The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-04-03
"THE HEATHEN CHINEE."
Some Interesting Facts about China.

Auc HeatHeu Cnluec w ny 90 we
give him such disparaging epthet?
"He's too filthy, the moon-eyed leper
He lives in one room Of n tenement
shanty, with twenty others as nasty rs him.
self. He has bad, fishy smell AS to
morality, he makes himself tipsy with
opium, and--lo0k at his joss house."
The real offense of the Chinese is that
he cheapens labor. The ostcnsible Of
fense is that his paganism engcnders vices
which make him demoraliziug element
of society. His weakness consists in
this that he has no vote.
But there is something more important
than a vulgar outcry. Many highly re-
spectacle persons, who would not will
fully do him any injury, are from usage
unable to speak Of him except in obnox-
ious terms. A very enlightened and
liberal body, the Chamber of Commerce
Of New York, in it's address to the Presi-
dent asking him to withhold his sigma
turo to the anti Chinese Bill, speaks of
China as the "heathen empire"
Then, as we all know very we'll, our
popular poets have not spared him. In
stanzas of no uncertain merit he figures
under his accustomed name as a cheat at
cards.
The Amaiman cuts off cows tail,
dries it, hangs it up on q peg, and then
falls down and worships il rs a goddess.
That is heathenism, paganism. But that
is not what n Chinaman would do
Has this people contributed any thing
to the advancement of civilization?
Has it conferred any benefits on man
kind? All nations without exception
must submit to be tried by that test In
answer to these questions, directed to the
Chinese, we shall find measure of our
obligations to them-of the courteous
treatment they are entitled to demand at
our hands.
Through how many years Of slowly
advancing civilization must China have
passed, how great must her social neces-
stiles have become, before she reached
her invention of printing from wooden
blocks, and its necessary requisites, N.5
manufacture of paper and of suitable
ink. Yet these she had accomplished
thousand years before our era How
much industry and ingenuity must
she have expended before she
had learned to make steel into thin
strips, to temper and to impart the mag
nctic virtue to it by touching it in GER
tain way with a tombstone! What
momentous consequences nave happened
to the world hy her detection of noiaritv
in strip so touched In the hands of
Columbus it led to two great discoveries
that Of the West India Island and that
of the line of no magnetic variation
Without the former there would not
have have been any United States whose
back-door is now slammed in the faces
of those who helped to find the way to its
fronf-Ir.o A. - 1ott "a
in consequence of the bull of Pope Alex.
ander VI.-one of the most important
bulls ever issued-lead to the south
route to India by way of the Cane of
Good Hope? Did it not cause the great
Industrial revolution that changed the
commercial front of Europe from the
Mediterranean to the Atlantic? Above
all, when Magellan accomplished the cir
cumnavigation of the earth, did it not
settle forever the greatest of geographic
al problems? Nobody after that denied
that the earth is n globe. Does not her
discovery of the Temporary magnetism of
soft iron rest at the basis Of many of our
most brilliant modern inventions ?
Without it where would be our dynamo
electric machines, our Gramms, our
Ruhmkorf coils, our expectation of elec-
trio illumination What was it that
sustained Oersted in all the disappoint-
ments that for twenty years preceded his
capital discovery of electro magnetism,
one of the glcries Of this century, but
this, that the law Of magnetic attractions
and repulsion is the same as that for
electricity7 The one is due TO the Chi
nese. the other to the French.
We must count among the most i'm
| pOrt2ut Of Chinese inventions that OF
gGnpowder. They studied very thor
oughly tie chemical qualities Of sulphur
charcoal, nitre, and this mixture OF
them. They did not care to apply it to
warlike uses, but exhausted their skill
in its pyrotechnic display. Their fire.
works are the finest in the world. A
good Jesuit tells us how he saw with
astonishment q treils of red grapes,
green leaves, and the wood of the trelis
represented in fire. We have no works OF
the kind which they do not surpass
Nor should their reluctance to apply
this invention to warlike uses excite oul
surprise. They constitute an immense
pacific population, which has lost the
,"stinct of conquest. The young Ameri
can should remember with gratitude how
etfectual they enable him to celebrate The
birthday anniversary of his nation
They excel in the art of dyeing, the
making OF coiors, the manufacture o.
splendid pigments from carthamus, in
digo, the preparation of sugar. Thcil
bells, such as the great bell of Pekin, art
among the grandest triumphs OF casting
In the working of metals they posses
many secrets. Their magic mirrors
which show by reflection Of sun ray
from their polished front the images o
their rough back, are at this momen
objects of curiosity and disputation il
London.
Let us not forget their porcelain. Cal
it ever be surpassed in purity, delicacy
beauty? Well might the Romans priz
these murrhine cups at many times thei
weight Of gold
1t wonld be in vain for me to attemp
any adequate statement Of their contri
buttons to industrial art OF all nennl
they see quickest the practical side of
+ tions as imposing rs the Chinese cana
system. 1t rivals our railway system
We have no AItesian wells that excee,
in depth some of theirs. We have n
Notifications rs extensive rs the Chimes
wall.
Well, but, says somebody, what abou
mechanical engineering? Where
their steam-engine, their locomotive?
, China has been driven by the emer
gencies of her political condition to dis
courage labor or-saving inventions. 1t wa
nc: Cor her 20 DO aSy sh:ng tha. nigh
, deprive her enormous population o
J work. Wherever force was required sh
had plenty of hands; the genius of he
people gave her plenty of patience
Her necessities of ntercommunicatiol
were abundan,!y supplied by her mag
niticent canal system. She did not car