Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-11-03

Corruption of Oficials-Reverence for Antiquity-Mongolian Prejudice.
 The Chinese throne has been conspicuous | for its lack of great, strong, formative minds; and it is so hedged in with form, ceremony and adherence to precedents that l unless the incumbent be a man of supreme ability he falls under the guidance of his CD | tourage, and although an absolute despot, he makes little positive impression on the | government of his people. The provinces are governed by viceroys of governors, who, so long as they follow certain minute direc- | tions laid down for them, are at liberty to manageI affairs as they please. And under l them the mandarins do the same
 | In the matter of taxation, if the tax gath erers turn over to their superiors their ex- pected quotas, too careful examination is not made into the amounts over and above those l sums which they have eXtorted from the peo- 1 pie and put into their own pockets. The | civil service is honeycombed with corrup- | tion. If from no other evidence, this is ap- 1 parent from the fact that officers with utterly l inadequate salaries retire with ample fort ! uneS. Mandarins, as rule, seldom enter 1 office with large possessions; and 1t is a req l sonable deduction that the wealth with which | they smooth their declining years is ill got | ten. Occasionally, the official who has been l in concealing the fact, excites the jealousy of his superiors and suffers in consequence. | Hang Ke who was superintendent of customs at Canton prior to 1859, resigned his seals with fortune of 800 900 tacls (S500, ,0C01, not withstanding his salary was only 2,4O0 taels 8 year, and the necessary expenses of his yamun 1 Official resdence) were SG0O q month. He was ordered to Peiin, and before he had been many days ill tho capital One-third of his $590, GOO had been transferred to the inside pockets of the members of the government. | Occasionally severcr punishment is inflicted :; but the crime apparently consists of being discovered, not of 1leecing the people
 Without strong, elevating force on the | throne to lift them up, without representa- l tive government in which they can pai'tici- pate and raise themselves If they wanted to), without a well developed and equitable judi cial and legal system to insure justice and encourage right living, with nothing to stin- uhlte invention to ameliorate the condition of the race, without anything to develop virility and stamina, with almost everything to press, subject, contine and servilize them, it is little to be wondered at they they do not rise, expand and advance.
 But they do not seem to desire anything better. They do not aspire to higher con dition. With an irborn spirit of subServi- ency, intensified by centuries of heredity, which is reflected in a degree of abject sub missivenesS to parental and civil authority which is unknown in this country, they have not the spirit, courage or energy to lift up their hand for anything higher tL,,n they possess, Tho same lack of animus which leads full grown men meekly to submit to unmerited and cruel f1ogging, without even raising a finger of protest, causes outraged people to neglect one of the most potent | of m afforded in the imperial censors Only the most aggravated cases are reported to them and tho rest are meekly tolerated.
 No doubt this condition of things is due ill a large measure to the intense and supersti- tious reverence of the Chinese for antiquity.
 We study the past to improve upon it; they to initiate it. Tradition and custom are everything to them. They are linked to tho dead past by the unbreakable bonds of pre-
 cedent; they are chained to a historical
 corpse. Their government, as has been seen,
 is crude; their language, without alphabet,
 infection or grammar, is unwieldy and un-
 suitable for progressive literature; their
 blind prejudice against poSt-mortem exam
 inatiOn stik leaves them in ignorance of
 human anatomy, the functions of the heart,
 lungs, liver and other organs are sealed
 books to them; they mako no distinction be
 tween veins and arteries or nerves and ten
 donS By mere guesswork they have hit upon the gall bladder as the seat of courage and assurance, which, according to modern , slang, is not so far am1ss.
 In medicine, ignorance and superstition prevail, and the medical board at Pekin, in the exercise of its profound wisdom, has
 sanctioned such remedies as dried red spotted
 lizards, silk worm moths, tortoise and oyster
 shells, dragoons teeth, verdigris, bears gall
 shavings of rhinoceros horns, elephants skin, etc. In astronomy, their Chalde ar
 heritage, they have progressed no further than popularly to believe that the earth is
 square and flat, and that ecipses are caused g by some monster attacking the sun or moon , Their agricultural methods are of the most primitive sort. And so it goes through all their so called arts and sciences. They have
 not the inherent life and power to break theil
 way out of the cocoon of early superstition , Although nation they are forty centu , ries old, they arc yet in tho first stages o1
 evolution.
 One of the most striking evidences of the
 Mongolian prejudice against innovations i 5 the utter absence of railroads in the country r A few years ago some foreigners secured tht
 right to build dozen miles of railroad anC t operated it for a short time. The Chinest viewed it askance, and at length purchased . it-not to run it themselves, but deliberately to tear 1t up. America and China are q r complete antipodes in this respect as they ar, l geographically. We have half the railroae l mileage of the world, they none; and whe1 9 one considers the vast civilizing inf1uenc
 and the great potency for progress of grea
 railroad system, which brings the ends of
 country together, gives quick communica ! tion among the people, ,excites ambition, open f avenues for enterprise, develops communit,
 of interest and makes a nation homogeneous 9 it is evident that here one finds great facto I of the disparity between the American an' F Chinese people.
 ! While there are few miles of telegraph the use of this means of communication i = hampered by the unwieldiness of the lar e guage and the impossibihty of expressing . In telegraphic symbols, except through th : cumbersome and inadequate method of COT Q version into numbers-New York Times l. Use of Paragraph Signs.
 @ Writers for newspapers should use part }. graph signs freely in their copy. The mark
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