Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 250, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1917 — Test of Endurance. [ARTICLE]

Test of Endurance.

Human endurance is seldom tested so severely as among the postal messengers of the Chinese government between Peking and Lhassa. These mes.sengers are picked and trained men, who in times of great urgency are required to cover 4,500 miles between the two capitals, on horseback, in 36 days, or 125 miles a day. The messenger’s letters, inclosed in a yellow bag, are never taken off hisback except when he changes his dress, once a week. He changes horses every few miles, eats and sleeps - in postal stations, is under the most rigid restrictions as to articles of diet, land is permitted to sleep only four hdurs a day.