The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-03-26
MOY KEE AS A BOY.

I
! A Chinese Talks of His Childhood in the
| Old Country.
| when | was a boy" said Moy Kee,
tea merchant, laundryman and inter-
| prefer, at ZIG North Delafare street, II
| went to school in my native village Of
| Shrinking, eighty-seven miles from
Pekin. | was seven years old when
started to school and, of course, the
| teacher was man. Now there are wo-
| men teaching in China Chinese women,
| but that is new thing. We sat on
stools with desks before us and studied
aloud AT ten years old 1 could write
very well, and had to learn every word
of long lesson by heart. The teacher
had stick, and sometimes, but not Of
ten, he would punish boy, either by
striking him 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 to all who
are older than themselves, and while
they have their plays and their fun
they do not think it fun to hurt any one.
you have seen boys place a package
on the sidewalk and when person
stoops to pick it up you have seen that
package (for there is string tied to 1t,
and a boy at the other end of the
string) move away under a crack in the
fence That is an old trick in China.
1.-THE boys here in America do not
know what long school hours are.
went to school early in the morning, be-
fore the birds began to sing. After that
we went to breakfast and then to din
ner and In the evening to supper.
Those We're long, long days, the boys
here would say, but we Chinese boys
did not say anything about it. We just
sat on our stools and sung out our les
sons all at the anne time as loud as we
could.
vacation came along in the harvest
time when the rice was gathered. Then
we played at flying kites We did not,
as boys do here, fly kites any time No,
there was a season for it, and we flew
them at no other times The boys in
China walk on stills just as boys do
here, and play at blndfold, hide and
seek and leap frog, but all in different
way from here.
1--WE 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-fghters.
mo neighborhood in China cab afford
to have a bad boy in it. Suppose Chi
nese New Year, when we are all shoot !
ing fire crackers, some one would shoot !
revolver. There would be great trou-
BILE. Not only would the one who shot
the revolver be punished. but his rela- /
tives and neighbors and the magistrate
of the district would be punished or re-
primanded, because In China such I
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
III this country.
I'VE had great sport in shooting at
sparroWs with bow and arrow, and no.
body ever shot at persons, as some boys
do here with airguns. The boys in Chi,
ma laugh great deal, and laugh very
loud sometimes, but they have plenty
of sport without hurting any one
when / was nine years old my
mother died and my father gave me
When I was twelve years
old my uncle, a tea merchant in San
Francisco, brought me to this country.
Twenty-eight years ago CT am now fif-
ty-three years old) I went back to Chi
ma and got a wife. My father and my
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 Chinawoman in Indianapolis,
and think the only one in Indiana. I
have been back to China eighteen times,
but | am naturalized American citi-
zen and vote at elections. '-Indianapo-
lis News.