The wild horse kicks out and bites! and the camel contents itself by spitting in its tormentor's face. That the camel has suffered and been tormented there is no doubt, and but for its defence mechanism, a nasty spit in the face of its torment for, it would have suffered much the first time T have been down, there for nearly eight months. 1 was fon the lookout for all those vast Improvements that, according to the newspapers, are being planned for North China and have already been (reduced by the mew dispensation. There was little of that to be seen.
'Although the railways in North China have now been taken over by the South Manchurian Railway, who have brought in hundreds of' their own employees for this purpose, 1 found no improvement whatsoever the short journey from Peiping to Tientsin, On the contrary, it appears to me to be less well run than Ht hod been by the Chinese.
went down to Tientsin by a train thay was scheduled to take as much fas four hours and was even then half an hour late, and returned by tone supposed to do the run in two hours and three-quarters, and was. 7 minutes Into. In the old days the fast train took two hours and was generally punctual. The slowness and unpunctuality of the present Tuning Ix certainty not due to any heavy traffic on the line. On neither the up or down journey did we pass Dut the regular passenger trai But express trains, as they are usual-y_understood, seem no longer exist, and we stopped at every single small static The Tibetans have a peculiar ides that the hair of certain animals will secure immunity from transmittable diseases. The hair of dogs will prow tect children from measles; and clephant's hair will protect infected parts. from swelling while the hair From bear, tigers, rabbits and marmots have their own peculiar and intrinsic value in curing certain diseases. Not that the hair of these! creatures is applied medicinally any way; it Is carefully wrapped up Ina bit of cloth or paper and very religiously stored away on some part of the person.
The idea, apparently, is to make the sick person immune from further attacks of the wicked, discase What particular" disease hair protects from we did not discover, but this lonely camel has had avery rough time. With His vicious spit it could protect its forefront; its" hind-quarters, however, have suffered all the ravages of Lamaism.
As the poor creature travelled along, walking very slowly. it had of Necessity to put up at many Tivetan villages and encampments, and as a camel only passed that way once in 1,000 years, the opportunity was not to be missed; camel's hair. the draba informed the simple mind-of, Diet, wi 2 tha drab ncormed te simple dnd: ye) mown and Unknown camel, when it arrived in Tachienlu, hhud practically no hair on its hind:
Thousands Probably Immune Passports on Trains very good, has certainly not im-"The food fy the dining-cor, never proved. On dhe train one is asked one's passport. By "one" I mean foreigners other than Japanese. Under what section of the treaties with China this is done, 1 do not know. For some reason or other, best known themselves Japanese now close the Water Gate on the arrival of a train at the Chienmen Station in Peiping. "This gate leads direct from the station into the Legation Quarter. and as q result, one has now to out and. round' by the main trance, Taken altogether considerably loss comfortable than it wussed to be.
'All stations between Peiping and 'Tientsin are. protected by barbed vrire, sandbags and lookout towers, and are held by Japanese garrisons numbering from 20 to 60 men. At Langfang, about halfway, the former Chinese barracks which' were destroyed. by bombing have been rebuilt in wood and are occupied by Targe Japanese garrison.
When one comes to Tientsin from Peiping, one of the things that strikes tone most forcibly is, how little one sees of the Japanese and their work in the British and French concessions there. Scatecly more than prewar days. A rent contrast 10 Peiping, where in some of the main streets one sees tas many Japanese as Chinese, and where all the cars that go dashing full: specd through the streets are occupied only by Japanese.
One of the fundamental commands of Lamaism is not to take life, but certainly if this lonely camel had remained much longer in Lamaland, would have died from lack of hair or from cold, or from both Considerable hair had been pulled out from underneath its neck, ad: vantage being taken of the camel's stately mien. Thousands of nomads, drabas and lamas all over Sikang may now find themselves immune from certain contagious diseases Dut the price of this immunity fax been rudely and ruthlessly torn from this poor forlorn came Nature, no doubt, if it rely a chance, will kindly come to its as. Sistanee, In. the meantime its proud eyer look down on a perfidious humaonity struggling for health and pecee and happiness, and in the of-them, tearing the hair fof each other's backs, regardless of the pain and discomfort involved.
This poor camel will have a long journey down to the plains below, The roads are rough and made of stone slabs and cobble stones.
There are two very nasty passes, which become regubr quagmires when the snow and ice begin to niel. How a camel reacts to mud [don't know but this creature find all the mud it wants on these parses and on the Chengtu plain. It its destination is the West China Union University we sincerely hope the faculty will be kind to it In Jong Journeys across the Roof it] of the World it has ost alor hair; we hope it won't lose its teeth. From what we have sen of vema it seems almost certain that that wild creature will tenaciously eng on to all has. - The little wile a.different ire-f Tientsin has, altogether. much more the appearance of having got back to normal than has Peiping. The Japanese seem yo be doing much less inthe way of "development" and Buying-up, and one sees no sins of the great undertakings that are dail advertised in the Japanese press.
One marked change in the British Foncession is the departure of thi isth US. Infantry. though in one respect it has not had the effect on had expected. Tt wax thought after their departure house rents ly the concession would fall, but this has nog been the case. There ix still a strong demand for houses in the concessions, and all the were occupied by the wifieers were ato
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.