Japanese stores reopened; many new ones sprang into existence. There was a general expansion of business and a much needed tidying up of public property. Within a week the Russian occupation was no more than a memory; there were no signs remaining of its existence, and the evidence of the war was confined to the few empty cases on the Bund of the mines lifted from the river bed. The Russian lettering disappeared from the signs and public notices--the Chinese covered up theirs under white paper the very day of the Russian evacuation--and than the Chinese none seemed more pleased to be under the new regime, none showed so unmistakably that public confidence was restored. The Chinaman does not regard the Japanese as being good business people. He thinks they are good soldiers. He knows they get the best guns, and the best ships, and with these drive the Russians back. As to the future, the Chinaman believes the trade of Manchuria will belong to him. A large number of small Japanese merchants started in business in Newchwang, and after a very few days it was found that the small capital they had possessed was already in the hands of the Chinese. At present the Japanese are using as interpreters a large number of Mahomedans, some of Tung-fu-hsian’s men, and others from Shantung, who have Japanese women in their harems. These Mahomedan Chinese are doing all the business for the Japanese with the natives of the Fengtien province, and they are making large profits, and will do better as the Japanese army extends farther north. The Chinese have no fear of Japanese business competition; when it is a matter of buying and selling, the Chinaman is sure of being able to hold his own. He knows the Japanese will not take bribes, but he has found out that the Japanese like to find money in their pockets without knowing how it got there, and John Chinaman is going to show Mr. Jap how to do business in Manchuria; and make money whilst teaching him the lesson. CHAPTER XII Contrasts and Comparisons At Newchwang there were all the elements that tend to characterize the Russian military rule. It has been stated repeatedly that the Russians at Newchwang were guilty of barbarities, that they abominably ill-treated Japanese refugees, insulted the foreign lady residents, made themselves feared by their outrageous conduct, and required the constraint a European joint occupation of the port would impose. The facts do not support the irresponsible reports of those journalists to whom the conditions of Russian life were new. Foreign ladies were not habitually insulted by the Russians, nor were the residents, European or Chinese, ill-treated or outraged. The only cases I saw of wrongdoing were petty pilferings by Russian soldiers from Chinese pedlars, and common and unmitigated cruelty to animals.