Place," the
race-course six miles from Peking.

When we dismounted, we had the usual arguments with the coolies as to
fares. There are three classes of fares here,--one for the Chinese, one
for the sophisticated resident, and one for the tourist; each one double
that for the preceding class. By this time we consider ourselves
sufficiently at home to pay the tariff which the foreign residents pay,
sufficiently sophisticated to avoid being overcharged. No use. We never
seem able to manage it. Inside of a minute we had half the coolies of
Peking yelling round us, just as if we were the greenest tourists that
ever set foot on Chinese soil. I'm sorry for the rickshaw boys, they
have a hard life of it; yet I must confess that our sympathies are
somewhat alienated by the way they "do" us on every possible occasion.

The special was waiting in the station, and we installed ourselves in a
compartment and looked eagerly out upon the platform for the signs of
the "scrambling" we had come to see. There it was, too, all the Who's
Who of Peking,--all the ministers and secretaries of the legations, with
their families and guests, and all the foreign residents of the
legation quarter and the East City and the West City and every city
contained within the walls of the capital. Americans, English, French,
Danes, Russians, Swedes; only the Germans were absent. The railway
pierces the wall of the West City, and for a time we ran along under the
walls outside, with the great crenelated battlements rising above us,
and their magnificent gates or towers glittering in the sunshine. How
incongruous and insignificant seemed that train-load of chattering
foreigners beneath the majestic, towering ramparts of this old royal
city! The arid plains presented rather a Biblical appearance, with
camel-trains moving slowly across the desolate landscape, while here and
there flocks of broad-tailed sheep were browsing, tended by their
shepherds. We passed the usual graves,--little mounds of earth ploughed
round very closely, as closely as the people felt they might without
disturbing the spirits within.

Twenty minutes later we came to a stop on the plains, and every one
began getting off. In a moment we were surrounded by crowds of yelling
donkey-boys leading donkeys, and a few rickshaw-pullers as well. No one
seemed to care for either form of conveyance, and we soon left behind
the blue-coated coolies still shouting the merits of their tiny gray
donke