Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1881-01-27
THE CHINAMAN AT TABLE.


HOW the Weak Headed Are Certain TO get
Very Drank.
From a paper by Mrs. J. III. Siddons
on John Chinaman at Home, the fol-
lowing is taken.
DESTROYS of knowing something OF
their social practices. I accented m inyi-
tltion to wine party given by one OF
my friends ut his private lodgings, and
there ! had fair specimen of the Chi
nese drinking faculty. As Shakespeare S
lago has it Slightly altered), "Your
Dane. your Almaine, your swag-bellied
holiander, and even your Englishmen,
so potent in potting. are nothing to
your ChinamenW 1t is common, at the
table, to test the faculty of the several
guests for holding q large quantity of
hquor by calling upon each in his turn
10 make an impromptu conplet upon
some given subject, or quote from the
classics certain phrases containing some
word agreed upon. or throw dice, or drop
the chopsticks in certain specified ways
INTO a bowl-the failure III any Of those
devices being fine of so many cups of
VINE. The devices come under the gen.
eral name of Wine-pleasure rules. y
AS inlpromptu rhymesters the Chinese
are inimitable, the subjects often being
a satire upon some person or persons
present, but these are Aeeting things of
which no record Is kept 1t is other
wise with the wine songs consecrated to
the Bacchus Of the land. Here are at
tempted TRANSACTIONS Of one or two, in the
metre in which the original occur. Tie
two first lines will give an idea of the
rhythm of the original:
Ricui, hiro 10, kipdi hr0 kn
loBic KIDD ktoo SKIN kipai haco.n
Come, merry bel
Joyous song, merry sieeI
II you wish 20 happy b.,
Ihrn be Happy just as ME!
Flow ers yoa have md wine 10 CHEEKY,
And tine moons sweet seftened ooks,
And the running, limpiI brooks;
Want you mhre2 There ar your booksl
Though you've york and hard it be,
Tsxing minds activity,
bufe You can moment seige
To cevote 10 joyous easel
an the twinkisng Of al eye
Light aud dark leiore yos hy,
Morn Is hardly seen 20 rise
Ere the night has shut its eyes,
Days and months like v n'is hy fastj
Nothing in this world can lust.
ch yoa with rising sun,
In poverty ere day Is doae.
So thu river IN glance
Swells the o. cans wide expanee.
Fallen virtue that's your cue;
All Heaven smiles on those that suef
III draught. TASTE gives pleasure
Sure there's more Ia M nres treainre
Now It's broken, then It's plended;
Bear 1t ealmly, soon it's eaded.
Hungers bar tieetng pain
cdr You'll son be warm agani
Is grief The burden Of mems siligf
but laugh tie whole day long
Challenged by one Of the guests (it
was party Of six) to give some idea of
Chinese poetry that was not Anacreon-
tic, our host repeated, in HIS own Ian
guage, the following on self-love. II will
serve to convey an idea of Chinese ethics.
Passionasely fond of money, greedy Of
gain, as they are in practice, the Ceiest-
ials do not altogether disregard the teach-
iugs OF the great philosopher, Koon-foot-
gu, whom the Jesuits I4atinized into
"Confucius. The subloined lines will
show that love of virtue prevails and
is associated with verse, q style Of com
position TO which the Chinese are par
tial:
- Love yourseltln where can you End
No love IL self Ia All rnankisa7
Be- your work in wood OF steel.
Put your shoulder TO ihe wheel
Waste NJ time in Idly Sitting.
Or you II see before you tliitlng
All the means suu hayr I'll Store,
All the hopes you had before
While coli iau.ino grim and gauni,
" ith dread death your household haunt
To let your busipess idiy lie,
To cTingc, 70 fAwn. 10 sponge and sigh
For wealth and power--not work, but play,
Incur bad depts-alld never pay
Is not the love Of self mean.
Anothef's horse l VIII not ride,
sikh nj for my nelghboT's bride
Another blsmes me all in vain,
/ meier retort or blame again;
Let others ceHsurc, blame or sNSar.
sisuply laugh aud grin asd hear.
So in with lae while day is llug,
On Love Of sell p joyous song.
1t would be poor compliment to John
Chinaman to leave it to be inferred that
he has only learned to drink wine a la
Anglaise. His adoption OF European
practices is quite .f,trore with him In
1910 he used nothing but the Sedan
chair TO carry him about the town in
which he lived; but six years ago there
were nearly 400 four-wheeled carriages in
the city OF Shanghai alonel The old
junk has been superseded by the steamer,
and in many other respects Excelsior
has become the motto Of the child Of the
Middle Kingdom.