatory.
The total cost of the work undertaken
will be f3,505,040, of which sum $1,294,-
755 was for sea wall. Special machinery
was made for the building of the sea
wall, and by the end of last year the
work was being actively prosecuted. Dur
ing this year this work has been prac
tically completed. Galveston now lies
behind a massive stone wall, but gradu
ally as the skill of engineers is exerted,
the city will rise lip, up, up until her
streets are on a level with the broad.
Hat top of the seawall. Future genera
tions will listen with absorbed attention
to the stories of how Galveston used to
be Hooded by the encoraching waters of
the gulf, of how in the terrible storm of
1900 the city was nearly swept from its
foundations and washed into the biiy,
but they will never see Galveston's
streets rushing rivers of water, they
will never know the horrors of the cat
astrophe of 1300. A new Galveston—a
monument to the triumph of man over
nature and nature's elements. This new
Galveston, rising grandly and confident
ly above the ruins which the raging
waters of the gu' left behind them, was
not so much as reamed of before the
eventful year of,» 900. Frequently the
city had previous to tlia year been un
der water, but her people had simply
waited lot* the waves to roll by, and then
went oil doing more and more business,
as the great southwest tievelo,. her
inexhaustible resources. But when the
13-foot tidal wave swept in upon the
city the inhabitants awoke to a sense of
the danger which confronted them, and
the prophecy made over 70 years ago
came true.
Stephen F. Austin, t?ie Virginia pio
neer, who led the firit American colony
into Texas, rode across the coast plain a
few feet above the level of Galveston,
and saw far inland a stranded schooner.
Tho vessel had been carried there by
some great storm wave e>f the gulf and
had been left a strange and hopeless
wreck upon the prairie. "Some day,"
said the founder of Texas, "the elements
which did that will sweep over this
coast again." And they did. There was
no meteorological station In those days
to record the highest of the water and
the velocity of the witui, but the waves
which bore upon their crest the great
schooner far inland and then abandoned
it to the lonely stretches of the prairie
waste may have been as high and mighty
as those that rolled on Galveston in
1900. If that thriving commercial city
resting so dangerously near to the level
of the waters of the bay could only have
realized the full meaning of Austin's
prophecy, perhaps years ago, the build
ing of the sea wall and the raising of the
grade of the city would have been un
dertaken. If it had been seen what would
have been saved? Six thousand precious
lives, and property valued at $17,000,000,
enough treasure to cover the cost of the
present improvements five times over.
Hut it is true always and everywhere
that individuals and cities and nations
provide adequately against catastrophes
only after a crowning disaster lias fal
len. Then treasure boxes are opened and
energies set in motion which brins;
about some such transforming scenu
as that which is being enacted at Gal
veeton, j j j ' jl' if'' .!*>
mil Ml"'!! I'l 1 111 mill 1 111 I llllF I
To Attempt to Make
Soldiers of the Chinese
Army of the Empire to Be Reorganized - What It 8
Now Consists Of —Quaint Body of Soldiers.
Two things serve to arouse at least a
passing interest in the military capacity
of China. First is the warlike situation
in the east with Japan and Russia seem
ingly drawing nearer each day to a con
flict in which China will be vitally inter
ested, and for which that empire must
furnish the battle ground. Dispatches
from the orient tell of China's depend
ence upon Japan for the ousting of the
bear from Manchuria, and the preser
vation of the ompire. Under such condi
tions China would naturally become an
ally of Japan in the struggle for eastern
supremacy. These tilings make our sec
ond reason for evincing an interest in
military China of still greater im
portance jUian it otherwise would be, and
this second reason is the expressed inten
tion of the Chinese government to re
organize and modernize its army.
Even before Caleb Cushing carried
President Tyler's letter to Pelting and
negotiated the first treaty with China in
1841!. the possibilities of the mailed fist
had become a bug-a-boo to the people of
the western nations. So long as China
slept there was no danger; but China
was awakening, and what the awaken
'' *** ' . I
II ■ V
CANDIDATES FOR OFFICE IN THE CHINESE ARMY.
ing might bring, what ambitions the
eastern giant might evince, were serious
questions in both Europe and America.
More than half a century has passed
since Caleb Gushing negotiated our
first commercial treaty with China, and
our first fears seem no nearer realization
than they were then.
In a general way, the Chinese soldier
is a nonenity so far as fighting qualities
are concerned, though there have been
exceptions to this general rule. During
the Taiping rebellion, the greatest of the
many civil wars China has known, the
English Gen. Gordon proved that the
coolies were not cowards when prop
erly led. His "ever victorious" force of
less than 10,000 men, put to route rebel
armies ten times its size. Gordon's force
was officered by foreigners, and had a
sprinkling of foreigners in its ranks, and
it was the fearless example set by thege
men which made heroes of the coolies.
A stranger force was never mustered
A CHINESE REGIMENT PRACTICING AT BATTLE EXERCISES." _
under military banner than this of Gor
don, r.or seldom a more heroic one.
Soldiers of fortune from practically
every nation of Europe and America,
men who were fighting merely for the
adventure and pay the service promised,
yet the power of one man not only made
heroes of them, but heroes of the Chi
nese coolies as well. It was an experi
ment that proved possibilities under
right conditions.
Of callable military leaders China de
veloped but few during the Taiping re
bellion, or since that time. Of the few
Gen. Ching, who served with Gordon,
after his desertion from the rebel forces,
was a notable character, and of great
military ability. During the several
petty foreign wars in which China was
engaged down to the time of the out
break of the war with Japan, no char
acter of anything like equal ability was
tieveloped, nor did the more important
conflict with Japan bring to the front a
leader of such worth as to be classed
with him. This lack of military leaders
would seem to place China as a non-mil
itant power of whom the world need
have no fears.
It takes training to make perfection,
and the training of the Chinese soldier
is the one great essential lacking.
Through all its defeats administered
since the days of the coming of the white
man, the empire has never felt the need
of remodeling its system of training.
In fact, the soldier in China is held more
in contempt than esteem. The men who
are entrusted with the destinies of the
army must prove their efficiency in the
sacred writings of Confucius rather than
in the science of war. The officer.-; of the
army are drawn from those who suc
cessfully pass the civil examination, the
training for which is useless not only
from the military standpoint, but the
administration of civil duties as well.
Aside from these examinations the oi-ly
other test required is intended to prove
efficiency with bows and arrows, a relic
of antiquity scarcely to be imagined
outside the wilds of Africa.
Even with such a force it might be pos
sible to accompii sh something as has been
shown by the success of Gen. Gordon,
were they given any practical training.
One of the prominent features of the
drill of the army consists of teaching the
recruit to assume an attitude and ex
pression to frighten his opponert. At
the time of the opening of the war with
Japan, and.in fact, ai the present time,
much of the armament consists of hal
berds, pikes, bows and arrows and long
smooth-bore muskets, while practically
one-half the men in each regiment are
banner bearers and not armed at all. Of
methods of commissariat nothing is
known, nor is there such a thing as hos
pitals or medical service. The reasoHS
for this state of affairs lie, in a great,
measure, to the fact that funds appro
priated for the army have been misap
plied, and gone to enrich boodling offi
cials.
The Manchu army, which is practical
ly the only imperial army of CiTina,
numbers from 80,000 to 100,000 men;
though on paper it boasts of 300,000. Of
these about 40,000 are stationed in gar
risons in Manchuria, and some 6,000 in
Peking. This army is the support of the
Manchu dynasty, and is recruited al
most. exclusively from the Manchus and
the Monguls.
The provincial army, called the Green
Flags, consists of 18 corps, one for each
province. These various corps are un-
' tier the command of the governor of the
! different provinces, «jid there is no co
operation between them. This fori»
numbers less than 200,000 men,.tfiougli
| its paper strength is more than 500,000.
j This makes the total army of China num
| ber about UOO.OOO men on the present
peace footing, with a paper strength, or
| war footing, of close to 1,000,000.
I That the Chinese arnjy as it now ex
| tsts, with all its crudeness and super
• stations, is useless, or even worse, was
proven by the war with Japan. That it
is possible to make a soldier of no mean
ability of the Chinese coolie was proven
; by Gen. Gordon, but China will have to
I take a long step forward and forget the
j superstitutions of centuries before she
can do in a large way what Gen. Gordon
did with a small force. With militant
j Japan as a drill master, it is possible
] t hat the army of the empire may be made
| into a formidable foeman for Russia,
but it cannot be done if war conies
quickly.
I China, with its 400,000,000 people,
' could easily dominate the east, and pre-
I vent her own disintegration, if she suc
! reeds in making soldiers of her raw ma
j terial, but to do so must be the growth of
; generations and not the work of a day or
j official edict, and the chances are th«
modernized army will not come in tin.e
j to save the empire.
DANIKL, CLEVERTO.N.