The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-09-20
The Interesting Chinese Colony at
Hartford.
Correspondence of the New York Sun. ]

o A thick-set, short man, broad featured
Il and bilious complexion, attired in the
y latest style, is daily passenger on the
/. morning and evening trains between
i Hartford and Avon. He might be taken
for Spaniard, but, except for the broad
k nostrils, would never pass for a native OF
China. Such, however, he is, and the
e head of the Chinese educational COM
mission, whose headquarters are in Hart
e ford, and who have in their charge one
r hundred and fifteen of the brightest lads
in all the Chinese empire.
S Thirty years ago this man, then lad
s in an interior Chinese village, was picked
n up by an American missionary, and the
stories he heard of the wonderful land
e across the Pacific induced him to run
e the risk that native of China then in
, CURED who left his country and came to
| America. After his arrival several gen
l tlemen interested themselves in him. He
was put to school, and at length he grad
3 uated at Yale College He was the first
: native of China to take collegiate de-
r gree.
/ Yung Wings ten years in this country
r thoroughly Amerieanized him, and he
| decided to make it a life work to pry
open the eyes of his sleeping fellow
countrymen, and show them what their
! real condition is, and what they must do
to put themselves on an equality with
, other nations.
He went back to China and began the
work. He was too shrewd to tell the
mandarins at first that China is far be-
hind the last of the world. He said
!, nothing for some years, but made him
!, self so valuable by the use of certain
knowledge and suggestions that he had
gathered in the United States that he
soon became person of some influence.
Then he began slyly to drop hints as to
the way in which things were done in
America. So ne went on cautiously
for the mandarins are very bigoted-
until at last he suggested, and, as his
influence grew more powerful, urged his
plan, and in 1869, nearly twenty years
after his return to China, the emperor
consented. He was allowed to choose one
hundred and fifteen boys, from seven to
fourteen years of age, and to bring them
to this country and give them such
training as he saw fit. For this purpose
the Chinese government appropriated
81, 500, 900, and in 1872 the first party of
boys arrived in Hartford, followed in
1873 and 1874 by others.
With them came Yung Wing and four
assistants and heirservants, and these
at their home in this city make with the
boys Chinese colony not only as
peculiar as the Chinese, but unlike any
other Chinese people in the United
States. These represent the wealthy
aristocratic Chinese. They are no more
like the laundry Johns than the directors
are like the laborers on railroad.
As soon as the boys reached Hartford
they were put by twos with American
farmers families in Connecticut and
Massachusetts towns so that they might
learn the language as quickly as possible.
But so that their Chinese schooling
might not be lost, they came alternately
to the headquarters in Hartford and
spent three weeks in exclusively Chinese
studies A fine edifce has been erected
in Hartford by Yung Wing, near the
residences of Marshall Jewell Gen. |
Hawley, Mark Twain, and Harriet |
Beecher Stowe.
Some of the boys have got far enough
along to enter Yale college, and in the
school contests they have invariably |
beaten their American schoolmates. |
From college they will go to the profes-
sional schools, particularly the scientific |
studies, and then will be ready to return
to China, where they will spend their
lives as teachers.
1t is Yung Wings opinion that the in
fuence of one hundred and fifteen able
men, thoroughly educated, and, more
than all, Americanized by the fifteen
years spent here in their boyhood, can
not fail of ultimately removing all OBJ
stacles that Chinese bigotry has thus far
put up to progress.
The social life of the assistants whom
Yung Wing brought over recently re-
ceived some prominence by false rumor
circulated by two New York newspapers.
Yung Wing is mandarin of the fifth
rank. His four assistants are Ngeu,
fifth rank; Yung, sixth; Kwong, sixth;
and Leu, seventh. Yung Wing himself
has been naturalized, and is an American
citizen. He has an American wife, a
sister of DIR. Kellogg, an influential
physician of Hartford. His habits,
attire, and religious belief are American.
Ngeu is quiet man, and likes a good
dinner and society. With him are two
wives, and this fact has been generally
known in Hartford. Both wives are
sometimes seen on the sidewalk, and oc-
occasionally receive American ladies,
but they are never seen with Ngeu, and
never appear at any of his entertain
ments. This, not because he has two
wives, but because Chinese custom re-
quires it. Ngeu has three children by
one wife, but one by the other, although
it has been reported that the recent
birth of child by the second wife within
the discovery that both women were
Ngeu's wives. There has been no such
discovery in Hartford, for every one who
knew Ngeu knew that he was living
with two wives.
Kurny, the interpreter, has his second
wife with him. His first and the children
by her are in China. Yung and Leu
left their wives in China.
These mandarins live in elegant style,
and are much given to receptions. They
entertain handsomely. To be invited
to their great dinners, of which four or
five are given annually, is a treat
greatly priced in Hartford. These din
ners are given in Chinese style, and con-
sist of some twelve courses of exclu-
sively Chinese dishes, such as dried shell
fish, sharks fins, kind of fish bowels,
which look like macaroni, birds nests,
and some vegetables, for which Ameri-
cans have no name. The mandarins
frequently leave the table and their
guests for while to smoke, and then re-
turn to resume their eating. They are
very polite. They dress in the choicest
of Chinese silks, and drink wine made
of rice, which is very treacherous, as
some of the dignified deacons who have
dined with them and Just slipped the
wine have found out, to Hartford's
scandal.
In their discipline with the boys and
their attention to their duties the COM
missioners are very faithful, and are
constantly watching for some improve
ment in naval and land warfare, of
which they promptly inform their gov