Mr. Padon, of Shanghai, is interviewed;

              38 HASKINS & SELLS May
Mr. Padon, of Shanghai, Is Interviewed—
(An Interview by LUCY MAY MARQUIS, in the Tulsa Tribune of March 28, 1923)
WIVES! If your husband is offered
a job in China—don't discourage
him. Let him accept it, and you won't
have to work any more.
B. A. Padon, assistant manager of the
Shanghai office of Haskins & Sells, certified
public accountants, who is here for a short
visit with relatives, didn't give that advice
in those words, but any woman would
draw that conclusion from what he did say.
"The average household has at least
three servants," he said. " A cook, a boy
and a coolie. The boy might be considered
a butler, and the coolie a janitor. The
cost for the three of them is about $16 gold
a month. The Chinese make wonderful
servants."
Then he talked about food. He has
become "Orientized" to the extent that he
certainly has queer tastes. He likes sharks'
fins, and lions' hearts, and 1,000-year-old
eggs! At least, he said he did, and it is not
to be supposed that he imposed upon an
interviewer's credulity.
"Of course, I wouldn't like them all the
time," he explained, "but you can't get
them all the time. That sort of food is
served only at very formal Chinese dinners,
and cannot be ordered promiscuously at
any restaurant.
"They make preparations for these
dinners as far as a month ahead, and spare
no time or effort to prepare these delicacies.
Sharks' fins look like very fine macaroni.
And the eggs are probably really not 1,000
years old, but they're supposed to be.
They bury them for years, and then when
they're served they are either black or
blue and look like marbles.
"Preparation of powdered eggs and
dried eggs is one of their big industries.
Every home in China has a few hens," and
he smiled as he added, "both literally and
figuratively."
The Chinese are very fine cooks, and
can invent dishes out of almost anything,
according to Padon, who said he had tasted
ten different soups made out of things that
would never occur to an American cook
as material for soups.
"Chop Suey is purely an American dish
with a Chinese name," he said. "They
don't have anything like it over there."
Then he talked about women, by sug­gestion.
"The Chinese (and Japanese)
show the women their place," he said.
"They keep 'em at home to do household
duties while the men go out and enjoy
themselves."
But his eyes were twinkling when he
made that rather revolutionary statement
for a modern American man, so he must
not have meant it seriously.
"The women wear trousers, but it
doesn't mean anything. It doesn't infer
that they boss the household. They wear
short coats, but the men wear very long
ones, and feel that they are not properly
robed in a short coat.
"You ought to have 'rickshaws over
here," he said. "I miss them. They're
very convenient. You can pick them up
on every corner, and go any place you wish
for a sum that would be about fifteen cents
gold an hour in this country. There are
about 20,000 in Shanghai."
And he explained why the Chinese have
quit wearing their queues. "They cut