The "China Journal" for November leals the war round Shanghai and other articles which bear on the general situation in all war areas.
Topical, too, is a well-illustrated appreciation of the Chinese soldier by Julius Eigner, and as a set-off to war's alarms Mr. Tuan Ju-mei and Mr kew Alley conirioute a dehghtiul sketch, again well illustrated, of country children of southern Kiang-ssu. The authors have closely studied the objects of their dissertation, with the result that they have produced a very informative article, from which the following passage may be quoted:
The child life of country people is not long, however, and a litre girl soon finds herself being instructed in household duties and nome industry, until sue is ready to be sent to her new home as a wife, This usually happens when she is irom fifteen to sixteen years of age, and the new husband is often one to whom she had been betrothed at birth.
When children are together they wil play games, amongst whicn c many which are, common to children also. Tne wooden lop is kwei, and 15 spun in the same manner as in the West. IL is sometimes pomied with iron, and may be used in a gambling game, in which circles are drawn on the ground and several lads try to keep their tops spinning in the inner ving.
Catch the wild cat" is just blind-man's buf while "Hind the wild cat" is hide-and-seek, except that there is only one "finder," the others standing Off to watch the fun and to take their turn later. When the "wild cat" is sound he is led back to the crowd by the hand by the "finder" in a victorious manner. Sometimes when he cannot be found the "finder" wall Come back to the crowd and declar that the "wild cat" has been hidden in some place declared out of bounds Then some will burst into langi other try to judge which party is right, and so a brisk argument may ensue in which all join and so bring to a close one more diverting game The "Tien Hsia Monthly" for November has a contribution from Dr. J. C. Ferguson on the Hanlin Yuan, the famous Chinese Academy of learned men from which in the Imperial regime scholars were selected for official positions, a system which was followed for more than twelve centuries until it was abolished in 1905, After describing the Academy and its history, Dr. Ferguson deals with the survivors of that famous institution. The senior of these distinguished gentlemen ...Wu Jussheng who celebrates this year the jubilee of his promotion. He was made a member in the ting-chou year of the Emperor Kuang Hsü (1877). Mr, Wu is still hale and hearty. He has lived in Tsingtao during recent years. His last public Offices were Vice-President and later President of the Ministry of Communications where I was associated with him and saw him daily During the long years of its existence there can only have been a few instances of any member having Completed a cycle of 60 years in its
done. charmed circle such as Mr. Wu has 1 formerly knew two other members of the ting-chou year, viz, Wang Ko-chuang of Fukien Province and Fan Fan-shan of Hupeh Province, but both of them passed from this world several years ago. In looking over the list of members of the Academy I have found that the earliest me ber whom I have known was Li Hung-dhang. He was promoted to this "high honour in the ting-wei
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.