Wichang, Sept. 7.
After having taken one's third joy-ride of the summer down "the hill'
[from Kuling, one heaves a sigh of relief. There will be no more such excitement—until next year. From first to last one is in the hands of the necessary but (generaly) harmless Jcoolie. There is really a great deal to be said for these horny-shouldered sons of toil. Year by year, thousands of people are carried up and down the difficult mountain road.
Some are stout and heavy and others are lean and light. Some fare in feeble infancy, and others equally feeble with age or sickness. But never a one is dropped over a. precipice; and, unless a chair. breaks occasionally, they are not even let down upon the road. Tens of thousands of boxes and pieces of luggage are also carried up and down. But - although they are sometimes a long time in arriving, never a piece is finally missing. The coolies go up and down the road, often twice, occasionally three times in the course of a day for four months on end. No man is strong enough to endure more than three or four successive years, of such toil. But, apart from a row now and then over a question of wine money, there is very little trouble.
Cumsha Cumsha, It is this wine money question which "makes the bane of Koling. They all want it. Chair bearers, baxvage coolies, head _coolies, motor drivers, boatmen, ach de mands his share. Generally, those get the most who deserve the Toast, as is often the ease in this world of injustice. As a matter of fact, by the rules of the Department, no coolie is per to demand wine money and traveller.is bound to pay any. You are merely advised to give a few coppers as a concession tothe weakness of human nature. The rates are all carefully fixed by printed regulations. "But woe to the traveller who refuses wine money when it is asked for! His baggage will be delayed on the road; his chair will not be carried; his house will be besieged by a rowd of Chinese coolies tran formed into screaming Dervishes. If he doesn't lose his money, will Rose his temper, and that is worse, Still so long as humani! ature remains what it is, there will be no way out of i, The labourer will always desire a little more than his fixed hire, so long there is any hope of getting it, And there will always be those who think to exact a little better service by giving to labour more than its strict due, thereby come polling others to do the same. From. the London railway porter and his tips to the Arab and bakshush, the custom ix world wide. Until socialism has succeeded in abolishing the distinetion between employer and employed, it will always be so. And then, what worse evils shall we have to face?
The Elastic Luggage.
A curious thing happened when. my express baggage was being Jweighed, Einitein's Theory might! explain it; otherwise, the cause is obscure. Three boxes were put upon the scale together, and declared to weigh 65 catties, well under the limit for one express coolie's load. I was well pleased. But not so the coolie. He demanded a re-weigh. One box was put on again, and found to weigh 35 catties. The other two together, also weighed 35. Total, 70 catties, requiring two express coolies for their transport. When I inquired the cause—merely in idle curiosity was informed that the steelyard was "huai-lio" (spoiled). Tt was very neat, but I don't know how it was done.
Away we go, down the hill, in our chairs. We started with 20 coolies, but we soon had 22, because one of the chairs borne by six-was declared to require eight, and would not move on until it got them. It isn't worth while fighting over such trifles, and after all, to be carried in a chair by eight men is as comfortable as being in bed, while to have only six, and they in a bad temper, may mean a bit of jolting. With all the coolies in a good humour, we go down at rattling pace. ' The most ob-Jectionable habit they have, choose a dirty little village for their stopping place and—dump down the chairs in the filthiest part of the street. After coming through miles of pure mountain air to be set down in front of a cesspool! But a little forethought and persuasion may avoid this inconvenience, and it is, worth while to. insist on being carried on 50 paces or so, and let the coolies go. back for their te
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.