The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-08-18
The Chinanaen.

tation OF Chsnese is as present uppcrmost
in the minas Of lnanylof our citizens,
who claim to- have tho future welfare of
the South as.heart, it may nosAbs out Of
place to give q short account OF the Cha
raoter, the habits and the industrial
capacity of these people whom we pro-
pose to bring into our midst. A cele-
brated German landscape painter. Ed
ward Hildebrandt, lately deceased at
Berlin, has left an account of his recent
journey around the world, which is not
only highly amusing and instructive. but
also. ENTIRELY Trustworthy, on account of
the high character of its author. He
says: 1.-THE Chinese are more cleanly and
more Industrious than the Hindoos; but
they are fearfully perverse and immoral.
I saw on my journey, (tbrough the 'celes-
tiaP empire,) numerous corpses of chill
dren floating in the rivers. In Hong
Kong, my friends had already prepared
me for these horrible symptoms of Chi
nese immortality, but when I saw the fact
before my eyes, almost lost my self
control. Infanticide is the order of the
day. owing to the crowded population
and the difficulty of gaining the neces-
snry subsistence for the family. The
newborn girls generally fall victims to
this horrible practice especially when
they have weak constitution and un-
attractive features. The unnatural pa
rents throw their children into the river,
or expose them alive, prey to dogs and
hogs.s In the larger towns, which are
not situated on the rivers, the corpses
are thrown into pits, which, from time
to time, are filed up with quick lime.
The activity of European missionaries is
powerless against this practice; in fact,
their efforts are entirely without result"
Still, in spite of this moral degradation,
the author says, the Chinese are, in some
respects, very interesting people. Their
shops offer to the foreign visitors innu-
merable objects of attraction.
Their enthusiastically gotten-up tea SER
vices, their carvings in ebony wood, their
chairs, sofas, tables and bedsteads. made
of the costliest woods and inlaid with
curious mosaic, composed of small pieces
of white and red marble, cannot be too
much admired. In their agricultural
pursuits they excel any other nation in
economy. Every third man carries ma
nure on his back from the towns; even
the shavings of the boards and the trim
mings of the finger nails are bought up
and turned to account by the gardeners
and farmers in the neighborhood of the
cities. Interesting is dinner at the
house of q Mandarin. The ''Tschau-
Tschau" consisted of at least thirty or
thirty-fve courses. Hard-boiled eggs,
which had been preserved four or five
years under ground, Indian birds nests,
shark fins, picked and dried rain worms
swimming in blush sauce, hachees of
large and small caterpillars were, with
many others, the dishes with which the
travellers were RECALLED Our thirst was
quenched with light luke-warm vino.
A quantity of confectionery, composed
of sugar, almonds and hogs lard, consti-
tuted the desert. The rat is the favorite
game of the Chinese. Gourmands know
how to appreciate the difference between
land and water rats more that biologists
can do. The former are said to be supe-
rior in flavor, and bring consequently n
higher price. They are in such demand
as to form on article Of trade, so that the
newspapers of Hong Kong habitually
quote their market price in their price
currents. The literary and scientific
knowledge of the Chinese is of the low
est order; their judicial proceedings are
OoA DoAouo, tuCli puulSuucutS luCOuCelV0-
bly, cruel and loathsome. Nor is there.
it seems, any hope that this nation will
ever attain to higher degree of mental
culture, owing to the strange stability"
of Chinese character and customs.
With such accounts before us, it be-
hooves those among us, who do not look
merely to the immediate advantages of
an increase of manual labor, to consider
well before they act whether, by bring
ing in such q set of men amongst us,
they are not preparing worse curse for
our children and children's children,
than African importations have proved
to be, and whether it is not we'll to weigh
the truth of the maxim, that bad citi-
zen is worse than no citizen at all, and
that base, low and immoral inhabitant
will eventually prove curse and not q
blessing to the community in which he
lives, whatever his capacity for physical
labor or the cheapness of obtaining it
may be. A. S.
TRUE ENOUGH. New York Times
says that the late war "changed in some
degree tho theory of the Government. +"