Frou rag ''CHeroo Darcy News."
The Germans are known the world over for their good living and the comfort their homes, and the food and the appoint ments of the good ship, Tsintao, are no exception to the rule. We revelled in them, and hap: ily came to the pier a Chinwangtao after a bed thirty hours fested sea. The land of the contraband trade lay before and above us in the ston-grey light of the early dawn, nnd it was cloaked in mystery that was pleasing to the sense On the pier stood two quilted and tu binned Chinese inantrymen, Manchus you would sry from thei: tal wart frames, carrying liht rifles, Dearing the Osaka stamp, handily, and ping on. As the light brightened andj lently bent on gt that was} stood out in holder relief the Taintao crushed her way though floating field of blue-black ioo and a film of one night's formation nearer shore and moored against the Then began the rush and bustle of disembarkation. ji puffed frosty bre ramshackle coach Sarely we bad come to land of civ ion, hills, "how eh.ll I ever make these coolies understand how many pieces of luggage I have! T'sa just too dreadful."
Finally trunks, valises, xnd budless of all sorts pud d scriptions had fount their way in manner mysterious into the van and the racks in the covch, and the whistle shucked the st-rt. Iron wheels craunched the icy snow before them into stil) finer powd car treme ed, aut we wera away for the interior; but, alas, one had be-n left behind, and he was no other thai Mr. Will brother of Mr. Taomas O" well-known, author and war. after twenty years paper work in England, was cot the Orient to edit the China Times." Mr. Cowen is a heavy-sot man; his wile and children were on the train, but he was rummaging with the coolies on the ship for the Inst of his baggage when the engine tooted. Fearing for the safety of the remaining luggage he decided to await the next trai, and came charging down the pier perilously close to the rattling trucks to communicate the news to his wife. I held my breath, and as long I live, I shall not forget the picture of Mbst sturdy north-of-Enyland man in his stoutly built travelling suit bounding over frogs and crossings, and shouting at the top of his lungs "There are pieces, my dear, in the van and three in the couch 1 All right Mr. Cowen!" some cried. "I will tell your wife," and the: as the train rattled around a. bend, Mr Cowen emitted great puffs of frosty. breath as he cried along the rails jit Taree and six old chap, three and The coach was h'tter cold. No-one had thought t+ build 's fire, but finally when the town was far behind, and while Indies shivered qnd gentlemen swore, 3 Chinese peared with coal and kindling wood and started a fire in a little stove, standing in the second-oleas compartment. The heat would have been very welcome to the benumbed hands rf the children, but the stove was quickly surrounded by a number of spindle-shanked Panjabs, wearing the khaki of England who clustered to the warmth instinctively, only men from the tropics can. Mixed with these were sturdy Germans neat and manly-looking, and a sprinkling of blue-overeasied Japanese as_xpick and span as West Point cadets, and besides a umber of loud-talking French marines in their long capes and nasoldierly tam-o-shanters that gave them the appearance of clowns at the cites. The metal was there but the covering had been poorly chosen.
""Tunghu;" shouted a ch-ery voice the whistle gave @ gasp that resembled the lest of a dying min; the brakes pressed against the frosty wheels, and w- cxme to antandstill Here, the conductor, we would await the arrival train that would take ut vain confusion reign! standing out half-frozen condition, we had fal to and move our own trunke and other baggage as the coolies had sud-devly developed an unusual lack of in+ telligence with hopes no doubt that we would brighten it with dollar payments in advance, For an hour we waited and shivered on the platform. One hardly dared to go to the ticket office, lewing unwatched, for cunning of thieves were P; everywhere, eagerly watching fur opportunities to make off with smaller pisces of I Finally we heard the siviek of whistle away off towards the blue mountains, and presently " long train swung around the bend and retiled to a stop along from' the North—troia the edge of the the platform. It was the train through
neutral gone—and it bore ite honours r-ce fully. Soon we were installed in fortable compartments and began to of breakfast. Some ed, for, who hide ver heard Chinn? Scbsequently, I nel my mistake fora kind passenger conducted us to one, und pre-ently we were discussing god coffee and a good break. fast while the snow-covered rice paddies, tacked by the blue mountains, fled past the windows.
Within this luxuriously-appointed car we gained our fir+t insight into the life of the border—into the picturesqueness of the contraband trade, At one table so: two richly attired Indies eating with icurean delicacy; at another were two rough fur-clad traders down from Hsinmintun feeding and drinking ale in great gulps. Greeks, Jews, gamblers, Yankee adventurers were there, eating, drinking, and talking in a d-gen tongues. There was no stint of anything. Evidently jete was much money in the contraband trade.
'The station platform at Tangku was crowded with soldiers of all nations, some moking, others eating fruit, and among them walked brilliantly-uniformed Japanese gendarmes an'! alert-eyed Russian and Tapanese abie. At three o'clock we came to Tientain, the City of Dust, to find the station crowded with s uniformed throng. Everywhere were evidences of great busi now activity. A number of carriages were drawn up before the station, and the hustle and bustle prevailing reminded one of railroad life in the States. It did not seem possible that Tientain was really a part of backward China The allies had left their stump upon the town and bespoke its cosmopolitan character from afar, and its neutrality ws procisimed. by mand Japanese cavalryman riding si with sheathed sabres and revolvers idle in their belaters,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.