Evening star., 1919-10-12

Drought him over from San Francis
co just few months before, as they
were having an aftertiffin smoke on
the porch OF the Hongkong Hotel.
II heard n very funny story today
about the Chinese idea OF why we put
our flags at half-mast-perhaps you
already know OF it, II So"
mo-" answered. the old Pacific skip
per, II don't believe ! do. ] have lis
tened to their queer tales for years.
and nothing that they do or say ever
surprises me. but l don't recall Just
this one. Let's have It,"
We'll" mode silly continued the con-
sui, II can't begin to do proper Justice
to IT. because. you see, I haven't been
here long enough to become an adept
in this 'pidgin English as they call
II, and 1t really must be told In pidgin
to be appreciated 1t was given to me
by my friend Bradshaw, the surgeon
OF our hospital in Canton, and he gets
II OFF perfectly. II was so good I
made him say 1t over several times
and i just wrote IT down and COM
mitted IL to memory. He himself
overheard 1t on the steamer coming
down last week, so l can vouch for
the absolute accuracy of It,"
''Oh, you don't need to garnish up
the truth at all to have it funny in
this country, / assure you. Things
are ridiculous enough just as they
are"
II begin to believe you, captain, from
what ] hear and see every day, but
hero goes the story: Two Cinnamon,
one from Canton and one from Han
kow, were conversing together on the
upper deck and as you know, the dia-
lects of those places are SO totally
different that they have to write on
paper to make themselves understood.
unless they happen to have acquired
some knowledge Of pidgin, which. in
this instance, was happily the case.
Noticing a flag at half-mast on a Ger
man steamer lying in the stream. the
first one turned on his friend and ask
ed, What for Mclean man he putchee
dGt flag middle side? No go top-side, no
got down-side b'longee middle: how
fashion dat? My tinkee him no got
'nough lopez.
"'You no tinkee ploper.' replied his
companion, plenty lopee have got
Dat talkee sailor man go makee die
Mclean man go makee die, spose he
blongee vely good man. must go top
side all samee flag; spose he b'longee
velly bad man. must go down-side all
same flag. S'pose he pletty good man
must stop middle e-side all same flag"
well, that's pretty good philosophy
isn't it?" smiled the captain. "even II
they do get the German and Ameri-
can flags confused. eh?"
"Oh, a trifling distinction like that
between the two foreign countries
doesn't trouble them in the least-all
white men look alike to them and
Mclean man does duty for almost
anything here"
when you're very. very good and
die, you go to the place that begins
with H. up above; when you're very,
very bad, you 60 to the place that be-
gins with the same letter, down be-
low-that's 1t, amt it?-and when
you're only pretty good. they don't
know which way you go. and SO they
just leave the flag in the middle of
the mast! A good yarn that. must
try to remember 1t for the smoking
room going home on the next trip"
''Yes." answered the consul. ut cer-
tainly is a good Illustration Of their
reasoning about us. AS my old friend,
Hapgood, the pilot, says, and he's
been out here we'll nigh on to forty
years, Everything we do is strange
to them, from the time we get up in
the morning till we go to bed at
night. and their explanations would
nll library"
Thank you," said the captain, as
he rose to 90. for a very good story.
Ill make a note Of it-as old Cap'n
Cutie used to say in Dickens-'And
when any man goes to Davy Jones'
locker aboard my ship. I'll do a little
inquiring into his morals before wo
do any fag-hoisting.' eh?"
As the consul rode along in his jim
rikisha, on his return fro mthe hotel
to the Office. he suddenly came upon a
great crowd OF people at the corner of
the Kow Loon wharf and saw at once
that an accident or something had