Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-12-15
MONGOLIAN FRUGALITY.
SCIENTIFIC ECONOMY IN THE
CHINESE EMPIRE.
Abundance of Wholesome Food For
q Penny a Day-NOthing What
sOever Wasted Skill.

Abundance of Wholesome Food For
a Penny a Day-Nothin& What
soever Wasted-Culinary Skill.
The Chinese are eminently eco
nomical, whether it be in limiting the
number of wants, in preventing waste,
or in adjusting forces in such manner
as to make little represent a great deal.
The universal diet consists Of rice. beans,
millet, garden vegetables, and fish. with
little meat on high festivals. Whole
some food in abundance may be supplied
at less than pennya day for each adult,
and even in famine times thousands of
persons have been kept alive for month,
on about halfpenny a day ca b.. This
implies the existence of high degree of
culinary skill in the Chinese; their
modes of preparing food are thorough
and various There is no waste: every
thing is made to do as much duty as pos
sible. What is left is the veriest trine.
The physical condition of the Chinese
dog or cat. who lives ON the leavings
of the family, shows this; they are clear
ly kept on starvation allowances. The
Chinese are not extremely fastidiO1s in
regard to food; all is fish that comes to
their net, and most things come there
sooner or later. In the north the horse,
the mule, the donkey are in universal
use, and in some districts the camel also
does duty. 1t must be understood that
the practise is to eat all of these animals
as soon as they expire, whether the cause
of death be accident, old age, or disease:
This is done as a matter of course, and
the fact that the animal has died of .
epidemic malady does not alter its
ultimate destination. Certain disturb
ances of the human organizations, due
to eating diseased meat, are we'll
recognized among the people; but it is
considered better to eat the meat, the
cheapness of which is certain, and run
the risk Of the consequences, which are
not quite certain, than to buy dear meat
even with the assurance of no evil re-
suits. Indeed the meat of animals which
have died of ordinary ailments is rather
dearer than that of those which have
died in an epidemic such as pleuro-
pneumonia. Another example of care
ful, calculating economy is the construc-
ton of the cooking pots and boilers,
the bottoms of which are as thin as
possible that the contents may boil all
the sooner, for fuel is scarce and dear,
and consists generally of nothing but the
stalks and roots of the crops, which
make rapid blaze and disappear. The
business of gathering fuel is committed
to children, for one who can do nothing
else can at least pick up straws and
leaves and weeds. In autumn and
winter vast army of fuel gatherers
spread over the land. Boys ascend
trees and beat them with clubs to shake
off the leaves; the very straws get no
time to show which way the wind blows
before they are annexed by some enter
prising collector. Similarly professional
manure collectors swarm over all the
roads of the country. Chinese women
carry this minute economy into their
dress; nothing comes amiss to them;
if it is not used in one place
it is in another where it appears
thing of beauty. Foreign residents who
give their cast-off clothes away to Chi
nese may be assured that the career Of
usefulness of these garments is at last
about to commence. Chinese wheelbar-
rows squeak for the want of a few drops
of oil; but to people who have no nerves
the squeak is cheaper than the oil. Sim
ilarly, dirt is cheaper than hot water,
and so, as a rule. the people do not
wash; the motto, ''cheaper than dirt,
which the soap-dealer puts in his win
dows, could not be made ineligible to
the Chinese. To them the average for
eigners are mere soap-wasters. Scarcely
any tool can be got ready made; it is so
much cheaper to buy the parts and put
them together for yourself, and as al
most every body takes this view ready
made tools are not to be got. Two
rooms are dimly lighted with single
lamp deity placed in hole in the divid-
ing wall. Chinese, in fact. seem to be
capable of doing almost anything by
means of almost nothing. They will give
you an iron foundry on minute scale Of
completeness in back yard, and will
make in an hour a cooking range, of
strong and perfect draft, out of a pile Of
mud-bricks, lasting indefinitely, opera
ting perfectly, and costing nothing.
The old woman, who in her last mo-
ments, hobbled as near as possible to the
family graveyard in order to die, so as
to avoid the expense of coffin bearers for
so long distance, was a characteristic
Chinese. North China Hra'd.