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(Frontispiece )

 
ECLECTIC SCHOOL READINGS

 

TWO GIRLS IN CHINA

BY

MARY H. KROUT

AUTHOR OF “ HAWAII AND A REVOLUTION,” “ ALICE’S
VISIT TO THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS,” “A
LOOKER-ON IN LONDON,” ETC.

NEW YORK + CINCINNATI + CHICAGO
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
hi 7A

CopyRIGHT, 1903, BY
MARY H. KROUT.

Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London

TWO GIRLS IN CHINA.

Ww.P.t
PREFACE

THE material for this book was obtained by the writer
during some months of travel in China in 1899-1900, pre-
ceding the Boxer rebellion and the disorganization of the
Imperial Government. Peking and the adjacent provinces
were visited, and the utmost pains taken to observe and
record such facts as might prove interesting to young read-
ers, such as the geographical features of the country, its
products, the occupations and customs of the people, etc.

Almost three months were spent in the capital; and from
this point journeys were made to the Ming Tombs, the
Nan K‘ou Pass, and across Pechili almost to the Mongolian
frontier. In the latter expedition the writer was accom-
panied by a missionary, an American lady who spoke Chinese
fluently, and through whose assistance, as interpreter, an
insight into national characteristics was obtained which
would not have been otherwise practicable.

In addition to this, the story of the Great Bell is con-
densed from the version given by Lafcadio Hearn in ‘“‘ Some
Chinese Ghosts,” a delightful book, now, unfortunately, out
of print. Other books of reference which were consulted

5
are “ Through the Yang-tze Gorges” and “ Mt. Omi and
Beyond,” by Archibald Little; ‘‘ Intimate China,” by Mrs.
Archibald Little; “‘ Chinese Characteristics ” and “ Village
Life in China,” by the Rev. Arthur Smith; “China: the
Long-lived Empire,” by Eliza R. Scidmore; “ A Cycle of
Cathay,” by the Rev. W. A. P. Martin, etc., etc.
Il.

ITI.

Iv.

VI..

VI.

VIL.

IX.

XI.

XII.

XIII.

CONTENTS

THE Voyace : ae OW. che Gl, B-side IO
In JAPAN tds o. 2# ee 8 25
SoutHwarp Bounp 3. 4) ; ee ot: Shas
In anp ArouND SHANGHAI Bila ok, gel ba aS)
A House Boat JouRNEY io a Bocce 52
Mopo £0 ey oes ese oe: ey She MOE
SucHAU a Re OB oe, a we ee “BO
NortH To TAKku Bo dy) ee Bhar Dee cas Hy OFF
A CuInesE Rairroap . . . . ee 8S
PEKING gs Bos Bie Ue a as. 08.7 BOF
In anp Arounp PEKING ey ee we A a OB
CHINESE GIRLS ‘ - Se ewes . . 112
Own THE WALLS oF PEKING fo ¢ & & % ~« 122

Z
XIV.

XV.

XVI.

XVII.

XVIII.

XIX,

XX.

XXI.

Oo

Tue Minc Tomes .

Tue Nan K’‘ou Pass

THE ScHoot

A FEAST

HoncKONG

CANTON

THE YANGTZE AND THE TEA COUNTRY

CoNCLUSION

- 133

145

154

- 163

174

. 182

- 104

203
TWO GIRLS IN CHINA

I. THE VOYAGE

LLEN and Mary Spencer had lived all their lives in
New York. In the summer they went to the moun-
tains or to the seashore, and they had once visited Niagara
Falls. But they had never made a long journey, nor
crossed the ocean. They had a pleasant home and kind
parents, who took a deep interest in all their work and
pleasure. They were sent to school, and studied well,
and both were fond of reading. In this way, while they
had seen but little of the great world, its interesting coun-
tries and strange cities, they knew more than many young
people. Ellen was ten years old, and Mary was thirteen.
Their father was a civil engineer, that is, a man who
plans and lays out roads, canals or railway lines. Mr.
Spencer came home one day and said that he had been asked
to go out to China for a company that was building a
railroad in the northern provinces. A province in China
corresponds somewhat to a state in this country.

Mr. Spencer did not know what to do; he did not want
to give up his comfortable home, where they had lived so
long. They could not take with them their books, and
pictures and the pretty furniture that had been chosen with

9
Io

such care. Mrs. Spencer, also, did not wish to take the little
girls out of the school where they were making such good
progress. It was a hard matter to decide; there was a great
deal to be said on both sides. It was even thought that
Ellen and Mary might be left with friends who would take
good care of them. But to this plan both children were
much opposed. They would be very unhappy if they were
separated from their mother, who had seldom left them.
Then they wished to travel; to make the long journey by
rail across the states and territories, and the voyage by
ship across the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Spencer finally said
that he thought they could learn as much by such a journey,
if they observed carefully what they saw, as they could
by remaining at school. They would be sent to school again,
of course, when they were settled in their new home in
Shanghai.

They felt sad when they saw their pretty house all dis-
mantled, and said good-by to their friends. At the same
time, they were interested and excited in the prospect before
them. ‘We shall have real adventures,” said Ellen, who
was very brave and fearless, and who had been a leader
in all the games, although the younger of the two. Mary
was more timid, and cared less for what Ellen called “adven-
tures.” She wondered, however, if she could ever like the
Chinese, and she asked her mother a great many qustions
as to how they lived, what they ate, and what they wore.
“You have read about them,” said Mrs. Spencer, “ and now
you must wait and see them for yourself. Were I to tell you
too much, you might be disappointed.”

Mary was satisfied with this answer, but she said that she
knew she would never be able to use the chopsticks with
II

which the Chinese ate their food; and she was very doubtful
if she could eat the food at all. She did not like tea, and
she was always sorry when they had rice at home, which
she was too polite to refuse; and these, she knew, were the
food and drink of millions of the strange, yellow people -
amongst whom she was to live. But there were far worse
* things than these; in one book she had seen a picture of a
Chinese coolie, or workingman, carrying upon his shoulders
a long bamboo pole, upon which were strung rats, large and
small, which people bought, cooked and ate. As she looked
at this picture, she thought that she would not like to live in
a land where rats were used as food. She supposed that
they were eaten by everybody; but _she_ was to learn, in time, ,
that this is not true.

They left New York in the evening from the Grand
Central Station. As they watched the lighted streets that
seemed to race past the window, they realized the long
journey before them —the miles of land and leagues of
ocean which they must cross before they could sight the
shores of China. The afternoon of the second day they
reached Chicago, a big, noisy, smoky city, where people
hurried to and fro, and where the tall buildings, which
seemed to touch the sky, made the streets very dark.

They rested in the hotel, and in the evening continued
the journey to St. Paul, where they spent the following
day. Then again in the evening the train moved slowly
out of the railway station, crossing the great bridge that
spans the Mississippi, and halting for a moment at the
station in Minneapolis, then moving on again into the night,
westward across Dakota and Montana, over plains, moun-
tains and rivers, skirting the shores of lovely little lakes
12

which were alive with wild ducks and geese. There were
many pretty villages and towns, and in Dakota they saw
miles of wheat fields and grassy pasture lands, in which
thousands of fat cattle and horses were grazing.

At one station in Montana, among the mountains, hun-
dreds of Indians were waiting. Their faces were painted,
and in their hair they wore bright feathers, and strands of

 

 

Wheat Fields of Dakota

beads around their necks; many of them were riding shaggy
little ponies. Mr. Spencer said that there was an Indian
reservation at this place, that is, land which had been set
apart for the Indians, which could not be sold and where
they could live in peace. These Indians were all Catholics,
and they were waiting atthe station to meet two priests
who had come to visit them. As the priests stepped upon
13

the platform the girls saw the Indians gather about and
welcome them, as if they were very glad indeed to see
them.

At one place in the mountains, which were high and
rugged, the train ran along the face of the cliffs, and not
far away was the great Yellowstone Park, a public pleasure
ground belonging to our government.

They enjoyed the railway journey very much, for the cars
were roomy and comfortable, the food was good, and they
were always glad when it was time to go into the bright,

 

 

 

Rocky Mountain Scenery

pleasant dining car. At night they slept as soundly in their
soft, white berths as they ever had in their little beds at
home. The road was called the Northern Pacific, and they
knew that there were other railroads farther to the north,
and still others to the south, that crossed the Western plains,
deserts and mountains to the Pacific Ocean. In Washing-
ton and Oregon they saw many hop fields, which they
thought must be like the hop fields of Kent, in England.

At Portland, Oregon, they left the train in which they
had spent four days and nights, and took another road south
to San Francisco. They were glad when at last they reached
the ferry at Oakland, and were steaming across the bay to
the city, where they were to wait until the ship was ready
14

to sail to China. The time passed very quickly; they went
out often to ride in the street cars which ran up and down
the steep hills. They were taken to the Cliff House to see
the seals basking and barking in the spray upon the rocks
out in the sea, where no one is allowed to molest them.

The day for sailing came, and they drove down to the
dock and went on board. There was a great deal of hurry
and bustle, and the decks were crowded with people — those

 

Seal Rocks, San Francisco

who were about to set out upon the long voyage, and the
friends who had come to bid them good-by. The big steam-
ship was painted pure white, and her decks had been scoured
and all the brass work rubbed until she was as clean as a
ship could be. She had a very strange name, the Hong
Kong Maru, and they learned that she was a new Japanese
ship, and that Maru was a Japanese word meaning a
15

vessel that moves through the water. The chief officers
were English or Americans, but the petty officers were all
Japanese — handsome young men in white uniforms and
caps trimmed with gold lace.

The servants were Chinese, the first Chinese that Mary
and Ellen had seen, except the few that they had noticed
walking about the streets in New York or San Francisco, -On
board the ship the Chinese wore long gowns of blue linen
reaching to their feet. Thee silky, black hair. was smoothly
the back. The queue neat been ieothense ‘by means of
black silk cords ending in little tassels; the front of the
head was shaved smooth.. The children learned afterward
that it is very ill-bred for a Chinese to wear the queue wound
about the head, and no Chinese will do so unless he wishes
to berude to his employer. Those that work out-of-doors
can.tie up the queue and cover the head with a cloth -or
towel to protect the hair from the dust.

Their cabins were large and comfortable. They came on
board in good time and arranged everything that it might
be ready when they were finally out at sea. The toilette
things were put in the racks; the shoe bags hung up, the
rugs and cushions taken out, and the steamer trunks, with the
clothing they would need on the voyage, were slipped under
the berths; for the other trunks were lowered deep down
into the hold, and they would not see them again until they
left the ship at the Wusung bar, just before they reached
Shanghai. They also put their books where they could
get them easily, and were then ready to go on deck. There
were plenty of comfortable wicker chairs which no one
had to pay for, as one must pay for them on the ships that
16

cross the Atlantic. Mr. Spencer, however, had bought
one especially for their mother —a long, low bamboo chair
with a high back and arms that were like little baskets
in which she could put her book, or her sewing. It was
like a comfortable lounge, and_they saw a great many
of these lounge chairs when they reached China, where
they are made by the natives. The saloon was beautifully
furnished, and there were panels of fine embroidery set
all around it, which had been made in Japan.

At last the gong sounded, a Chinese steward walking up
and down the decks beating it with all his might. This
was to warn those who had come on board to bid their friends
good-by that the gang plank was about to be raised, and
that all visitors must go ashore.

For a little while the confusion was greater than ever:
there were many last words to be spoken, and people shed
tears as they parted. All realized that the voyage would
be long, and that those who were about to separate might
never meet again.

When the last visitor passed down and stepped upon
the dock the heavy plank was drawn up, fastened securely
to the ship’s side, not to be lowered again until they reached
Honolulu. Then there was a long, hoarse whistle, and one
sharp, sudden clang of the bell. High on the bridge stood
the captain, with the pilot directing the ship’s course, sig-
naling to the engineer in the engine room far below. The
great ship moved slowly from the dock, the space widening
and widening, until they could no longer see the features of
the people on the pier, only an indistinct mass of faces*
and waving handkerchiefs that soon became the tiniest white
specks,
17

Both Mary and Ellen had often seen pictures of the Bay
of San Francisco, and the narrow opening into the ocean
which is called the Golden Gate. But it was far more beau-
tiful than any picture, with its green, rocky islands and
the tall peak of Mt. Tamalpais, which, seemed almost to
touch the clouds. :

A little boy stood looking through the railing around the
decks, as the ship moved slowly through the water.

 

 

The Golden Gate

“What do you see?” Ellen asked him. ‘i

“T am waiting to see the Golden Gate,” he replied.

“ That is the Golden Gate,” she explained, pointing out the
two headlands.

His face clouded over, and he said with much disappoint-
ment: “That? I thought they were gates of real gold.”
He was very little, and had never been taught, and he was
not in the least pleased to know that the headlands were
so named from the bright, yellow poppies, which, in the
spring, cover the two cliffs from the top to the water’s edge.

KROUT’S CHINA — 2
18

The ocean proved to be very smooth, although the Pacific
does not always deserve its name. There are often terrible
storms, and in the long swell that lasts for several days
after a storm the ship rolls and pitches, so that it is not
safe to walk about, and all this time the sky is blue and
the sun shining.

In a little while they began to enjoy the life on shipboard,
for neither Mary nor Ellen was in the least seasick. They
were ready for the cold, salt-water baths when they woke
in the morning, and they had keen appetites for the toast
and the hot coffee and oranges that were brought to them
afterward. There was
time for a good walk
or a game of bull-board
on deck before breakfast
at half-past eight. They
had never seen anything
so blue as the water,

Flying Fish which was very differ-
ent from the gray Atlantic, and there was much more
life. Flocks of brown sea birds followed them, circling
round and round the ship, fighting for the remnants of food
which the cook threw overboard, or resting on the waves
which rocked them like a cradle. As the ship sailed south-
east toward the Hawaiian Islands, it grew much warmer;
they saw shoals of flying fish, like flocks of snow-white birds.
They leaped from the water, and moved rapidly, often for
a long distance, then dropped back again. They had a sad
life, between the hungry fish that pursued them under the
waves and the gulls that pounced down upon them when they
rose into the air. One morning when the girls came on deck,

 
19

as usual, the sea was like glass; there was not a ripple, and
it was studded, as far as the eye could see, with strange,
delicate things that they knew must be Portuguese men-of-
war, living creatures that float on the water with a mimic
sail. There were thousands of them, and they were about
the ship all day. As they approached the tropics there were
sudden showers and splendid rainbows, and the air grew
softer and the sunshine brighter. The nights, too, changed;

 

 

 

Diamond Head’

they had never seen the stars so large and brilliant or so
close above their heads.

The first of the Hawaiian Islands that they saw was
Molokai, a low, gray coast like a cloud along the edge of
the horizon; then the bare, brown peaks of Oahu, Koko
Head and Diamond Head. They were surprised to see
the harbor of Honolulu crowded with ships. The first
pilot had left them after he had taken them through the
20

Golden Gate, and now a rope ladder was let down over
the ship’s side, that a new pilot might come on board. His
boat was rowed by dark-skinned Hawaiians, who wore
wreathes of flowers around their straw hats and laughed
and chattered in their soft, musical language.

The pilot was a big, good-natured man, and shook hands
with the captain and asked what sort of a voyage he had
had. Other men also came on board before the passengers
were allowed to land. These were the customhouse officers,
and the health officers. The customhouse officers were sent
to see that no one smuggled ashore articles for which they
were required to pay a tax, called ‘“‘ duty,” and which had
to be examined and the duty paid om the deck. It was the
business of the health officers to see that there was no
contagious disease, like smallpox or plague, among the
passengers. Had there been, the ship would not have been
allowed to come into the harbor, and the people obliged
to go ashore would have been sent first to an island, called
the Quarantine Station, until it was certain that they would
not be ill, or until they were well, if they had the disease.
This is done, Mr. Spencer said, in civilized countries all
over the world to keep disease from spreading.

All on board were well, so they were not detained. Those
who were to leave the ship to remain in the Islands for
awhile, and go on from there to Samoa, New Zealand or
Australia in another ship, had their baggage taken off to
the dock, where it was opened and examined by other
customhouse officers, called inspectors.

Ellen thought that it was very disagreeable to have one’s
trunks and bags opened, hut she noticed that nothing was
disturbed, and that the trunks were quickly closed and
21

marked with chalk to show that they had been inspected
and could now be taken away. The dock was covered with
a low roof, but open at either end, and heavy gates shut
it off from the street; no luggage that had not been marked
by the men who examined it could be taken through this
gate. The dock was crowded with people watching the
passengers land; many were expecting friends whom they
were very glad to see. The Hawaiians talked and laughed
a great deal. Both men and women were dark-eyed and

 

 

 

 

Hawaiian Girls

dark-skinned, and, like the men that they had seen rowing
the pilot’s boat, all wore wreaths of fragrant flowers around
their hats and throats. The women wore loose, flowing
gowns, called holokus, white, blue or pink, which suited
them well.

Ellen and Mary were delighted with everything, for it
was their first sight of a foreign country. The air was
fragrant with flowers; the palms waved softly in the pleasant
22

wind, and there were countless trees and shrubs, brilliant
pink, purple and yellow blossoming vines, which they had
never seen before.

Mr. Spencer had decided not to stay on board the ship
that night, as they would be taking on coal; and, although
all the doors and small, round windows, called portholes,
would be tightly closed, yet the dust would sift in, and
the noise of the men at work would keep one from sleeping.
So they went to the hotel. As they drove through the
narrow, crooked streets they were surprised to see so many
handsome shops, quite like those at home, where one could
buy almost anything one needed. The houses were com-
fortable and attractive, with their wide verandas and shady
grounds filled with ferns and palms.

That evening there was a concert on the lawn at the
hotel, to which a great many people came. The musicians
were Hawaiian boys, dressed in suits of white duck, all
wearing wreaths or leis; they played and sang Hawaiian
airs, which were very sweet and sad.

After breakfast the next morning the Spencers went for
a long drive to Waikiki, a beautiful beach, where the
sea came rolling in, tossing its white surf high in air.

The Hawaiians were bathing, and rowing about in narrow
canoes with a curved framework at one side which kept the
boat from upsetting. Others were riding upon long surf-
boards, painted at one end, which they take far out beyond
the breakers and there wait until they can catch a rushing
wave that carries them swiftly to the shore. The Hawaiians,
their father told the girls, spend a great part of their lives
in the water, and even children dive and swim like fish.

They came back through Kapiolani Park, which was
23

named for the wife of the last Hawaiian king. There was
still time to drive up to the Pali, a steep cleft in the moun-
tain, which is reached by a good road. From the Pali,
around which thick white clouds were floating, they saw the
city, which lay like a tropical garden far below, the ships
in the harbor, and a fringe of white surf beating against

 

Swimming with Boards

the reef, with the blue sea stretching on and on, to where
it seemed to meet the sky.

They would have liked to stay longer in Honolulu, but
the Hong Kong Marw was to sail at noon; they had paid
for their passage, and Mr. Spencer was anxious to reach
Shanghai.

They saw Diamond Head fade in the distance, and in a
little while sighted Kauai, another of the Islands, which is
24

so green and fertile that the Hawaiians call it the “ Garden
Island.” ‘Then they saw no more land until they sighted the
shores of Japan, which are rugged and steep like those
of Hawaii.

The time passed very quickly, although it was two weeks
before they reached Yokohama, which was the next port at
which they touched.

At Honolulu many Japanese came on board who had been
working on the large sugar plantations in the Islands. They
stayed on the lower deck and slept in a part of the ship
which Mr. Spencer called “the native steerage,” which
no white people were expected to share.

Mary and Ellen were very much interested in the Jap-
anese. When the sun shone they came out upon their own
deck, the men wrapped in scarlet blankets and smoking tiny
pipes. The women also smoked; a few of them sewed, and
both men and women took care of the children, who, with
their shaved heads, bright eyes and gay dresses were like
pretty little dolls. The children seldom cried or quar-
reled, but played with their parents, or with each other, like
kittens. The Japanese ate a great deal of rice, and drank
hot tea at all hours of the day. One man had been ill when
he came on board at Honolulu. He was going home so
that he might die in his own country, and among his family.
But he grew worse and worse, and one morning when the
ship’s doctor came to breakfast he told Mr. Spencer that
the poor fellow had died during the night.

When people dié on shipboard the body is either taken to
the nearest port and sent back home, or buried at sea. The
Japanese was to be buried at sea, and the body was sewed
up in a shroud of clean, new sailcloth by two sailors,
25

It was a dark, stormy day, with a roaring wind and a
rough sea. At four o’clock the engines stopped, which made
the ship seem very still after the steady throbbing that had
never ceased a moment since they left Honolulu. The ship’s
bell tolled sadly, and all the passengers came out on the
upper deck, from which they could look down upon the lower
deck, where a plank had been placed along the ship’s side.
The body of the Japanese was laid upon the plank, and
covered with an American flag. All the officers, in full
uniform, stood near, and the captain, with his gray head
bared, read the burial service. At the last word the flag
was lifted, and plank was tilted, and the body slipped over
the ship’s side into the sea. Then the ship sailed on her
way. Mary and Ellen were both sad, and for a long
time they could not forget the poor Japanese whose family
was waiting for him in his own country and who would
never see him again.

Il. IN JAPAN

bé E shall reach Yokohama to-morrow evening,” said
Mr, Spencer one Monday evening two weeks after
they had left Honolulu.

Mary and Ellen could not realize that they had reached
Japan. In spite of all that they had read about the country,
it had been little more to them than a few scattered islands
lying close to the shores of Asia. But now they were to
see for themselves that it was a country with fields and
woods, rivers and mountains, villages, towns and cities.
26

When they went on deck in the morning it was rather
uncomfortable. The wicker chairs had been collected and
piled in heaps, or pushed aside to make room, and everybody
was too much interested in watching their entrance into the
harbor to take much notice of the little girls, as they usually
did. It was colder than it had been in mid-ocean, and a
dull mist covered the sky, through which the sun shone like

  

Native Boats

a red ball. Mrs. Spencer was wrapped in a thick cloak, and
both Ellen and Mary had put on their warm serge gowns
and cloth jackets.

Presently the mist cleared away, but even then the sky
seemed much dimmer and less blue than at home. Low
pine trees, gnarled and bent, grew upon the rocky coast,
27

and the broad bay was dotted in every direction with queer
little boats, with square sails of matting ; they were the sam-
pans or native boats of the fishermen. The Japanese eat
a great deal of fish with their rice, and they also dry it in
large quantities and send it to the Hawaiian Islands and
other countries where Japanese working people are em-
ployed.

While Yokohama is a large city, with thousands of in-
habitants, not much of the city can be seén from the bay.
Most of the houses are of but one story, except the hotels
and public buildings and those in which foreigners live, by
which the Japanese mean people from Europe and the United
States. There is no dock, as at San Francisco and Hono-
lulu, and great numbers of sampans and several steam
launches came out to the ship to take the passengers ashore.
The ship was to remain until the next day to discharge
her cargo for Yokohama and take on more which was
to be sent to other merchants in Shanghai and Hongkong,
or left at the Japanese ports of Kobe and Nagasaki.

As in Honolulu, they had again taken on board a pilot
who was to guide the ship to her anchorage, which the
captain is rarely ever allowed to do. A little later the health
officers also came on, and no one could land, and no one
could come up the gangway from the launches until the pas-
sengers had been inspected. The health officers were small,
dark men in white uiforms trimmed with gold lace, and
they wore small swords. Upon their caps were gold coro-
nets and letters, showing that they were officers of His
Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan. The American
inspectors in San Francisco had worn dark-blue suits with
brass buttons, and the three letters “ U.S. A.” on their caps.
28

Mr. Spencer told Mary and Ellen that the first foreign
ships that were freely allowed to enter Japanese ports were
American ships. They had been sent out to Japan under
the brave officer Commodore Perry, about fifty years ago,
to induce the Emperor to promise that sailors shipwrecked
on the Japanese coast should be kindly treated and allowed
to go back to their own country when ships came to take
them away. The Emperor finally granted Perry’s request,
and the sailors of all other countries were benefited by this
decision. “I am glad to say,” their father added, “ that the
United States has never done anything to make the Jap-
anese regret that they finally accepted us as friends. At
first it was agreed that no Japanese subjects should ever
be allowed to go to the United States in the wonderful
foreign ships; now there are hundreds in our country.
Young men have come here to work, and there are many
studying in our schools and colleges. Others have shops
in our cities, and there are even a few Japanese girls, who
are also studying in our schools. The Japanese to-day have
ships of their own; steamers like this, and great warships
for defense against their enemies, much larger and better
than those that they thought so wonderful when Commodore
Perry visited them. They have become strong and pros-
perous, and have railroads, as well as steamships, and all
this has been done within fifty years. There are many
people, however,” he said, “‘ who knew the Japanese twenty-
five years ago, and liked them better then than now. They
have learned a good many things from the foreigners, as
they call Europeans and Americans, that it would have been
much better for them not to know.”

When the health officers learned that a man had died
29

on board they were very anxious, and examined all the pas-
sengers carefully. This took several hours, and the captain
was much vexed at the delay.

When it was over, and they had had their breakfast, Mr.
and Mrs. Spencer and the two girls went in one of the
launches and were taken to the quay. A great many ships
lay outside the breakwater where the Hong Kong Maru was
anchored. The breakwater was a structure of stones and
timbers, built from the bed of the bay to the surface of the
water, to break the force of the waves that roll landward
during storms, and there are narrow openings in it by
which vessels can pass in and out. Among the ships were
two, white like their own, with the American flag floating
from the peak. These were transports — ships that were
carrying soldiers to San Francisco from Manila, in the
Philippines.

When the little, puffing launch steamed alongside the
stone steps of the quay, they walked across the gang plank,
glad to be once more on dry land. Up and down the street
were the funniest little vehicles that they had ever seen.
They had slender shafts, two wheels and a hood, like a
baby’s perambulator; they were drawn by men, instead
of ponies, and were called “ jinrikishas.” Mary and Ellen
grew accustomed to them before they had been long in the
East, for they are used everywhere in Japan, and in all
the Chinese cities where there are many Europeans. A
jinrikisha carries usually but one passenger, although two
Japanese ladies frequently hire one together.

The stout little “ rikisha ’ men were quaintly dressed in
short blue cotton trousers, a blue cotton blouse with a design
embroidered on the back in white, and they wore straw hats
30

with broad, drooping brims. They were barefooted, and the
muscles of the calves of their legs were greatly enlarged
from constant running between the shafts of the little car-
riages. They move at a quick trot, a pace which they keep
for miles and all day long, stopping only to eat and drink.
They are cheerful and contented and very polite, though

 

A Jinrikisha

they are paid small wages. Mary and Ellen thought it
funny to see their father and mother riding in jinrikishas,
and they made quite a procession—the four that Mr.
Spencer had hired for the family, and the two which came
last, loaded with their luggage, following one behind the
other.
31

They kept the middle of the street, which was wide and
clean. On one side were low houses, with galleries enclosed
in glass, looking out across the bay. The gardens were not
so fine as those in Honolulu, but they saw a good many
plants and shrubs that were new to them. All the hotels
were on this street, facing the bay. It is called the Bund,
which is the name given in all the seaboard cities of Asia
to the water front. They found a pleasant, quiet hotel, with
polite and attentive Japanese servants who seemed anxious
to please them.

As on shipboard, luncheon was called tiffin, and this
word was also used everywhere in China. In the afternoon
they went by railway to Tokyo, the capital, which was a
journey of but twenty minutes. The engine and carriages
were like a toy train. The carriages for the poorer Japanese
were plainer than those for foreigners and Japanese of
rank and wealth.

Mary and Ellen were amused at the people in the station.
Newsboys went up and down selling papers which were
printed in odd, black characters; other vendors were selling
tea in cups and luncheons done up in neat, white, wooden
boxes. “ May I buy one?” Mary asked her mother. “ Yes,
if you think you can eat the food,” her mother said.

But this Mary would not promise to do; she did not know
whether she would like the things that the Japanese ate
with such relish.

“ But if I do not,” she said, “I can give it to someone; I
do not think it would be refused.” So the box was bought.
They opened it carefully and found in one end of it a
quantity of fresh, steamed rice; some strange-looking
pickles, fungi and mushrooms. There was no bread, for
32

the Japanese, like the Chinese, eat rice instead of bread,
which is a luxury. A pair of new, wooden chopsticks went
with the box. Mary and Ellen laughed, and shook their
heads; they did not want the rice, and did not care to taste
the mushrooms. Ellen held out the box to a little girl
dressed in a pretty gown of blue cotton, called a kimona.
Her hair was arranged
over a cushion and held
in place with gilt pins,
like those which her
mother also wore. The
child was very shy, and
held to her mother’s
skirts. The woman said
something in Japanese,
and then the little one
stretched out her hand,
took the box, and both
the mother and child
bowed very low several
times.

A few of the Japanese
wore the European

 

 

dress, or a mixture of

 

foreign and native cos-
tume, but these, Mary
and Ellen agreed, were not half so interesting as the Japan-

Japanese Ladies

ese who still preferred their own dress. Many of the pretty
little ladies wore delicate gray, blue, or brown silks and
crépes, and all, rich and poor alike, had socks of white
‘cloth and shoes called geta, which are little more than soles
33

with a strap passing between the great toe and the second
toe, to hold them in place. Each pair of geta is furnished
with small bits of wood. instead of heels, upon which the
wearer balances herself awkwardly, and which make a
clattering sound as the crowds move to and fro.

The country was very green, with fields and gardens
cultivated with great care. Upon the hillsides among the
shrubs they saw huge Japanese letters, and they were much
surprised when their father told them that these were
advertisements, precisely like the ugly signs that are painted
upon roofs and fences and rocks at home. It is one of
the things that the Japanese have iearned from the for-
eigners that it would be better for them not to know.

  

Japanese Shoes

At Tokyo the station is much like that at Yokohama,
but the city itself is far more Japanese. The streets are
muddy in wet weather and lined on either side with low
wooden shops, in which there are many beautiful things
for sale. They hired jinrikishas again, and were drawn
rapidly through the city, which spreads over much ground.
On the main street they found a very dilapidated street
car line, the cars drawn by poor, feeble horses. The people
enjoyed riding in the cars, especially on the platform.
Both men and women smoked little brass pipes, or cigarettes
which they preferred. They saw the Emperor’s palace,
beyond the moat, or canal, which has been dig outside the

KROUT’S CHINA — 3
34

high stone wall. Soldiers wearing foreign uniforms stood
at the gates or paced to and fro.

They visited the beautiful temples and some ancient tombs,
and then went to a fine bazaar, where Mrs. Spencer bought
some pretty china and pieces of embroidered silk and crépe.
Ellen and Mary were allowed to choose something, and both

 

Main Street, Tokyo

selected purses embroidered in chrysanthemums, with clasps
of carved silver.

They had dinner at a large European hotel, and then went
back to Yokohama in the afternoon. The next morning, as
they were to sail at noon, they visited the Bluff, where the
finest houses and gardens are to be seen, and spent some time
in the shops, looking at many beautiful things.
35

Ill. SOUTHWARD BOUND

HE ship did not sail straight south, as Mary thought

it would, but steamed within sight of the coast,
against which the waves beat violently, the spray dashing
far up the face of the cliffs. In the afternoon they saw
a lofty peak rising out of the mist that hid the lower
slopes. It was a perfect cone, the sides sloping gently
and widening toward the base. It was covered with snow,
which reflected the light of the setting sun in countless lovely
tints — pale rose color, violet and gray. The sky was clear
and the snowy peak was outlined against a background of
pale blite, so that every line was distinct. Mr. Spencer told
them that this was Fujiyama, the mountain which the Jap-
anese have always worshiped and held sacred for its beauty.
It appears in nearly all Japanese pictures, upon fans, and
screens, banners and porcelain. The girls both remembered
to have seen many pictures of it, and easily recognized it.
When it began to grow dark thousands of lights twinkled
upon the sea and along the shore — the lights in the sampans
of the fishermen, and in the villages. The next morning
when they awoke they were steaming through the Inland
Sea, which is really a channel among the islands, its waters
studded with myriads of smaller islands. The land was
green, from the narrow beach to the top of the hills, with
the terrace-gardens of the village people. Here and there
were small temples, and in front of each, at some distance,
was an arch, with the ends slightly turned upward. They
were the entire day steaming through the Inland Sea, which
Mr. Spencer said was one of the most beautiful of voyages,
which they could well believe. They never tired of looking
36

at the tiny rocky islands, the clustered villages, the green
gardens and the feathery pine trees, which could be seen
distinctly from the deck of their ship. A great many small

 

 

Fujiyama

steamers sailed up and down, more than they had seen since
they left the Bay of San Francisco: and with these were
hundreds of sampans, and now and then a huge, ugly Chinese
junk. They were very much excited when they saw the
37

first junk, with its broad sails of matting, the square bows
sharpened on either side like tusks, and the huge painted eyes
which the Chinese think every junk must have, and without
which they believe it would not be able to make its way
through the storm and darkness.

The Hong Kong Maru touched at two ports in the
south, Kobe and Nagasaki. Both were pretty Japanese
towns, with clean streets and shops, surrounded by high
hills covered with pine and camphor trees. The camphor
tree grows very tall, and has glossy, dark foliage, and it is
often to be found in the courts about the temples.

At Nagasaki the “rikisha’’ man cut a piece of the cam-
phor wood, which was white and fine - grained, and gave
it to Mary. The odor was exactly like the gum, but
in a little while after the wood had been exposed to the air
this odor was gone. At Kobe the ship took on more coal,
for the great furnaces under the boilers of the Hong Kong
Maru burned hundreds of tons every day. No ship could
carry enough coal to last through the voyage across the
Pacific Ocean; all the ships going out to China take on a
fresh supply both at Honolulu and at Kobe. Japanese
women and children, as well as men, helped to coal. They
came out to the ship in great barges, in which the coal
also was brought, and these barges were anchored close
to the ship. Then two lines were formed; one set of men
and women filled their baskets, which were not large, and
passed them from hand to hand until they reached the
ship, and the line of children passed the empty baskets
back again. There were several hundred people, and they
worked all day; but they seemed happy and cheerful, laugh-
ing and talking as they tossed their baskets to and fro.
38

On Sunday the rocky shores of Japan sank out of sight
and they saw them no more. Late in the afternoon the color
of the water changed; where the sea had been clear and
blue, it became yellow and muddy. No land was yet in sight,
but the yellow water was the current of the great Yang-
tze Kiang, the largest river in China, and one of the great

 

 

 

On the Yangtze River

rivers of the globe. It rises in the table-lands of Tibet,
which the Chinese call “ the roof of the world,” and flows
through lofty mountain gorges in the west across the level
plains to the sea, a distance of three thousand miles. It is
thirty-eight miles wide at its mouth, and the mud which
it carries out to sea is really the fertile land of countless
farms which the current of the river has eaten away.
39

After a while a low, grayish-green shore appeared in sight
‘with a few ash and willow trees. China has few trees,
and no forests except upon its western and northern bound-

aries.
Shanghai, they found, had not been built directly upon the
sea, but upon the north shore of the Wusung River, which

 

 

 

View of Shanghai

is broad and sluggish, with low banks, like a canal. At
its mouth is a dangerous bar, which the Chinese call “ the
Heaven-Sent Barrier,” because large warships can not enter
the river, as they might if the bar were not in the way.
The name “ Shanghai,” Mr. Spencer explained, is a Chinese
word meaning “ Approaching the Sea.”
40

The voyage was at end; but, instead of being glad, Mary
and Ellen were almost sad. The ship had become a home,
the days had passed quickly, and the ocean had never lost
its charm. The girls went to their cabin to help their mother
pack, and in a little while all their things were stowed away
in the trunks and bags ready to be sent off in the launch.
The big ship could not cross the bar, but anchored outside.

The morning was dull and dismal. The sea was rough,
and the rain fell in torrents. It was not easy to climb down
the ladder to the launch, which tossed and rocked like a
cork; but one of the officers helped them carefully, and
they were not afraid. Until they reached the river the little
launch was tossed about roughly, but once within the banks
of the Wusung there was no more motion, and but for the
level fields slipping past they would scarcely have known
that they were moving. The fields were quite flat, but
bare and brown, for it was now the early autumn and the
crops had been gathered.

“What are those curious mounds?” Ellen asked, pointing
out several heaps of earth upon which a few tufts of
coarse grass had sprung up. “Those are graves,” her
mother replied. “In China the dead are not_buried in

cemeteries, but quite often by the 1 adside,or_in_ the fields

as you see them here. Rich people often have private
burial places, and keep them in order. The dead are not
buried in the fields through any lack of respect, as you
might suppose, because the place finally chosen is given
a great deal of thought. A man called a ‘ geomancer’ is
hired who pretends that, by charms and signs, he can find
a ‘lucky’ place. He searches, often for a long time, or
makes his patrons think that he has done so, and he is paid
41

while the search goes on. The place of burial is whatever
spot he may select, and no one REISS of dis lisputing the
choice that he makes.” ; 7

As they steamed up the river they caught sight of great
mills, with rows of windows and tall chimneys, out of which
the smoke rolled in thick clouds. They might have been
approaching an American city, and they were rather dis-
appointed.

“Those are English and American silk and cotton mills,”
said Mr. Spencer, ‘ but all the people who work in them
are Chinese— men, women and children. They live in
villages in the mill ‘compound ’— the grounds upon which
the buildings stand — and they are happy, because they have
work and good wages all the year round. Not many work-
ing people in China are so fortunate. These villages are like
other native villages —low, gray brick houses with tiled
roofs and brick floors, and in the shops they buy all the
strange-looking-things which they use and prefer for food.
But the foreigners who own the mills pay for the schools
where the children are taught, and for the hospital where the
sick are sent, or those who may be hurt in the mills, who
are nursed and faken care of until they get well.”

The Wusung was very crooked, winding and curving be-
tween its low banks, upon which nothing grew except the
thin, faded grass and a few stunted willows that were begin-
ning to turn yellow.. At the jetty where they went ashore
there were many foreign steamers, none of them very large
because they could not have crossed the bar; a little Ameri-
can warship, the Monocacy; scores of junks, and hundreds
of tiny boats which the Chinese call “ shoe boats,” because
they are much the shape of a Chinese shoe. These shoe
42

boats had come down to the mouth of the river to bring
back many Chinese passengers out of the steerage of the
foreign ships.

It was still raining hard, but, notwithstanding this, their

first sight of Shanghai pleased the girls. The wide

streets were shaded with tall trees; there were buildings
upon one side only —that opposite the river bank. The

sidewalks were of stone, and the buildings, banks, and _

offices were tall and handsome. ‘I could easily believe
we were in an English city,” said Mrs. Spencer.

The Chinese hate the rain, and when the weather is bad
they stay within doors; or, if they are too poor to own
houses, find shelter wherever they can. Mary and Ellen
had never seen such strange-looking policemen; they were
dark, with black eyes, straight noses, and very fine fea-
tures; they wore tall turbans of red or other gay colors,
with dark-blue uniforms bright with brass buttons.

“T a ie ae auc feet,” whispered
Ellen ; tt need not have feared hurting their feelings,
for they could neither speak nor understand English; and,
for this reason they could not answer any questions that a
stranger might ask them. This was sometimes an incon-
venience. “ They are Sikhs,” said Mr. Spencer, who also
thought they were handsome men and that their gay turbans
and neat uniforms were extremely becoming. “ They come
from India, but are soldiers in the British army; for, as
you already know, India is a part of the British Empire,
and the ruler is the King of England. One of the king’s
titles is ‘Emperor of India,’ and these Sikhs, who are
brave, fearless men, are his soldiers.” :

They went to the hotel in jinrikishas, of which there were
43

great numbers waiting under the trees along the curbstone.
They were rather damp, but the “ rikisha ’ men had tilted
them forward so that it might not rain into them, and when
the men were called they came running up eagerly. When
their passengers had stepped in and were seated, an oilcloth
curtain was hooked across the front which shut out not only
the rain, but all sight of the streets through which they
were taken. Presently they heard the wheels rumble across
a bridge, which they knew must span the Wusung, and they
swept around in a wide circle through a gateway and halted
at the hotel steps. It was such a pleasant place, so cheerful
and comfortable, even on that rainy day. People sat chatting
in wicker chairs on the verandas, and near the door were
half a dozen Chinese — real Chinese — with all sorts of
beautiful things to sell. Ellen and Mary both stopped to look
at them. They admired the little carved wooden figures —
mandarins, Chinese ladies, servants and children, and even
toy jinrikishas. They were told that these were “ Ningpo”
carvings; that is, they were made in Ningpo, a Chinese
city famous for its wood carving. One odd toy was a
pair of fighting cocks made of brown pumpkin seeds,
fastened together loosely with fine brass wire, so that they
could move easily; the feet and legs were of wire, the
combs of red cloth, the bills of white paper, and the tail
and wings were made each of a single soft, brown, hen’s
feather. They were strung upon a “T” shaped bamboo
stick with silk thread, which was fastened to their backs
and heads in such a way that when the thread was pulled
the tiny cocks drew up their legs, struck with feet and bills,
and ruffled their‘necks as if they were very angry. Ellen and
Mary were so much interested that their mother had to tell
44

them finally that they must come with her as the “ Boy,”
as they had already learned to call the Chinese servants
on board the ship, was waiting to show them to their rooms.

The hotel was very clean, with long corridors looking
down upon open courts where the grass was still quite green,
and in which late flowers, such as dahlias, and marigolds
and nasturtiums, were still blooming. Many of the floors
were bare and brightly polished; this was for coolness dur-
ing the summer, for it is then very hot in Shanghai. When
they went down to tiffin they found the long dining room
like that in any American hotel, but the people seated at the
tables were talking in many languages, and nearly everyone
ate rice and curry, as many of the passengers had done on
board the ship. The rice is steamed and then dressed with
a yellow powder, which has a strong, unpleasant odor; but
it is considered very wholesome, and people everywhere in
Asia eat a great deal of it. The rice was handed round first,
and then the servant, a Chinese in a blue frock, of course,
brought a small circular tray in which there were various
kinds of cold meats and fish, which were also to be eaten
with curried rice. Mr. Spencer said that the foreign people
who live in China and India have a funny name for new-
comers who have not learned to eat rice and curry; they
call them ‘‘.griffins.”’ There was one kind of fruit which
Mary and Ellen both thought delicious. They had eaten it
in New York, but there it was rather sour and bitter. This
was the grape fruit, which the Chinese call pumelo. The
Chinese fruit is large, of a pale yellow, with a thin skin,
like fine leather; within, it is rich and juicy, with a flavor
like ripe cherries. When the “ Boy” at their table learned
how much the girls liked the pumelo he never failed to put
45

one on their table, morning, noon and night, smiling, as if
he were very glad to please’ them, as indeed he was.

IV. IN AND AROUND SHANGHAI

ARY and Ellen felt the same surprise in Shanghai
as they had experienced in Honolulu at seeing so
many fine shops.

The, book stores are as good as those in New York, but
they noticed that nearly all the books had been printed in
London or Paris, and very few in America. What we call
dry goods stores, the people speak of as “ drapers’ shops,”
the word that is always used in England. But even in the
English quarter of Shanghai are splendid Chinese shops.
The shrewd Chinese merchants are glad to carry on their
business in this part of the city where there are good
streets and sidewalks, and where they can depend upon
the foreigners visiting them and buying, as they always do.
Many of these Chinese merchants have thus become quite
rich, and, if they do not like the foreigners, they are very
careful to conceal it, and are most polite.

The day after they landed, while Mr. Spencer went to
one of the great banks to meet the gentlemen for whom he
was to do business, Mrs. Spencer and the two girls decided
to go out for a drive. The rain had ceased and the sun
shone bright and warm; everything was fresh and delight-
ful, and they were eager to be off.

A carriage was ordered, a low victoria with a fat, white
46

Chinese pony. The Chinese driver who sat on the box wore
a dark green gown with several capes bordered with red;
\ his hat had a drooping brim and a queer, peaked crown
covered with threads of crimson, like coarse fringe. A boy
sat beside him, dressed in the same way. The driver and

 

 

 

On the Bund

the boy are called in Chinese the “ Mafu’’ and the “ little
Mafu.” we

“Mafu” drove the fat pony that trotted along soberly
enough, and “ little Mafu ” leaped on and off the box’as nim-
bly as a squirrel, to open doors, or to carry parcels. Some-
times he ran ahead to the corner to see if other carriages were
coming, against which he feared they might collide, for the
Chinese are not careful drivers. After buying some gloves
47

and ribbons, Mrs. Spencer told the “ Mafu” to drive to
one of the large Chinese shops. He could understand
English pretty well, but he talked a queer mixture
which in China is called “ pidgin,” or “ business” English,
“pidgin” being as near to “business” as the Chinese
tongue can get. Ellen and Mary had noticed that the
Chinese can not pronounce_“ r,”-and a few other letters of
our alphabet; that they use the letter “1” a great deal,
and end many words with “ee.” They speak, too, in
strange, singing tones, the voice rising and falling, and
Mrs. Spencer said that this was because Chinese is what is
called a “ tone language.”

In addition to all the words that they use, each word
may be pronounced in several tones, each tone changing
the meaning of the word. This has made it very hard for
foreigners to learn the language, and, by pronouncing a
word in the wrong tone they make some funny mistakes
at which not even the polite Chinese can help laughing.

In the Chinese shop they saw many fine things in silver,
— buckles, flasks, bracelets and vases,—all richly chased
and carved, the work of Chinese silversmiths, who do all
work by hand. There were also wonderful fans, brushes
and caskets carved in ivory. There were curious ivory
balls, one within the other, the large outer ball often con-
taining a dozen or more smaller ones, all: delicately carved
in lace-like designs. There were also collections of sandal-
wood boxes, and fans, and feather fans made of the plum-
age of the golden pheasant with peacock feather borders,
or of white goose feathers painted in flowers of blue, pink
and bright green, the colors that the Chinese admire so
much. One bracelet was made of carved peach stones,—
48

flat, polished disks on which flowers, vines, birds and
dragons had been carefully carved, each disk set in a gold
lace-work called filigree.

Mrs. Spencer bought some pieces of fine grass-cloth,—
thin, silvery linen which is woven in the southern provinces
and in Canton from a kind of hemp, or the fiber of a
nettle. Each piece was tied up in a neat parcel with threads
of glossy pink and green silk, with the name of the mer-
chant on it in Chinese letters.

From this shop they drove into the New Chiang Road
where all the shops are Chinese; they have neither doors
nor windows, but heavy wooden shutters that are closed
and fastened at night. Piles of silk and cloth were arranged
on shelves, as in the foreign shops, and coats of blue,
brown, black and plain colored satin, many of them lined
with costly fur, were hung in lines overhead or in front.
Ellen thought the gay little hats and caps for Chinese
babies the prettiest things of all; they were of blue, red
and green silk, with festoons of bits of metal, like coins,
and white, pink, blue and green silk tassels, the cap thickly
embroidered with gold thread; each little hat had a silken
tuft on top, and many of the caps had coverings for the
ears edged with gray fur. Mrs. Spencer said that the baby
is named when it is one month old, and the Chinese ladies
often take to the feast that is given at that time, quantities
of these little metal coins which, when no longer needed,
are given to some other baby. The girls thought this very
economical, and after they had lived in China awhile they
‘| learned that the Chinese never waste anything, but every-
thing they have does service as long as it can be made to
last. They do not think it wrong to give to someone else,
oO

49

things that have been given to them but which they can
no longer use. Ellen said that this was much better than
storing them away in some box or drawer to get dingy
and yellow, and she decided that she herself would follow
this sensible Chinese fashion.

When they had finished their shopping they drove out on
the Bubbling Well Road. It is a fine, smooth road, like
an avenue in an American city, but the large villas on either
side are like English houses except that each has deep,
shady verandas which are seldom seen in England. The
grounds were surrounded-by high brick walls, but the gates
stood open and they could see the neat graveled walks, the
smooth lawns, and flower beds. The road was given its
name from a spring, or well, in which the water bubbles
and boils whére it flows out of the ground. There were
many carriages like their own, with “ Mafu” and “ little
Mafu” on the box in dark gowns, the capes bordered with
all the colors of the rainbow. Two gaily dressed Chinese
ladies, who could not have walked upon their tiny feet,
rolled along in a great coach, the back, sides and front of
which were all of glass. The Chinese admire these coaches
very much. A Chinese gentleman was carried by in his
sedan chair, which is a curtained box with poles on either
side, extending in front and at the rear. The’e poles rest
on the shoulders of coolies who trot quickly along chanting
a melancholy tune by which they time their steps. The
gentleman was dressed in silk and wore huge spetcacles
with rims of tortoise shell. Mary thought that he stared at
them scornfully, as no doubt he did, for Chinese gentlemen
think it wrong for girls and women to go about alone.
Their own wives and daughters rarely leave their homes.

~KROUT’S CHINA —4
50

They saw the pretty willow-pattern tea house, which
every one visits who goes to Shanghai. It is on an island
in the midst of a crooked pond which winds between its
banks almost like a river, and which is spanned by a number
of graceful Chinese bridges. Mary said that the bridges
and the tea house-were like a picture on a willow-pattern
plate, which she had seen at her grandmother’s. Her
mother replied that this was true, and that the plate had
really been painted by a Chinese artist, and that her uncle,
a sea captain, had brought it from China a great many years
before. After leaving the tea house they drove in another
direction, through the “native city.” The Chinese them-
selves had built it, and they live there as they do in other
parts of China, in low, dark houses with gray-tiled roofs,
turned upward at the eaves. Many of the streets are so
narrow that the carriage could not be driven through
them; they are paved, but are so dirty that Ellen and
Mary hardly dared to look about them. The streets are not
only dirty and narrow, but they are very dark. The upper
stories of the houses project so that they almost shut out
the sun, and from the balconies perpendicular signs are
swung — heavy boards painted in colors and covered with
the queer Chinese characters in gold. The streets were
crowded with people who were buying and selling; many
were eating at the open-air restaurant. Rice, fish, pork and
many kinds of greasy cakes were being sold which the
cooks were frying in large kettles of boiling oil.

They went for a short distance into the country amongst
the rice fields which were still green. Here Mary and Ellen
saw a number of large boxes standing about, which they
knew at once, from their shape, to be coffins. One, stained

.
51

with mud, had been buried and dug up again. The deep
hole out of which it had been taken had not been refilled,
and it was full of water. Some of the boxes had been pro-
tected with low roofs; others were partially inclosed in
brick and around others, rolls of matting had been securely
tied. A few had been left quite unprotected. Mary and
Ellen did not need to be told that these were the coffins of
people whose families were too poor to buy graves. It was
very sad and dismal, and they were glad when the “ Mafu”
turned and drove back to Shanghai. The Park along the
Bund was filled with well-dressed men and women, and
there were many little English children with their amahs, or
Chinese nurses, who are the only natives allowed to sit on
benches or stroll about the-paths. The tide was out, and
where the Wusang had spread under the bridge to the low
banks was now a stretch of mud. Scores of native boats,
sampans and junks loaded with cotton and crockery from
the west, were stuck fast, waiting for the tide to rise and
float them off.

When they reached their room their good “ Boy,” Tuck
Kee, had lighted the fire and the tea table was drawn up in
front of the cheerful blaze. The tea and toast had been kept
hot, and it was very inviting after the long drive.

They began to think that they should like living in China
very much if they could only forget the coffins.
52

V. A HOUSE BOAT JOURNEY

HE week after they reached Shanghai, a friend of Mr.
Spencer invited the family to go with him on a
journey to Suchau and Modo in his house boat. Mary
and Ellen had read about Chinese house boats but they
had never seen one. They knew that people who could do
so preferred to travel in this way, as the roads everywhere
-in-China are ve very bad. They are cut into deep ruts by the
heavy wheels of Chinese carts and wagons and are never
graded or repaired in any way. When it rains in the spring
and autumn they are so muddy that it is hard work to get
about at all. When it has been raining for a long time
the roads are like deep ditches—so full of water that men
are sometimes drowned in them. The people have made
canals everyw where, the largest of which is the Grand Canal.
These waterways are much better than the roads for they
never have to be mended. The Chinese do not like to mend
anything but their clothes, their shoes, their fences and their
broken dishes, all of which they do very neatly. They
wear one suit of clothes the year round, wadding it with
cotton in the winter. We do not think this very nice or
cleanly, but it is the best that they can do, and they seem
really cleaner than fuany_of the poor in cue oval great
cities. As the roads are so bad, thousands and thousands
of Chinese travel through the country on the canals and
the great rivers, and a large part of what they have to
sell,— grain, cotton, oil, vegetables and wool,— they take
to the markets in boats, as the people do in Holland. Ellen
and Mary learned, too, that millions of the very poorest
people are born in boats, live all their lives there, and die
53

in them at last. They saw thousands of boat people in
Wusung-creek, the boats lying side by side. A small piece
of matting was curved above the middle of the boat, form-
ing a low roof under which a man could hardly stand
erect. The father, mother and children were crowded
together in this narrow space. It is very cold in the winter,

 

 

 

 

 

Life in the Boats

although around Shanghai there is little frost or snow,
and as they have no fire but the handful of charcoal which
they burn in a brazier over which they boil their tea and
rice when they are so fortunate as to have any, they suffer
very much. Sometimes they own a duck or a chicken and
the poor fowl is tied fast by the leg to the boat so that it
4

54

can not run away. Mary saw a cat tied in this way, its
fur matted and dirty, huddled up as if it were very wretched.
It probably was, for Chinese cats in the boats and hovels
of the poor cannot keep clean, and they get very little
to eat and no milk, which the Chinese do not use.

The two girls were much interested in the house boat.
They had seen several lying near the bridge, not far from
the hotel. Most of them belonged to foreigners, although
the wealthy Chinese also have such boats comfortably fitted
up with plate glass windows curtained with silk.. Mary and
Ellen saw that the house boat was not unlike an American
canal_beat_except that-it-was-made_of dark, polished wood.
There were decks, fore and aft. The owner and his friends
sat forward, this deck being spread with rugs and furnished
with wicker chairs. The Chinese crew stayed aft, sleeping
under the low deck and squatting about the rice kettle and
teapot which they brought out above deck. The saloon
was supplied with divans covered with crimson which were
curtained at night and served for beds; racks along the
sides held papers and books, and there were lockers for the
clothes and the rugs. It was well lighted with many small
windows which were shaded with blinds that could be drawn
at night or when the sun streamed in too brightly. They
ate at an ordinary table which was spread with linen
and china and silver, just as it would have been at home.
On such a boat it is necessary for travelers to take with
them everything that they may require, for very little can
be bought in the cities that they may visit. It is a great
deal of trouble to get ready for a house boat journey, and
several days before one starts lists are made out of food,
bedding, dishes, cooking utensils, linen and supplies of all
55

sorts. These are carefully gone over to see that nothing has
been forgotten. Chinese servants do not like the house
boat very much; they prefer to stay quietly at home and
so avoid the trouble of packing and unpacking. All the
cooking is done on board, and the cook and the boy who
waits at table must go with the boat. The house boat is
propelled by large sails, and, when the wind is in the wrong
direction, by trackers, as the men are called who drag the
boat along by means of a heavy rope. They walk on the

 

 

 

 

The House Boat

bank in a narrow, beaten path, like a towpath, pulling and
shouting with all their might. The captain, or the man
in charge, is called the “ Laota,’’ which in Chinese means
“old great.” He usually makes a great deal of noise,
screaming and using very bad language, fortunately in
Chinese, so the foreigners on board are none the wiser. He
calls. the-poor,—patient trackers “pigs” and other ugly

names, to which they make no reply, tugging uncomplain-
ingly at the heavy rope. When the wind favors, the trackers
50
raise the great sail and do other work as the “ Laota”
directs.

Mr. and Mrs. Spencer and the two girls were the guests
of Mr. Scott, who lived in Shanghai and who owned the
boat. People in Shanghai, who are very kind and hospitable,
often entertain their foreign visitors in this way.

They were to be gone four or five days and Ellen and
Mary put on their thick gowns and boots, for it is cool on
the water.

“T shall go ashore and walk in the fields with papa,”
Mary said, “ for the walks are half the fun on a house boat
journey.”

They also took their books, for there would be plenty of
time for reading. They did not go on board the boat at the
bridge where she lay, because it would take so long to steer
through the crowded junks and sampans; but they drove
out into the country and waited on the river bank. Mrs.
Spencer sat down on a bench by the roadside in a sheltered
place out of the wind which was rather keen. Ellen and
Mary went into a garden across the road in which people
were allowed to walk and climbed to the steps of a wooden
tower. They could see the low gray roofs and the walls
which shut in the native city, and the green rice fields which
stretched away in every direction. The river wound across
the level plain like a yellow ribbon, and there were hundreds
of boats—the little dispatch boats which moved rapidly,
rowed with the feet instead of the hands,—junks and house
boats. Leather gloves were fastened to some of the oars,
and the hands of the boatmen were thrust into them.

Mary and Ellen laughed at this queer custom but Ellen
said:
57

“I think after all it is a very sensible fashion. I am sure
that these boatmen never lose their gloves and always know
just where to find them. The only trouble is that they can
use them only when they are rowing. It would be a great
deal of trouble to unfasten them from the oars every time
they wanted to wear them.”

The large sails of the junks came slowly in sight, the
heavy vessels propelled both by the wind, which was blowing
in the right direction, and by the tide which was rising fast
and would carry them on their way for thirty miles. Some
of the sails were of matting, like those they had seen in the '
Inland Sea; others were of cloth,— brown, gray, blue and
even dark red in color. They were so graceful, towering aloft
in the clear air with their soft, pleasing colors that they
reminded Mary, she said, of flocks of great birds with wide-
spread wings. At last they heard their mother call them
and they ran down the steps and across the road. Their
boat was in sight, the tall gray sails filling in the fresh,
cool wind, and, what pleased them most of all, their own
American flag fluttering at the bow. The “Laota” was
on the forward deck, shouting and gesticulating to attract as
much attention from the other boats as possible, so that
other crews might see and envy the wonderful foreign
‘house boat with its shining windows and the gay red

and white flag, for the Chinese have a_great_admiration
for flags. _ a

Presently the boat was brought about close to the shore;
the plank was thrown out, one end resting on the deck and
the other on the low bank, and they walked across this and
were soon all on board. As they did not wish to lose the
tide, the plank was raised at once and they, moved slowly
58

up stream. They were delighted with everything,— the low,
soft divans heaped with cushions, the pretty cabin with its
warm hangings, and flounces on the shelves and table. In
one corner was a small stove, firmly fastened in its place,
in which a bright fire was burning.

“T like the deck best,” said Mary, “although the cabin
is so snug and pretty. I think that I shall sit out there. I
want to see the boats, the river, the fields, and the queer
people.”

She went accordingly, without loss of time, and when she
had seated herself in a low chair, Ah Lum, Mr. Scott’s
“Number One Boy,” came and wrapped her up snugly in
warm wolf-skin rugs. She was happy and comfortable and
presently Mrs. Spencer and Ellen came on deck, too, and
were deeply interested in the strange sights all about them.
“This is really China,” said Ellen. The boats, both going
up and down stream, grew thicker and thicker. On many
women and even children were tugging at the oars, while
the men squatted on their heels, smoking and gossiping and
eating rice, or drinkng tea.

“I think the poor women in China must lead very sad
lives,” said Mary. “ They do all the hard work, they are not
allowed to rest or enjoy themselves, and the children are
not so merry and happy as the children in Japan; and yet
people are poor in that country, too, and have to work hard
and have but little to eat.”

Mrs. Spencer could not explain this, but she said that the
Japanese seem to be a more hopeful and a happier race than
the Chinese. They are extremely fond of children, the
parents playing with them and amusing them as if they
themselves were children.
59

They saw a man plowing a field with a rude, heavy plow
drawn by a strange animal; it was big, awkward and
covered with thick, dark brown hair, the long horns bent
backward toward the ears.

“ What is it?” asked Mary.

“Tt is the water buffalo,’ she was told, “ which is used
everywhere throughout the East, in China, the Philippines
and India for plowing and drawing carts, as we use horses.

 

 

 

 

Plowing with the Buffalo

It is really an animal that lives much of the time in water
and loves to wallow in the soft mud, in which, when it
can, it buries itself up to the eyes. Once every day at
least the buffalo must have its bath; otherwise it almost
goes mad, running in a frenzy and attacking whatever is in
the way. The Chinese could hardly live without their water
‘buffalo; nothing else could take its place in the marshy
rice fields, although we get on without it in our Southern
60

States. However, we do not raise rice in quite the same
way.”

Just then an ugly dog that was following the man turned,
glared at the house boat and barked fiercely, and the buffalo
began to rear and plunge in fright. They were near the
shore and could see the animal distinctly. “ They have
caught scent of us,” said Mr. Scott. ‘‘ All Chinese animals
hate the scent of a foreigner. The Chinese themselves do
not like it; they say we smell like sheep.”

Ellen and Mary laughed, and wondered why they were
not conscious of it, but upon the whole they thought it a
more pleasant odor than that of the Chinese who do not
bathe very often and who, rich and poor alike, eat a great
deal of garlic. The plowman finally quieted the buffalo,
which moved across the field, but the shaggy dog ran toward
them, still growling and barking. Fortunately he could not
get at them and he was soon left behind.

Then Ah Lum, Mr. Scott’s “ Boy,” sounded the gong and
tiffin was served.

In the afternoon the house boat was dragged near the bank
by the trackers, the plank was lowered and they all went
ashore for a walk. They enjoyed the brisk exercise in the
cold, invigorating air, and Mary and Ellen came back with
their hair tossed by the wind and their cheeks glowing like
roses.

Dinner was quite like dinner at home, with soup and fish
and a joint, and fruit and cakes for dessert. It had all been
prepared in a tiny closet, which served as a kitchen, behind
the saloon. Here Ah Chung, the cook, and Ah Lum also
spread down their mats and slept at night. Mrs. Spencer
said that many a foreign cook, with a great, roomy kitchen,
61

could not have prepared so good a dinner as that which
Ah Chung got for them in his dark little galley.

After dinner they talked and read; then the divans were
covered with sheets and blankets and the thick crimson
curtains were hung around them. Mary and Ellen soon
went to sleep, the water rippling drowsily under their
window.

VI. MODO

HE next morning it was quite cloudy and when they
awoke and looked out of the window the creek was
still covered with boats. The “ Laota’’ had come in and
built the fire, and they could hear Ah Lum in the little
kitchen chatting to Ah Chung among his pots and pans.
Breakfast would soon be ready, so they dressed quickly,
put on their hats and coats and went out on the deck, where
they found their father and mother enjoying the fresh
air. Ah Lum came into the saloon, took down the curtains
and put them away, stored the bedding in the lockers,
opened the doors and windows and put everything in order
for the day. The table was set and they were called to
breakfast, for which they were quite ready.

They had now left Wusung creek and entered the Grand
Canal. This is one of the great waterways of China. It
has been used for more than.a thousand years, and is seven
hundred miles long. It is like a broad river with low banks,
except that there is almost no current. Hundreds of small
62

canals empty into it which are like private roads, with little
water gates that can be opened and closed. Up and down
these canals boats were passing to the farms beyond. The
Grand Canal near the villages is spanned by sharply arched
bridges under which the junks can move, some of them

 

 

The Grand Canal

without even lowering their sails. Men and boys leaned
over the bridges and looked down at them, chattering and
laughing, and talking about them very frankly. They knew
the flag, and pointed it out to each other. Mr. Scott under-
stood the language and he said that they were not disrespect-
ful, for the Chinese have always been friendly to Americans;
A 63

but they made jokes as they always do about everything.
At one village, where a small creek emptied into the canal,
they saw a crowd gathered about a sampan upon the sides
of which some large white birds were sitting; they had
bills like geese, but their necks were long and_ slender.

“What are they?” asked Mary, watching the crowd of
Chinese who appeared to be admiring the birds extremely.
Their owner was so interested in talking about them,— tell-
ing no doubt of their wonderful exploits,— that he did not
at first notice the approach of the house boat.

“Those are cor-
morants,” said Mr.
Scott. “The Chi-
nese find them very
useful for fishing.
The birds are taken
out on the water,
“ the hungrier they
are the better. For
that matter, they
seem to be always
hungry. A tight
collar is fastened around the neck, not tight enough to choke
them, or to hurt them, but fitting so closely that they cannot
swallow. When their owner reaches the fishing grounds
the cormorants are let loose, and dive after the fish which
they can see at a great depth. They seize a fish in their
bills, but cannot swallow it because of the snug collar.
They are brought back into the boat and the fish taken from
them, but every time they are rewarded with a morsel
which can slip down their throats. They are supposed

 

Fishing Cormorants
64

to be very greedy, although perhaps they do not eat much
more than ducks and geese, who are hunting food most
of the time. But they have the name of being greedy and
now we use the word ‘cormorant’ sometimes when we
speak of a very greedy man.”

The birds were not disturbed by the crowd, but they
appeared dull and stupid, as if they had had more to eat
than was good for them, which happens sometimes to human
beings as well as to cormorants.

All the larger cities of China are enclosed in high brick
walls with openings at regular intervals along the top
through which soldiers can shoot arrows or fire their guns,
for the Chinese nowadays have learned to use firearms.
They have warships on the sea and on their rivers, and
armies on the land; but their soldiers are not so brave nor
so well trained as the Japanese. The city walls are about
thirty feet high,— double walls of masonry filled in with
earth and paved with stone on top. This pavement is about
twenty-five feet wide. There are gates to the north, south,
east and west, which are really heavy doors, around which
are built two other walls at right angles, forming a hollow
square; in this inner wall is another gate opening into the
streets of the city. The gates are closed at night and should
a traveler arrive too late he must wait outside until morning
when the gates are opened again.

The double gates are for better defense, for, if the outer
gate is broken down, there is still another to be forced,
which the people may be able to defend and thus save
themselves and their homes. The strong brick walls are so
high that it is hard work to scale them; and, besides this,
there is either a canal, as at Suchau, or a wide, deep ditch
65

filled with water, called a moat, dug all around them; the
walls cannot then be reached except by boats, which are in
danger of being sunk. The double walls, the outer and
inner, are filled with earth and paved on top. Grass,
shrubs, and even small trees spring up in the cracks of the
pavement. In the autumn people are allowed to gather the
weeds, grass and dead leaves, which they use for fuel.

The house boat reached Suchau the second day and
passed under the wall, but they decided to go on to Modo,
and then return.

Modo is little more than a village, dark and dirty, and
crowded with people. It lies huddled at the foot of a steep,
high hill — the only hill in that region — which can be seen
for a long distance.

They did not wait to see the shops, which were rather
poor, but hurried through the crowds that had begun to
gather to stare at the foreigners, to the outskirts of the town,
a wide, grassy space like an open meadow.

A young Chinese prince had once lived in the pleasure
garden which he laid out on top of the hill, but now nothing
is left but a temple —a Chinese pagoda with many stories,
or terraces, rising one above the other, and narrowing at
the top. A zig-zag brick pavement has been laid from the
foot to the very top of the hill, and at regular distances
are broad paved spaces provided with seats where people
can rest. There are many graves upon the hillside; some
are the graves of nobles and soldiers, with moss-grown
inscriptions in Chinese letters on the headstones. They
had long been forgotten, and the withered grass around
them rustled softly, as if whispering their story.

It was a long, hard climb and Mrs. Spencer and the girls

KROUT’S CHINA —5
66

rested from time to time upon the stone benches. Then
they started on again and were soon at the top of the hill.
Mr. Scott was there before them, with their father. The
pagoda from the foot of the hill appeared airy and graceful,
but near at hand it was gray and grimy and falling into
decay. At each corner,
from the lowest terrace
to the top, was hung a
small bronze bell; the
clapper was a thin piece
of metal shaped like the
leaf of a lotus, a kind
of water lily which both
the Japanese and Chi-
nese consider a sacred
flower. As the wind
blew the bells to and
fro, they gave out a

 

 

faint musical chime that
was sweet but very
mournful. Within the
temple were many al-

 

tars, upon which were
figures of Buddha,
whom many of the.
Chinese worship, and
about the figures were arranged vases and candlesticks of

 

A Pagoda

burnished brass. There were also fierce and scowling gods
whom the people worship, for the Chinese think that they
must keep the wicked gods in a good humor by offering
them gifts, for fear they will do them harm.
67

The priests that live in these temples, though poor and
ignorant, are often quite gentle and polite. The heads of
the Buddhist priests are shaved smooth, and they wear
dirty clothes of rags which they have patched together.
Travelers can often lodge in the temples, and can almost
always buy food of the priests. The young man who came
to meet them at the entrance of the pagoda closed his hands
and placed one upon the other, raised them to his forehead,
and then bowed almost to the ground. This is the way

_in which almost all Chinese men greet each other; women

simply close the hands, place them one upon the other in
the same way, move them up and down and nod their heads.
Ellen thought this very queer.

“They shake their own hands in this funny, topsy-turvy
country,” she said, “ instead of shaking ours!”

The priest spoke to Mr. Scott in Chinese and then invited
them to be seated upon the narrow benches near a table,
and there he left them. He came back in a little while
with cups and hot water. A pinch of tea or dried willow
leaves was placed in each cup and the hot water poured
over them, the cup, which had a lid, resting in a holder
like a saucer with a hole in the middle of it. The holder
was to keep the hot cup from burning the fingers, and the lid
was to prevent one from swallowing the tea leaves, it being
lifted just a little as one drinks. Mary’s cup was bluish-
white porcelain, covered with lovely flowers and vines, and
Mr. Scott bought it for her from the priest as a keepsake.
Ellen was also allowed to keep hers. After the tea was poured
the priest brought them some Chinese delicacies, roasted
pumpkin seeds, sugared peanuts and thin strips of rice flour
paste that seemed to have been dried instead of baked. Had
68

they been really hungry, this fare would not have been very
satisfying. The priests had a little garden, and a few geese
in a pond, but Mr. Scott said that they do not like to work ;
they are about the only lazy people in China.
Nothing was left of the pleasure garden but the lotus
pond which was dry and in which nothing grew. It was a
square basin walled with stone and had once been full of
water. It must have been very pretty then with the pink

 

 

 

A Chinese Garden

and white blossoms of the lotus and the dark glossy leaves
floating on its surface.

A path led to the crest of the hill overlooking a broad
valley, green with rice fields, the canals that separated them
glittering in the sunshine like silver. To the west they could
see a chain of lakes, and far off the dark walls of Suchau.

The young Prince of Modo had chosen a beautiful site for
his pleasure garden. Mr. Scott told them his story. He
had been at war with his neighbor, the powerful Prince of
69

Hangchau, who at last, when he saw that he could not
conquer his enemy, pretended to make friends with him
and gave him his lovely young daughter for his wife. The
Prince of Modo loved his young wife very dearly. She
must have been both wise and good, for he was so anxious
to please her and to make her happy. He got for her every-
thing she wished, and made the lotus pond and the garden
and built the palace that she might not regret that she had
left her own family and her home. They were so contented
that they quite forgot the world. The Prince did not care
to fight any longer and he spent all his time with his beau-
tiful Princess in the palace, or walking about the garden, or
feeding the gold fish in the lotus pond. One day the cruel
and treacherous Prince of Hangchau marched quietly into
Modo with his army, put the young Prince to death, destroy-
ed the palace, and carried his daughter back to Hangchau.

Ellen thought that this was a very sad story, and she
stopped a moment by the empty lotus pond and tried to
picture the young Princess with her bright black eyes and
glossy black hair, and knew how she must have mourned for
her husband.

The sun was setting when they started down the hill again,
and it was quite dark when they went on board, the “ Laota ”
ordering the men to hoist the sail. In the morning they
were at Suchau, and ready to go ashore again for more
sight-seeing, after they had had their breakfast.
7O

VIL. SUCHAU

EITHER carts nor jinrikishas could be hired in Su-

chau, so they prepared for a long walk. Mary and

Ellen were young and strong, and they did not object to

this, and they were so interested in what they saw that they

did not realize that they were tired until they had come back
to the house boat.

Ah Chung stayed on board to have tiffin ready for them,
while the “Laota” and the Chinese crew hurried away
to the Chinese inns to gossip with their friends, to smoke,
and to drink tea.

The streets of Suchau are like those of the native city
of Shanghai,—paved with stone, narrow, dark and dirty.
But some of the shops were quite splendid. At the jeweler’s
they saw fine gems and collections of pearls which the
Chinese prize much more than diamonds. At a florist’s they
were shown queer dwarfed trees in pots of blue porcelain.
The roots had never been allowed room to grow, and the
stunted boughs, clipped and pruned, were gnarled and twist-
ed like the boughs of very old trees. The Chinese consider
these dwarf trees very ornamental. They buy them for their
gardens or courtyards and protect them from the cold in
the winter. There were also small spruce trees cut into
the form of storks, lions and other animals; bits of glass
were used for the eyes and in the mouths were tongues
made of red cloth. The florist was so pleased with their
notice that he invited them into the shop and led the way to
the court in the rear, which must have been very pretty in
the spring and summer, when the plum, apricot and quince
trees were in bloom and the pond covered with lotus blos-
71

soms. The chrysanthemums were budding, but it was as
yet too early for the blossoms. Mr. Scott showed them how
cunningly the gardener had grafted the slips.of chrysanthe-
mum on a strong, coarse weed, the artemisia, because the
large stem of the latter could nourish the flowers much
better than the slender stalks of the chrysanthemum itself.
There was no grass in this Chinese garden, and none in
any garden that they saw afterwards. Grass does not grow
well anywhere in China. None of the plants were set in
beds as we grow them, but they were all planted in porcelain
pots which we would have thought much too fine for flower
pots, and these were placed in rows along the walks. One
large ash tree grew in the center of the court. The gardener
was very proud of it, as there are so few trees in China.
The girls noticed several of the dwarf trees which were set
where they could not fail to be seen; there was a rockery
like a miniature mountain, with toy bridges spanning little
chasms, and rivulets trickling down the miniature cliffs.

The florist offered them tea, and was much pleased when
Mrs. Spencer bought some flowers which he arranged very
prettily.

After they had left the florist’s shop they passed the fish
market, where they saw a clever plan which the Chinese
have for keeping fish alive until they are ready to be eaten.
A number of boxes filled with water are arranged one above
the other in such a way that a running stream falls continu-
ally from the upper box into those beneath. In the lowest
box, which is placed upon the ground, the fish swim about,
able to breathe in the water that has thus been mixed with
air. They saw another sight, however, which made them
shiver,—men scaling fish before they had been killed. These
72

men did not seem to notice or care how the poor creatures
writhed and struggled.

“Tt is dreadful,” said Mrs. Spencer.

“You will see a great deal of such cruelty,’ Mr. Scott
told her. “ The people in China do not treat dumb creatures
kindly, and they can not understand why we are so consid-
erate of them. It may be,” he added, “ that they have been
so cruelly treated themselves in the past that they have now
ceased to feel sympathy for anything.”

As they passed a house they heard a child sobbing and
crying. It was being beaten by its mother, and the blows
of the stick could be distinctly heard. Mrs. Spencer wished
to go into the house and stop the angry mother, who shouted
and scolded.

“No,” said Mr. Scott, ‘“ you must never meddle with
Chinese children. Foreigners are suspected of bewitching
them, stealing them, and then putting them to death. Al-
though the Chinese themselves leave their baby daughters in
the streets to die, they can be stirred up to burn and kill if
they can be made to believe that foreigners harm the little
ones in any way.”

They went on very quickly but Mrs. Spencer could not
forget the crying of the poor baby that she would have liked
to rescue if she could have done so. They intended to visit
a large temple in the very heart of the city, and found it
rather hard to get through the crowds that blocked the
way,—scores of boys and men following them. They were
not unfriendly, fortunately, but the foreigners hurried on,
looking neither to the right nor to the left.

When they reached the temple the curious Chinese dropped
behind and did not trouble them any more. A great fair
73

was going on in the temple court where books, crockery and
birds in cages were offered for sale. Grown men were
amusing themselves spinning tops, for in China even gray-
haired grandfathers spin tops and fly kites when the season
rolls around, for they have their seasons for such things, just
as boys in our country have.

Chinese top-spinning was unlike anything that Mary and
Ellen had ever seen; the tops are quite large and make a
loud, humming noise, which the Chinese like to hear. The
top is thrown on the ground with a quick toss from a cord
that had two wooden handles like a skipping rope. While
it is whirling so fast that it can hardly be seen, the cord
is drawn very tight and on this the top is caught again
and tossed high in the air still spinning and humming.
Then it is caught on the cord once more, tossed and caught,
and never once allowed to fall. The crowd that stood
looking on shouted and exclaimed when some pleasing mark
of skill was shown, and the spinners themselves were very
proud of what they had done. While they were busy with
the sport, two of the lookers-on began to dispute, becoming
quite excited and angry. The two girls were a little anxious,
for they did not know what might happen.

“Do not be ffightened,” said Mr. Scott, “a Chinese
quarrel is all threats and noise. The men do not often
come to blows.” And, true enough, as the angry men slowly
approached each other, screaming and waving their arms,
two other men ran after them, seized the fighters by the
waist and held on, as if this were necessary to keep them
from tearing each other to pieces. The men who were thus
held shouted and struggled for a few minutes, and then each
allowed himself to be led away by his friend. There had
74

“been a great deal of screaming and threatening, but they
had not come to blows and did not really mean to hurt
each other. ‘“ There!’ said Mr. Scott, “that is the way
the Chinese fight!”

“And a very good way, I think,” said Mrs. Spencer, “ if
they must lose their tempers. They have had some hard
words, but no one is much the worse for it.”

The platters and bowls, teapots and cups offered for sale
were so pretty and cheap that Mary and Ellen could not keep

from buying a few. They could not bar-

gain for themselves, but they chose what
they wanted and Ah Lum, who had come
with them, offered what the articles were
worth and paid for them. The
money in use is called “cash,”
ten of which make but a cent.

The cash are round pieces of

copper, with a square

hole in the center, and
they are strung on heavy
cords. It is a hard mat-

   
 
 
 
  

“ Gash" ter, sometimes, to carry

enough cash for a long

journey, a thousand of the pieces of copper being worth

only one dollar in our money. It is a common thing to

take the strings of cash in a cart by themselves, or with

the other supplies. We think this a very strange custom,

but the copper cash are worth so little that ten cents in

Chinese money would fill a large pocketbook, and it is too
heavy to carry in a purse.

They looked over the collection of porcelain, which was
75

spread out on the ground, and Mary chose a large platter
on which had been painted a big, dull-blue fish caught
in a yellow net; on the edge of the platter were some
round blue figures meant to represent waves. She also
bought a bowl with a very fierce green dragon on it, one
paw raised and his mouth open, showing his wicked forked
tongue. Ellen selected for herself a cup covered with red
lobsters, and a pretty teapot with vines and flowers in pink
and blue.

In the temple they found a great many artists painting
paper scrolls, such as the girls had seen in the Japanese
shops. The artists worked at wide wooden tables and
painted with fine, pointed, camel’s hair brushes, making
every stroke very clear and clean, without blotting or
having to rub it out. Mary thought that many of the
pictures were, as she said, “very mixed up.” The figures
were not well proportioned and they seemed to be walking
in the air as well as on the ground, and those that should
have been painted quite small, because they were meant
to be far off, were as large as those that were in the fore-
ground, for Chinese artists do not understand the principles
of perspective. The favorite colors were deep blue, pink,
green, black and vermilion, and there was no shading.

The girls did not wish to buy any of the scrolls, but
Mr. Scott who was a good judge of Chinese pictures gave
Mrs. Spencer one which he said was a very fine piece of
Chinese painting. It represented a Chinese lady of high
rank in a gay dress with wide, flowing sleeves; her hair
beautifully dressed with flowers and jewels, her eyes very
narrow and slanting, with brows shaped like willow leaves,
which the Chinese consider a mark of great beauty. The
76

finger nails were very long, to show that the lady had.
never worked. In one hand she held an arrow at which
she was looking closely, and on her feet she wore small
boots such as Chinese soldiers wore many years ago. “I
think it is meant to be a portrait of Malan, a young girl
who lived more than a thousand years ago,” said Mr.
Scott, “but whose story is known everywhere in China
and has been made into a poem. Her father was a great
general and was wounded in battle so that he could not
march at the head of his troops. He had no sons to take
his place, and when
the brave daughter
learned what had
happened, she put on
a suit of mail, mount-
ed a horse and led the
army to battle, and
drove the enemy, who
had come to burn the
cities and kill the peo-
ple, back to their own
country. Her father had been taken to his home when
he could no longer fight, and no one knew who the young
general was that had taken his place.

“The Prince sent for Malan to come to the palace that he
might reward her. He did not dream that the brave
soldier was only a young girl. When she went into his
presence and knelt before the throne, he wished to reward
her with gifts and honors. She refused them all, and
said that she prayed only to return to her aged father,
who knew not where she had gone.

 

Hand Showing the Long Finger Nails
77

“As the Prince desired to please her, he let her go. Those
who went with her still thought that she was some brave
young soldier that the gods had sent to help them, but at her
father’s door she uncovered her face, and they saw at once
that it was Malan.”

The Spencers were quite tired with the morning’s sight-
seeing, and spent the afternoon quietly on the house boat,
resting and reading.

In the evening they took their place in a line of six
other boats, and a steam launch towed them down the
Canal into the Wusung, and so back to Shanghai. Mary
and Ellen had never made so interesting a journey, and
for a long time they talked of the odd sights they had seen.

VIII. NORTH TO TAKU

FTER their return from Suchau, the weather had
been very fine, for Shanghai is at its best in the
autumn and the early winter months. Mr. Spencer found
that he would have to go to Hangchau to be absent for
some time, and he thought that while he was away it would
be a good plan for Mrs. Spencer and the two girls to
visit Peking.

“Everything is so uncertain,” he said, ‘and you should
go while you can.” Neither realized that it would be their —
last opportunity to see the Chinese capital as it then was.
The Chinese in the North were beginning to hate the
foreigners; they believed that they wished to take their
78

country from them and divide it amongst themselves.
They had already given up large tracts along the seacoast,
to the foreign powers, and also leased great ports to them
at which their ships could lie at anchor. A society called
rs had been formed to exterminate the foreigners.

Even while Mrs. Spencer and her daughters were in Peking,
more and more Chinese were joining the Boxers who, some
months later, were to march to Peking, killing and destroy-
ing everything in their path. These Boxers were ignorant
and cruel, and they did not know that many of the foreigners
were friendly to their country, and wished to do all that
they could to help the Chinese. But no one then knew
what was to happen, and Mary and Ellen were anxious
to see Peking which had been an ancient city, long, long
before Columbus discovered America. They got out their
map to see where it was. On the map it seemed to be not
far from Shanghai, but they learned, a. little later, that
it was four days’ journey by sea to Taku. There they
were to leave the ship for the launch which would carry
them to Tongu should the tide be too low for the steamer
to enter the Pei-ho River. At Tongu they were to go
ashore and take the railway to Tientsin, where they changed
for the last time to the main line to Peking. Much as the
Chinese hate changes of any sort, they had been forced to
allow the railway to be built and they had to endure having
the graves of their ancestors removed,—a thing that they
dread.

The first part of the journey was to be made in a small
steamer, the Shengking.

It was rather crowded and not at all clean, although
there were a great many Chinese servants on board.
79

They were to sail from the jetty, not far from the
hotel, at noon. It had begun to rain in the night, and
it was wet and dismal when they went on board. Mr.
Spencer stayed with them until he was told to go ashore,
as the gang plank was about to be raised. They had taken
on a cargo of rice and crockery, for rice does not grow
well in the north where it is too dry and cold. The coolies
who were carrying the crates and sacks on board, where
they were lowered into the hold or piled on the deck
wherever they could be stowed, shouted and quarreled and
were very noisy. They were so long at their work that it
was almost four o’clock before they heard the sharp. clang
of the bell that warned the engineer to put on steam,
and a moment later they were moving slowly down the
Wusung among the shoe boats, sampans and junks.

“Tt is too bad that it is raining,” said Mary. “I should
like to see the country when the sun is shining. It would
not be so dismal; but in the rain, the level fields and
the graves are not cheerful.’ When they reached the
bar they heard a voice chanting what seemed to be a very
strange song.

“They are sounding,” Mrs. Spencer told Ellen, and she
explained how the line and lead are thrown over the side
where the water is shallow, to find the depth, in order
that the boat may not run aground. They had lost the
tide, and had to wait until the turn, because not even the
little Shengking could cross the Wusung bar at low tide.
When the boat again started slowly, the sounding recom-
menced which Mary and Ellen heard all through the night
whenever they awoke.

In the morning the wind was blowing hard and the
80

sea was rough; it was not at all comfortable on the deck,
but they thought it better to sit in the open air than to
remain inside. The Captain, who was very kind, had the
sailors make a sort of tent out of pieces of sailcloth, which
sheltered them from the gale, but the steamer rolled and
pitched so that they could not walk about. The Captain
had a little shaggy dog that followed him wherever he went,
and the dog was miserable and unhappy in the rough
weather.

“ He is not a good sailor,”’ said the Captain when Mary
tried to pet the dog, “but he has gone to sea with me
ever since he was a puppy. He is not friendly with stran-
gers, although I do not think he would bite any one.” His
name was “ Peter,’ and Mary called him and offered him
a part of her cake, but he only sniffed at it, and would
not touch it. The Captain took it from her and offered
it to him, and he snapped it up in a minute. “ He is not
polite, you see,” said the Captain, “and he ought to be
ashamed of himself.” But Peter only wagged his stumpy
tail and trotted after his master who was going up on the
bridge where the little gray dog always kept watch, too,

They had sailed on Tuesday, and on Thursday morning
they anchored at Chefu, off a steep, rocky coast, which
was high, and rugged, and where not so much as a bush
could be seen. A few houses stood upon the hillside above
the sea. One was a very large building which they learned
was a school for foreign boys, where they are taught by
missionaries, just as they would be here in our own schools
at home.

Mary and Ellen were much surprised to see the American
flag flying over one of the houses, and they presently
81

noticed that the English, German and other flags had been
raised over other houses.

“Those are consulates,” said Mrs. Spencer. “Our
country, and others, send out agents called consuls, who
are allowed to live in certain places where they are received
and protected by the country to which they are sent. It

| is their business to protect any of their own countrypeople

who may come to the country, and to see that native
merchants who buy and sell to merchants in the consul’s
own country deal honestly, and are in turn, fairly treated.
The United States consuls are chosen by Congress. The
consuls lead rather lonely lives, sometimes, when there is
not much for them to do, but they are usually kind and
helpful to any of their countrypeople who may come in
their way.”

They were now at the entrance of the Gulf of Pechili
into which two large rivers empty, the Hoang or Yellow
river and the Pei-ho. They did not go ashore, for they were
not to stop long in the port. A party of foreigners came
on board at Chefu, and among them a lady with four
children. The mother was French and the father a Chinese
gentleman. The two eider children were quite pretty, and
the fat, black-eyed baby was very good tempered; the third,
a little girl, who said she was five years old, was very
naughty indeed. She pinched and kicked and would not
obey either the amah, the Chinese nurse, or her mother,
who spoke to her in French, and begged her to be good.
The Captain brought them a small jar of candies which the
naughty girl kept for herself. She took it from her brother
and carried it about with her, and the brother and the elder
sister were too gentle and polite to complain.

KROUT’S CHINA —6
82
“T think she will be an Empress some day,” said Mary.

The storm was over and the sun was warm and bright.
The Gulf was full of rocky islands upon which was neither
grass nor shrub, yet on some of them were small villages,
where, their mother told them, fishermen and their families
lived. The Captain said that they would reach Taku early
on Saturday morning, and would have breakfast at five
o’clock.

They made everything ready the evening before, and
went to bed early. It was well that they did so, for at
two o’clock an open barge came alongside into which the
crew and the coolies, that came out with the barge, began
to unload the cargo that was to be sent up to Tientsin
by the Pei-ho.

As they could not sleep on account of the noise, they
got up and saw the sun rise. The sky was a strange dull
blue, and the bay was as smooth as glass. Other small
steamers, like the Shengking, lay at anchor, for here, as
at the mouth of the Wusung, there is a bar which boats
can not cross when the tide is out.

They liurried through breakfast, and then went down the
ladder into the steam barge which was to take them ashore.
All their luggage was put into the barge with them. Had
the weather been bad they would have béen well drenched.
Fortunately, the morning was clear and warm. The shore
could not be sighted from the deck of the Shengking,
but, in a fittle while, they saw a line of dull green close to
the water, which became more and more distinct as they
advanced. At the mouth of the Pei-ho, which was yellow
and sluggish, like the Wusung, were the low mud walls
of the two Chinese forts, which, before many months, were
83

to be battered down by the guns of the foreign warships.
The houses inside the forts were of gray brick and were
very comfortable. There the foreign Health Officers and
other officials live who are employed by the Chinese gov-
ernment. °

The land along the sea was thickly grown with tall
reeds, and the banks of the river were also shut in with
reeds like a wall, so that nothing could be seen of the bare

 

 

 

View of the Taku Forts

level land beyond. Two little Chinese warships were lying
in the river. They were like the foreign ships that the
girls had seen at Shanghai, painted snow white, with all
their brass work shining brightly in the sun. The Chinese
did not build the ships, which were ,called torpedo boats,
but had bought them in foreign countries. They could see
the Chinese sailors on the deck quite plainly as their lum-
bering barge steamed past. They wore uniforms of white
84

duck, and caps such as sailors wear, and their queues were
wound round their heads so as to be out of the way.

The passengers from the Shengking were to land at
Tongu, which is up the river some distance from Taku. Mary
and Ellen thought that they had never seen such a dreary
place. The houses were all of mud, with windows in
which sheets of paper were used instead of glass. At the
ends of the streets were curtains of matting which were
let down at night, so that robbers might not get in.

“T sheuld think almost any sort of a robber could break
through that curtain,’ said Mary, “though it may be
stronger than it appears to be.” Men with bird cages in
their hands walked along the bank with a quick, mincing
step, turning out their toes. Women in blue and green
dresses gossiped at the doors. On one roof a tall pole had
been raised and to this had been fastened a bunch of dried
grass. This was to show that the people who lived in
the house had something to sell,— fowls, grain, eggs or
vegetables.

The girls tearned that no one must ask to buy except
from dealers. If a man offers, of his own accord, to buy
a horse or a mule from a Chinese farmer, the poor farmer
will accept the price named, no matter how little, for he
believes that if he does not sell the animal it will surely
die within the year. Dishonest foreigners often take advan-
tage of this ignorance, and get a farmer’s horses away from
him, although he does not wish in the least to sell them.

There was no landing stage at Tongu, and they climbed
out of the barge upon some loose boards laid across two
old sampans, which had been dragged near the shore and
made fast.

*
ff
Sl

_——

85

They had been very anxious for fear they should miss the
“train, as there was but one daily to Peking. There was
no place where they could have stayed in Tongu, and they
were very glad, indeed, when they saw the smoke of the
engine at the station, which was not far away.

The moment they stepped ashore a crowd of coolies seized
their bags and parcels and would have trotted off with
them, had they not been driven away by a gentleman whom
they had met in the boat and who could talk to the Chinese
in their own language. He engaged half a dozen men,
who tied up the trunks with stout rope, swung them on
heavy bamboo poles and trotted toward the station. Mrs.
Spencer, their friend, and the two girls followed.

In the village street they saw a man roasting chestnuts
in a great kettle filled with burning hot sand. The chestnuts
were stirred constantly and the hot sand roasted them a
deep, even brown.

IX. A CHINESE RAILROAD

HE railway station at Tongu is of gray brick, very much

like an ordinary country station in America. But

Mary and Ellen had never seen so odd a train nor so curious
a lot of passengers. Many of the cars were like those that
are used in our own country for hauling gravel, and in these
were crowded not only men, women and children, but pigs,
donkeys and large, stout mules which the Chinese value much
more than horses. A great many of the people, both men
4nd women, who were dressed in clothes of blue cotton, were
Ni

86

eating rice and drinking tea. Nearly all were bareheaded,
and, when they liked, shaded their eyes with paper fans.
When the fans were not being used they were thrust into
the neck of the gown, one end showing above the collar.

There were also rough box cars, provided with seats
where Chinese of the better class sat by themselves. The
seats were of wood like those in American street cars, and
here, too, the people were eating and drinking at a great
rate.

Their friend put Mrs. Spencer and her daughters in
the ‘First Class Carriage,” which was plainly marked,

 

 

Chinese Railway Train

both in English and Chinese. It was not at all comfortable.
The seats had no cushions and the trunks and bags were
brought in, also, and crowded into the spaces between the
seats. There were no cushions, because the Chinese can
not be taught neatness, and scatter their food over every-
thing, although, in this carriage, only the rich merchants
and officials traveled. The windows were so high that
nothing could be seen when one sat down, so Mary and
87

Ellen stood and looked out at the crowds on the broad
platform. Men were selling hot chestnuts, slices of red
and bright orange-colored watermelon, which the Chinese
can buy for a “cash” each, but which cost the foreigners
much more. Several kinds of toys were also offered for
sale, the oddest of which were hideous spotted pigs of
clay, with long noses and flapping ears. Two pretty Chinese
ladies dressed in blue satin, with large earrings set with
pearls, and flowers and gilt pins in their hair, quarreled
loudly with the chestnut vender over the price he had made
them pay. One of them shook her umbrella out of the
window at him, and shouted after him as he walked away.

“Tam glad that you can not understand what they say,”
said their friend, “for, while Chinese ladies appear modest
and gentle, they often use very bad language, and quarrel
a great deal amongst themselves.”

When the vender was out of hearing the two ladies sat
down again, and began to giggle and crunch chestnuts like
a pair of hungry squirrels. They threw the shells all about
them, and did not seem to see or care what a litter they
made.

As in Yokohama, newsboys ran up and down the plat-
form selling newspapers printed in Chinese, some of which
had very queer pictures. A great many of the Chinese do
not like the newspapers and do not want the people to read
them, and there are not so many in China as there once were.

Two years before, the young Emperor had been driven
from the throne and had been shut up in one of the palaces
because he wished to change the laws, found schools like
our own and make other improvements. Scores of the
newspapers which were being printed with his consent, were
88

then discontinued. None was allowed to appear that did
not speak well of the Empress Dowager who had imprisoned
the Emperor, and approve what she had done.

The engineer, the fireman, and the conductor or guard
on the train, were all Chinese, and knew their business very
well. The engineer was proud of his engine, and smiled
at the foreigners from his cab window, as though he wished
them to see what a clever man he was—as well-trained and
able to manage an engine as any foreigner could be. He
put his hand upon the throttle, the engine gave a shrill
whistle that could be heard far down the river, and the
long train pulled slowly out of the station, leaving the
idlers on the platform gaping after it, as long as it was in
sight.

All around Tongu are burial places, just as they are
to be found around nearly all towns and villages in Northern
China.

Long after they had gone back to Shanghai the girls re-
membered the railroad, the cars, the bridges and the long
line of telegraph poles beside the track, for the next summer
it-was all torn up and ruined by the Boxers. The Boxers had
told the ignorant, common people that the men who built the
railroad had killed little children and placed their bodies
under the ties. It would have been easy for them to
dig up the earth and find for themselves that this was
not true; but they did not think it worth while, or were
perhaps afraid. On all the telegraph poles were notices in
Chinese warning the people not to tamper with them, for
the common people hate the telegraph even worse than
the railway. They can and do use the trains, however,
which they have found far better in every way than their
89

slow-moving carts and litters. But they can not understand
the telegraph at-all; they. believe that evil-spirits carry the
messages and that they will never have any luck so long
‘as the poles remain.

At one station Mary and Ellen saw for the first time a
camel, which a small boy was leading. The girls did not
know before that camels are used a great deal by the people

 

 

 

Burial Places

in Northern China; and that they graze by thousands on
the plains, where they are turned loose to fatten and to
get their new coats of thick hair for the winter, after
shedding their old coats in the early summer. The hair is
sold and sent to Germany, where fine, silky material for
ladies’ dresses is made of it.

The camel which they saw was terribly frightened by the
train, and tried to get away; but the boy held it fast by the
go

halter. It did not like the noisy, puffing engine and the
rattling cars, so crowded with people, and Mary said that
she did not wonder at this.

At last the boy, who was not large, stood on his tiptoes
and placed his hands over the camel’s eyes. After that it
was more quiet, but camels have a very keen sense of
smell, and, like the dog that they had seen on the house
boat journey, can detect the approach of men, or of animals,
long before they can see them.

   

Pack Camels

At another station they saw a very shocking sight, which
they tried to forget, but which they could not put out of
their minds for a long time. A man lay dead in a ditch by
the side of the railway line; his face was covered, but
the body was stretched out quite cold and rigid. He had
been run over and killed, and no one could take the body
away until the magistrate came and looked at it, and
decided how the man had lost his life! Everyone knew
already, but the magistrate thought, no doubt, that he had
gl

more important matters to attend to first, and would not
come until he felt like it. They learned that the body had
lain where they saw it for four days, but that is not an
uncommon thing in China. With thousands of graves on
every hand, the people are used to death, which they do
not much fear, although they have a dread of ghosts.
Nothing matters very much since, for millions of these
wretched people, it is hard to get bread enough to keep
them alive. Whatever happens, they say “ Maskee,” which
means “it does not matter,” and they do not try to better
their lot.

The train moved slowly over the yellow plain, and the
sky was even a duller blue than at Tongu; this was because
of the dust storms which are common in this part of the
country. The winds blow nearly all the year round, and
in the long droughts volumes of dust are carried high in
the air. The sky grows more and more yellow, and some-
times the dust is so thick that the sun is hidden, or is so
obscured that it is like a dull, brazen ball. Then, although
doors and windows are kept tightly closed, the dust blows
in at every crack and cranny, even getting into closets and
bureau drawers in the foreign houses. It stings and parches
the skin, and the hair becomes dry and harsh and snaps and
flies when it is brushed.

They decided not to stop in Tientsin on the way to
Peking, but to make the visit when they came back, so they
left the train when they arrived at the Tientsin station
and took the Peking express which they found waiting
on another line near by. It was a better train in every way
than the one which they had quitted. They took a “ mail
carriage’ which was like a small stateroom, opening into
92

a passage at one side which connected with the other
carriage in front and with a large saloon which was free
to all.

They had some nice tea with the sandwiches which had
been put up for them on the steamer, and some hot, hard-
boiled eggs which they found could generally be bought on
this Chinese train. The engineer and stoker on the engine
of the Peking express were also Chinese, and so was the
conductor who took their tickets, and the man who brought
their tea. He also brought them some small, juicy pears
which he said were Peking pears, for he spoke English quite
well.

“No one says Pekin,” said Mary.

“Because here the name is pronounced_as it should be,”
her mother replied.

“Tt is often spelled without the g in books and news-
papers,” she explained, “ but it is not correct. ‘King’ is
a Chinese word meaning ‘capital’; ‘Peking’ means
‘Northern Capital’; ‘Chungking’ is ‘Western Capital’
and Nanking means ‘ Southern Capital.’ Nanking was the

capital of the empire until the Manchus, to which the family
of the young Emperor Kuang Hsu belongs, conquered the
Chinese. They then moved the capital to Peking. It is a
very, very old city, and stood where it is to-day when there
was not a white man in our country — long, indeed, before
our country was dreamed of by the people of Europe.
It is very different from other Chinese cities,” Mrs. Spencer
went on, “for the streets are almost all wide and straight,

and are laid out at right angles; but they are not paved
and are very dirty ankle-deep with dust in the summer,
and almost impassable with mud when it rains.
93

“ The_heuses_in Peking are low, enclosed with walls
around an inner court, so that nothing can be seen of the
interior. The Chinese are forced to live in the southern
part of Peking, and here they have fine shops and carry
on business as industriously as they do everywhere. Be-
yond the Chinese city-is-the Tartar city in which the Tartars
live. They are very much like the Chinese, but have more
authority and are favored by the Empress Dowager.

 

 

 

The Forbidden City

“A straight wall built across the Chinese city from one
side to the other, joining the outer wall, which entirely
surrounds Peking, separates the Chinese from the Tartar
city. Within.the Tartar city is the Imperial City. Here
the noble Manchus live, their houses roofed with bright
green tiles; and in the very center is the so-called ‘ For-
bidden City,’ in which are the fine gardens and palaces
of the Emperor and the Empress Dowager. Their palaces
94

are roofed with deep yellow tiles, which shine like gold
among the trees that grow in the courts. Each city has
its own wall pierced with gates. The Emperor and the
Empress Dowager rarely leave their palaces in the Forbidden
City. Before the Emperor was imprisoned, which was
in the month of September, 1898, he went to the temples
at certain seasons to offer thanksgivings to the gods,
or to pray for rain. When he did so, the people were
commanded to stay within their houses that they might
not see him, for his person is considered sacred. A company
of the very highest princes in the land went with him.
The streets through which he had to pass were strewn
with fresh yellow earth upon which no foot had trodden,
and all the cross streets were carefully shut out by curtains
of fine yellow matting. Should any one have been detected
trying to catch sight of the Emperor he would have been
put to death instantly.”

X. PEKING

T was almost two o’clock in the afternoon and Mary and
Ellen were very tired. They had been up at daylight
and had had no rest since they left their berths on the
steamer. The excitement of new scenes and adventures had
occupied them, and they did not realize how quickly the
time had passed.
The country between Tientsin and Peking is like that
around Shanghai, except that in the south they had seen
95

green rice fields. Here were the same level plains, covered
with scattered graves. The crops had all been gathered,
and the fields where the tall millet grows in summer and
ripens in the early autumn had been stripped bare. The
stalks had been cut to within a foot of the ground and these
women were digging with short, sharp hoes, shaking the
earth from the dry roots and tying them in bundles. The
millet roots, Mrs. Spencer said, were to be used for fuel.

They saw but one pretty house, and that stood near the
roadside in a garden where chrysanthemums and marigolds
were blooming in long rows. Pumpkin seeds, of which the
Chinese are very fond, were spread out on the flat roof
to dry, and festoons of pumpkin were hung above the door,
also drying, to be used in the winter when vegetables are
scarce.

After a while, they saw a long, indistinct line, which
stretched far away, fading in the distance; it semed to rise
from the ground like a grayish-brown cloud. “It is the
outer wall of Peking,” said Mrs. Spencer, and Mary and
Ellen rose, stood on tiptoe and gazed through the window
for a long time, trying to realize that they were really in
sight of the Chinese capital.

To west and north a rugged mountain chain appeared
with sharp peaks, the slopes taking on a hundred lovely
tints of pearl and pink and gray in the afternoon light.
They were the Western Hills, where the foreigners go
in summer to escape the great heat and the dust and
stench of Peking. It was still more strange, when the train
finally halted at the long platform, to see the name of the
station, “ Peking,” in English; and the station itself was
much more American than Chinese. All the passengers
96

hurried from the train, the Chinese laughing and talking
in their high, shrill voices, and the foreigners, for there
were many foreigners besides themselves, anxious to reach
their homes, or the hotel where they were to stay.

Mr. Spencer had telegraphed for rooms, just as he would
have done at home, and a fat, jolly Chinese from the hotel
was waiting for them. Their luggage was sorted out and

 

 

 

Railroad Station at Peking

piled into carts, then the compradore, or steward, led the
way to the spick and span new electric tram car, which
whirled them to the city gates in a few minutes. On
the opposite side of the road they saw more queer sights,—
strings of camels loaded with bales and sacks, the
leader wearing around his neck a bell from which hung
a long tassel of crimson silk. ‘‘ Cling-clang,” “ Cling-
clang” the bell chimed, keeping time to the camel’s soft
tread. The animals like the sound, and followed lazily,
97

with half-closed eyes, their jaws moving from side to
side in a very strange fashion as they munched their cuds.

There were processions of carts, big, unwieldly wagons
drawn by mules, horses and even cows, all harnessed
together in a perfect net-work of ropes. In the midst of
this motley procession a young Chinese rode swiftly on
a bicycle, bare-headed in the blazing sun, his queue stream-
ing out behind him almost in a straight line.

The motorman and the conductor on the electric car
were both Chinese, and, like the engineer on the train,
were proud of their skill in managing the wonderful foreign
tram. When the line was first opened they made some
funny mistakes. All the cars were collected at one end of
the line and were then sent back to the station, the cars
following one behind the other. People who wanted to
ride had to wait for them to return, sometimes an hour
or more.

At the city gate the compradore hired jinrikishas which
had just been brought to Peking, b but where they could be
used only on a few streets, all the others being too rough
and full of ruts.

The rikisha men ran as fast as they could along the
road through the Chinese city. It had once been well paved
with great blocks of stone, many of which, however, had
been displaced or broken, and others carried away, leaving
yawning holes into which the wheels sank and bounced
out again. It was hard work to keep one’s seat, and they
held fast to the little carriage. On either side of the road
were wide spaces, bare and brown, like the fields, where
there were herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats that
were to be sold. People walked to and fro in narrow paths

KROUT’S CHINA— 7
98

‘
&

close to the wall. Near the gate of the Chinese city, opening
into the Tartar city, were hundreds of shops with people
buying and selling, and the restaurants surrounded with
patrons, as they had seen them in Shanghai and Suchau.

Here in the north, the men were tall and strong, their
skin was darker and their eyes were not so slanting as those
that they had seen farther south. But they were not quite
so good-natured, and two or three scowled at them angrily.

At one place a bridge crossed a stagnant canal. Mary and _
Ellen noticed that it was crowded with people who wore
filthy, tattered clothes, and who seemed never to have had
a bath in all their lives; their hands and faces were grimy,
and their hair tangled and matted with dust. This was
unusual, for a Chinese, who will never go without shoes
if he can help it, is also careful to keep his queue neatly
braided. But this was the Beggar’s Bridge, where people
who are allowed to beg, as a means of getting their living,
are always to be seen, when they are not following their
trade. Each begger has a license to beg, for which he pays,
just as men pay for a license to sell various things in our
own country. The beggar goes from shop to shop and
the merchants are forced to give him a few “cash” to get
rid of him. If they refuse, the beggar goes away and
comes back with a crowd of his beggar friends and they
crowd about the merchant’s shop until they are all paid.
The merchants have found by experience that it is better to
give one beggar what he asks rather than to pay so many.
No one seems able to drive them away, and they hang about,
rude and noisy, keeping customers out of the shop, until
they get what they demand.

The streets in the Tartar city are rough causeways, with
99

deep ditches on either side in which filthy water collects
after the rains. The shops open upon the streets, and in
front is a space like a broad sidewalk for people who go
on foot; on the farther side of this space are small booths
roughly patched together, some of them roofed only with
canvas. These booths stand next to the street, or along
the edge of the deep ditch which had been left from digging

 

 

Street in Peking

out the earth to repair the narrow track where two carts
can scarcely pass, and which is continually worn away
by the heavy wheels. The shop fronts are of richly carved
wood which had been thickly gilded, but the sun and
rain have ruined the gilding, and it has never been re-
newed. The Chinese are satisfied if what they have is fresh
and bright for a little while. It never occurs to them
that anything which falls into decay can ever be repaired
100

and made as good as new. This is true, not only of
the gilded shop fronts, but of the roads and temples and
the fine marble bridges which one of the Emperors had
built across the northern rivers. Over the door of some of
the shops are dragon’s heads on tall poles, with long spiral
springs of gilt wire, each tipped with an acorn, sprouting

 

American Legation

from the nostrils, which tilt and bend continually in the
wind.

They entered the beautiful Ha-ta-men. The name which
was translated for them means “The Gate of Sublime_
Learning.” They turned into what is known as Legation
Street, on which all the foreign Ministers live, that is,
officers of a higher class than consuls who are sent to
Peking to look after the interests of their governments.
IOI

Each legation stands in its own compound, inclosed in a
solid wall, entered through a gate where a gate keeper
is always on duty. Over each house, on Sunday, the flag
of the country which the legation represents, is raised, and
Mary and Ellen soon learned to know the different flags
quite well. They admired the snow-white standard of Japan
with its big round Sun in the center—to represent the
* Land of the Rising Sun,” as Japan calls herself.

 

 

Chinese Sawyers

The streets of the Tartar city are as busy and crowded
as those of the Chinese city, but along Legation Street
there are no shops. They saw men sawing great beams of
wood by the wayside, the beam being tilted on end and
sawed into strips, or boards. Two men were required to
saw the beam. Boards have been sawed by hand in this
way for ages in China, and will be for ages to come, if the
192

people have their way. It is slow and tedious, as is most
work done in China, but more people are thus employed,
and there are work and wages for them, which would
not be the case if mills were put up everywhere. Wood
is very costly, for it must be brought from a long dis-
tance, and it is sold by weight. No one would think of
using wood for fuel in China, where hardly enough is sup-
plied for doors and window frames, furniture and coffins.
The houses, as Mary and Ellen already knew, are roofed
with tiles, and the floors are paved with brick or stone,
even in the palaces. Only foreign houses, of which there
are very few, have wooden floors and staircases.

They were rather surprised when the rikisha man suddenly
turned in at a narrow, arched gateway over which they
read: ‘ Hotel de Peking.” There was no sign of a hotel
from outside, and they were taken along a paved passage-
way, covered with a trellis over which vines had been
trained, which made a thick, pleasant shade. It was cool
and quiet after the noisy, dusty streets, and Mrs. Spencer
gave a sigh of relief when she stepped out of the jinrikisha
and knew that they were at their journey’s end.

Their room was at the rear of the building, and opened
into the court where there were more shady arbors, and
flowers growing in porcelain pots; but not a blade of grass
to be seen anywhere.

The room was clean and prettily furnished, and in a
little while tea was brought which they were very glad
to have. During the night, when Mary awoke, she could
not at all realize where she was. She heard a strange sound
— ‘rat, fat, tat fat,” ‘ rat-tat-tat-tat,” that grew louder as
it approached, was repeated after a little pause, and then
103

died away in the distance. She learned that this was
a policeman going his rounds; the noise was made by
beating upon a piece of hollow wood, for Chinese police-
men are not_expected to capture thieves and evil doers, but
only to scare them away, and the loud noise warns them
when the policeman is coming. Mary thought this was
certainly a safe way for both the policeman and the thief,
who, if they never meet, can not hurt each other. She
learned, too, that the police are able to pay men not to break
into houses, which they do not molest as long as the pay
continues. The Chinese think this a very good and wise
plan as it saves a great deal of trouble.

XI. IN AND AROUND PEKING

HERE are few places where one can walk in Peking.
The streets are dirty and dusty and the crowds that
usually follow foreigners, or gather around them, are not
always polite. ‘‘ They are no worse,” said Mrs. Spencer,
“than ignorant people in other countries, who would be
just as curious about Chinese women as these people are
about foreigners. I think that they are better than one
might expect to find them, when we remember how badly
they have been treated. Even here, in their own land,
foreigners are rude and cruel to them, and take advantage
of them in many ways. We expect them to be kind, and
civil to us, while we treat them unjustly and have no regard
for their feelings. The Chinese are taught from childhood,”
104

she said, " to treat their elders and their superiors with great
reverence. The Emperor’s teacher can sit in his presence,
which not even the highest nobles can do, because the
teacher ranks next to the parent. Their feelings are easily
wounded and they never forget a slight. I once saw a
Chinese who had been engaged by an American family
to wait at table; he was very much frightened and did
not know the use of the various kinds of spoons, knives
and forks. He made mistakes at which they laughed and
he was so much ashamed that he left the house and never
went back again,—not even for the wages that the people
owed him. He had ‘lost face,’ as the Chinese say; that
is, he had been mortified and shamed in public and never
wanted to see the family again.”

In front of the hotel were carts, donkeys and jinrikishas
which could be hired, but they learned that it was not the
custom to ride the donkeys inside the walls, although they
could do so outside the gates. They must go about the
city either in a cart, a jinrikisha, or a litter.

On Sunday they went to a Mission Church where nearly
all the congregation were Chinese. The men sat on one
side of the church and the women and girls on the other.
They were much cleaner than most Chinese, and their faces
were brighter and more intelligent. This was especially
true of the women, who, in Chinese families, except a few
of the highest class, are taught very little. The hymns
and the lessons were all in Chinese, and a sermon in the
same language was preached by a young Chinese priest.
The congregation was very quiet and listened closely. They
sang very sweetly, the air only, for it is hard to teach
them the different parts. Mary was much surprised that
105

they could sing at all, for Chinese music is so strange and
discordant she did not suppose that they could learn even
simple foreign airs. When the service was over, the mis-
sionaries who were there with their pupils came up and
shook hands with the foreign strangers. They invited

 

=

 

Woman of the Wealthy Class

them to the Mission residence and asked them to visit the
schools, which Mrs. Spencer said they would do.

Mary and Ellen had been taught to consider Sunday as
a day of rest and they could not get used to the Chinese
106

Sunday which was like any other day in the week,— the
shops all open, people buying and selling, the sawyers sawing
the great beams of wood, and the caravans of camels filing
in and out of the Ha-ta-men. Mrs. Spencer told them
that there were certain feast days when people do not
work, and, no matter how poor they are, almost everyone
takes a holiday at the Chinese New Year. It does not
come at the time we celebrate our New Year, but more
than a month later, for the Chinese year is not divided
like our own.

“Tt is a time of great rejoicing,” said Mrs. Spencer.
“Every man tries then to pay his debts, and it is a great
disgrace not to do so. The shops are closed except those
where food is sold, and but few of these are open. Everyone
wears new clothes; the rich have coats and gowns of silk
and satin lined with costly sable, and the poor, garments of
blue cotton, thickly wadded. If a man is too poor to
buy clothes, he hires them for the fortnight during which
the New Year is celebrated, and, at the end of the fortnight,
takes them back to the shop where he got them. Gifts are
exchanged as we exchange them at Christmas, and in nearly
every house much better food is eaten than at ordinary times.
The people of rank and wealth give feasts that cost large
sums of money, at which all sorts of Chinese dainties,
which we would not think fit to eat at all, are served, —
sea slugs, bird’s nest soup, silkworms fried in oil, and other
things. The poor treat themselves to a bit of meat
which they rarely taste at any other time, —a fowl, a duck
or a few eggs; this, with plenty of vegetables, soup and
tea is for them a feast indeed.

“There are many odd customs connected with the New
107

Year; great quantities of firecrackers are set off, the courts
and houses are brightly lighted with Chinese lanterns, and
fresh gate gods are pasted on the gates at the front of the
court. The pictures of these gods can be bought only at
the New Year. One picture is of the god who, they think,
sends them good luck; the other is of the wicked god,
who scowls, and stamps his foot and brandishes a terrible
sword. They do not like this god, but they are afraid not
to paste his picture on the door, for fear he may feel slighted
and do them harm; just as they put the mischievous gods
on the altars in the temple, as you saw them at Modo and
Suchau.

c J5One of the strangest of their customs is the burning
of the little kitchen god on New Year’s eve. Every Chinese
cook, who has not been taught better, has hanging up in
his kitchen a picture of this little kitchen god who is thought
to befriend him and help him with his cooking, sending
him’ ‘good luck’ with his pies and puddings. On the
eve of the New Year the little kitchen god’s mouth is
smeared with treacle, of which he is supposed to be very
fond, and he is then solemnly burned. When he is burned
they believe he goes straight to Heaven, and, because his
mouth has been sweetened with the treacle, he will tell no
tales of the naughty things the cook may have done,— how
he may have helped himself to his master’s white bread
or ccffee, or ham, which all Chinese cooks like very much.
It is hard to keep them from pilfering. They seem to
think that they have a right to small things of this sort,
when they would not touch a piece of jewelry or money.

“When the kitchen god has been in heaven for one
week they suppose he returns, — although they have only
108

pasted on the wall a fresh picture which they themselves
have bought. While the kitchen god is in heaven the
bad cook thinks that he may do as he likes. There 1s
no one to watch and tell tales, and the mistress is sometimes
glad when a ‘new picture is pasted up. Chinese children
who are sent to foreign schools learn to laugh at these
stories, which makes the priests very angry.”

While they were coming away from the church they
heard soft, strange music which came from far above their
heads. It rose and swelled and died away, like the notes of
an organ. They could see nothing but great flocks of
white and blue pigeons, wheeling and soaring in the sun-
shine. The compradore told them, when they spoke to
him about it, that what they had heard were pigeon whistles.
The Chinese dearly love singing birds, and boys and men
—even very old men—go about the streets of Peking
carrying a pet bird tethered with a thread to a forked
stick, or in cages, as they had seen them first at Tongu.
There are not many singing birds in the fields near Peking,
probably because of the crows, of which there are thousands,
and which destroy the eggs and young of other birds;
so the Chinese make whistles of bamboo, which they fasten
among the feathers of the pigeons’ tails and then turn
them loose. As they fly swiftly, wheeling and soaring, the
rushing wind blows through the little pipes fastened in
their feathers, sending out the lovely sounds the girls had
heard. The Chinese have given them the name of * Houris
of the Sky.” Houris are thought by the Chinese to be
beautiful beings that dwell in the Chinese Paradise, as
we think of angels dwelling in Heaven.

The pigeons themselves appear to be much pleased with
109

the music, and fly swiftly, many in a flock, around and
around, to and fro, now brushing the low roofs with
their wings, now soaring away again until they are almost
lost among the clouds. The music rises and swells, and
the little children in the courts of the city look up at them
and listen with delight.

The week after they arrived in Peking they drove about
a great deal, although the heavy carts, with their big
wheels, the bed resting upon the axle, with no springs to
soften the jolting when they sank into ruts and holes, were
certainly not comfortable. Had there been sidewalks Mary
and Ellen would much have preferred to walk, but there
were none,

They found that in Peking whole streets have been set
apart for shops in which but one kind of goods can be
bought, such as books, shoes or crockery. Near the Ha-
ta-men they saw a booth covered with a horrid patchwork
— whole garments, frocks and trousers — stitched upon
canvas. Inside the booth two men were standing behind
a table heaped with piles of blue cotton garments, and
they sang, in a monotonous nasal tone, a song that went
on and on and on; one man sang a line, and the other
replied, and there was scarcely time to breathe between
the lines. A lady, Mrs. Clifford, who was with them
and understood Chinese, said that they were singing of
the second-hand clothes that they were trying to sell. They
could hear the song a long distance down the street.

They noticed, in other places, that the streets were lined
with little temporary stalls where men were selling every
imaginable kind of article from a fried fish to a piece of

jewelry.
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Innumerable peddlers were
making their way here and there
through the crowd, balancing
large trays on which were dis-
played various articles for sale.
Each man had his own peculiar
cry to draw attention to his
wares.

Many foot passengers were
walking up and down, stopping
at the different booths,— bar-
gaining, selling, chattering,— or
eating at tables set out in the
open street. It was a very lively
and Mary and Ellen -
gazed about them with great

scene,

curiosity.

A young man, bare - headed
and dressed in a very elegant
blue silk frock, passed them
rolling rapidly about in his long
slender fingers a heavy metal
ball. ‘“ That is a public writer,”
said Mrs. Clifford. ‘‘ Chinese
characters are very difficult
to write. There are so many
strokes, fine and heavy, with
little dots and dashes, that
it requires a very steady. flex-
ible hand to make them properly.
Every line that is left out, or
Tit

stroke added, changes the meaning of the character —a
single one of which may be a whole sentence. So, to keep
the fingers supple, the public writers carry those heavy balls
about with them, rolling them constantly that their hand
may not become stiff, just as a piano player must practice
his exercises every day.

Not far from the Ha-
ta-men they saw an old
man in a booth, with an
audience of men and
boys on benches in front
of him. He was talking
to them, Mary supposed,
making very graceful
gestures, and they were
listening very closely, so
as not to lose a word.
The man was a story-
teller, and amused the
crowds who gathered to
hear him, with old tales
and legends of China —
the adventures of heroes,
princes and princesses,
that had been handed
down for generations,

 

A Public Speaker

and were known as our fairy stories are known to chil-
dren everywhere. Each person in the audience paid a
small sum for the privilege of listening. The Chinese never
get tired of hearing these legends, although they know
them by heart. It is a country where they are not continu-
112

ally asking for something new, but are still pleased and
content with that which pleased their fathers and grand-
fathers before them.

No ladies were seen on foot; all rode in carts with the
driver sitting on one shaft, where Chinese drivers are
expected to sit, and a woman servant, without which no
Chinese lady ever goes from home, perched upon the other.
The ladies were beautifully dressed in embroidered silk,
their faces powdered to
snowy whiteness, the lips
and cheeks painted with
vermilion. The hair was
arranged on a narrow
: “=~ board at the back of the

Peking Cart head, projecting several
inches on either side, and decorated with many bright
artificial flowers and butterflies. They were Manchu ladies
—the race to which the Empress Dowager belongs — and
their feet had never been bound.

Mary and Ellen did not know what this meant, and ques-
tioned their mother about it. “I will tell you about it
later on,” said their mother.

 

XII. CHINESE GIRLS

HEN they had washed the dust from their hands and

faces, and had rested a little while, Mary reminded

her mother that she had promised to tell them about Chinese

girls whose feet had been “ bound,” or dwarfed and crippled
so that it was hard for them to walk.
113

“ What is called foot-binding is not practiced by all people
who live in China,” said Mrs. Spencer, * although in our
country many think that there are none whose feet are
of the natural shape or size; while others suppose that
only the feet of women of good families are bound; both
opinions are wrong. There are several provinces where
the feet of little girls remain as nature made them, and
Manchu women, high and low, have large feet. The Em-
press Dowager and the ladies of her household have not

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese Little Feet, Showing Method of Binding

suffered from this foolish and cruel custom. The practice
is so old that no one can tell when or how it began. The
Chinese of all classes, even those that work at hard labor
in the fields, such as boatmen and coolies, have small, slim
hands and feet. They wear no stockings— only a sock
made of cotton cloth, or bands of cloth in which the feet are
snugly wrapped. It is thought by some that foot binding
may have begun by gradually tightening the cotton band-
ages, until the small feet of the women became still more
tiny. The Chinese admire these dwarfed feet very much
KROUT’S CHINA—8
114

indeed, and compare them to golden lilies, and the tottering
gait with which ‘ bound-foot’ women move about, to the
swaying of lilies upon their stems.

“Chinese parents desire sons; they do not wish daughters
who can earn little, for whom it is hard for the poor to
provide, and who, when the parents die, can not worship
at their graves, or make offerings to their spirits — a neglect
that they believe makes the spirits very angry and unhappy.

“ Should there be a family of boys, then one daughter is
welcome, and is petted and indulged; but this does not
happen very often. In the families of the more intelligent
and well-to-do, little girls are taught in the schools or by
tugors at home, until they are ten years old, and, after that,
they must study separately. There have been a few clever
women writers among the Chinese — poets and writers of
history. If the family is poor, only one of the daughters
will have her feet bound, for, though she can and does
work, she cannot work sc well as her sisters who are not
crippled. The binding begins at the age of four or five —
sometimes not until the little girl is eight years old. The
child suffers terribly and often cries dav and night, and
must be shut up in some place in the court where the family
can not hear her. Her parents may pity her, but they will
not unloose the strong bandages that cause all the pain.
Perhaps you have worn boots that did not fit well, that were
too narrow or too short, or that you may have out-grown,
and you know how they hurt and how glad you were to take
them off. You can realize, then, the torture that poor little
girls in China suffer while the bandaging goes on which
causes the foot to wither and shrivel until it scarcely looks
like the foot of a human heing. The toes are bent under
115

the arch of the instep, protruding at the side, the great toe
only remaining in the proper place; the heel is bent forward
and the child must walk all her life on the back of the heel
and the great toe. It requires months and even years of
binding to dwarf the foot so that it can never grow any
more, and during all that time the girl never for a moment,
day or night, ceases to suffer... When the foot is sufficiently
small, little shoes, four or five inches long, made of silk.
and covered with fine embroidery, are worn, and Chinese
‘bound-foot ’ women, who are never strong and are rather
silly, are quite proud of their small shoes. I heard of a
great mandarin who had a little daughter, who was a bright
intelligent child whom he really loved very much. He
watched her playing about the court and said: ‘ Poor
little one; she has but two years more to run!’

“He meant that, at the end of two years, she would never
again be able to use her feet freely, which would be bound
and deformed.”

“But why do Chinese mothers allow their little girl’s
feet to be bound?” asked Mary.

“Just as mothers in other countries allow their daughters
to do hurtful, foolish things — because it is the custom.
Then in China young men and women must marry, and
men are not willing to have wives with large feet; they
say that where the feet have been crippled women cannot
go about, unless they ride, which they can not always do,
and so they have to stay at home. It is a cruel, selfish
reason, but it is that, really, which has made it so hard to
do away with the practice. Even the silly women themselves
wish to have their feet bound, and blame their parents.
if they are allowed to grow up with feet the proper shape
116

and size. Foreign teachers who have opened schools all
over China for girls who are anxious to be taught, are
doing a great deal to abolish foot-binding. They will not
receive ‘ bound-foot ' girls; or, if their feet have been bound,
the bandages must be taken off when they enter school.
This can be done, and the foreign doctor can help the
cripples, by straightening the foot and softening the stiffened
muscles, although their

 

ats aa : feet will never be what
they were before they
were bound.”

“T am very glad that
Iam not a Chinese girl,”
said Ellen.

“You have many rea-
sons to be,” her mother
replied, “for Chinese
girls have very little
freedom and happiness
and affection, compared
to those in our own
country. When many

Suliess Ciiidren girls are born in a Chi-
nese family, the parents believe it is because the gods
are angry with them, and the poor little creatures
are often treated with much cruelty — starved, beaten,
tortured and even put out into the street to die. The
foreign teachers have saved hundreds of these waifs,
taking them into their own homes, or hiring native
women to take care of them, which thev are glad to do, if
they are paid for it. Many that have been saved in this way

 

 

 
117

have been educated and have grown up to have homes and
families of their own, and you may be very sure that their
daughter’s feet are never bound, nor are they starved and
beaten. You already know what respect the Chinese have
for schools, and teachers and education, and when the girl
is taught and becomes intelligent, she is respected by the
family as she never could have been if she had remained
ignorant. She is not only taught from books, but to sew
and make lace, to speak English in order that she may
make herself useful in foreign families who are glad to
hire her and pay her good wages; and this makes her family
respect her still more. One little Chinese girl that I saw in
Shanghai earned more by making lace than her father and
all her brothers were able to earn. She gave all her money
to her parents, of course, and you.can guess how clever
the family thought she was, and how much better she was
treated than if she had been able to do nothing, and still
had to have her portion of the tea and rice, of which there
is never quite enough to go around.”

“Tf the Chinese do not respect women very much, how
does it happen that they have an Empress who has more
power than the Emperor, who is a man?”

“ A great many people have asked that question,” Mrs.
Spencer replied. “It is because the Emperor is the adopted
son of the Empress Dowager. Her own son, the Emperor
Tung-Chih, died after he had reigned a few years. He
had no son to succeed him, and the Empress Dowager
chose her husband's little nephew to be Emperor, as she
had a right to do, under the laws of China. He was only
four years old,— too young to be a real Emperor, so his
foster mother governed the empire for a long time until
118

he was old enough to sit on the throne. She was looked
upon as the mother of the Emperor, and this gave her an
authority over him which will last as long as he lives. A
son must obey his mother always, and never, even when he
is a grown man, does he pass from under her control. When
the son marries, he does not make a separate home for
himself, but brings his wife to his mother, where they live
in the same court; no matter if there are six sons or more,
all bring their wives to
their mother’s house,
where they wait upon
her and are treated with
very little regard until
they have sons of their
own. Should they have
only daughters they are
treated like servants, al-
ways. The daughter-in-
law who has no son does
not often sit at table, or
even sit down in the
presence of her mother-

 

    

    
  

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The Empress Dowager

in-law, unless she is ask-
ed to do so. She must sew, and cook and clean and do all
the rough, hard work, if the family is too poor to hire serv-
ants to do it. The son can not marry without his mother’s
consent, and he would not consider it lucky to engage in any
business which she did not approve. The best of everything
is provided for the mother,— the best rooms in the court, the
best clothing and the best food,—and a son who neglects
his mother, disobeys her, or treats her with disrespect, is
119

looked upon as a very wicked man. Sons often almost
starve themselves to.death in order that their mother may
have food, if there is not enough for all; so you can see
why sons are so much desired. The Chinese have a legend
of a young man who devoted his whole life to caring for
his mother; he worked early and late, and was only sorry
that he could not do.more. When she finally died he
mourned bitterly, bought her a fine coffin and had her
buried in a lucky place. He went to her grave every day,
During her life she had always been afraid of thunder-
storms. After she died, during storms he slept upon her
grave so that her spirit might not be troubled. He was
thought such a good son that the Chinese worship him to
this day, and you may see figures of him in many of their
temples.

“Every office in China depends upon scholarship, and is
obtained by means of examinations. Men study for these
examinations books that have been written by great Chinese
teachers — Confucius, the greatest of all, and Mencius who
lived many years later. They know nothing of arithmetic
as we teach it, or geography, or the real history of the
world, or what are called the natural sciences. The old
Chinese do not wish to know, for they consider the world
outside of China of no importance, and they call the people
who. live there ‘foreign devils’ or ‘outside barbarians.’

“ The writings of the great Confucius and Mencius are
really excellent instruction in good morals and good man-
ners. They teach a child how to conduct himself in the
presence of his teachers and parents, the duty of parents
to their teachers and of men to their rulers and of rulers to
their people. These teachings are committed to memory,
120

and, on a certain day, all men who are candidates for any
office meet in the capital of the province where the examina-
tion is held. Men of all ages come up to the examinations,
— the young, the middle-aged and the very old, the ‘ grand-
fathers,’ as the Chinese call them. If they fail, they may
try again and again, and there are some who keep trying
all their lives and never succeed. Boys of all classes can

 

 

 

Examination Hall

prepare for the examinations, except the sons of yamén
runners (as the errand boys at the official residences are
called), the sons of actors, and the sons of the women
who sing on the flower-boats and in public halls. When
a young man passes his examination in the capital of his
province, he can go up to Peking and pass the highest
examinations of all, which are held every three years.
I2I

From among these successful students are chosen the can-
didates for the various offices.

“When the examination is to take place, each student
is shut up by himself in a little brick cell, like an old-
fashioned oven, in which there are two boards, one upon
which he sits, and one upon which his writing materials
are placed,—the paper and ink-stone, which is a piece
of India ink, for they do not use fluid ink like ours. The
camel's hair brush with which they write is sharpened
to a fine point, and with this the characters are really
painted upon the sheets of soft rice paper which they
use,—not from left to right— but from right to left.
The examination requires about three days, and none
of the men who hope to pass can leave their cells,
except to take a little exercise; their food is cooked where
the examinations are held and brought to them in their
cells. When a student is successful, there is the greatest
rejoicing in his native town or city; firecrackers are set
off, there are illuminations and processions, and everybody
takes pride in the honor which their candidate has won,
which is an honor not only for himself, but for his family,
his city, and his province. No one else is so proud, then, as
the mother, whose friends visit her with gifts and con-
gratulations; no one is so happy as she, and other mothers
envy her good fortune.”

The girls were very much interested in all this, but
Mary said: “I am more glad than ever that I am not
a Chinese girl; I would not like to live in a country where
I could not study and be taught, and where there was no
place for me, no matter how hard I might work, or how
clever I might be.”
[22

XIII. ON THE WALLS OF PEKING

RS. CLIFFORD had promised to take Mary and Ellen
upon the city wall, and a few days after they had
met her she called at the hotel for them. Mrs. Spencer
went with them. They walked, for it was not very far from
the hotel. The walls of Peking are almost like those of
Suchau, except that over each gate is a lofty tower of
many stories, each story tilted upward at the corners, like
the terraces of a pagoda. There were times when the
Chinese refused to let foreigners walk upon the wall, and
Chinese women are never permitted to do so. Foreign
women are not refused permission to walk there now, but
because they go about as they like they are considered
bold and immodest. Yet, while the Chinese think them
much too self-reliant, they can not help admiring them
because they are not afraid, and, still more, because they
are educated.

Mrs. Spencer wrote a great many letters, and notes of
what she had seen, and because she sat so much at her desk
the servants considered her very wise, and gave her a
Chinese name by which they always called her: “ Mali
Gow,” which means in English “the Exhalted One.”

Mrs. Clifford had brought with her a manservant who
walked behind them. When they reached the passage to the
top of the wall they found, not steps, but a long, sloping
ascent paved with narrow bricks up which they climbed
with very little difficuity. The walls are almost forty
feet high, paved on top, and strengthened at regular dis-
tances with additional masonry called buttresses. The
foundation is of stone,—two walls of the brickwork resting
123

on the stone and filled in with earth. Grass and bushes
grow all along the wall, springing up in the crevices of
the pavement. The outside wall, which incloses the three-
fold city, is nearly fifteen miles in extent. It is pierced by
seven gates which have very high-sounding names, like
“The Western Gate of Expediency,” “The Right Gate
of Peace,’ etc. ,

There are almost no trees in the country, but, from the
walls, Peking looks like a city embowered in foliage. The
trees have not been planted along the streets, but within

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walls of Peking, Showing Astronomical Instruments

the courts and gardens from which they can not be seen
very plainly by passers-by in the streets. Mrs. Clifford
pointed out the Observatory where at that time there still
remained the fine astronomical instruments of bronze which
the Catholic priests, more than two hundred years before,
had taught the Chinese how to make. Among them was
a great globe of bronze, with the stars placed upon it as
124

they are placed in the heavens. The metal had been so
burnished by the rain and wind that it had a gloss like
brown, polished marble.

Looking east from the Observatory they saw the remains
of another wall; this was the ancient wall of the old city,
which had been visited centuries ago by a great traveler
named Marco Polo, who wrote a book about the Chinese.
He told many strange stories that nobody then believed, but
which afterwards were found to be true. Near the ancient
wall they saw the Emperor’s rice granaries, a row of low
buildings in which is stored the rice which belongs to the
government and which had been brought by ships from the
south.

They could also see the yellow-tiled roofs of the Forbid-
den City, where the Empress Dowager lives. It is not
really a city but a collection of temples and palaces in beau-
tiful gardens filled with trees, flowers and lotus ponds,
and canals spanned by bridges of beautifully carved marble.
The green-roofed palaces of the Imperial City, where the
nobles, and the relatives of the Emperor live, are also
shaded by tall ash trees. The relatives of the Emperor are
allowed to live in the green-roofed palaces, so long as he
does not want them for some other purpose — for other
relatives, or officials, or, as sometimes happened, simply to
tear them down.

Mrs. Clifford told them that she knew a family of
charming Manchu ladies who were cousins of the Em-
peror and had lived in a palace in the Imperial City. A
Chinese palace, after all, is rather a poor sort of house.
It is scantily furnished compared to our houses, and is
cold and uncomfortable and never very clean. There is no
125

glass in the windows, the frames being set with squares
of white paper which, wet with the rain, soon become
ragged and broken. The floors are paved with stone or
brick and are not covered with rugs or matting; everything
that is not wanted is thrown upon the floor, for, as Mary
and Ellen knew, the Chinese are not neat.

The Emperor’s cousins were very happy in their palace,
which was better than most of such buildings. The garden
was pretty and spacious, with its lotus ponds and pools
for the queer, goggle-eyed, spotted Chinese goldfish.

They had their own theater even, where plays were given
that it required weeks to present, with large companies of
actors and musicians who made what we would think very
horrible noises with their squeaking bagpipes, trumpets,
hautboys and clanging gongs that sound like so many tones
in Chinese speech — “ z-i-n-u-n-g ; — p-i-n-u-n-g ; ’— all to-
gether making a deafening discord. The princesses stayed
in their palace in cold weather and sat on the brick platform
in their rooms,—the k‘ang, or Chinese bed — which is
heated from a little furnace in the floor. They ate and slept,
read and gossiped, or worked at their fine embroidery, or
made funny animals, cats, goats and donkeys, out of cotton
wool which they colored very prettily and fastened upon
sheets ‘of blue or green paper and hung upon the wall. In
summer they strolled about the garden, for being Manchu
ladies their feet had not been bound; or they sat upon a
bench in the shade, while one of the ladies read aloud from
the classics, or a Chinese poem or story. The garden which
they loved was beautiful and peaceful; they thought that
in all Peking there was not one to be compared with it.
Alas! one day a haughty servant from the Forbidden City
126

came and told them that the great Son of Heaven, which
is one of the Emperor’s titles, wished them to move to
another palace in quite a distant part of Peking; he wanted
the ground upon which their green-roofed palace stood for
a pleasure garden, and all the buildings were to be pulled
down. “You can imagine,” said Mrs. Clifford, “ how
grieved they were, and how hard it must have been for
them to give up the home of which they had grown so
fond. But the word of the Emperor is law, it is, in fact,
the real law of China. So they collected their cabinets of
carved wood, their porcelain and cloisonné — which is metal
work inlaid with enamel,—and their stools and _ tables,
which were piled into carts and taken to the new palace,
which was not half so pretty as the old, and where I
do not think the princesses will ever be quite contented,
although they must submit and not complain. I passed
their old home the other day,” Mrs. Clifford went on, “all
the buildings were gone, and the brick and rubbish that
remained was being taken away in carts. It may have
been that some one who did not like the princesses put it
into the head of the Emperor to take their palace from them,
for such things happen in China; and he has so many
gardens already, that he could have done very well without
another. Nothing is left but that tall tree,” she said, point-
ing a long distance away, and they saw it distinctly, its
spreading boughs stirring softly in the wind.

“The Emperor must be very cruel and selfish,” said Ellen.

“On the contrary,” said Mrs. Clifford, “he is very mild
and gentle, and not more selfish than any other one man
would be who has great power; who has been taught
all his life that every wish must be granted, and who has
127

been courted and flattered and even worshiped. The Chinese
think that the Emperor is really the Son of Heaven,—
not a common man likes the rest of us, although he may
be sad and discouraged, ill and unhappy and disappointed,
and must die at last, like other men, only perhaps earlier
than men who have led less anxious and self-indulgent lives.

“Those who have
seen Kuang Hsu de-
scribe him as tall, slen-
der and very pale, with

Saar a
—

— :

large dark eyes and
arched brows, an oval

face and good features ;
but they say that his
face is very sad, for he
is anxious to save his
country, and to make
his people happy, which
you may not quite be-
lieve, because he took
his cousins’ palace from
them.”

They walked for sev-
eral miles along the
wall, Mary and Ellen
stopping to gather Tientsin dates,—a pleasant, tart berry
that grows everywhere on the low bushes, but the hungry
fuel gatherers who are allowed to take away the weeds
and ieaves on the wall, had not left many of them.

To the north they saw a tall, mound-shaped hill, with trees
growing along the sides, and a small pagoda, or summer-

 

The Emperor Kuang Hsu
128

house, on the top. This is the Ching-shan or ‘“ Coal Hill.”
It is said to be a great mound of coal collected ages ago
and covered with earth— stored there to be used in case
the city should ever be surrounded by enemies, and the
coal mines be cut off. One of the Emperors, the last of
the Ming dynasty, or family, whose name was Tsung-
Cheng, hanged himself in this summerhouse when the Man-

 

 

Temple of Confucius

chus captured Peking and drove the Chinese out. Though
he was an Emperor, with great riches and armies of sol-
diers, palaces and thousands of slaves, he could not endure
life when all these were taken from him, and he died by
his own hand, rather than submit to being put to death by
his enemies.
129

At the south gate are two parks filled with tall trees,
and here Mrs. Clifford pointed out the roofs of the Temple
of Agriculture at the left, and the Temple of Heaven at
the right. These, with the Temple of Confucius which they
visited before leaving Peking, are the most sacred temples
in all China. The temple of Heaven is so old that no one
knows by whom or when it was first built. It had been
rebuilt by the Ming Emperors, the great roadmakers and
builders of China.

The grounds around the Temple of Heaven contain many
acres, and are larger than those of the Temple of Agricul-
ture. Both are surrounded by high walls and entered
through lofty gates, which at that time were closed to
foreigners.

At certain seasons of the year the Emperor goes up to the
Temple of Heaven to offer prayers, not to the gods, but to
the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, in whom the Chinese
believe.

Petitions are offered for rain in time of drought; for
good harvests; for protection from floods; for relief in
time of famine; and for continued peace, for the Chinese
hate war, as they have reason to do. It is customary for
the Emperor to leave the palace the evening before the
day upon which prayers and sacrifices are to be offered.
The solemn day is the twenty-first day of December, the
winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. He is carried
in a gorgeous sedan chair covered with jewels and embroid-
ery, on the shoulders of thirty-two bearers, a band of
musicians preceding him, and he is followed by a long
procession of princes, nobles and magistrates on horseback.

Within the gates the Emperor leaves the sedan chair and

KROUT’S CHINA —9
130

proceeds in a carriage drawn by elephants to the Temple
of Abstinence. Here he remains all night, not daring to
sleep for a moment, or to taste flesh or wine. When the
hour for sacrifice arrives he puts on the robes which he
has to wear at that time and walks to the altar and kneels
while the fire is lighted which consumes the bullock laid
upon an iron grating. He bows three times, then prostrates
himself before the altar, making costly gifts of silk and
gold and jade, all to the sound of strange, unearthly Chinese
music. At the last, after other ceremonies, he kneels and
receives from a priest wine and meat, “the cup of happi-
ness’ and “ the flesh of happiness.”

A ceremony of the same sort takes place at the spring
solstice, the 21st of March, when prayers are offered for an
abundant harvest. This festival is not so important as
that which occurs in the winter when blessings upon the
whole empire are asked.

In the Temple of Agriculture there are four altars; one
each set apart for the spirits of heaven, the spirits of earth,
the spirits of the year, and for the spirit of the man who is
known throughout China as the first farmer, or Shen-nung,
who taught his children how to till the lands, sow the grain,
cultivate the vegetables, and gather the harvest. While
many trades are carried on, farming is the chief industry
and is looked upon by the Chinese as very honorable. Every
spring the Emperor goes also to the Temple of Agriculture
and plows a piece of ground, to show his reverence for agri-
culture and to set an example of industry to his people.
A high magistrate is also required to plow a piece of ground
set apart for the purpose.

Ellen and Mary would have liked very much to see these
131

temples, but even if they had not been closed to foreigners
the Chinese would not have been willing. to admit girls.
They were not so strict in the Temple of Confucius.

As they came back along the wall they peeped into the
door of one of the towers, which had been left ajar, and
saw a lot of dusty rubbish and rusting cannon. The sol-
diers that stood by the tower did not object, but let them
look as long as they liked.

When they reached the street they heard approaching a
great noise of gongs which were being struck with slow,
loud, crashing blows that almost drowned the trumpets
and bagpipes. “ That is a funeral,” said Mrs. Clifford;
we must wait and see it. It must be the funeral of an
official, there are so many musicians.”

It soon came in sight, the musicians sounding the trumpets
and beating the gongs. In the procession were men and
boys dressed in long, dingy, scarlet frocks,, with pointed red
hats in which were broken, draggled feathers, the whole
dress being very shabby and dirty. Each carried a wand or
banner of some sort. These men and boys had been picked
up anywhere in the streets, and were paid a few “cash” to
walk to the grave and swell the procession.

Behind them came other men, dressed in white from head
to foot. They moaned and wailed, and some appeared so
faint with grief that they had to be supported on either
side, as if they were not able to walk by themselves. The
family, the wives and children of the dead man — for rich
men in China have several wives — rode in carts, and they,
too, were dressed in white; even their shoes and earrings
were covered with white cloth, but they did not appear to

feel very sad.
132

Some of the men in the procession carried strings of
queer-shaped silver and gold paper which had been bought
in certain shops where it is always sold. This is called
“spirit money,” which is burned at the grave, and which
the Chinese believe can then be used by the spirit of the
dead man in the spirit world, to which his friends believe
he has gone. But they carried not only paper money, but
representations of carts, horses, mules, servants, sedan
chairs, wives, all of the natural size, and all cut out of paper,
painted to make them as lifelike as possible. These, like
the money, were to be burned, and thus changed into spirit
mules, carts, wives and servants. Such a funeral is very
costly. The coffin, which is always of fine cedar with
black or silver letters on the end, was carried on a bier
and was hidden by a pall of splendid scarlet silk, richly
embroidered in flowers, birds and butterflies. The bier
was carried by means of heavy scarlet poles and cords, and
required seventy men to lift it.

The Chinese are very proud of their funerals, and it is a
common thing for them to buy their coffins and keep them
in their houses for years before they are needed. They do
not dislike to have the coffin in the house, as we would, but
show it to their friends, who admire it as we would admire
a fine piece of furniture. There are many coffin shops in
all Chinese towns and cities, and the fragrance of the cedar
out of which the coffins are made is very pleasant.

“ As they are going to bury the man, I suppose the geo-
mancer must have been paid well to find a lucky place for
the grave,” said Mary, who remembered that this was nec-
essary, and that bodies sometimes remained unburied for
months and even years, if the geomancer did not exert
133

himself, or was being too well paid, and so prolonged his
search as much as he could.

“XIV, THE MING TOMBS

HE time had passed so quickly they did not realize that

the middle of October had come. Mr. and Mrs. Clif-

ford, whose home was in Peking, had made up a party to

go to the Ming Tombs and the Nan K‘ou Pass, which every-

one who can do so visits while in that part of China. Mrs.

Spencer, Mary and Ellen were invited to join the party, an
invitation which they were glad to accept.

The Ming Tombs are the burial places of the great rulers
of China who did so much for the Empire and the people
before they were conquered by the Manchus, a people
living in their own country to the west of China. At that
time the Manchus excelled only in making war; they had
very few arts, very little learning, and lived as the people
still live in Manchuria, chiefly by raising flocks and herds.

The tombs of the Mings are about thirty miles north-
west of Peking, and the Nan K‘ou Pass is at about the
same distance but a little more to the south.

The pass is the opening in the Hsi Shan, or Western Hills,
along the summits of which rise the towers and solid mason-
ry of the Great Wall. The Pass is a long defile, with tower-
ing cliffs on either side, following the bed of a stream which
is dry through the summer and winter. At the northwest
termination of the Pass is a lofty archway in the Great Wall,
134

through which go long caravans of camels, mules, horses,
donkeys, carts, litters and wagons. It is the road over which
traffic is carried on between China, Central Asia and Russia.

As Mary and Ellen had often been told, it is hard work
to travel in China, away from the seacoast cities where for-
eigners are allowed to live, or remote from the rivers and ca-

 

 

 

 

Mule Litter

nals upon which one can travel in a house boat. There are no
roads that can be called roads; no comforts, no conveniences
of any sort. Mrs. Spencer was to travel in a mule litter,
and the girls were to go in a cart to the City Gate; then
they begged to be allowed to ride upon the little gray
donkeys which seemed so gentle and surefooted. They
135

could dismount and walk when they liked, and take turns
riding with their mother in the litter.

Everything that they might require had to be carefully
thought of and lists made out beforehand, as on the house
boat journey, for they could buy very little in the towns and
villages through which they were to pass. One cart was
ioaded with supplies of food — bread; beef, partially cooked
so that it would not spoil; tinned fruits; condensed milk
and cream; coffee, tea, and even vegetables.

The bedding went in another cart, with the heavy strings
of “cash” which would be needed to buy charcoal, fowls,
eggs, and forage for the animals.

When they set out from the hotel they formed quite a
caravan, with the carts, mules, servants, and Mrs. Spencer’s
litter, with the mounted litterman riding beside it. It was
a lovely autumn morning; the sky more deeply blue than
they had yet seen it in China. The hills, which were really
mountains, took on a hundred lovely tints; but, though they
seemed near at hand, they were really far off, and the Chi-
nese have a proverb, “Who goes to the hills, rides a dead
horse,” because one may travel all day and not reach them.
Over their slopes hung a veil of pale blue haze. “It is
quite like an October morning at home,” said Mrs. Spencer,
“except that here there are no trees or vines turning yellow
and scarlet in the frost.”

They made their way along Legation street very leisurely,
passing the British Legation, which is not far from that of
the United States. The walls are high and strong, and the
buildings are solid and roomy, and can be seen from the
street. No one knew what was to happen within that
compound before many months had passed, and the big
136

gates stood hospitably open that bright October morning.
Behind those walls men and women, surrounded by cruel
Boxers, were to be imprisoned for weeks, with little hope
of rescue — saved at last, however, by the brave soldiers
sent to their relief. It was well that Mrs. Spencer could
not look into the future, for she would never have ventured
to visit Peking, much less go into the country with her

 

 

 

(Copyright, 1901, by J. C. Hemment.)

Legation Street, Peking

two daughters, when, even at that time, although they
were outwardly friendly, the people were ready to make
war on the foreigners, and had determined to kill them
all— men, women and children.

The streets at that early hour, for it was only a little
past seven, were already crowded with busy people buying
and selling, none idle but the beggars, and the boys and
137

men who were gathered under the story-teller’s tent, lis-
tening as he read or talked.

At the gate they met scores of men carrying baskets bal-
anced on poles and heaped with glossy, orange-colored per-
simmons, which were very tempting, but which Mrs. Clifford
said were not fit to eat yet, because there had not been frost
enough. The rutty tracks outside the walls were thronged
with people on their way to Peking. Mary and Ellen had
never seen such multitudes ; those on foot were dressed alike
in blue frocks, black shoes and white socks ; some bareheaded,
and others with the hair covered with a cloth or a black
satin cap with a scarlet tuft on top.

The girls left the cart, glad to escape the terrific jolting
which they could not have endured very long. They mounted
the little gray donkeys that, saddled and bridled, were wait-
ing for them outside the walls. They were as gentle as
kittens, but rather lazy; and now and then one would doze
as he walked, stumble and fall with his rider. Fortunately,
the donkey is such a tiny beast that no one is hurt by such
a mishap.

The girls were glad when they struck off across the fields
by a path just wide enough for the donkeys, but in which the
carts, which went around by the road, could not travel.
They were to have their noon dinner at an inn in a village
about ten miles from Peking, and Su Neah, Mrs. Clifford’s
“ Boy,” went on ahead to prepare it.

They were to stop at the Ta-Chung-sze, or the Temple
of the Great Bell. It stands, like all the other temples they
had seen, in its own grounds, behind high walls and great,
closed gates. They paid the gate keeper to let them in, which
he was not quite willing to do. The court was not very
138

clean, but the oak, pine and ash trees made a pleasant shade,
and it was very peaceful and quiet. The great bell hung in a
small pavilion of its own, in a framework of stout timbers,
and, like ail the great beils of China and Japan, was sounded
by being struck on the outer surface by a heavy beam that
can be moved to and fro. The Chinese think that when-

 

 

An Inn Courtyard

ever it is struck the gods will at once send rain; though, if
this were really true, they need never suffer from the long
droughts that so often parch the fields and ruin the poor
farmers’ crops in all this part of China.

The bell is of bronze, and was cast in the reign of the
Emperor Yung-lo, who is called by the Chinese the “ Per-
139

fect Ancestor.” This was over four hundred years ago.
There is but one other bell in the world that is so large,— the
great bell which hangs in the Kremlin in Moscow, but which
was cracked in casting. The bell of the Ta-Chung-sze is
sound and whole, and has a deep, rich tone that can be heard
for a long distance. It is said that fourteen men can stand
under the great bronze bell, every inch of the surface of
which is covered with texts from the writings of Buddha,
who is worshiped by millions
of people in China and India.
The texts are in Chinese char-
acters.
In China the children are told
a legend of the great bell, and
there are few of them who do
not know it. When the Em-
peror gave orders to have it
cast, all the master-molders of
the Empire were summoned to
Peking by the mandarin,
Kouan-yu. The metal was col-
lected—vast quantities of
The Great Bell brass, gold and silver —and
the furnace fires were lighted.
But the melted metals refused to blend, and three times the
bell was cast without success. At last the Emperor warned
Kouan-yu that, if he failed again, he would be put to death.
The mandarin was sad and troubled. He had a beautiful
daughter, Ko-N‘gai, whom he loved fondly. She noticed

 

her father’s anxiety, and, learning that his life was in danger,
she consulted the geomancer to see if the peril could be
140

averted. The geomancer told her that the metals would not
unite unless they were mixed with human blood. On the
dreaded day, when the bell was to be cast for the fourth
time, Ko-N‘gai begged that she might go with her nurse to
see the molten metal poured into the mold. They stood upon
the platform looking down upon the seething mass of brass,
gold and silver, boiling and bubbling, and when the final
moment came Ko-N‘gai cried: “For thy sake, O, my
father!” and leaped down into the burning metal. Not a
trace of her body was found, but she left, as she sprang
from the platform, one tiny shoe in the hand of the nurse,
who tried to catch and hold her back. When the bell is
sounded the Chinese say that, as the tones die away, they
can hear the voice of Ko-N‘gai calling “ Hi-ai,” and the
Chinese mothers say to their little ones:

“Listen! that is Ko-N‘gai; that is Ko-N‘gai crying for
her shoe.”

They saw for the first time, after they left the temple,
Chinese farms and farmhouses. The fields were being
plowed for the next year’s crops, and they were very smooth
and clean. There were neither fences nor hedges, but in
some places low embankments had been thrown up. There
were no dividing lines that could be seen between most of
the fields, but the farmers themselves knew where they
were, and they never quarreled about them or encroached
upon their neighbor’s land.

The inn where they had dinner was very bare — low
houses arranged around a court in which the carts were left,
the animals being fed at stone troughs in sheltered stalls
opposite the rooms which they hired. There was a reception
room and a bedchamber; the floors were paved with brick,
141

which Su Neah had swept; there were panes of glass in
the window, and a crooked mirror for the use of foreigners,
who were received at this inn without objection. Many
Chinese innkeepers will not receive foreign guests. In the
reception room were some benches, two straight-backed,
long-legged Chinese chairs and a greasy table. In the

 

 

Chinese Farm — Drying Rice

chamber the ka‘ng, or Chinese bed, on which Su Neah had
spread a clean straw mat, took up half the space. In the
floor, close to the ka‘ng, was a square hole, with pipes
running under the bed. In winter, balls of coal dust mixed
with earth are placed in the square hole and a fire is then
lighted; until the coal balls become red-hot the family
can not come into the room, for they would be in danger

’
142

of being suffocated with the fumes from the burning coal
balls. The ka‘ng, instead of the room, is heated, and
the guests sit there in the daytime and sleep upon it at
night, wearing thick, wadded coats. Only the houses of the
very rich have stoves heated with charcoal, and many of
these are without pipes, so that when the first fire is lighted
doors and windows must be kept open for some time. Many
persons die in China every year from the fumes of charcoal
fires.

They rested for an hour, and then set out again, hoping
to spend the night at the little mission of Ch‘ang-p‘ing-chow,
which they were able to do. It was in charge of a mild,
gentle Chinese and his young wife, both Christians. Al-
though it was only a native Chinese house, with its bare
court, with very little furniture, the place was so sweet and
clean, compared to the dirty streets of Ch‘ang-p‘ing-chow,
that Mary and Ellen felt it was almost like being in their
own country again.

Su Neah cooked the supper over a brazier in the court;
broiled the beef, made toast and cocoa, and did it all quickly
and neatly. Mary and Ellen brought chairs out of the house
and sat by the glowing fire and watched him. He smiled
at them and showed his pretty dimples, and both girls
thought him sweet-tempered and good-looking. The stars
came out high overhead in the sky, which, in China, seems
so far off and so sharply arched. The mattresses were spread
upon the ka‘ng, and they went to bed very early, and were
on their way the next morning before the sun had risen.
They had crossed several marble bridges, which must have
been very splendid before they had fallen into ruin; the bal-
ustrades were finely carved, and the roadway across them
143

was paved with great blocks of stone clamped together with
bolts of iron. But the paving was worn and broken, and
the piers had fallen down, and many of the marble slabs
had been carried away, or used for stepping-stones in the
shallow streams.

The Ming Tombs are in a wide valley inclosed on three
side with hills; there are thirteen, each at the foot of a low
spur which reaches out into the level plain from the higher
range of hills behind it. The central tomb is that of the

 

 

Avenue of Animals— Ming Tombs

great Yung-lo. The entrance to the valley of the tombs is
through a pai-low, or gateway of white marble columns, and
beyond the gateway is a pavilion containing an enormous
stone tortoise, upon the back of which is a stone tablet. A
poem by another of the Ming Emperors has been cut upon
the stone. From this pavilion they entered the Avenue of
Animals, a long avenue bordered on either side by figures
of elephants, lions, camels, horses and unicorns, some stand-
144

ing and some kneeling, with other figures of magistrates
and soldiers. At the head of the avenue there had once
been another fine marble bridge, but it was gone. The
tomb of the Emperor Yung-lo is like the others, in the
midst of a large inclosure shut in with high walls.

As they had been riding for many hours, they decided to
have luncheon before trying to parley with the gate keeper.
The day was warm and bright.’ Not far off was a persim-
mon orchard, the first trees that they had seen. The orange-
colored fruit hanging in the crimson foliage reminded Mary
and Ellen of the trees loaded with jewels of which they
had read in fairy stories. They tried to imagine how it
must have seemed when the body of the great Emperor had
been carried to his tomb, over the marble bridges, under
the pai-low, and up the long avenue with the stone animals
standing and kneeling on either hand.

They had seen no Chinese anywhere, but when they sat
down to the picnic luncheon, men and boys, who appeared
to have sprung up out of the ground, came and watched
them hungrily. ,

Mr. Clifford spoke Chinese, and he had to persuade the
gate keeper a long time before he would open the gates; he
wanted a great deal of money, but when he found that he
could not get the sum he named he took less, but was not in
a good humor about it.

The court, like that at the Bell Temple, is planted with fine
oaks and pines, and pretty gray squirrels were running
about gathering their winter stores of acorns. The Chinese
have great regard for what they call “the written char-
acter,” and burn all waste paper upon which anything
has been written or printed. An oven stood just within
145

the gate, in which all paper of this sort was burned.

The Ancestral Hall is approached by a terrace with bal-
ustrades of carved marble, and the steps are also of marble;
it is here, upon the altar set with vases and candlesticks,
that sacrifices of food and drink are offered to the spirit
of the dead Emperor. The roof is very lofty, paneled
in green, and supported by columns, which are made of
the trunks of giant teak trees which were brought from
Burma. Behind the Ancestral Hall is the last pavilion,
where the coffin passage, through which the body was
carried to the grave, has been walled up so that it can never
be used again. Other passages have been leit, to the left
and right, and through these one can reach the last court
of all. Here the Emperor was buried under a mound of
earth half a mile high and one hundred and fifty feet in
circumference. Forest trees have sprung up in the centuries
that have passed, and the “ Perfect Ancestor ” and “ Literary
Emperor ’’ has not been disturbed where he has lain so long
at rest.

XV. THE NAN K‘OU PASS

FTER leaving the wonderful tombs, they went south

to the Nan K‘ou Pass. They did not reach the

walled town of Chu-yung-chuan at the entrance of the Pass.

where they were to spend the night, until it was almost

dark. The walls of Chu-yung-chuan are irregular and

broken, but two strong towers still remain behind the
KROUT’S CHINA — I0
146

town from which the sentinels can give warning when
an enemy approaches. In the very center of one of the
towers a tall telegraph pole had been planted, which Mary
and Ellen pointed out, and which, in that strange country,
seemed familiar and friendly. The telegraph line runs
from Peking to Kalgan, a flourishing Russian settlement
in Manchuria, where a large trade is carried on.

 

 

Great Wall— Nan K‘ou Pass

It was already dusk in the valley, and they turned in at
the gate of the inn where they were to spend the night,
tired and dusty. As they went into the house there was a
rushing sound over the ragged paper which formed the
ceiling. “Those are rats,” said Mr. Clifford, laughing,
“they do not like the smell of foreigners, and they are
147

running away; they will not come back, no matter how
hungry they are.”

Mary and Ellen were a good deal relieved, for the thought
of rats running over them in the night was certainly not
pleasant. For once, however, Mr. Clifford was mistaken ;
one bold fellow — quite a hero he must have been amtong
the other rats— did venture back in the night, climbed
upon the table and made a good meal off the sperm candle,
which Su Neah had left there. Mary and Ellen slept so
soundly that they did not hear him. They woke long before
daybreak and listened to the stir of multitudes of feet and
the measured clang-clang of camel bells. The caravans
were coming and going through the Pass, for camels must
give the road in China to everything. This delays them
so much that the camel driver prefers to travel by night
and rest by day. The animals are tethered in strings of
six or eight, walking, one behind the other, the leader
wearing a tasseled bell, as they had seen the camels in
Peking. When it is broad daylight they are allowed to
rest, relieved of their loads, either in the court of a camel
inn, or on the open plain by the roadside.

Mary and Ellen rose quietly, dressed, and went to the
gate to look at the camels. They came steadily on, with
a soft, undulating tread, their huge. cushioned feet making
a pattering sound on the dusty road. The driver walked
beside them, but he rarely spoke to them; they quietly
and obediently followed the sound of the leader’s bell.
They bore upon their humped backs bales and bags and
square boxes, which contained silks and tea for Russia,
charcoal, soda and skins from Siberia, and wool and goat’s
hair from Mongolia and Manchuria.
148

“These are real camels,” said Mary, ‘they have two
humps; the dromedary has but one. I wonder how long it
takes the silk and tea to reach Russia? It is a very, very
long distance, and see how slowly the camels walk.”

“ Mr. Clifford told me that they would not reach Russia
for a whole year,” Ellen replied. “ When the great railway
across Siberia is finished it will not take more than two
weeks.”

“ But if all the bales and parcels are sent by train what
will become of the camel drivers?’’ Mary asked. But this
was a question which Ellen could not answer.

Presently the sun touched the highest ridges of the
mountains, and there before them, high up on the very
crest, they saw the outlines of the Great Wall. The brick
work might have been a part of the mountain itself, fol-
lowing the ridge up and down, now easily traced, now
lost sight of, the upper edge crenelated, or cut out in embra-
sures, like all walls built for defense. It reminded the girls
of a huge serpent that had dragged its dun-colored length
along the mountain top, and remained there to bask
in the sun. As the light grew stronger, the narrow road
that wound up a gradual ascent could be seen for some
distance, but it was finally lost sight of behind a jagged
cliff.

Fewer and fewer camels passed and then came scores of
mules and donkeys,— the poor little donkeys so loaded with
the bundles of millet stalks that they carried that nothing
could be seen of them but their mouse-colored legs and
faces. They seemed to be living bales and nothing more.
At a little distance they saw three men stop suddenly and
stoop down in the road; they were picking up, one by one,
149

some grains of millet that had been spilled from a broken
sack. Confucius, the great teacher, taught the Chinese
that if a man finds a grain of rice which he can not use
himself he should place it where a sparrow can get it.
Millet is the cheapest food in China, yet the people are so
thrifty that not even a grain of it is wasted. One never sees
any scraps of paper or shreds of cloth, no weeds or dead
leaves lying about; all are made use of in some way.

If the people were not so thrifty, many more would die
than now perish every year from hunger in spite of their
saving habits and ceaseless work.

Su Neah called them in to breakfast which was very
nice; he had made delicious coffee, porridge and even hot
cakes over the charcoal brazier, and after they had eaten
all they wanted they were refreshed and ready to set out
again. .

The road through the Pass was very rough, cut into
ruts that are never filled, and strewn with bowlders over
which the wheels of the carts jolted and ground.

As they mounted higher and higher, the black cliffs on
either hand seemed to reach almost to the clouds. The
river, which during the rains overflows its banks, was now
quite dry.

They had seen few birds since they came to China, except
the pet birds which were carried about on forked sticks and
in cages, and the flocks of crows, and magpies. Once
they had seen a crow and a magpie fighting a hawk,
the crow cawing in triumph as his enemy flew away, glad
to escape with his life.

The mountain gorges of the Pass were alive with wild
pigeons and beautiful pheasants. Mr. Clifford, with Su
150

Neah, left them to go on to the head of the Pass where
he said he would soon join them, after he and Su Neah
had had a little shooting. Presently they heard the noise
of his gun, the echoes repeated many times in the wild
gorges. When he finally rejoined them he had half a dozen
pheasants and twice as many pigeons. Mary and Ellen
felt sad when they looked at the dead birds which, only a
little while before, were enjoying their free, happy life
and now lay on the ground at their fect, their beautiful
feathers torn and stained with blood.

“ Another bird is found in the Pass,” said Mr. Clifford.
called the bustard. It is quite large and excellent to eat.
Chinese turkeys are poor and tough, and the Americans
who live in Peking always try to get a bustard for their
Thanksgiving dinner.” Then he told them that foreigners
in China grow very tired of game and much prefer beef.
A fat pheasant can be bought for ten cents.

They saw here and there along the road the most squalid
inns for the camel drivers and their animals. There were
no walls around the court, nothing but a low embankment
of earth, but the camels had been fed and watered, and they
lay on the ground contentedly resting.

It was about ten o’clock when they reached the head of
the Pass. The wall here was like that which they had first
seen at Nan K‘ou, and the stony road which passed beneath
the arch crossed the plain beyond, and thence to Manchuria,
Siberia and Russia. There were lofty watchtowers upon
the wall at regular distances, and the top of the wall was
reached, not by a paved incline, but by a rough stairway.

From the top of the wall, which they reached without
difficulty, they saw a flock of sheep approaching, some of
151

them with jet black faces and large fat tails, which the
people of Mongolia consider a great delicacy.

The men in charge of them carried small triangular yellow
flags which fluttered from long staves. On the flags were
Chinese letters. “ The sheep are tribute from Mongolia,”
said Mr. Clifford, “and are being driven up to the capital.”
By this he meant that the Mongolians, who are subjects
of the Emperor of China, do not pay their taxes in money,
for which, in their country, they have very little use. They
have flocks and herds, however, and, regularly every year,
a certain number of animals are sent to Peking to the
Emperor instead of money. They are sold there, and the
money received for them is paid into the imperial treasury.

They also saw droves of fat swine that were being taken
to Peking by the herders, and the oddest thing about them
was that their hoofs had been covered with shoes of heavy
white canvas. This was to protect their feet which other-
wise would be cut by the sharp stones. This would lame
them so that they could not travel and they would have
to be left behind. The only difficulty with the cloth shoes
is, that they must wear out very fast and have to be re-
placed very often, which must take a great deal of time
and work. The Chinese are patient and painstaking, how-
ever, and do not often complain, whatever they have to
do; so, perhaps they do not mind shoeing their pigs every
day, as they draw near to Peking. The girls were surprised
to see the animals-— the sheep, mules, horses, camels and
pigs —so fat and healthy. The backs of the litter mules
were galled, but, aside from this, the Chinese do not
appear to treat animals cruelly. The girls did not see any
animals beaten, and they had watched the carter feeding
152

the mules and donkeys in the morning and evening. Each
was given a generous meal of millet fodder chopped fine,
and mixed with beans or grain; at all the wayside wells
they are watered, and are never hurried. The man who
drew the water was paid one “cash” for each pailful.

They sat upon the wall for more than an hour watching
the flocks and herds, the carts and wagons and litters that
passed in and out under the arch, lost in the curve of the
road behind the cliffs in one direction, or disappearing in
the clouds of dust which hung like a haze over the valley,
in the other. The wall was paved on top with large gray
bricks that had not been dried in the sun, but baked in kilns
until they were almost like glass. They walked for a long
distance and climbed to the top of another watchtower,
Then they retraced their steps to the carts and donkeys and
set their faces toward Peking.

They were glad that they had seen even this part of the
Great Wall, although it was not so old as other portions,
northeast of Peking, which are little more than heaps of
ruins, and which extend in a crooked line to the sea. As
they retraced their steps through the busy streets of Nan
K‘ou, and entered Chu-yung-chuan, they saw upon the
inner walls of the archway inscriptions in six languages
which had been cut there centuries before. A still stranger
sight was several pairs of shoes hung in plain view above
the gates. Mr. Clifford explained that when any great
man, a scholar, magistrate or general, visited the city, he
was begged to leave a pair of his shoes to hang up over
the gate that the people might be reminded of his virtues
and imitate them.

Mary and Ellen were also told that if a son killed his
153

parents, or soldiers mutinied in a walled city, they were exe-
cuted and as many embrasures in the wall filled up as there
had been executions. This was to publish the disgrace of
the city to the world. When such crimes occur every one is
held responsible,—the relatives and neighbors that they
have not set a better example; the magistrate that he has
not governed better; the teachers that they have not given
proper instruction; and all are very much ashamed to see
the walled-up embrasures which will always remind them
that they have not done their duty.

At a stream some distance from Chu-yung-chuan they
saw a company of strange men. They had dismounted from
their shaggy ponies and were smoking their pipes. Their
faces were very swarthy, and they wore queer, tall hats of
black lamb’s wool, long, dark gowns, or caftans, belted
at the waist, and boots of wrinkled leather.

“They are Mongols,” said Mr. Clifford, “rough, bois-
terous men, not cruel, and very kind to their animals —
much better than many Christians. In the winter they take
great quantities of frozen game and meat to Peking where
they stay sometimes for several weeks, living in tents
wherever they can find space.”

They spent the last night at the little mission, to which
they returned and which seemed even more comfortable
than before, and the next day pushed on, stopping only
for a little rest and luncheon at noon. About two o'clock
the wind began to blow very hard, and the sky grew dark
as if a storm were approaching; the sun was hidden and
they had to cover their eyes and mouths to keep from being
blinded and suffocated with the dust. When they finally
reached the hotel in Peking, although the doors and windows
154

had been tightly closed, everything was coated with fine
brown dust that had been forced in through every crack. It
was of no use to clear it away until the storm was over. No
rain fell, but the wind roared and howled all night.

XVI. THE SCHOOL

ARY and Ellen knew that in China girls are not
always sent to school. In the families of the rich

they share the lessons of their brothers until they are ten
years old; then boys and girls are taught separately; or,
perhaps, the girls’ lessons cease altogether, for the Chinese
do not really think that it is a good thing for women to
read and write. They are afraid it may cause them to
neglect their homes and their children. Men and women
from our own country have gone out to China and have
founded good schools for both girls and boy$’ in many
places. At first none but the children of the very poor came
to the schools, and most of these came simply because they
were given food and clothes which they could not get at
home. Other children are picked up out of the streets —
tiny babies who can hardly walk or talk. The Chinese,
themselves, let such children die, and they can not under-
stand why people of a different race, who never get any
money for their work, should care for them and want to
teach them. The Chinese usually expect some return for
what they do, in presents and money, for which one can
not blame them, when it is remembered how many millions
155

there are in China, how poor so many of them are, and
how hard it is for them to get even millet enough to
eat. The Chinese who wished children to learn only the
teachings of the classics, that is, the writings of Confu-
cius and Mencius, told terrible falsehoods about the foreign
teachers. They said that they tortured and murdered
children for their eyes and their blood, out of which
they made medicine. The Chinese who might have
been friendly were frightened, but, after a while, the pupils
and their friends and parents learned for themselves that
such stories were false and silly. Then more and more
children were sent to the schools, many more than could
be received, for there were neither rooms nor teachers
enough.

Thousands of young men have entered the colleges that
have been founded by the foreigners, and are being taught
as they are taught in civilized countries,— young men who
will one day govern China. A change has come about, too,
in regard to the girls. When their parents saw how much
better and how much more intelligent they became through
the help of the foreign teachers, they were eager to send
them to the schools. Then the Chinese themselves began
to found schools of the same sort; not for boys only, but,
more wonderful still, for girls as well. In the girls’ schools
they employ foreign ladies for teachers, and Chinese ladies
who have been taught in foreign schools.

Mrs. Spencer was asked to visit a Mission school for
girls before she left Peking, and Mary and Ellen went with
her. At the Mission gate they found a tall, dark-skinned
Chinese who let them in, bowing very low. They had not
seen such a pretty place since they left Shanghai. The
156

compound contained several acres, and inside the high walls
were the residences of the teachers, the hospital and dis-
pensary, the school building and the little Chinese houses
in which the schoolgirls lived.

They were first invited into the house which, although
plainly furnished, was neat and cheerful, with shelves full
of books, pictures and a piano. After they had tea they

 

 

 

Chinese Mission Schoolroom

went with the principal of the school to see her pupils at
work. The schoolrooms were large and light; the floors
were very clean, and the girls sat at desks like those in
American schoolrooms. They were nearly all dressed alike
in blue coats, which reached to the knee, with wide sleeves
edged with a pretty border, and in trousers which fitted
closely, and which were fastened at the ankle with a neat
157

silken garter. Their hair was smoothly brushed and braided
in one thick braid, fastened close to the head with cords
of black or red, and hanging down the back. All wore
white cloth socks and Chinese shoes. A few wore white
clothing, being dressed in mourning. ‘‘ They are Chinese
girls,” the teacher said, “and we change their customs
as little as we can; they are not foreigners, and must
spend their lives here. We want to make them better
and more intelligent, teach them to be clean and truthful
and good, without unfitting them to live amongst their own
people.”

Mrs. Spencer thought this was very wise; indeed, she was
pleased with all that she saw,— the gentleness and patience
of the teachers with their pupils, and the love and reverence
of the pupils for their teachers.

They were studying and reciting from Chinese books.
They read, and two or three were working problems of
arithmetic upon the blackboard, just as Mary and Ellen
themselves might have done. There were no idle pupils; all
were so anxious to learn that they wasted no time.

“They are very easy to control," said the teacher. “ They
wish to do right, and we do not have to make them work;
they study because they love to study.” She then told Mrs.
Spencer tHat some of the pupils had really remarkable
minds; and she pointed out one tall, beautiful girl who,
she said was the best pupil in arithmetic that she had
ever known.

They sang very sweetly for the visitors, which did not
surprise them as they had heard the Christian Chinese sing
at their church. These girls, however, had been taught to
sing the parts, contralto and soprano, which seemed as
158

natural to them as to any other girls. Mrs. Spencer and
the girls, after leaving the schoolrooms, went into the
sewing school where the pupils were taught every Friday
afternoon. Some were cutting out, and others were making
and mending garments, and still others were running the
sewing machines. They are also taught to make lace,

 

 

 

Chinese Mission Schoolgirls
which they sell, and which helps to clothe them and to

pay their expenses.

Last of all, Mrs. Spencer and the two girls were taken
across the court to the little houses in which the resident
pupils have their rooms, and, in this respect the school is
unlike a foreign boarding school. All the cooking is done
by the girls themselves, who take turns in the kitchen. The
food is such as the Chinese prefer,— plain, but enough
of it, and everything of the best.
159

A Chinese range is of brick, the fire-box lined with metal
It does not look in the least like a stove, and a foreign
cook could scarcely use it. The oven is on top, and might
have been mistaken for an iron kettle turned upside down.
Yet, with this clumsy contrivance, a clever Chinese cook
can bake the most delicious bread and pastry and puddings.
Things of this sort, however, the schoolgirls rarely have

 

 

Dining Room — Chinese Mission

except on Sundays and feast days. They eat a great deal
of millet porridge, large, cone-shaped cakes of maize meal
steamed until they are light and thoroughly done, rice
and vegetables; and, twice a week they are given meat,
which is much oftener than most Chinese, unless they
are very rich, can afford to have it.

When the visitors went iuto the kitchen they found one
stout girl steaming maize cakes at the queer stove, and
160

another preparing the vegetables; still another was scouring
a table. They were chatting merrily and were healthy
and happy. In the dining-room were two long tables
at which the pupils ate, waited upon by those who take
turns at this work, also. To a foreign girl, their bed-
rooms would have seemed bare and cold, but they were
such as even well-to-do people in China are accustomed
to. The floors were of brick, neatly swept. In each room
was a table with wash basin, combs, brushes, and soap.
Each girl has her own room, and is expected to take
good care of it. The ka‘ng took up a great deal of space.
It was heated with the little stove in the floor, and upon it
the girls sat and studied, chatted and sewed. At certain
hours they were allowed to visit each other. Monday was
washing day, and all washed their clothes in small tubs,
making a kind of merry game of it. It is not hard work
as the clothes are very plain, simply the white socks, the
blue blouses and the underclothing, which ordinary Chinese,
however, do not wear.

The clothes were pressed, not ironed, in a way which
Mary and Ellen thought very funny indeed, being taken
from the line before they were quite dry, and smoothed and
pulled until all the wrinkles had been smoothed out; then
they were tidily folded and the girls either placed the blouse,
socks and under garments under a heavy stool or sat upon
them! It answered every purpose, and the blue blouses
looked rather better, after this sort of pressing, than if they
had been ironed.

Mary noticed that all the rooms were supplied with
candles, for after supper the girls studied from seven until
nine o’clock in the large well-lighted, well-heated school-
161

room, after which they returned to their own rooms and
went to bed. Several of the girls had small clocks of which
they felt quite proud, for the Chinese love clocks, not as
a means of telling the time of day, for they rarely ever wind
them regularly, but because they love their ticking. The
girls in the Mission school were always careful to wind
their clocks every morning. They were also very fond of
pictures. A good many had photographs of relatives and
friends hung upon the walls, just as foreign girls would
have; and others had gay collections of picture cards which
the Chinese prize very highly, and these they had arranged
quite tastefully. Every morning a teacher went the rounds,
looking carefully over each room, and the girls occupying
it were marked, either for neatness or untidiness, as they
deserved.

Mrs. Spencer could not help thinking how much pains
the teachers had taken to teach the young girls everything
that might help them to become good, intelligent, useful
women, far, far better, in every way, than the poor, ignorant
creatures they would have been had they had no such ad-
vantages as these.

The girls had a debating society where they spoke on
many interesting subjects, read essays and recited in Eng-
lish, which they spoke very well. On Sunday they went
once to the Mission church, and to Sunday school, where
the older girls taught classes of younger children.

They kept their‘court clean and made a little game of
this, too, getting out with their brooms and sweeping with
all their might, until not a leaf or scrap of litter was to
be seen. It was their playground, and their good teachers
had given them a swing, see-saws, and skipping ropes,

KROUT’S CHINA — II
162

and they played many games of their own, running and
shouting and laughing, as active, healthy girls do every-
where, if they are given any freedom.

Just then the girls were quite sad; they had lost a four-
footed friend that they loved dearly, Don, a beautiful dog
that had belonged to the Principal. The girls had great
affection for Don, and Don loved them. Whenever play-
time came he begged to go into the court to romp with
them. Next to the Mission lived a cruel, wicked “ Yellow-
Girdle” man, that is, a Chinese who held a small office and
who wore, as a badge of authority, a yellow girdle.

He hated the school and the foreign teachers, and thought
that Chinese girls should be taught only what they could
learn from their mothers. When tney were building the
teachers’ house, he shrieked and screamed and beat his
head against the wall until the police came and threatened
to take him to prison. He hated Don, and the girls were
always afraid that he would kill him. Don was not allowed
to leave the court and they watched him whenever he came
out to play with them.

One day they went to their teacher and said: “ Please
tell Don not to eat anything that he may find lying about.
We have told him, but he does not understand Chinese,
so you must tell him again, in English.”

His mistress did so, but he did not understand English
any better than Chinese; and one day they found him stiff
and cold, lying near the wall that separated the school from
the “ Yellow-Girdle” man’s court. He had been poisoned.
The girls could not have been more sad if it had been one
of their number who had died. They cried bitterly and
buried him under the big ash tree near the hospital..
163

After they had seen the school Mrs. Spencer and the
two girls were shown through the dispensary, where the
little woman doctor of the Mission receives those that are
sick, treating their sores and hurts, giving them medicine
and doing all she can for them. Any one may come, and
no one is asked to pay who is too poor to do so. The
doctor’s assistant was a tall young Manchu, who had
learned all about the different kinds of medicine, and was
very skillful. Often as many as fifty women came in one
afternoon for medicine for themselves or their children.

When Mrs. Spencer bade the missionaries good-by, the
gate keeper bowed low and said: ‘‘ They go, but they will
come again.”

Alas! that was not to be.. Months afterwards Mary
and Ellen remembered the school as they had seen it; the
bright-faced industrious girls busy with their tasks, the
court bright with sunshine and as peaceful as if the danger,
and ruin and death even then hanging over it were things
unknown.

XVIl. A FEAST

HEY left Peking for Tientsin one bright morning in
November. They would have liked to stay a few
weeks longer, for there was still much to see. But they
knew that they must make haste, for, in a little while, it
would grow cold, the Pei-ho would freeze over, and the
steamers would stop running until spring. The mouth of the
164

Pei-ho is the only harbor, and when it is frozen the
ships can not land their freight or passengers. They rode
through the rough streets of Peking in the jolting carts
for the last time. Mr. Clifford came to the station with
them and bought their tickets and put them safely on the
train.

They did not take the mail carriage as they had done
when they came, but sat in an ordinary first-class carriage.
The seats were of wood, and their trunk (they had brought

 

 

 

 

Landing at Tientsin

but one, being wise) was placed on the platform outside the
door. In the carriage with them was a foreign gentleman
who told them that he had lived in China for forty years.
His wife was a Chinese lady, and she gave the girls some
pears and chestnuts, and they, wishing to return her kind-
ness, gave her some small, sweet cakes which pleased her
very much. She smiled and bowed to them, and her husband
said that she liked foreigners.

Tientsin is a large city on the Pei-ho which they remem-
165

bered flows down to the sea at Taku. When the water is
high steamers can come up as far as Tientsin, but it had
been so low for months that people made the journey by the
short railway line, by which Mrs. Spencer and the girls had
come and would return.

The foreign city is well built, with good sidewalks and
streets that are well-lighted and there are fine hotels and
handsome houses. Best of all, there are dozens of jinrikishas
which can be used on the smooth, well-kept streets of
Tientsin. The girls noticed that the Chinese used jinrikishas
quite as often as the foreigners, and although they would
not keep their own quarter clean, they preferred to have
their shops in the Englsh concession, just as they did in
Shanghai.

Mrs. Spencer and the girls spent several days in the hotel,
resting and going out for short walks and rides. A friend
of Mrs. Clifford’s called upon them, and to their great joy
said that she had an invitation for them from a Chinese lady
who wished to give a feast in their honor.

Foreigners are rarely asked to a Chinese house, especially
foreign ladies. The women physicians who go out to China
are almost the only persons who see the Chinese families
in their homes, for they not only treat the poor in the
dispensaries, but they are called in when the wives and
daughters of mandarins and viceroys are ill. They go to
visit them professionally, and are then asked to come as
friends. The lady who brought them the invitation was
a physician and her Chinese friend was a lady of high rank.

“Tt will be most interesting to see such a family at home,”
said Mrs. Spencer, “and I am sure that we never expected
such good fortune.”
166

Mary and Ellen were delighted, and were so curious and
impatient that they could hardly wait for the day of the feast
to come.

Carts were to be sent for them, and they arrived promptly
the next day at noon, each accompanied by a woman servant
who sat upon the shaft.

Their hostess’ house was in the native part of Tientsin,
quite a long distance from the hotel. When they reached
the gate they found their hostess, whose name was Mrs.
Wang, with two or three of her daughters-in-law waiting
within the court. The carts stopped at the gate and the
women servants set small stools on the ground upon which
the visitors stepped in getting out of the carts.

The ladies greeted them kindly, smiling and nodding
and shaking their own hands Chinese fashion. In the court
were large white and pink chrysanthemums growing in
porcelain jars. The strangest thing of all was a small,
leafless tree which appeared to be quite dead, but which
was planted in a blue porcelain jar. The tree was covered
with little live birds, each tethered with a cord by one
foot, the tips of their wings drawn up across their backs
and tied with bits of thread to. keep them from flying.
They did not mind it, evidently, as they hopped from twig
to twig, twittering cheerfully, and were not frightened
when one stopped to look at them.

The court was large, with the usual low houses around
three sides, and still others crossing it at right angles.
Several beautiful trees shaded it,— ash trees that had not
yet shed their leaves. There were a great many chrysan-
themums, and boxes of portulaca, but the great stone-walled
lotus ponds were filled with withering stalks and leaves.
167

At the door of the house in which the mother-in-law
lived, which was the best of all and fronted the south so
that it had the winter sunshine, Mrs. Wang stopped, waved
her hand and begged them to enter. The lady who had
come with them interpreted for the party, that is, she
explained to them what Mrs. Wang said, and told her, |
in turn, what the foreign visitors replied.

It would not have been at all polite, according to Chinese
ideas, if they had gone into the house at once, so Mrs.
Spencer, who had been told what she must do, shook her
head and begged Mrs. Wang to go first. She refused, and
this was repeated several times, when Mrs. Spencer and
the girls, with their friend, entered first, as it was intended
that they should. They were asked to be seated, and this
invitation was again urged and declined several times before
they took the chairs that were offered them.

Mrs. Wang was short and stout, with very white teeth
and sparkling black eyes. She wore shining gold pins in
her coal-black hair, with flowers and butterflies; her dress
was of black satin, with a border of flowered satin ribbon,
buttoned with small gold buttons, two in front, and three
lower down, at the side. Her large gold earrings were set
with beautiful pearls, and, as she was a Manchu lady, her
feet had never been bound. The floor of the reception
room was paved with brick; on the ka‘ng stood a cabinet
filled with costly china and bronze, and at one side was a
small, square table with very long legs, a short-backed, long-
legged chair on either side of it, with other chairs facing
them. When they were seated, a servant brought in tiny
brass pipes, but, as none of the foreign visitors smoked,
a habit which is quite common among Chinese ladies, the
168

pipes were taken away again. Then tea was brought in thin,
delicate cups, on lacquered trays. The hostess took hers
and begged the guests to drink, which, of course, they
refused at first to do, as is considered the proper etiquette
in China. When they did taste the tea they found it
delicious, very hot, and clear, for the Chinese think that
sugar spoils tea. It had been flavored with the dried petals
of flowers which made it seem, as Mary said, “almost
like drinking some pleasant perfume.” After they had told
Mrs. Wang how old they were, which is a question which
the Chinese always ask, her eldest son came into the reception
room to see them, and brought with him his little boy, a
pretty child, dressed just like his father in a blue satin frock,
black cloth shoes, a black silk cap, with his queue braided
smoothly and hanging down his back. He shook his own
chubby hands, and bowed just as his father did, and wished
them to see all his*toys. One was a collection of small
balloons which whirled round and round when it was wound
up, and the father took it from the child and showed it to
them himself, for grown-up Chinese like toys as much as
children do.

Then the little boy said in Chinese, which their friend
repeated in English: “ Show the Great Sisters the foreign
toy.” It was brought by one of the servants —a white,
quacking duck, of which the child was very proud. When
the father and his little son had gone away, a servant
came in and told Mrs. Wang that the feast was ready.

She led the way across the court to another room. The
table was not large, and there was no cloth. There were
tiny plates for the hostess and her guests and the other
dishes were like small, blue porcelain fruit-stands, and were
169

set out in four rows each. The dessert was eaten first, for
in China many things seem to be the reverse of our custom.
Hence, at dinner, the dessert comes first and the soup last,
and the most important guest is given the “honorable
place,” which is at the left instead of at the right of the
hostess, as with us. The plates were very small indeed, and
they could not be changed, no matter what was put upon
them, because if this is done the Chinese think that the
hostess is certain to die within
the year.

They did not want Mrs.
Wang to die, but they did not
believe the foolish omen, and
would have been glad to have
a clean plate when they found
that they could not eat all
that was set before them. For
dessert there were pears and
apricots, and sugared peanuts,

Chopsticks walnuts that had been first
fried in fat and then dipped into syrup, squares of
stiff, red fruit marmalade, and quantities of roasted pumpkin
seeds. ‘“‘ We must have borrowed our idea of salted almonds
from the Chinese,” said Mrs. Spencer, for the pumpkin
seeds were eaten all through the feast between the courses.

“It is to pass the time,” said Mrs. Wang. “You do
not eat them propertly; let me show you.” And she placed
a flat seed between her white front teeth, gave it a quick
crunch and the kernel came out whole. She smiled as if
she were quite proud of her skill.

Chopsticks, the long pointed sticks with which the Chinese

 
170

eat, had been placed at each plate, but the foreign visitors
could not use them. One must be held very firmly, as we
hold a pen, and the other so that the point can move freely.
There is a knack in it that foreigners can acquire only with
much practice. But they tried, and this amused Mrs.
Wang and the daughters-in-law, who were allowed to look
on, but were not asked to sit at table. Afterwards the girls
could not remember all that had been offered them,— sea-
slugs that looked like pork rind, water chestnuts which were
sweet and good, bamboo sprouts, many kinds of little dump-
lings filled with sweetmeats or chopped pork and vegetables,
well cooked and seasoned, each dumpling gathered into a
floury ruffle on the top, and dotted with vermilion spots;
there were flat cakes of steamed Chinese bread, pork cooked
in a great many ways, chicken, a duck and a fish, each
brought on in a tureen, swimming in broth. These Mrs.
Wang dipped into with the chopsticks with which she had
been eating, helping first her guests and then herself. Last
of all, they had two kinds of rice; one sort like that which
they had eaten at home, and another which was very much
like tapioca.

They were at table a long time; one course was cleared
away and another brought on, until it seemed as if the end
would never be reached. One great delicacy was buried
eggs, a dish which even rich Chinese have only on great
occasions. The girls would not have known what they
were eating, if they had not been told. The eggs, usually
duck eggs, are rolled in a mixture of clay, lime and chaff
of oats and buried in the ground for several years. They
decay, and are really what the Chinese call them,— rotten
eggs, but the earth absorbs all the bad smell and bad
171

flavor so that they have only a faint salty taste. The eggs
were of a dark green, cut in thin slices. It was well that
Mary and Ellen did not know what they were, or they
certainly would have declined them; but wanting to know
just what Chinese food was like they accepted a small
morsel of everything that was offered them.

It was “a feast in fours,” that is, four dishes formed
each course, and one could not be had without ordering
the other three. Rich food for feasts is never cooked at
home. It is sent from a restaurant, ready for the table,
in air-tight boxes, and with vessels of boiling water with
the hot dishes. They sat at table several hours, the hostess
making a great noise with her lips which polite Chinese
always do when they wish to show that they think the
food is good. At last their friend said, as was proper,
“Ch’-ih pao la,” which, in English means “ Eaten full.”

They were then excused and allowed to rise from the
table. The hostess asked them to call upon one of the
daughters-in-law whom they found in her own room, lying
upon the hard ka‘ng with her little baby by her side.

She was greatly pleased to see the foreign ladies, and
asked a great many questions, which is not considered bad
manners in China. She wished to know how old they were,
and if a foreign tailor had made Mrs. Spencer’s gown
and bonnet, which she looked at carefully. She also ad-
mired her fan, which Mrs. Spencer begged her to keep;
she would not do so, however, but Mrs. Spencer was told
to leave the fan upon the chair when she went away.
The Chinese lady could then accept it without “losing face.”

Upon the wall was a cat and kittens, made of cotton wool
and fastened on a sheet of green paper, with butterflies
172

in each corner. Mary and Ellen both admired the cats,
and when they rose to look at? them more closely, Mrs.
Wang ordered the servant to take down the cat family
and present it to them.

They wanted to keep it and found it hard to refuse;
perhaps they would not have done so, even at the risk of
being thought rude, had not their friend told them that the
cat and kittens would certainly be sent to them the next
day, as is the Chinese custom. Sure enough! Next morn-
ing a servant came, not with one, but with three of the
charming families.

Last of all, they were taken to the schoolroom to see
the children at their studies. When the pupils heard the
visitors’ feet on the pavement, all the young voices struck
up a kind of piping chant that must have astonished any
but a Chinese teacher. But Chinese school children study
all together, at the top of their voices, and when they
are quiet the teacher suspects that they are idle or in
mischief. They were learning words, that is, how to pro-
nounce them, for they had no idea of what the words
meant; this they would not learn until some time afterwards.
A little boy went up to recite, for Chinese children say their
lessons standing, and, instead of facing the teacher, he
turned his back, which would have been thought very rude
in a foreign school.

Mary and Ellen pitied the poor little pupils when they
learned that the Chinese school children have few holidays.
There are four great feast days, and the two weeks at the
beginning of the Chinese New Year, but no Saturdays, no
Sundays and no Christmas. They go to the schoolroom
early in the morning, have a short rest at noon, and study
173

again all the afternoon until four or five o’clock. Chinese
boys do not play games that furnish them exercise, for
such games are not considered proper. The teacher was
pale and feeble, and it was not surprising.

 

 

A Chinese School

They walked from the schoolroom to the stable yard,
where the carts were waiting, and thanked Mrs. Wang
for the lovely feast she had given them, wishing only that
they might, in some way, return her kindness and hospitality.
174

XVIII HONGKONG

HEN Mrs. Spencer returned to Shanghai she found
that her husband was about to leave for Hong-
kong, where he had been sent on business. She was very
tired after the three months of sight-seeing in the north,
and wished to remain in Shanghai. Ellen and Mary, how-
ever, were ready for anything that was suggested, and,
as there were no especial preparations to make, told their
father that they could go with him that very day, if he
liked. The ship did not sail for the south until the next
afternoon, and they were given a little breathing spell,
which, after all, they were glad enough to have. After a
night’s rest, they were fresh and full of eagerness to, be off
again. Lighter clothing would be required, for it is much
warmer in Hongkong than in Shanghai. They had hoped
that they would stop at Amoy and pass close to the island of
Formosa, which China had been forced to give up to Japan
aiter the war with that country some years before. In both
desires they were disappointed. After leaving the mouth
of the Wusung, down which they sailed again for the
second time, they saw no land until they sighted the rocky
islands that lie along the southern, as well as the northern
coast. North and south these islands are alike — bare,
yellow crags projecting above the water and very dangerous
for ships. Nothing grows upon them, not even the coarsest
grass. Still, fishermen live upon them who earn a livelihood
by catching fish in the sea.
The harbor of Hongkong is nearly surrounded by lofty
hills, as barren and rugged as the adjacent islands. It is
175

one of the most important harbors in the world, and it was
crowded with vessels, large and small, great Pacific mail
steamers, men-of-war, smaller ships that traded along the
coast and in the Chinese rivers, and sampans and junks.
The flags of England, France, Germany, Russia, Japan and
our own country, floated at the mastheads of the various
ships.

At Hongkong people who go out to the east from

 

 

Harbor of Hongkong

Canada or San Francisco transship, that is, take another
line for Manila, Australia, New Zealand, Siam or India.
This makes Hongkong a busy and important place. It is
an island, a mere rock like others that they had seen, and
it belongs to Great Britain. The name of the city is really
Victoria, but it is rarely ever called anything but Hong-
kong, and there are many who do not know that it has

any other name.
176

The streets have been cut along the face of a cliff that
rises hundreds of feet like a solid wall behind the topmost
terrace. The streets that run from the water front, which
is broad enough for but a single street, are so steep that
‘horses and carriages, and even jinrikishas, can not be used;
people must either walk, which is very fatiguing, or must
be carried in sedan chairs, which are like litters, except
that they are borne upon the shoulders of men. The
girls and their father went ashore in a launch, as there
is no dock where passengers can be landed.

Hongkong is unlike Shanghai in every way; not only are
the steep streets different from the level roads of the
north, but everything is fresh and green and fragrant. “I
think it is a good deal like Honolulu,” said Mary as she
looked from the window of the comfortable house where
they had found lodgings. “Here are the same flowers,
though not nearly so many of them; the same sweet smells,
and I hear the doves cooing, just as they did in the palm trees
there.”

They could not stay in the house a moment after they
had had their tea, and begged their father to go with them
for a walk.

As they were carried through the lower streets in their
sedan chairs from the landing stage, they had noticed the
fine hotels, public buildings and shops; the streets crowded
with people of all colors and nationalities — Europeans,
natives of India, Americans, Japanese, Siamese and tiny
dark-skinned men, who Mr. Spencer said were Filipinos,
for Manila is only three days’ journey from Hongkong.
Far above the roofs and spires and the uppermost terrace
rose Victoria Peak, which had been named for the Queen
177

of England, as the city itself had been. Great, ragged clouds
swept about it often hiding it from view.

The Peak was reached by an incline railway so steep that
Mary and Ellen were certain that they would never dare
to make the ascent. They thought better of this after they
had been in Hongkong for a few days, and were glad that
they had been able to overcome their fears. It would have

 

 

Peak Railway, Hongkong

been too bad to miss seeing Hongkong, its encircling hills
and fine harbor, from the brow of the Peak.

For their walk they went up the road to the park, stopping
now and then to rest. The path from the street to the park
had been thickly planted on either hand with feathery bam-
boos, tropical shrubs and vines, amongst which birds were
singing sweetly. The camellia plants were the most beau-
tiful of all, the long branches bending to the ground with
the waxen flowers — white, pink, and deep crimson.

KROUT’S CHINA — 12
178

“They are exactly like roses,” said Ellen, “but they
have no fragrance.” The Chinese admire camellias and
are most successful in raising them. The natives are
allowed to walk in the park in Hongkong, which they
are not permitted to do in Shanghai. The girls watched
them strolling quietly along the paths, careful not to walk

 

Public Park, Hongkong

upon the grass, stopping to look at the flowers, but never
handling them. * They are quite as well-behaved as people
at home,” said Mary. It was delightful to see grass once
more, after the naked fields of the north, though that. in
the park in Hongkong had been made to grow only with
much pains.
179

“The same may be said of everything here,” said Mr.
Spencer. “It is hard to believe that this was once a naked
rock, and that the bamboos, the fine trees, the camellias and
roses have been brought here by foreigners, just as the trees
and shrubs were taken to Hawaii.’’

From the park they saw the roofs of the city far below
them in the midst of dense green foliage. The ships in
the bay were like toy ships, and people moved to and fro
like ants about an ant-hill.

In the evening they went for a ride in jinrikishas, which
they took at the foot of the street where they lodged. They
followed the sharp curves of the bay for several miles,
the smooth water on one hand and the naked cliffs on the
other, with just space for the road between them. They
saw the Happy Valley, where sports are held,— the annual
games which every one goes to see,— and they stopped at
a little tea house before going back to the city, so that the
jinrikisha men might rest. The air was mild and soft,
like that of a warm, spring evening, and-as it grew dark
they heard, far away, the chimes of the English cathedral.

When their father had finished his business and was ready
to take them up the incline railway to the top of the Peak,
they had ceased to be afraid, and, as the car climbed higher
and higher up the steep track, the city unrolled below them
like a panarama.

On the top of the Peak they found several large houses,
together with a hospital, and a hotel where people come in
summer, when it is hot and damp in the city below, for
in summer it rains in Hongkong almost every day. The
hospital was built for the English soldiers who may be
taken ill in the barracks, down in the city, where there
180

are always a great many English troops. They are sent
out to Hongkong from India or England, and then ordered
to other posts in the East, wherever they may be needed.
Around one of the houses on the Peak which belonged
to a rich merchant, was a large garden in which, how-
ever, only a few hardy flowers and shrubs would grow,
as the wind blew so constantly that it bent and broke all
but the toughest stalks. In the garden were many kinds
of animals in cages, and a great variety of caged birds,
the splendid golden pheasant of China amongst them.

Visitors are allowed to walk in the gardens and look at
the birds and animals, and no one teased or fed them.

From the highest point Mary and Ellen could see the ocean
which encircles Hongkong on every side, and the main-
land which is not far away. On the mainland is the
peninsula of Kowlun which means the ‘“ Nine Dragons.”
The peninsula also belongs to England. They could see
the two suburbs, Stanley and Kowlun. A busy town has
sprung up at Kowlun where there are large docks at which
ships can put in for repairs and fit out for long voyages.
At the time of the war with Spain some of our ships, which
were white as our warships are in time of peace, were re-
painted at the Kowlun docks a dull, gray hue, so that they
might not be seen by the Spaniards until they could come
within close range.

There is one quarter of Kowlun where people from
India have settled, and where Mary and Ellen were taken
by their father before they went back to Shanghai. It
was like a bit of real India, with bazaars, silversmiths
and coppersmiths working at the door of the shops at little
forges, and slim, delicate women wrapped in white veils
181

and mantles, their arms loaded with silver bracelets, ears and
nostrils pierced and weighted with hoops of yellow gold.

From the Peak, Kowlun did not appear half so large as
it really is. Mr. Spencer told them that the climate is
better than in Hongkong, and that many people prefer to
live there, rather than in the large settlement.

They dined at the hotel on the Peak, in which, at that
season, there were not so many guests as there would be
during the hot season from March to October. The day
had been quite clear, but sometimes whole weeks pass
when the rain and clouds obscure the Peak, quite hiding
the landscape and the harbor. They were fortunate
to have had so good a day, for, at sunset, which they had
hoped would be fine, the sky was suddenly overcast. A
thick mist soaked everything like fine rain, and at night
the clothing of the guests was taken to the “ drying room”
in the hotel where it remained until morning.

In answer to a question of Mary’s, her father told her
that Honkkong is governed by a body of men, eight in
number, advised and aided by a council of fourteen, who
make what laws are required. ‘The Governor of the
island,” he said, ‘‘is sent out from England, as in all other
English colonies. Some day, no doubt, the people will
select their own governor; and, even now, if they should
be dissatisfied, he would probably be recalled. Such a thing
as this rarely happens, nowadays. Good men, generally, are
sent, and they are much respected by the people.”

The girls learned, too, that there were good schools in
Hongkong, the foreign schools being much better than
those of Shanghai, although Shanghai is called the
“ Metropolis of the Far East.” There are more than three
182

hundred thousand people in Hongkong, two thirds of them
being Chinese who live peaceably in their own quarter. The
great objection to them is that their houses are so dirty that
terrible diseases, like plague and cholera, break out among
them, and it is hard to make them keep their persons and
houses clean. The disease spreads but little among white
people, who have proper food, bathe often, and who are
not afraid. Hundreds of the Chinese die of fear at such
times, who would escape were they more courageous.

XIX. CANTON

IKE Shanghai, Canton upon the map appears to be
situated upon the seacoast. It stands upon the banks
of the Pearl River, and is really a hundred miles from
Hongkong. The water of the Pearl River is salt and
it is affected by the tides a good many miles from its
mouth. More than one million people, most of them Chinese,
live in Canton, where there are also a large number of for-
eigners. But, as in other treaty ports, that is, ports at which
the Chinese government has consented to allow foreign ves-
sels to trade, the foreigners live by themselves, outside the
walls of the native city.

Canton was the first port opened to ships from Europe,
and the Portuguese were the first foreigners to trade with
China. This was in the year 1516. The Portuguese did
more than trade, however. Many of them settled in China,
and their descendants are still living in Macao, which is
183

considered one of the most beautiful cities in all China,
and which Mr. Spencer and the two girls visited on their
return from Hongkong.

They sailed in the evening on a small river steamer, the
Fatshan, One part of the vessel was set apart for foreign
passengers, and other cabins in another part of the steamer
were for the Chinese. Many of the Chinese also spread
their mats on the deck where they drank tea, ate rice, or
smoked and gambled. Piles of coin were heaped upon a
piece of cloth around which the gamblers squatted, playing
with tiny cards not more than an inch in length, or with
boards somewhat like backgammon boards. Almost all
Chinese are gamblers, and nothing can cure them of this
dreadful vice. On voyages across the ocean, as on smaller
steamers like the Fatshan, they gamble day and night, many
men leaving the ship beggared, having lost all the money
they had saved after years of hard work, and even their
bedding and clothing. The deck where the gamblers sat
was lighted with flaring oil lamps, and their dark faces
and glittering eyes could be seen anxiously watching every
card that was tossed on the cloth.

It was light enough to see the harbor as the Fatshan
made its way among the sampans, junks and foreign ships,
passing nearly around the island and entering the broad
mouth of the river. When it grew too dark to see the
shores Mary and Ellen went to bed and did not wake again
until broad daylight. The steamer was not moving and
they heard shrill shouting and screaming. Mary was
startled to see a dark face pressed close against the porthole,
looking at her as she lay in her berth. They had reached
Canton, and the watermen had come on board, bargaining
184

to take the passengers ashore in their sampans. It was not
pleasant to be stared at, so Mary slipped out of the berth
and drew the curtain over the porthole, called Ellen and
they were soon both dressed. It was much colder than
at Hongkong, the sky was a dull gray, and a damp, keen
wind was blowing, which made the girls shiver, warmly
as they were dressed. They pitied the poor Chinese, espe-
cially the women who rowed many of the boats, thinly
clad in blouses and loose drawers of blue cotton. Strangely
enough, there were numbers who wore no shoes, those
who ya-lo-ed, or rowed with their feet, which were purple
and swollen with the cold. Still, they were smiling and
uncomplaining.

Mr. Spencer selected a sampan rowed by two women,
with a fat, black-eyed baby sitting on a mat in the stern.
When they reached the landing stage Mr. Spencer gave
the baby a piece of money, at which its mother smiled and
nodded, and the other woman carried their bags and guided
them to the hotel. They intended to leave Canton in the
evening, and there was no time to be lost, but first they had
a good breakfast before setting out on the day’s sight-seeing.

In half an hour the guide was ready, for it is not
considered quite safe for foreigners to go through the
native city alone. He brought with him three sedan chairs
and a company of bearers, and they set out, Mr. Spencer
taking the lead.

Canton is quite like other Chinese cities, with narrow
streets, gay shops, crowds of people and dreadful odors.
They saw some strange buildings with towering roofs,
and Mr. Spencer asked Ah Cum John, the guide, what they
were. Ah Cum John spoke excellent English for a Chinese
185

who had never been out of China. He told Mr. Spencer
that they were pawn shops, and that they belonged to the
great Li Hung Chang, who had once visited the United
States.

Even well-to-do Chinese think nothing of pawning their
bronze and porcelain, their silk clothes and ornaments,
when they require money which they can not get in any
other way. There are
many pawn shops in all
the Chinese cities.
Those that belonged to
Li Hung Chang were
almost like fortresses,
and on the roof were
huge cauldrons from
which men stationed
there could pour boiling
oil or water on the
crowds below, should
the building ever be at-
tacked in the riots that
often occur in China.
The streets are quite
dark, because the houses
are so close together and there are so many swinging
signs hanging from the balconies. The streets are well
paved but they are damp and slippery. They saw pro-
cessions of blind beggars, walking one behind the other,
each with his hand on the shoulder of the man in front
of him, Another queer procession passed them,— half a
dozen coolies carrying in baskets on their shoulders roasted

 

Street in Canton
186

pigs that were done to a turn, and as glossy as if they
had been varnished. The roast pigs were ordered for a
wedding feast, but not more than three or four would be
used. The others had only been hired for show, so that
the man who gave the feast might seem richer than he
really was.

In the shops they saw hundreds of cedar coffins. Men
were carving sandal wood and ivory; and they heard the
tap-tap-tap of the wooden mallets with which the gold
beaters were beating the metal into thin sheets of gold leaf.

Tons of gold leaf are used in lettering the heavy swinging
signs, in decorating the altars and images which one sees
in every shop,-as well as in the temples, and in ornamenting
boxes of lacquer, fans, and scrolls. A great deal of the
gold comes from the rich mines of Manchuria.

Mary saw a little white porcelain figure of Buddha which
she wanted to buy. The vender, who had spread out his
wares on the ground, asked two dollars for it. It was not
worth so much, and Ah Cum John shook his head.

“T will get it for you bime-by,” he said; and while
they were loking at some carvings in a shop, he ran away
and presently returned with the Buddha.

“T buy him for fifteen cents,” he said.

In one shop they saw men inlaying silver brooches and
bracelets with the blue-green feathers of the Chinese king-
fisher. The design is etched upon the silver, and in this
bits of the bright plumage are fastened with cement. It
looked like the burnished cloisonné which they had seen
in Peking, or like colored metal with a sheen of gold and
green. Mary bought a pretty brooch, and Ellen a box
covered with dragons, for their mother.
187

They visited the Examination Halls, which, with their
brick cells, are like the examination halls in Peking. They
passed the execution ground which was filled with jars,
large and small, a potter having his shop in the rear of
the place. Four pirates had been beheaded here a few days
before. In spite of all that has been done, the coast and
rivers of China are still infested with pirates, who are bold
and fearless, and who are constantly committing the most
terrible crimes. On the Fatshan, as on the steamer that

 

Temple of the Five Hundred Genii

plied between Shanghai and Tientsin, they had seen racks
filled with rifles in the saloon, or gangway, where they had
been placed loaded so as to be ready at a moment’s notice.
These were for defense against pirates.

One of the interesting places which travelers always
visit is the Temple of the Five Hundred Genii. The temple
is dirty, however, and the five hundred genii, ranged on their
altars, are shabby and ugly.
188

They were to have their tiffin at the Seven-Story Pagoda,
and, on the way stopped to go through that strangest city
of all cities in the world—the City of the Dead. It is
walled, with gates that are guarded by watchful gate
keepers. Within there are streets, with Chinese houses fac-
ing each other, and at the doors the most lovely chrysanthe-
mums blooming in porcelain jars. It is a real city, but a
city where no sounds are heard; where no one comes or
goes but the priests and the white-robed mourners; where
there are neither carts nor horses to be seen; where no
one is buying or selling, for the houses are the houses of
the dead, and the whole city is filled, not with the living,
busy and happy in their homes, but with the dead lying
in their coffins. Contradictory as so many things seem in
this queer land, the cities of the living are dirty and dismal,
while this city of the dead is bright, clean and almost
cheerful. At one door they saw a small fir tree, the boughs
hung full of dreadful porcelain eyes that glared at them
fiercely. “I suppose the eyes are to keep off the evil
spirits,” said Ellen.

Am Cum John laughed and said, “ Yes;” but even
well-educated Chinese who pretend to laugh at evil spirits
are really afraid of them.

In each of the small, gray houses along the wide streets
are two rooms. The inner one is fitted up with an altar,
where the family come and offer sacrifices of wine, rice
and chicken; the ceiling is hung with paper money and
the banners which were carried in the procession when the
coffin was brought to the City of the Dead, and which will
be used again when it is carried to the grave. In the outer
room stand the coffins, for in some houses there are three
189

or four. Each is of cedar, lacquered and polished and cov-
ered with a pall of thick, quilted, scarlet cloth, and rests
upon trestles. Only those whose families are rich can be
brought to the City of the Dead, where the rooms are hired,
and rent must be paid as long as the house is occupied ; for
the coffins are kept there while the geomancer is hunting a
lucky place for the grave. If the family of the dead man or
woman is very rich, the geomancer often does not find the
“lucky place” for months or years; he does not wish to
find it, as he is being paid a good salary, which would cease
when the place for the grave is finally decided upon.

In one of the houses they saw a large and splendid coffin,
with a smaller one beside it. Mary and Ellen did not shrink
when Ah Cum John turned back the thick, wadded covering,
for people who travel in China grow used to death, because
there are graves and coffins almost everywhere.

Ah Cum John told them that the two lacquered coffins
were those of the wife of a mandarin and her son. The
coffin of the wife had been there for fifteen years, and
that of the son for ten years, and no one could tell when
they would be buried as the geomancer was being so well
paid.

They climbed the steep staircase of the Seven-Story
Pagoda and found a restaurant on the uppermost floor,
where fifty or more Chinese were drinking tea. There was
an altar in the room upon which sat two huge, ferocious
gods, with two more upon the floor at the right and two
at the left. A table was spread for Mr. Spencer and the
girls within the railing before the altar of the gods. “ They
are not cheerful company,” said Mary, “but I suppose we
can endure them for a little while.” The Chinese neglect
190

their gods and treat them with a good deal of disrespect.
The garments of these were ragged and faded, and their
long black beards were gray with dust.

From a little balcony they locked out upon the broad
river winding through the level plain, green with rice fields,
until it was lost among the distant hills. It was covered
with thousands of boats, some moving up and down, and
other thousands anchored side by side along the low banks,

 

 

 

Boats at Canton

for Canton has the largest boat population of any city in
China.

“Why do they live on the water where it is so cold
and damp?” Mary asked her father, “ Why do they not
find some place upon the land—=in the country, as people
do at home?”

“There is no place for them,” her father answered, * there
is scarcely land enough now; a Chinese farm is only a few
acres. Not an inch of ground can be spared. The farmers
themselves do not always live on their land, but more often
IQI

in small villages, walking every morning to their fields,
which are sometimes eight or nine miles distant.”

They did not return to the hotel, but went back to the
steamer, for they had arranged to make the return trip by
daylight, so that they might see the river.

They started very early, and the girls were particularly
interested in the great flocks of ducks that were being
driven by boatmen, as herdsmen drive sheep, and in the
heavy barges which were also crowded with the quacking
creatures. They reached Macao at noon and were still
forty miles from Hongkong. The Portuguese settlement
is on a peninsula on the southeastern coast of Hiang-
shan, a large island not far from the mainland. When
the Portuguese first came to China this island had been
given to them for helping the Chinese overcome a fierce
robber who had his hiding place there. After the robber
had been captured and the Portuguese settlement founded,
the Chinese showed their real feeling for them by building
a strong wall across the island, which would keep the
foreigners within the boundaries of their own concession.

Macao is charming, situated as it is upon a rolling plain,
shut in by lofty hills. The two forts, which still remain,
are picturesque, but nowadays would not be very usefui
as a means of defense. The flat-roofed houses painted
green, pink and blue are set in the midst of trees and
shrubbery,— the beautiful gardens which the Portuguese
cultivate with great skill. This they do wherever they
live, for they are an industrious, peaceable people, happy
if they have a thatched roof over their heads and a bit of
ground upon which they manage to raise enough for their

large families.
192

Mr. Spencer, Mary and Ellen went ashore, and hiring
jinrikishas went out to the Public Gardens where almost
every plant that grows in China, the East Indies and Aus-
tralia can be seen. Part of the gardens have been left in a
natural state, and here they found a little grotto in which
it was said that Camoens, a great Portuguese writer who
had been banished from his native country over four hun-
dred years ago, had written one of his great works, the
Lusiad. They saw the churches, the Cathedral and hospital
and the Praya Grande, or Great Promenade, where the
people of Macao come in the evening to enjoy the fresh
air, to see and to be seen. It was almost deserted now,
and there were very few people about the Governor’s palace
and the official buildings which are not far away. The
main street is given over to pretty shops, and here, too,
are the various consulates, close to each other.

Macao was once the most important port in China, from
which the greater part of ali the tea raised in the country
was shipped to Europe. But Hongkong has drawn away
its trade, and Macao has become a dull, sleepy place, but
still pretty, with its gayly painted houses and blossoming
gardens.

They reached Hongkong in the evening before dark.
As they went ashore, Mary and Ellen stopped a moment
to watch the coolies emptying hundreds of live fish through
a long net, shaped like a great bag, into boats moored along-
side the steamer. Some of the fish were bought by small
dealers who rowed ashore as fast as they could and ran
all the way to the market so that they might get the highest
prices, before the rest of the catch arrived.

The next day they sailed for Shanghai. Mr. and Mrs.
193

Spencer decided not to take a house until spring and
afterwards were very glad that they had made this decision ;
they had good reason then once more to change their
plans. Mary and Ellen were sent to an English school,

 

 

Street Peddlers in Hongkong

where they studied all the more willingly after their long
vacation. There was plenty of amusement after school
hours and on Saturdays, and they made many agreeable
friends among their schoolmates.

KROUT’S CHINA — I3
194

XX. THE YANGTZE AND THE TEA COUNTRY

L April Mr. Spencer found that it would be necessary
for him to go to Hankau, an important city on the
Yangtze River, six hundred miles from Shanghai.

Fine steamers run ali the way, and if one wishes to go
still further, there are smaller boats from Hankau to
Ichang, another important town on the upper waters of
the great river, among the mountains.

Unlike the crowded little ship which had carried them
to Taku, the river steamer was furnished with every comfort
and convenience.

As it was vacation, Mary and Ellen went with their
mother and father. The girls had studied hard all winter
and they looked forward to the trip up the Yangtze with
great pleasure.

They went on board the steamer in the evening at the
jetty on the Bund, but had to wait for the rise of the tide to
float them across the shoals and quicksands at the mouth
of the river. When morning came, they could hardly
believe that they were on a river, except that the steamer
moved rapidly ahead, with no pitching or rolling, whereas,
if they had been on the open sea, they would have been
roughly tossed about by the waves. No land was in sight,
for just above the quicksands not far from the mouth the
Yangtze is seventeen miles wide.

After a time they saw, far away, the gray-green foliage
of ash and willow, for the trees were just coming into leaf;
then a pagoda, which stood like a lighthouse on a rocky
island, and, finally, other pagodas and forts which had
been built by the Chinese during the war with Japan. There
195

were hundreds of Chinese on the lower deck where they
chattered and gambled, ate rice and drank tea, making the
place very dirty.

There were no landing wharfs, and the Chinese passen-
gers were taken ashore at towns and villages in flat barges
which came out for them, bringing other passengers who
were going on to towns farther up the river.

The country was now very different from what it had
been in the autumn when they arrived in China. The few
trees,— the willows, ash trees and bamboos, were putting
out their new leaves; flowers were beginning to bloom, and
there were patches of plum and peach blossoms like white
and rose-colored mist. The fields were as green as emerald,
and birds were singing and soaring overhead. The people
were happier and lighter-hearted,— glad in China, as every-
where else in the world, for the return of spring after
the long winter with its freezing mists and frost.

Near Chinkiang they passed two famous islands called
Tsiao Shan, “ Silver Island,” and Kin Shan, ‘“ Golden Isl-
and,” which are held sacred by the Chinese Buddhists. They
were once covered with temples, terraces and memorial
arches, and had been visited by the great Ming Emperors
and by the Manchus who succeeded them. They are now
deserted, and their temples are in ruins, having been torn
down in the wars that have swept over the country.

Chinkiang is at the mouth of the Grand Canal, where it
joins the ‘Yangtze, and it was once a thrifty and pros-
perous place, but it has suffered from the rebellions and
riots that have ruined its trade, and driven many of the
inhabitants away.

One may go from Chinkiang south to Suchau, which
196

Ellen and Mary had visited when they made the journey
in the house boat, and from Suchau on to Hangchau, where
a great part of the silk raised in China is manufactured.
To the north one may go to Peking by the Grand Canal,
a great waterway, that is like a smooth road, which is
never rough, never muddy, over which pass millions of
boats in the course of a year. They saw at a distance

 

 

Nanking

Nanking, which had been the capital of China before the
Manchu rulers moved the capital to Peking.

Mr. Spencer said that he supposed Nanking had been built
at a safe distance from the river in order to be safe from
the floods. It had once been one of the most splendid
cities in the empire, the residence of the court and the
Einperor, drawing around it all the noted writers, artists
and statesmen in China. The Tae-Ping Rebellion, or war
between the government and a great faction pretending
 

197

to be Christian, was especially destructive to Nanking,
where the rebel Hung Siu-tshuen, who called himself the
“King of Heaven,” held his court after he had driven
the real rulers away. The rebels burned and looted all the
cities in that and the neighboring provinces, and tore down
the pagoda which was built of white porcelain, and which
will never be restored, because they do not build any more
pagodas in China.

At school during the winter Mary and Ellen had studied
about the Tae-Ping Rebellion, and they knew that it had
lasted thirteen years, that half the provinces in the empire
had been laid waste, and that fifty millions of lives had been
destroyed.

The rebellion was not checked until the Emperor’s troops
were organized and drilled by an American named Ward
who was kiiled in one of the battles. The Chinese troops
were then led by a great English soldier who afterwards
became known by the name of “ Chinese Gordon.”

The Americans have established a hospital, schools and
a university at Nanking, where hundreds of Chinese boys
and girls are being educated. At this point the face of
the country changes. There are green hills and the river
banks are bordered by giant reeds, like those that they
had seen along the Pei-ho. There were more trees, verdant
fields, comfortable farmhouses, fat cattle, and fewer graves.

Two rocky islands which they saw beyond Nanking are
called “ Little Orphan” and ‘“ Big Orphan” and the Chi-
nese have many stories about them. Each island has a
gray pagoda on its summit. The sheet of silvery water
which could be seen shimmering and shining under the blue
sky, Mr. Spencer said was Lake Poyang, one of the most
198

beautiful and famous lakes in all China. On its eastern
shore is Jao-chau, where the fine porcelains made at the
great potteries of King-te-chen, built by the Mings, are
sent for shipment to Peking for the Emperor’s palaces.
Even to this day, foreigners are hardly allowed to visit
the potteries which, however, will never again be what they
once were. The porcelain made there ages ago was far
more beautiful, both in color and design, than Sévres
or Dresden.

The French priests, whom the Chinese received kindly,
and who taught them to make the great bronze globes
and astronomical instruments which the girls had seen upon
the walls of Peking, had also taught the potters how to
make a richer glaze and new and more brilliant colors.

The heart of the tea-growing regions of China is around
the shores of Lake Poyang, and the great central market
of the district is Hankau. Ships formerly came up the
river to load for the western market, but even the tea trade
has fallen off, and the tea is sent to Shanghai and from
there shipped to Europe and America.

They reached Hankau in less than a week after leaving
Shanghai and found, to their great joy, a spacious English
quarter, the English concession, which Mrs. Spencer said
made her feel quite at home. It was clean and cheerful with
wide, well-kept roads, shade trees, flower beds and a broad
parapet, with a stone embankment forty feet high to protect
the water front. In spite of this, at high water, when the
floods come down, the river rises and spreads over the
Bund, up and down which people can row in boats. A
long flight of stone steps leads from the river bank to the
Bund above.
 

199

There was a good hotel where they found comfortable
rooms, although the busy season had just commenced.
The tea tasters were arriving for the first and best picking,
and would be kept in Hankau at their work until mid-
summer and longer. The tea tasters are nearly all Eng-
lishmen and they decide the quality of the tea, which
must be tested before it is packed for shipping. The
leaves are put in a cup, boiling water poured over them,
and the liquid is then taken into the mouth but is never
swallowed. Although the tasters are careful not to swallow
the tea, before the work is done for the season they feel
the effects of it very much, and after ten or fifteen years
are often broken down in health. They receive large sala-
ries and work but a few hours each day. During the
busy season, which lasts about six weeks, they can drink
no spirits nor take any sort of food that might blunt their
sense of taste, which becomes, with training, very acute.

After his business was attended to, Mr. Spencer took
them some distance down the river again in order that they
might see the fields in which the tea is raised.

“A good deal of moisture is required to raise tea,” he
said, “and for this reason, as well as on account of the
colder winters, tea cannot be raised in the north.”

The farmer, to whom one of the tea tasters introduced
them, was quite polite and willingly showed them through
his fields.

“ Tea is a variety of the camellia which you saw in Hong-
kong,” ‘said Mr. Spencer. “It would grow into a small
tree, if it were not cut and pruned every year. The plants
are raised from seed, transplanted in the second year, and
are never allowed to grow more than three feet high,— more
200

often but a foot and a half. They are straggling, stunted
shrubs that look as if they were dying, so thickly are they
grown with moss and lichens. The plants do not require any-
thing like the care that must be given to rice, sweet potatoes,
and other vegetables. They must be planted on land where
there is good drainage, usually hillsides, and must be hoed
frequently. The little shrubs are planted in rows about
three feet apart. The flower is white, and soon falls, and,
unlike the blossom of the coffee, has no fragrance. The

 

Picking Tea in China

best tea is the first picking, the downy, tender leaves which
the Chinese call Pekoe, which means ‘ White Hairs.’

“The leaf of the tea is not like that of the camellia, but is
small and thin. Most of the Pekoe is sent to Russia and
England. Half-opened leaves, gathered before the heavy
spring rains begin, are called Young Hyson, which means
‘Rains before.’ The bushes are stripped of their leaves
from the middle of May until June, when the plants are
most thickly covered. Great care is taken not to destroy
 

201

the tender buds at the ends of the twigs, which would stop
the growth of the plant. The first picking, the fine Pekoe,
is very carefully gathered, but for the second picking women
and children are hired by the farmers who sell their crops
to middlemen; they, in turn, dispose of it to buyers at
Hankau and other markets.

* Tea shrinks so much in the curing process that for every

 

 

 

Tea Bales for Russia

fifteen pounds of green leaves only five pounds of the cured
leaves remain. The leaves from which green tea is prepared
are spread out to dry for a short time after picking. Then
they are gently shaken in a metal pan over a charcoal fire;
they are then spread upon a bamboo table, squeezed into
balls, passed on from hand to hand, broken apart, pressed
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into shape and again separated. They are then once more
dried over the fire. When the tea is ready for packing,
having been sifted last of all to free it from dust, it is
_ placed in air-tight metal boxes, soldered securely, and these
in turn are placed in wooden boxes encased in matting
marked with Chinese letters. In this shape it is received
by tea merchants in Europe and the United States.

“ Black tea is allowed to wilt over night before it is dried
in the metal pans. It does not contain so much oil as the
green tea. The coarser leaves and even small twigs are
cured and pressed into ‘bricks,’ and this goes to southern
Russia and Mongolia where it is boiled with milk and
butter like a sort of soup.

“China,” Mr. Spencer continued, “is losing her tea
trade, which has fallen off since tea has been grown in
India and Ceylon where machinery is used, and where it
can be raised more cheaply. The Chinese do.all the work
by hand, from planting the seeds to transplanting the young
shrubs, and picking and curing the crop.”

Mr. Spencer would have liked to go on to Ichang, among
the mountains to the west, but he learned while at Hankau
that the Boxers, of whom they had heard a good deal while
they were in Peking, had grown very bold, and were threat-
ening to drive out the foreigners wherever they could find
them. At that time there were very few Boxers in or
near Hankau, but it was plain to be seen that the Chinese
in general sympathized with them, and would help them
if they could.

The English people and the American consul advised
Mr. Spencer not to go any farther up the river, as he might
not find it an easy matter to get back. Had he been alone
 

203

he would have gone, but he was not willing to risk the safety
of his wife and daughters. So they went back to Shanghai,
and it was well that they did so, for all the foreigners
who could do so soon left the river towns, and many of
those who remained lost their lives.

XXI. CONCLUSION

HEN the trouble in Peking grew worse and Shanghai

itself was threatened by the murderous Boxers,

Mr. Spencer felt that it was no longer safe to remain there.

His business was at a standstill, for all work in the interior

had ceased. Even the Chinese who were really friendly

to foreigners did not dare to help them in any way. They

would not sell them food or have any dealings with them

whatsoever. It was known that hundreds of Chinese were
leaving the city daily to join the Boxers.

Large ships that might have defended the city could
not cross the Wusung bar. To the north, south, and west,
were provinces where there were millions of people who
were becoming more and more unfriendly to the foreigners
and who were anxious to drive them out of the country.

With many other Americans living in Shanghai, Mr.
Spencer sailed with his family for Nagasaki in Japan, where
they remained through the summer. Early in the autumn
Mrs. Clifford joined them and she had a sad story to
relate. Her husband was still in Peking. She had left,
with other refugees, escorted by a company of soldiers
204

to Tungchau, twelve miles east of the city gate. Thence
they were taken in boats to Tientsin, which was also
occupied by soldiers, much of it being in ruins.

“ Early in the spring,” she said, “ we noticed that Peking
was full of rough, insolent men who grew bolder and more
and more unruly. There were reports of murders and
lawlessness in the country, and the Chinese troops who
were sent out by the Empress Dowager did no good. By
this time the Boxers, who were pledged to kill the foreigners,
had raised an army, and in May they marched to Peking.
While pretending to be friendly to the foreigners, it is now
known that the Empress Dowager and the court secretly
aided the Boxers. The country in every direction was
filled with savage Boxers, and early in June the Japanese
minister was murdered, for the Boxers hated the Japanese
even more than Americans or Europeans. Three days after
this, all the foreign houses were attacked, and all the
missions, except the Methodist mission, were destroyed.

“This mission, as you remember,” said Mrs. Clifford,
“was well built, the strong brick houses being defended by
heavy gates and high walls. There were a few soldiers,
marines from the ships at Taku, who had been sent north
when the trouble became serious, and they helped to defend
the mission. They were posted on the walls ready to shoot
any Chinese that approached too near. In this way they
held out for some time, but at last the missionaries and
their families had to go, with all the other foreigners, to
the British Legation, where they were comparatively safe.
Our own Legation was a common Chinese house, with
other buildings like it in the compound; but the walls
were not strong enough to keep out the Boxers, had any
205

foreigners been foolish enough to have remained there.
Every foreign building in Peking, except the hotel, was
burned,— the banks, churches, missions, the Customhouse
and the Post Office. The pleasant house that you visited
at the Methodist Mission, the schools and hospital, are all
a heap of ruins and it would be hard to tell even where the
buildings once stood. The railway and telegraph lines
between Tientsin and Peking were destroyed, so that no

 

|

 

(Copyright, 1899, by J. C. Hemment.)

Students’ Quarters, British Legation

one could get away, nor could messages be sent. On June
20, the German minister, Baron von Ketteler, was killed.
He had started to see the Chinese authorities and to ask
their protection for the foreigners who were detained in
Peking, and he was shot in the street by a Manchu officer
of high rank. The Empress Dowager asked the foreigners
to leave the capital; promising to send with them an escort
of soldiers to Tientsin. But the foreigners, who had lived
206

in China a long time, knew that they could not trust the
Empress. She was really helping the Boxers, it was
thought, and, once outside the city walls, the foreigners
would have been murdered, and the Empress would have
said, no doubt, that she had been unable to prevent it.

“ They refused to go, and the people from all the legations,
men, women and children, with a small force of marines,
and a great number of native Christians shut themselves
up in the British Legation. They had brought with them food
and clothing, and mules and horses which they were after-
wards obliged to eat. The Boxers surrounded them and for
weeks they lived shut in, with bullets whistling about their
ears, shells bursting over their heads, and the walls pierced
and broken with cannon balls. Every one was very brave,
even the children. The women made bags out of cloth, silk,
velvet, and anything that they could find, which were filled
with sand and piled about the doors and windows. In these
sand bags bullets buried themselves and did no harm. When
the Boxers could not break down the walls or batter in the
gates, they tried to set fire to the Legation by burning build-
ings just outside the compound; but the wind blew the
flames away, and once more the foreigners were saved.

“You have already heard how the soldiers of the Allies,
— Great Britain, America, France, Germany, Russia, and
Japan,— finally landed from the ships at Taku, ordered
by their governments to march to Peking and rescue the
Legations. It was not an easy thing to do. The weather
was burning hot, there was no shade, and food and water
were scarce. But they reached Tientsin and saved the
people there, who were also in great danger. Then they
pushed on to the north, fighting all the way.
 

207

“The people in Peking had almost given up hope of
rescue. They had concluded that the outside world did not
know of their peril, although they had sent faithful Chinese
messengers through the Boxer lines, begging for relief.
They did not know until afterwards that the whole world
was in the greatest anxiety lest they should all be murdered
before the army could reach them.

“ The stock of provisions had run very low; there was
not much food left. The mules, horses and even dogs had
been killed and eaten. The Chinese had several cannon, and
with these they had injured the Legation walls so much that
the Boxers could not have been kept out much longer. They
had taken possession of a tower overlooking the compound,
from which they were abe to pick off men in the Legation
grounds. The brave American, Captain Myers, told the
marines that the tower must be taken; he asked all who
were willing to volunteer for the assault, and every man
was ready, although they knew that all might lose their
lives. The tower was captured, however, and danger from
that quarter ended.

“ During the last days, when the Boxers pressed closer
and closer, they uttered a loud cry —a wild chant which
never ceased, terrible to hear: ‘Kill all the foreigners;
kill all the foreigners.’

“At last the guns of the army coming to save them
were heard, far off, outside the walls, and not a moment
too soon, for the besieged could not have held out twenty-
four hours longer, and not one of them would have been
found alive.

“The walls of Peking were scaled, the gates blown up,
the allied army marched into the city, the Boxers standing
208

their ground for a little while, then flying before them.
The foreigners were saved, and with them the two thousand
Chinese that they had cared for and protected in the midst
of their own great peril. All the girls of the school that
you visited were saved, except those who went back to
their homes where they thought they would be safe. One
of these girls was taken and burned to death, because she
would not deny that she was a Christian.

“You would not be able to find your way about Peking
now, it is all so changed. The heaps of bricks and mortar
and the fallen trees that choked the streets have been cleared
away, but thousands of houses have been burned,— the
whole Chinese city, in fact, and some of the beautiful
towers over the gates are in ruins. The Empress Dowager
fled with the court before the foreign army marched into the
city, and the Emperor went with her. He would have
prevented all the bloodshed and destruction if he could
have done so; but the Empress Dowager had taken the
government into her own hands, and he was powerless.

“Tt will be many a long day before the ruin in Peking is
effaced or forgotten. Perhaps, in time, there will be a new
Peking better than the old, in which all that was worth
saving will remain, and the Chinese themselves will have
become wiser and better for the lessons they have learned.”