The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1885-10-21
NV Chinese Pupil.

Wy Nhinesc Eupits
IA Western Teacher in Youths COmpaRion.i
Crystal City was a little mining campihalf
way up the barren slope of one of the most
de solate of the Rocky Mountains.
There were about fifty houses, cabins.
tents and shanties, and as many as four hun
dred people in the city.
was teacher OF the first school in the lit
tie camp. Ny schOOlhOuse was small log
cabin. with two small windows and a door
An old gray blanket, hung on two wooden
pins, was the door. The seats were of rough
pine slabs. placed on ends OF logs. There
were no desks.
On the first day OF school. | went up the
trail To the little log schOolhOuSe, and waited
for my pupils.
1t was nearly nine flock, and not a pupil
had vet arrived, when there was move
ment of the blanket door. 1t was pushed
slowly aside in Misunderstanding manner,
and there stood my tirst pupil-Wah Sin.
OF course he was Chinese boy. Ameri-
can boys are never afflicted with such names
a. that.
He was dressed in his cOuntry'S costume.
His father had evidently allowed him to
wear his sunday clothes, in honor of the
first day of school He never wore them
again after that day but appeared in a garb
very much like that worn by American boys
OF the same age.
WhenI hsked Wah Sin how old he was, he
fingers extended but one, which WIS turned
down toward the palm.
Then you are nine years old, counting in
your thumbS2' | asked
'.Ha. le>>-yes-nine We old. Belly good
Come school alice Samec like Mexican boy
Ha,"
That little aspirated ''Ha,'' began and
ended everything Wah Sin said. The Chi
nese are subject to peculiaritieS like other
people, who are always saying OH and
All" and Indeed
Wah Sin was very modest and Dashful.
He was. however, the only boy in the school
thus affected: and in time he overcame
these weaknesses.
When ] rang my little bell at nine O clock
about fifty boys and girls OF all sizes and
ages had assembled in the little room. which
they quite filled
They were dressed in all kinds of i'll
fitting coarse. and "made-Oyer' garments
and they had few books. Bat they were as
full of fun a other children. and enjoy life
quite a much as IL i enjoyed by boys and
girls who have neat, natty and stylish
clothes, and who 20 TO school in handsome
buildings, with beautiful grounds in large
and prosperous cities.
Crystal City sounds very romantic and
pretty, but was a poor. shabby, dreary little
place, and everybody was poor who lived in
it. Indeed. many of the inhabitants were
have stayed there.
Yon have heard of mining blooms?
Well, Crystal City Wa, all there was left of
what had been a big old boom. a. the
miners called IT, There are many such
drearv and Sorrowfu remains Of dead and
gone blooms" lying around i'm the guches
and valleys and on the slopes of the Rocky
Mountains
AT one time there had been a many a a
thousand people in and around Crystal City.
but the excitement died out IN three or four
months, and many OF the people had gone
to places where they thought their chances
would he better in the great lottery OF min
ing.
Wah Sin and his father were the only
Chinese in Crystal City. Wah sins father
was the ''washee man" OF the camp. He
did washing for a few people who could al
ford 10 hire il done.
There was water to be carried from
spring some distance away. Wah Sin would
be sent ont with a tin pail, and told to ''hul-
lee back
Ten. fifteen, twenty-five minutes would
elapse The clothes in sam Sins boiler
would boil dry, and there would be no rinse
water. He would look down the trail to-
wards TIE spring; no Wah Sin. He would
shade his little almond eyes and wrinkle up
his brow; face, peering far mp the mountain
side 10 a certain great boulder. behind which
Wah Sin was often pleased 10 hide, and shy
rocks at people ON the trail below to see
them ''iumpee big No rocks were flying.
no angry miner was seen 10 ''iumpee big"
no loose boulder was bounding and crashing
over the rocks and among the stunted pines
to the little gulch below. Wah Sin was not
there.
But far down the gulch, ON the one rocky,
crooked street OF the camp a furious little
mountain burTo could be seen. with its head
| down. its ears laid back and the heels of its
| hind legs flying in the air as they beat tat
| too on shining tim pail tied to the animals
tail.
A little Chinese boy could be seen lying
| flat on his back i'm the rocky road his heels
| flying his ewes shut his hands claDping.
and his 1.-the little body writhing in happi-
ness. Wah Sin was there.
The boys and girls all liked Wah Sin. His
| drOll looks and manners amused them He
| gave me no end of trouble, but ! liked him
myself. 10 was surprising 10 note his pro-
| gress in his studies He could read and
| spell with boys Of his own age before he had
| been three months i'm the school. lat when
il came to mental arithmetic, Wah Sin
| said
NO lithmetic no study lithmetic less |
| countee on my hngees."
! 10 s-countee on the fingees'' was a method
I had strictly forbidden. and / would not
make an exception in Wah Sins case.
The next day he came to me. mo study
| lithmetici book alice gone"
grasped the refractory little Chinaman's
wrist very firmly, and picked up long rod
| lying on my desk.
Now you find that book, / said with
great severity, although | wanted to laugh
outright at the absolute terror i'm the boys
face when severe measures were tried on him
for the first time
could feel him trembling as be led the
way out of the house TO a large. fiat slab of
rock near by The book was under the
slab
/ stopped to lift the rock and Wah Sin