The Cairo bulletin., 1911-05-10
A Sympathetic
Oriental
BY EUNlCE IDA BLAKE
Copyright BY American Press Asso.
citation, 1911.

neSe Hlahe very koou SefFaHtS IL Nhcs
wish to be good, but Ii they prefer TO
be bad they can excel at that too.
married In the infantry and went
out with my husband to station
where the Chinese were as thick as
blackberries. ! had the pride natural
to a bride Of showing how we'll
could keep house and appreciated the
Importance of winning the confidence
of my servants, or, rather, at that
time my servant. for the wife Of a
second lieutenant-ne neither she nor her
husband having anything but his pay
is not supposed to keep more than one.
My first Chinese servant was III
Wang ri was the smoothest, softcst
tongued rascal | ever met. He had
enough duplicity in him for an eight
zenith century European diplomat, 10
him words were indeed intended to
conceal ideas.
"You yely young wife" he said to
me You want velly good Chinaman
for cook. Muchy Cinnamon velly bad.
III feel solly for Mclean lady. II he
good cook
All this was spoken with a look Of
commiseration for young thing like
myself that to one familiar with the
man from the Flowery Kingdom would
have BODIED no good did not doubt
that my servant would be a great
comfort to me. II was not long be-
fore his true inwardness showed it.
self lie first made an excuse of hay
ing a sick brother who couldn't washv-
washy to provide for to wheedle me
out of months wages in advance.
Then he surreptitiously removed I'M
der his capacious coat and ample
sleeves all the staple kitchen provi-
sions | had bought to last several
months. Tea. coffee. sugar and spices
disappeared like magic. Then. having
received an offer of better wages than
| was giving him. he took himself off
without so much as saying he was
going.
MY next servant was Charlie Ii.
Why so many Chinese are called Char
lie ! don't know. though III Is an ap-
propriate name for them. Charlie
was recommended by the majors
wife, who had him In her Kitchen for
awhile when her regular servant was
i'll. She told me she would rather
have Charlie than the other | had
no fault to find with Charlie except
that he stayed with me but day.
He didn't stay long enough to ask for
any wages. and since experience had
taught me not to pay Cinnamon in ad-
vance he didn't get any.
After this servants were passing
through my kitchen, none staying with
me more than a week. In vain | re-
fused to engage one unless he would
agree to stay month. Something
must be soaring them away. I didn't
see how they could see anything in q
young woman of nineteen to frighten
them, and was the only person with
whom they came In contact. One Of
them, who was about to depart after
three days of service. | asked why he
left.
"You get Mclean cook. Chinaman
not velly good in this house"
"yVhy notT'
"Donno Chinaman won't stay
here"
"Why do you 60 so soon after com
ing?"
~ am velly we'll"
He did not seem to care whether
believed him or not Indeed. he knew
he was lying, and knew 1t too. How
ever, | had had such bad luck with
Chinese servants--and there were no
others to be had-th made up my
mind to do my own cooking for awhile.
Meanwhile my husband, who had
been making inquiries for me as to
servants from brother officers wives,
| began to be considerably yexed that |
could not keep any of them There
was no such loss of servants among
| those who sent me mine, and II ap.
peared that must either be too eX-
acting or have frightful temper or
some other blemish that prevented n
| servant from working for me. where
as the truth was that after the earlier
| ones left | simply gave up everything
| to those who came later, granting all
requests and opposing them In moth
| ing, | didn't even dare cfiticise the
cooking Of single dish The first tiff
| had with my husband was when he
| ventured to remark that perhaps |
didn't give them quite free rein
| enough. resented the imputation
with fer?or that sent him off to the
| officers club and prevented his ever
making any such suggestion In future.
| One day ] put the tin bread box out
In the sun, turning 1t up on its side
and exposing the bottom, was sur
| prised to see Chinese characters on 1t.
| wondered what they meant. When
| woman begins to wonder what Is the
meaning Of anything 1t is preparatory
to making plans to find out. ! called
the servant of my next door neighbor,
who was beating rug, TO come over
and translate the characters. He did
so as follows
This Is very bad woman. She
doesn't pay the servants wages and
gives no extras"
That smooth tongued villain II
Wang. who had pitied my youth and
inexperience and had robbed me be-
side, had chaked n notice on the