Nothing is more characteristic of China than her customs, Her method of culleeting internal revenue is certainly unique. Tt can shurdly be called x service, for it ainacks too strongly of the style of th dividual, wh Your money or life." Each stati es every means fait and otherwise to get hold of every cash they can, Itis the great throttler ut public trade. Asan old woman put it in speaking of w certain article: it "Tax it, Customs tax itt Of course they did, why the Customs cze the very life out of une." Stations are important and unimportant and put on style accordingly. The Customs that the writer has in mind may most aptly be likened u..to n carbuncle, red and all puffed up, inside teeming with parasitic life, cou-tact with which causes to vote forth from every aperture aatream of living corruption, alike repulsive and painful to all, A Sq" OOZE DEFEATED, The justice of internal revenue collectors may be seen from instances cited, one of which is the following. A few years ago a Duatload of coal was sent from Shanghai north of the river on the Grand Canal. The boatman carried a pass from the Shanghai Taotai and met with no detention till he reached the Huxikuan, the first big station on the Grand Canal after passing Yangchow, The bigger the official in charge of the Customs station, the more independent and offensive the underli is considered the " top ut the heap, the oficial comes from Peking, ap Cly the Emperor, always: of "his own family" and changed every ten months as itis tuo lucrative a position to hold longer—a general recuperative station for the poor relatives of the Emperors family, ea the natives Consequently all boatmen approach this place with a trembling heart. On this ocexsion the pass did not fulfil its jin and the box was not allowed to ye until the boatmen paid a squeeze, just like any loaded boat without a pass.
The boatman appealed to the foreigners and one of the latter called but it availed little; then a native tencher was sent xnd during a talk with the underlings, they ade this cool and accommodating proposal "Now look here, we want Pls. 10 om thi duatload of coul; we must have something, wud it will cost the for bout. as much to telegraph to Shat hey just ae well let us have itand we will pass the oat." They did not rightly judge the Anglo-Saxons, who considered a little thing called principle more than they did money, and would have paid many: taels before' thus making a precedent for continuous line of squeezes hereafter, ao they sent the despatch ty Shanghai, The day following the boatman conte to say that the Customs must not Jose face and if the foreigners sen teacher to invite (ching) them to let the Gout pars, they would permit it to pursue its journey. The Anglo Sxxous perceived that the telegram was working and they remained passive. The next day the coal was delivered and nothing more was heard of the face of the Customs whether it was found or not.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.