Nevertheless, railways in China are usually profitable. It is
true that the opposition to the building of a railroad is apt to
be bitter, that mobs are occasionally destructive, and that locomotives
and other rolling stock rapidly deteriorate under native
handling unless closely watched by foreign superintendents.
But, on the other hand, the Government is usually forced to
pay indemnities for losses resulting from violence. The road,
too, once built, is in time appreciated by the thrifty Chinese,
who swallow their prejudices and patronize it in such enormous
numbers, and ship by it such quantities of their produce, that
the business speedily becomes remunerative, while the population
and the resources of the country are so great as to afford
almost unlimited opportunity for the development of traffic.

As a rule, on all the roads, the first-class compartments,
when there are any, have comparatively few passengers, chiefly
officials and foreigners. The second-class cars are well filled
with respectable-looking people, who are apparently small merchants,
students, minor officials, etc. The third-class cars,
which are usually more numerous, are packed with chattering
peasants. The first-class fares are about the same as ordinary
rates in the United States. The second-class are about half
the first-class rates, and the third-class are often less than the
equivalent of a cent a mile. This is a wise adjustment in a
land where the average man is so thrifty and so poor that he
would not and could not pay a price which would be deemed
moderate in America, and where his scale of living makes him
content with the rudest accommodations. Very little baggage
is carried free, twenty pounds only on the German lines, so