Page Sixteen 



111 a letter \viitteii from the Xortli China Language Sehoo!, of Peking, 

 Mr. Aithur Jacot, formerly of the Museum, writes: 



"We arrived in China after a pleasant trip and a stop of a few days at 

 our future station, Shantung rniversity." (Mr. Jaeot is to teach biology 

 at this I'niversity). "This is a very fine institution rai)idly being com- 

 l)leted, and situated at the foot of the hills overlooking the hundreds of 

 miles of dead level plain between the capital of Shantung jH'ovince and the 

 national capital where we now are. 



"School has just closed for the Christmas vacation, and we have some 

 well-earned leisure. Peking is the finest of Chinese cities. The lega- 

 tion quarter has asi)halt streets. The main streets of the city it.self are of 

 macadam. Peking boasts some 200 to 300 automobiles and there seems 

 to be no speed limit. There are no .subways or trolley cars. We travel 

 in rickshaws — a comfortable, quiet and uncrowded way of travel. The 

 city is illuminated l)y electricity and gas. We are living in a compound 

 which was once part of the palace of one of the princes. With us are some 

 fifty other people interested in the same type of work. We eat in a com- 

 mon dining room. It's not like a dormitory Ijecause each family has its 

 own house (of two rooms or more) and the houses are arranged into 

 courts of different sizes and shapes. Besides being very comfortable we 

 are in a fascinating environment. We walk or ride three-quarters of a 

 mile to school. Here not a word of English is spoken by our teachers 

 (Chinese). As a result we are already able to boss our servants around, 

 do our own shopping ntt<l bartering (an Oriental necessity), and ask 

 questions about interesting things we see (and there are lots of them). 

 Besides, we can read about 150 characters and write a few. It's easy 

 when you know how. Three or four times a week a foreigner (generally 

 an American) lectures to us on Chinese history, religions, art, philosophy, 

 etc. Thus we also know .something about the Chinese. We feel like the 

 croi>crammed bird — and then some. The other day we saw a coujile of 

 air-planes going northward; later they returnetl and did stunts over the 

 city. 



"What we miss most is the city's (New York's) din, our old friends 

 antl relatives and a library. True, the Rockefeller Medical College has a 

 fine library here, including all medical papers and then some, but no 

 systematic papers. You can understand how lost I am. On the side, as 

 a distraction, I'm doing .some work on my " bug" group. 



