we went to a piece of the celebration. The piece we saw wasn't
so very Fourth of Julyish, but it was interesting--Chinese sleight of
hand. Their long robe is an advantage, but none the less it can't be so
very easy to move about with a very large sized punch bowl filled to the
brim with water, or with five glass bowls each with a gold fish in it,
ready to bring out. It seems that sometimes the artist turns a
somersault just as he brings out the big bowl of water, but we didn't
get that. None of the tricks were complicated, but they were the neatest
I ever saw. There is a home-made minstrel show to-night, but it rained,
and as the show (and dance later) are in the open, we aren't going, as
we intended.

You can't imagine what it means here for China not to have signed. The
entire government has been for it--the President up to ten days before
the signing said it was necessary. It was a victory for public opinion,
and all set going by these little schoolboys and girls. Certainly the
United States ought to be ashamed when China can do a thing of this
sort.

Sunday, July 7.

We had quite another ride yesterday, sixty or seventy miles altogether.
The reason for the macadam road is worth telling. When Yuan Shi Kai was
planning to be Emperor his son broke his leg, and he heard the hot
springs would be good for him. So one of the officials made a road to
it. Some of the present day officials, including an ex-official who was
recently forced to resign after being beaten up, now own the springs and
hotel, so the road will continue to be taken care of. On the way we went
through the village of the White Snake and also of the One Hundred
Virtues.

Y. M. C. A.'s and Red Crossers are still coming from Siberia on their
way home. I don't know whether they will talk freely when they get home.
It is one mess, and the stories they will tell won't improve our foreign
relations any. The Bolsheviki aren't the only ones that shoot up
villages and take the loot--so far the Americans haven't done it.

PEKING, July 8.

This morning the papers here reported the denial of Japan that she had
made a secret treaty with Germany. The opinion here seems to be that
they did not, but merely that preliminaries had begun with reference to
such a treaty. We heard at dinner the other day from responsible
American officials here that, after America had completed the last of
the arrangements for China to go into the war, the Japanese arr