Wuchang, Sept. 27.
The truth in the popular belief that most rickshaws spend their youth in Shanghai and then Felire to the country in their old age has long been attested by upriver residents. There appears to be an age of delapidation which "marks a rickshaw as about Feady to become a Wuchang vintage and whose tricks and diosyncrasies are only too well known to tease unfortunate enough to have to use them.
'The appearance on our streets dur Ing the past week of about 150 bright fand sparkling rickshaws has caused little short of a sensation. "In an effort to improve Wuchang to a point where It may worthily become " terminal' city for the newly opened Aten-Hankow Railway, a private hong has brought in' these new vehicles, The rickshaws themselves are of the type usually purcnasea for Private use, black in colour, well cushioned ahd exceptionally clean, In a discussion with one of the pullers, the statement was made that {ne rent on them was slightly higher than the ordinary rickshaws In use, Also, he remarked that it was duflcult for the pullers to obtain higher prices from their passengers due 10 Tasher well establiined prices for most of the well-travelled alstunces. His reasoning was rather interesting to wny he preferred to pull one.
pulling an ordinary riexsnav, tne unused ume spent in waiting between ares Is considerable. The popularity ana restricted numbers of tne newly introduced ones means that his time more fully used, and according 10 this man, his net income was irom tone and i half to twice as much as it had previously been. The practice of the hong to have only tne best pullers in the shaiis 1s a further inventive to use them, and it is hoped hat the gradual increase in the number of these super ice vehicles will move some of the less desitaole examples farther on.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.