When General Grant visited China, on his tour around the world, Li Hung Chang received him with especial attention, and the two great men became firm friends.

Soon after war between China and Japan was declared in 1894, Li Hung Chang was deprived by the emperor of his yellow coat and his peacock feather, the badges of his power, because the Chinese army was defeated in battle. This is the usual custom in China when a general has been defeated, and it is designed to inspire him to greater efforts in future battles, in order to regain the emperor's favor. The war resulted in the total defeat of the Chinese forces.

Li Hung Chang was soon restored to power, and at the close of the war was sent to Japan to arrange a treaty of peace.

Leaving Tientsin, a journey of eighty miles brings us to the great capital of the Chinese Empire. Peking, the imperial city, is one of the largest cities on the globe. It has the undesirable reputation of being the dirtiest city in the world. It is surrounded by a wall forty-five feet high, and so wide that six horses could be driven on it abreast. It seems to be, what in reality it always has been, a great and strongly fortified camp. All around the wall runs a wide moat, the beginning of the Grand Canal.

Peking is a very ancient city, so old that no record remains of its foundation. It is supposed that as long ago as the time when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea there was here a flourishing city.

Peking is made up of three cities, the "Tartar City,"

the "Chinese City," and the "Forbidden City." The Tartar, or imperial, city is six miles in circumference, and is occupied by the nobility and the soldiers. Here, too, are the numerous public buildings. The "Forbidden City," surrounded by a wall and also by a moat, includes the palaces of the emperor and his court. Foreigners are not allowed to enter it, and must be content with a view of the yellow roofs of the palaces to be seen from the top of the city wall.

The emperor is like a prisoner within the "Forbidden City," only coming out from his seclusion at stated times. Notice of this great event is sent abroad by heralds. He is held in greatest reverence, as is shown by his title "Son of Heaven"; and only those who by reason of high rank are near to him are allowed to look upon his face.

In the celebration of all great religious ceremonies the emperor is the high priest of the empire. At vari ous points about the city are the temples to Heaven, Earth, Sun, and Moon.

At each of these temples the emperor worships in

person.

When he goes to worship at the "Temple of Heaven," the people along the way are obliged to prostrate themselves and to so remain until he has passed. Along the principal street great yellow screens are hung to prevent the shopkeepers and bystanders from looking at him.

The city proper is fourteen miles in circumference. Unlike those of other Chinese cities, the principal

avenues are very broad, some of them being eighty, and even one hundred, feet in width. On these are the shops and warehouses. The side streets and lanes contain the houses and smaller shops.

The population that crowds the narrow lanes, and that surges in and out of the gateways of the city, makes a vivid picture of life in China.

Here are mandarins borne along in curtained palanquins; merchants in clumsy carts so common in Peking; priests wearing flowing yellow robes; coolies bearing heavy burdens; criminals in cangues (wooden frames placed about the criminals' necks) on which are inscribed the crimes for which they have been sentenced. The punishment for crime is very severe in China, and it is well-known that every year large numbers of criminals are beheaded for offenses which in other countries are punished with little severity.

Here in Peking is the great examination hall where, every three years, students come from all parts of the empire to take the examinations which, if successfully passed, will give them the highest positions under the government. This hall is really a large inclosure, on all sides of which are rows of cells. Each cell contains two boards, or shelves, which serve as chair and table by day, and can be placed together and used for a bed at night. In these narrow cells the candidates are compelled to stay for two or three days at a time, while they write the essays and poems which constitute the examination.

Each candidate carries with him the food he will

need during the examination, and with it a little stove on which he can prepare his rice and tea. This examination can be taken only after years of preparation, and is an event of the greatest importance in the life of a Chinaman. "Secure an education and become an official," is an expression familiar to every Chinese boy. He is sent to school with this end in view, as in no other way can he ever reach any position of influence. In this particular the poor boy has an equal chance with the son of a rich man, for in these examinations each must stand on his own merits.

Schools are to be found all over the great Chinese Empire, and in every school the pupils are learning the same lessons and being instructed in exactly the same

manner.

A Chinese boy begins to go to school at five years of age, and continues to go nine hours a day and every day in the week until he completes the course of study.

The schoolroom is not an attractive place. A plain table and chair for the teacher, and a smaller table and bench for each pupil, comprise the furnishing. But to these must be added the bamboo rod and the spectacles, the master's implements of warfare.

The boy commits to memory the book given him by his teacher. He studies every lesson by shouting it over and over again at the top of his voice. The quiet boy is singled out for his idleness by the teacher and is made acquainted with the bamboo rod. The noise made in a room crowded with studious boys can easily be imagined.

There are no regular classes, as in our schools, and