The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-08-05
Chinese Officers.

Chinese Officers.
When a student has added poetry to
his other requirements, he knows al
that China can teach. He stands the
test and comes through it gloriously,
gaining the immediate right to wear a
high cap, surmounted by a button
or ball as large as the egg of a
pigeon and in this case constructed OF
copper. gilt and wrought. Our gradu-
ate is now B. L., or Bachelor of Let
tiers, a member of the ninth class of the
order of Mandarins and duly fitted for
the humber posts. But though the
successful student is now one of the
upper hundred thousand-an elected
aristOcrat he does not necessarily re-
ceive State pay nor pass into State EN-
ploy. There is "great 90" or see
ond ordeal to get through before he can
take rank as Magistrate, Treasurer,
Sub-Prefect or Inspector. Between him
and the Hottest situations lies yet an
other barrier, harder to scale than the
two former. True, he has all Chinese
learning in his brain, stored away in a
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great Mandarin he must show the pow
er to apply it. He can learn; can he
think? If he hopes to change his ninth
class button for one of those envied
top-knots of red coral, he must show an
ability to make use of the raw material
of knowledge; and as thought is not
more active in China than with us, few
are those which reach the topmOst
branches of the tree of preferment.
Immense numbers of graduates finch
from the second examination, prefer
ring to vegetate through life in some
slenderly-paid Office, where there is not
much to harass and trouble aid where
Court favor is less needed and shame
full downfalls less probable. The storm
that levels the lofty poplar, they say.
spares the humble mushroom at its foot.
But there are numbers who fail to o.
tain even a desk in a Government
bureau, or "snug berth" in the Gus
toms, without hope of promotion. These
become scribes, poets, parasites, scriv-
eners, private tutors, one or all. Every
city is full of these poor literary men,
dinnerless aristOcrats, with plant back
bones and tongues of honey. When a
wealthy $ son marries another
merchant S daughter, they jostle one an
other, these penniless graduates, as
they hurry to present their fulsome
stanzas on the happy event. When rich
man dies and the paid howlers muster
around the splendid coffin, a poet pre-
sents himself to express the grief of the
h,t,-- ,,,n11,H,,@,,C h, l.,
lors of Letters are especially employed
to "cram" the sons of wealthy families
for examination and they not only rem
der all the services of British private
tutor, but now and then are said to per-
senate their dear pupil on the awful day
of trial, to take his place in the schools
and to receive his ''testamur for apt
erudition a crcwning aid, which no
Oxford or Cambridge coach" has
ever been known to render to his young
friends. These little Irregularities are
rendered facile by the fact that Chinese
examiners have itching palms, and
know no salve like silver. A bride
works wonders in convincing the arbi-
tiers of the great progress which the
student has made in the humanites; and
in country where the founts of Justice
are corrupt, it is no wonder that de-
grees are to be bought. But we must
not hastily conclude that the whole
system is a make believe ole and that
every degree is a matter of bargain and
sale. In practice, there is very little to
purchase, for the very good reason that
the candidates have more brains than
dollars, and can more easily fag than
pay. The mandarins-at least the
mandarins of pure Chinese originate
very seldom members of the opulent
classes. 1t is only out of within that a
rich trader, a merchant prince such as
China abounds with, brings up a son to
the service of the State. The men of
money make their sons supercargoes,
commercial travellers, corresponding
clerks and so on. If you ask them why
they prefer they who are rolling in
riches, who own fleets of iunks, over
Drumming warehouses and wealth I'M
told-tO make their sons traders instead
of mandarins, they tell you frankly that
mandarinism does not pay. 1t is har-
assing life, very uncertain, and full of
shoals and sunken rocks; even a Vice
roy may incur squeeze" and it does
not fall to every ones lot to inhabit
Garden of Flowers and call the Empe-
ror cousin. On this account it is that
most of the naughty satraps who sway
the destinies of millions are men of very
humble origin, not absolutely of the
humblest, because the poor and numer-
Gus race whom we call COOLIES" can
seldom contrive to educate their off
spring at all. The iettered aristocracg
generally springs from obscure little
shops, from booths in the suburbs of
cities or from farms where the cultiva-
tor tills his field with as clumsy nipple
ments and as amazing neatness as his
ancestors did when Europe was
tangled swamp. Yeh, for instance,
red button of the first class, was the
son of petty broker, courtier-marron,
as the French style it'll the Year
Round.
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