rty, by invitation of the missionary, Rev. Mr. Todd, attended a
Chinese service held in rooms which were far from adequate for their
needs. A Sunday-school of about two hundred children was just leaving as
we entered, and their interested faces made me hopeful that this early
influence might save them from the fan-tan attraction. The service was
in Chinese, but the reverend gentleman, not being fluent in the Chinese
language, first gave a paragraph in English, and this was translated by
his wife into Chinese, which made it more interesting and assuredly more
understandable to us. The audience paid the closest attention, and to my
surprise their faces revealed an animated response. The women were
dressed in the long black coats and loose trousers seen everywhere, but
their hair ornaments were of gold, set with jewels, and their earrings
jade or large pearls of great value. At the close of the service a man
arose and evidently made a most impassioned appeal, judging by the
intonation of his voice and the spontaneous applause he received. At the
close Mr. Todd told us that it was an appeal for money with which to
secure a better place of meeting, and that the Chinese women in front
had already given two hundred dollars toward the movement.

On Monday morning the steamer _Suitai_ carried us safely back to
Hong-Kong. The harbor looked more attractive than ever, and we were glad
to be again under English rule. On entering the hotel, an incident
occurred that lent coloring to my "theory." In order to explain, I must
go backward. On my first arrival at the hotel I had placed some
photographs on my chiffonier, and among them was the one of little
Katharine in the dog-cart with Omg, our American China boy, standing by
her. The following morning on entering my room, I saw both of the men
who were in charge of the cleaning gazing intently at the picture;
turning around, one of them asked, "You know China boy?" I assented, and
then told him something of the Chinamen who were employed in California.
This seemed to please them both immensely. On my return from Canton and
Macao, I walked down a long hall to my room and encountered several of
the so-termed "boys," every one of whom smiled and greeted me. I was
puzzled for a moment,--they had formerly seemed so impassive,--and then
I remembered the morning's incident and inferred that all had seen the
picture and had been told that I "knew China boy."

Manila was in our original itinerar