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Diaries of General Joseph W. Stilwell (1900–1939, 1945–1946) Introduction

These diaries of General Joseph W. Stilwell are those remaining in the Stilwell Papers at the Hoover Archives that had not been placed on the Hoover Archives web site. In addition to chronicling his career and activities up to and following World War II, they offer insights into his developing character, as he matured from a twenty-one-year-old second lieutenant, fresh out of West Point, to a mature four-star general officer. They provide evidence of his early passion for exploring and observing different cultures and people and his innate curiosity, which led to an expanding mind and widespread interests. The entries also reveal his keen sense of humor, his ability to assess the character of others, his command of the English language, his artistic abilities, and his warmth for his family.

The diaries were Stilwell’s private writings and notes; he never intended others to see them. Some of the language used in the diaries was commonly accepted during the periods in which they were written; it is not appropriate or valid to apply today’s standards to it to draw conclusions about Stilwell’s character or views. Writing about some of the language and labels in the diaries, Barbara Tuchman, in her book Stilwell and the American Experience in China, makes the following statement, “Lesser vulgarities he used easily and seemingly without pejorative content.”

Often the diaries contain short notes and observations made by Stilwell. Some of those entries he incorporated into the daily entries, some he later crossed out, some were simply meant to remind him of something, and some are so cryptic they make no discernible contribution to the diaries’ historical significance. In those cases such entries have not been transcribed. When they are of interest or add to the daily entries, however, they have been incorporated into the transcripts.

The diaries were first transcribed several decades ago, when his widow and a daughter-in-law, Bettye Stilwell, manually typed them. The diaries, along with the rest of Stilwell's papers, were deposited at the Hoover Institution in stages from 1951 on. In 1998, my cousin, Deborah Bunce, began entering the manually typed transcriptions into a computer database. When Richard Sousa (senior associate director) and Linda Bernard (deputy archivist) agreed that the diaries should appear on the Hoover Archives web site, I began proofing the computer database text against the original diaries. Lisa Miller (associate archivist) provided the impetus for the project and coordinated formats, scanning of drawings and maps, and integrating the various elements into the final product. Lisa Nguyen (East Asia curator) transcribed and translated the Chinese characters Stilwell used in the diaries. Russell Rader (digital archivist) and Daniel Jarvis (digitization production specialist) did the scanning of the drawings and maps and the integration.

Principles of Transcription

Stilwell’s spelling throughout the diaries was remarkably correct. Distinguishing between his handwritten n’s and u’s, however, was sometimes difficult, and errors in place names or names of people containing those letters could have made their way into the transcripts. Based on Stilwell’s superb spelling elsewhere, then, any such errors must be attributed to the transcriber, not to Stilwell.

In some of the diaries Stilwell included drawings of maps, people, places, and things that interested him. Those drawings have been incorporated into the transcriptions, with the exception of partially completed drawings or those not germane to the diaries.

Hoover Institution Archives: The Diaries of General Joseph W. Stilwell. Copyrighted Material 2012

Copyrighted Material Copyrighted Material

Where Stilwell wrote Chinese characters in the diaries, those characters have been translated using the Wade-Giles convention, which was in use at the time he wrote them.

SYMBOLS USED IN THE TEXT

* Indicates Stilwell’s use of military unit designations that have been translated into words because the designators are not reproducible online.

*** Indicates words or sentences redacted. Redactions were made where the words or sentences might negatively affect persons still living or where words or sentences are personal and have no impact on the historical content of the diaries. Redactions were made in the 1935, 1938, and 1946 diaries.

Words written in italics are editorial comments for which explanations were warranted.

Select Bibliography

Haith, Michael E. “Joseph W. Stilwell as Attaché, 1935–1939: Foundations for Command in the CBI.” Thesis submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board, April 1985.

Schaller, Michael. The U.S. Crusade in China, 1938–1945. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979.

Tuchman, Barbara. Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45. New York: Macmillan Company, 1970.

-John Easterbrook, 2012 Copyright Statement Joseph W. Stilwell's diaries are covered by the copyright law of the United States. Please refer all requests to publish excerpts or quotations to the Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 94305-6010, or to [email protected]. Such requests will be forwarded to the Stilwell family, who owns the rights to the diaries.



mailto:[email protected]

TRIP TO CHINA 1911

Nov. 23, 1911 to Dec 9 (14th at McK.)

All about China.

Past, present, & future, her history, people, -- (with their customs, character, habits, and occupations,) – resources, etc, with notes on law, morals, and religion, gathered.

À la R. H. Davis, during a varied and lengthy sojourn of –

-20 – whole days in that delightful land of rat-soup, bird-nest pie, and stinks (assorted) -- By J.W.S.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

All about China

Rich mineral deposits up West River. Coal, tin, silver, lead, gold, marble etc. Ramsey’s adventures in the P.I. Condemned to death in San Nicolas. Interviewing Suna & Aguinaldo with the 2 Cal. deserters. Pirating the launch (P2,000) (Daily issue of ammun. to Col. outfit.) Smuggling 3 goog leaders, Cebu to Manila (P500 per). (Clarke got his start stealing Red Cross material, Colorado had sent out.) Good uniform – Chino shoes – ankle bands – trousers – water-proof conical hat, chinstrap, sweater & chink vest – (Bandoliers in action.). For field, shoes & canvas leggings.) Short oiled raincoat. Oiled gun covers. Hunter & Beacham, the Eng. lads are O.K. Hunter’s 3 wk. trip thro. Balkans ($300) *↓ At Bucharest, hotel prop. apologized because no boys available – Turks had arrived & taken them all – but he would see to it that girls were at once provided! No trouble travelling. Hunter has bid from Hankow chief of police to go up & see the town. Wants me to go along. “Aot, but we were f---ing everywhere, & you cahn’t do it for nothing!” *↑ At the christening. Curate “Ah, a fine boy!” Nurse, “Yes a fine baby, sir, but that’s my thumb you have hold of.” Hunter’s remarks about how “we” would have fixed, it up had Win been along. “We could have mounted guard to see no damned Jap used the rear.” Beacham quite agreed when I said it was a good thing for husband and wife to be separated once in a while. “Must be a deadly bore to her, y’know. What!” (Story @ lad who put his foot in the – er (stirrup)

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Parlor trick. Take 3 coins – pick them up, one at a time, lay three down ditto, counting up to 8. Have 2 coins in hand. Muddy outlet of the Yangstze. 50 miles out the color of coffee. For over 30 miles after we were in the river no land visible. Heavy swells. Low lying shores. At Woosung, mouth of Whangpoo, foreign fleet lying – 2 Japs, 2 French, 1 German, 1 American. The old Eng. pilot – reminded me of Grandpa. Invited us up on bridge. Hunter & Beacham swearing that the German flag was British! Flying on the German cruiser Sharnhorst. Going up the Whangpoo – 25 feet of water & boat drawing 24’ 6”. First sight of wheelbarrow rickshaw at Woosung. Reb. flag on two river gunboats – red ground, black star in center, white stars at points of black star, white balls between. First impression of Shanghai a shock – fine streets – solid bldgs, -- fancy dressed fems. – Monkey clothes Willies – in fact an imitation City. (Dance at hotel – chromos in bunches. Cops all Hindus in Eng. settlement. Queer shaped sampans – like a sled high on the stern. Big junks in Whangpoo river – high decorated sterns – fancy colors. Cold! Going out to Mexico Maru. Just butted around the river till we found her. Trip to native city with Che Fah – guide. Persistent beggars – women & children, pursued us for half-an-hour. The beggars’ day, & they were thick as flies, lying in rags in the gutters and groaning. – Swarms of people. Multifarious occupations. Old battered rickshaws, wheelbarrows, & sedan chairs – latter occasionally with a gorgeously attired dame. Chino wedding hat – bright colored creation in beads & tassels. Blowing up the goat. – just killed and hair taken off in hot water. Cut hole in neck & then blew his skin up like a football. Then scraped his head with a knife. Hunter nearly threw up. No admittance to jail. Said could not guard us. Prisoners all on one chain. Reb. recruiting stations all over the place. Talked with a couple of soldiers – fine appearing lads. (Chinese-made mausers.) Execution ground – stone floor in a big farm like structure near prison.

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Vile, filthy canals, clogged with refuse – and yet they live & breed there. Zigzag bridge to tea house (350 yrs old) (Ming dynasty). Evil spirits cannot walk there – fall into water at the turns. Shanghai (foreign concessions – ) looks like Phila. from the hotel windows. Fine solid bldgs, wide, well-paved streets, no bum sections, outlying districts all prosperous. Autos, trolleys, etc. Native city, on other hand, is a maze of alleys and mass of dens, with here & there a filthy canal. Burning a good luck paper in joss house. Price 20¢ per. (They got 20¢.) Took us right in by the altar. Mourners dressed in white. Dragon fence in Mandarin club. Selling oranges by the section! The coolie & the mountain of trunks – wharf to hotel – 30¢. Mandarin coat $45. Could have got it for 20. “And even the Roman Empress herself has been known to declare that she really preferred the playful titillations of her gay & joyous eunuch to the ponderous effusions of the Emperor himself.” “Scene – Daniel, seated on a 3-legged stool, in the lions’ den.” Etc. etc. etc. Curved saw. Chino graves (tombs of brick) scattered around the fields in the middle of gardens, lawns, etc. Two cents for a letter – Shanghai to U.S. Eng. lad’s remark in mixed gathering. “I’ll be glad when Sat. comes.” A girl – “Why?” “Then I’ll get my month’s screw!” (salary.) Reason for so many different reb flags is that every province has one of its own. N.B. Never say in England “It’s a long block”. Nor address any one as Mr. (Esq.) Roper’s discovery of what the water boy was for on his gang. Replaced him by an old man. Stuff from the East that should sell well in the U. S. Shikoku & Arami bamboo baskets. Damascene – pins, buckles, cases, etc. Brass lanterns, ash-trays, c. sticks, etc. Dinner-cards, water-colors, etc. Piña-embroid. of all kinds.

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Philippine waists & embroid. Small ivories, netsukes etc. Kimona & mandarin coats Silk pictures? Satsuma? Prints? Cloisonné? Also Guatemalan & Navajo blankets.

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Beautiful approach to Hong Kong. The Peak with houses perched on its sides, a touch of old Greece. A sheltered harbor full of shipping & the city apparently hung on the hillside climbs almost directly form the shore, to 1800 ft. Swarm of sampans, with their captains aboard us via any old rope that hung loose, before ship lost headway. 1 sampan = 1 household – including chickens. Wife steers, & kids push on oars. Everybody does something. One sampan crowded with taos ran bang into launch, but the whole gang of taos, pushing & pulling, were over the launch & up the gang way in 2 seconds. Hooking rope on ship with pole & then shinning up. Foochow Rd, Shanghai, at night. Weird glimpses into strange backrooms. Joss-house orchestra, flute & cymbals, almost on sidewalk. All the dames of fortune lined up at the front of their hangouts, right in the doorway under a light. Gayly dressed & bejewelled, but stolid, listless, set faces, no expression; just animate dolls. Hong Kong a shock. Fine appearing city. Well paved & laid out. Winding roads to upper levels all like parkways. At intervals, roads follow the contour. The whole hillside a park. Four & five storied bldgs. The bldgs are mostly brick plastered over, but from distance appear to be solid masonry & are very impressive. Luxuriant growth of palius & shrubs of all kinds add greatly to beauty of city. The silk pictures we bought for 80¢ in Tokyo & 40¢ in Chuzenji are $3 here! $5 for a pair! Back to Japan. The big brick market; & poultry killing room in it. Ugh! Smell of blood & the sight of the chinos squatting around the messy floor was sickening. Woman picking over a basket of chicken bones, – stuff we feed the dogs. Fooling the cargies. Mrs. Lossius paid, & they got 20¢, 20¢, 15¢ respectively. Thought they had a sucker when I disembarked. Thanksgiving dinner – with American flags at St. Geo’s house. (Mr. Lossius, West R. captain. Been up the river 600 times. Run-in now & then with pirates. 2¢ pack of skags for the coolies – 4 skags to the pack. English ball at City Hall bldg. St. Andrews day. Hot tarts in their mess jackets & gold-pant legs & red coats & big epaulettes. Several out in front posing for benefit of public. Incline R.R., built in 1885 reaches elev. 1300. Cable line, one car up, other down. In places it’s like going over Niagara Falls, and I don’t want to be aboard the day the cable breaks. View increasingly good as one ascends. At Topside station is Peak Hotel. 500 ft. up at right is summit & signal station. (1823 ft.) Infantry (?) outfit stationed there – station. At the summit view is superb. The whole harbor, east & west, Kowloon back to the mountains, south over the island with it numerous fine

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residences, west toward Macao, sea studded with islands, – (east inc. part of racecourse). Only one point where view is at all limited – south-east, over barracks & Peak Hotel. Best panorama I can remember. Counted 36 ocean-going steamers in port – no small fry among them, either. Many smaller ones & some cruisers. The English drill-sergeant is surely snappy & well set up. They drill the men hard, too. For giving commands, appearance, & results, they beat our average officer 500%. (Saw nothing but manual of arms, etc., so don’t know if they lay too much stress on “small” precision.) The Eng. officer, on the other hand, is a mess, – at least here at Hong Kong. Untidy, slouchy, sloppy, onlookers at drill. Fooled around with canes, doing the manual. Pretty bad example for the men, all of whom are more soldierly than any of the officers I saw. At fix & unfix bayonets, non-com, on r. & l. go 2 paces forward & signal with hand for resuming “order” & sending bayonet home. (After unfixing, came to attention in 3 counts.) Pretty, but waste of time. Queer appearances of chinks, most of whom have just cut off their queues. Lossius had to measure the West river to find out the dimensions of the new boats! Determined by a bend where they touch bow, stern, & quarter. Impossible to cut away bank, – would disturb some dragon or other. Story of Spike Hill. Dragon used to raise cain because he could not scratch his neck. Kind mandarin built 3 cairns & he scratched so hard he cut his head off. (Chino pilot scared to anchor there in storm because it’s the dragon thrashing around, head on one side, body on other. Rainy spell – finally to stop rain, after cleaning joss-house in vain, mandarin cut hole in roof over joss’s head to let him get it, & rain stopped in 24 hrs. Long dry spell. Chinks stopped killing cattle. No good. Stopped killing pigs. Still no use. Chickens, same result. Then discovered the trouble. Sent word to missionaries to quit digging foundations, because rain dragon was mad from being dug so hard. Chino trick at Amoy. Shoot boy in back with iron shot. Then when hombre shoots at a bird, pull boy out & claim damages. Etti, San Francisco hombre, in Imperial outfit, capt of art. (Chief of Staff of Art.) down to Canton to confer with rebs. 21 yrs. in Chino service King. Sharp fighting. 400 heads a day in Nan. Legend of chino who went up to Nanning & forgot his wife for the Nanning fairies. She used to go up on hill & watch, till finally the joss in pity turned her to stone. And the husband at Nan. (400 mi. away) was also turned to stone as a punishment. Explanation of curious rock formation.

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Lossius’ air gun. shot chink in tail & sent him on dead run to village. Next boat up was shot at with Winchesters. Pretty girl running from devil who was after her prayed to joss for help. Joss raised up mountain between them, & this made devil so angry he chopped at it with his sword. One piece flew back & killed him, & he turned into the rock in middle of river (At Mark’s Head) From the “Heung Shan” to the “Nanning” with a crew of 4 “ladies”, one of them of Grandma’s appearance, – a good oarswoman. Canton Cat market. Brisk business in cats & dogs, good prices, too. Two or three dollars for a cat. Cats cooked & split, hung up for sale. Dog stew being dished out of the slum pot. The water clock, built in 1324, nothing but a series of 4 pots; water trickles through in 16 hrs., time being shown by upright on a float. Accurately, too. Buddhist bell in temple of Horrors. Fortune tellers all over the temple. In the Horrors department, 3 foot images showed various torments – stocks, beating, sawing in two from head down (husband killing), cutting tongue out, pushing victim down on bed of spikes. Judge on the Throne, demons doing the work. Bars in front half conceal the scenes & make them more weird. Big coils of punk incense in city of dead, temples, etc. Queer varieties of hair-cuts & top-knots now that the queues are off. Fish kept alive, till time of sale, in shallow tubs. Half of them about gone & floating belly up. Put them on the scales alive. The fish are mostly carp & suckers, & are disgusting just to look at. (Snaky looking fish.) They feed on the night soil of Canton & seem to thrive on it. The big ones make a bloody mess when cut up. Fish are brought alive to Canton in Sampans & put in tubs on the steamers for shipment. The dead ones go to the collies, who trade them off to the sampan girls at the rate of one fish for one party. (Some of the girls had 4 or 5.) Queer stone carving at Chan temple of bird with its bill in a frog’s mouth. (See illustrations.) Mr. Vosburgh my roommate, Hong Kong to Canton. Mrs. Lentz’s father. Was able to give him some news of the Lentzes. Tickled to death with his trip; asked three million questions, never listened to half the answers. Good hombre, & a booster for the army – Nothing would do but he must find a missionary & pump him. Butted into the hospital & asked if the shrink patients got the proper religious “atmosphere”, if they received instruction in the Christian faith, if they were becoming earnest Christians! Phew! (We had tracts handed us! I couldn’t keep a straight face.) When we came out Vosburgh harangued the guide. “Here is a gre-e-eat institution! 1,000’s & 10’s of 1000’s of dollars have been put into it. See what the Protestant Christians are doing for the people! When we step in here, we bridge over in a second! – 12 hundred years of history. By George – etc. etc. Was bugs till he found out there were 3000 Christians in Canton.

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Collecting views for slides & when he gets back to Podnuk will give a big lecture on his travels, -- featuring the gre-e-eat earnest work being done by earnest Christian fighters in the foreign field etc. etc. (Was scared stiff about pirates & the West R.) Temple of Chan family. Gaudy and minute decorations on roof, in carvings of clay, brick, wood stone, & porcelain. Big & fierce red lions peeking over edge at the gates. Chair stands – 4 or 5 ft. high. Coolie sits underneath, & probably lives there. Horribly sickish smell of urine. Big clay pots sometimes sunk a little in the ground with a bamboo strainer. Public closets just a row of stalls with a log to squat on. In places, kids were defecating right in the street – big light grey messes. Numerous gods in a Chino house – side-door god, floor god, kitchen god, etc. etc. Shrine to ancestors and “side” gods in all better class houses. Main point of religion seems to be an effort to scare away evil spirits, who are continually trying to do harm. Cit of the Dead – 200 odd rooms or family Shrines where the coffin is left for weeks & months & sometimes more till a lucky grave can be found. Clean & well kept, flowers, shrubs, etc. In close proximity to the burial ground, which stretches for miles over the hills. Red-haired chink boy beggar in City of the Dead. 9-story or Flowery Pagoda dates from 700. Nothing of note about it. Just an architectural curiosity. 5-story pagoda & wall dates from 11th century. Pagoda now a barracks; no admittance. Just outside north gate is the hill whence the British & French in 1841 bombarded the city & got indemnities. $6,000,000 for Eng. France used her indemnity to build the R.C. cathedral. Kingfisher feather work, an imitation of enamel. Only two colors used, the pale blue & the mauve(?). Cut in tiny pieces and pasted on. Rice-paper pictures are just water-colors on rice-paper. The paper, which is easily torn, becomes tough went wet. The Rebs were a motley gang; some looked like good hombres, but most of them were pirates for fair. At one temple they made no objection about showing their guns. At the north gate, where they were all cut-throats, I showed them I was a reb by my red tie & blue shirt & that quite tickled them. All bowed & said good by. These fellows had an attempt at a uniform with pale blue blouse & trousers, red trimmings, khaki strap puttees & “brigand” wrappings. In the city they were in all sorts of shirts, trousers, hats, & shoes. Many had new ammunition belts & plenty of cartridges. Some of them standing around pistol in hand, finger on trigger! Guns mostly imitation Mansers Chinese made.

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Canton streets are indescribable. A maze of stone-paved, narrow, crooked, twisting lanes, filled with a mass of yelling chinks, running into each other, howling imprecations & warnings, crying their wares, etc. etc. The buildings are irregular, & just out here & there. On little shelves that stick out, or are raised above the street level, a chink will be doing a tailoring business, or putting goo into pots or weighing fish. There are ups & down over canals, with numerous whiffs from the p.p.p. – public thundermugs. Big cloth signs, paper decorations, sometimes a skylight completely covering the street. Puddles, mud, filth, refuse, rags. Glimpses into mysterious interiors. Stares from evil-looking chinks in same. Pipes, pipes, pipes. – Everybody busy at something or else waiting for customers. Etc Etc. The big stern-wheel junks, 16 Chink power! Passenger boats (See ill.) Dinner on the Wilmington – (Kibee Cooley, Clement Brett (Int. Bank). Doctor Kirk Davis Conway Cordial bunch. Good chow. Went ashore to club where they started to drink 14 brandies & water. (They kept is up to 21 instead of 19 – 5:00 A.M. finish) Beat it at 12, when they were on the 5th round. They all oscillate between the ship & the club & just fight booze. Sampan kids – Ah Wo, Jim, & Susie keen as whips. Do mending & little odd jobs for the Wilmington gang. Picked me out in dark as hombre who went aboard at 8. Opium joss – women smear mouth with opium & husband does not like it any more. Gambling joss in medicine temple – woman tie strings to a palm; husband quits gambling. Unloading pigs – put them in open baskets of bamboo. Saw 2 men carrying 6 big ones. Selling hair along the street. Chink cuts off him hair, puts it on a newspaper & has a store. Must have been a big boom in hair when the revolution broke out. Door joss at nearly every store & house. One side of door & built in low – just a niche with an invocation & punk-pot in it. Rain hats a yard across – gummed to shed water – few umbrellas or coats. Wooden braces overhead crossing the street and holding the bulging walk in place. Kneading bread with “jumper”. Man sits on bamboo pole and hops up & down. Execution ground a dirty alley full of pots & clay stoves – Open space about 12’ sq – for executions. (Cross made of wood for ling chi). Tie ‘em to it & cut ‘em up.) Confucius Temple an apparently neglected affair. Big & considerable decoration, but not pretty. Two big courtyards. More cooked dogs & cats hung up for sale. Tuft left on dog’s tails. Foot-power rice powder just like the ones in Japan. (See Japan illus.)

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Hombre grinding grain – walked around a small mill, pushing on a lever only about 2 ft long. Hands on hips. Must have described circle of not more than 3’ diam. Had the chinks not switching from one coat to another & from one price to another, (Mandarin coats.) Offered good price on one to pull down on the other.) Afraid of losing sale after having it in their grasp, they came down. (120 from 160) Only people wire. Can wear a similar coat are the Imperial family, Tartar generals & 1st – class Mandarins.) Medicine temple – pray to joss & drop the two clappers. If odd & even, drink holy water and get well in 2 days, if both flat side down drink holy water & get well in 4 days, if both flat side up, long time before well. The patient chooses a bamboo stick at random from the stand & takes the prescription of the corresponding number. If he draws 2 or 3 sticks take 2 or 3 prescriptions! Powder face joss in this temple a powerful friend of the ladies who paste paper dolls on the shrine. (Fine stone carvings.) The Buddhist hell is on both sides of temple instead of only one. Other scenes show hombre being boiled in oil, pounded under a trip hammer, chewed by a tiger, assuming forms of cows & goat for next life, etc. etc. Temple of 5 Geim nothing special. Just 5 gods in a row & many lesser ones outside. Quite a job (+50¢) to get picture of silk loom. Mohammedan. Swote pagoda a dilapidated brick affair. 300 yrs. old. Chow sampans that run around the river with China quick lunch. Beat a bamboo stick to attract notice. Mrs. Turner, the wife of the consular hombre, on board Wilmington. Smoked skags, held hands, leaned way over the table, lolled around, & showed her leg. Dr’s pictures of Nicaraguan battlefields, & beheading Am. Consul reports British deliberately trying to make things look as bad as possible here, so as to justify a grab on her part. Convoys up West R. Exaggerated actions in Hong Kong, etc. Armed parties in streets, whipping, etc. French ambition in Honan, province, contiguous to Indo-China. Very rich in minerals, tin, coal, copper, silver. etc. The “Canton Bomb Corps” – 300 men, of good standing. All sworn to do or die. Throw small bombs, containing a tube of mercury fulminate in vaseline.

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Various estimates from $200,000,000 to $600,000,000, of value of Chinese stuff stored on Shameen. Rich prize for pirates. Precious stones, bullion – gold & silver, old porcelain, silk, etc. Shameen Club, “longest bar in the East!” “Susü” peeping in port hole of Wilmington. The “Sandpiper” (85 tons) our escort up West River from Saiwan. Tall gray brick bldgs. in the country towns are pawn shops, built strong for defense against pirates. The more pawn-shops, the richer the town. Raising ducks – 1000 perhaps to a junk. Sail around to feeding place & turn ‘em out. At night, drive ‘em aboard. Big scramble at finish to keep from being socked with a bamboo. All of them know that the last duck gets hit. As one compartment fills, next duck cocks an eye at it & leads off to another. In China it is the dogs & ducks that raise cain when strangers approach. Even a duck just hatched will let out a yell if a foreigner is near. At Big incubator farms, new arrivals invariably beat it for the end of the enclosure where the chow is. Chinks put eggs in lime & rice husk to hatch – this gives exactly correct temperature. Tigers at Wuchow no joke. Been seen on the beach. Steal pigs in town. Occasionally get a man – never when dogs & pigs are available. 12 footer caught in 1909 & sold for $120. French missionary’s tame one that jumped the table at meals in play. (Visitor’s scare.) Old chino’s disappearance – both his tracks & the tiger’s could be followed for a way, then only the tiger’s then again both, etc. (Cat play) Skipper Sonthby of the “Sandpiper” (7 knots.) “Let her go at 7 ½ knots!” (Broke down) Fatshau – 500,000 pop. – just a few miles form Canton! Sainam 100,000! Fatshau makes firecrackers, pottery, etc. (Silks) Eating the pirate raw who destroyed the village. They swore to get him & did. So he could not be reincarnated as pirate. Also for the virtue in him. Common thing to eat the livers of executed pirates. Some few cook theirs. Also tiger livers, – make you brave & strong. (Make medicine out of tiger spleen) Live wires used by Japs against Formosans. Latter crossed by cutting trees & walking on them. Tried wires with dogs. Pig junks at Shin Hing. Broad flight of steps at landing. Junks on stilts to hold them level, away up the bank (Old ones for houses.)

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Corpses in West River. Chrysanthemum flower for chow. Orange peel for medicine. How the gov. fixed the lepers who demanded kumsha. Got them to a feed & shot the bunch. Painting the beggars so they could not repeat on handouts (1 cast) from the big stores. Putting straw for mats off at Lo Ting – Tak Hing just up river & Tak Hing pagoda directly opposite. Swarm of peddlers, meat, fish, cake, fruit, – some with an entire stock of about 20¢. (Drinking river water.) (Old woman cargie with the face who laughed as her boat pulled out.) Straw goes up a small river to Lintin, where it is made into matting. Hombre buying a fish made vendor weigh without the string – a bamboo splint. At daylight just cleared the Shui Heng gorge at Shui Heng. Fine scenery – hills, rocks, junks, open reaches of river, cultivated banks & beaches, little villages, etc. Dropped Sandpiper at Shui Heng. Left Samshui about 3 A.M. (arr. 1 A.M.) Yuat Shing temple to dragon’s mother, – big pilgrimage 5th day of 5th moon. Rises in West R. of 30, 40, & 60 ft: Record 68. Lepers at Doshing – out in boats begging. Hands, fingers, toes – gone. Pitiful sight. (Run around loose in the town.) Let up a mournful yell. Doshing the pirate hdqrs. Boy pointed out temple where they hang out. Are in full possession of the town. Two weeks ago sent up a force of 300 to Wuchow claiming to be rebs come to protect the town from robbers. Were held off parleying till news came from below repudiating them, then were attacked by the town’s force & exterminated (66 caught & beheaded next day.) Were caught on their junks between fire from shore & launches. My scare when the anchor dropped at Samshui. Thought sure we were attacked. Hopped out of a sound sleep & went pawing for my gun. “Monk’s Head” a big stone peak sticking up all by itself. (Legend of devil, & girl who was saved by the joss.) Chink system of selling customs concessions anywhere & everywhere. Buyer is free to fix %’s and collect! No check on him. Fine stretches of sweeping beach above Samshui, all cultivated. Rich section. The latrines of old Wuchow – troughs set on stilts over the fish ponds. Several big covered sheds with double row of “seats” -- deluxe affairs.

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Racket at the dock – women loading baskets – Sounded like open demonium – chinks apparently flying into a perfect fury of passion, – which all passes off in words. Haven’t seen a drunk; or a fight, in spite of innumerable collisions in the streets. Grain boats look like whale backs. Small hatches so inspector can’t get in. 1905 massacre up North R. was because a fool missionary stood in the middle of the street & opposed a chino procession. One man, Dr. Machle, ran & hid in a well while his wife was being murdered. He was only survivor. Ramsay’s impressions of missionaries. Knock down fares, act arrogantly, live on fat of land, take 3 or 4 mos. vacation, get rates, & retire young. Talk dollars & land rather than religion. Used to buy 2nd class ticket & bum everything 1st class. Hombre who had a palatial dwelling beside a matchbox church – “With the few bricks left from building the House of God, I constructed my humble dwelling!” Opulence for the lepers -- 20¢ mex for 13 of them – 15 cash apiece! Slides on the hills to send down brushwood. Rebs just returning from scrap with pirates as we reached Yuat Shing. (2 gunboats, 3 launches, 5 or 6 junk-loads of men.) Roper’s story of the medical students who initiated a fourth member into their society. Sent him down for a corpse (one of the fellows.) New lad went crazy & banged joker’s brains out on floor. Then banged his own out. Yrs. later other two met, & one did same thing. Other committed suicide. Life preservers on kids at Canton – piece of wood tied to their backs. Wear it all the time. Chicken coop hung over the stern of a sampan – heads out. Sampaners swarming aboard Nanning while at fall speed – Men, kids, & old women. Sui Ping & No. 5 sampan on deck to welcome me. I to Sui Ping as no 5 nears shore & a bunch of Eng. ladies & gents, “What she say, Ping?” “O, she say you nice man. (Loud) I think you f. this w. 1 dollar!” Fancy paper figures & band on junk. Wedding on; celebrate for days. Fish net bullet stop on chink gunboat. “Tin Chip” – launch!

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Look up Cement, & Concrete Const. Guest at chink dinner, anxious to know what he’d eaten. “Quack-quack?” Chink, “Bow wow!” Duck regiment going aboard down river. 3” feet on woman aboard the Hoisang. Bill’s frenzy where the anchor dropped. Cripple at dock, Canton. Left foot & right hand, l. hand on l. knee. Block of wood in r. hand. Mrs. Pass! Jocko peeling an apple seed! Opium cooking plant at Macao. Line of 50 big bowls boiling down poppy juice. Put in pots (small ones 10 & 15¢) Pays heavy tax to the gov’t. China owned. Fantan houses 20 in all, owned by a Chink Co., pay $600,000 a year to the gov’t Odds 3 to 1; house pays 3x – 8 1/3 % Macao Bay is miniature Naples, seen from Boa Vista Hotel. A quaint town, clean, well paved, fine avenues, gardens, trees, etc. Old Spanish style Vasco de Gama ave. a gem, lined with banyans. Cracked stone mosaic lanterns & vases in park. Cement monkey on the rockery. Loads of cockscomb & chrysanthemums. Cauioens garden & fine view of city. Gambling king’s garden & house. Bushes trimmed like lions. Bamboo trained like snakes. Multitudinous chairs & tables in the house. Polite, bowing soldiers; moustached dandies. Chino tête-a-tête. Brass works – nest of chinos all hanging away. Sing-song girls -- $1500 for 1st time piece! Meeting Hunter & Beacham in H.K. H’s remarks @ what he did night before. Rubbed his hands – “Well.” Etc. Tuensang – 1100 tons – a filthy, rotten under-sized tub – Typhoon all the way. Rolled 90o – Stink of bilge. Cock open under my bunk – bed soaked – 3” water in room all the time – poor

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chink in bailing – 3 A.M. found everything afloat – all sick, sailors & all. 3 nights & 2 days of a floating HELL. Endless time while we tossed on our bunks clothes on. My “shipmate” Dr. A.S.Short a dirty, Unbred, slobby beast. Sneezed, spit, puked – on my bag & pillow – pooped, belched, sucked teeth, hung his pants in my face. I got even by wafting them up at him. Nothing to eat; bilge to smell – gave fine appetite! The P.I looked good to me. Going thro. customs-insp. never saw a thing but rice pict. Pd. duty on cloth only. 24 boxes left in bond. Hotel Metropole for bath & drink. Googs looked good, stores looked good, everything looked good. Out to post & saw Hooper etc. Got room in No. l.

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Itinerary Kobe arr dep Nov 21 Moji – Nov 22 (10 A.M.) Nov 23 (10 A.M.) Shanghai – Nov 25 (6 P.M.) Nov 27 (2:30 P.M.) Hong Kong Nov 30 (1 P.M.) Dec 1 (10 P.M.) Canton Dec 2 (7 A.M.) Dec 4 (8 A.M.) Wuchow Dec 5 (10 P.M.) Dec 6 (9 A.M.) Canton Dec 7 (11 A.M.) Dec 7 (5 P.M.) Macao Dec 8 (1 A.M.) Dec 8 (2 P.M.) Hong Kong Dec 8 (6 P.M.) Dec 9 (2 P.M.) Manila Dec 12 (2 P.M.) Dec 13 (12 m.) Stotsenb’g Dec 13 (5 P.M.) Dec 14 (2 P.M.) Manila Dec 14 (8:00) Dec 14 ( 8:00 P.M.) McKinley Dec. 14 (9 P.M.)

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diaries of general joseph w - hoover institution · 2014-06-23 · diaries of general joseph w....

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