212 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



a Christian seemed never to have entered his mind. The 

 man was well off, and could well afford to pay for his treat- 

 ment. After this, I said adieu to my kind host and his two 

 mandarin friends, who held office in Ch6ng-tu, the provincial 

 capital, and returned home to pass the evening in semi- 

 obscurity as usual. No wonder that the Chinese, with no 

 new books and no newspapers to amuse them, gradually 

 take to passing their evenings over the social pipe. As with 

 our lower classes, who are addicted to the public-houses 

 from much the same causes, if the Chinese are to be weaned 

 from the opium-pipe, they must be provided with amuse- 

 ments and more exciting occupations, such as the admission 

 of Western enterprises can alone afford. 



