specially
when we rushed through long tunnels. The line is one which taxed the
ingenuity of engineers to the utmost in its construction, and is one
succession of light bridges spanning deep chasms, tunnels, and long
gradients. Luckily for us, we were travelling in the downhill direction,
else our journey had been impossible. If the brave "Dare-to-dies" were
too hurried to leave the line mined, they had taken time to destroy it
in some places, and once a broken-down engine blocked our path. The
fleeing soldiers had found the engine-driver preparing to take in water,
but they would have none of his lagging ways, and compelling him to
drive ahead, were soon forced to abandon the useless locomotive. Each
such obstacle was a lengthy hindrance, and the kind gentlemen of our
party were obliged to organise a breakdown gang to overcome the
difficulty. Our trolleys, with all the baggage, had to be transferred to
another line. Effort and energy were not spared, and the following
midday brought us face to face with the first engine carrying Imperial
soldiery towards Taiyueanfu. At Niangtzekwan Pass we were under the
Dragon flag once more. The houses of the foreigners there were
completely wrecked, and my recollection of that place is a land of
feathers, contents of the beds of the Frenchmen who had left their
homes, and would return to find nothing but a heap of ruins and a litter
of broken glass, china, and furniture, smothered in feathers and
presenting a sad wreckage of what had once been a home. That evening we
reached an inn where food--warm, satisfying food--was to be had, and
twenty-four hours later we steamed into Tientsin station, greeted by a
hearty cheer from a friendly group, for we had been missing and untraced
since we left Yutze.

CHANGED CONDITIONS

"The Master said: The people may be made to follow
a path of action, but they may not be made to
understand it."--CONFUCIUS.

"I have seen a Chinese graduate of a Western
university, dressed in proper Western clothes, in
his dress-suit, with an opera hat crushed under
his arm, beseeching the goddess of mercy in her
temple, with many rich gifts, to give him a male
child."--Rev. C. SCOTT.

"From time to time Jesus was offered a place in
the Pantheon, but Christianity perceived that the
Pantheon was the place for dead gods."--Dr. JOHN