114 A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA 



devoted to carpentry in all its branches, boot-shops, shops 

 devoted to hornware, skins and furs, embroideries, second-hand 

 clothes shops, silk goods, foreign goods, and so forth. Silk- 

 weaving is the great industry in Chengtu, hundreds of looms 

 being in use. 



Evidences of Occidental influence abound. A provincial 

 university and many schools for imparting Western learning 

 exist. Two agricultural experimental farms, an arsenal, mint, 

 bazaar, and many buildings of semi-foreign design. The arsenal 

 and farms are outside the city. An electric lighting plant was 

 operating at the time of my last visit (1910), and the installation 

 of a telephone service was in progress. The Imperial Post 

 is strongly established here under control of Europeans, and 

 this is the only Western innovation really accomplishing good 

 work. The others (and I have not covered them all) are 

 experiments pure and simple. These are controlled by 

 officials among whom jealousy is rife and peculation not un- 

 known. The good intentions of honest officials are easily 

 nulhfied by jealous-minded sycophants and ultra-conserva- 

 tives. The city exhibits numerous examples of blighted 

 experiments, some of them mere follies, but the majority 

 calculated to be beneficial if properly controlled and carried 

 through. The city-fathers and officials have exhibited mad 

 haste to acquire such Western knowledge as they deem useful. 

 They have no real idea of what they want, and there is little 

 co-ordination in any matter. The students rule the colleges ; 

 their fathers, the gentry, rule the province. " China for the 

 Chinese," and "away with all foreigners and foreign influence" 

 is their slogan. This cry is perfectly legitimate, but they should 

 move slowly. They think they are fully fledged men, whereas 

 they are mere babes in the knowledge of the things they covet 

 so much. The unfortunate Rebellion which has spread with 

 such rapidity and brought about so much disaster to the nation, 

 originated with the hot-heads of Chengtu. Primarily it was 

 aimed not so much against the dynasty as against foreign capital. 

 The Central Government had agreed to a foreign loan, which, 

 amongst other things, had for its object the construction of a 

 railway from Hankow to Chungking. It was this loan that was 

 the fat in the fire which produced the conflagration— the last 



