OPPOSITION to railroad building has become so strong in China that the work has been stopped. The reasons for this action are thus stated by the Christian at Work:— The Imperial Government had been convinced by the conservatives and the Court astrologers that a great fire in the Imperial Palace was caused by the construction of the Tien-Tsin Railroad, and must be regarded as a warning that no more rails should be laid. The conservatives in order to secure their purpose, resorted to what has always been popular with so many sons of Adam for countless centuries—they took to lying, and declared that railroads had become so great a nuisance in Europe, that European nations were tearing them up, and that they hope to get rid of the rails so rejected by selling them in China. It is now learned that the conservatives not only have prevented the extension of the new railroad, but also have induced the authorities to order that the magnificent iron bridge across the Pei-ho, built by a French engineer, shall be demolished, on the pretense that it is in the way of the slow-moving Chinese freight boats. The construction of the Tien-Tsin Railroad was bitterly opposed on the ground that the trains would compete with freight wagons in the highway, as undoubtedly they would. So China dodges behind the great stone wall and virtually says to the rest of the world, You may move if you will, but we prefer to do as we have for thousands of years—stand still. And they are still standing.