The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-27
Interesting News From Far Away China Sent In
 Letters by Former Birmingham Girl Now In Shangha
By DOLLY DALRYMPLE

i NCoRES of trends of Mrs. Allen G N Loehr of Shanghai, China. formerly GS Miss Irma Dozier of Birmingham
 the charming and attractive daughter oi Dr. o. T. Dozier, will be interested ir
 news from her, her husband, and hel baby, who are leading the most delightful sort of life in the far east, where envir-
 onments are so different in every way lfrom anything we could dream of in our nice little city of Birmingham.
 | Mrs. Loehr went as a bride two years ago last February to Pekings her hus-
 band, MT. Loehr, a grandson, by the way, of the beloved and honored pioneer mis- sionary, Young J. Allen, having secured
 the commission of attache of American foreign and domestic commerce. Shortly
 after their arrival at Picking the Amer ! ican minister invited MT. and Mrs Loehr l to occupy Manchu palace, the residence | of the United States minister to China, land Mrs. Loehr had the boudoir which
 Alice Roosevelt (Mrs. Nicholas Long worth) occupied when she visited her l father, MT. Roosevelt, there several years 1 ago
 1 MT. and Mrs Loehr left Picking for Shanghai a short time ago, where they now occupy the house built by MT. Loehrs grandfather. MT. Loehr has a
 
 g bling him to fill any post with honor to himself and his country.
 In some very interesting letters to Dr. Dozer, Mrs. Loehr tells of the customs and manners of the Chinese people, and enc especially notable description is built a bout the Chinese Christmas and New
 Year celebrations.
 Among other things, Mrs. Loehr writes:
 How I missed you all at Christmas time and how I longed to be back home once more, I have everything in the world to make me happy here, but there are times when I cannot help feeling sad, because I miss seeing my own dear peo- pie in Birmingham.
 1 know you must have had lovely time with your grandchildren to play Santa Claus to. I am just wild to see dren would prefer to live out here. for Christmas lasts month. As we have our Christian Christmas, which we cele- brate for one week, and then for the next two weeks the Chinese spend in preparation for their New Year, which is to them similar to our Christmas to us. At our Christmas 1t is the custom for all of our Chinese friends to make gifts. Even our servants give presents. And on their New Year we are expected to reciprocate by making gifts in re- turn. and the servants expect to receive as much as half their regular wages. Last year my Chinese servant (the cook) gave me fancy boxes of Chinese cakes, and this year my servant gave us Chi nese feast
 "As a rule the Chinese do not give each other gifts excepting to children. To these they give all kinds of lovely lit- tie presents, most of which are made of paper such lanterns, doll houses va rlous kinds of animals, and these toy an- inals, etc. are much prettier than those which we have at home made of cloth etc, and are almost as serviceable, for the frames are made of small strips of bamboo. The kites are wonderful things to me. They are made to represent birds bats, animals, dragons, etc. Some of them are made to look like children. It is queer sight to be going down the street and see one of these kites up in the air Then they have the appearance of child running on the clouds.
 ''The Chinese work industriously and hard on up until New Years Day. but on that day they will neither work for love nor money. They are very super