and those who
tried their fortunes in connection with the events of the Russo-Japanese
War, has done a great deal to injure the American name and reputation with
the Chinese. This class, usually indigent, has, by reason of imposition
upon the Chinese, destroyed to some extent a confidence which has existed
for many years and which had borne good fruit. There are good reasons for
saying that every American firm which contemplates sending a
representative to China should be very certain of his character, and,
other things being equal, should choose the quiet, orderly person rather
than the reverse type, in spite of the current opinion that such are
indicated for the Orient."

If Shanghai is the sort of a place that it would here appear to be, if it
sets a vicious example in its government, in its business practice, and in
the character of many of its inhabitants, the fact would seem to indicate
that it is most decidedly misrepresenting out there the sort of
civilization that we, Europeans as well as Americans, have always supposed
that we stood for. It would appear that the Chinese, at the point of
contact with our civilization, are getting a false impression of us. It
would be easy to dismiss as remote and unimportant the vicious example set
by a group of adventurers and promoters on the China Coast; but
unfortunately this little group is the most important single contributing
factor in the exceedingly delicate matter of the rapidly developing
relations between China and the great Christian nations.

The influence of the Shanghai example on China is real and positive.
Geographically, Shanghai commands the trade of the middle coast, the
immense Yangtse Valley, and the Grand Canal. Every night a big river
steamer leaves for Hankow and the intermediate river ports. Every day a
big river steamer comes in from the same cities. Trading junks and small
steamers innumerable ply between the river and coast ports and Shanghai.
Chinese merchants come from hundreds of miles around to trade with the
foreigners or with the native "compradores" attached to foreign houses. On
their return to their various interior cities or villages these traders
spread tales of the foreign devils who inhabit the great city near the
sea. Foreign merchants, travelling salesmen, engineers, and insurance
agents travel up and down the great river, up and down the coast; they
penetrate, by steamer, railroad, mule-litter, or cart, into the interior
cities o