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May 5, 1902.]
The head office is to be in Hongkong, where shares may be applied for and the Imperial Bank of China to act as the company's bankers. The work to ba completed in fun years' time." A railway from here to Chowchowfoo would mean a great boon to everybody, particularly to business people, and it is therefore trusted that Chang's enterprise will meet with success.
ENGLISH AS SHE IS WROTE.
In connection with the four British men-of- war in por, I learn that the local Chinese tele- graph offie had occasion t sent a cover on board H.M.S. Rosario, which was addressed as follows:
· Mr. H.M.S. Rosario, Esquire {"
8.
PEKING.
Peking, 14th April. COURT'S VISIT TO THE IMPERIAL TOMBS.
The Court did not get off as early is it ex- pected on Sunday morning. Instead of at sunrise, the hour fixed, it was a quartor past seven when it passed through the. Tunghua Men. The military boy-guard was lined up on eitbor side the roadway from the Forbidden City, and when the Imperial family came out turned in behind it. There were the immediats retinue and the chamb r-keepers iu fron', a choice scal- awagerie, but the advance or foreguard was dressed up two miles out of the city awaiting its charge. The small fry and less wont bowling along in carts, cutting up the Imperial roadway in places and in others taking shorts cuts in the direction of the day's destination. A fow for- eigners witnessed these doings, which were well worth an early morning walk from behind palings, but the
CURIOSITY HAS WORN OFF
with the crowd, the gorgeous Oriental proces- sion is too early for the Sybarites, and being on Sunday morning the Christians wore out uled. As announced in the edict, the Imperial party drank tea at the Tung-yuch-miso just outside the Tartar city wall and went on a mile or so, where they burnt incense at a large temple. At both, these temples yellow chuirs wai ́ed to re- ceive them--three.
THE SHOW WAS A TREAT. There had been a good deal of furbishing and priming since the last performance. The shab- biness apparent when they arrived in Poking was absent, carts, chairs, accoutrements and flags were all new, spick and spau new, and the procession tossed, rolled and glittered in the sunlight. Of course the Dowager bores with a big auger when she gets a fair chance. Thousands of people had fongregated outside the city to witness it and appropriated the spectacle with truly Chinese proprie. torship and independence as though it was their own, which it was of course. Their behaviour must be very shocking to the writers of books about them. The man with the bow and arrow who shoots out the eye of the chap who dares to behold His 'Secred Majesty, the Son of Heaven, must have been dead these thousands of years, and yet I saw an honest man yesterday who knew a thinaman who said he had been shot in this way, 1 of ju the eye but somewhere n the limbs. The gentleman told a story of
TUNG-CHI'S JOURNEY TO THE EASTERN TOMBS and was a witness to his return after days of rain in fathoms of mud, wh u, the horses having all been killed by the toil, the soldiers were impressed and pulled the Emperor's cart into the city. Numbers of horses have already been killed by the preliminary exertions, an idea of which can be gained from the fact that nearly
all the carts for hire about the town have been pressed into the service of the pi'grims. Think of an ordinary cart animal, such as one hires in the streets going to the oastery tombs in a week, which according to roli.blo Chinese information is from two hundred, to three baudred and sixty li distant? The butcher shop only a little way above my door is a crying protest to this kind of cruelty. There were 1roops, fine ozes, lined up in close order on both sides of the road for five miles out of the east gate! Every brigade had thirty or forly of those immense Chinese staudards, the breeze just lively enough to fill them. A boy forced by his companions into the middle of the road between the standard-bearers opposite an inn well
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
Some tiraid gronps, curiosity and wonder | struck, ludicrously craned their necks above walls here and there when everyone else was sloshing about, nonchalant. An occasional old man at the base of some old stone monument in the field, content with a more quiet and broader view than that of the contending crowd. Perspective and thought were his requirements,
THE EMPEROR
was in full view in a large chair with large windows and looked interestedly about him. Owing to her sensitiveness on the subject of her side view the Dowager sat between blue curtains far back in her chair and was to be seen only by a direct front-window glance. A couple of thousand soldiers accompanied them and tho Peking garrison on parade marched back to their barracks. It was all ovo by ten o'clock three miles out of the city-the bedragouod mob like a colony of ants seram bling on toward Tung-chow, leaving ns to come back wrapped in thought.--Meredry
NORTHERN NOTES.
The following items are from the P, & T. Times of 12th ult.
Quite a largo ection of Hata-Men Streat in Peking fenced off to enable a small army of stoneinasons to go on with the Ket eler memorial. From the number and the huge size of the monoliths, oue judges that the moun- ment will be one of the sights of the Capital.
The Recreation Ground saw a novelty last Saturday in the resuscitation of the old English sport of Rounders. It was a mixed" game, the ladies bing allowed to uso tennis-rackets, while the men were limited to the club which resembles a potato-mashor more than a bat. There was more Healthy, uproarious fun in it than anylbing else.
The exploring party that left Tientsin last Autumn under Major Manifold, I.M.S.. and Captain Hunter, RE.. after traversing Honan, Shou Si, and Szo Chuan, finally emerged on the Yangisze near Chungking about three weeks ngo, al well. Major Manifold is expected up here before bo veturns to India.
We have to extend a hearty welcome to Mr. C. D. Tenney. Mr. Tenney's missiou to Berlin. was in part successful. The German authorities there have come to the decision not to restore
the buildings of the Tientsin University, but they have given, or are to give, compensation; and the College building will be erected on a new site. This site has now to be determined.
An attempt is being made to get Mr. John Roberts to Tientsin and a subscription list is now open in the Tientsin Club The list yesterday showed $20. subscribed, but $1000 is
necessary.
There has been some correspondence between the Chamber of Commerce on the one hand and thGerman Association and the TP.G. on the other hand about the present conflition of the Tientsin City money market. The Committee of the Chamber had a consultation with the foreigu Bank Managers on Tuesday this week; and a Commit'er, consisting of Messrs Emens. Hewat, Heyl and Kump, has been appointed to receive a deputation from the native bankers and to consult with them us to possible remedial
measures.
At a moeting held in the Gordon Hall Inst Tuesday. General O'Moore Creagh, V.C., presiding, it was nnanimously decided to raise & Volunteer Monnted Infantry Corps in Tien- sin, consisting of Britons and Americans, to be called Cragh's Own Scouts," so named after the gallant Geral who has displayed so much energy in its formstion
After some elucidat-
ing remarks by Mr. Harding, it was proposed to plect a committee of three by ballot; this resulted in the following gentlemen being elected:--Mr. E. Fabris, Mr. W Harding and Mr. C. P. Morlug. This Committee was in- to the structed to make investigations as most suita' le way of conducting the corps, and to report to a subsequent meating. About 39 c'vilians were present, amongst whom was Mr. W. W. Dickinson, whose remarks on financing the Corps were much appreciated.
The amount of building going on in Peking is. incredible and must be a large factor in the scarcity of skilled labour-bricklayers, masons and car- penters-now so marked in the northern part of the Province. The whole Legation quarter is all and was left for his mother to take away, but unrecognisable to those who knew the City
FELL IN A FIT.
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349
only a year ago. The most striking street im- provement is in the thoroughfare which is flanked by the British, Russian, Japanese and Italian Legations: The road on both sides of the canal has been macadamised and broad side-paths or trottoirs marked off: then the canal has been made less dangerous by a neat dwarf wall running the whole length of the two roads, while at the North end, buildings, which are crosses between bastions and gates, have been put up on each side of the canal, thus p:eventing a possible enemy again eofilading the whole roadway from the wall of the Imperial City.
Sir Claude Macdonald's "Lest we forget" is still prominent on the wall of the Legation, but is shortly to disappear through structural alteration.
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There is a widely spread feeling of distrust as to the health of the Port of Tientsin, and anxiety lest infection may reach us from Shang- hai,
The T.P.G., roferring to this, has been in communication with the Customs and the Consular authorities as to the expediency of enforcing quarantine regulations against Shang- hai steamers. The Municipal Health Officer once communicated was consulted: he at with Shanghai by telegram, and had a reply that in the week March 26th-April 2nd there was only one reported additional case
of infectious disease in Shanghai, and that the death rate was stric ly normal. Tientsin residents need have no fears as to danger of infection from Shanghai; the diptheria at their own door is a far greater evil and a much more reasonable cause of alarm. We my add that the health of the Port just now is excep- tionally good, as far as the testimony of those We have much best qualified to know goeus. less sickness than usual on the Spring.
CORRESPONDENCE.
[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.]}
THE CORONATION CELEBRATION,
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS.
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SIR. The public will no doubt be gratified at the elaborate programme which the appointed Committee has drawn up for the celebration of the coronation of their Majesties the King and Queen, but it seems to me that considering that the Public have now been asked to provide the money the opportunity of consulting them might have be a given.
The Committee is not a public one; the majority were appointed, and the balance elected later by to other members. It is a repetition of the Diamond Jubilee arrange. ment, which at the time gave an amount of unnecessary dissatisfaction. Surely this might have been guarded against
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The Hon. Secretary of this committee announces that the sum of $30,000 will be equired and any surplus will be devoted to such AS may be decided permanent memorial by this committee. It may be within the memory of most of the residents that' on the 28th February, 1898, a statinent of accounts collected from the public for the Diamond Jubilee celebration showed a balance of $184,381.38. The public who are now asked to again loosen their purse-strings would first like to know what has been douo with that sum, It was decided at the time that it should be expended (1) ou a Jubilee Road to go round the island on the sea level, (2) to erect a Jubilee Hospital and Nursing Institute for Wom n.
مجھ
A road, not the original the money was voted for, has at last been started. This road, in the form it is being proceeded with, should have been built by the Government, and the money subscribers or with their returned to tho cousent devoted to something better. The Women's Hospital is where?
Now, I take it that many will hesitate sub- scribing to any fund until the money collected for the last has been accounted for. That money was subscribed for two specific purposes; ono has been trifled with and the other ignored.. If those who undertook the steward-hip of the fund have no time to use it as was decided, then they had better notify all the subscribers, or their "heirs, executors and assigns,” and arrange to return it, plus interest,
The contemplated" programme seems weak