A hundred li to the east of Hong-shiih-ai, over two impassable mountain
ranges, are some considerable mines, with antiquated brass and copper
smelting works, and this place, K'ung-shan by name, with Tong-ch'uan-fu,
forms an important center. As is well known, all copper of Yuen-nan goes
to Peking as the Government monopoly, excepting the enormous amount
stolen and smuggled into every town in the province.[Y]
The smelting is of the roughest, though they are at the present moment
laying in English machinery, and the Chinese in charge is under the
impression that he can speak English; he, however, makes a hopeless
jargon of it. This mining locality is sunk in the deepest degradation.
Men and women live more as wild beasts than as human beings, and should
any be unfortunate enough to die, their corpses are allowed to lie in
the mines. Who is there that could give his time and energy to the
removal of a dead man? Tong-ch'uan-fu should become an important town if
the rich mineral country of which it is the pivot were properly opened
up. Several times I have visited the works in this city, which, under
the charge of a small mandarin from Szech'wan, can boast only the most
primitive and inadequate machinery, of German make.
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