RECORDS OF THE JOURNEY
way, to remove the hatred of foreigners, the result of superstition and ignorance, of which there was such a terrible outburst during the Boxer rising.
With the funds offered by the Chinese Government in order to acquit itself of responsibility for this crime and refused by those concerned, a university has been built, superintended by Europeans, especially Englishmen, where 250 Chinese are given a thoroughly western education annually. — On the spot where the former Baptist mission was sacked, a hospital stands now, run by English Baptist missionaries, who are qualified physicians. Its exterior, a mixture of European and Chinese architecture, is an ornament to the town. It is overrun with patients and is growing year by year in accordance with a prescribed plan. The residence of the Roman Catholic bishop is a large mass of buildings, behind the dark walls of which a big cathedral with two belfries crowned with crosses towers high above the surrounding Chinese houses. The bishop and monks are Italians, but various other nations are represented among the nuns. The bishop's principal assistant is said to be the only European who succeeded in escaping from the carnage by climbing the walls, when the town gates were closed to prevent the victims escaping by flight. On the whole the work here proceeds in the same way as at Si-an-fu, though the exceptional powers of organisation that I witnessed there, are, perhaps, not quite so evident here.
Besides these large establishments that cannot fail to attract attention even on a cursory visit to Tai-yuan-fu, there are, no doubt, many Europeans, who try to develop the people by means of schools and religious activities. Unfortunately, the short time at my disposal did not permit me to visit them all and obtain an idea of their work. Quite close to the governor's yamen there are two stone tablets let into the clay wall of a low building with inscriptions in Latin and English, giving the names of the 47 martyrs. A small wooden pagoda with two similar tablets marks the spot just outside the town, where their bodies were thrown and whence they were subsequently dug up and buried by relatives and new missionaries.
Among the other striking buildings in the town the so-called museum is worth mentioning. The whole group of buildings is large and beautiful, the main building being two-storeyed, but it is hard to imagine why it was called a museum. With the exception of about a dozen stuffed animals the whole house is a kind of place of exhibition, in which a few objects occupy large wall spaces and glass cupboards. Anyone, who cares to do so, can send objects here to be sold, though the prospects of effecting a sale appear to be slender, as the establishment is mostly kept securely locked and it is difficult to gain admittance.
A steam roller, a couple of inns with signboards translated into English, a mineral water factory started by Mr. N., which is a temptation during the hot summer months both for Europeans and Chinese, but above all thousands of posters and advertisements of the Anglo-American Tobacco Company, pasted up on walls, houses, gates, temples and every conceivable place, prove that the town has already attained a high degree of civilisation. The posters of the Tobacco Company must surely mark the frontiers of civilisation in China at present, although we may soon expect to see them pasted up on the most inhospitable temple walls of Tibet. Their smart local representative, Mr Widler, showed me pictures on silk, specially made for mandarins who have proved themselves to be worthy
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