The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-03-05
a CHINESE YARN.

a CHINESE YARN.
How An Yah Made the Pudding Ex.etls
Like the Steward.
Many amusing stories have been told
Of the tendencies to and power, Of,
imitation possessed by the Chinese.
There is the tale Of the naval officer
giving pair Of trousers to a Chinese
tailor in Hong Kong with instructions
to make an exact duplicate out of cloth he
selected. When the new garment was
produced it had . patch on the leg ''alle
same oller pair" And then there is the
time-honored narrative of the Mongol-
ian painter who made an exact copy Of
. likeness given him, including the rent
in the canvass of the original picture.
But here is one that never has been
published, and whose incidents came
under the writer's eyes.
When the good ship N. B. Palmer
touched Shanghai in her voyage of 1870
Captain Charles p. Low discharged his
second steward and superseded him
with Chinese boy name All Yah. The
steward, George Stewart by name, was
in his seventy-second year-and, by the
way, was making his fifty-third voyage
between New York and China-and had
to, on account of his old age, put many
tasks on his assistant that the first stew
ard generally performs. Old George
had been in Lows employ for many
years. and was retained in the service
largely on that account. One day when
the Palmer was blowing through the
Indian ocean on her passage home,
George undertook to teach All Yah how
to make a pudding for the cabin table.
He stationed the Chinese boy alongside
of him in front of the table in the pam
try. Before them was tin baking
dish, into which George would place
the ingredients of the desserts, explain
ing as best he could to his protege. who
rs yet could comprehend only little of
even pigeon English. what he did and
why he did it. The condensed milk was
diluted. the raisins carefully picked, the
sugar dexterously sprinkled and so on.
When the eggs were cracked oDthe
side Of the pan, George tried to make
All Yah understand that as they had
been laid long time, and were not in
every instance preserved in perfection
by the salt they were packed in, he
must be careful to test each one before
it went into the pan. He would crack
the egg, place it to his nose, and ifgood.
would empty the contents of the shell
into the mess, and if bad. throw it away
into 81 h,,<. l. Xol
tionless, but observant, until the pud-
ding was prepared for baking. Then
he smiled indOlently. and declared: '.Me
can do alice samce."
George determined to try him, and
next day gave him the articles necessary
to full-grown pudding. All Yah took
up position almost in Georges foot
prints of the day before, and George
leaned against the counter at the end Of
the pantry, and watched him. The boy
handled the milk, raisins, sugar, flour,
bread and the rest with a cleverness
that interested the old steward. The
eggs the learner broke on the edge OF
the pan, just as George had done.
smelled of every one, threw several
away and put the others where they be-
lOnged. When the boy was through.
the steward was satisfied that a good
job had been performed, and that his
scholar was apt as the quickest of his
All Yah bore his triumph forward to
the galley to have it baked. He hand
ed the dish to the cook. a hot-blOoded
West Indian. who was about to place it
in the oven, when. all of a sudden, as he
leaned over the oven door, he uttered
some remarkably prOfane language, and
in the same tone what old
George meant by sending him stink
ing thing like that to cook in his galley.
He would endure all the fire of the
wicked hereafter before he would put it
into his stove, and said more things to
the same effect. All Yah did not know
much English, but there was no mis-
taking, in the very atmosphere Of. the
place about this time, that something
was very wrong about that pudding.
Henry, the cook, after relieving his
mind temporarily by his Outburst of in
dignatiOn, stalked aft and into the pam
try. demanding to know why he should
be insulted by having sent to him pud-
ding made Of rotten eggs. George was
He placed his nostrils over
the dish, and found, sure enough. that
at least two or three bad eggs had gone
into the pudding. The old man was at
loss what to say, but he almost apollo
gized to the doctor in explaining how
narrowly he had observed the Chinese
boy in his operations, and how he was
sure that All Yah had tested every egg
before using it. There was only an inn
prOmptu dessert for the cabin that day.
The steward thought about the disas-
ter for several days. Then he decided
to give All Yah another trial. The
same routine was gone through, with
Again the pudding was sour. Old
George was fairly dumfOunded. and
finally got mad. He would teach that
Chinaman to make q pudding or die.
He tried again and again. One day he
caught on to the fact that All Yah in |
used up seventeen eggs. throw |
ing away five. Other attempts revealed |
the fact that All Yah each time threw |
away the fourth, eighth, eleventh and
sixteenth egg. At last the mystery was
explained. Old George nearly cracked
his cheeks with laughter. and rushed
ntO the Captains room with the story.
Ah Yah was summoned before the Cap
ain, and solemnly Intercepted as to
Why he should not be punished for
wasting so many of the ships eggs.
The now terrified boy. holding up his
myers. exclaimed: My makee plud-
lin alec samee Cog. No smashee
leventee egg. Tiline-four. sleben.
light, leben and sixtee-no good-throw
way. NV makee alec samee Cog"
All Yah was not punished.-Hdrtord