Bozeman avant courier. [volume] (Bozeman, Mont.) 1872-1882, 1879-04-17
1.-THE HEATHEM CHINEE."
Johr W. Draper, In Harper's Weekly

him such displraging epithct:
''IIe's too filthy. the mOOn-eved leper. f
lives in one room Of tenement shant,
with twenty others as nasty as himsel
He has Il bad. fishy smell. As to mOralit,
he makes himself tipsy with opium, and
look at his joss-honse.
The real offense Of the Chinese is tn;
he clieapens labor. The Ostensible of!ens
is that his paganism engenders vices whic
make him Il demorilizing element of SOC
ETY.. His weakness consists in this, he ha
! no vote.
But there is something more importan
than vulgar outcry. Many highly n
spectacle persons. who would not willtull
do him any injury. are from usage unabl
to speak Of him except in obnoxious terms
4 very enlightened and liberal body. tn
Chamber Of Commerce OF New York. il
its address to the President asking him +
withhold his signature to the anti-Chines
Bill. speaks of China as the "heathen EN-
pire."
Then. as we all know very well. OH
popular poets have not spared him. II
stanzas of no uncertain merit he figure
Undcr his accustomed name as d cheat a,
cards.
The Amainlan cuts off Il cows tail. drie
it. hangs il up on a peg. and ther fall
down and wors!iips il as Il goddess. Tina
is heathensm. paganism. But rha: is no
what Chinaman would do.
Has this people contributed anything te
TIE advancement of civilization? Has i
conferred any benefits on mankind? Al
nations without exception must submit tC
be tried by that test. In an answer TO these
questions. directed to the Chinese. we shall
find measure of our obligations to them
OF the courteous treatment they are en-
titled to demand at our hands.
Through how many years OF slowly adj
vancing civilization must China have pass
ed. how great must her social necessities
have become. before she reached her in
ven1ion OF printing from wooden blocks.
and its necessary requisites. the manutac-
tire OF paper and of suitable ink. Yet
these she had accomplished a thousand
years before our era! How much industry
and ingenuity must she have expended be-
fore she learned to make steel into thin
strips. 10 temper and to impart the mag
ne,ic virtue to il by touching it in certain
way with lOadstone. What mOmentous
have happened to tile world
by her detection OF polarity in a strip so
In the hands of Columbus it
let to two great tliscoyei'cs-that of tie
West India Islands and that Of the line of
no magnetic variation. without the for
Iner there would not have been any United
States. whose back-hoor is slammed in he
faces OF those who helped to find the way
to its fropt-doOr. As to the latter. did it
not. in consequence of the ball of Pope
FI-one of the most important
bulls ever issi,ed-lead to the south routp
10 India by way of Cape OF Good Hope?
Did it not cause the great Industrial revo-
utiC,' that chan"ed the commercial front
)f Europe from the North Mediterranean
% the Atlantic? Above all. when Macel-
an accomplished the circumnavigation of
he earth. did it not settle forever the great
st of geographical problems? Nobody
lfter that denied that the earth is globe.
Does not her discovery Of the temporary
magnetism of soft iron rest at the basis of
many Of our most brilliant modern inven-
ions? Without it where would be our
lynamO-electric machines. our Gramiue.
'ur RuhmkOrf coils, Our expectation of
lectric illumination? What was it that
ustafned Oersted in all the disappoint-
nents that for twenty years preceded his
apitl discovery OF electromagnetic.
me of the glories Of this century. but this.
hat the law of magnetic attractions and
epulsions is the same rs that for electlici-
Y? The one is due to the Chinese, the
ther to the French.
We must count among the most impOr-
INT OF Chinese inventions that of gun
owder. They studied very thoroughly
ne chemical qualities of sulphur, charcoal.
tire. and this mixture of them. They did
ct care to apply it to warlike uses. but
their skill in its pyroteciinic dis
)lay. Their fireworks are the finest in
le world. A good Jesuit tells us how he
Nv with astonishment trellis of red
rapes. green leaves. and the wood of the
ellis represented in fire. We have no
orks of the kind which they do not sur
ISIS. Nor should their reluctance to apply
lis invention to warlike uses excite our
Irprise. They constitute IN immense
lciiic population. which has lost the in
inct of conquest. The young American
ould remember with gratitude how eff
ctllally they enable him to celebrate the
ythday anniversary OF his nation. They
eel in the art of ,lyeing. the making OF {
lors. the manufacture Of splendid pig {
ents from carthamus, indigo. the prepar- /;
ion OF sugar. Their bells, such as the /.
eat bell at Pekin. are among the grand t
triumphs OF casting. In tine working a
metals they possess many secrets. Their /,
agic mirrors. which show by reflection |
sun rays from their polished front the s
ages OF things represented on tfcir II
ugh back. are at this moment objects of I,
riosity and disputation in London. t
Let us not forget their porcelain. Can n
ever be surpassed in purity, delicacy. a
auty? Well might the Romans prize t
ese murrhine cups at many times their c
light in gold. q
1t would be in vain for me TO attempt O
Y adequate statement of their contribu- y
rs to the industrial art. OF all people n
y see quickest the practical side of Il b
t. We have no hydraulic constructions
as the Chinese canal system; {
rivals our railway system. We have no g
tesian wells that exceed in depth some (,
theirs. We have no fortiiications as ex- s
sive rs the Chinese wall. \
Veil, but, says somebody. what about Vi
chanical engineering? Where is their c
their locomotive? d
China has been driven by the emergen- t,
s OF her political conditins to discour- il
: labOr-saying inventions. 1t --as not {.
her to DO anything that might deprive t;
enormous population Of work. Wller- z