The farmer and mechanic., 1907-04-23

= 80 - Widened To the standard
| gauge OF feet - inches which
VIII enable il 10 conuecf win ~
| 'hiheSc railways. The road II also
20 be double-tracked from Dalnr IA
! MOukden
Cntil the transfer is made no mon
| eS VIII be spent on the line Tha
| present accommodations are wretche !
! and tnc trains exceedingly slow Aye
/ aging about ten 70 fifteen miles an
n"ur Tnc passenger cars are on the
/ English style with double benches
T running across the car and = door
/ AZ each end Of the bench at the side
! OF the car. The guard locks you IN at
! each station and the only way YOU can
/ get from one end or the car to the
/ other IS 10 climb over the backs Of
! the benches. There Is no accommoda-
/ tlon Of any sort, no water cooler an I
! no heating arrangement. A small
! kerosene lamp let down through
| the roof is supposed u light each
| car. The night we went up 70
/ Moukden it was bitter cold and we
/ nearly froZe. Sleeping cars are un-
| heard of here, but as there are few
| passengers in the ears, you can stretch
! out on the cross car benches, wrap
| yourself up in the blankets that all
| travellers in this land have to carry
| and sleep fairly Well. our train was
| crowded, however, and we had TO try
to sleep sitting UP so daylight was 4
| good while coming.
We found the station at Mouk den
guarded by japanese, their SentrieS
with fixed bayonets walking the plat
form and scrutinizing each arrival
These soldiers wore European clothes,
1t blue uniform with II narrow red
stripe down the trousers, heavy leath-
CT shoes and cloth leggngS. over
their uniforms they wore armleSS
overcoats made Of the skin of the
long white haired Manchurian goats
The hair was turned inside and the
skin side was turned outwardS which
makes Il warm, SerViceable OVercOat,
but the shaggy white hair showing
around the neck and shoulders and
the skirts gives the Wearer 4 funny
aUDearance Each man carries the
Japanese five shot rife. and a belt
with sword bayonet and two cartridge
boxes which are worn one on each
side in front. They wear the cadet
cap with visor. on the front of each
cap is a star and the band of the cap,
red, yellow or blue as the case may
be, denotes to what army he belongs.
Most of the men now in Manchuria
belong to the red army, while there
are still some remaining Of the yellow
army The blue and the other armies
have been transported back to Japan
and diSbanded. Figures on the cap
show the regiment. At MOukden the
regiment on duty was the 55th in
fantry, which was raised at Kobe The
officers wear different coiOre1 uniforms
from the men, n kind of drab, ana
carry swords and pistols and wear
shoulder straps, the rank being indi-
Gated by the number of the bars.
From the station we rode into town in
Chinese covered cart, solid built,
springlcss affair drawn by two mules
hitched tandem. The town is about
two miles from the station.
| only stopped in Moukden long
~ i,f.a III n
General Straight, and left for 1ai-Ling,
arriving there about nine O'Clock at
night. We secured two rickshaWS
and piled ourselves and our belongings
each Of us carried a big grip and !
three blank ets-into q couple Of rick !
shaWs and started to find Chinese !.
Inn. This is an important trade
centre and q distributing point for
American goods. There was regi-
mont Of Japanese here, but no white ,
men and of course no foreign hotels i
We rode into town about mile over !
rough roads and through deserted !
streets. All respectable Cinnamon ,
retire early and except for Il few be- !
lated travellers and Japanese soldiers ),
there was no one about. A few stray
kerosene street lamps gave a flicker
ing light. Pretty soon Farmers /
ricksaW, a wobbly affair, caught in a |
rut and turned over and he saved him
self by jumping. He informed the
Chinaman as to the result of another
such accident. We hadn't gone far
before his rickshaW fell into another
rut and in his effort to jerk it out the
rickshaw man broke the shaft and
out Farmer went on his head His
rickshaw man discreetly withdrew
and stood not on the order of his go
ing. We thereupon piled the lug
gage in my rickShaW and we set out
to walk We got lost in the devious
and as it was getting late and
bitter cold we stopped at the first
place we came to that Farmer thought
was an inn. There was high ten foot
brick wall and great barred gate
We banged at the gate and hoWled IN
unison and were soon aided by the
watch dogs inside. Finally the house
was aroused and the gate opened and
we went through a courtyard, through
another mud wall and into the Inn.
The Kitchen here as elsewhere was the
first room and we passed through this
ana through a cloth hung in the door
way down Il long room With men sleep
ing on the "kOngS" on either side ana
another doorway into 4 small
er room that the proprietor gave UP
to us as distinguished guests.
The Inn was built Of mud walls
made by weaving fence of straw and
mud on each side. This
sounds crude but the walls made
are about to . inches thick with q
smooth appearance and are almost as
good as brick. At intervals were sash
with oiled paper for lights. The
l.afters in each room ran across from
wall to wall and over this was spread
reeds, then layer of coarse mating
and then mud packed on top. Inside
the building was 90 feet wide of which
s feet was a passage way down the
centre with . packed mud floor and
six feet on each side for the "kongs'
These "kongs" are simply packed mud
EN- bankments on each side about 80
inches high. On top is spread mating
and each guest sleeps here on his
blanket with feet to the wall and his
head to the centre passage way. A
nue runs underneath each king
and in cold weather q fire is built at ,
one end the hot air passing through
the flue in the k ongN and out at a mud
at the other end warns the
sleeperS quite comfortably.
The food is cooked in large earth
en- and iron pots over a fire in q raised
mud oven in the centre room through
which every one passes entering the ,
Inn This is convenient for the cook
lnd also interDOSeS a warmed room
between the sleeping quarters and the
only outlet to the colder air. AS TO I