The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1888-08-02
MARRIAGE IN CHINA.
Life's Flower, Love, as Found in the Flowery
Kingdom.

Life's Flower, Love, ~ Found in the Flowery
| Kingdom.
From the Brooklyn Citizen.
"a Chinese love letter! Have I any
old-fashioned Chinese love letters in
my trunk? Have ! gilt-edged Chinese
billot-doux with monogram like a
cows track? There was never love
letter written in Chinese. No Chinese
maiden ever penned a billet-doux or
sent valentine.
Rather sadly was this said by a ro-
mantle young Chinaman, Mr.. Hong
Wing, who is noted among the Chinese
for the skill with which he plays on
the mandolin.
"In China" continued he, "a man
never sees his wife until he is welded
to her for life, and sometimes he does
not see her then, for she may refuse to
remove her veil until three days have
elapsed after the wedding. II he
doesn't like her he cannot get di
vorce, but he may marry another
wife, and then another. until he has
gone through the blindfold lottery
often enough to get one that suits
him. Some of these Chinese Cresuses
have hundreds of wives. There was
an old bachelor who took it into his
head to get married one winter. and
he married two hundred wives before
he got through. The last wife is the
favorite, but the first one is the boss
"If a man never sees his wife before
their wedding, how does he make love
to herr"
"He doesn't make love to her. His
mother arranges the match, and his
future mother-in-law makes love to
him. 1t is sour courtship. Children
are formally engaged to other children
that they haven ever seen, at the tender
age of Or 10, and after an engage
ment of ten or twelve years, they get
married."
"Does Chinaman ever marry his
cousin?"
"No, marriage of cousins was new
er heard of in China. A man may no
more marry his cousin in China than
in England man may marry his de-
ceased wife's sister. You talk about
your old families here, and your old
families are only five generations old.
In China families are seventy
five and eighty generations old,
and every member has COM
plete record of his ancestors for
all these generations. The remotest
kinship prevents marriages in China,
and if two families have the faintest
imaginable kinship seventy-tive gener-
ations back their children cannot
marry.
What are the most common fami-
lies in your country?"
'The Chens, the Wones and the
Lees. The Chens are the Smiths OF
China, the Wongs are the Joneses, and
the Lees are the Browns. A Mr.. Chen
would marry q Miss Wong, but he
wouldn't marry a Miss Chen. Per-
haps that is the reason why the old
folks make the matches. 1t prevents
the Chens from falling in love with
| one another"
''Are the Chinese ladies cultivated9"
"Oh, yes; they can read and write,
draw, paint and embroider. They
never go out on the street with
their husbands. If a Chinese
man and woman were to walk on the
street arm-in-arm in their country as
| American men and women do, they
would be mobed. The women stay in
doors. Ii they wish to visit their moth
ers they take conveyances. Sometimes
they may be seem walking in the park
with their children"
you are married."
"Yes."
"To d Chinese lady?'
| "No; to an American. l came to
| this country when hut IL years old.
| Though was 5000 miles from China,
my mother betrothed me to little
Chinese girl l had never seen. My
mother used to write to me how small
her feet were, howpretty she was, ana
what a beautiful cat-like nose she had.
When was 20 years old mother sent
me a letter, saying was old enough
to get married, and must come back
to China and marry the girl
"What did you think aboutit?"
81 thought was old enough, and
SO fell heels over cue in love with an
American girl in Nevada, and married
her. We had our pictures taken, and
sent one to my mother, together
with an account OF the wedding, which
l translated from an American paper
INTO Chinese"
"What happened?"
''The next thing / knew my uncle
and four cousins came on to United
Statesand had ME arrested for bigamy.
l was taken before q court and tried.
My uncle went on thestand and swore
that I had q wife in China"
"What did you do them"
ri thought was in a box, as you
Americans say. The Judge asked the
witnesses how old l was when l left
China. They replied that my mother
had picked her out for ME, and that,
in Chinese law, was the same as mar
riage. The Judge said that they didn't
have any Chinese statutes in this
country, and my uncle innocently re-
piled that he would send to China for
some. Everybody in the court laughed,
and, as lived in the town ever since
l came to America, all knew that Ihad
left China q little boy, SO the jury ac-
quilted me. My uncle told the Judge
that he wonld be beheaded when he
went back to China, which was n
monstrous fib with which he intended
to scare the Judge. have never been
back to China, and suppose the little