The instant the launch touched the shore dozens of coolies swarmed like
flies over it, fighting madly for our luggage. One seized a trunk, the
other end of which had been appropriated by another man and, in the
argument which ensued, each endeavored to deafen the other by his screams.
The habit of yelling to enforce command is inherent with the Chinese and
appears to be ineradicable. To expostulate in an ordinary tone of voice,
pausing to listen to his opponent's reply, seems a psychological
impossibility.

There had been a mistake about the date of our arrival at Foochow, and we
were two days earlier than we had been expected, so that Mr. C.R. Kellogg,
of the Anglo-Chinese College, with whom we were to stay, was not on the
jetty to meet us. We were at a loss to know where to turn amidst the chaos
and confusion until a customs officer took us in charge and, judiciously
selecting a competent looking woman from among the screaming multitude,
told her to get two sedan chairs and coolies to carry our luggage. She
disappeared and ten minutes later the chairs arrived. Dashing about among
the crowd in front of us, she chose the baggage for such men as met with
her approval and after the usual amount of argument the loads were taken.

We mounted our chairs and started off with apparently all Foochow following
us. As far as we could see down the narrow street were the heads and
shoulders of our porters. We felt as if we were heading an invading army
as, with our thirty-three coolies and sixteen hundred pounds of luggage, we
descended upon the homes of people whom we did not know and who were not
expecting us. But our sudden arrival did not disturb the Kelloggs and our
welcome was typical of the warm hospitality one always finds in the Far
East.

No matter how long one has lived in China one remains in a condition of