The six physicians of the party received their biggest surprise at the
Chinese Theatre when, in the middle of the performance, a large towel
that had evidently been dipped in warm water, was passed around to the
audience so that the theatre-goers might wipe off the perspiration or
beads of excitement from their faces and hands. The towel was a rich
shade of brown by the time it reached our party. Germs? Why they never
thought of such a thing and seem to feel, "Where ignorance is bliss,
'tis folly to be wise."

If Shanghai thrilled us, Hongkong fascinated us, when we ascended in a
railroad something like our Tamalpais cars to the peak. To reach the
very top, cozy wicker chairs, mounted on bamboo poles, carried by two
coolies, are necessary. The movement of the chair while descending
reminds one of a ride on a rather old, single-gaited horse.

Our party will always associate Macao, China, with "Dante's Inferno." To
see the half-clothed Chinese bending over their open fires in the opium
factory, to see children soldering the covers of the little boxes their
brothers have just finished mixing and filling, will always be an awful,
vivid picture in our memories.

The cigar factory also seemed a fine sample of what some good people
wish us to believe awaits the wicked. Babies, not able to walk, are busy
working beside their mothers stripping the tobacco leaf from the stems.

If the cigar and opium factories shocked us, the firecracker factory
appalled us. A crowd of youngsters huddled in a tiny, filthy room filled
with powder, were working with wonderful dexterity, ceaselessly putting
fuses in firecrackers. No one seemed to notice or care if a visitor
might carelessly let a light fall from a cigar or drop a match. Many of