Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-10-04
No pIseipline and So Silence

lb III h way IIhJ starts in life better equipped in this regard than the boy of any other race. For 10 centuries his ancestors have been trained in tho same manner, and hc inherits n power that Is phenomenal. Imagine an American boy who can rccitc the Bible from end to end. No such boy exists But this would bc bagatcllc to n young Celestial. Scholars of l5 and Is years of ago can usually rccite 20 books by heart and then not excite remark or praise
 Scholars of mature age can rccite 90 or 50 as a matter of course.
 Yet Nervous Prostration Is Unknown. The schOolroom is neat, clean and not unattractivc. On the wall arc long ban ncrs containing inscriptions from the classic writers. The teacher sits in n hand some armchair nt n finely carved table Before him arc the ink, brushes and pa | per, n few books and his inscparablc com | panion, the pipe. Tho boys, ranging in
 number from to 40, occupy smaller chairs, or stools, and tables. ThCro arc no classes nor divisions. Each boy works ''on his | own hook" and according to the teachers | estimate of his abilities and tendencies. The teacher is n parsonage greater than | a college professor at home. The five ! good powers we should rcvcrencc," says I the Chinese provcrb, "are heaven, the em- | peror, your schoolmastcr, your ancestors | and your parents" Tho teacher selects tho ! name for tho scholar instead of the par cnts. He determines and marks out tho | intellectual and often the commercial or professional path that Is to be followed in after life. When the scholars arrive in the | morning, they kow tow to him as to q su- pcrior being. They advance slowly n few
 steps, then stop and bow until they arc nearly bent double. Next they fall forward on their hands and touch tho floor threc | times with the forehead. The teacher thanks them and tells them to rise and study. Each stands up, bows and goes to I his own place Here ho opens n book and | forthwith starts bcllowing his lessons at the top of his lungs.
 The Chinese Primer.
 There is little or no mischief and no horseplay. Tho master Is furnished with
 vicious looking rattan or bamboo, but Is very seldom required to use it. When he
 does, 1t is long rcmcmbcrcd. The curricu- | lum is exceedingly odd. There Is no spell | ing in Chinese and no letters. Every char actor Is an telegraph and as such Is mem | orized at the very first. It Is not until long after that tho teacher explains their nature | and shows how they began, grcw, com
 bined and were modified into their present | condition There Is no geography nor | grammar. Chinese is essentially n gram
 marlcss tongue. Tho first book the child takes up is in rhyme and written in lines of threC words each. Much of it my Dc | paraphrascd us follows:
 Your father love
 | All things above.
 Your mother cherish
 | CnleSs you perish.
 Be always kind
 I To halt and blind.
 1 All men earth
 Arc good at birth.s
 As the literary language is different
 from the vcrnacular the poor child under
 stands nothing at all at first. Nevertheless
 he commits 1t to memory and with 1t the | ungainly ten chest characters He next be-
 gins writing and is compelled to trace
 endless pages. He begins at daylight. has
 n light meal about noon and keeps it up | until dark. This Is tho course for many | years In America, when school Is in, quiet reigns supreme; when school is out,
 the streets arc full of uproar. In China,
 the land of turvy topsydom, 1t is tho op-
 posite. When school is in, the neighbor-
 hood Is Q chaos of noise; when school is
 out, the little scholars, tired and heavy
 eyed, walk home in utter silence.
 | What They Learn.
 What do these little almond eyed UT
 chins lcarnl No geography, not even of
 their own country or district. No arith-
 metic, except enough to add, subtract,
 multiply and divide. No mathematics,
 art, science, gymnastics, music, singing,
 foreign tongues. Tho curriculum of O
 modern university, college, high school or
 even public school would be a sealed book
 to the average Mongolian scholar.
 He learns rhetoric, prose and poetic com
 position, letter writing, engrossing and
 Illuminating, the history and the litera-
 ture of China. He commits to memory a
 hundred books and thousands of poems
 and essays. He learns the development of
 his language and his writing. He learns
 law, etiquette and custom. He acquires
 also a weird and woeful amount of misin-
 formation about medicine, astrology, de-
 monology, monsters cosmogony, mythical
 love, fable and tradition. I met distin-
 guished Cantonese scholar who spoke ex-
 cellent English. His conversation was a
 perpetual surprise. so full was 1t of wise
 ignorance and refined superstition. On | one occasion he told me that ricebirds are
 fishes for one year, who on the night of a
 certain full moon come to the surface of
 the water, when they open their mouths | to sing The skin thereupon splits from | mouth to tail, and the feathcred warbler | hops out and flies away. On another oc- | casion he described the best way of catch
 ing sharks. Boil watermelons, |" he said, | until they are heated through and
 through. Throw one to the shark, who
 will immediately swallow 1t whole. The
 melon reacts on the gases of the stomach,
 which accumulate rapidly and finally ex l plode with great force, blowing the waist ! of the fish completely away without iniur