is to hand showing how the old evil is at work, bringing the new good into subjection to the old corruption and detracting from its benefits. Three Chinese gentlemen recently went to Peking by the early mornin; train, The ticket office was not opened early enough to permit of all the passengers securing tickets easily; it takes so much time to examine and count out the little cash on the strings, and they found such a jam that they could not get at the office at all. Finally at almost the last moment they were told to come " this way" and all would be right. They insisted that they wanted tickets, but were told it was all right, their fare would be received and they would get through safely. Sothey paid the fare_and were shown on one of the cars, At Langfang, the halfway station, a foreigner boards this early train, and the custom for these foreign inspectors when on the train to go through the cars with the ticket collectors to see that all is right. At Langfang the fellows who took the fare from the three yeutlemen, rushed out and bought tickets from thereto Pekingand handed them to the three passengers, and all. w: right with the inspector from' that point; but they had pocketed half of three fares from Tientsin to Peking—and how many more no one knows: nor how many every day. This is no new thing; it has been heard of before; and with slight variation in methods, this fare-fraud is practiced daily on the trains. It is this old evil—this utter lack of right principle which runs through the entire social and civil. fabric of the Chinese make-up, that is spoiling the new good that has come to them, and robbing it in large measure of the blessings it would otherwise convey.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.