The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-03-02
HOTELS.
DESCRIPTIVE
A oaINEsB EXAMINATION.
Fifteen Thousand Candidates for Lii
erary Honors Assemble.

Fifteen Thousand Candidates for Lit
erary Honors A ssemble.
Wuchang, on the Yangtze. opposite Han
kow, is the capital Of the two provinces
Hupen and Human. Here every thlr year
the examination for competitors from both
provinces is held, and a correspondent OF
the North China Herald of Shanghai de-
scribes the scene at the examination at the
beginning of September last. The streets,
he says, are thronged with long-robed,
large-spectacled gentlemen. Wuchang had
from 1000 to Is, 600 bachelors of art within
its walls, who came from the far borders Of
the province for the examination for the
provincial degree. A bout one-half per cent.
will be successful; tho usands OF them know
they have not the shadow Of q chance, but
literary etiquette binds them to appear. In
the wake Of these Confucian scholars came
rout OF traders. painters, scroll sellers.
teapot vendors, candle merchants, spectacle
mongers, etc. servants and friends swell
the number, so that the examination makes
difference of 40, 900 or 1900 to the resi-
dent population.
The ancestors Of the candidate for three
generations must be recorded, they must be
free from faint of the BARRIERS trade, and
the theater, or the candidate would not
have obtained his first degree. The lists
being thus prepared, on the sixth day of
the eighth moon Tuesday, Sept. s. 1891
the city takes a holiday TO witness the
ceremony of ''eutering the curtain" i. e.,
opening the examination hall. For days
coolies have beer pumping water into great
tanks droves of pigs have been driven into
collins, printers, etc. have been
massed within the hall for possible needs.
The whole company is first entertained to
breakfast at the ydnlen, and then the pro-
cession forms. The ordinary umbrellas,
lictcrs, gongs, feathers and ragamuffins are
there in force. The examiners and the
highest officers are carried in open chairs
draped in scarlet and covered with tiger
skins. The hall Is miniature city. Prac-
tically martial law Is proclaimed. In the
central tower is a sword, and misdemeanor
within the limits is punished with instant
death. Altogether there must be over 90
600 people shut in.
Cases have been known in which hope
full candidate was crushed TO death in the
crowd at the gate. Each candidate is first
identified, and he is assigned certain num-
Der which corresponds TO a cell few feet
square containing one board for seat and
one for desk. Meanwhile the printers in
the building are hard at work printing the
essay texts. Each row OF cells has two at
PENDANTS for cooking, ETC., assigned to it, the
| candidates take their seats, the rows are
looked from the outside, the themes are
handed out, the contest has begun. The
| examination is divided into three bouts of
about thirty-six hours, two nights and a day.
| each, with intervals of a day. The
strain, as may be imagined. is very great,
and several victims die in the hall. The
literary ambition which leads old men of 60
and 20 TO enter not unfrequently destroys
! them. Should any fatal case occur, the
coffin may on no account ba carried out
| through the gates; it must be lifted over or
sometimes through breach in the wall.
Death must not pollute the great entrance.
At the end of the third trial the first batch
of those who have completed their essays is
honored with the firing of guns, the bows
of the officials and the ministry Of a band
of music. Three weeks of anxious waiting
will ensue before huge crowd will assem-
BILE to see the list published.