Evening star., 1919-10-05

Philadelphia, as they stood on the
old stone bridge at Shanghai and
watched native jLggler entertain
ing the passersby. You see. he
has three bowls and little ball of
to the other Now you see 1t and
now you DON'T as they say. and the
trick is to guess just which bowl 1t
is under-and, as usual. though he
places it there right under their eyes,
the man in the crowd that bets on
the sure thing generally gets it
wrong"
"Why. that's nothing but the old
'thimble-rig' that they used to play
on the tourists when l was student
in Edinburgh" answered the famous
American surgeon. "The man used to
have three thimbles on a board and
a little green pea which he rolled
around until 1t got under one Of them
and then you had to guess which one
1t was under. You don't mean to tell
me that they've got that same old
trick out here in China-I suppose
he picked it up from some foreigner
in one of the ports. They seem to
catch on to our bad ways even faster
than they do to our good ones"
mo, not at ALL the Chinese had
that for years-I might even say
centuries-before we ever dreamed
Of It. If there is any such thing as
one nation learning it from another,
then surely we got 1t from them, and
not they from US, like a thousand
other ingenious ways of humbugging
your fellow men that l could tell
you about II we had time. but have
come to believe that we don't get
these things from each other, but it's
a sort Of general cussedness that's
in cur human nature and SO 1t just
crops out wherever we happen to
be"
"Ah! l see-the little touch of
nature that makes the whole world
kin. chr"
"Yes, or one of the little links of
fellow feeling that joins the west to
the east. But just watch this chap; I
want to see how he does it. You'll
find that there's a peculiar element
in 1t here that you never saw at
Coney Island in your boyhood days"
And what's that, pray?"
You'll smile when I tell you, but
It's religion!'
Good heavens! Doctor, not re-
ligion in a hree-cardmonte game"
1.-THE same-but I'll modify it a
little for your benefit by just calling
IL him
The two surgeons stood in the
midst of the curious but good natured
crowd on the bridge while the Jug
gler continued his talk, DR.. Upham's
perfect familiarity with the local
dialect enabling him to interpret the
apparently meaningness jargon for
his friend from abroad.
II see with great pleasure" he re-
marked, not dreaming that his words
were understood, that we have in
this distinguished audience of man.
darins and literary gentlemen two
famous visitors from across the
ocean"-at this the crowd chuckled
and laughed-"who have been recon-
mended to this marvellous perform
ance by his excellency, the taotai,
knowing that 1t is the most wonderful
sight that they could witness in all
our ancient empire. My! How the
crowds will gather around them in
their distant ocean-kingdoms when
they tell of what they have seen
here today" (More laughter from
the crowd and voice which cried,
"Say! Ocean Mandarin, do you have
anything like this in your honorable
kingdom?') "Now I will roll the
little rice ball around until it goes
under one of the bowls. All! There it
is! Goodbye. little traveller, under
some great and wise philosopher be-
fore me comes and finds you outl
Twenty brass cash of the Ming
dynasty to the fortunate one-whatI
No bids? Thirty. forty, nay. am
bold and reckless today. fifty coins
to the prince among you who over
turns the right bowl"'
He paused and looked about him,
took of his dilapidated hat, scratched
the head that was beneath 1t and
then tapped 1t several times with q
ragged fan. No one being bold enough
to come forward and speculate, he
continued: "Ah! know some one
who is waiting to tell me Just where
the little rice ball is. Ny little Poo
Sax (idoO knows. I'll lust ask him"