The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-14
A CHINESE VIEW OF ENGLAND.
is Cursed With Doctors and Lawyers
Intemperancc Worse Than Opium.
From the London News.

y.
Intemperancc Worse Than Opium.
From the London News.
Wanted; Information which shall estab-
fish the identity of MIR. Wo Chang, author
of England Through Chimes Spectacles. -
| CThe Cotton Press.) Mr.. Chang tells us
himself that he had the advantage of an
extended training in the English language
and literature under a very learned and
wise English tutor residing at one of the
| treaty ports. He came, 1t is added. to
London quarter of a century ago-ap-
! parently on a mission not remotely con-
nected with the tea trade-and has remain
| ed to find fault with us ever since. He
has cut off his pigtail, it seems, and wears
| English dress. We confess that we should
not rub our eyes with amazement if not
| merely Mr. Changes dress, but a good deal
| of what his dress covers, were found to be
| Englishs We strongly suspect him. in
| deed-or some of him-to be nothing more
! than a literary artfce a descendant of
| Goldsmith's Lien Chi Altangi. At any
| rate, this Heather Chinee is peculiar,
| which the same we are free to maintain
In brief, he knows a great deal too much
about us not to escape the suspicion of
| being-or collaborating with-one of
| ourselves.
The freedom with which he grumbles at
us and our institutions encourages the
suspicion But Mr.. Chang has another ex-
| PLANTATION for that "Panegyric" he saws,
coming from a foreigner would SAVIOR of
vulgarity," and he frankly confesses'
that he has abstaned from it. Evidently
| the figure meiosis is not unknown in
| China-or else must have been included in
the curriculum of the very learned and
wise English tutor residing al a treaty
| port. For Mr.. Chougs absention from
| the vulgarity of panegyric comes to moth
| ing less than a sweeping indictment of
| our whole social, political, and Industrial
| system He bids us set our house in order,
| study Confuclus, and generally do as the
| Chinese do He contrasts the British and
| the Celestial Empire and the com
| parson if he will pardon us a familiar
| idiom, knocks us endways. We are lawyer
ridden; in China there is not a single
| lawyer. Our doctors are humbugs and
| extortionate; the Chinese have adopted
| the simple rule OF mo cure, no pay"
| Our intemperance is notorious; " cas- in
| China opium is only used as "tho sJ5ther
| of ruffied minds among the poor" though
| it may here and there be carried to
| excess. AS for our family life, it is
| ebominable 1t is the degrading custom
| in the rich middle and upper classes in
England to give brides dowry. Mr. Chang
| cannot trust himself "to refer at length
to the monstrous injustice committed by
| the vast majority of even middle-cIass
husbands in occupying the best part of
| their leisure with professional or COM
| mercial friends, or in the smoke-rooms
and billard-rooms of clubs, casting the
burden of training their families on the
| mothers"
There is a still deeper abyss of British
| parental neglect, the habit of leaving chill
dren to governesses and tutors. Thus chill
dren grow up without affection or respect
| for their parents. How different the state
of affairs In China, where "flial piety is to
the national Constitution what liberty is
to the Constitution of England" and they
| have a favorite proverb that "Of the hun
dred virtues, filial duty is the chief" The
| Chinese son who forgets this proverb gets
a pretty sharp reminder of it, as a little
| story told by Mr.. Wo Chang will show.
"a man and his wife once Joined in mall
| treating the HUSBANDS mother. To mark
| public adherence of such vile criminality
| as Obstructive of the fundamental principle
| of Chinese government, the authorities at
| Pekin had the scene of the dreadful act
openly cured. The active agents in this
| outrage on the peace of the empire were
| put to death, the mother of the wife was
| bambooed, branded, and exiled for her
| daughters crime; the scholars of the dis
| trict for three years were not permitted to
| attend the public examinations and their
| promotion was thereby stopped; the magis-
| trates were deprived of their office and
| banished. The house in which the offend
ers lived was dug up from the found
| ations." With this anecdote, we think
| it only fair to Mr.. Chang to couple
| the modest assertion, which he
makes elsewhere, that, lass a
whole, 1t will be found that the Chinese
have been more rational in their punitive
administration than the English have
been"
| One of Mr.. Changes most engaging chap
ters deals with Liars in England" Nat
| urally, it runs to some length. The great
scholar, Mang Chefan, it seems has re-
| marked that great trading always breeds
| many liars; and Mr.. Chang can confirm
this from his personal experience. When
he settled in London he weighed his meat,
like Mr.. Goldfnch in "a Pair of Specta-
| cles," mot Chinese) and found it several
| ounces short He bought a lactometer,
being of mechanical turn of mind and
interested in useful instruments Of all
] kinds" and the revelations of that lactom-
| eter were awful. AS for his butter, it was
so reconcile end battling even to the most
useful instruments that he has now Sub
| sttuted the best dripping" The very first
| Englishman he employed as traveller in
| the tea business deceived him yet this
corporate mass of pulpy corruption could
| obtain a flaming certificate from his
| clergyman" There was another English
man who actually lied about his know
| ledge of Kant and Hegel, but two German
| friends of Mr. Changes set a trap for this
| man and laid bare his imposture Then, we
| are told, they rose up and politely in
| formed this parasite on the skirts of an
intelligent and cultered society that he
was liar of a certain unnameabe dis
cription, and manifested their senses of
| loathing toward him by Withdrawing
| from the room" Mr.. Chang promises
| a further volume, dealing, among other
matters, with the merits of our newspaper
press. We tremble.
Dyspepsia and general debility are cured
by p. z. p. Lippman's great remedy, the
superior of all sarsaparillas.
p. p. p. Is the greatest tonic for the
| stomach that was ever known.