The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-07
ARTICLE VI.

China is the land of contradictions
less, John Chinaman is admirably con-
sistent. but to US he is a psychological
puzzle and peTversion He could hardly
seem more unearthly had he dropped
upon this planet from Mars.
However well he may read and write
he cannot spell, for there is no alpha
bet in Chinese; and he reads from right
to left. and from the bottom of the page
to the top. His writing is done, not with
a pen, but with a pointed stick. Though
he is a deveut believer in spirits, he
thinks that they cannot turn a sharp cor
ner or climb a hill.
His badge of mourning is not black, but
white, and funerals are conducted, not
with quiet and solemnity, but with testify
tiles, cracker firing and trumpet blowing.
For widow or other bereaved female it
is the proper thing to howl and grovel
at the funeral, but no one is scandalized
if she relieves the strain of grief oe-
casionally by an aside giggle with
friend.
John Chinaman is famous for his flial
piety. To such an extreme is this car
ried that the wisest and greatest man III
the land remains in childish subsection
to the caprices of his parents, however
wrong or foolish, so long as they live.
Even after they are gone, the hand of tile
dead still rests heavy upon the living and
every effort must be made to propitiate
their i'll will, for every one sknoWs-in
China-that the spirits can ruin your pusi-
ness and ALLEVIATE your friends. So the
bereaved son Is very careful to select a
lucky spot for his parents grave and
to pay their memories high honors.
This explains why the face of the eoun-
try is all broken out with little mortuary
mounds, and why John becomes frantic
at the mere suggestion Of running a rail-
road in a straight line over these mounds.
Some foreigners, observing this filial
piety from a safe distance, have been so
dazzled by it's theoretical beauty as to
declare that the tremendous antiquity
of the Chinese empire is a bright and
shining example of Honor thy father
and thy mother that thy days may be
long upon the land which the Lord, thy
God, giveth thee!" But to any one who
has had opportunity to observe at close
range the practical workings of this
piety such an inference seems much like
a sorry joke. The fact is that few
things have done more to paralyze all
progress than this same ancestor
worship. The doctrine that it is sacrllege
for the son to attempt any Improvement
on the ideas and methods OF his father
'impenetrable conservation. Whatever
has been is best. In such topsy-turvy
world does John Chinaman live, as in
comprehensive to us as ours to him.
On every hand, both in activity and in
activity are the marks of arrested de-
velepment China is fossil.zed. They still
place a coin in the mouth of the corpse,
just as the Greeks and Romans did 1900
years ago; they make a hole In the roof
to let out the spirits of the dying, and
they burn imitation paper money and
offer food at the grave for the use of the
dead. In all things they are childish. In
war they think to frighten their enemies
by wearing hideous masks firing off
crackers and beating drums. Even so
late as the attack on the legations in
July and August, 1900, they not only
squandered their ammunition by firing
wholesale at nothing, but were silly
enough to let off string after string of
fireeraekers. Even as full grown men
they never outgrow the chflds love of
making a racket.
Patriotism, as we understand it. scarce
1y exists in China But John can hardly
be blamed for that. Government means
for him terrible arbitrary power, cruel.
greedy, fneXorable; in which he has no
voice, against which he has practically
no appeal. Human life and rights are
cheap. Torture and decapitation are
frequent means of punishment or ex-
tortion. theoretically every citizen has
the right of appeal to the emperor, prac-
tically he ID at the merey of officials.
There are few beggars in proportion to
population, few wealthy outside of The
officials, and no great well-te-do middle
class. The overwhelming majority of the
people manage to live where white mar
would starve, but only by constant in.