Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1840-11-05

Sitnd 10 Oh lOnH standing III is aS oIu dr.
"Robinson Crusoe," cried small vote
from the corner OF the room, where cousi
Tom had been listening to the discourse AM
making paper kite at the same time.
''Robinson Fiddlesticks :" cried my aunt
"boys oughtn't to talk about politics. VIVA
In the world has opium chewing to do will
desert island %
"He had whole cargo of il" mutteret
Tom, "when he went on his voyage to Chi
ma"
''rhe lads right" said my father. SEQ
Tom, and fetch the book; - and Dcfoe's move
was produced in twinkling! THE lads
right, repeated my father, reading aloud from
the book-here's the very passage. From
Sumatra,' says Crusoe, I'VE went to Siam,
where we exchanged some Of our wares for
opium and some arrack-the first commodi-
ty which bears great price among the Chi
neSe, and which at that time was much want
ed there
That's to the point, at any rate said my
uncle, with nod of appreciation to the boy.
But my aunt did not so much relish Toms
victory, and, on some household pretence,
took herself out of the room.
1T is a sad job, this war, and am sorry for
it, said my father, with a serious shake of
his head. Il have always had sneal;inr
fondness for the Chinese, as an intelligent
and ingenious people. Wehave outrun them
IN the race of civilization, but no doubt there
was time when, comparatively, they were
refined, and we were the barbarans.''
ut is impossible to doubt it, said nv un
Gle, with great animation. TO say nothing
of their invention of gunpowder, and their
discovery of the mariners compass, look at
their earthenwarc. For my own part, I am
particularly fond of old China. 1t is, may
say, quite passion-inherted, perhaps,
from my grandmother, with several closets
full of the antique oriental porcelain. She
used to say it was genteel TASTE
And she had Horace Walpole,' said my
father, 'to back her opinion
TO be sure she had,' replied my uncle, ca
gerly; 'and the Chinese must be a genteel
people. lii sufficient to look at their elegant
tea services, to convince one that they are not
made any more than their vessels of the com.
moner earth. You feel at once-''
THAT Slang Whang is gentleman said
my father, 'and Nan King lady, in spite of
their Names
My uncle paid no attention to the joke, but
went on lin strain to have delighted Father
Matthew. TO look at Chinese service
he said, sis enough of itself to make one
tea.totaller. II inspires one--at least it does
me--with the exquisite horror of malt liquor
and such gross beverages. Indeed, to COM
pare our drinking vessels with the Chinese,
they are like horse buckets 10 bird glasses
and remembering their huge fagons, and
black jacks, and wassail bowls, our Gothic
and Saxon ancestors must have been little
coarse, not to say hoggish, in their draughts.'
They must, indeed said my father.
'Now, here is a delicate drinking vessel
my uncle, taking up from side
table a ~ hardlx- low e..
get into. What sort of liquor ought one to
expect from such pretty little chalice?''
AT guess replied my father, very grave
ly, nothing coarser than mountain dew
Yes said my uncle, with enthusiasm, SO
drink out of such diminutive calyx, all ena-
melled with blossoms, is, indeed like to the
poetlcal fancy of slipping dew out of flower!
And then the Sylph to whom only such cup
could belong -
'She must have had thinner lips than an
Austrian said my father.
And what ladylike hand y exclaimed my
uncle, 'for such a Lilliputian utensil would
escape from any but the most feminine fin
gers
.Her hand must be like her foot said INV
father, which is never bigger than child's.'
'And there, again, we have proof Of re-
finement,' said my uncle. Walking is gen.
orally considered in Europe as vulgar and
common exercise for lady, and it shows the
extreme deiicacy of the well-bread Chinese
female, that as far as possible she makes a
conventional improperly physical impossi-
bility.''
And it is somewhat remarkable said nv
father, shat the Chinese gentlemen have an
appendage, formerly indispensable with the
politest nation in the world in its politest
time, the pigtail.'
Exactly said my uncle : 'but here is the
lady, and he took up another Of his grand
mothers brittle legacies, 'on plate that
ought to be a plate r0-Ioore's Paradise and
the Peri. Just hold itup tc>%ards the win
dow, and observe It's transparenc$. softening
down the sunshine, you observe, TO d sort of
moonlight
Very transparent indeed said my father,
'and yondcr is Nan King herself, fetching a
walk by that blue river
Yes, bluer than the Rhine,' said my un-
Gle, though it has not been put into poetry.
And look at the birds, and fruits, and flowers.
And then that pretty rural temple =
is it on earth or in the sky 2 asked my faith
or.
(which ever you please said my uncle,
and the garden is all the more Edenlike for
that ingenious equivocation. There is no
horizon, you observe, but sort Of blending,
as we may suppose there was in paradise, of
earth and heaven
'Very poetical, indeed said my Gather.-
And those curly-taied swallows and those
crooked gudgoons may be flying or swimming
at the option of the spectator
Exactly So said my uncle; sand there
you have the superior fancy Of the Chinese.
A Staffjordshire potter would leave nothing to
the imagination. He would never dream of