Roads are being brought into good shape. Most of the holes on the road to Dzangzok have been filled. But there is very little motor traffic as compared with the early months of the summer, Part of this drop is due to the cheaper freight rates by train and also to the fact, that train travel is much quicker as well as cheaper. Too there is the constant ar on the road of raids from the guerillas, The petrol coaches are proving to be quite an innovation in traffic on the railway. They are clean and make exceedingly good time. One coach is supposed to accommodate 150 persons, but at times they are packed with more than that.
Coal shortage is cute in Soochow and there is attendant profiteering. Transportation is difficult as it is hard to secure freight cars in which to ship coal to Soochow. Some of the better grades of hard coal have been quoted as high as $80 per ton.
Germany by 24 per cent. and the birth-rate by 27, and the birth-rate in Italy by as much as 40, that is among couples who obtained loans.
But our social habits also need overhauling. Here if a girl marries and keeps her previous job, it means no children. In Denmark and France can speak for these countries and doubtless there are others) adequate leave of absence is granted before and after the birth of a baby, while her job is kept open for her, and there are institutions to which she can safely entrust the baby while she works.
Apropos of marriages, a Bermondsey vicar, the Rev. C. K. Balleine, about to retire, who has married over 5000 couples, zives an amusing account of brides, whom he divides into three classes: those who behave as if they were married every day; those who splash every cent on show on the one day in their lives; and those who know that life will be hard, but boldly face cil difficulties.
Mr. Balleine also recalls a bridegroom who over slept himself (rarriage being fixed for 9 a.m.) and was hustled into church by an indignant mother-in-law with boots unlaced and doing up his waistcoat as he came.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.