the Western world. On the same parallel as Philadelphia, but dryer,
hotter, and colder, the climate is so superb that the city, though
lacking a system of sanitation, has a remarkably low death-rate.
In 1859 I first entered its gates. In 1863 I came here to reside.
More than any other place on earth it has been to me a home; and
here I am not unlikely to close my pilgrimage.

On my first visit, I made use of Byron's lines on Lisbon to express my
impressions of Peking. Though there are now some signs of improvement
in the city
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the quotation can hardly be considered as inapplicable at the present
time. Here it is for the convenience of the next traveller:

"...Whoso entereth within this town,
That, sheening far, celestial seems to be,
Disconsolate will wander up and down,
'Mid many things unsightly to strange ee:
For hut and palace show like filthily:
The dingy denizens are rear'd in dirt;
Ne personage of high or mean degree
Doth care for cleanness of surtout or shirt..."
(_Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto the First_, st. xvii.)

Returning to the station we face about for the south and take tickets
for Paoting-fu. We are on the first grand trunk railway of this
empire. It might indeed be described as a vertebral column from
which iron roads will ere long be extended laterally on either side,
like ribs, to support and bind together the huge frame. Undertaken
about twelve years ago it has only recently been completed as far