While there have been politico! revolutions.and reactions in Peking; against the semi-foreign in political institutions, China's reaction aries seem never to have raised a Voice against the semi-foreign in {social life. The nest radical Occidental deplores the rapid substitution of hideous gingerbread houses and shops in Peking for the jold Chinese buildings, but the venerable Manchu, who retains his queue and his loyalty to the Emperor; rubs his hands with delight When be has'torn down a massive and stately residence and has erected in its stead an unsightly and thoroughly - uncomfortable pile, which is a cross between the cheapest of Chinese houses, a Swiss chalet. and an over-elaborate hen-coop While the foreigner who. believes in democracy is filling his house with carved blackwood, Chinese paintings on silk, Peking carpets and old porcelain; the most reactionary of his Chinese friends is selling thes same things to the junk dealer, putting down Japanese matting or oilcloth on his floors, buying upholstered chairs stuffed with hay {through which the springs bulge like the ribs of a cart horse, hanging up hideous engravings of the wreck of the Hesperus or the battle of Waterloo. with still more ter-. rible colour reproductions of nude ladies, and distributing about. the walls of his guest. rooms foreign-style tables and chairs, full of knot holes and splinters and rmeared with chocolate paint.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.