New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-04-14

| mousse. he Is lnVaflaDly clear-neaueu
shrewd fellow. who watches his mas
ter's interests (and his own) with care
full eye. His own interests, one may be
well assured, never suffer for want of
attention. He has certain legitimate
squeezes,'' 50 called in local parlance.
on nearly everything bought and sold.
He has a commission on the servants he
employs, on the provisions he buys, and
on the other general expenses of the
house. You can therefore see at a
glance his great underground in
transactions with native merchants. A
thousand chests of tea or as many
packages of silk or crates of porcelain
could pay him ever so small a
"squeeze'' and the aggregate would be
considerable. In this way, by strict
attention to business and those frugal
habits for which he is famous, he
can manage to save five thousand dol
lars or ten thousand dollars year out
of a salary of one thousand dollars.
Nobody seems to care if he does.
Nobody could help it if he did care.
"John Comprador' is necessity. He
is the old man of the sea whom foreign
merchants can not shake off. Let us
suppose, for instance, that member
of an old-established American or En-
glish hong has acquired sufficient
knowledge of the language to converse
with the natives on ordinary business
topics; or, what is always more proba-
BILE, that in every Chinese hong there is
English. 1t occurs to the foreign mer-
chant that his business is too much in
the hands of natives. He dismisses the
comprador, and goes in person to a ma
tive merchant and asks for tea SAM
Piles. He is shown them, and then asks
the price of thousand chests. "Not
have got" is the reply; "no can
catchee.'' The merchant goes to an
other and another, with the same re-
suit. Not one has q pound of tea to
sell him. The guild has ordered it, and
until the foreigner deals through COM
prador he can do nothing in tea or silk
or porcelain or wax or other Chinese
product. Let him send his compradOr
and he gets the market quotations at
once. So it is with all that foreigners
buy or sell; so it is with all dealings be-
tween foreign and native merchants.
These Chinese guilds and trade combi-
nations surpass any of European of
American origin. Those of Holland
and Finland in the sixteenth century
were trivial affairs compared with these.
They are the most comprehensive and
effective in their operations of all have
ever seen OF heard of in any part of the
world. =
Thus it is that even commerce, the
) great missionary of civilization, has
failed to break down the barrier be-
tween the Celestials and the .''outside
barbarians.' The Chinese are people
to Observation-Disclosures, bigoted,
supercilious, jealous-and seem likely
so to remain for some time to come. A
merchant may live full decade in any
one of their treaty ports, and still know
very little of the country. A shook
maker" as Wendell Phillips would say,
might visit these ports a dozen times,
and yet know almost nothing of the in
terror of the empire, or of the social
and domestic habits of it's people.
No people, it has been said, has ever
been found which did not profess some
kind of religion. The most savage and
the most cultivated are alike found
searching out the same essential facts
connected with their origin and des-
tiny. The Chinese have their deities
also; but it would be more difficult
than most people imagine to say in just
what their religion consists. The
teachings of Confucius form the basis
of their National jurisprudence; but it
can hardly be called a religion, since it
does not inculcate the worship of any
God. Their Taouist faith is essen
TALLY an undeveloped species of ration
alism. Buddhism is evidently the re-
ligion of the masses in the. interior
provinces; but the generally low char
acter of it's priesthood, and the dilapi-
dated condition of it's temples, tell an
impressive story of the growing indif-
ference of the educated and influential
masses. The Mohammedans are much
less numerous in this section of the
Empire, but possibly more intelligent
and better class of men. The manda-
rim, or governing class, especially those
i'll actual commission, are Confucians,
of course.
In a qualified sense, most Cinnamon
are Spiritualists. A belief in the
supernatural is entertained by al
classes, from the coolie to thc>District
Magistrate. A few evenings since l
observed that the Yangtze River was
lighted UP for miles by means of small
floating tapers, and was informed that
1t was for the benefit of those who had
been drowned; the water was inhabited
by myriads of unfortunate spirits un-
able to escape, and these lights were
for their especial benefit. In the dry,
hot month Of July last, a local Magis.
trate, high in authority, remarked that
such weather, though by no means un'
usual, would probably not long con
tinue, as they had begun to pray fol
rain; that is, '.to chin chin JOSH fol
a change of temperature.
! Most persons who have travelled il
| in China or know anything of the coun
try are. aware of the Importance at
tached by the natives to the doctrine
of Fung-Shui, or the spiritual infuenc,
of wind and water. In traversing thi
portion of the Empire, one sees page
das, octagonal in shape and Of enor
nous height, and on inquiry as to thei
!. origin and title, is told that the first /
unknown, and that the second has rel
erence to Fung-Shui. To the inquiry
"What is Nng- ShuiP' no very clear 9
satisfactory answer is likely to be given
!, possibly from the fact that most CHI
nese themselves appear to have rattle
hazy notions on the subject. The tern
literally translated, is 6 Wind (and
"water;;'' but as an expression convey
Z ing an idea from the mind Of one pc
J. son 20 that Of another, it seems to hay
$ lost entirely its literal signifies
ton, and is expressive only Z,
1 an abstract idea. There is som,
thing about this so-called SC
ence- for it is practiced in China ,
q science nearly related to geomanc:
: but neither geomancy nor terrestri
. magnetism q ] may coin term) VI
IL quite convey the idea intended bY IL