he latter cotton wool
that the heat didn't warm and cold didn't freeze. He confirmed my
growing idea, however, that the conservatism of the Chinese was much
more intellectual and deliberate, and less mere routine clinging to
custom, than I used to suppose. Consequently, when their ideas do
change, the people will change more thoroughly, more all the way
through, than the Japanese.

It seems that the present acting Minister of Education was allowed to
take office under three conditions--that he should dissolve the
University, prevent the Chancellor from returning, and dismiss all the
present heads of the higher schools here. He hasn't been able, of
course, to accomplish one, and the Anfu Club is correspondingly sore. He
is said to be a slick politician, and when he has been at dinner with
our liberal friends he tells them how even he is calumniated--people say
that he is a member of the Anfu Club.

I struck another side of China on my way home from Tientsin. I was
introduced to an ex-Minister of Finance as my traveling companion. He is
a Ph.D. in higher math. from America, and is a most intelligent man. But
his theme of conversation was the need of a scientific investigation of
spirits and spirit possession and divination, etc., in order to decide
scientifically the existence of the soul and an overruling mind.
Incidentally he told a fine lot of Chinese ghost stories. Aside from the
coloring of the tales I don't know that there was anything especially
Chinese about them. He certainly is much more intelligent about it than
some of our American spiritualists. But the ghosts were certainly
Chinese all right--spirit possession mostly. I suppose you know that the
walls that stand in front of the better-to-do Chinese houses are there
to keep spirits out--the spirits can't turn a corner, so when the wall
is squarely in front of the location of the front door the house is
safe. Otherwise they come in and take possession of somebody--if they
aren't comfortable as they are. It seems there is quite a group of
ex-politicians in Tientsin who are much interested in psychical
research. Considering that China is the aboriginal home of ghosts, I
can't see why the western investigators don't start their research here.
These educated Chinese aren't credulous, so there is nothing crude about
their ghost stories.

Transcriber's Note

Typographical errors in English were corrected. Spellings of
non-English words were left as found.