The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-04-06
TEMPTING A HUSBAND.
Twenty Thousand Dollars offered for Au-
other Mans Wife-A Serious Trouble.

Twenty Thousand Dollars offered for An
other Mans Wife-A Serious Trouble.
Some years since, while tarrying at
Shanghai and Hong Kong, says a cor
respondent of the Greenwich journal,
I became acquainted with Mr.. King,
head of the highly respectable firm of
Messrs. King & Co., doing business at
Shanghai. Mr.. King had recently re-
turned from visit to the United States.
where he had formed an alliance with a
blooming young lady, the daughter of
Presbyterian clergyman residing near
Boston, who, after the enuptial ceremony
had been performed, accompanied her
lord to the celestial empire. On their
way they stopped for few days ut Hong
Kong. After ensconsing themselves in
comfortable quarters the couple were
visited by rich mandarin. The latter
regarded the lady very attentively and
seemed to dwell with delight upon her
movements.
When Mrs. King at length left the
apartment he said to her husband in
broken English (worse than broken
China: What you give for that
wifey-wife of yours ?" "Oh," replied
the husband, laughing at the singular
error OF his visitor, "$10,0 ,000." This
the merchant thought would appear to
the Chinaman rather high figure, but
he was mistaken. "Well," said the
mandarin, taking out his book with an
air of business, "s'pose you give her to
me; 1 will give you $4,000" It is
difficult to say whether Mr.. King was
more amazed than amused but the very
grave and solemn air of the Chinaman
convinced him that he was in sober
earnest, and he was compelled, there
fore, to refuse the offer with as much
placidity as he could assume. The
mandarin, however, continued to press
the bargain. "I give you $20,000,"
said he "you take 'em2"
Mr.. King who had no previous notion
OF thought of the commercial value of
the commodity which he had taken with
him on his business tour, was compelled
at length to inform his visitor that
Americans were not in the habit of sell
ing their wives after they had come in
possession of them an assertion which
the Chinaman was slow to believe.
1t was Mr.. Kings custom, as we'll as
every other commercial house doing
business at Shanghai, to have their
clerks dine with them daily, leaving
their Chinese wives behind. Soon after
my arrival at Shanghai was invited to
dine with Mr.. King. There were few
gentlemen and seventy three of his clerks
seated at the table. They were all we'll
dressed and genteel appearing young
men; stranger would imagine them to
be gentlemen. While seated at the din
ner table Mr.. King related the foregoing
I'll NJ
his young and pretty wife, saying he had
recently discovered her full value, as he
had been offered $4,000 for her: very
high figure as wives were selling at that
time, for the average price paid by the
clerks for an ordinary Chinese shop.
keepers daughter was about $3.50, the
price being agreed upon with the par
onts before the young people see each
other; when introduced, if pleased with
each other, the bargain was at once
consummated. If the woman should
prove to be otranscendentally beautiful the
parents might receive $5 more as cum
sha, or a present.
AS soon as he comes in possession of
his wife he purchases or rents q small,
light bamboo house, which,
with liberal supply of coarse mats and
O few articles for culinary purposes,
suffices for residence, which is kept as
neat and clean as a hounds tooth; the
wife doing, however, her own house.
work, washing and ironing her lords
clothes, which are kept in perfect order.
She is very domestic, seldom or never
seen upon the street; and more true and
faithful wivesnever existed; in fact, they
dare not be otherwise, for their parents
would chastise them severely. The
husband seldom takes a meal at home;
the wife subsist3 chiefly upon rice, and
the cost of maintaining her, together
with her wardrobe, will not exceed $50
per year.
Mrs. Kirg, being conscientious and
energetic lady, resolved to use every
effort in her power to break up this in
being ignorant of the manners and GUS
toms of the people in that distant coun-
try, and having no backers-her hus-
band feeling indifferent in ac-
complishing her meritorious object. AS
last resort, she issued an edict requir-
ing every one of her husbands clerks to
abandon forthwith and turn off their
Chinese wives or they would not be suf-
fered to dine at the same table with her.
The result can easily be imagined, for
on the following day not one of the
clerks made his appearance at the allot-
ted place of business, which placed Mr..
King in an awkward position, blocking
the wheels of his immense business.
The indiscretion of his wife came near
causing him much trouble and unneces-
sary expense; and, strange as it may ap-
pear, the clerks had the sympathy of
the whole community of Shanghai; and
however humiliating it might have been
to Mrs. King, she was obligedt to rescind
her edict, and when the writer left
Shanghai the wheels of business were
again in motion and everything went on
swimmingly.