ir success. Make an appointment with an American and you
will find him in his office at the appointed time. Everything to be
done by him during the course of the day has its fixed hour, and hence
he is able to accomplish a greater amount of work in a given time than
many others. Chinese, unfortunately, have no adequate conceptions of
the value of time. This is due, perhaps, to our mode of reckoning. In
the West a day is divided into twenty-four hours, and each hour into
sixty minutes, but in China it has been for centuries the custom to
divide day and night into twelve (shih) "periods" of two hours each, so
that an appointment is not made for a particular minute, as in America,
but for one or other of these two-hour periods. This has created
ingrained habits of unpunctuality which clocks and watches and contact
with foreigners are slow to remove. The time-keeping railway is,
however, working a revolution, especially in places where there is only
one train a day, and a man who misses that has to wait for the morrow
before he can resume his journey.

Some years ago a luncheon--"tiffin" we call it in China--was given in
my honor at a Peking restaurant by a couple of friends; the hour was
fixed at noon sharp. I arrived on the stroke of twelve, but found that
not only were none of the guests there, but that even the hosts
themselves were absent. As I had several engagements I did not wait,
but I ordered a few dishes and ate what I required. None of the hosts
had made their appearance by the time I had finished, so I left with a
request to the waiter that he would convey my thanks.

Knowing the unpunctuality of our people, the conveners of a public
meeting will often tell the Chinese that it will begin an hour or two
before the set time, whereas foreigners are notified of the exact hour.
Not being aware of this device I once attended a conference at the
appointed time, only to find that I had to wait for over an hour. I
protested that in future I should be treated as a foreigner in this
regard.

As civilized people have always found it necessary to wear clothes I
ought not to omit a reference to them here, but in view of what has
already been said in the previous chapter I shall at this juncture
content myself with quoting Mrs. M. S. G. Nichols, an English lady who
has written on this subject. She characterizes the clothing of men as
unbeautiful, but she principally devotes her attention to the dress of
women.