The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-06-22
a CHINESE RAILWAY.
Something About Line in the Flow
cry Kingdom Which il Only Seven and
! = Half Miles Long.
\. /. HeraId.I

I = Half Miles Long.
N. Y. Herald
Herr Kiepert gives the following particu-
lars. in the Geographical Reriel0, published
at Brunswick, of a short line of railway
in China, which did not share the fate of
the line between Shanghai and Woosung.
He says that the line in question, which
is only seven and a half miles long, and
which was constructed almost by stealth,
is in the Province of Tcheli, and is used
for conveying the coal from the mines Of
Kaiping, situated about seventy miles to
the Northeast of Tien Tsin, and 105 miles
to the East of Pekin. The Viceroy Ii
Hung Chang was anxious that this coal
should be used for the Imperial navy,
for the arsenals in the Province of
Tcheli and for the vessels of the Chinese
Merchant Steam Navigation Company,
instead of the Japan coal. The simplest
plan would, of course, have been to con-
meet Tien Tsin and Kaiping by means of
railway, but the Chinese would not al
low the English engineers who had been
called in to do this, and insisted upon a
canal being cut. This canal, which
has indirectly been of some service,
as it has had the effect of drain
ing the very marshy district through
which it was cut, could not be brought
right up to the mouth of the mine, so the
English engineers were allowed TO make
railway over the last few miles. But when
the line was made the authorities insisted
upon the trucks being drawn by mules, for
they would not hear of locomotive, which
the engineers of the mine had procured,
being employed. This went on for some
time, but they have now given way, and
two OF three fresh engines have been
brought over from England The Kaiping
mine is worked upon very scientific princi
pies, being provided with all the most ap
proved safeguards. The galleries are
twenty miles in length, and there are sew.
en- miles of tramway. The supply of coal
is practically inexhaustible, but the quality
of it varies very much, and the Tien TsiD
steamers have to get theirs from Japan
The mine from which they might have got
the coal they wanted is only safe with
patent lamps, and as the Chinese will all
ways break the glass in order to light their
pipes, the workings have been abandoned.
The cost OF the coal at thu pits mouth il
only nine shiilings ton, 50 that several
manufactures have been established in the
neighborhood. The mine gives employ
ment to 1000 men, niue-tenths of VIII
work underground, and, though not yet D
success financially, it seems likely to be
very beneficial to the district
How Two Women Keep House.
Detroit Times.l
One is a dressmaker, the other a book
keeper, the latter from comfortable cOun-
try home For a year she endured life in a
boarding house at 81 a week for board and
room 1t was all she could afford to pay out
of her salary of $25 per month. 1t occurred
to her that if she could associate a friendly
dressmaker with her the two could have a
large room and possibly afford the expense
of a fire in long winter evenings, so that
they could sew, read or chat undisturbed-
The dreSsmaker consenting, the two set out
to find room suited to their means, and as
they looked their project grew and resolved
itself into two rooms and system of house
keeping, ON the smallest possible scale, an
experiment.
They scrimped ON their summer bats and
dresses and bought a second Inland parlnV
cook stove and few dishes, rented theh
rooms very plainly furnished in cheap
quarter, and entered ON their new life They
breakfasted together and separated for the
day, the dressmaker returning after tea
The book-keeper comeSs at noon, gets her
simple dinner and leaves the house
work until she returns after 6 o'clock,
and shortly after the dressmaker
comes in. Half an hour suffices
to put their small domain in order, and the
evening is spent in reading, rest or recrea-
ton Gradually their rooms have assumed
a cosy, homelike aspect, tne dressmaker has
bought sewing machine, the bookkeeper a
writing-desk, their food is of better quality
at one-half the cost, and they are vastly
happier in every way.
1t is two years since they entered into this
useful and friendly partnership, and the
| bookkeeper's heart is almost broken because
! her friend has lover who is destined some
| day to break up the cosy home. She wick
! edly hopes that times will be so hard that
they cannot marry or that Providence will
send her a lover or another nice girl TO keep
house with, as the least compensation for
| her loss.