HUTTON.

CHAPTER XX

CHANGED CONDITIONS

WHEREIN SOME, THOUGH FOLLOWING A PATH OF ACTION, FAILED TO UNDERSTAND IT

THE very week that the British Minister issued passports for women to
re-enter Shansi saw us in Tientsin on our way inland. Those precious
documents which enabled us to return to our work were eagerly received,
and we lost no time travelling over the familiar ground. How easily and
smoothly we now sped over the iron rails as compared with our former
journey; we need now take no interest in gradients, nor fear that the
train would not start at the appointed hour, nor convey us to our
destination.

We found ourselves in a strange country. In place of the dragon, the
five-colour Republican flag was everywhere in evidence, which by the
Chinese is thus explained: China's eighteen provinces are represented by
the red line, Manchuria by the yellow, Mongolia by the blue, Ili,
Chinghai, and Sinkiang by the white, and Thibet by the black; the ideal
of the Chinese republic, a united territory, being indicated.

Soldiers in semi-foreign uniform lined up on each station platform to
salute the train, remaining at their posts until the puffing monster
was out of sight. At Taiyueanfu were further surprises. No man wearing a
queue could enter the city. Should he make an effort to do so, the
soldiers guarding the gates speedily removed the appendage with a pair
of large scissors.

The shops vied with one another in having the very latest "Republican"
goods; the buttons one bought were "Republican"; all school-books were
changed to the latest "Republican" editions; the cloth trade mark was
"Patriotic." Everything was Republican, and we began to realise that
China, far from being the conservative country we had thought, was one
of the most progressive.

As we came to districts where the regulations had been less severely
enforced, we found the queue replaced by the most extraordinary
head-dress; the hair, varying in length, was sometimes braided and
sometimes held in place by a strip cut from a petroleum tin, and bent to
a semi-circle. The more wealthy members of society affected a style
similar to that of an English schoolgirl, the flowing locks reaching to
the shoulders and held from the face by a circular comb. Others allowed
the tresses to fall as nature dictated, keeping them of such a length
that with very little trouble the plait might again appear, for as some
remarked: "Who knows, maybe we lose