Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-02-06

LIFE IN CHINA.
The Pig IN Inmate Of the Housshold-Drink,
Gambling and Opium
IN CHINA o. A MONTH Is A FAIR SUP
L port for family. That is about what the
average workman earns However, this in
come 10 added to in certain small ways First
IL the universal pig, which il the popular do
mestio animal. He. or rather she, sleeps in
the vestibule and, whom the house ID too small
70 possess this luxury, in the living room. The
pig recognizes her name and displays in her
| intelligence the inherited results Of centuries
of training. She litters twice . year OF her
offspring, the males are fattened and sent to
the market and the females are sold or kept for
breeding purposes. The pig 10 fed at every
meal Of the family; the rest of the day it
forages for itself in the streets, fields, drains
and on the beach. At low tide hundreds are
often seen devouring seaweed, dead fish and
the fotsam and jetsam of the sea. The wife
and children gather driftwood, edible sea
moss, sea fungus and seaweed, small shellfish
the size OF pea or bean, mushrooms and tree
mushrooms. aromatic leaves for havoring pur-
poses, dead branches, dry leaves, dead grass
and grass roots, COW dung and animal Drop
pings. What they do not care to use they sell
Tor few copper cash or barter with neighbors
and tradesmen for rice and vegetables. In this
manner woman and several children will pro-
vide all the food for family and leave a small
surplus to put by for q rainy day. Children
Tour years OF age will hunt up the pig when he
ia lost, lead the water buffalo or tend herd Of
sheep with almost the same success a grown
man. They work in the garden, bring water
from the wells, destroy locusts, caterpilars
and slugs. pull out the weeds and in every
way show themselves excellent horticulturists
in miniature.
CHURCHES AND TEMPLES.
SO says Consul Bedloe, writing from Annoy
to the Department of State. He adds:
Churches and temples cannot be owned by
ecclesiastical organizations. They are in a
manner common property. Any one can hold
receptions, dinner parties picnics and meet
ings upon the premises without fee charge
BARRIERS, dentists. physicians and story tellers
can enter the place and there ply their voca-
ton. Peddlers, travelling cook shops, curio
Dealers grocers, farmers and other wandering
tradesmen can make use of the church grounds
to exhibit and sell their goods. Even gamblers
are permitted to throw dice and tempt fortune
IN small way In other games within the outer
gates. Only actors are debarred from the uni
versal privilege. They must give their street
SHOW beyond the walls. mandarin or wealthy
merchant takes a vacation and, desiring quiet,
ease and beautiful resting place, goes with
his family and servants to some temple famous
furniture enough for comfort, has his servants
do the cooking or hires the priest for the pur-
pose, receives and entertains his friends and at
the end of his holiday goes home. giving the
furniture to the church as a token of gratitude
or because it will cost more to transport it
home than it WIS worth. At Lam-pa-do tenn
pie found farmers wives covering the stone
hoor OF the inner yard with beans, cabbage
leaves and other vegetables, in order to dry and
preserve these edibles for the market. At the
temDIe of the White STAG
utilizing the well and the granite fences for his
business.
The common belief in the United States that
all Chinese read and write and are well in
formed does not contain one particle of truth.
The higher classes, who do not exceed 5 per
cent OF the population, receive what might be
called good literary education. As for the
Chinese language, there is no such thing
Every province has its own language and every
district its dialect. The native so-called writ
ten language Is not language, but an ideo-
graphic system and is one OF the greatest mar
vels OF human genius. 1t could be applied with
almost as much facility 10 English French and
German as it is to the nunberless languages of
China, Korea and Japan.
cLAIkvoYANTs AND FORTUNE TELLERs
are numberless in China. The queries, indus
Try i'll the ghostly line is grave telling" When
the average Monaghan reaches manhoods es-
tate one of his first ambitions is to have d nice
the requisite cash he consults one or moro
grave tellers." These are old scholars whose
scholarship has not been appreciated by the
public at large or who have fallen from grace
by gambling, opium smoking or other vices.
and who earn precarious living from astrol-
ogy, geomancy, claIrvoyance, &c. The philos-
opher, after receiving a fee proporticnate to
The wealth OF his client, consults his mystic
books draws an incomprehensble diagram
With points and straight lines, and announces
The day on which it Will be good luck 10 visit
certain GENE teries and burial sites. On the
day fixed the parties appear dressed In their
best clothes and newl Y washed and shayen.
The grave teliers are equipped with books. da-
grams, paper and a forked rod, strangely re-
sembllng the divining rod with which our an
cestors sought springs and veins OF ore. The
search begins with prayer and then comes a
weary walk and talk sometimes lasting hours
The site is finally picked out. Often two or
three sites are selected SO, in the use Of
one is prevented by Unforeseen circums tarces
another will be ready. The client arranges
with the owner of the land and the authorities
and Is then prepared to die in peace.
CHINESE woRKIyGMEy
Workingmen in China use stimulants freely
but never to excess. Their temperance is made
all the more conspicuous by contrast with Eu-
ropenns in the east. of whom nine tenths drink
heavily and a ma jority drink to excess In the
hospitals twO-thlrds Of the European deaths
from liver. heart and kidney disorders are of
patients who have used stimuants immoder-
ateiy. In consequence of merely nominal
tariff liquors are cheaper in China than in Eu-
rope or America, the drawback system enabling
the merchant to sell Holland gin or Kentucky
bourbon for less in Hongkong than in Amster-
dam or New York. Aquart bottle of the former
can be purchased for 81 cents. an ordinary
quart bottle of fine Scotch whisky for IS cents
and the same quantity Of vermouth for 80
cents.
The opium habit is very general Notwith-
standing its expense it prevails among the poor
well the rich. The vice il practiced
largely in private life, nearly every house hav-
ing one or more 'lay-outs." The opium bust
ness is in the hands OF Europeans, chiefly Brit
ish. 1t is very profitable. In the past decade
the opium evil has been increased and intensi-
fled by the morphine habit. 1t was introduced
by talented English physician. who cured (?)
the opium habit with pills of sulphate OF NOR
phine. The unfortunate Chinese patients, not
understanding the substitution of a more terri
BILE vice for the one of which they desired to be
cured, spread the praise of the new remedy
throughout the district and thence to the
province. The little pills. or little Hong
kong pills" as they are called by the natives,
are now sold by hundreds of thousands. They
contain eighth of grain of the alkaloid and
and manufactured in England This en-
terprising proprietor has realized handsome
fortune from his novel but wicked trade. Rev.
J. A. Otte, MD, one Of the most successful