The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-09-29

ton room, where the father and I eaci
shake our own hands most heartily and
bow profoundly. ] then say 70 him:
"'What is your honorable name?'
HE replies, My mean, insignificant
name is Wong
Then l say, please be seated and
point to a seat at the back of the room al
the left hand of the tabie-the seat OF
greatest honor. lie Immediately takes the
right hand seat, nearest the door-the post
of least honor. / urge him to go up
higher He declares that he is unworthy.
Then | catch hold of him to force him to
go higher, and he takes hold of me to pre-
vent it. We have quite a vigorous strug-
gle lasting some time. Finally he &C
cepts compromise and takes a seat half
way ND the side of the room. sit down
on the seat next lower.
Before beginning our conversation
send for tea and the water pipe, and when
they arrive l say, Please use tea
when he has taken some tea and puff
from the pipe, we talk. He asks iDnu-
Tnerable polite questions about myself A
Chinese gentleman never comes to business
for quarter or half an hour. Time never
troubles an oriental He begins by ask
ing:
What is your honorable name?'
I of course reply that my mean, insig-
niffcant name is Pott. The next question
from him is:
What is your honorable kingdom?'
and / am obliged, much Us l dislike it, to
say:
THE small, petty district from which
I come is the United States of America.
How many little stems have you
sproUted2' he says. That is the way he
asks how old / am. Il have vainly spent
so years, 1 reply.
Asking after my father, he says, Is
the honorable and great man of the house
hold living 1t is shocking, ! know, but
I have TO answer, The old man is well.
Then comes, How many little pre-
cious ones have your / reply gravely, I
have two little dogs (The little dogs are
my childfen.l The last question is:
'''How many children have you in this
illustrious institution Ny answer is,
Il have 100 little brothers.
''Then .he comes to business and says:
Venerable master, have brought my
little dog here and worshipfuIly intrust
him to your charge The little fellow,
who has been standing in a corner of the
room. at this comes forward, kneels down
before me- puts his hands on the ground,
knocks his head on the floor and worships
me. raise him up and send him off to
school, and arrangements are made about
his dormitory, course of study, etc.
The gentleman rises to take his leave.
4 have tormented you exceedingly today
he remarks. oh, no. 1 answer. L have
dishonored you As he goes toward the
door he keeps saying, L am gone, I am
gone, and reply, Go slowly, go slowly
AS follow him to the gate in the garden
he says, Please restrain your golden foot
steps When we arrive at the gate. we
again shake our own hands, bow very rev.
erently to one another, and he is gone.
Their pollteness IS sometimes carried
to an extreme which seems amusing tous.
i have seen five or six men ha~gle for five
minutes over who should first enter a door
at which they had CHANGED to meet. They
all urge each other to go in first. And this
cercInonious politeness is not confined TO
the upper classes. If two wheelharrow
men meet in a narrow path and one has to
go TO one side to let the other pass, the one
who kept the road viii say, L have sinned
against you, and the other viii reply.
Don mention it But, while they are
exceedingly polite among themselves. they
are very rude as a rule, to a foreigner"
The reporter asked him if he would say
something more about the Chinese He
then said:
The qualities the Chinese value most
Of all are diligence, economy. patience and
obedience. This VIII illustrate their econ
omy: missionary once met an old wom-
an walking on a road. She was so feeble
that he asked her why she was not in the
house She replied that she knew she was
going to die and was going home to die
there, so there would be less expense for
her collin and burial 4 lasting monu-
ment 10 their diligence is the great wall.
Obedience and honor TO parents. how
ever, Is the cardinal principle A story is
told OF boy whose mother was too poor
10 have mosquito netting so the good
boy sat on the bed and barred the upper
part of his body SO the mosquitoes could
feast or him first Another story is that
poor boy who wanted to catch some fish
for his mother stripped himself and lay on
the frozen river until the warmth of his
body thawed the ice and the fish iumped
out These are some Of the stories Chi
nese parents tell their children TO teach
them what an excellent thing it is to honor
and obey their parents
know for a fact that ii is no unusual
thing for boys to cut out pieces of their
ueSh FOR medicine for their parents For
medlcine, do you sayg Yes, for the Chi
nese have the most ridiculous ideas about
medicine. They have no surgery. They
use suakeSkinS and other charms. one
way they treat q disease Is to give nine
pills TO person years old, 40 pills to
one 40 years old, and So on.
neir great fault is learning hardly
anything that i practical. They only
study ethical books and are as ignorant
a. children Of The sciences Their explana.
Non OF an earthquake i that the hack OF 4.
the crocodile who passes his time holding
ZAP the globe begins 20 itch and 50 when
The crocodile wriagles the earth begins tn
snake The ignorant people think thar
an eclipse Is caused by a huge monster.
who comes into the sky and inconsiderare-
iy goobleS up the sun or moon. IS the cass
may be They are afraid of thunder. bur
not OF the lightning, and have no ideas Of
course, about the cause OF them They be-
sleFe that the rainbow IS composed of rai-
tonous gases. BOYS are taught that if thew
POINT Their finger at rainbow they win
gave ielon on it."-New York Tribune.
SPIDER IN A DIVING 6ELL.