The Wichita daily eagle., 1897-12-30
TO CELESTIAL EYES
HOW The RIGHT LITTLE, TIGHI
LITTLE ISLAND APPEARS.

wo Chang Files His Pen Down to . sharl
!. Point, Dips IL Into Gall and Dsshes OF
aFcw Brand New Thoushts of His Own
Describing the shams, Snobberies and
AbsurdIties which prevail = Naturally
He Uses His Own Country as q Basis OF
Comparison, Considering 1t q Model
The English Parvenu and His Ways.
New York, Dec 29.--Jonh Bull. so sup
ercilious toward people of other coun-
tries, has at last been lashed all over his
own snug little island.
A Chinaman, Wo Chang. has done il.
He has resided many years in London,
and has just published a book entitled,
| England Seen Through Chinese Specta-
cles" What pen lashing ne gives the
English, The worst that English writers
have said of us seems fattery in compa-
rison.
But perhaps if we study what this caus
tic Chinese critic has 10 say OF British
worship of the Goddess OF Ap2earan-
ces,'' of British hypocrisy, sham and tuft
hunting, we may discover some truths
| which are not wholly inapplicable 20 our
selves.
The Chinese must be skilled opticians,
Cor the spectacles through which Wo
Chang has looked al England and the En-
glish have enabled him to discove
shams and foiblesn English family, Soc
ial, religious and business life which
have escaped other observers. Wo Chang
is, however, more than a keen observer.
He is evidently a Celestial, of great cui-
ture, who, during his long residence in
England, has made use of every oppor-
tunity to familiarize himself with traits
Of English character.
One of the most startling points in Wo
| Chang's England Seen Through Chinese
! Spectacles," is his attack on what Eng
lishmen are apt to consider a semi-divi-
nelly ordained nstitution-family life in
England.
Wo Chang belives England honey
| combed wit disorga nization, and thinks
| that this is due in the first instance to
| lack OF reverence for the institution of
the family and the lack of wise domestic
management, in which he holds that mis-
own country is an example to the so-cal-
! led civilized world.
Take the case" he says, "of a certain
kind OF family life in England, sadly too
common, in which the children get to
know more of the fashionable world than
their parents ever did. The father and
| mother began their struggles poor and
unframed in knowledge. They made
money and sent their boys and girls TO
superior schools. in the fashiona bic sense
where the children mixed with young
folks of higher social grade than their
own. The children finished their educa-
ton with conceited notions which never
entered the heads of their plain, strug-
Cling parents.
FAMILY LIFE A SATIRE.
The father is dubbed "guv nor or
''pater' and the mother INA ter by their
boys, and their notions of life are ridi-
culed by their promising offspring of
both sexes as antediluvian. The SIM
pie minded parents get TO think these
bouncing young fools wonders in their
way. Never having known the man.
ners Of good society themselves, they are
perfectly awestruck TO find their chill
dren talking with a fine accent and in
grammatical phraseology which they
never in their earlier days expected TO be
honored with in their own family
CHILDREN, ,SNUB PARENTS.
1.-THE parents think it a proud privi-
lege to have begotten such highf1own pro
geny. They are like the proverbial hen
with her ducklings, which paddle where
er no
find out how the wind blows and trim
their sails 10 it. They feel that their
gratifed parents look up to them, and
as a natural consequence the children
are not long before they gather encour-
agement to look down on their parents.
''Of course such children straightway
attempt to put on the veneer Of society.
They try 20 pare off the rind of the bacon
and TO disinfect the odor of the cheese
cut OF which the family fortunes were
made, and to substitute a longdrawn out
drawl for the murder Of the queens Eng
fish still ringing in their ears form the
parental shop Of their tender days. !
Perhaps satirically writes Wo
Chang, "the family name has been Smith
Shufflebottom or Snooks But this will
not do for the aspiring generation of new
ly rica fledglings, and SO the old family
names are euphOnized into De Smith. /
Shalebolton or Snefton, and the climax
Of folly is capped with full blown I3ri- |
tish tuft hunting.
LAS a result the girls of the family ge. /
caught up by some poor nephews % \
lords grandson o- by some poor baro- |
nets DESCENDANTS with all tha ViriII,y I
worn out of them by roueisF.l. The only /
faculty left - these spendthrifts in
state OF vigor is the faculty OF wasting
.heir wives money, as they have wasted /
their own
HUNTING A CREST.
The rising generation also conveniently !
discovers, o., rather, the crest maker /
makes the discovery for them, that they /
have an ancestor wslo came over with /
the Conquerer. They also instinc;ively I
gravitate TO Tory politics. as becoming 4
their sudden e-nersenca from social OBJ 1
scurity. In this they act in common +
With most Of the home candidates for The .
charmed circle OF English respectaoili:y, I
and with colonial knight commanders ct /
the Order OF ST. Michael AMI St George.
whose ambition lies toward the same Ie-
tuse for British cads who wan; 10 throw
;he public of he sce1: OF -nsir true OIL
gin. The virtues - 1l.al reverence ard
obedience and affection for relatives are
considered beneath their y,ompousness,
81 "a 8