The Railway Conquest of the World

I. Early Days in China

THERE has been much discussion during recent years concerning the remarkable awakening of China in every ramification of progress and industry, but without a doubt the most wonderful manifestation of this movement has been in regard to railways. In 1870, when the United Kingdom was criss-crossed with no less than 15,537 miles of the iron road, and the United States was threaded with 52,922 miles of railway, the huge tract of Asiatic territory known as the Chinese Empire, of sufficient area to absorb easily both the United States and the British Isles, and outnumbering the combined population of the two latter nations by more than 6 to 1, did not possess 100 yards of the steel highway.

This remarkable state of affairs was not due to lack of enterprise or initiative on the part of far-seeing financiers and engineers. It was attributable directly to one influence -- Fung Shui, an unfathomable and insurmountable difficulty -- which thwarted every attempt to bring the great nation on the eastern borders of the Pacific Ocean into line with other countries. The Flowery Land is ridden with mystery, superstition, and a religious fanaticism. These offered an insurmountable barrier to development in any form. The balance between the "White Tiger" and the "Azure Dragon," two inscrutable forces, had to be maintained at all costs, and unless every member of the Celestial community strove to maintain this equipoise, the fates in store for him were beyond comprehension.

An effort to break through the influence of Fung Shui was made in 1875 by a group of Englishmen. The firm of