The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-28

minister of the United States at Peking.
has written an account of the Chinese
which does not need the adventurous aid
of the Oriental war to render it interesting.
Mr.. Holcombe is thoroughly familiar with
the Chinese of to-day and confines his
book mainly to what he has learned by his
own experience in the country. There is
no attempt to reconstruct the history of
Climate account for its barbarisms and
superstitions, to explain all the complex
conditions of its swarming population, or
to enter upon any speculatlons concerning
its future. In place OF these things, which
are so common in works on China. and
which serve generally only to confuse the
reader with multitude of unclassItled
facts and iIl-digested theories, Mr.. Hol-
combe gives US a well-detined account OF
the principal phases of Chinese life as be
has himself seen it, and illustrates each
phase with one or more anecdotes OF actual
occurrences, which assist materially IN
giving clear idea of the subject.
The account given by Mr.. Holcombe IS
much more favorable to the Cinnamon
than that generally entertained IN this
country. He warns the reader in brief
preface that it is far easier to criticize the
Chinese than to understand them, for the
points of contact are too few and too re-
cent, and claims they are emphatically a
race well worthy of serious study. The
work, as every chapter in it contains more
or less information tending to show that
while the Chinese have an antiquity reach
ing back to the days when Egypt and
Assyria were great empires, they have
still enough of the vitality of youth to
make it certain they are yet to play
large part in the destinies of the world
One of the principal characteristics of
the Chinese as a people is their satisfac-
ton with their system of Government and
of society. This gives stability to the en-
pire, but has tendency to prevent limo
vations and reforms even when they are
most needed. According to Mr.. Holcombe
the governing powers of the country would
gladly have made many reforms years ago
if they had dared do SO; but while nomi-
nally an absolute despotism, the Govern
ment of China is really under control of
public opinion, and cannot act with any
effect against the will of the people.
While in its main outlines the account
given in the work confirms the statements
of others concerning the Chinese, it con-
tains many anecdotes and incidents which
customs of the country, and by showing
them in under different aspect give
different impression of their character
from that which has been hitherto &C
copied as accurate. In this way the Gus
tom of Chinese officials exacting money
from the people, which has been generally
regarded as extortion and described as
official corruption, is made to appear more
like a well understood system of official
fees than anything in the way of oppres-
sion or dishonesty. Other practices,
usually depicted as evil, are presented in
equally favorable lights, and in this way
the general conception of the Chinese de-
rived from the book is much higher than
that usually accepted from the same state
ment of facts.
The descriptive value of the book is en-
HANGED by numerous illustrations, which
being photographed give accurate presenta-
tions of the subjects they represent and
materially assist in conveying clear idea
of the PEG, lie. New York: Dodd, Mead &
Co. For sale by William Doxey.l