mum Expense From Our Own Correspondent, Lanchow, Kansu, Jyne 27.
In this, perhaps the most remote corner of China, cut off by distance and by the poor roads from the rest of the country, there is a tendency to develop an individuality, and an aloofness from the whole that is refreshing and sometimes startling. Is it the affair at Lincheng, for example? Well, after all, let China be com-Necade ago. If a score or two of jared to the Mexico of half a
influential Americans were taken by brigands in Mexico then, would anyone have stood out for the heavy penalties desired by sensible people anent the Lincheng matters? Is Poking tottering to its merited doom? Well, let it totter. Kansu will still be Kan-ssu! Is there a famine in Chibli and Shantung? That is too remote to touch all but the most advanced of Kansu folk.
But the walls of reserve and separation are crumbling. Already it is possible to get by railway to Paotaochun from Peking, and the motor-road is now to be extended along the bank of the Yellow River through inner Mongolia from Paotaochun to Ningsia. These inland motor-roads are worthy of more than a passing reference. First of all, the question is how to make the road. Secondly, how to keep other traffic off the road you have made. Thirdly, how to make as much money. as possible in the shortest time on the whole business. Other details, such as how to repair this road, and to prevent accidents, may be and usually are, given the neglect that is their due.
First then, as to how to make the road. This is easy enough. Get a permit from the biggest man in sight—Governor, or, better, District Commander of troops—draw the straightest line you can from horizon to horizon. Go over and through anybody's and everybody's land, making a cutting or an embankment of earth as necessary. Remove large stones from the bed of rivers to be forded. (Little ones do not matter, andi bridges are needless and expensive luxuries.) Frighten or kill, if necessary, a few fowl and pigs in the villages to be passed in order to intimidate the others, as well as the human inhabitants. And, presto! the road is made. I forgot to say that, in accordance with the custom of this and other countries, a large and ugly garage of some sort is necessary at intervals on the route.
The next question is, how to keep other traffic off your road. One way is by frequent notice boards, threatening with dire penalties all carters or muleteera who dare to use the road. Another, is to narrow the road down at every cutting just sufficient to let the car pass, and then excavate a deep pit all down the middle. This is very effective. Incautious carts are held up beautifully. They reach the cutting, the steep banks of which they cannot climb. The central hole will engulf their animals if they go on. To turn is impossible; whereas the motor speeds safely along on the ledges between the side slopes and the central pit.
Our last objective—not last, of course, in order of importance—was how to get the most out of the concern. ell, keep down oxpenses by cheap roads, avoiding needless repairs, and using sec-and-hand cars. For the rest, I must leave it to the companies concerned. I have seen a car full up and the chauffeur run across the field to catch an urchin who had put a row of stones across the road. He will not offend, I think, again!
But the motors are coming, and before long, you may be able to get to Kansu in four days from eking Pexrno, July 16.—The situation at Changsha is improving. Several Japanese are reported to be returning to their residences.—Reuter.
AnotHer of the most precious articles in possession of the ex-Imperial House, a jade Buddha' of tremendous size, hitherto placed at Tuan Cheng, in Peihai, has disappeared, reports the "Peking Daily News.'"' According to reports, it has been estimated by Japanese art experts to be worth $800,000. The Buddha is prized not so much for its size as for the fine quality of the jade. The Buddha was presented to the late Empress Dowager about 30 years ago, when the sani of a certain high official found a piece of jade of immense size on the Mongolian border. It was carried to Peking at enormous expense, owing to the weight of the'stone. The jade was cut into' the image of Buddha and put ati Tuan Cheng. by order of the late Empress Dowager. The statue was further adorned with a pearl! studded crown, a pearl necklace and so forth, but recently these paraphernalia have been stolen.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.