Alice in Asia: The 1905 Taft Mission to Asia

Washington to San Francisco

June 30 – July 1: Washington to Chicago

“Father and Mother went to Oyster Bay for the summer at the end of June, and a few days later, I left with the Taft party. It was a huge Congressional party, a “junket” if ever there was one. We left from the old Baltimore and Ohio Station that stood on what is now part of the park between the Capitol and the Union Station. Mr. Taft, Colonel Edwards, Major Thompson, Mabel Boardman, Amy McMillan, and I were on the private car, Colonial, attached to the train that carried a major portion of the party. The news of Secretary Hay’s death met us the next day in Chicago and was a personal sorrow. Though we had known of his illness, we realized what a loss he would be to Father and half thought that Mr. Taft might have to give up the trip, but Father telegraphed him to keep on, and we pulled out of the barnlike station in Chicago, in the flare and smell of photograph-taking.”

July 1-4: Train to California

“General and Mrs. Wood boarded the train for a moment there. They were just coming back from the Philippines, so to our regret we should not see them in Manila.”“At last we were on our way across the continent. It was the first time I had ever been farther West than the Mississippi, and I had a little Atlas that I used to read as though it were a romance. I would look at it and think I am actually here at this place on the map. Those were the days when Kipling made Empire and far-flung territory dreams to dazzle. Going through the mountains, I would shout to myself, “We lead the iron stallions down to drink through the canyons to the waters of the West.” Again, in the words of Kipling, it was “the world so new and all,” and I was fairly jumping with excitement and interest. I of the snow-sheds seemed an adventure, as I thought of the stories of trains caught in the huge snow drifts.”

“Mr. Schwerin, one of Mr. E. H. Harriman’s lieutenants, had his car on the train, too, and he lent it to me to give a “ladies lunch” to the Congressional ladies of the party. This idea was suggested by Mr. Taft, who thought it would be well for me at least to seem to have a modicum of interest in the others.”“The last day on the train was the Fourth of July. I got up early in the morning and set off fire-crackers on the back platform and shot my revolver at the telegraph poles. Some of the men left us for the day to go to the Hart-Root prizefight at Reno. There was no question in those days of a woman going to a prize¬fight, and our car was switched off and sent on an hour ahead to give the Secretary time to stop for lunch at a place where there was a row on about whether to bridge or not to bridge some river.”

July 5–8: Berkeley and San Francisco

“We got to San Francisco late that afternoon to spend four days before the steamer sailed. It was San Francisco before the fire—San Francisco of the old Palace Hotel, of the Poodle Dog Restaurant, of the Barbary Coast. I shall never forget those days. There was an exhilarating quality in the air, the place, the people that kept me on my toes every moment of the time there. Adventure seemed just around every corner and I was ready for it. I do not think that I ever slept. Our immediate party stayed at the Palace Hotel. Old Mrs. Eleanor Martin had an evening reception at which we met many San Franciscans, and we went afterwards to Mrs. Oxenard’s to play poker; an enterprising game as played by the Californians with a variety of wild hands that we had never heard of before.”

“We lunched at the Bohemian Club Grove, where the Bohemian Club, one of the most famous organizations in the country, holds its annual “jinks,” in the sun-flecked gloom of the great redwood trees. After lunch in the dining-room, the “ceiling” of which, two hundred feet above us, was the foliage of the trees, we sat in another of the principal “rooms.” There in a circle that must have been about one hundred feet in diameter, the towering tree-trunks formed an amphitheatre in the centre of which was the camp-fire. Scattered through the groves were the tents and camps of the members where they spend several weeks every summer. We lunched at Berkeley University with President Benjamin I. Wheeler. One evening I escaped my chaperones for a trip to Chinatown, of which I saw only the fringes. At that time a girl had to go on such an expedition very much on the side.”

July 8: Aboard the Manchuria

“We sailed by the Manchuria on the first leg of our journey on July 8. The Taft party was, I should say, about eighty strong. The six of us who had occupied the Colonial had a table together, with the addition of Nick, the Herbert Parsons, and Senator and Mrs. Newlands of Nevada. Mrs. Newlands was my own particular chaperon and there never was a more charming, sympathetic, and gay one.”

“Other Senatorial couples were Mr. and Mrs. Scott of West Virginia and Mr. and Mrs. DuBois of Idaho. Among the Congressmen were the Sereno Paynes, the Grosvenors, Frederick Gillet, Charlie Curtis, Swagar Sherley, Bourke Cockran, a good many more with and without wives and a few other Senators and a certain number of friends of the official members of the party. Sereno Payne, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, was a massive old fellow who looked a little like a Bismarck gone to seed. I became really-attached to him and to little old Santa Claus-bearded General Grosvenor and Mrs. Grosvenor. On that trip, too, my friendship began with Charlie Curtis, later Senator from Kansas and Vice-President. Burr Macintosh was the official photographer. We were all “taken,” in big groups, in little groups, and singly, from morning to evening.”

“The luggage that I thought necessary for the trip included three large trunks and two equally large hat boxes, as well as a steamer trunk and many bags and boxes. For ordinary day-by-day wear, I had heavy white linen skirts and three-quarter coats and blouses to go with them; embroidered linens and muslins for more dressed-up moments, and a series of bridesmaid’s dresses for best. I had been bridesmaid for several cousins and friends that spring and the spring before, and those dresses and their accompanying hats were all put into commission for the trip. There was also an accumulation of dinner dresses, and underclothes were no small item; especially the petticoats with lace and embroidery ruffles that even had small trains. And, of course, there were riding habits, and a special box for my side-saddle. I had things to ride astride in, too, that I finally used to the exclusion of the others. It was a cumbersome paraphernalia, a contrast to the two or three bags which are all I now need for a trip of any length or duration. There was a tremendous amount of changing from one dress to another during that summer, and it was a whole-time job for Anna, the maid who had been with me since we left Albany, to pack and unpack and keep my things in order. I remember she nearly had a nervous breakdown, and for three days while we were at Manila was sent to take a sort of rest cure on the Government Transport;. during which time Brooks, the colored messenger from the War Department who looked after Mr. Taft and his personal belongings, packed and pressed and generally attended to my things for me.”

“Though our immediate group kept much together, we became good friends with all the members of the party, which was just as well, as it would have been impossible to avoid contacts for the months that we were thrown together on steamers and transports and at general entertainments whenever we went on shore. I really liked my Congressional fellow voyagers, yet I think I felt it to be my pleasurable duty to stir them up from time to time. One way of so doing was to smoke in their presence. It seems unbelievable, but I do not think that more than one or two other women on that trip smoked, certainly not in public. I had a fat, old-fashioned, gold vanity case and in the compartment intended for hairpins, I kept my cigarettes. The case was always dropping and spilling them out. I think I must have broken at least seven mirrors in as many months, but that is one superstition I have never had.”

Hawaii

July 14 Hawaii

“The five days between San Francisco and Honolulu, sailing into the tropics in the lovely, blazing weather, seeing flying fish for the first time, were enchanting. The morning we reached Honolulu, I was wakened by the plaintive singing voices and musical instruments of the natives who had come out to meet the steamer. It was before Hawaiian tunes and ukeleles had become as hackneyed as they now are. I had never heard anything like it before and felt as if the lotus eaters themselves had come out to greet us. My eyes were open and my head was out of the porthole simultaneously, to see the lovely mass of the island of Oahu lying offside in the early dawn light, mountains and valleys in cloudy green down to the line of the white beach. We rushed through breakfast and landed for a day of hospitalities which are characteristic, I should say, of literally everyone on the islands. The entire population seemed to be on the wharf to meet us and garland us with leis of heavy, perfumed flowers, gardenias and ginger blossoms.”

“The entire party was taken charge of by a committee of which Acting-Governor Atkinson was chairman. We first drove in a long procession of carriages to the Pali, the cliff that overlooks the Nuuanu Valley from which one gets a far-flung view of island and ocean. Over a hundred years earlier, Kamehameha I with his army of warriors left the island of Hawaii to conquer Oahu. After making a stand in Nuuanu Valley, the Oahu natives broke and fled up to the Pali where Kamehameha and his force drove hundreds of them over the precipice and hundreds more threw themselves over through fear of the conqueror.”

“We raced back down the road to Honolulu to take a special train to see a sugar plantation and refinery. There a rather expurgated Hula was provided for our entertainment. I asked if it were not possible to see a less jeune fille version. The answer was yes, so with a few others, I left the general crowd and saw a dance that undoubtedly was much more like the real thing. Afterwards a song was written that ran as follows: “Alice Roosevelt, she came to Honolulu and she saw the Hula Hula Hula Hai, and I think before she reached the Filipinos, she could dance the Hula Hula Hula Hai.” I could and did.”

“We were given a luncheon at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, rooms and lanai decorated with quantities of tropical fruits and flowers. Mr. Taft spoke, and the band, according to what was almost a habit of bands in those days, played, “Alice, where art thou?” It was amusing when it first happened, but the novelty very soon wore off and I developed a pretty fair technique, that conveyed amusement, surprise, and appreciation at the combination of attention and jest. The nice people who did it were always so pleased that they had thought of it. We spent the afternoon swimming and surf-boating. I remember Mr. Taft pleading with photographers not to take photographs of me in my bathing suit. It was considered just a little indelicate, the idea that they might be taken and published. And a bathing suit was a silk or mohair dress, not at all short, high-necked and with sleeves, and, of course, long black stockings! We stayed on the beach at Waikiki until it was time to go back to the steamer. I did not want to leave. I missed the boat at the wharf, as it had to sail at a definite time because of the tides. So, in a launch with Nick, Senator and Mrs. Newlands, and a few others, leis about our necks, regret in our hearts at leaving, I pursued the Manchuria out into the open Pacific.”

July 14 – 23: Sail to Japan

“The ten days’ voyage on to Japan went quickly. In the evenings there were pools on the day’s run, fancy dress parties, a sheet and pillow-case party, and a mock trial. We were also given informative lectures on the Philippines in order that the party should have some idea of what it was going to inspect. A canvas pool was rigged up on deck in which I and some of the younger people spent much time. It was, I think, on the deck where the freight was put in, and one could stand on the railing of the deck above and let oneself down or jump in. The newspapers made much of a story that I had gone in fully dressed, a story that for once happened to be true. There was really not much difference between swimming in a bathing suit and swimming in a linen skirt and shirt waist, and, of course, I left shoes, watch, and such things that the water would hurt, in the care of onlookers.”“The papers also said that I dared Nick to jump in fully clad with me, which they implied was a dashing, romantic thought. It was Bourke Cockran, not Nick. He was standing on the deck at the railing watching me and had said that it looked so comfortable in the pool that he was tempted to go in just as he was. So I said, “Come along,” and after a little argument, in he came. Bourke was a very old friend. I had known him since I was a small child and used to see him at tea at Auntie Bye’s in New York. He was impressed oh my early memory from the fact of my having bitten into a piece of extremely spongy sponge cake in which I left a first tooth just as he came into the drawing-room one late afternoon. We were always in an argument of some sort; Bourke, flowery, oratorical, booming along in his delightful Irish voice. Though his sympathies were Irish, he had numerous English friends of high position, who used to stop with him when they came to America. I would say, “You are an Anglo-phobe in public and an Anglomaniac in private,” and the battle would be on. His opposition to a large navy —one of his assertions was that New York City could be defended by row boats—used to infuriate me. Yet, going over a battleship, I heard him enthusiastically tell the Captain that “a great battleship was the noblest work of man,” whereat I exploded at him about his inconsistent blarney.”

July 24: Along the coast of Japan

Japan 日本

July 25: Arrive at Yokohama

“The shipping in the harbor, the wharves, and many of the buildings were decorated in our honor when we landed in Yokohama. Lloyd Griscom, our Ambassador, and a reception committee met us, and we drove through crowded streets hung with flags and jammed with cheering citizens, brass bands, and hundreds of Japanese banner-bearers to take the train for Tokio.”

• 04:30 Manchuria arrival at Yokohama (マンチュリア号到着)
• 06:30 Steam launch with military band of America Friendship Society (米友会派遣ノ軍楽隊ヲ搭載セル小蒸気船)
• 08:00 Manchuria at port. Welcome by four welcoming committee members, the Governor, and Mayor (投錨 接待員四名、知事、市長 歓迎)
• 09:10 Steam launch of customs (汽艇 税関監視部前ヨリ上陸 )

• 09:20 Carriage through Yokohama, citizens acclaim, entering imperial villa for rest (馬車ニテ市民歓呼ノ中 御用邸着 休憩)

• 09:50 Leave villa, travel to station (御用邸出発 停車場へ)

• 10:00 Enter train, first class car #7 (発車 (一等車7両借切）

“At all the stations on the way, crowds were on the platforms to shout, Banzai! as we passed. They knew which train to cheer because our engine was fluttering with American and Japanese flags.”

• 10:56 Arrive at Shinbashi then to hotel (新橋着 宿舎へ)

“At the Tokio station we were met by many officials; Viscount Tanaka, Minister of the Imperial Household; Prince Tokugawa, President of the House of Peers; Admiral Ito, General Sakuma, Baron Hannabusa, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs; Lieutenant-General Ishimoto, Vice-Minister of War; Baron Sange, Governor of the Tokio Prefecture; Mr. Osaki, the Mayor of Tokio, and a number of minor dignitaries. There were also several ladies to meet us, among them Marchioness Oyama, wife of the Field Marshal; Princess Mori, and Princess Iwakura, who presented me with bunches of flowers. On the platform of the station, members of the Taft party were divided into groups and taken to their respective lodgings. I stayed at the Embassy with the Griscoms; Lloyd and Elsa were both old friends, and no people were ever more delightful hosts. Mr. Taft and his personal staff were put up at the Shiba Palace, a big modern frame house, I should say a sort of guest palace, that was originally built for General Grant’s reception. That night I dined there with him and some of our Japanese hosts.”

• 11:20 Arrive at Shiba (芝離宮到着)

• 13:00 Lunch, Shiba (午餐 芝離宮)
• 19:30 Dinner, Shiba (晩餐 芝離宮)
• Fireworks hosted by City of Tokyo (余興 煙火 (仕掛け及び打上げ 東京市寄附

July 26: Tokyo

“The next day, Mr. Taft and his entire party lunched with the Emperor; the Crown-Princess took the place of the Empress who was out of town. An audience was first given by the Emperor to Mr. Taft and me and a few others. We assembled in a large room and then went in one by one to be received by the Crown Princess; then to another room where we made our bows and courtesies and were presented to the Emperor who shook hands and talked to us. There was no language in common. Little was said but banalities through the medium of an interpreter. After that we all went in to lunch, a most formal occasion. The Emperor sat in the middle of a long table with the Crown Princess and another Imperial Princess on either side of him, Mr. Taft, Lloyd Griscom, and I directly opposite. As I recollect, we were seated, two Americans, one Japanese, two Americans, one Japanese, and so on. After lunch, we went through the Imperial Gardens where, so we were told, no foreigners and not many Japanese had been before.”

• 09:30 Alice Roosevelt, with Miss Boardman and Miss McMillan arrive at Palace. Taft and assistants to Maruki Photography Studio for portraits (ルーズベルト嬢 ボールドマン嬢及ヒ マクミラン嬢の三名来宮シ、タフト氏一行並ニ接待員ト共ニ丸木写真師[i]ニ撮影セシム)
• 10:50 Entering the Palace (参内)
• Lunch at the Palace (午餐 宮中)
• After lunch imperial audience, then return to hotel. (午餐後 吹上御苑参観 終ツテ帰館)
• 16:00 Taft and 5 assistants visit Palace with Nagasaki, Terashima, Prime Minister Katsura, Minister of War Terauchi, Imperial Household Minister Tanaka (タフト氏外五名長崎寺嶋両接待員陪乗シテ桂総理 (兼臨時外務）大臣、寺内陸軍大臣、田中宮内大臣ヲ官邸ニ訪問)
• 17:30 Return to Hotel (帰館)
• 19:30 Evening gathering at Imperial Hotel sponsored by Minister of Foreign Affairs (外務大臣ノ主催ニ係ル帝国ホテルノ晩餐会ニ出席)
• 22:00 Return to Hotel (帰館)

July 27: Tokyo

“The day after the lunch, the Empress sent me a very fine embroidered screen, a piece of gold cloth embroidered with white chrysanthemums, a lacquer box, and a photograph of herself. On these trips of my youth, gifts seemed to be the rule, and I was filled with greedy delight at getting them—it was such fun. In fact, I was a frankly unashamed pig. I did so love my “loot,” as it was called in the family. In Japan I was given, as well as the Imperial presents, costumes and fans and souvenirs of all sorts.”

“Of course we shopped, and went to the Tea House of the Hundred Steps, and drank many small cups of green tea and smoked little pipes of Japanese tobacco, about three whiffs to a pipe, but there was very little time to squeeze in anything between official parties, as we were in Tokio not over five days.”

• 12:00 Lunch at Fushiminomiya Palace (伏見宮邸ニ於ケル午餐会)
• 15:00 Garden party hosted by American legation (米国公使ノ主催セル園遊会)

“The Griscoms gave a garden party to which were invited all the Americans in Tokio and Yokohama and all the Japanese Government officials above a certain rank; also two pretty young Japanese princesses, Nashimoto and Higashi-Fushimi—pretty even in occidental dress. A matting was placed for them to stand on and I was escorted up to stand beside them. All the Japanese women who approached them curtsied, and then, to my astonishment, curtsied in my direction, too. They only did it while I was standing on the matting with the Princesses. The mere physical proximity to their venerated royalties caused me to become, for the time it lasted, an object of respect. It was a real “magic.””

• 18:00 Return to Hotel (帰館)
• 19:00 Japanese style dinner at Koyokan hosted by Tokyo Chamber of Commerce, including music, dance and acting) (東京実業団体ノ主催ニ係ル紅葉館ノ日本風晩餐会 (大小歌妓ノ手踊リ及ヒ舊俳優ノ演劇）)
• 23:30 Return to hotel (帰館)

July 28: Tokyo; train to Kyoto

“The peace conference at Portsmouth was about to begin. Not only the Government, but the man in the street as well was interested in and friendly to the Americans. Crowds followed us everywhere. I have never seen a denser and more enthusiastic crowd than that which packed the open spaces around the station, the night we left Tokio, in the light of thousands of paper lanterns. They cheered when the American Secretary of War went out on the balcony to wave good-by—they cheered the daughter of the American President when she appeared—and then they cheered us all over again. There is no sound like the Japanese “Banzai.” “Dai Nippon Dai Koku” (at least that is the way the first part comes to my memory; I think it means “Japan, a thousand years, America a thousand years.”) “Banzai, Banzai, Banzai.” There are teeth behind the barking roar of “Banzai.”

• 12:00 Luncheon at Korakuen hosted by Minister of War. Tour of Arsenal (後楽園ニ於ケル陸軍大臣主催ノ午餐会 砲兵工廠内参観)

“At one garden party, there was an exhibition of Japanese wrestling, the wrestlers huge, fat, brown men as big as Secretary Taft himself. I don’t think we really appreciated the fine points of their slow heaving performance. We lunched with Prince and Princess Fushimi; we dined with Count Katsura, Minister of Foreign Affairs; we met Count Matsukata and Count Inouye. We went to a dinner given by the bankers and businessmen of Tokio, at the Maple Club; a Japanese dinner, sitting on cushions on the floor at tiny low tables. It was perfectly comfortable for me, as I have always been able to sit like a Buddha for hours at a time, but other members of the party were cramped and uncomfortable when they managed to get to their feet again; perhaps from sitting cross-legged, but also, perhaps from generous draughts of sake.”“The day we left we lunched with the Minister of War and Mrs. Teraouchi at the Gardens of the Tokio Arsenal. There was the usual series of speeches and toasts, but when it came the turn of Marquis Ito, instead of speaking he chanted a little poem he had written for the occasion. The theme was the distance our party had come and the pleasure it gave the Japanese to have us among them. If it was singing, it was in a key and a pitch that was weird to our western ears. The fine old statesman was very impressive, standing there intoning in that strange sing-song, with almost impassioned earnestness.”

• 16:00 Return to Hotel (帰館)
• 19:30 Dinner at Shiba palace (invitation of Central Tea Producers Council) (晩餐 芝離宮←中央茶業組合の招待)
• 21:00 Left Shiba (離宮出門)
• 21:20 Shinbashi Station (新橋停車場着)
• 21:30 Leave Shinbashi Station (special cars ordered by Ministry of Foreign Affairs) (発車 (外務省による特別仕立）)
• Welcomed at Hiranuma, Numazu, Shizuoka, Hamamatsu, Nagoya, Gift, etc. (平沼、沼津、静岡、浜松、名古屋、岐阜などで歓迎 細工物若しくは土地の物産の贈進)

July 29: Kyoto

“On the way to Kobi to meet the steamer, we stopped in Kioto, where, even though it was July, the Cherry Blossom Festival performance was put on for us.”

• 11:00 Arrive Kyoto (京都着)

• 14:00 Kyoto Imperial Palace, Nijo Imperial Villa, (Kawashima Textile?) (京都御所、二條離宮、川島織物 (刺繍クッション）)

• 18:30 Return to Hotel (帰館)
• 19:00 Dinner (晩餐会)
• 20:30 City hosted dance presentation (市ノ催セル都踊ヲ観覧ス)

• 22:45 Return to Hotel (帰館）

July 30: Kyoto to Kobe

• 10:00 Tour of Chion’in, Gion, Kiyomizudera (知恩院、祇園清水辺ヲ縦覧)

• 12:00 Return to Hotel (帰館
• 12:30 Lunch at Hotel (午餐 (ホテル）)
• 14:50 Kyoto station, travel to Osaka (京都発車 大坂停車場ニテ)
• 16:50 Arrive in Kobe, American Consulate (神戸着 米国領事館 )

• 18:30 Aboard the Manchuria. (マンチュリア号に乗込ム 接待員四名始メ其他ノ人々ヘ晩餐ヲ饗セリ)
• 22:20 Anchors up, leaving to Nagasaki (抜錨 長崎へ)

“Then we steamed through the Inland Sea, greeted by fireworks set off from launches and sampans when we reached the Straits of Shimonoseki, to land at Nagasaki for a day of more entertainment. From the moment we landed in Yokohama we were accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Nagasiki and the Count and Countess Terashima, who looked after us and saw that we had everything we wanted. No people have ever been treated with greater consideration and kindliness than we were by the Japanese, not only Mr. Taft and myself, but the entire party. I was in Japan only a week at that time, and saw far more of people than of sights. Fortunately, I went back for a longer stay on the way home.”

• August 1: Moji, Nagasaki

Philippines

August 1-5: Nagasaki to Manila

August 5-13: Manila

“At last we reached Manila. We were met by Governor Wright and his daughter, with whom we were to stay, and drove up with them to Malacafian Palace, in victorias drawn by scuttling native ponies. After all my youthful wishes to live at Malacafian, I found it a little disappointing. It did not have for me the charm of the Spanish-American houses—the huge sombre palace in Havana and the Fortaleza in San Juan, though I liked my big, cool, dim lit room, where lizards of all sizes and shapes rustled about the walls and ceilings and the galleries looking out on the Passig River. Then began a continuous activity of entertainment and sight-seeing; an official reception at the Government Building; a parade in which 10,000 passed the reviewing stand—troops, organizations, floats with scenes representing native industries; many other receptions, and dances, at some of which I wore the charming mestizo, costume and danced the rigadon. As I remember it, the rigadon was a sort of lancers or quadrille. Secretary Taft, very light on his feet, danced in it, too. We went to Cavite, and on trips to nearby places. Though it was the hottest period of the tropic summer, we were up and out and doing even in the noon heat when all sensible residents of the tropics were taking their siestas. And hot it was. At the reception at Malacanan, I stood for hours with the Wrights and Mr. Taft, all of us literally dripping, while we shook hands with the hundreds of guests.”“The Filipinos seemed united in their pleasure at seeing again the Secretary of War, their ex-Governor-General. He was greeted by everyone on all sides with extraordinary enthusiasm and affection and they laid themselves out to entertain him and his party. No one could have helped responding to their courtesy and hospitality.”

August 11: Visit to Bacoor & Cavite

August 12: Train to Malolos

August 13: Depart from Manila on ship Logan through the islands

“After perhaps a week or ten days in Manila, we all embarked on a transport for a tour of the islands. The party was augmented by many of the Manila officials, and their families, among others Ann and Marjorie Ide, the daughters of the Vice-Governor. Those two were romantic figures. Both extraordinarily good looking, their early childhood had been spent in Samoa, and they had come to Manila soon after we occupied the Philippines, “in the days of the Empire.” Ann was the child to whom Robert Louis Stevenson gave his birthday, as hers was on Christmas Day, so she got only one set of presents. They were amazingly pretty girls, with a train of admirers in tow. We went from island to island, landing, meeting the Governor of the Province and the Mayor of the town.”“There was always a “banquet” at which there were speeches—the long-drawn, same, inevitable speeches. After the first few occasions of this sort, I began to get frightfully bored. The local head official would speak in Spanish; Mr. Ferguson, the interpreter, would bellow it paragraph by paragraph in English. Mr. Taft would reply in English and the interpreter would repeat his performance, this time in Spanish. He always stood directly back of and between Mr. Taft and me, and my eardrums ached. Most of the food on these occasions came from Manila and, as cold-storage facilities were meagre, it was usually in a state of melt and trickle; and the ants would get wind of it. I would see an investigating ant and would then arrange a trail of moist “dulces,” to point the way to the feast. That was one of the things Mr. Taft remonstrated with me about. He did not want the feelings of our hosts to be hurt. Neither did I, so that diversion had to cease. A plaint of his from time to time, was, “Alice, I think I ought to know if you are engaged to Nick, to which my reply was, “More or less, Mr. Secretary, more or less”; and that ended that.”

August 14: Iloilo

August 15: Parro, Molo

August 16: Bacolod

August 17: Zamboanga

August 18: Jolo

“When we got to Jolo, the whole day was sheer comic opera, too like George Ade’s musical comedy, “The Sultan of Sulu,” to be real; Mr. Taft, enormous in white duck; General Corbin, looking curiously like the Colonel in the show; I, the leading lady in bright red linen dress decorated with white shamrocks outlined with black, and a red parasol and hat. The rest of the party were well in the role too; the Congressmen and their wives; the Army and Navy officers; the two Ide sisters, Juliette Williams and others, quite as pretty as any chorus girls.”“Mr. Taft and I leading, the party marched up the little wharf between rows of native constabulary in trig uniforms, though barefooted, to be met and greeted by an assorted collection of Datos and tribesmen, among them the Sultan of Sulu. The Sultan and the other Moro chieftains, wiry, savage looking, little Malays, were in their best costumes; jackets seeded with pearls or beads, silk shirts of crude colors fastened at the neck with jewelled pins in gold settings; trousers of striped or slashed silk held on around the waist by heavy silk sashes, through which were stuck bolos with elaborate hilts; and of course turbans.”

“We were escorted to the parade grounds, to a rather shaky grandstand that looked as if it were made of bamboo, to look at native dances and sham battles and bull fights. For the bull “fights” two bulls or two carabaos, I should say domesticated and certainly reluctant, were led in by ropes attached to rings in their noses. They were hauled and pushed towards one another and after bumping heads for a moment would pull apart whereat their drivers would urge them together again. The Sultan presented me with a pearl ring, and he and some of the Datos gave me a loose pearl or two. I was also given a Bogobo, Moro costume, a really charming costume of skirt, little jacket, and a barrel-like girdle hung with bells. There were thousands of Moros from the neighboring islands as well as from Jolo. The palms and the ocean were like a drop scene. One felt as though a highly colored stage setting had suddenly become real.”

August 19: Celebes Sea (?)

August 20 – 21: Across Mindanao from Malabang to Camp Overton

“So far as I recollect we had only one day of good honest exercise uninterrupted by feasting and speeches during the entire southern trip. That was when we landed at Malabang and went up the trail to Lake Lanao to spend the night at Camp Keithly, and drop down to Camp Overton the following morning. It was my first opportunity to use the side-saddle, only to find that the girths would not fit any of the animals provided; so there and then it was discarded, and I rode the trail on an Army saddle, my habit very much in the way. After that I always rode cross saddles. Quite a number of us rode; others, including the Secretary, were shaken to pieces in Army wagons. I do not see how Mr. Taft endured it. He was so heavy, and must have been so hot and uncomfortable. But he never lost his smile and his good humor.”

August 22: Cebu

August 24: Tacloban

August 25: Legazpi

August 26: Sorsogon

August 27-29: Sail back to Manila

August 30: Manila

“Before leaving the Philippines, we returned to Manila for a few days of good-by parties. That time we stayed with Commissioner Lagardo. I had a great big room, in one corner of which a little staircase led down most unexpectedly through a square hole in the floor. Out of that opening at odd hours of the day and night, small Filipino heads would suddenly pop up like prairie dogs, look at me with much interest and then disappear again.”

August 31 – September 2: Sail for Hong Kong

Hong Kong 香港

September 2 – 6: Hong Kong

“We then boarded the transport for the trip to Hong Kong. Sir Mathew Nathan was the British Governor and we called on him at Government House, on top of the Peak that overlooks the city and from which one sees far across the harbor, the country beyond looking like a raised map in a geography book. We also dined there with him, going afterward to a ball at the Hong Kong Club.”

“We went to the gay little racetrack, where the riders were mounted on native ponies. Besides the regular races they had a gymkhana, egg-and-spoon races, and the like, including a riksha-race in which I took part seated in a riksha.”

Guangzhou 广州

September 3: Guangzhou

“Canton at that moment was going through a period of violent anti-American feeling. Only the men of the party would be allowed to land there, the women were not even to be permitted to go up the river. However, I met an officer in command of an American gun-boat who said that he would take us, and, on condition that we did not go on shore at Canton proper. Mr. Taft said, ‘Yes.’”

(中文)

“We spent the day with Consul-General and Mrs. Lay on the island of Shaneen where our Consulate is. It is separated from Canton by a canal, across which we gazed at the narrow crowded streets of the great Chinese city. Only an occasional coolie on the opposite bank shook his fist at us. Later we heard of lampoons that had been circulated in Canton, in which I was pictured seated in a chair carried by four turtles. The meaning of the writing around the picture was said to be very rude indeed. It seems that in China to call one a turtle or to associate one’s name with a turtle is the equivalent of making a reflection upon one’s ancestry. We were told that the authors of the pamphlet would be executed. So I had to intercede for them, to ask for mercy which I believe was granted.””

(中文)

 

Beijing 北京

September 6 – 11: Voyage to Tianjin

September 11: Anchor at Dagu

September 12: Arrival at Tianjin, train to Beijing

“Mr. Taft and the majority of the party sailed for home from Hong Kong. Those who stayed behind including among others the Newlands, Nick, Mabel, Amy, Gillet, Bourke Cockran, General and Mrs. Corbin, and myself, continued up the coast on the transport, sailing through the Yellow Sea, on our way to Tientsin where we landed and went directly to Pekin.”

(中文)

“In Peking I stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Rockhill in the Chinese house that was then the American Legation. Mr. Rockhill was a great Chinese student and lover of China. In the past he had gone far into Tibet disguised as a Chinese. Though he was very tall and of an almost washed-out fairness, he had somehow grown to look curiously Chinese; one felt that China had gotten into his blood; that if he let his mustache grow and pulled it down at the corners in a long thin twist, and wore Chinese clothes, he could have passed for a serene expounder, whether of the precepts of Lao-Tze or Confucius, I do not know. The Legation building was just inside the high thick walls of the city, its rooms opening upon a courtyard where we dined the night that we arrived, and after dinner watched a Chinese magician do remarkable tricks by the light of the lanterns that hung from the trees.”

(中文)

September 13: Beijing

“The next morning we drove out in rickshas to the Temple of Heaven. I had been reading Marco Polo, and his description of the road between the Temple of Heaven and Pekin might have been written the day that we were there; the same shifting, hurrying crowd, the same street sounds, the same beggars, the same smells.”

(中文)

“That afternoon we left for the summer palace, some fourteen miles outside the walls of Pekin at the foot of the western hills, I in a chair carried by four bearers.”

(中文)

“The Rockhills, Newlands, Mabel, Amy, and I spent the night in Prince Ching’s palace. The Chinese palaces are like all other Chinese houses, a series of one-storied halls built around a courtyard, each hall divided by partitions into three rooms. I was given a whole hall; my bed in one of the side rooms, smaller and lower ceilinged than the centre room. Dinner in the courtyard was alternate courses of European and Chinese food. I ate only the Chinese which I liked enormously, particularly the sharks fins, and washed it down with rose wine. The rose wine was delicious, something like sake or a very smooth liqueur, and very strong. How strong it was I had no idea until dinner was nearly over. We had had a long day sightseeing and meeting people and getting out to the summer palace and had decided that it would be a good plan to go to bed directly after dinner in order to be rested for the ceremonies the following morning which were to begin at an early hour.”

(中文)

“As we sat at the table talking, I began to realize that rose wine was indeed powerful and that to walk a straight line across that courtyard to my rooms was going to be difficult. The faces of the others swayed in the light of the lanterns and when I spoke I could hear my own voice very far away and was very careful to enunciate very, very distinctly. Then I wanted to laugh at the thought of my father’s daughter, spending the night in the summer palace of the Empress Dowager and completely uncertain of being able to navigate accurately. I recollect the feeling of pleased surprise that I was actually able to stand up, the meticulously said “good nights,” the determined concentration on the point that I had to make—the door of my hall that seemed a world’s length away. But I got there, and I don’t believe anyone but I was aware that I was literally intoxicated by rose wine. Before dinner I had looked at the hard Chinese pillow with distaste, the long, solid apology for a pillow that felt more like a log of wood. That didn’t bother me now. I fell onto that bed and there I slept without moving until seven o’clock the next morning when we had to get ready for our audience; and, of course, I never felt better.”

(中文)

September 14: Beijing, audience with the imperial court

“The audience with the Dowager Empress took place at eight o’clock. The other members of the party had to drive out from Pekin, all dressed in their best clothes, soon after dawn. We were led to a room where everyone was provided with a cake of scented soap, a bottle of perfume, and a basin, but no water, with which to make ourselves pristine for the ceremony, while a number of officials, amahs, and eunuchs hovered solicitously around us. Finally we were escorted to the hall where the audience was to take place.”

(中文)

“The Empress Tsz’e Hsi ranks with Catherine of Russia and Elizabeth of England, with the Egyptian Queens Hatshepsut and Cleopatra, as one of the great women rulers in history. She came of a Manchu family and was brought in her early youth to the court of Hien-feng, and soon became his favorite concubine. She was promoted from that position to be secondary wife to the Emperor. The principal Empress was childless, and when Hien-feng died, he left the throne to T’ung-chi, his son by Tsz’e Hsi. T’ung-chi died in boyhood, and the Dowager Empress selected, as his successor, Kwang-su, a nephew of Hien-feng, whose mother was her sister. While Emperors came and went, regardless of who was on the throne, Tsz’e Hsi ruled.”

(中文)

“The character and power of the Empress were palpable, and though at the time we met her she was over seventy, one felt her charm. She by no means looked her age; her small, brilliant, black eyes were alert and piercing; they and her rather cruel, thin mouth, turned up at one corner, drooping a little at the other, made her face vivid and memorable.”

(한국어)

(中文)

(日本語)

“Our first sight of her was through the doorway of the Hall of Audience. She was seated on a throne several steps higher than the floor, very erect, one slim hand with its golden nail sheathes on the chair arm, the other in her lap. She wore a long loose Chinese coat covered with embroidery, strings of pearls and jade around her neck, her smooth black hair arranged in a high Manchu head-dress decorated with pearls and jade and artificial flowers. There were great pyramids of fruit on either side of her chair. Mrs. Rockhill presented me first; I curtsied, advanced a few steps, curtsied again, advanced a few more steps, and then curtsied for the third time in front of the throne. Then I stepped to one side and looked on while the rest of the party went through the same performance.”

(中文)

“On the lowest step of the throne sat the Emperor, a man in his early thirties; limp and huddled, his mouth a little open, his eyes dull and wandering, no expression in his face. We were not presented to him. No attention was paid to him. He just sat there, looking vacantly about.”

(中文)

“After the presentations were over, the ladies of the party were taken to lunch with the Empress of the East and the Empress of the West, the two principal wives of the Emperor, and a most delightful old Chinese princess. There was no interpreter, but our hostesses and their ladies kept up a continuous chatter, we talking busily in English with one another and at them. After lunch, when we wandered about the gardens, the Empress Dowager joined us. She gave us all presents, heavy gold bracelets and rings that were carried by an attendant who followed her around and handed us each particular gifts. “The old Buddha” talked to all of us in turn through an interpreter. Her conversation with me was the usual perfunctory formalities of such an occasion: the high esteem in which China held the United States, inquiries as to the health of my father, the hope that I was enjoying my visit.”

(中文)

“The interpreter was Wu Ting Fang who had been Minister in Washington. He stood between us, a little to the side, but suddenly, as the conversation was going on, the Empress said something in a small savage voice, whereat he turned quite gray, and got down on all fours, his forehead touching the ground.”

(中文)

“The Empress would speak; he would lift his head and say it in English to me; back would go his forehead to the ground while I spoke; up would come his head again while he said it in Chinese to the Empress; then back to the ground would go his forehead again. There was no clue to her reason for humiliating him before us.”

(中文)

“When I told Father about it he thought it might have been to show us that this man whom we accepted as an equal was to her no more than something to put her foot on—that is was a way of indicating that none of us either amounted to much more than that in her opinion. It was a curious experience to see the same man who enjoyed making blandly insolent remarks at the dinner parties in Washington and invidious comments on America in press interviews, kowtowing at one’s feet. One literally had the feeling that she might at any moment say, “Off with his head,” and that off the head would go.”

(中文)

“She and her suite finally withdrew, and we wandered on through the gardens. The others were on foot, but I was given a chair, a yellow chair tasseled cushioned, in which I led the party, high on the shoulders of eight bearers and surrounded by chattering court officials and eunuchs through the lovely grounds of the summer palace, along garden walks, past ponds and pavilions, the yellow or green tiled roofs of the palace buildings and temples showing through the trees. There are few things lovelier than the sweep of a Chinese roof, the eaves painted in brilliant greens, blues, and vermillion, and often the eaves and roof ridge decorated with grotesque figures of dragons, phoenixes, and lion dogs.”

(中文)

“My bearers made a better pace than the rest of the party, and for a wile I was alone in the gardens of the summer palace, none but Chinese faces in sight. It was fantastic, incredible, Cathy of the old tales. I joined the others at the edge of the lake, at the big white marble summer house built in imitation of a Chinese junk, where we had tea and sweetmeats and an assortment of the very oldest eggs of all. I liked all the Chinese things that we were given to eat, even the antique eggs. Then, in little boats, we went down the canal towards Pekin.”

(中文)

September 15-17: Winter Palace and Forbidden City

“The next morning two court officials came to the Legation and presented me with a little black dog sent by the Empress, and in the afternoon her photograph arrived. It is an excellent photograph, really like the “old Buddha.” I thought so at the time when her face was fresh in my mind, and to look at it now, recalls vividly that day at the summer palace. A troop of cavalry clattered down the street to the Legation, surrounding an imperial yellow chair in which, by itself, was the photograph. It was in an ordinary occidental gilt frame, but the box that held it was lined and wrapped in imperial yellow brocades and the two officials were of much higher rank than those who brought the Pekinese.”

(한국어)

(中文)

(日本語)

“We dined at the German Legation and met, I should think, most of the foreigners in Pekin. Indeed, we saw so many people that there was little time during our brief visit for sightseeing, though I did get to the yellow Lama Temple beyond the walls, and we were also taken to the Forbidden City.”

(中文)

“As the court was not there, it amounted to much more than going through a museum. I would have given a great deal to have stayed longer in Pekin. I wanted to go to the Great Wall and the Ming tombs. I wanted to take a temple for the summer in the western hills. I made a vow to go back every two years—and I have never been back. If I should go, I know that it would be unbelievably changed.”

(中文)

September 18: Tianjin Dinner with Yuan Shi-kai

“We left Pekin to spend a night at Tientsin and dine with Yuan Shi-Kai, Viceroy of Chi-li, in the Viceroy’s yamen. I sat between him and his wife, and we were told that it was the first time that she had been allowed to meet foreigners. Yuan Shi-kai had less poise than other Chinese dignitaries that we had met; he seemed almost fidgety. Perhaps it was because his wife’s notion of being a “perfect hostess” was to take the food on her plate, taste it, and then put it on my, a performance that the Viceroy put an end to in a rather menacing voice. An old family friend, Baron Speck Sternberg, who was German Ambassador in Washington while Father was President, had been in China during the Chinese-Japanese War and knew Yuan Shi-kai at that time. I recollect hearing him say that Yuan Shi-kai was almost the only Chinese that he had never encountered who lacked physical courage, or the indifference to personal fate that amounts to the same thing. Whether that was so or not, he was an agreeable dinner companion. Though conversation was again through an interpreter, it was easy and interesting, on all sorts of topics. He was a modern, interested in civil service reform, education, and particularly in bringing the army to a higher degree of efficiency.”

(中文)

“His own command, the fifty or sixty thousand troops of the Chi-li Province, was trained by foreign officers and was a well set up competent force.”

(中文)

Korea 대한제국

September 19: Battleship Ohio to Chemulpo; train to Seoul; palanquin to legation

“We sailed the next morning on the battle ship Ohio for Chemulpo where Edward Morgan, our Minister, his secretary, Willard Straight, and a number of Korean officials met us and took us on a special train up to Seoul.”“The streets of Seoul were crowded with white-robed Koreans and lined with the Imperial Body Guard. An imperial yellow chair was provided to take me from the station to the Legation escorted by men carrying lanterns on long poles. Our passage was heralded by the bugles of the troops. Mrs. Newkands and I stayed at the Legation, the others at a sort of guest house of the palace, on the other side of the compound wall.”“Korea, reluctant and helpless, was sliding into the grasp of Japan. The whole people looked sad and dejected, all strength seemed to have been drained from them. Everywhere there were Japanese officers and troops, militant and workmanlike; a contrast to the poor abject Koreans.”

September 20: Lunch with Emperor at Palace

“The Emperor and his son, who became the last Emporer, led a furtive existence in their palace alongside our Legation. A few days after we arrived, we lunched with them there in the European part of the building. We were received in an upstairs room, and then the squat Emperor did not give me his arm, but took mine, and together we went in a hurried wobble down a very narrow staircase to an unnoteworthy, smallish dining room.”

(한국어)

(中文)

(日本語)

“We had Korean food, served in Korean dishes and bowls ornamented with the imperial crest. Those I used were afterwards presented to me, and at a farewell audience, the Emperor and Crown Prince each gave me his photograph. They were two rather pathetic, stolid figures with very little imperial existence ahead of them.”

(한국어)

(中文)

(日本語)

September 22: Garden Party by Prince Yii at old East Palace.

September 23: Luncheon by Hayashi, the Japanese minister; dinner by German Minister

September 24: Attend athletic school boy activies by Japanese education committtee

“The Korean and Japanese officials entertained us industriously, but as Seoul was a small place and we were all of ten days there, official parties finally ceased, and we began to feel like old residents. We rode nearly every afternoon getting home at dusk; the mountains sharp black against the western sky. I don’t think the native ponies liked foreigners; they frequently tried to bite us as we mounted. I recollect one that seemed to have a particular aversion to me. First making sure that it was securely held by its groom, I would stand about ten feet off and make a face at it. The pony would respond by laying back its ears, baring its yellow teeth, and struggling to shake off the groom in its effort to get me at me. By the time I left Korea, I was more than fed up with official entertaining, with being treated, one might say, as a “temporary royalty.” Of course, it meant opportunities to see and do things that others didn’t have, and I managed to have an extremely good time between official moments and even at them. It was an interesting and fascinating experience, but how real royalty can stand it, in season and out, is hard to imagine.”

Train to Daegu

“We went by train down the Korean peninsula, Edward Morgan taking a number of his Chinese boys to look after us and to cook delicious meals in the baggage car. The road had been damaged by recent rains, so instead of going through in a day, we spent the night at Taiku at the Presbyterian Mission. Someone had spilled a whiskey and soda on me, and as I got off the train with my small black dog under my arm, my cigarette case as usual dropped spilling its contents at the missionaries’ feet. So I arrived in an atmosphere of alcohol and tobacco which was though deplorable, considering who our hosts were to be. But I do not think they minded in the least. They were exceptionally nice, interested in everything that was going on.”

Return Trip

Japanese boat from Pusan to Shimonoseki

October 5: Canadian Mail Steamer to Yokohama

“We took a Japanese boat from Fusan to Shimonoseki where we boarded a Canadian Mail steamer to go through the inland sea and around to Yokohama. We stayed again with the Griscomes in Tokio, and this time saw much more of Japan than on our former visit. We went to Kamakura to see the great Buddha; to Chiuzenji, and to Nikko to see the temples and mausolea of the Shoguns, where in shoeless feet, we were taken in to the innermost sacred shrines. We walked on the beach at Enoshima, where the young man went into the sea for what he thought was a day, but when he came out he was old and crumbled away in a puff of dust. We took our time, and I began to get the feeling that I wanted to get, of the Japan that I had known through the story of the Forty-seven Loyal Ronins and the Japanese fairy tales and pictures in small crinkly books, that I had had when a child.”“Since we had left Japan in July, the Treaty of Portsmouth had been signed, and Americans were about as unpopular as they had been popular before. I have never seen a more complete change. There was a story that bombs had been thrown at the Harriman party and we were told that if anyone asked, it would be advisable to say that we were English. The anti-American feeling, however, seemed to be confined to the populace. The officials were just as courteous and friendly as before, and when Mr. Harriman, who had been looking over the railroad situation in eastern Manchuria, arrived in Tokio with his family and guests, many entertainments were given for them. At one large garden party, the last of the Shoguns was produced; a very old gentleman in unbecoming occidental clothes, not at all what a Shogun should have looked like.”

October 5: Canadian Mail Steamer to Yokohama

• 11:22 Leaving for Yokohama (横浜発)
• 12:08 Ship arrival (大船着)
• 12:20 Disembark (大船発)
• 12:30 Arrival in Kamakura. Overnight at US embassy villa (鎌倉着 米国公使館別荘ニ一泊)

October 6

Plan to visit Miyanoshita in Hakone, but on account of rainy weather, return to Yokohama (箱根宮ノ下訪問予定が雨天ノ為横浜に帰ル)

October 7

Stay in Yokohama (Oriental Hotel) (横浜滞在 (オリエンタルホテル）)

October 8

• 06:10 Leave Yokohama (横浜発)
• 07:07 Arrive in Shinbashi (新橋着)
• Breakfast at Tsukiji Seiyoken (築地精養軒ニテ朝食)
• 09:00 Leave from Ueno (上野発)
• 13:50 Arrive in Nikko (日光着)

October 9

• Round trip to Chugushi in Chuzenji (中宮祠 (中禅寺）往返)
• Lunch at Lakeside Hotel (レーキサイドホテル昼食

October 10

• 08:54 Leave Nikko. Lunch on the train (日光発 汽車中ニテ午餐)
• 14:30 Arrive at Ueno (上野着)
• Did not return to Yokohama. Night at the Embassy (横浜には戻らず 公使館泊 )

October 11

• 11:30 From Shinbashi Alice leaves for Yokohama by Train (新橋発汽車ニテアリス嬢帰浜)

October 12

• Sightseeing, Shopping (市内遊覧、買物)

October 13

• Going out in the morning (午前中 外出)
• 12:30 Lunch at Oriental Hotel Annex (午餐 (オリエンタルホテル別館）)
• 14:00 Depart Hotel (ホテル出立)
• 15:25 Return to US by SS Siberia (サイベリア号にて帰国の途に)

October 23: Arrival in San Francisco

“At last we started for home on the Siberia with Mr. and Mrs. Harriman and their party. E. H. Harriman was one of the big railroad and financial figures of our time. His daughter, Mary, was my particular friend in the family; but though I saw him when I stayed with her, and of course daily on the trip home, I never felt that I knew him at all. He was a small, brown, taciturn man who never seemed to play. He gave the impression that what he did and made others do was never just “for fun,” was always practical.”

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