Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1858-07-01

"a most disgusting object.
His devotions consist in sitting in th
posture of Chinese idol, his legs crossed
and his face to the East. He remains i
an distracted state for about ten minute,
and the act of devotion lie accomplished. -
When ne first came on board, he retire
into this contemplative state several time
day. He afterwards became much NOR
remiss, and once day appeared to sufic,
him. He used no idol, and when aske,
whether he wished for any facilities fo
performing his devotions privately, replie.
that he wanted nothing of the sort.
Considerable alarm was at one time ea
tertained as to whether the great man dld
not encourage q class of parasites no,
usually tolerated by great men. Mr.. Ala.
oaster saw to his horror an unknown, Su,
most suspicious insect, crawling within
the sacred precincts of the csptain,s cabin.
II was not BY the Mandarin's agency that
the action of Peter Pindar's great epic was
re-enacted on board the Inflexible. Yeh's
retInue consists of cook, a barber, two
waiting servants, and military attendant.
This last person we, with our usual absurd
practice of dignifying Cinnamon with Eu-
ropean titles, call an aid-de-camp. He
is military Mandarin of the sixth degree.
de is also dirty fellow. doing the menial
ofhces about the person of his chief, and
messing with the other servants upon the
meats that 60 from his masters table. II he
were an Englishmsn, we should cal, him
at best soldiers servant, or an orderly.
After Yeh had manifested his acquaint-
ance with entomology, the "aid-de- camp"
and the domestics were compelled to wash,
and some strong hints were thrown out to
their master. The washing was grumbled
at as tyranny, and the hints were thrown
away; SO nothing was left but to hope al
most against hope that :he mandarin him.
self is free frcm vermin, and to continue
to scrub the attendants. The Southern
Chinese are for the most part of cleanly
habits; but the Northeners are dirty. Yeh
is from Hupeh. which is one of the five
Northern Provinces.
When he found that Lord Elgin took no
notice of him, unless to send curt messages
inquiring after his personal comforts
when he saw that, while treating him with |
all respect, aud doing all he could for his |
convenience, Capt. BrooKer paid no atten-
tion to where he sat, or what he Wore, or
how he demeaned himself-when he dis
covered that no one wished to make him
sign any treaty, or to question him upon
topics which he declined to enter upon, he
gradually relaxed. l think that before we
left Hong Kong he had recognized his true
position, and convinced himself that the
treatment he received was only the respect
accorded to prisoner of high rank, whose
power for good or for evil had passed away.
He. gave up playing the high Mandarin,
conversed with affa blity upon Indifferent
subjects, preferred request for daily ra-
tion of six pounds of fresh pork, and pre-
sented portion of his stock of oranges to
the ward-roon mess.
Yeh sleeps in recess in the captains
cabin, which he prefers to a separate Sleep
ing birth. He goes to bed about s O'Clock,
and while we are reading or writing, or
playing chess, he sleeps the sleep of inno-
cence--an unbroken slumber, apparently
undisturbed by visions of widowed women
or wailing orphans. This man killer, after
staying his hundred thousand human be-
iDgs, enjoys a sweeter sleep than an inno-
cent London alderman after a turtle din.
ner.
But, although our great Mandsrin is at
peace with his own Chinese conscience, he
has an evident horror of his living country
men. He has "lost face'' with them, and
the greatest fear he has is the being made
an exhibition of to Chinese rabble. We
were malicious enough to ask whether he
would like to 60 to the Hong Kong races.
He answered just as the father of serious
family might answer, that it had never
been the custom of his family to 90 to the
races.
These are to smoke a pipe, to choose
out the rotten oranges from his large store
and distribute them among his domestics,
carefully replacing the sound fruit; to give
directions about his dinner, % expostulate
with the captain that if he and his officers
viii not eat some portion of his Chinese
cakes, they will only be spoiled. He never
reads, and he very seldom inquiries. He
has condescended to inquire concerning
the French, whether they are not nation
who drink good deal of coffee and make
great deal of vine, and he seems quite
satisfied with this amount of information
concerning the most polite people in the
world. He is fond. also. of exhibiting his
stock of quack medicines to Mr.. Cotton,
the ships surgeon. Report says, although
we have been unable to get Yeh to tell us
this, that the Viceroy's father was an
apothecary. The son manifests great in
terest in European surgery. The most
liberal admission ever heard him make
was upon this subject. Mr. Cotton asked
him whether the Chinese surgeons study
anatomy. He answered, an o; it would be
impolitic to do so in China"
Yeh most usually expresses his disbelief
by grunt or grin, but he has no hesita-
tion in giving you the lie direct. Once or
twice he did this in a very coarse way,
after asking question about some matter
of fact occurring on deck. The Englis h.
men about him, with every feeling for his
position as prisoner, we're not inclined to
endure :his, and he was told that it was
considered by our nation as the gravest
discourtesy to use such language. He
couldn't unders tand this. al don't intend
to offend you," he said, "but you say it is,
and | say it is not; that is all" It was