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 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE WASON 
 
 CHINESE 
 COLLECTION 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 DS 721.C68 
 
 Better side of the Cliinese character :lt 
 
 3 1924 023 241 148 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023241148 
 
Better Side of the 
 Chinese Character. 
 
Better Side of the 
 Chinese Character 
 
 Its Relation to a White Australia 
 
 and the Development of our 
 
 Tropical Territory. 
 
 By E. W. COLE. 
 
 E. W. COLE, Book arcade, 
 
 Melbourne, Sydney & Adelaide. 
 
 1918 
 
 I, i' I- , I 
 

 Wr^Yf"^ 
 
 /, 
 
 ^, 
 
 '%. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Chinese not I'nderstood ... 20 
 
 Our Chinamen not always a fair sample .... :^1 
 
 (xeiieral Testimonies to Character .... 36 
 
 Testimonies to Intelligence . . 51 
 
 Testimonies to Honesty 67 
 
 Cliinese a Sober People 86 
 
 Chinese a Peaceable and Law Abiding People .... 92 
 
 Chinese a Cheerful People 104 
 
 Chinese a Patient People 109 
 
 Chinese a Grateful People . . 116 
 
 Chinese a Kindly People 120 
 
 The Chinese a Polite People 131 
 
 Chinese Truthfulness . . 135 
 
 Chinese ]\loral Teachings and Conduct . . . . 143 
 
 Chinese under the same conditions much like ourselves 148 
 
 Power of Environment 160 
 
 Alien Immigration Restriction Laws 174 
 
 What we should do to develop Tropical Australia . . 177 
 
 Australia and its Neighbours .... .... 189 
 
 Our Little White -Joke 195 
 
 On the Superior itan 196 
 
 Chinese Proverbs 200 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Eev. Hudson Taylor 24 
 
 Sir Robert Hart 26 
 
 Sir Claude Jlacdonald 27 
 
 ilr. Julian Thomas 46 
 
 Dr. IMorrison 49 
 
 Mr. Gladstone 50 
 
 Rev. Dr. Condit 52 
 
 Lord Elgin 64 
 
 Li Hung Chang 65 
 
 General Grant . 65 
 
 Earl of Beaconsfield 66 
 
 Prince Bismarck 66 
 
 Gambetta 66 
 
 Joaquin Miller 82 
 
 Confucius 93 
 
 Montesquieu .... 101 
 
 St. Paul 139 
 
 Rev. Cheok Hong Cheong 149 
 
 ]\Ir. Quong Tart 156 
 
 Stanley 164 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ijivingstone 164 
 
 Sir George Grey 165 
 
 President Diaz 181 
 
 Marquis Ito 185 
 
 White Australia Diagrams 189 
 
 Chinese Portraits 211 
 
 Japanese Portraits 215 
 
 Federation of the World iledals 217 
 
Little Chinese Boy of Shanghai. 
 
♦1 ® 
 
 □ BETTER SIDE □ 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHINESE CHARACTER 
 
 •a 
 
 Its Relation to a "White Australia" 
 
 and the 
 Development of our Tropical Territory. 
 
 The Chinese in Australia present their worst 
 side to us. Most of us see in them only an in- 
 ferior race of foreigners, yellow-skinned, plain- 
 looking, insanitary, opium-using, gambling, im- 
 moral, cowardly, jabbering heathens, who work 
 for low wages, and, as the phrase goes, "live on 
 the smell of an oil-rag." From the information 
 
18 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 which we get from some rapid travellers in China 
 who have had little chance of seeing and under- 
 standing the people, from some residents who do 
 not mix with the people, from some missionaries 
 who have strong anti-heathen prejudices and mis- 
 judge the people, from some who have strong- 
 racial prejudices, and from other adverse 
 writers, many of whom can see nothing good in 
 the Chinese and gi^^e them a ■\'ery bad character 
 — from all these representations they have be- 
 come disliked, despised, and condemned b}' great 
 numbers of "white people." These unfavour- 
 able, and, I hold, for the most part prejudiced, 
 exaggerated, and unfair views of the Avorst side 
 of the Chinese character, have been spoken, writ- 
 ten, and spread widely abroad, while their good 
 points have been less chronicled and voiced forth. 
 I shall therefore in this little book give the defter 
 side of the Chinese character from the writings, 
 principalh^, of missionaries, residents, diplomats. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 19 
 
 traders, and others, most of whom ha;ve had 
 long and intimate experience of tlie Chinese, and 
 from intercourse, observations, and inquiries of 
 my own. 
 
 I shall attempt to show by strong and reliable 
 evidence that the Chinaman, like nnto onrselves, 
 is a human being, and that, taken all in all, he is 
 not a bad sort of human being, but much better 
 than he has been generally I'opresented. 
 
20 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 The Chinese Not Understood. 
 
 The Chinese have not been faii'l.y appreciated 
 by the Avestern nations, because they have not 
 been understood; tlteij are ceiiainly the least un- 
 derstood of all the great nations of the earth. If 
 all that has been written of them were to be col- 
 lected into one great work, it would form a very 
 curious and contradictory collection ; but through 
 the extreme difficult}^ of understanding their 
 strange language, religions, manners, customs, 
 laws, and ways of looking at things, more has 
 been written against them than in favour of 
 them. It is only natural that a people, who dur- 
 ing the last 4000 years, have lived apart from 
 the rest of the world, should evolve or develop 
 a form of civilisation considerably different from 
 our own. This the Chinese have done; and al- 
 though, in main essentials, the products of the 
 human mind are the same in Christendom and 
 China, yet a great number of minor ideas and 
 vai-iations of detail have grown up, and it is this 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 21 
 
 makes it so difficult at first for us to understand 
 the Chinese or for them to understand us. But 
 eminent, unprejudiced and observant men, who 
 hare lived in China for many years, tell us that, 
 repellent as the Chinaman frequently is at first, 
 when you come to know him and understand his 
 way of looking at things, you are frequently 
 astonished at and instructed by his striking and 
 peculiar wisdom. Many of the residents in 
 China will not attempt to try to understand the 
 Chinese, but keep themseh'es aloof from them, 
 although they make their living and fortunes out 
 of them. On board of an outward-bound 
 steamer, I came across a wealthy lady and her 
 husband, who had lived 37 years in Shanghai, 
 and, thinking this a lucky opportunity to have 
 a good talk about the character of the Chinese, 
 I asked the lady what was her opinion of them. 
 She answered that she knew nothing about them, 
 only that the men made good servants, and the 
 women were good, kind nurses, She had lived 
 
22 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 37 years in Shanghai, and yet had never been 
 into the adjoining native city of 300,000 inhabi- 
 tants! At Shanghai it is not considered proper 
 for AVesterns to visit the native city, and you are 
 warned that if you do so you must not speak 
 of it or let it be known, unless you wished to he 
 shunned by "Societ3\" 
 
 The Hon. Chester Holconibe, in "The Real 
 Chinese Question," says: — "//; is easier to call 
 tlie Chinamau a lientlien tliaii to understand lam. 
 That he has eyes queerly shaped and located, eats 
 with chopsticks, dresses his hair into a queue, 
 and wears his shirt outside of his trousers, are 
 held, by the large majority of people, to furnish 
 ample grounds for the application of this otfeu- 
 sive term. Yet our own ancesters braided their 
 hair, and wore it as he does. And the relative ar- 
 rangement of the garments named is not a matter 
 of either morals, intellect, or religion. Thus the 
 petty abuse of him is largely the result of ignor- 
 ance," 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 23 
 
 The author of "Twelve Years in China, by a 
 British Resident," says: — "On my first arrival 
 in China, thirteen years ago, the contrariety^ of 
 the native modes of doing anything struck me as 
 most amusing, and a long list of the 'opposites' 
 of the Chinese manner and character to ours was 
 soon made out ; but on giving deeper study to the 
 subject, there is less reason to be proud of the 
 general superiority of the European means than 
 to feel abashed at our ideas of vaunted perfec- 
 tion." 
 
 JNIr. Walton, in "The Chinese and the Present 
 Crisis" (3900), says:— "T/^c wore I see of the 
 C'Jiitiesc, file tetter I like them." 
 
 Mr. John A. Turner, in his account of Hong 
 Kong (1894) says: — " Consincuous among the 
 ■\'irtues of the Chinese we may note their cheer- 
 fulness, industry, and temperateness. Br. Legge 
 says that he thought better of theoi, morally and 
 sociaJly, trJ/en he left them, than when he first 
 went among tJtem thirty years before." 
 
24 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 EEV. HUDSON TAYLOE 
 
 The Eev. Pludson Taylor, the eminent founder 
 of the enormous China Inland Mission, who has 
 been into every province of China, has 800 w^hite 
 missionaries under him, besides .^reat numbers 
 of native ones, who has laboured in this vast field 
 for 50 years, and whose experience of the 
 Chinese, in n moral and religions sense, must be 
 greater than that of any other man, has 
 formed a good opinion of them, and in a lecture 
 in Melbourne not long ago, as the result of his 
 long and vast experience, he uttered these em- 
 phatic words, "I love the Chinese." 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 25 
 
 Rev. E. J. Dukes, in his "Everyday Life in 
 China," says: — "Two things ive venture to af- 
 firm; first, that the mass of the people will he 
 af)j)r eclated tJie more higMy the better they are 
 kiwwn; and, secondly, that the higher the per- 
 sonal character of the critic, whether missionary 
 or layman, the more favourable is his estimate. 
 There are men of exacting and jaundiced tem- 
 perament in every class who are never pleased 
 and always suspicious. But almost without ex- 
 ception, as far as our observation has gone, the 
 merchants and others residing in China who live 
 consistent religious lives, are admirers of the 
 Chinese, and the missionaries who are doing their 
 work with the best temper and success are the 
 men who hold the natives in the highest esteem, 
 finding not only much to admire, hut even much 
 to love. Only two or three missionaries have we 
 ever known who did not hold the Chinese in gen- 
 
26 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 eral respect; and in the writer's humble judg- 
 ment it would hare been best for the mission 
 cause for those brethren to retire from the field.'' 
 
 An equally good opinion is held by high poli- 
 tical authorities who have had long experience in 
 dealing with the Chinese. Being one day in 
 ^Valsli and Kelly's book emporium, at Yoko- 
 hama, I asked the manager what he thought of 
 
 SIR ROBERT HART 
 
 a new book, just published by Sir Robert Hart, 
 on the Chinese. He answered that it had the 
 usual fault of books written by men who had 
 been any length of tiiue in China — it was too far- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 27 
 
 Durable to the Cliiiiese ; that men who had been 
 k)ug with the Chinese seemed to tal^e the Chinese 
 A'iew of tilings and write favourably of them. Sir 
 
 SIR CLAUDE MACDONALD 
 
 Eobcrt Hart, Sir Claude ^Maedonald (late British 
 Minister to China), Sir Henry Blake (Governor 
 of Hong Kong), and Sir Frank Swettenham 
 (late Governor of the Straits Settlements), all 
 of whom have great experience and knowledge 
 of the Chinese, are accused of this favourable 
 leaning toward them. Can ire have better evi- 
 dence than tills of the sterliiuj caJue of the 
 Chinese^ 
 
28 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 The population of Hong Kong consists of 
 about 300,000 Chinese, and less than 10,000 Eng- 
 lish and other foreigners, and Sir Henry Blake 
 has given great offence to " Societ}' " by trying 
 to do justice to the Chinese. 
 
 The Rev. J. L. Nevius, in his "China and the 
 Chinese" (1869) says — "General views relating 
 to the Chinese character and civilisation, formed 
 in f oi"eign communities in China b}^ those who are 
 unacquainted with the Chinese language, should 
 be received AAath a great deal of hesitation. . . . 
 In the open ports, where a large foreign com- 
 merce has sprung up, an immense number of 
 Chinese congregate from the interior. Many or 
 most of them are adventurers separated from the 
 restraining influences of their families and from 
 home society, who come to these places to engage 
 in the general scramble for wealth. As it is but 
 too common for foreigners, in their treatment 
 of native servants or employees, to be haught}^, 
 harsh, and overbearing, Chinamen of independ- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 29 
 
 euce and self-respect generally prefer to be em- 
 ployed by their oAvn people, and are consequently 
 not numerous in the open ports. . . The Chinese 
 being every day brought into contact with drun- 
 ken sailors, swearing sea-captains, and upscru- 
 pulous traders from the West, new lessons are 
 constantl.r learned from them in the school of 
 duplicity and immoralit)^ . . . Thus the associ- 
 ations and influences of the foreign community 
 tend to deterioration and demoralisation. The 
 Chinese of this class are no fitting type of their 
 race, and foreigners who have only associated 
 with tJieih, and that solely through the medium of 
 the 'Pidgin-English,' are very imperfectly 
 qualified to give an opinion from pei'sonal ex- 
 perience and observation of the character, 
 morals, and ideas of the peojjle generally." 
 
 The Rt. Rev. Monseigneur Reynaud, Vicar- 
 Apostolic of the District of Tche-Kiang, in con- 
 cluding his little book, "Another China" (1897), 
 says: — ^"Some of our readers may think, after 
 
30 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 perusing these pages, that I am myself a little bit 
 too much of a Chinaman. Whether this be a 
 matter of praise or reproach, I do not deny that 
 I really love China as my adopted country where 
 I hope to live and die. I found China far more 
 beautiful and better in general than I had ever 
 expected, and in the midst of so many ill-condi- 
 tioned pagans, / liacc met irifh such luanhcrs of 
 simple and honest souls, that niij trials and disap- 
 pointments have been alleviated hij inueh conso- 
 lation. Few missionaries will contradict this 
 assertion, as China is a land of exile which they 
 love, and which they rarely leave without regret. " 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 31 
 
 Our Chinamen Not Always a Fair Sample. 
 
 It is frequently stated by missionaries, trayel- 
 lers, and other \^'iiters, tliat ^yhile the great body 
 of the Chinese nation are a good and deserving 
 people, many of those who liye in the coast towns, 
 and emigrate into America, Australia, and other 
 countries, are not so. Now, I should be yery sorry 
 to assist in spreading any unjust stigma upon 
 those amongst us, whom, in general good beha- 
 yiour, I hold to be quite equal to the rest of our 
 eomnumity ; yet, no doubt, there is some truth in 
 the statements so frequenth^ made by yarious 
 writers, and this suggests the wisdom of encour- 
 aging immigration from the interior of China 
 rather than from the coast towns. The follow- 
 ing are some of the statements on this point: — 
 
 Hon. Chester Holcombe, in ' ' The Real Chinese 
 Question, ' ' says : — ' ' The American opinion of the 
 hundreds of millions of the Chinese is determined 
 by the appearance and conduct of the small num- 
 ber of the i-ace who are found in this country 
 
32 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 [America] as labourers. Yet they belong to the 
 lowest class in the empire, and come from a 
 narrow area near Canton. They furnish no fair 
 example of the Chinese race." 
 
 The author of "Cassell's Peoples of the 
 World" says: — "The cliaracter of the nation has 
 been understated. The people of seaport towns 
 are not, in China an}" more than in other parts 
 of the world, the most favourable specimens of 
 a people. Tliose of the interior villages are much 
 better t.ypes of the race than the coolies Avith 
 whom English merchants and seamen come in 
 contact in Canton, Shanghai, or Hong Kong." 
 
 The author of "The Children of China" says: 
 — "I am sorry to say that, as in India, so in 
 China, the best people are to be foimd far away 
 from the sea-coast, because it is there that they 
 have seen least of Europeans ; and as most of the 
 Europeans who go to China are not Christian 
 men, they have made the Chinese who mix with 
 them worse instead of better. ' ' 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 33 
 
 The Rev. E. J. Dukes, in his "Everyday Life 
 in China," referring to the popular but unfair 
 opinion about the Chinese, sa3^s: — "They ac- 
 cept the testimony of men who cannot speak 
 Chinese, and who never once sat at table with a 
 Chinaman except on some special and festive oc- 
 casion. Seamen are still less able to give a just 
 opinion on the subject, since only the riff-raff of 
 the population of a port come about a vessel ; and 
 the points of connection between the shipping 
 and the shore are often of the lowest kind. Who 
 woTifd like to have Englishmen judged by the 
 hobblers of the quays and the ' 'long-shore men' 
 of Liverpool, Newcastle, or London? Furthest 
 of all from the facts is a judgment founded upon 
 contact with Chinese emigrants in California, 
 Australia, or the Straits Settlements, seeing that 
 the larger proportion of such men are the very 
 poor and uneducated, and no small nmiiber have 
 escaped from the penalties of the law, or have 
 thrown off their family obligations." 
 
Q 
 
 4 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Sir John F. Davis, sometime Governor of 
 Hong-Kong, says, in Ms "China: A General De- 
 scription, &c." (1857): — "Tlie Chinese have, 
 upon tlie wliole, been under-estimated on the 
 score of their moral attributes. The reason of 
 this has probably been, the extremely unfavour- 
 able aspect in which thej^ have appeared to the 
 generality of observers at Canton; just as if any 
 one should attempt to form an estimate of our 
 national character in England from that pecu- 
 liar ]Dhase under which it may present itself at 
 some commercial seaport. The Cantonese are 
 the very worst specimens of their countrymen." 
 
 Lieut. F. E. Forbes, R.N"., says in "Five Years 
 in China" (1848) : — I had formed something like 
 an estimate of Canton from the accounts I had 
 previously read — of true local descriptions, I ad- 
 mit, but, as regards the nation at large, nothing 
 can he more fallacious than the ideas conveyed by 
 them. After the first blow of hostilities, and a 
 little irritation consequent upon defeat, which an 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 35 
 
 Englishmau can well afford to make allowance 
 for, I found myself in the midst of as amiaMe, 
 hitul and Itospitahle a poj>itlatinii as any on the 
 face of the globe, as far aJtcad of us in some 
 things as heltiiid us in others. . . No one could 
 think of searching the back streets of Chatham, 
 or the purlieus of Wapping, for a fair criterion 
 of British Society, or specimens of the yeomanry 
 of Mcrr}^ England; 3'et from data such as these 
 we have liitherto drawn our ideas of Chinese 
 morality and civilisation; but as the country 
 opens and avc become better acquainted, I trust 
 that both parties will find that they are not the 
 barbarians they have hitherto mutually believed 
 each other to be." 
 
36 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 General Testimonies to Character. 
 
 Those, who have employed Chinese in Austra- 
 lasia, speak uniformly in praise of their plod- 
 ding industry and general trustworthiness. It is 
 not judicious to repeat here the special praises 
 I have heard in their favour, but they ma.y all 
 be smnmed up in the words often used — "/ like 
 the Chinese^ because tlieij (jive little trouble, and 
 you can depend on tlieui to do the tcork." 
 
 The famous and able Sir Robert Hart, Avho has 
 been for more than 40 jeavs Controller-General 
 of the Chinese Maritime Customs, who has em- 
 ploj^ed during that time many thousands of 
 Chinese and others, and who still employs about 
 5000 Chinese and 1000 non-Chinese, composed 
 (in the following order) of British, French, Ger- 
 man, American, Russian, Italian, Norwegian, 
 Portuguese, Austrian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, 
 and Swedish, and has had more business experi- 
 ence with the Chinese race than any man in 
 China, thus summarises their character : — ' ' They 
 
CHINESE C HARACTER. 37 
 
 are well-behaved, laAv-abiding, intelligent, econo- 
 mical, and industrious ; they can learn anything 
 and do anything; they are punctiliously polite, 
 they worship talent, and they believe in right so 
 firmly that they scorn to think it requires to be 
 supported or enforced by might ; they delight in 
 literature, and everywhere they have their lit- 
 erai'v clubs and coteries for learning and discuss- 
 ing each other's essays and verses; they possess 
 and practise an admirable system of ethics, and 
 the}^ are generous, charitable, and fond of good 
 works; they never forget a favour, they make 
 rich return for any kindness, and, though they 
 know money will buy service, a man must be 
 more than wealthy to win public esteem and re- 
 spect ; they are practical, teachable, and wonder- 
 fully gifted Avith common-sense ; they are excel- 
 lent artisans, reliable worlanen, and of a good 
 faith that everyone acknowledges and admires in 
 their commercial dealings ; in no country that is 
 or was, has the commandment. 'Honour thy 
 father and thy mother,' been so religiously 
 
38 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 obeyed, or so fully and without exception given 
 effect to, and it is in fact the l?:eynote of their 
 family, social, official, and national life, and be- 
 cause it is so 'their days are long in the land 
 God has given them.' " — (Foiinigldlij Revieiv, 
 February, 1901.) 
 
 The Straits Settlements, of which Singapore is 
 the capital, contain more than 300,000 Chinese. 
 When I was there, in 1903, Sir Frank Swetten- 
 ham, who is said, through his great opportuni- 
 ties, to "know more of the Chinese enilc/raiit 
 than any other Englishman," in a valedictory 
 speech, referred to their value in very eulogistic 
 terms. I tried to Ivcixe a talk with him on the 
 subject, but as he was leaving the country for 
 Europe in a few hours he unfortunately could not 
 spare the time, but a few weeks afterwards, in a 
 letter to The Thiies, he referred to the Chinese 
 as follows: — " I have heard a good deal of 
 Chinese vices from those who wanted an excuse 
 for excluding Chinese labour from what are 
 called white men's countries. Personally, though 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 39 
 
 I have lived for so many years amongst Chinese, 
 I have seen amongst them no more evidence of 
 vice than amongst other nationalities. . . A cer- 
 tain proi^ortion are smokers of opium, but those 
 who smoke to excess are comparatively few, and 
 I cannot remember having ever seen an intoxi- 
 cated Chinese in the streets, or heard of a case 
 of 'drunk and discn-derly' being brought before 
 the Courts. . . . Those who regard the Chinese 
 as a people of peculiar views, not tit to live in the 
 same country with l']Tn'opeans, can easily ascer- 
 tain whethei' the records of the police and other 
 courts justify the charge. / snij tlieij do iiof. On 
 the C(mtrai\\', the Chinese arc honest, hard-work- 
 ing, thrifty, and sober as people go." 
 
 The Hon. Chester Holcombe, in "The Real 
 Chinese Question," published in 1900, saj^s: — 
 "Industiy, economy, patience, persistency of 
 purpose, democracy of spirit, and stability — all 
 of these most excellent traits of character are 
 notabl}' developed in the Chinese. ... A great 
 
40 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 capacity of endurance and a philosophic turn of 
 mind enable the average Chinaman to submit, 
 with complacency, to conditions which he would 
 gladly see modified, and even to excuse and de- 
 fend wrong ways and methods, in the correction 
 of which he would heartily assist. When the 
 time comes, and reformative measures are put 
 into operation in the empire, the facility and 
 readiness with which they are adopted, and the 
 appreciation which they receive from the people, 
 will surprise the world. And yet it w'ill not be 
 strange to those who know them. The great ma- 
 jority of the Chinese are honest, acute men of 
 business. They realise that their traditional 
 systems of finance are extravagant, expensive, 
 and corrupt. These have been endured, but not 
 enjo3^ed. As merchants, there are none better in 
 the world than the Chinese ; their word is as good 
 as their bond, and their reliability and integrity 
 are known and recognised by all who have had 
 dealings with them. Honest and faithful in their 
 dealings with each other, why should not such 
 
CHINESE CHARACTEE. 41 
 
 men welcome an honest govermental system, and 
 aid in the establishment of HI What good 
 reason is there for the assumption that they will 
 not'?'- 
 
 Mr. White, of the London Bank of Australia^ 
 Swanston-street, Melbourne, writes: — With re- 
 gard to your wish that T should express my 
 opinion regarding Chinese and their chief char- 
 acteristics, I have pleasure in doing so. I think I 
 am justified in stating that few men in Victoria 
 have had more varied or extensive opportunities 
 for stud^ang the character of the Chinese. For 
 sixteen years I have been in close touch with 
 all classes, from the humble trader and manu- 
 facturer to the large and independent merchant. 
 Speaking generally, they are kind, courteous, 
 generous, appreciative and responsive. As 
 business men they are honest, truthful, keen, 
 intelligent, industrious, sober. As parents aff ec - 
 tionately indulgent to and proud of their chil- 
 
42 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 dren and interested in their mental and com- 
 mercial education and training. As citizens 
 the}' are peaceful, law-abiding, charitable, and 
 considerate of others. As workers they are in- 
 dustrious, sober, thrift}^ patient, determined, 
 and, although not indifferent to losses and mis- 
 fortunes, i)ossess a spirit of calmness and resig- 
 nation when faced by ti'oubles and losses which 
 to me expresses a stage of mental development 
 the Europeans have not reached, and do not 
 appreciate or understand. Without looking 
 deejaer than the sui'face one would be inclined 
 to say that they lacked ambition, but they do 
 not. They possess that quality — the difference 
 between European ideas of ambition and theirs 
 is mainly that of selfishness and unselfishness. 
 One can see selfish ambition and its results in 
 almost every direction amongst Euroi:)eans, but 
 rarely amongst Chinese. As regards filial re- 
 gard and duty to parent they probably lead the 
 world. They pi'actically carry out all through 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 43 
 
 life the eonmiandment to "Honour father and 
 
 mother." Again, they invariablv provide for 
 
 friends who liave become incaiDaeitated. Their 
 
 morals have been and are frequently criticised 
 and condemned by men who have the least moral 
 
 right to do so. Finally, Chinese never forget a 
 kind action. They are shy and undemonstra- 
 tive, but once theii' confidence is gained they 
 never doubt — they ai'e willing to give all. 
 
 Eatzel, in his "History of Mankind," says — • 
 "In a repoi't of the Governor of ( *ochin-China 
 towards tlie end of the sixties we read: 'The 
 Chinese have been and are of great use to us; 
 they are temperate, powerful, intelligent, and 
 hard-working.' " 
 
 Mrs. Archibald Little, in her "Intimate 
 China," published in 1889, says — "There is 
 hardly a European living in China, who has not 
 one or more Chinese whom he would trust with 
 everything, whom he would rely upon in sick- 
 
44 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 ness or in danger, and whom he really — if he 
 spoke out, as we so seldom do^ — regards as the 
 embodiment of all tlie virtues iii a way in wJiicJi 
 he regards no European of Ids acquaintance. 
 .... A nation that, all through the land, pro- 
 duces men who so thoroughly satisfy their em- 
 ployers, cannot be called a decadent race; nor 
 indeed are any of the signs of decadence with 
 which I am acquainted to be discovered among 
 the great Chinese people, who appear always 
 hard-working, good-humoured, kindly, thrifty, 
 law-abiding, contented, and in the performance 
 of all duties laid upon them astonishingly con- 
 scientious. I have never known a servant shirk 
 any task imposed upon him, because he was tired 
 or ill, or because it was late at night:" 
 
 Mr. Alexis Krausse, in his "China in Decay" 
 (1898), describes the Chinaman as "A good son, 
 a fairly kind husband, and an abstemious liv^er. 
 He does not drink to excess, nor does he squan- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 45 
 
 der his inheritance. He is the most trustworthy 
 (Jehtor in tlte world, always pays his dues, and 
 can be trusted to keep his word in business rela- 
 tions." 
 
 Mr. H. C. Sirr, in his "China and the 
 Chinese," says — "The characteristic good quali- 
 ties of the Chinese are parental affection, filial 
 piety, veneration for learning, respect for age, 
 submission to rule, hospitalit}", perseverance, 
 and industry; the one especial trait in a China- 
 man's character, which is worthy of being imi- 
 tated by many professing Christians, is obedi- 
 ence to parents and filial duty." 
 
 Mr. P. Lero.y-Beaulieu, in "The Awakening 
 of the East," published in 1900, says— "The 
 Chinese have certain great qualities which are 
 not precisely amiable, in spite of their extreme 
 politeness, a matter rather of ceremony than of 
 sincerity. These qualities are of a serious 
 nature; patience, perseverance, hard work, the 
 
46 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 greatest aptitude for commercial pursuits, in- 
 dustry, economy, singular resistive power, and 
 respect for parents and old age; to which may 
 be added a remarkably contented frame of 
 mind. ' ' 
 
 MR. JULIAN THOMAS 
 
 Mr. Julian Thomas, in his "Occident and 
 Orient," writes — "One fact I wish to recall. 
 The English gentlemen who command the police 
 force liere have nothing but a good word for 
 the people whom, by the exigencies of their pro- 
 fession, the}" see the worst side of. Here, in 
 Shanghai, they tell me the same as the late 
 Inspector Clohesy, of Cooktown. The Chinese, 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 47 
 
 as a people, are law-abiding, peaceable, hard- 
 working — in man}" of the avocations of life not 
 to be surpassed. AVhere does the cunning hea- 
 then conceal all those bad qnalities with which 
 he is endowed ])y American and Colonial agita- 
 tui's, when even police officials fail to discover 
 them Sober, frugal, industrious as he is, I 
 would emjjloy a Chinaman in my individual 
 and selfish capacity. ... I respect their virtue, 
 because in many things I think theui so infinitely 
 superior to our own people." 
 
 Mr. C. K. Cooke, in his "Chinese Labour in 
 the Transvaal" (1904), referring to the charac- 
 teristics of the North China labourers, says — 
 "They are a fine class of men, temperate, frugal, 
 well-condiicted, and ])ractically all married, 
 many of whom have alread}" worked under 
 British and American engineers. Returning 
 after three ^^ears' absence in a British colony, 
 
48 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 the experienced miners will be able to render 
 service in the future, when the vast undevelojped 
 mines of China shall be opened." 
 
 The author of "The Children of China" says — 
 "The Chinese have many good qualities; they 
 are gentle and peaceable, obedient to their 
 rulers, very industrious, and always respectful 
 to old people They are among the best- 
 tempered people in the world, nearly always 
 cheerful, however poor and hard-worked thej' 
 may be, and are never ashamed of being poor, 
 as English people sometimes are. The two 
 things most respected in China are high ijosi- 
 tion, if a man has gained it because he deserved 
 it, and old age." 
 
 Sir John P. Davis, at one time British Pleni- 
 potentiary to China, and later Governor of 
 Hong Kong, in his book, "The Chinese," says — 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 49 
 
 DE. MORRISON 
 
 "That excellent observei', Dr. Morrison, re- 
 marked also the cheerful character and willing 
 industry of the Chinese. This is in fact a most 
 invaluable trait, and, like most other virtues, it 
 brings its own reward: the display is not, how- 
 ever, limited to their own country. The superior 
 character of the Chinese as colonists., in regard 
 to intelligence, industry, and general sobriety, 
 must be derived from their education, and from 
 the influence of something good in their national 
 system. Their Government very justly regards 
 education as omnipotent, and some share of it 
 nearly every Chinese obtains. Their domestic 
 discipline is all on the side of social order and 
 universal industry. ' ' 
 
50 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Mr. Picksloiie, the well-known authority on 
 Fruit Farms in South Africa, speaking from 
 his long and intimate exjjerience of the Chinese 
 in California, sa^^s — "I sj)eak as one who knows 
 the Chinaman, as one who has worked with him, 
 both as fellow employee and employer for some 
 
 MR. GLADSTONE 
 
 years, and I state at onee that Mr. Grladstone 
 was fully justified in stating that 'it is not for 
 Ids viccH hut for his virtues' that the Chinaman 
 is feared." 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 51 
 
 Testimonies to Intelligence. 
 
 Hon. Chester Hoi combe, in "The Eeal Chinese 
 Question," says — "Tlie Cliinaman has strong!}^ 
 developed reasoning faculties. He lias his own 
 ideas, and is quite fond of seai'ching down to 
 the bottom of things. Among the educated and 
 official classes of the Chinese there is found as 
 high an average of logical and reasoning abilit}' 
 as elsewhere in the world." 
 
 Mr. J. W. Robertson-Scott, in "The People 
 of China" (1900), says— "N"o doubt Europe has 
 much to teacli the Cliinese in the art of war, in 
 pure science, and in mechanical and other arts. 
 But apart from these, which the Chinese people 
 do not consider as necessaries of life, Europe can- 
 not teach them much ; while it has something to 
 learn from them. Their code of ethics is as high 
 as ours, and their system of local government 
 
52 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 (by parish councils) had, until the first intru- 
 sion of Europeans, a durability which every 
 Western nation must admire and envy. ' ' 
 
 Mr. W. H. Medhurst, Her B.M.'s Consul at 
 Shanghai in 1872, said — "There is no more in- 
 telligent and manageable creature than the 
 Chinaman, so long as he is treated with justice 
 and firmness, and his prejudices are to a reason- 
 able extent humoured." 
 
 REV. DR. CONDIT 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Condit, in his "Chinaman as 
 We See Him, and Fifty Years of Work for 
 Him," quotes the Rev, Dr, Piatt as follows — 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 53 
 
 "We have much to learn from this potent, 
 painstaking people, and this wondrous juxta- 
 position of the two great races has a double 
 mission involved in it. "We are not dealing with 
 a dull, stupid, besotted people, but with a keen, 
 energetic, intellectual race, and whatever differ- 
 ences of opinion may exist in regard to the 
 social or civil aspects of the questions involved 
 in this commingling of the nations, there can 
 be but one opinion in reference to the industrial 
 and educational tendencies of the Mongolian 
 mind." 
 
 "Hutchinson's Living Races" (1901), says — 
 "Common sense and practicality are strongly 
 developed traits in the character of the people. 
 The Chinaman thinks nothing is worthy of seri- 
 ous regard but that which is visibly useful or 
 materially beneficial. His arts and sciences, his 
 poems and romances, his religions and philoso- 
 phies, all revolve around and minister to the 
 
54 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 needs and pleasures of his daily life. On a 
 given solid base tlie Chinese will produce aston- 
 ishing results, giving joroof of tireless industrj^, 
 ingenuit}^ and perseverance." 
 
 One writer says — "Another point in regard 
 to the Chinese is the ]50werful memory produced 
 in them hy hard labour at the learning of the 
 language and classics through countless genera- 
 tions. One traveller met a native telegraphic 
 clerk who could instantly give the word indi- 
 cated l)y any one of the 10,000 numbers, each of 
 four figures, in the Chinese telegraphic code!" 
 
 Rev. Gilbert Eeid, in "Peeps into China" 
 (1888), says— "The Chinese have unsurpassed 
 memories, and many pupils in the Mission 
 schools can recite most of the New Testament." 
 
 The Rev. A. PI. Smith, in "Chinese Charac- 
 teristics," sa3'-s — "It is due to the instinct of 
 economy that it is generally impossible to buy 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER . 55 
 
 any tool readv-made. You get the parts in a 
 'ra\¥' shape, and adjust the handles, etc., your- 
 selves. It is generally cheaper to do this for 
 one's self than to have it done, and as every one 
 takes this view of it, nothing is to be had ready- 
 made There are none which make insig- 
 nificant materials go further than the Chinese. 
 TJieij seem to he able to do almost eveyijthinfj 
 hi/ iiieaits of almost nothing, and this is a char- 
 acteristic generally of their productions, whe- 
 ther simple or complex. It applies as well to 
 their iron-foundries, on a minute scale of com- 
 pleteness in a small yard, as to a cooking-range 
 of strong and perfect draft, made in an hour 
 out of a pile of mud bricks, lasting indefinitely, 
 
 operating perfectly, and costing nothing 
 
 Takoi as a icliole, the Chinese seem ahundantly 
 able to liolel tlieir own icitli any raee now extant, 
 and they certainly exhibit no weakness of the 
 intellectual powers, nor any tendency to such a 
 weakness. ' ' 
 
56 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Allen, from 40 years' direct and 
 extensive experience with the Chinese, said to 
 me — "The Chinese are very clever. Whatever 
 I have got to do a C'liiimnian will take it out of 
 my loands and do it better/' 
 
 The author of "Twelve Years in China, by a 
 British Resident" (1860), says — "It is most 
 interesting to watch the development of the 
 Chinese character when associated with Euro- 
 pean affairs. For several years many Chinese 
 have been emjDloyed in steamboats as deputy 
 engineers and stokers, and have given great 
 satisfaction, their sobriety and carefulness being 
 quite exemplary. As pilots of steam-boats and 
 foreign-rigged vessels they are excellent ; quickly 
 learn sea-terms; and many can 'handle a vessel' 
 in first-rate style. Those employed in yachts 
 about the Canton river understand their busi- 
 ness so well that full charge is given over to 
 them in regattas. As oarsmen they are second 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 57 
 
 to none, after a little practice; and the style 
 with which some practised crews pull is well 
 worth seeing. In Canton there are several boys 
 who pull sculls in tiny wager boats through a 
 crowded river steadily, and with perfect confi- 
 dence. As boat-builders, few can equal the 
 Chinese. They will build a racing cutter, or 
 a wager boat, as light and true as Biffin or 
 Searle; the amateurs in Canton getting 'the 
 lines' from England, or improving upon them. 
 The boat-house in Canton, before the war with 
 Yell, had as fine a show of racing-boats as any 
 single establishment in the world. As ship- 
 carpenters, when under foreign superintend- 
 ence, it would be difficult to find better work- 
 men; and lately, some who have been employed 
 in setting up iron steamers, speedily learnt to 
 
 perfection the art of riveting A 
 
 ship-captain, who took home some Fokien boat- 
 men as sailors, said, on his return, that they 
 
58 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 were the best men in his ship. It would be 
 well worth the consideration of Her Majesty's 
 Government to emploj^ Chinese as firemen and 
 supernmneraries in steam-boats while cruising 
 within the tropics on the east side of the Cape 
 of Good Hope. With "proper training thej^ 
 would make excellent sailors, and there would 
 be little difficulty in making good soldiers of 
 them. The da}^ may come when China, or a 
 part of it, may undergo the fate of India, and 
 be under the rule of the Anglo-Saxon race, 
 governed by a second East India Company. 
 The opportunity at any rate will not be want- 
 ing. Chinese 'Sepoj'^s' would astonish the 
 world if well led; and from what we have seen 
 of the bravery of the celestials under plucky 
 leaders, Asia may congratulate herself on the 
 peace-policy of China, for with its teeming mil- 
 lions there would be armies sufficient to rival 
 the conquests of the most ambitious raonarchs. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 59 
 
 especially if science had fair play in China. 
 As assistants to medical men in hospitals, as 
 warehouse-keepers or shopmen, as mechanics, 
 wood-engravers, stewards, and cooks, with pro- 
 per teaching they become exceedingly useful 
 With a little looking after they make capital 
 grooms, and will keep a horse in first-rate con- 
 dition. It would be difficult to find better gar- 
 deners, when they have been well-trained, and 
 it would be well worth the attention of the col- 
 onists in Australia and ISTew Zealand to get 
 labourers of this kind from China." 
 
 Mr. Harold E. Gorst, in his book "China" 
 (1899), says — "In constitution he is tougher 
 than any European, and can endure without a 
 murmur fatigue which to an English labourer 
 would be unsupportable and injurious. His 
 skill in various handicrafts makes him cap- 
 able of learning the most delicate and com- 
 plicated kinds of machine work with the great- 
 
60 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 est rapidity and aptitude. The ingenious con- 
 trivances commonly used by native artisans 
 have fitted him to readily grasp the more in- 
 tricate details of European machinery; and the 
 intelligent Chinese mechanic is qualified to be- 
 come an engineer after an apprenticeship which 
 would be considered astonishingly brief in this 
 country. ' ' 
 
 The Rev. J. L. Nevius, in "China and the 
 Chinese" (1869), says — "The intellectuality of 
 the Chinese is made evident hy so many obvious 
 and weighty facts, that it seems strange that 
 persons of ordinary intelligence and informa- 
 tion shotdd ever have questioned it. We have 
 before us a system of government and code of 
 iiaws which will bear favourable comparison 
 with those of European nations, and have elici- 
 ted a generous tribute of admiration and praise 
 from our most competent and reliable writers. 
 The practical wisdom and foresight of those 
 who constructed this system, are evinced by the 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 61 
 
 fact that it has stood the test of tmie, .... 
 that it has boiiiid together under one common 
 rule a population to which the world affords no 
 parallel, and given a degree ot prosperity and 
 wealth which may well challenge our wonder. 
 
 She may well point with pride to 
 
 her authentic history, reaching back through 
 more than 30 centuries; to her extensive litera- 
 ture, oontaiiiing many works of sterling and 
 permanent value; to her thoroughly elaborated 
 language, jjossessed of a remarkable power of 
 exj)ression; to her list of scholars and her pro- 
 ficienc}^ in belles lettres. If these do not con- 
 stitute evidences of intellectuality, it would be 
 difficult to sa}' where such evidence is to be 
 found, or on what basis we ourselves will rest 
 
 our claim to intellectual superiority 
 
 There have been but few opportunities of com- 
 paring the intellectual capacity of the Chinese 
 with our own Only a very small 
 
62 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 number of the Mongolian race have been edu- 
 cated in our institutions of learning, biit they 
 have uniformly acquitted themselves not only 
 creditably but with honour .... Wherever 
 tlisij have had an opportvnitij to compete with 
 as on the same groKiuJ, and with equal advan- 
 tages, theg have shown- that the difference be- 
 tween them and us in intelJcctaality is so slight, 
 if it exists at all, that it does not becoine us to 
 say much about it." 
 
 Mr. Archibald R. (*olquhoun says in ''China 
 in Transformation" (1898)— "T/;r intellectual 
 capacity of the Chinese may vank with the best 
 in Western Countries. Their own literary 
 studies, in wliicli memoi'y pla}^s the imijortant 
 part, j)rove the nation to be capable o.f prodigi- 
 ous achievements in that direction 
 
 When pitted against Euroj)ean students in 
 school or college, the Chinese is in no respect 
 inferior to his western contemporaries, and, 
 whether in mathematics and applied science, or 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 63 
 
 ill metaphysics and speculative thought, he is 
 capable of holding his own against all com- 
 petitors. In considering the future of the 
 Chinese race, therefore, we have this enormous 
 donhle fund of capacifij to rcc};on with — capac- 
 ity of muscle and cajmcitij of hraivs; and we 
 liave only to imagine the quantitative value of 
 such aggregate of ne-rvous force, when brought 
 into contact with the active spirit and the 
 mechanical and mental appliances of the West, 
 to picture to ourselves a future for China, which 
 will astonish and may appal the world." 
 
 Ratzel, in his "History of Mankind" (1897), 
 says — "It is not denied that among the Chinese 
 one often has to do with wonderfully acute 
 minds endowed with a patience and a capacity 
 for getting to the bottom of things, which in 
 undertakings of a practical kind ma}" often re- 
 place creative force. According to Syrski, the 
 Chinese rustic, viewed from the practical side, 
 can see farther into things than the European. 
 
64 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 LOED ELGIN 
 
 Statesmen like Elgin or Grrant hold that western 
 diplomatists must get into the way of regard- 
 ing Orientals as tlieir equals." 
 
 China has had many eminent statesmen, bnt 
 the peculiar conservative and restrictive 
 Government which, in the conrse of ages, has 
 grown np in that country, has generally dis- 
 coimtenanced and suppressed native talent. If 
 a man makes a progressive movement in China, 
 he is alwa,ys liable to be disgraced and punished, 
 and maybe, to lose his head ; consequently, if he 
 would succeed at all, he must shape his actions 
 by and within the confines of Chinese eonserva- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 65 
 
 LI HUNG CHANG 
 
 tive and diplomatic methods. This was par- 
 ticularly illustrated in the person of that 
 mighty intellect, Li Hung Chang. He was 
 great, very great, but held down hy the incubus 
 of Chinese conservatism and general modes of 
 action. After that great warrior and states- 
 
 GENBEAL GRANT 
 
 man, General Grant, had travelled round the 
 
66 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 world, he said to Mr. Young, the late minister 
 to Ohina, "Buying mi/ travels I have seen four 
 
 EARL OF BEACONSFiELD 
 
 PEINCE BISMARCK — GAMBETTA 
 
 great men, Beaconsfield, Bismai'ek, Gamhetta, 
 and Bi Hung Cliang, and I irilJ not underta'ke 
 to saij that Bi is not the greatest of the four." 
 And remember, reader, this man was a China- 
 man. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 37 
 
 Testimonies to Honesty. 
 
 The autlioi' of "Twelve Years in China, by a 
 Britisli Eesiclent" (Jolni Scarth), writing in 
 1860, says — "After many j^ears' experience in 
 the nortli and sontli of China, I may state witli 
 safety that tlie greatest contrariety to ourselves 
 marks the Chinese in their ideas of honesty and 
 cheating. They cheat honestly ! It is a para- 
 dox solved. You engage a compradore as chief 
 of the Chinese in the household. He is gene- 
 rally supi^osed to be accountable for the honesty 
 of the other servants; he is thoroughly correct 
 in all his transactions — often has very large 
 dealings himself. You know he came to you 
 not worth a hundred dollars, perhaps, yet he is 
 soon worth thousands. The system is recog- 
 nised : he gets a bonus some way or other on all 
 jDayments, and in some transactions pays a per- 
 centage of it to all the other servants in the 
 house. I have seen instances over and over 
 again where there was positive inducement for 
 
68 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 undiscovered fraud, but the ordeal was passed 
 through with most perfect honesty. Some of 
 the comjDradores conduct most of the trans- 
 actions in the sale of opium and other highly 
 valuable produce during great fluctuations in 
 the market. In Canton, the compradores' 
 quotations for gold and silver, in which the 
 transactions are immense, have scarcely any 
 check; and yet in some houses and banks they 
 conduct nearlj' all the purchases. They pack 
 up the money, and I never knew a single 
 instance in which the weights or amounts turned 
 out intentionally incorrect, though they pack 
 it, seal it, and often ship it off without a 
 foreigner in the establishment ever having seen 
 it. Sometimes a few inferior dollars may be 
 returned, but the amounts are almost alwaj^s 
 correct. Mone\' is received in untold sums; it 
 it counted or weighed, a deficiency in the quan- 
 tity that should he received is rarely to be found, 
 and if there is an error it is generally discov- 
 ered to be a mistake on the part of the sender. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 69 
 
 It has lateh' become a custom in Shanghai and 
 Foochow, and to a small degree in Canton also, 
 to intrust very large sums of money to (Jhiuese 
 for the purchase of tea and silk in the interior. 
 The money is lost sight of for months in a coun- 
 try where a f oi'eigner could not follow ; yet, such 
 is the honesty of the Chinese that the instances 
 are I'are in which the man intrusted with it has 
 
 made off Out of a 'chop' of some 
 
 five or six hundred packages of tea bought in 
 Canton, seldom more than one jDer cent, used 
 to be examined throughout. The tea goes to 
 England, the few chests oi^ened being taken as 
 a criterion of the whole, and excepting from 
 accidents on the way, or indifferent care in 
 storage, damaging the tea, the whole jiroves to 
 have been faithfully packed. Now and then a 
 chest has been i^lundered and filled with rubbish, 
 but considering the quantity of tea that is ship- 
 ped from China, such cases are very rare when 
 the tea is bought from the regular Canton mer- 
 chant Valuable silk piece-goods are 
 
70 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 sent off in the same way. In Shanghai there is 
 this difference, that the tea and silk are ship- 
 ped from the foreigner's warehouse; there are 
 often a hundred dirty vagabonds packing per- 
 haps £10,000' or £20,000 worth of silk, every 
 pound weight being worth about a month's 
 wages to the scurv3^-looking coolies that are 
 handling it ; yet there is rarely false packing or 
 theft. In all places in China jou may see a 
 string of coolies rushing through the streets 
 carrying loads of mone}^; there is not a police- 
 man to be seen, except occasionally at the gates, 
 or in tim(> of trouble. You may see a shroff 
 [money examiner] with a lot of dollars in a flat 
 tray, examining them intently as they pass click, 
 click, over his thumb, sometimes a posse of 
 idlers, consisting of chair-bearers, coolies, cooks 
 and servants, all looking on. There does not 
 seem to be even the suspicion that anyone might 
 attempt to kick the tray over, and bolt with 
 what he can get in the scramble In 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 71 
 
 sales to the Chinese, it is rare that any written 
 document passes between the Chinaman and the 
 foreigner. The transaction is entered in the 
 fo]'eigner's book, and considered closed. The 
 goods may not be delivered or payed for till 
 some time after, but I don't remember an in- 
 stance of the price being disputed, even when 
 the market had fallen. It is the same with piir- 
 chases, though sometimes the petty traders in 
 Shanghai are called upon to produce a chop, 
 showing that they are emiDowered to sell the 
 produce. No cognizance is taken in the con- 
 sular coui'ts of opium transactions. Millions 
 of dollars' worth are sold in a yenv; and though 
 it is contrary to the general rule to deliver the 
 opium before the cash is paid, there are many 
 instances, esijecialh' among the Indian native 
 merchants, where credit is allowed; and the 
 sums are nearly always duly paid, though there 
 could have lieen no claim against the Chinese 
 by law. This subject could be indefinitely ex- 
 
72 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 tended, but the above will show, that as far as 
 honesty is concerned, the Chinese do not deserve 
 the bad character generally laid to their charge. 
 T question iiiaeli if flic irortlij/ colonists in Mel- 
 'hourne, or tlie citizens of San Francisco, could 
 bear comparison trith tJie Gliinese for upriglit- 
 vess in their dcalivrjs, and yet tJicjj try and 
 expel tlion from their neighhonfhood, as if 
 their jyresenee irere contaniivatiori." 
 
 The Rev. J. L. ISTevins, in his ' ' China and the 
 Chinese" (1867), says— "We had so little fear 
 of theft that onr doors and drawers were often 
 left unlocked, and servants and numerous visi- 
 tors had free access to every part of our house. I 
 am aware that others, both missionaries and 
 merchants, have had a different experience, and 
 that, esjH'cially in the foreign eonnnnnities, it 
 is as dangerous to leave coats and umhrellas 
 near the hall door wl)en unlocked as it tvotdd 
 be in New York or Philadelphia. I have travel- 
 led hundreds of miles in the interior, at different 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 73 
 
 times and in different parts of tlie countiy, 
 sometimes entirely alone, and have lieen com- 
 pletely in the power of perfect strangers who 
 knew that I had about my person mone>' and 
 other articles of value, but have always felt 
 nearly as great a sense of security as at home, 
 and ha'^'e hardly ever been treated with rude- 
 ness or violence, though I have been often an- 
 no>'ed beyond measure by exorbitant charges 
 and useless detentions. I have heard the testi- 
 mony of prominent merchants who have had 
 large business transactions with the Chinese, in 
 both China and California, who have repre- 
 sented ( Chinese business men as very prompt 
 and reliable in meeting their business engage- 
 ments. The contideuce often placed in Chinese 
 agents is seen in the fact that they are sent into 
 the interior with large sums of money to jjur- 
 chase silks and tea, the persons employing them 
 having no guarantee or dependence but that of 
 their personal honesty." 
 
74 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Mr. E. H. Parker, in Ms "China," 1901, says 
 — "As to mercantile honour, in spite of occa- 
 sional lapses such as occur in all countries, it 
 is so universally admitted that Chinese credit 
 stands deservedly high, that I need not say an- 
 other word about it. It is also a curious fact 
 that, although Grovernment credit vis-a-vis of 
 the people stands so low that it could not well 
 go lower, as regards foreign obligations it is, 
 subject to political risks, as good as that of 
 almost any country. It is quite pathetic to 
 watch the extraordinary assiduity with which 
 funds are collected for the service of the loans. 
 . . . Nearly all foreigners who have ever 
 been employed by Chinese, have noted the 
 scrupulous punctuality with which their 
 salaries are paid. The national honour seems 
 very sensitive upon the point." 
 
 After saying that the Chinese are "traders 
 by intuition," Mr. Alex. Michie, in "The 
 Englishman in China," 1900, says — "To crown 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 75 
 
 all, there is to be noted, as the highest condi- 
 tion of successful trade, the evolution of com- 
 mercial probity, which, though no monopoly of 
 the Chinese merchants is one of their dis- 
 tinguishing characteristics." He then quotes 
 from Plunter's "Fankwa3 at Canton," as follows 
 —"When the business of the season was over, 
 contracts were made with the Hong merchants 
 for the next season. They consisted of teas of 
 certain qualities and kinds, sometimes at fixed 
 prices, sometimes at the prices which should 
 lie current at the time of the arrival of the teas. 
 No other record of these contracts was ever 
 made tlian by each party booking them; no 
 written agreements were drawn up, nothing was 
 sealed or attested. A wilful breach of con- 
 tract never took place, and as regards quality 
 and quantity the Hong merchants fulfilled their 
 part with scrupulous honesty and care. ' ' Again 
 Michie says — "Judicial procedure being an 
 abomination to respectable Chinese their 
 security in commercial dealings is based as 
 
76 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 much upon reason, good faith, and non-repudia- 
 tion as that of the Western ISI'ations is upon ver- 
 bal finesse in the construction of covenants. . . 
 . . . Tlie principles and eoniinercial ethics 
 of tJie Chinese, to whieli nothliuj has yet been 
 found sHpei-ior." Again — "The Cliinese are 
 everywhere found enterprising and trustwortli}' 
 men of business. Europeans, worried hy the 
 exhaustless refinements of tlie Marwarree or 
 Bengali, find business with the Chinese in the 
 Straits Settlements a jiositive luxury. Nor 
 have the persecutions of the race in the United 
 States and in self-governing British Colonies 
 wholly extinguished the siDark of honour which 
 the Chinese carry with them into distant 
 lands." 
 
 The Rev. R. IT. Graves, D.D., in "Forty Years 
 in China" (1895), says— "To steal from the 
 poor is considered a great outrage. We have 
 a practical illustration of this in China. I 
 ■have seen a littl,e stall of fruit or sweetmeats 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 77 
 
 by the side of the street, with the prices marked 
 on each pile of peanuts or sugar-cane, while no 
 one is there to receive the money. Even a child 
 would not think of helping himself, without 
 paying the money. I am afraid that an apple- 
 woman 's stall would not l)e so safe with us. It 
 would be thought thoroughly mean to steal from 
 any person so poor as to have to eko out his 
 living by the little street stall. Yet to appro- 
 priate to one's own use the propert}^ of a rich 
 man would be thought no more robbery tlian 
 viaiii/ lierc would fliink it rohierjj iclirri rotting 
 flie Government in a matter of taxes or paying 
 (lutii at tJie CuMnm House." 
 
 His Excellency Wu Ting-Eang, Chinese Min- 
 ister to the United States, says in the "North 
 American Review," July, 1900 — "It should be 
 remembered that the Chinese standard of busi- 
 ness honesty is very high. The 'yea, yea' of 
 the Chinese merchants is as good as gold. Not 
 a scrap of ])aper is vecessartj to hind him to 
 his tvord," 
 
7 8 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Mr. J. W. Robei-tson-Scott, in "The People 
 of China" (1900), says — "The proverbial hon- 
 esty of the Chinese merchant is reflected in the 
 condnct of the Imperial anthorities in their 
 financial dealings with the foreigner. The 
 -Japanese War indemnity was promptty paid 
 off, the loans China has obtained for railwa}^ 
 constrnction and other purposes have been 
 devoted to the objects specified, and interest 
 obligations have been regularly met." 
 
 Mr. Poultney Bigelow, in an article in "Har- 
 per's Magazine," April, 1900, sa3^s — "I noticed 
 [in Hong Kong] that the white merchants en- 
 tertained much respect for their ^'•ellow clerks 
 and competitors, not merely because of their 
 shrewdness in trade, but because of their 
 honesty. ' ' 
 
 Lord Charles Beresford, in "The Break-up 
 of China," says — "If it be objected that China 
 itself is effete and rotten, I reply that this is 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 79 
 
 false. The traditional official system is cor- 
 rupt, but the Chinese people are honest. The 
 integrity of their merchants is known to every 
 banker and trader in the East, and their word 
 is as good as their bond. They have, too, a 
 traditional and idolatrous respect for authority, 
 and all they need is an honest and good 
 authority. ' ' 
 
 Mr. W. H. Medlmrst, Her Majesty's Consul 
 at Shanghai, writing in 1872, thus refers to the 
 general honestly of the Chinese — "Honest}^, 
 moreover, is b}^ no means a rare virtue with the 
 Chinese. Witness the magnitude of the pecun- 
 iary interests which are at this moment confided 
 by our merchants to compradores, servants, and 
 friendly traders. Nowhere, perhaps, is this 
 tendency in the main towards honesty more 
 notable than amongst the personal establish- 
 ments maintained by foreigners at the j)orts. 
 Their houses are as a rule plentifully furnished 
 
80 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 with articles of luxury and vertu, often of con- 
 siderable value, very uiucli as is tlie case with 
 well-appointed residences in the West; and, 
 although the occupants never think of locking 
 up even their jewellery, straj^ money, &c., yet 
 it is rarely that anything is missed through the 
 fault of the indooi- servants. A.s far as ni}' own 
 experience of some thirty years' residence in 
 the countr\' is to be relied on, I can vouch for 
 never having lost a single article save a small 
 revolver, and tliat was restored a few days 
 afterwards on iwy assembling the servants and 
 apjDealing to their sense of right not to allow 
 the stain of theft to rest on the household. Thev 
 discovered the thief without difficulty, and he 
 was soon obliged by the rest to leave ni}^ 
 
 service." 
 
 Mr. R. H. Douglas, in his "Society in China," 
 says — "The merchants and traders of China 
 have gained the respect and won the admira- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 81 
 
 tion of all those who have been brought into 
 contact with them. For livncsti/ and iiitc/jriti/ 
 tlicij have earned universal j)raine." 
 
 The Kev. Dr. Newman, writing of the honesty 
 of the Chinese in C'alifornia about 30 years ago, 
 says — "As they are industrious, so are they reli- 
 able in business. On page 797 of the Report of 
 the Joint Special Committee on Chinese Innui- 
 gration, of which the late Senator Morton was 
 chairman, is the testimony of the cashier of the 
 Anglo- California Bank, to the effect that the 
 average business done with the Chinese is 
 1,500,000 dols. a year, and that he has always 
 found them straightforward. On page 853, 
 Mr. Macrondra}', of the old firm of Macrondra}' 
 and Co., testified that they had dealings with 
 Chinese merchants to the extent of 600,000 dols. 
 a year, and in 26 years Jtad not lost a dollar hy 
 them." 
 
 c 
 
82 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 JOAQUIN MILLER 
 
 Mr. Joaquin Miller, writing iu the "North 
 American Beview," December, 1901, says — "As 
 to the honesty of these peo])le, I appeal to every 
 English merchant ov hanker, from Pekin to 
 Hong Kong, to answer if he ever heard of a 
 dishonest Chinese merchant or banker. So 
 far from that, not only has every English bank 
 two Chinamen to receive and hand out mone)", 
 but ever\' [English] bank in Japan has the 
 same. ' ' 
 
 The following emphatic testimony b_v Sir 
 Thomas Jackson, the chief managei' of the Hong 
 Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, to 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 83 
 
 the sterling honesty of the Chinese, is from the 
 "Japan Maih" May, 1902— " Speaking at a ban- 
 quet tendered him by the Chinese com.munity 
 on tlie eve of lais departure from Hong Kong, 
 Sir Tliomas Jackson said: 'In reviewing my 
 long career, I would wish to say that I conld 
 smn up the wliole 26 years of the management 
 in Hong Kong with one word, and that word is 
 'Thankfulness.' Speaking again of the Chin- 
 ese eommunity, with whom the Bank has had 
 more to do than with any other, I do not wish 
 to make use of the old hackneyed expression, 
 however right and proper, which took its rise 
 in the days of the East India C'ompanv in 
 China, that 'a (^hinese merchant's word is as 
 good as his bond ' ; but following the example of 
 Lord Rosebery I will find a new exj^ression. J 
 hiaiiifaiii tliat a CJiiiiawnn's word is better than 
 Jiis hand. (Ai^plause.) A good many of our 
 clients do not know much about law, and they 
 mav even think there is a bit of a trick about 
 
84 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 every scrap of document with a stamp upon it; 
 but the good old words 'putter book' constitute 
 not only an equitable agreement but a debt of 
 honour, which only stern necessity would pre- 
 vent from being thoroughly carried out.' " 
 (Applause.) This is a strong testimony when 
 it is remembered that nineteen-twentieths of the 
 inhabitants of Hong Kong are Chinese. 
 
 Mr. Cameron, manager of the Hong Kong 
 and Shangliai Bank, in his farewell to Shang- 
 hai, speaks of his experience as follows: — "I 
 have referred to the high commercial standing 
 of the foreign conimunity. The Chinese are 
 in no way l)ehind us ourselves in that respect; 
 ill fart, 1 k)ioif of no people Ip tlie world I irould 
 .sooner tritst than tlie Chitwne mereliant and 
 ha7iker. Of course, there ai'e exceptions to 
 every rule, but to show that I have good reasons 
 for making such a strong statement, I may men- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 85 
 
 tion that for the last twentj^-five years the bank 
 has been doing a very large business with Chin- 
 ese in Shanghai, amounting, I should say, to 
 hundreds of millions of taels, and we have never 
 yet met with a defaulting Chinaman!" 
 
86 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Chinese a Sober People. 
 
 The Chinese are one of the most sober peoples 
 on the face of the earth. I don't think that 
 among all the many thousands of Chinamen I 
 have seen in niv life, I ever saw a drunken one. 
 
 Mr. E. H. Parker, in his work on "China" 
 (1901), says — "Temperance in self -supply is a 
 Chinese virtue; i)i that respect ive arc inferior 
 to tlicm ill even a elisf/usti)ifj dcfjree. Drunken- 
 ness is so rare, that it is not regarded as a vice 
 at all, but rather as good form, to get tipsy at 
 
 a feast Strong drink is sometimes 
 
 disapproved of in j)olitical or economic phil- 
 osophy because it causes anger, and a waste of 
 good grain; never because men get drunk." 
 
 Mr. Cobbold, in his "Pictures of the Chinese 
 at Home" (1860), says — "China is emphati- 
 calh^ a sober country : thougli her wine is cheap, 
 sound, and good, though there is no tax upon 
 it, and no restriction whatever in its sale or 
 manufacture, though nearly all persons, both 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 87 
 
 men and women, of all classes, freely use it, but 
 few comparatively drink to excess. A drunk- 
 ard reeling through the streets — which is a very 
 common disfigurement of life in our cities — is 
 a rare sight, even in her great seaport towns. 
 During a residence of many years, at one of 
 these seaports, I eau only call to mind a very 
 few instances of intoxication." 
 
 Mr. Moris A. Winter, in his "North China" 
 (1892), says — "There is no visible drunkenness 
 in the interior of China; in the parts, at least, 
 I have visited I have not seen a drunken man. 
 I have scarcely seen a Chinaman taking am'- 
 thing stronger than the weakest of weak tea or 
 hot water. The Chinese never think of drink- 
 ing cold water." 
 
 The Rev. E. J. Dukes, in his "Everyday Life 
 in China," says — "Pew Christians realise as 
 they should the effect iDroduced upon the minds 
 of intelligent heathen visitors to our shores by 
 what they are obliged to witness in our large 
 
88 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 towns. In their innocence, the kindly sup- 
 porters of missions think that it must do the 
 'poor heathen' so much good to come to Eng- 
 land and see how much better we are than they. 
 Would tliat it were ]30ssible for them to be so 
 impressed! But these same 'poor heathen' are 
 too often sliocked by what they see and hear. 
 The misery of the poor, the foulness of the 
 slums, the number of murders recorded in our 
 newspapers, the blazoning of licentiousness 
 upon our streets, the prodigious figures of the 
 'national drink bill,' and the number of drunk- 
 ards — these things startle and amaze the 
 heathen who come to England believing it to be 
 an example for the world! The attaches of 
 the Chinese Embassj^ have expressed themselves 
 on these points as strongly as their politeness 
 will allow. A well-known missionary and 
 scholar asked Ambassador Kwoh what he 
 thought of England. He replied, 'It is a fine 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 89 
 
 country, and jowv people are very ingenious, 
 but their inunorality is very lamentable ; it is a 
 pity tliey have not become possessed of right 
 principles ; vice is very common in many forms ; 
 I cannot admire the low standard of propriety 
 and goodness which characterises your great 
 country.' That is the opinion forrned of us 
 by a man we call a heathen ! In continuing the 
 conversation tie learned missionary tvas oMiged 
 to confess that lie had seen more drunlcen msn 
 in walking from a railway station in a certain 
 northern city to the steamer quay than drunken 
 Chinamen during thirty years' residence in 
 
 China Notwithstanding all their 
 
 faults, we are weary of hearing them defamed, 
 ridiculed, and underrated by persons who have 
 gathered their information from the idle tattle 
 of sailors who have looked at crowds of dirty 
 coolies at the ports of China, or have conversed 
 with merchants and others who never knew a 
 
90 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 sentence of Chinese, and never entered a town 
 or village if they could help it; or, what is 
 worse, have been misled by statements of the 
 'hoodhmis' and American 'politicians and car- 
 pet-baggers' of San Francisco. Over against 
 every vice iritli wlricli nr can charge the China- 
 men, we can hring a counter- charge against 
 large w asses of our own countrymen. Thank 
 God, ire do not lie so much, nor do -we smoke 
 opium, vor treat our women hadly; hut we have 
 among us a hundred thousand known drunkards, 
 besides all the secret tipplers." 
 
 Louis Figuier, in his "Human Race," refer- 
 ring to the Chinese, says — "Drunkenness, as 
 understood in Europe, is one of the least of their 
 vices. The use of grape wine was forbidden, 
 centuries ago, by some of their emperors, who 
 tore up all the vine-trees in China. This inter- 
 diction having been taken off under the Manclui 
 dynasty, grapes are grown for the use of the 
 table." 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 91 
 
 111 the same way, about seventj^ years ago, an 
 emperoi.' of China attempted to stamp out the 
 use of opium as a growing curse to the people, 
 and ordered two million iDounds worth to be 
 thrown into the sea. This led to a terrible war 
 with Great Britain, who, on behalf of her mer- 
 chants in Europe and India, was interested in 
 a continuance of the trade. Prom that time to 
 the i^resent, about 400 niillion i:)ounds worth of 
 opium has been sent from India into China, but, 
 of late years, the Chinese, seeing that they could 
 not stop the foreign importation of the man- 
 tempting poison, are growing it in considerable 
 quantities themselves. 
 
92 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Chinese a Peaceable and Law Abiding People, 
 
 Mr. Julian Thomas, speaking of Northern 
 China, says — "Never, amongst people claiming 
 the highest civilization, have I seen country life 
 more calm, peaceful, and prosperous, Village 
 life in Northern China appears as happy as any- 
 where in the world." 
 
 The author of "The Inhabitants of the 
 World," says — "Personal violence is very rare 
 among them, whether in private or in public. 
 The fact is, the people in general take an in- 
 terest in preventing it, and do not remain cal- 
 lous lookers-on or pass by on the other side 
 when a quarrel is proceeding." 
 
 Rev. E. J. Dukes in his "Everyday Life in 
 China," says — "The Chinaman loves peace and 
 quietness, and is singularly gentle. He shrinks 
 from beginning a quarrel of his own, and stands 
 in terrible fear of being mixed up in those of 
 his neighbours. The 'Three Happinesses' are 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 93 
 
 long life, wealth, and a family of sons. If he 
 is allowed to earn his living quietly, and to bring 
 up a family who in their turn will provide for 
 him, he is perfectly content. The average 
 Chinaman is remarkabl}' temperate and moder- 
 ate in his habits and opinions. Centuries and 
 millenniums of very fair ethical instruction, 
 especially in the duty of sobriety in act and 
 
 CONFUCIUS 
 
 word (the favourite exhortation of Confucius 
 and his followers), have done as much for the 
 Chinese as could be exj^ected. Geniality, good 
 temper, sociability, afEectionateness, and hospi- 
 tality are characteristic of the mass of the 
 
94 CHINESE CHABACTER. 
 
 people. One is constantly strnck with the free- 
 dom from constraint among them. A merrier, 
 more jovial and coiiteiifed pcoj)le do not exist 
 under lieavcit." 
 
 Mr. Joaquin Miller, speaking of the Chinese in 
 California, sa}'S — "In conclusion, let me say I 
 never saw a drunken Chinaman. I never saw 
 a Chinese beggar. I never knew, or heard of, 
 a lazy one. I sat as Comity Judge of Grant 
 County, Oregon, for four years, where the 
 miners had sold out to the Chinese to such an 
 extent that the larger half of the mining pro- 
 perties were Chinese. Yet in all that time 
 there was not one eriminal case iiuwlving a 
 Chinaman', and but one civil one, and in the 
 latter case a white man was finally indicted by 
 his fellow -citizens for perjury." 
 
 The Venerable Archdeacon A. E. Moule (a 
 China missionary of 30 years), in his "New 
 China and the Old," speaking of the inhabitants 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 95 
 
 of Shanghai, 1891, says — "The order in the 
 densely-crowded streets is singidarly good, ra.sv\s' 
 of flruiilxCinies.'^ and n'otoufi assanlt hei))(j loi- 
 fortitnatelfi coiiiUicd for the most ])art to Euro- 
 pean or American sailors on leave frooi the 
 fillips in port." 
 
 Mr. G. Tradeseant Lay, antlior of ' ' The Chin- 
 ese as They Are" (1841), says — "Social feel- 
 ing, or good humour, mildness of disposition, 
 and a good natured propensity to share in the 
 mirth and hilarity of others, are seen wherever 
 we meet w^itli a company of (^hinese. We be- 
 hold shops as we ]mss ci'owded with workmen, 
 ofttimes pursuing different occupations, in per- 
 fect harmony with each other. We take a 
 passage on board their junks, and we see that, 
 whether at work or pla,v, in dressing their food, 
 or sharing a meal, a good imderstanding pre- 
 vails. If argument, or a contested point of 
 right, awaken a storm of voices, it is soon blown 
 
96 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 over; the discord ceases, and all is peace again. 
 To live in society is the meat and drink of a 
 Chinaman; in a company of his fellows he is 
 something — by himself, nothing." 
 
 Hon. Chester Hoi combe, in his "Real Chinese 
 Question," says — "In point of fact, the Chinese 
 are governed less than almost any nation in the 
 world. So long as they pay their taxes, and 
 violate none of the requirements of the moral 
 code they are not disturbed by the authorities. 
 A thousand and one official inspections, inter- 
 ferences, and exactions, common everywhere in 
 America and Europe, are quite unknown in 
 China. Some of them might, perhaps, be 
 wiseh^ introduced, but the Chinaman has never 
 been guided, vexed, or harassed by them. He 
 is, hi/ nature and edueafiov, ohediriit to law and 
 fond of good order. The teachings of Con- 
 fucius, and the sacred edicts of the wise 
 Emperor, Kang Hsi, both taught ever_ywhere 
 and to every subject, have had an immense and 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 97 
 
 valuable influence in tliis direction. In evi- 
 dence of the law-abiding disposition of the 
 Chinese, let the fact be noted that, in the face 
 of an intense and universal anti-foreign feeling, 
 foreigners have for many years travelled alone 
 and unprotected into every part of the empire, 
 and have, almost invariably, met with polite- 
 ness, civility, and kind treatment. If a cor- 
 respondingly bitter hatred of Chinese existed in 
 the United States, how long, and to what extent 
 would it be prudent or safe for any of them to 
 roam through our large cities and rural com- 
 munities'? Another fact, not sufficiently well 
 recognised, furnishes evidence in the same 
 direction. The Chinese immigrants to this 
 country belong almost exclusively to the lowest 
 ("lass of their people, and are familiarly 
 described, in their own land, as being, each, 
 'half fisherman and half pirate.' Yet a care- 
 ful examination of t1ic criminal and police 
 
98 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 records of any city in the United States tvill 
 show a smaller percentage of disorderly Chinese 
 — smaller in proportion to the total numher of 
 residents of tliat race — than of any foreign 
 nationaJit// irliieli is to be found amongst us." 
 
 The Rev. A. H. Smith, a missionary of 
 twenty-two years' standing, in his "Chinese 
 Characteristics." says — "One of the many ad- 
 mirahle qualities of the Chinese is their innate 
 resj)ect for lair. Whetlaer tliis element in their 
 cha]'acter is tlie eflfect of their institutions, or 
 the cause of tliem, we do not know. But what 
 we do know is that the Chinese are hy nature 
 and hy education a lau--ahiding people. Refer- 
 ence lias been alread}^ made to this trait in 
 speaking of the national virtue of patience. 
 .... We must confess to a rlecided convic- 
 tion that liurnan life is .safer in a Chinpse city 
 than, in an American city — safer in Pekin than 
 in New Yorh. We helieve it to he safer for a 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 99 
 
 foreigner to traverse the interior of Clrina than 
 for a Chiuene to traven^e the interior of the 
 United States It is after the pre- 
 liminary paroxysms of ch'i have had oppor- 
 tunity to subside, that the worlv of the 'peace- 
 talker' — that useful factor iu (Chinese social life 
 — is accomplished. Sometimes these most 
 essential individuals are so deeply impressed 
 with the necessity of peace, that even when the 
 matter is not one which concerns them per- 
 sonally, they are willing to go from one to the 
 other making prostrations now to this side and 
 now to that, in the interests of harmony. . . 
 But generally speaking, every Chinese lawsuit 
 calls out wjyoii each side the omni^jresent ijeace- 
 talker, whose services are invaluable. Millions 
 of lawsuits are thus strangled before they reach 
 the fatal stage. In a village numbering a thou- 
 sand families, the writer was informed that for 
 more than a generation there had not been a 
 
100 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 single lawsuit, owing to the restraining influ- 
 ence of a leading man wlio had a position in the 
 
 yamen of the District Magistrate It 
 
 is the peacable quality of the Chinese which 
 makes him a valuable social unit. He loves 
 order and resj^ects law, even when it is not in 
 itself respectable. Of all Asiatic peoples, the 
 Chinese are probably the most easily governed, 
 when governed on lines to which they are accus- 
 tomed. Doubtless there arc other forms of 
 civilisation which are in many or in most 
 respects superior to that of China, but perhaps 
 there are few which would sustain the tension 
 to which Chinese society has for ages been sub- 
 ject, and it may be that there is none better en- 
 titled to claim the benediction once pronounced 
 upon the peace-makers." 
 
 The author of "Cassell's Peoples of the 
 World," sa\'s — "The peaceful and orderly 
 character of the Chinese is most remarkable. 
 Whatever the faults of the system of govern- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 101 
 
 MONTESQUIEU 
 
 ment may be, it has, at all events, as Montes- 
 quieu remarked, liad the power of making 'mild 
 and gentle dispositions, of maintaining peace 
 and good order, and of banishing all the vices 
 which spring from an asjjerity of temper.' 
 Tliere is not a more good-It umourcd people on 
 the face of the earth thaih tlic Chinese^, nor a 
 more peacaMe one. These qualities are all in- 
 culcated by their rulers; and in the sixteen lec- 
 tures periodically delivered to the people there 
 is one ' On Union and Concord among Kindred, ' 
 another 'On Mutual Forbearance,' and a third 
 'On Reconciling Animosities.' .... In 
 
102 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 every deioartinent of the Grovernment of China, 
 the civil powe]- is also considered superior to 
 the military ; without this there could be no free 
 or good government. The pen in China, if not 
 more povs^erful, is yet more respected than the 
 sword; letters always go before arms, so that 
 the ambition of a Chinese runs in a very peace- 
 ful channel." 
 
 During the last 50 years the convictions per 
 thousand of the Chinese in Australia have been 
 less than half those of the white people, and 
 lately a good number of these convictions have 
 been for the newly-invented CRIME OF IN- 
 DUSTRY. 
 
 The making of one Chinaman "a factory" 
 and some of our other prejudiced laws are about 
 equally strange and funny with some of the 
 American laws about the removing of Chinese 
 remains, satirized by the humourist as fol- 
 lows : — • 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 103 
 
 Special Laws for the Chinese. 
 
 ''Be it enacted by tlie Legislative Asseiiihh/ 
 of the State of Oregon: — 
 
 Section 1. — iSTo Chinaman shall be allowed to 
 die in this State until he has paid ten dollars 
 for a new pair of hoots with which to kick the 
 JDUcket. 
 
 Section 2. — Any Chinaman dying under this 
 act shall be buried six feet underground. 
 
 Section 3. — Any Chinaman who attempts to 
 dig up another Chinaman's bones shall first pro- 
 cure a license from the Secretary of State, for 
 which he shall pay four dollars. 
 
 Section 4. — Any dead Chinaman who at- 
 tempts to dig up his own bones, without giving 
 due notice to the Secretary of State, shall be 
 fined one hundred dollars. 
 
 Section 5. — Any Chinaman who shall be born 
 without bones, for the purpose of wilfully and 
 feloniously evading the provisions of this act, 
 shall be fined five hundred dollars." — J. C. H. 
 
104 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Chinese a Cheerful People. 
 
 Mr. Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu, in "The Awaken- 
 ing of the East" (1900), says — "They alwa^^s 
 seem very happy, complain verj'- little, thor- 
 oughly enjoy their few pleasures, and apparently 
 absolutely ignore their troubles. This happy 
 spirit of resignation explains why the Chinese, 
 notwithstanding their poverty, are one of the 
 most contented people in the world, and conse- 
 quently one of the happiest." 
 
 The author of "The Children of China" 
 (1884), says — "The villagers are always happy 
 and contented, unless there is a flood or a 
 famine." 
 
 Ellen F. Clark, in the "Century Magazine," 
 November, 1896, says — "The Chinese are a 
 merry, fun-loving people, in spite of their gen- 
 eral air of indifference in the presence of 
 strangers. They race up and down stairs, some- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 105 
 
 times through the streets, on a frolic, eYery man 
 laughing till he is out of breath, pulling cues, 
 stealing hats, and playing all kinds of practical 
 
 jokes on one another Some of the keenest 
 
 and purest humour and some of the wittiest sal- 
 lies I have ever heard have fallen from the lips 
 of Chinamen in lower New York." 
 
 Mr. Archibald R. Colquhoun, in "China in 
 Transformation" (1898), says — "Every travel- 
 ler, every one who has had opportunity of 
 observing them, testifies to their unfailing good 
 humour under every kind of discomfort and 
 under the severest bodily toil. Their cheerful- 
 ness is undaunted; neither cold or heat, neither 
 hunger or fatigue, has power to depress them, 
 nor does misfortune or natural calamity or sick- 
 ness provoke them to repine. As Giles sa3^s, 
 'They seem to have acquired a national habit 
 of looking upon the bright side.' .... Now, to 
 put the merits of such a placid temper on the 
 lowest utilitarian ground, consider what an eco- 
 
106 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 iiomy of nervous friction is implied in a work- 
 ing life passed in such a happy frame of mind. 
 Is it not alone a source of wealth to the j)eople 
 
 who possess it" 
 
 The Rev. A. H. Smith, in ' ' Chinese Character- 
 istics," says — "But the terms 'patience' and 
 ' perseverance ' by no means cover the whole field 
 of the Chinese virtues in this direction. We 
 must also take account of their quietness of 
 mind in conditions often very unfavourable to 
 it, and of that chronic state of good spirits which 
 we designate by the term ^cheerfulness.' .... 
 He is what he calls 'heaven-endowed' with a 
 talent for industry, for j^eace, and for social 
 order. He is gifted with a matchless patience, 
 and with unparalled for1)earance under ills, the 
 causes of which are perceived to be beyond his 
 reach. The cheerfulness of the Chinese, which 
 we must regard as a national characteristic, is 
 intimately connected with their contentedness 
 of mind. To be happy is more than they ex- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 107 
 
 pect, but, unlike us, the}- are geuerallj?^ willing 
 to be as happy as tlie}^ can. Inordinate fastidi- 
 ousness is not a common Chinese failing. They 
 are generally model guests. Any place will 
 do, any food is good enough for them. Even 
 the multitudes who are insufficiently clothed 
 and inadequately fed, preserve their serenit}'' 
 of spirit in a way which to us appears marvel- 
 lous. An almost universal illustration of Chin- 
 ese cheerfulness is to be fomrd in their sociabil- 
 ity, in striking contrast to the glum exclusive- 
 ness so often characteristic ot the Anglo-Saxon. 
 One of the main cnjojnnents of the Chinese 
 seems to be chatting with one another, and 
 whether they are old friends or perfect 
 
 strangers makes very little difference 
 
 Perhaps it is in time of sickness that the innate 
 cheerfulness of the Chinese disposition shows 
 to most advantage. As a rule they take the 
 most optimistic view, or, at all events, wish to 
 seem to do so, both of their own condition and 
 of that of others. Their cheery hopefulness 
 
108 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 often does not forsake them even in physical 
 weakness and in extreme pain. We have 
 known multitudes of cases where Chinese 
 patients, suffering from every variety of dis- 
 ease, frequently in deep poverty, not always 
 adequately nourished, at a distance from their 
 homes, sometimes neglected or even abandoned 
 by their relatives, and with no ray of hope for 
 the future visible, 5^et maintained a cheerful 
 equanimity of temper, which was a constant, 
 albeit an imintentional, rebuke to the nervous 
 imj)atienec! which, under like circumstances, 
 would be sure to characterise the Anglo-Saxon." 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 109 
 
 Chinese a Patient People. 
 
 Dr. S. Wells Williams, in ^'The Middle King- 
 dom" (1883), speaking of the Chinese famine 
 of 1878, says — "When brought to the starving 
 settlements, grain was promptly doled out in ex- 
 change for tlie tickets, and to the lasting credit 
 of the Chinese character it must here he noticed 
 that not a single raid upon the provisions or 
 resort to force in any way has been recorded 
 of these famished multitudes. 
 
 Hon. (*hester Holcombe, in "The Real Chin- 
 ese Question," says — "The Chinaman is, b.y 
 nature, quiet, docile, well-behaved, and verj^ 
 much given to the good habit of minding his 
 own business. It is, however, nothing short of 
 dangerous to infer, from the possession of these 
 qualities, that he ma}' be easily forced or driven. 
 No race upon earth can be more stubborn when 
 angered, or aroused to what is believed to be 
 a defence of its rights. Then he is capable of 
 an unlimited, though sometimes passive, resist- 
 
110 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 anee. And, at other times, he is capable of any 
 anioimt of determined effort and of self-sacri- 
 fice With unimportant differences, 
 
 with greater habit and capacity for the conceal- 
 ment of his preferences, and dislikes, the 
 Chinaman is exactly the same sort of man as 
 the American or Englishman would be under 
 like circumstances and conditions. And the 
 hundreds of millions of the race hate and fear 
 al] 'men from the West' exacth'- as, and for the 
 same reasons that, would cause us to hate the 
 Oliinese were the situations reversed. Only 
 they bear their real and fancied wrongs with 
 greater patience and quietness than we should. 
 Before any person passes sweeping condemna- 
 tion upon the Chinese, he ought, if he chooses 
 to be fair and just, to apply that wise advice: 
 'Put yourself in his place.' " 
 
 Mr. Harold E. Gorst, in his book ''China" 
 (1899), says — "It is a mistake to suppose that 
 the Chinese easily allow tliemselves to be 
 oppressed. They are long-suffering and 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. Ill 
 
 patient to a certain point, and jDossess a great 
 sense of submission to anthority. But magis- 
 trates cannot make tliemseh'es obnoxious to tlie 
 poi^ulation in general without drawing u^jon 
 themselves tlieir active resentment, frequently 
 expressed hy acts of violence. UniJopular offi- 
 cials are, in fact, often driven out of their man- 
 darinate by main force." 
 
 The Bev. Charles Gutzlalf (18;54), says-- 
 "But with all these wants, real or imaginary, 
 the Chinese arc a contented people, not desti- 
 tute of real cheerfulness. Only when their 
 ciaving appetite cannot be satisfied, and the 
 liideous spectre of starvation invades their cot- 
 tages, do they fall into sullen despair; but so 
 long as tliey have ain'thing to eat, be it even 
 grass or leaves, they retain their good spirits. 
 The author has often seen them seated around 
 a dish of thin potato soup and a basin of boiled 
 grass, with as great satisfaction as if they par- 
 took of the dainties of the royal table." 
 
112 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Mr. Sheridan P. Read, ox-United States Con- 
 sul at Tientsin, in ''Century Magazine," 
 October, 1900, says — "He [tlie foreign mer- 
 chant in (yhiuaj need rarel\" leave his office, as 
 the Chinese merchant calls daily in the hope of 
 getting orders; and although he may not be 
 successful for six months, and even at the end 
 of that time the order be only a small one, 
 he never evinces impatience, disapi)ointment, 
 or chagrin, but is a shining example of the 
 'try, tr}^ again' rule." 
 
 The Right Rev. H. Potter, in an article on 
 ' ' Chinese Traits and Western Blunders. ' ' in the 
 "Century Magazine," October, 1900, says — 
 "Chinese imperturbabilit}' is surely without 
 its equal. The stolidity of our own native 
 Indians [N. Amer.J has l-een supposed to be 
 pre-eminent, but anyone who has seen the Chin- 
 ese in their own land will recognize, I think, 
 another, and, in its way, a much higher quality 
 than this, for ordinaril}^ there is no suUenness 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 11 
 
 o 
 
 in it, but rather a bland and beaming, if often 
 irritating, good nature, which is as fine as it 
 is exasperating." [After describing the man- 
 ner in which some Americans tlirew about a 
 pik' of goods they could not get at their own 
 price, even throwing them at the Chinese 
 owner's head, he says] "Through the whole 
 odious scene, tlie shop-keeper was unmoved, and 
 his placid and serene dignitv undisturbed. One 
 whf) realized what such self-conmiand might 
 easily cost could not but realize also what an 
 element of jDower it must needs be in the race 
 and peoi^le that joossessed it." 
 
 The Rev. A. H. Smith, in "Chinese Char- 
 acteristics," says — "Among a dense population 
 like that of the Chinese Empire, life is often 
 reduced to its very lowcvst terms, and those 
 terms are literally a 'struggle for existence.' 
 
 It is well for the Chinese that they 
 
 are gifted with the capacity not to worry, for, 
 taking the race as a whole, there are compar- 
 
114 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 atively few who do not have some very prac- 
 tical reason for deep anxiety. Vast district^; 
 of this fertile Emj^ire are periodically subject 
 to di'ought, flood, and, in consequence^ to famine 
 Social calamities, such as lawsuits, and disas- 
 ters even more dreaded because indefinite, 
 overhang the heads of thousands, but this fact 
 would never be discovered hj the observer. 
 
 That quality of Chinese patience 
 
 which to us seems the most noteworthy of all, 
 is its capacity to wait without complaint and 
 to bear with calm endurance. It has been said 
 that the true way to test the real disposition of 
 a human being is to study his behaviour when 
 lie is cold, wet, and hungry. It is in his stay- 
 ing qualities that the Chinese excels the world. 
 Of that quiet persistence which impels a Chin- 
 ese student to keep on year after year attending 
 the examinations, until he either takes his 
 degree at the age of ninety or dies in the effort, 
 mention has been already made. No rewards 
 that are likely to ensue, nor any that are pos- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 115 
 
 sible, will of themselves account for this extra- 
 
 ordinaiy perseverance It has always 
 
 been thought to be a powerful argument for 
 the immortality of the soul, that its finest 
 powers often find in this life no fit opportunity 
 for expansion. If this be a valid argument, 
 is there not reason to infer that the unequalled 
 patient endurance of the Chinese race must 
 have been designed for some nobler purpose 
 than merely to enable them to bear with forti- 
 tude the ordinary ills of life and the miseries 
 of gradual starvation? If it be the teaching of 
 history that the fittest survive, then surel}^ a 
 race with such a gift, backed by a splendid vital- 
 itv. must have before it a great future." 
 
116 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Chinese a G-rateful People. 
 
 Mr. E. H. Parker, in his "Cliina" (1901), 
 sa3^s — "The Chinese are said to be ungrateful. 
 This I totally deny. The fidelity of Chinese 
 servants is really extraordinary, if they are 
 treated with even moderate sympathy and con- 
 sideration Nothing makes a more 
 
 powerful impression on the Chinese mind than 
 imjjartial justice. To them it is a grand sight 
 to see wages paid out without deductions 
 on the 'scale' or 'hanky-panky' of any kind- 
 .... When tliey begin to get used to the 
 cold, mathematical precision of the British 
 mind, going straight to its object without fear 
 or favour, they begin to feel that they are in 
 the i^resence of a weird, strange being of a 
 superhuman kind. But again, when they find 
 that, in addition to this chilly justice, they are 
 positively shown some tenderness or considera- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 117 
 
 tion, sucli as gratuitous medical aid, free assist- 
 ance in righting a wrong, tlie present of a coffin 
 to their mothers, and such-like things indicative 
 of disinterestedness, they positively overflow 
 with feelings of respectful gratitude. I have 
 seen a pack of cunning-looking Chinamen hhih- 
 ber like babies in taking leave of their master, 
 and the more impassive he looked the more they 
 blubbered. It is this gratitude for kindness 
 that often deceives missionaries into a belief 
 that 'faith' has been aroused in the Chinese 
 mind. Even ^officials of the most rascally 
 descrii^tion show great fidelity to a friend. On 
 one occasion I asked a high official to put in 
 writing some facts touching a matter in which 
 both he and I had been deceived. He said, 
 'X. has certainly behaved badly; but he was my 
 friend when he did it, as you are now; and I 
 would no more tell you in writing that he did it 
 than I would tell him that you asked me to give 
 
118 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 information against him.' In fact, there is a 
 very high standard of both gratitude and 
 honour amongst friends in China, in spite of 
 treacheries and rogueries. I cannot recall a 
 case where any Chinese friend has left me in 
 the lurch or played me a dirty trick, and few 
 of us can say the same of our own colleagues 
 and countrj^men. " 
 
 Mr. Archibald R. Colquhoun in "China in 
 Transformation," says — "Tt is not uncommon 
 to impute ingratitude to them. But the rule 
 applies. East and West alike, that a bad master 
 ncA'^er had a good servant, and those who most 
 loudly cry out against ingratitude are usually 
 those who have merited nothing else 
 
 All foreigners who have studied the Chinese 
 in a hiunan, sympathetic manner, like Meadows, 
 Smith and others, testify to their devotion and 
 gratitude. So man}^ instances of this are 
 recorded that it must be taken as natural to the 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 119 
 
 Chinese to attach themselves heart and soul 
 to any one, be he native or foreigner, who once 
 gains their confidence. And the way to do that 
 is explained by Meadows: it is to show them, 
 not by words, but by acts, that you are think- 
 ing of their welfare as much as your own. There 
 is no 'niystery in tliis; it holds good of all races 
 and of all periods." 
 
120 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Chinese a Kindly People. 
 
 The Hon. C. Holcombe, in "The Real Chinese 
 Question," says — "They are, in the main, 
 kindly and charitable in their relations with 
 each other. The extent to which mutual assist- 
 ance is rendered among the very poor is remark- 
 able. They are, at least, not behind their fel- 
 lows in other lands in this regard. They are 
 generous and public-spirited, giving liberally 
 to works of all sorts for the common good. . . . 
 The weaker side of tlie Chinaman is that of his 
 good nature. He will resent and refuse a claim 
 or demand, but gracefuUj^ yield in the same 
 matter when shaped as a request or a favour." 
 The Chinese have ever shown themselves a 
 kind, sumpatlietic people in Australia hy liher- 
 allif subscrihing to hospitals and other ehari- 
 tahle institutions and causes. 
 
 Bishop Rejaiaud, in "Another China," speaks 
 of the benevolence of the Chinese, of their or- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 121 
 
 phanages, almshouses, asjdums for widows, dis- 
 pensaries, etc., and continues — "There are num- 
 bers of dispensaries whei'c patients are treated 
 gratuitously, and druggists where medicines can 
 be sold to the poor at a cheaper rate, or are given 
 for nothing. In the free schools the children 
 are taught the classics of their country. Coffins, 
 undertakers, and cemeteries, are provided for 
 dead paupers, or strangers, as well as places 
 where the dead can he kept until removed by 
 their relations to their own district. Moreover, 
 men are employed to keep the public cemeteries 
 in good order. Other societies look after 
 travellers, as well as after the lighting, cleans- 
 ing and paving of streets and high roads; they 
 repair or construct bridges and ferry boats, or 
 build kiosques on a good site, at stated dis- 
 tances, where one can find fresh tea benches, 
 and often magnificent scenery to admire. The 
 poor are never forgotten. At the beginning of 
 
122 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 winter, the benevolent associations distribute 
 bowls of rice, clothes, and sometimes money. 
 In several places hot rice can be had every day 
 at public stoves. On New Year's Eve at Mng- 
 Po, the leading people of the town assemble the 
 poor in the high street, to give them clothes, 
 rice, and two small rouleaus each in the form 
 of 'cash.' Some societies undertake the care 
 of dikes and canals, while others, in fertile sea- 
 sons, collect quantities of provisions to be sold 
 cheaply in periods of scarcity, and money even 
 is lent without interest, to enable the very poor 
 
 to gain a livelihood These good 
 
 works prove that there is some feeling of phil- 
 anthropy among these people, and everywhere 
 the missionaries constantly meet with souls, 
 who, as TertuUian would say, are 'naturally 
 Christians, since they comprehend the spirit 
 of charity.' " 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 123 
 
 In Corner's "China," (1853), it says— "The 
 care that is taken to make a provision for the 
 poor in time of need, by laying up stores of 
 grain in every province, constitutes a main 
 feature of the Chinese polic}- ; and, according to 
 the ancient laws, is one of the chief duties of the 
 sovereign, who is enjoined by Confucius, the 
 revered instructor of botli the prince and his 
 people, to take care that the lands are cultivated 
 so as to produce the necessaries of life for all; 
 to attend to the fisheries and planting of trees; 
 to be moderate in imiDosing taxes; to see that 
 the means of instruction are furnished for every 
 class ; but above all, to assist the people in times 
 of scarcity, as a father would provide for the 
 wants of his children." 
 
 The Rev. A. H. Smith, in "Chinese Character- 
 istics," says — "Among the kinds of benevolence 
 which have commended themselves to the Chin- 
 ese may be named the establishment of found- 
 ling hospitals, refuges for lepers and for the 
 
124 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 aged, and free schools. The vast soup- 
 kitchens, which are set up anywhere and every- 
 where when some great flood or famine calls for 
 them, are familiar phenomena, as well as the 
 donation of winter clothing to those who are 
 destitute. It is not the Government only which 
 engages in these enterprises, but the people 
 also co-operate in a highh' creditable manner, 
 and instances are not uncommon in which large 
 smns have been thus judiciously expended." 
 
 It may be said that we must not call the 
 Chinese a kind people, because of the cruel 
 massacres of the missionaries and native Chris- 
 tians in the Boxer rising. But that class of 
 religious and race massacre has occurred at 
 some time or other in every country of the 
 world. I need not enumerate them, the list 
 would be too long, and the reader will remember 
 many ; but these chance and f renzical massacres 
 do not prove the total and everlasting unkind- 
 ness of Siiij race. In most countries the per- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 125 
 
 secution and slaughtering is generally clone )>y 
 a few mistaken bigots leading on the ignorant 
 mob. But, even during those persecutions, 
 many acts of kindness were shown Ij)' the more 
 humane, and now that the deplorable frenzy 
 of the bigots is over, life is as safe in (Uiina as 
 it is in Christendom. The following pathetic 
 incident shows kindness in both Chinese man 
 and woman. 
 
 Mr. V- P. Ambler, writing from Shansi, 
 China, as reported in "China's Millions," Janu- 
 ary, 1901, says — "I would like to tell you of one 
 incident which touched me not a little. AVe saw 
 a little boy at Pao-ting, and Mr. Lowrie told us 
 his story. During the persecution last year 
 many of the dear native Christians were killed 
 and tortured. On one occasion, when some of 
 them were going out to be executed, a woman 
 was led out. She had two dear little ones with 
 her, a boy and a girl. The woman was known 
 to be a good woman. One of the Yamen chief 
 
126 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 cliair-bearers, a heatlien, was so moved at the 
 sight, that at great risk of liis own life, he 
 rushed through the crowd and snatched tlie 
 children from the motlier"s arms and disap- 
 peared. Just before the execution of tlie 
 mother, she made a request. Might she take 
 one look at the face of the man who had taken 
 lier children '!i The man came forward from 
 tlie crowd. The mother gazed on liis face — it 
 tvaa a hind face, ami tlie tears stood in liis eyes. 
 The mother was satisfied that her jDrecious chil- 
 dren would be safe; now she was ready to die; 
 and soon lier spirit went to join tliose faithful 
 ones who had laid down tlieir lives before her. 
 The children, are well, and in Mr. Lowrie's 
 charfje; tlie man was most Icivd to theni." 
 
 All alike are Human, even the Savage Boxer. 
 
 The following is recorded in "China's Mil- 
 lions," September, 1901, respecting the escape 
 of the missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. C. H. S. Grreen 
 and their two little children, Vera and John — 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 127 
 
 ' ' Early in August our hidiug-place was suddenly 
 surrounded by a band of armed Boxers, and the 
 cries of those children were piteous to hear ; they 
 pierced us through and through. When we told 
 them that very soon, perhaps, the.y would be with 
 Jesus, it seemed to quiet all their fears, and they 
 were quite restful and liajipy to know that they 
 would go and be with Jesus, Whom they loved. 
 For some unknown reason the men did not kill 
 us, but took us as prisoners to the capital — Pao- 
 t'ing Fu. On the wa}^ darling little Vera 
 touched the hearts of those men ; she played with 
 them and she talked with them, and they some- 
 times bought her a piece of water-melon, or a 
 few nuts, or a cake. The Chinese mandarin at 
 Pao-t'ing Fu decided to send us down to Tien- 
 tsin. But we were really handed over to a band 
 of Boxers. However, Grod had his purpose for 
 us, and he used this dai-ling little child to save 
 our lives. She had won the hearts of those 
 people. They made us leave the boat and get 
 on the bank, and as we stepped on the bank this 
 
128 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 dear cliild turned round, and in her Chinese way, 
 put her little hands together and gave them a 
 Chinese how and thanked them. What did wc 
 serf Why nw >iaiv team roll doivii tlie cheekf; 
 of tlie head Bo.ref of all, and the boats glided by 
 and we wei'e left standing on the bank of the 
 river. ' ' 
 
 The Rev. J. Maegowan, in "Pictures of South- 
 ern China," says — "There is much that we do 
 not admire in the (liinese, but there is far more 
 that we do. They are a kind-hearted, and, in 
 the country districts at least, a simple-minded 
 people. The true wa}^ to test this is to live 
 amongst them, but especially to travel with them. 
 It has been our good fortune to do both, and we 
 can distinctly declare that the vague and grotes- 
 que ideas which we had formerly entertained of 
 the Chinese have vanished, and that now we re- 
 gard them with a warm and friendly feeling, 
 which no lapse of time will ever be able to obliter- 
 ate. Tn the many journeys we have made into 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 129 
 
 tlio interior we have found, as a rule, that the 
 UK'n engaged to accompany us have not only 
 turned out to be full of kindly sympatliies, but 
 also intensely loyal in the way they have dis- 
 charged their duties. They had often to per- 
 form the most laborious services, sometimes 
 under a burning sun, frequently along roads that 
 it was a pain to ti'avel ; but no word of complaint 
 and no grumbling, except in a quaint and humor- 
 ous way, would be heard from them. Our com- 
 fort and happiness were the things that seemed 
 supreme in their minds, and it appeared to mat- 
 ter little wliat should happen to themselves, 
 when they sliould get their meals, or where retire 
 to rest. Their one iirevailing tliought was for 
 us, and how we should be secured from any- 
 tbing that would add to our discomfort." 
 
 Of course many special acts of Chinese kind- 
 ness could be given. I will quote a couple. Mr. 
 J. A. Turner, in his "Kwang Tung," (1894), 
 says — ' ' That the Chinese are capable of genero- 
 
130 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 sity also was shown in 1891, when it was found 
 that a coolie in Shanghai had hept in Ms house, 
 for ten years, a foreigner named Thomas Mar- 
 shall, who was an e;r- journalist and paralysed, 
 sharing tvith Mm his food, and taking him out 
 for rides in his rickshaw, till he died. After in- 
 qiiiiy into the truth of these facts, the foreign 
 conununit}^ made a subscription to set him up 
 in business." 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 131 
 
 The Chinese a Polite People. 
 
 I think it will be generally admitted that the 
 Chinese, jDerhaps with the exception of the 
 Japanese, are the most polite people in the 
 world. 
 
 Mr. Hancock, a gentleman high in the Chinese 
 C>nstonis Service, said to me — "If you tell a 
 mandarin that he lies, he will laugh, and think 
 how clever you are to find him out; but if you 
 tell him lie is wanting in politeness, you will 
 grieve him or anger him very much. It is con- 
 sidered a great insult to tell a Chinaman that he 
 is wanting in politeness, so greatly does he prize 
 that quality." 
 
 Hon. Chester Holcombe, in his "Real Chinese 
 Question,'' (1901), says — "Possessing a high 
 standard of morals, and to a considerable extent 
 living in accordance with it, he yet places refine- 
 ment of courtesy and manner upon a higher le- 
 
132 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 vel." Speaking on the same subject in his pre- 
 vious work "The Real CUiinaman," (1895), he 
 sa\'s — ' ' Much of the falsehood to which the Chi- 
 nese as a nation are said to be addicted is a result 
 of the demands of etiquette. A plain, frank 'no' 
 is the height of discourtes_7. Refusal or denial of 
 any sort must be softened and toned down into 
 an expression of regretted inabilit\\ Unwilling- 
 ness to grant a f avou.r i^ never shown. In place 
 of it there is seen a chastened feeling of sorrow 
 that unavoidable, but quite imaginary, circum- 
 stances render it wholly impossible. ( 'enturies 
 of practice in this form of evasion have made the 
 Chinese matchlessly fertile in the invention and 
 development of excuses. It is rare indeed that 
 one is caught at a loss for a bit of artfully em- 
 broidered fiction with which to hide an unwel- 
 come truth. The same remark holds good in 
 regard to all manner of disagreeable subjects of 
 conversation. They must be avoided. Any 
 number of winding paths may be made around 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 133 
 
 them but none must ever go directly through. A 
 
 Chinese very seldom will 'iaake an intentionally 
 disagreeable or offcnsi.ve remark." 
 
 Rev. E. J. Dukes, in his "Everyday Life in 
 China," says — "After a lengtliened residence in 
 China there is nothing that strili:es an Engiisli- 
 man more on his return to England than the 
 bi'usqueness of his own countrymen. We are so 
 accustomed at hoiue to what the Chinaman would 
 call ignorance of the proprieties, and we so con- 
 sistently ignore these same proprieties ourselves, 
 that we cannot appreciate the difference between 
 Chinese and English manners unless we have 
 been to the East. The selfish disregard of the 
 conveniejice of others, shown especially b.v young 
 men and women in our streets, in trains and 
 tram cars, is behaviour practically unknown in 
 China. Polite request or apology seldom faila 
 to be expressed at the proper monient by the 
 Chinaman." 
 
134 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Mr. G. Tradescant Lay, in "The Chinese as 
 They Are" (1841), says — "Tn walking abroad 
 the stranger may wonder at wliat two gentlemen 
 can so suddenly have found to dispute about; 
 but he soon perceives that each of them is sever- 
 ally refusing to advance a step till the other has 
 set the examjjle and consented to go ahead. As 
 three or four of us were one day taking some 
 refreshment at the house of a (Jhinese merchant, 
 a friend came up to the door, but on seeing stran- 
 gers modestly retired; whereupon two or three 
 of the company ran after him, haled him back, 
 set him down at the table, placed wine and some 
 delicacy before him, and fairly comj)elled him 
 to eat and drink. So well is it understood that 
 the principles of true politeness will sometimes 
 authorize a violation of all its outward forms — 
 that it is our duty to make our friends happy 
 whether they vnll or not, and to release them 
 from the temptation of saying 'No' when they 
 are fain to say 'Yes.' " 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 135 
 
 Chinese Truthfulness. 
 
 T have now cited evideiir-o to prove that the 
 Chinese generall}^ are highly endowed with the 
 good qualities of Industry, Intelligence, Hon- 
 estji, Sobriety, Peacefulnes'i. Patience, Cheer- 
 fulness, Gratitude, Philanthropy, and Polite- 
 ness; certainly ten of the chief qualities which 
 go to make good and perfect human beings. I 
 know that many bad qualities are ascribed to 
 them, one of which is that they are a nation of 
 liars. Many writers state or imply this, but 
 others again say that this i** too sweeping an 
 assertion, although their excessive politeness 
 and wish to please, and their hatred of quarrels, 
 tempt them into telling ma7iy half -innocent lies. 
 But, we do the same. For instance, it has been 
 said that there are more lies told in the six 
 short words, "J am glad to see yon," than in 
 any other sentence in the English language. But 
 all the Chinese do not tell lies any more than 
 all the inhabitants of Christendom do. 
 
136 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 The Be I/. E. J. Dukes, in his "Everyday Life 
 ill China, " says — "My first experience with 
 the Chinese trader taught me a severe lesson for 
 which I have often been very thankful. On 
 reaching my station, I was early assured by an 
 acquaintance that the Chinese were a nation of 
 liars;, that everi/ sliopheeper mas a swindler iy 
 a lair of naturr, and that there ivas no excep- 
 tion to the rale. A day or two after I sent to 
 ask a tradesman to submit certain specimens 
 of his art to my inspection. He brought them, 
 wrapped up in a large blue handkerchief. I 
 was surprised at the large, price, and jumped 
 to the conclusion that this was one of those uni- 
 versal swindlei's who had a lower price for the 
 initiated. I ventured to suggest that the charge 
 was exorbitant. We discussed the matter for 
 a few moments, and when he saw I was firm, 
 the goods were hastily heaped into the blue 
 handkerchief, and the merchant was on Ms way 
 home before I could realize that I was snubbed. 
 It was a small matter, but it made me very 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 137 
 
 careful and observant, and led to my forming a 
 higher estimate of the truthfulness and integ- 
 rit}^ of those with whom I was more immedi- 
 ately associated." 
 
 The Rev. R. H. Graves, D.D., in "Forty 
 Years in China" (1895), says — "A Chinese 
 once remarked to me 'Men are all alike; all 
 want to accomplish their own ends. The only 
 difference between Chinese and Westerns is, 
 you seek to accomplish your ends by boldness 
 and force, and we try to accomplish ours by 
 cunning and duplicity. This remai'k shows the 
 difference between Asiatic and European ideas 
 in a nutshell. To illustrate his point he said, 
 'You foreigners come here with your war ves- 
 sels and extort a ti'eaty from us; of course we 
 try to evade it every way we can when the force 
 is withdrawn. It is perfectly fair — cunning 
 against force.' .... Perhaps the tendency of 
 the human mind to sa}^ what is not so is nowhere 
 
138 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 seen more clearly than in conventionalities of 
 polite societ.y. The Chinese have a great deal 
 of true 2)oliteness and consideration for the 
 feelings of others. But they often carry it 
 too far, and have no hesitation in sacrificing 
 the truth to appear to be polite. Many of the 
 ordinar}^ forms of j)oliteness and hospitalit}' are 
 mere shams ; as when the Chinaman eomi^lained 
 of the incivility of a visitor, sajdng, 'I was 
 polite enough to ask him to dinner, and he was 
 polite enough to decline the invitation.' You 
 are always invited to remain for a meal, but no 
 one is expected to accept the invitation, unless 
 he really is a friend from abroad. I do not 
 mean to say that this form of untruthfulness 
 is 2)eculiar to China, but only that it abounds 
 there." — Just so. How many hundreds of mil- 
 lions of times in Christendom have visitors been 
 asked to stay for tea or dinner when the inviter 
 hopes they won't, hut yet pays them the false 
 or empty coiiLplimeiit of asking them. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 139 
 
 ST. PAUL 
 
 As before remarked, this question of lying is 
 onl)^ one of degree. We call the Chinese a 
 iiafion of lian^; judged hy the same rule all the 
 nations of the world are nations of liars. Paul 
 called the Cretans a nation of liars ; E2)nnenides 
 called the Thebans a nation of liars ; and David 
 was forced to say that all men are liars; and the 
 old Scotch clergyman said, "Friend David was 
 riglitr 
 
 True, the Chinaman lies on an average more 
 than we do. Every thoiisand Chinamen through- 
 out China may tell a million lies in a year, but 
 
140 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 probably every thousand men tliroughout Christ- 
 endom tell a quarter of a million every year; it 
 is onl}^ a question of degree or number, not of 
 kind. The}^ are men and we are men; they lie 
 and we He. Like man}" others I have thought 
 a great deal on this unfortunate vice of lying 
 which prevails amongst us, and shall take a hint 
 from this of enlarging upon it in another book 
 to be entitled^ 
 
 "The Lies We Tell and the Beauty of Truth." 
 
 The following is a synopsis of its contents: — 
 White or Little Lies — Half Lies — Insinuating 
 Lies — Equivocating Lies — Ambiguous Lies — 
 Lies of Hypocrisy — Lies of Omission or Mental 
 Reservation — Slanderous Lies — Spiteful Lies — 
 Revengeful Lies — Backbiting Lies — Lies of 
 Excuse — Lies of Sham-Sickness — Lies of Pro- 
 mise — Lies of Convenience — Lies of Flattery — 
 Lies of Politeness — Taes of Welcome — Lies of 
 Appearance — Lies of the Muddle-Headed — Lies 
 of the Weak — Lies of Kindness — Acting Lies — 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 141 
 
 Thoughtless and Careless Liars — Habitual 
 Liars. If we come to literature, some 
 Historians — some Biographers — some Poets 
 — some Essayists — some Smart Writers — 
 some Journalists — some Editors — some Repor- 
 ters — some ( 'rities — some Transciibei's — som.e 
 Translators — some Preachers — some Lecturers 
 — some Debaters — some Tombstones tell lies. 
 All Pal)ulists — all Writers of Wonderful Nur- 
 sery Rhymes and Fairy Tales — all Jokers and 
 Fmmy Writers and Romancers — all Imper- 
 sonators and Interpolators and Plagiarists tell 
 some lies. Finally, the books and literature of 
 Christendom, without reckoning those of China, 
 while they contain much truth, contain also 
 thousands of millions of lies. In noticing the 
 lies told in everyday life, we may begin with 
 those of the family. Some Sweethearts — some 
 Husbands — some Wives — ^some Parents — some 
 Children — some Schoolboys and girls — some 
 Servants tell lies. Next with the Government: 
 
142 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 some Princes — some Courtiers — some Politi- 
 cians — some Diplomats tell lies. If we turn to 
 law, some Plaintiffs — some Defendants — some 
 Debtors — some Criminals — some Witnesses — 
 some Lawj^ers tell lies. We might go on through 
 the whole of the trades and callings, and show 
 that the Auctioneer — the Commission Agent — 
 the Advertising Agent — the Land Agent — the 
 Share Broker — ^the Book Canvasser — the Haw- 
 ker — the Horse Dealer — the QiTack-Medieine 
 Advertiser and the Cheap Jack, most of them 
 tell many lies. And we might also enumerate a 
 hundred other trades and callings in our midst 
 in which lies are told more or less, but the variety, 
 by its great munber, gets monotonous. It will 
 suffice to say that unfortunately lying is more 
 or less prevalent everywhere, in every trade, 
 calling and profession^ and amongst all sorts and 
 conditions of men. I shall also give a few 
 thoughts and opinions of great men about the 
 beauty, and wisdom, and inestimable worth of 
 truth. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTEE. 143 
 
 Chinese Moral Teachings and Conduct. 
 
 It is said l)y many writers on the Chinese, 
 tliat they have a splendid system of morals 
 which are taught in the schools, frequently read 
 out to the people, are constantly on the tip of 
 the tongue, and frequently apjjlauded, and yet 
 few of them follow these beautiful teachings. 
 
 The Right Eov. Monseigneur Reynaud, Ro- 
 man Catholic Bishop, in his book "Another 
 China," referring to the moral maxims and 
 teachings of the Chinese, says — "Le style c'est 
 riiomme it is said, and it ma.y be fairly held 
 that the language of a people is some indication 
 of its spirit and manner of living. The daily 
 language of the Chinese is full of proverbial 
 sayings, which are in constant use among them, 
 praising virtue and condemning vice. Some of 
 them point out the vanity of worldly honours, 
 the contempt of riches, the avoidance of plea- 
 sures that entail so much misery, the horror of 
 injustice, the eifects of anger and impatience, 
 
144 CHINESE CHAEACTER. 
 
 tlie folly of ]3ride, tlie iniquity of slander, the 
 shortness of life, and so on. Others inculcate 
 love of virtue, practice of good works, esteem 
 of wisdom, patience in troubles, forgetfulness 
 of injuries, fidelity, gratitude, humility, and 
 good examiDle. The itrovcrhs liavinfj reference 
 to charity are parti cnlarlij expressive and l)eau- 
 tifuJ ; and it is to be desired that our mission- 
 aries should make great use in their sermons 
 and instructions of these axioms in which mav 
 be heard distant echoes of passages in the Gos- 
 pel These proverbs are accepted by the 
 
 Chinese as irrefutable arguments The 
 
 language of an entire race cannot be one univer- 
 sal falsehood; and these moral notions, so often 
 repeated, must be esteemed by individuals even 
 if they do not always follow them." 
 
 It is exactly the same amongst ourselves. We 
 ha^-e wise i^roverbs, and moral precepts, and ten 
 commandments, the sermon on the mount, and 
 the Loi'd's prayer, and the Apostles' creed, and, 
 like the riiinese, the golden rule: "Do unto 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 145 
 
 others as you would tlicy should do unto you." 
 These are our teachiiia's; hut our i)i'actice ];■ 
 
 &>^5 
 
 la 
 
 much the same as theirs — ivoefullj/ sJiortcoiidng. 
 
 In another place the JKight Reverend Bishop 
 says — "The Chinese are heathens who have not 
 had eighteen centuries of (Uiristianity to civilize 
 them ; hut it must be admitted that with all their 
 errors and vices, they have not fallen so low as 
 i)ther nations. For instance, many of the re- 
 proaches addressed by St. Paul to the Romans 
 would not be brought by him against the inhabi - 
 tants of China were he to visit it. We inaij 
 go farther, and say that the corruption e.riatinfi 
 ill (Utiiia is less deep-seated and less visible than 
 ill certain of onr Western cities, the scandal of 
 which would bring a blush to the chcch: of a 
 Chinaman who is deemed to be so iriched.'' 
 
 Mr. B. Broomliall, writing under the head of 
 "Martyred Missionaries" in "China's Mil- 
 lions," April, 1901, says — "Grievous statements 
 concerning the treatment of some of the lady 
 missionaries have been made bv some ill- 
 
146 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 informed writers. There is no foundation what- 
 ever for sucli statements. It has been reserved 
 for European troops in China to act in such a 
 manner as to cause Chinese wives and daugh- 
 ters to hang themselves on trees or drown them- 
 selves in garden wells, rather than fall into their 
 hands. Bad as the crncUicn and barhatities of 
 the Boxers and sonic other Chinese have been, 
 they have not equalled the shoeh'nuj brutalities 
 of European soldiers in (Jhina. These men have 
 left memories which will make the European to 
 be hated and loathed for mam'^ a year to come." 
 
 The Chinese have rules of moral conduct like 
 most other nations, sucli as "Don't lie," "Don't 
 steal." "Don't murder," etc., and multitudes of 
 them believe in laying up treasures of merit for 
 a future state. In some cases tables are made 
 out showing how points or marks may be ob- 
 tained in this life for meritorious acts. The 
 following dozen are from a list by Mr. Du Bose, 
 given in "M}- (liinese Note Book," by Lady 
 Susan Townlev: — 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 147 
 
 Marks for Good Conduct. 
 
 To Lend an Umbrella 1 
 
 To give Fivepence to Beggars .... 1 
 
 To Return what you pick up on the 
 Streets for every value of Fivepence 1 
 
 To Pay the Debts of a Father ... 10 
 
 To Build Bridges, Repair Roads, 
 Open Canals and Dig Wells, for 
 every four shillings expended .... 10 
 
 To Save a Child from Infanticide . 30 
 
 To Furnish a Coffin for the Poor . . 50 
 
 To Bury a Man who has no Son . . 50 
 
 To Forgive a Debt 100 
 
 To Publish a Part of the Classics 
 [Confucian Scriptures] 100 
 
 AMien Rich to Marry a Deformed Girl 
 to whom Betrothed when Poor . . 100 
 
 To Destro.v the Stereotype Plates of 
 
 Immo]'al Books 300 
 
 Purit\' through Life 1000 
 
 The above Jisf alone is Hujjicient to sliotv the 
 moral trend of the Chinese mind. 
 
118 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Chinese, under the Same Conditions, Much 
 Like Ourselves. 
 
 It is all a question of environment. 
 
 j\ly belief and constant assertion is that if all 
 mankind were from babyhood upward fed alike, 
 clothed alik<;, housed alike, educated alike, and 
 brought up alike in every respect, there would 
 be very little more difference between nations 
 than thei'e is now betw^een members of the same 
 community; that if the Chinese, for example, 
 were brought up in an English community, were 
 fed, clothed, housed, and si^oke the English 
 language, and were brought up and educated as 
 English, there would be very little difference be- 
 tween them and us. Many examples of this 
 could be cited by those who have observed the 
 Chinese that have been born and brought up 
 among the Christians in the British colonies. I 
 will mention two that have come under my ob- 
 servation. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 149 
 
 A few years ago I met a Chinaman just op- 
 posite my place in Bourke-street, Melbourne. 
 Something suggested to me that he could speak 
 English. Addressing him, I asked, "Can you 
 speak English?" He said, "Yes." I said, 
 "Come inside, and let us have a talk." I took 
 
 REV. CHBOK HONG OHBONG 
 
 him to my office, and he handed me his card, 
 "Rev. Clieok Hong Cheong." I had an hour's 
 conversation with him. I found him intelligent, 
 well-educated, and well informed generally; a 
 man, I believe, of ten thousand, as the world 
 goes. Mr. Cheong has a pure-bred Chinese wife. 
 
150 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 cind several sons, well-educated. A few days 
 after I spoke to liini I saw in the Arijiis that his 
 eldest son had taken the highest prize at Trinity 
 College, Melbourne. I employed two of his bo3"s 
 for some time ; one remained in charge of our 
 tea-room until he grew into manhood, and is 
 now in business for himself. I found them well 
 educated, well behaved, and quite equal to other 
 employees. Mr. Cheong himself was born near 
 Canton, China, received a thorough English and 
 Christian education, and has for many years 
 been in charge of the Episcopalian JNIission to 
 the Chinese of Victoria. He has delivered many 
 eloquent addresses to large audiences in the 
 Town Hall, Melbourne, and elsewhei'e. He is an 
 enthusiastic denouncer of the opium habit and 
 traffic, and many years ago delivered addresses 
 on the subject to influential audiences at Exeter 
 Hall, and in the Banqiieting Room of the Eng- 
 lish Parliament. At a lecture delivered bv him 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 151 
 
 SIR J. B. PATTBESON 
 
 in the Town Hall, Melbourne, in 1893, Sir J. 
 B. Patterson, the then Premier, who presided, 
 in introducing him to the audience, said: — 
 ' ' When the audience heard Mr. Cheong discourse 
 upon the early ages of China they would be more 
 than delighted, as they would hear speak a 
 Chinese gentleman of the highest education and 
 elevated mind. When in England a little while 
 ago Mr. Cheong had spoken at the Exeter Hall, 
 and the people who had the good fortune to hear 
 
152 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 him were astonished at his wealth of imagery, 
 his command of the English language, and his 
 superb accent, and they grew most enthusiastic. 
 Mr. Cheong's mission in London has proved a 
 gigantic success, and they should be proud of 
 him." Mr. Olieong has now five grown-up sons 
 and one daughter. His eldest son has just been 
 ordained as a minister of the Church of Eng- 
 land, and I believe intends to do mission work in 
 Victoria. At the University he took a scholar- 
 sliip and an unprecedented number of prizes. 
 The other children also took many prizes during 
 their school days. In fact, I doubt if any family 
 in Victoria can show more prizes earned than 
 the Cheong family. The intense industry and 
 severe school examinations which have pre- 
 vailed ill China for hundreds of j^ears have here- 
 ditarily expanded the Chinese brain, and given 
 it a capacity for study which is amazing. Of 
 course, at present in China the Chinese to a large 
 extent waste this latent power by learning a lot 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 153 
 
 of useless etiquette and other rubbish, but the 
 power of learning is there all the same, and when 
 properly applied later will probably astonish the 
 world. I believe, if you were to take 100 Chinese 
 boys and 100 European boys and give them the 
 same opportunities at school, that siich is the ap- 
 plication and mental capacity of the Chinese boys 
 that in the matter of prize-taking they would 
 come out easily first. The Japanese are the same 
 in their close application to and ease of learn- 
 ing. When in Japau I asked a missionary school- 
 master, who had taught a great number of pupils, 
 what he thought of their aptness in learning. 
 His answer was, that "they were very bright 
 and learned easily, and that in this respect they 
 were quite equal to European and American 
 children." Now anywhere where the Chinese 
 and Japanese students have competed fairly in 
 schools and colleges in Europe and America they 
 have shown themselves quite equal to their 
 Western compeers. And the Japanese have 
 
154 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 shown to the world what they are capable of 
 when the}^ fully set their minds to it, and the 
 Chinese will probably soon do the same. Mr. 
 Cheong is active!}" carrying on his mission work, 
 but of late years he has bought a large fruit 
 farm at Croydon in a beautiful situation, where 
 he now resides with his family, and where they 
 find plent}^ of hard work to do, and do it. Mrs. 
 Cheong has the features of a Chinese woman, but 
 she works, and speaks, and acts like any good 
 English woman, and is much interested in and 
 devoted to helping in the mission work, teaching 
 English to the Chinese, teaching in the Sunday- 
 school, visiting and comforting the sick, and 
 other good works. A few months ago I had a 
 rather curious experience with respect to the 
 similarity of the Chinese character and our own. 
 Mr. Cheong had invited Mrs. Cole and myself to 
 come out and visit his homestead. We accord- 
 ingly went, and remained all day until after 
 dark, when some of the family got the buggy 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 155 
 
 ready to drive us to Cro^^don station. The driver 
 and my wife got up on to tlie front seat and I 
 got up on the bacli one. One young man, whom 
 I thought to be one of the Cheongs, got up be- 
 side me. We drove on, but as it was quite dark 
 I could not see his face, <ind as lie went on talk- 
 ing about various things just like an English- 
 man, I thought I must have l)eeu mistaken. 
 "This cannot be a Chinaman ; probably it is some 
 Englishman that they have to help them to pick 
 fruit or work on the farm. I put several ques- 
 tions to him, and these were answered just as 
 an Englishman would answer them, and I posi- 
 tively believed I was talking to an Englishman 
 until we came to a lamp on the station, and then 
 I saw the Chinese features of Joshua Cheong. 
 What he said, the way he said it, and the tone 
 of his voice were exactly English, and after that 
 special and striking experience no amount of 
 prejudice and false reasoning can convince me 
 
156 
 
 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 that there is any radical, natural difference be- 
 tween the intellect of the Chinese and that of the 
 English under the same conditions. 
 
 ME. QUONG TART 
 
 The other Chinaman whom I shall mention as 
 an illustration of the oneness of mankind is Mr. 
 Quong Tart, of Sydney. He was born in Can- 
 ton in 1850, and died in Sydney in 1903. When 
 quite a child he was brought to New South Wales, 
 and reared in an English family. He was a very 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 157 
 
 social, very benevolent, very popular, and highly 
 respected man. I once walked with him out to 
 his home at Ashfield, and inuiibers that we met 
 seemed to know him, and gave him a friendly 
 greeting. He seems to have been universally 
 known and universall_y liked. I have heard it 
 remarked that, althc)ugh a Chinaman, he was the 
 best liked man in Sydney. When a robber made 
 a murderous attack upon him in his office two 
 or three years ago, universal sympathy was felt 
 for him, and a number of prominent citizens 
 immediately took in hand the raising of a testi- 
 monial, and presented it to him as demonstrative 
 of the great esteem in which he was held. When 
 he died men felt that there was a public loss. 
 A large number of letters and telegrams of sym- 
 pathy were sent to his widow and family from 
 all ranks and conditions of people, including 
 the State Governor, the Prime Minister of the 
 Commonwealth, members of Parliament, judges, 
 heads of public bodies and institutions, etc. His 
 
158 CHINES E CHARACTER. 
 
 funeral was one of the largest ever seen in Syd- 
 ney. Many came by special and other trains; 
 great multitudes lined the streets and blocked the 
 railway station, and 1500 people walked in pro- 
 cession behind the coffin. A great number of 
 floral tributes were sent to lie upon the grave. 
 The press spoke of him in feeling and commen- 
 datory terms. The Sijdiiey Dailij Telegrdph 
 said: "Few names were better known locally or 
 more highly esteemed than that of deceased.'' 
 The Sydney Morning Herald said: "Mr. Tart 
 was in the best sense of the word a good citizen. 
 His assistance was alwa,ys forthcoming for a 
 good cause. Between the Chinese citizens and 
 the general community he stood as a kind of con- 
 necting link, highly respected by both." The 
 Toivn and ('ountry Journal said: "No more 
 genuine or widespread regret, probably, would 
 be occasioned by the news of the death of any 
 citizen than will be caused l)y the announcement 
 that Mr. Quong Tart, the popular Chinese mer- 
 chant of Sydney, has joined the great majority. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 159 
 
 ... In losing Mr. Tart, Sydney has lost a citizen 
 wlio always acted up to citizenship in the high- 
 est sense of the word." And now, who was this 
 Mr. Quong Tart? He was oiiJij a Chinaman; 
 but by education and association he had become 
 one of us, and like unto the best of us. He was 
 not an imposing-looking man, he was not a 
 wealthy man, he was not a pretentious man ; but 
 he was a sociable, a benevolent, and a worthy 
 man. A good Chuiatnan, brown in colour it is 
 true, but in intellect, heart, and soul, in no way 
 different from a good irliite man. The people of 
 Sydney felt this, and they respected, loved, and 
 honoured him accordingly. 
 
160 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Power of Environment. 
 
 During my lifetimo, I have come into contact 
 with peoi)le of man_7 races, of different features, 
 and colours, and costumes, and customs, and 
 creeds, and languages, and the more I have seen 
 of them the more I have been convinced of the es- 
 sential and positive oneness of man. I have had 
 intimate acquaintance or dealings with Kaffirs, 
 Hottentots, Bosjemen, Negroes, Hindoes, Cinga- 
 lese, Parsees, Malays, Chinese, Japanese, Java- 
 nese, Philippinos, Arabians, Syrians, Arme- 
 nians, Amei'ican Indians, Papuans, Australian 
 Aborigines and others; and I can see no differ- 
 ence in any of them except what environment 
 has made and which differing environment will 
 again umiiake. In mankind essentially every 
 thought and every feeling and every passion and 
 every form and every feature and every part 
 of their body and every act of their lives are 
 alike. Environment is a mighty power to change 
 appearances. Take twin baby brothers, bring 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 161 
 
 one up in the lowest slums of London, and the 
 other in th'3 most refined society a mile away; 
 bring them together again at the age of forty 
 and there will be a great difference between them 
 probably, mentally, morally, physically, and in 
 general appearance. Again, take the baby 
 brothers, send one to be brought up in troxjical 
 Northern Australia and the other to Southern 
 New Zealand, and bring them together again at 
 the end of forty years, and in form and fea- 
 tures and colour and other respects there would 
 be a considerable difference between them ; this 
 Nvould be inevitable. Different environments 
 would, and always do, produce variation, more 
 or less. It is so with families, clans, tribes, and 
 nations. Plant one family in the tropics, and 
 another similar one in a temperate or cold 
 country, and let them grow into nations; even- 
 tually the environments will produce two dif- 
 ferent nations, varying considerably in form, fea- 
 tures, colour, strength, and other cbaracteris- 
 
162 C HINESE CHARAC TER. 
 
 tics, but still both human. It is so with all the 
 nations of the world: e)iviro)ivtent lias )iiade all 
 tlie difference befiveen them. 
 
 White people's prejudice, especially in the 
 distance, is strong against people with a coloured 
 skin; but if they were to work with them, per- 
 haps live with them, and become well acquainted 
 with them, the}' would graduall}' come to forget 
 their colour and value their personal qualities, 
 and their colour prejudices would wane and fin- 
 ally vanish. Talk for a time with an educated 
 stranger f rc^m behind a screen or in the dark, and 
 you will be amazed and humaneh' instn;cted 
 when 3^ou find that 3'ou have been conversing 
 with a coloured person in the absence of the de- 
 spicable colour-pre j udice. 
 
 I will take the liberty of quoting a passage 
 written some years ago in "The Human Race at 
 a Glance," as it concisely expresses some of my 
 
CHINESE CHARACTErv. 163 
 
 experiences and belief on the subject: — "Wliy 
 sliould a portion of mankind be punished by 
 ostracism because they and their forefathers un- 
 fortunately had their lot cast in a hot country 
 and got their skins sun-tanned'? The colour of 
 a man's skin does not affect his body or his iiu- 
 inorfal soul. When you become acquainted with 
 a black man 30U soon find that he is just like 
 yourself, a real man, and when speaking to or 
 dealing with him you frequently forget that he 
 is black — the colour of his skin does not affect 
 his general human character. I have a black 
 man in my employment, a Tamil of Mauritius, 
 whose skin has turned white ; but from his looks, 
 his talk, and his actions, no one supposes, and 
 few can believe, that he is a 'black man.' Yet 
 it is a fact. It is altogether a mistake to think 
 that the coloured man has thoughts, feelings, or 
 any qualities radically different from the civi- 
 lized man's, allowing, of course, for the latter 's 
 
164 
 
 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 superior education. When the coloured man is 
 educated he acts just like any other civilized 
 man. I have been more or less associated with 
 many coloured races, and I can see no difference 
 between them and ourselves. Stanley, who has 
 mixed with coloured people in different parts 
 
 STANLEY LIVINGSTONE 
 
 of the world, and particularly with the various 
 tribes of Central Africa, including the pigmies, 
 says there is no mental or moral difference ; and 
 Dr. Livingstone, with all liis experience of the 
 coloured and the white man, held that there was 
 no difference. A race here and there, by cen- 
 turies of hard li^dng, insufficient sustenance, un- 
 due rigors of hot or cold climate, or other caus,es, 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 165 
 
 may weaken, degenerate, or die out, just a,s some 
 families in all countries die out fo]' want of 
 vitality; but they always retain their human qua- 
 lities to the last. Even the aboriginal Australian, 
 who is considered by many to be the lowest re- 
 presentative of the Inunan race, is human like. 
 In my inquiries around I asked the Rev. Mr. 
 Shaw, who had charge of the aboriginals at Co- 
 randerrk: 'In the matter of morals and rclifjious 
 
 SIR GEORGE GREY 
 
 conversion is there any real difference between 
 the black man and the whitcl' His answer was : 
 'There is none; they ((re just alihe/ Sir George 
 Grey, an observer and lover of mankind, whose 
 
166 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 extensive and intimate experience amongst many 
 races in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, 
 Polynesia, and elseAvhere, made him a humani- 
 tarian expert, in answer to my question: 'Do you 
 think there is any real difference between the 
 black man and the whitei?' said: 'Aiiio>igfit all 
 tlic people tltat I ever came in contact with, the 
 Australian ahorigiiial is the hiiidest-hearted.' 
 Fancy, our Australian Aboriginals the kindest- 
 hearted! Yes! and the Australian blacks wept 
 tears of sjTnpathy o^er the starved body of poor 
 Burke, the explorer, at Cooper's Creek, show- 
 ing, as the Avfi'us remarked at the time, that 
 'One touch of nature makes the Avhole world 
 kin.' " 
 
 The missionaries in every part of the globe 
 agree that mentally, morally, and religiously the 
 coloured man has similar feelings to the white 
 
 man. I asked Monsignor , the intelligent 
 
 and kindly Catholic bishop of New Britain, who 
 has large native schools under his charge, and 
 
CHINESE CHARACTEE. 167 
 
 has had great experience in British and Grerman 
 New Guinea, "What do you think of the mental, 
 moral, and religious character of the Papuan 
 people*?" His answer was: "Tliey have the 
 same tlioughts and feelings and passions, and are 
 ill ever I) respect human like ourselves. 
 
 A similar story is told by all unprejudiced 
 missionaries in Africa, in India, in China, in 
 Japan, etc., etc. Take the case of the Japanese 
 whose character for intelligence, bravery, and 
 humanity has manifested itself before the world 
 during the last few years. Who would have 
 thought fifty years ago that this despised Asia- 
 tic and coloured race would suddenly develop 
 her latent human powers, and astonish the whole 
 white world as she has done? 
 
 Taking the position which I do on the essential 
 oneness of jnan, it is sometimes sarcastically 
 asked of me, when perhaps a group of coloured, 
 ragged and, perhaps, dirty people are in sight, 
 
168 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 as in the densely crowded, poverty-stricken and 
 sweltering cities of China, etc.: ^^Noiv are they 
 equal to us?" The same question could be asked 
 about the slum-denizens of the great cities of 
 Christendom. My answer is: "No, at present 
 they are not equal to u.s, because their environ- 
 ments have been inferior to ours ; change these, 
 make them like ours, and they will soon approxi- 
 mate to us." 
 
 At the risk of being thought somewhat egotis- 
 tical, I will relate some of my own experiences 
 in this direction in Japan. In consequence of 
 my little book, "A White Australia Impossible," 
 showing the intelligence, educational and na- 
 tional progress, and the growing power of the 
 Japanese nation, and the folly of the White Aus- 
 tralia legislation as applied to her, when I visited 
 that country the people acted in a very friendly 
 manner to myself and family. The Admiral of the 
 Standing Fleet brought us on board of his flag- 
 ship at Aomori. Captain Iwasaka, the captain 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 169 
 
 of the battleship Yashima, gave us a dinner at 
 the port of Otaro. I had a thorough non-pro- 
 fessional inspection from top to bottom of his 
 15,000 ton battleship and two large cruisers, 
 which were all in beautiful order, with cold water 
 and hot water and freezing chambers and gas 
 and electric light and speaking tubes and tele- 
 phones and all the latest improvement scienti- 
 fically fixed and laid in every direction. Cap- 
 tains and otlier officers were invited to the dinner, 
 most of whom could speak English. I asked one 
 of the captains whether he thought the}^ could 
 hold their own against the Russians. He 
 answered: ''I have been six years in Russia. 
 About their army I can say nothing, but I do 
 understand their navy, whose appointment, 
 state, and discipline are inferior to ours ; ' ' and a 
 look of determination came into his face as he 
 continued: "I don't fear them; I'll fight them." 
 I asked him how many foreigners thej^ had on 
 board as engineers, etc. This was considered a 
 good joke, and went into the newspapers! The 
 dinner was a success. The Admiral lent his 
 
170 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 band, and allowed the use of the searchlights, 
 and in view of the order, and cleanliness, and 
 discipline, iind politeness, and friendliness on 
 board, I asked niv wife, "Now, arc not these 
 jicopic as (jood us tec are?" Her answer was, 
 "YcK, quite as ijood.'^ Again, the Mayor and 
 councillors of the Cit.v of Otaro gave us a grand 
 dinner in Japanese style, made complimentary 
 speeches, and were most friendly, one of the 
 councillors remarking that they felt as if we were 
 old friends. They each gave us their cards, and 
 the next dav, during pouring rain, thej^ accom- 
 |)anied us on board our vessel, and gave us a 
 hearty farewell. Again I asked Mrs. Cole: 
 "Are not these hind peojtle, whom we never saw 
 before and inaij never see again, as good as -we 
 are?" and again she answered "Yes." At the 
 port of Hakodate the custom authorities met us 
 on board, took us to our hotel, showed us the 
 sights of the city, gave us a costl_y Japanese din- 
 ner, did other kindly acts, and escorted us to our 
 vessel again with floral and other offerings, and 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 171 
 
 as the vessel started bade us an affectionate fare- 
 well. When I saw these well-dressed, well-be- 
 haved, kindl}' gentlemen depart, I once more 
 said to my wife: "iYo?r arc they not as good as 
 ire are?" and again her answer was "Yes." A 
 couple of days later we put into a little land- 
 locked harbour near the city of Sendia, and 
 landed. There were no houses, but a few fisher- 
 men's huts, and some men and women poorly 
 clad, and a numl^er of children, some with a little 
 clothing on and some naked, and altogether they 
 did not look very respectable. It was Mrs. 
 Cole's opportunity now, and she asked, "Do 
 you mean to say that these people are equal to 
 as?" My answer was, "Certainly not in that 
 state. Equality is all a question of environment. 
 Take the babies from amongst them, wash them, 
 and clothe them, and feed them, and educate 
 them, and develop their natures without draw- 
 l)acks, deal mth them exactly as with ourselves, 
 in fact, bring them up in our exact environments, 
 and they would be as good as we are. ' ' 
 
172 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Dress generally has a great influence on the 
 opinions of mankind; some say it is the clothes 
 that make the man, and there is much truth in 
 this, as far as appearances go. In the capital of 
 Japan, while thousands go nicely dressed in 
 native clothes, and other thousands in European 
 clothes, many, especially old men, go verj^ scan- 
 tily dressed, showing their diminutive and some- 
 times bent legs; and this, though no offence 
 there, looks very objectionable to us. But there 
 is nothing in it, for if our old vieii, even our 
 (jrcutefit men, were to go with tlie whole of their 
 legs naked theij tvould look just as had as the old 
 Japanese men do. The clothes s'unpltj make nil 
 the difference hetween them. Imagine what a 
 show our old men would look walking through 
 the streets bare-legged. 
 
 The Japanese are fast adopting European, and 
 particularly English, habits and dress. They 
 have their fleets, and armies, and arsenals, and 
 dock-yards, and railways, and tramways, and 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 173 
 
 telegraphs, and sea-cables, and telephones, and 
 electric lights, and postal services, and banks, 
 and mints, and chambers of commerce, and mu- 
 seums, and factories, and parliaments, and muni- 
 cipal bodies, and law courts, and law codes, and 
 hospitals, and schools, and colleges, and univer- 
 sities, and public libraries, and lecture halls, 
 and churches, and millions of pupils are learn- 
 ing to speak English ; all these tend to develop 
 the character of the people and make them be- 
 come more like us every day. Now, seeing what 
 the Japanese have done, against the mighty 
 power of Rassia, and giving a running thought 
 to all the civilized institutions above enumerated, 
 how can we say that there is -cinj difference be- 
 tween the awakened Japanese mind and our 
 own'? Ami the Chinese mind, whew it further 
 (tiv((^-eus, /rill he the sdiv.e. Undoubtedly, man 
 is one. 
 
174 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Alien Immigration Restriction Laws. 
 
 These alien restriction laws make America and 
 Australia look very selfish and foolish before 
 vianJiincl as a whole. Take the three following 
 instances against the Chinese : — In 1903 America 
 sent a special commission to Pekin to invite and 
 urge the Chinese Grovernment to send exhibits to 
 the St. Louis Exhibition of 1904. China accepted 
 in good faith, and then the Treasury DejDart- 
 ment of Washington drew up a series of regu- 
 lations subject to their degrading and inhuman 
 restriction law, requiring ''that each exhibitor, 
 i;pon arrival at any seaport in this country, 
 should be photographed three times for purposes 
 of identification, and should file a bond in the 
 penal sum of 5000 dol., the conditions of which 
 Avere that he would proceed directh^ and by the 
 shortest route to St. Louis, would not leave the 
 Exposition grounds at any time after his arrival 
 there, and would depart for China by the first 
 steamer sailing after the close of the Exposition, 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 175 
 
 Thus a sort of Chinese rogues' gallery was to 
 be establish 'd at each port, and the Fair grounds 
 Avere to be made a prison pen for those who 
 had come here as invited guests of the nation, 
 whose presence and aid were needed to make the 
 disjjhxy a success. It is only just to add that, 
 upon a most vigorous protest being made against 
 these courteous ( '?) regulations by the Chinese 
 Government and a threat to cancel their accept- 
 ance of our invitation, the rules were withdrawn 
 and others more decent substituted. But the 
 fact tliat they were prepared and seriousl^y pre- 
 sented to China shows to what an extent of in- 
 justice and discourtesy our mistaken attitude in 
 regard to Chinese inunigration has carried us. — 
 Hon. Chester Holeoinbe, in ''The Outlook/' 
 April 23, 1904. 
 
 Mr. A. J. Brown, in "New Forces in Old 
 China," quotes the following illustrations of su- 
 preme absurdity from the Hon. Chester Holcombe 
 — "A Chinese merchant of San Francisco visited 
 
176 CHINESE CfiARACTER. 
 
 his native land and brouglit back a bride, only to 
 find that she was forbidden to land on American 
 soil. Another Chinese merchant and his wife, 
 of unquestioned standing in San Francisco, made 
 a trip to China, tmd while there a child was born. 
 On returning to their home in America, the sa- 
 pient oflicials could interpose no objection to the 
 readmission of the parents, but peremptorily re- 
 fused to admit the three-months' old baby, as, 
 never having been in this country, it had no right 
 to enter it! Neither of these preposterous de- 
 cisions could be charged to the stupidity or 
 malice of the local officials, for both were ap- 
 pealed to the Secretary of the Treasury in 
 Washington, and were officiall}^ sustained by him 
 as in accordance with the law, though in the lat- 
 ter case, the Secretary, then the Hon. Daniel 
 Manning, in approving the action, had the cour- 
 ageous good sense to write: 'Burn all this cor- 
 respondence, let the poor little baby go ashore, 
 and don't make a fool of yourself.' " 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 177 
 
 WHAT WE SHOULD DO TO DEVELOP 
 TROPICAL AUSTRALIA. 
 
 If I were king of Australia, witli absolute 
 power, and things all round stood just as they 
 do now, I think that I would invite a million 
 Chinese, a million Japanese, a million Javanese, 
 a million Hindoos, and some other coloured 
 people, and all tlie white men who choose to come, 
 into the tropical half of Australia, to grow cotton, 
 rice, sugar, coffee, tea, cocoa, and all other kinds 
 of tropical produce. My reason for inviting 
 many coloured races instead of a chosen one 
 would be to prevent an objectionable clannish or 
 national feeling growing up, and becoming too 
 strong for the public welfare. I would insist 
 that the immigrants should assist the Common- 
 wealth of which they would form a part, and live 
 peacefully under our civilisation, institutions, 
 and laws, and that all their children, and them- 
 selves as much as possible, should receive the 
 education and speak the common language of the 
 
178 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 land; in fact, without prejudice or clannisliness 
 of any kind, become honest citizens of the great 
 Commonwealth of Australia. The white man at 
 present is in possession of tropical Australia, and 
 by his education, experience, and superior man- 
 aging powers may for a long time control and 
 superintend tropical operations. Yet he cannot 
 work in the tropics, while the acclimatised sun- 
 coloured man can. Mr. McDonald, an editor of 
 Hong Kong, said to me, "When 1 lived in Mel- 
 bourne and Sj^dney I was a red-hot White 
 Australian, but I am one no longer, for I can see 
 that no white man does nor can work in the 
 tropics." Quite true; he can superintend, but 
 not work. Besides, the tropics are very detri- 
 mental to the white man's famil}^; of this hun- 
 dreds of instances could be cited. I asked a very 
 delicate lady of Rockhampton how the females 
 generally stood the clmiate. Stretching out her 
 arms, she feelingly said, "Look at me! I am a 
 specimen of its effects." 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 179 
 
 Mr. Eobert McMillan, in the Stoch and Sta- 
 tion Journa^., says: — "A man mar fairly hold 
 his own in tropical Australia, but his wife be- 
 comes a wreck," and, of course, her children. 
 
 Mr. (t. B. fShawe, writing in the Argus, says : — 
 "^'I have lived 40 j^ears in the tropics, and know 
 that the white man cannot personally work the 
 land. He can guide, direct, supervise, and profit 
 by it when worked by coloured labour. A third 
 generation of pure whites in the tropics is a 
 feeble rarity, and a fourth is unknown; how, 
 then, is the white man going to colonise tropical 
 Australia?" 
 
 Respecting the relative value of the Chinese, 
 Japanese, Javanese, and Hindoos, they are all 
 excellent workers, but I think the Chinese stand 
 first. When in China I was advised to see the 
 Rev. Dr. Allen, of Shanghai, as one who had 
 had 40 years of active and continued intercourse 
 with the Chinese. I asked him what was his 
 opinion of them. His answer was: — "I have a 
 
180 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 very good opinion of the Chinese ; they are very 
 clever and industrious ; whatever I have got to 
 do a Chinaman will take it out of my hands and 
 do it better. The Americans make a great mis- 
 take when they shut the Chinese out of the 
 Philippines; they would teach those Filipinos 
 how to work. The Chinese are the work race 
 of the world." 
 
 The following is concisely quoted from well- 
 known writers on China : — 
 
 The Rev. A. H. Smith dwells on "the cheerful 
 labour of the Chinese and their unmatched in- 
 dustry. 
 
 Mr. R. Colquhoun says: — "His predominant 
 quality, that wJiidi marks the Chinese as a race, 
 tvhether at Jiome or ahroad, is heyond doubt his 
 industry. He has always a passion for labour." 
 
 Sir George Goldie, speaking at a public func- 
 tion in London a short time ago, referring to the 
 employment of Chinese by the North Borneo 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 181 
 
 Compan}^ said: — "I have alivays held that the 
 only satisfactory way of develo]>ing a tropical 
 country is to import Chinese labour. He is a 
 fine instrument of labour." 
 
 Sir Frank Swettenham, Governor of the 
 Straits Settlements, in responding to a toast in 
 London (in December, 1903), said: — "Last year 
 200,000 Gliinese entered the Straits Settlements. 
 / tcoidd be glad to see more of them." 
 
 PRESIDENT DIAZ. 
 
 The Chinese are greatly valued in Mexico as 
 workers. President Diaz lately said to a Chinese 
 ambassador: — " We heartily welcome them. 
 
182 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 They are workers, and tlieir industry, frugality, 
 and ability are valuable in building up the coun- 
 try." — New York Evening Post. 
 
 Mr. Harold E. Oorst, in his ''China" (1899), 
 says: — "There is not an authority — from the 
 globe-trotter who has spent a few days at a treaty 
 port, to the missionary who is intimately ac- 
 quainted with life in the interior — ^who has not 
 borne testimony to the marvellous perseverance 
 and unflagging industry of the working classes 
 in China." 
 
 Mr. Alexis Krausse saj''s: — "He possesses the 
 faculty of application in a degree rarely found 
 among other nations. He is the most industrious 
 worker in the world." 
 
 Another writer says : — ' ' The Chinese country- 
 man cultivates his little patch of ground most 
 diligently, and is a far more thrift}' husbandman 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 183 
 
 than is the average English peasant. . . . The 
 Chinaman is the most diligent labourer of the 
 whole world." 
 
 And another says: — "Wherever a Chinaman 
 can get a foot of ground and a quart of water, 
 he will make something grow." 
 
 Some say, "Better let tropical Australia re- 
 main a desert than develop it with coloured 
 labour;" but from a somewhat selfish point of 
 view, I would say^ "No!" South Africa is im- 
 porting multitudes of Chinese to work its low 
 grade but almost inexhaustible gold mines. 
 These grand workers will make South Africa 
 boom, and multitudes of our young men will be 
 drawn thither by high wages. Now, we have got 
 in our enormous tropical territory, a perpetual 
 asset worth more than all the South African 
 gold mines. Immense areas of our vast tropical 
 territory are very fertile and capable of grow- 
 ing enormous quantities of produce. Experts 
 tell us that ive have the largest cotton growing 
 
184 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 area in the world, and that the cotton grown is 
 already the best in the world; that if properly 
 cultivated its 3"early value would soon exceed that 
 of all the wool and gold and corn and meat and 
 butter put together, and the sale for it is cer- 
 tain, as everybody throughout the world wears 
 cotton, there is an increasing demand, and the 
 total cotton-groAving area in the world is limited. 
 
 The final question arises, can we do as we like 
 with the tropical half of Australia. I answer 
 NO, and YES. If we do not effectually occupy 
 it, in time we shall lose it by the overflow of col- 
 oured population from the congested countries 
 to the north of us, and necessity will give them 
 the right to overflow into such practically unoc- 
 cupied territory. It may be said, "We will not 
 allow them ; ' ' but these coloured nations are com- 
 posed of men like ourselves, and are awakening, 
 Japan has rapidly awakened, and China, under 
 A'arious influences, is fast awakening, and will 
 soon be a mighty power. Who would have 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 185 
 
 thought fifty years ago that little brown Japan 
 would have sprung forward almost at a bound 
 and faced the mighty power of Russia, destro5^ed 
 her Eastern fleeet and in a year 's siege, by sheer 
 good generalship and extreme bravery, have cap- 
 tured the great stronghold and taken its 50,000 
 brave defenders prisoners. And they still have 
 
 MARQUIS ITO. 
 
 vast, well-disciplined armies facing the vast 
 armies of Russia in Manchuria, and these multi- 
 tudes of brave yet humane soldiers show no sign 
 of flinching. Portions of their well-appointed 
 nav}' have visited our principal cities, and 
 they know our pride and the weakness of our 
 defences. Marquis Ito, their strong prime 
 
186 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 mover, when speaking of our "White Australia" 
 Act, made the following statement to me, which 
 statement on this particular subject he verified 
 in writing next da}^ through his late private sec- 
 retary, probably in case he might be misunder- 
 stood down in Australia : — 
 
 "September 16th, 1903. 
 "Dear Me. Cole, — With regard to the state- 
 ment by Marquis Ito on Australia, to avoid all 
 possible mistakes, permit me to write down the 
 whole statement as corrected by His BxcellencJ^ 
 It should run thus: — 'I believe the Australians 
 make a big mistake in closing their doors against 
 the people of this country. Tliey iiiiglit possiUy 
 discover their error should any national calamity 
 — sucli, for instance, as an invasion hy a foreign 
 enemy — give Jupait an opportunity to prove her 
 friendship to them hy coming to their rescue with 
 an army and fleet. For the present, it seems to 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 187 
 
 me that they suffer from a plethora of politicians 
 engrossed in local matters. A little extension of 
 their vision beyond the confines of their territory 
 will not do them harm." 
 
 The leading statesman in Japan, and construc- 
 tor of its constitution, could see no difficulty in 
 a Japanese fleet and army coming to help the 
 Australians in case of need ; yet that same fleet 
 and arm}' might come to attack the Australians 
 if Japan required it. Some of us talk of our 
 fortifications at the entrances of our harbours 
 at Sydney and Melbourne ! Wlw, the Japanese 
 could, if they chose, land 100,000 men a few miles 
 from each of these cities and march into them ; 
 and what could we do? Now this insulting of 
 nations like Japan, China, and others, who, per- 
 haps, are not so advanced but in other respects 
 are as good as we are, is unfair, unwise, risky, 
 and altogether inexcusable, and a great many 
 Australians are against it. 
 
188 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 To the question previously put, Can we do as 
 we like with the tropical half of Australia f I 
 answer, YES. But to hold the destinies of Aus- 
 tralia in our own hands, we must be just and 
 civil to other nations, thereby making friends 
 and preventing bad blood ; and should invite all 
 kinds of good, honest, industrious immigrants to 
 develop such tropical regions, without distinc- 
 tion of country, colour, caste, or creed. This 
 would best make for our peace and the peace of 
 the world. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 189 
 
 AUSTRALIA AND ITS NEIGHBOURS. 
 
 Each Dot represents a Million of Population. 
 
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 •• 
 
 
 India proper is about half the size of Australia, 
 contains 300 millions of people, who are still in- 
 creasing, and are only 14 days' steaming from 
 Australia. 
 
 Java is about one-sixtieth the size of Aus- 
 tralia, contains 30 millions of people, who are 
 still increasing, and are only 3 or 4 days ' steam- 
 ing from our unoccupied tropical Australia. 
 
190 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 China proper is about half the size of Aus- 
 tralia, contains 400 millions of people, who are 
 still increasing, and are only 14 days' steaming 
 from Australia. 
 
 Japan is about one-eighteenth the size of Aus- 
 tralia, and contains 46 millions of people, who 
 are still increasing, and are only 16 days' steamr 
 ing from Australia. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 191 
 
192 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 As shown above, 776 millions of people, or 
 nearly half the population of the whole world, 
 
 live in China proper, India proper, Japan, and 
 Java, on an area very little larger than the con- 
 tinent of Australia, and all within a few days' 
 steaming of our unoccupied territory, and they 
 are increasing at an enormous rate. China 
 within the last twenty years has probably in- 
 creased her population by 20 millions or more; 
 India has increased 20 millions; Japan 9 mil- 
 lions; and Java 10 millions — ^probably about 60 
 millions altogether, while the continent of Aus- 
 tralia has only increased her population by about 
 1^2 million. 
 
 The little island of Java, within 3 or 4 days' 
 steaming of our unoccupied tropical territory, 
 has been particularly prolific in her increase of 
 population right along. A hundred years ago 
 Australia had a population of about ten thou- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 193 
 
 saBcl, located principally in Sydney; Java then 
 had a population of about 4 millions. The Aus- 
 tralian Population has not reached 4 millions, 
 while that of Java has reached 30 millions — an 
 increase more than 6 times that of all the Aus- 
 tralian colonies during the hundred years, al- 
 though the continent of Australia is 60 times as 
 large as Java. 
 
 Xou- we Australians have to look this question, 
 with all its hearings, straight in the face, and 
 act as the best wisdom dictates. Bi(t one thing 
 is clear, the ideal of a "White Australia" is im- 
 possible of realisation. 
 
 The overflowing population of Europe will 
 not emigrate to the Australian tropics while they 
 have the vast continent of the United States and 
 Canada so near to them; but the overflowing 
 population ol our coloured neighbours will erai- 
 
194 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 grate to tliese tropics, and, as this must he, it is 
 best that they should come and live under our 
 advanced and progressive supervision and co- 
 operation. 
 
 One idea will frequently obtrude itself upon 
 the mind of the thoughtful, humane, and just 
 man. Which has the greatest right to these un- 
 occupied tropical regions of Australia — the 
 overflowing millions of acclimatised coloured 
 men from the north who need and can use them, 
 or we "whites" who do not need and cannot use 
 themf 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 195 
 
 OUR LITTLE WHITE JOKE.— We want 
 everything AVhite. A Wliite Conscience — a 
 White Australia — a White Ocean — a White 
 Heaven — a White . 
 
 To he continued in our next. 
 
196 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 On the Superior Man. 
 
 The superior man is rightly firm, not firm 
 nierelv. 
 
 Tsze-kung asked what constituted the superior 
 man? The Master said, "He acts before he 
 speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his 
 actions." 
 
 The superior man is distressed bv his want of 
 ability. He is not distressed by men's not 
 knowing him. 
 
 The superior man bends his attention to what 
 is radical. That being established, all right 
 courses naturally follow. Filial piety and fra- 
 ternal submission — are they not the root of all 
 benevolent actions'? 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 197 
 
 The superior man does not set his mind either 
 for anvtliing or against anything. What is 
 right he will follow. 
 
 The superior man takes no mistaken steps 
 before men, nor errs in the expression of his 
 countenance nor in the manner of his speech. 
 Therefore his demeanour induces awe, his coun- 
 tenance induces fear, and his words inspire con- 
 fidence. 
 
 The superior man in everything considers 
 righteousness to be essential. He performs it 
 according to the rules of propriety. He brings 
 it forth in humility. He completes it with sin- 
 cerity. This is indeed a superior man. 
 
 The superior man has nine things which are 
 with him subjects of thoughtful consideration. 
 In regard to the use of his eyes, he is anxious 
 
198 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 to see clear!}-. In regard to his ears, he wishes 
 to hear distinctly. As to his countenance, he 
 is anxious that it should be benign. In regard 
 to his demeanour, he is anxious that it be respect- 
 ful. In regard to his speech, that it be sincere. 
 In conducting business, he is anxious that it 
 should be reverentty careful. In regard to mat- 
 ters of doubt, he is anxious to question others. 
 When he is angry, he thinks of the difficulties 
 his anger may involve him in. When he sees 
 he vaaj acquire gain, he thinks of righteousness. 
 
 The superior man does what is j)roper in the 
 position which he is; he does not wish to go be- 
 yond it. In a position of wealth and honour he 
 does what is fitting in a position of wealth and 
 honour. In jjoverty and meanness he does what 
 is proper in a position of poverty and meanness. 
 When among barbarous tribes, he acts accord- 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 199 
 
 nngly. In sorrow or difficulty he does what is 
 proper in such a jDOsition. The superior man 
 can iind himself in no j)osition in which he is not 
 himself. In a high position he does not insult 
 or oppress those who are below him. In a' low 
 position, he does not cling to or depend on those 
 who are above him. He makes himself right 
 and seeks for nothing from others. Above, he 
 does not murmur against Heaven ; below, he does 
 not find fault with men. He lives quietly and 
 calmly, waiting for the will of Heaven. 
 
 It is only the sage that is possessed of that 
 clear discrimination and high intelligence that 
 fit him for filling a high station, who possesses 
 that enlarged liberalitj^ and mild firmness that 
 fit him for bearing with others; who manifests 
 that firmness and magnanimity that enable him 
 to hold fast to good principles; who is actuated 
 
200 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 by that benevolence, justice, propriety, and know- 
 ledge, that command reverence; and who is so 
 deeph" learned in polite learning and good prin- 
 ciples, as to qualify him rightly to discriminate. 
 Vast and extensive are the effects of his virtue. 
 It is like the deep and living stream that flows 
 ^nl(•easingl3^ It is substantial and extensive as 
 heaven, and profound as the great abyss. 
 AVherever ships sail, or chariots run; wherever 
 the heavens overshadow or the earth sustains; 
 wherever the sun and moon shine, or frost and 
 dews fall, among all who have blood and breath, 
 there is not one who does not honour and love 
 him. 
 
 He alone is courageous who never despairs. 
 
 Gonfuciu'=i. 
 
 AYhen anger rises, think of the consequences. 
 
 Gonfucms. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 201 
 
 He that will not economize will have to 
 agonize. 
 
 Confucius. 
 
 Behave towards every one as if receiving a 
 
 great guest. 
 
 Confucius. 
 
 I am not concerned that I am not known; I 
 seek to be worthy to be known. 
 
 Gonfucius. 
 
 Learning without thought is labor lost; 
 thought without learning is perilous. 
 
 Confucius. 
 
 As we cut and then file — as we carve and then 
 polish — so should we cultivate ourselves. 
 
 Confucius. 
 
202 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 Our greatest glory is not in never failing, 
 But in rising every time we fail. 
 
 Confucius. 
 
 There is nothing difficult in the world; the 
 only fear is that men will lack perseverance. 
 
 Confucius. 
 
 \ 
 
 Talk does not cook rice. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 One cannot ride in two boats. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 Kindness is more binding than a loan. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 Keep good company and you'll be of them. 
 
 Chinese, 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 203 
 
 There is a time to fish and a time to dry nets.. 
 
 CTdnese. 
 
 He who toils with pain will eat with pleasure. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 It is well to swim with one foot on the ground. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 The greatest liar is he who talks most of him- 
 self. 
 
 Chinese.. 
 
 Patience and the mulberry-leaf become a silk 
 
 gown. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 The smallest insect can cause death by its 
 
 bite. 
 
 Chinese 
 
204 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 It is easy to open a shop but hard to keep it 
 open. 
 
 A mouse can drink no more than its fill from 
 
 a river. 
 
 CMnese. 
 
 Be the first to the field and the last to the 
 
 couch. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 A man without a smiling face must not open 
 
 a shop. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 The gods cannot help a man who loses oppor- 
 tunities. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 A man^s conversation is the mirror of his 
 
 thoughts. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 205 
 
 Cheap things are not good, good things are 
 not clieap. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 You must scale the mountain if you would 
 view the plain. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 A woman's tongue is her sword, and she does 
 not let it rust. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble 
 without one. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 He who aspires to be virtuous climbs up a 
 steep mountain. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
206 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 The best cure for drunkenness is while sober 
 to see a drunken man. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 He who does nothing but sit and eat, will 
 wear away a mountain of wealth. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 An unkind word falls easily from the tongrie, 
 but a coach with six horses cannot bring it back. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 Hurrjdng along on both one's feet, 
 Is all for clothes and something to eat. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 Fortunes of thousands and thousands ten, 
 Cannot be made but by able men. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 207 
 
 Better go home and make a net than sit by 
 the river wishing for fishes. 
 
 CJdnese. 
 
 Whenever you go about to trade, 
 Of showing your silver be afraid. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 The slanderer kills a thousand times, 
 The assassin kills but once. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 From small profits and many expenses, 
 Come a whole life of sad consequences. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 The fencer's sword must keep to its task, 
 And the singer's voice no rest must ask. 
 
 Chinese- 
 
208 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 The gem cannot be polished without friction, 
 ISTor man perfected witliout trials. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 He that is without money mar as well be 
 buried in a rice tub with his mouth sewed up. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 Do thoroughlv what you set about; 
 Kill a pig, kill him out and out. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 The dog in the kennel barks at the fleas; the 
 dog on the chase does not feel them. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
 My capital's small and profit's slender; 
 On credit my goods I can't surrender. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 209 
 
 Too many undertakings are like pumpkins in 
 water; some bob up wliile you bob tlic otliers 
 clown. 
 
 Chinese. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 211 
 
 'Q'«j33Fa 
 
 Emperor of China. 
 
 Dowager Empress of 
 China. 
 
 A Chinese Women. 
 
 A Chinese Boy. 
 
 An Ahong Girl. 
 
 A Chinaman. 
 
212 
 
 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 A Chinaman, Kong Meng. 
 
 of Melbourne. 
 
 A ilanchu Tartar Girl. 
 
 H. 0. Kwoiig, author of English 
 Idioms. 
 
 A Chinese AVoman of 
 Shanghai. 
 
 A Cliinaman, Marqnis Tsang.A Chinese Woman of Swatow 
 
 fSoutliern China). 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 21c 
 
 A Chinese Girl. 
 
 A Chinese Girl of the Smith. 
 
 A Butan of Formosa. ^ Pepo-Hoan Woman 
 
 (Aboriginal Race of Formosa), 
 
 A Manyarg of the Valley of A Mangoon of the lower 
 the Amoor. Amoor. 
 
214 
 
 CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 A Mongolian Tartar Woman. A Young Mongolian. 
 
 A Tungoos Woman of the 
 lower Tunguska. 
 
 A Mongolian Tartar. 
 
 'I 
 
 A Tartar Woman of Kasak. A Manchu Tartar Woman. 
 
CHINESE CHARACTER. 
 
 215 
 
 The Mikado of Japan. 
 
 Barou Kaneko wlieu yoimg. 
 
 Lately special envoy to Washington. 
 
 Portrait of His Excelleut'y Viscount 
 
 Hayashi, the .Tapanese Ambassador to 
 
 the Court of London. 
 
 A Japanese "Woman. 
 
 A Japanese Scholar. 
 
 A Japanese. 
 
— -# 
 
^MMi:- 
 
 THE 
 
 . HAPPINESS or . 
 
 . MANKINDJHEREAL . 
 
 . SALVATION OF THE WORLD . 
 
 - MUST COME ABOUT BY 
 
 jEVERY PERSON IN EXISTENCE 
 
 BEING TAUGHT TO 
 
 READ 
 
 , AND INDUCED TO 
 
 "-■ THINK ■■■■' 
 
 
 
 
 
 -^UStimSSSS! 
 
 
THE CREAM OF HUMAN THOUGHT 
 LIBRARY. 
 
NOW PUBLISHING. 
 
 The Cream of Human Thought 
 
 or 
 
 Much=in=Little Library. 
 
 To contain 1000 Books on 1000 Subjects. 
 
 Edited by E. W. COLE, and Successors. 
 
 Books are the greatest of all our earthly possessions. Five 
 thousand years ago there was probably not a single one in the 
 world, to-day there are probably five million different ones of some 
 importance, and they are increasing in number and variety faster 
 than ever. No person in the world has the time or opportunity to 
 look at all these books or even read their titles. The innumerable 
 books of the world vary from those of great value down to those of 
 little value; yet, taken as a whole, they contain the written mind of 
 mankind good, had, and indifferent. 
 
 About twenty-five years ago Sir John Lubbock seeing the vast 
 increase of books and the impossibility of anyone reading them all, 
 and the advisability of people studying the choicest only, suggested a 
 list of what he considered the hundred best representative books, 
 consisting principally of the best books of the best authors, ancient 
 and modern, throughout the world. Many other lists were made by 
 other persons; I also, as one of the multitude, wrote on the subject, 
 but held that the hundred books must not be those of individual 
 authors, but books of selections of the best pieces and best thoughts 
 produced by mankind on each subject. 
 
 Since then I have made, as far as my opportunities have per- 
 mitted, a collection of what I consider the best thoughts of the best 
 minds, and others, on many subjects, and propose to publish them 
 
in a popular form under the title of " The Cream of Human 
 Thought or Much-in-Little Library." 
 
 It is intended that the library shall consist of i,ooo books on 
 i,ooo subjects. That each book shall contain only one subject, 
 but, as far as possible, the best that has been wisely and concisely 
 said on that subject. That the books shall be of one uniform, 
 handy size (crown octavo), of various thicknesses according to 
 requirements, and prices say from 3d. to 3/6 each. 
 
 Dr. Johnson, the great, said the best size for a book after all is 
 one that you can hold in your hand and sit by the fire with. Ex- 
 perience has shown that the crown octavo is that size, and more 
 than half the books in the world are now made of that size. 
 
 Such a library as this would bring the best of human wisdom, 
 knowledge, and thought, in a cheap form, into a convenient room 
 for the ready reference, pleasure, and instruction of the reader 
 
 In such a library one could go and get a book on the subject 
 required, and conveniently see in a short time the best that has 
 been said on that subject. 
 
 In starting such a library as this I am fully aware that it must 
 be very incomplete at first, but as time goes on fresh existing mat- 
 erial can be collected, and fresh thoughts will come into or be evolved 
 from the mind of man. The best of these can be added to the 
 ccdlection by competent editors, and to prevent books getting too 
 bulky probably some of the secondary matter weeded out. 
 
 In conclusion, of one thing I feel assured, that if such a hbrary 
 of choice condensed thought can be established it will become a 
 convenient blessing to many searchers after knowledge and lovers 
 of progress. The literature of the world has so increased, and 
 is still increasing to such an extent, that the collection and 
 distinct and separate classification of the best of human thought 
 must become a necessity of the future for the use, instruction, 
 and benefit of all mankind. 
 
The following are the Names of the First Twenty Books 
 of the 
 
 "Cream of Human Thought Library," 
 
 Now Issuing. 
 
 1 God Ready Shortly. 
 
 '^ Love NOW READY. Cloth, 3/6; postage, 3d. 
 
 3 
 4 
 5 
 
 Truth 
 
 Home NOW ready. Cloth, 3/6 ; postage. 3d. 
 MaPPiag'e Ready Shortly. 
 
 6 Father 
 
 Ready Shortly. 
 
 Ready Shortly. 
 
 7 Mother now ready. Cloth, 3/6; postage, 3d. 
 
 8 Children Ready shortly. 
 
 9 Sleep NOW READY. Cloth, 3/6; postage, 3d. 
 
 10 Happiness,, 
 
 11 Books 
 
 12 Kno^vledge 
 
 13 Time 
 
 14 Self 
 
 15 Kindness 
 
 16 Goodness 
 
 17 Friendship 
 
 18 Music 
 
 19 Contentment 
 
 20 War NOW ready. Cloth, 3/6; postage, 3d. 
 
NOW READY 
 
 VOLUME THREE OF THE 
 
 Cream of Human Thought Library 
 
 "MOTHER" 
 
 Containing choice extracts from 
 the works of authors of all times in 
 which th ey deal with the endearing word 
 
 ^^^= Mother ^^ 
 
 Her undying love and affection, her 
 intense unselfishness where her child 
 is concerned, and the beauty, and 
 charm, and sanctity of motherhood. 
 It has a large number of illustrations 
 dealing with the text, and is in every 
 way a suitable and enduring presenta- 
 tion Volume. 
 
 Price, 3/6. Postage, 3d. 
 
 11 II 1. 1 i: INI I II I I I r I I I I i: Af O \A/ R E A DY < ■ Kimmiii I I I I II I Miiiiiii 
 
 E. W. COLE, Book Arcade 
 
 MELBOURNE. SVDNEV. ADELAIDE. 
 
PRE SS OPIN IONS. 
 
 FOURTH VOLUME OF THE 
 
 "CREAM OF THOUGHT LIBRARY. 
 
 ft 
 
 '.": •••:" 
 
 ,•■••••-•. 
 
 HOME 
 
 
 "Argus," Aug. 13th: — 
 An Anthology of Home. 
 
 To the "Cream of Human 
 Thought Library," Mr. E. W. 
 Cole has added a volume, en- 
 titled "Home." It contains 
 allusions to home by the 
 world's most famous men 
 and women, and is a tribute 
 to the compiler's industry, 
 and his judgment of literary 
 values. Mr. Cole has placed 
 no limit upon his selection of 
 authors. Here we have 
 quotation'! from so widely dif- 
 ferent persons as Machia- 
 velli and Hannah More, Ira 
 D. Sankey and IngersoU, 
 Jeremy Taylor and Douglas 
 Jerrold. There is a brief 
 biographical note of each 
 author quoted, and the book is 
 illustrated with portraits and 
 pictures of the homes of 
 famous people. At the end of 
 the volume space is reserved 
 for the writing-in of family 
 records, and the insertion of 
 photographs. 
 
 "Age," Aug. 7th:— 
 
 All who love books and the 
 expression of noble thoughts 
 owe something to Mr. B. W. 
 Cole for his work in the 
 almost unlimited resources of 
 his library. He selects a 
 social, historic, philosophical 
 or poetic theme, and proceeds 
 to collect from the world's 
 greatest writers, in all ages, 
 the passages and verses by 
 which it is best illumined. As 
 works of absorbing interest 
 to the general reader, as well 
 as for reference by writers 
 and speakers, the volumes he 
 has produced hitherto have a 
 real value. The latest is 
 "Home," the fourth book of 
 the Cream of Human Thought 
 Library. It contains about 
 400 selections, eloquent, prac- 
 tical, poetic, most of them re- 
 vealing the power of the mas- 
 ter literary craftsman. There 
 are also about 100 biographies 
 and portraits of the writers 
 whose works have been drawn 
 upon with so much judgment. 
 
 Price— Cloth, 3/6; Postage, 3d. 
 
 NOW READY. 
 
RECENTLY PUBLISHED. 
 
 - VOLUME FIVE OF THE - 
 
 Cream of Human Thought Library 
 
 "Happiness 
 
 Containing 1,000 of tiie Choicest Quo- 
 tations in prose and verse, gathered 
 from universal, ancient and modern 
 -literature, in whicli this all im- 
 portant theme is dealt with in every 
 cohceivahle aspect ; showing its nature, 
 gi-eat value, how lost, regained and 
 retained. It has upwards of 145 
 portraits and biographical sketches 
 of leading authors. 
 
 99 
 
 A copy of this interesting and useful book should be 
 
 found in every home, and is in every way 
 
 a suitable presentation volume. 
 
 Price— Cloth, 3/6; Postage, 3d. 
 
 NOW READY. 
 
 E. W. COLE, Book Arcade 
 
 iVlEUBOURINE & SYDINEY 
 
RECENTLY PUBLISHED. 
 
 VOLUME SIX OF THE 
 
 Cream of Human Thought Library 
 
 "SLEEP" 
 
 Containing: a varied selection of the 
 Choicest Quotations from universal 
 literature on the subject of "Sleep," 
 with Portraits and Biographical 
 Sketches of more than one hundred 
 of the Authors quoted, and numerous 
 illustrations. 
 
 CLOTH, 3/6. POSTAGE, 3D. 
 
 Everybody should read this Book, which deals 
 
 with a subject of the greatest importance — 
 
 SLEEP — a necessity to every living thing. 
 
 E. W. COLE, Book Arcade, 
 
 MELBOURNE AND SYDNEY. 
 
Cream of Human Thought Library. 
 
 JUST PUBLISHED 
 
 "TRUTH" 
 
 (2ncl Edition). 
 EDITED BY E. W. COLE. 
 
 800 Quotations by 312 Authors. 
 
 157 Portraits with Short Biographical 
 Sketches. 
 
 500 PAGES. 
 
 PRICE— CLOTH, 3/6; Postage, 3d. 
 
 E. ISr. COLE, Book Arcade, 
 
 MELBOURNE, SYDNEY AND ADELAIDE. 
 

 Cream of Human Thought 
 Library. 
 
 
 
 WAR 
 
 
 
 Quotations on the subject of 
 War from universal literature, 
 with descriptions and pictures 
 of some of the world's famous 
 battles, and portraits and bio- 
 graphical sketches of many of 
 the authors. 
 
 — EDITED BY ~ 
 
 E. W. COLE. 
 Cloth, 3/6. Postage, 3d. 
 
 
 
 E W. COLE, Book Arcade, 
 MELBOURNE &. SYDNEY. 
 
 
The Most Pleasing Child's Book in the World 
 
 KVV nri ir 
 
 OOti 
 
 T'tL\ 
 
 AND ^04^ 
 
 INSTHUCTDH^^^ _ 
 
 O^THE 
 
 "^fn 
 
 
 \ 
 
 P CHILDS 
 
 ^^PICIUREBOOK 
 ^4/ IN THE WORLD 
 
 IT CONTAINS ALSO 
 
 'Jp Choice Riddles .Games vii^ 
 
 ' - and pieces of readinq ~. 
 
 for Adults " '»"^^ 
 
 - ' LddU throuqh if yoiirself ' * 
 
 w 
 
 ^m^ 
 
 (Reduced Facsimile of Cover.) 
 420,000 Copies of this Wonderful Book have been sold. 
 PRICE 4/- All Booksellers. 
 
A NEW MAP 
 
 Of Concentrated World Kno>A/ledge, 
 
 ENTITLED : 
 
 " THE WHOLE WORLD AT A GLANCE. " 
 
 It contains the usual map of the world, showing all the natural 
 features — oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, islands, mountains, plains, 
 etc., also the principal railways, telegraph cables, distances, 
 towns, etc. But its special and uncommon features are, that it 
 shows the area, population, flag, arid human faces of every 
 country. It has 140 black squares, eacli in conjunction with 
 the letterpress, shows the area, population, and number of people 
 per square mile, of the 140 principal countries. By 1700 red 
 dots it shows the approximate position on the earth of its 1700 
 millions of people. It shows that the population of the world 
 has doubled during the last hundred years; that people from the 
 thickly-populated countries are emigrating or overflowing into 
 the empty or thinly-populated countries. It shows repre- 
 sentative portraits of the principal peoples of Europe, Africa, 
 America, Asia, and Australasia — 87 likenesses of men and 97 of 
 women. It shows, also, the flags of all the principal nations, 
 to the number of 136. The object of the entire publication is 
 to convey interesting, instructive, and useful information about 
 the whole world, in a concise, yet comprehensive and easily per- 
 ceived form. A map showing all the countries of the world, the 
 population of all nations, the faces of all nations, and the flags 
 of all nations should interest everyone. 
 
 As the world has doubled its population during the last 
 hundred years, it is probable that, with the more scientific modes 
 of living and hygiene, such as are now increasingly prevailing, 
 it will more than double its population during the next hundred 
 years, and that, consequently, the vast unoccupied and unculti- 
 vated regions of the earth, such as Siberia, Canada, Brazil, Aus- 
 tralia, etc., will be largely filled up with its overflowing millions. 
 
 PRESS OPINIONS from Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide. 
 
 The "Argus" says: 
 ' "The Whole World at a Glance" is what Mr. E. W. Cole has set 
 himself to depict in a new and elaborate map, which may be had in one 
 or two parts. . . A great deal of labour must have gone to its 
 production, and it is indeed a ' Map of Concentrated World Know- 
 ledge.' " 
 
 The "Age" says: 
 " If the ideal map of the world is one which will, in addition to being 
 clearly printed and appropriately coloured, give in a concentrated forro 
 
a miniature encyclopadia of information concernmg each of the coun- 
 tries whose territories are depicted on it, then Mr. E. W. Cole's ' The 
 World at a Glance ' attains the ideal. To the fastidious it may appear 
 to aim at achieving too much, but it succeeds so admirably in nine out 
 of_ every ten eflforts that it makes, that the whole production can be 
 fairly regarded as the most remarkable, complete, and ingenious wall 
 map ever got together in Australia within the space of 60 inches by 40. 
 . Altogether, Mr. Cole is to be congratulated upon his unique 
 map, both as regards its printing in fifteen colours and general technical 
 workmanship, and, also, as regards the spirit of sane cosmopolitanism 
 animating the whole enterprise." 
 
 The "Sydney Daily Telegraph" says: 
 
 " Mr. E. W. Cole, of Cole's Book Arcade, Sydney and Melbourne, 
 whose praiseworthy energy and interest in forwarding educational 
 matters is well known, has just published a remarkable map, which he 
 has labelled 'The World at a Glance.' It comprises, in point of fact, 
 two separate studies. No. I map illustrates the areas, positions, and 
 boundaries of the countries of the world, the number and density of 
 their population, and the principal flags of all countries, the flags total- 
 ling 136, and the countries 140, Attached is statistical information of 
 general interest, compressed into a nutshell. . The entire publi- 
 
 cation is intended, Mr. Cole says, to convey interesting, instructive, and 
 useful information about the world in a concise, yet comprehensive and 
 easily conceived form, and that object is undoubtedly accomplished." 
 
 The ^^ Adelaide Advertiser'' says: 
 
 " It was an ambitious task which Mr. E. W. Cole, of Melbourne, set 
 himself when he resolved to produce for the home, the school, and the 
 office, a map that should present the whole world at a glance, by which 
 was meant a good deal more than its natural features — oceans, seas, 
 lakes, rivers, islands, mountains, plains, etc. But, difficult as the task 
 was, it has been completed in a manner which entitles Mr. Cole to the 
 warmest congratulations, for the result is a production as tastefully 
 arranged as it is useful. . Around it are grouped no fewer than 
 184 coloured portraits of men and women typical of as many different 
 races, civilised and savage, the object being to present the ' human race 
 at a glance.' Its ethnological interest should render this section par- 
 ticularly valuable for school purposes. The outer border com- 
 prises the flags, appropriately coloured, of the principal nations, 136 in 
 all. The colouring, indeed, is one of the most excellent features of this 
 superb production, to the preparation of which a good deal of skill and 
 trouble must have gone. Printed in 15 colours, and mounted on canyaj 
 and rollers, the map, hung upon the wall, will be hailed by all as a thing 
 of beauty and a joy for ever. We have never seen instruction in the 
 vastly important subjects with which it deals conveyed in so entertaining 
 a form." 
 
 Ths Map is printed in 15 colours; the size is 60 by 40 inches; it is 
 mounted on canvas and rollers; and, for convenience of hanging, is also 
 mounted in two parts. The price for the one Map or the pair is 21/-; 
 with Large Discount for Schools, Libraries, Booksellers, and Can- 
 vassers. Sold Retail and Wholesale at Cole's Book Arcades, Mel- 
 bourne. Sydney, and Adelaide. 
 
If to-morrow everybody started 
 to tell the whole truth what 
 w^ould happen? 
 
 READ 
 
 . . The . . 
 Lies We Tell. 
 
 By 
 E. W. COLE. 
 
 CLOTH, 2/6. POSTAGE, 2d. 
 
 E. W. COLE, Book Arcade, 
 
 Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. 
 
JUST PUBLISHED. 
 
 E. W. COLE : 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY ^VILLIAMS. 
 
 PART I. - - - COMPLETE. 
 
 An Epitome of the Career of the 
 Founder of the Book Arcade. — A Record 
 of Achievement and An Example of 
 Mastery over Environment — Dedicated to 
 the Youth of the Commonwealth as a 
 Stimulus to Active Industry. 
 
 Cloth, 2/6. Postage, 3d. 
 
 E. W. COLE, Book Arcade, 
 
 Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. 
 
JUST PUBLISHED. 
 
 Selected Works 
 
 OF 
 
 E. W. COLE. 
 
 PART II. - - COMPLETE. 
 
 Supplementary to — 
 
 E. W. COLE: An Appreciation. 
 By Henry Williams. 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 Selections from Mr. Cole's Own Works 
 as follows : — 
 
 1. Hobbies. 
 
 2. Essay on Thought. 
 
 3. Woman — Our Angel. 
 
 4. Evils of the Drink Traffic. 
 
 Cloth, 2/6. Postage, 3d. 
 
 E. W. COLE, Book Arcade, 
 
 Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. 
 
JUST PUBLISHED. 
 
 Selected Works 
 
 OF 
 
 E. W. COLE. 
 
 PART III. - - COMPLETE. 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 A White Australia — Japanese Statistics — A 
 "Wonderful Search Journey — Miss Cole's Aerial 
 Flight — Various Types of Aeroplanes — The 
 "Whole Human Race is Mixing — Religions of 
 the ■World — The History of the Apple — Uses 
 and Curse of Tobacco — Night — Noon — God is 
 Truth. 
 
 Cloth, 2/6. Postage, 3d. 
 
 E. W. COLE, Book Arcade, 
 
 Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. 
 
JUST PUBLISHED. 
 
 OF 
 
 ORBS 
 HEAVEN. 
 
 Lectures by tlie iainoiis American Astronomer, 
 0. M. MITCHELL. 
 
 EDITED BY E. W. COLE. 
 
 CONTAINING : 
 An Exposition of tlie Problem 
 whicli the Heavens present for so- 
 lution—The Discoveries of the Primi- 
 tive Ages — Discovery of the Great 
 Laws of Motion ami Gravitation—The 
 Scale on whicii tlie Universe is Built. 
 
 PROFUSELY ILLUSTlUTED. 
 PRICE, 3/- POSTAGE, 3° 
 
 E. W. COLE, Book Apcade, 
 
 iVVEl.BOURNE, SYDNEY and ADELAIDE. 
 
JUST PUBLISHED. 
 
 New Enlarged Edition 
 
 OF== 
 
 E. W. COLE'S 
 
 ''Cotton Growing 
 in Australia/' 
 
 CONTAINING : 
 
 History of Cotton — Great Value and 
 Use of Cotton — Kinds of Cotton — 
 Growing and Harvesting Cotton — 
 Cotton Growing in Australia from an 
 Imperial Point of View ; and many 
 other interesting, instructive, and im- 
 portant facts and figures about Cotton. 
 
 PRICE, 3/- POSTAGE, 3d. 
 
 E. W. COLE, Book Arcade, 
 
 Melbourne, Sydney & Adelaide. 
 
m 
 
 J '- fli