Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1915-09-09
ROADS IN CHINA.
They Remind One Very Much Of
the Snakes In Ireland.
BECAUSE THERE ARE NONE.

Arc a Great Deal Like the Bed Of a
Stone Quarry-The Torture That
Goes With Trip In Peking Cart.
Describing the roads, or, rather, the
lack of roads, In China and the tor
ture that is undergone by the tourist
who, used to the luxurious modes of
travel we may employ, trusts himself
to the uncertain joys Of trip in
Peklng chair, writer In the Wide
World Magazine says:
Now, Peking cart Is a very vener.
able mode Of progression. When our
ancestors were lightly dressed In wOad
and had no conception Of any wheeled
vehicle the Chinese lady was paying
her calls in the back Of Peklng cart,
the seat Of honor under the tilt, well
out of sight Of the passers by, while
her servant sat in front, the place Of
comfort If such a word can be applied
to anything pertaining to a Peking
cart.
an spite of its long and aristocratic
record If there is any mode Of progress
sion more wearying and uncomforta-
BILE / have not met 1t. 1t Is simply
springless board set on a couple Of
wheels with wagon tilt Of blue cotton
over 1t and a place for heavy luggage
behind. The Chinaman sits on the
floor and does not seem to mind, but
the ordinary westerner, like myself,
packs his bedding and all the cushions
he can beg or borrow around him and
then resigns himself to his fate
'The Peking cart has one advantage,
people will tell you-it has nothing to
break In 1t. But there are moments
when 1t would be a mighty relief If
something did break, for If the wood.
work holds together as 1t tosses you
from side to side you yourself are one
sore, bruised mass. No; | cannot rec
ommend Peking cart even on the
smoothest road,
"And the roads In China are not
smooth. We all know the description
of the snakes In Ireland There are
nome and much the same might be
said about the roads in China. There
are so called roads, certainly, upon
which the people move about, but
have seldom met one that was any
better than the surrounding country,
and very, very often on this journey
| met roads where 1t was ease and lux
ury to move off them on to the Ugh
boring plowed field.
"The recipe for a road there in the
north seems to be: Take piece of the
country that is really too bad to plow
or to use for any agricultural purpose
whatever, that q mountain torrent, In
fact, has given up as too much for the
water, upset a stone wall over it-a
stone wall with good, large stones in
it-take care they never for mo-
ment lie evenly, and you have your
road.
Leaving Peking for the eastern
tombs, you go for the first two or
three hours along paved way Of mag
nifcent proportions planned and laid |
out as a highway should be. The great |
stones with which 1t is paved were /
probably put there by slave labor, how
many hundred years ago do not
know, but the blocks are uneven now,
some of them are gone altogether, |
though how a huge block Of stone
could possibly disappear passes my I'M
derstanding, and whenever the carter
could he took the cart down beside
the road, where at least the dust made
a cushion for the nail studded wheels,
and the jarring and the jolting were
not quite so terrible
ut takes as long to get beyond the
environs of Peking in a cart as 1t does
to get out of London in motorcar
First we passed through the Babylon
ish gate, and the great walls were be-
hind us; then, outside the city, all look
ing dusty, dirty and khaki colored in
the brilliant sunshine, were numerous
small houses, and the wayside was
lined with booths on which were
things for sale.
along the roadway came an endless
lrray of people, clad for the most part
in blue cotton-men walking men with
loads slung from bamboo across
their shoulders. donkeys laden with
baskets or sacks of grain, with fat Chi
lese on their backs. There were Peking
carts, there were mules, there were
ponies, and this busy throng is almost
he same as it was couple of thou
sand years ago.
But it was a long. long while be-
'ore | could feel was really In the
There was the khaki cOlored
and, there were the khaki colored
louses, built of mud apparently, with c
graceful tiled roofs. and blue clad peo- /
DE everywhere and everywhere al t
work. /
always the fields were most beau Il
fully TILED. There were no fences. {
rhe Chinese are too civilized to need n
ences, and when you see stone walls
is only because. since they can't be
lropped off the planet into space, the
tomas n1i,ct ha dicnocod of cnmnhOw .