erican country).

In conclusion we thanked the viceroy for the honor he had done us. He
replied that we must not thank him at all; that he was only doing his
duty. "Scholars," said he, "must receive scholars."

The viceroy rose from his chair with difficulty; the servant took him by
the elbows and half lifted him to his feet. He then walked slowly out of
the room with us, and across the courtyard to the main exit. Here he shook
us heartily by the hand, and bowed us out in the Chinese manner.

Li-Hung-Chang is virtually the emperor of the Celestial Empire; the
present "Son of Heaven" (the young emperor) has only recently reached his
majority. Li-Hung-Chang is China's intellectual height, from whom emanate
nearly all her progressive ideas. He stands to-day in the light of a
mediator between foreign progressiveness and native prejudice and
conservatism. It has been said that Li-Hung-Chang is really anti-foreign
at heart; that he employs the Occidentals only long enough for them to
teach his own countrymen how to get along without them. Whether this be so
or not, it is certain that the viceroy recognizes the advantages to be
derived from foreign methods and inventions, and employs them for the
advancement of his country. Upon him rests the decision in nearly all the
great questions of the empire. Scarcely an edict or document of any kind
is issued that does not go over his signature or under his direct
supervision. To busy himself with the smallest details is a distinctive
characteristic of the man. Systematic methods, combined with an
extraordinary mind, enable him to accomplish his herculean task. In the
eastern horizon Li-Hung-Chang shines as the brilliant star of morning that
tells of the coming of a brighter dawn.

FOOTNOTE

1 Eight years before the first recorded ascent of Ararat by Dr. Parrot
(1829), there appeared the following from "Travels in Georgia,
Persia, Armenia, and Ancient Babylonia," by Sir Robert Ker Porter,
who, in his time, was an authority on southwestern Asia: "These
inaccessible heights [of Mount Ararat] have never been trod by the
foot of man since the days of Noah, if even then; for my idea is
that the Ark rested in the space between the two heads (Great and
Little Ararat), and not on the top of either. Various attempts have
been made in different ages to ascend these tremendous mountain
pyram