Tea in China. 175 



the railway is complete in a few years, you and I, my adven- 

 turous reader, may some day stroll into Mr Thomas Cook's 

 office in Ludgate Circus, take an excursion ticket, get out at 

 Vladivostock, and have lots of big-game shooting in Manchu 

 Tartary. Were I to make such a trip, I think I should keep 

 a sharp look-out for all the likely galloping ponies, and having 

 selected the best, embark with them for Shanghai ; being quite 

 certain of an average of ^50 a piece from my sporting friends 

 in the ' Model Settlement.' 



One must never say that anything is new until one has 

 been to China. To my amazement, I saw, one day at Tientsin, 

 the principle of one of my favourite appliances used by a 

 Manchu Tartar in a bridle on his mule. It has probably been 

 employed by these horsemen from time immemorial. 



The country round Tientsin is flat, low-lying, is subject to 

 frequent inundations from the river, and is a general burial- 

 ground for the Chinese, who plant their dead wherever they 

 think fit ; consequently, the surface water is strongly impreg- 

 nated with a flavour of pigtail. The Chinese adapt the wise 

 precaution of drinking water only in the form of weak tea, 

 which is dispensed for a very moderate sum by numerous 

 peripatetic venders. They, as we all know, use neither milk 

 nor sugar with their favourite decoction. As they consume 

 large quantities of this fluid, they have it of a strength akin 

 to what ladies are pleased to call ' husband's tea ' ; although 

 they never commit the atrocity of * watering the pot/ after 

 it has been exhausted. The Chinaman does not wash out his 

 tea-pot. He simply throws out the used leaves, makes a fresh 

 brew, and so on, until the interior of the utensil has such a 

 fine old crust on it, that, if required, he could get a fairly 

 good cup of tea out of it, by merely adding water. 



We returned to Shanghai in June 1888, and started for 

 Yokohama by the French mail steamer. A passenger's life 

 on board one of these boats is the perfection of comfort at 

 sea. The food is excellent, you are given plenty of time 

 to eat it, and the wine is pure, not fabrique. The dilution of 



