Some weeks ago the Governor of the province of Kansu gave a foreign feast to a varied and appredative company. Among the chief guests was the Mongol Prince, who, en route for Peking, had arriv. ed in Lanchow some aays before. He and his retinue, including an interpreter, for the Prince himself can neither speak nor understand Chinese, were in full force.
Several of his little sons, strong sturdy-looking little fellows, were there, and seemed to enjoy everything that was going. A few lamas were also present.
The foreigners resident in Lanchow were all invited. The Belgian representative of the Salt Gabelle and his sister, besides 10 missionaries all accepted; two of these were visitors from Sining, staying a few days in the city.
The "Da-Shw: (Governor) is very keen on erecting all kinds of summer houses, pavilions, ete., in his grounds. Lately he has been quite busy along this line. It was in one of these latest houses that the feast was held. This one boat-shaped; it is heated by a furnace underneath the floor and so although classed as a summer house can be beautifully warm on the coldest days.
Through the garden to this room the guests were escorted—some 20 or 40 people perhaps. The arrange-iment of the room was quite good, the chief picture being a huge full length photo of the Da-Shwai himself—of which he seemed very proud. At the end of the large room is a kitchen from which the many good dishes were produced.
The table looked bright and was well coloured with all sorts of artificial flowers. A little buttonhole was provided for each guest, which the host requested all should wear. Erections of coloured macaroons, etc., lent brightness to the table. The host and his eldest son sat at the head of the table. The former was very affable and seemed very well pleased with the success of his foreign feast. He informed his guests that it was he who told the cook how to make foreign food, but that seemd rather too much to believe!
The food itself was good and well cooked. The menu consisted of soup, fish, meat—including duck, tongue, meat-balls and turnovers, etc., sweets, fruit, tea. In all, nine or ten courses. Foreign wines were served but also_non-alcoholic fruit syrups, etc. Most of the guests did justice to the feast, in-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.