tion digged deep
into the earth and found pure, clear water. Then he thought, "If there is
ater here for me, why not for all this great city of many tens of
thousands?" Which was a worthy thought, and he saw for himself
great gains in bringing to the doors of rich and poor alike the water
from the wells. He told the Taotai that he would go to his country and
bring back machines that would make the water come forth as from
living springs. The official met his friends and the plan was discussed
and many thousands of taels were provided and given into the hands
of the official from over the seas. The friends of the Taotai felt no fear
for their money, as the official signed a contract to produce water from
the earth, and he signed, not as a simple citizen but as the
representative of his government, with the great seal of that
government attached to the paper. Of course our simple people
thought that the great nation was behind the project; and they were
amazed and startled when, after a trip to his home land and a return
with only one machine, a few holes were made but no water found,
and the official announced that he was sorry but there was nothing
more that he could do. He did not offer to return the money, and in his
position he could not be haled into a court of law; there was nothing
for his dupes to do but to gaze sadly into the great holes that had
taken so much money, and remember that wisdom comes with
experience.

"When a man has been burned once with hot soup he forever after
blows upon cold rice"; so these same men of China will think o'erlong
before trusting again a foreigner with their silver.

Thy son has been trying to settle another case. Some men from
America went to Ningpo, and talked long and loud of the darkness of
the city, its streets dangerous in the night-time, its continual fires
caused by the flickering lamps of oil that are being so constantly
overturned by the many children. They told the officials that the times
were changing, that to walk the streets with a lighted lantern in the
hand is to lose step with the march of progress. They showed the
benefits of the large lights of electricity blazing like a sun on each
corner of the great city, making it impossible for robbers and
evil-doers to carry on their work in darkness. They promised to turn
night-time into day, to put white lights in Yamen, office, and
house-hold. There should be a light beneath each rooftree, at no
greater expense tha