The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-04-27

all are equipped with American rails
Of se~Venty-fiVe pounds each. TWO
railway material imported last year
amounted to more than S2.OOO.OO0
and over one-third of this came from
the United States. All the roads have
American bridges or bridge material
The one on which l crossed the Han
river consists of ten spans Of about
200 feet each, and it was made by the
Carnegie Steel Company. The most
Of the spikes of the DAD north Of
| here came from the Illinois Steel Com
pany, and the ties are largely Amerl-
can. on the northern route many OF
the bridges are OF wood, built on piles.
They were constructed as a military
necessity, and will have to be replaced
by better material. The bridges be-
tween Seoul and Fusan are of steel.
Last year sixty spans Of iron glrderS
were imported from our country for
the system and more are wanted.
All of these roads are operated with
American Olives. There are
now more than 100 in use, the most
of them Bald,yins, made at the Phil
adelphia works. There are ~forty-nine
Baldwin locomotives Of fifty tons each
IN the line between Seoul n An
tung, and some of the cars came from
the United States. The rolling stock
now employed here is more than half
American and it includes 107 ocomo-
tiVes, 90 passenger cars and some
thing like 600 freight cars.
The Passing of the Narrow Gauge.
The Japanese find our standard
gauge far better for their traffic than
the narrow gauge, which now prevails
throughout Japan proper. There are
over 1000 miles Of narrow gauge rail
roads in the island empire Of the mi
kado, and they are by no means suffi-
clent to carry the traffic. In an in
terView which had with Baron Goto,
the imperial minister Of cOmmunica-
tons, he told me that the roads would
nave to be standardized and that
eventually they would have the same
gauge as ours. The government is
Very anxious to do away with the bad
strip between the Yalu and Mukden
SO that through sleeping cars can go
from Fusan to Moscow, st. Peters,
burg and Paris. Such cars would
travel six hundred miles over the
Korean peninsula and hundreds of
miles further before they reached
Russian territory, AS it is now, the
accommodations are SO bad from
Korea to the Trans-Siberian system
that passengers come down to Dalney
and there take ship for Japan: or go
out to NladiNostok and get
there which in the curse of a few
days land them at Nagasaki.
With the new road there will be
only the ferry at the Korean Straits
to cross, and this is done in a night
will no more trouble than a voyage
from Boston to New York or from
Buenos Ayres to Montevideo. In com
ms here my train reached Shimoneski
at 8 o'clock in the evening. By day
break the next morning we were in
sight OF the thirsty mountains of
Korea, and an hour or so later were
landed on the pier at Fusan.
Cheap Railroad Fares.
The railroad fares in this part Of
the world are lower than ours. On all
trains there are first, second and third
class cars, and the rates are under 2
cents per mile. Over here in Korea,
a frontier country just opening up Tor
trade, the third-class fares are far be-
low those of our immigrant traffic.
Up to fifty miles such passengers pay
l ID cents a mile and from thai dis
lance to one hundred miles one
quarter of a cent less. The rate for
a trip of from 100 to 200 miles is only
one cent. and for one of 800 miles or
more One-half or one CEN per mile.
At these rates one could go from New
York to Chicago for less than five dol
lars. Communication tickets are issued
for parties: and twenty or more are
taken at fifty per cent under the reg
ular rates, while a rOund-trip ticket
cuts down ones faro Just One-tifth.
In coming from Kobe to Shine
neseki i rode on what might be called
the Japanese limited express. The
distance was 375 miles and I had a
sleeper although it was in the day
time. The extra rate charged for
the fast train and the superior accom-
mOdatiOnS was rs cents, or just Wha
one pays for a seat in a chair car
from Washington to Philadelphia,
winch is On1N a little moro than one
third the distance.
Station Lunches and the Dinners.
The eating is very cheap IN all the
Japanese roads. This is so for both
natives and foreigners, and especially
thief former. In Japan peddlers come
to the cars at every stop with hot tea
CO.. ill., laA4or = Y 4