The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1900-07-06

years old. We consider ourselves at
least 1000 years ahead of you.
There was time when we had, like
you, our struggle for life,' our race for
wealth, our ambition for power, our
haste and hurry and worry We. too
had your clever inventions -gunpbwder
printing and the rest-but we have lived
long enough to find out how essentially
unnecessary all these things ara. We
have also had our periods of doubt, fan
atheism and dissension in matters of re
ligion. We have had our martyrs, our
reformations our nonconfOrmists. our
intolerance and finally our federation.
Yes, thousands of years ago,
But. as l say, we have outgrown it all.
From the experience of past centuries
we have learned wisdom; from the mis-
takes and disasters of our ancestors we
have learned that none of the things for
which we strove were really worth striv
ing for. Our passions and ambitions
have settled down into calm desire for
happiness in this world; our religion is
reduced to a philosophy of life which the
test of the last 1000 years has proved to
be absolutely sound.
I'VE believe that the best thing to
pursue in this life is happiness, and we
teach our children that their happiness
can only be secured by the performance
Of duty, by the observance of moral and
business obligations and by surrounding
ones self with circle of equally happy
friends and relatives. If a Chinaman
prospers beyond the lot which falls to
his kindred he finds his greatest happi-
ness in sharing his good fortune with
them. And in China we never cease to
work. There is no such thing as retir-
ing from business Work is part of our
pleasure, because it is part of our duty.
I'VE believe in making the best of this
life, which is the only one we know any
thing about for certain. That is the Be
All and End All of Chinese philosophy.
All through China you will find the same
level, uniform spirit of content. You
may think we live lives of ignorance and
squalor and idleness, but assure you it
is not so. We are as well off as we want
to be, and no man can improve on that.
Now, these being our circumstances,
you of the western world come to us
with what you call your new ideas. You
bring us your religion. an infant of 1900
years. You invite us to build railways
so that we may fly from place to place at
a speed which for us has neither neces
sity nor charm. You want to build mills
and factories so as to debase our beauti-
full arts and crafts, and produce tawdry
finery in place of the beautiful textures
and hues which we have evolved after
ages of experiment.
Against all this we protest. We want
to be let alone. We want to be free to
enjoy our beautiful country and the
fruits of our centuries of experience.
When we ask you to 60 away you refuse,
and you even threaten US if we do not
give you our harbors, our land, our
towns.
"And now, having carefully considered
the matter, we of the so called Boxers
) society have decided that the only way
) to get rid of you is to kill you. We are
not naturally bloodthirsty. We certain
ly are not thieves. But when persuasion
and argument and appeals to your sense
of justice are of no avail, we find our
) selves face to face with the fact that the
only resource is to put you out of exist
ence.
"Consider your missionaries. They
come as | have said, with new relig-
ion, upon the main principles of which
they are bitterly divided among them
selves. They tell us that unless we ac-
J cept their doctrines we shall suffer eter-
+ nal punishment. They brighten our
, children and the more weak minded OF
our older people and create all kinds OF
discussions between families and indi
viduals. No wonder that we will not
/. tolerate them.
, IF we wanted your railways and ma,
, chimes we could, of course, buy them
but we do not. We have no use fol
them. We have learned to do without
them. Yet you say you will force us tc
Q buy them, whether we will or no. Is
@ that just? l say it is an impertinence-
9 an outrage. A good deal is made of The
fact that we are not soldiers. Well, W.
have ceased to be soldiers because WI
have become civilized. War lisa barbar
ism. The effect of our having arrived a
our present stage of civilization is tina
: we have increased and multiplied be
Il You'd every other race on the face of thu
$ earth. In spite of our great mortalit.
i (Which seems to be very shocking to yo,
although we recognize in it only a wis
provision of nature). the Chinese race i
t, increasing at a greater rate than an
% other people in the world.
| L. ~, 4 i,