Washington sentinel., 1900-07-28
TNr SHNITTNFI

nor altogether the SimpIeton PIC
tured in Lambs immortal DIS
sertation on Roast Pig" He is
the worlds donkey. He can be
led; he cannot be driven. AS in
the case Of Gordon, he will, after
proving him, honor a great man,
whatever his nationality. But to
Western ideas Johns life is de
voted to fraud. He believes, and
always has believed, that he sees
with two ewes, and that the 'tor-
eign devil" sees with only one.
We wear black for our mourning
or for our boots; he uses white.
We care for the living, he cares
for the dead. With him the place
OF honor is on the left hand. He
doffs his hat as sign OF disrespect.
His roses have no fragrance. His
women folk wear no petticoats and
do no shopping, If he is happy
enough to escape from the poverty
and drudgerY which form the rule
Of life in the Flowery Land, his
table is the measure OF his riches.
His legal code is formed on the
supposition that fraud is universal.
Trial by this code is synonymous
with torture. Ii is not novel to
find a governor who has been
exiled for his misdeeds recalled
and promoted because his success
sor had eclipsed him in rascallty.
From those near the throne to
those in the hoVel the practice is
invariably to give bubes to all
above and to exact them from
those below. Government goods
are sometimes a year in transit, the
officials in charge being more anX-
ious TO levy fees for alleged OBJ
struc uction than to expedite the Gov
ernment's business. And yet dur
ing the time the East India Com
pany traded with China there was
no record OF money being lost
through the fraud or failure OF
native merchant, though large
sums had to be handed to China
men Tor the purchase Of tea in the
interior Of the country, where the
foreigner was not permitted to go.
Johns simplicity is eXempllfied
in the fact that during the China
Japan war he put up umbrellas to
protect him from the enemy's
shells. One writer, describing the
capture OF Annoy by the British in
I84I, says the officials prepared a
battery of 200 guns along the
shore. Sailing vessels would have
had to run the gauntlet of their
fire. Admiral Parker, however,
had his sailing vessels towed up to
the town at a safe distance. The
tow was taken with the loss Of
one man, while the natives lost
fifty. The Chinese general de-
clared such practices were without
precedent. When Sir II. Cough
landed a mountain battery, and
from a neighboring hill attacked
the Chinese gunners from the rear,
the officials, who had never dreamt
Of guns being fred down a hill,
sent of hurried dispatches in
forming the Emperor Of the treach-
erous imDropriety oi the ''barbar-
ians."
A Chinese woman is expected
when young to obey her iather and
her eldest brother; when married,
her husband; when a widow, her
eldest son. She gives no orders.
There is Chinese proVerb which
says, women and children are
clothes" to be had when wanted,
to be cast Of as desired. But in
the language, the symbol for "rest"
and "quiet" is that for women
under the domestic roof" Mar
ried sons are compelled to live
under their parents roof, where
their wives are subject to the rule
Of a mother-in-law or OF an elder
sister-in-law. With his poverty
may be compared John Chinameu's
ca.lous view OF the value Of human
life. This callousness seems to be
even more contemptuous than that
met with in India. And vet the
Chinese dread the name Of death.
When one has died he has been
"killed." In Fuhkien, which in
some respects is the most promis-
ing part OF China, to mention death
TO native is to render him an in
suit, especially at the opening OF
the year. The dreaded word is
evaded wherever possible.
John is much of a devil worship
per. What is called the worship
OF ancestors" is a complicated sys-
TEN Tor laying the spirits OF the de-
parted. II is the common belief
that if the ghosts are not worship
ped and fed they wreak vengeance
on the living. The worship being
the province Of the son facilitates
divorce and polygamy, but is not
without certain redeeming feat
uTes. Il has been computed that
the public worship Of ancestors"
costs the empire &c, 900, 900 per
annum, and the private worship
Ea4, 900, 900.
In Chinese society the scholar is
regarded as next to the emperor;
then comes the farmer, and after
him the mechanic, and the trader.
The amusement or decorative
caterer comes last IN the scale, in
accordance with the saying that
"the man who pays highly for a
song will not give much tor Vir-
tue" Scholarship, however, is
scarcely such as we should desip-
na.e by that name. But Chinese
literature is not destitute OF fancy.
For instance there is an old Chm
ese romance oI which Volfaire