470
with good results, and now, encouraged by this, the glass- orkers are doing the ame. When the forces of steam and electricity begin to come into play here, there should be some important developments in local manufactures.
CHINESE POETRY.
LAST NIGHT'S LECTURE BY MR. J, DYER BALL.
Mr. Dyer Ball on Dec. 21 lectured on the "Rhythm and Rhyme in Celestial Climes" at the Y.M.C.A.
In his opening remarks the speaker said that though the Chinese seemed so prosaic, 80 matter-of-fact, that at first it seems to many im. possible that under the so-called yellow skin there
beats a heart that throbs in unison with poetic thought and fancy, as a matter of fact the Chinese ordinarily were passionately fond of poetry; they positively revelled in it. Nature is doubtless in a mood for poetic inspiration in the Fast, but was man responsive where the grind for the dollar and the piling up of the paltry cash necessitated such ад endless
were
round carried on from early dawn to late at night? In answer to this question--the Chi- nese have been worshippers of Nature for centuries and millenniums, both in the actual and figurative sense of the term. In this land of poetry every man of education was taught to compose verse in his own language as English boys are taught to write Latin verse. As in ancient Greece, so in ancient China:-poetry was an older offspring of literature than philo- sophy. In India there was much of epic poetry, but in China none; historical romance took its place. There was much dramatic poetry, bat though Chinese actors known as Children of the peach orchard a thousand years ago, our modern stage was far in advance of theirs. The Chinese memory was highly trained, but the Chinese were not above accepting the aids which poetry lent to memory, so didactic verse was common, the subject matter being, thrown into this form simply as a mnemonic aid. The Mandarin sometimes versified his proclamations so that they might attract more notice in the minds of the people, and 80 that they might Le the more easily remembered. The oracles in the temples had their utterances written in poetry. Lyric poetry was what the Chinese were particularly strong in. It was very difficult to render soine of the masterpieces of Chinese poetry into English. European languages were very similar, and a more or less literal translation from them into English was possible. Even in such cases, however, some of the beauties were lost; but when two languages were so dissimilar as English and Chinese the attempt was often disastrous. Therefore. much Chinese poetry was not capable of being translated." The study of Chinese poetry would show that the Chinese poets were of the same flesh and blood as our- selves, inasmuch that they had the same thought and feelings and were moved by the same emotions and desires; that, in fact, their hearts beat in unison with ours--though seas and continents separated as, there was the same sky overhead, and human nature was the same the wide world over. As in the West, so in the Far East-poetry had risen from a rugged original, when a rapidity of style and irregularity in the use of the embellishments of rhyme and measure were first employed. It was only half the truth to say that Chinese was a mono- syl'abic language. It was so to a great extent, but there were sufficient dipthongs and short and long pronunciation of words to give an expressive variety to the verse. Added to this WES the tonic system, which alone would give a musical cadence to the verse. There were a number of different measures, in- cluding the parallelisms so common in Hebrew postry. One very interestin
feature in Chinese poetry was imitative harmony, when the notes of birds were employed to make up a in which the birds appeared to be speaking Shiking" or "the Book of Odes was a collection of ancient lyrics. There was nothing pornographic in them. but amongst mauy Chinese the mere mention of love and love-making was thought to be immor- al, and they had given political mean ng to many of these national songs of the people. About two-hundred years before Christ a poem called
poem, i'binese. The
11
14
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
"The Bird of Fate," bearing a striking resem | blance to Edgar Allen Poe's Raven," was written. Domestic affection appeared in several Chinese poems, though it was thought indė. licate to show signs of it in every day life, and deserted wives have also sung their WO 8. One of the greatest of China's poets was Li Tai-po, who lived in the Tong Dynasty (618-905 A. D.) He had been styled the Pope and the Horace of that age. People blamed the Chinese for callousness towards suffering, especially in the brute creation, but several of their poets wrote in a contrary vein. A famous poet of the Sung Dynasty (1036-111 A. D.) was Su Tung-po. His works were contained in a hundred and fifteen volumes, and so prized were his poems that some of them were cut in stone. Long poems were almost unknown in Chins. One of the longest was "Lei Sau, The Song of the Sorrow Stricken One." The author
Was & high minister of state who, when his sovereign felt changed towards him, committed suicide. The Dragon Boat Feast was kept in memory of him-it was figurative of trying to recover the body of the lamented minister.
Mr. Dyer Ball gave many illustrations of Chinese poetry, and finished up by instancing a few songs written for childreu. A translation of the last, and perhaps the prettiest of these, was as follows:-
"My little baby, little boy blue,
Is as sweet as sugar and cinnamon too; Isn't this precious darling of ours Sweeter than dates and cinnamon flowers?"
DES VEUX ROAD FIRE INQUIRY.
At the Magistracy on the 20th instant Mr. H. H. J. Gompertz opened an inquiry into the cause of the fire which occurred in a godown at No. 325. Des Voeux Road West, on the 9th instant. Mr. Hursthouse (of Messrs Dennys and Bowley's office) appeared on behalf of four Insurance Companies, also on behalf of the Police. Mr. Hastings represented Mr. Ho Li Cho, who is the owner of certain goods in the godown. Mr. Hursthonse said, that as usual in these inquiries; some of the witnesses had turn- ed out to be hostile, aud had to be subpoenaed for examination. The godown in question is a small one extending about 25 or 30 feet back from the road, and is 10 or 12 feet in width. It consists of only the ground floor of the premises. The first floor is inhabited by various persons, and their entrance to their flat did not necessitate them going through the godown. When the fire occurred a number of people were sleeping on the first floor. The story goes that some of them were awakened by a noise which sounded as if some- body were knocking against the floor on which they were sleeping. One of the party got up and opened a trap door showing into the go- down. Looking through this he saw smoke and flames below. He alarmed the others, and
the whole of the people on the floor easily made their escape. The fire was confined to the back part of the shop, where a portion of a window and a few cases of goods were burnt. There were no signs of the flames having burnt the ceiling. In the godown were planks running longitudinally along the floor about two feet apart. The cases of goods were ranged on these planks, so that there was a space of about four inches between the cases and the floor. Various goods were contained in the cases, which were mostly packed with a loose and inflammable kind of shavings. Under one of these cases the Police found a small kerosene lamp in a very peculiar position. It was about a yard under the case; the burner and the reflector were off, and the wick was partially hanging out. Another peculiar circumstance in connection with it was, that although the case under which the lamp was found was slightly burnt, there was no trace of fire near the place where the lamp was picked up. A bottle smel- ling strongly of kerosene was found under the staircase to the first floor. A large pole was also found reaching up to the rafters of the ceiling. With regard to the noise heard by
inhabitants of the first floor. I submit that that noise may have been made by the pole in question. The goods in the godown belong to a man camel Ho Li Cho, and so far as can be
[December 26, 1904.
ascertained, the insurances are effected in th name of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company. The total amount of insurance is $35,000, and that appears, judging from the list of goods taken from the books the Police have seen, to be just about double the value of the stocks supposed to be in the godown at the time of the fire. There are very serious discrepancies according to the list of goods supposed to be in the godown. A Mr. Murray and Mr. Ho Li Cho are concerned to a certain extent in these goods.
The first witness was William Davis, Manager of the Commercial Union Insurance Company, who said that part of the goods were insured in his Company to the extent of $5,000, in the name of the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company. He had no hesitation in accepting any insurance from this Company, but would have made inquiries before accepting from a private individual. The application came through the Un On Insurance Company. Edward Henry Murray said: I am a coal and general commission agent. I came out from America with the Chinese Engineering Com- pany about two years ago, and remained with them until they closed up. When Mr. Hawley, managing director of the Company, loft here, an arrangement was made whereby Mr. Ho Li Cho was to take over the goods of the Company, valued roughly at $6,500 Mex. He got control of the goods on August 5th. The balance due then was $43,000, which was payable in three separate instalments of equal amounts in three, six. and nine months. The first payment has been duly met. Subject to the bills being met on maturity, the stock is the property of Ho Li Cho. Since the fifth of - Angust, when. I effected a sale of any of the goods, I gave a delivery order on the godown company. As far as I know, Ho Li Cho is the lessee of the godown at Des Voeux Road. I have the original contracts and copies of bills handed over by the Company to Ho Li Cho. On making up a list of goods in the godown about two months after the
settlement, I found it did not tally with the amount of money the Company claimed from Ho Li Cho. I have no books belonging to the Chinese-American Company by which I can work the matter out. According to the papers in my possession there should be considerably more stock than there is. I have never checked the stock in the Des Vœux Road godown. I could not say whether a case of singlets was missing from the godown. There was some jewellery in my office at the time of the fire, consisting of chains, watches, rings, etc. I do not know whether it was brought from the Des Voeux Road godown.
I could not say whether any of the stock was in an unsaleable condition.
Hearing contiones,
The hearing of this inquiry was continued before Mr. H. H. J. Gompertz at the Magistracy on the 21st instant, Mr. Hursthouse (of Messrs Dennys and Bowley's office) representing the
Police and four Insurance Companies, and Mr. Hastings appearing on behalf of Ho Li Cho, the owner of the goods in the godown.
The next witness called was Ho Li Cho, who said:-I am the agent of the Chinese Engineer- ing and Mining Company. I was formerly compradore of the Chinese American Com- mercial Company. When that company ceased to carry on business I took over the stock, the value of which Was about $63,00 or $64,000. After deducting certain rebates I arranged to pay the Company $43,000 in three instalmen's. I did not check the stock as the contracts and invoices were with Mr. Murray. When the West Point godown was hired, some of the goods I took over were removed there. I insured the goods for $5,000, a further $4,000, hud then $10,000 in the Un On Insurance Company; $5,000 in the Commercial Union and $11,000 in the Meiji Fire Insurance Company. I did not know of the insurance in the latter two companies until the night of the fire. All the insurances I effected were with the Un On. The insurance was in-
creased about a fortnight before the fire on account of a further shipment of goods which was to be put into the godown. There Was no list made of the goods transferred to the West Point Godown. The godownkeeper was, sleeping in the godown on
Page 10Page 11