Evening star., 1924-06-29

front Of the family image, and a
crowd of tattered refugees huddled
in the stern, for the boat was one of
the thousand craft that were 70 car
ry the army northward. Three
times we woke to a swirling river,
swollen with the spring rains, and
bowling, shrieking mob of blue-robed
coolies. bending at their poles to pro-
pei US against the stream.
The noise got on ones nerves, but
continued protest was of no avail.
I'VE should stifle If we did not let out
the breath somehow" they said. and
the awful groans and yells accompan-
ted US all day. We dared not stop at
lovely Lokchonghsien, where the cor
morant fishers drift downstream,
long lines Of blackbirds waiting to
gulp their silver prey. and where
every sharp hilltop enthrones a
seven -storied pagoda.
Progress was very slow, for in
places the rapids were so strong that
poles alone were useless, and stray
villagers were set to tow US from the
bank. AS the stream got narrower,
one often had a dozen coolies punting
and some twenty hauling on the
ropes. and when sheer cliffs began to
rise straight from the waters edge,
the men had to crawl perilously
across them like flies, and the boat
would begin to slip slowly backward.
The sixth day Of crampej crouching
under the low roof, or OF climbing la
boriously along impossible banks
brought US to Ping-Shek, heraldsd by
the wreckage of two junks hurled by
the rapids againe. tho rocks. Their
half-drowned crews sat on the banks,
sullenly drying themselves by brush
fires.
THE village itself was full Of ex-
citement and soldiers. The
northern army was reported to be
nearing Chenchow, where they had
sworn to murder all the wounded in
revenge for assaults on their own
hospitals. At Ping-Shek. in the mar
rowest conceivable streets, bordered
by dark little shops full of strange
edibles-sticky fish fins, GRUMPY
sponge cake and piles of brown rice
balls-we found dubious lodging in
a kind Of warehouse belonging to a
cross-eyed merchant. Through a
damp court we felt our way in dark
ness to a musty spot reeking with
strange odors. A long-dead cat lay
in corner. barrels of stale fish gave
out fumes intolerable, and the balcony
overlooking the river was apparently
the garbage heap OF the whole house.
A couple of trestles supporting some
boards served as bed, but sleep was
difiicult. as the sullen-faced women
tottered in on tiny tortured feet car
rying solemn-eyed infants in bright
skull-caps, adorned with jade amulets
and little padded coats, green and
pink, tightly buttoned round them.
The Chinese are apparently sleepless
unless they deliberately pursue Nor
pheus with opium, for the last coolies
clattered noiselessly to their piles of
filthy rags at Q am. and two hours
later the house resounded to their
rising auarels.
It still rained in torrents, but we
determined to psuh forward. Thence
forward progress became r matter of
bribery only. A few dollars. it
seemed, would then procure anything
in China-even a substitute for a
criminal condemend to death. In our
case it obtained sedan chairs and
pale-faced COLES to carry us nifty
miles across country to the Slang
River, down which we hoped to go
by boat to Chang-Sha and tho rail-
way to Hankow. 1t Is q desolate,
mountainous country. Sparse gray
villages stand in the middle of food
ed rice-helds, in which, in spite of
war. labored indigo-clothed coolies
in great straw hats. Always the
rain added to the dreariness of the
square gray houses, with the limp
scarlet strips Of charms hanging to
Intel and roof. Occasionally flag
shaped like a fish denoted that son
had lately been born.
We arrived at Chenchow on the
fourth morning after leaving the
North River, to find. that brigands
had ransacked the town several
times, and the last magistrate had
ned after beheading such Of his op-
ponents as he could lay hands on. His
successor had not troubled to remove
the debris from the main street, and
was himself preparing for instant de-
parture, as the southern general had
sent in q sudden demand for $4,000
to pay his troops.
Wounded were being brought up the