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the clouds, which had rendered the day a delightful one for July, began to give promise of a most urgently needed rain-the first for months. It fell continuously all night, and a good part of the next day, a circumstance which, with many, doubtless went to establish the 'Virtue' of the Shepherds!

An incidental disadvantage, however, was the interruption of the demolition of the mat-houses, and the disagreeable necessity of having an unknown number of persons about the premises all night and the next day, all of them fed at our expense! The exact total number who participated in the 'Feast' will never be known, but it was certainly nearly five hundred, in addition to the fifty or sixty persons on hand during a part or the whole of the preceding and succeeding days. No wonder that it is the sick man who is said to furnish the perspiration (汗出在病人的身上).

The 11th of July was certainly an extraordinary day for the Shantung station of our mission. As a whole, everything passed off in a satisfactory manner, and with the exception of the inevitable delay of the Feast, which no one laid to heart, there was not a single untoward circumstance. A red sheet of paper accompanied the P'ang Chia Chuang Tablet, containing a list of 87 names of the donors, including every family in the village, and each of these 87 families was represented at the Feast. It has often been remarked in a general way, that the village as a whole is favorable to our residence among them, but this comes nearer to furnishing a proof of it, than we had any reason to expect.* Ten years ago, when the present members of this station first knew it, its total Church-membership was one man, three women, and four girls-all but the first named, in one village. The contrast is striking.

No one with the smallest acquaintance with Chinese affairs, will be surprised to know that the cost of such a celebration is considerable -about $150. It is a perfectly legitimate inquiry: "What is all this worth?" To this there are a variety of answers. From a purely Chinese point of view, an expenditure of this kind, is a most satisfactory one. To part with one's money and hear no sound (7) is indeed folly, but what more attractive investment than to buy a name

As an instance of the prevalent good feeling, it may be mentioned that about eighteen months previous to this time, when the Shepherds had put in operation a Brick-kiln to furnish material for the new houses, the villagers volunteered to wheel into our compound the first kiln-full (about 30,000 bricks) without any compensation. It is nearly superfluous to remark that this friendly service was recognized by providing for the workers a 'Square Meal.' The delivery of each subsequent kiln-full was contracted for on a strictly business basis, at the rate of between $5 and $6. This is a characteristic Chinese method of procedure. Friendship rules the first time, and after that Custom decidesĦĦAN.

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()? There is another Chinese aspect of the matter which deserves attention. The long Tiger-fight which, for nearly a year, we have been compelled to maintain with the Te Chou Magistrate, has had tens of thousands of interested spectators. During its progress, while the official had showed his hand, and before we had yet showed ours, we were in many ways reminded how fatal in the sight of the Chinese is the loss of Prestige. 'When luck fails, even Gold loses its color' (JKƒ ↑⭑6). When Fate is opposed, the Phoenix is not equal even to a Chicken' (A7). Now although, so far as is known, no hint to this effect was even dropped by any one, it is still quite certain that but for one event, no such change as we now see could have come about. Of the internal ramifications of the dispute at Chi Nan Fu, and of affairs in Peking, the People know absolutely nothing. One thing, however, they do know, and perfectly comprehend, viz: that the Te Chow Magistrate had staked everything on a struggle with the Missionaries, and-lost! A single character reversed the situation—ch'ê la (7). Magic Word! When Luck returns, even a carrying pole bears flowers' (*). It was the energy of the Secretary of our Legation which paved the way for this Feast of Tablets. Between January and July, what contrast more conspicuous! No wonder that to the popular apprehension, it was a progress through difficulties to glory-per augusta ad augusta.

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That Protestant Missionaries in China do not seek prestige and power() for its own sake, goes without saying. But when a clear Treaty-right is assailed, and successfully defended, it is evident to every one that the right, and those who claim its exercise, are better secured than before they were attacked. While at the Provincial Capital matters are quite different, so far as our neighborhood is concerned this is our present situation. The immediate and calculable effects of this occurrence may be regarded as three-fold.

So far as concerns the village of P'ang Chia Chuang, of which we have now become Natives, and with the Freedom of which we are formally presented, it is well understood that in repairing Wells and Bridges (there being no streams) we do as our Fellow-townsmen do. (A). But if any revival of the temple repairing business should chance to take place (it being at present somewhat in abeyance), we shall not be obliged to claim the benefit of Minister Angell's late arrangement with the Chinese Foreign Office, that citizens of China cannot be compelled to contribute to heathen enterprises, when they prefer to be Christians!

The village has been described as nine-tenths heathen. By a strict computation, it is only Christian in a much smaller fraction.

Assuming ninety families, with an average of five members each, we have a population of 450, of whom only about 25, or say five and a half per cent have been baptized. Of these, few are heads of families, and several are women, who, in Chinese social statistics count for little or nothing. Upon all the scores on scores of little children, we have as yet made no impression whatever. They have all been born since we came to the village, and while they are perfectly respectful to us, nearly all of them are as substantially heathen as ever they were. To have eaten salt'-not to speak of the other incidental ingredients of a Tablet Feast-with the heads of every one of these families, may mean much, and we hope it will. At all events, it makes a good background for whatever may follow.

Again, as concerns the Church-Members. It is rare that those from distant places all meet, or any considerable number of them. That the straggling out-pickets, mustered to attend a tremendous Review of this sort, should be greatly encouraged by what they saw, or even stirred, as by the sound of martial music, is natural and inevitable. Whatever promotes the esprit du corps of the Church-Members, must in virtue of that effect alone, possess a certain value.

In the third place, as to Outsiders. In a densely populated 'Country Parish' like ours, there are multitudes who know almost nothing about us, and who are governed entirely by what they hear. 'When a Horn is blown beside a crack in a door, the sound goes out' (***). The story of the occurrences on (隔著門縫吹喇叭名聲在外). the 26th of the 5th moon, will spread far and wide. It can not fail to dispel many prejudices. Confucius may be supposed to have known the people of his own country, and he remarked that when those that are near are pleased, those who are remote will come likewise (

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**). This is exactly what we hope for. As a specific answer to the general affirmation that all Christian Missionaries are every where and always odious to the Chinese, such a demonstration is worth citing as a tangible evidence of good feeling. Indefinitely extended, they would, indeed, soon lose all meaning. When you come to move in the Autumn," said one of the managers good-humoredly, "we will plan on a larger scale-for 200 Feasts" (1600 people)! That Feast, it is safe to say, will not be given. Our celebration, in short, like the bestowment of some honorary decoration, is a thing which may be done once and is not to be repeated (I – 17TH). Such as it was, it came unsought and undesired. To have prevented it, without doing indefinite mischief, was morally impossible. It was therefore accepted, in the classical language of the last Tablet presented: Reverently Obeying the Decree of Heaven.'

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92,800

26,450

23,218

1,770 220,266

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Fruit, Confectionary, Sea-weed, and other edibles, §
Bread Cakes () 662 lbs. and 10lbs. Flour,
Wine, 173lbs. @ 13,000 per 100tbs.||
Sesame Oil,

* Pig's head is a favorite object for temple offerings, being held to represent 'the whole hog.' No priest would be likely to turn away one who was in possession

of an offering equally pleasing to gods and men. Hence the saying: 'What! When I have a pig's head can I not get what I want at a temple?

求不出廟來麽。

Four hundred pounds (catties) of pork, might appear to some an adequate provision, even for a Tablet Feast. The Chinese entertain, however, a vivid sense of the disgrace appertaining to a too scanty provision for guests. The stingy Host is vexed, as the saying goes, when the food is in preparation, because he is certain that there is too much, but when it is eaten, he is equally annoyed to find that there is too little造飯嫌多,吃時嫌少。‘It is better to have what you do not need, than to need what you do not have,寧可備而不用不可用 7, for 'When the food is dainty, who wants to lay down his chopsticks ?' 好吃的果子誰肯放快子。

102 dozen eggs, if bought in the New York market at this time of year at wholesale rates (say 22 cts. per dozen), would have cost nearly $22.50, whereas the price paid on this occasion was only about $2.75. After making all allowances for the circumstance that hen's eggs in China are at least one-third smaller than in 'nominally Christian lands,' it still remains true that Chinese hens can afford to lay their eggs five or six hundred per cent cheaper than Occidental fowls.

§ It is not surprising that in view of the number of persons fed at the general table (**), the fragments that were left' did not fill 12 baskets, nor one. No Chinese saying is more true than that which declares that 'Cooked food when hot meets with calamity, 飯熟菜遭殃 or as the current slang

goes, 'gets punished.'

|| A Chinese Feast without wine (unless the guests chanced to be of the Temperance Fraternity known as the White Clothes Sect, or Ritualists), would be to play Hamlet with the part of the 'undecided Dane' omitted. The common name of a banquet is a 'Wine-feast'

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Rent of 50 rolls matting, 20 mats in each roll, @ 300... 15,000

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'Many hands make light work; the fewer the hands the more to eat,'

人多好做活,人少好吃飯。

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The items given under this head are simply the extras. A pile of brushwood and branches which would have sufficed for the ordinary consumption of a whole year, was within 48 hours entirely obliterated.

† ‘An inexperienced cook can not manage a hot oven, 毛廚子見不了熱鍋台

'If a cook has not served an apprenticeship with a master, he is sure to ruin the

taste of the food by too much fermented sauce’廚子不經師。總是醬 性氣。

++"They also serve who only stand and wait."

** The Gate-keepers proved to be a couple of Beggars, who were employed on the thoroughly Chinese principle of fighting the devil with fire, in order to keep the place from being inundated with other beggars from all quarters. It would be interesting to know into how many shares the 1400 thus earned was sub. divided before it reached its ultimate destination. The venerable Mendicant who devoted his energies to watching the Pavilion, was doubtless selected on the same basis.

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