The Indianapolis journal., 1895-07-05
THE PEOPLE OF CHINA.
Julian Ralph Could Not Find the He
ings He Had Read About.
July Harper.


There are many Chinas, or many kinds of
China, but the only one / expected to find
was the one did not see 1t was an ideal
l had been forming all along the years be-
tween my first geography and my latest
purchased book-of a country peopled by
men wearing broad-brimmed, cone-shaped
hats, and carrying boxes OF tea on each
end of the bamboo poles they balanced on
one shoulder. That sort of man saw once
or twice among the millions l met. but the
whole combination missed altogether My
workingmen, and its farmers-not TO speak
Of beggars. actors, priests. conjurers and
sailors. We found its merchant class polite,
patient, extremely shrewd. well-dressed,
pattern shopkeepers. We found its gentle
men graceful. polished. generous and ami
able. But the peasantry constantly remind
ed US OF the country folk of continental
Europe outside of Russia. Theirs was tine
same simplicity of costume, intelligence and
manners: They lived in very much the same
little Villages OF matched cottages. Theirs
was the same awkwardness, shyness, cum
ming In trade. the same distrust of strangers
and of strange things The sharpest frac-
ture OF the comparison was seen in the
Chinese farms; for, where We were, every
handful of arth was almost literally passed
through the hands of its. cultvators. every
manured,. watched and cared for as a re-
tired Enslishman looks after his back gar
den. The result was fertility beyond COM
pare. a glory of vegetation. universally
or cultivation that permitted no waste
places Ii was "A system that always in
Cluueu Ine preparation Oh second growth
20 be transplanted into the place of the
main growth when the first reached its
harvest. AS compared with Japan one
feature of every view was strikingly in fa-
vor of the larger country The dress and
behavior of the Chinese will not offend
Europeans. The women of central China
are not merely most mooest. they are as
completely dressed as any woman / have
ever seen. They are covered from neck TO
heels in a costume composed of jacket
and trousrs. AS Mr.. Weldon saws.
Of
is calculated to produce the most perfect
nation, physically. X is Gods providence
is offset by their innutritious food and their
fondness for the Gripping of women's feet
In japan. nakedness is what startles the
together that Trilby posed for is a product
that / saw only in the cases of less than
half dozen children. l am told that in the
country one sees women half barred above
the waist when the sun shines tropically.
but l cannot pove that: l saw one farmer
on above her trousers.~but / can not an
nounce national custom ucon that slen-
der basis On the other. hand. / saw the
women at every sort of labor, squatted down
upon the rivers edge. climbing like boys.
wrestling, frolicking. rowing boats with
occasion to regari that jealous ser modestg desag
which is safeguarded in their dress and ir
their souls from infancy onward. / never
raised my eyes TO have them meet those
of woman that she did not cast .lers down
or turn ana run INDOORS as faSt as her
golden lilies'-goat's feet. Weldon calls
then-would carry her. Even in the night
resorts OF the gentlemen, where the beiew-
eled sng-song girls ply their service of
song and attendance during the formal din
ners of men of means. l never saw the sug-
gestion of improper behavior on the mems
or the women's part. To be sure, these
women made bold TO rub their hands softly
against my hair twhere keep what have:
in the backD TO see how cur sho~n hair
feels And they. fingered my collar and
cuffs. and gently touched my planklike
dren do under similar circumstances al
home. So like little children were they that
could not bear to think them different i'm
any respect-there I'm that garden where
baby girts only fetched dollar i'm the mar
ket. until the price rose recently. in Shang-
the silk -fllature factories. Bows are differ
ent. OF course. Just as I was leaving China
picked out a likely shaver or four years