Fire in the inn was kindled in the hollow of the ground. There was no
ventilation; the wood they burned was, as usual, green; smoke was
suffocating. My men talked well on into the night, and kept me from
sleeping, even if pain would have allowed me to. I spoke strongly, and
they, thinking I was swearing at them, desisted for fear that I should
heap upon their ancestors a few of the reviling thoughts I entertained
for them.
I should like to say a word here about the roads in this province, or
perhaps the absence of roads. They had been execrable, the worst I had
met, aggravated by heavy rains. With all the reforms to which the
province of Yuen-nan is endeavoring to direct its energies, it has not
yet learned that one of the first assets of any district or country is
good roads. But this is true of the whole of the Middle Kingdom. The
contracted quarters in which the Chinese live compel them to do most of
their work in the street, and, even in a city provided with but the
narrowest passages, these slender avenues are perpetually choked by the
presence of peripatetic vendors of every kind of article of common sale
in China, and by itinerant craftsmen who have no other shop than the
street.
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