Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-10-15
NO. 245
Miseella,a'u.
JOHN CHINAMAN.

y few facts regarding the Chinese, a
much maligned people, show them to be
endowed with qualities Of mind and liv-
ing in the practice of manyvirtues worthy
the homage OF many flippant declaim
ers. What are the Chinese as arti-
zans, mechanics and laborers? For an
swer look ut their successes in the various
clvilizing arts for nearly fifty centu-
ries. One OF the mightiest triumphs of
human skill and industry the world ever
saw is the Great Wall. Stretching along
the northern portion of China tor 1900
miles, rivers, valleys and mountains were
no obstacle sufficient to oppose the advance
of these ingenious laborers. There is said
to be material enough in this wall to belt
the entire globe with wall twelve feet
high and four feet wide, material to con-
struct all the buildings i'll the United States
at the present time. .t.es
Another great work is the imperial ca
nal, which is more than 700 miles long,
the most extensive canal in the world.
Another surprising witness to the highest
order of intellect is the Turning Tower.
This is said to be worthy visit and ex-
animation by every smith and carpenter
on the face OF the earth. Itis fifteen sto-
res high. each story eighteen feet, OF o
q
ance of 80 feet. 1t is so feet higher than
Bunker Hill Monument, yet it turns on a
metal axis as easily as child turns toy.
In the making OF toys these ''brainless peo-
ple' exhibit much talent. ..,...a 49,
Out of a solid ball of ivory with a hole
in it not larger than half an inch IN di-
ametor, they will cut from nine to fifteen
distinct hollow globes, one within another,
all loose and capable ofbeingturnedarouE
in every direction and each Of them carved
iull of the same kind of open work that
appears on their fans. The Chinese had
gained knowledge of the irigatiers of
land, the propagation OF fish, the cultiva-
ton OF cotton and The tea plant-the manu-
facture of silks and cloth, the working of
various metals. the cutting and polishing
OF precious stones, the making OF furni-
tGre the most elaborate, musical instru-
ments, pottery, and almost every art re-
quiring the greatest skill and dexteritv of
movement. centuries before the world
had heard of the shepherds OF Bethlehem,
and before the days OF the MedeS and Per-
SLAMS, of Giecian letters and Roman glory,
when wandering tribes were all there was
to tell of proud England to be, when
Europe was without Il name or an art, the
Chinese had carried these .civilizing
|
Some twenty-sey centuries before Christ
they had the process of making silk, ,land
after coming into general use so thatall
classes wore it, they sold it to people
of other lands. The art of printing,
the making of gun-powder, the fodes-
stone for the purposes of navigation, and
IL thousand other helps to growth We're
employed by them before they had ever
entered the dreams or thoughts of Euro
peans. The Chinese are an economical
people, nothing goes to waste with them,
tritles must pay them tribute. The empire
is one vast garden, and it is said there is
not Il useless vegetable or even weed in
all the land A dead nettle is converted
into cloth, paper is made from the Straw
OF rice, the bark OF the bamboo and other
trees, and from cotton. All labor must
be profitable. They do not believe in a
waste of muscle or Of energy, the sacri-
fee of time and effort without Just rec
ompence.
In the year 1900, merchant opened
mine OF precious stones, when the en-
peror ordered il to be closed, observing
that useless labor caused sterility, a mine
of precious stone" At another period of
their history the people had acquired a
habit too prevalent in these latter days, of
taking rations from u tumbler rather than
from off plate. The emperor waged
war OF determination against the evil,
and caused everything to be destroyed
from which the intoxicating element could
be extracted, and so vigorously was the
decree enforced that rice, the great article
of diet, became an almost unknown pro-
duction. fsic
The Chinese have various societies for
social, benevolent and educational pur-
poses. They have their prizes for scholar
ship and old men of seventy years COM
pete for them. They have district colleges,
. and from them the youth graduate to the
University of China. When number of
young men belonging to the same family,
are too poor for all to get an education,
they select the smartest of their number
s and the rest work and furnish him money
! to 90 to school That the discipline and
training OF the mind has their care and at
. tention, | have only to refer to one en-
peror who at his death left behind him a
: library of 12O 900 volumes. 1t is not easy
TO find Chinalnan who cannot read and
write in his own language, yet in the old
slave states, in this land of churches and
schools, there was not one in ten who
could read or write. I have given this
little sketch to show in part the wisdom
genius and industry of this people. 1t
was the testimony OF Burlingame,r that Tor
thepast four years, the Chinese haye made
greater progress than any other race on
the face of the globe. The commerce. of
the world with them increases yearly, the
annual export of tea and silk has reached
nearly ,000,000 900 Of one, andsome co.
, 600 bales OF the other. All nations in
their material life, certainly, will be
proiited and enriched through trade. and
, intercourse with them. As the mistress
of the world traced her origin to the
tribes which Romulus gathered together,
as the philosophy and learning Of Eliza
beth's day was only the matnred lite from
the savagism of twenty centuries before.
: SO the C6inaman, coming into more init
mate relations with our civilization. with
its garnature of purer thoughts and more
1 ;,t;.n liuinn mav cnutinue To deYelop.