929 Cheeloo University, Tsinan January 6th, 1929 Dear Folks This is my first letter to you in the New Year and I hope it will be the opening of a good year for you all. Mother waited till after the New Year's celebrations to send off last week's letter, so there is not much for me to record this week. We have been having fairly cold weather going as low as 13 one morning and it has been rather more cloudy than we like. We have had more snow this year than ordinarily. We had one day's holiday at the New Year. We have this week to teach regular lessons and probably a couple of days review by themselves before examinations begin on the 16th. After exam will come the winter holidays. I think that they are between three and four weeks. The National government is trying to forbid the observance of two yeas and wanted to forbid the printing of the lunar calendar but they were too late and calendars had already been issued. Some years ago an attempt was made to change to the solar year but it was little more than official the people all keeping to the old. I do not know whether or not this new effort will be more sustained. On Friday a big mail came in from quite a number of people. Mo was the only one of the immediate family who had a letter, the one written just after he had had a cold. It was an American mail. We are hoping for a CPR mail next week when we ought to hear from the rest of the folks. We had thought that by this time we would have some idea of the Christmas arrangements. Mo mentioned that there was a block in the plans for the Shaws going to Florida, which was making a rearrangement. We shall wait expectantly to hear what really happened. We had letters from Van and Fred, but they were before Mo's letter, planning for leaving Dec 17. Friday evening we were over to the east suburb for dinner at Mrs. Hamilton's. She and mother were old friends in the American Presbyterian mission a way back at the beginning of the century. As mother has had a sore side for two or three weeks, she did not want to take a rickshaw, as it is pretty rough on some of the stone pavements. Besides it is cold in a rickshaw. We have no bicycle clamps, so we decided to walk. We walked both ways. It took 3/4 hour each way and we got home at eleven o'clock. We were nice and warm and not too tired to sleep after it. If we were going in the daytime we would go outside the wall to the southeast gate; but at night it would not be easy to get through that gate. So we went in by the New Gate at our own gate, telling the porter we would be late. They are very good about letting us through at night usually. That night there was quite a party at the Evans. Miss Evans has spent a couple of years in France. She gave a French party, French decorations, food servings, etc. They said it was quite a unique thing. This evening Miss Miner is coming in to supper with us. She is one of the staff of the Theological school and the dean of women in the university. She is an old timer in China. We were looking over a book, "Beautiful Peking" and at one place I remarked that I marched through the Forbidden City with the troops the first time they went through. She said she was on the wall at Chien Men watching them march through. We were interrupted here by the dentist coming in. He is a new addition to the staff and is living with Dr. McClure - the Chicago Kid, as the Dr. calls him. He is only about 26 and has knocked about various parts of the world as sailor, beachcomber, etc. It is refreshing to hear him talk for a while but I do not know how he and Dr. McClure will strike it. Maybe all right. There is enough of likeness to Bob. At church this evening we had a Southern Baptist and I was rather disappointed with him. We came together from Japan and I like him. But his sermon was polemic - anti-social gospel. I suppose he felt the message was necessary, but I feel that in our services it would be better to emphasize the things on which we can agree rather than on those in which we find we have to differ. Jan 9 I have not had time to get this finished before this - or did not take it. While mother is sorting out the Christmas cards received, I'll try to get done before supper. Sorry the ribbon is so dim. I thought I had a new ribbon. So I took off my old one and threw it in the fire. I found my new one was one, which I had taken off the machine and not thrown into the fire. I am waiting for some more from MacKenzie. We were glad to get your letter. It was the latest we have had from Toronto as there were few letters from our own people in this bunch, though a good many from others. We had several from St.George's church including one from Mr. Bale. By this time you will be back at classes again for the last term's pull. I hope you are able to get in good work and come out with colors flying. When does the Council examination come? What is the fee for it? I suppose that you will not be any too flush for money for it. Between what you are getting monthly from me and what you get from Uncle Rob and the scholarship, you ought to be fairly on easy street during the term with your position in the hospital. I hope that you finish with some on hand. Mother and I had been talking someone the matter and thought that we would like to make you a present of something to pay your council fees. We do not know what it is but we thought about $100. This will be the end of your long college course and you will begin life with the handicap of a considerable debt. I hope that you will try to get that worked off as soon as you possibly can, so that you can face life squarely. Bill was about 26 when he finished and was able to be about square financially. You will graduate at 23 with fairly large debt. However your profession is generally a more lucrative one than Bill's and by the time you get as old as he you ought to be making good inroads on the amount of that debt. Don't let it hang on. Lead the simple life rather than be under the incubus. Let us know about the council and we shall try to have $100 for you for it as the finish off. Let us know as soon as you can what you plan on doing. Remember us to any of the boys who are interested in us. Your loving father, Robert A. Mitchell ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo Tsinan, Shangtun January 13, 1929 Hello Everybody Here goes for the report for this week. Mo's letter of the 9th of December arrived sometime ago & Jay's of Nov 27th came in yesterday with the books sent for Christmas. The parcels get shifted to one side when there is a rush as at Christmas, hence the delay in her letter reaching us. There is no C.P.R. steamer due again for four weeks or more but there will be some mail put on the President steamers as they call at Victoria. Mo's letter must hve been just in time for a steamer & so came through on the shortest time. Jay's letter also Mabel's, speaks as though the Shaws & Hills were leaving Dec for Florida on Dec 17, while Mo's which is written later mentions the 8 Board doctor is somewhat unwilling to give leave of absence. We must wait till the next mail comes before we will know whether they went or not. You will hear about our Christmas about the time we learn of your doings. This is the week of universal prayer & we were at meetings Monday, Tuesday at 5pm in a house near us. Wednesday was at 8.15 & the other side of the compound & as we were tired got into bed about the time people were gathering at the meeting. Friday morning Dr. Monroe of Columbia was here giving a lecture on some of the educational questions in China today. With him came Dr. Leighton Stewart of Yien Chin University of Peking. The secretary for China colleges is also one of the party. We were asked by the president to entertain him & he has been with us since then. Being one of the few houses without children it seems we have less hindrances to receiving guests. We have enjoyed hearing him talk on a number of questions which have come up in different parts of China on educational matters. He is in touch with them & knows what is going on. He leaves tonight about 9pm. Friday we attended educational meetings & in the evening spent the time quickly talking with our guest. There was a tea in the administrative building. Rob got one class off & I hurried my work at the Hospital through & we were not too late. At one end of the tea table sat a foreigner pouring tea & at the other a Chinese wife of a member of the staff. The wives of President & Deans were passing around tea & cake as naturally as anyone at home would do. It seemed strange to have a Chinese woman step up to me & in real good English say, "Mrs. Mitchell you must have another cup of tea for the first one was very weak". I yielded my cup & shortly she returned with it followed by another with cream & sugar. These women some of them have been educated abroad, some in colleges here & are usually from homes where they were born into Christian families & none have bound feet. Most of them wear the Chinese gown & they do look very pretty in their brightly colored silks. Most of the men except in real cold weather wear the English dress. Monday evening we entertained Mr. Lo & his wife. He is dean of Theology school. We had spent a very pleasant evening in their home some weeks ago. They were also with us last evening again but just a quiet meal as he taught under Mr. Cressy, our guest for several years. Mr. Lo is entertaining his faculty to a lunch in the "Y" cafeteria at noon today. Rob will be off with them & I alone at noon. The prayer meeting yesterday was in the east suburb. We had decided not to go as it would be dark wheeling home & we were having company to supper. About 4pm our neighbor came over to say they would be glad to have us go with them in their car. Of course we were delighted & went. We had a pleasant ride & enjoyed meeting the friends over there. One of the doctors there whom I knew before I was married has his son with him. Mrs. Johnson was telling me he leaves this week. He has been with them for three weeks & goes on to the Language school in Peking. We hope Bill will be doing that next year. The last two weeks I have been letting my house go a little as holidays near but this week have to get to work when we agreed to take this guest. All the curtains got a good shake, the rugs pounded & the Christmas cards put out of the way. Since they came they have been standing on the mantle & top of bookcase, which means dusting is not done every day. Then we had to move a bed around from another room in order to get him in a room where there was some heat. However an extra cleanup is good for us all. My holidays really began yesterday. Dear Mo I have just been out to a dedication service of the child of Baptist parents. It was mostly the S.S. & parents of S.S. children who were present. It was a very nice service but I see no reason why they might not have put a little water on her head. But they have as good a right to their opinion as I have & more so as the child is theirs. Dad is off to the "Y" & here comes my lunch so adieu for now. Wish ou could come & eat with me & we would talk good & hard. Wish the aeroplane was cheaper & safer & we might at least have one visit with our loved ones during the term. But letters must do in the meantime. We are so glad you are keeping up your end of the letters. We have the latest from you Dec 7. One of the meds in my third year class has come down with T.B. Several times he has gone to H.P.T. with cold or some other trouble but nothing was fund to prove their suspicions. Now Bacilli has been found & by X-Ray a considerable part of both lungs are involved. His home is up in Mukden. I do not know whether word has been sent to his parents or not. I shall only have 8 papers in the Medical history exam to read. I was very sorry for he is a bright and a nice boy. Jay wrote that Dr. Jeffs thought she was getting along O.K. & that she was resting for there was positively nothing to do. She seemed to be feeling very lonely from her letter. It was written the night after her birthday & she had just had word you could not go down for the military ball. But you wrote Pat was to be there & she would be glad to attend that dance & we shall hear from her about it later. We have a daffodil in bloom & two hyacinths almost out. Lettuce is doing very well & we may have some next week. Also peppergrass is coming on. I do not know what we shall do about a garden this summer as our future here or in Honan is unsettled yet. I cannot think of anything more of interest so shall say adieu for this week. Lovingly, mother Jennie H. Mitchell P.S. Hope to hear about basketball trip in later letters. Daffodil night send us the Epistaxis. --------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Sinan, China Jan 22, 1929 Dear Folks I am beginning the letters late this week as I have been resting a couple of days. The latter part of last week my innards took a turn of being too active, so I lay about Sunday and Monday to quiet them down. I am about today, but keeping to the house though I am about all right again, barring a little of the after weakness. Lat week was not quite the normal course of life, being our examination week for the end of the term. Now we are in the holidays, though I have some papers in Chinese still unread. Sunday evening we were out at the first meeting to the Literary Society. It was a paper on "Thomas Hard" by Mr. Burt of Tsinghcowfu. Mr. Burt was for many years in the University and was the dean of theology before Dr. McRae. He is now the superintendent of the Baptist mission of the three provinces. His home was about twenty miles from Thomas Hardy's birthplace, and he is as familiar with the localities about which Hardy writes as he is with the region around here. It was an excellent paper given with great zest, making one almost wish he knew something of Hardy. One cannot get everything he wants in this life. I am wanting to get at Chinese study, at general reading, theological reading, etc., but do not seem to get very far with any of them, but we are doing a fair amount. Tuesday was the last day of teaching and that not very regular. I just took it as an opportunity for the bys to ask questions. They started off on Wednesday morning with their English. That meant that I got a good batch of papers to go at right at once. My other two papers in Civics and Apostolic History came on Friday. I finished up all of the middle school subjects and handed in results by Saturday night but I have still some of the theological work to do. We do not give the results in it at once. Reading Chinese is a good deal slower for me than reading English and I have not had any examinations to re-read in it for almost four years. How the time slips away. That last term was not a very pleasant one, as we had constant trouble because of lacking competent teachers in the Chinese literature and the communistic influence was just getting a grip on some of the students, making them ready for the final blowup after the Shanghai incident. We shall have over three weeks holidays. I want to get at the radio, and see if I can get it working in proper shape. Then we have a whole lot of things such as housecleaning, which are just waiting the holidays; and lying late in bed and reading. It is not the time of year to go away sightseeing. Neither is it easy to get away from here now except the one direction. That reminds me that we have hopes of the railroad running soon. The railway bridge is being repaired at least temporarily and they are hoping to run a train across about the end of this month. I understood that freight trains were going to run in here from the South a week ago, but do not know whether it is accomplished or not. There is a great fiasco just now about the railway. In the British House of Commons some asked whether it was true that the shareholders of the Tsinpu railway were losing because the Japanese were holding rolling stock at Tsinan. That started the thing. The Japanese minister in Peking issued a statement that the Japanese were not holding and had never held the rolling stock at Tsinan. The Chinese minister of railways decided to test this out and sent Mr. Hearne, an Englishman, the chief engineer of the road up to go through to Tsinan by train to test as to whether or not the cars were detained. With them were two newspaper correspondents, one representing the British North China Herald, and one representing the Weekly Review, an American paper. They came along all right to Tsinan. There they were told that they could not go on as the Japanese could not allow any traffic in the 20 li zone, and they were afraid that they would lose a locomotive. Many delays kept them and at last they walked the last three miles into the Tsinan station. I have had the two reports in the papers. One makes out the whole thing as Chinese bluff and the other makes it out as the fear of Japanese, which they have imposed on the Chinese. The Chinese critic says the two reports are as conflicting as truth and falsehood. They take the American one to be the truth. I do not know that they are justified in doing that. I should say that they looked like the reports of the paid agents of the Japanese and the Chinese respectively. As to the report that Mr. Hearne brought back to the government, I do not know. I understand that the Japanese would not trade with him as they did not recognize his credentials. They saw the rolling stock here all right, 51 locomotives, 33 passenger cars, 9 service cars, and 492 freight cars, which have been lying idle since last May 1st. However it comes about we hope that the two countries will soon come to some agreement about things. The Chinese have announced that the new tariff will come into force on the first of February. Agreements have been entered into with practically all the powers on the subject, except Japan. When the Japanese do get out of here I do not know how things will be. The ordinary thing has been that there have been a good many nationalist excesses and that discipline in schools is almost an impossibility. If it should be that the province is under the jurisdiction of Feng You Hsian, it will probably be better, for he is beginning to see that it will not do to let school boys run the country. Last week we were at lunch with the Abernathy's. They were on the same boat with us from Japan. The other people of their mission who were on the boat had come up from Tsining for an outing, so that we had quite a boat party. Saturday evening we were at Dr. Shields'. He is the Dean of the Medical Faculty. His daughter is teaching the missionaries' children's school here. She just came back with them last autumn after being home a number of years. The other people were the Smilys, who have just lately joined the staff after being in the Rockefeller hospital in Peking, Coral Brodie, and a gentleman from Tsian who is up here to get some dental work done. Dr. McClure cabled home last week to see whether the doctors thought that he ought to go home now or wait till June. He got a reply that there was no need for him to go now. He will probably sail from Kobe on June 11th, not to return. They would like him to bring Margaret out here and he stay on at work for a time, but I think that he things he had better not bring her out when he is as old as he is. Let us hear when you can as to what your post-graduation plans. Sorry we cannot be there the time you get your degree. Tell us also about the other boys whom we know so that we shall have some idea as to where to think of them. About 1930 or '31 I am afraid that our people in Honan are going to be in an awful dearth of doctors. There are only Struthers, Reeds, and Margaret Forster there now; Reeds is due furlough in '30 and Struthers in '31. Bob McClure is likely staying in Formosa till June '30 and then he is due furlough. I don't know the prospects of Auld getting back and Pierson Struthers has been delayed by his illness. Just about the time that the place will be getting in good shape for doctors to be very welcome there will be no doctors to fill the bill. Well, I shall have to get off to some reading of Chinese papers in order to get them off the list and get the report in. Goodbye with much love from us both. Thanks for all your good letters. Keep it up. Don't work too hard at things that will take too much from prospects in May. Make it sure, as I don't doubt you will. Good success. Your loving father, Robert A. Mitchell --------------------------------------- Cheeloo Tsinan January 28, 1929 Hello Everybody There is very little to record of this week's doings for dad did not finish up last week's till Wednesday. Wednesday we handed in the last report of exam marks of subjects we were responsible for. I had two conditions in my Arts English & one failure. The two come for exams. Just before college opens the third will drop out. In the Medical English I have no exams to give thank goodness. Dad had several failures in English but none in his Theological class. Since then I have been too tired to begin the many things I want to do in vacation & we have been taking long afternoon rests & early to bed. However I have spent some time with the bulbs & plants & we have a number of daffodils in bud; a beautiful hyacinth now out, resins in bud. We did have a little pepper grass enough for sandwiches one afternoon for ten. There is lettuce enough for a couple of meals & a fresh pot just above the soil. We have three south windows here but it is not as good a place as our little glass place in Weihwei & the lettuce has no snap to it. The last week has been cold & no sunshine. I feel so depressed when we go long spells with cloudy days. According to the Chinese calendar we are over winter this week. That is their middle winter. They divide winter into three parts & this last week was the "big winter". In another ten days they will be out to receive the spring. It is quite a ceremony. Dad is quite himself again but it took him a couple of days to get back his strength. He must have eaten something wrong - and got a bug which only yielded to caster oil, & rest. This week our next-door neighbor went off to Taian on some famine relief matters. Just after they got off, a telegram came that Dr. Tucker one of travelers of the Relief, saying he would arrive at noon the next day. The telegram was brought to Rob to sign. We took Dr. Tucker & had him here for part-time for two days. All his noon meals were taken uptown at the "Y". They are giving between fifty & sixty dollars to farmers in certain districts to dig wells & then if no rains come irrigation can be carried on. Very little direct giving out of food is done but road building & other improvements are undertaken & good pay given for work. I did have some time at mending Dad's socks & my stockings this week & several buttons were put on where safety pins had been in use. That grey sweater I wore so much cannot be darned anymore & it will be laid aside from active work. I hate to give it up for I had gown quite fond of it. I wish the clothes we like would not wear out but last like those of the children of Israel's did when they were traveling in the wilderness. One of our Scotch friends brought in a journal the other day with picture & a racy account of the Scottish War Memorial. It has been erected on the hill beside the castle in Edinborough. You have all been there but likely do not remember much but we do. It certainly is a fine thing. Even the animals have been remembered & in some of the decorations medallions of pigeons, horses, dogs have been worked in by a Miss Bone. We have also been reading together "Whither Mankind". Some of the essays are good but one we did not like. The one written by Hu Shih a Chinese who was educated abroad is very good. The main idea of the whole book is the ideas of several philosophers on Modern Civilization & its trend. Especially the difference machinery has made. Saturday we were out to an evening with Burns. Dad read "Tam O'Shanter" & one other piece. Dr. McClure read several small pieces. We also have several songs & Louis Stevenson's write-up of Burns (in part). It was very enjoyable & took one away from the talking shop as one so often does. Dad & I were up street a couple of times this week. One day we bought two little frames & have those two snaps of Helen & Bill in them & hung on the wall. Wish we had a larger one of Helen. Dear Mo This page I fear will mostly be a makeup of conversation, a lot of nothings like some of your girls talk to you. We have an interesting dentist here. I think we have written something about him before. He dropped ion yesterday before going to church, as he seems to often do & was talking about things in general. He had tea, pulled out his cigarettes & smoked two before going to church. He never says by your leave. The first time he came he managed to get along without but now he always lights up & as he never swallows any of the smoke we get it around the room. It curls up around him & then disappears. He does seem to need them & gets lots of enjoyment out of smoke. He is a great reader & very systematic about it. It is a good thing he is for there is not much to do after the duties of the day are over. He lives with Dr. McClure & they are poles apart in their likes & dislikes. Possibly being together will have a moderate effect on both. As we were looking t your picture before rising this morning Dad said, "I wonder where Mo will be next year". What do you do in the sketch club this year? Send us epistaxis if you please. After being home last year we will be able for most of the jokes. A couple of days ago one of my Medical class was up calling. He hopes to go to Toronto for postgraduate work. He was quite interested in your picture but paid no attention to Bill's. A fine picture "said he, what bright eyes. He must be clever." This lad is from Canton & wears English dress all the time. I hope he does get over to Toronto some day. One of my boys has gone down with T.B. Lungs & Kidneys both affected. He is a very nice boy, a good student & very accurate in his work. I was at a very interesting Medical meeting last Friday. A paper on Dysentery was read showing sketches & watercolor paintings of the conditions of the ulcers, vessels, etc. of the intestine, also a drawing of two valves seen with the proctor & sigmoid graph (is that spelled right?). Both specimens of bacillary & amoebic were shown & the treatment, with its results of 150 cases was given. Some had been seen six & seven years after treatment of chronic cases. The sketching was fine & done by one of the Chinese interns in the Rockefeller Hpt. in Peking. You will be using your sketching ability in this way someday I hope. I have always listened to everything on dysentery because I have had it myself for a long time & then we nearly lost you when fourteen months old with it. We took you home from Peitaiho & when not lying on a seat on the train you were carried on a pillow. I held you out on it when in the rickshaw to save you receiving jolts. We had to change at Peking & Changte at that time & remain overnight with friends as the train did not run at night. When trains first ran in China the engineers were afraid to guide them when dark. Now I must say adieu & we shall be glad if there is word from you the end of the week. I hope your pictures have reached you ere this. Goodbye. All good wishes for this your last term in College. Lovingly, Mother Jennie H. Mitchell ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan February 3, 1929 Dear Folks Holidays are on. The same seems to be true with the mails. There is a long break in the C.P.R. steamers. We had hoped that the President arriving in Shanghai on the 29th might have Canadian mail, but none came. I think that one of the ordinary steamers is off on a world cruise for the winter. We had Bill's letter of Dec. 27 the other day but our latest from Canada is Mo's of Dec. 9. We are having real winter weather just now. I am not sure how low it has been, but yesterday morning it was 13. This morning when I closed our door it was 28 in the bedroom. We have seen much less of the sun than we are accustomed to in Honan. Among the things I had set out to do during the vacation was to get the radio in shape. I have spent a good deal of time on it during the past week and have managed to get it out of working order, but not to get it into better working order. My soldering is not perfection and takes a lot of time. Bill in making the set foolproof for my special benefit also made it unhandy for removing from the case and putting back again. I have it stripped to the skeleton like it used to be in Toronto and it will probably be so for a week or more till I get some things from Shanghai. It is different getting radio supplies here from what it was in Toronto. There is a radio receiving set in the physics building, which Mr. Harkness built and which works all right. The man who is teaching the physics now is not an expert on the matter. Apart from that I do not know of another set by which he could get European stations. But he has gone. If I keep at it I shall be able to talk to Bill in his own language without miscalling every piece. Mother has been trying to get some of her social requirements done this week. One day we rode to the est suburb to call on the Johnsons of the American Presbyterian mission who were mother's fellow missionaries before she married. Another day we had in for lunch Dr. McClure and Mrs. Hamilton of the east suburb. Both of them will be going home in a few months. We asked Dr. MCClure whether he was going to stay at home or was coming back here. He said that depended on what day we asked. Sometimes he thinks he will come back and again he thinks he will stay at home. He will be sailing from Kobe on the 11th of June. Mrs. Hamilton is a widow who kept on in the work here. She goes to Pennsylvania. When on furlough she usually summers with her husband's sisters near Bala. She will probably be there this summer. IF any of you are about Bala you might call to see her. The Hamilton cottage is named WOODROW and is on a small island near Acton Island. Another day we had the Lairds and the Heerens in to tea. They are both American Presbyterian members of the university staff, Dr. Lair being the treasurer and Dr. Heeren the history professor. The former are also going home on furlough this year. Yesterday we had in for tea the boys from Weihwei school. There are seven of them here. One began the medical course but dropped out, and is employed in the office of the medical school. One is graduating in medicine this year and one in arts. One of the others is in arts, and the rst in medicine. It will be a few years before these boys all finish, which will be the end of supplies of students coming from our Weihwei school to the university. I do not know what will be the future of things in Honan in that regard, except that I shall probably never again be principal of the school. We had a very nice time with the boys. Dr. Struthers and some of the other doctors left yesterday for Shanghai to attend the China Christian Medical Missionary association biennial meeting. They go by rail to Tsingtao and by boat from there. The railway is not running yet all the way south. I think that Dr. Struthers intends to return by rail. That means the last fifty miles by motorbus. This week I have been looking into some accounts and the matter was revived in my mind, which made me wonder. When I was talking with you in Toronto about the money that Uncle Rob owed me, I spoke of $300. When you said that you had received $400 from him, I could not quite make it out. As I looked at the record of the things left in the Treasurer's office, I saw that the amount of his note was $400 and that when he repaid it he was to put $300 into my account and $100 into mother's account, because it was from these two sources that the loan was made. So then, the loan, which you received, was partly from me and partly from mother. However if you are making a note it had better be one in my name, and I shall transfer $100 to her. If you have not yet sent the note it might be better to deposit it in the care of Miss King in Dr. Laird's office where my other securities are. She will give you a receipt for the note, which you can send to me. It is perhaps just as well for me not to keep important documents here. While we have been perfectly quiet since we have been here, yet the bandit pest is so great through out China at the present time that one cannot be sure that he might not lose his documents. The talk about a settlement between the Chinese and Japanese in the papers is one day hopeful and one day not. Each side has been standing pat. I think it seems likely that the Chinese are going to give some sort of guarantee to the Japanese for the protection of their nationals in order that Japan shall withdraw her soldiers from this province. Up to the present the Chinese have said they would not negotiate until the Japanese named a definite date for the withdrawal. The Japanese would not agree to withdraw without guarantees for the safety of their nationals. The Chinese have been saying that they were always careful for the life of foreigners in the country. The Japs and others do not put the same implicit faith in that statement as the Chinese would like them to. When the Japanese withdraw and the Kwomintang comes into authority here, what is the question on people's minds? Many fear there will be excesses on the part of the young radicals of the party. In the schools particularly it is feared that the members o the party in the college will stir up trouble, considering that party propaganda is of more importance than schoolwork. The authorities of the schools are feeling nervous on the subject. I do not quite know why but some of the folks think that there may be another evacuation this spring as there have been in the past two years. I am not sure what it is they fear, but it seems that some of the consuls are warning them in that way. I hope it will not be so. I think that the Chinese will probably promise that Feng's troops will come into the province when the Japanese evacuate. If that is so, I think that there ought to be pretty good order kept. The one-party government is a queer kind of thing anyway. In most lands a man may disagree with the party in power without being considered a traitor. Not so in Russia or Italy or China. The other day when the new Inspector General of customs took his oat of office he swore to be loyal (not to the government of China) to the Kwomintang and to submit to all necessary punishment if he was false. So much for politics, in which I never dabbled much. The government of the country has tremendous problems to undertake. They will not make a complete success of it any more than those of other countries have. But certainly they begin with an unbounded faith in themselves as making a government better than any other in the world. Others may arrogate to themselves the privilege of doubting but of course they are wrong. Goodbye, with much love and good wishes for your college work. Your loving father, Robert A. Mitchell Monday - Mail in with yours of Dec 16 & Jan 3. Thanks for all the news. Poor Jay! Things seem to pile up on her. I hope that this doctor was right in saying that this attack of the flu had not affected the other condition adversely. I am glad that you were able to arrange for her Grace. In case Jay has to give up and go to San, while you are there, and her finances are short, will you please communicate with Dr. Armstrong about it so that they can supply the needed funds in my salary and I can arrange it when I hear. I hope she will be all right but I don't want her to get into a helpless condition and no one to act in the matter. At the same time I want Jay to save her own money and not depend necessarily on us. Thanks for your good letters. Good-bye just now. Lovingly, Dad --------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan February 10, 1929 Dear Folks Another week has gone & this is my turn to set down our doings in part so that we may keep somewhat in touch with each other. First this has been our winter, the coldest we have had all year. During the day the lowest is about 13 above zero. We fuss as much about that temp as if 13 below. At this time we are looking for a warmer weather but as we did not get our cold in Jan it comes along at this time. An amusing thing is that according to the Chinese calendar, which is a lunar one, spring began this week & they hve a ceremony of going out & "receiving the spring". This will explain in part our disappointment at having such cold weather. The government first put out proclamations that all were to observe the New Year at the same time as we did & that no longer would the lunar calendar be followed. Also that no gods were to be painted, purchased, nor put up on doors, or gates. Even the kitchen god, which is the last to be given up by the women, was not to be worshipped nor new ones placed in kitchens. This god is usually burned, the old one the last few days of the old year & sent up to his spiritual abode. First having had his lips smeared with thick syrup so that he cannot tell what has gone on in the kitchen during the year. However the proclamation was too late in being promulgated & was withdrawn because many who depend on the painting of these gods, fire crackers, etc, which go with the worship would be bankrupt. But firecrackers can only be used certain times & only five days instead of fifteen are shops to be closed. Usually we get little quiet sleep New Years eve but last night were not disturbed with firecrackers, nor people on the street, though there were a few rockets sent up. The tension here is so high between the Japs & Chinese that it would not do to have much firecracker noise lest some take it for something serious & fighting break out. The Tsinan Incident is supposed to be settled this last week & during March the Japanese soldiers gradually withdrawn to Chingtao, two hundred & fifty miles from here, into Japanese concession & there wait for a time. If their nationals are properly protected then withdraw to their own country. General Fong comes in with his best men, & with them I think there is no doubt but he can keep order. That will mean the North & South R.R., which is a main trunk line between Peking & the South, will be opened again & gradually trade improve & the country settle down to everyday life. With the settlement of this affair & the tariff treaties with most of the foreign powers settled, peace & order is most likely to follow. Now for our personal affairs. We have been fixing up some pictures, in empty frames, which have been lying around & now have each wall of the dining room with a picture. I have been getting the summer clothes, which I put away last autumn without repairing, put in order. Some silk hose mended & then I can rest more after classes begin. The house has been cleaned up good. I have a suit of Rob's & my mauve silk dress to wash this week & then I am up to date with my work. Letter writing has gone along also with fair results & my pile of unanswered is somewhat smaller. For nearly two weeks we had misty & hazy days, but the last week the sun has been lovely & Rob & I have gone out nearly every day about 11am for an hour or more riding toward the mountains & have found out a couple of good roads. We read, go to bed early, & have breakfast half an hour later than when college is in session. A real holiday we are having & we needed it for all the work last term was new & new work & new surroundings even though pleasant are wearying. Yesterday we went up street to see the shops & New Year shoppers. It was interesting. The bright satin & velvet shoes, hats & scarves were quite attractive. Men, women & children were rushing here & there, all in a hurry. I saw a man buying stockings, which were probably for a daughter, nine or so. So many colored stockings now are for sale which means foot binding is going out. Beggars were everywhere. They go around to the shops asking for help to get over the New Year. One or two stepped up to me, indeed one took hold of my coat saying, "doing good Mr. & Mrs.. Give me some money to buy food for myself & child." She had a child in her arms. Dear Mo We are very glad you were back from your trip & able to look after Jay. Hope Aunts Mabel & Jessie do not get "flu" or they & we will feel it was from Jay. We are looking for a letter any day telling Dr. Elliott's report on Jay. It was very kind of Aunt Jessie to be ready to give Jay money, in case she had to go to a "san". However we are hoping that that may not be necessary as you said in your letter "Jay is getting out of my care tonight or tomorrow". Jay will manage as long as you are near but if you take an internship away, I fear she had better come to us. Were she here I think there would be no doubt but she could when able, get employment, & come to her home for holidays. Then if sick she is near us & we near her. She would not be over lonely if here & I think it is likely we shall be here another year. Schools will not be the first work begun in Honan & Dad will not be needed there, while here everyone seems overworked. Do you know whether she put any money in the bank or not since we left. Let us know. Then too has she paid Shaws the full amount for her course & has she been able to do any work on it at all. I have asked her these questions but have no answer. There are positions teaching in Peking & Tientsin, but unless she had finished that there would not be much chance of getting anything out here. Then if in the "art" I think she would have to work it up & that would be hard, where she goes into a school which is organized & she would be under a principal as at home. I am going to write to Peking & Tientsin & inquire about schools. I do not want to urge Jay to come & she be unhappy for I expect if she does come we will have to pay her way here. She told me she would try & save some so that if she had to come it would not all come from us. I have just read dad what I have written you & he wishes me to ask you how Jay has been since we left. Please be frank with us & be not afraid of giving us worry. Everyone has sick spells & anyone might get "flu". But if she is going to be sick & unable to carry on there is no on e in Toronto to look after her. I had thought she would have Aunt Lottie but have given up that idea since she has been as she is this last year. It is sad to be all alone in the world, yet there are girls & boys who are in that position & if you think Jay can carry on, then she is better in Ontario. We have a cold South-Western blowing today. There is some dust & it is cloudy, snowed a little during the night. A crowd went off on a hike but some returned when they got up in the hills where the wind was worst. Mo I enclose a clipping from the paper, which appeared the day your letter with account of your cesarean section, arrived. Dr. McClure was in & he told us one of the grads of the medical college here whom he knows had had 100 cesarean sections in the five years since he graduated. He is practicing in the same province (Shansi) as this account is taken from. Dr. McClure said tell Mo we do that operation C-section at the Out Door Clinic. Now adieu for this week. Much, much love from both of us. We shall be thinking very much of you as exam draws near. Hope all goes well without too much loss of energy. Lovingly, Mother Jennie H. Mitchell Dr. McClure is a specialist in T.B. He thinks this part of China as good a place as any for Jay. The cold season is short & one can be outside so much. ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan Feb 17, 1929 Dear Folks The New Year Holiday is about over and we shall be back at work this week. It is much longer holiday than is good for the winter but they have not seemed to do better in the past with the Chinese New Year. Perhaps under the new regulations as to only one year it may be different. Quite a number of the students do not get home for the vacation. There has been quite a helpful series of bible classes among them this week. For us it has been a week with an unusual number of evenings out. Monday was the monthly meeting of the literary society. It was a Schubert evening, led by Mrs. Smith. She is a daughter of the late Dr. Corbett of Chefoo who came to China to teach music in a college in Peking. She gave a very good paper, which was then illustrated with a program of musical selections from the author. By singing, violin, gramophone, piano, quite a variety was produced. Wednesday evening was the prayer meeting, which was led by Mr. Rowley, our Old Testament man who is leaving for England this week. It was good. Friday was a gathering of staff and students in the administration building, with about 200 present. For the first part there was a series of physical and intelligence tests, which took us to half a dozen different rooms, and mixed the company up pretty well. Then we met in the rotunda for a program. In walked five students, all fixed up in academics as for convocation. One represented the president; three others were distinguished speakers, while the fifth was an interpreter. The first speaker was a world-famous doctor, who spoke in English. He discoursed very learnedly and pompously on Malaria. The interpreter interpreted very wittily on hygiene. Then came the famous doctor from Mongolia. He was a big rough fellow, with Mongolian dress. His discourse consisted very largely of vigorous gestures and bass grunts, out of which the interpreter brought some laughable information. The climax was when the president asked "our old friend and late president, Dr. Balms" to speak. The makeup looked exceedingly like Balme, with his customary facial expressions and gestures. When it came to the address, the imitation of the voice and style of oratory in Chinese was almost perfect. It kept us in roars of laughter, those of us who knew Balme. Last evening was a Lincoln evening at the Heeren's. Dr. Heeren is the History professor, an American with a very clever English wife. She gave a paper on Lincoln interspersed with readings, etc. by others. It was quite an instructive and entertaining evening. In the home we were able to get done some of the housecleaning we have been waiting to do and are about finishing up three books, which we have been having on the way for a time. We finished "Whither Mankind?" yesterday. Someone sent it to us from Eaton's at Christmas without any mark to show where it came from. It is a symposium from sixteen leading authors in their line, on subjects of modern civilization, with a prologue and an epilogue by the editor, C.A. Heard. We like4d some of them very well but did not enjoy the generally anti-religious trend of a good deal of it. Of much too there was an indefiniteness, leaving one to question at the end, 'what has the author really said?' The next book we are finishing is a volume in the Expositer's Bible, on Deuteronomy. We shall complete it before school opens. The third one is Swen Yat Sen's "Three Principles." We read most of it quite a while ago and then lent it to a Chinese. We are now completing his section on the People's livelihood. With the daily Peking & Tientsin Times, The China Critic, The New Outlook, The Chinese Records and China Christian Educational Review, as well as the Manchester Guardian and the Literary Digest, which Dr. McClure sends along, we have about all the reading we have time for. We have not been out riding so much this week, as mother has been a bit under the weather. At the tests the other evening we were both marked 8 on our weights, as we were overweight. Mother is 148 and I, 177. We have had great appetites, and I suppose it is showing some. The Sino-Japanese negotiations have come to a deadlock just now, as the Japanese government were not ready to go so far as their representative had promised. I suppose it will be only temporary as neither party can afford to let the present condition run on indefinitely. We did not get any letter from you in this CPR mail. I suppose that you were away on the basketball trip. We got a marked copy of the University Monthly from the Foreign Mission office, with the notes on basketball marked. I suppose that Dr. Armstrong sent it. We had letters from most of the other relatives, especially the Hillside. Aunt Mabel mentioned that she had given you a Christmas present of $100. You ought to b e pretty well fixed for expenses this term. I hope that you will be able to make them stretch out well to help on your internship. As to the monthly allowance, which you are getting from us, how long will it need to continue? Let me know in time, so that I shall make arrangements. I have just had a notification concerning the new pension scheme of the United Church, which follows pretty well the old scheme of the Methodist church. Those who were on former schemes of the churches before union may continue as they were, or they may go on to the new scheme by making the necessary payments. Dr. Laird advises our missionaries to do so if they can. I think that I shall if I can. I am waiting for Dr. Struthers to return from Shanghai to get a physical examination. By it one after forty years service would get a pension of $20 per year of service. This would bring the total to a higher sum than our Presbyterian scheme. I should probably not get the full amount, as it requires one on our scheme to pay not fewer than eight payments on the new one to get the complete increase. In case fewer payments than eight are made, one gets the proportion of the increase that the number of payments is to eight. As it is not eight years till I complete the forty, I shall probably not complete that number of payments. In case of my death mother would get two-thirds of the amount we would have been getting. I am still paying on my heaviest life insurance policy but have only two more payments to make on that. Then the payments to the pension scheme would come easier. When one is getting up in years, he begins to think of the provision necessary, especially for a widow. I hope that you will make your best effort to get your debts off as speedily as possible and get the thing going the other way. I suppose that by this time your basketball is all over and Daffodil night about so. We have been having daffodils about the house the last two weeks. The first of them have just died down. We also have hyacinths and freesia out. Weather is beginning to be a bit spring like the last couple of days. I see our neighbors getting their strawberries watered. Goodbye for the present. Good success in all the work. Your loving father. Robert A. Mitchell -------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan, Shantung February 24, 1929 Dear Loved Ones Dad has just come in from Chinese service. Had a good sermon he tells me. I do not attend very often for the church is a difficult one to hear in, is cold & the dialect here is very localized & I do not catch on very readily. Thus far all my work has been in English & I thought I might just keep to that & not take the trouble to refresh my Chinese. However this week a request has come for a Bible class in Chinese & I must no begin Chinese, so may attend church & listen to others. But, it is easier to remain at home. When in Weihwei I was organist for years & had to attend all meetings whether the preacher was good or poor & I feel as though I am due a holiday. I love to poke around Sunday, relax & do, as I like. We have an English service at S.P.M. & I have been absent only once, & that day because of indisposition. Well, to recount the week's doings I began by getting gall the rugs out, the curtains down & washed. Then Monday night I ironed curtains till 9pm. We went out for a ride & I had planned to iron at 4pm when we returned but as we were riding up to the house our neighbor with a car asked us to go for a ride. We did & so I had to make up for such pleasures later in the day. Last week I was too miserable to get at this housecleaning work & it had to be done before classes began. Curtains washed, walls swept & rugs well pounded (we have no vacs) & school begun, when up blows a wind & for two days dust was all around us. It stood in little drifts on the windowsills & under the doors. However most of it has been swept up & Monday I shall have the curtains get a big shake & the rugs have been done with carpet sweeper twice. We only wash once in two weeks but some little table doilies or hand things will be done this week. Thursday I started out to coral society & when about ten had gathered at the gate going into the suburb where we were to practice the policeman would not open the gate. We waited half an hour or so & seeing it was not to be opened, returned. There are various reports as to why they acted in this way. Some of the force had gone to a movie under the "Y" which they consider is under foreigners & were not allowed to enter without tickets. They thought they & their families should be admitted free. Others give another similar reason. We do not know why, but the head of police have been informed of the refusal to open the gate by a Chinese professor. There were about 20 who could not get home that night. Usually the gate is closed but they will open for those employed in this yard, or for us. Friday we were at a birthday party of David Struthers. We went to help with the games. In came a cake with pretty decorations, Chinese characters in red & 7 candles. Those celebrations always make me lonely for the time when you were all with us & we had parties for you. Bill & Mo had to combine because of rains at K.K.'s. Well, if children do not grow up parents are anxious & medical advice is sought. One mother a few days ago said, "Yes, Ann has started to school. I am thrilled to have a child old enough to go to school". She must have seen the expression on my face, for she said, "You do not feel that way. Well yours is all behind you & you can look back, mine is all ahead." Dad has been asked to take Old Testament work in the Theology College & that means a lot of work for him but he is glad to have work in that department. He has one New Testament class & one in O.T. in all six classes a week there; also 10 English classes in the week. Mo You will be hard at work as exams crowd nearer. Best wishes old boy. Let us know about Jay. I am sorry if she insists on coming to Toronto & going into business life. The stress & strain is much more than in teaching & holidays fewer. However she seems to dislike teaching so much we shall say nothing. I wish she would settle into something. Has she gone on with her Art? Let us know. I am thinking of a small rug for Dr. Elliott & shall send it with Dr. McClure. I cannot think of anything else to send a bachelor. Had Mrs. Jeffs' letter this week. Lovingly, Mother Jays seems not to be able to bother to find what she likes as a life work. We are getting old & she should get settled. Aunt Mabel used to bother Granny because she spent her money. Jay often reminds her in her younger days. She talked against teaching and was always going to give it up but never saw anything with a better salary & had sense enough to give over with an increased salary & now is well fixed. Wish Jay would keep at something long enough to a good salary. -------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan March 3, 1929 Dear Folks This is the week that no letters have arrived, though there ought to be C.P.R. mail in a couple of days. Just when we were thinking that we were going to have spring weather, winter again visited us with about three inches of snow last Sunday. It has warmed up since then, but March came in, in a leonine way. Yesterday's bulletin gave us a summary of weather during the two months of this year, by weeks. Our minima in 1st and 2nd week of Jan were 13 & 19, and in the 1st and 2nd of Feb, 73. Boys are beginning to get their kites out, though up to the present I have seen nothing but little things. In a short time they will be in full swing. I saw a man plowing yesterday. The change, which has come in, in my teaching of course, makes me busier than I was in the matter of preparation. It looked at first as if no one could be got for my English class but mother suggested a lady who is taking it and I began my Old Testament work on Thursday. I shall at any rate have to try to read the textbook ahead of the class a lesson or two, as well as do my outside studying of English books. Gradually it will become less hectic. I shall have to try to keep out of other things for a while, though I do not seem to be doing it at the present time. I have agreed to lead the Nurses' devotional meeting this evening and yesterday I got a note from the man in charge of chapel services at the middle school that I would be expected to lead this week. The last few days we have been out looking about the garden to discuss what we want to do with the place. If we were here permanently we would want to get in some shrubs, for there is a good large piece of ground and not much in it but grass on one side of the walk. The other side has strawberries and asparagus and beds for vegetables. Some weeks ago we were in high hopes that the Sino-Japanese difficulties would soon be cleared up and that we would be again in railroad communication with the north and the south. But the deadlock does not seem to be much nearer a break than it was. Still we have an improved mail service, for a letter came from Honan in three days. The last few days there has been a good deal in the papers about the revolt in the east of the province about Cheefoo. The ex-governor of the province Chang Tsung Chang has also arrive din that part of the country to direct this anti-nationalist rising. I heard yesterday that three of his leading men were in a Japanese hotel in the settlement here, trying to raise troops. His old troops who had been scattered were being collected about him. I hope that the rising will soon be put down, as it would be a great crime to have such a man as Chang in authority again. However the fact the Japanese in which the authorities cannot move any troops and that this contains the only railroad militates against the proper suppressing of the rising. Mother is busy getting up a lesson for a class of girls this morning. She is also having a Bible class with the nurses on Monday evenings. I may perhaps be able to get you some kites shortly now, though I do not know whether you want them now. I was talking with Bill Chang about them. This week I have replied to the circular from the secretary of the Pension Fund, and Dr. Laird on the subject of the former - Presbyterian ministers joining the new scheme as being more adequate than the old. Though I am getting so well on that my forty years service time will arrive before I shall be able to pay the full eight payments required to get the full benefit, I have decided to go onto it. I made out what would be the difference if I did not, but have invested the extra fees at 5% interest. If I retired at the end of the forty years and used as much as the extra would bring from the new scheme, I should use the interest on the investment and part of the principal. By the end of the sixth year I would have run out the whole investment, and 75 dollars more. Perhaps I might not live that long, but mother is of a long-lived stock and she may need it. If not the fact that my contributions are in the Pension Fund for some of the pensioners to use is perhaps as good as if they were in the bank for someone else to use. Have you made any decision on the matter? I was rather late in making any savings or investments. I would advise you to be sure to put some away every year apart from the payment of your dues on insurance if you can. Since I began this letter, mail has come in with a belated one from Mo, as well as letters from Aunt Jessie and Uncle Peter. Mo is having a pretty busy time this winter I guess. It will not hurt him if it is work in the hospital as it is always so much to the good in experience. Radio has rather got the go-by for the past ten days. The last hookup I made I was hoping that I would have good results. I was making all of the positive filaments go on one lead and all of the negative go on another. I saw that all of the one side went to ground, except the detector one. I thought that I should connect that up to ground also but looking below the bottom I saw that it was connected to ground through resistance. So I did not ground it directly. I turned on the juice and began listening for results. They did not come through the earphones but presently attacked my nose and then my eyes, for smoke was rising. I shut her off and began to investigate. I saw that the paper covering of the 112 muter resistance was blackened and that the glass was hot. I have experimented since with it, partly because I have to spend my time on O.T. work for the rest of this term. I expect that I had better leave the thing alone till I can get more expert help. If Harkness is here in the autumn he might help me, or if you come along for a visit. Meantime the batteries will be dead I expect. If I continue here and want the radio, I expect that I shall get a wet battery. I had a curious dream the other night. We hear this week a copy of all the correspondence between the mission and the secretary of the Chinese synod. It seems the latter was unwilling to submit that to the presbytery in Changte and apparently the mission have decided that they will let the Chinese know what it is even if the secretary does not. Do you get any letters from any of the young fellows in there? Perhaps you might get a different slant on affairs from any we get. I think mother asked what was making you limp. I hope it is nothing like what happened to that basketball forward of whom Mo speaks, who got his two arms broken. He must have hit the wall pretty hard to do that. Now I must close off and finish some of the other letters. Remember that we are always ready to receive the fellow who gets disquisitioned in India one evening and arrives here the next day. I must say that Struthers in his medical examination for the Pension fund, reports my heart and lungs normal. Blood pressure 110/78 lying. I do not know what it means but I am not frightening myself in any way about being considered normal after being considered abnormal. Yours lovingly, Robert A. Mitchell -------------------------------------- Cheeloo University March 10, 1929 Hello Everybody Another week has gone and & I want to have a chat with you all while I am alone. Dad has gone to Chinese service & I am by myself so must talk to someone. Monday I had my class in Philippians with the nurses. That is a big class of sixteen & in Chinese so it takes some study…I taught Phill before when in Weihwei, but was not able to get anything on it while homed as that subject came at a time when I could not get down. I am in from a class in 1 John, which I teach in English. In some ways it is easier, in others more difficult to be sure they catch the meaning. When uncertain I drop into Chinese & we always have prayer in Chinese. The two classes come close together Sunday morning & Monday evening but possibly it is as well to get them off about the same time & my worries are over for a few days. My class in English at the HPT are reading a history of medicine & we are reading about Greek medicine & surgery in the time of Hippocrates. It is very interesting & the boys are enjoying it. There is a picture of a Greek clinic, which took their attention. The Dr. is ready to bleed a man, basin etc & lance in his hand. Others are standing around & among them a dwarf. The other English class is grammar & once a eek one of Lambs tales of Shakespeare. At least that is the class I start with tomorrow. I had another class but have yielded it to another to be kind & polite. I am not going to Out Door so much & will have more time to be home & take on other work, which I prefer, like these Bible classes. Every two weeks all students must attend a lecture & the other mornings, worship which is optional. Last Wednesday was a talk on the "Miracles of Medicine". Dr. Hou talked about Pasteur & his work from investigations of fermentation to treatment of rabies, Lister & his efforts to do away with suppuration, Simpson's discovery of chloroform & Morton. His stories of how they tied the patient down while the surgeon did his work & if the knife was dull the surgeon would stop & sharpen it, without thinking of the germs he was introducing into the wound was told very dramatically & raised several laughs. He also spoke a little of Banting & his work. We have had a few rides this week but only one was any distance. I have not been feeling able for much riding. I always get so hot & feverish the first days of spring & lose my strength, so have been going slow. Yesterday we went out nearly half way to the Yellow River Bridge - the one which was blown up last May when the Nationalists came in. It has been repaired temporarily so that trains can run over it but we hear the Japs have forbidden trains to run through from Nanking. We have a holiday on Tuesday & we may go down there at that time. It is one of the international affairs, this bridge & you will see mention of it in your papers. Yesterday was a great day in the garden. We got a number of plants from friends who had some to divide & all day Rob & two men were in the garden. Ten shrubs were planted & part of the cedar hedge moved. So we should have some flowering this spring. The yard is too large here & one could not keep it looking nice so we are getting in as many shrubs as we can. Then the last two years all had to get out because of fighting & no gardening was done. Many things died & this week all have been busy trying to repair the damages of enforced neglect. I was at a tea to say goodbye to two of the ladies leaving for home. There were ten of us & we did have a nice quiet, informal time. One of the women was a friend of mine since 1900 & she helped me with my sewing, when I was making clothes for big Bill. Nothing ore to tell except that we got up every morning, took our "daily dozen", ate our meals, taught our lessons & went back to sleep & begin the same thing over the next day. How monotonous life is, no difference where one lives. Dear Mo Jay wrote about being at McGill game with you & down to Dennison's after. Give her advice re: her new idea of going into Eaton's. If she really wants to give up teaching then I think that is about the best plan she put up to us when we were there. I asked Mr. turner once & without knowing anything about what Jay wanted, he said there was a great opening in that very place with Lewis. He was willing to take her to Lewis. She thought Mrs. Dennison could do more for her & possibly she can. With all the dreadful things happening these days along the intermingling & gossip of the sexes, I do not like the bed-sitting room for one girl by herself. I told her so, once when in Canada. She thought I was too old fashioned & should not doubt people so much. You see more than she does the sorrow & sadness of mistakes made by young people & I wish you could advise her. Could she get in with another girl as Helen Craw & Mary Grant have done? I would not have any objections. If she has no one she can link up with what would you think of her going to the Y.W. on Pembroke Street? When I visited Miss Faris there, the board was simple but substantial, & there were a large number of business girls living there at the time. They are near the business section yet away from the noise & in most weather walk to business. If you approve tell her so when you see her. You will be hard at work now. Hope you get along O.K. Best wishes to Duff & your other friends whom we know at the house. If you have not written let us know what Elliott said about Jay's throat. Bill will likely remain in India as you would see from his letter till next April. In many ways I think it is a good plan. The year is broken into any & it will be more satisfactory to begin at the beginning of a year - that is Sept. Now adieu. Much Love. Mother Jennie H. Mitchell We got a very cute Valentine from a friend in Waterloo - two kittens taking shy glances at each other & "You're a shy kitten and can't say 'yes' so nod your head and I will guess. Bob & Jane was written under the kittens youngster. ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan, China March 17, 1929 Dear Folks, Another week gone and the equinox is approaching. We let out our fire a couple of days ago, and haven't suffered so far. We shall probably get some cold weather yet, though the dust will be the worst. I think that the winds here are rather more capricious than they were in Honan. We shall have a raging wind at one time and in a short while it is perfectly calm, only to be followed by another howler. Yesterday brought in letters from Aunt Jessie, Mo and Uncle Fred, as late as Feb 15, the Varsity-McGill basketball game of which we do not yet know the result. I think this mail was by a President steamer. Tuesday of this past week was a university holiday, the anniversary of Dr. Swen's death. There was a memorial service in the Institute. It was a very dignified service. I think that the service was arranged by the Kwomintang party. Just too late for a change there came along a revised service, which included shouting of slogans. They were just as well pleased that it came late. The floral decorations were very pretty - artificial. They were mostly paper wreaths, but were really very artistic. In the afternoon of that day we and the Struthers went to the agricultural college to the east of the city and bought a few trees. Going, we stayed outside the city, and had pretty decent riding on the paths. Returning we came through the city and found it a pretty tough ride for about a mile over the stone pavements. When you get an old flagstone pavement whose corners and joints are all worn and in some places ruts worn in it by carts, you get a road, which is hard on the wheel and a real liver-shaker for the rider. We were tired after it. The whole ride was only a little over then miles, just beyond the first railway station east of the city on the way to Tsingtao. We have been trying to get the yard in some shape this week, have got quite a number of plants in which we got from various neighbors. We have had a man clearing up. To dig out some of the acacia roots is an awful job. This acacia was introduced into the province by the Germans and it is to be found everywhere now. It is almost unkillable and will spread its roots a long way and come up in the middle of a lawn or other unhandy place. This place had been neglected for a couple of years. Though we have taken out half a dozen trees there are still twenty-five acacias on the grounds or the borderline, not to speak of a hedge of them to the west of us. We would like to see something else growing, though these are pretty when in bloom. Our vegetable seeds ordered from Nanking a month ago have not yet arrived, so we shall be slow in getting things going. But it is still freezing sometimes at night. Yesterday afternoon we went to the movies. The show was put on by the Educational Department to make money for the mass education schools. First there were acrobats and then a movie of the Three Kingdoms, one of the most famous historical novels of China. The film had a habit of breaking at unfortunate places. It is a tragic play dealing with court intrigues. The acrobats were certainly good. One might make a good choice for a daily dozen and find lots to work on. One lad did some great balancing. He lit a candle and put it on his chin, then put another candle on his forehead and balanced so that he lit it from the first, then lifted up a paper and read some from it in the light of the candles. Again he put on his nose a rod with a square top about 3" square attached to it. On that he put a glass pane about 6"x8". In the middle of that he put a goblet and four wineglasses in the corners. on top of the goblet he put a larger pane of glass and on top that he put five small lighted lamps, and after moving about some he reversed the order and took them away piece by piece. For you expert dancers here is a stunt. One lad took one stilt with several steps on it. First on the lower step, then on up to the fourth, he balanced himself then danced around the platform to music. After that he took a different stilt with only one cross-piece about 3 1/2 feet form the ground. From a chair he mounted this and danced about; then they handed him two rods; then they threw him a double-ended torch a couple of feet long, which he caught with his rods; while he kept the torch whirling about with his hands, he danced about the platform on his one stilt on which he had been standing all the time. Whirling of plates was cruel as to time, as the boss would explain in clown shape all he was going to do, while he stood with the plates whirling on the ends of canes. He got into all sorts of shapes which seemed to defy the laws of gravitation, turning a somersault with the two plates whirling. Some great balancing on the hands also. One fellow lay on the ground, another stood astride him, linked hands and with one swing the fellow lying down was standing upright on his hands on top of the other fellow's hands above his head. What an amount of practice must hve gone into these things. It shows something of what may be accomplished in training in skill of other kinds which count for more in the world than these displays. This week the Heimbergers came back from the states. Mrs. Heimberger is the daughter of Dr. Corbett of Chefoo, her mother being our first lady missionary appointee to Honan, Miss Sutherland. He has brought a radio with him, apparently a pretty good one. He was counting on getting an A battery here. As he cannot do that I have lent him mine in the meantime. I called over last evening to see if he had got anything, but they were out. He has a short wave attachment so that he says he has a range form 20 to 1500 meters. I do not know how powerful it will be in other ways. it is six tube. If he is good at it he may give me some pointers which will help me out though my batteries will be about used up by then. The best radio season is over now. We were glad to get your letter yesterday. It's fine that you are going to get into the General. That will give you a good experience, as well as good prospects for the future. I suppose that by this time your Daffodil night is all over, and all the basketball. It is only about six weeks till you will be beginning your exams, I suppose. The last hard grind for a while. Are you taking the Ontario council exam or only the Dominion? I hope that you have sent us an Epistaxis. Dr. Armstrong noticed the write-up of the Struthers. We do not take it ourselves. I do not remember what I said to you about that note for four hundred dollars. Did I ask you to put it for deposit in Miss King's care in Dr. Laird's office? You did not mention it since you said that your notebook was up at the frat. I have transferred the hundred which was mother's to her account in Eaton's. You say that Dr. Elliott advises Jay to stop teaching as soon as she can. What did he say after he had examined her. We never heard his diagnosis, of the condition of her throat, as well as lungs. I hope that she will be able to get a position which will be to her liking. It is a pity if one is obliged perforce to stick at a job he does not like. It is time she was getting a line on whatever is going to be her job and fitting herself for it. Well, I must sign off now and get the rest of the letters ready. Goodbye and love from us both. Your father, Robert A. Mitchell ________________________ Cheeloo University March 23, 1929 Dear Loved Ones Now to give you today's schedule thus far this morning - up to 10am for 8 o'clock. Then I hurried over to the room where my English class is held& put the notes on the board. Finished with the class & returned to find Rob had gone to the Chinese service. I do not usually attend for by the time my class is over I feel a little tired & I write you people if it is my Sunday, as I am doing at present. Dad will be back in an hour & then we will read together, or go for a walk. Then dinner, a snooze & English service at S.P.M. The evenings are spent at home. In the East services are early so as not to interfere with the general custom of evening dinners. We do not follow late dinner customs but like the early service & the evening quietly at home, or with friends. Today we have a very strong wind blowing from N.E. & the air is full of dust. Our thermometer was almost 70 when we rose - to be exact 68. Yesterday it stood at 80 part of the day. That was an unusual thing & today we hve the blow to pay up. I got out my white dress which was ready, white shoes & stockings & a thin mauve sweater from Eaton's Summer underclothes & felt comfortable. But this morning I have different clothes, half way between what I wore yesterday & Friday. About April white shoes & dresses will be worn anytime one wishes. I do not know what I shall do for a straw hat, for I have nothing but a black hat which cannot be worn in the heat. Black draws the heat too much & one needs protection for eyes & neck. Had we gone to Tientsin as we planned I intended buying there, but because of interruption of rail travel we were compelled to change our plans & I had no opportunity to get a hat. Dad is working real closely on his Old Testament work. He enjoys it but being all new work he just keeps a few pages ahead of each lecture. That has made us feel we must remain closely at work & have had no company, nor have we been out much. But Tuesday, one of his early days we took a trip to the Yellow River Bridge. It is 5 miles from here - a trip of ten miles. This is the bridge that has been put out of action by having one of the sections destroyed. The Japs will not allow it repaired & so there is no through trains between Nanking & the North. It is killing trade & both the Chinese & Japanese are losing by the conditions, yet neither can afford, or are willing to lose face & give in. The Yellow Hwan river is very narrow here as compared to what it is in Honan. The water flows much more slowly. Of course it will be much wider in the autumn, after the summer rains. Anyone going from here to Tientsin must go by bus over a frightful road for about 15 miles, remain overnight & get an early train for the North. In returning it is the same - spend a night in an inn. We rode over part of this road & it is full of ruts & quite deep holes. The buses here have no spring & I am sure anyone taking the trip must be weary long before the 15 miles are covered. When returning I got off my bike very quickly once stepped on the edge of a stone, turning my ankle a little. It did not trouble me much till about 9pm & then for 2hrs, I suffered much, took a chill when the pain kept up & could not stop shaking. The next day I wore a bandage & walked with my cane for two days, but felt all right yesterday & went to my class at Hospital on my bike. For nearly three years I have not turned either ankle & was feeling easy about their being stronger but now shall have to watch for a time. This week we had a friend come in & help us estimate the MacRae's effects, as a rent for the use of what we do not buy. We shall buy dishes, cooking utensils, & some of the rugs. Things that might be broken or worn out. Mrs. MacRae has written of some things she would not want sold. I have put these all away & when I have time shall pack them all in a box. The rugs are more than half worn out, some at least & will do us nicely this term & then if we are spared we can buy new just before going home. I got our fur coats & heavier things put away yesterday. The bottom of the big trunk is filled with winter clothing. We think often of you & the work you will be at just now. Best wishes old boy. The hard study is drawing to a close, but not the hard work - lots of that in a doctor's life. Much love.. Help Jay when you see she needs it & can do so. Love from both of us Epistaxis will have even greater interest for us when so much of you has gone without. Lovingly, Mother Write often --------------------------------------- Cheeloo March 31, 1929 Dear Folk So we are saying adieu to March in a few hours. With you people in Canada you are sleeping & have yet this last day to live. With us it began beautifully warm & quiet, but the last hour there is a big gusty wind, from the N.E. We told the boy to let the fire out, but I have just added coal. For nearly a week we were without a fire but last Monday lit up again & have enjoyed it this week till yesterday when it became warm again. Some had taken down their stoves & this week have been uncomfortable. What will Easter bring to you folk we will not know for at least a month. About 6am we were surprised to hear singing, "Up from the grave he arose", this was followed by another, "The Strife is o'er, Jesus Christ is risen". Then we heard no more singing for a time. There was a meeting of the Y.W.(Chinese girls) on the steps of the church. We could see them from our window but could only hear the singing. About twenty rose at 5am to attend this service. I got up early as I had not made notes for my English Bible class, but persuaded Dad to remain in bed & do some of his work there, for he has the service this pm. He had his notes made & it was quieter there for thinking & meditation. I was glad he did for he needed a rest. He is enjoying his work in the Old Testament but it means a close application. Yesterday about 5pm he & the boy began to move a wisteria which a neighbor said he did not want. It had long, deep roots, & they never got that in the ground & watered till 7pm. It was hard work & that made Dad more weary than he otherwise would have been for it was a bigger job than they anticipated & having begun could not be left till another day. After the Chinese service which I did not attend I went down to the children's Sunday school. This is conducted by the Y.W. girls & most of the children are from the street. Some are children whose parents are attending the Chinese service. There were about 130 kids, all sizes. Some had little baby brothers in their arms, some were well dressed, some with poorer clothes & shabby shoes. When I reached there the preliminary services were over & all were in the yard, arranged in two large circles. They were moving around as they sang. Then they were halted for a time & a girl talked a few minutes to them. When they became restless another hymn was sung & they kept moving. Then another talk, with questions here & there & the collection which all enjoyed for they sang again one of the children's hymns about the pennies dropping in, etc. Out ncame a basket with eggs, pink & purple & yellow. Previous to this all had been given cards, dividing them into three groups & now each was given an egg to match the color of the card. They all laughed over these eggs & an explanation of why they were given followed. As they marched out orderly one little by found his sister who had been unwilling to go in, hanging around with her mOther & said, "see what you missed". Now won't you go with me to Sunday school next time & strange to say he gave her the egg. One of the teachers seeing this rewarded him by giving him another. I cam e along with some of the children & it was cute to watch them. Some began to get rid of the shell at once, some held them tight & were taking them home to show the family. Today the Nationalist flag is flying in our compound. Some of the boys put it up. The commissioner of foreign affairs came into the city yesterday, with a few Office assistants & ten mounted soldiers. Nominally, they took possession of the city & the Japs are getting out as fast as they can. Even the civilians are moving out for they fear they will not get justice from this government. It did not take the Chinese students long to get out their flag. Fighting is reported in the south but all hope it will not continue. If they really fight again I fear the "Powers" will not have much confidence in the "powers that be". Good Friday was a holiday & Struthers & we went for a bike ride around one of the MTS to the south of us - a six mile ride & when half way around stopped, ate our lunch & drank cocoa. We all enjoyed it. Young David, about 8 was with us & rode everywhere. He was not afraid of any narrow ledge nor steep place. Dear Mo Your letter of Mar 1 just in, also Mabel's of Feb 27. We were so glad to hear from you. Please keep it up for there was nothing from Jay. I hope her letters are not going to be like last time, go astray, when she does write. If you have any word of her doings always let us have it for we do not hear regularly from her. We shall look for Epistaxis & I am sure enjoy it. So you are on pediatrics & specialties. Hope you enjoy them, though they will be unsatisfactory in a way - more so than either medicine or surgery. Shall have to wait a time till we hear whether you did up western or not. Will you be playing in any of the teams next autumn do you think? You can have a chance at some lacrosse this summer I suppose. What does 'receiving the athletic stick" mean? Tell us when we write. And what was it you were having made? You spelt it "dye". What is that & what engraving is on it? Dad gave a good sermon tonight. I think all enjoyed it. He drew contrasts between Hezekiah & the New Testament believers, showing what Christ's resurrection meant to them. There were a few of us formed a chorus & sang two pieces, both from Stainer's Crucifixion. I cannot say anything more so shall say adieu. Let us know something about the Shaws if you can. Phone Aunt Mabel before writing the next time, if you do not forget. Aunt Mabel writes regularly, so does Aunt Jessie & we enjoy their letters. Hope you keep up as you have done so far. I believe you are better than Bill now Of course he has other writing which takes up his time & really I think Bill has had to work very hard to get his lectures up & preach as well when his turn came. Next year it will be easier working the lectures over & I should think more enjoyable, for he will feel he is doing one better than the first time. Adieu. Much love. Mother PS. A letter from aunt Jessie came in at 7.30pm, yours at llam. The last part of hers was Mar 1. Same as yours. Jennie H. Mitchell ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan April 7th, 1929 Dear Morrison It is three weeks since I sent you anything as mother took my turn last week because of my having the English service on Sunday. This is another week with some holidays. We have only Good Friday at Easter, but we have three days at the Chinese Ching Ming (clear right) which comes about the 5th of April. So Thursday, Friday and Saturday have been holidays. I had expected that I might get some studying and some letter writing done, but I have not much in that line to show. From Wednesday on, the Shantung Synod of the Church of Christ in China was meeting in the East Suburb. This synod is composed of the churches in connection with the English Baptist mission and some of the Presbyterian mission. Two presbyteries of the American Presbyterian mission did not come into the union, largely the fundamentalists, I think. This was the first meeting of the synod and of course they were in a way, just feeling their way along. I was over there Wednesday morning and part of the day Thursday. Bill Djang was appointed vice-chairman, the pastor of the church in the east suburb being chairman. Dr. Cheng said, "Weihwei, why, I have been entertained in your house". It was rather odd that at one table I should meet three in this way, who did not at first connect me with their past experience. Dr. Cheng in an address on the future of the church, spoke of the intense opposition from outside the church being over for a time, as the anti-Christian agitation had died down for the present. But the internal condition of the church was something to cause serious thought. There had been so much opposition and persecution, which was associated with the nationalistic idea that many were as it were, stunned, and there was somewhat a state of lethargy. The church did not seem to have the spirit to arouse itself and undertake the work which was before it. He called or an aggressive evangelistic campaign in all parts. Among the seven or eight needs he mentioned for the future church, one was more foreign missionaries, and a spirit of co-operation with them. I told him that I wished he was attending the meeting of the Honan synod which was meeting at the same time. I do not know what the results of that meeting will be, but I hope that a more earnest feeling for co-operation may get the upper hand again. At the opening meeting of the synod, of course there had to be a picture taken. It was done in front of the church, with the moderator of Assembly in the act of raising the national flag, while the group sang a patriotic hymn. This is the first that our city has been under the national flag, except for about three days at the end of last April. This week there have been abundance of flags flying on the street, and some of the government officials have begun to come in. The agreement was signed by Dr. Wang and the Japanese minister on the 28th of March. I understand that the Japanese civilian population are rather apprehensive about their protection after the Japanese troops go, and that many of them are getting out to Tsingtao. The political situation is still far from clear. The national government seems to have done nothing to get reinforcements to their general in Cheefoo. I suppose it was hard to do so with the railway zone cutting the province from east to west. In the meantime the nationalist troops have been driven out of Cheefoo, which is in the hands of the ex-governor, Chang Tsung Chang. Perhaps a more vigorous effort will be made now to put down the revolt. But the Hunan trouble has developed into fighting. A punitive expedition is moving towards Hankow. It seems that the government troops are getting the better of things but one does not know how necessary the fighting was. Feng and many others, who said they would support the government, urged that the matter be settled without force. Chiang Kai Shek seemed to feel that he must uphold the dignity of the central government by force. The leader of the Kwantung troops who came to the Kwomintang conference at Nanking, with practically a promise of safe conduct was imprisoned. The rumor was about that he was shot but I believe that is not so. However a good deal of dissatisfaction has been expressed with Chiang that fighting is going on again. Ching Ming is a great time for people to begin to get the fresh air. Student bodies make their plans for outings. The weather has been good. Thursday especially with little wind. That day while I was at the Synod meeting, mother was off on the lake at a picnic. She was invited by some of the girl students to go as chaperone. The greater part of the north end of the city is a lake, which gets its waters from the large numbers of springs which are about. The shoreline is irregular with several peninsulas. Temples are at the best spots. There are houseboats on the lake, which take parties. It was a lovely day and they had a good time, boys and girls together. I think they were a pre-med group. Friday the medicals had invited the staff and their families to go on a hike to the top of a mountain in the second line of hills on which there is a pagoda. As mother is one of the teachers in the medical school we came in on that. There were about eighty or ninety in the party. Some had donkeys; some took rickshaws, while mother had a mountain chair. For the first mile it is fairly level to the entrance between the hills. Then it gradually gets steeper, but has a stone pavement where the solid rock is not showing. Then as one took turns toward the second line of hills he runs right up to a nook in the side of the hills. This is taken up with a monastery. There is a large Buddha cut in the face of the rock. The kitchens are also in the solid cliff, the fronts being even with the face of it. We all rested here. It would have been better if we had taken our lunch here and then let people go to the top of the mountain as they wished. After a rest and some pictures taken they said each one was to take a cup and a plate with him to the top of the mountain. Frm there it began to be steeper, 45 to 60 degrees ascent. Some of the girls could not sand the heights well. You know how I am on of those light-headed creatures whose stomach goes bad when he looks down from a height. So when mother rested party way after a climb over some rocks, I said, "no thank you. Excelsior is my motto", and continued on up to a wider ledge. When we got to that shoulder several of us decided that it was fresh enough air for us and that we would stay there. Eventually the rest of the people decided that it was best not to try to carry everything to eat up the other hundred or so feet to the top as it was very windy on the level side of the top. So we had our meal there. Then there were stunts, etc. The students had prepared bread, cooked meats, sausages, pickles, jam, etc. The drinks were short. We had a very good time. We arrived home about four in the afternoon and had hot baths and got into bed. Some of the older folks and some of the girls are feeling ever since that they have more muscles in their body to get sore than they ever learned in their anatomy. When we were returning, outside of the south gate there were crowds of people, a regular fair. There were dozens of kites flying, from little ones a few inches across to one the size of a man. Men and boys were busy flying them. There were some very pretty ones. I got a parcel of kites sent off to Bill this week. I should have liked to include a dragon among them but it was not easy to pack. I hope that they get to him all right. I had to spoil them somewhat for packing. Friday was the day for decorating the graves and worshiping. So all the graves had new earth piled up with plenty of paper on them while many were wailing at them. As we were going out, just near the leper hospital I stopped to change a film in my camera. There was a lad about seven or eight came up to beg from me. As he was holding his hands in front of him I wished that the film was in the camera and I could get a snap of him. His fingers looked like buds sprouting from his hands but they were pointing in all directions. When I got the camera closed I told him that I had not cash with me, but that I would take a picture for him. As I pointed the camera, he yelled and scooted. A copy of Expistaxis came in from Jay this past week. We had not had a letter from her when we had from the rest of you. But it came in this book. We have been doing some work in the garden. The flower seeds are not yet in, but the shrubs are about finished. The lilacs are in bloom as are the strawberries. As our place is right next to the public way between the front and the back roads, folks are rather glad we are doing something in the way of fixing it up. It has been neglected for a couple of years. Things soon go down if they are neglected. I wrote you last week in connection with sending a draft, so I have not very much news to give. I suppose that by the time this arrives you will be beginning your final exams. Good success to you. Love from us both Your loving Father, Robert A. Mitchell ----------------------------------------- Cheeloo UYniversity, Tsinan April 14, 1929 Dear Folk There is not much to write about today I fear. Then too the word about Jay yesterday has knocked everything else out of my mind. I shall start with the last thing done. I have just come in from my English Bible class, which is held at 9am before the morning service. Rob has gone off to Chinese service & I am let to chat with you people. Yesterday a friend who traveled across the ocean with us came to spend the night & today with us. Her husband is away holding meetings, & she has been alone all week. I was busy in the morning getting her room ready, fixing flowers, etc. I have lilacs, & blossoms of a Chinese crab apple in the house. The latter are very pretty & also fragrant. After we had our 4 o'clock tea we walked over to the tennis court, where there is always someone sitting around. We had a nice visit with several friends & then home to supper. Later when it is warmer there will be a tennis tea every Saturday afternoon, in which we take turns supplying the drinks & eats. Two or three families each time. It is a very informal affair & a fine chance to get together. But thus far I have not gotten in the way of going over to chat. I also got away some of the woolens, the fur coats having been put away a couple of weeks ago. I have also been trying to list some of Mrs. MacRae's things, separate the ones she wants kept. I got them all packed away this week & the dishes took some time. We may send them with Dr. McClure. I also had the treasurer here come in one day & put an estimate on all their stuff. It is an awful business for some of their things have disappeared & some are mixed up with those of another family whose things were stored in the house into which MacRae moved just before he took ill. Here is a funny thing. One day when on the street I saw a seller with his little sock of goods standing near one of our doors. I said to Rob "Let us look at his nick nacks". I asked Rob to price something while I looked around. I saw he had a chamber, belonging to part of a bedroom set of MacRae's. In it were some bulbs for sale & he had the lid of it covering up some foodstuffs for sale. After assuring myself I was not mistaken in the pattern I asked Rob to observe closely & when we returned he went to the attic & agreed with me that they were the same. A pretty rose pattern on a grey background. These had been taken long before we arrived & likely disappeared when some outside men were moving the stuff, for it has been moved twice. We had never used the set for now water is laid on & we have wash stands in the wall. Mrs. Struthers & I are sending what is left of two bedroom sets to MacRae's summer house where there are no bathroom fixtures. This is the way our belongings are apt to disappear when not closely looked after. Dr. MacRae was not well after Mrs. MacRae left & I fear many things are gone. (little things) That man had no idea how that vessel had been used & it was pretty why not stick it up among his ware. All our time these days is spent in the garden but we did have one bike ride this week. Part of it was over a stoney road & one dear old woman would not get out of my road. She paid no attention to the bell. I tried not to knock her down & instead slid off one of the big stones into a rut, & down on stones; tore my sticking & gave myself a skinned knee. She looked sort of dazed & could not make out what it was all about. Monday night of this week the Literary Society put on a play - one of Sheridan's "The Rivals". It was really very good. The bobbed hair, slight ankles, & other changes in attire since those plays were first presented did not seem to detract from the play. Some of the acting was really very fine. Tuesday there was a birthday party for Dr. McClure. He was 73. He is giving up in June & will be missed by all & every one. Dear Mo We are quite upset over Jay's last visit to the hospital. But, very glad she was in Toronto & could go to Grace. Suppose when you change hospital Jay will also change hers. Hope she is through with Hpts. for a time. Poor girl, it is too bad this should all come so close together & so soon after we left her. Of course we cannot know for some time how she gets along & how long it means out of school. Till after Easter at any rate & we wonder if she gives up Oshawa. Then too where will she get work & will she stand it. Wish we were home to keep her with us for a time. Bill got along so well & was quite strong, after the month, but he just happened to be at the place where his work was a little slack. I am so glad you are remaining in Toronto next year. Mabel has had her share of responsibility with Jay's two sick spells; so has aunt Jessie & I understand Mrs. Armstrong has invited her to go to her when she comes out of Hpt. She too is not very well & has no maid so there is another one on the job. I am glad Jay has so many good friends & that we have also who are willing to help our sick girlie. How I long to fly to Toronto but cannot so others will help her. WE shall wait anxiously for your report of the case. I like to hear medically, which Mabel & Jessie do not give. How I wish I could go to her, but that I impossible. Do all you can for her. It is harder for a girl alone in the world & try & help her when you can. I know you will but you are so busy & it is hard for you as well as her. We are wondering what you were at Windsor for. A game of some kind I expect. We shall know when your letter comes. Armstrongs offered to look after Jay before we came away & I think it might be best for her to go to them for advice, etc, when she needs it, for she feels the relatives want to boss too much. I have written Mrs. Armstrong & asked them to help her & mentioned how she felt toward some of her relatives. We are very glad you are in Toronto next year. If Jay wa settled ina business & happy we would feel easier. Much love from both of us. We shall be thinking so much of you as exams draw near & hope you are not too tired with them. Best wishes to Duff. We enjoyed the epistaxis.. Jay sent it. Lovingly, Mother ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan April 21, 1929 Dear Folks No letter shave come in from any of you this week, but Mo's of the 17th of March. He tells how Jay had made a good recovery, but assumes that we know everything else about her as "You have likely heard from some of the rest of the connection". Mother's letter of last week would let you know that Aunt Jessie had told us of the operation. But we are still in the dark about precedent circumstances. Ther is nothing much to record about our daily life during the week. It has been a busy one for me, a I had daily prayers at the middle school and had the prayer meeting at the Theological school. With my regular lessons it kept me busy. Our bicycle exercise has been neglected a good deal lately because we have been busy in the garden. I have been trying to keep my seeds from drying out. Very few of the flower seeds have come up yet, just a few asters. In this dry country it is hard to get seeds growing. We were behind in getting our seeds, but we have lettuce, beets, Swiss chard, beans, peas, onions up, and the asparagus which we transplanted is coming up. We hope to be able to use it next year. Our spring has been cold and backward. Though there is a fine flower on the strawberries, last year the berries were well grown at this time. It is just about this time that the people were told to evacuate when the southern army were coming in. We have had almost daily high winds with dust. Only a few days have been the yellow type which leaves a coating over everything. We had one such this week, with a few drops of rain after it. Yesterday morning we had some real rain, though light. It was enough to lay the dust. Last Monday the Nationalist troops (some of Feng Yu Hsian's) were supposed to come in and take things over from the Japanese. The Japanese had a good deal of their equipment loaded to leave on Monday. Feng's men were a couple of stations to the south, ready to come in. But Monday morning found the Japanese unloading and the Chinese troops making their way southward again. It seems a great fiasco. The Chinese have for months been demanding that the Japanese get out unconditionally, and as soon as they can. The agreement was signed three weeks ago, and the Japanese were hurrying so that they would be away from here before May 3rd, the anniversary of the Tsinan incident. Lately rumours have been rife that the Chinese were asking them to delay as they could not arrange in time. Swen with his men, said that he was ready to take over, and would pledge himself to give full protection to the Japanese residents. Then at the eleventh hour, Swen is ordered back, and the Japanese do not go. Apparently Giang Kai Shih is determined that Feng is not going to have a foothold in Shantung, and he has ordered Feng's men back and is sending his own men up from the Yangtse. Sure the country has lost a good deal of face over it with all self respecting poewrs. They have been boasting so much of being quite able to manage things and the rivalries between generals are still blocking the proper running of the country. Everyone felt that with Feng's men here order would come out of the chaos. They are not so sure now. Of course there has ben a good deal of apprehension lest Chang Tsung Chang's men should take advantage of the turnover to make trouble. He seems to be losing ground again about Chefoo. The American consul here has the reputation of being a bit scary. Yesterday a notice came from him to the Americans to the effect that in the present disturbed conditions all Americans should cooperate with the powers that be in their difficult task of keeping order, by keeping off the streets as much as possible. Our British consul has said nothing to our people on the subject. There is another bit of news. This week Mr. Lo, dean of the Theological school, after having a talk with me, sent me the following letter, " I take pleasure in reporting to you the following action which the Theological Faculty have taken: - 'Moved:' that the Faculty of the School of Theology request the Senate to invite Rev. R.A. Mitchell of the United Church of Canada to join the staff of the School of Theology in the department of Old Testament Literature.' I have no doubt that both the Senate and the Field Board will approve this action". This has not come to the senate yet. I hope that it may in time to get word to our Council meeting in Hwaiking on May 1st. I do not know what the Council will do with it. We are due to put a man in the Theological Faculty in place of Dr. MacRae. As to whether I am the proper man or not, they might have a doubt. I am not a specialist in the work required, but specialists in that are not lying around at the disposal of the University. They had a clever man in Rowley who resigned. There is a deputation here just now from the English Baptist board and Mr. Wilson said he was quite disappointed to arrive here and find Rowley gone. Perhaps it would be as well not to say much about this request till we find what will be done with it by our mission. If it goes through it will assure that I shall have plenty of hard study to do to keep me out of mischief, if the students are getting anything out of it. Of course I am taking one of those subjects now. We were glad to get your letter this week, which gave the reassurance that Jay was on the way to recovery. When we heard, it was mother's day for writing and I did not add anything, I think. I thought that perhaps there would be some need for a financial advance. But I thought that in the first place I had already asked you in case of emergency to speak to Dr. Armstrong to see if payment could be made on my salary account. Then I thought, also, that I had just sent you $100, which would be money on hand to tide over things till I could hear from you folks at that end. I have several times urged Jay strongly that she should be economical in spending so as to prepare for emergencies, but the poor girl has not had much chance to get anything ahead so far. Mother is quite anxious to know whether or not you won the championship, and how your games at Detroit turned out. You told us about being away to London and Detroit, but did not give results. Just what is the Athletic Stick? Is it for the individual or what? We hope you can disprove Allan Brown's assumptions as well as all other who try to put examination obstacles in your way. You used to be a good high jumper. I hope that you can get clean over without knocking down the bar. You will be right at it, if not finished, when this arrives. Both send much love and good wishes for your work, Your loving father, Robert A. Mitchell Dear Mo Hard at work these days I suppose. Well it will soon be over. that is exams, but a doctor must always keep at his study if he wishes to be successful. I know you will want to be. You will remain at Grace I suppose till you go into the General. I had a letter from Jean Wilson yesterday & she said Duff was to be in Western next year. That will be nice for you both for you can have a few chats before starting up the more strenuous part of your life work. Jean was also in the HPT for a time. Hope Jay & she may not have to repeat their visits to the HPT. A letter form Aunt Jessie told of Jay being at Shaws. We are wondering if she goes back to Oshawa or not. Yesterday we bought a rug for Dr. Elliott which we shall send to you & if Jay is in Toronto she & you discuss how best to get it across to him. You might both go up. It will not be sent off for a few days for there is a lot of wrapping up & then P.O. & customs form to be made out & we shall have to wait till we have a little free time. I heard a very interesting talk on HPT management form one of our returned from furlough men. He had been given a traveling scholarship to see the administration of different Hpts during his stay in U.S.A. & spoke to the staff last Friday. He is to take over the Superintendent ship in June of the HPT here. He is a little too ready to spend money I think, but otherwise will make a live boss I think. Dr. Struthers ahs been it this year as the man who had the job for years has retired & Struthers said he would take it for a year but no longer, as that is not his line. He prefers a definite subject & teach that & do it well. Tell us something about your exam when you write - I shall be interested, as to some of the questions & especially the oral exams. when does the Dominion come? Is it mostly written? Dad asked about the stick given you so I shall not repeat the questions but we were curious to know more about its makeup, decorations, etc. Will you try to keep up some of your sports while at the HPT. I should think you could Now let us know how the relatives are. Aunt Jessie spoke of giving you a blank check. I think you should not accept them from her. Then too she will insist on paying operations, etc, for she wrote about trying to get hold of Elliott or Jeffs. Keep those things in your hands for Jay & if stuck for money go to Dr. Armstrong as Dad suggested & he will arrange matters for you with Dr. Laird. She thought you should be finding out what Elliott was going to charge, etc. So guard these things yourself & save any trouble. Best wishes to Duff. Had a letter from Jean a few days ago. Sorry she was in HPT but she enjoyed your visits. Give the family best wishes if you see them as well as good wishes for success for Duff at exams. Had a letter from Bill yesterday. The formal decision of our remaining here will be up this week at the council in Honan. Hope they leave us here for then if Jay does not keep well she could live here, with us. Love from both of us Jennie H. Mitchell --------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan May 5, 1929 Dear Folks Sunday morning is around again; mother has just gone out to her bible class. I shall try to get part of my letter written before the time for the Chinese service at 9.45. So far as we have been concerned it has been a week with little incident. Classes went on as usual till Friday. Outside of classes we have done most of our exercise in the garden lately. We have not gone for a long ride for some time. Friday mother and Mrs. Struthers were going to go calling in the settlement, but they decided it was best not to go that day. We hve entered the eventful month of May. It would be a good thing for China if it could be dropped out of the calendar. It is a month for the propagation of hatred. So many things seem to have collected in it. Of course the first one is the anniversary of the Tsinan incident. The students wanted to have holidays from the 1st. That was not granted but Friday to Monday was. Friday the third was the anniversary of the firing by the Japanese. The consuls have been advising that we foreigners be not too prominent on the streets at this time so some of us have not been going much. The day went through fairly quietly. The Japanese soldiers were shot down near the station hotel. I am not sure whether either was fatal or not. About two weeks ago the Japanese paymaster was killed on the street by a shot. Of course they sent a protest to the government. But the government reply that they are in charge and that the Chinese government is not responsible. In governmental circles the sensation lately has been that the head of the provincial government, General Swen Liang Cheng, who was all ready to take over Shantung from the Japanese and was ordered back, had sent a telegram to the government saying that as he had asked for leave of absence three times to recuperate his health and had got no reply he could wait no longer and was off to Honan. He pulled out with all his troops. He is general Feng's man. He has been head of the provincial government, but when it came to taking over from the Japanese, he was to take over only from here to Weihsien, while the eastern end of the railway and the port of Tsingtao was to be in charge of one of Chiang Kai Shek's men. At the same time Chiang's soldiers were to occupy the southern part of the province, and the northern part along the Tsinpu line. Thus the military head of the province would be hemmed in on three sides by troops none too friendly to him and certainly looking to some other one than him for their orders. His decamping threw the government into a flurry for some days. I understand that the arrangements have probably been made that Chiang's men will take over fully. So far as the foreigners are concerned and I think also many Chinese, they would rather have seen the original man take over, as Feng's soldiers have the best reputation of any in China. They would have kept things quiet and cleared up the bandit situation. However there is an effort being made to have the Japanese out by the 27th of May, according to the original agreement. They might have been out of here two weeks ago had Chiang not put up this jealous stunt. I do not know what effect these shootings will have on the situation. Mother came back from her class, saying that there was not to be one, as the girls were off to a 'party' meeting. That will be the order of the day from this on. The 'Party' must control everything and will put on meetings at times and places, which will interfere with other previously established things. Next week we have another holiday, on the 9th, which for years has been a school holiday - Humiliation day - the day of the presentation of Japan's 21 demands in 1915. If it were only observed as humiliation day one would not mind it. But it is usually used as "Hate Japan Day". There are several other anniversaries ending up with May 30 the Shanghai students' shooting, in 1925. Miss Brodie was telling me last evening that in Taian where they have cleaned out a large temple at the foot of the sacred mountain, Taishan, and made it into a hotel, and bazaar and recreation place, instead of numbering the rooms they name them, such names as "Tsinan Incident Room", "Shanghai Massacre Room", etc. Would you like to occupy them? That is the present state of mind of the Chinese. If you can, keep up the resentment and hatred of the people against the foreign people in order to stir them uip to agitate for control of everything. I suppose that this is true of all revolutions. It will sometime give place to a saner mind, but one regrets to see so much done to sow the seeds of the baser feelings at any time. I took advantage of the holiday to borrow from the physics building a surveyor's level to get the heights of our garden. It is a big plot with 100 feet from here to the front gate. The brick walk is right down in front of the door, cutting the plot into two. On the west, or smaller side is our plot of vegetables and strawberries. The other was pretty much fo a wilderness when we arrived last Autumn, as it had not been attended to much for two years. The water pipe is at the extreme northeast corner of the vegetable garden at the low end. We have no hose here but there is a raised earthen waterway carrying the water up to the other end. The vegetable garden is easily watered but the levels are not right to run the water to the other side well. So I have been trying to make out a plan of irrigating it. I think I hve worked it out but it will need considerable moving of land. It is a saving of money over buying hose but is wasteful of the water to have to run it round three sided of an oblong. The thing too is to get it across the walk, which is lower than the levels required for the running of the water. I think I shall try an inverted siphon under the walk. Everyone is complaining at their poor success with seeds this year. Not one in a hundred of my flower seeds have come up. Next time I shall try them only in seedbeds, which can be watered near the pipe, and transplant even the things, which are supposed to be grown in their place. The strawberries promise a good crop and a few are beginning to redden. Dr. Struthers went over to the Council meeting at Hwaiking. We have not yet had any word from him on the things that were up. A telegram came appointing mother and me delegates to a district conference on our way to council meeting. The meeting was 23-27 of April. The telegram arrived here on April 24. It did not say where the meeting was, or what. We supposed it was some gathering at Weihwei, but I think from a letter from Dr. Grant that it was in Peking. We did not go however. We wonder what the meeting will have for us. The senate of the university is asking for us to stay here. I do not know whether or not the Council will agree. No letters have come in from any of you this week. There is a C.P.R. steamer due in Shanghai today, I think, so that we might have something in a couple of days. Now that the railway is running again the mail is coming that way, and so is quicker than when it came to Tsintao by boat. I may perhaps hold this over to see. We are anxious to have further details about Jessie's illness. Sports were on here Monday. I attach some of the results Metrical system is used. First number is college and second is Middle School. You will not think these high. I understand that part of the track was very soft. 100 metres 12 4/5 12 4/5 400 metres, workmen Shot 10.75 10.40 Low Hurdles 31 34 800 metres 2 24 2 30 Pole Vault 2.62 200 metres 28 Long Jump 5.90 5.05 High Hurdles 21 1/5 400 metres 62 64 Hop Step Jump 11.15 Discus 25.94 24.57 1500 metres 5.17 5.42 The 1500 was won by the Dean of Medicine, Dr. Shields who has passed his 51st birthday. A medical student pushed him hard for a while on the backstretch of the last lap. Everyone was delighted at the day. May 3rd was over with no incident. Students were all in fine spirits. The evacuation of Japanese was proceeding. I heard last evening that the governor of the province was arriving during the night. There is good prospect that college work will go on uninterruptedly. After two years in succession evacuating about this time, it comes as a nice relief. Goodbye for the present. Letters came in from the two Jessies Tuesday morning the 7th. Dad ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo May 12, 1929 Dear Folk This week has been a busy one in some ways. Monday a tea to listen to some speaker from abroad & the staff were all invited. It was not so well attended as some other during the year but it is too hot to go to teas these days. Tuesday we were invited to the home of one of the English Baptist to listen to a complete set of "The Gondoliers" played on Dr. Mosse's Victrola. The dialogue parts between the songs were taken by some of the residents here. The music was fine & the parts being thus taken gave us quite an idea of what the real play is. With a fine orchestra & good singers it would be grand. Dr. Moss has heard it twelve times, in London. Friday there was a gathering of staff & students on the grounds near the Theolog building for games & a get-together time. There was lots of fun & it is to be held weekly for a time & I think will be well attended as being outside. Dad was at the sports most of Monday. I was only down for a short time. The crowd was large & one could not get very close. Then too I did not know many & there is always so much to be done at home when I get a holiday. We do not go riding much these days it is so hot & then the garden is taking all our time & energy. Yesterday was our wedding anniversary; the day before the Struthers. We had intended celebrating together but Dr. S. is in Honan at the council meetings. However Mrs. Wolf, who lives next door to us & traveled with us to Tsinan last autumn got up a picnic with just the three families. I did not have energy enough to do anything & the day would have passed as any other except for her. Struthers & we will have a celebration some day this week after the Dr.'s return - possibly take a boat trip on the lake. This has made us live over again the last few weeks in May of last year. On 11th Mabel took Bill, Dad & me up North for a ride & we went to the woods & picked trillium. I do not know whether Bill & Mabel remember going into a field to get yellow marsh mellows, I think it was & an old woman drove them out. Then on 12th we were all at Lottie's, Van & Nita & it was the last time I think we were all together before Bill & then Harold went away. Then there were the two farewells in St. George's. I hope by this time next year Bill will be away from India for he should be at his language study. This is the month of holidays. China wants to remember so many "shame days" as she calls them - times when some nation has used her badly. There was some dread lest our students stirred up by some over enthusiastic patriot might walk out but the two worst memory days are past & we now hope to finish the term. The man who is to take over the control & let the Japs go home is in town but we hear, whether correct or not, that another general who is unwilling, Chen, should be here, is lurking a short distance from the city & Chen has asked the Japs to defer departure. This may only be rumour but already they have once been asked to remain longer. Such is the condition of China, to those who are near & know, but she puts on an outward show of being hardly dealt with by the nations. We have had a few strawberries & lettuce. I hope to do up a few bottles of Strawberries & make some jam next week. How we will miss our nice cherries & pears, also apples from Weihwei. By the way the council in Honan have granted the request of the senate approval of the Home Board. I am so glad for life here is easier for Rob, though it means hard study, but no responsibility when classes are over. There are fewer things here to make one nervous. We hear that likely our house in K.K.S. has not had much taken from it & we shall likely go over there for a few weeks during the summer. We shall sell as soon as the country is quiet enough to make people wish to buy. Now that we are to be here it is too hard a trip & too expensive to K.K.S. We shall also use the money given us by St. George's & buy furniture of Mrs. MacRae. She will be glad to have her things turned into money & we are glad to get things right in the house. Of course there is more than we want & we shall try & get other purchasers. Have nothing to add this week except that we often speak of you & exams. Sorry we cannot see you get your parchment, but you have our best wishes & our thoughts often fly to you. Mother ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo, Honan May 19, 1929 Dear Folks No letters to answer this week from any of you so I shall just go ahead with our own affairs. It has been an interrupted week so far as school is concerned. Monday evening Dr. McClure got a cable that Margaret was losing ground rapidly lately. He had his passage taken for the boat of June 5th, but decided to try to get the boat at Shanghai on the 18th, yesterday. I skipped a couple of classes Tuesday morning to give him a hand. He had a most remarkable demonstration of the devotion of the medical students to him. They decided to help him off. Some of them went to the house and helped him. Then they took up about two hours in the afternoon taking innumerable photographs. At night the whole medical student body hired three buses and ten cars and took him to the station. Tickets, baggage, etc., were all looked after by them. On the station platform they formed a circle and one spoke as a representative of the body, then two made tea and three meds came forward with bouquets of roses for him, representing the years. He gave a very suitable reply asking them to carry on their medical work with a high purpose not only for their own people but as a means of international understanding and goodwill. They had arranged everything in his compartment. When he woke in the morning at Tsingtao he would find a student who was deputed to look after everything for him in Tsingtao in getting off on the boat. Then they had wired to the members of the alumni in Shanghai asking them to care for him in Shanghai. Both staff and students urge that he should return if it is at all possible. If he cannot return this is certainly a fragrant memory to carry with him after forty years of service in China and at the age of 73. Thursday and Friday of this week were another two holidays. This time it was for Nationalist propaganda. In another ten days Swen Yat Sen's body ought to be brought from Peking to be buried at Nanking. The train was to pass up on Friday. But the Propaganda Train was here on Thursday also. There was a big gathering at the railway station. School and public bodies all went in gala array. Our university made one of the largest displays I suppose, as the larger government schools have not been in operation this year. Our procession would be about a third of a mile long, from the president to the coolies. The workmen formed quite an imposing gang. Platforms had been erected for speakers and were supplied with loudspeakers and with radio microphones. The great bulk of the crowd was in the open space outside the station but there were also speakers on the station platform with some hundreds of people there. There must have been at least fully ten thousand people in the crowd outside the station. I was not near the platform at all. Mother was. I could see the speaker perspiring but could not hear what he said. Dr. Heeren said that when he heard, the speaker was going for the British lively. I suppose that there would be a good deal of that kind of thing. But there was not much anti foreignism or destructiveness in the placards along the street. Some places one saw, "Down with Imperialism", and "Down with Communism", but mostly they were of such a nature as "The spirit of the President is not dead", "Complete the people's revolution", "Long live the Nationalist Party", "The Nationalist Party is the Salvation of China." At the west gate I saw one large cartoon. A military officer sat on a large cartridge, which rested on the heads of two kneeling officers, who were on a big dollar, which rested on the bent heads of a crow of businessmen and financiers, who were on a platform on the top of kneeling farmers and workmen, etc. Everything was very quiet and fairly orderly for such a large company but fixed bayonets and revolvers on hand were very evident. Provision had been made against any trouble. This propaganda train is going along the line and demonstrations are at the various stations. When the funeral comes through I think that a holiday will be required at the school. Of course it is not every year that you have a funeral of the found of the Republic; and this is the first year of the propaganda in this part. But in May, so far we have had four holidays for the Tsinan Incident, one for shame day, two for propaganda, and are due another for the funeral. This is the first reaction to the effect of the Party supremacy so far as schools are concerned. Time will cure some of it. We were just beginning to think that things might quiet down for peace in the country. The revolt in this province is over for the present. The one in Hankow played out. Now there is fighting in Canton with the Kwangsi party. What comes nearer to us is that it seems almost impossible to prevent a clash between Chiang and Feng. Ten days ago our people returning from Council meeting at Hwaiking got out on the last train on the Kirhan line before through traffic was stopped. Friday's paper says that the bridge over the Chang River, on the northern border of Honan, had been injured as well as the tunnel just below Kikungshan on the southern border. This was presumably done by Feng's troops to prevent the enemy coming in from the south or the north. I think that Feng himself is not anxious for a fight. I cannot say about those under him. Chiang appears to e in the humor of putting down everyone who does not agree with him. They are all traitors to the Revolution. It is a pity that some better way cannot be got to let the country have some peace for a while. We have been writing lately to enquire about the prospects of going to our summerhouse at Eikungshan. We had a letter from one of the teachers in the American School there. They had had their school going on at Shekow for the winter but were removed to the hill. The report was that the central houses were practically uninjured. But this lady did not know which was our house and so could not say definitely about it though she had been up along the ridge and nothing much seemed wrong. If fighting begins over there, however it will put a stop to summering on the mountain. It is at any rate a long and tedious trip from here, far different form the direct road from Weihwei. I think that last week mother mentioned the word of our being appointed here. We have since received the minutes in which our appointment is for a year. Various reasons dictated the time limit but I have no doubt that it will continue if things are satisfactory on both sides here. In the allocation of forces there was a kind of 'general shuffle'. All the folks with children for school are concentrated at Weihwei so that the mothers can carry on the teaching of them. Changte is not occupied by resident missionaries, but the appointment of Mr. Griffith to Weihwei has Changte in a bracket. There was a very good spirit at the meeting, though they were not able to plan for cooperation with the Chinese church at the present. There is still an antagonistic party in the north. The Southern Chinese would be pleased if the mission would over-ride that but they thought it better to have the Chinese synod settle their own differences themselves and then we could be in a position to cooperate. We have been having lovely weather lately, but getting warm. We are in the midst of the strawberry season and have an excellent crop. Some of the berries make one stretch his jaws to get them into the mouth. We are using them twice a day and have been able to share with some other people. We have been thinking a good deal of you lately as finishing up your exams at university. We hope all goes well both there and at the Council. When does it come off? We have McClure's victrola here and we have been eating to music lately. When listening to Maud Powell at Largo we were wondering whether or not you would get back into practice at your violin when university studies are over. It is nice to hear some music again after the failure to get anything on the radio. Some of the pieces are ones we had and make us think of old times at Weihwei. You may perhaps see Dr. McClure before long. He can tell you how we seem. We are not taking off any weight anyway. Goodbye for the present with love from both of us. Your loving father, Robert A. Mitchell ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan, China May 26, 1929 Dear Folks Mother asked me to do the writing this morning as she is a bit under the weather and thought that her bible class would be enough for her. When I came to get ready to write I found that we were at the end of our thin white paper. So I have used yellow for some of the work. Pardon me if you get yellow; why shouldn't you from China? It has been a week of rather more excitement than we usually have. In the early part of the week the Abernathy's of the Baptist mission said that they were going on Friday for the weekend to Tsinang and asked if we would go along in their car. Wednesday evening I was down among the students trying whether I could arrange to have my class be moved from Saturday morning to Friday morning. When I arrived home I found the Kings from Honan in the house and hear that Roulston was over at the Struthers. Kings are on their way home on furlough and Roulston is to be married here on the 11th of June to one of the nurses in the hospital. All railway traffic in Honan ceased about two weeks ago and they had no idea when it might run again, as there is prospect of fighting and Feng's army has blown up bridges on all sides to prevent entrance to Honan. So they decided they had better get out if they were to make their dates. As all the rolling stock from the Taoching line is off on other lines to move troops, they had no railway for any of the way. I think that they went by rickshaw from Weihei to Tackow; by Peking cart and rickshaw from there to Kaichow. One of their rickshaw men played out on the road. From Kaichow to Puchow in the worst end of this province they came by big cart. From there they got a motorbus, which brought them through to Tsinan. The motorbus was the worst of the journey. The grass smells and the roughness of the road at the speed they made was trying. A large part of that road is on the top of the Yellow River Dike and could be made into a really good road, but at present it is only earth and gets plenty of pitch holes. So our trip to Tsining was off. Jennie wants to go there sometime, as she has never been back since I took her off 29 years ago. There was talk once in the winter of going down with Abernathy, but he was staying too long. This weekend seemed the thing for us. Of course we had some talking to do when we got hold of the Kings from Weihwei, and we pumped them as best we could. On Wednesday evening they were all having a supper at Struthers after their journey, when in walked the three nurses. Miss Vanderbilt had not heard that they had come and knew nothing till at the dining room door she saw Roulston sitting in front of her. She had not had any mail for some time and was wondering however he was going to get over here for his wedding. The other two nurses though it would be a good thing to surprise her and they did it completely. Coral Brodie enjoyed it. Thursday the Kings saw about the university in the morning. In the afternoon we went to the lake for supper. You know that this place has seventy odd springs, some of them very large. The largest has the water rising in a big bubbly fully a foot higher than the surface of the water. They form the source of a river, which flows from here to the sea, though it is only a mile form the Yellow River. Before the river is formed it is a kind of lagoon, which occupies about one third of the land within the city walls. It is not one big sheet of water but is divided into patches owned by various owners. There are ridges of land between the water plots, which give a valuable crop of reeds. The waters also supply fish, frogs and lotus flowers and roots for the market. Besides putting it to that paying purpose they have water lanes all through the fields on which boats ply. You can get any size from one for one or two people up to double-deckers, which will take twenty or more people. The boats stop at various temples on the way where you can get out and see some of the sights. One has some very fine scrolls, another has abundance of odd goldfish, another is strong on flowers, etc. It makes a very pleasant outing if one gets it before the mosquitoes begin. Friday evening the Kings and Roulston got off on the express to Tientsin. Mts. Smith was going up from here to bring her daughter home from school at Tungchow. The four of them got a compartment together so they would be all right. The stationmaster had told Mr. Smith previously that the whole train was full and he could not guarantee any places. They would find it a bit better than the motorbus. It was a cool night for sleeping so they ought to be all right and would be in Tientsin for breakfast. The day before was 96 in the shade. That is about the warmest we have had yet. Yesterday a batch of home letters came in from Jay, Aunts Jessie and Mabel, and Uncle Fred. I expect that the last few weeks Mo has not ha time for such frivolities as letter writing. Of course we will be anxious to hear the results. But that will be some time yet. In Jay's pictures in aviation costume, she looks quite healthy. This week a code telegram came to us, which gave a little anxiety till we could get it decoded. It came from Tientsin here, saying that a cable from home announced that Dr. Struthers' father had had a serious operation and the crisis was not yet over. Dr. S. supposed that it might be for cancer of the stomach. No word has come since which is perhaps good. The closing exercises of the Missionaries' Children's school were here on Friday. I was not there, as I was busy with classes. But they seem to have had a nice time. I think it is not the closing of the school, but this seemed the best time for their entertainment. They began last Autumn with only two or three pupils in attendance. But they had sixteen or eighteen before they closed. I think that next term the mothers are going to do a good deal of the teaching of the seniors as Miss Shields is only ready to do the kindergarten end of the work. Nothing new from you this time and so we have just to wish you the very best success. I suppose it is all over now so far as the college is concerned. We shall anxiously await word of the results. We quite expect that they will be satisfactory, but till one knows there is expectancy. We are very sorry that we could not be in at your graduation as we were at Bill's. Love from us both, Your father, R.A. Mitchell ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo, Honan June 2, 1929 Dear Folk I am beginning this letter with the idea that it will be brief & I fear not very interesting. Yesterday we had a temp of 106 in the yard & for a good part of the day in our bedroom it was around 90. It dropped one degree by midnight & this am at 5 it was around 85. It is rising again & now at 8 we are feeling warm. All night a wind blew which was some help but we feel wilted. This will not keep up long, there will be a change soon & then we drop into the nineties again & sometimes lower. Needless to say I remain in my bedroom & do not wear many clothes. This has been a week of holidays. Monday the train with the remains of Sun Yat Sen, the idol of China passed though here en route to the grand Mausoleum, which has been prepared in Nanking. The university was expected to appear at the station in a body. The band was to play during the ceremony. We gathered with them but went on our wheels. Arriving at the station we decided there was no opportunity for us to see & so turned away & went up the R.R. track a short distance where there were soldiers guarding the line. Dad got into conversation with them & later asked if we would be allowed to stand near them & see the train as it went by. They gave their consent. An armoured train came first then the one bearing the coffin & the officials, guards, etc. Behind were several trains, eight in all, with friends & relatives. We were at a spot where there was a bend in the road & had a fine view of the car (mourning). It was blue with white & gilt decoration drawn aside. There was a service at the station but only Dr. Struthers saw the car. He got in to the station as an official photographer & he has some fine pictures. The other holidays we remained at home working in garden or at preparation of lessons. Classes stop on the 15th then exams & the commencement on 26th. We have been thinking a good deal of Mo these days & wondering when the final results are out. They must be about this time for Wednesday 5th is convocation. We shall still be thinking of him on that day. Were cables not so expensive we would have wanted one sent but thought it best to not have him send for then we would want to send him a reply. There have been two re: Dr. Struthers' Father which came to Dad & when the first one came I was a little scared till we had it decoded. We also had word re: Dr. R. P. MacKay's death. Roulston is in Tientsin but is expected back in a day or so & then the next excitement is getting them married. We have nothing to but attend the wedding, for we already have the present ordered. We are giving them a small screen for covering the grate when not in use. it is made of spun glass. This is a very pretty kind of work done in Tsinan & the eastern part of the province. Dad has the service at the leper hospital this AM. I would go over as I have not seen the Hpt, but it is too hot. Last night we had three of our Honan boys here for dinner. It was hot & you should have seen the way they drank. A few years ago the Chinese were afraid to drink cold water but those fellows have learned it is not being cold but not being boiled that causes the trouble. We also had ice cream. Dear Mo: We were showing the boys the Epistaxis & one of them who graduates in medicine this year was very much interested & amused in the joke "after graduation" & the selling or pawning of the microscope. The rug for Dr. Elliott has not yet gone but dad will likely get it off this week & if the Dr. is not in town you put it on your floor till he comes for a thing in use will not get moths in it. Hope he likes it. We send it to you as we do not know where Jay will be & you two talk over what to do about it. I must say adieu for it is warm. Heaps of love & best wishes for the new life, which is now opening before you. Lovingly, Mother Jennie H. Mitchell Max temps last 2 days: 109, 108 This morning at 5:30 84 Yesterday 89 Coming down.. ----------------------------------------- Cheeloo Univesity, Tsinan June 9, 1929 Dear Folks This week brought in letters from Jay and Aunt Jessie as well as from Mrs. Lochead, so that we know a little about the affairs at home. We have had Mo a good deal in thought during the week because we were quite expecting that he was getting his parchment. It will give us a setback if we hear that he has 'utterly and ignominiously failed on his final', what ho? We are not much afraid of any such contingencies but we shall be glad when we get letters telling of his scholarships, etc. Bill's last letter from Srinagar says that in Indore they are having it pretty regularly 103 degrees. We are not; but the first eight days of June have had five of them running from 104 to 108.5. It does not induce great activity. We use as few clothes as are allowable. One evening it seemed to be clouding up in the southeast as if we would have rain but before it came to that state we looked north to see a yellow cloud of dust. It all ended in wind and dust with a few big drops. This continued weather makes it a problem to keep gardens watered. Several times they have turned the water off because much was going on gardens for the safety of the reserve stock. Weather like this makes one feel that it would be well to get away someplace for part of the summer. We had a notion in the wintertime that we would stay right here. Then we have been talking of going to Kikungshan, to see how our house is there. We have not been there for five years. For the past three weeks things in that direction have looked quite unlikely. With dozens of bridges blown up in Honan province on both the Lunghai and the Peihan lines, and with several armies closing in on Honan with the prospect of cornering Feng Yu Hsian, it doesn't look like choosing Honan for a resort this summer. While it is possible to stay here, yet as I have to do a good deal of studying in preparation for the Autumn's work, perhaps the wisest thing is to go to some cooler place. We have been talking a little about Peitaiho and may end up there yet. Monday was the King's birthday and the Consul as at home about noon. We went down. I believe that last year it was a very cold affair as the Chinese stood in one corner and the Japanese in another and would not look at one another. There was not that difficulty this year. The consul said a few words, read the King's message to his people and we drank his health. We had been in there a few days before and they were complaining of not being able to use the electric fans because of lack of electricity in the daytime. They had got it for that day however. Last Sunday I was at the Leper hospital to preach. There were 37 present including two women. They did not look a much more pitiable company than is often gathered in the waiting room of any ordinary outpatient department in the hospitals we have been used to. We have guests in the house, Mrs. Supernois and two children, 4 and 6 years old. The girls are having their tonsils out and Dr. Stearns asked mother if she could take them in until they were able to return home. The operations were on Friday morning and the girls are pretty miserable today. Things will look up tomorrow. They are form a mission station about 80 miles west of here. Bill Roulston has been here since Tuesday. We have seen little of him as he has been busy packing and Miss Vanderbilt has been busy showing him off to her American Presbyterian friends. We Canadians have not had a look in yet. Mrs. Struthers has invited us to a pass supper this evening. Miss Margaret Forster arrived on Friday. She got out from Wuan to Shwan to by mule litter and got train to Peking. After the wedding she will stay here, getting something in the hospital till she goes to PTH in July. We did not quite escape a holiday this past week as the Party Organ ordered a meeting on the Monday morning for the propaganda of "Down with Feng Yu Hsiang." We did not go to that meeting and I understand that a good many of our boys did not do more than go to put in an appearance and come away at the first opportunity. These political things are an annoyance. Many people feel that the break was avoidable except for the arbitrariness of Chiang. But I guess that Feng is pretty well out of the running for the present. One doesn't know how safe his life is. I think he also is really a sick man. There is nothing much to add to the general letter this time. We have been thinking of you very much during the week because it would be the week of convocation, the time you have looked for so long. I hope that it was most satisfactory to you in every way, a day to give you a good start off on your particular course in life. It is a noble calling and I hope that you will be able to live up to its high and unselfish call. We would have been so delighted had we been able to be with you at this time as we were with Bill two years ago. When you get a little eased from the rush let us have as detailed a description of things as you can. We do not expect much from you at this time, as you will be so busy. But don't forget that we have not heard the details. When Jay took sick with her appendix everyone seemed to think that others had told us. So we can just guess at things. Goodbye with love from us both, Your affectionate father, Robert A. Mitchell Please accept the enclosed request for Eaton's to transfer ten dollars as a birthday present from us. R.A.M. ----------------------------------------- Cheeloo June 16, 1929 Dear Folk The one thing this week was the wedding & the heat. Roulston & Miss Vanderbilt were married on the 11th. It was a fearfully hot day & we did hot done up in our best. The church was banked with Oleanders pink & white. Do you remember them? In the part of chancel nearest where the couple stood for the ceremony was white Spirea & green. Only the further away places had pink & green. It really was lovely. As pretty as any wedding decorations I have seen at home. All the officiating people were friends & had been at Language school together. As time for the bride to arrive Roulston & MacIntosh came in & took seats to the side. The clergyman came in & sat at the reading desk. About 5 minutes later the bridal party arrived. The bridesmaids came up the aisle first dressed in a sax blue dress, very pretty made with long streamers at both sides. The two little flower girls followed. They are only a little over 3 yrs. & they came along even more slowly than the bridesmaids for they kept looking around them. The bride was just a little behind them on the arm of a big tall man. As they reached the front of the church he stepped aside handing the arm of the bride to Roulson who offered his & together they walked up two steps & knelt for the opening prayer. They were married with a ring & MacIntosh at the proper time handed it to the groom. One of the flower girls was in pink & white organdy, the other in blue & white. Roulston was in white; MacIntosh, in white trousers (Flannel) & dark coat; so was the man giving the bride away. The officiating clergyman was in a gown. In hot climate like this the white is the thing. The bride wore a white satin with two circular frilled skirt high waist, with a veil & orange blossoms. Her bouquet was a white rose; the bride's made also but partly baby's breath. The bride's was a lovely one. The ushers were 2 Chinese & 1 American & 1 Britisher. Bill Chang was one of the Chinese & they help served at the reception after. We had Punch & every one called for that more than cakes. The bride's cake had been sent from home & was good of course. Now for Bill & Mo, Roulston did real well but he looked so small beside the acting Father of the bride. So did MacIntosh. Roulston was quite nervous & we could not hear any of his responses. MacIntosh is still here & has been inquiring after both you boys. He said, "So, Mo graduates this year. He used to be one of the 'freshes' when I was around Knox. How quickly people grow up & finish their course." He enjoyed the Epistaxis. Dr. Forster is here & I must let her see it for she enjoyed the one last year. She helped fix up the bride & bridesmaid. She is a wonderful girl, can put her hand to so many things & do them well. She is anxious to see Helen out here. I have Mrs. Supernoise & her two children still here. The last two days the children are not so much trouble for they can eat, without crying with the hurt of the throat. They will likely go on to P.T.H. tomorrow. They are well-trained kiddies but poor things found parting with their tonsils not easy. All plans made thus far for P.T.H. have fallen through & we shall likely go to Kikungshan unless they really fight Feng. The papers look as though both sides were trying to avoid fighting & if so we shall go to K.K.S. We had letters from there this week - One from a friend & Rob from one of the watchmen to whom he wrote. He says that the outside of the woodwork is rotted considerable & needs repairs but that the shutters are still on & he thinks the house has not been entered. Classes stopped yesterday. I have my exam papers ready. I was asked in addition to my regular work to give the English exam for entrance to the Medical College from all outside schools as well as the beginner's class in Arts here. I too have that ready & 16 copies already handed to the registrar for outside schools. I shall take the exam here myself on July 1. Then I shall have about 30 or 40 papers to read but reading English is easy. Dad will have that many in Chinese as well as 10 or so English. I stay upstairs in my nightdress when doing this work & only wear clothes in the early morning & evening when cool. Yesterday was beautifully cool, so was last night down to 76. It is warming up again today but we have had a letup & are rested somewhat. The week has been uneventful except the wedding & our guests so shall close because there is nothing more to say. Dear Mo Hope we get a letter from you one of these days. Jay mentioned you might go west in her letter, which arrived today. We shall wait for further word. One letter also said you were off on a trip to New York. Hop you won. Aunt Jessie wrote she had made you her executor. So you see responsibilities are being put on you. From now on they will be & people will be looking to you to help them in some way. I am sure you will do so. Jay wrote you were lovely to her, even though so bothered at times. I am glad you were for it is not easy to have so much sickness in one year. And I am sure her troubles added not a little to all you had for the year. Hope life goes all right. Of course there will be clouds & storms & difficulties but they only make one the stronger. We are still anxious to hear of all that you do & feel sometimes we can hardly wait for word of what you really decide to do. We daily remember you all in our prayers. Much love, Mother Jennie H. Mitchell ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University June 23, 1929 Dear Folk Just in from the Baccalaureate service. The procession was from the Administrative building to the church. We are both on the staff & being newcomers were near the front. Indeed, I was the third couple. The older members came last & thus occupied the front seats. My partner was a Mr. Phillips, a Cambridge grad. Just behind us were Rob & Mr. Lautenschlager. It was hot & I wore a sleeveless dress under my gown & still was very hot & my clothes wet when I returned home. The sermon was preached by a Chinese, a graduate of Cheeloo & Princeton. It was interesting to see the different colored hoods. Several of the newcomers only wore gowns not possessing hoods. If we remain I shall make a D.D. hood for Dad, & possibly a Med. for myself. They are easily, cheaply made out here where silk is not so expensive as in Canada. The graduates led the procession as at home & then followed the staff. The dean of each faculty took some part in the service & after the procession reached the Administrative Building the Arts grads removed gowns & planted two cedar trees as a memorial of their graduation & had a few speeches. It was quite interesting & has not been done before. The hose had been dub but when they were placed each grad put in a shovel full of earth so all had a share in the arduous task. Wednesday the diplomas will be given & then the students go away for vacation. We do not yet know what we shall do. We would like to go to Kikung & see about the repairing of our house but affairs are not yet quiet & we might find it difficult to return when we wish to do so. Five Missionaries have lately been kidnapped by bandits in South Honan & one has not yet been released. They are holding them hoping to force the government to take them into the regular army on regular pay. If they get the government mixed up with the American government then they will have to do something to keep peace with America & at the price of incorporating the bandits into the army. You see how patriotic the Chinese people are. It is nothing anti-foreign at all but a plan to force the Chinese government to give them (the bandits) what they want. The last week has been one of heat, exams, reading of papers. I have mine finished but Dad has a Chinese exam in Old Testament to give on Tuesday but the papers do not need to be read for Convocation. I have July 2, to give an exam in English to all applicants for entrance to the Medical College. There are 14 here & will be a few from outside colleges to whom papers have been sent. I do not mind the English for it is easy reading & no special hurry about these. Mrs. Struthers & children left this week & a couple of other families for the cooler places. We do not expect to leave before July 9 or possibly 16th. The ranks will be thinner each week for a time. Some holiday during July, others August so there will be some here all summer. If we go away it will be for about 6 weeks. Dad has the English service tonight. I am sorry it came that way but he could not very well help it. However this will be the last till Autumn when it is cooler. He is having a sleep at present. Because of his having the service I am writing this week. Sorry it is my turn when so little has happened this week but regular work, which is no use writing about. I did make some Apricot Jam & several jars of jelly. And last Monday the two kiddies who had their tonsils out & their Mother who was here caring for them left & we are alone again. It is much nicer in hot weather for we can run around more freely. Dear Mo Shall be glad to have a letter from you again. Hope you won some games when away this time. Jay wrote you might not go into general so we wait for the altest word. Mabel wrote she had been out with you one evening & that she thought you were OK so far as exams go. We feel the same. Aunt Jessie's letter was mostly about Margaret's funeral & she said your results wre likely to be out the next day. However she mailed the letter to get off in time for steamer June 4th. We shall have to wait a time now. Let us know where the members of your class whom we know are starting their life work. I do hope Jay stays at the job she is starting on in July. She will never rise & get big salary unless she does remain a time in the same job. She should seek to fit herself in every way she can & ability & faithfulness will have its reward. Talk to her this way & try & get her to see she must remain at some job if she is to be a success in life. Jumping from one place to another never gets anyone anywhere. I am writing her by this mail along the same line as this. Now my dear boy adieu. I am sorry if you must give up the General but you know what seems the best considering all that is before you. Heaps of love & best wishes from both of us. Lovingly, Mother. Jennie H. Mitchell ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo Univesity, Tsinan June 30, 1929 Dear Folks Here we are at the first Sunday of the vacation. There is no Chinese university service this morning. Mother is off to sit with one of the ladies who is sick and I shall get none of my letter written. Monday morning I had an examination in O.T. History with about a dozen papers to examine. In the afternoon I went down to help Dr. McClure at his packing. He was not letting anyone know when he went away. Generally speaking they knew it was Tuesday but they supposed it was in the evening. I asked Bill Djang if he would write my examination questions on the board if I was not there and told him why. When I got to the station I found Bill there as he was convinced we would be back in time for the examination. McClure got off quietly with Andy Wolfe, Struthers, Djang and I there. In Kobe I think that Mrs. Griffith will be aboard the same boat. McClure will be a short time in Portland, Oregon before going east. Wednesday morning was taken up with convocation, which was held in the lecture hall of the Institute. It was expected that Mr. Tswei, Commissioner of Foreign Affairs here would give an address. A couple of days before the authorities got an anonymous letter warning them against having Tswei speak, that he was a counter-revolutionary, etc. I think that Tswei also got a warning against speaking. The senate was in a little quandary what to do. Wednesday morning they got word from Tswei that he was too busy and could not come. They were quite relieved to be out of an awkward situation. However a representative of the Provincial Governor was there and gave a short address. The closing of the Nurses School and the Middle School were along with the University. There were 22 boys from the Middle School, four boys and four girls from the Nurses School; five men and three women got their M.B.; seventeen men and one woman got the B.A. or B.Sc.; seven got the B.D. and one the theological diploma. This is the first year since 1926 that they have been able to have the closing exercises in June because of evacuations on two years and everyone was very thankful to complete another year. Since Wednesday I have been reveling in the opportunity to do some things for which I had not time before. My arms are showing a good turn from being out in the garden three mornings. The place is looking better than it has done for some years, I expect, though it is still dry. Our water supply is usually cut off for part of the day. We shall be glad when the rain comes. This week's Bulletin gives the meteorological report. For June our maximum has been 108; minimum, 62; with an approximate average of 83. (At this moment that is what it is here in the closed up house while it is 96 on the north side of the house outside.) For the six months the total rainfall has been 12.69 centimeters, of which 6 fell on June10. That shower was a fortunate one to give the farmers a chance to plant their crops after the wheat harvest. The last couple of weeks has shown considerable exodus of families to the coat. The week has also seen a decision on our plans. I had the offer of a little house at Rocky Point, Peitaiho very reasonably. Miss Brodie said she would go in with us for it, so we have written tot secure it. We shall probably leave here on July 9, taking the express that evening and reaching Peitaiho the next evening. Friday our three boxes arrived from Tientsin. Mr. MacKenzie had written a week ago that transportation companies were again taking trade. There was a big hole bashed into the side of the box of fruit jars. A man from the transportation company came to see what damage. Strung to any there was nothing broken in the region of the hole. Two half gallon jars and a flower bowl had come to grief in other parts of the box. I got the books and bookcase unpacked, and now they are set up, giving us another reminder of 117 Roehampton, and of Bill. We hope that the case may remain set up till Bill comes along and claims it. We are beginning to get anxious to have some word from you. I suppose it will come by next steamer. Aunt Jessie's last letter said that your results would be out the next day. But, anxious not to miss the boat, she mailed it out that night. She was telling all about Margaret McClure's funeral that day. Getting hold of Torontonensis we have been looking through the pictures and thinking back about you and your companions in athletics and collegiate life. Let us hear about the other fellows as well as you, how they got on and what they are going to do. At the commencement exercises the other day two of the graduates were from our Weihwei school. Djan Meng Hsien was in Arts. Ma Gin Tang, brother of Ma Gin Rung who was my right hand man in the school, was in Medicine. There were two scholarships given in medicine on the vote of the students. The second one went to Ma. It was $80. It would come in very handy for him. I was glad to see it and to see that he got clear through all right. Last year I think there was some doubt about him. He is not a brilliant fellow. He is the best artist of the class and used to make their anatomy drawings. One day he told me that the perspective lessons I had given them in Weihwei had been a help to him. He is going to Shansi to a mission hospital. I have just asked mother if she had anything to say to you. Her reply was contained in the first sentence on this page. So you see how unanimous is the sentiment. Let us know your plans when you can. Your loving father, Robert A. Mitchell July 1st. Your letter from Brooklyn came in last evening; very welcome. Congratulations on getting through. We expected it but it is nice to have confirmation. Glad that Vic got honors. Glad to hear that you will be in the General. We shall not be able to visualize you three at work in the college, in the Manufacturer's Life office, and in the hospital. I think that I once before asked you about the matter of finances. Very likely the reply to that enquiry will be coming along shortly. I am wanting to know whether I can divert the allowance I was letting you have to paying Mrs. MacRae for furniture. We have been using their things up to the present time. We are just now getting ready a list of what things we will buy from them. If we were just buying in the store we would not perhaps invest in so much. But seeing that these things are here, we will perhaps take the most of them, except what others are buying. We shall be glad to hear shortly that you have your council examination off. We suppose that it is the Dominion Council, though you have never said anything about it. R.A.M. ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University July 7, 1929 Dear Folk The first week of the holidays has gone. We have been trying to finish up. I had an entrance exam to the Medical School at which I presided one forenoon & then had 12 papers to read. Some from outside will come in one of these days. There have been alterations in dresses & I got a black & white voile up street, which I & others who have seen it think, is pretty. It is not the thin voile so I do not have to fuss as to where my various straps are for they cannot be seen under this. It will be finished tomorrow & I shall wear it out to P.T.H. It is a fine thing for traveling & will be a picnic dress most of the time when at P.T.H. Silks out here are OK for cooler days or best but one cannot wear them much for we perspire so much out here they get oily looking on the back & under the arms. This dress has short sleeves, coming just below the shoulder about four inches. Dad shaved me once under the arms this summer. I had no real pool dresses & took out the sleeves of that silk Jay made me, and another but have had them put in again. That was only to put me past the time when exams were on & there was no time for shopping. All the house has been dismantled, nick-nacks are upstairs, curtains down some couple of weeks ago & this week the rugs were all wiped over with coal oil & rolled up in newspaper. Tomorrow & the next day we have just to get ready, & make the food for the cook has been sent ahead to clean up the house which has been closed for a year. So much for me. Dad has had the time of his life these last nine days. He has been in his overalls except in the evenings & in the garden all the time. The last of the vegetables have been sown, a proper amount of hoeing done among the strawberries, & the vegetables that were needing it. All the last flower seeds, the remnants have been sown, & a general cleaning up in the yard. There have been such a lot of little stones all through the yard. These are cleared up & the low places filled up & the high made low, & heaps of other things that were needing were done. Also transplanted several hundred celery plants. These will have to be done once again. Also some snapdragon has also been put out. We feel the place is in the best it has been since we arrived & I guess for yeas. The gardener we hope will keep it going now till our return. But Dad's back is all red, except where the straps of the overalls crossed his back & his arms are good & brown. Yesterday we had a heavy rain, hail for a time & dad rushed put & covered up his newly planted celery. It is OK this morning. But the jolliest time of the week is the painters. They are doing the outside of the house but the shutters & also screens have to be off. The flies are bad & of course can come in at all times unless we keep windows closed which we cannot do this hot weather except in the middle of the day to keep the heat out. Then too the mosquitoes also enter as they wish. I never know when a painter may be just outside the window & several funny things have occurred. Dad packed a box to send Mrs. MacRae & I have all their belongings listed & priced, with the help of Dad & others. I shall write her tomorrow sending the list of things we will buy, what I have sold to others & what remains & ask for further advice. Dr. MacRae's books are not to be sold for a time yet. That will be Dad's job. It is sad work, when one thinks of what Dr. MacRae has done. We do hope that he may soon begin to improve but thus far word is not reassuring. Dear Mo - We were glad to have your letter from Brooklyn. Hope you won a game after writing us. It is disappointing to go away like that, meet others & feel that you should win & yet do not get at it in the right combine to do so. We felt you would make the exam & yet one is always glad when the results come out & it is a certainty. I think you have done well to carry all you did & not get a star. Aunt Mabel thinks you are a clever boy, so she wrote to do all you did. She expects we shall hear from you in the future & that you are going to be a fine physician or surgeon. Congrats from both of us once more & best wishes for a fine year in the General. Now Mo, if you are stuck for money do not spoil your opportunities but let us know. We can help you only give us time for the word to get back. In case you do need money & the word has been delayed from here go to Dr. Armstrong & he can arrange it in Dr. Laird's office. We can trust you not to impose on such an offer we know & we would be sorry if you did not get your year at the General. Dr. MacClure is home now. You might find out his whereabouts from Armstrong. I think he will not be long in Toronto. Have him in for a lunch or something like that. He will be sure to be around some hospitals & is spending a few months in London again before returning. I wondered if he would extend your time a year instead of you borrowing from someone else. We are glad Jay went on & finished her year at Oshawa. It is more honorable for her to do so. I hope she will try & do her best to fit herself for the work there & keep at it. It is only by staying at one job that she will rise in position & salary. I have written her this way. Then too I think her being at Armstrongs is fine. They will treat her like a member of the family & if she feels poorly she will not be alone as in a boarding house. The Mr. A is away so much, Mrs. A is lonely & will be glad of company. They have always wished they had a girl & have several times suggested Jay go to them since we lived with them. I could not move definitely in the matter lest the Shaws be offended, but now when Mabel is there this is a good time to make the move & I know the Armstrongs wish it. Mabel's last letter said she was not going out west. She will be in Toronto part of the vacation even if the Shaws do go to Point Aux Barril. Then Jay would not be all alone for long. The Macphersons who have taken the upper flat are very nice people & I hope Shaws & they get along OK. Now I must off & do the upstairs work. There is no Chinese service this AM & the English service is not till 5.30. We are to go out for dinner or possibly a pass supper at the 'Y' secretary's home after church. I do like the early service & think it would be good thing if adopted at home. Then people could have their evening, pass suppers & friends with them, & all attend the evening service. It will come in Canada yet. Heaps of love from both of us. We leave on Tuesday for Peitaiho for about 7 weeks. Letters sent here will follow us up so do not change address. Do you remember Miss Brodie who came to China the same time as Jean Menzies? She comes to us for August. They live now on Highbourne just below Armstrongs. They used to live out Dundas near where the new bridge over the Humber is being built. As this bridge went through part of their big yard they had to get out & have taken this house on Highbourne for a time. Again goodbye… Heaps of love from both of us. Mother. Jennie H. Mitchell ----------------------------------------- Rocky Point, Peitaiho July 21, 1929 Dear Folk Here goes for my first letter from P.T.H. The day is cloudy & looks as though we might get rain. We had a couple of days of damp & rainy weather. We had not seen much rain since we arrived last Sept. & enjoyed hearing it on the galvanized roof. Sometimes we sat on the verandah & just looked at it coming down in streaks, not drops. It is damp at the time of writing & the carbon sticks to the paper, so does not give good results. Since coming we have twice had friends in for supper. Sunday night the Grants & Monday the Knights. We wanted to have a visit with these people before their husbands left for Weihwei, which they did Wednesday. It was about the only opportunity, except an evening out to dinner with the former, we had for a good long chat. There was so much to ask about Weihwei & the people there. I do not feel I care to visit it just yet. Had we gone there to help rebuild it would have been different with ones work to do, but now that our interests are centered in Tsinan a visit with the place torn up as it is & our home burned, would only fill one with sadness. When bill & Helen are there that will be a joy spot & make it easier. Then too when the houses are repaired & the blemishes covered up somewhat it will help one forget somewhat. I suppose you are seeing accounts in your papers about the Sino-Russian trouble. No doubt the situation looks serious, but I do not think China will fight. She is not as well prepared as Russia. One of the big Generals, in fact the one controlling Manchuria is summering here. Two gunboats are anchored just opposite his home & at the station cars lined with soldiers, part of his guard, are standing. He was in Peking to a meeting re. Feng & Yen & came here on his way back to Mukden. The President is trying to get him to hurry off home & be nearer the trouble zone, but he remains here. That zone is about 1,000 miles from us here, still further from Tsinan. Of course if fighting does begin we might have to take a water trip home because of movement of troops, but it is hardly likely. Monday morning we went off to see Helen Goforth, who was planning to leave for North Caroline. Her husband has been in the Rockefeller Hospital for two terms & is leaving, not to return. They are replacing the doctors as soon as they can with trained Chinese & Van Gorder is going before he is too old to make a good start in U.S.A. This trouble up North upset their plans for they had tickets via Siberia. I do not know what they are going to do, wait a little & try to still go that way, or get sailings across the Pacific. I thought it might be the last time we would see her & we had a lovely nice visit with them. Fred has just gone back to Toronto & I think is going to take up writing. Wednesday our bathing suits, which we had forgotten arrived, & we went in for a bath. We have been doing more or less sunning since we came up & thought we were going safe, but we both are badly burned & have sore shoulders. The first day the waves were very high & we did nothing much but jump the waves. It tired me, for one would knock at me before I had time to get my breath. Getting old you see & not as quick in reversing gear as I should be & they got me several times in the face. The MacCully sisters, as they are called, are over here visiting from Korea. They have been stationed for years at Wansan & took us for several car rides when we were visiting there. They are Nova Scotia people and are retiring this time when they return to Canada. They are here for a short time & then on to Peking & Tientsin for a visit. We are having them in to supper with us this evening. Dad has been working on his Autumn lectures. He has done a lot of reading & tomorrow will begin making some notes. I get tired looking at him & not being able to talk, though he has read much to me, it will be worse when he begins notes. I shall have to go visiting & gossiping with the other members of our mission. This is the first time I have ever gone away for a summer without work for the Autumn to get ready. Teaching English gives me freedom from study. I am reading fiction & think I shall keep it up. We have movies here but thus far, & I fear most of the summer, it is poor stuff they put on, so I cannot get anything out of that. The crowd one sees up here is interesting for a time; very cosmopolitan. There are all nationalists but mostly Russians & a large number of them Jews. The dress is very interesting. Most of the women (Russian) wear shorts & a silk sport waist, no stockings & in some cases high heeled shoes. Then again one sees riding breeches with high-heeled shoes, short skirts without stockings. Any of these combinations may appear before one. In bathing no sign of bathing shoes & of course no stockings as used to be a few years ago. Then too at long distances most walk to & from the sea in bathing suits & in some cases no shoes. I go that way for the first morning & went down I got blisters on my heel. All Spring my heels have been bothering me & a good part of the time I have been using new skin & they break out every little while so it means no shoes for me part of the time on the verandah as well as to & from the sea. There are two stores her but groceries are cheaper bought in Tientsin & freighted up here. We did that. Fruit and vegetables are plentiful. Ice is to be had, also cows & goats milk. We get some of the former & also keep some tinned milk on hand. We buy our bread here though we bake in Tsinan. Dear Mo. We are beginning to feel we would like to see your handwriting or typing. The last word from you was when away on the Lacrosse trip. Let us know what sports you are keeping up. There has not been a letter from Jay for a long time either, but she would have a busy time in June. We think of her as back at Toronto & in Manulife. Hope she likes it & tries all she can to fit herself for her work. With that idea & sticking at it she should rise in salary & position but never if she keeps jumping from one thing to another. Did MacKay Thomson get his year? Thunder is rolling overhead so we shall likely get some rain. I have just been out in the kitchen looking after the water bottles. This is a bad place for dysentery & I put the bottles all on to boil. Shall do that every now and again to be sure it is done. Then too I try to see that water is boiled OK. There is a new bylaw every house must have a cesspool of its own. It is dug a few feet deep with a cement cover. All garbage, night soil, wash water, etc. is thrown in this & covered up. It gradually disappears & answers the purpose as the time people are here is short, even though the rocks are not far from the topsoil. One was put in since we came for out lot at the expense of the owner of course. That should mean fewer flies. Though there are so many Chinese living around us & they do not mind the flies, so I fear we shall have flies still with us. I wonder if you will see Fred Goforth. He is going into writing & seems to have put a finish onto his Dad's book. He also arranged for the printing of it on his return journey by a firm in London. Mary grant seems to have a nice "sit" this year. Hope she gets along OK next year. She wrote Helen Craw looked very white when exams were over. Of course she had her tonsils removed not long before exams & I suppose had to make up lost time. The double work makes it harder for her & yet she would not want to give up what she gets in the research labs. I think they will want her to continue that out here. Well so long for today. Hope to get word soon. There has been nothing from Aunt Jessie for a long time so there may be a big pile one of these days. Much love, Mother Jennie H. Mitchell Have been thinking so much of Aunt Lottie this week. Indeed I could not sleep some nights. ----------------------------------------- 13 2nd A. Road Peitaiho, July 28, 1929 Dear Folks No letters are in this week to answer but Aunt Jessie's of June 19-27. It has been a week without rain and some pretty hot days, which must have been pretty trying in the interior. By the afternoon we almost always get a cooling breeze here, though our house is not in the best situation to get much breeze. We usually go to the sea once a day. Most people go from 11-12. For the last few days we have changed from that time to the morning before breakfast. I usually am troubled with a muddled head at the coast. I have been wondering whether it is because of so much sun while in the water and se we are taking a different time. I am also doing less under-the-water work. One does not meet so many people at that time and does not spend so much time in the water as when there is a large company in. Most of our mission who are at Rocky Point go to the English Bay but we go to the American, which is a little nearer to me and has fewer stones. We have had an addition to the number of men from our mission this week. On Monday Dr. Reed and Gordon Struthers and Mr. Flemming came in. On Wednesday Dr. Ernest Struthers came. Flemmings live only a hundred yards from us so that we have seen something of them in and out of the water. We had Dr. and Mrs. Gordon Struthers in for supper on Friday and had a fine chat about Weihwei things. The Misses McCully are here from Honan in Korea staying with some of our single women who gave a tea to our mission on Monday afternoon for us all to meet them. We had them here for supper on Sunday evening, renewing the acquaintance made in Korea… The younger of the two sisters is this year chairman of the Korea Mission Council. Wednesday we went to the station to see the Van Gorders off. They had had passage taken by the Siberian route for last Saturday night. But the difficulties between China and Russia have stopped the traffic that way. So they started off by rail for Japan to take boat across the Pacific. Perhaps you do not remember that Mrs. Van Gorder is Helen Goforth. He has been in the PUMC in Peking but is returning to America, as he would not be required after his next furlough. They are replacing the foreign doctors with Chinese form time to time. He thought that he had better make the change before he was too old. He may go to Toronto to the Lockwood clinic. I always tell Helen that she and I have been in China the same length of time as I fathered her on the way out when we came first. I have done a good deal of reading on my Autumn work since coming up but so far have not got down to making notes. I must shortly, or I shall be stewing too much when I get back to Tsinan. The Summer Conference of the Stewart Evangelistic Fund began on Thursday of this week. We were at the opening meeting on Thursday evening and at the Bible study meeting on Friday and Bible class this morning. The daily bible lecture is being carried on by Mr. Darling, a man who has spent a long time in Szechuan, but who is going to Toronto to take the place of Dyson Hague. The Bible Class is under the leadership of Mr. Koffend, son of the man in charge of Evangel Hall in Toronto. He and his wife are in charge of the music at the conference and she plays at the Sunday services. They are both excellent musicians. They are of the Presbyterian mission. Mr. Riach is also here and has been asking about Bill and Mo. I do not know about any others of their mission. Yesterday we made a couple of calls, one on the Gleysteens, principal of Middle School in Peking and Neelands. He is a teacher in four Chinese colleges. She was a Murray, daughter of "blind" Murrays of Peking. In 1900 they were refugeeing in one end of the Family Hotel in Chefoo and we were in the other. It was sold then to the C.I.M. for preparatory school and we had to move out. That was a short time before Bill was born. Yesterday we were sunning ourselves down among the rocks where the Slimmon children and ours used to play with the foam when they had whooping cough and were ostracized in 1907. It seems a long time since then. We hope there will be a letter along from you before long now, telling about your new work. It is quite a while since we heard from you. Jay sent a clipping from an Oshawa paper with pictures of those getting degrees at Toronto. Llewellyn Hall was well represented. I suppose you had a good time down there. It is some time since you really had a holiday. Mother reminds me to speak again about the rug sent to you for Dr. Elliott. When I posted it I had to make a customs deposit for export duty. Since coming up here a notice came to me from the post office that it was being held in Shanghai until I sent further duty. It was to be paid in Tsinan so I sent to Dr. Ernest Struthers to pay it. I have not had a chance to talk with him since he came here. I suppose it was paid and that the rug is now on its way across the ocean. I do not remember whether it was addressed to Grace Hospital or to your frat. I expect that the postal authorities there will trace you up. We are only two hundred yards from the movie here, which is on three times a week. We have not attended any yet. Mother thinks that she would like to go sometime. "The Heart of a Nation" was advertised one night last week. Another night one was advertised as a blood curdler. Personally I haven't much hankering after them. Perhaps a good funny one would be good for me, it it was decent fun. July 29 - Yesterday was a hot and sultry day; we were almost expecting that it would end with a big blow and rain. The rain kept off till this morning when we are getting a little of it. The big storm seems delayed, but may come shortly, as the thunder, which has rumbled in the distance for several days, seems to be getting closer than it was. We enjoyed watching the waves over the rocks this morning at our before-breakfast bath. Let me have an answer shortly to my questions on finances, so that I can make my arrangements. I hope that you will be able to get to work on the reduction of debt as soon as possible. It is a great incubus if it is allowed to keep on. Love from both of us Your Father Robert A. Mitchell ----------------------------------------- Peitaiho August 4, 1929 Dear Loved Ones Another week has gone. It has been one of part sunshine, rain, & wind. The last two days are cool & we have all added a little to our clothing. For days we were as little as the law allows, but now are coming to ourselves. Rob went to the morning meetings in shorts, without sox, but had on shoes, a sport shirt but no tie. There were a few dressed as he though some felt they could not come down to such comfort without lowering their dignity. I wore stockings, when at meetings or calling but for about two weeks when at home, have gone without. The various dress one meets is amusing. Many of the women are in shorts with blouse, middle or sport shirt, & high-heeled shoes. The Russians predominate & they are big women & I cannot say I like shorts on many of them. However that is their affair. It certainly looks funny to see a woman in shorts sport shirt powered, & lipsticked. Monday we had the Flemmings of our Mission here for supper. Any company we have had before we had supper on the verandah but Monday it was raining & we spent the evening in the dining room. They went home in the rain but left shoes & stockings here. Flemmings have been down in Formosa & Mrs. F had on a lovely new pair of snakeskin shoes, which she did not wish to spoil. We had a lovely evening as we did when Dr. R.G. Struthers spent the evening with us. All felt it was like old times when we were all living in Weihwei. All talk as though we were in Tsinan for good for which I am very glad. Tuesday we went two miles from where we live to East Cliff where there are about 120 houses. We were invited to dinner over there. About 3pm we took our thermos & a little lunch went over in Rickshaws & sat on the beach & had our afternoon tea. Then we went up to call on a friend from Tsinan, Hunters, before going over to dinner. We had not been to East Cliff for a long time though so it was a good opportunity to get over & see the changes. We arrived home about 10.15, tired and ready for bed. Wednesday swims, with a little mending, study for Rob, reading for me in the forenoon with a call in the afternoon on a member of our Mission. Friday we were busy getting the room ready for Miss Brodie who came that evening. Jay, her parents live on Highbourne just below the Armstrongs. She will be with us in August & likely we will all get off about Sept. 8. Saturday I gave a little tea for her. It was cold, with occasional showers through the day. We had to remain inside. I had quite a time getting the table ready, couch & chairs moved in off verandah. Then the cook finds it difficult baking up here. The stove has no oven. When baking a large iron kettle sat over the fire hole which is never covered & the baking pan is put under it, not too close to the fire hole. So, some of my brain power had to go into helping him plan. We had no other way of baking when in Weihwei & at Kungshan but it was new to this cook. However we got some little sponge cakes & drop cakes made. Then I had sandwiches & buttered tea biscuits; nothing swell, but we had a good time. Last week we ere out to a tea where there were seven different kinds of cake & two or three kinds of sandwiches. But that is too much for me. We are all invited out to a tea Wednesday where eleven single women are living. They belong to Methodist Mission & come here from a number of different places. They have a big house & are giving a big "at home" so we shall likely meet a number there. Most or about half these women are students of the language & are taking this way to have a little sight of friends at P.T.H. This morning is cool though we are in a sheltered place on the verandah. No rain has fallen & we are hoping this is the breakup of the worst part of the heat. It has really been very warm for a summer resort. All coming out from the interior tell stories of great heat. Many who were remaining in homes decided to come out. We will do better work no doubt for being out here. I shall be glad to hear from you & the general; also about the December exam. Let us know how Jay is keeping. Talk up to her if she needs it. She is a forgoing disposition & after she has had time to think appreciates what one does for her. Lovingly, Mother ---------------------------------------- eitaiho Beach August 11, 1929 Dear Folks This week opened with torrents of rain, which washed things clean. We were quite ready for it to clear up before it did. Some parts have been suffering from floods throughout the province but latest word is that the waters are going down. They have been right up to the west suburb of Peiping (Peking). The latter part of the week has been mostly fine though it looks as if another rain would come soon. It was cold the first part of the week but that is the only time we have had cool weather since we came up. It has been very hot in Tsinan. They mostly took to the cellars there for comfort. Wednesday afternoon we were up to the Methodist ladies' house for an at home tea. There was a great swarm of ladies present but not many gentlemen. We met Dr. Hobart who acted father to give the bride away at our wedding. He is just back from furlough. His wife was shot and killed a couple of years ago at Taian during some fighting. The same evening we were at a stunt concert at one of the London Mission houses. They were trying to raise money for a raft at the English Bay. American Bay is inside the limits of the Rocky Point Association and a raft is supplied by the association. English Bay is just beyond the limits and is not supplied with one. So they were getting one for themselves. Quite a number of our people go to that beach where they fall in with the London Mission. We go usually to the American Beach as being a better bottom. We had some good laughs at the concert but of course it was amateurish. Thursday at Prayer meeting Eric Liddell had the meeting. He gave us an excellent address - so helpful. He doesn't hve very attractive pulpit mannerisms but his smile and dimpled chin are quite attractive. I haven't had much conversation with him this year. Last time we ere here we played a good deal of tennis together at Mrs. Menzies. I haven't had any athletic talk with him. I think the English were disappointed that he could not represent them at the Olympics again last year. Monday Dr. Reeds left for Honan to let Mr. Boyd come out from Hwaiking. He got away dry, but a big crowd who went from the conference grounds on a trip to the Great Wall got a thorough soaking that day. Friday we were at the Gordon Struther's at Temple Bay for supper along with Miss MacLennan and the Misses McCully from Wonsan. We went part way to the Marine camp in the hope of hearing the band concert. But the wind was in the wrong direction and we could hear very little. There is a camp of American Marines half way between Lighthouse Point and East Cliff and they give a band concert from 6-7 twice a week. They gave a concert at the conference grounds here a week ago last Saturday evening. The Struthers' houses are together about half way from there to East Cliff. Gordon says it is a mile and a half to our Assembly Hall and a mile and a third to the meeting place at East Cliff. Yesterday after tea we went out shopping and spent about twenty dollars. Mother and Miss Brodie have gone about the stores before to see what there was which they liked and comparing the prices in the various places. Most of them say that their prices are reduced about this time. So also is their stock so that there is not so good a choice. I have been trying to get in some study every day but it does not seem to show very much in results. I work on three lines, which I shall have to take up in the autumn, Old Testament History, the Exegesis of Deuteronomy, and the translation of a book on Knowing the Bible. The last would go faster if I had a Chinese teacher with me and had a good dictionary along. I shall get some in shape for the teacher when I get back at the end of the month. The tragic thing of this week was the death of Mr. Griffith. On Tuesday we got a telegram that he had been paralyzed on Sunday, died on Monday, and would be buried on Wednesday. It came as a terrible shock to everybody. He had been over as far as Japan seeing Mrs. Griffith off for the homeland. Some ladies from Korea coming here for the conference said that he was on the train with them. He reached Wuan on Wednesday evening July 24. Mr. Faris left there the next day for Peking where he was to have a sight operation. After Griffith did some straightening up of things at Wuan he went to Changte for famine relieve work while Mr. Bruce went to Kikungsha It seems that about 2am Sunday morning someone heard a strange noise in Mr. Griffith's room but did not go as they thought he would call if he wanted anybody. When he did not come out in the morning they went into his room and found him unable to move or apparently to understand what they said. As the train was about to leave for Weihwei the gatekeeper went down there. Dr. Grant went up with a Chinese doctor but their train was delayed so that they did not get there till 4 on Monday morning. He had died about 2am. Probably he knew nothing from the time of the attack. Mr. Boyd was able to get up for the funeral on Wednesday morning. Mr. Bruce came back from KKS for it but was too late. Dr. Reeds who was on his way in from here reached there in the afternoon of the same day, knowing nothing of it. Mr. Faris who had left him such a short time before knew nothing till he reached here on Thursday evening on his way to meet Mrs. Faris in Japan. At the funeral Mr. Djang Ling who has been the leader of the anti-cooperation party at Changte took the service, while Dr. Grant had the part at the grave. We are wondering whether or not this severe shock to us all may not lead to reconciliation between the two parts of the church there. There did not seem much sign of it up to this as the Changte members of the Executive refused to attend the meeting in Weihwei and Cheng Bu Yue the moderator had resigned in despair of doing anything. Mr. Boyd and Miss O'Neill arrived here on Friday evening. I have not seen Boyd yet so that I do not know any particulars except what letters had brought to Mrs. Grant. My how our Chante staff has been whittled down. MacKenzie at home; Menzies on furlough; Griffith dead; Eadies not yet back from Japan; all the ladies in the homeland; Netterfields also in the homeland. So far as staff is concerned this time had been a greater depleter than was the Boxer trouble. Of course things do not look very bright at the present time for work but I count that in a couple of years we shall find that all the available staff is being overworked and we shall not know where to turn to get new ones. On Wednesday we had a memorial service here on the ladies' verandah. As chairman of Council Mr. Flemming had charge. Part of the service was in Chinese and one of the language teachers spoke of Mr. Gritffith's work especially the interest that he took in the work as a whole and that he died just in the hottest weather in famine relief work in the interior. Mrs. Goforth spoke very nicely about what Mr. Griffith had meant to them in times of sorrow at the loss of their children and when she seemed to be on her deathbed three years ago. Mr. Luxon of the London Mission spoke on behalf of that mission with whom Mr. G. was working in Tientsin since the evacuation. I spoke for our mission as being the one most closely his contemporary of those in our mission at this place. Dr. Goforth was asked to lead in prayer in Chinese. I spoke in the line of a comparison of Moses permitted to look on the Promised Land but not allowed to enter in, giving several similarities. Since I wrote the above we have been to Boyds'. Mr. B. says that Mr. Griffith reached Changte from Wuan only on Wednesday evening. The funds for the relief work had not yet arrived but his correspondence showed that he expected it momentarily. He was there only three days. He was sixty-two years old I think. For a long time he had not been able to take violent exercise because of a bad ankle he got by stepping off a platform. He had been getting heavier and the doctors advised him to get an exerciser. He was in college with me but was then busy as the secretary of the Canadian College Mission. Mother was on the committee of that mission with him. She had been teacher at Powassin when he was the student preacher there and they knew each other pretty well. When he came to China there were not funds to send him and he went out and collected promises. Of the amount promised four hundred a year came from a young doctor who was under appointment to the Honan field and they came out together and worked for a quarter century together, Percy Leslie and John Griffith. This morning Coral Brodie got a letter from Toronto so we are hoping that there may be some for us from the same locality. I think that the last one from you was sent from Brooklyn. It's about time for another is it not to tell us something about yourself and to answer our numerous questions since then, is it not? Three weeks from this we shall again be making our way back to Tsinan. I hope to get some considerable study done between now and then but very likely I shall be growling that I did not get enough done. Is it best to take a part holiday or a whole one? I usually try to combine holiday with work. Mother is just calling attention to the fact that it is getting near to tea time so I shall close off now hoping that there will be a letter along before long. With much love from us both, Father, Robert A. Mitchell ---------------------------------------- Peitaho August 18, 1929 Dear Loved Ones This week we were delighted to have a letter from Jay. It seemed such a long time since the letter before that had arrived. Mo has been silent now for a long time. Hope he soon speaks up. It is now 9.30 & a warm morning. We have had several cool days & now for a couple of hot ones & then another shower. Last Monday we had a regular downpour & fearful lightening. Streets, cellars, storerooms in Tientsin were flooded. Some from here who have stuff stored in Tientsin went down to look after it. Trunks were opened & the goods sunned on MacKenzie's tennis court. Those having valuables were not satisfied with that & went down to look after their own belongings. Our two trunks, which have lain there for nearly a year, reached us in Tientsin a few days before we left so our hearts were at rest. Dr. Murray, one of our Missionaries in Korea, is on her way to Peking for a month's course in the Rockefeller HPT. is with us for a few days. We had some friends in to meet her & Wednesday had supper on the rocks. It is only a short distance from the house so we had one warm course. AS we sat on the top of the ridge we could see the place where between two sets of projecting rocks our three & Slimmons three played in the sand in 1907 when you all had whooping cough. The people up here were always afraid of you & we just insisted that you had a place at the seashore to play. They soon saw you were staying in that place & left you all to yourselves & you did have lots of fun. Sometimes I wish we could all be back in those days when I had you all around me again. But that cannot be. A mother cannot often keep her brood around her. As one mother in Tsinan said to me, "You have your time with your children to look back to, I am starting out on mine, & how they will develop is uncertain." Saturday we rose at 4.30am, got up & off for a ride of 3 miles; then a walk of about that length to sand doons where we had breakfast. There were about 20 in the party. We had made lunch the night before but the coffee had to be made & imagine my surprise when there was no mild. Dad went a few doors away to where we know they were going with us & a member of our Mission & returned with a tin of milk. Then we were delayed & sat down to breakfast in our own home at the time we were to have met friends by the way. However others were later than we & we arrived first. When all were gathered some arriving in Rickshaws, some on donkeys, we all took off shoes & stockings, & walked along the shore, for about three miles. It was lovely. Then we climbed to the highest sand hill & ate our second breakfast & all were ready for it. On the return trip the tide had begun to come in & there were two places where we had to wade in water about to our knees. Dad & I toward the last dropped behind & picked up a few very pretty shells to use in the winter with our bulbs. We were home about 11am & all four of us got on our backs as quickly as we could, had a doze & then our third meal of the day. I am having a cape made. It is Indian crepe cloth, brown outside with fawn lining. I went down to have it fitted in the afternoon. It is looking very nice & will be finished tomorrow. The coolie coats are too common out here & I preferred this for a loose wrap to run to classes & into a neighbor's when a cool day or evening comes. Dad has had a couple of attacks of "hay fever". Then yesterday he took a bad pain in his back (Lumbago). He is not suffering much but it is not pleasant. He gave it a good sunning yesterday, had a hot iron the first part of the night, & is getting in the sun as I write. He slept fairly well but cannot move around as he wishes. He keeps his back straight & stiff. August 20 Failed to get this off Sunday. It was so hot. Have nothing more to add except we shall be glad to hear from you Mo. Let us know how Jay is keeping. Love from both ofus & best wishes for a successful year & an opening for permanent work. Mother Jennie H. Mitchell ----------------------------------------- 13 2nd A Road, Peitaiho Beach August 25, 1929 Dear Folks No "home mail" this week to answer except Bill's of July 18-22 written from hospital. Though no word was given of what it really was the doctors here suspected that probably it was malaria. Several have expressed the hope that he was not getting a dose of that in his system, which would take years to get rid of. If there is danger of that prophylactic doses of quinine will make a 'sweet accomplishment to the porridge'. The summer is getting pretty well over and every morning's train takes some people away. Dr. Murry left our household on Friday for Peking for her course in the PUMC. Dr. Forster had gone the day before and the Misses McCully left yesterday. Tomorrow a carload is going, having spoken for a special car to Peking. Of our people there will be the Struthers, Mathesons, Flemmings. Eadies arrived here a couple of days ago from Japan on the way to Honan. Roustone went in a week ago. Misses Bryden and MacLennan went ten days ago to Peking to find trains not running. Miss MacL came back as she heard it might be a month before the line was through. But word came that the express went through again last Friday. The floods have been very bad in certain sections. In Weihwei the water has been nearly as high as in 1917, there being water in all the cellars except the doctor's and all gardens washed out but Struthers'. In Tientsin there was a damming up of sewage. Their system is one that at a certain height of water requires pumping. The pumping station is in the Chinese quarters. The foreigners wanted a foreigner in charge but the Chinese insisted that it interfered with 'Chinese sovereign rights'. The result was that the plant was not kept up to time. When they needed to pump the water there was no one in charge of it. The foreign engineer went and it was four hours before they could get the thing going. As they had had a fall of six inches in six hours, or course it meant that a lot of water was flowing about. There was about a foot in MacKenzie's godown. MacKenzie and Matheson went down from here. Quite a number of things were damaged. Mrs. Roulston's wardrobe trunk with her good clothes was one-third in water. We are making plans to leave here on Thursday of this week. It is a week earlier than we had first intended but we think that probably there will be less incentive to hay fever at Tsinan where most of the grass near us is cut than there is here. I usually feel pretty bad in the early morning, improving somewhat as the day gets on. But my eyes suffer with the glare of the sun. I shall not be sorry when the season for it gets past. This week I have had one of the language teachers for several days to get some of my translation written out in character. I got nearly one chapter of the book done. But the teachers from Honan who have not been in touch with university ideas are not a very great help. When I get back to Tsinan I shall get a man who is familiar with the ideas with which we deal. I have been putting in pretty good study most of the summer and think that I shall put away my books for the next few days. We must pack and get in a few last trips. Of course the stores have all been advertising great reductions and the ladies have been busy buying their Christmas presents etc. I haven't been around much at that time - a good time to be busy studying. One day we took our supper at Lighthouse Point. As I had the prayer meeting from 5-6 and it is 2 1/2 miles to the point we did not get there in time to take a picture. We found two other picnic parties ahead of us at the grotto and the sands, so we took the grass on top. Mother took a trip to Lotus Hills with Dr. Murray one day. We may get there again before we leave. We also want to visit the Shell Beach. I went one day but the tide was in. Last evening we were for tea with the Dr. Harts. He has been principal of the Tientsin Angle Chinese College for many years and is now retiring from China. They go next week by way of Kobe and the C.P.R. through Canada. They are to be in Toronto for a couple of weeks - probably will see Dr. Armstrong. We are beginning to think that our 'clever young doctor' must have worked up a big practice so that he has no time for letter writing. It does not look as if he was like the medical and his microscope, which was celebrated, in the last epistaxis. Unless it has gone to such an extreme that he cannot even afford a stamp after he has pawned his microscope. Mrs. Ratcliffe came into church at the singing of the last hymn today. Mrs. Grant had been meeting the trains from Mukden the last day or two but had expected that if she was coming the cyber way she would have sent word. She came right up from the boat at Tangku. We are to go there to supper Monday night to meet her. She had company up however, as one of the passengers on the boat was a young man - Stelle, son of one of our nearest neighbors here. He has just completed his course in Columbia and is coming to teach in Peking. We saw him at the station this morning and it made us wish that the days would hasten around till we could welcome one of our own boys. We saw the crowd off for Peiping this morning, a carload of them. Of our people there were the Struthers, Flemmings, Mathesons, and Miss MacLennan. Bobbie Reeds was also aboard going to Tientsin to go to Kobe to school. It seemed a bit lonely, his going off. His father is back in Honan; his mother has had a bit of sickness keeping her in bed the last few days. The cook came up with little faith to see him off at the train. Bobbie can look after himself pretty well. He has been running a bit of business up here this summer and disposed of a couple of hundred dollars worth of flashlights, etc. When there were some gunboats in here, Bobbie wrote a letter to Marshall Djang Hsue Liang telling him that he thought he had pretty good searchlights on his boats. Tomorrow we are off for another trip to the shell beach to see if we cn get some decent shells. I have put away my studies, and shall spend the next couple of days seeing things and getting ready to go. We leave on Thursday. Love from us both. Get your typewriter in shape again and let us hear from you. Your loving father, Robert A. Mitchell ---------------------------------------- Tsinan Sept 1, 1929 Dear Loved Ones Home once more & it is nice to be here again. The last few days Dad had a hard time with "hay fever". One night he could hardly get his breath for a couple of hours. He is not trained to breath through his mouth & both nostrils were closed up. He is feeling better now & we hope now that we are away from a place with so much ragweed that he will gradually get free from it. Monday morning we did a little packing & sorting out & in afternoon took a long trip to the Locust Hills. The west end is where the wealthy Chinese live. They have a society of their own & keep up good roads for all of us & in this district have a public garden with platform for band & speakers. They did have one big gathering up there with fireworks at night, lantern decorations, but we were not there. We went to the café & had ice cream & cake, walked around the hill a couple of miles & down by the river where it comes into the sea & back by the main road. it was a nice walk & we enjoyed it very much. That evening we were at dinner with Mrs. Ratcliffe who has just returned from Canada & we had a chat about the friends there, who she had seen & church affairs in general. Tuesday a party of us went for shells & that meant getting up at 6am & getting off after breakfast for we had to be there before the tide came in. We were back about 11am, tired & with a good number of shells, but few special ones. I think it was too late in the season. They are so nice to use with bulbs in the winter. This meant a long walk & part of the time wading in the water after shells were gathered. Dad had been studying most of the summer & we felt we wanted to see a little more of the East End & we did not return when the others with the children did. It was a pleasant morning for us & after a rest we did a little packing. Also, Wednesday. Thursday we went to a restaurant for breakfast. Two of the single women of our mission were traveling with us. When we reached the junction Coral Brodie & I remained by the stuff while the other two boarded a already full train to get seats for us. Dad found one & he just spread out all over it, Miss Stewart said, while she hurried to the window to tell us to pass in the baggage. We then hurried on & had four seats together for which we were thankful. We had lunch on the train & about 5pm arrived in Tientsin. It was raining a little but we managed to transfer from one side to the other without getting wet. But there was sometime getting a valise checked to Tientsin & which we needed at night for we could not get sleepers. We managed it a few minutes before the train left & then had a scramble. It was fearfully crowded & our boxes, bundles, etc. along with a number of others were put in the chair car, on the plush chairs & floor. The car had more baggage than persons when we pulled out. After a time dad managed to get a bed for me with three other Chinese women. He slept on one of our boxes in the vestibule with the steamer rug & sweater over him. When I got in with those women they were not pleased to see me. At least one of them was not. They were all stretched out & there was no seat for me though one woman offered me a place another told me that the birth above was my place. I quietly remarked that I had traveled before & that I paid for sitting room till time to go to bed. The other lower birth women seemed to enjoy this & repeated that this was not the first time I had traveled and I knew. I had no trouble after that. My friend on the berth below me softened, sat up & behaved politely for a time & then got real friendly. The one who was friendly from the first had when a girl been in a school (Mission) in Peking & knew Miss Gowens of Toronto. We at once became chummy & I left the other woman to herself. Then when going to bed came I feared they would close up the compartment but no the training in Mission school of two of the number was not forgotten & they said they must have some fresh air. So we had a window open at each end of the compartment & I had a fairly good night. Some man stealing a ride fell off the steps & was run over by the train & one pulled out with his screams in our ears. There are no doctors' offices near & the poor man will likely die of blood poisoning if he survives the shock. Sept 3 Dear Mo I did not get these letters off Sunday & yesterday I was busy. This is being written in bed & excuse mistakes. Last night I ate some raw tomatoes, which had been standing from a previous meal. They had been well covered & I thought it would be OK. Sometimes one gets away with such things, but it is not wise to eat any raw stuff left standing this time of the year…. I had lots of pain & still have a little. However the diarrhea has stopped & the pains are less intense. I hope to get up later in the day bout one cannot get around with a hot water bottle on one's stomach. Why do you not write? Be careful about the address Cheeloo University, Sinan, Shangtun, China. We wonder how you are getting on with the work. You are busy, no doubt. Mrs. Ratcliffe returned just before we left P.T.H. She had word of some of Honan group but not of you or Jay. Bill was in hospital when he wrote under Dr. Wilford Russel. They had found out it was not Malaria. He was there for two weeks anyway & getting part of the time 2 cups of sago. That would go hard with Bill. He is beginning to make plans for Helen coming out next Sept. Grants go home in 31 days so Mary will take an internship even if she returns with them. Now adieu. Here comes my cup of hot water & I must drink. We have some cases of cholera in the hospital. A couple died last week but two were saved Sunday. They came in, in time. So we must watch our fruit, etc. All these cases have been people from Shanghai or Nanking. No local cases have yet been seen. But it may travel up the R.R. line. But cool weather is in our favor. Adieu Much love, Mother Jennie. H. Mitchell --------------------------------------- Cheeloo University Sept 9, 1929 Dear Folks I am a day late in getting started at the letters this week because I hve been on the mountains for our staff retreat the last couple of days. There has usually been such before the opening of the full session for the last eight or nine years. Last year they did not go up the mountain but were in the Presbyterian mission in the east suburb. We went up on Friday. Some went on our wheels for about half way and left them at a village, whence we went on foot for the other five miles. The greater part of that was not serious climbing but the latter part is tiresome. There is not a sloping road as at Kikungshan. The ridge runs east and west with a northward spur. The road goes up in the angle and has not much leeway for curves so it is a zigzag of stone steps. I understand that there are well onto two thousand steps. They are not high but it gets tiresome lifting the foot so often. The ridge is about 1,700 feet above sea level. On the top is a little temple, which we can see from our home windows. Near is a temple facing south along with four houses belonging to missionaries who are or have been here. They have not been occupied for two years on account of the unsettled state of the country. Two of these houses are at the edge of a sharp declivity of several hundred feet. One looks out over a fairly broad valley with numerous rounded terraced hills and the whole valley laid out in various colored fields. Beyond are several ranges of mountains, culminating in Taishan, between 5,000 and 6,000 feet high, the most famous sacred mountain of China. Eastward stretch several ranges of mountains with inhabited valleys. To the north the valley opens out fairly broadly till it reaches Tsinan with the plain beyond only dotted with a few isolated hills. At night the city lights make a sparkling effect, taking up some 30 degrees of the horizon. To the west and north can be seen the Yellow River winding its way northeastward. Toward the evening with the setting sun on it, it looked like a polished silver wire stretching across the country. It reminded me of electric wires coated with ice sparkling in the morning sun. Saturday morning I had the first devotional meeting after which the meeting was thrown open for a full and free talk of things particularly concerning the spiritual needs of our institution. At 11 o'clock we had a meeting with an address by Dr. Stanley of the theological college. After supper we gathered in the open on the north side of the hill facing the city where our work is and sang hymns for about an hour and then had prayer and dispersed. Sunday's program was similar except that some of us gathered on the eastern spur of the mountain for singing before breakfast and that we had communion in the evening. I forgot to mention that the afternoon was given up to discussion. There were thirty of us, about half Chinese and the other half foreign. We had a very helpful time together in some respect the best they have had. I trust that it will be a spiritual uplift throughout the days to come and may result in better work. After a six o'clock breakfast we returned this morning. Last evening about five we looked out over the city and saw Tsinan in the midst of a big dust storm, while in other parts there seemed to be rain. When the wind reached us it meant a sudden drop in temperature so that most of the folks got on the warmest clothes they had and wished for more. There was a trio of us sneezing at one another with hay fever. Folks tell us to cheer up - Christmas is coming. We have still another week before the session closes. I must get right down to work with a teacher to get my work into Chinese so as to keep ahead of the class. Last week the Struthers returned home. Though they had left a servant responsible for things he was not living on the place. They found that their house had been entered and things taken to the value of about $200 Mexican. It is a disappointment. Not much out of the usual to record this week. I am still sneezing and blowing with the hayfever. On the hill there were three of us sneezing at each other. I think I am a bit worse than before going on the hill for there was lots of long grass of various kinds there, including my friend, the enemy, Mr. Ragweed. I think I had better take to the water every autumn to get away from all pollen. On Eaton's July statement there was a deposit of $30 on the 16th of the month, of which I cannot trace the depositor, as there were no sums of interest due at that time. Does it happen to be from you? In most of my letters lately, I have mentioned finances till I am about ashamed of it. We have not had a letter from you since the one written from Brooklyn of June 1st. What has happened? Cannot you let us have one a month at any rate? I would like to have a letter from you on finances. I have in a former letter spoken about the continuance of your allowance while interning and asking whether or not you needed it. To that I have had no reply. I think that I also asked you to give me a note for the amount you got from Uncle Rob. That has not yet been attended to, has it? It is best for these things to be in clear shape. Mr. Griffith's passing so quickly has impressed on me again the necessity that I have my business arrangements clear so that if anything should occur there would be a lot of trouble in settling up my estate. I do not want to drop off and leave mother in an awkward position. Such things are best attended to in time. This does not mean that I have any premonitions or dread of any quick change, but just that proper precautions should be taken to save other people trouble. I hope that you are enjoying your work at the hospital. It is certainly a good opportunity for experience without having the highest responsibility for things as one has sometimes to have when working alone, especially in such a country as this. In Bill's letter this week I have been discussing with him possible places of his getting married. Of course we would like to be present. I suppose that Bill would like to go as far as Japan to meet Helen, but we may not be able to stand that. Bill seems to be in the dark as to what kind of illness he has or he is keeping us in the dark. One might naturally suspect malaria but the doctors seem to have ruled that out. At any rate he has had a pretty good shaking. I hope that he can keep well the rest of the time in India till he gets into our nice dry, sunny, dusty, climate here. They had it pretty hot in Tsinan this year and it is good we did not stay. One of the Chinese doctors said that there were times when he felt that he did not care if he passed out it was so hot. Buck up and give us a letter. Get our business straightened out. Aunt Jessie gives us an occasional word of your welfare but she does not know much. It is not the same as a personal letter. With much love from us both Your father Robert A. Mitchell --------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan Sept 22, 1929 Dear Folks We are back at our sessions work again. Registration was on Wednesday and classes began on Thursday. I have only nine lessons a week but as they are all on comparatively new work I think that perhaps I shall be busy enough. If not, I shall have next term to look forward to with entirely new work, which will not have the summer to prepare for. In my first year class on the history and literature of Israel, I have only six students, one of them a girl. In the class in Deuteronomy I have fourteen, of whom two are girls whom I had with me last year. in the pre-theological course on Knowing the Bible, there are seven, five of them girls. Now tht the term is opened of course there are lots of receptions of one kind or another. Friday was a tea of the Arts staff and their families. It was a quite enjoyable one where there was not too large a company to get around and get acquainted. Saturday afternoon there was the formal opening, when the staff appeared in the gowns and hoods. There is quite a large number of new members of the staff, Chinese. There is also a large entering class, 112 in the university and 25 in the Middle school. There are 202 in Arts, 28 in Theology, and 80 in Medicine. There will still be a few stragglers coming in. I think that the registration is the second largest we have ever had if not the largest. So things are picking up again. Our formal opening was in the renovated lecture hall of the Institute. During the summer changes were made there putting in a gallery with capacity of 300 making the cinema room fireproof, rearranging some rooms for classroom and Sunday school work. It has made a great improvement. It is not quite complete yet but could take the opening exercises. In the vestibule they are putting up a tablet to Mr. Whitewright who has so long at the head of the Institute first in Chingchowfu and then here. We have been trying to get in a ride most days for our exercises. Yesterday we went north of the city along the river, which flows, from the spring. That region is all supplied well with water, streams running here and there. The result is that while other places are dry it is clothed with verdure, vegetable gardens, etc. There is a lot of rice growing there. It seems strange to see rice growing in one field, and millet in an adjoining one but higher. There are also many plots of reeds and of lotus ponds. The flowers of those are over now but the immense leaves like elephants' ears are still in evidence. Most place about here the farmers cannot irrigate because the water is too deep down through rock. But there the water is only three or four feet from the surface and running in ditches. Everywhere they irrigate with a long sweep along no far from the middle. On one end is a large wicker bucket and on the other a stone which nearly balances it. One sees a man at work at the bucket end doing the dipping and the emptying while a woman helps at the other end by pressing down on the stone. So they do five or six large buckets a minute. It is nice riding through that country on the winding paths. But once before we got on the big road which was made some years ago by the governor. It was one of the worst roads we have been on, being all full of pitch hole and deep dust, besides the holes in the stones which have been put down as a pavement in four lines. They just serve to divide the road into several bad roads with bad divisions between them. The difficulty in going there to ride is a couple of miles of bad city pavements before one gets there. One day we went to the base of one of the hills to the south. No letters are in this week but one from Bill of Aug 20 telling of being back at work again after his illness. There are two new students from Weihwei, one Dwan Gia Bin who formerly was in the college here for a time but had to drop out. He is in the third year medicine. The other is the son of Mr. Djeng, the language teacher at Weihwei. He is entering the pharmacy department. That makes still seven students from Honan. Dwan Gia Bin was asking about you. Of course you will have forgotten him but he got all his schooling at Weihwei and when you went home would be in the high school there. I have just been talking with Jay about writing once a month in the first five days of the month. Can you not try to get a letter off to us during the time from the fifteenth to the twentieth? Of course we would be glad to hear oftener but we would like to have something to expect and look forward to in that line. For a time you did so well in that line but so far as I can make out your last letter to us was from Brooklyn on June 1. Bill lets us know every fortnight. Can't you make it in a month at most? Your loving father, Robert A. Mitchell --------------------------------------- Cheeloo Sept 29, 1929 Dear Loved Ones Now that there is such a gathering of the clan at 129 Roehampton I shall have to make other plans re. letter writing to Mabel & Lottie when she writes. So this week only write three letters. The day though the Sabbath has been a hectic one. Dad mentioned in his letter last week that Mr. Lewis & three children had arrived. Mr. Lewis came Tuesday but his wife could not leave before yesterday as she was having her eyes tested. This morning they left on a 5am train. We were up at 3.30, gave them something to eat & a drink of cocoa. Then back to bed for another dose. It seems as though we had done a day's work already, though it is not 10am. Before we were dressed a friend going on furlough came in to say goodbye as he was starting for Chingtao where his family are & on to U.S.A. for nine months. We like the family very much & hve always been friends so hurried into dressing gowns & downstairs for a farewell word. Breakfast over I got upstairs with the woman to get sheets & pillow cases attended to & blankets folded up till tomorrow when e shall sun them. Then we had moved out of our room & I get our clothes back in their customary places & now we shall begin life normally. The kids were lively ones & ran all over the yard to friends. They have been taught to obey but like all children get ahead of their parents when they can. However I do not intend to take in children when it can be helped for we are not used to the noise & it does bother us somewhat. The week has been one of receptions to the new students in the different departments. Tuesday at the theological College. Yesterday there were three. The pre-medicals had their gathering & the girls fourteen asked me to be chaperon. The elections were on & a girl was elected president. There are about forty in the pre-medical course in Arts College. That was 2.30. The Honan group had asked if they might come here for their meeting at 4pm so I came away for that. They left our house at 4 & the Y.M. & Y.W. reception was on the campus at 7. It is one of the big students affairs & very nice. They had the grounds lit with Chinese lanterns & large lamps in the center where speeches were made & flowers, palms, etc. were banked. There was music & at all these, tea & cakes. The students here have good times & they men & women seem very free with each other though normally there is a chaperon. The pre-medicals nearly always choose me. I think I make a good one. One time when out with them the women were going to all sit at the same table with me. I suggested the women divide up & from that time I think my 'stock rose' & I was considered a far seeing chaperon & not over fastidious. This week we have had temperatures of 85. This morning it is 65 so we are feeling it chilly. I feel thin dresses & short sleeves must soon go except in the middle of the day. We were out to dinner this week & one tea. I wore voile & short sleeves as did others & each feel any day will call for the thicker clothes. Ere this you are all into autumn wear. Bill I suppose is not. Fires will be started in Toronto. We are having some painting done & walls of several rooms tinted. Then we shall get the stoves ready for use. The bathroom will be the first one. But we got a coal oil stove from Eaton's & can use that till we get rid of the workmen. But there will be warmer days, yet, though the mornings & evenings will be cool. I have had an awful time with my English with 39 in one class. it is impossible to do justice to so many & I am at present teaching two classes a day. The end of Oct we hope to have a woman from U.S.A. who will take one of mine & then I shall turn my attention to something else. Dad is off to service at present but will soon return & he has the English service at 5pm. Morrison, we heard from Jay you had broken your big toe. I guess you will keep still after this when taking a shower. She says 'that will mean no more running this summer'. Had you been running & where? I suppose the 'ex' would be off your list when you had a bad toe. One of the Y.W. girls here was taking part in a folk dance when her little toe was stepped on & broken. She rested it for a time, had it in a plaster cast & still it would not heal. It was furlough & she decided to go home & we hear she is in the HPT again with that toe. She thought it did not matter & took no care at first. What did you do - strap it with adhesive? Aunt Jessie sent us the pictures of the women at the swim but we did not have enough of the description of the doings. Send us parts of papers when there is something going on. We shall be interested to learn if Geo Young does anything this year. Tell me how the clan get along at 129. I must get some way to get a private letter to Mabel now & again. May send it to you & you get it to her, or I may send it to the Preventorium. If you get a word privately with her ask her which is best. I was glad to hear you & Jay had been out to a Musical Comedy together. Take her out some & be with her when you can in case you are both separated next year, & for some time. We often wonder where you will be next year. Let us know what you are thinking of & how finances are coming along. We can let you have money if you have to borrow. I must say adieu for this week. Please mail the enclosed for me. I did not wish to spend 10 cents on it. What about the rug we sent to Dr. Elliot. Did you receive it ok? Much love & a longing desire to see your writing & hear directly from you. Loving Mother Jennie H. Mitchell I have had a long hunt for an envelope addressed to Registrar of Varsity but cannot find it. In putting things away for this family I have mislaid it. I shall send it sometime again. J.H.M. I forgot to tell you of the biggest excitement of the year. The assistant treasurer (Chinese) cleared out this week with $7,000 Mexican. This had been handed over to him the night before & put in the strong room. He left $1,800 in the bag. No one knows why. Twice before he has been given money & he paid it OK to the Chinese members of the staff. He came to us in the Spring highly recommended by the American United Treasurers Association of China. He had been with them in Shanghai for four years. I do not think we will get him for there is no good police force, nor any other method of chasing thieves. The Chinese staff feel very badly about it; specially Dr. Li, the President. They say just now when there is so much talk about extrality, unequal treaties, etc, and the passing of things over to the Chinese it is a loss of face that as soon as big responsibilities are given they are abused. This man was clever & about at the top of the ladder with a bright future ahead of him. How sad that te should spoil it all. What a life is ahead of him; always fearing he will be found. What enjoyment will there be after all in the money? His mother, a widow & a sister are both in important positions of trust in the business section of Shanghai. Everything has been done to get trace of him but none so far. In another couple of months more responsibility was to be put on him & the safe was to be put into his hands as well as moneys in the strong room. Poor chap. J.H.M. ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan Oct 6, 1929 Dear Folks A gentle rain falling - the first we have had since coming from the coast a month and a half ago. The country needs it to get the wheat sown but it is not very much so far. It began yesterday afternoon. There was a tea at the east suburb to welcome back the Terrys who have been at home for three years. We were undecided whether or not to go on account of the spitting rain. Eventually we put on our raincoats and rode, and were all right. To go to the east suburb we usually go along outside the wall till we come to a gate in the southern part of the east wall. Yesterday we were surprised when we got about the southeast corner, where there had been a square abutment to find that there was a gate opened through there and we had to go inside from that on, in place of getting along on the outside of the wall. However they had been making a road and though there was fresh earth on it, it made very fair riding. Never having been that way before we got a bit mixed up in some of the streets. On the way home Dr. Stearns decided to go with Mrs. Stearns who was in a rickshaw. They went through the city. Result was that his wheel skidded on the wet stone pavement and he had a fall, breaking a pedal. We were glad that we had kept to the clay roads. Mother has taken breakfast in bed this morning for a change. She had a bit of nausea yesterday and decided to take a little rest. Work has got well started. I suppose that most of the later comers are about all in now. In the Arts they have been having a time to get their English straightened out. There were some classes of about forty. It is no good for practical work so they had to divide, but it was hard to work in with the timetable. I suppose they have it straightened out now with some of them teaching at other times. I am liking my work and so far I he been able to keep half a day ahead of the class. What they get from me is fresh if nothing else. I have none of the senior year theological students coming an hour a day to do my writing for me. Some of my translation I had got started before coming home. I read that to him and he revised. Now we have got beyond that and we have changed the order of work. He goes ahead with the translation by himself and then I go over it with him and criticize and revise. Then it is handed over to a writer employed by the school whose work is to write the mimeograph stencils for several of us so that the students get them in their hands. There is very little of the work where textbooks are assigned, as there is a shortage of suitable textbooks. I am only having my work, which I am translating, mimeographed. On e other subject we are using the mimeographed notes of Mr. Rowley for our textbook. On Deuteronomy I am lecturing and letting them take what notes they can apart form my blackboard work. I am trying to do more of that this year than I did last year. I want to get more accustomed to writing the Chinese so that I shall not be so nervous about undertaking it. Thursday of this week we were out to Heimbergers' for dinner. Mr. Heimberger is the youngest of the Corbett family of Cheefoo. Her mother was Miss Sutherland who came out for our mission the same year that Dr. McClure did. But she did not get into Honan for twenty-five years, for she married Dr. Corbett. Bill will remember the family up on Temple Hill, especially Dr. Corbett's long bear. The Heimbergers came back last Spring after three years at home. Dr. H. is the superintendent of the hospital. it has been an upset week in the household. On Wednesday the kalsominer came into the house. Last night they finished up the sitting room and dining room and study. They have kalsomined the front hall but still have the woodwork of it to varnish. They are supposed to come to one of the bedrooms tomorrow. This morning I was bothered to find that after several attempts to stop leaks in the roof, there is a little wet spot in the ceiling with even so light a rain as we are having. It is not encouraging for kalsomining a very blotchy ceiling, which has many old stains on it. Every time I have a man at this roof he tells me that the tiles on it are lighter than on other houses and that when one goes up to fix one leak he is apt to start others. It is not promising for putting in a clean ceiling. The present is pretty well spotted. The other day we were having our afternoon rest when a knock came at the door. I supposed it was the boy and called "Lai". The door opened and there stood someone whom I had never seen before, evidently a student. I quickly invited him to go down below. I supposed that it was one of mother's English pupils looking for her. It turned out to be a late student who had gone to classroom 338 for my class on the Bible but found the room occupied by an English class. He had come to enquire, found a carpenter at the kitchen door who told him I was upstairs. He had promptly come up to find me. He did - in bed. Last week we got a letter from Jay but still none from you. We cannot understand how there should be such a blank when your exams are over. I think that I have asked you several things in a money way to which there has been no answer. Did you get the money I sent as a graduation present, $100? Have you asked the treasurer's office to discontinue the monthly allowance? I asked you to let me know the need of it or otherwise, as I am needing it to give a monthly payment to Mrs. MacRae. I was counting on simply asking the treasurer to send there. But I have no word of your needs. When a man is busy social letters sometimes get pressed out but those matters of business should not be allowed to slip. Please find some time to answer. This week comes the double-tenth festival - the memorial of the establishment of the republic, Oct. 10, and we have two days holidays. Mother joins in love, Yours lovingly, Robert A. Mitchell Dear Mo - We have heard from Dr. Armstrong & are glad you advised him to put that $100 in Dad's D.A. Let us know if you need money. Get it from us if you do rather than strangers. Mother ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan, China Oct 20, 1929 Dear "Our Folks" We hve been thinking for some time that a fortnightly letter is about all that our people can profitably stand. So no one wrote last week. Mother was expecting to write this week, but some other things came in the way and it is up to me to let you know of our welfare. Well, we are in a clean house again. The decorators are out of the house and the walls look clean. The first newly tinted house we have been in for a good number of years. It feels a bit strange. The sitting room, dining room, front hall and study are a light terra cotta with tea rose ceiling; stairway and upper hall are deep cream; two bedrooms are light blue an done deep cream. The last is our own room. It was not very bad and we would have not done it had it not been that through a broken tile there poured a stream of water in the summer and brought down the ceiling. We had to do some patching. I take the names of these colours from a foreign color book but we used only the native materials, giving the foreign painters' samples as patterns. We are also beginning to get ready for winter. Again we are not expecting to light the furnace. We have the stove up in the dining room near the sitting room. Last year the pipe went into the chimney in the same room. This year I have had a drum made for the room above it and run the pipe up to the far side. As the coal we use is rather soft and had a good deal of blaze we shall save a lot of heat in this way. Some of our people here have for drums a water jacket about the pipe. I drew a plan for the tinner for ours. It is a cylinder having four sections one above the other. The smoke has to make four circuits of it in going up. I think that it will do finely. We put a wood fire in the stove the other day to burn the grease off it and one could not hold his hand on the drum. This week Coral Brodie is moving into that room. She and some others have been occupying the Harkness house. The others are moving to a new house. So Coral is coming to live with us for a time. She wants to get inside the wall if she can but she cannot move there yet. Her nurse's work takes her on duty early sometimes and she has to wait till the gateman opens up for her. It is no joke in the wintertime for a nurse to live nearly half a mile from her work. This morning we were down to the Institute to a meeting at which Paul Rader was speaking. The various churches here have him here for three days. They were expecting four but it had to be cut down. I enjoyed his address much better than I had expected from what I had hear of his style. I especially enjoyed the neat interpreting of Dr. Tswei. He must have been tired. It keeps a man on the qui-vive to interpret for over an hour for a speaker. Fortunately the sentences were short. There were not many times when he paraphrased or slid around expressions. "Cowpuncher" he gave a somewhat wide circuit to. I could not help going back in thought to the many times I have stood on the Weihwei platform at our autumn rallies and the like. Here I was only one of the irresponsible persons in the audience. In that respect my work seems far removed from what I had in Weihwei. But that kind of work is for younger men now. Our work keeps us busy from day to day. Because of the attempt to keep at least a day ahead of the students, my reading is apt to keep a pretty narrow rut. It will have to be so until I am a bit more familiar with my work. Last Sunday I had the university sermon. This is only the second time that I have been called on for it. I have had to preach at the English service about every three months. Our exercise is mostly on the bicycle. We usually try to get out nearly every day. Yesterday we took a trip to the west of one spur of hills climbed over a gap and home. It was not more than about four miles in all but there was a high gale blowing and we did not want to go far. Miss Nunns will be back shortly and we shall have to see what mother will do for a bike. Gardening will soon be over for this year. We are getting some things up for the house and getting a cold frame ready. We have just had a letter from Dr. McClure. He was about leaving for London and said that he had just got into touch with you. That reminds me to ask whether or not you got the rug we sent to be given to Dr. Elliot. It was posted just before we went to Peitaiho. It was held up for a time at Shanghai for more export duty, which I had to ask Dr. Struthers to pay to the post office here. In that way I do not know when it really got away from Shanghai. I have just been looking through my papers to get the parcel receipt, but cannot find it. When you wrote on August 25, you did not mention having received it. It ought to have got there by that time. I do not remember where it was addressed to, the frat or the hospital. Goodbye for the present. Foreign mail has come in the last couple of days, but I think perhaps it is not Canadian mail. Your loving father, Robert A. Mitchell ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan October 20, 1929 Dear Mo I suppose I ought to make amends for bawling you out about not writing on financial things. Ten days ago we got your letter of Aug. 25 enclosing the belated one of June 10, which had been left at the frat before the summer. I should have written beforehand but I was trying to get some information from Mr. MacKenzie as his statement and yours did not correspond. Oct. 8 he wrote me saying that the home treasurer's statements indicated no payments to you for July and August and enquiring if that meant that there would be no more. He had been charging monthly since last September and I had not notified him to cease. When your letter came in it said that already nine payments had been made which would be from September to May. I asked Mr. MacKenzie to check up again on the payments, which were made at home to see if June had been paid. I have his reply. He says, "When we made up our statement for the Home Treasurer at the end of June we did not have his statement of payments made in Canada for May and June but we credited him with having paid Morrison for those two months as previously shown. We now find that according to the home treasurer payments to Morrison ceased with April. That is that no payments have been made to him in May or since that time. That makes altogether eight payments, beginning with September 1928 and ending with April, 1929." If this is correct your note, which includes $225 dollars on these payments, is overmuch. I shall ask Mr. MacKenzie to check up again but I would also ask you to check up and see where the discrepancy is so that I can rectify it if I still owe you twenty-five dollars. It was quite a refreshment to get a read of your two letters and hear something of how things are going. You are no doubt pretty busy at the hospital. Jay told us bout your little accident to the toe saying it would throw you out of any running for the autumn. Did it do so? I enclose a clipping from the P&T Times about Eric Liddell. In the Tientsin sports he took the 200 and the 400 but did not get the 100, as he was slow on the start of that one, lest he get ahead of the gun. The man who took the individual championship did not place first in anything. He is a good all round athlete but experts got ahead of him every time. Athletics seem a long ay away from me now. I have not taken to tennis again. It costs 9 dollars apiece per year to join the club. Mother played one game last year and strained a muscle. We do not think it is worth it to us. Se we take our exercise in the garden or on the wheel. I suppose we might be more sociable in our method of exercise. One man said to me the other day, "you do the work and we get the enjoyment". Of late we have been having some nice dahlias. Last Spring I begged a couple of roots from Dr. Evans and split them into ten. We must have had well over a hundred blooms on them, many of them between five and six inches across. Our sister bed has been a great sight. Of the seed planted last spring, this only was a success from the first. I thinned out several time but for the last month it has been a mass of bloom. As we are in a public place, most people are pleased at the improvement the place has made during the year. I shall close off this now and get to other letters. let me hear the particular so that we shall get these matters straightened out. Your loving father, Robert A. Mitchell --------------------------------------- Cheeloo University November 3, 1929 Dear Loved Ones It is up to me to record the events of the last fortnight. First the thing that has concerned me most, dad was ill for three days. He passed a stone from the kidneys. The pain was not severe as is often the case but he was unable to sleep the first night, part of the time. I suspected what it was & the next morning got Dr. Struthers over. He saw him twice before noon & thought he would like one of the surgeons called. The only other was an impact of bowel for there was where the pain was mostly. Dr. Ingle a London graduate diagnoses "stone" so there was nothing to do but lie quiet & wait to see if Dad could get rid of it without surgical assistance. Fortunately he did. It was a medium sized stone. He feels very sore all round the region where the pain was & not too spry. He went back one day to classes but yesterday was a holiday. He hopes to take Monday's work but is to have an x-ray in the afternoon & then future treatment will be decided. If there are more stones or stone there we shall have to watch that he is at home in case of future pain. There is not much can be done. At present he is off to church - Chinese service. It seems a strange coincidence that Bill & Dad at about the same time have trouble in the urinary tract. Bill seems to be getting along all right at present. This is the same trouble Dad had when in the pulpit in Weihwei though that was a severe attack & over in half an hour. At present there is trouble with the "Arts" students & that department of the University may be closed. Dad's work is with the Theologs & they will go on as usual so with the Medicals. There is also trouble with the nurses in Nursing school & the third year has been dismissed but refuse to leave the premises. How to get them out is the problem. At home one would have a community behind them but here there is none. Even parents who have come can't get the girls to listen to reason. One not living in this country finds it difficult to understand such a situation ever arising. If the "Arts" do not come to classes tomorrow they leave. There have been processions & the trees & backs of houses have posters stuck up telling what the students want. The main issue is to drive out the present president, who is Chinese. So there is nothing anti-foreign except if they are to choose deans, teachers & president, shall we give them foreign money. The senate hve a problem on their hands for they do not want the university closed if a plan to carry on can be found without allowing students to manage the university. Miss Coral Brodie moved in with us a couple of weeks ago. She remains here till there is an opening with some other nurses later on. She is a Toronto girl. Bill will remember her. Her parents at present live on Highbourne just South of Armstrongs. Jay will remember going with me to a tea out near the Humber where they lived at one time. The new Humber Bridge was put through their grounds. Last week we went about ten miles from here to one of the beauty spots. We crossed hills for most of the way & then down a deep gorge. Most of the way there was little vegetation but near the gorge we saw beautifully colored trees. Several banks were covered with red & yellow leaves, with cedars intermingled. It certainly was pretty. These colored leaves are not often seen here for we do not have enough frost till after the leaves are down. But up in the hills& Mts. where it is colder they are found & every Autumn there are several parties take trips to this spot to see leaves, which they think are marvelous, but to a Canadian are rather a poor sight. However we Canadians not having the opportunity to see anything better enjoyed them, but all the time comparing them to what might be seen in Canada & with a longing for our dear country & the friends there. Dad went on his bike around by the road & missed some of the beauty. I was carried in a chair & once the "bearers" just struck straight up the Mt., but most of the way there were paths around the sides. They might have taken a path in this case but it was a long way around. I had four men & they changed frequently but going up the hill they all worked. When we reached home they were all very tired for I could not walk much. On the return trip they came by a better road & my men were in a hurry & I got back about half an hour earlier than the others. A motor road is being built out there & the next time I think we shall go that way, walk up the gorge & return to our motor. The trip is really too strenuous for people our age. The Baptists have had a conference here & Paul Rader was here to speak. We went to hear him one morning. We knew two of the families attending & had them here to lunch one day & enjoyed meeting old friends. One family was refugees with us in Cheefoo in 1900; the other on the same steamer when returning this time to China. We have our curtains up & those brown hanging between dining room & living room. The plants have all been brought in this week & the windows are full. A few weeks ago I entertained a family of the Canadian Church Mission who were here to see the doctor. When leaving a silk purse was left on the bookcase but I thought it was the one Mrs. Lewis had showed me as a Christmas present for the Bishop's wife, so I parceled it up & sent it off to her. It crossed a letter from her saying she had left this little thing for me. I was sorry of course to lose that pretty purse but in a few days it came back. OK, quite a joke on me, but it came out OK. Here is a joke. The present government tax everything & fairly heavy taxes, & in some places many are groaning under the heavy load. They taxed heavily fish in one of the seaboard towns. The people met & frankly said fish had never been taxed, from the beginning of things no one had ever heard of fish being taxed. They were told they must pay or be punished. They gathered in a crowd, forced their way into the offices & took hold of the men, tied them in sacks. When they asked where they were being taken, the fishermen said "we're going to throw you into the sea to feed the fishes". The men in sacks promised if let out they would use their influence to have the tax removed & they kept their promise. This is a true story. Now Mo, let us know how HPT work goes. How is your toe & are you doing any running & where. Is there any medicine given to prevent the formation of stone in kidney. I do not know whether there will be for Dad when x-ray is over. Tell me how things go at Roehampton. If Aunt Lottie gets out with Jay, as I fear she may, have Jay leave before things come to a crisis. It was all Aunt Lottie's doing that things are as they are, what she wanted & I hope things will go OK but am a little uneasy sometimes. Ask Mabel when you see her & let me know please. While you are in Toronto do keep in touch with Jay & advise her before the trouble gets too big to be easily handled. Now much love from both of us. We have two good doctors on Dad's case & he will get good care from them & I shall do my part as nurse if he remains in the home. Lovingly, Mother Jennie H. Mitchell Nov 7 I kept this over to give you report of x-ray. The sitting was a failure, shows nothing & Dad is to go again. He will report in his letter. Last summer when I sent Jay the pajamas we planned to send you a pongee shirt, but failed to secure them at PTH. Week after week has gone by & still we did not get at it. However they have been ordered & we hope to get them off to you in a couple of days. Dad will also send you & Jay your Christmas cheque. Jay will at same time get her birthday one. Did the rug for Dr. Elliott arrive? J.H.M. ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan Nov 17, 1929 Dear Folks I suppose that this is he letter, which will reach you nearest to Christmas. So it will carry with it our very best love and wishes for a happy Christmas and blessings on all your New Year. It is our second one here. We hope that by another one we may perhaps be able to have Bill and Helen with us. Since I wrote you last we have had a few ups and downs about here. Mother would tell you about my first x-ray. The second showed no trace of any more stones at present. I have come off very lightly. While I was in bed those two days, Dr. Meese of our staff was also down with the same trouble. He is still troubled and can get rid of only blood and not the source of his trouble. I am very thankful that I did not have a hard time at all and shall hope that there will not be a recurrence earlier than this one. Just about the time that I was in bed, three weeks ago was the beginning of the troubles in the student body here. The first trouble was the one in the nursing school. It began ostensibly about the control of the food in their school but developed its true nature as opposition to the night superintendent, a Chinese graduate nurse. The present stage of the game is that the third year nurses were required to go home for a month and at the end of that time if they wanted to return they might send in applications, which would be considered. Meantime the rest of the folks in the hospital are feeling the extra burden of the load while these fifteen girls are off. In all of this the girls tried to wield the power of the Party Caucus, which is the autocrat of China at the present time. Three weeks ago today the Arts students paraded through the compound pasting up notices of the desire for a Chinese dean, for the reorganization of the school and the removal of the president. Various foreigners, which stirred the righteous indignation of the Chinese students against imperialists, tore some of these notices down etc., etc. There were meetings and counter meetings, etc. During a week there was little attendance at classes. On Friday was another big parade, particularly in front of the president's residence, and the place was again plastered with notices to "Send off Li Tien Lu" (the president), some of these being written backwards or upside down, as a means of insult. The senate voted not to accept the resignation of the president, which had been sent in, but it was noticeable that it was a vote in which the foreign vote outvoted the Chinese one. Meantime, Dr. Li left town. The students were given notice that they must be at classes on Monday. I think there was much talk about it but eventually practically everyone was present on Monday. It seems that the girls were the deciding factor in splitting the radicals. For several days there was a series of posting recriminating placards on the notice boards from girls against boys, etc. The matter is far from settled yet. In all of this the Party Caucus has been prominently brought in as well as the Educational Commissioner. At the same time our application for registration was returned refused on several grounds. The Theological College and the church were part of the institution, which could not be so in a registered college. There were foreign deans in the arts and medical colleges. Our science equipment was good but the teaching staff not up to mark. Those with doctor's degrees were too few etc. It is quite true however that we are not properly staffed. We should have better qualified men in a number of lines. I do not know just how things are going to turn out. Meantime our theological men and medical have been going on with little delay. One of our Honan boys was put in a quandary over this trouble. When the trouble came on us in 1925 at Weihei he was preparing to matriculate here to take a medical course. I urged two of them to throw all their influence on the side of completing the term and getting their examinations over when they could suit themselves in the matter of patriotic propaganda. However we did not get the exams. In the autumn these two boys wanted to go to medical college. They felt I suppose that they could not get in here without passing the examination and having my report on their grades and conduct. So they went to Hangchow to college. Since then that college has collapsed in the troubles and they have come here. Last year they were in their second year but they have not completed their pre-medical work. They were told that they could not get a diploma without their pre-medical work. One of them decided to go on and get his classes in and forego the diploma. The other took the dean's advice and this year entered the arts school to take one-year pre-medical work. When this trouble came up he was in a difficulty, not wanting to lose any more years. He went to the dean of medicine and wanted to know where he was at. There are a couple of boys this way and the medical dean promised them that if things got too hot for them in the arts dormitories he would take them in down there. To the Chinese students' mind it is sufficient reason for any amount of dirty and mean mob extravagances to say, "China is in the Revolution stage now". They seem to think that it is a thing to be gloried in as it gives an excuse for all excesses. Of course not all are like that but it is the spirit of the time. Last Monday was the Literary Society meeting and we had quite an enjoyable time listening to some dramatic readings from some English novelists. Mrs. Poyser has her say out; a scene from Cranford and Mr. Collins proposes, from Pride and Prejudice and The New Word. Next month the Y are to have a mock trial. I am asked to be judge in the case. The past week has been a bit rushed beyond my ordinary lessons by the fact tht I suddenly realized that I had to get something written for the Honan Messenger and also had to get an article written for our Chinese Theological magazine during the week. The extra times will be taken up during the coming week in preparing to preach at our Union Church service next Sunday. I usually come around about every three months but am called on to fill in earlier. I think that I shall speak on Moses - faithful in all His house. Our weather is getting cold now and we keep the stove going all the time. We have put a drum into the room upstairs. Between the stove and the drum the house has been fairly comfortable so far. Coral gets the full benefit of the drum and it is in her room. I do not know whether or not she will be with us long. She would like to get inside the wall before the real cold weather comes. Sometimes the gate is not open when she goes in the morning and it is not pleasant waiting till a gateman wakes up to open a city gate. The other day we sent off a couple of pongee shirts and four collars. We had them made 15 1/2 inches neck. Is that right? I hope that they fit you and you will get good use out of them. This is a Xmas present from mother. I sent you a cheque in last letter. I hope that you are getting along finely. You said you were trusting to luck for this year's finances. How does it go? I hope that you are making it go all right. I want you to be on your own as far as you possibly can, as it is the makings of us to have to face the problems which are our own. But at the same time if you find that there is need of assistance, speak to me and I shall see what I can do. I have been wondering whether or not the fall of prices in the New York stock market would in any way affect the securities in which our little reserve is entered. Mother had a closer touch with the troubles in the school this morning when a lot of fellows knocked at her door and ordered her class out. They were unwilling to go, but eventually mother thought she had better not undertake to teach a class with the hooligans in possession of the corridor. The pre-theology from the class came up to the theological building. I am not sure where her pre-meds went. The girls were unwilling to go in but I do not know whether or not they went in. The girl body decided last night that they were going to have no more part in the nonsense and were not going to attend their meetings. I understand that a group of boys went along to their dormitories this morning to make things hot in that neighborhood. This is the land of liberty -- to do anything but the right thing. The other day a man said, you must remember this is the revolutionary time in China. That seems to be the sufficient motive for every kind of unreasonable meanness. They glory in making the revolutionary time as lawless as can be. I must say that I have had some tingling fingertips ever since mother told me what happened at their class this morning. I would enjoy spanking some of these bright enthusiasts for new China of that nature. Mother got a rood one in her English exercises the other day. They were to write some advertisements, one a person seeking a place, and another, a firm seeking a person. This boy wrote, "Wanted, Chinese president, a revolutionist, with perfect knowledge of English and Chinese, and first0call experience in ruling schools. Apply to the faculty of Cheeloo University. Shantung People's Paper". Now I shall have to sign off and get to some work at my lessons, as I am more than usually busy this week. Love and best wishes for the Christmas season from us both. Your loving father, Robert A. Mitchell --------------------------------------- Cheeloo University December 1, 1929 Dear Mo Here goes for a chat again so as to keep you somewhat in touch with our way of living & to let you know we are well, or nearly so. First the "Arts" Department had classes last week. We hope we can run till holidays but it is uncertain. The Local party as they are called cannot leave schools alone but make mischief. This week strife was stirred up in the Girls Normal in the city, a government school, where neither registration nor Christian teaching could be used as an excuse. Result, the school is disbanded & the Principal dismissed. The students drove her out. But closer than that the last few days the sewing woman Coral & I have has caused us some anxiety. When Miss Brodie lived with three other nurses this woman lived in the home with them. They had a fairly young cook. He fell in love with her. At least spoke to her a couple of times. She turned him down because in Honan she has an old Mother & two children. She could not desert them. After she came over here to live she was very insistent she have the yard gate locked as well as her door. I thought it strange but gave her what she wanted. The fellow came into the yard & wanted her to let him into her room. She being alone & a virtuous woman knew she dare not admit him or her name would be spoiled from a Chinese standpoint. She was living when not up in our home sewing behind two locked doors & she refused to see him. Indeed for two weeks never went anywhere, lest he push himself upon her. We knew nothing of all this. But he would not give up so sent her the engagement papers which he wished her to sign. If she did so it would all be well. She became alarmed lest he force her - carry her off & marry her. She then told us & said she must go home. We thought it not very important if she remained with others at night & she went to sleep with a friend. Friday night bout 9pm her friend & she knocked at the door. This ardent lover had been to her room & insisted on having a talk with her. He said she must marry him, took hold of her & tried to get her out of the room where a friend was waiting to help him take her off. The other woman put up a good fight & shouted so he failed in his purpose. After explanation the friend left. We had the woman sleep upstairs in our house & not leave it all day yesterday & last night we took her to the station & put her on the train for Honan. The person for whom the lover works was told of what happened & our plans, so she kept him in sight all day & gave him a busy day so he could not get out till after we had her on the train. Nice to be loved like that I told Coral. He followed the women to our door & knows that we would be informed of it all & now tht she is out of the way safely he will hve to hunt another job. We hear he had the ornaments & a few other things already purchased for her. Another nervous strain, we have had to endure. of course we took Rob with us to the station lest the lover appear on the scene. In telling this Jay & Mo in Toronto to friends do not give Coral Brodie's name in connection with it unless to Armstrongs or Aunt Jessie. Give it as from me. Last night we had a lovely evening with the "Y" at the Theological College. There there is a small group & we get together better. There was some jolly singing of the students, which was enjoyed rounds, etc. One was "the longer we're together" & they did it well. Also a small orchestra, which created great amusement. One of the women doctors here is a wonderful violinist, has taken part in big concerts at home, also given two selections, but the most of the evening was stunts & games. We learned last night that Birks of Montreal is out here visiting "Y" work & will be here next Saturday. We shall hope to see him. He was in Honan about twelve years ago, with two nephews. His wife is with him this time. He gave Dad a gift of money to take the boys of Middle school to see the mines at Chiaotzo at that time. Dad is in a mock trial at the next Literary Society meeting. He is the Judge & has quite a bit of talk. But they have a custom here of reading much of one's part. Of course that means one must be familiar with it but not tax the memory as if the manuscript is in the hand of another. I have to make a big wig for him & also the black cap. He says they have lots of fun at the practice so we shall have some laughs next week. The American Thanksgiving we had service in the church. Dad had the prayer & one of English pastors the scripture reading. The consul read the declaration of Hoover & and an American had the sermon. We were out for the evening & had ice cream etc. Have had an examination. Dr. can find nothing wrong but I still have headaches. I think they are nervous for I am subject to them in China & then the last month or more, it has not been very peaceful in the campus, nor China either. Our lives are not in danger but there are a lot of little troublesome affairs coming up all the time. Mo, you are not being as good about writing as I would like. Try & do better. Do you think you could without neglecting your patients or your girlfriends? We like to hear about both of these as well as yourself. Dad has bone off to church, Chinese, & when he returns we are going out for a bike ride. It is cloudy but the air is mild & damp. We have so much dry air here we enjoy a little dampness. It may rain or snow later in the day. Now goodbye dear lad for this time. I hope your Christmas Day may not be interrupted with a caesarian, as last year. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. We sent you & Jay checks for Christmas & also you some shirts because they were not ready when Jay's pajamas were sent. I should like to send you both Silk pyjamas next spring when Mrs. Struthers goes home. They are wonderful wearing things & while expensive to start with most say they pay for they wear so much longer than cotton. Much love from both of us. Soon we can say one Christmas less till we are in Canada nearer Mo & Jay. Lovingly, Mother Jennie H. Mitchell P.S. Did you receive the rug for Dr. Elliott? Be sure & let me know how the shirts fit you. ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University, Tsinan, China December 15, 1929 Dear Folks Weather is the most prominent thing at the present time as we are in the midst of a snowstorm. An hour ago it was falling in good Ontario style with great large flakes. We began the month with a night's driving snow, which gave us drifts a couple of feet deep about the compound, though there was not a great fill on the level. The roads have been bad ever since so that we have not been on our wheels. A couple of days we did walk into the city through the pea soup mud on the stone pavements. The north sides of places still had snow when this came. Instead of our brilliant sunshine, we have had cloud and fog. Just at that time a package of bulbs came in from Keith's in Toronto. I get them planted in the drizzling rain, just before it changed to the wintry storm. This is great for the wheat but is awfully hard on the poor homeless people. I suppose that the next most prominent thing in your minds at the present time so far as China is concerned, is the political situation. I cannot pretend to give you any light on the subject for there isn't any such thing as light in it so far as one can say now. First came the withdrawal of the Feng troops from this province in March when Giang countermanded his order for them to take over from the Japanese, because of his jealousy of them. Then there was too long agitation for the arrest of Feng, and for the discussion as to whether he and Governor Yen His Shan of Shansi would go abroad, "hand-in-hand". It seemed quieted down and Giang was able to suppress a couple of minor revolts. Then on "Independence Day", the generals of the People's Army issued their manifesto against Giang. This was the biggest rebellion he had had. He himself came up into Honan to suppress it. After some fighting west of Chengchow, just south of the Yellow River, the difficulties were composed some way -- Financially, and Giang returned to Nanking. Meantime the Ironsides who had revolted at Ichang on the Yangtse had made their way to Kwangsi province and were threatening Canton. They are only about 20 miles from there, now. It seemed a race between them and the troops sent form the Yangtse by boat as to who would reach Canton first. Next a body who were ordered from Nanking against Canton revolted and seized the rolling stock at Pukow and moved north up the Tsinpu line. The very day that the Peking-Hankow line was opened to through traffic, the Tientsin-Pukow line was closed. This was a signal for a manifesto from a whole lot of generals of the north to call for the resignation of Giang. There's where we are at the present time. It was thought at first that our governor here was one of these, but he declares loyalty to the central government -- for the meantime at least. G.T. Wang, the foreign minister, has been urging on all the foreign governments for the lst months that they at once get into negotiations about the abolition of extraterritoriality, on the ground that China was unified under one strong government, and that the code of laws was to be published at once. If they did not agree to the abolition by treaty, it was to be abolished on Jan 1st, whether or not. I do not know whether or not there will be much fighting, for there is a strong feeling among militarists as well as others that unification is not going to come by arms, but must be by conference. Meantime people struggle on under greater and greater difficulties of taxes, banditry, war, etc. -- for all of which the Imperialists - foreign merchants and missionaries - are responsible. Poor China. Never before was she in more need of the gospel of Jesus Christ, of Love to God and love to men, and less ready to accept it. Work is going on as usual with us and I am no farther ahead of my classes than I was, but am trying to give them of my best even if it is not long ahead. It is fresh to me as to them. The arts students are back at work again, and seem to be doing fair work; I think a number of the leaders of the agitation have left. But the troubles are not ended I suppose. The authorities are doing their bet to re-organize in such a way that they may register. But is it quite largely a financial problem of hot to get money to get a sufficiently well qualified staff. They often think that they will have to give up the arts except for the pre-medical and pre-theological work. Last evening we had in five of the theological students as a get acquainted stunt. There are 35 students in the theological classes and we are going to have five in each week to the end of the term. This group ranged from Hongkong on the south to Shansi on the northwest. Only two were from one province and they do not understand one another's dialect. One of them understands English better than he does my Chinese. In class he has a Shangtung man sitting behind him who interprets for him as he knows my Chinese. Of these five one was a girl. Only the Hongkong man had ever himself worshipped idols. The others were children of people who believed before they were on the scene. The father of the Hongkong man was a very ardent worshipper who used to knock his head as many as a thousand times on the floor in worshipping, eventually developing a fatal sore there. One of the boys, a son of a preacher, said, "usually the sons of preachers do not want to become preachers because they have all their lives seen the difficulties their fathers have." I replied, "There is Dr. Stanley who is the son of a missionary". At once the girl spoke up, "Dr. Stanley's father baptized my father". So the work goes on from one generation to another. The kind of work does not so much matter if only it is work for Jesus Christ. Last Monday evening was the monthly meeting of the literary society. The program consisted of a farce - a mock trial, in which our treasurer - a highly excitable man - was tried for reckless motor driving. I was the judge. Apparently the folks enjoyed a laugh after the strenuous times they have had lately. It was entirely a local thing with a good many local hits. For us of the cast one of the best things was when the policeman was trying tot take from the half crazy prisoner an egg which he was wanting to throw at his wife in the witness box, the policeman having got the egg into his own hand, gave a too hard squeeze and the thing squirted up his sleeve, over the whole neighborhood. He was supposed to have had a blown egg there. Mrs. Struthers as Miss Ann Teek the court missionary brought down the house with her shirtwaist and long skirt, besides her acting. We were glad to hear from you again with two letters, Nov 3 & 10. Glad to hear that the parcel came along for Dr. Elliott. Did you have to pay duty on it? You did not mention it. Neither did Jay tell whether or not she had had to pay any duty on the parcel sent her. You said in one of your letters that you had explained about the extra cheque. I am not sure that I yet understand. I think that probably you mean that when you sent me the note for $625 the $225 was made up of nine twenty-fives while you expected to get only eight. If they paid you nine they would report it on the statements to the treasurer out here. If they paid you nine they would report it on the statements to the treasurer out here. He makes it only eight payments. If that is so then I am still owing you $25. I think that in the autumn I put it this way to you and asked you to check up again and see whether you had really got nice. I do not remember having an explanation of this. I think that my letter was written after I received your delayed one with the note and explanation. I can quite appreciate how in your financial stringency the offer from Creighton Mines would seem very enticing. I am glad that you felt as you did re: the staying at the hospital. It is better for ones own character as well as for one's reputation to do the square thing by those with whom you have entered into an agreement. I hope that when the time comes for you to leave the General, something as worthwhile will be ready for you to turn to. It was nice to hear of Wally Graham's hip being all right again so that the can do so well in the running. In 1926 was Bill expected to drop out as Wally was expected to do this time, or was it quite in the expectation that he would do the best he could for himself as well as for the college? I'll not start another page… Goodbye for the present. With much love from us both. Your father, Robert A. Mitchell ---------------------------------------- Cheeloo University December 29, 1929 Dear Mo Christmas is over once more. We sincerely hope it has been a happy one for all of you. Now we are looking at the opening door of a new year. May it bring happiness & prosperity to all of you in your different walks of life. There will be clouds for all of us but what would a sunset be without them. But may there be only enough of the hard to make us forget ourselves somewhat & turn our attention to those who find life hard all the time. So much for the New Year sermon. I do not expect we shall have an easy year in China. The Chinese are passing through a phase, which makes it difficult to work with them, or to know what their real wish in many matters is. A Party, with some connection with the government are prominent in most places & never make for peace. At present there is trouble brewing with the workmen - more money is wanted. We are giving as good salaries as in Shanghai & the city here among well off Chinese & foreign firms. We cannot give any more & it may end in a strike. They had it planned for 10am yesterday but failed to get the support of the employees. We in the homes can manage fairly well except for the water supply but it will mean closing the hospital for all orderlies as well as other employees may walk out. We hope it does not come off. All Autumn there has been one excitement after another & we cannot expect things to run smoothly till there is a more certain & definite, widespread control in the country. We are not in danger, but only little inconveniences which will come with no strong governing hand at the helm. Christmas morning we had breakfast & later went to Struthers to see the presents the children had to show us. They were all excitement of course & much interested in the gifts left by Santa on the tree. There was a Chinese service in the church, a beautiful service Rob said; I did not attend. There had been rumours spread that the "party" above referred to might come & break up the Christian services in the churches & chapels. If there was any likelihood of any excitement I did not want to be present. At the Baptist Chapel in the city, the deacons held a meeting the day before & decided on their action should any of these "Part" men wearing blue appear. They also had spies on the street to give information of the arrival of such. But everywhere it was all quiet. Only a few posters were put up, one a picture of a foreigner riding a hors. The latter was supposed to be the church & the idea that foreign influence is imperialistic & harmful to the country. There is a very strong anti-Christian feeling in some parts & our Christians are going to be compelled to take a brave stand. Many are doing so & this will be only the strengthening of the church, as persecution has been in the past. At noon we walked about a mile to a friend's for a noon dinner. Where we met several others & spend several hours pleasantly together. Then we returned for the carol singing in the church, which was prettily decorated. Rob had the prayer & we were late arriving. He only got in, in time. Then we dressed for the Canadian dinner at Struthers. As last year I provided the ducks & soup. Mrs. Struthers the other necessaries to make us all fully satisfied & happy. We came home about 10pm. I forgot to mention a choral service given by the choral society when the "Other Wise Men" was read & carols sung. Also being wakened with the Chinese & foreigners singing carols early in the morning. It sounded nice, but I would not want to turn out about 5am these cold mornings. There was a lovely service in the Theology College Christmas eve. There are about thirty-five students & the staff met. The religious part of the evening came first; two candelabra & large high candlesticks on a table in front. The whole room was lit with candles & looked very pretty. We had a simple but effective service. Then the picture of the Madonna from the front was removed, the candles put out & the electric lights turned on. While Santa was getting ready, we had a little music & a couple of games. The parcels were all put in a bag & the "good old man" came around to each one & we drew. They had it fixed so that the dean drew a little jumping jack. The nurses had their fun one night & the Women students put on a play another time. There is so much doing that we cannot attend all; in fact keep pretty much to our own faculty. It is milder these last couple of days so we are hoping the worst of winter is over. But we get so little sunshine we are all getting depressed. I have only five more classes to teach & then exams. I shall have another class after the vacation & shall be glad. I have a few of the chaps who made the trouble & I do not like having them to teach. I want to be sharp with them & that will not do in China these days. It was thought our workmen were going on strike but we heard at noon they could not pull it & so we shall have water & electric light as usual. We have had one d- thing after another this last year, especially since our return from P.T.H. My nerves are all in a frazzle & I fear will never recover. What with all these rows & the woman having to leave us because of that ardent love I find life too strenuous for me. Now adieu my dear boy. Let us help you financially if we can. Write often. Much love. Mother. Dec 29, late: Well Mo when shall we get a letter form you & we wonder where Christmas was spent by you & those at 129. Usually we have word what your planning but this year Christmas has gone & we have no idea of where you were to be. Now Mo, if you are out of money let Dad know & he will help you. In case of a short notice call, or emergency you know Dad told you to go to Armstrong & he can get money from Laird on our account & then settle late. You know that John Manuel is at Creighton Mine. He might help you get in there or try & get them to hold the job for you. However it was best to let it pass & we all hope something just as good will come later. December 30 Last night when we returned form church we found the cook & boy finishing up a fight. They had moved from the kitchen to the dining room. The boy returned a little late & the cook told him it was late to hurry up. The boy reviled him & he turned on the boy, hit him a slap & then the fight began in earnest. A servant from another house called with a note & he pulled them off just before our arrival. I said to the cook did he separate you? Oh, yes, if he had not how could we stop? Chinese fight till someone interferes. It is the same if they are beating a wife or child someone interferes or how would they have face to stop. So it was a friendly neighbor happened along. We have had a couple of talks with them. The cook is willing to make peace, but not the boy. He says he ahs had a beating & he cannot live with the cook after that. We got advice of a Chinese friend this a.m. & he said he thought it was possible for them to carry on together, but if either was unwilling not to press the matter. The boy told Dad he must go, but would wait till we got another servant. No one will come to us till this chap first leaves & he knows that is the custom. I shall say nothing for a couple of days unless he does and then we shall see what we shall see. I may hve to get a new servant. Lovingly, Mother Jennie H. Mitchell Jay told us the write-up in the Globe about your basketball winnings. Glad you are in it but sorry Central lost.