The crowds now visiting the Tibetan courtyard ineeased and Included elvit piltary ofelaiz The boat ority Femalned to be named, one What was
fered, but. the two Shanghai mon ier be eld" Suentons were decided shoud "be named. Night fare. and_so it may reach the coast tinder that designation, coreying 2 Feat ie best and. Mandeville and Rubin. Attar the boat. had been diled. the following wns. wetten out white paint end in three Tanuaxes Ghinere, Tibetan, and One: Tish: *Mandeville-Roubin wxpedition-Hsikang to. Shanghai" After the photos had been taken a wild shout Fent the alr when the four men carrying the Leat raised it on their shoulders, The courtyard was pack-fed when the procession made for the main street. Diftculty was experienc-getting the Nightmare round Aimeult corners and sometimes there was a decided "hold up," but finally the skin boat reached the main street and there the crowds were very The four men carrying the boat had the assistance of a crowd.
Chinese school boys who were tremend ously Interested in the undertaking, and who had never seen 9 boat in their lives before, On the main street the processive was as follows: Mandeville in front of the Nightmare carrying the Stars and Stripes, the Nightmare itself on the shoulders of @ crowd of helpers. Roubin bringing up the rear with a Jong bamboo pole., Before and behind the Nighimare travelled almost the entire population of Tachienlu. Both men wore emergency dress the Nightmare was merely being tried out on the river coming down from the high snow-covered Zhara.
Outside the north gate an immense crowd had already gathered awaiting the arrival of the skin boat, and among them the official Jades of the town, Gen. Tong's wife and the wife of the Border Treasurer snd numer: ous other ladies whose husbands occupied official positions in the bord: administration. Some of these ladies had at least teen waiting for more than two hours. The two men from Shanghai had hoped to have the boat in the water by two v'elock but they had to attend a function in honour of the occasion given By a number (Caines mecchanti inthe city. Poor fellows, the dishes and the wine looked very tempting, but they. simply had to hold off as they wanted. to feel fit in every way for the task before them. A feast after the event would have been mora to their Uking. The consent of the officials lu the border administration having been given, with the proviso that they assumed no responsibility what-fever as to accidents and incidents, the Nightmare sat graciously in the river some miles above the town, An Accident two young Europeans Intend to do? After all would this thing they lad built really float? Suppose it didn't, what then?. A large crowd followed the Nightmare to the point where it entered the water and from there ran with it along the bank of the river. Those waiting a few miles further aown were fon tip-toe with excitement and when the skin Boat turned 1 bgnd and dashed into a fierce rapid the waiting populace became breathless. An ac~ cident! Manvleville was seen to jump from the Nigh!mare and plunge into the water. Roubin yelled to the only other passenger to threw out the rope and this was quickly done. The water was still very swift but in a short time the: boat was alongside and Roubin, too, was on the bank.
"The crowd below then saw Mandeville plunge again into the cold, icy river and swim to the left bank. What was up? Apparently one of the oars had been smashed aguinst a rock and Mandeville was after it. All this could be only dimly guessed at. The afternoon was cold and the temperature of Tachienlu was somewhat below 50 but the swimmer plunged again into the cold water and wit bold strokes crussed the stream. This in Itself was sufficient to excite a people who had never before seen a man swim.
The oar was soon fixed up and the Nightmare started again on the last lap. As it parsed the official photographer the skin boat was sal very, gracefully. Mandeville yelle? out "hao-pu-hac?" and the crowd on the bank responded with a "hao." Several hundred yards shove the point where the two rivers meet and. where the danger begins, a young American named Bartholomew joined the others in the boat. Mrs. Jacl: Young of thy Hsikang Expedition, and several other Europeans in Tachientu witnessed this extraordinary tour de force. Practically all who had thrown cold water—some of which was hot— fon the adventure. were now thorough-converted und their former sneers were immediately turned to words of praise.
Commercial Possibilities That thes two young fellows should build this boat at their own expense and with no axe to grind, fand with no ulterior motive, called forth the admiration of the' whole population. And that they should risk all the dangers of an unknown river with daccerous rapids and currents and rocks, for no other reason than mere adventure, was and still aileult {cr the local mind grasp. Yao Chu-chang, az importa oficial in the border administration, land a graduate of the Peking National University, a brilliant young scholar, was not slow to express his appre-lation of what the two Shanghai men were doing in their adventure fo open up the Tung to river traffic The Chinese merchants in Tachient realize that should the Tung be mads possible for alyer trame it will save them ten days on the journey down to Kintung. With an enormous amount of produce leaving the horder foe Shanghai practically every day, they are keenly Interested in the aaver~
What impressed us most was the influence of the Nightmare on the young schoo! boy life of Tachienlu Here was a real boat monned by real men and shooting real rapids. 'The school boys were absolutely thrilled and were quite prepared t> carry the boat, if need be, themselves; and while it' was being carried by the coolies they all wanted to have 'a hand on it. But their excitement knew no bounds when the Nightmare touched the water and started shoo!- ing down the river. "Here was something, a thrill, an experience, which was quite impossible for them to inherit. And to see Mandeville, a. powerful swimmer, swim the river, was an adventure their young eyes had never witnessed. Life can never be the same to those young Tibet-Chinese boys. 4
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.