I looked out of the carriage window as the train ran through the Chinese city on its way to the Chien Men railway station, and wondered what the future was going to be like, and I wondered aloud.
“How will I get on?”
Opposite me sat an amusing young gentleman with a ready tongue.
“Oh you'll be all right,” said he. “The Chinese 'll like you because you're fat and o——” and then he checked himself seeing, I suppose, the dawning wrath4 in my eyes. The Chinese admire fat people and they respect the old, but I had not been accustomed to looking upon myself as old yet, though I had certainly seen more years than he had, and as for fat—well I had fondly hoped my friends looked upon it as a pleasing plumpness. With these chastening remarks sinking into my soul, we rolled into the railway station.
The railways in China, with a few exceptions, have been built by the English or French—mostly 020by the English—and are managed to a great extent on European lines, so that arriving at the railway station in Peking does not differ very much from arriving at any other great terminus, save for the absence of cabs; but I imagine there must be differences, and that those who run the lines have little difficulties to contend with that would not occur on the London and North Western for example.
“Dear Sir,”—wrote a stationmaster once to the locomotive superintendent5—“I have, with many tears, to call your attention to your driver, Chow, who holds urgent speed in high disdain.”
The locomotive superintendent, without any tears, investigated the charge against this driver, Chow. The line was worked on the staff system. No driver could leave a station without giving up the staff he had brought in, and receiving the corresponding one for the next stretch of line. The staff—to follow the directions—is to be handed to the driver by the stationmaster, but the stationmaster on this, and I expect on many other occasions, for the Chinese are past-masters in the art of delegating work to someone else, had handed the staff to a coolie and gone about his pleasure. Now Chow evidently had a grudge6 against him, for, I fear me, no one believed in his altruism7. He insisted on the strict letter of the law and declined to take the staff until it was handed to him by the important man himself, and he kept the whole train waiting, while that worthy8 was searched for, and hauled out of the particular gambling-house he most affected9. When the gentleman appeared, furious and angry, on the platform, Chow calmly lifted up his staff to effect 021an exchange, and he swore on investigation10 he had forgotten that the end the stationmaster received had been reposing11 for all the long wait upon the nearly red-hot boiler12! That the stationmaster burnt his fingers is a mild statement of the case.
There was a wild wind blowing when I stepped out of the train and looked around me at the frowning walls, at least I looked as much as I could, for the day was bitterly cold, and most of the ground was in the air. A London fog was nothing to it, that is soft and still and filthy14, this was hard and gritty, moving fast and equally filthy, and every one of the passengers was desperately15 anxious to exchange the bleak16 railway station for the warmth and comfort and cleanliness to be found between four walls.
I was just as anxious as anybody else, but by the time I had collected my luggage the awful facts were borne in on me that all the people with whom I had made friends on the way across, were rapidly departing, and that there was no one to meet me. Peking was wonderful, I knew it was wonderful; there were such walls as I had never even dreamt of, towering above me, but I was not able to rise above the fact that I was in a strange city, among quaint17-looking people who spoke18 an unknown tongue, and that I did not know where to go. And the Morrisons' invitation had been most cordial. I had rejected all offers of help, because I was so sure someone from their house would be there to meet me, now I seized the last remaining passenger who could speak a little Chinese, and, with his help, got a hand-cart for my gear, drawn19 by two ragged20 men, and a rickshaw for myself—this man haulage, this 022cheapness of human labour, made me realise more quickly than anything else could have done, that I had really arrived in the Eastern world—and after a little debate with myself I started for Dr Morrison's. I had been asked to stay there, and I felt it would be rude to go to the hotel, but as we drove through the streets I thought—as much as the dust, the filthy dust—that the violent gusts21 of wind were blowing in my face would allow—not of the wonders of this new world upon which I was entering, but of how I should announce myself to these people who apparently22 were not expecting me. I had such a lot of luggage too!
0049
At last the coolies stopped opposite a door guarded by two stone lions, and as I got out of my rickshaw, entered the porch, and stood outside a little green wicket gate, the doorkeeper stepped out of his room and looked at me. He was clad all in blue cotton and he had an impassive face and just enough English for a doorkeeper.
No, Missie was not at home, he announced calmly. “Master?” I asked frantically23, but he shook his head, Master was out too. Here was a dilemma24. I would have gone straight to the hotel I had discovered Peking boasted, but I feared they might think it rude. I made him understand I would come in and wait a little, and my luggage, my dilapidated luggage, for Kharbin and Manchuria had been hard on it, was carried into the courtyard of the first Chinese house I had ever seen. But I wasn't thinking of sight-seeing then; I was wondering what I should do. I questioned the No. 1 boy, as I subsequently found he was, a pleasant-faced little man in a long blue coat or dress, whichever 023you please to call it, and a little round silk cap suppressing his somewhat wild hair. I learned afterwards that some students, enthusiastic for the new regime, had caught him the day before and shorn off his queue with no skilful25 hands. It was his opinion that Missie was not expecting a guest, but he suggested I should come inside and have-some tea. The thought of tea was distinctly comforting, and so was his attitude. It suggested that unexpected guests were evidently received with hospitality, and dirty as I felt myself to be, I went in and sat down to a meal of tea and cakes.
“I makee room ready chop chop,” announced the boy, and I drank tea and ate cakes, wondering whether I ought not to stop him, and say he had better wait till his mistress came home. And I felt so horribly dirty, too. Then there came in a lady who also looked at me with surprise.
She had come to tea with Mrs Morrison, and she was quite sure Mrs Morrison was expecting no guest. This was awful. I became so desperate that nothing seemed to matter, and I went on eating cake and drinking tea till presently the No. 1 boy came in again, and calmly announced:
“Barf ready.”
And I had just been told that my hostess did not expect me!
I looked at the lady sitting opposite me, I looked at the boy, and I considered my very dirty and dishevelled self. I had not even seen a bath since I left Moscow. I had come through the Peking streets in a Peking dust storm, and I felt a bath was a temptation not to be resisted, wherever that bath was offered; so I arose and followed the boy, and 024presently Mrs Morrison, coming into her own courtyard, was confronted by a heap of strange luggage, and a boy standing26 over it with a feather duster, no mere27 feather duster could have coped with the dirt upon it, but a Chinese servant would attack a hornet's nest with one; it is his badge of office. He looked up at her and remarked, in that friendly and conversational28 manner with which the Chinese servant makes the wheels of life go smoothly29 for his Missie when he has her alone.
“One piecey gentleman in barf!”
She came and knocked at the bedroom door when I was doing my hair and feeling much more able to face the world, and made me most cordially welcome, and, when I was fully30 dressed and back in the drawing-room, Dr Morrison appeared, and said he was glad to see me, and no one mentioned that my arrival had been unexpected, till a week later, when the letter I had written saying by what train I was coming, turned up.
I stayed with Dr Morrison and his pretty young wife for close on a fortnight, and they gave me most kindly31 hospitality, and not only did I view the wonders of Peking, make some acquaintances and friends, but saw just a little of the peculiarities32 of Chinese servants. They are good, there is no gainsaying33 it, but sometimes they did surprise me. Dr Morrison has a secretary, young and slim and clever, who in the early days of our acquaintanceship was wont34 very kindly to come over and help me in the important matter of fastening up dresses at the back. One evening, being greatly in need of her assistance, I sent across the courtyard to her, and the startled young lady was calmly informed by 025a bland35 and smiling boy as if it were the most natural thing in the world:
“One piecey gentleman wanchee in he's bedroom.”
At first I don't think I appreciated Peking. It left me cold, and my heart sank, for I had come to write about it, to gain material perhaps for a novel, and this most certainly is a truth, you cannot write well about a place unless you either love or hate it. Still, I have always had a great distaste for dashing through a country like an American tourist, and so I settled down at the Wagons36 Lits Hotel, surely the most cosmopolitan37 hotel in the world.
And then by slow degrees my eyes were opened, and I saw. Blind, blind, how could I have been so blind? It makes me troubled. Have other good things been offered me in life? And have I turned away and missed them? The wonder of what I have seen in Peking never palls38, it grows upon me daily.
“Walk about Zion and go round about her... consider her palaces that ye may tell it to the generation following.” So chanted the psalmist, not so much, perhaps, for the sake of future generations, but because her beauty and charm so filled his soul that his lips were forced to song. “Tell the towers thereof, mark ye well her bulwarks39.” Far back in the ages, a nation great and civilised on the eastern edge of the plain that stretches half across the world, builded themselves a mighty40 city. Peking first came into being when we Western nations, who pride ourselves upon our intense civilisation41, were but naked savages42, hunters and nomads44, and she, spoiled and sacked and looted, 026taking fresh masters, and absorbing them, Chinese and Tartar, Ming and Manchu, has endured even unto the present day. To-day, the spirit of the West is breathing over her and she responds a little, ever so little, and murmurs45 of change, yet she remains46 the same at heart as she has been through the ages. How should she change? She is wedded47 to her past, she can no more be divorced from it than can the morning from the evening.
There is something wonderful and antique about any walled city, but a walled city like Peking stands alone. The very modern railway comes into the Chinese City through an archway in the wall, and the railway station, the hideous48 modern railway station, lies just outside the great wall of the Tartar City. There are three cities in Peking, indeed for the last few years there have been four—four distinct cities. There is the Imperial City, enclosed in seven miles of pinkish red wall, close on twenty feet high, and in the Imperial City, the very heart of it, behind more pinkish red walls, is the Forbidden City, where dwell the remnant of the Manchu Dynasty, the baby emperor and his guardians50, the women, the eunuchs, the attendants that make up such a gathering51 as waited in bygone days on Darius, King of the Medes, or Ahasuerus, King of Babylon. Here there are spacious52 courtyards and ancient temples and palaces, and audience halls with yellowish-brown tiled roofs, extensive lakes, where multitudes of wild duck, flying north for the summer, or south for the winter, find a resting-place, watch-towers and walls, and tunnelled gateways54 through those walls. When through the ages the greatest artists of a nation have been giving their minds to 027the beautifying of a city, the things of beauty in that city are so numerous that it seems impossible for one mind to grasp them, to realise the wonder and the charm, especially when that charm is exotic and evasive.
The Imperial City, all round the Forbidden City, consists of a network of narrow streets and alleys55 lined with low buildings with windows of delicate lattice-work, and curved tiled roofs. Here, hidden away in silent peaceful courtyards shaded by gnarled old trees, are temples guarded by shaven priests in faded red robes. Their hangings are torn and faded, the dust lies on their altars, and the scent56 of the incense57 is stale in their courts, for the gods are dead; and yet because the dead are never forgotten in China—China that clings to her past—they linger on. Here are shops, low one-storied shops, with fronts richly carved and gilded58, streets deep in mud or dust, narrow alley-ways and high walls with mysterious little doors in them leading into secluded59 houses, and all the clatter60 and clamour of a Chinese city, laden61 donkeys, mules62 and horses, rickshaws from Japan, glass broughams weirdly64 reflecting the glory of modern London, and blue, tilted65 Peking carts with studded wheels, 028such as have been part and parcel of the Imperial City for thousands of years, all the life of the city much as it is outside the pinkish red walls, only here and there are carved pillars and broad causeways that, if the stones could speak, might tell a tale of human woe66 and Human weariness, of joy and magnificence, that would surpass any told of any city in the world.
And outside the Imperial City, hemming67 it in, in a great square fourteen miles round, is the Tartar City with splendid walls. Outside that again, forming a sort of suburb, lies to the south the Chinese City with thirteen miles of wall enclosing not only its teeming68 population, but the great open spaces and parks of the Temple of Heaven and the Temple of Agriculture. But though the Tartar City and the Chinese City are distinct divisions of Peking, walled off from each other, all difference between the people has long ago disappeared. The Tartars conquered the Chinese, and the Chinese, patient, industrious69, persistent70, drew the Tartars to themselves. But still the walls that divided them endure.
The Tartar City is crossed by broad highways cutting each other at right angles, three run north and south, and three run east and west, they are broad and are usually divided into three parts, the centre part being a good, hard, well-tended roadway, while on either side the soil is loose, and since the streets are thronged72, the side ways are churned up in the summer into a slough73 that requires some daring to cross, and in the winter—the dry, cold rainless winter, the soil is ground into a powdery dust that the faintest breeze raises into the air, and many of the breezes of Northern China are by no means faint. The authorities try to grapple with the evil—at regular intervals74 are stationed a couple of men with a pail of muddy water, which with a basket-work scoop75 they distribute lavishly76 in order to try and keep down the rising dust. But the dust of Peking is a problem beyond a mere pail and scoop. This spattering of water has about as much effect upon it as a thimbleful of water flung on a raging fiery77 furnace.
0057
Still, in spite of the mud and the dust, the streets 029are not without charm. They are lined with trees; indeed I think no city of its size was ever better planted. When once one has realised how treeless is the greater part of China, this is rather surprising. For look which way you will from the wall in the summer and autumn, you feel you might be looking down upon a wood instead of a city; the roofs of the single-storied houses are hidden by the greenery, and only here and there peeps out the tiled roof of a temple or hall of audience with the eaves curving upwards78, things of beauty against the background of green branches. Curiously79 enough it is only from the walls that Peking has this aspect. Once in the network of alley-ways it seems as if a wilderness80 of houses and shops were crowding one on top of the other, as if humanity were crushing out every sign of green life. This is because there is to all things Chinese two sides. There is the life of the streets, mud-begrimed, dusty, seething81 with humanity, odoriferous, ragged, dirty, patient, hardworking; and there is a hidden life shut away in those networks of narrow alley-ways.
There is many a gateway53 between two gilded shop fronts, some black Chinese characters on a red background set out the owner's name and titles, and, passing through, you are straightway admitted into courtyard after courtyard, some planted with trees, some with flowering plants in pots—because of the cruel winter all Chinese gardens in the north here are in pots, sometimes with fruit-trees thick with blossom or heavy with fruit, and in the paved courtyards, secluded, retired82 as a convent, you find the various apartments of a well-arranged Chinese house; there are shady verandas83, and dainty lattice-work 030windows looking out upon miniature landscapes with little hills and streams and graceful84 bridges crossing the streams. But only a favoured few may see these oases85. For the majority Peking must be the wide-open boulevards and narrow hu t'ungs, fronted by low and highly ornamental86 houses, and shops so close together that there is no more room for a garden or growing green life than there is in Piccadilly. True there are trees in these boulevards, in Morrison Street, in Ha Ta Men Street, in the street of Eternal Repose87 that cuts them at right angles, but they would be but small things in the mass of buildings were it not for the courtyards of the private houses and temples that are hidden behind.
There are, too, in the streets p'ia lous or memorial arches, generally of three archways with tiled roofs of blue or green or yellow rising in tiers one above the other, put up in memory of some deed the Chinese delight to honour. And what the Chinese think worthy of honour, and what the Westerner delights to honour are generally as far apart, I find, as the Poles. In Ha Ta Men Street, however, there is a p'ia lou all of white marble, put up by the last Manchu Emperor in memory of gallant88 Baron89 von Kettler, done to death in the Boxer90 rising, but there, I am afraid, Chinese appreciation91 was quickened by European force.
We are apt to think that European influence in China is quite a thing of yesterday, that Baron von Kettler was the first man of note who perished in the inevitable92 conflict, and yet, when I looked at the eastern wall of the city, I was reminded, with a start, that European influence dates long before 031the Boxer time, long before the days of the Honourable93 East India Company, and many must have been the martyrs94. There on the eastern wall stands the observatory, and clear-cut against the bright blue sky are astronomical95 instruments with dragons and strange beasts upon them. They were placed there by the Jesuits in the middle of the seventeenth century, and I know that those priests could not have attained96 so much influence without a bitter baptism of blood. They stand out as landmarks97, those orbs98 and astrolabes, up and down the wall, even as they have come down through the centuries; monuments, as enduring as any Chinese p'ia lou, of faith and suffering; but the Jesuits were not the first to place astronomical instruments there. The Chinese were not barbarians99 by any means, though by some curious freak we Westerners have passed them in the race for civilisation, and, as long ago as the days of Kublai Khan, they had an observatory here by the wall. On the ground below, in a tree-shaded courtyard, there is an astrolabe with a beautiful bronze dragon for a stand, the dust-laden air of Peking has polished and preserved it, so that I can see but little difference between it and the newer instruments on the platform above—newer and yet two hundred and fifty years old.
And beyond the observatory in the north-east corner of the city is the Lama Temple, a temple with picturesque100, yellowish-brown tiled roofs and spacious courtyards, in which are quaint old gnarled trees, and building after building in that curious state that is part beautiful, part slovenly101 decay, ruled over by hundreds of shaven, yellow-robed monks102 among whom, they say, it is not safe for a 032woman to go by herself. There is the Temple of Confucius, with surely the most peaceful courtyard in the world, and there are other temples, temples with courtyards and weird63, twisted coniferous trees in them that are hundreds of years old, pagodas103, and bells, and towers, and to each and all is attached many a story.
0063
Overlooking the great causeway that runs along in front of the Forbidden City, west past the south main gate, are two towers, one to the north in the Forbidden City, and one to the south without its walls; and of these two towers they tell a story of tenderness and longing104. Hundreds of years ago, when the Tartars were first subject to the Ming Emperors, part of their tribute had to be one of their fairest princesses, who became a member of the Emperor's harem.
The poor little girl's inclinations105 were not considered, not even now is the desire of a woman considered in China, and the little Tartar girl was bound to suffer for her people. She might or might not please the Emperor, but whether she did or not the position of one who might share the Emperor's bed was so high that she might never again hold communion with her own kin2. And then there came one little Tartar princess, who, finding favour with her lord, summoned courage to tell him of her love and longing. But there are some rules that not even the mighty Emperor of China may abrogate106, and he could not permit her ever again to mingle107 with the common herd108. One thing only could he do, and that he did. He built the northern tower looking over the causeway, and the southern tower on the other side. On the one tower the poor “lest we forget.” 033little secondary wife, lonely and weighted by her high estate, might stand so that she could see her people on the other, and, though they were too far apart for caress109 or spoken word, at least they could see each other and know that all was well.
I do not know whether many of the people who throng71 the streets from morning to night, and long after night has fallen, ever give a thought to the little Tartar princess. The shops, most of them open to the streets, are full, and on two sides of the main roadways are set up little stalls for the sale of trifles. Curiously enough, and I suppose it denotes poverty and lack of home life, about half these stalls are given up to the cooking and selling of eatables. In Ha Ta Men Street, in Morrison Street, in the street of Eternal Repose, that is as if we should say in Piccadilly, in Regent Street, and the Hay-market, and just outside the gates in the Chinese City, on the path that runs between the canal and the Tartar wall, you may see these same little stalls.
Here is a man who sells tea, keeping his samovar boiling with shovelfuls of little round hard nodules, coal dust made up with damp clay into balls; here is another with a small frying-pan in which he is baking great slabs110 of wheaten flour cakes, and selling them hot out of the pan; here is another with an earthenware111 dish full of an appetising-looking stew112 of meat and vegetables, with a hard-boiled egg or two floating on top; another man has big yellow slabs of cake with great plums in them, another has sticks of apples and all manner of fruits and vegetables done into sweetmeats. And here as it is cooked, alfresco, do the people, the men, for women are seldom seen at the stalls, come and buy, and 034eat, without other equipment than a basin, a pair of chop sticks or a bone spoon like a ladle supplied by the vendor113.
They sell, and make, and mend Chinese footgear at these stalls too; there is a fortune-teller, one who will read your future with a chart covered with hieroglyphics114 spread out on the bare ground; there is the letter-writer for the unlearned; there are primitive115 little gaming-tables; and there are cheap, very cheap cigarettes and tobacco of brands unknown in America or Egypt.
I have said there is a lack of home life, and thought, like the arrogant116 Westerner I am, that the Chinese do not appreciate it, but only the other day I heard a little story that made me think that the son of Han, like everyone else, longs for a home and someone in it he can call his very own.
One day a missionary117 teacher heard an outcry behind her, and turning, saw a blind woman, unkempt and filthy and whining118 pitifully. “Oh who will help me? Who will help me?” she cried, shrinking away from the dog that was making dashes at the basket she carried for doles119.
The missionary called off her dog, and reassured120 the woman. The dog would not hurt her. He was only interested in the food in her basket. “Then,” said she, “I went on, because I was in a hurry, but as I went I thought how horrible the woman looked, and that I ought to go back and tell her, 'God is Love.'”
So the missionary stopped and talked religion to that blind beggar, and told her to come up to the Mission Station. She looked after her soul, but also, out of the kindness of her heart, she looked 035after her body, and when the beggar was established, a woman of means with a whole dollar—two shillings—a week, she realised that God was indeed Love, and became a fervent121 Christian122.
“Clean,” I asked, being of an inquiring turn of mind, and her saviour123 laughed.
“Perhaps you wouldn't call her clean, but it is a vast improvement on what she was.”
The woman wasn't young, as Chinese count youth in a woman, she wasn't good-looking, she wasn't in any way attractive, but she was a woman of means, and presently her guardian49 was embarrassed by an offer from a man of dim sight, for the hand and heart of her prot??g??e. The missionary was horrified124. The woman was married already. The would-be bridegroom, the prospective125 bride, and all their friends smiled, and seemed to think that since her last alliance wasn't a real marriage it should be no bar. Still the lady was firm, the woman had lived with the man for some years and it was a marriage in her humble126 opinion. So the disappointed candidates for matrimony went their way. However, a few weeks later the woman came to her guardian with a face wreathed in smiles, “that thing,” she said, she didn't even call him a man, that thing was dead, had died the day before, and there was now no reason why she should not marry again! There was no reason, and within ten days the nuptials127 were celebrated128, and the blind woman went to live with her new husband.
I asked was it a success and the missionary smiled.
“Yes, it is certainly a success, only her husband complains she eats too much.” 036I said there were always drawbacks when a man married for money!
But as a matter of fact the marriage was a great success. I saw the happy couple afterwards, and the woman looked well-cared for and neat, and her husband helped her up some steps quite as carefully as any man of the West might have done. Truly the Fates were kind to the blind beggar when they put her in the way of that missionary. She is far, far happier probably than the bride of a higher class who goes to a new home, and, henceforward, as long as the older woman lives, is but a servant to her mother-in-law. True the husband had complained his new wife ate too much. But Chinese etiquette129 does not seem to think it at all the correct thing to praise anything that belongs to one. And for a husband to show affection for his wife, whatever he may feel, is a most extraordinary thing. The other day a woman was working in the courtyard of a house when there came in her husband who had been away for close on six months. Did they rush at one another as Westerners would have done? Not at all. He crossed the courtyard to announce himself to his master, and she went on with her work. Each carefully refrained from looking at the other, because had they looked people might have thought they cared for each other. And it is in the highest degree indelicate for a husband or wife to express affection for each other.
0070
In truth, once my eyes were opened, I soon grew to think that, from the point of view of the sightseer, there are few places in the world to compare with Peking, and the greatest interest lies in the people—the crowded humanity of the streets. Of course 037I have seen crowded humanity—after London how can any busy city present any novelty—and yet, here in Peking, a new note is struck. Not all at once did I realise it; my mind went groping round asking, what is the difference between these people and those one sees in the streets of London or Paris? They are a different type, but that is nothing, it is only skin deep. What is it then? One thing cannot but strike the new-comer, and that is that they are a peaceable and orderly crowd, more amenable130 to discipline, or rather they discipline themselves better, than any crowd in the world. Not but that there are police. At every few yards the police of the New Republic, in dusty black bound with yellow in the winter, and in khaki in the summer, with swords strapped131 to their waists, direct a traffic that is perfectly132 capable of directing itself; and at night, armed with rifles, mounted bands of them patrol the streets, the most law-abiding streets apparently in the world. In spite of the swarms133 of tourists, who are more and more pouring into Peking, a foreigner is still a thing to be wondered at, to be followed and stared at; but there is no rudeness, no jostling. He has only to put out his hand to intimate to the following crowd that he wishes a little more space, that their company is a little too odoriferous, and they fall back at once, only to press forward again the next moment. Was ever there such a kindly, friendly nation? And yet—and yet—What is it I find wrong? They are a highly civilised people, from the President who reigns134 like a dictator, to the humble rickshaw coolie, who guards my dress from the filth13 of the street. He will hawk135, and spit, but he is as 038courtly a gentleman as one of the bucks136 of the Prince Regent's Court, who probably did much the same thing. It dawned upon me slowly. These people have achieved that refinement137 we of the West have been striving for and have not attained as yet. It is well surely to make perfection an aim in life, and yet I feel something has gone from these people in the process of refining. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred they can be trusted to keep order, and the hundredth probably not all the police in the capital could hold them. The very rickshaw coolies, when they fall out, trust to the sweet reasonableness of argument, even though that argument Waste interminable hours. A European, an Englishman or an American probably, comes hectoring down the street—no other word describes his attitude, when it is contrasted with that of the courteous138 Orientals round him. On the smallest provocation139, far too small a provocation, he threatens to kick this coolie, he swings that one out of the way and, instead of being shocked, I am distinctly relieved. Here is an exhibition of force, restrained force, that is welcome as a rude breeze, fresh from the sea or the mountains, is welcome in a heated, scented140 room. These people, even the poorer people of the streets, are suffering from over-civilisation, from over-refinement. They need a touch of the primitive savage43 to make the red blood run in their veins141. Not but that they can be savage, so savage on occasion, the hundredth occasion when no police could hold them, that their cruelty is such that there is not a man who knows them who would not keep the last cartridge142 in his revolver to save himself from the refinement of their tender mercies. 039But I did not make this reflection the first, or even the tenth time, I walked in the streets. It was a thing that grew upon me gradually. By the time I found I was making comparisons, the comparisons were already made and my opinions were formed. I looked at these strange men and women, especially at the small-footed women, and wondered what effect the condemning143 of fifty per cent of the population to years of torture had had upon the mental growth of this nation, and I raised my eyes to the mighty walls that surrounded the city, and knew that the nation had done wonderful things.
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1
disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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observatory
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| n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台 | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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superintendent
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| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
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6
grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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altruism
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| n.利他主义，不自私 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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9
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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10
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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11
reposing
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的现在分词 ) | |
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12
boiler
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| n.锅炉；煮器(壶，锅等) | |
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13
filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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15
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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16
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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17
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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18
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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19
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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20
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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21
gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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22
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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23
frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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24
dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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25
skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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26
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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27
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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28
conversational
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| adj.对话的，会话的 | |
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29
smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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30
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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31
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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32
peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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33
gainsaying
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| v.否认，反驳( gainsay的现在分词 ) | |
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34
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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35
bland
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| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
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36
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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37
cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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38
palls
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| n.柩衣( pall的名词复数 )；墓衣；棺罩；深色或厚重的覆盖物v.（因过多或过久而）生厌，感到乏味，厌烦( pall的第三人称单数 ) | |
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39
bulwarks
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| n.堡垒( bulwark的名词复数 )；保障；支柱；舷墙 | |
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40
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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41
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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42
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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43
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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44
nomads
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| n.游牧部落的一员( nomad的名词复数 )；流浪者；游牧生活；流浪生活 | |
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45
murmurs
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| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
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46
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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47
wedded
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|
| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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49
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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50
guardians
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| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
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51
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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52
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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53
gateway
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| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
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54
gateways
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| n.网关( gateway的名词复数 )；门径；方法；大门口 | |
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55
alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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56
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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57
incense
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| v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气 | |
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58
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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59
secluded
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| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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60
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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61
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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62
mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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63
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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64
weirdly
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| 古怪地 | |
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65
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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66
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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67
hemming
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| 卷边 | |
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68
teeming
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|
| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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69
industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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70
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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71
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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72
thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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73
slough
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| v.蜕皮，脱落，抛弃 | |
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74
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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75
scoop
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|
| n.铲子，舀取，独家新闻；v.汲取，舀取，抢先登出 | |
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76
lavishly
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| adv.慷慨地，大方地 | |
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77
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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78
upwards
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|
| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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79
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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80
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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81
seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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82
retired
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|
| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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83
verandas
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| 阳台，走廊( veranda的名词复数 ) | |
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84
graceful
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|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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85
oases
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|
| n.（沙漠中的）绿洲( oasis的名词复数 )；（困苦中）令人快慰的地方（或时刻）；乐土；乐事 | |
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86
ornamental
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|
| adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物 | |
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87
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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88
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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89
baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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90
boxer
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| n.制箱者，拳击手 | |
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91
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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92
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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93
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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94
martyrs
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|
| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
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95
astronomical
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|
| adj.天文学的，（数字）极大的 | |
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96
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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97
landmarks
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| n.陆标( landmark的名词复数 )；目标；（标志重要阶段的）里程碑 ~ (in sth)；有历史意义的建筑物（或遗址） | |
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98
orbs
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| abbr.off-reservation boarding school 在校寄宿学校n.球，天体，圆形物( orb的名词复数 ) | |
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99
barbarians
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| n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 )；外国人；粗野的人；无教养的人 | |
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100
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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101
slovenly
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| adj.懒散的，不整齐的，邋遢的 | |
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102
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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103
pagodas
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| 塔，宝塔( pagoda的名词复数 ) | |
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104
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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105
inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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106
abrogate
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| v.废止，废除 | |
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107
mingle
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| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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108
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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109
caress
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| vt./n.爱抚，抚摸 | |
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110
slabs
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| n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片 | |
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111
earthenware
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| n.土器，陶器 | |
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112
stew
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| n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑 | |
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113
vendor
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| n.卖主；小贩 | |
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114
hieroglyphics
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| n.pl.象形文字 | |
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115
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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116
arrogant
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的 | |
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117
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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118
whining
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| n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚 | |
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119
doles
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| 救济物( dole的名词复数 )； 失业救济金 | |
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120
reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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121
fervent
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| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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122
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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123
saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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124
horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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125
prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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126
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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127
nuptials
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| n.婚礼；婚礼( nuptial的名词复数 ) | |
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128
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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129
etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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130
amenable
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| adj.经得起检验的；顺从的；对负有义务的 | |
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131
strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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132
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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133
swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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134
reigns
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| n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 )；君主统治时期；任期；当政期 | |
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135
hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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136
bucks
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| n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
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137
refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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138
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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139
provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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140
scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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141
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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142
cartridge
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| n.弹壳，弹药筒；(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
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143
condemning
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| v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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