Page:On to Pekin.djvu/42

24 better, although the roads were still almost impassable. In some spots the carts could not get through with their loads; and the men had to "ferry" the goods across, the turnouts coming over empty.

"I believe the Philippines want good roads more than anything else," observed Gilbert. "In all the time I've been here I've hardly seen a decent highway outside of Manila."

"We are bound for a country where the roads are still worse," returned Captain Banner. "I've been reading up on China lately, and I've learned that there is hardly a respectable highway in the whole Celestial Kingdom. Even the streets of Pekin, the great capital, are out of repair, and have been for centuries."

"And yet Chinese labor costs next to nothing. I can't understand it."

"The common people don't want to pay out a single cash for public improvements, that's the reason. Besides that, there comes up the old Chinese saying that 'what was good enough for my father and grandfather is good enough for me.'"

"They must be a terribly backward nation."

"Backward doesn't express it, lieutenant. They