The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-07
New years T,ny in China.

A Hong Kong correspondent of The
Graphic gives the following description of q
popular Chinese holiday, and partly explains
why the manufacture of fre-crackerB is so
largely carried on by the Celestials. 'The
Chinamans wants are few," says the writer
''but one is imperative. He will work from
the beginning of the year to the end, or
very nearly, without intermission; he will
live on the most ridiculously inexpensive
diet, dress in yard of calico in sum-
mer and o superintendent covering of rags
in winter, but he must have one holiday,
and on that day he must satisfy the one mex
tinguishable longing Of his nature. His
holiday is New Years Day; the craving of
his passionate soul on that solemn occasion is
crackers. The British Government has made
great compromise with its Chinese subjects
in Hong Kong. The Chinaman abstains from
the use Of crackers as q rule and in return
is allowed to indulge himself to his hearts
content in that delirious luxury on the
great festival of the China New Year.
Not only in the China town, but all over
the colony, crackers are sanctioned by
the law during this fearful period.
The streets become red with the exploded
paper cases, which cover the ground like
leaves in autumn; the air is filed with sui
phureous fumes, the European heads in the
colony ache as if they would split; but un-
interruptedly for two days and nights the
detonations continue. Crackers on New
Years Day constitute an old, or, in Pigeon
English, an olo custum.' If the Governor
of Hong Kong were to require the native
population to adore his sedan chair on their
knees when he passed. or were to execute
few of them every Sunday morning, pour
pdsSer te temps, that might be borne, but to
forbid the use of crackers on New Years
Day would create revolution in the island
''To call them crackers though they cannot
be called anything else, is to convey feeble
idea of their nature to European readers. A
Chinese cracker is slab of explosive fire.
works about an inch thick, four inches wide,
and of any length you please. 1t goes off in
a succession of explosions, each of which is
quite as loud as the report of musket, and
hops about from one side of the street to the
other during the brief climax of its existence,
flying ten or twelve yards in unforeseen
directions at every bang, in manner which
thrills Chinese breast with a Joy beyond
expression. At every other doorway, while
the New Year festival lasts, there stands
group of Cinnamon wholly devoted to the task
| of letting off these diabolical preparations.
| They have risen, most of them, at about
four in the morning, to begin the delightful
day on which crackers may lawfully be used.
| How they can reconcile their economical and
saving consciences to the idea of spending SO
much of their substance on feeting pleasure
is problem impossible to solve; but in the
matter of crackers q miser in China would be
extravagant. What is the end of wealth if it
| cannot in some way or other be made to SUBJ
serve enjoyment? Doubtless the sages have
left moral maxims in abundance for the pur-
| pose of justlfying so national taste. These
| it is the custom of the country to write up
| up and down, we might say, considering the
perpendicular character of Chinese caligraphy
| ON strips of paper, which are suspended for
the edifcation of beholders about the shops
and rooms. The preparation of these by ac-
complished scholars, who have imbibed the
wisdom of the great classic writers, is quite a
business by itself
'"The WEAKNESS of soul which comes over
the European mind in Cough street, after
twenty -four hours of the New Year pande-
monium, can hardly be conceived to ears
familiar with no worse noises than the gentle
buzz of life in Cheapside, or the cheerful
activity of boiler mandatory Every
Chinaman who is not engaged in letting off
crackers employs his time in beating a gong;
and when myriads of these are giving tongue
all over town at once, nothing but crackers
could be heard above the din. It all seems
to be an undiluted qualification to Chinese
ears, beautiful as songs of the immortals,
celestial melodies of love, like those of which
Longfellow dreams. The tympana of the
Chinese must be made of different stuff from
ours; their whole nervoussystem indeed must
be unlike that of Europeans, and their pecu-
liarities in this respect might form an interest
ing study on the border-land between ply.
siology and psychology. Their wonderful cal
lousness to death, and the stolcism they often
exhibit under torture, would perhaps be found
to spring from causes not entirely dissimilal
to those which prompt their annual debauch on
| crackers.
! Examinations at night, and special per
| formances at the native theatres, feasti
among the wealthy, and sing songs for al
ranks and ages, help to celebrate the New
Year; but the minor details of the festiva
may readily be forgotten by foreigner
, There is only one thing about it he can nevel
forget-the unintermittent volley of explo
| sioEs which last for eight-and-forty hours
In the pure Chinese cities like Canton tn,
| New Year celebration lasts much longer; but
except to crafty a curiosity which is soon ap
peased, Europeans seldom penetrate thei
, tangled streets at such time. In Honl
Kong, however, you cannot escape from tn
riot, and can only bear it with any fortitud
a you have at your disposal. Business is en-
tirely suspended, sleep is out of the question
? reading is impossible, conversation is abou
e as easy as in London cab. You can't go OF
a in4o theS country, for your coolies howeve
docile they may be at other times, woul
Il leave you if you wanted them to work on ths
3 day. You can't row away across the harboi
1 for your boatmen are helping the other Sci
wants to let off crackers. There is nothin
a for it but to wait till the chaqSoagt is ovel
enyying Alexander Selkirk, and joining in a
Hotspurs denunciations of villainous sal
n petre.
NEW RUBLiOATiONS.