the early days of November, when the only news they received was the report that a number of cities had gone over to the cause they themselves were fighting with their lives to quell? They were primarily loyal--to what, as events later transpired, is quite another question. But they were, at any rate, loyal to Yuan. The photo of Yuan Shih K'ai was in every barrack-room, his name upon every lip. Again and again as I moved about among the men was I impressed with the hero-worship of man towards leader. Now, in comparing these armies, one should compare the two Viceroys under whom they served, for, with the independent provincial armies, the Viceroy brought his army up to that standard which he considered best. That is why the separateness about the branches of China's Model Army has worked against efficiency. Any one who knew would be ready to agree that, side by side and compared as armies, the Imperialist Army would knock spots off the Revolutionary Army under equal conditions, whilst the latter would not hit a target once in a hundred rounds. But the conditions were not quite equal. Into the argument, however, had to be brought another aspect. That aspect {98} was of all the most serious, and tended towards the termination of the war as much as any other factor. The Imperialists knew now that, no matter how many battles they would be able to win here, no matter how great their slaughter of the Revolutionists would be, the cause of the Revolution was destined to win. This slowly began to force itself upon them, and desertions were commonly reported. Whilst people were talking about the promised bombardment the most arrant nonsense went the rounds as to the number and the size of the guns the Imperialists had at their disposal from the north. There were twelve-inch howitzers, forty six-inchers, thousands of smaller fry, such as three and four inch guns, and much more of the same kind. Whether just then they had any of their 7.5 Schneider-Canet guns here no one was in a position to know, but I believe they had not. In the Northern Army, however, there were some forty or more of these enormous guns--weapons so heavy that a team of twelve of the heaviest American horses would be insufficient to drag one of them. It is interesting to notice, as an authority recently tells us, in the Chinese Army there are at least six variety of Krupps, including 1905, 1904, 1888, and 1872 models, with a few 7.5 Japanese guns, Armstrongs, and Maxims. But when we come to the smaller arms we find confusion worse confounded. There are 1888-model Mausers, 1872-model Mausers, Mannlichers, and a few Lee-Metfords, and these again have to be subdivided. And it was seen throughout this war how the ammunition for presumably the same gun, captured by the enemy and used as the same weapon, had been absolutely useless in action; it wouldn't fit.