Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/200

142 the opinion that they encroached unduly upon the thoroughfare. Other reforms of an even more salutary nature have been carried out, the crowds of beggars who formerly encumbered the city having been taken in hand, with the result that they are now to be seen, marshalled in bands and shorn of their pigtails, carrying out useful public works under police supervision.

During my stay in the capital I was received in audience by the Viceroy Hsi Liang. Social intercourse in China, especially among the upper classes, is a science in itself, the complex nature of which is quite beyond the grasp of the average European intellect. To the Chinese versed in all the intricacies of an etiquette which is the product of generations of the most subtle-minded race on earth, every action, every gesture, every carefully-worded phrase, is replete with hidden meaning. The flattered foreigner, complacently accepting at their face value the flowery compliments discharged at him, may, for all he can tell, be the object all the time of biting insult and studied affront. He has probably himself