Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-09-25
LIFE On A PENNY A DAY.
Land in Which Nothing Is Allowed E
IN rO WASTE.

A Land in Which Nothing Is Allowed to
Go Co Waste.
From tie Minneapolis Journal.
The Chinese are pre-eminently eco
nomical, whether it be in limiting the
number Of wants, in preventing wants,
or in adjusting forces in such manner
as to make little represent good 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 a penny day for
each adult, and even In famine times
thousands of persons have been kept
alive for months on half-penny 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; everything is made to do ss
much duty as possible. What is left is
the veriest tritie. The physical condi-
ton 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 fastId-
ious 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 organization,
due to eating diseased meat, are well
recognized among the people, but 1t is
considered better to eat the meat, the
cheapness 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 re-
suits. Indeed the meat of animals
which have died OF ordinary ailments
rather dearer than that of those which
have died in an epidemic, such as pleu-
ro-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 soon
er, for fuel Is scarce and dear, and con-
sists generally of nothing but the stalks
and roots of the crops, which make q
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 win
ter 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 to some collector.
Similarly professional manure collect
ors swarm all over the roads of the
country. 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 appears thing of beauty.
Foreign residents VIII give their cast off
clothes to Chinese may be assured the
career of usefulness of these garments
is at last about to commence. Chinese
wheelbarrows squeak for the want of q
few drops of oil, but to people who
have no nerves tie 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 windows, could not be
made Ineligible to the Chinese. To
them the average foreigners are mere
ly soap MASTERS.
Scarcely any tool can be got ready
made, it is so much cheaper to buy the
parts and put them together for your
self, and as almost everybody takes this
view, ready made tools are not to be got.
Two rooms are dimly lighted with a
single lamp deity 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 n mute
scale of completeness in a back yard,
and will make, in an hour, q cooking
range of strong and perfect draught, out
of pile of mud brick, lasting indefin-
nitely, operating perfectly, and costing
nothing. The old woman who, in her
last moments, hohbled as near as posi-
BILE to the family graveyard, in order to
die so as to avoid the expense of coffin
bearers, was Chinese.