Daily Iowa State Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1856-1859, 1857-10-20

The "luartcily Review" recently hal
rery valuable paner on Travels in
Cbina, from which We extract the fol
loving
he assertion that the Chinese are a
| somi-barbarons nation is denied by al
most every traveller who has renetrat ed
beyond their ports and lived freely
among the people. In the refnements
d lto, IN courtesy, humanity, and do
mestic Affection, they are ut least our
equals, and IN some respects our superb
oFs; and II we have far outstripped them
IN science, we may yet do we'll to ii to
mind how many OF our arts, Injuries.
and pleasures came to US from the East,
AMI that We were once tho pupils Of
those oi whom We now boast ourselya s
the master. The items of the account
can nowhere be better read than in an
admirable passage from IN nt.in;rable
work by DIR. Draper, an American
IL the European wishes to know how
much he owes to the Asiatlc, he is oply
TO east glance at an hour af his daily
.ite. Tho clock which summons him
from his bed in the morning Was the in
vention OF tho East, as were also clepsy.
iras and suudIals. The prayer for his
daily bread. which he has said from his
infancy fret rose from the side of Sy.
rlan mountain. The linens and cottons
with which he clothes himself, though
they may BIO very fine, are inferier to
those which have been made from time
lmmemorlal in the the looms Of India.
hn IL e Gfpfnn h,c
les, for his benefit, from China. lie
could buy better steel than that with
which no shaves himself in the old city
OF Damascus, where it was first invent
ed The coffee he expects at breakfast
was first grown by the Arabians, and
the natives of Upper India prepared the
sugar with which he sweetens it. A
schoo.boy can tell the meaning of the
Sanscrit words sacchara cenda. Ii his
tastes are hight and no prefers tea, the
virtues OF that excellent leaf were FIRST
pointed out by the industrious Chinese.
They also taught him how to make and
use the cup and saucer in which to serve
it. His breakfast tray was lacauered in
Japan There is a tradition that leav.
enci bread was frst made of tho waters
of the Ganges. Tho egg he is brcsking
was laid by fowl whose ancestors were
Investigated by the Malaccans, unless
she may have been, though that will not
alter the case, modern Shanghai. II
there ore preserves and fruits on the
board, let him remember with thankful
ness that Persia first gave him the cher.
~, the peach, the plum. II any OF those
delicate preparations he detects the ia
vor OF alcohol, let it remind him that,
substance was frat distilled bv the
Arabians, who have set him tho rrais.
worthy example, which it will be for bis
benefit to follow, Of abstaining from its
use. When he talks about coffee and
alcohol, be il using Arabic words. We
crafty our taste for personal ornament
in the way that Oricntals have laugh, US
with pearls, rabies, sopphiree, dia'
monds. OF public anus EN- en,s it is the
same. The most magnificent fireworks
are still to be seen in India and China
and, as regards the pastimcs of private
life, Europe has produced no invention
which can rival the game Of chess. We
have no hydraulic constructions as great
as the Chinese canal, no fertilization as
extensive as the Chinese wall we have
20 Artesian wells that can at all ap-
froach in depth to some Of theirs: we
have not yet resorted to the practice Of
obtaining coal gas from tho interior Of
tho earth +, they have behring's for that
purpose more thau three thousand feet
deep.