The foreign resident in China is more prone to deteriorate, to become celestialized, than he is to uplift his Chinese associates to his manner of living, his way of thinking, his standard of civilization. And this doubtless is more common in North China, where the residents do and must speak the language of the country, than it is in the south, where English-speaking Chinese are far more numerous. Probably among no alien race does the Englishman so rapidly lose his essential characteristics as he does in China. In appearance he is the Englishman still, well clothed, spotlessly clean, groomed to perfection, affable, courteous, thorough, but _au fond_ tainted with oriental tendencies. The merchant, owing to closer intercourse and more frequent exchange of thoughts on matters of common interest, is more quickly and more thoroughly impregnated than is even the missionary--with the possible exception of those missionaries who adopt Chinese clothes and the Chinese manner of living. The intercourse is deleterious to the foreigner’s character. His children, if educated in China, are British in appearance and name--in all that makes the man, in all that differentiates the born Briton from men of other races, the China-raised resident is wanting. An impressionable personality perceives the difference immediately; he is face to face with men the like of whom he has never met. It is said that some are so thoroughly changed that a person of the opposite sex will shudder at their touch, just as one would from contact with a Chinaman. In time this sensibility is lessened; it is never caused by Englishmen not raised in China, nor by all who are, for it is possible to avoid this absorption of Chinese ideals, adoption of Chinese manners and the way of looking at all things from the Chinaman’s point of view; but it appears to be difficult to continue doing so when one lives constantly amongst the Chinese. This in my opinion is the real “yellow peril” Europe will have to fear when she is actually in close contact with masses of the pure-bred yellow-skinned race--the people who do not, will not, cannot change. CHAPTER X The Battle of Tashichiao In this war a battle usually signifies a number of engagements in different localities carried out simultaneously, and often being continued for several consecutive days. It is somewhat difficult for any but military experts to understand the value of each particular movement, and not easy to give an account of them all in a way which will be readily comprehensible. Tashichiao, preceding Liaoyang and Sakhé, was of the same character as those more famous encounters; I saw the fighting on the west of the front, whilst the movement which decided the real issue took place at another time on the extreme east. To understand the battle it is necessary to know the position of the belligerents.