The Lady and the Panda (47 page)

145
She became determined
Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda,
p. 32.

145
A piece of film
Abend, “Rare 4-Pound ‘Giant’ Panda.”

145
Arthur de Carle Sowerby
Jonathan Edwards Sinton, “Arthur de Carle Sowerby: A Naturalist in Republican China,” (thesis, Harvard University, Mar. 1986).

145
The gray-haired naturalist
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 238.

145
“eminently fitting”
“A Baby Panda Comes to Town,”
China Journal,
Dec. 1936, p. 339.

145
opening his eyes
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 233.

145
And, as accomplished as Sowerby China Journal,
Dec. 1936, p. 337.

145
December issue of
The China Journal “Baby Panda Comes to Town,” pp. 335, 337.

146
She would send China Press,
28 Nov. 1936.

146
With Reib out of commission
Ibid., 3 Dec. 1936. Reib's cold from Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 242.

146
When the door was thrown open North China Daily News,
28 Nov. 1936.

147
She told them that she owed
Ibid.

147
Sowerby noted China Journal,
Dec. 1936, pp. 337, 338. Of course, the papers printed some of what she said, but they did not accord the same respect to Quentin Young as they did to Ruth Harkness, the least of it being that she was “Mrs. Harkness” in print, and he was referred to by the more familiar “Quentin.”

147
But before the launch China Press,
29 Nov. 1936.

147
officials suddenly appeared
Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda,
p. 59.

148
Temperatures in the unheated China Press,
28 Nov. 1936, p. 1; and “Customs Holds Baby Panda; Tibetan Cub Fails to Sail for America with Mistress,”
Shanghai Post and Mercury,
28 Nov. 1936.

148
Harkness was stopped China Press,
29 Nov. 1936.

148
Harkness was nearly hysterical New York Times,
28 Nov. 1936.

148
They wondered now
Harkness to Perkins, 13 Aug. 1937.

148
Officials told the American
Harkness, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 3.

149
“This valuable find” China Press,
28 Nov. 1936.

149
Floyd James made his way
“Panda's Trip to America Is Held Up,”
China Press,
29 Nov. 1936.

149
Dan Reib New York Times,
29 Nov. 1936.

149
Before noon China Press,
29 Nov. 1936.

150
a conference of Harkness supporters
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 249.

150
Harkness, however, was showing China Press,
29 Nov. 1936.

150
Harkness's insistence
Schaller,
Last Panda,
p. 84.

150
On Sunday two New York papers New York Times,
29 Nov. 1936.

151
In Shanghai, where the local newspapers China Journal,
July 1937.

151
The
China Press
was told China Press,
29 Nov. 1936.

151
All she had to do New York Times,
29 Nov. 1936.

151
First, officials
Moore, “Cosmopolitan Shanghai,” p. 335.

151
“smouldering fury”
Buck,
My Several Worlds,
p. 52.

151
“The only danger” New York Times,
29 Nov. 1936.

152 The New York Times
was one New York Times,
28 Nov. 1936.

152
The
China Press
had placed China Press,
28 Nov. 1936;
Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury,
2 Dec. 1936; and
Shanghai Times,
3 Dec. 1936.

152
“the most valuable” China Press,
3 Dec. 1936.

152
Sowerby, her ally China Journal,
Dec. 1936, p. 338.

152
The
China Press
held China Press,
3 Dec. 1936.

152
She had sunk every penny
Ibid., 29 Nov. 1936.

152
But now that the panda
Smith document/letter, 12 Oct. 1937, Smith Papers.

153
Their meeting would be brief
“Mrs. Harkness Got His Panda, Explorer ‘Ajax’ Smith Charges,”
China Press,
4 Dec. 1936; and “Panda Problem Stirs Up Local Explorers,”
Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury,
4 Dec. 1936.

153
the details of the route
Smith, letter/document, 12 Mar. 1937: “She told me the truth about the route she had followed, but appeared not to know where it had led her,” and appeared, he said, not to realize it led straight to his camp. Library of Congress.

153
On Monday, November 30 China Press,
3 Dec. 1936, p. 1.

153
The bumpy and bleak
Ibid., 30 Nov. 1936.

153
On Tuesday, Harkness was still
Ibid., 1 Dec. 1936.

153
“Panda May Not” North China Daily News,
1 Dec. 1936.

153
“One day the papers”
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 250.

153
Its reporter heard New York Times,
1 Dec. 1936.

153
As the highest scientific research
“Panda Emigration May Fall Through,”
Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury,
1 Dec. 1936.

153
There were persistent China Press,
1 Dec. 1936.

153
A breakthrough came North China Daily News,
3 Dec. 1936.

153 The New York Times
New York Times,
2 Dec. 1936, p. 29.

153 Time
magazine said
“Baby Giant,”
Time,
7 Dec. 1936.

154
Much later she would tell
“Sought Pandas Because Few White Men.”

154
Sowerby praised China Journal,
Dec. 1937, p. 335.

154
In holding the baby close
Abend, “Rare 4-Pound ‘Giant’ Panda.” Abend also says that Harkness never let the panda out of her sight.

154 The New York Times
reported New York Times,
2 Dec. 1936.

154
While her journalist
Telegram from Shanghai, unsigned, to Hazel Perkins, Danbury, Conn., 1 Dec. 1936.

155
The
China Press
China Press,
2 Dec. 1936.

155
Woo Kyatang recorded
Ibid., 3 Dec. 1936.

155
With all the interested players Shanghai Post and Mercury,
2 Dec. 1936.

155
The staff was instructed China Press,
3 Dec. 1936.

155
“Mrs. Harkness looked”
“Panda Given Clearing Papers for U.S. at Last Moment,”
Shanghai Times,
3 Dec. 1936.

155
Harkness was being so cautious North China Daily News,
3 Dec. 1936. The passenger list for the
President McKinley
does not contain her name. And
China Press,
3 Dec. 1936, reports the deletion.

155
On Wednesday, December 2
“Rare Baby Panda Claws Mistress and Takes a Nap,”
Chicago Tribune,
23 Dec. 1936.

155
Harkness, who had grown fond China Press,
3 Dec. 1936;
North China Daily News,
3 Dec. 1936; and
Shanghai Post and Mercury,
2 Dec. 1936.

155
Just after 10:30
A.M.
China Press,
3 Dec. 1936.

155
express trans-Pacific liner
“Shipping Green,”
China Press,
2 Dec. 1936.

155
pulled away from the lower buoys North China Daily News,
2 Dec. 1936.

156
last batch of Christmas mail
“Shipping Green,”
China Press,
2 Dec. 1936.

156
It was a brisk North China Daily News,
3 Dec. 1936;
Shanghai Post and Mercury,
2 Dec. 1936; and
Shanghai Times,
2 Dec. 1936.

156
Harkness locked Baby
Harkness,
Baby Giant Panda,
p. 68.

156
“the quiet, unheeded”
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 238.

156
“China is generous”
Ibid., p. 68.

156
Su-Lin was
Harkness, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 3.

156
As Harkness was catching her last
Morris and Morris,
Men and Pandas,
p. 73.

157
The stages in darkness
A poem by Harkness's friend Charles Appleton, which was printed in part in “Su Lin, Panda Baby, Checks In at the Biltmore,” the
New York Herald Tribune,
24 Dec. 1936.

157
slept for what seemed like days
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda
, p. 254.

157
Smith claimed to a reporter
“Mrs. Harkness Got His Panda, Explorer ‘Ajax’ Smith Charges,”
China Press,
4 Dec. 1936.

158
After the revelations
“Panda Problem Stirs Up Local Explorers,”
Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury,
4 Dec. 1936.

158
He wrote that when Harkness left
Floyd Tangier Smith, letter to the editor,
North China Daily News,
7 Dec. 1936.

159
At the same time
Floyd Tangier Smith, “Hunting the Giant Panda,”
Listener Rack,
fall 1937.

159
His accusations
In his initial confusion, Smith wasn't quite sure whom to blame. He wondered if Quentin Young had misled Harkness about their bearings and led her without her knowledge into Wassu-land. In a letter from Elizabeth Smith to Floyd's sister, early in the controversy, she said, “Of course, Floyd thinks [Harkness] is perfectly innocent, but I am beginning to doubt that. Soon enough, he was conflicted. In his communiqué to the
China Press,
signed “F. T. Ajax Smith,” he said Harkness's “invasion” was unintentional, but he felt that Harkness had avoided him in Shanghai because she was guilty. In short order, though, Smith would come around entirely to Elizabeth's way of thinking.

But the bulk of Smith's charges, and the pivotal point from which he would never waiver, was that Harkness had trespassed in a region that belonged to him. However, he would snare himself again in the tangle of this argument.

In his lengthy manifesto on the subject, he claimed that the notion of Wassu being “his territory” was an invention of the press. He would never have made such a claim, he said. “Those words are not mine,” he demurred, “but constitute an expression that the newspapers considered justifiable.” It was them, not me, making the charges against Harkness, would be a familiar refrain. And yet while he wrote this on page 3, on page 5 of the same document, he presented what he said was the text of the agreement he had drawn up for Harkness to keep her out of the kingdom of Wassu. In it, remarkably, was the very phrase he vowed he had never used—with quotes for emphasis; “I trust that … you will not ‘invade my territory’ and garner the grain that I have sowed.” On one page asserting he would never, ever use such an imperialistic phrase, and then documenting his earlier use of it on another was an awfully clumsy move on Smith's part.

Whether or not Smith had actually drawn up this form for Harkness, which appears retrofitted to suit his later arguments, it is clear that he assumed he had made plain to Harkness that she would not approach this region, for which he felt he had proprietary rights.

During her stay in Chengdu, had Harkness told the experienced Cavaliere that she had agreed with Smith to avoid all of Wassu as well as the area surrounding it, he would have been aghast. Wassu territory was especially rich in wildlife, particularly the giant panda. In fact, every recent success in panda hunting—those of Wiegold, Sage, and Brocklehurst—had taken place there. It did not belong to Smith or any other man, white or Chinese or Tibetan.

When Harkness couldn't go south from Chengdu, heading north was a perfectly reasonable alternative. Smith had certainly not tried to bar other men—including another ex-partner, Russell—from “his territory.” And the fact was that he had even actively helped at least one of them. Dean Sage's party—just the year before—was aided by Smith, who went so far as to provide shelter there, giving Sage keys to an old Catholic mission he owned to hole up in.

Yet, obviously, Smith did feel that where Harkness was concerned, all of Wassu land and beyond was prohibited. As unfair as this was, he was unembarrassed to explain publicly that he had extracted just such an agreement from the lady explorer through Russell. The pact was so important to Smith that when Harkness's association with Russell ended, he said, he sent Harkness a follow-up letter reminding her not to approach the whole region known as the kingdom of Wassu. Sources: Floyd Tangier Smith, letter to the editor,
North China Daily News,
7 Dec. 1936; Elizabeth Smith to Ruth Woodhull Tangier Smith, 8 Dec. 1936; and Smith, letter/document 12 Oct. 1937, Floyd Tangier Smith Papers, Library of Congress. Arthur de Carle Sowerby, “The Natural History of West China,”
China Journal,
Apr. 1937; Morris and Morris,
Men and Pandas,
p. 53; Sheldon,
Wilderness Home
, p. xviii; Floyd Tangier Smith, document/letter, 12 Mar. 1937, Smith Papers.

159
But right afterward
Smith, document/letter, 12 Mar. 1937.

159
Somehow, with no recognition
Smith, letter to the editor,
North China Daily News,
7 Dec. 1936. He also says in his 12 Oct. 1937 letter/document that “I got the story of Mrs. Harkness movements from Mrs. Harkness herself.”

159
“impossible”
Smith, letter to the editor,
North China Daily News,
7 Dec. 1936.

159
Yet he did write
Smith, document/letter, 12 Oct. 1937.

159
He said that she was
Smith, document/letter, 12 Mar. 1937, Smith Papers.

159
He had wanted to give
Ibid.

159
“quite amicably terminated”
Smith, letter to the editor,
North China Daily News,
7 Dec. 1936.