Besides
administering pills composed of
"Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,"
the doctor suggested that one thing was still required to put the
patient in harmony with the course of Nature. Pointing to a fine
chain of hills that stretches in a waving line across the wide city,
he said: "The root of your trouble lies there. That carriage-road
that you have opened has wounded the spinal column of the serpent.
Restore the hill to its former condition and you will soon get
well."
The viceroy filled the gap incontinently, but found himself no
better. He then sent for English and American doctors--dismissing
them in turn to make way for a Japanese who had him in charge when
I left Wuchang. For a paragon of intelligence and courage, how
pitiful this relapse into superstition! Did not China after a trial
of European methods also relapse during the Boxer craze into her old
superstitions? And is she not at this moment taking the medicine
of Japan? To Japan she looks for guidance in the conduct of her
public schools as well as for the training of her army and navy.
To Japan she is sending her sons and daughters in growing numbers.
No fewer than eight thousand of her young men, and, what is more
significant, one or two hundred of her young women from the best
families are now in those islands inhaling the breath of a new
life.
[Page 234]
Some writers have sounded a note of alarm in consequence of this
wholesale surrender on the part of China.
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