The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-03

a Chinese Talks of His Childhood I'm
the Old Country.
IRON the Indianapolis News.

From the indianapolis News.
When was boy" said Moy Kee, tea
merchant, laundryman and interpreter. at
ZIG North Delafare street, AZ went so
school in my native village of Shrinking
elshty-seven miles from Pekin. l was
years old when ! started TO school, and
OF course, the teacher was "A man. Now
there are women teaching in China, Chi
nese women. but that is a new thing. We
sat on STOOLS with desks before us and
studied aloud. At 10 years old | could
write very Wen and had to learn every
word of a lesson by heart. The teacher
mad stick, and sometimes, but not often
he would punish boy, either by striking
MIN on the hand or on the seat of his
trousers.
There are no bad boys in China as
there are here in this country. The boys
are respectful and polite 20 all who are
older tnan themselves, and while they
nave their plays and their fun, they do
not think IL fun TO hurt any one
you have seen boys place a package
on The sidewalk and when person stoops
90 pick 1t up you have seen that package
(for there is a string tied TO it, and boy
at the other end of the string) move
away under crack IN the fence. That is
an old trick in China.
The boys here in America do not know
what long school hours are. | went 10
school early in the morning, before the
birds began to sing. After that we went
i to breakfast and then 10 dinner and in
the evening 10 supper Those were long
long days, the boys here would say but
we Chineses boys did not say anything
about il. We just sal on our stools and
sung out our lessons all at the same time
as loud as we could.
vacation came along In fha harvaet
time when the rice was gathered. Then
we played az flying kites. We did MOI
as boys do here. fly kites any time No
there was a season for il, and we flew
them AZ no other times. The boys in Chi
ma walk on stills just as boys do here
and play bfndfold hide and seek. and
leap frog, but all in a different way from
here.
I'VE had great sport fighting beetles.
We would find these In the fields and train
them to fight and we would lay wagers
on which would win just as you do here
on prize fighters
mo nelghborhood in China can afford to
have bad boy in it, Suppose a Chinese
New Year, when we are all shooting fire
crackers some one would shoot a revolver.
There would be great trouble. Not only
would the one who shot the revolver be
punished, but his relatives and neighbors
and the magistrate of the district would
be punished or reprimanded, because in
China such things must not happen. A
stranger could walk through my village
day or night with no one to hurt him. He
would be safe all the time. 1t is not so in
this country.
I'VE had great sport in shooting at
sparrows with bow and arrow, and nobody
ever shot at persons, as some boys do
here with airguns. The boys in China laugh
great deal, and laugh very loud soma-
times, but they have plenty of sport with
out hurting any one.
when / was years old my mother
died and my father gave me to a STEP
mother. When was IL years old my uncle,
a tea merchant in San Francisco, brought
me to this country. Twenty-eight years
ago q am now SO years old | went back
to China and goa a wife, My father and
my stepmother found a wife for me. / did
not know her. / did not see her until
we were married, but she Is a good wife
and came to America with me She is the
only Chnawomau in Indianapolis and I
think the only one in Indiana. l have been
back 10 China eighteen times, but l am
a naturalized American citizen, and vote
at elections"