o was at that moment at Chen-tu, I could not quite fathom,
and he could not explain. He had a look at my caravan generally, and
then turned his scrutiny upon my common tweeds, informing me that the
quality bore no comparison with his own. He could travel in a four-man
chair; I had to _walk_. It was all very "pub hao."

After some time he cleared out with much empty swagger, and I followed
leisurely on behind, feeling--yes, why not publish it?--pleased that this
bolt from the blue had not been a lady.

This young fellow--a mere slip of a boy--wore every indication of
perfect self-confidence, borne out in a multitude of ways common to his
class. He, I presumed, was one of the fledglings who undertake
responsibilities far beyond them, or I should not be surprised if he had
been one of the army of young men who, having the merest smattering of
English, wholly unable to converse, set up as teachers of English. I
have found this quite common among the rising classes in Yuen-nan. The
cool assumption of unblushing superiority evinced in discussing
intellectual and philosophic problems is remarkable. The Chinese, in the
area I speak of, are little people with little brain: this was a
specimen. Yet, to be fair, in China to-day the work of reform is mainly
the work of young men, who although but only partly equipped for their
work, approach it with perfect confidence and considerable energy, not
knowing sufficient to realize the difficulties they are undertaking. In
Japan the same thing was done. The young men there undertook to dispute
and doubt everything which came in the way of national reorganization,
setting aside--as China must do if she is to take her place alongside
the ideal she has set up for herself, Japan--parental teaching,
ancestral authority, the customs of centuries. A large proportion of the
population of China has a passion for reform and progress. This young
fellow was a typical example. In the west of China, however, to conform
with the spirit of reform and real progress--not the make-believe, which
is satisfying them at the present moment--they must needs change their
ways.

Seventeen memorial plates were passed at the entrance to Chao-chow, a
particularly modern-looking place, as one approaches it from the hill.

A remarkably ungainly individual, with a hole in the top of his skull
and his body one mass of sores, came to me here, addressed me as "Sien
seng," and then commenced an oration to the effect tha