The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-07-31
Letter From china.



but lots of other letters to write and more
than enough work to do to keep me busy
all day, has made me slow about writing
more than necessary.
| am just starting out now for ten
days tiip in the country and am beginning
my letter at our first halting place where
we have stopped to rest and eat lunch un-
der the trees on the sters of temple here
on top of hill about seven miles from
Tungchow. My trip takes me away from
home about hundred and fifteen miles
and to go that distance | expect to take
five or six days. tell you travelling here
in China is hard on an American who has
been accu toned TO the fast railroads at
home. To-day am using a Sedan chair,
carried by four men, and so far like 1t first
rate, and find it much easier than the mule
litter we use great deal here In North
China and rather pleasanter than donkey
riding.
The mule litter is a contrivance some
| thing like the cover Of one of our meat
| wagons at home, with cords across the
bottom and swung on two heavy poles be-
tween two mules, the space inside being
filed up with straw or bedding so as to
make it comfortable for lying in. The mo-
ton in such vehicle is anything but
agreeable, being one minute back and forth,
the next sideways ana the next up and
down, or very likely u combination of all
three. The roads about here are so hily
and narrow that you cannot use carts
much until you get farther west in the
Province, where they become more level.
The carts, however, arc not much more
comfortable than the mule litter, or
'shenzc," as we call it, having very heavy
thick Wheels and without any sign of a
| spring, so that one is bumped about and
| rolled around at every rump-a-dump, as
you would be in Il lumber wagon at home.
Travelling in my Sedan chair my men go
| steadily along for four or five miles at
stretch without much joltng or otherwise
| disagrecablc motion, stopping occasionally
| for rest and a smoke The Chinese are
| inveterate smokers.
! Just now is pleasant time OF the year
to travel being plenty warm enough for
Summer clothes and yet not oppressively
| hot. The trees are ali out in full leaf and
the wheat fields very bright and green, the
grain being in head and fast getting ready
| for harvest Our wheat here is very differ
ent from that at home, the stalks rarely
growing more than eighteen inches or two
feet high and not being so well filled out
as in America. How some of our home
farmers would turn up their noses at this
Chinese wheat
| Our seasons are pretty much the same
as at home, Tungchow being about the lat
titude of Richmond the Winter being very
steadily cold from November or December,
with little or no snow, till the latter part
OF February, when it begins to moderate
| and by the middle of April or first of May
is pleasantly warm, there being very little
rain during either the Winter or Spring,
most of the rainfall being condensed into a
few weeks in July and August, the Autumn
being pleasant and dry.
| wish you could be with me on part of
this trip for, have no doubt, you would
see a great many things to interest you
which l shall not think of, for already many
of the odd occurrences here have become
an oli story and l never think of their nov-
city. | am writing now after dark in an
inn by the light of Chinese oil lamp
which consists of a couple of pieces of
thin wick stuff stuck in some bean oil and
giving out, as you might suppose, a very
poor sort of uncertain light
These Chinese inns are one of the most
unpleasant features of life in China, espec-
tally if you have any occasion TO travel in
the country. They are always dirty, black
with the SCOT of years on their walls and
ceilings, with nothing but mud foois
and hard brick hangs or equally hard
wooden bedstcads covered with mats, to
sleep on. In this room where | am to
sleep, tonight there are four wooden bed
and the four chair-bcarcrs, who have no
other place to Sleep there being besides a
lot of bags and bales of goods waiting for
mules to take them farther west or east.
Just outside the front door of our room is
the stable yard where all the animals arc
kept, which always make it pretty lively
for traycler during the night by the noise
, OF their neck bells, the braying of the
donkcys and the yelling of the muletteers
who get up any time in the middle of til,
night to feed their beasts
JU:>S 2ND
Our first nights stopping-pace was at
walled city called Hwang Hien, 90 miles
, from Tungchow, u city within city, il
8 having outgrown its original stone walls
and being now inclosed within seconC
outer wall which surrounds the whole o
of unbuilt-up space; so that in order t.
get into the city proper, you have to g
through two gates.
These Chinese are great wall builders
every city of any size having its high wei
= built stone or brick wall, while very fre
quently in travelling you find villages pre-
vided with a like defense of mud or ston
as protection against raids of robber
= who periodically ovcrrun this countr
here.
lou Will often, too, see on top OF hlg
hill or at the entrance to n watered vale
e among the mountains, a wall of roc
thrown up in time of danger to protect I'll
people from all the country round who fl
c to such places in times of rebellion or rol
a Der raids.
Our road from now on for several day
will be along the wcll-frequented, mucl
travelled thoroughfarc, leading out we
II from Chefoo, the port of this Province,
y the capital, Chenanfoo, 300 miles in the il
d terror. Here we pass many more mul'
and donkeys with their loads on the
1t backs, numbering carts, and awkward-looI
l. ing wheelbarrows, the latter being mu,
g. used for carrying all sorts of merchandis
n They are, however, very different fro
r those at home, the wheel being much larg