Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-26
CHINESE AND THEIR WAYS.


From the North China Herald
The Chinese are pre-eminently economical,
whether it be in limiting the number Of wants,
in preventing waste or in adjusting forces in
such manner as to make little represent .
great deal The universal diet consists of rice.
beans, millet garden vegetables and fish, with
little meat on high festivals. Wholesome
food in abundance may be supplied at less than
penny q day for each adult, and even in FAM
Inc times thousands Of persons have been kept
alive for months on about half.penny . day
each. This implies the existence Of high de-
gree OF culinary skill In the Chinese. Their
modes Of preparing food are thorough and
various. There is no waste; everything il made
to do as much duty as possible. What 10 left 10
the veriest trifie. The physical condition Of the
Chinese dog or cat, who has to live on the leav-
ings 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. Certain disturbances of the human or
ganization, due to eating diseased meat, are
well recognized among the people, but 1t il
considered better to eat the meat, the cheap
ness 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 results Indeed, the meat Of animals
dearer than that of those which have in an epi-
demic, such as pleuro-pneumonia. Another
example OF CAREFUL, calculating 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 con-
sists generally Of nothing but the stalks and
roots OF the crops, which make q 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 o
vast army OF fuel gatherers spread over the
land. Boys ascend trees and beat them with
clubs to shake all the leaves; the very straws
get no time to show which way the wind blows
before they are annexed by some collector.
Similarly professional manure collectors
swarm over all the roads Of the country. Chi
nese women carry this minute ECONOMY into
their Dress Nothing comes amiss to them il
1t Is not used in one place 1t is in another where
It appears thing Of beauty. Foreign resi-
dents who gave their cast-off clothes to Chi
nese may be assured the career of usefulness
OF these garments is at last about to commence.
Chinese wheelbarrows squeak for want of
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
rule, the people do not wash. The motto,
Cheaper than dirt" which the soap dealer
puts In his windows. could not be made intelli-
gible to the Chinese. To them the average
foreigners are mere soap MASTERS.
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
everybody takes this view, ready-made tools
are not to be got. Two rooms are dimly
lighted with a single lamp deftly placed in a
hole in the dividing wall. Chinese, in fact
seem to be capable of doing anything by means
OF almost nothing. They will give you an iron
foundry on minute scale of completeness in a
back yard, and will make in an hour a cooking
range. strong and perfect draught, out Of q
pile of mud bricks, lasting indefinitely, oper-
ating perfectly and costing nothing. The old
woman who in her last moments hobbled as
near as possible to the family graveyard in
order to die so as to avoid the expense Of coffin
bearers was Chinese.