Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-29

know what luxury Is, and they are eco
nc mioal in the extreme"
But will they not be changed by the
foreigners coming mr.
Il think not China will always be
China no matter who the rulers are
dent believe they care much who rule
ttem. They think that they are the great
est people in the world, and although they
have been snbjugated again and again.
they have gone on in their old ways and
made their conquerOrs adopt their Gus
toms. China makes me think of a sponge
lying on the seashore of time.
The tidal waves of revolution sweep over
1t, but when they go back they do no;
carry with them any of the sponge, but
the sponge has absorbed some of the tidal
wave. Take a single instance. When the
Manchus who are now ruling China first
&C nquered the Chinese. they passed law
that every Chinaman should shave his
read and wear pig tail as mark of SUBJ
jCgation. The Chinese protested. Hun
dreds of thousands of them refused and
had their heads cut off in consequence. AT
last, however. they adopted the custom
and they have made it so necessary to
se1f-respect in China that the Manchus
themselves now also wear pig tails and
shave their crowns.
THE Chinese are different from any race
of the world. We produce our results by ex-
pillsion and aggression. The Chinese brings
about his results by absolute oassivity, by
the wonderful force of non-resistance and
eternal waiting A mans life is pin point
in the Chinese idea of time. If thing does
not happen now, it will come in the time of
his Observation-Disclosures, and he feels that
he can affo d to wait. The motto of our
civilization is Now and If not now Never.
The Chinanran looks at his family record
for generations back and believes that his
children for generations to come will wor-
ship at his shrine and have the benefit OF
his patient waiting.
Would Make Good Soldiers.
THE war with Japan ought to have
taken some of the conceit out Of the Chi
nese, but 1t did not. In the interior of
China 80 per cent of the people did
not know that the war was going on,
and the other 10 per cent firmly be-
lieved, and still believe that China con-
quered. and that the japanese have been
compelled to pay tribute. Celebrations are
now taxing place il the back districts OF
China in commemoration of the great vic
tt ries which their soldiers won over tine
Japanese
Il don't thing much of the Chinese army
remember seeing the emperors body
guard as he made his way from the sum-
mer palace to his palace in Picking, and two
OF our party incurred the danger of death
by looking at the emperor. The emperor s
body guard was 100 per cent worst than
Falstah's army in appearance. A Kansas
cowboy coulc have captured the whole lot
OF them, and the emperor into the bargain
Why. it was more like a comic opera than
like the guard of an emperor who rules one
of the greatest nations of the world. And
Still these Chinese would make good sol
oilers, If they were well trained. 1 saw a
man out OF hunting near Picking who had
gun which had neither sight nor lock
He held the gun in his left hand and dis
charged it by touching the primer with a
taper in his right hand. He did this while
he aimed at the snipe and killed it. Thai
man thought he had a modern gun, and
that is a sample of the way in which many
of the soldiers were armed.
If the English combine with the jap
anese they could control everything in
China. The Japanese could hold in check
all other forces there. Japan is we'll armed
and she is putting up magnificent fortifica-
tons everywhere. The Japanese people
are intensely patriotic and they are now
being taught to hate Russia. In the
schools of Japan little children are now
taught to parse the sentence We must
grow up to fight Russia
Il think we ought to do everything We
can to encourage our commercial relations
with Asia. We need the great markets OF
the FAR east and we should have the closest
associations with the Chinese. They ought
to come here to get their money rather
than to England. They naturally favor us
more than they do the European nations
but they must have money to make i'm
provementS and to establish modern meth
much prefer to borrow from u.s. There is
no doubt of the security. The Chinese are
the most honest people on the face of the
earth. They will keep their word at any
cost why Cninaman to pay a debt OF
honor or of money, will often go and give
his head as a substitute to the executioner
for some man who is under sentence OF
death. He will sell his head for hundred
to pay their debts and the word bank
rupt' in China is almost as diseraceful as
the word thief"
FRANK G. CARPENTER.