The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1900-10-25
HOLMES ON CHINA,
He Portrays vividIy Scenes From
His Visit to the Eastern
Empire.
LAND OF STRANGE CONTRASTS
Every Labor Subdivided SO as to Give
Employment to Many People-Useless
System of Learning.

GA strong tide of civilization is set
but China, with its protruding rocks OF
superstition. is stemming that tide.
China is the China of the past, and is a
country of strange incongruities."
So said Burton Holmes Wednesday
evening in opening his first lecture of
the winter course at Kemper Tall, and
for more than an hour he de1is 1ted an
interested audience by depicting the
strange life and customs of the "ye11ow
men" with whom Western civilization
is now engaged in an aggressive eff
fort for the adoption of newer ways
and fresher ideas.
Mr.. Holmes is so well known that
the mere announcement of a lecture
| from him is an assurance of delight
full evening. Into the present lecture
on China he has worked a great
deal of new material and introduced
many new pictures.
Hongkong is again shown with the
Olympia lying in the harbor. English
enterprise has made in sixty years a
| cosmopolitan city of former Chinese
village, and today the city is the third
seaport in the world, riva1ing New
York and Liverpool. Thirty-fve
thousand vessels put into it's harbor
last year, the greater number being
naturally Chinese junks and other
small vessels. Pictures were shown
of the English Notifications, of Indian
troops drilling, of the Chinese 1aborers
and of the chief buildings.
From Hongkong the audience was
taken to Macao, town founded by
the Portuguese in the sixteenth cen
fury and still possessing vestiges of
that colonization, but its glory as a
trading station has departed and bust
ness has taken itself to Hongkong.
In Canton the lecturer got his first
view Of a real Chinese city and became
acquainted with new smell, for, as he
said, the sensation of a new smell is
one of the achievements of a tourist,
since it implies the visit to another
city, for every city has it's own. dis
tinctive aroma. The smell of Canton
| is unforgeta BILE. The streets, though
narrow, are well kept and paved. AS
regards absence of dirt they might
compare favorab1y with those of many
large cities in the United States. Can
ton may be said to be on land and on
water. Two millions of people live on
| land, and six hundred thousand on
water, in boats anchored close to-
gether, from which many of the in
habitants never step upon the land.
Sin other countries,s' said Mr..
Holmes, 'the effort is towards having
one man do the work of many, but in
China towards dividing the labor so
that many be given employment.
Human muscle supplies the motive
force in this country, and life is cheap,
1t is the dead who rule China-that
reverence for ancestors, the propitia
ton of the spirits of the departed are
strange features among a people that
set so little value on the living.
''The scholar is the respected man.
For him are reserved positions of hon
or, and what a useless training is their
education! Boys are made to memorize
moral essays of other writer's. Every
thing is in the distant past"
A picture was shown of the sheds in
which the yearly examinations are
held for the degree of Bachelor of
Arts. The tests last three days and
nights, and the sheds are divided into
eleven thousand cells in which the
candidates are confined while they
compose long essays on moral ques-
tons or write poems on allotted sub
jects. Sometimes there are more ap-
p1icants for the examina ton than there
are sheds for their accommodation.
Every Chinese man who seeks an hon
orab1e position takes these examina-
tons, and last year there were four
men more than eighty years old who
were candidates for the Bachelors
degree.
In closing his lecture Mr.. Holmes
said: "Western civilization is asking
today, what shall we do with China?'
In few years when the Chinese have
brushed away the cobwebs of supersti-
ton and have walked up they may ask,
what shall we do with Western civ
| i1ization?'''