and wonderful embroideries.
It was these last that caught my fancy, and the British Consul-General,
himself a great collector, kindly sent to the house his "second-best"
man and then his "first-best," and between the two I made a few modest
purchases at even more modest prices. Imagine getting two strips of
wonderful silk embroidery for twenty cents gold, or two silk squares
ingeniously ornamented and pieced with gold for the same contemptible
sum. That was what the men wanted at the missionary house where I was
staying; at the Consul-General's they asked me twenty-five cents: that
is the price of being an official.

I liked even better to go to the shops, and Chengtu is so progressive
that that is quite possible. One section is given over to brass and
copper dishes, another to furs, another to porcelains, and so on.
Indeed, the town seems to be a very good place for "picking up" things,
for hither come men from the far distant Tibetan lamasseries, and
patient effort is often rewarded with interesting spoil, while Chinese
productions of real value sometimes drift into the bazaar from the
collections of the ever-changing officials.

But I did not spend all my days bargaining for curios, although they
were tempting enough, for there were other things to do more worth
while. The European community of Chengtu is surprisingly large for so
far inland. In numbers, of course, the missionaries lead, and besides
the Roman Catholic mission there are representatives of English,
American, and Canadian churches, all working together to give to this
out-of-the-way corner of the empire the best of Christian and Western
civilization. Their latest and most interesting undertaking is a
university on Western lines, the outcome of the combined effort of the
Friends', Baptist, and Methodist societies of Chengtu. The economy and
efficiency secured by cooperation must be of even less value than the
force of such a lesson in Christian harmony to the keen-witted Chinese.
Indeed, all over China one is impressed by the wisdom as well as the
devotion of most of the mission work. And however it may be in the
eastern seaports, where I did not spend much time, inland there seems to
be the best of feeling between the different elements of the European
community, official, missionary, and merchant. Perhaps because they are
a mere handful in an alien people they are forced to see each other's
good points, and realize that neither side is hopelessly bad