The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-01-01

enjoins son to do all he can for his parents
dead or alive.
Moreover, how was he to know that the
same unnatural feeling. witch had prompt
ed this cruel diversion of the family esta:,
would not perpetuate itself to his detri
ment in the spiritual world? In othe1
words, the awful thought came to him tha
his mothers ghostly part would oppos,
him in his literary efforts, and also do it
best to make him completely miserable il
all the concerns of his life.
"And this evil, :" he moaned, 'tis to come
upon one who never failed to kow tow
night and morning at your venerable feet
o my motheri"
In the fervor of his grief the poor fellow
actually forgot himself so far as to weep
with his head bent on his wife's shoulder
she tenderly stroking his brow the while
and whispering words of comfort about the
| forthcoming examination
You viii become high and mighty off
cial," she said. Il wish to prophesy it"
Hearing this Seng braced himself, and
| with the light of heroic endeavor in his
eyes-poor eyes, weakened by his incessant
studies-he clasped his wife to his breast
| and began an eloquent Grafton, in which
much was said about the priceless value OF
unwearying application and the virtues
the virtues that arise in the heart after
| twenty years of literary exercises.
! Il will forget the past. will be young
| forever, until / succeed, and when these
sad hours are gone we shall look back upon
them as salutary aids to that eternal con-
tentment which shall abide with US as the
result of competence"
| Thus, urged by necessity and his own
| fading ambitions, Seng threw himself into
| the strife of the examinations with a con-
Stunning heartiness. He was never without
| slips in his hand, and even in his sleep he
repeated his phrases without knowing it.
So enthralling grew his passion for print
that if in walking the streets he saw upon
| the ground but morsel of paper with the
character upon it he would fall into no.
bic passion. Having picked it up and ex-
ecrated the careless person who had cast it
aside he would then bear it reverently to
the corner of the street, and with an ejacu-
latory sentence from Confucius or one of
the Five Ancient Classics, deposit in the
receptacle there prepared for such precious
litter
In spite OF Seng's labors, however, year
after year went by, with failure ever in
their train. The thought of his mother
and the possibility that she was still work
ing mischief for him, often depressed him
UNNECESSARILY. But he struggled on brave
ly, and at length really made substantial
progress in the lists.
A compassionate mandarin employed
him in the meantime as a sort of fifth rate
clerk. The wage was ridiculous, bpt Seng
and his wife made it suffice. They trusted
to the future to recompense them.
This brings US to Songs fOrty-sixth year,
which found him in Peking and hot favor
tie for the honors of the examination that
was impending. The mandarin in whose
service he was had intrusted him with a
commission Of some delicacy. He was to
bride a superior as astutely as possible for
a certain purpose. 1t was by no means a
task to our friends TASTE but he sighed
and fulfilled it, so skillfully indeed that he
gained the regard of the sinner; and then
he turned himself to his slips and moral
exercises with the zeal and sprightliness of
a boy.
at shall be this year or never" he said
to himself. He said it also to his tutor,
who had great confidence in him, and who
did not scruple, over innumerable cups of
tea, to whisper it abroad that Piseng was
as sure of place this year as man could be-
Now Piseng was our friends full name,
but for brevity's sake he was generally
known by the ordinary name of Seng. In
the schools, however, he was Of course en-
tered in full, and the prefix ''Pi" gave him
a certain distinction which the multitude
of other candidates, with names as COM
mon as our Smith" Brown" Robin
son, >" Jones" etc, by no means enjoyed
AS the time came on for the great exam
nations to begin, the influx of students
into the imperial city made a perceptibe
difference in the population of the streets.
1t also caused proportionate excitement
among the students themselves, their kin
dred and the various prOprietors of the lot
teries, who were now to reap their annual
harvest of cash and taels from the specula-
tive inhabitants of the city.
And this is one of the many odd features
of life in the far east as contrasted with
life among ourselves.
In the south of Europe the lotteries are
concerned with inanimate numbers You
invest your money on these in a series, and
thus you lose it-much more often than
not With us horse racing seems ON a par
with the lotteries. But the exalted China
man is not content with such methods Of
profit and loss. At the time of the great |
examination he backs candidates in Sc
ries, even as the Italian with spare half |
franc backs the numbers his superstition |
and the latest popular dream book urge |
him to favor with his suffrages.
And so it happened that, as the fame Of |
Seng's interchangeable industry and more |
than usually strenuous efforts at his stud |
les became noised abroad in the parlors of |
professors and the back streets of Picking, |
the public began to fancy him as a winning |
card.
Great, then, was the run upon the series |
in which the name of Piseng appeared.
Word of this was, of course, soon brought |
to our friend, who abode with his wife in a
small house in mean part of the city.
They shall not be disappointed, +" said |
Seng, with i'll concealed citation. There
are virtues of different kinds, but of these
the pre-eminent ones are as follows"
All day long he gave himself over to his
labors. His wife was as anxious as he
was For the time she thought less about
her lovely almond shaped eyes and white
teeth than about the issue of the dreaded |
examination. Indeed, the result of this
seemed to her almost of more consequence
than the fiat browed little boy babe which
she bore upon her lap. and which had sig
naEzed the past year by coming into the
world to bless her.
1t was absurd that they should starve
as underlings in mandarin's household
when Seng had the ability at length 10 be
come maybe a mandarin himself
People took TO stopping Seng in the
streets and paying him wonderful compli-
ments. They also implored him, of his in
finite courtesy, to oblige them by succeed