drivers do not lash the other drivers' animals, even when these are in the wrong; nor do the men swear at each other and threaten to fight, as they do in London or New York. There are a few jesting words, an interchange of smiles, a gentle shove to the mule that has blocked the road, and the whole traffic flows on again.

I can honestly say that any day in the city of London one may witness more ill-temper over road obstruction than one can see in the 135 miles between Peking and Kalgan, with roads worse than the English carman can conceive, and with a traffic measured in tens of thousands of animals. I do not think that in all the way that we travelled we noticed any ill-temper or heard any insulting language. The good-nature of the people was the subject of our daily conversation.

The people of North China are a robust, stalwart, vigorous, simple, and frugal race. They are poorly fed, and they thrive on the food. In the towns-in Kalgan, for instance the equivalent in copper cash of three silver dollars a month is accounted a very ample wage for a servant. In other words, eighteenpence a week is sufficient to enable a man to support a wife and family; and that is the wage earned `in an important mercantile city.

What, then, is the living wage in the country beyond? Of that, of course, I can say little, but I could see that nothing is wasted, and that labour of

some kind was found for both old and young. Withal, the people seem to be educated quite up to the standard, allowing for difference of manners, that England has but recently attained. That is, they can read and write. I used to sit in the inn courtyards just before dinner, using the fading daylight to make my journey notes. A crowd of muledrivers and others would gather round to watch me, and usually when I finished I would show them one of the long slips of red paper, with my name printed in Chinese characters, that the British Legation had furnished to me to use as visiting-cards when calling on the Chinese officials. Instantly they would read it aloud with an ease that showed them to be familiar with the written character.

It is to be noted also, as characteristic of the natural amiability of the people, that, when gathered round watching me write, they did not talk, or laugh, or make critical remarks, as an English crowd would do were they watching a Chinaman sitting writing in a public place in England. They stood around quite silently, and that, not from lack of willingness to speak, but rather from politeness, for so soon as I closed my notebook and faced them, or looked up and passed some remark to them, they immediately burst into a stream of talk. In fact, while they were curious they were also civil.

The official classes also we found helpful, though grudging. We only intended to stay one day at

Kalgan, though ultimately that one day lengthened out to three. Things cannot be arranged quickly in China, and our arrangements at Kalgan included the settling of our transport through Mongolia, the hiring and repairing of vehicles, the purchase of Mongolian riding saddles, and of Mongolian sheepskin cloaks.

The transport could scarcely have been arranged without the special order from the Tsung-li-Yamen, of which I speak in my chapter on Peking. With it, with interpretation from a shrewd and kindly American missionary, and with help from the Russian postmaster and a Russian tea-merchant, things were arranged with the local Yamen, although not too easily at first, for my Russian friends spoke only a little English, and no French or German.

When we arrived at Kalgan, and had bathed and lunched, my travelling companions, being Americans, proceeded to one end of the town to call on the American mission, while I went to the other to deliver my introduction to the Russian merchants and the Russian postmaster.

But as I speak no Russian, and as the Russians spoke no French or German, things did not progress much, although happily two of the Russians spoke a little English and had a Russo-English dictionary. Practically all conversation had ultimately to be interpreted through Chinese, which the Russians spoke fluently, as did the American missionary, who

lent us invaluable aid and unstinted kindness during our three days' stay.

Then we went to the local officials, and when, with much interpretation, the Chinese officials had thoroughly grasped what we wanted, and what the Tsung-li-Yamen had authorized us to get, they gave us help, but not too willingly. The attitude of the officials, in a word, was quite different from the cheerful helpfulness of the common people.

And thus we left China proper, and entered on the Mongolian tablelands, carrying with us the most favourable memories of a pleasant sojourn among a kindly, helpful, and good-natured people.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PEOPLE OF CHINA.

I CONCLUDED the last chapter by indicating that in my journey through the northern district of China I found the people, the official classes excepted, to be kindly, helpful, and good-natured. Before leaving the subject of the Chinese people, before crossing the border into Mongolia, I desire to say something regarding the possibilities of the people whom I was leaving behind me. Let me premise that my acquaintance with the Chinese people did not begin with this journey through a part of China. I have lived in a British community where the larger part of the population is Chinese. I have employed Chinese alike in my office and in my house; I have had dealings with their foremost men; I have talked with them, dined with them, bargained with them, mixed with them, occasionally, in their excursions of pleasure, and generally I have known them well. The information with which I now propose to preface certain conclusions at which I have arrived, although it be in part statistical information, was