13 
Surely those who "believe In an Almighty, 
All-good, All-wise Creator must feel themBelvee 
strongly shaken up inwardly "by events as take 
place now hourly. Is this the way humanity 
must make room on this earth from time to time? 
And if thru wars we could only say "yes, the 
"best of everything persists or is "being made 
even "better", but it is not . 
The review in the Journal of Heredity of 
Madison Grant's "The Great Race Passes", awakens 
strange feelings in one. One "breed on earth to- 
day, tomorrow another! Mor^ on, "boys J 
How a few personal jottings. Since it has 
"become known that I am out again in China many 
people "begin to correspond with me, especially 
American missionaries, and this correspondence 
imposes an additional burden upon one and one 
can not ignore it, since so many have given me 
of their hospitality and have often materially 
assisted in getting me what I was after. The 
looking after all of my correspondence, how- 
ever, could only be settled by a Buddha with 
48 arms 
The money exchange problems here are becom- 
ing more complicated. Silver continues to rise 
and gold falls consequently. Where formerly one 
sometimes got for one American dollar .f?.40 Mex. 
now one receives but tl.56. For people "oaid in 
U.S. gold, like myself for instance and the host 
of American missionaries, this means a consider- 
able lessening of our incomes for so far as we 
have to make purchases here. For those, however, 
being paid in silver and who transmit their money 
to countries with gold standards this is a boon, 
also to those who purchase material in their home 
countries. --So here you have the correctness again 
of the old saying: "It is an ill wind that blows 
nobody good". 
We have an unusually cold winter here; the 
ice in the canals is over a foot thick and the 
Chinese are busy harvesting it for their ice- 
houses. --On the poor it works out very hard 
though, and in the country I suppose quite a few 
people must have frozen to death. One hears so 
little of such cases thru the newspapers here 
and perhaps it is better so; there is misery 
enough to talk about nowadays. 
Within a few days I hope to go into the in- 
terior and then a rougher sort of life will be 
mine again. 
December 31. 1917. 
