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On one occasion a friend was travelling through the country when
a Chinese gentleman, dressed in silk and wearing an official hat,
called on him at the inn where he was stopping and with a
profound bow addressed him as "Old Mr. Foreign Devil."
My wife says that: "Not infrequently when I have been called for
the first time to the homes of the better classes I have seen the
children run into the house from the outer court exclaiming,
--'The devil doctor's coming.' Indeed, I have heard the women use
this term in speaking of me to my assistant until I objected,
when they asked with surprise,--'Doesn't she like to be called
foreign devil?' " And so the Empress Dowager's first impression
of the foreigner would be that of a devil.
Colonel Denby tells us that "A Frenchman and his wife were
carried off from Tonquin by bandits who took refuge in China. The
Chinese government was asked to rescue these prisoners and
restore them to liberty. China sent a brigade of troops, who
pursued the bandits to their den and recovered the prisoners. The
French government thanked the Chinese government for its
assistance, and bestowed the decoration of the Legion of Honour
on the brigade commander, and then shortly afterwards demanded
the payment of an enormous indemnity for the outrage on the
ground that China had delayed to effect the rescue. The Chinese
were aghast, but they paid the money."
This incident does not stand alone, but is one of a number of
similar experiences which the Chinese government had in her
relation with the powers of Europe, and which have been reported
by such writers as Holcomb, Beresford, Gorst Colquhoun and others
in trying to account for the feelings the Chinese have towards
us, all of which was embodied in the years of training of our
little concubine
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