And the reader, too, may welcome a digression from
travel.
In spite of all that has been written in previous and subsequent
chapters, and in face of the universal cry of the progress China is
speedily realizing, of the stoutest optimism characteristic of the
statesman and of the student of Chinese affairs, a feeling of deep gloom
at intervals overcomes one in the interior--a fear of some impending
trouble. There is a rumor, but one smiles at it--there are always
rumors! Then there are more rumors, and a feeling of uneasiness pervades
the atmosphere; a local bubble is formed, it bursts, the whole of one's
trust in the sincerity of the reform of China and her people is brushed
away to absolute unbelief in a few days, and it means either a sudden
onrush and brutal massacre of the foreigners, or the thing blows over
after a short or long time of great strain, and ultimately things assume
a normality in which the detection of the slightest ruffle in the
surface of social life is hardly traceable.
Such was the Chao-t'ong Rebellion, luckily unattended by loss of life
among the foreigners. It is not yet over,[N] but it is believed that the
worst is past.
At the end of 1909 probably no part of the Empire seemed more peaceful.
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