The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-01-19
CHINESE ECONOMY.
People Who Can DO Almost Any Thing by
Means of Almost Nothing.

The Chinese are pre-eminently eco
nomical, whether it be in limiting tho
number OF wants, In preventing
waste, or in adjusting forces in
such a manner as to make little
represent a great deal. The uni
vefsal diet consists of rice. beans, mill
let, garden vegetable and fish, with q
little meat on high festivals: Whole
some food in abundance may be sup
piled at less than d penny day for
each adult, and even ii famine times
thousands Of persons have been kept
alive for months on about d halfpenny
day each. This implies the existence
of a 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 possible. What is left
is the veriest trifle! The physical con-
dition of the Chinese dog or cat, who
has to live on the leavings of the
family, shows this; they are clearly
kept on starvation allowances. The
Chinese are not extremely fastidious
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. It must be understood that
the practice 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 an epidemic malady does
not alter its ultimate destination. Ger
tain disturbances of the human organi-
cation, due to eating diseased meat,
are well recognized among the people;
but it is considered better to eat the
meat, the cheapness of which is GER
tain, and run the risk of the conse-
quences, which are not quite certain,
than to buy dear meat even with the
assurance of no evil results. 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 careful, calcula-
ting economy is the construction 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 stocks
and roots of the crops, which make a
rapid blaze and disappear. The bust
ness 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 a vast army of fuel gatherers
spread over the land. Boys as
cend 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 enterprising collector. SINH
larly professional manure collectors
swarm over all the roads of the country.
Chinese women carry this minute econ
omy 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
Chinese may be assured that the career
of usefulness of these garments is at
last about to commence. Chinese wheel
barrows squeak for the want of few
drops of oil; but to people who have no
nerves the squeak is cheaper than the
oil. Similarly, dirt is cheaper than hot
water, and so, as rule, the people do
not wash; the motto Cheaper than
dirt" which the soap-dealer puts in
his window, could not be made intel
ligible to the Chinese. To them
the average foreigners 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 almost
every body takes this view ready-made
tools are not to be got. Two rooms are
dimly lighted with a single lamp
deity placed in hole in the dividing
wall. Chinese. in fact, seem to be
capable of doing almost any thing by
means of almost nothing. They will
give you an iron foundry on a minute
scale of completeness in a back yard,
and will make in an hour a cooking
range, of strong and perfect draft. out
of pile of mud bricks, lasting indefin-
itely. operating perfectly, and costing
nothing. The old woman who in her
last moments hobbled as near as pos
sible to the family graveyard in order
to die so as to avoid the expense OF
coffin bearers for so long a distance.
was a characteristic Chinese.
China Herald.