Putnam patriot., 1913-11-28
Interesting Letter From China
swallow, China, oct. ., 1918.


stefan strongly urges New England
whit, and year OF rest for me before
taking up new work. Because OF many
unforeseen circumstances the school |
+ came uut 10 is closed Now | have the
language and am aeclimated il seems
bit strange not TO plunge into full
work, but Providence seems 10 have
other plans for me. While l hope 10
send you an account of my European
trip thru the Mediterranean, Italy,
Switzerland, Fance and England, /
thought you might enjoy one more
message, farewell one, from China.
III just tell,you of little "pleasure
exertion,n as Samantha says, a fare
we'll trip TO Chao chow fu. Friday was
one of those nerve trying days peculiar
TO the Orient. 1t closed with eleven
Chinese in to call in succession. Then
a postal came from inland saying, "My
coolies will meet you with n chair at
the early morning train in Chao chow
flu. You need not bring seTvant.,'
The writer was friend who has spent
eleven years here in wretehed health,
caring for girls school. She had no
leisure TO come down but wanted me
to come up and pay what we call p,
p. c. or farewell call. l was glad to
run away for day from the strain of
packing, letter writing and receiving
many callers. A change of scenery
always rests one and | was hungry 10
see a railway once more. have only
seen one railway train since | came TO
China, and that one but once, the
apology for steam train that runs be-
tween Chao chow fu and Swatow.
Saturday morning | took a sand
wich- and-eookie breakfast in the sam
pan on the Harbor just as the red sun
was rising from the ocean. The sun
rise was glorious. Landed in Swallow
| / took rick shaw for the two mile ride
| across the city. Many new roads have
| been built this summer AS the car.
riage was rubber-tired, cushioned
| one, it was fun TO spin along noiseless
| ly, only when my footed brown
steed, nearly clothesless except for a
foreign hat, grunted his peculiar call
for people to get out of the way.
| Every body expects everybody else to
clear the path for them. The lanes are
so narrow there is many bump and
halt, especially when huge black pig
aud her numerous family choose not
! to be hurried. The pigs are every
where. I'll never get over the fascina-
ton of rickshaw ride thru an Orien-
tai city. As we neared The station |
saw a crowd and heard eymbals clang-
! ing. On the ground lay dead man;
near by was new coffin. 1T was just
a rough, newly hewed out piece of UNI
painted wood. They were keeping of
the evil spirits by the elatter. Inside
the station was swarm of unwashed
humanity, all crowding and jostling
each other. Altho j was woman and
the only white person | received my
share of the jam and discourtesy. Boats
and trains do not keep schedule time
out here so / stood an hour elbow 10
elbow with fellow carrying two big
fish that were not over fresh.
w hat funny wee rude cars! l rode
third class. What ,choice when
all were smokers. The whole car was
full of men. / Kept my eyes and
thoughts on the scenery without. L
had a good chance 10 see every thing as
we moved about the pace OF home
freight. There were many little sta
tions to stop at with the same eonvul-
sive jerks at starting each lime. The
plains were beautiful, stretching back
to the mountains, field after field of
! rice or sweet potatoes Or sugar cane.
The orange groves were especially
pretty as the fruit was just turning
golden. Where last year saw many
fields of opium poppy this time not
one of the white flowers dared lift its
head. The bitches, muddy canals and
ponds were scenes of busy activity.
One might guess the chief business of
| the region was raising ducks and water
bufialoes.
Men and children,s clothed wholly
in sunshine, padded boats or waded
in the water fishing with big nets. TAI
tho life was present everywhere, happy
life in spite of poverty, there were also
| many signs OF death. On four places
on the short trip | saw collins being
carried. In many places they were
seen unbufied ,above ground. Graves
| innumerable dot the fields and hills.
| The railroad is managed by the Jap
anese whose three conductors, with
black and yellow caps, made frequent
! trips in row thru the car. After an
hour and a half of joiting we came TO
the end of the line where there was
grand scramble for a chair.
! A sedan chair ride, screened from
the gaze of outsiders is not extra en-
j ,yabIe on a hot day. How nice and
cool and inviting .lhe Mission Com
ponnd looked. The English lunch ut
| 10 a. m. as well as 4 O'Clock tea so |
had,t delightful meals with my
two friends as we'll as a good long
chat.
The return trip was a repitition Of
the journey up, only the glory of
sunset took the place of the morning
freshness. The farmers were watering
their fied DIS before shutdown. One pas
senger was quite curiosity to me,
Buddhist nun. She was anything but
| x.,hat tho xyard uunz suogeets Her