The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1889-02-05

our less important tools and ma
chimes. But there Is no reason Il
suppose, in thus doing, he will be
anything else than a Chinaman. The
least thing that distinguishes one
nation from another-indeed one
man from another-are the externals
That which most profoundly separ-
ates races of men is the internal ner.
vous, and therefore mental and moral
organization In these particulars
treat the Chinaman as you will, sur
round him with conditions as you
maybe will still be Chinaman.
including all that designation means.
Now, can we trace out some of the
causes, note, perhaps, some of the
conditions of his development, that
enable him to live in such way as
to be able to distance all competitors
in an industrial struggle? 1t is con-
fessedly very difficult task. Little
is known of his history. In his early
struggle from barbarism to his pre-
sent state of civilization. almost
nothing is known. If it were, plenty
would be left unknown. No doubt,
the impetus that any race of men
attain long before historic times,
largely modifies, even fixes its future
character and career. Yet from toll
erably trustworthy sources, we have
something-chronicles though it be
rather than history-which makes it
certain he has long national history.
Archdeacon Grey, for forty years
among them, and close student of
their history and language, says:
" There can be little doubt of the
great antiquity Of the Chinese Em'
pire. 1t is not rash, l believe, to say
that it has survived a period of 1000
years, without having undergone
any great change either in the laws
by which it is governed, or in the
speech, manners, and customs Of It's
teeming population" It goes with
out saying that political and social
system 1000 years old is a fixed one.
All things, the man included. is fixed
-crystalized.
DR. Legg believes that the popula-
ton of the country has not, perhaps,
increased for the last 800 years. He !
thinks no improvements in that time
have been made in the mechanical |
arts. The celestial has thus been at
a standstill for centuries. He has
lost in progress, but he has gained |
in that which makes him in perfect
accord with his environment. With
the teeming population, variously
but not far either above
OF below 400,0O0,00O, there has gone
on the most strenuous struggle for
the means of subsistence.
Even had the Chinaman twice the
extent of empire that he has, he
would still have hard fight to live.
At home, with his primitive imple-
nents of production, his labor pro-
luces little under the most favorable
therefore, he is perforce
to live on little. As it is,
With a redundant population, the
maximum of labor with the mini
mum of food is the condition of his
existence. Now, this severe struggle
;oing on for hundreds, perhaps
thousands of years, make him pro
oundly different from the European.
lie can live upon an amount and
ind of food, and apparently in fair
ondition as to health and strength,
Which would be utterly inadequate
0 the European.
No doubt the Psychologist and the
MUSICIAN would smile to be told that {
be internal economy of the China
ian is different from that of the
Ihite man. His organs may be 7
natomicaliy the same but function :
lly they must be profoundly '
if not originally so, GER a
iinly made SO by long process of I
volution. His shelter and sanitary S
1nditions most Of us are acquainted t
18th abroad. They are much worse u
| China. The Cinnamon have, for
lese almost untold centuries. crowd O
l together in their living apart Ii
ents, more like sardines than like u
lman beings. They live among f
til and impure air, at war with all ii
II notions of hygienic laws. a
His system can absorb, and either "
simulate OF throw off an amount of O
bison, that would produce an epid- ii
nic in a small American or Euro it
can town. In times of diseases of ic
| epidemic nature, wherever the al
linese are, they still bid defiance IL
sanitary laws, and have compare NJ
re immunity from the disease. As st
is now, SO he has been for ages. ii
,rhaps the more sensitive to zymo- hi
. ailments have long since been W
led out, and the rest and the dis an
ses have agreed to dwell together -
peace" In this, as in other re- co
ects, he is fit to survive, while ey
lers viii die. bl
Comparatively speaking, the Chin he
are homogeneous people. From M
kin to Canton, from the China Sea
the East, to the remotest Western lal
inter, one Chinaman is like an on
Ter Homogeneity is the rule, and it
is the racial exception. 40
ere is nothing like the mixture of co
sely allied species in the Chinese, tn
in the European race. He has for mi
IS interbred, thus producing a mi
type, dwarfed and scrubby no
some respects though it be, yet ge
id and hardy in character. rie
t is a well known biologic law, hi!