159
“Foreign Devils" as they passed.25
Taiho had been a market town, although not a prosperous or thriving one at the beginning of the twentieth century. Still, there were residents who were not poverty stricken and who took baths more than once a year. Edith had observed that "There are people in Taiho who spend more money than we do over their everyday meals, and they do not eat them on their front steps, but they do not live in our back lane.”26
In due time, Edith was invited to visit some of the better off people in Taiho. She called on the wife of an official at the latter's residence.
I have been moving in the "upper circles"... and going to the small yamen. The lady has received me very kindly. She has nothing grand but I have been served with the best they had. Imagine making an afternoon call and having fried eggs on toasted bread served to be eaten with silver and ebony chopsticks, and tea to drink holding the saucer with the cup in it and drinking so.
27
The mission quarters at Taiho, consisting of living areas for the married missionaries couple or family and Edith, as well as meeting rooms, was located in a Chinese-style compound. This was a walled-in narrow piece of land, the width of a small house, with three houses separated by open courtyards. The innermost house was a two-storeyed structure. The others were single storeyed. When Edith first arrived at Taiho, she shared the two-storeyed house with Miss Trüdinger. They boarded with Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm, with Mrs. Malcolm handling the housekeeping. After Miss Trüdinger left in 1904, Edith exchanged quarters with the Malcolms.
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I have a little house all to myself now. At first it was very cold over here, for my floor is just a few inches above the ground and my ceiling or roof is very high and my stove is so tiny it cannot begin to heat even one room.28
Edith, however, did not dwell without other living creatures.
159
“Foreign Devils" as they passed.25
Taiho had been a market town, although not a prosperous or thriving one at the beginning of the twentieth century. Still, there were residents who were not poverty stricken and who took baths more than once a year. Edith had observed that "There are people in Taiho who spend more money than we do over their everyday meals, and they do not eat them on their front steps, but they do not live in our back lane.**26
In due time, Edith was invited to visit some of the better off people in Taiho. She called on the wife of an official at the latter's residence.
I have been moving in the "upper circles"... and going to the small yamen. The lady has received me very kindly. She has nothing grand but I have been served with the best they had. Imagine making an afternoon call and having fried eggs on toasted bread served to be eaten with silver and ebony chopsticks, and tea to drink holding the saucer with the cup in it and drinking so.
27
The mission quarters at Taiho, consisting of living areas for the married missionaries couple or family and Edith, as well as meeting rooms, was located in a Chinese-style com- pound. This was a walled-in narrow piece of land, the width of a small house, with three houses separated by open courtyards. The innermost house was a two-storeyed structure. The others were single storeyed. When Edith first arrived at Taiho, she shared the two-storeyed house with Miss Trüdinger. They boarded with Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm, with Mrs. Malcolm handling the housekeeping. After Miss Trüdinger left in 1904, Edith exchanged quarters with the Malcolms.
+ +
I have a little house all to myself now,. At first it was very cold over here, for my floor is just a few inches above the ground and my ceiling or roof is very high and my stove is so tiny it cannot begin to heat even one room.
28
Edith, however, did not dwell without other living creatures. She
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