tails to-day, and heads to-morrow!"

The hats were even more wonderful. In place of the neat, circular cap,
every shape and size was to be seen. Round hats like a pudding-bowl,
straw hats, hard oblong hats, soft hats, home-made hats, erections of
cardboard, giving proof that some devoted wife or mother had done her
best to copy with the means available, probably only cardboard and
paste, a tall hat, which her lord described as having seen on some
journey towards Western communities. Women's dress was likewise being
revolutionised, and skirts were extraordinary. One young lady whom I
met, desiring to be more up-to-date than the rest, wore the so-called
foreign dress back to front, and was far more satisfied with her
appearance than the charming little lady who accompanied her, dressed in
the dignified, elegant attire of her own people.

Not only had the style changed, but travelling south we missed the
bright-coloured clothes which had always added a touch of beauty to the
landscape. We discovered that with the introduction of the Republic,
sumptuary laws were being enforced which commanded the exclusive use of
earth-coloured garments for the men, and forbade the wearing of silver
ornaments to women. Proclamations followed one another in rapid
succession, several of which were framed with a view to altering the
standing of the army. From ancient days China has regarded the soldier
as belonging to the lowest grade of society; the highest place is given
to the scholar, and next to him the farmer, who on account of his labour
for mankind ranks high. The artisan is placed third, but the trader,
seeing that he only distributes and does not produce, comes just before
the soldier, who neither producing nor distributing, but only
destroying, ranks lowest in the social scale. One proclamation stated
that no one was to say that it was _infra dig._ to enter the military
profession. It certainly needed some such move on the part of the
authorities to add to the prestige of the army. A few days before the
recruiting agents had been through the district. "Only those wearing the
queue will be enlisted" was the, to us, amazing dictum. Upon inquiry we
found that former aspirants had given considerable trouble by running
home when the labour became too arduous. As the donning of military
uniform necessitated the removal of long hair, it was obvious that the
new brigade would be freshers, and, as our informant said: "Never having
left ho