the first-class compartments containing a few French officers,
the second-class filled with Chinese coolies and French soldiers,
while a half-dozen flat cars were loaded with horses and mules.
A large Roger's locomotive from Paterson, New Jersey, drew
our long train smoothly and easily, though the schedule was so
slow and the stops so long that we were seven hours and a half
in making a run of a hundred miles.

Railway-building in South China, outside of French territory,
began with a line from Canton to Hankow which was projected
in 1895 by Senator Calvin S. Brice, William Barclay
Parsons being the engineer. The usual governmental difficulties
were encountered, but in 1902 an imperial decree gave the
concession to the American-China Development Company.
American capital was to finance the road, though with some
European aid. The company had the power, under its concession,
to issue fifty-year five per cent. gold bonds to the amount
of $42,500,000, the interest being guaranteed by the Chinese
Government. The main line will be 700 miles long, and
branches will increase the total mileage to 900. On November
15, 1903, a section ten miles long from Canton to Fat-shan was
formally opened for traffic in the presence of the Hon. Francis
May, colonial secretary and registrar-general of the Hongkong
Government, a large number of Europeans and Americans, and
immense crowds of Chinese who manifested their excitement by
an almost incessant rattle of fire-crackers. By October, 1904,
trains were running regularly to Sam-shui, about twenty-five
miles beyond Fat-shan. This is a branch line. The main
line will run on the other side of the West River. In 1905,
the government decided to complete the line itself and cancelled