San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-03-30
ECONOMICAL CHINESE.
Living Penny Day They Have
Solved the Problem of Cheap Existence.

Solved the Problem of Cheap Existence.
The Chinese are prominently 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 yege-
tables and fish, with little meat on high feS-
rivals. Wholesome food in abundance may
be supplied at less than a penny day for
each adult, and even in famine times thou
sands of persons have been kept alive for
months on about 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; everything is made to do
as much duty as possible. What is left is the
veriest trihe The physical condition 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 Certain disturbances of the human
organization, 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 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 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, calculating
economy is the construction of the cooking
- h. I,tt -
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 a rapid
blaze and disappear. The business of gather
ing fuel is committed to children, for one
who can do nothing else can at least pick VI
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 off the leaves:
the very straws get no time to show which
way the wind blows before they are annexed
by some enterprising collector. Similarly
professional manure collectors swarm over al
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 who give their cast off clothes away
to Chinese may be assured that the career o!
usefulness of these garments is at last about
to commence. Chinese wheelbarrOws squeak
for the want of a few drops of oil, but tc
people who have no nerves the squeak is
cheaper than the oil Similarly, dirt is
cheaper than hot water, and so, as a rule, tho
people do not wash; the motto Cheaper thar
dirt" which the soap dealer puts in his win
dows, could not be made ineligible to tho
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 pu;
them together for yourself, and as almost
everybody takes this view ready made tools
are not to be got Two rooms are dimIy
lighted with a single lam? deity placed il o
hole in the dividing wall. Chinese. in fact
seem to be capable Of doing almost anything
by means of almost nothing. They will give
you an iron foundry on a minute scale O.
completeness in a backyard, and viii MAKE il.
an hour cooking range Of strong and pr.
feet draft, out Of pile Of mud bricks, lasting
Indefinitely, operating perfectly and costiuI
nothing.
The old woman who in her last moment
Lobhlcd as near as possible to the family
graveyard in order to die so as to avoid thu
expense of coffin bearers was Chinese. -NortL
China Herald.