on
in cosmopolitan America but are of daily occurrence in Europe also,
among ordinary people as well as the royal families of Europe, so that
nearly all the European courts are related one to the other. This is a
good omen for a permanent world-peace. There have been some marriages
of Asiatics with Europeans and Americans, and they should be
encouraged. Everything that brings the East and West together and
helps each to understand the other better, is good. The offspring from
such mixed unions inherit the good points of both sides. The head
master of the Queen's College in Hongkong, where there are hundreds of
boys of different nationalities studying together, once told me that
formerly at the yearly examination the prizes were nearly all won by
the Chinese students, but that in later years when Eurasian boys were
admitted, they beat the Chinese and all the others, and generally came
out the best. Not only in school but in business also they have turned
out well. It is well known that the richest man in Hongkong is a
Eurasian. It is said that the father of Aguinaldo, the well-known
Philippine leader, was a Chinese. There is no doubt that mixed
marriages of the white with the yellow races will be productive of good
to both sides. But do Chinese really make good husbands? my lady
friends ask. I will cite the case of an American lady. Some years ago
a Chinese called on me at my Legation in Washington accompanied by an
American lady and a girl. The lady was introduced to me as his wife
and the girl as his daughter; I naturally supposed that the lady was
the girl's mother, but she told me that the girl was the daughter of
her late intimate friend, and that after her death, knowing that the
child's father had been a good and affectionate husband to her friend,
she had gladly become his second wife, and adopted his daughter.

Those who believe in reincarnation (and I hope most of my readers do,
as it is a clue to many mysteries) understand that when people are
reincarnated they are not always born in the same country or continent
as that in which they lived in their previous life. I have an
impression that in one of my former existences I was born and brought
up in the United States. In saying this I do not express the slightest
regrets at having now been born in Asia. I only wish to give a hint to
those white people who advocate an exclusive policy that in their next
life they may be born in Asia or Africa, an