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great majority of them have about as ac- curate a conception of the territory traversed | as a boy might entertain of a mountainous dis- trict through which he had been compelled to ran barefooted and blindfolded in a dense fog, chased for vast distances by a man cracking over his head a long ox-whip. How very little many scholars do grasp of the real meaning, even after explanations which the teacher re- gards as abundantly full, is demonstrated by a test to which here and there a master subjects his scholars, that of requiring them to write down a passage. The result is frequently the notation of so many false characters as to render it evident, not only that the explanations have not been apprehended, but that notwithstanding such a multitude of perusals, the text itself has been taken only into the ear as so many sounds,
and has not entered the mind at all."
And again:
"There is very little that is intellectual in any part of the early schooling of an ordinary Chinese boy. As a rule, the teacher does not concern himself with his pupils further than to drag them over a specified course, or at least to attempt to do so. The parents of the lad are equally indifferent, or even more so. At his home. the pupil has no mental stimulus of any sort, no books, magazines or papers, and even if he had them, his barren studies at school would not have fitted him to comprehend such literature."
THE HONGKONG. WEEKLY PRESS AND
But if the men's life after infancy is not a bright one, it is infinitely better than that of the women. The account given by the author of the condition of the average woman in China is most gloomy. He mentions that the wife of a Taotai even told a foreign lady that in her next existence she "hoped to be born a dog, that she might go where she chose!" A popular saying declares that "a Daughter with the virtues of the eighteen Lo-Hans is not equal to a splay-foot- od son." With female infanticide, sale of daughters, foot-binding, isolation from the pleasures of life, severe drudgery-and not least, subjection to the rule of a mother-in-law, Dr. Smith draws a miserable picture of Chinese wo men's existence. She is best off, it seems, when she is a shrew. "If," he says, "A Chinese wo- man has the heaven-bestowed gift of being obstreperous to such a degree that, as the say- ings go, 'people do not know east from west' that men are worn out and horses exhausted'. that 'the mountains tremble and the earth shakes,' this is unquestionably her surest life-pre- If such an endowment has been denied her, her next best resource is to pursue a course exactly the opposite, in all circum- stances and under all provocations holding her tongue." He continues: "The present condi- tion of woman in China is a heritage of the remote past.
The essence of the Chinese classical teaching on this subject is, that women is as inferior to inan as the earth is inferior to heaven; and that she can never attain to full equality with man.'
server.
39
of zeal and enthusiasm to carry the proselytizer along his difficult path of the conversion of the Chinese. What can Christianity do for the Chinese family, asks Dr. Smith? What for the Chinese boy and girl?
The two things which the pupil is sure to learn, says Dr. Smith, are obedience and a habit of concentrating attention on the work Dr. Smith concluded his book with a chapter before him, to the disregard of all distractions-- entitled "What can Christianity do for China?" "valuable acquirements." he continues, al-Being a missionary, we are not surprised to find though they can scarcely be termed an educa-him sanguine on this point, for it requires a stock tion. We should like to quote more of Dr. Smith's remarks on village schools and to devote some attention to his chapter on "Higher Education," but considerations of space will not permit this, so that we must be content with recommending this chapter very strongly to the reader's notice. The brief educational reform introduced by the Emperor in the summer of 1898 and upset by the Empress Dowager in September of the same year is just touched one Time was not given for any real test of the new method, and we must wait for the deposi- tion of the Dowager, now, we hope not, far off, for this trial to be made. Whatever may be the result, the new method of education cannot but be an improvement on the old.
We must pass over Dr. Smith's chapters on Religious Observances, Co-operative Societies, Weddings and Funerals, etc., etc., but we will stop to give a short quotation on domestic life from the chapter on “ Village Boys and Men."
+
Of that sympathy for childhood as such [says the author], which is so distinguishing a part of our modern civilisation, an average Chinese father has no conception whatever. By this is not meant that he is not fond of his children, for the reverse is most palpably true. But he has no capacity for entering into the life of a child, and comprehending it. His fondness for his children is the result of the paternal instinct, and is not an intelligent and sympathetic appreciation of a mind of a child." [This, however, the author will hardly, we should think, venture to say is confined to China; it is not a matter of race, but of sensi- bility or temperament]. Taking it in on all around survey there is very little the in life of a village boy to excite one's envy. He learns obedience and respect for authority, and he learns to be industrious. But of intellectual independence, he has not the faintest concep- tion or even a capacity of comprehension. He does as others do, and neither knows nor can imagine any other way. If he is educated, his mind is like a subsoil pipe, filled with all the drainage which has even run through the ground. A part of this drainage came, it is true, from the skies, but it has been considerably altered in its constituents since that time; and a much larger part of it is a wholly human secretion, painfully lacking in chemical purity. In any case this is the content of his mind, and it is all of its contents."
In his early years the Chinese boy enjoys, Bays Dr. Smith,” “
what, viewed from the ex- perience of a decade later, must appear to him aondition of supreme happiness." The joy at the birth of a male child secures him this. As he grows up, this happy state passes-away.
44
In the first place it can take better care of them. The dense and impenetrable ignorance which sacrifices so large a proportion of Chinese infants during the first two years of their life, might perhaps be counteracted in other ways, but it is probably safe to predict that it never would be. To the Chinese girl the practical introduc- tion of Christianity will mean even more than to her brother. It will prevent her from being killed as soon as she is born, and will eventually restore her to her rightful place in the affections of her parents.
It will make (a Chinese) a new man with a new insight and a new outlook. It will give back his lost soul and spirit, and pour into all the avenues of his nature new life. There is not a human relation in which it will not be felt immediately, profoundly, and bene- ficently."
[June 23, 1900.
HONGKONG.
Mr. Paul Sachse, of Messrs. Carlowits & Co., has received from H. I. M. the Emperor of Germany the order of the Red Eagle, IVth class.
On the 16th inst. the Chartered Bank received the following telegram from Mr. Whitehead, who has reached Irkutsk on his overland journey through Siberia The journey through Siberia hitherto from Vladi- vostock interesting, but rough, discomforts con- siderable, cold weather during the night, ex- pect to arrive St. Petersburg 10 or 12 days hence."
While searching the passengers on board the Powan, prior to her departure for Canton on the 16th inst., an European police sergeant found a tally-man in the employ of Messrs. Butterfield and Swire in possession of two bundles of letters, which he was carrying up to Canton to evade postage. The Sergeant took the man to the Central Police Station and charged him with infringing the privilege of the Postmaster-General, Mr. Hazeland said. there was too much of this work going on, and he was determined to do what he could to stop it. The defendant was fined $100.
While on board the Wing Fuk on the 15th inst.. Sergeant Terret noticed a Chinaman-an ex- lukong-dragging a boy on board. Asked for an explanation the man said he had bought the boy for $15 and was taking him to his house at been brought from Pakhoi, and that he did not Namtao. The boy told the officer that he had
want to go with the man to Nambao. When questioned by Mr. Hazeland at the Magistracy on the 16th inst., however, the boy said he was circumstances the charge of bringing the boy willing to accompany the man, and under these,
fell to the ground. into the colony for the purpose of emigration
Hazeland, a German clerk residing at the Peak At the Magistracy on the 19th inst., before Mr.
F. Culliford (123) while in the execution of his was charged with unlawfully assaulting P. C. duty. The defendant denied the charge.-The Constable said: Yesterday at 11.30 p.m. I was on duty in Ship Street. I went to speak to a man who had fallen out of a rickshaw, intending to charge him. The defendant rushed up to me and struck me in the chest, saying, "I will not allow any b--English policeman to take my German friend to the Police Station." I arrested him for doing so. In answer to the defendant, the wit- ness said: When arrested the defendant he struggled and I tore his coat. -Lance-Sergeant Sim (42) said: Last night at 12 o'clock the defendant was brought to the Police Station by the last witness. He was locked up and created a disturbance in the cells. He had been drink- And so on. Dr. Smith pleads his case elo-ing.-The defendant said he had nothing to quently, and we have no wish to deny his con- clusions. But it is open to question whether posed.
say. A fine of $25, or two months, was im- the author does not attribute too much of the present degradation of China to the state of its religious beliefs. Economic conditions are at least as potent a factor in the situation. evolution of a race is modified but not reversed by its religion, and the Oriental races so far have preferred to develop without accepting the oreed of the West. Dr. Smith deprecates an estimate of the effect of Christianity on the Chinese character until enough time has been allowed to elapse to demonstrate the case fully. He has himself no doubt and concludes with the words: "There are in China many questions and many problems, but the one great question, the sole all-comprehending problem, is how to set Christianity to work upon them, which alone in time can and will solve them all."
The
Detective Grant has returned to the colony from Shanghai, having handed the German Ulbricht, who was wanted there for embezzle- ment, over to the authorities.
says:
An Asahi telegram, dated Seoul, 9th June, -"Mr. Pak, the Corean Minister for Foreign Affairs, has paid a visit to Mr. Hayashi, the Japanese Minister, and expressed the apology of the Corean Government in regard to the An and Won question. The Japanese Minister, it is believed, may no longer press the matter. The affair is understood to have now been settled." In this case Japan seems to be easily satisfied,
land had before him some more men charged At the Magistracy on the 19th inst. Mr. Haze-
with infringing the Post Office Ordinance. In
Wong Chiu. P. C. Dymond said that on Monday one case the culprit was à messenger named he received information that letters were being conveyed from Hongkong to Macao and from Macao to Hongkong in connection with the letter hongs by one of the crew of the steamship Heungshan. He accordingly went on board the vessel and saw the defendant there with a bag containing letters in two bundles, one bundle being stamped and the other unstamped. He spoke to the defendant and asked him whom he was going to take the letters to and he pointed to one
of the crew,
who declined to take them. The defendant then attempted to thrust the letters among some parcels, and witness arrested him. The defendant said he intended to hand the letters to a clerk on board. A fine of $100, or two months, was imposed. Yeung Yam, a hawker, was similarly dealt with for a like offence, he being found on board the Heungshan by P.C. Dymond with a parcel of letters in his pos session. Lee Hing and Chong Ki Hong, who had just returned from America, were charged with committing a breach of the Post Office Ordinance by bringing letters into the colony, and they were further charged with being in illegal possession of arms. In the one offence they were each fined $100, or two months, and for the other $5 each,
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