AMONG THE CHINESE PEASANTRY, Yunnansen (Capital of Yunnan Province).
weather was our friend for days, d we sounded pians of joy on nodding farewell to the bleak mountains of Western China, braved and conquered in the rainy Messer Marco Polo, who oime country is wild and hard of-nco woods and mount which it impossible to'pass, the air is so impure anid tinwholesomo; sind any foreigner attempt ting it would die for' certain." 'Throo foreigners at' any rate proved that the last' clause is hardly correct.
One can smile at*tho dangers that are past, but western Yunnan is a horrific land all the same. Mr. John Smith, -of Tal sent three men into Burma' with letters, and two of them died bythe way. When the telegraph'line was being constructed, sixty men were engaged. Fifty-six of these died.
Perhaps the Chinese thought death was meet, retribution for putting up 80 diabolical a thing as " long piece of wire along which words whizzed'so rapidly they could not be seen, The-peasantry made firewood of the poles, -and used the wi for mending chicken coops. A mandarin had the ears sl: ced off couple of offenders, and they were marched from Yunnansen toTengyueh and back again, After that folks went to the.forests for their firewood.
'The real disposition.of a-man is showa, when he is wet and cold and hungry, and we wore less than half-way between Tali Yunnan, when vile sloppy, weather set again. We, stopped. the pmans....T was' cold and dismal, We were i" and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.