The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-01
7Ae ADVERTISERS
 s HOME STUDY CIRCLE

power, = dSdMst WHtSu ltstSts.NS-- Nos hopeless, seiizng New York. Phiiadel- [ hia and New Orleans. on any old pre- text, in order to Sympathize with the Chinese dislike of foreigners. And when we recall some of the stains on our national history of the past half century it will be rash 10 insist that our behavior under such exaspstating circumstances would be very much bet ter than taat of the heather in his blindness.
 We'll. the rest. of the legations took no more precautions in Pekin than in any other capital, but the English showed their usual military instinct by surrounding their compound with stout wall ten feet high This foresight saved all theforeigners from hideous extermination in those dreadful days of August and July. 1900. Of course, after two months of bonn bardment the embassy buildings are not very presentable. but it is easy to See that. at their best, they were not
 only comfortable, but handsome. The
 street itself is as noisome as most of
 the Pekin streets. unpaved. unsewered and unswept except by furious dust
 storms. The foreign residents made attempts to induce the Chinese authori- ties to do something for its improve ment. but in vain. They would hardly
 do for the hated foreign devils that which they would not do for them selves. Once inside the legation walls. how ever. the scene shifts like theater stage. We are no longer in Asia. but l in Europe. All the appliances of eul-
 ture. convenience and health are here, and the cream of Caucasian society. | Necessarily cut off from all real asso- ciation with the natives. these little | colonies of white men and women were forced to depend upon one another for amusement, and they succeeded in | leading gay life in spite of the sur
 rounding Chinese saualor.
 Certainly there is very little to tempt one to a pleasure promenade in the city, notwithstanding the attractive view from the walls. Pekin is city | of extremes. The private residences 1 and gardens of the wealthy are beau | tiful and well cared for, but they are
 1ealously fenced in by high walls and | do nathipg to relieve the hideousness | of the street view. For such thing as l public spirit, or even enlightened sell l fishness, scarcely exists among these heathens. The public streets, like all | other public interests. are as complete l ly neglected as is possible. Every pub | lie trust is a private snap.
 There is no pretense of paving, sew
 craze and scavening are only pre-
 tense; filth of every kind is thrown l freely into the streets. and the stinks
 and offal are awful. The accumulation
 has been going on for u1numbered cen | turies. In wet weather the roadway
 is a deep mire of this richness; in dry l the same is blown into your face by | the furious winds. Here IS state of | things to which decent white man | can never become resonciled, but the | Chinese seem to thrive on 1t and to | like 1t.
 They eat greedily of the prepared foods exposed for sale in public places. unterrified by the knowledge that it has been we'll peppered by the dust of their daddies, This would seeem like carrying the worship of ancestors to an extreme.
 To do the yellow heathen justice. rice and rats are not their staple foods, as many people suppose. Rice is used
 much in Southern China, but little by
 the Pekingese; and rats. never. ex cept in times of famine, as last re-
 sort. There is a large submerged DOT
 ton of the population which leads
 miserable hand to mouth existence. all
 ways on the ragged edge. and easily
 pushed over by any unfavorable con
 dItions. Dirty, ignorant, childish. fla natioal and coneeited to the last de- gree, they form ever ready taols for the schemes of demagegues. A knowl-
 edge of this fact helps us to under stand the sudden and violent uprisinss
 of the Chinese popuiaee, which fur
 nishes close parallel to those in ancient
 Rome when the conditions were simi-
 lar
 The common foods of the Pekingese
 
 wheat flour. and macearoni in inerdin- ate quantities. Bread in our sense they have not-only heavy steamed dump lings of wheat flour. Peddlers with small portable ovens are everywhere, offering all kinds of cooked foods at in- finitesimal prices, and the Chinaman is poor, indeed, who cannot find the price of filling himself up.
 The names of their streets are often
 as absurd and inappropriate as many of cur own. The street which espec tally resounds with the shrill cry of peddlers and the wrangling of bargain | CTS is named the Street of Perpetual
 Repose! Then there is Happy Sparrow 1 street named for the little feathered
 fellows, who are as much at home in
 Pekin as in New York. Also Monkey
 street and Barbarian street, the latter | in fine scorn of ourselves.
 | But. even IT tnelf Sfeets were scraped with fine-toothcombs and
 sprinkled with eau de cologne, there | is nothing in them to invite a second visit They are lined by tawdry little
 shops, which are mere holes in the
 wall, the small stock of goods spread | cut on the sidewalk. So as to impede
 seriously the movement of the crowd
 in many places, and fit to excite the
 acute envy of certain Chicago firms.
 But the Chinese care for none of these things no more than the Chicago po-
 lice do.
 Along with their general lack of cul-
 ture goes, of course, an \absenee of | deeency. A man who is buying pair
 of brooches thinks nothing of trying
 them on in the street in front of the shop. surrounded by q group of highly interested observersg1all ofreTingt their opinion and advice. free and untram-
 meled by any false modesty.
 But. whatever they do and wherever 1 they are, there is one thing which the Chinese common people never fail to do-viz.. to chatter like monkeys. On occasion. especially under the pleasing excitement of haggling over tenth of cent, their voices screech and rasp like so many filed saws, while the fe-
 rocity of their gestures demands noth- ing less than blood. Of course, the language used is the superior brand of
 billingsgate peculiar to Celestials. fit to bring blush to the cheek of even a London slum ViragO.