194 A COLLECTING TRIP 
ey 
and each perfectly finished in very detail, really ex- 
quisite. He paid twelve and a half American cents 
for each picture. They are just like miniatures. Very 
kindly he gave me some and [I tried everywhere to 
duplicate them this morning, but found that I could 
not. The one drawback to this place is dirt and filth. 
The street odors are beyond the beyond. I always go 
well armed with eau de Cologne. 
We stopped at Chefoo and Tientsin on the way 
up here. Chefoo has nothing of any interest in the 
way of pagodas, or temples, to see, but it is famous for 
its large Catholic mission, where the Chinese girls are 
taught, among other accomplishments, to make lace 
and weave silk. I saw piece after piece of pongee silk 
(for that is the kind they make here) of twenty yards, 
for two dollars, three dollars and the extra fine for 
four dollars. Like a fool I bought none, but it is 
simply no use; you cannot buy everything you see. 
But I did, thank goodness, buy enough lace for a waist 
(sold lace) beautifully done and very attractive pat- 
terns. Of course, now I am thinking how stupid it 
was not to have bought more. 
At Tientsin they make rugs; perhaps you have 
heard of them. Any way, on the Coptic, coming from 
Hong Kong to Shanghai, a Mrs. Knox, wife of Ad- 
miral Knox, said : ‘‘If you go to Tientsin, my dear, 
be sure and buy rugs. The Admiral years ago got 
me one and I have used it steadily ever since and it 
it still as good as new.’’ So accordingly Tom and I 
went rug hunting, really more out of curiosity than 
for any other purpose. Our rickshaw coolies took us 
to a funny out-of-the-way shop and there I saw rugs 
of every pattern and shade in all stages of progress of 
