Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1870-03-23
Our guums folks.
The other Side of the World
BY BISHOP KINGSLEY.

In travelling through China, l have gattlesd /
a number of items showing the difeece
between the Chinese and ourselves. SOIhof 4
these items may have an interest for sucioi /
my young readers-and | trust they are4ll
such-as desire to know what is going o. IN /
the world we live in.
By way of introduction, then. when 40
Chinese meet, instead of shaking handsnth
each other, they stand at distance and ech
one shakes his Oirr hands, putting then TO-
gether and making churning motion. Is
not respectful TO take tine hat off on ging
into the house of a stranger, but q strarer,
in being introduced to you. considers a
mark of politeness to inquire your age. his
inquiry was made of me many times vile
in China. This offers ladies and gentleien
fine opportunity to tell the truth.
Men and women dress very much axe,
except the hair, the men shaving off all)ut
that on the crown. which they braid IN a
long cue hanging down the back to the yet.
They braid silk into it 10 lengthen il at.
The women do up their hair in fantatic
way, sticking it together with some en-
pound which seems to be mixture Of grase
A fashIonaole osi,tr,. .-s.......s -, 3
/ an inch and a half TO two inches fs2DS
/ | have prosursi PAR which eaX --@- n
| have on. about an inch and three-quarttr
in length.
In writing. a Chinese never uses a per
but soft brush instead. This brush is al
tached to a long stem like a wooden pencil
and is held in the fingers perpendicularly
The ink is kept in hard cake and rubbe
on a stone with water as it is wanted.
A Chinese book begins at the backsidC
and, instead Of the lines going across the pag
horizontally, the first line runs down at th
right hand side of the page to the bottom
and then another commences at the left c
this, and so on until the page is full. Tn
title of the book, chapter, or page is place
at the right hand of the leaf Only one sid
of the paper is printed, it being made c
bamboo wood and very light and thin I
provide for this, the paper is so folded tina
every leaf is double, so that, in turning owe
the leaves, both sides are printed but tn
leaves are double. Any marginal notes. in
stead of being at the bottom, are at the tol
of the page, where there is generally Wild
margin.
There is no such thing as photography i
Chinese. Each character is a word by il
self, and no man in the world can write
Chinese word by hearing it pronounced III
same word has the same meaning in a
places, but may be pronounced wholly differ
ent in different provinces of the empire, 5
that the people of one province cannot cor
verse Win those OF another.
There,are upward of fifty thousand of thes
Chinese characters, and every one of ther
represents a word of one syllable. There
no such thing as polysyllables in Chimes,
but often two words are put together in
name, like our compound words, and in a
such cases the accent is on the second wore
as Hong-kOng, Picking, Foo-choc, Can-to,
etc.
w hlte Is worn as mourning, and mus
never be seen at a wedding. | have see
men come or board to do business with Ia
white silk braided into their long cue IN nd
ditiOn to being dressed in white, as mouruers
At wedding the bride wears red veil. an
the bridegroom has red silk braided int hi
hair.
Engagements of marriage are never mad
by the parties concerned, but by the paleIts
who employ a third person called q0-betiNl
who looks up suitable matches and repFs.
to the parents of each party respectively, az
is paid fee OF commission.
All wives are purchased of the parJs%-
and in multitudes of cases the parties mar
ried never see each other until the husblht
lifts the veil after the wedding ceremony
As the result of the state of things here les
cribed there is not much real conjugal aEes
ton among the Chinese.
In China, dress makers and milliners ar
men, and men do the washing and sprinkl
down the clothes by taking their mouths fu
of water and blowing it on to the Carmen
to dampen it.
In Chinese schools, there are no question
and answers as with us, but the pupil com
mits given lesson to memory, and. who
the time comes for recitation, walks ont o
the floor directly in front of the teacher
either singly or in class, as the custom ma
be, then faces about with his back tn tn
teacher and rattles off the lesson at a ra;Iroa
speed.
In writing their names, the Chinese al
ways write she surname first instead of ia
Christian name as with us
Instead of long dresses, the Chinese me
ana women wear long sleeves, reaching 81
or eight inches beyond the tips of the FINGER.
A Chinese woman, instead of kissing he
child as a way of showing her affection
smells it.
In China, divorce is accomplished h, sell
ing the wife. The greatest possible rcven,
is for man to kill himself. as a means 4
Furnishing the one who has wropgcd him
Such an event terribly frightens the surviyip
party, as he expects the spirit of the dc
ceased, according to his threat, 20 return an
torment him.
1t is considered very praisewortbv an
very meritorious for wife, on the deeease !
her husband, to hang herself. Monument
are erected to such in the north of Ola
and perhaps in other places, and the even
is accompanied with great rejoicing an,
hilarity.
The Chinese instead of knives and forks