In a country like America, with 300,000 miles of track, the purchase
would be _ultra vires_ in more senses than one, but with only
1 per cent. of that mileage, the purchase would not be difficult,
though it might not be so easy to secure an honest administration.
Trains from Peking now reach Hankow (600 miles) in thirty-six hours.
When the grand trunk is completed, through trains from the capital
will reach Canton in three days. Set this over against the three
months' sea voyage of former times (a voyage made only once a year),
or against the ten days now required for the trip by steamer! What
a potent factor is the railroad in the progress of a great country!
The new enterprises in this field would be burdensome to enumerate.
Shanghai is to be connected by rail with Tientsin (which means
Peking), and with Nanking and Suchow. Lines to penetrate the western
provinces are already mapped out; and even in Mongolia it is proposed
to supersede the camel by the iron
[Page 204]
horse on the caravan route to Russia. "Alas! the age of golden
leisure is gone--the iron age of hurry-skurry is upon us!" This
is the lament of old slow-going China.
When China purchased the Shanghai-Woosung railway in 1876, she
was thought to be going ahead. What did we think when she tore up
the track and dumped it in the river? An aeon seems to have passed
since that day of darkness.
The advent of railways has been slow in comparison with the telegraph.
Pages:
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210