Viewing page 159 of 187

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

155

Saturday, 15 January
Another Christmas gift today, and a very welcome one indeed, a fine box of most attractive candles from Aunt Bess.  After lunch Dorothy and I walked northwards to look at houses.  There was one just back of the American Board Mission, from which Dr. and Mrs. Wang will be moving soon.  It is a Chinese house, and very nice in some features, but not so nice in others.  The rent is a little high, and the whole place will have to be done over if it is to be worth living in.  It has no fireplace and no good place for one.  I think we shall look further.

We walked on up to Ma Shih Ta Chieh, and poked in a few junk shops, then Dorothy came home while I went to school.

In the evening I had a Provokers meeting.  We met at Dr. Kessel's, and Judge Hu of the Supreme Court met with us.  He spoke of various things in connection with Chinese jurisprudence, and we had a long and active discussion afterwards.  Among other things he said that divorce is increasing in China, for now women can, for the first time, get divorces.  The judges, however, do not encourage divorce, and usually refuse women's pleas [[strikethrough]] e [[/strikethrough]] unless there is overwhelming evidence that a divorce is the only possible course.  They are conservative and do not ^[[want]] women to get too independent.  We spoke at lengths of laws, and were again impressed with the excellence of some of the natives codes, and the s^[[e]]rious work being done to make their application effective.  I cannot criticize China quite so harshly, however, when I remember that I come from Chicago.  The meeting broke up early, about midnight.

Sunday, 17 January
This morning we had another of our famous breakfast parties.  The guest were Cr. and Mrs. Paul Stevenson, Dr. and Mrs. Lee Miles, and Dr. Ruth Guy.  It was a hilarious party.

Dorothy and I had a good hike out to Liu Li Ch'ang to get some reproductions of Chinese paintings for the library.  We bought over $100 worth, and then came home.  In the evening we went to the Hotel du Nord, taking Louise, and ate beef-