Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-02-22
LIFE IN CHINA.
A New Yorker Prefers Shanghai
to His Old Home.
His Chat About the Good Points of China
Peculiar Customs that Recommend
Themselves to the Thoughtful Yam
kee Marriages and Funerals.

China George Dean returned to New York
two weeks ago with the intention of re-
naming His mother, three sisters and q
brother live in the same house they occu-
pied when he went away. He had been
here only two days when he became home
sick for China. He thought that time
would conquer the feeling, but it became
stronger every day, and on Thursday he
babe his mother and sisters farewell; and
sailed for Liverpool on his way back to the
strange country he had learned to love bet
ter than his native land
II miss so many things, and everything
comes unhandy to me here" he said. For
instance, everybody drinks cold water here
and laughs at me when Iwant to do as they
do in China and take my water warm In
China it is impolite to take your hat OFF on
entering house, and here have forgotten
myself dozen times, and been stared at
and frowned at by ever SO many because
L observed the Chinese etiquette and
kept my hat on my head on going
into peoples houses. / find myself order
ing my dessert first at dinner, as | and
all Cinnamon do at home-I mean in
Shanghai--and my embarrassment has
been great Polite natives of China always
drink their tea from their saucers, which
are placed on top of the cups. forgot my
self more than once and did the same with
an effect on others that made me very
uncomfortable. On going out invariably
have taken my fan, and a fan like mine
couldn't be purchased in New York for the
price of town lot. l couldn't think of 60
ing anywhere without it. But it has brought
me only ridicule wherever l went. I find
that my visiting cards, made after the best
Chinese fashion, each one printed on yard
of the finest silk paper imaginable, are
simply useless here, and if used would
create strong suspicion that l was insane.
In China my bed and everybody else's bed,
is formed Of mating, while here the mat
ting is laid on my bedroom floor for me TO
walk on. When go to bed here my head
sinks down deep into the pillow, and |
splutter and tumble about all night and
can't sleep. At home-in China, mean-I
rest on pillow as hard as wood and sleep
like top.
"The other day my nephew, a young
man, whom l like very much, asked me
what thought would be nice thing for
him to buy as a present for his father at
"The very best coffin you can afford"
"Why-do you believe me-he was in
suited; and my dear old mother was vastly
shocked. 1t all came of my being thor
oughlY Chinese. 1t is quite the proper
thing in China for a son to buy coffin for
his living father. In fact it is expected
that he will do so if he is possessed of sufi-
Gent filial regard. l told my friends SO,
but that shocked them still more, and was
miserable again. There is no use. l never
could get get along here at all. / shall die
If don't get back home-to China, | mean.
"Yes everything seems to be done in
China exactly opposite to the way in which
it is done here. Here / am Mr.. Dean. In
China | am Dean Mr. They don't use any
soap to shave with in China, but simply rub
the part to be shaved with warm water, put
on with a brush like toothbrush. The part to
be shaved is never the face, but the top of the
head. The frontof Chinese book is the last
page, and the reader begins at the right
hand corner of the page and reads down.
The foot notes are always at the top the
title of the book is printed on the outside
margin of the page, If you should ever
enter school-room in China you would
surely think the scholars were engaged in
mobbing the teacher for they study their
lessons as loud as their lungs will let them
When they recite they back up to the
teacher and stand with their faces to the
other screaming scholars, instead of the
teacher, while they yell their recitations
all together.
They never have any breach-of-promise
cases over in China A future Chinese belle
isn't three days old before her parents have
betrOthed her to some acceptable scion of a
neighbours house. When she is old enough
and she doesn't have to be very old, for il
she were in this country she would be play
ing with her doll yet-she goes to the house
of her aflianced and marres him. She
weeps and walls all the way there, as if her
idea of matrimony wasn't exactly cheer
full one. There is always mourning at a
Chinese marriage, while at a funeral the
bands play and there is feasting and re-
joicing. And there, think, the Chinese idea
is the correct one. When person marries
bis troubles begin. Why should he rejoice'
When he dies his troubles are over. Why
should any one mourna l must get back to
China.
"a true born patriotic Chinaman will
turn with loathing from a glass of fresh
milk while he will lift q cup of castor oil to
his lips and drain it with a gusto. The oil
won't make him bilious. The milk will. /
told you it was the proper thing in China
for son to give coffin to his father. In
case the man has no son, or the son is lack /
ing in tilisl regard or money, it is the ambi-
ton of the father to procure the coffin for .
himself, and he does so as soon as he is able (
to. 1t is used about the house in various .
capacities until it is wanted for the purpose
for which it was purchased Go into any
well-regulated Chinese familys house and
you will surely see the coffin of the head of
the house occupied as tete-a-tete, bench, /
a table, or something else. When the owner |
dies aud is put into it, it may be taken to |
the graveyard Immediately, or may knock |
around the house for years. When they /
bury coffin in China they simply carry |
it out and set it on top of the ground in the
family burial plot, The name of the indi-
vidual who is in the coffin is marked on one
end of it There the coffin remains for a
year or two, and then, if the family can af-
ford it, they build brick vault over it,
This in time becomes covered with dirt, |
and by and by grass and weeds and bushes
grow on it. There are scores of these bur-
isl places around Shanghai and other cities,
looking like prairie dog villages on gil
gantic scale
Il am going back TO China, and if one of
these days you should be wandering about
in one of these Chinese cemeteries and
should see a coffin lying there with my
name on the end of it you needn't be sur
prised. tell you, q country that buries its
dead On top of the ground and yet man