[7] Her Majesty said my individuality was not lost in these costumes, and that I was clothed in attire suitable to the Chinese interior. She had now devised a costume for me which was really in harmony with my new environment. Our rough tweeds and somber garments, outlining and defining the figure, looked mesquin and out of place in these great halls. The bright colors and simple lines of the gowns of the Chinese ladies are much more in keeping with their interiors. Her Majesty’s artistic taste had divined this, and she had made several attempts to devise something for me that was in harmony with the Chinese “milieu” and at the same time comfortable.
[8] Also spelled jiu.
[9] Since the above was in type I find the following in F. Laur’s “Siège de Péking.” In speaking of the cause of the Boxer rising, he quotes Dr. Matignon as saying:
“C’est l’Europe tout entière qu’il faut mettre en cause. C’est parce qu’elle n’a pas compris les Chinois, c’est parce qu’elle a cru que ce peuple doux, somnolent, passif, pouvait, sans regimber, accepter toutes les innovations, toutes les humiliations, que l’Europe s’est laissée entrainer, et par ses missionnaires, et par ses ingénieurs....
Voilà pourquoi le mouvement Boxeur s’est produit. Ce mouvement, c’est l’éveil du patriotisme chinois, avec toute l’intransigeance d’un nationalisme aveugle, ignorant, mais légitime.”
TRANSCRIBERS’ NOTES
The following changes have been applied to the text:
- Page 30: “transcience” changed to “[transience]”: It was a plaint on the transience of worldly glory
- Page 94: a period was added to the end of: reaches a high state of cultivation with [them.]
- Page 95: “pendative” changed to “[pendentive]”: The carved wood ceilings were in pendentive designs
- Page 125: “Macchiavellian” changed to “[Machiavellian]”: no Machiavellian schemes would be forwarded
- Page 204: “pendatives” changed to “[pendentives]”: dome, with elaborately carved pendentives, was painted in
- Page 238: “ge” changed to “[get]”: it was impossible to get any atmosphere in the background
- Page 247: “Hierachy” changed to “[Hierarchy]”: the Priestly Hierarchy of the whole
All inconsistencies in the hyphenation of words and the spelling of names have been standardized.