to join
their safe ranks--committees which, although they number men of all
nationalities, are simply standing examples, I opine, of the
organising capacity of the Yankee and his masterfulness over other
people. For it is the Yankee missionary who has invaded and taken
charge of the British Legation; it is the Yankee missionary who is
doing all the work there and getting all the credit. Beginning with
the fortifications committee, there is an extraordinary man named
G----, who is doing everything--absolutely everything. I believe there
are actually other members of this committee--at least, there are some
people who assist--but G---- is the man of the hour, and will brook no
interference. Already the British Legation, which at the commencement
of the siege was utterly undefended by any entrenchments or sandbags,
is rapidly being hustled into order by the masterful hand of this
missionary. Coolies are evolved from the converts of all classes, who,
although they protest that they are unaccustomed to manual work, are
merely given shovels and picks, sandbags and bricks, and resolutely
told to commence and learn. Already the discontented in the outer
lines are sending for him and asking him to do this and that, and the
hard-worked man always finds time for everything. It is a wonder.

And behind this one man fortifications committee there are many other
committees now. There is a general committee which no one has yet
fathomed; a fuel committee; a sanitary committee; nothing but
committees, all noisily talking and quite safe in the British
Legation. Out of the noise and chatter the American missionary
emerges, sometimes odorous and unpleasant to look upon, but whose
excuse for not shouldering a rifle and volunteering for the front is
written on his tired face. It is the selfsame Yankee missionary who is
grinding the wheat and seeing that it is not stolen; it is the
American missionary who is surveying the butcher at work and seeing
that not even the hoofs are wasted. And I am sad to confess that it is
he who is feeding those thousands of Roman Catholics in the Su
wang-fu, while the French and Italian priests and fathers, divorced
from the dull routine of their ordinary life, sit helplessly with
their hands folded, willingly abandoning their charges to these more
energetic Anglo-Saxons. This Protestantism is not my religion, but for
masculine energy there is none other like it. I would not have you
think by this and my const