Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1896-09-11
ISIS NIAGARA
HIS FIRST EXPERIENCE ON A
SLEEPING CAR.
Asks Every Prominent OnHcia1 His
Age and salary-CIaims He
Cannot Raise $4,000.

niagara talls, sept. o.-lHe special
train bearing Lii Hung Chang arrived
here today at noon.
Rain was falling at the time, and
the visitors dampened their silk blous-
es and gold lace somewhat in the jour
ney to- the Cataract house, where
rooms had been engaged. Immediately
on arriving here, Ii sat for a dentist
and had his teeth examined. The rain
was a great disappointment, as the
vicel.Dy was very DESTROYS of visiting
the American falls in the afternoon
NThere was no cessation in the down
pour of rain until after 8 o'clock, when
the sun struggled through the clouds
Carriages were quickly summoned, and
the visitors spent two hours inspecting
the wonders of Niagara.
At the electric power house of the
Niagara Falls Power company the dis
tinguished visitor had his first expert
ence with electricity the result being
as startling as 1t was unexpected.
With his usual curiosity and desire to
make personal investigation of the ma
chinery before him, he poked at
switchboard with his walking stick.
The metal ferule closed the circuit in
stantly and Lis stick was violently
thrown from his grasp, He was nat
rrally much astonished at the effect
Of the sticks contact with the switch
board, but fortunately he suffered no
damage beyond a good scare. How
ever, he decided that he had seen
enough and went to his rooms, where
he remained until bed time.
Last night Lii and his party passed
their first night in American sleeping
cars. Their meal was especially pre-
hxx k1.A ot,io vail Nd
dining car people, and was quite Hlab-
crate. The menu card was decorated
with the American and Chinese flags
intertwined, and a fac smile of the
autograph of Earl Lii done in yellow,
After eating a rather hearty supper,
Ii sent for George w. Boyd, assistant
general passenger agent of the Penn
sylvania company, who piloted the
train over the line of his company, and
spent two hours questioning him about
railroads. He had map of the Unit
ed States before him, and once he
branched off to the war of the REBEL
ion, asking the names of the states
that seeded from the union.
Ii asked particularly about the bat
ties which Grant participated in, and
all of them were indicated on the
maps for his benefit. He dwelt long
on this subject, and marveled that, al
though the southern forces succeeded
in approaching quite close to Wash
ington, they were never able to capture
that important point. The story Of
the assassination of Lincoln also in
terested him greatly He inquired
what became of Booth and where Lin
coin is buried, and then queried; do
not the Americans regard Lincoln as
very good MANI"
Real object of LIS visit.
The deep interest he shows in all
road matters convinces those who paid
little attention to the subject that his
object of visiting this country is to
study American construction and man
agement, with the view of adoption of
some of the features in proposed gen
eral extension of the China railway
system. In fact the viceroy intima ted
today that he Is negotiating for the
service of an American civil engineer,
who, If he accepts the offer made MIN,
will go to China in the near future and
take charge of the railway extension
scheme now being outlined. Lii says
there are only about 200 miles of sin
gle track railroad in China at present.
Only three trains are run each day
and there is no traffic at night, 4he
SJSltlu DclIlB CTuue anu the ndDllitN
to accident a constant menace III
slept during the night in bed made
especially for him. He declared when
he arose this morning that he h.
rested better than in hotel bed The
preparation of his toilet occupied an
hour, and he then ate some birdsnest
soup and drank cup of tea. At 30
he was ready to receive visitors.
At his request no effort has been
made at fast running, an even speed
of about 80 miles an hour being OBJ
tanned. Even on the train the aaris
bodyguard slept outside the door of his
stateroom.
In the morning Canandaigua was
reached. Here the train left the Penn
sylvania and connected with the New
York Central and connecting lines to
Niagara. The only change was the
substitution of locomotive of the lat
ter company and new train crew.
At Rochester. General Passenger
Agent George Daniels of the New York
Central and E. D. Weeks boarded the
train. AS soon as Lii awoke these peo-
pie were received. He INDUCED in his
usual MISUNDERSTANDING for nearly
three hours. He asked Mr.. Daniels bis
age and salary, and was astonished TO
learn that mis- salary is equal to the
salary of the president of the United
States. The earl said that if he had
some money he would invest in Amer
lean railway stocks. He declared he
was too poor and could not raise $l0,-
900. This statement, from the man
popularity regarded as the richest man
in the world, caused a smile
The run to this point was without
special incident. General Manager
Touey of the New York Central was at
the station to meet the party, and af-
ter Ii paused long enough to ask him
his age and salary, the procession
started for the hotel. All were in
tensely interested in ta-po-tu. the Chi
nese for the great falls, and some of
the party summoned carriages and
started out in the rain to see the sights.