to pack up his things. Two hours later he was on a train
bound for San Francisco where he boarded a steamer for China.
The same gentleman told me that this trip was his second visit to China
within a few months.

American salesmen are clever and capable, and well know how to recommend
whatever they have to sell. You walk into a store just to look around;
there may be nothing that you want, but the adroit manner
in which the salesman talks, and the way in which he explains
the good points of every article at which you look,
makes it extremely difficult for you to leave the store
without making some purchases. Salesmen and commercial travellers
in the United States have certainly learned the art of speaking.
I once, however, met a remarkable exception to this rule
in the person of an American gentleman who was singularly lacking in tact;
he was in China with the intention of obtaining a concession,
and he had nearly accomplished his object when he spoilt everything
by his blunt speech. He said he had not come to China
for any philanthropic purposes, but that he was in the country to make money.
We all know that the average business man is neither a Peabody nor a Carnegie,
but it was quite unnecessary for this gentleman to announce
that his sole object was to make money out of the Chinese.

Up to a few years ago business men in America, especially capitalists,
had scarcely any idea of transacting business in China.
I well remember the difficulty I had in raising a railway loan in America.
It was in 1897. I had received positive instructions from my government
to obtain a big loan for the purpose of constructing the proposed railway
from Hankow to Canton. I endeavored to interest well-known bankers and
capitalists in New York City but none of them would consider the proposals.