which we are now approaching.  Here there are the homes of the people who came from the land of Confucius, here the famous shops, the theatres, the Joss-houses where heathen worship is maintained.  As soon then as you set foot within the area described you feel that you are in a strictly foreign country; and if this is your first visit, the place is to you a sort of terra incognita.  You will need a guide to take you through its labyrinths and point out to you its hidden recesses and explain the strange sights and interpret for you the language which sounds so oddly to your ears.  If you have not some man to conduct you, a dragoman or courier, you will be likely to make mistakes as ludicrous as that related of an English woman.  Sir Henry Howarth, the author of the “History of the Mongols,” a learned and laborious work, was out dining one evening.  It fell to his lot at his host’s house to escort a lady to the dinner table; and she, having a confused idea of the great man’s theme, surprised him somewhat by the abrupt question, “I understand, Sir Henry, that you are fond of dogs.  Are you not?  I am too.”  “Dogs, madam?  I really must plead guiltless.  I know nothing at all of them!” “Indeed,” his fair questioner replied; “and they told me you had written a famous history of mongrels!” It is best then always to take a guide, and you will have no trouble in finding one, who will charge you from two to three dollars an hour.  If you go with a small party, which is best, all can share the expense.  It will take about three hours to explore the town thoroughly and study the life.  The writer went through Chinatown on two evenings at an interval of a few days, and saw this Asiatic Quarter of San Francisco to great advantage.  The first time was with a licensed guide of long experience, and the second time it was under the direction of a police-detective.  Some five friends were in the party; and we started on our tour of exploration about half past nine o’clock at night.  The night is the best time in which to study the life, for then you can see the Chinese in their houses and at their amusements, as well as many others who still are at work; for some of the Chinese artisans toil for sixteen hours a day, and long into the hours of the night.  Here among them are no strikes for fewer hours, but patient toil, as it were in a treadmill, without a murmur.  My licensed guide was Henry Gehrt, a man about fifty-five years old, of German parentage.  He had been in the business for twenty-seven years, and he maintained an office on Sacramento Street.  His badge was No. 60.  All guides must wear badges according to law.  As we went hither and thither we met occasionally groups of sight-seers, among them some of our friends, members of the Convention, Bishops, and clerical and lay deputies, who felt this was a rare opportunity to study heathendom; and I am sure all went away from this strange spot thanking God for our noble Anglo-Saxon civilisation, as well as for the knowledge of His Revelation.