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the festival of the "Autumn Moon"- Tomorrow, Tuesday, is the grand festival, but its preliminary festivities began yesterday and will end the latter part of this week.  The habit is to pay cash for all the gaiety of this event - hence the pressing need of money just now, and, hence, in a sense, my unlooked for quick accumulation of treasures.  Mr Oliver, the Secretary of Sir Robert Harts great custom's department, its absolute working Chief and and a reliable Englishman of thirty years experience in Chinese collecting told me today, while a guest in his charming home, that I could not have arrived here at a more propitious time.  He, too, buys Chinese paintings, and has bought liberally during the last three weeks, but he will not pay beyond a certain fixed price for any specimen, and knowing only the art of the Ming and Ching dynasties - all after 1368 A.D. his buying and mine have not, fortunately, clashed.

Thanks to Fenollosa's superior teachings and the splendid opportunities given me in Japan during the summer of 1907, when I saw practically all of the early Chinese paintings owned publicly and privately in Japan, I knew what to search for when I began my quest here two weeks ago.  I am, I believe, the very first foreigner who ever searched here ^[[I mean Peking]] scientifically and determinedly for paintings of the [[underlined]] Tang, Sung & Yuan Dynasties [[/underlined]].  The result carries me off my feet and almost out of my head.  Had I during all my stay in China secured a full half dozen specimens of the great men of the three dynasties named, I would have considered myself extremely lucky.  But the fact is [[strikethrough]] I have [[/strikethrough]] I have already in my possession here, over