m that, the
greatest. The orders were too insistent to be trifled with, and we, in
common with all the government schools, closed to enable our pupils to
be at home for the 1st of January. New Year scrolls were exhibited
outside every front door, but apart from this, the day passed unnoticed.
Instead of paying and receiving calls, inviting guests and enjoying the
family gathering, business was carried on as usual. The first day of the
first moon, however, found the populace given up to revelry, shops were
closed, it was impossible to buy food, and the children in school
rebelled at the decree which separated them from their parents at such a
time, and longed for the golden days of the past. Before another New
Year it was quite evident that proclamations were useless, and we
joyfully returned to the old order, and now all keep the first day of
the first moon as our festival.

Compulsory education was talked of, even conscription was whispered, and
yet we had no criminal code, and no one could touch a neighbour of ours
who, angry that her daughter-in-law presented her with a girl instead of
the longed-for boy, took the child and dashed out its brains. The child
is her property, and she has power of life and death in her hand.

The new Mandarin was a native of Shansi, the old rule that a man might
not act as magistrate in his own province having been repealed. He was
not as his predecessor, carried in a sedan chair, but walked, or rode in
a cart as a commoner. He wore cotton clothes in place of the gorgeous
silk and satin embroidered gowns, and when he sent to invite us to dine
with his wives, his card was foreign except for the characters written
upon it.

Our first visit to the _Yamen_ under the new regime revealed some of the
many changes which had taken place during the last year. No longer were
we escorted by outriders, but hired for ourselves one of the few carts
that Hwochow boasts. The _Tai-tais_ were dressed in black, relieved by
fancy crochet work shoulder capes, of varied hues. The teacups were of
white china, decorated with a bunch of forget-me-nots, and the
well-known words: "A present for a good boy." The feast menu was as
before, but instead of the beautiful china and Eastern decorations, we
sat round a glass petroleum lamp and ate delicacies worthy of a better
setting from plates of that familiar pattern, white with a border of
blue. The exquisitely polished table was covered with a piece of white
calico