The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1897-01-05
A CHINESE ROMANCE.

dROuV VI EplIlt 1AO u1CS II AttQ OOAAO
his day of reckoning. 1t was the day
before the Chinese New Year 's-Feb. 8,
according to your oalendar-when every
good Chinaman must settle up or go up
the spout and confess himself dishonor-
ed. He owed only little matter of 100
taels-not pigtails nor cowtails, you
understand, but silver taels-equivalen
to $1.30 in American money. If he had
that many taels, he would gladly have
paid up, for there was nothing small
about Ding; but he didn't, and thereby
hangs tale.
If Ding had only possessed the glorious
birthright of an American, instead Of
worrying over such a trifiing matter he
would have let his creditor do SO, get
an extension of time, and then settle up
at 90 cents ON the dollar.
As it was, poor Ding only saw ruina-
ton before him and dilapidation of his
air castles. Grim despair, like an i'm
mense bat, spread her sable wings and
overcast his sensitive soul with shadows
ana dark IOreDOQ1DgS.
Ding Dong was poor and an orphan
not quite as poor as a church mouse,
perhaps, for he still had something bet
ter to eat than hymn books and velvet
cushions, but still SO poor that the
patches on his gown made it look like a
crazy quilt, while it's back had received
such deposit of oil from his braided
hair as would gladden. the heart of
Pennsylvania capitalist to strike.
His father was the famous Ding
Dung, who had been mandarin in the
service of the emperor. Dung was true
father to the people over whom he was
sent to rule, and, knowing that too
much money would not be good for
them, squeezed them ON all occasions,
thereby growing enormously rich. But,
as he was not prudent enough to share
his i'll gotten gains with his superiors,
he was denounced by the censors for
malfeasance in office and had his head
taken off and his property confscated
His mother having died during his
fathers financial crisis, the younger
Ding found himself at the age of IS a
lone orphan and penniless. Now that he
had to shift for himself, our hero opened
a school and was so far successful that
he had plenty to eat and good clothes on
his back until ambition and a laudable
desire to better his condition prompted
him to borrow money to defray the ex-
pense of a journey to Canton, where he
proposed to test his luck and skill in the
public examination. From this literary
contest he came out with flying colors.
He was no SLOUGH as a scholar, though
he might be wanting when weighed in
the scales of Mammon. In scholastic at
tainments he had few equals and hardly
any superiors. He had vanquished many
antagonists in the examination halls of
his native town, where he proved again
and again that he could quote Confucius
and other sages at longer stretch than
any one, compose poems with greater
elegance and ease and write Chinese
hieroglyphics with finer touch and fin
ish. He led his class in the examination
at Canton, thereby climbing the first
rung on the ladder of fame and win
ming the seu-tsai' S brass button. There
remained only two more trials, which,
successfully passed through, would
land him at the top of the heap, from
which he could fatten at the public crib
at his leisure.
But his triumph was shortened and
his dreams of future greatness were dis
turbed by thoughts of the debt he still
owed, whose interest he had been able
to pay by dint of economy, but whose
principal he saw no chance of settling
before the new year rolled in.
His creditor was no other than his
future fatherin-law, to whose daughter
he had been engaged while tho elder
Ding was making money hand over fist,
and the Ding family seemed to be in
the food tide of worldly prosperity. But
when the family was reduced in num-
bers as we'll as III means by order of his
sacred majesty, the son of heaven, the
father of the girl said to his wife, II
told you so, and regretted his haste in
making the match. The old gentleman,
who went by the name Of Ju Dun. was
rich and more worldly minded than
common. He, too, grew wealthy by
squeezing" the people-not, however,
as their father, like Ding Dung. but as
their "uncle, " whose golden rule was
'Do others or they will do you. He
was in the habit of loaning little sums
to people i'll straitened circumstances at
10 per cent per month interest, and by
adding this to the principal i'll case of
its nonpayment at the end of the month.
By this method of compromising inter-
est he got many persons to give up
houses and lands, and even daughters,
to him in payment of debts. Those who
could not settle up thus had to settle
down i'll the debtors prison, where they
languished in chains and misery until
death came to their relief.
Ju Dun was withal miser and
boarded the money he did not lend
as if he were to excel Methusaleh in
longevity. His clothes were worn as
long as they could stand mending He
grudged his wife and only child the
very necessaries of life In order to save
the expense of luxurious table and at
the same time preserve the appearances
he and his family were in the habit Of
eating the coarsest and cheapest rice
and dining on what seemed TO be large
fish, but which was made of wood gar.
nished with strips of salt pork and sea-
soned with sauce ginger and onion
shoots Instead of meat he had lot of
pebbles fried in the most approved style
of the culinary art, which in the mouth
of the diner gave relish to the rice
and could be fried over and over again
with hardly any appreciable loss of sub
stance.
Being such a grasping usurer and
close listed skinf1int, or rather skin
pebble, one would not naturally expect
Ju Dun to view his prospective son-in-
law with favor, but there was the mar
riage contract, which he himself had
drawn up with the elder Ding. How was
he going to get around it without Ding
Dong's consent? He saw no way of GO
ing back on his bond at that time OF
forcing Ding Dong to withdraw from
the alliance; but, like the willy rascal
that be was he determined to bide his
time and watched for an opportunity to
gracefully give Dong the go by.
The opportunity came when Dong
went to him to ask for loan for the
purpose Of paying his debts, when the
following conversation took place, which
we will translate for the readers benefiti
'Honored ir''-thus Ding Dong be-
gam have come humbly to solicit
the loan of 100 taels, which your we'll
filed Golfers will hardly miss, that /
may go to Canton and take part in the
coming examination. l felt some deli
cacy in asking this of you on account of