The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-10-13
THE STOLID CHINESE.
He Can sleep and Work All in the Same
Position.

he Can sleep and Work All In the Same
Position.
1t seems to make no particular differ.
ence to a Chinese how long he remains
in one position. He will write all day
like an automaton. If he is a handi-
craftsman he will stand in one place
from dewy morning till dusky eve,
working away at his weaving, his gold
beating or whatever it may be. and do
1t every day, without any variation in
the monotony and apparently no spe-
clal consciousness that there is any
monotony to be varied.
In the same way Chinese school chill
dren are subjected TO an amount of con-
fnement, unrelieved by any recesses or
change of work. which would drive
western pupils to the verge of insanity.
The very infants in arms. instead of
squirming and wriggling as our chill
dren begin to do as soon as
they are born, lie as inpassive
as so many mud gods. And
at more advanced age. when western
children would vie with the monkey in
its widest antics, Chinese children
viii often stand, sit or squat in the
same posture for great length Of
time
In the item of sleep the Chinese es-
tablishes the same difference between
himself and the Occidental as in the di-
rections already specified. Generally
speaking. he is able to sleep anywhere.
None OF the trifing disturbances which
drive us to despair annoy him. With a
brick for pillow he can lie down on
his bed of stalks, of mud bricks or rat
tan. and sleep the sleep of the Just.
with no reference to the rest of crea-
tion. He does not want his room dark
ened, nor does he require others to be
still The ''infant crying in the night
may continue to cry for all he cares, for
it does not disturb him.
In some regions the entire population
seem to fall asleep. as by common in
stinct like that of the alternating
bear) during the first two hours of sum
mer afternoons, and they do this with
regularity. no matter where they may
be. At two hours after noon the uni
verse at such seasons is as still at two
hours after midnight. In the case
of most working people at least
and also in that of MANY 9TH
ers position in sleep is of no sort of
consequence. 1t would be easy to raise
in China an army of a million-nay. of
10, 600, ,000-tested by competitive ex-
animal ton as to their capacity TO go to
sleep across three wheelbarrows with
head downward like a spider. their
mouths wide open open and fly in
side.
The same freedom from tyranny Of
nerves is exhibited in the Chinese en-
durance of physical pain. Those who
have any acquaintance with the opera
tions in hospitals in China know how
or rather how almost univer-
sal it is for the patients to bear with
out f1inching degree of pain from
which the stoutest of US would shrink
in terror.
1t would be easy to expand this topic
alone into an essay, but we must pass
it by, merely calling attention to re-
mark of George Eliot in one OF her let
ters- 1.-The highest calling and elec-
ton" she says-irritated, no doubt. by
formulas, for which she had
no taste-''is to do without opium, and
to bear pain with clear-eyed endurance
If she is right there can be little doubt
that most Chinese, at least, have made
their calling and election sure-N. Y.