THIRTY THOUSAND MILES IN CHINA 21 



Chinese crowd do not aid one in such observations ! Some 

 idea of the numbers present and of their chief or at least 

 secondary occupation while watching me may be had from 

 the fact that next morning having need to return to the same 

 spot I had no difficulty whatever in locating my station for 

 in the midst of a great field all covered with the refuse of 

 chewed sugar-cane there was a bare spot eight feet square 

 that marked where my tent had stood. 



For the most part we lived in the regular inns when on 

 the main roads, though when not on a trade route and inns 

 were not available we often spent the night in the open dur- 

 ing warm whether and during wet or cold weather sought 

 shelter in some lone hut or cave-dwelling or if in a village 

 applied to some friendly shop-keeper or house-holder for space 

 to spread our cots and cook our meals. While often we had 

 to search for such accommodation this was usually only 

 because anything like a suitable space was hard to find, not 

 that the people were unwilling to aid us. In most cases in 

 fact, where we had to rely on the goodwill of a householder 

 and not on that of a regular innkeeper our entrance neces- 

 sitated a shift of a considerable part of his household or of 

 his goods, and taking everything into consideration the hospi- 

 tality afforded us was more than could reasonably be ex- 

 pected. 



But in some regions, especially in Northern Shansi and 

 Northern Shensi also, we encountered a peculiar and dis- 

 agreeable anti-foreign attitude on the part of many inn- 

 keepers even in the larger towns. Generally when approach- 

 ing a town or village in which we intended to stop for the 

 night 1 would let the cook go on so as to arrive well ahead of 

 us and have time to select and secure a proper place. Several 

 times it happened that even though his patronage had been 

 eagerly solicited by rival inn-keepers and there was evidently 

 no°lack of room, and he had definitely engaged his choice, 

 when I appeared and the inn-keepers saw that I was a 

 foreigner, a fact which the cook had been careful not to 

 reveal, we were flatly refused admittance and often had the 

 outer doors locked against us with an utter refusal to treat 

 with us at all. In such cases we would seek out the Christ- 

 ian Chapel if there were one and hope for better treatment at 

 the hands of the caretaker or if a mission chapel were not 

 available which was more often the case, we would seek the 

 assistance of the highest official in the town or of the head- 

 man in a village. But even under official pressure it was 

 difficult to gain an entrance to an inn in some of the towns 

 of northern Shansi and Shensi and sometimes it was 10 p.m. 

 before we secured a resting place though our caravan had 



