Though funds are needed in the right direction you, and others Christabel, are warned at this time against giving indiscriminately to whomsoever should approach you, I am asking you not to give to beggars Now in ordinary times this would not be so necessary, but reflect: it is possible that this city is shortly to be on its uppers, as the cobbler would so: The demand upon possible resources is going to be so great that some care must be made in distribution. Haphazard giving must stop for a time, and all resources must be directed into the most suitable channels for profitable effluence later. Therefore, send your contributions to A Sturdy Patch On looking around and considering things generally, Christabel, I think we in Shanghai can congratulate ourselves upon having kept our balance fairly well in face of trying odds. Panic has been remarkably absent. Even the Chinese refugees with their chattels on their backs have had a dull, dogged, bowed-before-the-yoke expression rather than a panicky one.
Though the big guns continue to batter almost on our doorsteps the small things of life seem to matter more than military affairs. My boy. the other day for instance, chose to interview me ju: the banging and bombing was decidedly noisy. When he could make himself heard he ventured: "Mississie, tea-leaf no got," and that seemed the greatest problem which he and I had to decide upon at that moment. It is possible
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.