Article August 16, 1900 Issue

Letters from China

Mrs. Conger tells of Visit to Empress Dowager.

Des Moines (Ia.) Leader

Letters written within the past eighteen months by Mrs. Edwin H. Conger, wife of the American minister at Pekin, to a friend in Des Moines, were made public recently. They told of the visit of the foreign ministers' wives to the empress dowager and royal family, of a visit by the ladies of the American legation to the wife of Li Hung Chang and of the return visit, of the ceremonial new year visit of the yamen to the American legation, and of the new year's courtesies extended by the servants of the American legation.

These letters from Mrs. Conger reveal her friendliness for the Chinese, and her hope that an era of better feeling between China and the western world was about to open. The first letter, telling of the visit to the empress dowager, follows :

"China is such a strange land, but each day I see more that I count of value to me. The Chinese do not seem to have hard, severe, grieved, anxious, revengeful, unresigned, unhappy expressions on their faces, as a class. No, their faces do not have lines that indicate these feelings. They take everything that comes to them as a matter of course. I am told that they are ungrateful. But may it not be that they take the good things that come to them as a matter of course as well as the ills? If they are not to grieve over their misfortunes they are not to rejoice over their successes. Our house boys do not seem like married men with families. But they are. They are so quiet, and careful, and tasty, and exact about their work that they seem more like gentle, careful, well-bred girls than men. I wish that I could understand their feelings. What do they think? They wear long gowns, sleeveless jackets, broad white cuffs, velvet hats, and boots. They look real nice. I have become much attached to all our servants.

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