Show streets of ft S 3 special correspondence pekin la like other large chinese cities only more eo the geographies talk about its being the largest city in the world and airily speak of 4 inhabitants this Is all a mistake it is safe to say that there are not 1 people al told and less I 1 that number within the walls it la impossible however to make any es amate of the population or the real size of the capital as it seems to be I 1 built in groups in one pot the housdo will look as though there had been a stampede to erect dwellings in a certain place and when that had been tal en everybody else built as near it as i possible A few hundred yards farther on tie ho aises thin oaf and are littered witt ered about without ahme or A I 1 tie farther still ancient stronghold ou me across a field of several acres almost bare of habitation and after that the frenzy tor building may have begun again the result Is that the city is simply a mass of houses all tumbled up in crowds and of open spaces between tr acks of rickshaw men A chinese street in summer time Is one of the most delightfully anfor formal places imaginable io one seems to have anything in particular to do and they all come into the streets to do it the men have finish ed dressing after they have put on a pair of dirty blue trousers and a pair of shoes the people who have shops move their contents out into the street for no apparent reason unless per chance to induce the pur chaer to buy in self defense all the rickshaws have two men one pulls and the other pushes thos who are fulfilling these useful bunc t ons for the european Eur opeal hotels are am pressed with an overwhelming idea of their own importance the one who goes ahead Is very dexterous in letting go his rickshaw handles with one band and violently rushing out of the way any unfortunate bystander whose thoughts have ms too slow ly to have suggested to him the ad visibility vis ability of standing aside the coolie who is doing the pushing Is equally skillful and invariably catches the man who has been thus jostled out of the way with a resounding smack on the side of his black and tan coun we repaired was the lama temple after about an hour of bearg i ushe I 1 and showed through the dirty crowd ed streets ve came to the ancient fane everybody gives the number ot the priests differently but there must be at least of them ahnne within nails and ou go a big gate to get into the first courtyard after that ou keep going through gates and courtyards without number beacie oi can get i through the dignified chinese guide raises his benevolent countenance to the sk es ard emits a plain tho howl the gate is opened from within by a piratical looking lama you have to give him some money then he stints and bars the ga e behind ou you then come to a series of tern plea where aro numerous figures ot gods A lot of beautiful draperies are strewn about and tee general effect is one of much richness this was as tar as I 1 got when the priest close clo se the door of the temple and caratu ly barred it in our rear I 1 forgot about the god and h s troubles and began to wonder how we were going to get out which we did by going in the altar and coming out the back door we repeated this process at every temple and there are at least six though there seemed to be many more passing through these doors we tho of what henry norman said of this place in his book on china and how he nearly lost Ms life there the guide was so full of talk about the famous buddha temple in the last of the series that we pressed on ani at last entered a really wonderful room in which there was a most im press lve buddha seventy five feet high the building appeared many sizes too small for the figure and ohp whole effect was as though the house had been built around him before he had a chance to beet away at this juncture there was a fear ful uproar abo it some incense an 1 everybody talked at once and I 1 thought of the innumerable gates in the rear and wished I 1 were in a safer place there were some more tem pies to see but we had enough aej vt ere let out of the gates one after the other being held up for money by a yellow faced priest at each turn flu ally we got out of the last gates and after seeing a few more shrines and a big tower that Is called the drum tower we returned to the hotel for chinese street cenance the strangest part of it all Is that no one seems to object the look with which these little pleasant ries are received is one more of sor row than anger and it s a hard hea then indeed who aaker a protest giving cool es a lesson this same attitude of the easten coolie toward violence is by the way one of the strangest things imaginable to a western mind the other night at the palace hotel there was a fright tul uproar arising from the building next door apparently a madman was running amuck among a score or two of rickshaws that had drawn up to the door of the building and were soliciting patrons for their two wheel ed carriages the center of the group was a european and the fiercest tu prevailed as he began upsetting rickshaws breaking their shafts tear ing off their lanterns and dashing them on to the ground in another moment every rickshaw man was tearing madly off with his vehicle to escape the fury of the onslaught and who should come walking from the scene of the panic with his arm loaded down with rickshaw cushions but the proprietor of the hotel he calmly wiped his brow and angly remarked it is nothing these coolies annoy my guests with the noise and so two or three times an evening I 1 go over there and beat a few of them and break their rick shaws which as you see at once dis perses them and he smiled bently as he thought of the dozens which had been demolished in times past one could not help wondering at what would happen if hotel keepers were to deal in this easy way with the american hack drivers in the temple of buddha the first point of to wh ch |