sesses conveniences
and improvements quite comparable to the ordinary college of the West.
For instance, as I passed through the many admirably-equipped
schoolrooms, well ventilated and airy, I saw an Italian who was laying
in the electric light,[AC] the power for which was generated by an
immense dynamo at the basement, upon which alone twenty thousand taels
were spent. Thirty professors have the control of thirty-two classrooms,
teaching among other subjects mathematics, music, languages (chiefly
English and Japanese), geography, chemistry, astronomy, geology, botany,
and so on. The museum, situated in the center of the building, does not
contain as many specimens as one would imagine quite easily obtainable,
but there are certainly some capital selections of things natural to
this part of the Empire.

The authorities probably thought I was rather a queer foreigner, wanting
to see everything there was to see inside the official barriers in the
city. Day after day I was making visits to places where foreigners
seldom have entered, and I do not doubt that the officials, whilst
treating me with the utmost deference and extreme punctiliousness,
thought I was a sort of British spy.

When I went to the Agricultural School, probably the most interesting
visit I made, I was met by the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, a keen
fellow, who spoke English well, and who, having been trained at
Shanghai, and therefore understanding the idiosyncrasies of the
foreigner's character, was invited to entertain. And this he did, but he
was careful that he did not give away much information regarding the
progress that the Yuen-nanese, essentially sons of the soil, are making
in agriculture. For this School of Agriculture is an important adjunct.

Scholars are taken on an agreement for three years, during which time
they are fed and housed at the expense of the school; if they leave
during the specified period they are fined heavily. No less than 180
boys, ranging from sixteen to twenty-three, are being trained here, with
about 120 paid apprentices. Three Japanese professors are employed--one
at a salary of two hundred dollars a month, and two others at three
hundred, the latter having charge of the fruit and forest trees and the
former of vegetables.

In years to come the silk industry of Yuen-nan will rank among the chief,
and the productions will rank among the best of all the eighteen
provinces. There are no less than ten thousand mulbe