A poor and ignorant man judges his lot by his past. Thus did China's ragged ricksha pullers judge the Government's lofty pronouncement that their work was "archaic, inhuman and wasteful of manpower," and the Government's three-year plan to abolish all rickshas in favor of pedicabs, trolleys and buses.
In their straw-and-mud shantytowns, in the hong (company) sheds where they rent their vehicles, in cheap teahouses from Chungking to Peiping, the ricksha men shook their heads over the prospect. Ai-ya! Ai-ya! Truly, as the Sage had written, "it is difficult to be poor and not...
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