I stood up
and fronted them, and replied, through T'ong, that I could not stay the
night, that I would be pleased to tolerate the howling of the theatre
for one half of an hour, that it would have given me the greatest
pleasure to take their photographs, but, alas! my films were not many. I
handed them a cigarette tin, but quite forgot that they asked for
cigarettes as well (I had none), and I explained that horse-riding was
not one of my accomplishments, so that their quadruped would be of no
use to me.
They looked glum, I smiled serenely. This is Chinesey.
CHAPTER VIII
_Szech-wan and Yuen-nan_. _Coolies and their loads_. _Exports and
imports_. _Hints to English exporters_. _Food at famine rates_. _A
wretched inn at Wuchai_. _Author prevents murder_. _Sleeping in the
rain_. _The foreign cigarette trade_. _Poverty of Chao-t'ong_.
_Simplicity of life_. _Possible advantages of Chinese in struggle of
yellow and white races_. _Foreign goods in Yuen-nan and Szech'wan_.
_Thousands of beggars die_. _Supposed lime poisoning_. _Content of the
people_. _Opium not grown_. _Prices of prepared drug in Tong-ch'uan-fu
compared_. _Smuggling from Kwei-chow_. _Opium and tin of Yuen-nan_.
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