The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1900-06-30

merely to recall, some of the good points
in the Chinanlan's character and civiliza-
tipn. For he is civilized, decidedly, al
though his civilization is neither modern
nor progressive. And the Chinaman is a
line fellow personally. I lived beside him
for forty years. sand&I must say like
him. He's an honest man on the whole,
wonderfully honest in business. He's
three times more honest than the Jap
anese, and three times more of a man
generally. The Chinaman is peaceful,
law abiding. In the jority of Chinese
cities murder, highway robbery or other
violence is extremely rare, considering
the size of the population. The troubles
that the high binders have given San
Francisco are caused by men that came
from Southern China. There the people
are far more passionate and vindictive.
But in much the greater part of China, in
the numerous cities of Middle China and
of North China, one hears nothing of
high binders or of those vendettas be-
tween rival clans.
LAS for the Chinaman's commercial
honesty, I heard Even Cameron, man.
ager Of the great Hongkong and Shang-
hal bank, say fifteen years ago at a BAN
quet given in his honor by the foreign
merchants at Shanghai, that in all the
numerous transactions, involving millions
of dollars (Mexican), that his bank had
had with Chinese bankers, he had never
lost a single dollar. And very recently T
heard exactly the same statement from
Manager Whitehead Of the Chartered Mer
camille Bank of India, Australia, and
China, a bank that has numerous
branches and that is one of the largest
concerns in the East.
"The Chinaman is not merely honest.
but he has often a good heart. We read
lots of school book stories about the Chi
naman's <r-.5. r. . 49,.
FiIiaI Affection, :.
hl:t 1 tell you it's an affection worth re,
s2ect when 1T becomes, as it really has,
the foundation of the whole Chinese DO
lice system. If you go into Chinese city
you never see any policemen on the
street corner. The magistrate, or mayor,
has few dozen men up at his yamen, or
Office Then If a robbery or assault is
committed and anybody is suspected it's
an easy matter to effect the arrest of the
party wanted. The magistrate is in
formed that Wong Yah, for example, is
PROBABLY guilty. A policeman goes to
Wong Yah's house Wong is probably
absent. That doesn't matter The police
man arrests Wong's father, or grand
rather or uncle, or mother, or aunt.
Ihats enough. Wong is sure to come
pack and give himself up. He may be a
thief or cutthroat, but he has too much
regard for his relatives to permit them to
be punished in his place.
perhaps it's additional credit to the
Ch1naman that all his virtues, and they
are considerable, are inculcated by rea.
son, conscience and training and
Not By Religion.
The Buddhists believe, 1t is true. thai
they will be absorbed into Buddlaa if they
behave properly, and the Tauists, who
are comparatively a small sect, follow
creed OF pure reason and believe that, as
matter of common sense and reason,
the man whose conduct is exemplary is
likely to have the best of 1t in another
world also. These are the abstract
creeds. But I was talking once with an
old Tauist priest who was writing meg
sages to heaven as he said, that is,
painting on bits Of rice paper such infor-
nation as We sat on your grave yester-
day and ate our rice'-I was talking with
the old priest and asked him.. DO they
realty believe thts?' w ell, he answered.
the women do. They'll buy my ines
sages' and burn them in the temple to-
morrow. But the men don't believe.
There's no, religion in China And the
priest was right. The mandarfns, in fact,
the ruling class, is neither Buddhist nor
Taurist. They simply initiate confucius.
who never meddled with the affairs Of
heaven. Yet every Chinaman, mandarin
and cOO1ie. Is desparatelv 4f=
Afraid of Evil Spirits,
ana VIII never allow himself to be caught
out In the dark without his lantern.
Nevertheless the Chinaman, such as
ne IS. has very populous nation, q
natural love Of trade unusual eoramarcial