Omaha daily bee., 1922-05-28
anKennedy
to Return
June 9
Student Delegates at
Pekin Undisturbed
by Civil Strife.

Miss Jean Kennedy. daughter ot
Mrs. Alfred [. Kennedy, who has
been in China as American Y. w.
c, A. delegate 10 a student confer.
enee IN Pekin, will land IN Seattle
June s on the Empress OF Asia and
will reach Omaha about June y,
Soon after her return she will leave
for Silver Bay, n. y. where she viii
make report on the international
conference 20 gathering OF college
women. Miss Kennedy is junior
a, Mt. Holyoke college.
The pekin conference itself was
quite strenuous affair and Miss
Kennedy made 4 speech with the aid
OF an Interpreter 10 the audience of
several hundred students and pro-
fessors. On April II she wrote from
Monkdeu, Manehuria, 10 Mrs. Ken
nedy:
Il am At present touring Man.
churia with q Russian woman reiu-
gee. a Czech professor OF philosophy.
Danish pastor. British Y. NJ.
worker from South Africa. Chinese
lust returned from Yale. and one OF
the federaiion's travelling secretaries.
"Thc conference itself ended April
10. II seemed queer to have come
so far for so few days, but believe
that the real influence Of the affair
lies rather in the personal contacts
and general atmosphere than in its
addresses.
."You know there's supposed to be
a war on between couple OF the
military chiefs of this section. But
II you happen 10 read OF il in the
papers. don't be upset: about the
worst that happens TO the innocent
traveller is to be backed of on sid
ing fos a few hours while troop
trains go BY. There was talk Of
Pekin being besieged, but, according
to those who have been here longest,
the generals usually conhne their ef-
forts to bluffs and moving of troops.
"Chang Tso Lin. who is the
strongest man in this part OF the
country. holds sway in Moukden.
Several times I have passed the high
stone walls of his 'yamen.' guarded
by soldiers in uniforms which are
strangely reminiscent Of old gray
quilts"
OF the city of Moukden, where she
is staying at the home of two Ameri-
can Y. w. c. A. secretaries, Miss
Kennedy writes:
"The interior Of the city is sur
rounded by a huge stone wall,
broken by an occasional dark arched
gateway. Our cavalcade went
through several gateways, resound-
ing with the yells of ricksha men
and peddlers. Then we emerged into
a reasonably broad, but hopelessly
dusty, street, lined with queer shops.
Industrialism has not penetrated this
section Of the country to any notice.
able extent. As I passed / saw the
men busy making coffins, shoeing
horses, pounding brass and weaving
mats. The fronts of the shops are
open and the whole process, from
saving the wood to staining the
product, is done before your eyes.
From the business section we turned
into series Of narrow, deeply rutted.
tortuous alleys, where at any moment
we ran the risk of humping into
coolies carrying huge loads. One of
Chang's dashing cavalrymen did run
into Professor Radl's ricksha, but
luckily it didn't overturn.
"These alleys are lined with gray
stone or mud walls. Everything is
walled in China. Private property,
without some such barrier, doesn't
exist. A Y. M. c. A. worker l met
in Pekin told me that he tried>to
build his house first, before the wall,
but he found that he couldn't keep a
thing on the lot. The police refused
to protect any property so, obviously
public, so he had to order work be-
gun on the wall at once.
"Manchuria is most emphatically
not a land of beauty, at least at this
time of the year, when there is
scarcely blade of green to relieve
the dead monotony of its vast
stretches. This is not real desert
country, but we saw mirages all day.
"Moukden itself is an old, old city
the capital of the Manchus before
they conquered Pekin. Yesterday we
wandered over the old palace, now
bereft of its treasures and falling to
ruin. Pigeons COO from the intri-
cately carved caves, the Lacquer fn-
ish drops from the pillars and the
courtyard is the one place in the city
where grass makes any pretense of
growing. But the old throne room
still preserves an air of grandeur.
Great gold lacquer dragons coil
down from the canopy over the
throne, which is a beautiful thing,
but about as uncomfortable seat as
I can imagine. A small dragon head
juts out from the middle of the back
exactly where his royal highness
might wish to rest his wearied
spine"
From Moukden Miss Kennedy
planned to visit Antung and Kirin
and Harbin in the northern part of
Manchuria. Harbin, an important
junction on the Siberian rail-
road, has large Russian refugee
population. When she wrote she ex-
pected by May l to be in Marking
Dr. Shanghai, from which city they
planned to go on river houseboat
party.
Ctate Wor.NIo+boro