The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-08-14
CHINESE POINTS OF INTEREST
tchlcago Times-Herald.l

- > NS'4 . III america without ADOPT
ing american dress or customs is Jack
Hing. who has a facile tongue for En-
glish and is head clerk in a Chinese
store OF some Importance as an attrae-
tlon IN the best quarter of the city
ring mas the courage to stand in the
door OF his shop at any hour in his
blouse and pigtail and listen with com
posed and inexpensive features to the
newsboy's cry of horrors from China.
and when asked if he believes it an
swerS readily, with the suavity of his
peoples How me know? Me too far"
His apologies for his country are as
vague and elusive as the news.
High people in China got too much
say. Poor people too little People
not 70 blame government too much
slow"
Kings answer to the question if he
liked America best was statesmanlike
IN its diplomacy.
Me like Ilishman. He say here your
potato no good-see my potato in my
county, so long, so wide Then him go
back LELAND and him say-you like to
see potato III Amelica-so big. so long
not likee this."
A discussion of the census of China
brought out this bit of native informa
ton:
we not count in China like you with
women and girls-we take only men
and boys. Women no count there Four
hundred and seventy-four million all
boy and man.
The war in China has quickened the
sales of their peculiar wares, the sto-
RED blue ware, the cups of rare porce-
lain with covers and dragons in
bronzed china for handles. and the
wonders in gorgeous silk embrOideries,
" her Il. -
pattern is made alike stitch for stitch
/ on the reverse. 1t may be that the
hands of the cunning artisans will he
cut on literally and the fine arts be-
come lost arts to the generations to
come.
! The largest encyclopedia in the world
! was compiled by the Chinese in the
reign of the Emperor Yunglo-ta-tien
! l40S. This volume consisted of D. 600
| books and was a complete compendium
| OF knowledge, but it was never pub
! lished. and the books now existing in
| manuscript are imperfect, but have a
| place of honor in the imperial library.
/ -Four hundred years later the emperor
OF the present dynasty set his scholars
to work to produce a similar set of vol
umes He gave them the headings
| himself to the number of 6,109, and his
| learned writer's grew old and died in
compiling the 5000 volumes, which con-
sumed in their production forty years
of skilled labor. They were finally
printed in an edition limited to 100
/ copies. One complete copy is in the
British museum. 1t is only natural
that the Chinese with their love of an
tiquities should prefer the first work
with it's imperfect knowledge to the
later one with its vast accumulation of
new inventions and enterprises. Learn
ing in literary sense is not original in
China. they borrowed their knowledge
from the Buddhist missionaries, who
aroused their interest when they trans
lated the S,3nskrit into Chinese. Once
having learned a new theory, science
or philosophy, the Chinese never forget,
for the reason that they find it much
easier to remember an old cult than to
formulate a new one. Their patience
in collecting and classifying knowledge
from established literature is phenom-
email, but they are slow to originate
thoughts and ideas Of their own.
q g G
Straws show which way the wind
blows. and quaint little Chinese
straw-the fOrerunner of many-has
been sent out on a favoring commercial
gale. 1t is q happy thought in the
dren-boys-who are depicted in water
cOlors or pastel on sheet of soft vel
vety rice paper mounted on ordinary
cardboard. The innocence of childhood
shines through and through the small
celeStials, who seem to say in their
childish expression, accentuated by
their native costume. I'VE wouldn't
hurt any One-nOt muchee." One is
braiding the inevitable pigtail, adding
the side of the picture in tea chest
characters is the phrase Good luck,
At least that is what my Chinese
washee man says it is, but it may be
an edict from the empress Of China to
call her subjects home, for all 1 could
prove to the contrary. But the little
pictures with no name to explain them !
are going like hot cakes with their red |
hieroglyphics and the vague daring of |
their message.
When Minister Angel was in China |
he was invited to a feast where one of |
the dishes was announced as mouse
ear with snails. DR.. Angel was like
the French lady who excused herself |
from eating indiscriminate dishes by |
saying that she late only her ac-
quaintance." He desired to know his /
food in a country where strange con-
coctions are the rule, and he passed the |
mOuSe-ear without investigation, TO |
learn later that it is an edible fungus, |
and not the glutinous ears of native /
mice, while snails are a delicacy in /
both London and Paris. Doubtless it /
will be discovered when too late that /
the Chinese never ate '1ats," but have i
been cOmestibly slandered.
An attempt has been made to exploit |
Chinese poetry, but the translations set /
ones teeth on edge, and the safest |
way to read it is in the original It is |
published with a glossary more bewii- |
dering than the poetry and quite as
voluminous. Here is love song. There /
is no such word as "dodder'' in any /
language, but the Chinese lover. like !
other poets, coins words to make out a |
line, so his translator says in a foot /
note:
When I go to pluck the dodder
Fields and lanes of Mel among
Guess you where my thoughts there /
wander
To the fair-the eldest Kiang.
Tryst she gave me at Sang-ehung
Was to meet me at Shang-kung
And would see me to K'i-shang.
None of the numerous verses indicate |
whether the fair Kiang saw him fur |
Their or not. The Chinese may like |
that kind of poetry, but even its OBJ |
security would not commend il in Amer |
lea. NJ. L. RAYNE
THE DIFFERENCE.
(Chicaeo Record Tpdenenden+