China and the West

Letter from Lucy Dewey to Dewey children
135 Morrison Street, Sunday, Jan 4 [1920]
Dear Folks.
Its been perfect ages since I have written but I have inumerable alibis. In the first place when we first decided to furnish the flat ourselves I went with Mamma to furniture street to look for stuff. I got so cold running around their old stone houses that I was laid up in bed with tonsilitis for two days. I rose from my bed of pain to go to Mrs Hortons dance and it quite cured me. Also I had a very nice time. There are a lot of Italian officers here arranging for D'Annunzios Rome Tokyo flight. They are like Italian officers every where and most amusing. Also Admiral Gleaves and all his staff were there, much gold lace and uniforms.
The next day was spent in frantice packing, moving, and buying furniture and a tea dance in the afternoon by way of a rest. I see Dad has writ[t]en numerous letters and told about Shantung. We had an interesting time there and in some ways quite entertaining. You should have seen us chummig with the savage Ma Liang. I sat next him at the Governors dinner and as he is a Mohamedan he couldnt eat anything. I couldnt converse with him very well and neither did the man on the other side so he amused himself by brushing his mustache with a cunning little brush he carries in his pocket. He has the best manners and seems the most amiable of any of those people we have met except Tuchun Yen of Shansi. He may put his old family doctor to death by torture but he doesnt act that way in public.
We stopped for three days in Tientsin, got there New Years Eve with our trunk delayed and so were exiled to a remote place outside the dining room for diner. There are street cars in Tientsin and we were so thrilled by the sight that we promptly jumped on one and rode. There isnt a great deal there in the way of sights, just the concessions, like any small town, and the Chinese city.
It was very interesting, the first place in China where the Chinese women get out-and-do things that Ive seen. They say Tientsin and Shanghai are the only two. They men and women students work together on committees and in a small audience of about thirty that Suh Hu [Hu Shi] spoke to they sat together. The girls that came to receive us were the nicest and most interesting that I have met in China. They can talk, which is a great relief, start conversations of their own accord and not have things pulled out by questions all the time. And they talk about everything that a girl at home talks about. Two of them, cunning little mites of things, are going to America next year to prepare for college and are planning to go about the same time we do, so we may come home with them under our arms. I hope so.
Poor Mamma has been out all morning buying dishpans and things so we can have something to eat without sponging off the neighbors.
6.30 p.m.
Mother and I have been in the house about half an hour now after a wild afternoon hunting for a parlor table and soem cooking things. The rickshaw man has just come up to say that the soldiees are looting out un the Chinese city and all the shops are shut. We seem to have got in just in time that is where we were. It all looked peaceful enough then. There have been rumors of an attempt to restore the boy emperor and we are wondering if this is the first act. I have just been out in the kitchen to tell the boy to go down and see what he could find out from the people in the street and the cook informed me Liu go down side. So as soon as Liu go top side again I shall continue this and tell you what he has found out.
Ha says that last night the soldiers roobeed a Chinese bank and tonight are robbing more. They Belong to Feng Kuo Chang an ec-president now deceased. He died a few days ago and omitted to pay the soldiers before so doing. They haveny been paid in four months and now apparently they are collecting. This afternoon when Mamma and I first went out we passed a lot of soldiers taking a huge gun along the streets and this explains it. There may be no end of trouble now as the whole administration is in a mess from the teachers strike. Chancellor Tsai has resigned and disappeared again and it looks as tho the whole educational system had gone kersmash. Now the rest may go too. The soldiers are recruited f[r]om the brigands and the brigands from the ex-soldiers, so there isnt much choice. On the whole the soldiers behave pretty well when they are paid, but nobody in China has been paid now for several months. This mornings paper had an awful story about the soldiers in Tsinanfu, which we seem to have left just in time. There they enteres a theater where the studenys were celebrating New Years with some plays they gave themselves. The soldiers boke in and attacked the students, beating them down, two were injured so badly that they may die. The girls were attacked and robbed, some even of their clothes. The military police finally came to the rescue and drove out the police and recovered some of the stolen property. The city is under martial law, I never saw so many soldiers standind around with their bayonets fixed in my life nd hope I never do again. It gives you creepy feeling, not at all pleasant to come on a large bunch of bayonets every tim[e] you go round a corner.
Well, I must finish this and get it off or it will hang on forever. We found a lot of mail waiting for us and it sure was welcome. Loads of love to all and I hope Elizabeth had a nice birthday.
[Lucy Dewey]