Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/256

192 In company with my host I called upon the Viceroy, a genial but pitifully weak ruler of the name of Ting. I expressed much interest in the opium and railway questions, but his Excellency passed by both these questions and professed immense interest in the fact that I was unmarried, indulging in absorbing speculations as to the rank and virtues of the lady whom he prophesied my parents would select for me on my return to my native land. Both opium and railways are at present embarrassing subjects in the yamens of Western China. The former, like the latter, deserves special consideration, and will be discussed in a separate chapter.

Quite apart from reform in the matter of opium-smoking and railway construction, I found reform as indicated by the expression "China for the Chinese" pervading the atmosphere of the capital. France was already building a railway from her possessions in Indo-China to the very heart of the province; a French railway station stood even now cheek