Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-11-20


, ears from Pennsylvania and dump cars
from san Francisco. The passengee
cars are fitted with automatic air
brakes and screvand chain couplers and
buffers. At present this road bids fair
to pay so per cent and upward iu dlyi-
dcnds.
THE PEK1N-HANKOW TRUNK
LINE.
But let me tell YOU something about
the northern section OF China's steel
vetebrae. as I saw IL this week. The
pekin- Hsnkow section was built BY the
Chinese and the Belgisns. The distance
between the two cities is 100 miles. and
the express trains make II In about
thirty hours. The engineers are Chinese,
but the conductors are English. Tho
fare Is t64 in silver. or about Sc in gold
that is, about ga cents a mile. This
includes the sleeping accommodations.
There are restaurant cars on the train,
whore one can get a reakfast for 40
cents and dinner and lunch for 30 cents
each. The road has good depots al
HanSOw and Pekin: and Il Is fairly
wen ballasted throughout. The cars
are European I'm make. They are
roughly furnished, poorly built and
without adequate heating arrange
monts. The only FIRE on our train
was In little stove. in a separate
compartment In the middle OF the car,
and we had to go to this to get warm.
The passenger coaches are divided in
to compartments, running at right an
giles to the track. Each compartment
has two sofas. facing each other. and
upon these beds are made up at night
Shelves are also let down to form upper
berths.
Our train was fun. We had a num-
Der of high-class Chinese men and wom-
en- and many foreigners There were
American and French tourists, COM
mercial travellers representing English,
German and French business houses. a
high-up official of the British East In
dian service and the Rajah Of sikkin,
who had been to school at oxford, Eng
land. and was taking a trip through
China on his way home. Among the
Americans were am agent Of one of our
talking machine companies. a standard
oil man and the representative Of a
roof and paint house of san Francisco
We left pekin in the morning and
arrived at Hdnkow the next afternoon.
our way was across the Great Plain
which is said to support more people
than the United States. We passed vii
lagos az every few miles and walled
towns and cities every half hour The
Great Plain is thickly settled, and every
foot Of it is cultivated. Nearing Han
kow the land becomes rolling. and
1
sides of the hills are terraced in fields
of an shapes and sizes, and the valleys
are cut up into gardens of walled
patches. most of which contain rice.
In the north many of the huts are
fiat rooted, In the south the roofs are
ridge shaped and matched with straw.
They are made Of stone or mud. The
stations are of gray brick rooted with
red tiles. Crowds met our train at
l.
in order by native soldiers. who wore
blue uniforms, with black caps and fat
black boots. We took on and put of
passengers at all the stations The
most Of these were Chinese. who rode
second class. / understand that the
slow trains, which have cheaper fares,
are even more crowded and that the
passenger traffic pays well
THE YELLOW RIVER BRIDGE.
The most remarkable piece of en-
gineering ON this railroad is the Yellow
river bridge, which we crossed during
the night. Outside America Il is the
largest of its kind IN the world. II
measures almost two miles from end TO
end and is constructed entirely OF steel
There Is no stream which shifts its bed
more than the yellow river. IL Is called
China's Sorrow, and is said to have
changed its course no less than nine
times within the past 20 centuries. each
time choosing a different mouth by
which il enters the sea. At the last
great food when the waters forsook
their bed. many millions We're drowned
The bed Of the Yellow river Is of
qulcksand, so deep that Il was impossi-
bic to use any masonry in constructing
this bridge. Steel tubes were sunk in
place Of the ordinary concrete pillars
and these We're Joined together by steel
bands. There are eight of these steel
tubes. each Of which goes 50 feet down
into the bed OF the river. Other steel
tubes extend down from 80 to IS feet
The arches of the bridge have a span of
So feet, whore the current is strongest,
and of IS feet in other places. The steel
piles, or tubes, have been filed with
cement to give them strength. and rock
and stones have been sunk around their
bases 10 solidify their foundations The
stones were first dropped down into the
river, without any support, and were
carried away by the quicksand Later,
mats made Of the branches OF trees,
bound together with wire, were let
down around the piles. and the stones
dropped upon them In this way tons
of stone have been moored on such
RATS about each pile, and they have
made the bridge as firm as though the
piles were bcdded in concrete. This
bridge was put up in a year and half.
and on the opening day a train Of q
car carriages passed over IL without