The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-08-19

sentation of an umbrella is high
mark of honor and esteem, and Miss
Smith is but one of the many devoted
women in the field.
CHINESE CONSERVATISM
/ have mentioned filthy habits and
hostility to foreigners as two of the
unfavorable qualities in the Chinese
character. | will note further. their
extreme adherence to their own ways,
usually called conservatism, as another
peculiar feature that helps to strength
en- partition between the East and
West. This, however, may be consider
ed as only another aspect of their anti
foreign tendencies. | am quite free to
admit that | look upon some points in
their conservatism with considerable
favor They do not tolerate the mon
strous freaks of Dame fashion in the
matter of clothing as we do in Europe
and America, They adopt a style of
garment that runs through hundreds
of years this style is based on service
ability, grace and beauty. These fea-
| lures in a garment may appear gro
| tesque to western fancy which has heen
accustomed to Partisan freaks that are
neither beautiful nor convenient. Take
the matter of hats The fippant, un-
| thinking, narrow minded European tit
| ters at the Chinamans hat as he does
at his queue, simply because il is quite
| different from his own, Chinese gentle
| men wear beautiful and very costly
| caps. The lower classes wear very
cheap but serviceable headgear: in all
the world (and | have been over a
good part of it, | have never seen n
hat so inconvenient, so ungraceful, so
| clumsy, so absolutely idiotic, as the
| flange- brimmed, grim, cylindrical tower
| that has been aptly styled the plug
| hat, and this, as everybody knows, is
the hat par excellence for gentlemen of
the Occdent. The derby is scarcely
| more tolerable; yet we smile at the
Chinaman's funny" cap.
| About the same comparison may be
made in all the garments from head 10
foot. 1t is even a question whether
their much -laughed-at shoes are not
more comfortable and sanitary than
| ours, Elevated heels on shoes are
quite unatural, and theirs are without
heels. Chinese garments with the bet
| ter class are chiefly made of silk and
! satin, with magnificent furs for the
winter season. A wealthy mans ward
robe is seldom worth less than 81, 600
and often amounts to several times
that sum. With our ever changing
styles only milionaries can afford Il
dress as elegantly as the Chinese. Those
who are hard pressed for means to keer
up with our unstable standards of
| fashion are best qualified to Judge OF
the merits of Chinese conservatism in
dress.
DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW.
When / was in the tea producing
region in the province of Honan, where
the people had never seen tangible
foreign-devil, ! was as much of curl
osity to the inhabitants as they hao
been to me when l first viewed China
some fifteen years ago. on my first
visit l secured queue-not by the
criminal process of excison, but by
purchase, and as a curio. ! also go
shoes and wearing garments, all a:
curios. In the interior of Honan my
acquisitive curiosity was reciprocated
OF course they could not buy my queue
for obious reasons: but they grinneC
at the close-cropped capillary condition
where the pig tail out to be. Between
thumb and finger they squeezed anC
rubbed every garment | wore to know
the texture, and offered to buy them
as curios of course. ] donated a few
articles ! could spare. | had bougn
their garments as curiOs; they wanted
to buy mine. We might have swapped
but | had an object, and may be the!
had. our curiosity was certainly mu
tual, and what was our mutual curl
osity but difference, and her again
what is conservatism in many case
; but a different way of seeing things
They cling to their ways and we elm
to ours In some respects our ways ar
undoubtedly better; in others, l an
quite convinced theirs are. We thin
we are more clever; but they have an
other standard, and they do not fame,
our cleverness. Some thirty years age
hrm in San Francisco sent to
: Chinese house in Canton the smalles