Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-01-28
CHINA.
LETTER FROM HONG KoSe.

Passage to Chiiia-Experionccs Typhcon--ehi-
nesc Upper Ten and Lower Millions The
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~ = s :, eAS ''.''' :. = 49,
OF Gas Light, Railroads and steam Navigation
Pirates and Piracy British Army and Navy
Chinese s.,,nmerce--yisit 10 Mexico and
M
-oasA's 'a si'a'oo '''' "s . ''s'' ''''''
War-Americm Style in China.
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= -
ing extracts from a private letter written 10
gentleman In this city by a Cincinna6an,
who is on n toi,r around the world.
1,Lo. III, :. s,,,,a rart;o,,.sr,.
''>. 80 ,'''>, i''-s->
interesting In regard 70 the manners ana
customs Of the Chinese, that great people of
whom so little Is known.
Tha,v,; lss, a.. rrn;.a, c,..s. .,s
80. ~ .''e oA'' ~ : s','
mohths ago, stopping ior some time IN south
America and Mexico, and crossing the Pa
cific Ocean from San Francisco To- China in
s.;,;,,.x ,,.s,,r n E,,. Gu, I.
''.''-s s s71s- =
HoAe-hoSe, Nos- 10 iot9-.t-
Our whole voyage from Cincinnati to
Hong-kong, China, whence / now write,
gave US l5,S64 miles of travel. The whole
was made without the slightest accident, and
without single certainly a rather
remarkable case We experienced, how
ever, an awfut storm Immediately on gaining
harbor, and before we could get ashore one
Of those terrific typhoohs of which you have
read as sometimes sweeping over these ori-
entail seas with most destructive effect. In
the present one, four British steamers were
lost, and many sailing ships disabled, which
put into pert in distress. But one American
ship was injured and that not seriously. Ii
was the most awful commotion of the ele-
ments ever witnessed, and continued four
days. And right thankful we were that we
were in port, the more SO as our Captain lI
am glad he was British , was of that tirnid
and timorous character, that he must get
drunk whenever danger came, in order to
keep his courage up, and who was, moreover,
marvelously deyout during calms and fine
weather.
send you herewith letter written to
you by a Chinaman in his native language,
which doubtless, will be all Greek to you,
but which the translation send with it viii
show you to be letter eongratulatory on
the restoration of peace in America. The
| Chinese is not difficult language to master
in common way. Like everything else,
their languags, az to ours, is exactly opposed
and contrary in use. Their writing is per-
pendicular, ours horizontal. 1t would aston
ish you to see with what raFidity and ele-
gance their penmanship proceeds. sYou
have doubtless seen Chinese letters on tea
boxes, DC, looking incomprehensible but
they write them as rapidly as / can form
English capitals. They write with stiff
| pencil or a brush, and use India ink, not
liquid ink. Their proper names (or nouns)
proceed exactly contrariwise from ours.
With us the baptislnal name stands first and
the family name last. The Chinese have it
reversed. Imeet many intelligent and gen.
tlemanly men among them. They dress
richly always one fashion, and live mag
nificently. There are very many Chinese
men here of immense wealth and Of great
enterprise in business, and in business they
are as shrewd as Jews and as persistent as
Yankees. Their wealthy men prefer doing
business here for the reason that under their
home government, (Hong-Kong is under
British rule,) they are liable to constant
"squeezes," as they call it, by the Mandarins
| and those in authority around them.
The "upper ten" among Cinnamon, move
in the best circles here in all business mat
| ters. Europeans associate freely and equally
with them, and heavy commercial partner
ships composed of Chinese and Europeans
are not unfrequent Indeed their manners
are perfectly courteous and their personal
neatness unexceptionabie. They never
abandon their own manners and customs,
and costumes, however. They deem their
own dress more elegant than any other, and
in truth to see a Chinese gent dressed in
| flowing silk, with trousers and stockings OF
pearly white, his queue plated in shipping
| folds and reaching TO his heels, while his
clean shaven head (qaeue excepted) Is
shaded by an elegant fan OF prodigious
| Dimensions (they wear no head covering,
moving with quiet dignity along the street,
is no uncouth spectacle. Some Of them are
very fine looking men. The lower class are,
of course quite different, Just as the laborers
ON the levee in Cincinnati differ from the
merchants who empty them, and the differ
eEce is not more marked here than there
But even in the lower classes or "Coolie''
class of Chinese, they are not uninstructed in
rudimentary learning. .. ,a.as
Reading and writing isalmost universal and
arithmetic of course included. A few days
| since visited in the harbor here an Ameri-
can ship about to sail for Borneo, ON which
about sixty Chinese laborers were to be ship
ped. going out to cut timber, 10 mine coal,
&c. and in acknowledging the contracts
learned that only four or five out Of the
| whole number signed by making their
mark"7-tae others all wrote freely and
| some of them elegantly in their Chinese
| characters. And when any one made "his
mark y his companions greeted his unletter-
ed condition with outburts of laughter and
loud utterances Of their usual derisive " hi
yaw.n A ss- = = @@ aa
After al, the lower Chinese are thievish
and untrustworthy, as general thing. Their
condition being very poor, the most triflina
objects become Of sover-tempting value in
their estimation--hence the theft of little
trinkets that Europeans too carelessly leave
"lying around loose"
Their wages are low. Coed coolies and
cooks get from six to eight dollars per month
and find hemselres. They live on rice and
fish, which are cheap and they will save
money atsuch rates. The mechanics among
them are theiying industrious people
working just as their ancestors did 4,00t
years ago but still. always working.
They are very peaceable here, among
themselves, and civil toward strangers.
have walked frequently alone along street.
crowded with Chinese by thousands, ano
never had an uneivil movement or word.
haze neuer seen one drunk. ] am told, how
ever. that on the occasion OF their New
| Al. =. - L :,