Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-09-20
CHINESE AND THEIR WAYS.
They Know Better Than Any Other Peo-
pie What Economy Means.

They Know Better Than Any Other Peo-
pie What Economy Means.
The Chinese are pre-eminently econo-
mical, whether it be in limiting the num-
Der of wants, in preventing waste, or in
adjusting forces in such a 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. Whole
some food in abundance may be supplied
at less than a penny day for each adult,
and even in famine times thousands of
persons have been kept alive for months
on about a halfpenny day each. 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 trihe,
The physical condition of the Chinese
cat or dog, 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 fastid-
ious in regard to food; all is fish that
comes to their net, and most things come
there sooner or later. Certain disturb
ances of the human organization, due to
eating diseased meat, are well recog-
nized among the people, but it is con-
sidered 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. In
deed, the meat of animals which have
died of ordinary ailments is rather dear
er than that of those which have in an
epidemic, such as pleuro-pneumonia
Another example of careful, calculating
economy is the construction of the cook
ing 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 dis
appear. 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 a 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 be-
fore they are annexed by some collector.
Similarly professional manure collect.
ors swarm over all the roads Of the coun-
try. 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 APP
pears thing of beauty. Foreign resi-
dents who gave their cast off clothing tc
Chinese may be assured the career OF
usefulness of these garments is at last
about to commence. Chinese wheelbar-
rows squeak for want of few drops OF
oil, but to people who have no nerves
the squeak is cheaper than the oil. SINH
larly 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 ineligible to the Chi
nese. To them the average foreigner:
are mere soap MASTERS.
Scarcely any tool can be got ready
made, it is so much cheaper to BUY tht
parts and put them together for your
self, and as almost everybody takes thi!
view, ready made tools are not to be got
Two rooms are dimly lighted with sin
gle lamp deity placed in hole in the
dividing wall. Chinese, in fact, seem t.
be capable of doing anything by means
of almost nothing They will give yol
an iron foundry on a minute scale O
completeness in back yard, and viii
make in an hour cooking range, ,
strong and perfect draught, out of a pill
of mud bricks, lasting indefinitely, op
Grating perfectly and costing nothing
The old woman who in her last moment
hobbled as near as possible to the family
graveyard in order to die so as to avoid
the expense of coffin bearers was Chi
neSe North China Herald