en, and connect with the
Trans-Siberian and other far-away, thrilling places. The "other station"
takes one out into the country somewhere, to various outlying spots in
the hills, and it was to one of these places that we were bound. When we
arrived we found the other members of the party waiting for us. We were
all early, ahead of time, for Chinese trains have certain idiosyncrasies
that must be reckoned with. Scheduled to start at a certain hour, they
frequently leave five or ten minutes ahead of time, or whenever the
guard thinks that no more people are coming. All six of our party found
ourselves at the station well ahead of time, having been warned of this
peculiarity of Chinese railways. Dr. Reinsch's two servants were on hand
to buy the tickets and to carry large and imposing lunch-baskets. Soon
we were all installed in an antiquated railway-carriage, first class by
courtesy only, with half an hour's ride before us.

Pandemonium greeted us when we alighted on the platform of a dusty
little station--a small house solitary upon the vast plain. Pandemonium
came from the donkey-drivers who were expecting us, thirty or forty at
least, each one dragging forward a reluctant donkey, praising its merits
and himself as donkey-driver, and disparaging all the other donkeys and
drivers and battling for our helpless persons. What can you do when a
towering coolie takes a firm clutch on your arm, and, with an equally
firm grip on his donkey's bridle, drags you and the donkey together and
is about to lift you on the animal's back, when you are suddenly jerked
in an opposite direction by an equally firm hand and confront another
stubborn and reluctant donkey and are about to be boosted upon that,
when you are clutched from the rear and meet a third possibility!
Mercifully, our khaki clothes were new and strong and stood the jerking
and hauling without giving way at a single seam. Out of the melee peace
was finally restored. Some one got me, and the others also were
captured, the yells finally died down, and we set off over the plains,
all mounted on donkeys much too small. Saddles? Not at all. A square
seat, about as wide and unyielding as a table-top, was strapped securely
to each donkey, and to this seat we clung, with no secureness at all. An
exceedingly wide seat it was, with stirrups dangling somewhere out of
reach, and which could not be reached even by the widest effort to
straddle that square wide pad. Behind each donkey r