that excess baggage charges amount to more than in America.

The freight cars, during my visit, were, for the most part,
loaded with the materials and supplies necessitated by the work
of railway-construction and by the extensive rebuilding of the
native and foreign property which had been destroyed by the
Boxers. But in normal conditions the railways carry inland a
large number of foreign manufactured articles, and in turn
bring to the ports the wheat, rice, peanuts, ore, coal, pelts,
silk, wool, cotton, matting, paper, straw-braid, earthenware,
sugar, tea, tobacco, fireworks, fruit, vegetables, and other
products of the interior. Short hauls are the rule, thus far,
both for passengers and freight. This is partly because the
long-distance lines within the Empire are not yet completed,
and partly because the typical Chinese of the lower classes in
the interior provinces has never been a score of miles away from
his native village in his life, and has been so accustomed to
regard a wheelbarrow trip of a dozen miles as a long journey
that he is a little cautious, at first, in lengthening his radius of
movement. But he soon learns, especially as the struggle for
existence in an overcrowded country begets a desire to take advantage
of an opportunity to better his condition elsewhere.
Once fairly started, he is apt to go far, as the numbers of
Chinese in Siam, the Philippines, and America clearly show.
The literary and official classes are less apt to go abroad, but
they are more accustomed to moving about within the limits
of the Empire, as they must go to the central cities for their
examinations, and as offices are held for such short terms that
magistrates are frequently shifted from province to province.
When this vast population of naturally industrious and commer-