Evening star., 1900-08-18

to imagine them little experience is neces-
sary.
One of the Chinese mir listers in Washing
| ton few years ago, in speaking of the va
/ riouS methods of travel said: Yes your
! floating palaces and Pullman cars are all
! right for rapil transit. but for real old
comfort give a Pekin cart
The Pekin cart is like a large Saratoga
trunk on two wheels. The shafts extend
out behind foot and half. and form a
platform which to strap ores baggage
AS the mule trots the cart Is given a rock
Ing motion backward and forward. similar
10 the motion one gets in riding a camel.
me cart Is without springs and the wheels
are made sufficiently strong to carry the
weight II they were without tires. The
tires are put in sections eighteen inches
In length and are only to keep the wheels
from being worn out on the ground. Add
10 this the fact that the Chinese never
work on the roads" but that a road is
wherever the carts happen to drive and
! you get some idea of the solid comfort of
a Chinese cart The passenger is bumped
up and down. until he wishes his brain were
resting upon patent air cushion: he Is
bumped backward and forward and from
s'de to side until, If he Is not careful his
head will be pounded into a jelly or COW
cred over with scars though it had come
In contact with John l.. Somebody's strong
right arm. The only way to sit in such a
cart Is to sit tailor fashion, in which case
your feet go to sleep and your legs become
cramped. You are compelled to arise at
o clock In the morning and travel till about
get your breakfast in Chinese inn
which, if you see it cooking, would turn
the stomach of American pig. Your
bed at night in this Chinese inn is brick
and when you arise in the morning after
having had mosquitoes buzzing about your
ears all night, you are liable to wrap in
yoIr bedding three kinds of insects which,
Tor the sake of my readers tastes 1 will
not take the liberty of naming further
than to say that one is an acrobat, the
other goes with the bed and the third with
the beggar.
For three days you must bump over these
roads. breathing in the clouds of alkal!
dust which is kicked up by your two mules
or, perhaps, by the mules Of a cart or two
Just ahead Of you so that when you come
INTO the Inn you are covered from head to
rect with dust in a way that would make q
coal digger as compared with yourself re-
spectable-looking guest.
Another Choice of Evils.
J Still another method of travelling by dirt
road is by mule litter. The mule litter Is a
sort or a sedan chair swung between two
mules, one before and the other behind If
you are not in hurry and not affected by
seasickness 1t may seem to you that this
method is better than the cart, especially If
you have good mules. If your mules, how
ever, are frisky either the one or the other
Is liable at any moment to jump out from
under his burden and disappear across
grain field, wagging his tail at the passen-
ger he has just left and you are comnelled
to wait until your driver is able to recap.
ture and reharness your snorting steed IT
will be well for you If you do not come
down in anything worse than dust. You are
just as liable to come down in the mud or
In one of the shallow streams over which
you must cross as on terra firma for ford
ing small streams is one of the peculiar an
tlpathies of the Chinese pack and litter
mule. ~
1t should be remembered that one or the
other OF two conditions exist on Chinese
roads Either 1t is an inch or two deep with
Just or a loot or more deep with mud The
former Is the condition of the road between
Ilen Isin and Pekin good part of nine
hiohths. and the latter the larger part of the
other three. These other three months arc
Juiy August and September. AS l have indi-
Gated In cur boat trip you may look ont over
.ne country as far as the eye can reach.
anu you see nothing but water, unless
IL De here and there a village of mud huts
buiit upon some natural or artificial knoll
TO and from which the Inhabitants are com
peileo TO go in boats until the waters suh-
side, and 1t Is a condition of this kind In
more or less due. "
There are two other methods of making
the trip from Tien Tsin to Pekin by dirt
roao- Ine one is by horse, mule or donkey
pack and the other Is afoot. However T
nave known members Of our university in
Pekin who. when going from the civ to
the western hills on horseback had To die.
mount. strip and tie their clothing to their
horses' head and swim with their horses
across the roads. which had turned intcc
rivers. In such condition of affairs It ia
easy TO understand what would be the diff
culties of making a trip to Pekin in the
heat OF August by soldiers who are unac-
customed to the climate, where a drench-
ing rain comes up in half an hour and ones
snoes are covered with a green mold over
nisn1 when they are compelled to carry