Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-08-20
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"Shores and Ships and Sealing
Wax and Rickshas

"Shores and Ships and Sealing
Wax" and Rickshas
r EWIs CARROLL, author OF
Alice in Wonderland" made
for himself an enviable reputation
by balling up the language and
injecting into his manuscript ref
erences that had nothing what
ever to do with the story.
The caption on this column is de-
signed along the Carroll lines, but
the word "ricksha' really stands
for something.
Roughly speaking, the last CEN
sus report on rickshas accounted
for $4,000 of the rubber-tired, two
wheeled, one-passenger vehicles,
drawn by feet-footed coolies capa-
BILE of hauling human cargo on
most any kind of thoroughfare-
asphaltun preferred about the
same rate of speed and with less
noise than goes with the old-fash-
Toned horse-driven cab.
In point of grace and luxury moth
ing has ever been invented that can
compete with it or make a better
showing along the boulevards
where traffic streams.
Lot Is Not a Happy One.
While spectacle of this sort fills
the eye it seldom drifts into ones
mind that the lot of the ricksha
man is not a happy one. The easy
Looping stride of the man between
the brass-mounted shafts, the three
foot bicycle wheels running silent
ly on ball bearings, make Mercury
and his machine a floating unit,
gliding onward apparently without
effort, but it never occurs to the
casual observer that perhaps there
is limit to the physical endurance
Of the human animal swinging along
with a human burden lolling under
a pith helmet, pulling on good
se-gar and living the life of Riley.
Nothing so completely fits a
white man for the indolent life as
spending four or five hours a day
in a ricksha. The very construc-
ton of the device invites half
reclining posture; added to which
the gentle oscillations, more sooth-
ing than any motion experienced
from the cradle to the grave, pro-
duce relaxation matched only by
insensibility. A New England wom-
an brought up to sit erect in a
straight back hickory chair and
hold herself like Bunker Hill
ramrod thinks nothing, after a
week of riekshaing, of initiating
Cleopatra on her chaise Tongue eye
ing Mark Antony. A ricksha "sure
do break down" ones resistance
and makes a formal posture, CO.
incident with good manners, quite
a bore.
''Strut Sitting Down."
Old boys who can't even get the
nomination for county clerk back
home look like senatorial timber
after doing a stretch in an uphol-
stored ricksha. And tin horn
sport who can't even get kind
glance from a head waitress, after
few spins between ricksha wheels
has difficulty dispelling the rumor
that he is Clark Gable. This, how
ever, is not the case with residents
of Peiping, who, having passed the
imitation stage, are without bonn
bast. Only the foreigners seem
able to "strut sitting down." as
some one once said of an unpopu-
lar statesman. s.,4a
And the cost is nothing, compared
with the sense, of superiority with
which the consumer is infected.
For, the small sum of 81, Mex,
which here in ,Peiping means IS
cents in American spondulics, a
thoroughbred housekeeping, first
class coolie ricksha boy can be
hired for the day, which is under
stood to be IL full hours, with such
time for lunch as the patron, in
the fullness of his enlarged heart,
feels that he can surrender to his
faithful foot servant. This rate
holds good at 81 per week. Beyond
that, the tariff falls to $40 month,
Mex, of course, which places the
rick at your disposal practically
when wanted, the boy actually
haunting your headquarters await
ing orders.
Ricksha Boys Faithful.
A pet dog couldn't be more at
your beck and call. The system
solves the whole question of trans
portation throughout the city. For
long distance trips, motor fares are
comparatively low, yet there are
some who have no hesitation about
using ricks up to fifteen miles, or
thirty miles round trip.
The average daily mileage of a
ricksha boy is about twelve, rang
ing in special cases up to fifteen a
day for all seasons except during
snow fall, brief in this latitude, and
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