The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-07
AMERICAN LOAN co. 31 Benedict Bldg.
 S2 Church St.

% @SS4@SS%AN S24NASs ist
 S2 Church St. running time was from 16 to 20 miles an hour. am assured, however, by the managers of the operating depart- ment of the road at Picking, that after the completion of the long bridge over the Yellow River, in November, the time between Picking and Hankau will be reduced to thirty-six hours, This service includes a fast weekly or semiweekly train equipped with din-l ing and sleeping cars. It will make a new departure from the usual manner of operating oriental trains by making part of the journey at night. Even with frequent stops this oriental flyer will not have, to maiEtain high aver. age of speed. #s
 Tourists will no doubt appreciate the inauguration in China of modern up-4 to-date train service. Thus far the managers of the new line have not en- couraged travel over 1t. They have said they were not ready yet to handle tourists and have at times discouraged the pressing requests of women, partic ularly when uneseorted, to make the trip between Picking and Haniau. If the travellers who have thus far used this route chartered special cars, they were allowed to sleep in them over night and thus escaped the native Chinese inn, which is usually quite un- satisfactory to the occidental sight seer or merchant. The nightly charge for the use of the special car for sleep ing purposes Is $10 Mexican or s5 gold.
 Blankets and pillows provided by the traveller are quite essential to q modi- cum of comfort in sleeping in these specially chartered first or second class cars. It is necessary, minus dining car service, to provide meals and to en1- ploy a cook or servant, TO both. ra- tive who can speak English and who acts as cook and servant is very help-, but with the inauguration of the din- ing and sleeping car service parties Of tourists will not necessarily have to resort to chartering cars. The first. and second class ears have as a rule five compartments, With blankets and pillows, together with additional bed- ding, if desired, ten people can sleep in one car. For those desiring to see the country leisurely the slow trains stop ping at all stations and not runningi at night, may be favored. But in that case, unless cars are chartered, not en- ly must the party go to a native inn at night, but the trip Is quite likely to be rendered very uncomfortable by the presence of of undesirable passengers. When the road Is completed three days and two night, instead of four days and three nights, will be occupied in go- ing from Peking to Hankau by the slower trains. The regular fare is charged in addition to the charter price of the car, ranging from $50 to $100 gold for. the entire disance, but thus far no specific number of persons is required to travel in a chartered ear. In some cases two or more per- sons have chartered a car at the same price as was paid by a party of five or more. :
 The native population throughout the route has the appearance of being strong and healthy as well as content ed. There were very few beggars, and these mostly what in America would be termed street Arabs. In the fields the most primitive implements are us- | ed and, aside from some of the cotton goods worn by the men, very little of foreign imported goods could be seen
 There were no advertisements of any kind along the line of the railway. At Pao-ting-fou there was seen an Amer ican cigarette sign, the only outward prominent reminder of our trade ex- ploitatioh. The piles of tin cans and bottles that line the right of way along newly constructed American railroads are not to be found by the side of the new Chinese railways, and, indeed, on one occasion where a foreigner could lnot buy chicken with any amount Of cash the tender of an empty mineral Ewater bottle quickly caused the native to part with the fowl. 'f
 The foreign materials used in the construction of the railroad are mostly European. Both the telegraph and the telephone are used in operating trains A telephone apparatus supplied with a Hong pole containing a wire is used by 1.-the train men to communicate with the nearest station when a train breaks down in the country. One fend of the wire in the polo is hoked over the tel egraph or telephone wire and the other end is grounded. The train master then turns the crank and attempts to call the operator at the next station, The only test to which saw this field telephone put proved q complete fail- lure. The fact that the ground end of the wire was placed on the surface of Ia dry dusty cart road may have &C., counted for this.
 Civil engineers throughout the Far East are watching the result of the bridging of the treacherous Yellow Riv er The river is usually said to be two miles wide where the Picking railroad management decided to bridge lit. The width is 1O,S27 feet, and the new bridge is divided into 102 spans of unequal length, and about six meters
 t1s.68 feet) above the water. The bridge Is not constructed of heavy | ut.,, a4,,,,aI ohanI ht1+ Ia if a Ynnra f,.o II