The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-01-12

| evidently re fusing to cramp her feet in
the fashion followed by her mother
/ There is also a girl baby, and it has
natural feet; the world moves even in
{ China.
Every few minutes a man knocks at
my door: a Chinaman. tailor. Half
/ the people in this country seem to be
/ Chinese tailOrs. Those who do not call
on me in my room, accOst me on the
/ streets. It is a pity that some of these
] Chinese tailOrs do not engage in rail-
! road building. or establish factories. The
[ seem to run to laundTying at home.
The Hong Kong hotel was recon-
mended to me in San Francisco by
very particular friend; the hotel seems
to have q very wide reputation, yet the
| bed on which I slept last night had
straw pillows; four of them. The room
/ is very large and has electric lights; it
/ seems to be an OVerlarge one, judging
from the lace curtains at the windows.
In the room hangs a blackboard, al
! though no chalk is supplied with which
to do sums or examples. Now in the
name of all that's curious, what is that
/ blackboard for? 1 have been wonder
ing, and wondering, and can make moth
/ ing of it. What is it for? 1t is the
funniest thing I ever saw in a hotel.
Finally Mattel wandered in, and she
/ couldn't imagine what the blackboard
was for. Then we sent for the bell boy,
/ and asked. He told US all about it, but
we didn't understand word he said.
] He went away, and in a little while an
other Chinaman came in, and, pointing
to the blackboard, told US all about it.
We didn't understand him, either. Since
then a new Chinaman has come in at
regular intervals of half an hour and
tried to tell us the use of the black
board, and we are still wondering what
it IS for
we have decided that the court out
side of my room looks like the ~Alham-
bra. Certainly our portion of the hotel
is as old as the Alhambra, ana as ODD
The bath tubs are circular, the first of
that shape have ever seen.
Judge Tracy left the hotel last even
ing, not being satisfied with his room,
and registered at another place. He
finally concluded to come back to the
Hong Kong. The clerk where he regis
tered charged him Sc for putting his
name on the book. I wasn't satisf1ed,
either with one of the rooms the clerk
gave me: an inside room that seemed
stuffy, so I started down to the office,
to register what you Americans can q
kick" but on the way 1 thought OF
making Mattel sleep in the inside room,
and came back satisfied.
At dinner last evening, 1 noticed that
a good many of the women had whisky
bottles on their tables: that they drank
whisky diluted with mineral water.
/ expressed my surprise, and Traveller
at our table said the custom was quite
common in the Orient. I don't care If
/ it is. we talk about such things IN KAN
sas.
A sign in the dining room read: mo
/ dogs allowed in the dining ROOM" That
was another new one on me.
At dinner yesterday a doctor who
has lived in the Orient six years, sat
at our table. He says that if an Ameri-
can paper should print the plain truth
about missionary work done here, every
/ minister in the country would attack Il
the following Sunday. The doctor said
! he came to this section as Methodist,
! in hearty sympathy with the mission
aries, but that he has changed his mind
I do not pretend to discuss the question
/ but it is undeniably true that mission
aries are very unpopular wherever you
GO in the Orient Every American
have met has sneered at the mission
aries; even the good church members
over here despise them.
Mattel is rather holder than I am
in ringing the bell at the Hong Kong
/ house, and asking for things, so cOaxed
her into ringing for a Chinaman. and
asking him to change the straw pillows
( for feather pillows. The Chinaman came
promptly, and the two had long con-
/ versation. The girl explained that her
room was g. and she wanted the pillows
in 50 and 81 (my roOm) changed. The
Chinaman said he would gladly do It,
and gathering up my four straw pillows,
went away. In little while he returned
with the four straw pillows out of y,
and placed them on my bed. That's
what a person can do who has been edu-
Gated in Washington, D. Q.
Our vaccination is beginning to take -
can roll up my sleeve and look at mine,
at any time or show it to people, but
when Mattel looks at hers, she is COM
i PEELED to go off behind the house; she
wasn't vaccinated on the arm, as I
was. We met a man today who said
when he was vaccinated he was delir-
Gus two days; vaccine seems to be
stronger here than in Kansas. The
prospect is not very alluring.
Last night mosquitoes sang around
my bed in the old familiar way, and
today when I entered my room.
found two English sparrows had taken
possession, having entered by the open
window. Wherever you go, you find
English sparrowS and mosquitoes.
A street in Hong Kong is marked
Ice House street" In Shanghai, ]
saw a candy store labeled "Sweetmeat
castle"
had an instructive lesson in High
Finance today. I went to the office
OF the P. & O. Steamship company
and found that the price of two tick
cts to Port Said was 124 pounds.
vent to the bank and drew thai
amount of money in English gold
CHE P. & o. is an English company
Returning to the steamship Office the
clerk refused to take the English gold
4 zena inaer T.