The New Orleans crescent., 1868-11-22
Celestial Industry.

Dn article on "The Chinese, !" Rev,M Bacon,
November number of the Hout at Home,
an account Of their patient Iadustry as
VS.:
was picturesque enough-this scenery OF the
pn river. The scattered islands, qeeless and
st verdureless. rose into lofty peaks and
Jed rocky front TO the white surfS which beat
them. There were some fne7 effects of
too, when the sunlight fell aslsSt upon the
ID rocks, and made them ruddy AID brought
IN shifting shadows their confgu alton, and
hem in q deeper contrast with she shining
phire of the sea. ln some PLACES on the
er islands, such as Hong Kong fcS instance,
Fe were sheltered valleys. where stne growth
bushes and OF dwarf trees covered the rocky
edness. But 10 our eyes, which, had been
Dtipg only few weeks before N the rich,
priant beauty Of the tropics. as wa sailed be-
Yen the woody shores Of Java and Slmatra this
st seemed cold and stern. Thert, we Lad
5ted drowsiy along, through plafd waters.
Ter the lee Of noble mountains clSthed with
IVY foliage 10 their very tops, and Within sight
sandy beaches fringed with featbsry palms,
q all the scenery was drawn in cnrying liEes Of
oce and colored with the warmest coloring,
ID every influence of earth and air ant sea made
Dptiye all our senses. But here, the 0oks were
,arp and naked, fit for winds to howl against and
aves TO dash upon, q coast TO be afLsid of in a
porm. II among the palms and tetsples Of
pc South we had found the poetry OF travel, we
hould not have to look far, surely, for the prose-
That we had left the drowsy tropics Sehind Us,
yes, indeed. apparent by innumerabla signs. as
De began to see the country and the people more
hmiliarly. The life which stirred the busy throngs
city and In country. on the land and On the sea,
6ss not the languid life of tropical society. For
patient and untiring industry, II seems 10 me the
Chinese have no equals. Anything which needs
treat labor and but little skill they catS do better
shan all the world beside if it be the figging Of
miles OF canal, or the Guiding OF
great walls that stretch half scross a conti-
Dent they can do it. There are no NOSE careful,
tbrifty economical tillers of the coil taan they;
even the steepest hil-sides are redeemed from
waste by narrow terraces; and their broader fields
are kept as tidily as gardens. TheySspare no
labor economy In the enriching of Thy soil, and
work hour after hour TO irrigate 1t, carrying the
water often for considerable distances u buckes
swung across their shoulders. They Euse very
little agricultural machinery and all their nstru-
ments are of the rudest sort. What th3y depend
on is the ceaseless drudgery of patiest manual
labor and by this alone, the agricultural miracle
which makes ali China one great garden has been
Wrought
This same patient industry and minute economy
khey have carried with them into ADJACENT coun-
srIes. In Borneo, in Singapore and Malaccs, IN
' lava and Siam. may be seen the soleu;4 counte-
|oance Of the Chinaman steadfastly eagaged in
money making. In all these lazy Ian Is, among
the multitude Of easy drones that sun themselves
u ideness, the Cinnamon alone are busy. l be-
Iieve they are the only people in the world who
can live beneath scorching tropical SHY and yet
fetain their industry and energy undsmnIshed.
|growipg neither eneminate nor senslal. Fre-
|luently they accumulate large fortuness and they
always seem to monopoliZe the labor OF the coua.
kry at their WILL developing its resources as they
tould not have been developed by the nstive pop
|llation. Nor is it ever by any great genius that
hey command success, but simply by their plod-
ling industry. These same qualities also they
Exhibit In California. Every one knows what
tseful laborers they make, how cheapll they live,
Now neat and cleanly they are in tksir bodies,
bow steadily and persistently they keels at work
pot very strong, nor very skillful nor vJry quick,
put quiet and steady and incessant. Az formerly
hey built great walls and great canals, so, at
hese ends Of the earth and In these litter days
Jhey build great railroads. What may they
= ot do in the time 10 Gomez With the uui-
ersal Yankee Bation-quick- -wittedt driving,
estless-to invent and plan, and with this
hnumerable people-steady, patirnt. fond
" routine, initiative, TO perform the dtligery of
bbor, what wonders Of development OF our con-
mental resources may not the nexs score of
ears exhibit Let our own East t.srnish the
(apital and the inventive energy, as nteed. 1t is
3OiDg so abundantly; power of numbers and
! Rower of industry almost lmitless are pouring IN
rom the West from that other east tsyond the
broad Pacific. What the industry is hss perhaps
efficiently appeared. What the nulsbers are,
ow simply countless, how they swarm and multi
Ily, cannot appear till one has been among them.
hat reliance they have been accustomed TO
Ilsce upon their own mutitudinousnesE, and what
Snormous power there is in it, well illustrated
Nv an intelligent Cantonese during Mr Michael
Stymour's operations of 1856. IL did not seem,
o those of us who happened to be in the foreign
factories of Canton at that time, that the vast
hrong of people just outside our gStes could
weep us into the river by their pooulousness
lone, If they should try it and il WIS not re-
Fsnring when this Cantonese remarked one day,
Al some Of Ms " You are few. and we are many
IN we Cinnamon were all 20 get together, and
bit once, We could drown out every Englishman
) Canton" II was not pleasing nor q com Dli.
pentary way Of putting it. but 1t Yves none the
bss characteristic for that reason.