Year: 1874

b4 bftLI hAhIEs


As I opened Hop Sings letter there
huttered to the ground a square strip OF
yellow paper covered with hierogly-
phics, which at first glance limo emily
took to be the label from pack Of Chi.
nese fire crackers. But the same envel-
ope also cOntaine a smaller strip OF rich
paper, with two Chinese characters traced
in India ink, that l at nee knew to be
Hop Sings visiting card. The whole,
as afterward literally translated, ran as
follows:


To the stranger the gates of my house are not
closed: the rice jar is on the left, and
the sweetmeats on the right as you enter.
Two sayings Of the master:


Hospitality is the virtue of the son and the
wisdom of the ancestor.


The superior man Is light-hearted after the
crop-gathering he makes a festival.


When the stranger is in your melon patch OBJ
serve him not too closely; inattentiOn is Of


ten the highest form of civility.


Happiness Peace and Prosperity


HOP SING.


Admirable, certainly, as was this NOR
ality and proverbial wisdom. and, al
though this last axiom was very charac-
teristic of my friend Hop Sing, who was
that most sober of all humorists, Chi.
nese philosopher, I must confess that,
even after a free translation, I was at a
loss to make any immediate application
of the message. Luckily I discovered
third inclOsure in the shape of a lit
tie note in English and Hop Sings own
commercial hand. It ran thus:


The pleasure of your company is requested
at No. Sacramento street, on Friday even
ing at s o'clock. A cup of tea at 9-sharp.


HOP SING.


This explained all. Tt meant a visit
to Hop Sings warehouse, the opening
and exhibition of some rare Chinese
novelties and curios, a chat in the back
Office, a cup of tea of a perfection uu-
known beyond those sacred precincts,
cigars and q visit to the Chinese theater
or temple. This was in fact the favor
ite programme of Hop Sing when he
exercised his functions of hospitality as
the chief factor or superintendent of
the Ming Foo company.


At o'clock on Friday evening | en-
tered the warehouse of Hop Sing.
There was that delicOusly-c y-cJmmingled
mysterious foreign odor that I had SO
often noticed; there was the old array
of uncouth-looking objects, the long
procession of jars and crockery, the
same singular blending of the grOtesque
and the mathemalically neat and exact,
the same endless suggestions of frivoli-
ty and fragility, the same want of har-
mony in colors that were each, in them
selves, beautiful and rare. Kites in the
shape of enormous dragons and gigantic
butterflies kites so iugeniOusly ar
ranged as to utter at intervals, when
facing the wind, the cry of a hawk
kites so large as to be beyond any boys
power of restraint-so large that you
understood why kite.fying in China
was an amusement for admits; gods of
China and bronze so gratUitously ugly
as to be beyond any human interest or
sympathy from their very impossibility;
jars of sweetmeats covered all over with
moral sentiments from COnfucius hats
that looked like baskets, and baskets
that looked like hats silks so light that
hesitate to record the incredible num-
Der of square yards that you might pass
through the ring on your little finger
these and a great MANY other indescrib-
able objects were all familiar to me. I
pushed my way through the dimly-
lighted werehouse until I reached the
back Office or parlor, where found Hop
Sing waiting to receive me.


Before 1 describe him I want the av-
erage reader TO discharge from his
mind any idea of a Chinaman that he
may have gathered from the pantomirne.
He did not wear beautifully scaIIoped
drawers fringed with little bells-I new
er met Chinaman who did; he did not
habitually carry his forefnger extended
before him at right angles with bis body,
nor did I ever hear him utter the nys-
terious sentence, ''' Ching a ring a ring
chaw, nor dance under any proYoca-
tiOn. He was on the whole a rather
grave, decorOus, handsome gentleman.
His complexion, which extended all
over his head except where his long pig
tail grew, was like a very nice piece Of
glazed brown paper muslin. His eyes
we're black and bright, and his eyeiids
set at an angle of fifteen degrees his
nose straight and delicately formed, his
mouth small and his teeth white and
clean. He wore a dark blue silk blouse:
and on the streets, on cold days, q short
| jacket of astrakhan fur. He wore also
pair of drawers Of blue brocade. gath
cred tightly over his calves and ankles,
offering a general sort of suggestion
that he had forgotten his trousers that
morning, but that. so geDtlemanIy were
his manners, his friends had forborne
/ to mention the fact To him. His man
ner was urbane, although quite serious.