With the inauguration of the tramway service " brighter era comes to a tnajority of the community of Shan, for it will no longer be entirely dependent upon ricshas, in fine weather and foul: and although there ought to be sufficient traffic still to give employment to as many ricshas as are licensed in the Settlement now, substantial improvement will be needed the old form of cor ince is to retain its place in public patronage. When compared with similar vehicles in other' parts of China the Shanghai ricsha has much in its favour, but one has only to cross over to Japan to see a service that. is immensely superior and by going further afield there are to be seen public ricshas still better, which compete successfully, in several cities, with modern electric tram services.
The differences are both in the coolie and in the ricsha and more particularly in the unvarying cleanliness in other countries compared with the disrepritable filthiness of the Uhinese vehicles.
Look at a line of ricshas waiting at a stand Here one sees a row of vehicles built in a shape that gives no comfort to the rider seats are too low or the floors too high. Usually a shaft is loose and the wheels wobble on the axles and give " rhythmical sway from side to side which is interrupted re-galany by the spring of the loose shaft. The ricsha needs a coat of paint; the seat is dirty and the floor is worse; while the coolie himself is often no better than his vehicle. Many of them, especially the old opiam smokers who prowl about at night, are physically unfit for their work; and, also at night, many boys, too young for such labour, frequently do duty as ricsha coolies, probably in lieu of licensed fathers or brothers.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.