fully, "Well, we surely don't look
very nifty to meet the President," but we made ourselves as "nifty" as
we could, in the circumstances, standing together in a laughing group on
the lee side of the palace, and asking one another if we'd do. I
remember that once, years ago, when I was living in the Latin Quarter,
some of us went over to a tea on "the other side," and before pulling
the door-bell, we stood first on one foot and then on the other,
polishing our dusty shoes on our stockings. Well, here we were doing the
same thing, before meeting the President of China!

We got clean at last, and then soberly marched round the corner of the
building and presented ourselves in the anteroom of the palace, leading
to the President's apartments. Here we found Dr. Reinsch waiting for us,
and he sorted us into groups of eight, and left us waiting till the
summons came. In former times the mandarins used to wait in this
anteroom, before an audience with the empress dowager, and we tried to
imagine the big bare room of to-day filled with these high officials in
their gorgeous robes. Nothing remains of the old glories of the palace
save the elaborate carving on wall and ceiling, and a few pieces of
magnificent old furniture. The ceiling is now disfigured with a gaudy,
cheap European chandelier, while standing here and there on beautiful
ebony tables are hideous modern vases, straight from the
five-and-ten-cent store. The floor was covered with ugly oilcloth. Such
is China modernized, imbued with Western culture.

Our group of eight was the first to be called, and Dr. Reinsch led the
way with an interpreter. We passed out of the antechamber and along an
open marble corridor, lined with Chinese soldiers in their padded gray
cotton uniforms, who stood at salute as the American minister passed.
Immediately we found ourselves in another room, also plainly furnished,
and the next moment were shaking hands with an unassuming little man
clad in a frock-coat, the President, Li Yuan Hung. Through the
interpreter the President explained that he would like us to pass into
the room beyond, where he could speak with us one by one, personally.
He waved his hand toward the other room, and my recollection is that we
led the way! It all happened so quickly, I can't remember; but somehow
our group seemed to be waiting in the other room when the President and
Dr. Reinsch arrived at our heels, a second later. However, you can't
expect people not broug