Chinatown Was Made up of One Stretch Along Empire Street
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THE CENTRAL KINGDOM, CONTINUED GO BACK TO THE PREVIOUS PERIOD 1900 It was after foreign soldiers had gunned down hundreds of Chinese (not before, as was reported), that a surge of Boxers laid siege to the foreign legations in Peking (Beijing). A letter from British Methodist missionary Frederick Brown was printed in the New-York Christian Advocate, reporting that his district around Tientsin was being overrun by Boxers. The German Minister to Beijing and at least 231 other foreign civilians, mostly missionaries, lost their lives. An 8-nation expeditionary force lifted the siege. “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY When the Chinese military bombarded the Russians across the Amur River, the Russian military responded by herding thousands of members of the local Chinese population to their deaths in that river. Surprise, the Russians didn’t really want the Chinese around. At about the turn of the century the area of downtown Providence, Rhode Island available to its Chinese population was being narrowed down, by urban renewal projects, to the point that all of Chinatown was made up of one stretch along Empire Street. Surprise, the white people didn’t really want the Chinese around. In this year or the following one, the Quaker schoolhouse near Princeton, New Jersey, virtually abandoned and a ruin, would be torn down. The land on which it stood is now the parking lot of the new school. An American company, Quaker Oats, had obtained hoardings in the vicinity of the white cliffs of Dover, England, for purposes of advertising use. It is not known whether this advertising was to constitute Q-U-A-K- E-R--O-A-T-S individual letter signs atop the range of hills, in H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D-L-A-N-D fashion, or China “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX THE CENTRAL KINGDOM CHINA HDT WHAT? INDEX CHINA THE CENTRAL KINGDOM cloth banners hung down over the white surface of the cliffs by means of cables, or some sort of painting on the white cliffs themselves. It is not known whether this was merely a plan, or whether there was in fact some actual signage erected. In either event, the Dover council was able to secure a local Act of Parliament, creating local authority control over unsuitable advertisings. (It is to be noted that when the predecessor to this company, Quaker Oat Mill, was formed on September 4, 1877 in Ravenna, Ohio by Henry Seymour and William Heston, it registered its trademark as “a figure of a man in ‘Quaker garb,’” bearing a paper on which the inscription PURE was visible, despite the fact that the clothing of the unsmiling portly male figure in their application drawing most definitely is not the Quaker plain dress. Shortly thereafter, the Religious Society of Friends attempted to obtain judicial or legislative relief, asking that there be a ruling or law preventing the use of the name of any church, religious denomination, or society as a trademark or trade name by any commercial corporation, to which the company responded that it valued the “good-will” associated with this trademark at more than $9,000,000. Who is going to recompense them $9,000,000 or more for their corporate investment in this image? –Of course, this being America, Mammon came in first and God second.) Publication, in Providence, Rhode Island, of Friend Augustine Jones’s BRIEF HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE FRIENDS SCHOOL, about the Yearly Meeting School of the Religious Society of Friends on top of the hill. HDT WHAT? INDEX THE CENTRAL KINGDOM CHINA January 2, Tuesday: To improve trade, Secretary of State John Hay announced a United States “Open Door Policy” with China. NEVER READ AHEAD! TO APPRECIATE JANUARY 2D, 1900 AT ALL ONE MUST APPRECIATE IT AS A TODAY (THE FOLLOWING DAY, TOMORROW, IS BUT A PORTION OF THE UNREALIZED FUTURE AND IFFY AT BEST). January 11, Thursday: For most years we don’t have any record, but early in 1901 someone at the Chicago Tribune made up a list of the lynchings which had occurred in America during the previous year. The list had 117 entries — a lynching, typically a white mob of some size hanging an adult black male, had been occurring every three days or so. Because of this list we know that on this day in West Spring, South Carolina, Rufus Salter, suspected of arson, was lynched. The Imperial Chinese government issued a decree to local authorities, that seemed to suggest that they ought not to interfere with the Boxers. January 20, Saturday: John Ruskin died. As part of a plan to control rats and therefore the bubonic plague in Honolulu, Hawaii, firefighters set fire to a building. The fire, oops, consumed most of the Chinese section of the city, rendering some 4,000 homeless. January 21, Sunday: The prelude to the third act of Johann Baptist Strauss II’ unperformed ballet Aschenbrödel was heard for the initial time, in the Musikverein, Vienna. January 27, Saturday: The ministers to China of the United Kingdom, United States of America, France, Germany, and Italy sent a protest to the Imperial Court, demanding suppression of the Boxers. The Neue Bach Gesellschaft was formed to promote the music of J.S. Bach and produce performing editions. Deux épigrammes de Clément Marot, by Maurice Ravel for solo voice and piano, was performed for the initial time, at the Salle Erard, Paris, with the composer himself at the piano. A string quartet by Ernest Chausson, finished by Vincent d’Indy, was performed for the initial time, by the Société National de Musique in Paris. Also premiered was Chausson’s song La Chanson bien douce from Deux poèmes de Verlaine from op.34, and Dans la forêt du charme et de l’enchantement for voice and piano to words of Moréas from op.36. Hyman George Rickover was born. The Social Democrat Party of America held its first convention. China “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX CHINA THE CENTRAL KINGDOM February 12, Monday: Abomey in west Africa was annexed by France. February 14, Wednesday: Repair of the USS Constitution was authorized by Congress — but this was to be accomplished with funds to be donated by the general public (such donations would never total up to more than a few hundred dollars). An editorial in the North China Herald predicted that there would be a massive insurrection throughout China during the following summer, to expel all foreigners. In a turning point for the Second Boer War, British troops under Lord Roberts (40,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry) invaded the Orange Free State. February 15, Thursday: British forces relieved Kimberley, west of Bloemfontein. Selbstgefühl for solo voice and piano, words by Brentano and von Arnim, music by Gustav Mahler was performed for the initial time, in Vienna. “HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE” BEING A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME (JUST AS THE PERSPECTIVE IN A PAINTING IS A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN SPACE), TO “LOOK AT THE COURSE OF HISTORY MORE GENERALLY” WOULD BE TO SACRIFICE PERSPECTIVE ALTOGETHER. THIS IS FANTASY-LAND, YOU’RE FOOLING YOURSELF. THERE CANNOT BE ANY SUCH THINGIE, AS SUCH A PERSPECTIVE. China “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX THE CENTRAL KINGDOM CHINA March: A news item relating to the development of ELECTRIC WALDEN technology: Apple Computer introduced the 40-MHz Apple Macintosh IIfx. Donald John Trump gave a media interview in which he indicated how committed he was to law and order, to the control of mobs, to operating on the basis of strength, to the concept that what governments needed to do was intimidate and maintain firm control over groups of unruly citizens: When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak ... as being spit on by the rest of the world. March 6, Tuesday: The Piano Sonata no.3 op.23 by Alyeksandr Skryabin was performed for the initial time, in Moscow. In San Francisco, California’s Chinatown, a Chinese resident succumbed to bubonic plague. Police would transform the neighborhood into a ghetto by roping off 15 square blocks. They would raid and fumigate the dwellings. Some 200 would be dying of the plague. At the Red Ash coal mine in Fayette County, West Virginia, an enormous explosion killed 46 miners. May 5, Saturday: Peking and Tientsin newspapers reported demands by the I-ho ch’üan “Righteous and Harmonious Fists,” known to the west as “Boxers,” that foreign devils be killed. Although the Boxers were indeed nativist, anti-foreign, specifically they were anti-Christian, and were antagonistic not merely toward foreign Christians but also toward Chinese ones. General Arthur MacArthur (father of General Douglas MacArthur) replaced General Elwell S. Otis as military governor of the Philippines. He would set up his office at the Malacañang Palace in Manila. May 17, Thursday: British forces at Mafeking, South Africa, were relieved after a Boer siege of 217 days. Boxers destroyed 3 villages near Peking, killing 61 Chinese Christians. Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, who would become the Ayatollah religious leader of the Shi’ites, was born (of course, per his very name, in Khomein, Iran). THE TASK OF THE HISTORIAN IS TO CREATE HINDSIGHT WHILE INTERCEPTING ANY ILLUSION OF FORESIGHT. NOTHING A HUMAN CAN SEE CAN EVER BE SEEN AS IF THROUGH THE EYE OF GOD. THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO’S CENTER OF THE AMERICAN WEST HAS AS ITS OFFICIAL MOTTO “TURNING HINDSIGHT INTO FORESIGHT” — WHICH INDICATES THAT ONLY PANDERERS ARE WELCOME THERE.