h pork! I learned at an orphan
asylum in Shanghai that they were purchased at twenty cents each. This
institution was conducted by missionaries who taught the girls all kinds
of domestic duties and, when they arrived at proper ages, saw that they
were given to suitable men for wives.

Not far from the Consulate were the quarters of the Tartars. They seemed
to live very much to themselves, and most of the men were connected with
the military service of the country. It may not be generally known that
ever since the commencement of the Tartar dynasty, between two and three
centuries ago, the queue has been worn by the Chinese as a badge of
submission to the Tartars. The feet of the women were not compressed by
these early rulers and consequently the Court did not set the fashion as
in European countries. I understand that even now the bandaged feet are
universal.

In those days there were no railroads or telegraphs in China. The
Emperor died while we were living in Foo Chow and the news did not reach
us until several weeks after the event, and then only through the medium
of a courier. The official announcement came to the Consulate upon a
long yellow card bearing certain Chinese characters. All of the
mandarins in our city, upon receiving the intelligence, gathered at the
various temples to bewail in loud tones and with tearful eyes the death
of their ruler.

The palace of the Viceroy was naturally the chief objective point of all
foreigners and especially of officials upon their arrival in port.
Occasions frequently occurred when Mr. Gouverneur was compelled to go
through the formality of requesting an interview with this high
official. These audiences were always promptly granted and were
conducted with a great amount of pomp and ceremony very dear to the
inhabitants of "far Cathay," but exceedingly tiresome to others. Some
distance from us, and in another quarter of the city, was a large
building called Examination Hall, used by the natives exclusively in
connection with the civil service of the government. It was divided into
small rooms, each of which was large enough to accommodate only one
person, and in these the young men of that locality who were aspirants
for governmental positions were locked each year while they wrote their
test examination papers. The hall accommodated ten thousand students and
the time of examination was regarded by the Chinese as a critical period
in a young man's life, as his chances o