One of the most delightful Chinese that I met during my stay in Tangshan was Mr. Sze Ping Tze, who was a graduate of Cornell University and at this time Locomotive Superintendent of the Imperial Railways of North China. He was also an high official of the Kaiping Coal Mines. Several years ago he was private secretary to Yuan Shi-Kai, later President of the Chinese Republic. I spent many pleasant evenings with Mr. Sze and became well acquainted with him. On one occasion I said to him,
"Give me a job as conductor on one of your trains running from Peking to Hankow."
"Why do you want it?" he asked.
"When I get to Hankow I will quit and I shall then be several hundred miles farther along on my trip—at your expense," I replied with a smile.
Sze thought this was a great joke and, laughing, said, "Why, I can do better than that for you; I will give you a pass."
"All right," I said, "I won't forget that and when the time comes for me to leave Tangshan I will remind you of it."
"What's more," continued Sze, "I will give you a letter of introduction to my brother in Hankow. He is vice-president of the Chinese Steamship and Navigation Company and I am sure he will give you a pass on the Yangtsze River from Hankow to Shanghai."
"Fine business; and maybe I will be able to get a lift there from some one that will shoot me through to Manila," I concluded, feeling that the conversation had been a very profitable one.
When the time came for my departure from Tangshan Sze was true to his word. President Young gave me a railroad pass from Tangshan to Peking, distance of two hundred miles; Sze's pass from Peking to Hankow was over nine hundred miles and the letter to his brother brought the third pass down the Yangtsze River to Shanghai, a distance of nine hundred miles more. As a result I obtained free passage for two thousand miles in China—and all first-class. If all the circumstances were reversed, what chance would a young Chinese, working his way in America, have of teaching in the University of California, living with the president of the college, getting a pass from an high official of the Southern Pacific from San Francisco to St. Louis and thence down the Mississippi to New Orleans?