To the Ealtor of the Sm—Since my arrival antedates that of Dr. Hawks Pott by Several years, T trust T may be pardoned in making a few comments o0 his Teelure, delivered before the Rotary Club recently.
True, my residence with the exception of the last. seven years, has been "in outports rather thin in Shanghai. "However, many. visits, ome of several months duration, have given me a fair conception of the marvellous growth and pheno~ nienal development of the efty. All the lecturer said of this material phenomena T can heartily endorse. Shanghai, on that dreary' December Gay in 1881, a5 we first saw it from the windows of the two-storeyed Central" Hotel, was a mere town, 30) uses and few stores. community is true. however, because the object and aim of their work among the Chinese was misunderstood. But, to the best of my knowledge, missfonarles were not treated as" "outcasts." rather as. socially "unclassified." By. training and education, missionaries were and re to.day as a class equal to the! best In any foreign community.
Tt usually, depended on the missionary whether he had the incline. tion or time to cultiva the acquaintance of the members of the foreiga community in which he lived. Per anally, as T recall the many happy years of the past, I count among my Gearest and most loyal friends many truly splendid men and women of the foreign communities among whom we lived. T am confidence, too, because of our associations, our work for the education of Chinese young men_'was belter understood and appreciated.
The intercourse of the foreigners with the Chinese officials and literati was rather limited in the old Imperia! Gays, Yet even so, there were. calls} and invitations to teas and feasts occasionally. Schools and hospitals served as ocular demonstrations of] the "good deeds" one almed to 2¢. complish—toth to" foreigners and] Chinese, Long before ihe existence of the Rotary Chih, a stronger influence] formed the first effectual link be. tween foreign and Chinese. I refer} fo the hundreds, possibly thousands, of returned students. Ambitious young men and women, seeking a higher education than cur Missioa Colleges and Universities here could] give them, continued their studies in American and English Universities.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.