Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-03

IE 81 El Of transportation. The inVen-
lM lsa tion of the steamship brought
/ IN RkNI the nations of earth close to-
ls4zzgE9sl gether, but it has been the
railroad which has brought
the people of each nation close to each
other. The Chinese people are begin
ming to get acquainted with themselves
by virtue of the railroads
The Chinese like to travel The pas
| senger traffic of the Chinese railroads
yields three-fourths of the profits of
the Chinese railway systems, and
freight traffic is the smallest concern
of the management. This reversal of
conditions in America is due partly to
the greater population of China, partly
to cheaper rates and partly to a Chinese
propensity to enjoy riding on railroad
trains.
Take, for example, the railroad which
runs from Shanghai to the old Ming
capital of the empire Marking on the
Yang-tse river. The third class coaches,
on which one may ride for less than
half a cent a mile, American money,
are crowded to what would be the point
of suffoeation in an occidental country.
But the Chinese appear to possess the
faculty of living without breathing, and
they seem to like it very well. 1t is
travelling.
Before the railroad came this same
passion for travel was INDUCED to some
extent, but now one may "go abroad"
and see the world by taking a two-hour
trip on a train, the same trip which
used to take four days by the winding
canals or a week over the dim paths
that do duty for the long since vanished
cart roads. The railroad is quicker,
cheaper and its lure is such that it will
tempt an intrepid traveller to venture
even a hundred miles away from home.
When he has gone that far he meets
a strange people, who speak an alien
tongue. They are Chinese, like the
traveller himself, for they wear the
same queue, the same kind of clothes,
have similar manners and customs and
write with the same characters. But
there are many strange things besides
the unintelligible dialect, and the
traveller returns to his home-poorer by
50 or SO, Mex" for his excursion, but
richer in his broadened knowledge and
ripper experience. Travel is a wonder
full thing!
But not all the Chinese travellers go
third class, Innumerabl second-class
coaches are filed with prosperous
merchantmen bent on the pursuit of
business or pleasure, and each one
sure to combine the two, whatever the
chief purpose of his expedition. The
second class coaches, taking the
notwithstanding road as an exam
pie, present an interior appearance
similar to that of an American west
ern tourist car, just like Pullman
except that there Is no plush. There
the seats face each other, two and
two. Between the seats is fixed
table with collapsible sides.
Every few moments the train boy
passes through the aisle ready to
serve Chinese tea to any passenger
who may feel the need of refreshment,
and as the Chinese drink tea almost
constantly, the boy Is never idle. Sip
ping their tea and tanning themselves
idly, the men chatter together in high
voices like a convention Of magpies.
Everybody is laughing and joking and
everyone seems ready to echo the SEM
timent of the late John G. Sake, who
sang in the youth of the railroad age:
"Bless me, this is pleasant, riding on
a rail"
Tea served, the train boy disappears
for moment and then returns bear
ing a huge wooden bowl filed with
what looks like a weeks wash Just
ready to be hung out on the line. Hot
steam is rising from the bowl and
hides the face of the boy, but every
Chinese in the car straightens up IN
his seat with the pleasure of antlci-
nation. The bowl is full of steaming
hot wet towels dashed with perfume
Each Chinese passenger takes one,
masses It over his face and head,
washes his hands in it's folds and leans
back in his seat with sigh of content:
He is much refreshed now, and will
be perfectly happy for fifteen min
utes Then he will have another dish
of tea and another hot towel. There
is no tedium, no drumming of fingers,
no impatient looking at watches
among the Chinese travellers on a rail-
road. They are enjoying themselves,
and they have to keep busy to keep
the train boy from having half-mln-
utes rest sometime.
In the frst-class coaches the same
thing is done over again, except tnat
it is done on a much grander scale.
The first-class coaches, stlll reIerrllg