Correspondence, 1927. January-April

Communication No 111

DEPARTMENT OF ANATOMY PEKING UNION MEDICAL COLLEGE PEKING, CHINA.

Sunday March 13th 1972

Dearest mater mine, Tis snowing as if it were only the beginning of winter in Canada - a most remarkable winter it has been with all yhis snow - not that it stays on the ground for long though it has been so for longer than ever before in our short experience here. Davy is now six years and a day old!! - "and next Christmas Ill be 7!!" so he says - Adena gave him a bang up party yesterday - gangs of little kids and gangs of noise and eats and fun. Davy had his steady Anne as one of his guests and she sat beside him at the head of the table at their feast much to his deligght She is certainly a goodlooker and a dear wee kid. They were playing Donkey Tails when I got in - pinning the tail on the ass - or as near to it as they could!! Great excitement. Then they had a great time throwing bombs - little paper packets with small stones and nitre powder inside that make a great bang when they are thrown against something hard. All the kids lined up on the stairs and Adena handed out the ammunition and they banged em down on the hall floor or on the bookcases or elsewhere to their joy. Adena was a bit of a wreck after - some strenuous day it was - but worth it! Hsiao mei mei enjoyed it all as much as Davy did I think - she sure is a jolly wee soul. Lieut. McHugh(USMarines)called before the end of the party and was much entertained. Adena gave him a package of bombs for being a good boy. He married the youngest of the Schurman girls - a peach as all of them are. Schurman as you may remember was American Minister here and now is US Ambassador to Germany. This week has also been a fussy one for again I had three dinner parties in succession - and so did Adena only we went to different ones on one occasion. The term is ended when I get my basket of unanswered mail cleared off tomorrow I shall be free for my own devices for a while till Bohlin and his wife arrive. We had an interesting experience of spreading Moskow propoganda work here last week too - an attack on Sven Hedin through the press in meetings to try and prevent

his expedition from starting. I think it will come to nothing for we hope he will get off tomorrow before theres time to have steps taken to stop him. I very much doubt that Roy Andrews will even make a start this year. He has layed himself open to such obstructive tactics in view of his wide advertizing of how much Roy and the Am Museum have done - with no side remarks about the greatness of China and the works thereof. It looks bad for the early fruition of our Institute scheme but I do not think it will interfere at all with our Central Asiatic plans since both Andersson and I are to be classed as cooperators of the invited variety and not as foreign imperialists as yet! And so it goes - as you can see by the weeks news. The most hopeful sign is the split in the socalled Nationalist ranks which may lead to dog eating dog in the ancient accepted formula but wont hasten stability. I am enclosing a bunch of prints of Taylors photos taken on our Chou Kou Tien jaunt in February which will give you an idea of the character of the terrain and surroundings animate and inanimate. Adena is busy reading The Taylor of Gloster to Davy - he has developed a slight interest in stories now - sufficient to have him bring the book and ask to be read what comes next. Up till quite lately his interest would flag after the first few minutes. Adena gave him a tin town pump with well and bucket all complete among other things yesterday - and I gave him a small flashlight. He slept with them both last night and amah wakened at 4 am this morn to hear funny noises coming from the bathroom - there was his nibbs with the pump working like a charm by the light of his flashlight! He confided to me a short time ago that he had explained to Liu Nai Nai all about how his batter worked in the " 'lectricity". He has also been greatly impressed by the itinerant showmen who come in for a few coppers and put on a Chinese vertion of a Punch and Judy show with puppets - "Punch and Junior" shows he calls them. Amah is a [dab] at doing them now. I hear little steps above - mei mei has awakened and approaches. Golly but shes full of beans!! - radient energy describes her to a tee! "Daddy will you give to me make one motor car - please!" Thats the "perrinial" Sunday request when I sit down here to chat with you - its "stroke" wheels this time not "disc" ones and he now adds a special loose handle for the "grinder" (the cranking key) Must run along and have tea honey-o. Heaps of love to you from us 4 Bestest toGG&kidsASAGUJex39itesBeaStCsetal BBSOCYK SYL YAS Dyo

Communication No 112

DEPARTMENT OF ANATOMY PEKING UNION MEDICAL COLLEGE PEKING, CHINA.

Sunday March 20th 1927

Dearest mater mine, Another week has flown and winter is still with us - a most extraordinary year it has been so far - Twice this week we have has heavy falls of snow and the streets are frozen quagmires. Each day we kid ourselves into thinking that real spring has came but winter stays instead. That poor deluded hoopoo bird that turned up in the Fu on the 2nd of March must have turned up his toeas long ago! On Tuesday at midnight I received a wire from Bohlin saying they were due here on the morning of the 16th. Si I met them on that date and for a change it turned out to be a beautifully sunny day to greet them. They are a nice pair - we find they just got married on the strength of the job I offered a few days before they left Stockholm. She was a trained nurse and Adena likes her very much - seems to have an excellent bump of savvy and good taste. He seems to be the younger of the two but is keen to get to work and will I think make a first class man - he has the desire to make good which means so much to a venture such as this one. I arranged rooms for them at the Peking Hotel where they staid for a couple of days at the expence of the fund I have so they could look about and get settled a bit before they took the plunge into the domestic sea on their own. They will manage all right. Adena tooted Mrs Bohlin about to see what places were availabel and they have taken rooms at the Language School Hostelry where they are very comfortable. I do not yet know when we will be able to start into the field but I hope towards the end of this week. We have a man of the Surveys staff down at Chou Kou Tien now negotiating for the rental of the cave site and quarters at the local temple. He should get back on Tuesday if all goes well and then we may get away on Wed or Thur with good luck. It eats a heap of my time just now but its going to be worth it. Bohlin has been given the title of Vertebrate Paleontologist to the Geological Survey and the whole show is officially a Survey undertaking so we ought not to be interferred with

by political busybodies as Hedin has been. It is still uncertain whether or not the latter will be able to get away as planned - everything is more or less in the air and will be till we know the attitude of the governor of Shansi for Hedin has to traverse the latter Province before he can reach his starting point. The air is full of roumeurs and sich but work goes on uninterrupted like and I expect it will continue to do so. Adena had a busy week last with two big bridge and machang - no o nly bridg parties - one PUMC wives and tother Secys and nurses. Hundreds of em it seems! but only forty or so in reality. The kittens are in the pink and Hsiao mei mei learns more beguiling talk every day. In spite of her rough house propensities she is feminine to her fingertips bless her. Kwuck has cut his first two lower permanent molars and feels very grand and much more chirpy for they were uncomfortable for some time before they came through. Amah goes into the hospital for a few days on Monday next thats tomorrow - to get her insides fixed up a bit under Maxwells direction. She needs a wee bit of plumbing but is otherwise ok. That will mean I shall probably have a chance to do some panty changes on her nibbs Hsio mei mei from whom I have only officiated in that capacity on one or two occasions so far. One does not have the calls on ones professional paternal service in this land that one would have at home - at once a relief and a pity! I saw Mrs Cash in the Hospital yesterday - she is just recovering from the shock of seeing her firstborn daughter! Said she is getting used to it and in spite of its pugugleness it was a dear. It was the first really small baby she had seen and she was much disturbed at the thought of its looks handicapping its future enjoyments! Its a fine wee rat at that. Tell Gov I will write and send my draft to cover my Govt insurance towards the end of this week - it will be a relief to get the latter over! Must runalong ans do skulls for a change now dear - some of my work has just reached the most exciting stage where partial results begin to emerge that is some of the data are ready for plotting and its plotting Ill be doing till early tomorrows morn. Bless you dear little mother mine - we four send heaps of extra special love to you - !send your rheumatikiz is on the real mend! Good night dear and sweet guid derams and rest - Heaps of love again and bestest to GG&kidsASAGUJex39itesBeaStCsetal BBSOCYK SYL YAS Dyo

Communication No 113

DEPARTMENT OF ANATOMY PEKING UNION MEDICAL COLLEGE PEKING, CHINA.

Sunday March 27th 1927

Dearest mater mine, Your welcome letter to Adena of Feb 21 arrived last Monday - Mar 21 - just a calendar month it took which is not so bad these days. The week has been a very busy one and one full of happenings political as well as scientific. Particularly was March 25 a day of events. First of all on that day my salary cheque falls due which makes it red letter any way but this month we hanged on till it was due ! First time we have been able to do that for ages and be the look of it will remain a unique event for some time to come...Then second I sent off drafts for insurance etc that day so were square on some things for another six months. Then as I was dressing about 10.30, a respectable hour youll note since I worked till 4, I got a telephone message that Pere Teilhard was waiting at the lab for me. When I got down he handed over the identified fossile we had taken at Chou Kou Tien on Feb 19 and after he pulled out of his pocket a human tooth highly fossilized which in all probability belonged to one of the kids of the chaps who made the palaeoliths found in the Ordos by Teilhard and Licent in 1923. Teilhard had discovered it among fragments of mammal remains from that site in the bottom of a drawer just 8 days before! So you see as it was not taken in situ there may be some question as to its exact horizon. Its in all probability Middle Pleistocene in age and is undoubtedly true homo as one would expect at that date. He turned it over to me to describe and its here on my desk as I write. That finished the mornings events and I got home to lunch late. Adena had an appointment at the hairdressers and then a bridge so after a hurried eat we departed our respective ways. I had just got to the lab when Van Gorder telephoned he had a "missing link" kid in the OPD surgery - a child with a tail or a thing that looked like it so I beat it over. It wasnt a true tail but was interest ing and we arranged for x rays and photos etc. On the way there I met Hogg