Before a' representative gathering of the members of the Union Church Literary and Social Guild at the Union Church Hall on Wednesday, Mr. E. J. Dingle, the well known traveller in China and author of "Across China on Foot" gave an absorbingly interesting lecture, illustrated by a fine collection of lantern slides, entitled "Among the Hwa Miao" The slides deserve special mention by reason of the fact that besides being excellent pictures in themselves they form a splendid collection of studies showing the physical characteristics of the singular people with whom Mr. Dingle came in contact together ith their picturesque, if frequently dirty, surroundings.
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Indeed, Mr. Dingle, in the course of his lecture which was followed with great interest, made something akin to the above remark with perhaps. the forcibleness which could only come with close acquaintance with these peoples. Originally he came to China with the intention of walking across the country, but when about midway across he had the misfortune to sustain a broken leg and to contract two or three illnesses, which forced him to return ultimately to Bhamo in British Burma, where he refitted and returning into inland China lived with the Miao for about a year. After describing the scenery of the country, which he spoke of as the Switzerland of China, Mr. Dingle made a few feeling remarks about the physical hardships to be endured in and the endurance necessary for ordinary travel in China, and, speaking of Chinese inns, he said that the traveller whom misfortune has led to travel off the main roads of Russian may probably hesitate to ion as to which Id carry off the palm for unmitigated filth, but for dirt, disease and discomfort and disorganization the Chinese inn can hold its own, This state of affairs was in the inns along the main routes where travelling was comparatively easy, but in the Mias country conditions beggared description, Conquerep But UNcHaNncep-
Most of the people in Shanghai, commented the lecturer, have heard something about the Miao, more perhaps through the medium of the North-China Daily News" famine fund than through anything else, but apart from that they know little or nothing for unless one had the disposition to "rough it" the temperament to take things philosophically and was possessed to study or follow some hobby—such as geography in the case of the speaker—one would never from choice live there. It was now common knowledge that in the western parts of China there were tribes of people essentially non-Chinese, who
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.