and are required to commit to memory an immense amount
of matter with the greatest accuracy. Proficients in the art
of play-acting become teachers and heads of companies. Chil-
dren are indentured to these teach-
ers with the express stipulation that,
if the child is beaten to death, his life
shall not be required at the teacher's
hands. This provision is made, be-
cause it is supposed that excellency
can not be attained in this branch of
learning without constant and severe
castigation. Poor children doomed
to this life of servitude get very little
sympathy, as their sufferings are re-
garded as a necessity of their condi-
tion, and they are expected to get used
to them. They have also the satis-
faction of knowing that they are only
treated as their master was before them. A theatrical com-
pany generally sells its services for a year to some wealthy in-
dividual, who furnishes them with an outfit and employs a su-
perintendent, whose business it is to keep them occupied, and
to collect pay for their performances. These companies con-
sist of from ten to sixty persons, and they may be engaged
for from three to twenty dollars a play. Several plays may
be performed by the same company in a day, and they are oft-
en continued for several days in succession in the same place.
Sometimes a wealthy individual employs a theatrical company
for a definite length of time for the special amusement of him-
self, his family and friends, and his gods. These actors being
despised by their countrymen, have little respect for them-
selves, and find their place below mediocrity in the scale of
morals.

While it may well be a matter of surprise and rejoicing that these theatres are not worse, in a moral point of view, than they are, we can not but notice the masterly art of Satan in

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PUPPET-SHOWS OR PUNCH AND JUDY."

273

infusing into this, and indeed into almost every other means of popular recreation and amusement, the subtile poison of idolatry.

So universal and frequent are these theatrical exhibitions, and so well suited to national tastes, that the people have little time or disposition to meet often for other entertainments. Gatherings for the purpose of listening to public addresses and harangues are almost unknown.

The puppet-shows of China are, on account of the very clever way in which they are performed, and their popularity among the people, worthy of special mention in this connection. Generally two men go together, one to exhibit the show, and the other as an assistant, to beat the gong, collect the contributions, etc. Sometimes one man goes alone, and carries his whole stock in trade on his back. He passes along the street beating his gong, to give notice of his readiness to amuse any who may wish to employ him, and is invited to play before a house, or chooses a convenient place where he can attract a crowd from the street. He stands on a chair, upon which rests also the stick or post which supports the box containing his show or mimic theatre. The upper part of his body is thrust inside the box, and the curtains descending from it conceal most of his person. The front of the box is open and contains a little stage, on which the puppets are paraded. The characters represented are generally a man and his wife engaged in a domestic quarrel. They scold and gesticulate and threaten, and, when these resources are exhausted, proceed to the use of fists and broom-sticks. The actor behind the screen, by means of wires and strings, manages the motions of the puppets with great ingenuity, and imitates the voices and language of the two sexes most perfectly. The husband, after a great assumption of dignity and authority, is generally driven off the stage ignominiously. The appreciation of the audience is often attested by loud shouts of applause. Having witnessed this show both in China and England, I was struck with the fact that it is in these two coun

tries, almost identical, and that the Chinese seem rather to excel in performing it.

Gambling is very common in China, and is practiced in a variety of ways. Its immorality and evil effects are acknowledged, and there are laws prohibiting it; but they are a dead letter.

A very interesting custom prevails of observing public fasts on appropriate occasions. It is not uncommon for the chief officer of a city in time of drought, or to avert some dreaded public calamity, to forbid for several days the slaughter of animals and the sale of animal food in the market, in order to move the gods to pity, and to secure their kind offices in affording the desired relief.

In speaking of the national practices and peculiarities of the Chinese, I can hardly avoid referring to the very common habit among the middle and lower classes of using obscene language. This practice seems to take the place of profanity in Western countries, and is followed by the same class of persons to about the same extent, and apparently from about the same motives. These obscene expressions seem designed primarily for the purpose of reviling and abusing one who is the object of hatred and anger, but are often used carelessly, and almost unconsciously, without any regard to their original meaning.

Many other national traits and peculiarities might be mentioned, but the above are those which have appeared to me most prominent and characteristic of the race.

THE CHINAMAN JUDGED UNFAIRLY.

275

CHAPTER XIX.

GENERAL ESTIMATE OF THE CHINESE CHARACTER AND
CIVILIZATION.

Opinions generally entertained of the Chinese.-The Impressions we have made upon them.-Difficulties in the Way of obtaining reliable Information in the foreign Communities at the open Ports.-National peculiarities of Chinese Temperament and Character.-Evidences of Intellectuality in the Chinese.-The Manner in which they are regarded by other Eastern Nations.-They have taken the Lead in many of the practical Arts. Many of their Peculiarities due to Education rather than to Differences of Race.-Morality of the Chinese.--Opinions which we have mutually entertained of each other in this Respect, and the Reasons for them.-A Look at ourselves through Chinese Glasses. — Facts illustrating the better Side of Chinese Character. The injurious Effects apprehended by some from speaking well of a heathen People.

I AM aware that, in many of the opinions which I shall advance in this chapter, I shall be obliged to go in opposition to generally received conclusions. "The Chinaman" has almost become a synonym for stupidity, and his habits and peculiarities afford abundant occasion for pleasantry and ridicule. This impression has become so fixed and so general, that correspondents and editors of newspapers who wish to make their articles on China and the Chinese readable and interesting, gladly seize upon and exaggerate any thing which can be made to appear grotesque and ridiculous. In speaking of this people, their pig-tails, shaven pates, thick-soled shoes, assumption of dignity and superiority, and great ignorance of many subjects with which we are familiar, make up the unfailing material upon which newspaper writers generally draw. Some of the religious papers even follow in the same strain. A comparatively moderate article in one of them a few weeks since

characterizes the Chinese as the "largest, oddest, and most absurd of the social organizations now existing on the earth.”

It would be but a poor answer to these views to say that they correspond remarkably with those which the Chinese entertain of us. They also enjoy a great deal of pleasantry at our expense, finding it almost impossible, with their associations and habits of thought, to regard otherwise than as ludicrous our short-cropped hair, tight fitting, ungraceful and uncomfortable-looking clothes, gentlemen's thin-soled leather boots, tall stiff hats, gloves in summer-time, the "wasp-like" appearance of Western ladies, with their small waists and large hoops, our ungraceful manners, our remarkable ignorance of the general rules of propriety, and the strange custom of a man and his wife walking together in public arm in arm! These views we can afford to laugh at as relating to comparatively trivial matters, but they think they have the evidence that we are also inferior to them in intellectuality, in refinement, in civilization, and especially in morals.

It is evident that one party or the other has made a serious mistake, and it would be but a natural and reasonable presumption that both may have erred in being influenced too much by the common tendency of our nature to "think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think."

We should look at this matter neither from a Chinese nor Western stand-point, and take into view not simply facts which are comparatively unimportant and exceptional, but those which are fundamental, and of wide-spread influence, and should construe these facts justly and generously.

It may be well to state here in advance some reasons why general views relating to the Chinese character and civilization, formed in foreign communities in China by those who are unacquainted with the Chinese language, should be received with a great deal of hesitation.

In the open ports, where a large foreign commerce has sprung up, an immense number of Chinese congregate from the interior. Many or most of them are adventurers, separa