the pots. The
color is a wonderful scarlet. The lotus ponds are in bloom--wonderful
color in a deep rose. When the buds are nearly ready to open they look
as if they were about to explode and fill the air with their intense
color. The huge leaves are brilliant and lovely--light green and
delicately veined. But the lotus was never made for art, and only
religion could have made it acceptable to art. The sacred ponds are well
kept and are in the old moats of the Purple City--Forbidden. There are
twice as many men in Peking as women.

Sunday we went to a Chinese wedding. It was at the Naval Club--no
difference in appearance from our ceremony. Bride and groom both in the
conventional foreign dress. They had a ring. At the supper there were
six tables full of men, and three partly full of women and children.
Women take their children and their amahs everywhere in China--I mean
wherever they go and provided they want to; it is the custom. None of
the men spoke to the women at the wedding--except rare returned
students. Eggs cost $1.00 for 120--we get all we want in our boarding
house. Men take birds out for walks--either in cages or with one leg
tied to a string attached to a stick on which the bird perches.

PEKING, June 27.

It's a wonder we were ever let out of Japan at all. It's fatal; I could
now tell after reading ten lines of the writings of any traveler whether
he ever journeyed beyond a certain point. You have to hand it to the
Japanese. Their country is beautiful, their treatment of visitors is
beautiful, and they have the most artistic knack of making the visible
side of everything beautiful, or at least attractive. Deliberate deceit
couldn't be one-tenth as effective; it's a real gift of art. They are
the greatest manipulators of the outside of things that ever lived. I
realized when I was there that they were a nation of specialists, but I
didn't realize that foreign affairs and diplomacy were also such a
specialized art.

The new acting Minister of Education has invited us to dinner soon. This
man doesn't appear to have any past educational record, but he has
pursued a conciliatory course; the other one resigned and disappeared
when he found he couldn't control things. The really liberal element
does not appear to be strong enough at present to influence politics
practically. The struggle is between the extreme militarists, who are
said to be under Japanese influence, and the group of somewhat colorl