Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1853-07-20
A residence in China.

An Englishman named Pow wers has writ
ten book with the above title, from which
the following extracts are taken;
A rETuAN cA1D "RAlsING THE WIND
"He was by no means scrupulous in his
mode of acquiring wealth, and regularly
squeezed every individual under his gov
ernment. One ingenious plan of extortlng
loan from an unwilling capitalist, was to
tie his hands together, and introduce a
couple Of wild cats into the wide seat OF
his inexpressibles. This was way OF
bringing them to the scratch, which never
failed, and by degrees this excellent ruler
grew to be enormously itch. The emperor,
thinking at last that his. sponge must be
full, sent for him to Fee, ,Sto have grand
squeeze.
"The wretched old victim was thrown
irto prison and soundly bastinadoed, a pro-
cess which relieved him of some of his too
plethoric wealth. Strips of cotton, dipped
in turpentine, were tied round hia sfagers
and toes, and lighted, which produced a
grand haul. The wild cats continued for
half an hour to produce revelations offresh
boards. A knight templar or Norman
king could scarcely have been more ihge-
nious in their financial experimentation a
miserable Jew. Renewed tortures pfoduc-
ed further discoveries Of treasure, till the
old mans last doubloon and last Wreath
were yielded up together" AfY
! Mr.. Powers estimate of the Chinese is
by no means fattering: cowardly, sensu-
al, foolish set of barbarians, for whom no
interest but that of curiosity can be excit-
ed. ~
THE VALUE OF AN OLD NAN IN CHINA.
"The reasonableness and placability Of
the natives were. on one occasion, evinced
in rather a remarkable manner,at Chusan,
while l was there. An Englishman had
come across some wild ducks In the canal
inside the city, a! which he fired with ball,
all hlsshot having been previously expend-
ed. The bullet missed the birds, and, CLAN
cling from the water, killed an.old China
man, who was sitting at his own door, en-
joylng his pipe.
"The unfortunate sportsman,. horrlfed at
the result Of his silly thoughtlsssness, hur-
ried away to take counsel with his friends,
who recommended him to try to settle the
matter with the relatives of the deceased, to
prevent their complaint from being laid for
mally before the authorities, who would be
obliged to award heavy punishment for
such reckless carelessness. With this view
one of his friends was dispatched to visit
the family, to condole with them for their
loss, and to explain how thoroughly 1t was
the result of accident. He deplored the
unhappy circumstance which had deprived
the family of so valuable and so respecta-
BILE member, and pointed out the cheering
fact that he was very old, and, in the nat
ural course of things, could not have been ex-
pected to live much longer, and that pecu-
mary recompense should be made 10 con-
sole the family for the few months society
they might have anticipated enjoying with
him. They admitted that he was ld,very
old, and as he could not have lived long,
they mentioned hundred dollars,a as sum
likely to have good effect in assuaging
the bitterness of their afflction. The am
bassador, delighted at hearing demand SC
much more reasonable than he had antici-
pated, but concealing his satisfaction, point
ed out that the deceased was so old that he
could hardly have estimated his short rem
nant of existence at such large sum thai
he had died very quiet and easy death,
and that very likely he was wanted in the
other world, so that the unlucky bullet
might be esteemed messenger despatched
by the gods. He thought, therefore thai
fifty dollars,to make feast and burn plen.
ty of joss-stick and paper money, would be
sufficiently satisfactory to the spirit Of THEN
departed ancestor. The matter was finally
settled to the satisfaction of all parties BY
the payment of seventy-fve dollars; anc
question whether one might not have
shot two-thirds of the old boys of Ting-ha
at the same reasonable rate, notwlthstand
ing the veneratlon in which age is held"
A WARRIOR IN DEFEAT.
GA curious instance of the utter incapac
ity of the Chinese to cope with European:
occurred at Chapor, where the princlpa
Ynandarin fled at the very first shot, ,and ne.
fver stopped till he reached home, an exam
pie followed by the whole of the troops
with the greatest alacrity. When he reach.
ed home it may be supposed that the gal.
liant mandarin packed up his plate and jew.
els, and betook himself with his family tc
the safest spot IN the country. He sent fo1
his wives, and strung them up to the beam
of his house, his children he strangled and
threw into well, and then heaping up all
his valuables about his chair of state, he
surrounded it with combustibles, and set
ting fire to the pile, perished in the flames
His fate would have been worthy of an old
Roman or hero of Norman times, if he
had fought 10 the last gasp, and adopted
such an end to show his contempt for the
enemy when all else was lost. But 10 a.
bandon the field of battle for such pur-
pose, without striking blow-to fly from
one kind of death on purpose to seek an.
other so inconceivably worse-sbow how
incapable we are of appreciating the mo.
tives of people whose idiosyncrasy is SC
entirely different from OUT own
HAIR.-A writer in late number the
London Quarterly Review furnishes the fol.
lowing information on this subject: Lion.
don imports about five tons of human hail
annually. Black hair comes mainly from
Brittany and the south of France, Where il
is collected principally by one hair mer
chant, who travels from fair to fair, and
buys up and shears the crops of the neigh
borhood damsels. A traveller in Brittany
describes the peasant girls as attending a
the fairs with their beautiful tresses, per-
cectlu willing 10 sell out. He saw severa