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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of As A Chinaman Saw Us, by Anonymous
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: As A Chinaman Saw Us
+       Passages from his Letters to a Friend at Home
+
+Author: Anonymous
+
+Editor: Henry Pearson Gratton
+
+Release Date: October 2, 2007 [EBook #22831]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AS A CHINAMAN SAW US ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
++-------------------------------------------------+
+|Transcriber's note:                              |
+|                                                 |
+|In this text the breve has been represented with |
+|                                                 |
+|[ua] [ue] [uo].                                  |
++-------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+[Illustration: A CHINESE BOOK COVER DECORATION
+
+Made when the Anglo-Saxon people were living in caves]
+
+
+AS A CHINAMAN
+
+SAW US
+
+PASSAGES FROM HIS LETTERS
+TO A FRIEND AT HOME
+
+[Illustration: Publisher's logo]
+
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+APPLETON AND COMPANY
+1916
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+Printed in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Since the publication in 1832 of that classic of cynicism, The Domestic
+Manners of the Americans, by Mrs. Trollope, perhaps nothing has appeared
+that is more caustic or amusing in its treatment of America and the
+Americans than the following passages from the letters of a cultivated
+and educated Chinaman. The selections have been made from a series of
+letters covering a decade spent in America, and were addressed to a
+friend in China who had seen few foreigners. The writer was graduated
+from a well-known college, after he had attended an English school, and
+later took special studies at a German university. Americans have been
+informed of the impressions they make on the French, English, and other
+people, but doubtless this is the first unreserved and weighty
+expression of opinion on a multiplicity of American topics by a Chinaman
+of cultivation and grasp of mind.
+
+It will be difficult for the average American to conceive it possible
+that a cultivated Chinaman, of all persons, should have been honestly
+amused at our civilization; that he should have considered what Mrs.
+Trollope called "our great experiment" in republics a failure, and our
+institutions, fashions, literary methods, customs and manners, sports
+and pastimes as legitimate fields for wit and unrepressed jollity. Yet
+in the unbosoming of this cultivated "heathen" we see our fads and
+foibles held up as strange gods, and must confess some of them to be
+grotesque when seen in this yellow light.
+
+It is doubtless true that the masses of Americans do not take the
+Chinaman seriously, and an interesting feature of this correspondence is
+the attitude of the Chinaman on this very point and his clever satire on
+our assumption of perfection and superiority over a nation, the habits
+of which have been fixed and settled for many centuries. The writer's
+experiences in society, his acquaintance with American women of fashion
+and their husbands, all ingeniously set forth, have the hall-mark of
+actual novelty, while his loyalty to the traditions of his country and
+his egotism, even after the Americanizing process had exercised its
+influence over him for years, add to the interest of the recital.
+
+In revising the correspondence and rearranging it under general heads,
+the editor has preserved the salient features of it, with but little
+essential change and practically in its original shape. If the reader
+misses the peculiar idioms, or the pigeon-English that is usually placed
+in the mouth of the Chinaman of the novel or story, he or she should
+remember that the writer of the letters, while a "heathen Chinee," was
+an educated gentleman in the American sense of the term. This fact
+should always be kept in mind because, as the author remarks, to many
+Americans whom he met, it was "incomprehensible that a Chinaman can be
+educated, refined, and cultivated according to their own standards."
+
+With pardonable pride he tells how, on one occasion, when a woman in New
+York told him she knew her ancestral line as far back as 1200 A. D., he
+replied that he himself had "a tree without a break for thirty-two
+hundred years." He was sure she did not believe him, but he found her
+"indeed!" delightful. The author's name has been withheld for personal
+reasons that will be sufficiently obvious to those who read the letters.
+The period during which he wrote them is embraced in the ten years from
+1892 to 1902.
+
+                                         HENRY PEARSON GRATTON.
+
+SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA,
+     May 10th, 1904.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                                 PAGE
+
+    I. THE AMERICAN, WHO HE IS                             1
+
+   II. THE AMERICAN MAN                                   16
+
+  III. AMERICAN CUSTOMS                                   40
+
+   IV. THE AMERICAN WOMAN                                 63
+
+    V. THE SUPERSTITIONS OF THE AMERICAN                  92
+
+   VI. THE AMERICAN PRESS                                 99
+
+  VII. THE AMERICAN DOCTOR                               106
+
+ VIII. PECULIARITIES AND MANNERISMS                      118
+
+   IX. LIFE IN WASHINGTON                                131
+
+    X. THE AMERICAN IN LITERATURE                        164
+
+   XI. THE POLITICAL BOSS                                185
+
+  XII. EDUCATION IN AMERICA                              200
+
+ XIII. THE ARMY AND NAVY                                 212
+
+  XIV. ART IN AMERICA                                    229
+
+   XV. THE DARK SIDE OF REPUBLICANISM                    237
+
+  XVI. SPORTS AND PASTIMES                               261
+
+ XVII. THE CHINAMAN IN AMERICA                           279
+
+XVIII. THE RELIGIONS OF THE AMERICANS                    303
+
+
+
+
+AS A CHINAMAN SAW US
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE AMERICAN--WHO HE IS
+
+
+Many of the great powers believe themselves to be passing through an
+evolutionary period leading to civic and national perfection. America,
+or the United States, has already reached this state; it is complete and
+finished. I have this from the Americans themselves, so there can be no
+question about it; hence it requires no little temerity to discuss, let
+alone criticize, them.
+
+Yet I am going to ask you to behold the American as he is, as I honestly
+found him--great, small, good, bad, self-glorious, egotistical,
+intellectual, supercilious, ignorant, superstitious, vain, and
+bombastic. In truth, so very remarkable, so contradictory, so
+incongruous have I found the American that I hesitate. Shall I give you
+a satire; shall I devote myself to eulogy; shall I tear what they call
+the "whitewash" aside and expose them to the winds of excoriation; or
+shall I devote myself to an introspective, analytical _divertissement_?
+But I do not wish to educate you on the Americans, but to entertain, to
+make you laugh by the recital of comical truths; so without system I am
+going to tell you of these Americans as I found them, day by day, month
+by month, officially, socially; in their homes, in politics, trade,
+sorrow, despair, and in their pleasures.
+
+You will remember when the Evil Spirit is asked by the modest Spirit of
+Good to indicate his possessions he tucks the earth under one arm,
+drops the sun into one pocket, the moon into another, and the stars into
+the folds of his garment. In a word, to use the saying of my friends, he
+"claims everything in sight"; and this is certainly a characteristic of
+the American: he is all-perspective, he claims to have all the virtues,
+and in his ancestry embraces the entire world. At a dinner at the ----
+in Washington during the egg stage of my experience I sat next to a
+charming lady; and having been told that it was a custom of the French
+to compliment women, I remarked that her cheeks bloomed like our poppy
+of the Orient. She laughed, and responded, "Yes, I get that from my
+English grandfather." "But your eyes are like black pearls," I
+continued, seeing that I was on what a general on my right called the
+"right trail." "I got them from my Italian grandmother," she replied.
+"And your hair?" I pressed. "Must be Irish," was the answer, "for my
+paternal grandmother was Irish and her husband Scotch." It is true that
+this charmingly beautiful and composite goddess (at least she would have
+been one had she not been naked like a geisha at a men's dinner) was the
+product of a dozen nations, and a typical American.
+
+The original Americans appear to have been English, despite the fact
+that the Spaniards discovered the country, though a high official, a
+Yankee whom I met at a reception, told me that this was untrue. His
+ancestor had discovered North America, and I believe he had written a
+book to prove it. (_En passant_, all Americans write books; those who
+have not, fully intend to write one.) I listened complacently, then
+said, "My dear ----, if I am not mistaken the Chinese discovered
+America." I recalled the fact to his mind that the northwestern Eskimos
+and the Indians were essentially Asiatic in type; and it is true that he
+had never heard of the ethnologic map at his National Museum, which
+shows the location of Chinese junks blown to American shores within a
+period of three hundred years. I explained that junks had been blown
+over to America for the last _three thousand_ years, and that in my
+country there were many records of voyages to the Western land, ages
+before 1492.
+
+You see I soon began to be Americanized and to claim things. China
+discovered America and gave her the compass as well as gunpowder. The
+first Americans were in the nature of emigrants; men and women who did
+not succeed well in their own country and so sought new fields, just as
+people are doing to-day. They came over in a ship called the
+"Mayflower," and were remarkably prolific, as I have met thousands who
+hail from this stock. At one time England sent her criminals to
+Virginia--one of the United States--and many of the refuse of the home
+country were sent to other parts of America in the early days. Younger
+sons of good families were also sent over for various reasons. Women of
+all classes were sent by the ship-load, and sold for wives. I reminded a
+lady of this, who was lamenting the fact that in China some women are
+sold for wives. She was absolutely ignorant of this well-known fact in
+American history, and forgot the selling of black women. Among the men
+were many representatives of old and noble families; but the bulk, I
+judge from their colonial histories, were people of low degree. Very
+soon other countries began to ship people to America. Italy, Germany,
+Russia, Norway, Sweden, and other lands were drawn upon for constantly
+increasing numbers as years went by. All tumbled into the American
+hopper. Imagine a coffee-grinder into which have been thrown Greek,
+Roman, Jew, Gentile, and all the rest, and then let what they call Uncle
+Sam--a heroic, paternal, and comical figure, representing the
+government--turn the handle and grind out the American who is neither
+Jew, Gentile, Greek, Roman, Russe, or Swede, but a new product, _sui
+generis_, and mostly Methodist.
+
+This process has never ceased for an hour. America has been from 1492 to
+the present time, in the language of the American "press," the
+"dumping-ground" of the nations of the world, the real open door; yet
+this grinding assimilation has gone on. It is, perhaps, due to the
+climate, perhaps the water, or the air; but the product of these people
+born on the soil is described by no other word than American. It may be
+Irish-American, very offensive; Dutch-American, very strenuous, like the
+Vice-President;[1] Jewish-American, very commercial; Italian-American,
+very dirty and reeking with garlic; but it is American, totally unlike
+its progenitor, a something into which is blown a tremendous energy,
+that is very wearisome, a bombast which is the sum of that of all
+nations, and a conceit like that possessed by ---- alone. You see it is
+incurable, also offensive--at least to the Oriental mind. Yet I grant
+you the American is great; I have it from him and from her; it must be
+so.
+
+You have the spectacle here of the nations of the world pouring a
+stream, that is not pactolean, and not perfumed with the gums of Araby,
+flowing in and peopling the country. In time they had grievances more
+fancied than real, yet grievances. They rose against the home
+government, threw off the English yoke, and became a republic with a
+division into States, which I will write of when I tell you of the
+American politician. This was the first trust--what they call a
+merger--but it occurred in politics. They have killed off a fair
+percentage of the actual owners of the soil, the Indians, swindling them
+out of the balance, and driving them back to a sort of ever-changing
+dead-line. Without delay they assumed the form of a dominant nation, and
+announced themselves the greatest nation on the earth.
+
+Immigration was resumed, and all nations again sent their refuse
+population to America. I have facts showing that for years English
+poorhouses and hospitals were emptied of their inmates and shipped to
+America. It was a distinct policy of the anti-home-rule party in Ireland
+to encourage the poor Irish to go to America; and now when there are
+more Irish in America than in Ireland the fate of Ireland is assured.
+Yet the American air takes the fight out of the Irishman, the rose from
+his cheek, and makes a natural-born politician out of him. America still
+continued to receive immigrants, and not satisfied with the natural flow
+of the human current, began to import African slaves to a country
+founded for the benefit of those who desired an asylum where they could
+enjoy religious and political freedom. The Africans were sold in the
+cotton belt, their existence virtually creating two distinct political
+parties. America long remained a dumping-ground for nearly all the
+nations of the world having an excess of population. Great navigation
+companies were built up, to a large extent, on this trade. They sent
+agents to every foreign country, issued pamphlets in every European
+language, and uncounted thousands were brought over--the scum of the
+earth in many instances. There was no restriction to immigration until
+the Chinese were barred out. After accepting the outlaws of every
+European state, the poor of all lands, they shut the door on our
+"coolie" countrymen.
+
+In this way, briefly, America has grown to her present population of
+80,000,000. The remarkable growth and assimilation is still going on--a
+menace to the world, but in a constantly decreasing ratio, which has
+become so marked that the leading Americans, the class which corresponds
+to our scholars, are aghast at the singular conditions which exist.
+Non-assimilation shows itself in labor riots, in the murder of two
+Presidents--Garfield and Lincoln--in socialistic outbreaks in every
+quarter, and in signal outbreaks in various sections, at lynchings, and
+other unlawful performances. I am attempting to give you an idea of the
+constituents of America to-day; but so interesting is the subject, so
+prolific in its warnings and possibilities, that I find myself
+wandering.
+
+To glance at conditions at the present time, about 600,000 aliens are
+coming to America yearly. What is the result? I was invited to meet a
+distinguished German visiting in New York last month, and at the dinner
+a young lady who sat by my side said to me, "I wish I could puzzle him."
+"Why?" I asked, in amazement. "Oh," was her reply, "he looks so cram
+full of knowledge; I would like to take him down." "Ah," I said. "Ask
+him which is the third largest German city in the world. It is New
+York; he will never guess it." She did so, and I assure you he was
+"puzzled," and would scarcely believe it until a well-known man assured
+him it was true. There are more Germans in Chicago than in Leipsic,
+Cologne, Dresden, Munich, or a dozen small towns joined in one. Half of
+the Chicago Germans speak their own tongue. This city is the third
+Swedish city of the world in population. It is the fourth Polish city
+and the second Bohemian city. I was informed by a professor in the
+University of Chicago that, in that strange city, the number of people
+who speak the language of the Bohemians equaled the combined inhabitants
+of Richmond, Atlanta, Portland, and Nashville--all large cities. "What
+do you think of it?" I asked. "We are up against it," was the reply. I
+can not explain this retort so that you would understand it, but it had
+great significance. The professor, a distinguished philologist, was
+worried, and he looked it. A lady who was a club woman--and by this I do
+not mean that she was armed with a club, but merely a member of clubs or
+societies for educational advancement and social aggrandizement--said it
+was merely his digestion.
+
+I learned from my friend, the dyspeptic professor, that over forty
+dialects are spoken in Chicago. About one-half only of the total
+population speak or understand English. There are 500,000 Germans,
+125,000 Poles, 100,000 Swedes, 90,000 Bohemians, 50,000 Yiddish, 25,000
+Dutch, 25,000 Italians, 15,000 French, 10,000 Irish, 10,000 Servians,
+10,000 Lutherans, 7,000 Russians, and 5,000 Hungarians in Chicago. You
+will be surprised to learn that numbers do not count. The 500,000
+Germans are not the dominating power, nor are the 100,000 Swedes. The
+10,000 Irish are said absolutely to control the political situation. You
+will ask if I believe that this monster foreign element can be reduced
+to a homogeneous unit. I reply, yes. Fifty years from to-day they will
+all be Americans, and a majority will, doubtless, show you their family
+tree, tracing their ancestry back to the Mayflower.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] This passage was written just before the assassination of President
+McKinley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE AMERICAN MAN
+
+
+Hash--and I do not mean by this word a corruption of hasheesh--is a term
+indicating in America a food formed of more than one article chopped and
+cooked together. I was told by a very witty and charming lady that hash
+was a synonym for _E pluribus unum_ (one from many), the motto of the
+Government, but I did not find it on the American arms. This was an
+American "dinner joke," of which more anon; nevertheless, hash
+represents the American people of to-day. The millions of all nations,
+which have swarmed here since 1492, may be represented by this
+delectable dish, which, after all, has a certain homogeneity. Englishmen
+are at once recognized here, and so are Chinamen. You would never
+mistake one of our people for a Japanese; an Italian you would know
+across the way; but an American not always in America. He may be a
+Swede, a German, or a Canadian; he is not an American until he opens his
+mouth. Then there is no mistake as to what he is. He has a nasal tone
+that is purely American.
+
+All the old cities, as Boston, New York, Richmond, and Philadelphia,
+have certain nasal peculiarities or variants. The Bostonian affects the
+English. The New Englander, especially in the north, has a comical
+twang, which you can produce by holding the nose tightly and attempting
+to speak. When he says _down_ it sounds like _daoun_. It is impossible
+for him not to overvowel his words, and nothing is more amusing than to
+hear the true Yankee countryman talk. The Philadelphian is quite as
+marked in tone and enunciation. A well-educated Philadelphian will say
+where is _me_ wife for _my_. I have also been asked by a Philadelphian,
+"Where are you going at?" It would be impossible to mistake the
+intonation of a Philadelphian, even though you met him in the wilds of
+Manchuria in the depths of night.
+
+Among the most charming and delightfully cultured people I met in
+America were Philadelphians of old families. The New Yorker is more
+cosmopolitan, while the Southern men, to a certain extent, have caught
+the inflection of the negro, who is the nurse in the South for all white
+children. The Americans are taught that the principal and chief end of
+man is to make a fortune and get married; but to accomplish this it is
+necessary first to "sow wild oats," become familiar with the vices of
+drink, smoking, and other forms of dissipation, a sort of test of
+endurance possibly, such as is found among many native races; yet one
+scarcely expects to find it among the latest and highest exponents of
+perfection in the human race.
+
+The American pretends to be democratic; scoffs at England and other
+European lands, but at heart he is an aristocrat. His tastes are only
+limited by his means, and not always then. Any American, especially a
+politician, will tell you that there is but one class--the people, and
+that all are born equal. In point of fact, there are as many classes as
+there are grades of pronounced individuality, and all are very unequal,
+as every one knows. They are included in a general way in three classes:
+the upper class (the refined and cultivated); the middle class
+(represented by the retail shop-keepers); and last, the rest. The cream
+of society will be found in all the cities to be among the professional
+men, clergymen, presidents of colleges, long-rich wholesale merchants,
+judges, authors, etc.
+
+The distinctions in society are so singular that it is almost impossible
+for a foreigner to understand them. There are persons who make it a life
+study to prepare books and papers on the subject, and whose opinions are
+readily accepted; yet such a person might not be accepted in the best
+society. What constitutes American society and its divisions is a
+mystery. In a general sense a retail merchant, a man who sold shoes or
+clothes, a tailor, would under no circumstances find a place in the
+first social circles; yet if these same tradesmen should change to
+wholesalers and give up selling one article at a time, they would become
+eligible to the best society. They do not always get in, however. At a
+dinner my neighbor, an attractive matron, was much dismayed by my
+asking if she knew a certain Mr. ----, a well-known grocer. "I believe
+our supplies (groceries) come from him," was her chilly reply. "But," I
+ventured, "he is now a wholesaler." "Indeed!" said madam; "I had not
+heard of it." The point, very inconceivable to you, perhaps, was that
+the grocer, whether wholesale or retail, was not readily accepted; yet
+the man in the wholesale business in drugs, books, wine, stores, fruit,
+or almost anything else, had the _entrée_, if he was a gentleman. The
+druggist, the hardware man, the furniture dealer, the grocer, the
+retailer would constitute a class by themselves, though of course there
+are other subtle divisions completely beyond my comprehension.
+
+At some of the homes of the first people I would meet a president of a
+university, an author of note, an Episcopal bishop, a general of the
+regular army (preferably a graduate of the West Point Academy), several
+retired merchants of the highest standing, bankers, lawyers, a judge or
+two of the Supreme Bench, an admiral of good family and connections. I
+have good reason to think that a Methodist bishop would not be present
+at such a meeting unless he was a remarkable man. There were always a
+dozen men of well-known lineage; men who knew their family history as
+far back as their great-grandparents, and whose ancestors were
+associated with the history of the country and its development. The men
+were all in business or the professions. They went to their offices at
+nine or ten o'clock and remained until twelve; lunched at their clubs or
+at a restaurant, returned at one, and many remained until six before
+going to their homes. The work is intense. A dominating factor or
+characteristic in the American man is his pursuit of the dollar. That he
+secures it is manifest from the miles of beautiful residences, the show
+of costly equipages and plate, the unlimited range of "stores" or shops
+one sees in large cities. The millionaire is a very ordinary individual
+in America; it is only the billionaire who now really attracts
+attention. The wealth and splendors of the homes, the magnificent _tout
+ensemble_ of these establishments, suggests the possibility of
+degeneracy, an appearance of demoralization; but I am assured that this
+is not apparent in very wealthy families.
+
+It is not to be understood that wealth always gives social position in
+America. By reading the American papers you might believe that this is
+all that is necessary. Some wealth is of course requisite to enable a
+family to hold its own, to give the social retort courteous, to live
+according to the mode of others; yet mere wealth will not buy the
+_entrée_ to the very best society, even in villages. Culture,
+refinement, education, and, most important, _savoir faire_, constitute
+the "open sesame." I know a billionaire, at least this is his
+reputation, who has no standing merely because he is vulgar--that is,
+ill-bred. I have met another man, a great financier, who would give a
+million to have the _entrée_ to the very best houses. Instances could be
+cited without end.
+
+Such men and women generally have their standing in Europe; in a word,
+go abroad for the position they can not secure at home. A family now
+allied to one of the proudest families in Europe had absolutely no
+position in America previous to the alliance, and doubtless would not
+now be taken up by some. You will understand that I am speaking now of
+the most exclusive American society, formed of families who have age,
+historical associations, breeding, education, great-grandparents, and
+always have had "manners." There are other social sets which pass as
+representative society, into which all the ill-mannered _nouveau riche_
+can climb by the golden stairs; but this is not real society. The
+richest man in America, Rockefeller, quoted at over a billion, is a
+religious worker, and his indulgences consist in gifts to universities.
+Another billionaire, Mr. Carnegie, gives his millions to found
+libraries. Mr. Morgan, the millionaire banker, attends church
+conventions as an antipodal diversion. There is no conspicuous
+millionaire before the American public who has earned a reputation for
+extreme profligacy.
+
+There is a leisure class, the sons of wealthy men, who devote their time
+to hunting and other sports; but in the recent war this class surged to
+the front as private soldiers and fought the country's battles. I admire
+the American gentleman of the select society class I have described. He
+is modest, intelligent, learned in the best sense, magnanimous, a type
+of chivalry, bold, vigorous, charming as a host, and the soul of honor.
+It is a regret that this is not the dominating and best-known class in
+America, but it is not; and the alien, the stranger coming without
+letters of introduction, would fall into other hands. A man might live a
+lifetime in Philadelphia or Boston and never meet these people, unless
+he had been introduced by some one who was of the same class in some
+other city. Such strange social customs make strange bedfellows. Thus,
+if you came to America to-day and had letters to the Vice-President, you
+would, without doubt, if properly accredited, see the very best
+society. If, on the other hand, you had letters to the President at his
+home in the State of Ohio you would doubtless meet an entirely different
+class, eminently respectable, yet not the same. It would be impossible
+to ignore the inference from this. The Vice-President is in society (the
+best); the President is not. Where else could this hold? Nowhere but in
+America.
+
+The Americans affect to scorn caste and sect, yet no nation has more of
+them. Sets or classes, even among men, are found in all towns where
+there is any display of wealth. The best society of a small town
+consists of its bank presidents, its clergymen, its physicians, its
+authors, its lawyers. No matter how educated the grocer may be, he will
+not be received, nor the retail shoe dealer, though the shoe
+manufacturer, the dealer in many shoes, may be the virtual leader, at
+least among the men. Each town will have its clubs, the members ranging
+according to their class; and while it seems a paradox, it is true that
+this classification is mainly based upon the refinement, culture, and
+family of the man. A well-known man once engaged me in conversation with
+a view to finding out some facts regarding our social customs, and I
+learned from him that a dentist in America would scarcely be received in
+the best society. He argued, that to a man of refinement and culture,
+such a profession, which included the cleaning of teeth, would be
+impossible; consequently, you would not be likely to find a really
+cultivated man who was a dentist. On the same grounds an undertaker
+would not be admitted to the first society.
+
+With us a gentleman is born; with Americans it is possible to create
+one, though rarely. An American gentleman is described as a product of
+two generations of college men who have always had association with
+gentlemen and the advantages of family standing. Political elevation can
+not affect a man's status as a gentleman. I heard a lady of unquestioned
+position say that she admired President McKinley, but regretted that he
+was not a gentleman. She meant that he was not an aristocrat, and did
+not possess the _savoir faire_, or the family associations, that
+completely round out the American or English gentleman. I asked this
+lady to indicate the gentlemen Presidents of the country. There were
+very few that I recall. There were Washington, Harrison, Adams, and
+Arthur. Doubtless there were others, which have escaped me. Lincoln, the
+strongest American type, she did not consider in the gentlemen class,
+and General Grant, the nation's especial pride, did not fulfil her
+ideas of what a gentleman should be.
+
+You will perceive, then, that what some American people consider a
+gentleman and what its most exclusive society accepts for one, comprise
+two entirely different personages. I found this emphasized especially in
+the old society of Washington, which takes its traditions from
+Washington's time or even the pre-Revolutionary period. For such society
+a self-made man was impossible. Such are the remarkable, indeed
+astounding, ramifications of the social system of a people who cry to
+heaven of their democracy. "Americans are all equal--this is one of the
+gems in our diadem." This epigram I heard drop from the lips of a
+senator who was the recognized aristocrat of the chamber; yet a man of
+peculiar social reserve, who would have nothing to do with the other
+"equals." In a word, all the talk of equality is an absurd figure of
+speech. America is at heart as much an aristocracy as England, and the
+social divisions are much the same under the surface.
+
+You will understand that social rules and customs are all laid down and
+exacted by women and from women. From them I obtained all my
+information. No American gentleman would talk (to me at least) on the
+subject. Ask one of them if there is an American aristocracy, and he
+will pass over the question in an engaging manner, and tell you that his
+government is based on the principle of perfect equality--one of the
+most transparent farces to be found in this interesting country. I have
+outlined to you what I conceived to be the best society in each city,
+and in the various sections of the country. In morality and probity I
+believe them to stand very high; lapses there may be, but the general
+tone is good. The women are charming and refined; the men chivalrous,
+brave, well-poised, and highly educated. Unfortunately, the Americans
+who compose this "set" are numerically weak. They are not represented to
+the extent of being a dominating body, and oddly enough, the common
+people, the shopkeepers, the people in the retail trades, do not
+understand them as leaders from the fact that they are so completely
+aloof that they never meet them. A sort of inner "holy of holies" is the
+real aristocracy of America. What goes for society among the people, the
+mob, and the press is the set (and a set means a faction, a clique)
+known as the Four Hundred, so named because it was supposed to represent
+the "blue blood" of New York ten years ago in its perfection. This Four
+Hundred has its prototype in all cities, and in some cities is known as
+the "fast set." In New York it is made up often of the descendants of
+old families, the heads of whom in many instances were retail traders
+within one hundred and fifty years ago; but the modern wealthy
+representatives endeavor to forget this or skip over it. It is, however,
+constantly kept alive by what is termed the "yellow press," which
+delights in picturing the ancestor of one family as a pedler and an
+itinerant trader, and the head of another family as a vegetable vender,
+and so on, literally venting its spleen upon them.
+
+In my studies in American sociology I asked many questions, and obtained
+the most piquant replies from women. One lady, a leader in New York in
+what I have termed the exclusive set, informed me with a laugh that the
+ancestor of a well-known family of to-day, one which cuts a commanding
+figure in society, was an ordinary laborer in the employ of her
+grandfather. "Yet you receive them?" I suggested. The reply was a shrug
+of charming shoulders, which, translated, meant that great wealth had
+here enabled them to "bore" into the exclusive circle. I found that even
+among these people, the _crême de la crême_ in the eyes of the people,
+there were inner circles, and these were not on intimate terms with the
+others. Here I met a member of the Washington and Lee family, a
+descendant of Bishop Provoost, the first Episcopal bishop of New York,
+and friend of Washington and Hamilton. This latter family is notable for
+an ancestry running back to the massacre of St. Bartholomew and even
+beyond. I astonished its charming descendant, who very delicately
+informed me that she knew her ancestry as far back as 1200 A. D., when I
+told her that I had my "family tree," as they call it, without a break
+for thirty-two hundred years. I am confident she did not believe me, but
+her "Indeed!" was delightful. In fact, I assure you I have lost my heart
+to these American women. I met representatives of the Adams, Dana,
+Madison, Lee, and other families identified with American history in a
+most honorable way.
+
+The continuity of the Four Hundred idea as a logical system was broken
+by the quality of some of its members. Compared to the society I have
+previously mentioned it was as chaff. There was a total lack of
+intellectuality. Degeneracy marked some of their acts; divorce blackened
+their records, and shameless affairs marked them. In this "set," and
+particularly its imitators throughout the United States, the divorce
+rate is appalling. Men leave their wives and obtain a divorce for no
+other reason than that a woman falls in love with another woman's
+husband. On a yacht we will say there is some scandal. A divorce ensues,
+and afterward the parties are remarried. Or we will say a wife succumbs
+to the blandishments of another man. The conjugal arrangements are
+rearranged, so that, as a very merry New York club man told me, "It is
+difficult to tell where you are at." In a word, the morale of the men of
+this set is low, their standard high, but not always lived up to. I
+believe that I am not doing the American of the middle class wrong and
+the ultra-fashionable class an injustice in saying that it is as a class
+immoral.
+
+Americans make great parade of their churches. Spires rise like the
+pikes of an army in every town, yet the morality of the men is low.
+There are in this land 600,000 prostitutes--ruined women. But this is
+not due entirely to the Four Hundred, whose irregularities appear to be
+confined to inroads upon their own set. Nearly all these men are club
+men; two-thirds are in business as brokers, bankers, or professional
+men; and there is a large percentage of men of leisure and vast wealth.
+They affect English methods, and are, as a rule, not highly intelligent,
+but _blasé_, often effeminate, an interesting spectacle to the student,
+showing that the downfall of the American Republic would come sooner
+than that of Rome if the "fast set" were a dominating force, which it is
+not.
+
+In the great middle class of the American men I find much to admire;
+half educated, despite their boasted school system, they put up, to
+quote one of them, "a splendid bluff" of respectability and morality,
+yet their statistics give the lie to it. Their divorces are phenomenal,
+and they are obtained on the slightest cause. If a man or woman becomes
+weary of the other they are divorced on the ground of incompatibility of
+temper.
+
+A lady, a descendant of one of the oldest families, desired to marry her
+friend's husband. He charged his wife with various vague acts, one of
+which, according to the press, was that she did not wear "corsets"--a
+sort of steel frame which the American women wear to compress the waist.
+This was not accepted by the learned judge, and the wife then left her
+husband and went away on a six or eight months' visit. This enabled the
+husband to put in a claim of desertion, and the decree of divorce was
+granted. A quicker method is to pretend to throw the breakfast dishes at
+your wife, who makes a charge of "extreme incompatibility," and a
+divorce is at once obtained. Certain Territories bank on their divorce
+laws, and the mismated have but to go there and live a few months to
+obtain a separation on almost any claim. Many of the most distinguished
+statesmen have been charged with certain moral lapses in the heat of
+political fights, which, in almost every instance, are ignored by the
+victims, their silence being significant to some, illogical to others;
+yet the fact remains that the press goes to the greatest extremes. No
+family secret is considered sacred to the American politician in the
+heat of a campaign; to win, he would sacrifice the husband, father,
+mother, and children of his enemy. So remarkable is the rage for divorce
+that many of the great religious denominations have taken up arms
+against it. Catholics forbid it. Episcopalians resent it by ostracism if
+the cause is trivial, and a "separation" is denounced in the pulpit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AMERICAN CUSTOMS
+
+
+The American is an interesting, though not always pleasant, study. His
+perfect equipoise, his independence, his assumption that he is the best
+product of the best soil in the world, comes first as a shock; but when
+you find this but one of the many national characteristics it merely
+amuses you. One of the extraordinary features of the American is his
+attitude toward the Chinese, who are taken on sufferance. The lower
+classes absolutely can conceive of no difference between me and the
+"coolie." As an example, a boy on the street accosts me with "Hi, John,
+you washee, washee?" Even a representative in Congress insisted on
+calling me "John." On protesting to another man, he laughed, and said,
+"Oh, the man don't know any better." "But," I replied, "if he does not
+know any better how is it he is a lawmaker in your lower house?" "I give
+it up," was his answer, and he ordered what they term a "high-ball."
+After we had tried several, he laughed and asked, "Shall we consider the
+matter a closed incident?" Many diplomatic, social, and political
+questions are often settled with a "high-ball."
+
+It is inconceivable to the average American that there can be an
+educated Chinese gentleman, a man of real refinement. They know us by
+the Cantonese laundrymen, the class which ranks with their lowest
+classes. At dinners and receptions I was asked the most atrocious
+questions by men and women. One charming young girl, who I was informed
+was the relative of a Cabinet officer, asked me if I would not sometime
+put up my "pig-tail," as she wished to photograph me. Another asked if
+it was really true that we privately considered all Americans as "white
+devils." All had an inordinate curiosity to know my "point of view";
+what I thought of them, how their customs differed from my own. Of
+course, replies were manifestly impossible. At a dinner a young man,
+who, I learned, was a sort of professional diner-out, remarked to a
+lady: "None of the American girls will have me for a husband; do you not
+think that if I should go to China some pretty Chinese girl would have
+me?" This was said before all the company. Every one was silent, waiting
+for the response. Looking up, she replied, with charming _naïveté_, "No,
+I do not think so," which produced much laughter. Now you would have
+thought the young man would have been slightly discomfited, but not at
+all; he laughed heartily, and plumed himself upon the fact that he had
+succeeded in bringing out a reply.
+
+American men have a variety of costumes for as many occasions. They have
+one for the morning, which is called a sack-coat, that is, tailless, and
+is of mixed colors. With this they wear a low hat, an abomination called
+the derby. After twelve o'clock the frock-coat is used, having long
+tails reaching to the knees. Senators often wear this costume in the
+morning--why I could not learn, though I imagine they think it is more
+dignified than the sack. With the afternoon suit goes a high silk hat,
+called a "plug" by the lower classes, who never wear them. After dark
+two suits of black are worn: one a sack, being informal, the other with
+tails, very formal. They also have a suit for the bath--a robe--and a
+sleeping-costume, like a huge bag, with sleeves and neck-hole. This is
+the night-shirt, and formerly a "nightcap" was used by some. There is
+also a hat to go with the evening costume--a high hat, which crushes in.
+You may sit on it without injury to yourself or hat. I know this by a
+harrowing experience.
+
+Many of the customs of the Americans are strange. Their social life
+consists of dinners, receptions, balls, card-parties, teas, and smokers.
+At all but the last women are present. At the dinner every one is in
+evening dress; the men wear black swallowtail coats, following the
+English in every way, low white vest, white starched shirt, white collar
+and necktie, and black trousers. If the dinner does not include women
+the coat-tails are eliminated, and the vest and necktie are black.
+Exactly why this is I do not understand, nor do the Americans. The
+dinner is begun with the national drink, the "cocktail"; then follow
+oysters on the half-shell, which you eat with an object resembling the
+trident carried in the ceremony of Ah Dieu at the Triennial. Each course
+of the dinner is accompanied by a different wine, an agreeable but
+exhilarating custom. The knife and fork are used, the latter to go into
+the mouth, the former not, and here you see a singular ethnologic
+feature. Class distinctions may at times be recognized by the knife or
+fork. Thus I was informed that you could at once recognize a person of
+the gentleman class by his use of the knife and fork. "This is
+infallible," said my young lady companion. If he is a commoner, he eats
+with his knife; if a gentleman, with his fork. This was a very nice
+distinction, and I looked carefully for a knife eater, but never saw
+one.
+
+There is a vast amount of ceremony and etiquette about a dinner and
+various rules for eating, to break which is a social offense. I heard
+that a certain Madam ---- gave lessons in "good form" after the American
+fashion, so that one could learn what was expected, and at my first
+dinner I regretted that I had not availed myself of the services of the
+lady, as at each plate there were nearly a dozen solid silver articles
+to be used in the different courses, but I endeavored to escape by
+watching my companion and following her example. But here the
+impossibility of an American girl resisting a joke caused my downfall.
+She at once saw my dilemma, and would take up the wrong implement, and
+when I followed suit she dropped it and took another, laughing in her
+eyes in a way in which the American girl is a prodigious adept; but
+completely deceived by her nearly every time, knowing that she was
+amusing herself at my expense, I said nothing. The Americans have a
+peculiar term for the mental attitude I had during this trial. I "sawed
+wood." The saying was particularly applicable to my situation. My young
+companion was most engaging, and presently began to talk of the
+superiority of America, her inventions, etc., mentioning the telephone,
+printing, and others. "Yes, wonderful," I replied; "but the Chinese had
+the telephone ages ago. They invented printing, gunpowder, the mariner's
+compass, and it would be difficult," I said, "for you to mention an
+object which China has not had for ages." She was amazed that I, a
+Chinaman, should "claim everything in sight."
+
+There is a peculiar etiquette relating to every course in a dinner. The
+soup is eaten with a bowl-like spoon, and it is the grossest breach to
+place this in your mouth, or approach it, endwise. You approach the
+side and suck the soup from it. To make a noise would attract attention.
+The etiquette of the fish is to eat it with a fork; to use the knife
+even to cut the fish would be unpardonable, or to touch it to take out
+the bones; the fork alone must be used. The punch course is often an
+embarrassment to the previous wines, and is followed by what the French
+call the _entrée_. In fact, while the Americans boast that everything
+American is the best, French customs are followed at banquets
+invariably, this being one of the strange inconsistencies of the
+Americans. Their clothes are copied from the English, though they will
+claim in the same breath that their tailors are the best in the world.
+For wines they claim to be unsurpassed, producing the finest; yet the
+wines on their tables are French or bear French labels. Game is
+served--a grouse or perhaps a hare, and then a vast roast, possibly
+venison, or beef, and there are vegetables, followed by a salad of some
+kind. Then comes the dessert--an iced cream, cakes, nuts, raisins,
+cheese, and coffee with brandy, and then cigars and vermuth or some
+cordial. After such a dinner of three hours a Southern gentleman clapped
+me on the back and said, "Great dinner, that; but let's go and get a
+drink of something solid," and I saw him take what he termed "two
+fingers" of Kentucky Bourbon whisky--a very stiff drink. I often
+wondered how the guests could stand so much.
+
+The dinner has no attendant amusement, no dancing, no professional
+entertainers, and rarely lasts over two hours. Some houses have stringed
+bands concealed behind barriers of flowers playing soft music, but in
+the main the dinner is a jollification, a symposium of stories, where
+the guests take a turn at telling tales. Story-tellers can not be hired,
+and the guest at the proper moment says (after having prepared himself
+beforehand), "That reminds me of a story," and he relates what he has
+learned with great _éclat_ and applause, as every American will applaud
+a good story, even if he has heard it time and again. At one dinner
+which I attended in New York story-telling had been going on for some
+time when a well-known man came in late. He was received with applause,
+and when called on for a speech told exactly the same story, by a
+strange coincidence, that had been told by the last speaker. Not a guest
+interfered; he was allowed to proceed, and at the end the point was
+greeted with a roar of laughter. This appeared to me to be an excellent
+quality in the American character. I was informed that these stories,
+forming so important a feature of American dinners, are the product
+mainly of drummers and certain prominent men; but why men that drum are
+more skilful in story inventing I failed to learn. President Lincoln and
+a lawyer named Daniel Webster originated a large percentage of the
+current stories. It is difficult to understand exactly what the
+Americans mean.
+
+The American story is incomprehensible to the average foreigner, but it
+is good form to laugh. I will relate several as illustrative of American
+wit, and I might add that many of these have been published in books for
+the benefit of the diner-out. A Cabinet minister told of a prisoner who
+was called to the bar and asked his name. The man had some impediment in
+his speech, one of the hundred complaints of the tongue, and began to
+hiss, uttering a strange stuttering sound like escaping steam. The
+judge listened a few moments, then turning to the guard said, "Officer,
+what is this man charged with?" "Soda-water, I think, your honor," was
+the reply. This was unintelligible to me until my companion explained
+it. You must understand that soda-water is a drink that is charged with
+gas and makes a hissing, spluttering noise when opened. Hence when the
+judge asked what the prisoner was charged with the policeman, an
+Irishman, retorted with a joke, the story-teller disregarding the fact
+that it was an impertinence.
+
+A distinguished New York judge told the following: Two tenement
+harridans look out of their windows simultaneously. "Good-morning, Mrs.
+Moriarity," says one. "Good-morning, Mrs. Gilfillan," says the other,
+adding, "not that I care a d----, but just to make conversation." This
+was considered wit of the sharpest kind, and was received with applause.
+In their stories the Americans spare neither age, sex, nor relatives.
+The following was related by a general of the army. He said he took a
+friend home to spend the night with him, the guest occupying the best
+room. When he came down in the morning he turned to the hostess and
+said, "Mrs. ----, that was excellent tooth-powder you placed at my
+disposal; can you give me the name of the maker?" The hostess fairly
+screamed. "What," she exclaimed, "the powder in the urn?" "Yes," replied
+the officer, startled; "was it poison?" "Worse, worse," said she; "you
+swallowed Aunt Jane!" Conceive of this wretched taste. The guest had
+actually cleaned his teeth with the cremated dust of the general's aunt;
+yet he told the story before a dinner assemblage, and it was received
+with shouts of laughter.
+
+I did not hear the intellectual conversation at dinner I had expected.
+Art, science, literature, were rarely touched upon, although I
+invariably met artists, litterateurs, and scientific men at these
+dinners. They all talked small talk or "told stories." I was informed
+that if I wished to hear the weighty questions of the day discussed I
+must go to the women's clubs, or to Madam ----'s Current Topics Society.
+The latter is an extraordinary affair, where society women who have no
+time to read the news of the day listen to short lectures on the news of
+the preceding week, discussed pro and con, giving these women in a
+nutshell material for intelligent conversation when they meet senators
+and other men at the various receptions before which they wish to make
+an agreeable impression.
+
+The American has many clubs, but is not entirely at home in them. He
+uses them as places in which to play poker or whist, to dine his men
+friends, and in a great measure because it is the "proper thing." At
+many a room is set apart for the national game of poker--a fascinating
+game to the player who wins. Poker was never mentioned in my presence
+that some did not make a joke on a supposed Chinaman named Ah Sin; but
+the obscurity of the joke and my lack of knowledge regarding American
+literature caused the point to elude me at first, which was true of many
+jokes. The Americans are preeminently practical jokers, and the ends to
+which they go is beyond belief. I heard of jokes which, if perpetrated
+in China, would have resulted in the loss of some one's head. To
+illustrate this, in the Spanish-American War the camps at Tampa were
+besieged with newspaper reporters, and one from a large journal was
+constantly trying to secure secret news by entertaining certain officers
+with wine and cigars; so they determined to get rid of his
+importunities, and what is known as a "job" in America was "put up" on
+him. He was told that Colonel ---- had a detailed map of the forthcoming
+battle, and if he could get the officer intoxicated he doubtless could
+secure the map. This looked very easy to the correspondent, so the story
+goes, and he dropped into the colonel's tent one night with a basket of
+wine, and began to celebrate its arrival from some friends. Soon the
+colonel pretended to become communicative, and the map was brought out
+and finally loaned to the correspondent under the promise that it would
+not be used. This was sufficient. The correspondent hied him to his
+tent, wrote an article and sent the map to his paper in one of the
+large cities, where it was duly published. It proved to be what
+dressmakers call a "Butterick pattern," a maze of lines for cutting out
+dresses for women. The lines looked like roads, and the practical jokers
+had merely added towns and forts and bridges here and there.
+
+The Americans are excellent parents, though small families are general.
+The domestic life is charming. The family is denied nothing needed, the
+only limit being the purse of the head of the family, so called, the
+real head in many cases being the wife, who does not fail to assert
+herself if the proper occasion opens. Well-to-do families have every
+luxury, and no nation is apparently so well off, so completely supplied
+with the necessities of life as the American. One is impressed by their
+business sagacity, their cleverness in finance, their complete grasp of
+all questions, yet no people are easier gulled or more readily
+victimized. An instance will suffice. In making my investigations
+regarding methods of managing railroads, I not only obtained information
+from the road officials, but questioned the employees whenever it
+happened that I was traveling. One day, observing that it was the custom
+to "tip" the porters (give money), I asked the conductor what the men
+were paid. "Little or nothing," was the reply; "they get from
+seventy-five to one hundred dollars a month out of the _passengers_ on a
+long run." "But the passengers paid the road for the service?" "Yes, and
+they pay the salary of the porter also," said the man. With that in view
+the men are poorly paid, and the railroad knows that the people will
+make up their salaries, as they do. If you refused you would have no
+service.
+
+This rule holds everywhere, in hotels and restaurants. Servants receive
+little pay where the patronage is rich, with the understanding that they
+will make it up out of the customers. Thus if you go to a hotel you fee
+the bell-boy for bringing you a glass of water. If you order one of the
+seductive cocktails you fee the man who brings it; you fee the
+chambermaid who attends to your room. Infinite are the resources of
+these servants who do not receive a fee. You fee the elevator or lift
+boy, or he will take the opportunity to jerk you up as though shot out
+of a gun. You fee the porter for taking up your trunk, and give a
+special fee for unstrapping it. You fee the head waiter, and when you
+fee the table waiter he whispers in your ear that a slight fee will be
+acceptable to the cook, who will see that the _Count_ or the _Judge_
+will be cared for as becomes his station. When you leave, the sidewalk
+porter expects a fee; if he does not receive it the door of the carriage
+may possibly be slammed on the tail of your coat. Then you pay the
+cabman two dollars to carry you to the station, and fee him. Arriving at
+the station, he hands you over to a red-hatted porter, who carries your
+baggage for a fee. He puts you in charge of the railroad porter, who is
+feed at the rate of about fifty cents per diem.
+
+The American submits to this robbery without a murmur; yet he is
+sagacious, prudent. I can only explain his gullibility on the ground of
+his innate snobbery; he thinks it is the "thing to do," and does it, and
+for this reason it is carried to the most merciless lengths. To
+illustrate. In the season of 1902, when I was at Newport, Mr. ----, a
+conspicuous member of the New York smart set, known as the "Four
+Hundred," lost his hat in some way and rode to his home without one.
+The ubiquitous reporter saw him, and photographed him, bareheaded, and
+his paper, the New York ----, gave a column the following day to a
+description of the new fad of going without a hat. Thus the fashion
+started, and the amazing spectacle was seen the summer following of men
+and women of fashion riding and walking for miles without hats. This is
+beyond belief, yet it attracted no attention from the common people, who
+perhaps got the cast-off hats. Despite this, the Americans are
+hard-fisted, shrewd, and as a nation a match for any in the field of
+cunning.
+
+I can explain it in no way than by assuming that it is due to
+overanxiety to do the correct thing. Their own actors satirize them, one
+especially taking them off in a jingle which read, "It's English, quite
+English, you know." It is said of the men of the "Four Hundred" that
+they turn up their trousers when it rains in London, special reports of
+the weather being sent to the clubs for the purpose; but I cannot vouch
+for this. I have seen the trousers turned up in all weathers, and found
+no one who could explain why he did so. What can you make of so
+contradictory a people?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE AMERICAN WOMAN
+
+
+The most remarkable feature of America is the women. Divest your mind of
+any woman you know in order to prepare yourself to receive my
+impressions. To begin with, the American woman ranks with her husband;
+indeed, she is his superior in that all men render her homage and
+deference. It is accounted a point of chivalry to stand as the defender
+of the weaker sex. The American girl is educated with the boys in the
+public school, grows up with them, and studies their studies, that she
+may be their intellectual equal, and there is a strong party, led by
+masculine women, who contend for complete political rights for women.
+In some States they vote, and in nearly all may be elected to boards of
+various kinds and to minor offices. The Government departments are
+filled with women clerks, and all, from the lowest to the highest, are
+equal; hence, it is a difficult matter to find a native-born American
+who will become a servant. They all aspire to be ladies, and even aliens
+become salesladies, cook ladies, laundry ladies. They are on their
+dignity, and able to protect it from any point of attack.
+
+The lower classes are particularly uninteresting, for they have no
+individuality, and ape the class above them, the result being a cheap,
+ludicrous imitation of a lady--an absurd abstraction. The women of the
+lower classes who are unmarried work in shops, factories, and
+restaurants, often in situations the reverse of sanitary; yet prefer
+this to good situations in families as servants, service being beneath
+their dignity and tending to disturb the balance of equality. I doubt if
+a native-born woman would permit herself to be called a servant; indeed,
+all the servants are Irish, Swedes, Norwegians, French, German, or
+negroes; the American girls fill the factories and the sweat-shops of
+the great cities. When I refer these girls to the lower classes it is
+merely to classify them, as morally and intellectually they are
+sometimes the equal of the higher classes. The middle-class women or
+girls are an attractive type, well educated and often beautiful. You
+obtain an idea of them in the great shops and bazaars of the great
+cities, where they fill every conceivable position and receive from five
+to six dollars per week.
+
+But it is with the higher classes that you will be most interested, and
+when I say that the American girl, the product of the first families,
+is at once beautiful, refined, cultured, charming physically and
+mentally, I have but faintly expressed it; yet the most pronounced
+characteristic is their "daring," or temerity. There is no word exactly
+to cover it. I frequently met women at dinners. With few exceptions, it
+appears impossible for the American girl to take one of our race, an
+Oriental, seriously. She can not conceive that he may be a man of
+intelligence and education, and I can not better describe her than to
+sketch in its detail a dinner to which I was invited by the ---- at
+Washington. The invitation was engraved on a small card and read "The
+---- and Mrs. ---- request the honor of the presence of the ---- at
+dinner on Wednesday at eight o'clock, etc." I immediately sent my valet
+with an acceptance and a basket of orchids to the hostess, this being
+the mode among the men who are _au fait_.
+
+A week later I went to the dinner, and was taken up to the dressing-room
+for men, where I found a dozen or more, all in the conventional evening
+dress I have described--now with tails, it being a ladies' affair. In a
+corner was a table, and by it stood a negro, also in a dress suit,
+identical with that of the others. I was cordially greeted by a guest,
+who said, "Let me introduce you to our American minister to Ijiji and
+Zanzibar," and he presented me to the tall negro, who was turning out
+some bottled "cocktail." I shook hands with him, and he laughed, showing
+a set of teeth like an elephant's tusks, and asked me "what I would
+have." He was a servant dealing out "appetizers," and this was an
+American joke. The perpetrator of this joke was a minor official in the
+State Department, yet the entire party apparently considered it a good
+joke. Fortunately, I could disguise my real feeling, and I merely relate
+the incident to give you an idea of the sense of the proprieties as
+entertained by certain Americans. All that winter the story of the
+American minister to Zanzibar was told at my expense without doubt.
+
+Having been "fortified," and some of the men took two or three
+"cocktails" before they became "tuned up," we went down to the
+drawing-room, where I paid my respects to the host and hostess, who
+stood at the end of a beautiful room. As I approached the lady greeted
+me with a charming smile, extending her gloved hand almost on a direct
+line with her face, grasping it firmly, not shaking it, saying, "Very
+kind of you, ----. Delighted, I am sure. General"--turning to her
+husband--"you know the ----, of course," and the general shook my hand
+as he would a pump-handle, and whispered, "Our minister to Zanzibar
+treated you all right, eh?" and with a wink indescribable, closing the
+right eye for a second, passed me on. The story had got down-stairs
+before me. Americans of the official class have, as a rule, an absolute
+lack of _savoir faire_ and social refinement; lack them so utterly as to
+become comical.
+
+I now joined other groups of officers and officials, there being about
+thirty guests, half of whom were ladies. The latter were all in what is
+termed full dress. Why "full" I do not know. Here you see one of the
+most extraordinary features of American life--the dress of women. The
+Americans make claim to being among the most modest, the most religious,
+the most proper people in the world, yet the appearance of the ladies
+at many public functions is beyond belief. All the women in this house
+were beautiful and covered with jewels. They wore gowns in the French
+court fashion, with trains a yard or two in length, but the upper part
+cut so low that a large portion of the neck and shoulders was exposed. I
+was embarrassed beyond expression; such an exhibition in China could
+only be made by a certain class. These matrons were of the highest
+respectability. This remarkable custom of a strange people, who deluge
+China with missionaries from every sect under the sun and at home commit
+the grossest solecisms, is universal, and not thought of as improper.
+There was not much opportunity for introspective analysis, yet I could
+not but believe that such a custom must have its moral effect upon a
+nation in the long run.
+
+It was a mystery to me how the upper part of some of the gowns was
+supported. In some instances there was no strap over the shoulders, the
+upper third of these alabaster torsos and arms being absolutely naked,
+save for a band of pearls, diamonds, or other gems, of a size rarely
+seen in the Orient; but I learned later that the bone or steel corset,
+which molds the form, constituted the support of the gown. I gradually
+became habituated to the custom, and did not notice it. My friend ----,
+an artist of repute, explained that it all depends on the point of view.
+"Our people are essentially artistic," he said. "There is nothing more
+beautiful than the divine female contour; the American women realize
+this, and sacrifice themselves at the altar of art." Yet the Americans
+are such jokers that exactly what my friend had in mind it was difficult
+to arrive at.
+
+After being presented to these marvelously arrayed ladies we passed
+into the dining-room, where I found myself with one of the most charming
+of divinities, a woman famous for her wit and literary success. I have
+described the typical dinner, so I need not repeat my words. My
+companion held the same extraordinary attitude toward me that all
+American women do; amused, half laughing, refusing absolutely to take me
+seriously, and probing me with so many absurd questions that I was
+forced to ask some very pointed ones, which only succeeded in making her
+laugh. The conversation proceeded something as follows: "I am charmed
+that I have fallen to your Highness." "Equally charmed," I replied; "but
+my rank does not admit the adjective you do me the honor to apply."
+"No?" was the answer. "Well, I'll wager you anything that when the
+butler pours your wine in the first course he will call you Count, and
+in the next Prince. You see, they become exhilarated as the dinner
+progresses. But tell me, how many wives have you in China, you look
+_very_ wicked?" Imagine this! But I rallied, and replied that I had
+none--a statement received with incredulity. Her next question was,
+"Have you ever been a highbinder?" Ministers of grace! and this from a
+people who profess to know more than any nation on earth! I explained
+that a highbinder ranked with a professional murderer in this country,
+whereupon she again laughed, and, turning to General ----, in a loud
+voice said, "General, I have been calling the ---- a highbinder," at
+which the company laughed at my expense. In China, as you know, a guest
+or a host would have killed himself rather than commit so gross a
+solecism; but this is America.
+
+The second course was oysters served in the shell, and my companion,
+assuming that I had never seen an oyster [ignorant that our fathers ate
+oysters thousands of years before America was heard of and when the
+Anglo-Saxon was living in a cave], in a confidential and engaging
+whisper remarked, "This, your 'Highness,' is the only animal we eat
+alive." "Why alive?" I asked, looking as innocent as possible; "why not
+kill them?" "Oh, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
+will not permit it," was her reply. "You see, if they are swallowed
+alive they are immediately suffocated, but if you cut them up they
+suffer horribly while the soup is being served. How large a one do you
+think you can swallow?" Fancy the daring of a young girl to joke with a
+man twice her age in this way! I did not undeceive her, and allowed her
+to enlighten me on various subjects of contemporaneous interest. "It's
+so strange that the Chinese never study mathematics," she next remarked.
+"Why, all our public schools demand higher mathematics, and in the
+fourth grade you could not find a child but could square the circle."
+
+In this manner this volatile young savage entertained me all through the
+dinner, utterly superficial herself, yet possessed of a singular
+sharpness and wit, mostly at my expense; yet she was so charming I
+forgave her. There is no denying that you become enraged, insulted,
+chagrined by these women, who, however, by a look, dispel your
+annoyance. I do not understand it. I found that while an author of a
+novel she was grossly ignorant of the literature of her own country, yet
+she possessed that consummate American froth by which she could
+convince the average person that she was brilliant to the point of
+scintillation. I fancy that any keen, well-educated woman must have seen
+that I was laughing at her, yet so inborn was her belief that a Chinaman
+must be an imbecile that she was ever joking at my expense. The last
+story she told me illustrates the peculiar fancy for joking these women
+possess. I had been describing a storm at Manchester-by-the-Sea and the
+splendor of the ocean. "Did you see the tea-leaves?" she asked,
+solemnly. "No," I replied. "That is strange," she said. "I fear you are
+not very observing. After every storm the tea-leaves still wash up all
+along Massachusetts Bay," alluding to the fact that loads of tea on
+ships were tossed over by the Americans during the quarrel with England
+before the Revolution.
+
+The daring of the American woman impressed me. This same lady asked me
+not to remain with the men to smoke but go on the veranda with her,
+where _tête-à-tête_ she produced a gold cigarette-case and offered me a
+cigarette. This I found not uncommon. American women of the fast sets
+drink at the clubs; an insidious drink--the "high-ball"--is a common
+one, yet I never saw a woman under the influence of wine or liquor. The
+amount of both consumed in America, is amazing. The consumption per head
+in the United States for beer alone is ten and a half gallons for each
+of the eighty millions. My friend, a prohibitionist, a member of a
+political party whose object is to ruin the wine industry of the world,
+put it stronger, and, backed by facts, said that if the wine, beer,
+whisky, gin, and alcoholic drinks of all kinds and the tea and coffee
+drank yearly by the Americans could be collected it would make a lake
+two miles square and ten feet deep. The alcoholic drinks alone if
+collected would fill a canal one hundred miles long, one hundred feet
+wide, and ten feet deep. May their saints propitiate this insatiate
+thirst!
+
+It would amuse you to hear the American women of literary tendency boast
+of their schools, yet when educational facilities are considered the
+average American is ignorant. They are educated in lines. Thus a girl
+graduate will speak French with a good accent, or she will converse in
+Milwaukee German. She can prove her statement in conic sections or
+algebra, but when it comes to actual knowledge she is deficient. This is
+due to the ignorance of the teachers in the public schools and their
+lack of inborn culture. No better test of the futility of the American
+public-school education can be seen than the average girl product of
+the public school of the lower class in a city like Chicago or New York.
+Americans affect to despise Chinese methods because the Chinese girl or
+boy is not crammed with a thousand thoughts of no relative value. China
+has existed thousands of years; her people are happy; happiness and
+content are the chief virtues, and if China is ever overthrown it will
+be not because, as the Americans put it, she is behind the times, but
+because the fever of unrest and the craze for riches has become a
+contagion which will react upon her. The development of China is normal,
+that of America hysterical. Our growth has been along the line of peace;
+that of other nations has been entirely opposed to their own religious
+teaching, showing it to be farcical and pure sophistry.
+
+If I should tell you how many American women asked me why Chinese women
+bandage their feet you would be amazed; yet every one of these submitted
+to and practised a deformity that has seriously affected the growth and
+development of the race. I am no iconoclast, but listen to the story of
+the American woman who, with one hand, deforms her waist in the most
+barbarous fashion, while waving the other in horror at her Chinese
+sister with the bound feet. American women change their fashions twice a
+year or more. Fashions are in the hands of the middle classes, and the
+highest lady in the land is completely at their mercy; to disobey the
+mandates of fashion is to become ridiculous. The fashion is set in Paris
+and various cities by men and women who have skilled artists to draw
+patterns and paint pictures showing the new mode. These are published in
+certain papers and issued by millions, republished in America, and no
+woman here would have the temerity to ignore them. The laws of the Medes
+and Persians are not more inexorable.
+
+It is not a suggestion but an order, a fiat, a command, so we see this
+free nation really truckling to or dominated by a class of tradesmen.
+The object of the change of style is to create a sale for new goods,
+give work for laborers, and enable the producer to reach the pocketbook
+of the rich man; but the "fashions" have become so fixed, so thoroughly
+a national feature, that they affect rich and poor, and we have the
+spectacle of every woman studying these guides and conforming to them
+with a servility beyond belief. I once said to a lady, "The Chinese lady
+dresses richer than the American, but her styles have been very much the
+same for thousands of years," but I believe she doubted it. It would be
+futile, indeed impossible, for me to explain the extravagances of
+American fashion. Their own press and stage use it as a standard butt.
+At the present time tablets or plates of fashion insist upon an outline
+which shows the form completely, the antipodes of a Chinese woman; and
+this is intensified by some of the women who, when in the street, grasp
+the skirt and in an ingenious way wrap it about so that the outline of
+the American divinity is sufficiently well defined to startle one. Such
+a trick in China could but originate with the demimonde, yet it is taken
+up by certain of the Americans who are constantly seeking for variety.
+There can be no question but that the middle-class fashion designer
+revenges himself upon the _beau monde_. They will not receive him
+socially, so he forces them to wear his clothes.
+
+Some years ago women were made to wear "hoops," pictures of which I
+have seen in old publications. Imagine, if you can, a bird-cage three
+feet high and four feet across, formed of bone of the whale or some
+metal. This was worn beneath the dress, expanding it on either side so
+that it was difficult to approach a lady. A later order was given to
+wear a camel-like "hump" at the base of the vertebral column, which was
+called the "bustle"--a contrivance calculated to unnerve the wearer, not
+to speak of the looker-on; yet the American woman adopted it, distorted
+her body, and aped the gait of the kangaroo, the form being called the
+"Grecian bend." This lasted six months or more; first adopted by the
+aristocracy, then by the common people, and by the time the latter had
+it well in hand the _bon ton_ had cast it aside and were trying
+something else.
+
+A close study of this mad dressing shows that there is always a "hump."
+At one time it went all around; later appeared only behind, like an
+excrescence on a bilbol-tree. At the present time the designer has drawn
+his picture showing it as a pendent bag from the "shirtwaist," like the
+pouch of the bird pelican. A few years ago the designer, in a delirium,
+placed the humps on the tops of the sleeves, then snatched them away and
+tipped them upside down. Finally he appeared to go utterly mad with the
+desire to humiliate the woman, and created a fashion that entailed
+dragging the skirt on the ground from one to two feet.
+
+Did the American woman resent the insult; did she refuse to adopt a
+custom not only disgusting but really filthy, one that a Chinese lady
+would have died rather than have accepted? By no means; she seized upon
+it with the ardor of a child with a new toy, and for a year the
+side-paths of the great cities of the country were swept by women's
+skirts, clouds of dust following them. The press took up the question,
+but without effect; the fashion dragged its nauseating and frightful
+course from rich and poor, and I was told by an official that it was
+impossible to stop it or to force a glimmer of reason into the minds of
+these women. Then they gave it up, and passed a law making it a
+statutory offense, with heavy fines, for any one to "expectorate" on the
+sidewalk or anywhere else where the saliva could be swept up by the
+trains of the women of nearly all classes who followed the fashion. The
+American woman, as I have said, looks askance at the footgear of the
+Chinese--high, warm, dry, sanitary, yet revels in creations which cramp
+the feet and distort the anatomy. The shoes are made of leather,
+inflexible, pointed; and to enable them to deceive the men into the
+belief that they have high insteps (a sign of good blood here) the women
+wear stilt-like heels, which throw the foot forward and elevate the heel
+from two to three inches above the ground.
+
+But all this is but a bagatelle to the fashions in deformity which we
+find among nearly all American women. There are throughout the country
+numbers of large manufactories which make "corsets"--a peculiar waist
+and lung compressor, used by nearly every woman in America. These men
+are as dogmatic as the designers of the fashion-plates. They also issue
+plates or guides showing new changes, and the women, like sheep, adopt
+them. The American woman believes that a narrow waist enhances her
+beauty, and the corset-maker works upon the national weakness and builds
+creations that put to shame and ridicule the bound feet of the
+aristocratic Chinese woman. The corset is a lace and ribbon-decorated
+armor, made either of steel ribs or whale-bone, which fits the waist and
+clings to the hips. It is laced up, and the degree of tightness depends
+upon the will or nerve of the wearer. It compresses the heart and lungs,
+and wearing it is a most barbarous custom--a telling argument against
+the assumption of high intelligence on the part of the Americans, who,
+in this respect, rank with the flat-headed Indians of the northwest
+American coast, whose heads I have seen in their medical offices side by
+side with a diagram showing the abnormal conditions caused by the
+corset.
+
+A year ago the fiat went forth that the American woman must have wide
+hips. Presto! there appeared especially devised machinery, advertised in
+all the journals, accomplishing the condition for those whom nature had
+not well endowed. Now the dressmaker has decided that they must be
+narrow-hipped, and half a million dollars in false hips, rubber pads,
+and other properties are cast aside. No extravaganza is too absurd for
+these people who are abject slaves to the whimsicalities of the
+designer, who is a wag in his way, as has been well shown in a story
+told to me. The designers for a famous man dressmaker in Paris had a
+habit of taking sketches of the latest creations to their club meetings.
+One evening a clever caricaturist took a caricature of a fashion showing
+a woman with enormous and outlandish sleeves. It created a laugh. "As
+impossible as it is," said the artist, "I will wager a dinner that if I
+present it seriously to a certain fashion paper they will take it up."
+This is said to be the history of the "big-sleeve" fashion that really
+amazed the Americans themselves.
+
+The customs of women here are so at variance with those of China that
+they are not readily understood. Our ways are those culled from a
+civilization of thousands of years; theirs from one just beginning; yet
+they have the temerity to speak of China as effete and behind the times.
+In writing, the women affect the English round hand and write across
+from left to right, and then beginning at the left of the page again.
+They are fond of perfumes, especially the lower classes, and display a
+barbaric taste for jewels. It is not uncommon to see the wife of a
+wealthy man wear half a million pounds sterling in diamonds or rubies at
+the opera. I was told that one lady wore a $5,000 diamond in her garter.
+The utterly strange and contradictory customs of these women are best
+observed at the beach and bath. In China if a woman is modest she is so
+at all times; but this is not true with some Americans, who appear to
+have the desire to attract attention, especially that of men, by an
+appeal to the beautiful in nature and art; at least this is the
+impression the unprejudiced looker-on gains by a sojourn in the great
+cities and fashionable resorts. If you happen to be riding horseback, or
+walking in the street with a lady, and any accident occurs to her
+costume whereby her neck, her leg, or her ankle is exposed, she will be
+mortified beyond expression; yet the night previous you might have sat
+in the box with her at the opera, when her décolleté gown had made her
+the mark for hundreds of lorgnettes. Again, this lady the next morning
+might bathe with me at the beach and lie on the sand basking in the sun
+like a siren in a costume that would arrest the attention of a St.
+Anthony.
+
+Let me describe such a costume: A pair of skin-tight black stockings,
+then a pair of tights of black silk and a flimsy black skirt that comes
+just to the knee; a black silk waist, armless, and as low in the neck as
+the moral law permits, beneath which, to preserve her contour, is a
+water-proof corset. Limbs, to expose which an inch on the street were a
+crime, are blazoned to the world at Newport, Cape May, Atlantic City,
+and other resorts, and often photographed and shown in the papers. To
+explain this manifest contradiction would be beyond the powers of an
+Oriental, had he the prescience of the immortal Confucius and the
+divination of a Mahomet and Hilliel combined.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE SUPERSTITIONS OF THE AMERICANS
+
+
+Among the many topics I have discussed with Americans, our alleged
+superstitions, or our belief in so-called dragons, genii, ghosts, etc.,
+seem to have made the deepest impression. A charming American woman,
+whom I met at the ---- Embassy at dinner, told me with seriousness that
+our people may be intelligent, but the fact that in San Francisco and
+Los Angeles they at certain times drag through the streets a dragon five
+hundred feet long to exorcise the evil spirits, showed that the Chinese
+were grossly superstitious. If I had told my companion that she was the
+victim of a thousand superstitions, she would have taken it as an
+affront, because, according to American usage, it is not proper to
+dispute with a lady. The Americans are the most superstitious people in
+the world. They will not sit down to a dinner-table when there are
+thirteen persons. No hostess would attempt such a thing, the belief
+being general that some one of the guests would die within a year. I was
+a guest at a dinner-party when a lady suddenly remarked, "We are
+thirteen." Several of the guests were evidently much annoyed, and the
+hostess, a most pleasing woman, apologized, and replied that she had
+invited fourteen, but one guest had failed her. It was apparent that
+something must be done, and this was cleverly solved by the hostess
+sending for her mother, who joined the party, and the dinner proceeded.
+I do not think _all_ the guests believed in this absurd superstition,
+but they were _all_ very uncomfortable. I do not believe I met a
+society woman in Washington or New York who would walk through a
+cemetery or graveyard at midnight alone. I asked several ladies if they
+would do this, and all were horrified at the idea, though strongly
+denying any belief in ghosts or spirits.
+
+In nearly every American city one or more houses may be found haunted by
+ghosts, which Americans believe have made the places so disagreeable
+that the houses have been in consequence deserted. So well-defined is
+the superstition, and so recurrent are the beliefs in ghosts and
+spirits, that the best-educated people have found it necessary to
+establish a society, called the Society for Psychical Research, in order
+to demonstrate that ghosts are not possible. I believe I am not
+overstepping the bounds when I say that this vainglorious people, who
+claim to have the finest public-school system in the world, are,
+considering their advantages, the most superstitious of all the white
+races. Out of perhaps thirty men, whom I asked, not one was willing to
+say he could pass through a graveyard at night without fear at heart, an
+undefined nervous feeling, due to innate superstition. The middle-class
+woman who stumbles upstairs considers it to mean that she will not
+marry. To break a mirror, or receive as a present a knife, also means
+bad luck. Many people wear amulets, safe-guards, and good-luck stones.
+Several millions of the Catholic sect wear a charm, which they think
+will save them from sudden death. All Catholics believe that some of
+their churches own the bones of saints, which have the power to give
+them health and other good things. Many Americans wear the seed of the
+horse-chestnut, and many others wear lucky coins. Belief in the luck of
+the four-leaf clover, instead of that with three leaves, is so strong
+that people will spend hours in hunting for one. They are designed into
+pins and certain insignia, and used in a hundred other ways.
+
+But more remarkable than all is the old horseshoe superstition. I have
+seen beautifully gowned ladies stop their driver, descend from the
+carriage, and pick up such a shoe and carry it home, telling me that
+they never failed to pick up one, as it brought good luck; yet this lady
+laughed at our dragon! In the country, horseshoes are commonly seen over
+the doors of stables, and even of houses. These same people once hung
+women for witchcraft, and slaughtered women for persisting in certain
+religious beliefs. I had the pleasure of meeting a well-known man, who
+stated that he had the power of the "evil eye." Innumerable people
+believe the paw of an animal called the rabbit to contain sovereign good
+luck. They carry it about, and can buy it in shops. Indeed, I could fill
+a volume, much less a letter, with the absurd superstitions of these
+people who send women to China to convert the "Heathen Chinee," who may
+be "peculiar," as Mr. Harte states in his poem; but the Chinaman
+certainly has not the marvelous variety of superstitions possessed by
+the American, who does not allow cats about rooms where there are
+infants, fearing that they will suck the child's breath; who believe
+that certain snakes milk cows, and that mermen are possible. I stood in
+a tent last summer at Atlantic City--a large seaside resort--and watched
+a line of middle-class people passing to see a "Chinese mermaid," of the
+kind the Japanese manufacture so cleverly. It was to be seen on the
+water. All, so far as I could judge, accepted it as real. So much for
+the influence of the American public school, where physiology is taught.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE AMERICAN PRESS
+
+
+One feature of American life is so peculiar that I fear I can not
+present it to you clearly, as there is nothing like it under the sun. I
+refer to the newspapers. If such an institution should appear in any
+Oriental country, or even in Russia, many heads would fall to the ground
+for treason or gross disrespect to the power of the throne. The American
+must not only have the news of his neighbor, but the news of the world
+every hour in the day, and the newspapers furnish it. In the villages
+they appear weekly, in the towns daily, in the great cities hourly, boys
+screaming their names, shouting and yelling like demons. Yesterday
+beneath the window a boy screamed, "The Empress of China elopes with
+her coachman!" I bought the paper, in which a column was devoted to it.
+Fancy this in Pekin. Shades of ----! I can not better describe these
+papers than to say they have absolute license as to what to print, this
+freedom being a principle, but it is grossly abused by blackmailers. The
+papers have no respect for man, woman, or child, the President or the
+Deity. The most flagrant attacks are made upon private persons. Rarely
+is an editor shot or imprisoned. The President may be called vile names,
+his appearance may become the butt of ridicule in opposition papers, and
+cartoonists, employed at large salaries, draw insulting pictures of him
+and his Cabinet. One would think that the way to obtain patronage of a
+person would be to praise him, but this would be considered an
+orientalism. The real way to secure readers in America is to abuse,
+insult, and outrage private feelings, the argument being that people
+will buy the journal to see what is said about them. All the American
+press is not founded upon this system of virtual blackmail. There are
+respectable papers, conservative and honorable; but I believe I am not
+overstating it when I say that every large city has at least one paper
+where the secrets of a family and its most sacred traditions are treated
+as lawful game.
+
+The actual heads of papers have often been men of high standing, as
+Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond, E. L. Godkin, Henry Watterson, the
+late Charles A. Dana, James Gordon Bennett, and William Cullen Bryant.
+But in the modern newspaper the man in control is a managing editor,
+whose tenure of office depends upon his keeping ahead of all others.
+The press, then, with its telegraphic connection with the world, with
+its thousands of readers, is a power, and in the hands of a man of small
+mind becomes a menace to civilization and easily drifts into blackmail.
+This is displayed in a thousand ways, especially in politics. The editor
+desires to obtain "influence," the power to secure places for his
+favorites, and, if he is slighted, he intimates to the men in power,
+"Appoint my candidate or I will attack you." This is a virtual threat.
+In this way the editor intimidates the office-holder. I was informed by
+a good authority of two journals of standing in America which he knew
+were started as "blackmailing sheets"; and certainly the license of the
+press is in every way diabolical, a result of the American dogma of free
+speech. When one arrives in America he is met with dozens of
+representatives of the press, who ask a thousand and one personal and
+impertinent questions, which, if one does not answer, one is attacked in
+some insidious way. One man I know refused to listen to a very
+importunate newspaper man, and was congratulating himself on his escape,
+when on the following day an article appeared in the paper giving
+several libelous pictures of him, the object being to show that he had
+nothing to say because he was mentally deficient. He appealed to the
+editor, but was told that his only recourse was to sue. As one walks
+down the gangplank of a ship he may become the mark for ten or fifteen
+cameras, which photograph him without permission, and whose owners will
+"poke fun" at his resistance.
+
+As a news-collecting medium the press of the United States is a
+magnificent organization. At breakfast you receive the news of the
+whole world--social, diplomatic, criminal, and religious. Meetings of
+Congress and stories of private life are alike all served up, fully
+illustrated with pictures of the people and events. A corner is devoted
+to children, another to women, another to religious Americans, and a
+little sermon is preached. Then there are suggestive pictures for the
+man about town, recipes for the cook, weather reports for the traveler,
+a story for the romancer, perhaps a poem, and an editorial page, where
+ideas and theories are promulgated and opinions manufactured on all
+subjects, ready made for adoption by the reader, who in many instances
+has his thinking done for him. I made a test of this, and asked a number
+of men for their opinion on a certain subject, and then guessed the name
+of their favorite paper, and in most instances was correct. They all
+claimed that they took the paper because it agreed with their political
+ideas; but I am confident that the reverse is true, the paper having
+insidiously trained them to adopt its view. Here we see where the power
+of one man or editor comes in, and worse yet, a nation which acquires
+this "newspaper habit," this having some one to think for it by
+machinery, as it were, will lose its mental power, its facility in
+analysis. I made bold to suggest this to a prominent man, but he merely
+laughed. As a whole, the American newspapers are valuable; they are the
+real educators of the people, and have a vast influence. For this reason
+there should be some restriction imposed on them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE AMERICAN DOCTOR
+
+
+At a dinner at Manchester in the summer I had as my _vis-à-vis_ a
+delightful young American, who, among other things, said to me: "It is
+astonishing to me that so many of your people live long, considering the
+ignorance of your doctors." I assured her that this was merely her point
+of view, and that we were well satisfied with our doctors or physicians.
+I wished to retaliate by telling my fair companion a story I had heard
+the day previous. An American physician operated upon a man and removed
+what he called a "cyst," which he displayed with some pride to a doctor
+of another school. "Why, man," said the latter, "that isn't a cyst;
+it's the man's kidney!"
+
+The Americans have made rapid advances in medicine and surgery, and they
+have some extraordinary physicians. From two to four years of study
+completes the education of some of the doctors, and hundreds are turned
+out every year. Some are of the old and regular school of medicine, but
+others are called homeopathic, which means that they give small doses of
+the more powerful medicines. Then there are those who practise in both
+schools. Indeed, in no other field does ignorance, superstition,
+credulity, and lack of real education display itself as among the
+American doctors or healers. I believe I could fill a volume by the mere
+enumeration of the diabolical and absurd nostrums offered by knaves to
+heal men who profess to hold in ridicule the Chinese doctors. I mention
+but a few, and when I tell you, as a truth beyond cavil, that the most
+extraordinary of these healers, the most impossible, have the largest
+following, you can see what I mean by the credulity of the people as a
+whole. Christian Science doctors have a following of tens of thousands.
+They combine so-called science with religion; leave their God to cure
+them at long or short range through the medium of so-called agents. The
+head of this faction is an ignorant but clever woman, who has turned the
+heads of perhaps thirty-three and a third per cent of the American women
+whom she has come in contact with.
+
+Then come the faith curists, who rely upon faith alone. You simply are
+to _think_ you will get well. Of course, many die from neglect. As an
+illustration of the credulity of the average American, a Christian
+Science healer was once treating a sick woman from a distant town, and
+finally the patient died. When the bill was presented the husband said,
+"You have charged for treatment two weeks after my wife died." It was a
+fact that the healer had been treating the woman after she was buried,
+the husband having failed to give notice of the death. One would have
+expected the "healer" to be thrown into confusion, but far from it; she
+merely replied, "I thought I noticed a vacancy."
+
+Next come the musical curists, who listen to thrills of sound, a big
+organ being the doctor. Then there is the psychometric doctor, who cures
+by spirits. The spirit doctor cures in the same way. The palmist
+professes to point out how to avoid the ills of life. Magnetic healers
+have hundreds of victims in every city. Their advertisements in the
+journals of all sorts are of countless kinds. Some cure at short hand,
+some miles distant from the patient. They are equaled in numbers by the
+hypnotists, or hypnotic doctors, who profess to throw their patients
+into a trance and cure them by suggestion. I heard of one cure in which
+the guileless American is made to lie in an open grave; this is called
+"the return to nature." Again, patients are cured by being buried in hot
+mud or in hot sand. I have seen a salt-water cure, where patients were
+made to remain in the ocean ten hours a day. The plain water cure has
+thousands of followers, with hospitals and infirmaries, where the
+patient is bathed, soaked, filled, washed, and plunged in water and
+charged a high amount.
+
+Then there is the vegetarian cure, no meat being eaten; and there are
+the meat eaters, who use no vegetables. There are over fifty thousand
+_masseurs_ and osteopaths in the country, who cure by baths and
+rubbing. You may have a bath of milk, water, electricity, or alcohol, or
+a bath of any description under the sun, which is guaranteed to cure any
+and all ailments. Perhaps the most extraordinary curists are the color
+doctors. They have rooms filled with blue and other colors, in whose
+rays the patient victim or the victim patient sits, "like Patience on a
+monument." I could not begin to give you an enumeration of the various
+kinds of electric cures; they are legion. But the most amazing class
+comprises the patent-medicine men, who are usually not doctors at all,
+but buy from some one a "cure" and then advertise it, spending in one
+instance which I investigated one million dollars a year. Every
+advantageous wall, stone, or cliff in America will be posted. You see
+the name at every turn, and the gullible Americans bite, chew, and
+swallow.
+
+It is not overstating facts when I say that three-fifths of the people
+buy some of these patent nostrums, which the real medical men denounce,
+showing that the masses of the people are densely ignorant, the victims
+of any faker who may shout his wares loud enough. In China such a thing
+would be impossible; the block would stop the practise; but, my dear
+----, the Americans assure me China is a thousand years behind the
+times, for which let us be devoutly thankful! I have not enumerated a
+tenth of the kinds of doctors who prey upon these unfortunate people.
+There are companies of them, who guarantee to cure anything, and
+skilfully mulct the sick of their last penny. There are retreats for the
+unfortunate, farms for deserted infants, and homes for unfortunate
+women carried on by villains of both sexes. There are traveling doctors
+who go from town to town, who cure "while you wait," and give a circus
+while talking and selling their cure; and in nine cases out of ten the
+nostrum is an alcoholic drink disguised.
+
+In no land under the sun are there so many ignorant blatant fakers
+preying on a people, and in no land do you find so credulous a throng as
+in America, yet claiming to represent the cream of the intelligence of
+the world; they are so easily led that the most impossible person, if he
+be a good talker, can go abroad and by the use of money and audacity
+secure a following to drink his salt water, paying a dollar a bottle for
+it and sing his praises. Such a doctor can secure the names and pictures
+of judges, governors of States, senators, congressmen, prominent men and
+women, officers of the volunteer army, artists, actors, singers--in
+fact, prominent people of all kinds will provide their pictures and give
+testimonials, which are blazonly published. These same people go to
+Chinese drug shops and laugh at the "heathen" drugs, and wonder why the
+Chinaman is alive. America has a body of physicians and surgeons who are
+a credit to the world, modest, conscientious, and with a high sense of
+honor, but they are as a dragon's tooth in a multitude to the so-called
+"quacks," who take the money of the masses and prey upon them, protected
+in many cases by the law. No one profession so demonstrates the abject
+credulity of the great mass of Americans as that of medicine.
+
+One other incident may further illustrate the jokes these so-called
+doctors play upon the common people. In a country town was a "quack"
+doctor, who professed to be a "head examiner," giving people charts
+according to their "bumps," a fad which has many followers. "This,
+ladies and gentlemen," said the lecturer, holding out a small skull, "is
+the skull of Alexander the Great at the age of six. Note the prominent
+brow. This [holding up a larger skull] is the same at the age of ten.
+This [holding out another] at the age of twenty-one; [then stepping out
+to the front of the stage] this is the _complete_ skull of Alexander at
+the time of his death." All of which appeared to be accepted in good
+faith.
+
+Of the best physicians in America one can not say enough in praise. I
+was most impressed by their high sense of honor. They have an agreement
+which they call their "ethics," by which they will not advertise or call
+attention to their learning. Consequently, the lower and ignorant
+classes are caught by the blatant chaff of the patent-medicine venders
+and the quack doctors. What the word "quack" means in this sense I do
+not quite know; literally, it is the cry of the goose. The "regular
+doctor" will not take advantage of any medicine he may discover, or any
+instrument; all belongs to humanity, and one doctor becomes famous over
+another by his success in keeping people from dying. The grateful
+patient saved, tells his friends, and so the doctor becomes known. In
+all America I never heard of a doctor that acted on the principle which
+holds among our doctors, that the best way to cure is to watch the
+patient and keep him well, or prevent him from being taken sick. The
+Americans, in their conceit, consider Chinese doctors ignorant fakers;
+yet, so far as I can learn, the death-rate among the Chinese, city for
+city, country for country, is less than among Americans. The Chinese
+women are longer lived and less subject to disease. In what is known as
+New England, the oldest well-populated section of the country, people
+would die out were it not for the constant accession of immigrants. On
+the other hand, the Chinese constantly increase, despite a policy of
+non-intercourse with foreigners. The Americans have, in a civilization
+dating back to 1492, already begun to show signs of decadence, and are
+only saved by constant immigration. China has a civilization of
+thousands of years, and is increasing in population every day, yet her
+doctors and their methods are ridiculed by the Americans. The people
+have many sayings here, one of which is, "The proof of the pudding lies
+in the eating." It seems applicable to this case.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+PECULIARITIES AND MANNERISMS
+
+
+One finds it difficult to learn the language fluently because of a
+peculiar second language called "slang," which is in use even among the
+fashionable classes. I despair of conveying any clear idea of it, as we
+have no exact equivalent. As near as I can judge, it is first composed
+by professional actors on the stage. Some funny remark being constantly
+repeated, as a part of a taking song, becomes slang, conveying a certain
+meaning, and is at once adopted by the people, especially by a class who
+pose as leaders in all towns, but who are not exactly the best, but
+charming imitations of the best, we may say. To illustrate this
+"jargon," I took a drive with a young lady at Manchester--a seaside
+resort. Her father was a man of good family, an official, and she was an
+attendant at a fashionable school. The following occurred in the
+conversation. Her slang is italicized:
+
+Heathen Chinee: "It is very dull this week, Miss ----."
+
+Young lady, sententiously: "_Bum._"
+
+Heathen Chinee: "I hope it will be less bum soon."
+
+Young lady: "_It's all off with me all right_, if it don't change soon,
+_and don't you forget it_!"
+
+Heathen Chinee: "I wish I could do something."
+
+Young lady: "Well, you'll have to _get a move on you_, as I go back to
+school to-morrow; then there'll be _something doing_."
+
+Heathen Chinee: "Have you seen ---- lately?"
+
+Young lady: "Yes, and isn't he _a peach_? Ah, he's a _peacharina_, and
+_don't you forget it_!"
+
+Young lady (passing a friend): "_Ah, there_! why _so toppy_? _Nay, nay,
+Pauline_," this in reply to remarks from a friend; then turning to me,
+"Isn't she a _jim dandy_? _Say_, have you any girls in China that can
+_top_ her?"
+
+These are only a few of the slang expressions which occur to me. They
+are countless and endless. Such a girl in meeting a friend, instead of
+saying good-morning, says, "_Ah, there_," which is the slang for this
+salutation. If she wished to express a difference of opinion with you
+she would say, "_Oh, come off._" This girl would probably outgrow this
+if she moved in the very best circle, but the shop-girl of a common type
+lives in a whirl of slang; it becomes second nature, while the young men
+of all classes seem to use nothing else, and we often see the jargon of
+the lowest class used by some of the best people. There has been
+compiled a dictionary of slang; books are written on it, and an adept,
+say a "rough" or "hoodlum," it is said can carry on a conversation with
+nothing else. Thus, "Hi, cully, what's on?" to which comes in answer,
+"Hunki dori." All this means that a man has said, "How do you do, how
+are you, and what are you doing?" and thus learned in reply that
+everything is all right. A number of gentlemen were posing for a lady
+before a camera. "Have you finished?" asked one. "Yes, _it's all off_,"
+was the reply, "and _a peach_, I think." It is unnecessary to say that
+among really refined people this slang is never heard, and would be
+considered a gross solecism, which gives me an opportunity to repeat
+that the really cultivated Americans, and they are many, are among the
+most delightful and charming of people.
+
+They have strange habits, these Americans. The men chew tobacco,
+especially in the South, and in Virginia I have seen men spitting five
+or six feet, evidently taking pride in their skill in striking a
+"cuspidore." In every hotel, office, or public place are
+cuspidores--which become targets for these chewers. This is a national
+habit, extraordinary in so enlightened a people. So ridiculous has it
+made the Americans, so much has been written about it by such visitors
+as Charles Dickens, that the State governments have determined to take
+up the "spitting" question, and now there is a fine of from $10 to $100
+for any one spitting in a car or on a hotel floor. Nearly all the
+"up-to-date" towns have passed anti-spitting laws. Up to this time, or
+even during my college days in America, this habit made walking on the
+sidewalk a most disagreeable function, and the interior of cars was a
+horror. Is not this remarkable in a people who claim so much? In the
+South certain white men and women chew snuff--a gross habit.
+
+In the North they also have a strange custom, called chewing gum. This
+gum is the exudation from certain trees, and is manufactured into plates
+and sold in an attractive form, merely to chew like tobacco, and young
+and old may be seen chewing with great velocity. The children forget
+themselves and chew with great force, their jaws working like those of a
+cow chewing her cud, only more rapidly; and to see a party of three or
+four chewing frantically is one of the "sights" in America, which
+astonishes the Heathen Chinee and convinces him that, in the slang of
+the country, "_there are others_" who are peculiar. There are many
+manufactories of this stuff, which is harmless, though such constant
+chewing can but affect the size of the muscles of the jaw if the theory
+of evolution is to be believed; at least there will be no atrophy of
+these parts.
+
+In New England, the northeastern portion of the country, this habit
+appeared to be more prevalent, and I asked several scientific persons if
+they had made any attempt to trace the history of the habit or to find
+anything to attribute it to. One learned man told me that he had made a
+special study of the habit, and believed that it was merely the modern
+expression in human beings of the cud chewing of ruminating mammals, as
+cows, goats, etc. In a word, the gum-chewing Americans are trying to
+chew their cud as did their ancestors. Any habit like this is seized
+upon by manufacturers for their personal profit, and every expedient is
+employed to induce people to chew. The gum is mixed with perfumes, and
+sold as a breath purifier; others mix it with pepsin, to aid the
+digestion; some with something else, which is sold on ships and
+excursion-boats as a cure or preventive for seasickness, all of which
+finds a large sale among the credulous Americans, who by a clever leader
+can be made to take up any fad or habit.
+
+The Americans have a peculiar habit of "treating"; that is, one of a
+party will "treat" or buy a certain article and distribute it
+gratuitously to one or ten people. A young lady may treat her friends to
+gum, ice-cream, soda-water, or to a theater party. A matron may treat
+her friends to "high-balls" or cocktails at the club. The man confines
+his "treats" to drinks and cigars. Thus five or six Americans may meet
+in a club or barroom for the sale of liquors. One says, "Come up and
+have something;" or "What will you have, gentlemen; this is on me;" or
+in some places the treater says, "Let's liquor," and all step up, the
+drinks are dispensed, and the treater pays. You might suppose that he
+was deserving of some encomium, but not at all; he expects that the
+others will take their turn in treating, or at least this is the
+assumption; and if the party is engaged in social conversation each in
+turn will "treat," the others taking what they wish to drink or smoke.
+There is a code of etiquette regarding the treat. Thus, unless you are
+invited, it would be bad form among gentlemen to order wine when invited
+to drink unless the "treater" asks you to have wine; he means a drink of
+whisky, brandy, or a mixed drink, or you may take soda or a cigar, or
+you may refuse. It is a gross solecism to accept a cigar and put it in
+your pocket; you should not take it unless you smoke it on the spot.
+
+Drinking to excess is frowned upon by all classes, and a drunkard is
+avoided and despised; but the amount an American will drink in a day is
+astonishing. A really delightful man told me that he did not drink much,
+and this was his daily experience: before breakfast a champagne
+cocktail; two or three drinks during the forenoon; a pint of white or
+red wine at lunch; two or three cocktails in the afternoon; a cocktail
+at dinner, with two glasses of wine; and in the evening at the club
+several drinks before bedtime! This man was never drunk, and never
+_appeared_ to be under the influence of liquor, yet he was in reality
+never actually sober; and he is a type of a large number in the great
+cities who constitute what is termed the "man about town."
+
+The Americans are not a wine-drinking people. Whisky, and of a very
+excellent quality, is the national drink, while vast quantities of beer
+are consumed, though they make the finest red and white wines. All the
+grog-shops are licensed by the Government and State--that is, made to
+pay a tax; but in the country there is a political party, the
+Prohibitionists, who would drive out all wine and liquor. These, working
+with the conservative people, often succeed in preventing saloons from
+opening in certain towns; but in large cities there are from one to two
+saloons to the block in the districts where they are allowed.
+
+Taking everything into consideration, I think the Americans a temperate
+people. They organize in a thousand directions to fight drinking and
+other vices, and millions of dollars are expended yearly in this
+direction. A peculiar quality about the American humor is that they joke
+about the most serious things. In fact, drink and drinking afford
+thousands of stories, the point of which is often very obscure to an
+alien. Here is one, told to illustrate the cleverness of a drinker. He
+walked into a bar and ordered a "tin-roof cocktail." The barkeeper was
+nonplussed, and asked what a tin-roof cocktail was. "Why, it's on the
+house." I leave you to figure it out, but the barkeeper paid the bill.
+The ingenuity of the Americans is shown in their mixed drinks. They have
+cocktails, high-balls, ponies, straights, fizzes, and many other drinks.
+Books are written on the subject. I have seen a book devoted entirely to
+cocktails. Certain papers offer prizes for the invention of new drinks.
+I have told you that, all in all, America is a temperate country,
+especially when its composite character is considered; yet if the nation
+has a curse, a great moral drawback, it is the habit of drinking at the
+public bar.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+LIFE IN WASHINGTON
+
+
+One of the best-known American authors has immortalized the Chinaman in
+some of his verses. It was some time before I understood the smile which
+went around when some one in my presence suggested a game of poker. I
+need not repeat the poem, but the essence of it is that the "Heathen
+Chinee is peculiar." Doubtless Mr. Harte is right, but the Chinaman and
+his ways are not more peculiar to the American than American customs and
+contradictions are to the Chinaman. If there is any race on the earth
+that is peculiar, it is the "Heathen Yankee," the good-hearted,
+ingenuous product of all the nations of the earth--black, red, white,
+brown, all but "yellow." Imagine yourself going out to what they call a
+"stag" dinner, and having an officer of the ranking of lieutenant shout,
+"Hi, John, pass the wine!"
+
+Washington can not be said to be a typical American city. It is the
+center of _official_ life, and abounds in statesmen of all grades. I
+have attended one of the President's receptions, to which the diplomats
+went in a body; then followed the army and navy, General Miles, a
+good-looking, soldier-like man, leading the former, and Admiral Dewey
+the latter, a fine body of men, all in full uniform, unpretentious, and
+quiet compared to similar men in other nations. I passed in line, and
+found the President, standing with several persons, the center of a
+group. The announcement and presentation were made by an officer in full
+uniform, and beyond this there was no formality, indeed, an abundance
+of republican simplicity; only the uniforms saved it from the
+commonplace.
+
+The President is a man of medium size, thick-set, and inclined to be
+fleshy, with an interesting, smooth face, eye clear and glance alert. He
+grasped me quickly by the hand, but shook it gingerly, giving the
+impression that he was endeavoring to anticipate me, called me by name,
+and made a pleasant allusion to ---- of ----. He has a high forehead and
+what you would term an intelligent face, but not one you would pick out
+as that of a great man; and from a study of his work I should say that
+he is of a class of advanced politicians, clever in political intrigue,
+quick to grasp the best situation for himself or party; a man of high
+moral character, but not a great statesman, only a man with high ideals
+and sentiments and the faculty of impressing the masses that he is
+great. The really intelligent class regard him as a useful man, and
+safe. It is a curious fact that the chief appreciation of President
+McKinley, I was informed, came from the masses, who say, "He is so kind
+to his wife" (a great invalid); or "He is a model husband." Why there
+should be anything remarkable in a man's being kind, attentive, and
+loyal to an invalid spouse I could not see. Her influence with him is
+said to be remarkable. One day she asked the President to promote a
+certain officer, the son of one of the greatest of American generals, to
+a very high rank. He did so, despite the fact that, as an officer said,
+the army roared with laughter and rage.
+
+The influence of women is an important factor in Washington life. I was
+presented to an officer who obtained his commission in the following
+manner: Two very attractive ladies in Washington were discussing their
+relative influence with the powers that be, when one remarked, "To show
+you what I can do, name a man and I will obtain a commission in the army
+for him." The other lady named a private soldier, whose stupidity was a
+matter of record, and a few days later he became an officer; but the
+story leaked out.
+
+President McKinley is a popular President with the masses, but the
+aristocrats regard him with indifference. It is a singular fact, but the
+Vice-President, Mr. Roosevelt, attracts more attention than the
+President. He is a type that is appreciated in America, what they term
+in the West a "hustler"; active, wide-awake, intense, "strenuous," all
+these terms are applied to him. Said an officer in the field service to
+me, "Roosevelt is playing on a ninety-nine-year run of luck; he always
+lands on his feet at the right time and place." "What they call a man
+of destiny," I suggested. "Yes," he replied; "he is the Yankee Oliver
+Cromwell. He can't help 'getting there,' and he has a sturdy, evident
+honesty of purpose that carries him through. A team of six horses won't
+keep him out of the White House." This is the general opinion regarding
+the Vice-President, that while he is not a remarkable statesman, he
+already overshadows the President in the eyes of the public. I think the
+secret is that he is young and a hero, and what the Americans call an
+all-around man; not brilliant in any particular line, but a man of
+energy, like our ----.
+
+He looks it. A smooth face, square, determined jaw, with a look about
+the eye suggestive that he would ride you down if you stood in the way.
+I judge him to be a man of honor, high purpose, as my friend said, of
+the Cromwell type, inclined to preach, and who also has what the
+Americans call the "get-there" quality. In conversation Vice-President
+Roosevelt is hearty and open, a poor diplomat, but a talker who comes to
+the point. He says what he thinks, and asks no favor. He acts as though
+he wished to clap you on the shoulder and be familiar. It will be
+difficult for you to understand that such a man is second in rank in
+this great nation. There are no imposing surroundings, no glamor of
+attendance, only Roosevelt, strong as a water-ox in a rice-field,
+smiling, all on the surface, ready to fight for his friend or his
+country. Author, cowboy, stockman, soldier, essayist, historian,
+sportsman, clever with the boxing-gloves or saber, hurdle-jumper, crack
+revolver and rifle shot, naturalist and aristocrat, such is the
+all-around Vice-President of the United States--a man who will make a
+strong impression upon the history of the century if he is not shot by
+Socialists.
+
+I have it from those who know, that President McKinley would be killed
+in less than a week if the guards about the White House were removed. He
+never makes a move without guards or detectives, and the secret-service
+men surround him as carefully as possible. It would be an easy matter to
+kill him. Like all officials, he is accessible to almost any one with an
+apparently legitimate object. Two Presidents have been murdered; all are
+threatened continually by half-insane people called "cranks," and by the
+professional Socialists, mainly foreigners. Both the President and
+Vice-President are well-dressed men. President McKinley, when I was
+granted an audience, wore a long-tailed black "frock coat" and vest,
+light trousers, and patent leather or varnished shoes, and standing
+collar. The Vice-President was similarly dressed, but with a "turn-down"
+collar. The two men are said to make a "strong team," and it is a
+foregone conclusion that the Vice-President will succeed President
+McKinley. This is already talked of by the society people at Newport.
+"It is a long time," said a lady at Newport, "since we have had a
+President who represented an old and distinguished family. The McKinleys
+were from the ordinary ranks of life, but eminently respectable, while
+Roosevelt is an old and honored name in New York, identified with the
+history of the State; in a word, typical of the American aristocracy,
+bearing arms by right of heritage."
+
+I have frequently met Admiral Dewey, already so well known in China. He
+is a small man, with bright eyes, who already shows the effects of
+years. Nothing could illustrate the volatile, uncertain character of the
+American than the downfall of the admiral as a popular idol. Here a
+"peculiarity" of the American is seen. Carried away by political and
+public adulation, the old sailor's new wife, the sister of a prominent
+politician, became seized with a desire to make him President. Then the
+hero lovers raised a large sum and purchased a house for the admiral;
+but the politicians ignored him as a candidate, which was a humiliation,
+and the donors of the house demanded their money returned when the
+admiral placed the gift in the name of his wife; and so for a while the
+entire people turned against the gallant sailor, who was criticized,
+jeered at, and ridiculed. All he had accomplished in one of the most
+remarkable victories in the history of modern warfare was forgotten in
+a moment, to the lasting disgrace of his critics.
+
+One of the interesting places in Washington is the Capitol, perhaps the
+most splendid building in any land. Here we see the men whom the
+Americans select to make laws for them. The looker-on is impressed with
+the singular fact that most of the senators are very wealthy men; and it
+is said that they seek the position for the honor and power it confers.
+I was told that so many are millionaires that it gave rise to the
+suspicion that they bought their way in, and this has been boldly
+claimed as to many of them. This may be the treasonable suggestion of
+some enemy; but that money plays a part in some elections there is
+little doubt. I believe this is so in England, where elections have
+often been carried by money.
+
+The American Senate is a dignified body, and I doubt if it have a peer
+in the world. The men are elected by the State legislatures, not by the
+people at large, a method which makes it easy for an unprincipled
+millionaire or his political manager to buy votes sufficient to seat his
+patron. The fact that senators are mainly rich does not imply unfitness,
+but quite the contrary. Only a genius can become a multi-millionaire in
+America, and hence the senators are in the main bright men. When
+observing these men and enabled to look into their records, I was
+impressed by the fact that, despite the advantages of education, this
+wonderful country has produced few really great men, and there is not at
+this time a great man on the horizon.
+
+America has no Gladstone, no Salisbury, no Bright. Lincoln, Blaine and
+Sumner are names which impress me as approximating greatness; they made
+an impression on American history that will be enduring. Then there are
+Frye, Reed, Garfield, McKinley, Cleveland, who were little great men,
+and following them a distinguished company, as Hanna, Conkling, Hay,
+Hayes, and others, who were superior men of affairs. A distinctly great
+national figure has not appeared in America since Daniel Webster, Henry
+Clay, and Rufus Choate--all men too great to become President. It
+appears to be the fate of the republic not to place its greatest men in
+the White House, and by this I mean great statesmen. General Grant was a
+great man, a heroic figure, but not a statesman. Lincoln is considered a
+great man. He is called the "Liberator"; but I can conceive that none
+but a very crude mind, inspired by a false sentiment, could have made a
+horde of slaves, the most ignorant people on the globe, the political
+equals of the American people. A great man in such a crisis would have
+resisted popular clamor and have refused them suffrage until they had
+been prepared to receive it by at least some education. Americans are
+prone to call their great politicians statesmen. Blaine, Reed, Conkling,
+Harrison were types of statesmen; Hanna, Quay, and others are
+politicians.
+
+The Lower House was a disappointment to me. There are too many ordinary
+men there. They do not look great, and at the present time there is not
+a really great man in the Lower House. There are too many cheap lawyers
+and third-rate politicians there. Good business men are required, but
+such men can not afford to take the position. I heard a great captain of
+industry, who had been before Congress with a committee, say that he
+never saw "so many asses together in all his life"; but this was an
+extreme view. The House may not compare intellectually with the House of
+Commons, but it contains many bright men. A fool could hardly get in,
+though the labor unions have placed some vicious representatives there.
+The lack of manners distressed a lady acquaintance of mine, who, in a
+burst of indignation at seeing a congressman sitting with his feet on
+his desk, said that there was not a man in Congress who had any social
+position in Washington or at home, which, let us trust, is not true.
+
+As I came from the White House some days ago I met a delegation of
+native Indians going in, a sad sight. In Indian affairs occurs a page of
+national history which the Americans are not proud of. In less than four
+hundred years they have almost literally been wiped from the face of the
+earth; the whites have waged a war of extermination, and the pitiful
+remnant now left is fast disappearing. In no land has the survival of
+the fittest found a more remarkable illustration. But the Indians are
+having their revenge. The Americans long ago brought over Africans as
+slaves; then, as the result of a war of words and war of fact, suddenly
+released them all, and, at one fell move, in obedience to the hysterical
+cries of their people, gave these ignorant semisavages and slaves the
+same political rights as themselves.
+
+Imagine the condition of things! The most ignorant and debased of races
+suddenly receives rights and privileges and is made the equal of
+American citizens. So strange a move was never seen or heard of
+elsewhere, and the result has been relations more than strained and
+always increasing between the whites and the blacks in the South. As
+voters the negroes secure many positions in the South above their old
+masters. I have seen a negro[2] sitting in the Vice-President's chair in
+the United States Senate; while white Southern senators were pacing the
+outer corridors in rage and disgust. There are generally one or more
+black men in Congress, and they are given a few offices as a sop. With
+one hand the Americans place millions of them on a plane with themselves
+as free and independent citizens, and with the other refuse them the
+privileges of such citizenship. They may enter the army as privates, but
+any attempt to make them officers is a failure--white officers will not
+associate with them. It is impossible for a negro to graduate from the
+Naval Academy, though he has the right to do so. I was told that white
+sailors would shoot him if placed over them. Several negroes have been
+appointed as students, but none as yet have been able to pass the
+examination. Here we see the strange and contradictory nature of the
+Americans. The white master of the South had the black woman nurse his
+children. Thousands of mulattoes in the country show that the whites
+took advantage of the women in other ways, marriage between blacks and
+whites being prohibited. When it comes to according the blacks
+recognition as social equals, the people North and South resent even the
+thought. The negro woman may provide the sustenance of life for the
+white baby, but I venture to say that any Southern man, or Northern one
+for that matter, would rather see his daughter die than be married to a
+negro. So strong is this feeling that I believe in the extreme South if
+a negro persisted in his addresses to a white woman he would be shot,
+and no jury or judge could be found to convict the white man.
+
+In the North the negro has certain rights. He can ride in the
+street-cars, go to the theater, enter restaurants, but I doubt if large
+hotels would entertain him. In the South every train has its separate
+cars for negroes; every station its waiting-room for them; even on the
+street-cars they are divided off by a wire rail or screen, and sit
+beneath a sign, which advertises this free, independent, but black
+American voter as being not fit to sit by the side of his political
+brother. This causes a bitter feeling, and the time is coming when the
+blacks will revolt. Already criminal attacks upon white women are not
+uncommon, and a virtual reign of terror exists in some portions of the
+South, where it is said that white women are never left unprotected; and
+the negro, if he attacks a white woman, is almost invariably burned
+alive, with the horrible ghastly features that attend an Indian
+scalping. The crowd carry off bits of skin, hair, finger-nails, and rope
+as trophies. In fact, these "burnings" are the most extraordinary
+features in this "enlightened" country. The papers denounce them and
+compare the people to ghouls; yet these same people accuse the Chinese
+of being cruel, barbarous, insensible to cruelty, and "pagans." It is
+true we have pirates and criminals, but the horrible features of the
+lynchings in America during the last ten years I believe have no
+counterpart in the history of China in the last five hundred.
+
+In Washington the servants are blacks; irresponsible, childlike, aping
+the vanities of the white people. They are "niggers"; the mulattoes, the
+illegitimate offspring of whites, form another and totally distinct
+class of colored society, and are the aristocracy. Rarely will a mulatto
+girl marry a black man, and _vice versa_. They have their clubs and
+their functions, their professional men, including lawyers and doctors,
+as have the white people. They present a strange and singular feature.
+Despised by their fathers, half-sisters, and brothers, denied any social
+recognition, hating their black ancestry, they are socially "between the
+devil and the deep sea." The negro question constitutes the gravest one
+now before the American people. He is increasing rapidly, but in the
+years since the civil war no pure-blooded negro has given evidence of
+brilliant attainments. Frederick Douglas, Senator Bruce, and Booker T.
+Washington rank with many white Americans in authorship, diplomacy, and
+scholarship; but Douglas and Bruce were mulattoes, and Booker
+Washington's father was an unknown white man. These men are held in high
+esteem, but the social line has been drawn against them, though Douglas
+married a white woman.
+
+Balls are a feature of life in Washington. The women appear in full
+dress, which means that the arms and neck are exposed, and the men wear
+evening dress. The dances are mostly "round." The man takes a lady to
+the ball, and when he dances seizes her in an embrace which would be
+considered highly improper under ordinary circumstances, but the
+etiquette of the dance makes it permissible. He places his right arm
+around her waist, takes her left hand in his, holds her close to him,
+and both begin to move around to the special music designed for this
+peculiar motion, which may be a "waltz," or a "two-step," or a "gallop,"
+or a "schottische," all being different and having different music or
+time, or there may be various kinds of music for each. At times the
+music is varied, being a gliding, scooping, swooping slide,
+indescribable. When the dancers feel the approach of giddiness they
+reverse the whirl or move backward.
+
+Many Washington men have become famous as dancers, and quite outshadow
+war heroes. All the officers of the army and navy are taught these
+dances at the Military and Naval Academies, it being a national policy
+to be agreeable to ladies; at least this must be so, as the men never
+dance together. To see several hundred people whirling about, as I have
+seen them at the inaugural of the President, is one of the most
+remarkable scenes to be observed in America. The man in Washington who
+can not dance is a "wallflower"--that is, he never leaves the wall.
+There is a professional champion who has danced eight out of
+twenty-four hours without stopping. A yearly convention of
+dancing-school professors is held. These men, with much dignity, meet in
+various cities and discuss various dances, how to grasp the partner, and
+other important questions. Some time ago the question was whether the
+"gent" should hold a handkerchief in the hand he pressed upon the back
+of the lady, a professor having testified before the convention that he
+had seen the imprint of a man's hand on the white dress of a lady. The
+acumen displayed at these conventions is profound and impressive. Here
+you observe a singular fact. The good dancer may be an officer of high
+social standing, but the dancing-teacher, even though he be famous as
+such, is _persona non grata_, so far as society is concerned. A
+professional dancer, fighter, wrestler, cook, musician, and a hundred
+more are not acceptable in society except in the strict line of their
+profession; but a professional civil or naval engineer, an organist, an
+artist, a decorator (household), and an architect are received by the
+elect in Washington.
+
+I have alluded to the craze for joking among young ladies in society. At
+a dinner a reigning beauty, and daughter of ----, who sat next to me,
+talked with me on dancing. She told me all about it, and, pointing to a
+tall, distinguished-looking man near by, said that he had received his
+degree of D. D. (Doctor of Dancing) from Harvard University, and was
+extremely proud of it; and, furthermore, it would please him to have me
+mention it. I did not enlighten the young lady, and allowed her to
+continue, that I might enjoy her animation and superb "nerve" (this is
+the American slang word for her attitude). The gentleman was her uncle,
+a doctor of divinity, who was constitutionally opposed to dancing; and I
+learned later that he had a cork leg. Such are some of the pitfalls in
+Washington set for the pagan Oriental by charming Americans.
+
+Dancing parties, in fact, all functions, are seized upon by young men
+and women who anticipate marriage as especially favorable occasions for
+"courtship." The parents apparently have absolutely nothing to do with
+the affair, this being a free country. The girl "falls in love" with
+some one, and the courtship begins. In the lower classes the girl is
+said to be "keeping company" with so and so, or he is "her steady
+company." In higher circles the admirer is "devoted to the lady." This
+lasts for a year, perhaps longer, the man monopolizing the young lady's
+time, calling so many times a week, as the case may be, the familiarity
+between the two increasing until they finally exchange kisses--a
+popular greeting in America. About now they become affianced or
+"engaged," and the man is supposed to ask the consent of the parents. In
+France the latter is supposed to give a _dot_; in America it is not
+thought of. In time the wedding occurs, amid much ceremony, the bride's
+parents bearing all the expense; the groom is relieving them of a future
+expense, and is naturally not burdened. The married young people then go
+upon a "honeymoon," the month succeeding the wedding, and this is long
+or brief, according to the wealth of the parties. When they return they
+usually live by themselves, the bride resenting any advice or espionage
+from her husband's mother, who is the mother-in-law, a relation as much
+joked about in America as revered in China.
+
+Sometimes the "engaged" couple do not marry. The man perhaps in his
+long courtship discovers traits that weary him, and he breaks off the
+match. If he is wealthy the average American girl may sue him for
+damages, for laceration of the affections. One woman in the State of New
+York sued for the value of over two thousand kisses her "steady company"
+had taken during a number of years' courtship, and was awarded three
+thousand dollars. The journal from which I took this made an estimate
+that the kisses had cost the man one dollar and a half each! Sometimes
+the girl breaks the engagement, and if presents have been given she
+returns them, the man rarely suing; but I have seen record of a case
+where the girl refused to return the presents, and the man sued for
+them; but no jury could be found to decide in his favor. A distinguished
+physician has written a book on falling in love. It is recognized as a
+contagious disease; men and women often die of it, and commit the most
+extraordinary acts when under its influence. I have observed it, and,
+all things considered, it has no advantages over the Chinese method of
+attaining the marriage state. The wisdom of some older person is
+certainly better than what the American would call the "snap judgment"
+of two young people carried away by passion. One might find the chief
+cause of divorce in America to lie in this strange custom.
+
+I was invited by a famous wag last week to meet a man who could claim
+that he was the father of fifty-three children and several hundred
+grandchildren. I fully expected to see the _Gaikwar of Baroda_, or some
+such celebrity, but found a tall, ministerial, typical American, with
+long beard, whom ---- introduced to me as a Mormon bishop, who, he
+said, had a virtual _congé d'élire_ in the Church, at the same time
+referring to me as a Chinese Mormon with "fifty wives." I endeavored to
+protest, but ---- explained to the bishop that I was merely modest. The
+Mormons are a sect who believe in polygamy. Each man has as many wives
+as he can support, and the population increases rapidly where they
+settle. The ludicrous feature of Mormonism is that the Government has
+failed to stop it, though it has legislated against it; but it is well
+known that the Mormon allows nothing to interfere with his
+"revelations," which are on "tap" in Utah.
+
+I was much amused at the bishop's remarks. He said that if the American
+politicians who were endeavoring to kill them off would marry their
+actual concubines, and _all_ Americans would do the same, the United
+States would have a Mormon majority the next day. The bishop had the
+frailties and moral lapses of prominent people in all lands at his
+fingers' ends, and his claim was that the whole civilized world was
+practising polygamy, but doing it illegally, and the Mormons were the
+only ones who had the honor to legitimatize it. The joke was on ----,
+who was literally bottled up by the flow of facts from the bishop, who
+referred to me to substantiate him, which I pretended to do, in order
+totally to crush ----, who had tried to make me a party to his joke. The
+bishop, who invited me to call upon him in Utah, said that he hoped some
+time to be a United States senator, though he supposed the women of the
+East could create public sentiment sufficient to defeat him.
+
+I once stopped over in Utah and visited the great Mormon Temple, and I
+must say that the Mormon women are far below the average in
+intelligence, that is, if personal appearances count. I understand they
+are recruited from the lowest and most ignorant classes in Europe, where
+there are thousands of women who would rather have a fifth of a husband
+than work in the field. In the language of American slang, I imagine the
+Americans are "up against it," as the country avowedly offers an asylum
+for all seeking religious liberty, and the Mormons claim polygamy as a
+divine revelation and a part of their doctrine.
+
+The bishop, I believe, was not a bishop, but a proselyting elder, or
+something of the kind. The man who introduced me to him was a type
+peculiar to America, a so-called "good fellow." People called him by his
+first name, and he returned the favor. The second time I met him he
+called me Count, and upon my replying that I was not a count he said,
+"Well, you look it, anyway," and he has always called me Count. He knows
+every one, and every one knows him--a good-hearted man, a spendthrift,
+yet a power in politics; a _remarkable_ poker player, a friend worth
+knowing, the kind of man you like to meet, and there are many such in
+this country.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] Probably Senator Bruce.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE AMERICAN IN LITERATURE
+
+
+I have been a guest at the annual dinner of the ----, one of the leading
+literary associations in America, and later at a "reception" at the
+house of ----, where I met some of the most charming men and delightful
+women, possessed of manners that marked the person of culture and the
+_savoir faire_ that I have seen so little of among other "sets" of
+well-known public people. But what think you of an author of note who
+knew absolutely nothing of the literature of our country? There were
+Italians, French, and Swedes at the dinner, who were called upon to
+respond to toasts on the literature of their country; but was I called
+upon? No, indeed. I doubt if in all that _entourage_ there was more than
+one or two who were familiar with the splendid literature of China and
+its antiquity.
+
+But to come to the "shock." My immediate companion was a lady with just
+a _soupçon_ of the masculine, who, I was told, was a distinguished
+novelist, which means that her book had sold to the limit of 30,000
+copies. After a toast and speech in which the literature of Norway and
+Sweden had been extolled, this charming lady turned to me and said, "It
+is too bad, ----, that you have no literature in China; you miss so much
+that is enjoyed by other nations." This was too much, and I broke one of
+the American rules of chivalry--I became disputatious with a lady and
+slightly cynical; and when I wish to be cynical I always quote Mr.
+Harte, which usually "brings down the house." To hear a Chinese heathen
+quote the "Heathen Chinee" is supposed to be very funny.
+
+I said, "My dear madam, I am surprised that you do not know that China
+has the finest and oldest literature known in the history of the world.
+I assure you, my ancestors were writing books when the Anglo-Saxon was
+living in caves."[3] She was astonished and somewhat dismayed, but was
+not cast down--the clever American woman never is. I told her of our
+classics, of our wonderful Book of Changes, written by my ancestor Wan
+Wang in 1150 B. C. I told her of his philosophy. I compared his idea of
+the creation to that in the Bible. I explained the loss of many rare
+Chinese books by the piratical order of destruction by Emperor Che
+Hwang-ti, calling attention to the fact that the burning of the famous
+library of Alexandria was a parallel. I asked her if it were possible
+that she had never heard of the _Odes of Confucius_, or his _Book of
+History_, which was supposed to have been destroyed, but which was found
+in the walls of his home one hundred and forty years before Christ, and
+so saved to become a part of the literature of China.
+
+Finally she said, "I have studied literature, but that of China was not
+included." "Your history," I continued, "begins in 1492; our written
+history begins in the twenty-third century before Christ, and the years
+down to 720 B. C. are particularly well covered, while our legends run
+back for thousands of years." But my companion had never heard of the
+_Shoo-King_. It was so with the _Chun Tsew_[4] of Confucius and the
+_Four Books_--_Ta-h[ue]-[uo]_,[5] _Chung-yung_,[6] _Lun-yu_,[7]
+_M[ua]ng-tsze_.[8] She had never heard of them. I told her of the
+invention of paper by the Marquis Tsae several centuries before Christ,
+and she laughingly replied that she supposed that I would claim next
+that the Chinese had libraries like those Mr. Carnegie is founding. I
+was delighted to assure her that her assumption was correct, and drew a
+little picture of a well-known Chinese library, founded two thousand
+years ago, the Han Library, with its 3,123 classics, its 2,706 works on
+philosophy, its 2,528 books on mathematics, its 790 works on war, its
+868 books on medicine, 1,318 on poetry, not to speak of thousands of
+essays.
+
+I could not but wonder as I talked, where were the Americans and their
+literature when our fathers were reading these books two thousand years
+ago! Even the English people were wild savages, living in caves and
+huts, when our people were printing books and encyclopedias of
+knowledge. I dwelt upon our poetry, the National Airs, Greater Eulogies,
+dating back several thousand years. I told her of the splendors of our
+great versifier, _Le-Tai-Pih_; and I might have said that many American
+poets, like Walt Whitman, had doubtless read the translations to their
+advantage. I had the pleasure at least of commanding this lady's
+attention, and I believe she was the first American who deigned to take
+a Chinaman seriously. The facts of our literature are available, but
+only scholars make a study of it, and so far as I could learn not a word
+of Chinese literature is ever taught in American schools, though in the
+great universities there are facilities, and the best educated people
+are familiar with our history.
+
+The American authors, especially novelists, who constitute the majority
+of authors, are by no means all well educated. Many appear to have a
+faculty of "story-telling," which enables them to produce something that
+will sell; but that all American authors, and this will surprise you,
+are included among the great scholars, is far from true. Some, yes many,
+are deplorably ignorant in the sense of broad learning, and I believe
+this is a universal, national fault. If one thing Chinese more than
+another is ridiculed in America it is our drama. I met a famous
+"play-writer" at the ---- dinner, who thought it a huge joke. I heard
+that his income was $30,000 per annum from plays alone; yet he had never
+heard of our "Hundred Plays of the Yuen Dynasty," which rests in one of
+his own city libraries not a mile distant, and he laughed
+good-naturedly when I remarked that the modern stage obtained its
+initiative in China.
+
+A listener did me the honor to question my statement that Voltaire's
+"_L'Orphelin de la Chine_" was taken from the _Orphan of Chaou_ of this
+collection, which I thought every one knew. All the authors whom I met
+seemed surprised to learn that I was familiar with their literature and
+could not compare it synthetically with that of other nations, and even
+more so when I said that all well-educated Chinamen endeavored to
+familiarize themselves with the literature of other countries.
+
+I continually gain the impression that the Americans "size us up," as
+they say, and "lump" us with the "coolie." We are "heathen Chinee," and
+it is incomprehensible that we should know anything. I am talking now
+of the half-educated people as I have met them. Here and there I meet
+men and women of the highest culture and knowledge, and this class has
+no peer in the world. If I were to live in America I should wish to
+consort with her real scholars, culled from the best society of New
+York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, and other cities. In
+a word, the aristocracy of America is her educated class, the education
+that comes from association year after year with other cultivated
+people. I understand there is more of it in Boston and Philadelphia than
+anywhere; but you find it in all towns and cities. This I grant is the
+real American, who, in time--several thousand years perhaps--as in our
+own case, will demonstrate the wonderful possibilities of the human race
+in the West.
+
+I would like to tell you something about the books of the literary men
+and women I have met, but you will be more interested in the things I
+have seen and the mannerisms of the people. I was told by a
+distinguished writer that America had failed to produce any really great
+authors--I mean to compare with other nations--and I agreed with him,
+although appreciating what she has done. There is no one to compare with
+the great minds of England--Scott, Dickens, Thackeray. There is no
+American poet to compare with Tennyson, Milton, and a dozen others in
+England, France, Italy, and Germany; indeed, America is far behind in
+this respect, yet in the making of books there is nothing to compare
+with it. Every American, apparently, aspires to become an author, and I
+really think it would be difficult to find a citizen of the republic who
+had not been a contributor to some publication at some time, or had not
+written a book. The output of books is extraordinary, and covers every
+field; but the class is not in all cases such as one might expect. The
+people are omnivorous readers, and "stories," "novels," are ground out
+by the ton; but I doubt if a book has been produced since the time of
+Hawthorne that will really live as a great classic.
+
+The American authors are mainly collected in New York, where the great
+publishing houses are located, and are a fine representative class of
+men and women, of whom I have met a number, such as Howells, the author
+and editor, and Mark Twain, the latter the most brilliant litterateur in
+the United States. This will be discovered when he dies and is safe
+beyond receiving all possible benefits from such recognition. Many men
+in America make reputations as humorists, and find it impossible to
+divest their more serious writings from this "taint," if so it may be
+called. They are not taken seriously when they seriously desire it; a
+fact I fully appreciate, as I am taken as a joke, my "pigtail," my
+"shoes," my "clothes," my way of speaking, all being objects of joking.
+
+The literary men have several clubs in New York, where they can be
+found, and many have marked peculiarities, which are interesting to a
+foreigner. Several artists affect a peculiar style of dress to advertise
+their wares. One, it is said, lived in a tree at Washington. It is not
+so much with the authors as with the methods of making books that I
+think you will be interested. I met a rising young author at a dinner in
+Washington who confided to me that the "book business" was really ruined
+in America by reason of the mad craze of nearly all Americans to become
+writers. He said that he as an editor had been offered money to publish
+a novel by a society woman who desired to pose as an authoress. This
+author said that there were in America a dozen or more of the finest and
+most honorable publishing houses in the world, but there were many more
+in the various cities which virtually preyed upon this "literary
+disease" of the people. No country in the world, said my acquaintance,
+produces so many books every year as America; so many, in fact, that the
+shops groan with them and the forests of America threaten to give out,
+and the supply virtually clogs and ruins the market. So crazy are the
+people to be authors and see themselves in print that they will go to
+any length to accomplish authorship.
+
+He cited a case of a carpenter, a man of no education, who was seized
+with the desire to write a book, which he did. It was sent to all the
+leading publishers, and promptly returned; then he began the rounds of
+the second-class houses, of which there are legion. One of the latter
+wrote him that they published on the "cooperative" plan, and would pay
+_half_ the expenses of publishing if he would pay the other half. Of
+course _his_ share paid for the entire edition and gave the clever
+"cooperative" publisher a profit, whether the edition sold or not. And
+my informant said that at least twenty firms were publishing books for
+such authors, and encouraging people to produce manuscripts that were so
+much "dead wood" in the real literary field. He later sent me the
+prospectus of several such houses which would take any manuscript, if
+the author would pay for the publishing, revise it and send it forth. I
+was assured that thousands of books are produced yearly by these houses,
+who are really "printers," who advertise in various ways and encourage
+would-be authors, the idea being to get their money, a species of
+literary "graft," according to my literary informant, who assured me I
+must not confuse such parasites with the large publishers of America,
+who will not produce a book unless their skilled readers consider it a
+credit to them and to the country, a high standard which I believe is
+maintained.
+
+Perhaps the most interesting phase of literature in America is found in
+the weekly and monthly magazines, of which there is no end. Every sport
+has its "organ," every great trade, every society, every religion; even
+the missionaries sent to China have their organs, in which is reported
+their success in saving _us_ and divorcing us from our ancient beliefs.
+The great literary magazines number perhaps a dozen, with a few in the
+front rank, such as the Century, Harper's, Scribner's, The Atlantic,
+Cosmopolitan, McClure's, Dial, North American Review, Popular Science
+Monthly, Bookman, Critic, and Nation. Such magazines I conceive to be
+the universities of the people, the great educators in art, literature,
+science, etc. Nothing escapes them. They are timely, beautiful, exact,
+thorough, scientific, the reflex of the best and most artistic minds in
+America; and many are so cheap as to be within the reach of the poor. It
+is interesting to know that most of these magazines are sources of
+wealth, the money coming from the advertisements, published as a feature
+in the front and back. These notices are in bulk often more than the
+literary portion, and the rate charged, I was told, from $100 to $1,000
+per page for a single printing.
+
+The skill with which appeals are made to the weaknesses of readers is
+well shown in some of the minor publications not exactly within the same
+class as the literary magazines. One that is devoted to women is a most
+clever appeal to the idiosyncrasies of the sex: There are articles on
+cooking, dinners, luncheons, how to set tables, table manners, etiquette
+(one would think they had read Confucius), how to dress for these
+functions; and, in fact, every occupation in life possible to a woman is
+dealt with by an extraordinary editor who is a man. Whenever I was joked
+with about our men acting on the stage as women, I retorted by quoting
+Mr. ----, the male editor of the female ----, who is either a consummate
+actor or a remarkably composite creature, to so thoroughly anticipate
+his audience. The mother, the widow, the orphan, the young maiden, the
+"old maid," are all taken into the confidence of this editor, who in
+his editorials has what are termed "heart to heart" talks.
+
+I send you a copy of this paper, which is very clever and very
+successful, and a good illustration of the American magazine that, while
+claiming to be literature, is a mechanical production, "machine made" in
+every sense. One can imagine the introspective editor entering all the
+foibles and weaknesses of women in a book and in cold blood forming a
+department to appeal to each. I was informed that the editors of such
+publications were "not in business for their health," but for money; and
+their energies are all expended on projects to hold present readers and
+obtain others. The more readers the more they can charge the
+"advertiser" in the back or side pages, who here illustrate their deadly
+corsets, their new dye for the hair, their beauty doctors, freckle
+eradicators, powders for the toilet, bustles, and the thousand and one
+things which shrewd dealers are anxious to have women take up.
+
+The children also have their journals or "magazines." One in New York
+deals with fairies and genii, on the ground that it is good for the
+imagination. Another, published in Boston, denounces the fairy-story
+idea, and gives the children stories by great generals, princes of the
+blood, captains of industry, admirals, etc.; briefly, the name of the
+writer, not the literary quality of the tale, is the important feature.
+There are papers for babes, boys, girls, the sick and the well.
+
+The most conspicuous literary names before the people are Howells,
+Twain, and Harte, though one hears of scores of novelists, who, I
+believe, will be forgotten in a decade or so. As I have said
+previously, I am always joked with about the "Heathen Chinee." I have
+really learned to play "poker," but I seldom if ever sit down to a game
+that some one does not joke with me about "Ah Sin." Such is the American
+idea of the proprieties and their sense of humor; yet I finally have
+come to be so good an American that I can laugh also, for I am confident
+the jokers mean it all in the best of feeling.
+
+There are in America a class of litterateurs who are rarely heard of by
+the masses, but to my mind they are among the greatest and most advanced
+Americans. They are the astronomers, geologists, zoologists,
+ornithologists, and others, authors of papers and articles in the
+Government Reports of priceless value. These writers appear to me, an
+outsider, to be the real safety-valves, the real backbone of the
+literary productions of the day. With them science is but a synonym of
+truth; they fling all superstition and ignorance to the winds, and
+should be better known. Such names as Edison, Cope, Marsh, Hall, Young,
+Field, Baird, Agassiz, and fifty more might be mentioned, all authors
+whose books will give them undying fame, men who have devoted a lifetime
+to research and the accumulation of knowledge; yet the author of the
+last novel, "My Mule from New Jersey," will, for the day, have more
+vogue among the people than any of these. But such is fame, at least in
+America, where erudition is not appreciated as it is in "pagan" China.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] As a frontispiece to this volume, the cover design used on one of
+these old Chinese books is shown.
+
+[4] Spring and Autumn Annals.
+
+[5] Great Learning.
+
+[6] Confucian Analects.
+
+[7] Doctrine of the Mean.
+
+[8] Works of Mencius.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE POLITICAL BOSS
+
+
+At an assembly-room in New York I met a famous American political
+"boss." Many governors in China do not have the same power and
+influence. I had letters to him from Senators ---- and ----. I expected
+to meet a man of the highest culture, but what was my surprise to see a
+huge, overgrown, uneducated Irishman, gross in every particular, who
+used the local "slang" so fiercely that I had difficulty in
+understanding him. He had been a police officer, and I understand was a
+"grafter," but that may have been a report of his enemies, as he
+commanded attention at the time of the election.
+
+This man had a fund of humor, which was displayed in his clapping me on
+the back and calling me "John," introducing me to a dozen or so of as
+hard-looking men in the garb of gentlemen as I have ever seen. I heard
+them described later as "ward beetles," and they looked it, whatever it
+meant. The "Boss" appeared much interested in me; said he had heard I
+was no "slouch," and knew I must have a "pull" or I would not be where I
+am. He wished to know how we run elections on "the Ho-Hang-Ho." When I
+told him that a candidate for a governmental office never obtained it
+until he passed one of three very difficult literary examinations in our
+nine classics, and that there were thousands competing for the office,
+he was "paralyzed"--that is, he said he was, and volunteered the
+information that "he would not be 'in it' in China." I thought so
+myself, but did not say so.
+
+I told him that the politicians in China were the greatest scholars;
+that the policy of the Government was to make all offices competitive,
+as we thus secured the brightest, smartest, and most gifted men for
+officials. "Smart h----!" retorted the "Boss." "Why, we've got smart
+men. Look at our school-teachers. Them guys[9] is crammed with guff,[10]
+and passing examinations all the time; but there ain't one in a thousand
+that's got sense enough to run a tamale[11] convention. The State
+governor would get left here if all the boys that wanted office had to
+pass an examination. We've got something like it here," he said, "that
+blank Civil Service, that keeps many a natural-born genius out of
+office; but it don't 'cut ice with me.' I'm the whole thing in the
+ward."
+
+Despite his rough exterior, ---- was a good-hearted fellow, as they
+say, no rougher than his constituents, and I was with him several days
+during a local election with a view to studying American politics. Much
+of the time was spent in the saloons of the district where the "Boss"
+held out, and where I was introduced as a "white Chinee," or as a "white
+Chink," and "my friend." I wish I had kept a list of the drinks the
+"Boss" took and the cigars he smoked _per diem_. Perhaps it is as well I
+did not; you would not believe me. I was always "John" to this crowd,
+that was made up of laboring people in the main, of whom Irish and
+Germans predominated. The "Boss" was what they called a "bulldozer." If
+a man differed with him he tried to talk or drink him down; if it was an
+enemy and he became too disputatious, he would knock him out with his
+fist. In this way he had acquired a reputation as a "slugger," that
+counted for much in such an assemblage, and he confided to me one
+evening that it was the easiest way to "stop talk," and that if he "laid
+down," the opposition would walk off with all his "people." He was
+"Boss" because he was the boss slugger, the best executive, the best
+drinker and smoker, the best "persuader," and the best public speaker in
+his ward. So you see he had a variety of talents. In China I can imagine
+such a man being beheaded as a pirate in a few weeks; this would be as
+good an excuse as any; yet men like this have grown and developed into
+respectable persons in New York and other cities.
+
+"For ways that are dark and tricks that are vain, the Heathen Chinee is
+peculiar," but I doubt if he is more so than the political system of the
+United States, where every man is supposed to be free, but where a few
+men in each town own everything and everybody politically. The American
+thinks he is free, but he has in reality no more freedom than the
+Englishman; in fact, I am inclined to think that the latter is the
+freest of them all, and I doubt if too much freedom is good for man.
+Politics in America is a profession, a trade, a science, a perfect
+system by which one or two men run or control millions. Politics means
+the attainment of political power and influence, which mean office. Some
+men are in politics for the love of power, some for spoils ("graft" they
+call it in slang), and some for the high offices. In America there are
+two large parties, the Republican and the Democratic. Then there are the
+Labor, Prohibition (non-drinking), and various other parties, which, in
+the language of politics, "cut no ice." The real issues of a party are
+often lost sight of. The Republicans may be said to favor a high
+tariff; the Democrats a low tariff or free trade; and when there is not
+sufficient to amuse the people in these, then other reasons for being a
+Democrat or a Republican are raised, and a platform is issued. Lately
+the Democrats have espoused "free silver," and the Republicans have
+"buried" them. The Democrats are now trying to invent some new
+"platform"; but the Republicans appear to have included about all the
+desirable things in their platform, and hence they win.
+
+In a small town one or two men are known as "bosses." They control the
+situation at the primaries; they manage to get elected and keep before
+the people. Generally they are natural leaders, and fill some office.
+When the senator comes to town they "escort" him about and advise him as
+to the votes he may expect. Sometimes the ward man is the postmaster,
+sometimes a national congressman, again a State senator; but he is
+always in evidence, and before the people, a good speaker and talker and
+the "boss." Every town has its Republican and Democratic "boss," always
+striving to increase the vote, always striving for something. The larger
+the city, the larger the "boss," until we come to a city like New York,
+where we find, or did find, Boss Tweed, who absolutely controlled the
+political situation for years.
+
+This means that he was in politics, and manipulated all the offices in
+order to steal for himself and his friends; this is of public record. He
+was overthrown or exposed by the citizens, but was followed by others,
+who manipulated the affairs of the city for money. Offices were sold;
+any one who had a position either bought it or paid a percentage for it.
+Gambling-dens and other "resorts" paid large sums to "sub-bosses," who
+become rich, and if the full history of some of the "bosses" of New
+York, Philadelphia, Chicago, or any great American city could be
+exposed, it would show a state of affairs that would display the
+American politician in a dark light. Repeatedly the machinations of the
+politicians have been exposed, yet they doubtless go on in some form.
+And this is true to some extent of the Government. The honor of no
+President has been impugned; they are men of integrity, but the enormous
+appointing power which they have is a mere form; they do not and could
+not appoint many men. The little "boss" in some town desires a position.
+He has been a spy for the congressman or senator for years, and now
+aspires to office. He obtains the influence of the senator and the
+congressman, and is supported by a petition of his friends, and the
+President names him for the office, taking the senator for his sponsor.
+If the man becomes a grafter or thief, the President is attacked by the
+opposition.
+
+In a large city like New York each ward will have its "boss," who will
+report to a supreme "boss," and by this system, often pernicious, the
+latter acquires absolute control of the situation. He names the
+candidates for office, or most of them, and is all powerful. I have met
+a number of "bosses," and all, it happened, were Irish; indeed, the
+Irish dominate American politics. One, a leader of Tammany in New York,
+was a most preposterous person, well dressed, but not a gentleman from
+any standpoint; ignorant so far as education goes, yet supremely sharp
+in politics. Such a man could not have led a fire brigade in China, yet
+he was the leader of thousands, and controlled Democratic New York for
+years. He never held office, I was told, yet grew very rich.
+
+The Republican "boss" was a tall, thin, United States senator. I was
+also introduced to him--a Mephistophelian sort of an individual--to me
+utterly without any attraction; but I was informed that he carried the
+vote of the Republican party in his pocket. How? that is the mystery. If
+you desired office you went to him; without his influence one was
+impotent. Thousands of office-holders felt his power, hated him,
+perhaps, but did not dare to say it.
+
+The "boss" controls the situation, gives and "takes," and the other
+citizens get the satisfaction of thinking they are a free people. In
+reality, they are political slaves, and the "boss," "sub-boss," and the
+long line of smaller "bosses" are their masters. Very much the same
+situation is seen in national politics. The party is controlled by a
+"boss," and at the present this personage is a millionaire, named Hanna,
+said to be an honest, upright man, with a genius for political
+diplomacy, a puller of wires, a maker of Presidents, having virtually
+placed President McKinley where he is. This man I met. Many of the
+politicians called him "Uncle Mark." He has a familiar way with
+reporters. He is a man of good size, with a face of a rather common
+type, with very large and protruding ears, but two bright, gleaming
+eyes, that tell of genius, force, intelligence, power, and executive
+talents of an exalted order. I recall but one other such pair of eyes,
+and those were in the head of Senator James G. Blaine, whom I saw during
+my first visit to America. Hanna is famous for his _bonhomie_, and is a
+fine story-teller. Indeed, unless a man can tell stories he had better
+remain out of politics, or rather he will never get into politics.
+
+As an outsider I should say that the power of the "boss" was due to the
+fact that the best classes will have none of him, as a rule (I refer to
+the ordinary "boss"), and as a consequence he and his henchmen control
+the situation. I think I am not overstating the truth when I say that
+every city in the United States has been looted by the politicians of
+various parties. It is of public record that Philadelphia, Chicago, St.
+Louis, and New York citizens have repeatedly risen and shown that the
+city was being robbed in the most bare-handed manner. Bribery and
+corruption have been found to exist to-day in the entire system, and if
+the credit of the republic stands on its political _morale_ this vast
+union of States is a colossal failure, as it is being pillaged by
+politicians. Every "boss" has what are termed "heelers," one function
+of whom is to buy votes and do other work in the interest of "reform." A
+friend told me that he spent election day in the office of a candidate
+for Congress in a certain Western town, and the candidate had his safe
+heaped full of silver dollars. All day long men were coming and going,
+each taking the dollars to buy votes. By night the supply was exhausted,
+and the man defeated. I expressed satisfaction at this, but my friend
+laughed; the other fellow who won paid more for votes, he said. I was
+told that all the great senatorial battles were merely a question of
+dollars; the man with the largest "sack" won.
+
+On the other hand, there are senators who not only never paid for a vote
+but never expressed a wish to be elected. The foreign vote--Italians and
+others--are swayed by cash considerations; the negroes are bought and
+sold politically. The "bosses" handle the money, and the senators
+consider it as "expenses," and doubtless do not know that some of it has
+been used to influence legislators. The Americans have a remarkable
+network of laws to prevent fraudulent voting. Each candidate in some
+States is required to swear to an expense account, yet the wary
+politician, with his "ways that are dark," evades the law. The entire
+system, the control of the political fortunes of 80,000,000 Americans,
+is in the hands of a small army of political "bosses," some of whom, had
+they figured as grafters in "effete" China, would have been beheaded
+without mercy.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[9] Slang for citizens.
+
+[10] Slang for information, facts.
+
+[11] Mexican hash in corn-husk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EDUCATION IN AMERICA
+
+
+A fundamental idea with the American is to educate children. This is
+carried to the extent of making it an offense not to send those above a
+certain age to school, while State or town officers, called "truant
+police," are on the alert to arrest all such children who are not in
+school. The following was told me by a Government official in
+Washington, who had obtained it from a well-known literary man who
+witnessed the incident. The literary man was invited to visit a Boston
+school of the lower grade, where he found the teacher, an attractive
+woman, engaged in teaching a class of "youngsters," the progeny of the
+working class. After the visitor had listened to the recitations for
+some time, he remarked to the teacher, "How do you account for the
+neatness and cleanliness of these children?" "Oh, I insist upon it," was
+the reply. "The Board of Education does not anticipate all the
+desiderata, but I make them come clean and make it a part of the
+course;" then rising and tapping on the table, she said, "Prepare for
+the sixth exercise." All the children stood up. "One," said the teacher,
+whereupon each pupil took out a clean cloth handkerchief. "Two," counted
+the teacher, and with one concerted blast every pupil blew his or her
+nose in clarion notes. "Three," came again after a few seconds, and the
+handkerchiefs were replaced. At "four" the student body sank back to
+their seats without even smiling, or without having "cracked a smile."
+You could search the world over and not find a prototype. It goes
+without saying that the teacher was a wit and wag, but the lesson of
+handkerchiefs and their use was inculcated.
+
+Education is a part of the scheme to make all Americans equal. A more
+splendid _system_ it is impossible to conceive. Every possible facility
+is afforded the poorest family to educate their children. Public schools
+loom up everywhere, and are increased as rapidly as the children, so
+there is no excuse for ignorance. The schools are graded, and there is
+no expense or fee. The parents pay a tax, a small sum, those who have no
+children being taxed as well as those who have many. There are schools
+to train boys to any trade; normal free schools to make teachers; night
+schools for working boys; commercial schools to educate clerks; ship
+schools to train sailors and engineers. Then come the great
+universities, in part free, with all the splendid paraphernalia, some
+being State institutions and others memorials of dead millionaires.
+Then there are the great technical schools, as well as universities
+(where one can study Chinese, if desired). There are schools of art,
+law, medicine, nature, forestry, sculpture; schools to teach one how to
+write, how to dress, how to eat, and how to keep well; schools to teach
+one how to write advertisements, to cultivate the memory, to grow
+strong; schools for shooting, boxing, fencing; schools for nurses and
+cooks; summer schools; winter schools.
+
+And yet the American is not profoundly educated. He has too much within
+his reach. I have been distinctly surprised at crude specimens I have
+met who were graduates of great universities. The well-educated
+Englishman, German, and American are different things. The American is
+far behind in the best sense, which I am inclined to think is due to
+the teachers. Any one can get through a normal school and become a
+teacher who can pass the examination, and I have seen some singular
+instances. If all the teachers were obliged to pass examinations in
+culture, refinement, and the art of _conveying_ knowledge, there would
+be a falling of pedagogic heads. The free and over education of the poor
+places them at once above their parents. They are free, and the daughter
+of a ditch laborer, whose wife is a floor scrubber, upon being educated
+is ashamed of her parents, learns to play the piano, apes the rich, and
+is at least unhappy.
+
+The result is, there remains no peasant class. The effect of education
+on the country boy is to make him despise the farm and go to the city,
+to become a clerk and ape the fashions of the wealthy at six or eight
+dollars a week. He has been educated up to the standard of his "boss"
+and to be his equal. The overeducation of the poor is a heartless thing.
+The women vie with the men, and as a result women graduates, taking
+positions at half the price that men demand, crowd them out of the
+fields of skilled labor, whereas the man, not crowded out, should,
+normally, marry the girl. In power, strength, and progress the American
+nation stands first in the world, and all this may be due to splendid
+educational facilities. But this is not everything. There result strife,
+unhappiness, envy, and a craze for riches. I do not think the Americans
+as a race are as happy as the Chinese. Religious denominations try to
+have their own schools, so that children shall not be captured by other
+denominations. Thus the Roman Catholics have parochial schools, under
+priests and sisters, and colleges of various grades. They oppose the use
+of the Bible in the public school, and in some States their influence
+has helped to suppress its use. The Quakers, with a following of only
+eighty thousand, have colleges and schools. The Methodists have
+universities, as have the Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and others. All
+denominations have institutions of learning. These schools are in the
+hands of clergymen, and are often endowed or supported by wealthy
+members of the denomination.
+
+A remarkable feature of American life is the college of correspondence.
+A man or firm advertises to teach by correspondence at so much a month.
+Many branches are taught, and if the student is in earnest a certain
+amount of information can thus be accumulated. Among the people I have
+met I have observed a lack of what I term full, broad education,
+producing a well-rounded mind, which is rare except among the class
+that stands first in America--the refined, cultured, educated man of an
+old family, who is the product of many generations. The curriculum of
+the high school in America would in China seem sufficient to equip a
+student for any position in diplomatic life; but I have found that a
+majority of graduates become clerks in a grocery or in other shops, car
+conductors, or commercial travelers, where Latin, Greek, and other
+higher studies are absolutely useless. The brightest educational sign I
+see in America is the attention given to manual training. In schools
+boys are taught some trade or are allowed to experiment in the trades in
+order to find out their natural bent, so that the boy can be educated
+with his future in view. As a result of education, women appear in
+nearly every field except that of manual labor on farms, which is
+performed in America only by alien women.
+
+The richest men in America to-day, the multi-millionaires, are not the
+product of the universities, but mainly of the public schools. Carnegie,
+Rockefeller, Schwab, men of the great steel combine, the oil magnates,
+the great railway magnates, the great mine owners, were all men of
+limited education at the beginning. Among great merchants, however, the
+university man is found, and among the Harvard and Yale graduates, for
+example, may be found some of America's most distinguished men. But
+Lincoln, the martyred President, had the most limited education, and
+among public men the majority have been the product of the public
+school, which suggests that great men are natural geniuses, who will
+attain prominence despite the lack of education. The best-educated men
+in America to my mind are the graduates of West Point and Annapolis, the
+military and naval academies. These two institutions are extremely
+rigorous, and are open to the most humble citizens. They so transform
+men in four years that people would hardly recognize them. The result is
+a highly educated, refined, cultivated, practical man, with a high sense
+of honor and patriotism. If America would have a school of this kind in
+every State there would be no limit to her power in two decades.
+
+Despite education, the great mass of the people are superficial; they
+have a smattering of this and that. An employer of several thousand men
+told the Superintendent of Education of the District of Columbia that he
+had selected the brightest boy graduate of a high school for a position
+which required only a knowledge of simple arithmetic. The graduate
+proved to be totally unfit for the position and was discharged. Later he
+became the driver of a team of horses. America abounds in thousands of
+educational institutions, yet there is not one so well endowed that it
+can say to the world we wish no more money. It is singular that some
+multi-millionaire does not grasp this opportunity to donate one hundred
+millions to a great national school or university, to be placed at
+Washington, where the buildings would all be lessons in architecture of
+marble after the plans of a world's fair. Instead they leave a few
+thousands here and a few there. Carnegie, the leading millionaire, gives
+libraries to cities all over the States, each of which bears the name of
+the giver. The object is too obvious, and is cheap in conception. In San
+Francisco some years ago a citizen tried the same experiment. He
+proposed to give the city a large number of fountains. When they were
+finished _each_ one was seen to be surmounted by his own statue. A few
+were put up, how many I do not recall, but one night some citizens
+waited on a statue, fastened a rope to its neck, and hauled it down. So
+peculiar are the Americans that I believe if Mr. Carnegie should place
+his name on ten thousand libraries, with the object of attaining undying
+fame, the people, by a concerted effort, would forget all about him in a
+few decades. Such an attempt does not appeal to any side of the American
+character. I have known the best Americans, but Mr. Carnegie has not
+known the best of his own countrymen or he would not attempt to
+perpetuate his memory in this way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE ARMY AND NAVY
+
+
+Among the most delightful people I have met in America are the army and
+navy officers, graduates of West Point and Annapolis, well-bred,
+cultivated men, patriotic, open-hearted, and chivalrous. They are like
+our own class of men who answer to the American term of gentlemen. I am
+not going to tell you of their splendid ships, their training or
+uniform, but of a few of their idiosyncrasies. There is no dueling in
+the army. If two men have trouble at the academies they fight it out
+with bare fists, and in the army settle it in some other way, dueling
+being forbidden. Owing to the fact that all men are equal in America,
+the attitude of the officer to the civilian is entirely different. If a
+civilian strikes an officer in Germany the latter will cut him down with
+his saber and be protected in it, but here the man would be arrested and
+treated as any other criminal; in a word, the officer is a servant of
+the people, and stands with them. He has been trained to treat his men
+well, and they respect him. But while the officer is the people's
+servant and his salary in some part is paid by the humblest grocer's
+clerk, laborer, or artisan, the officer has a social position which, in
+the eyes of himself and the Government, makes him the social equal of
+kings and emperors; and here we see a strange fact in American life.
+
+When a garrison is ordered to a town or city, people call to pay their
+respects. The grocer, who in being taxed aids in paying the officer's
+salary, is _persona non grata_. The grocer, milk dealer, shoe dealer,
+and retail dealers in general might call, but would not be received on
+cordial terms. The wife of the colonel might return the call of the
+grocer's wife if she made a good appearance, but the latter would under
+no circumstances be invited to a function at the camp or post. The
+undertaker, the dentist, the ice-man, the retail shoe man are under the
+ban. Certain kinds of business appear to have certain social rights.
+Thus a dentist would not be received, but the man who manufactures
+dentists' tools may be a leader among the "Four Hundred."
+
+Strange complications arise. A young officer fell in love with a
+sergeant's daughter, and married her, as I learned from a well-known
+officer at the Army and Navy Club. This was serious enough, as there
+could be no intimacy between a commissioned and non-commissioned
+officer. The young man and his bride were ordered to a distant post,
+where the story of course followed them. All went well for a time. The
+bride sank her social inferiority in the rank of her husband, and the
+ladies of the post called on her, not as the sergeant's daughter but as
+the officer's wife. The mother of the bride finally decided to visit
+her, and thus became the guest of the officer, who was a lieutenant.
+Under ordinary circumstances it was the duty of all the ladies to call
+on the mother of the lieutenant's wife; but it so happened that she was
+the wife of a sergeant, and hence to call was impossible. No one did so.
+
+The young wife felt herself insulted, and the ubiquitous reporter seized
+upon the situation, until it was taken up by every paper in the country.
+The pictures of mother, daughter, and sergeant were shown, and columns
+were written on the subject. Almost to a man the editors denounced what
+they termed the snobbishness of the army, and denounced West Point for
+producing snobs, claiming that the ladies of the post, had they been
+real ladies, would have called on a respectable laundress even if she
+had been the sergeant's wife. I refer to this to show the intricacies of
+American etiquette. The point is that nearly all the editors who knew
+anything, believed that the ladies were right, but did not dare to say
+so on account of the fact that the majority of their readers felt
+themselves the equals of the army officer; hence the cry of snobbery
+that went whistling over the land. The lieutenant committed a gross
+mistake in marrying the girl; he married out of his class. But in
+America I am told there are no classes, and I am constantly forgetting
+this.
+
+In the army there are several black regiments (negroes). They have
+black chaplains, and attempts have been made to find black officers,
+but the social difficulties make this impossible, though the blacks are
+free and independent citizens and help pay the salaries of the white
+men. It would be impossible to force white soldiers to admit to their
+regiment black soldiers. No white man would permit a black officer to be
+placed over him, even by inference.
+
+In the navy we see an entirely different situation. On every ship are
+negroes in the crew, sleeping on the same gun-decks with the white men,
+and no fault is found; but a negro officer would be an impossibility.
+Though several have been sent to the Naval Academy, none have "gone
+through." Even in these almost perfect institutions favoritism exists.
+To illustrate: the son of a prominent man was about to fail in his
+examinations, when the powers that be passed the word that he must
+pass, _nolens volens_. The professor in whose class he was and who had
+found him deficient resented this, and when he learned that it was the
+intention to pass the boy over his head he resigned and was ordered to
+his regiment. The young man was graduated, entered the army and, aided
+by influence, jumped many of his class men and finally acquired rank at
+the request of the wife of one of the Presidents. This was a very
+exceptional case, the result of strong national sentiment that favored
+the father.
+
+The management of the army does not seem rational to a foreigner. To
+preserve the idea of republican simplicity and equality, army men are
+not rewarded with orders, as in other countries, which is a great
+injustice. Few officers, though veterans of many wars, wear medals, and
+when they do they were not given as rewards for bravery, but are merely
+corps badges, showing that the officer belongs to this or that army
+corps. But if an officer does a brave deed he may be promoted several
+points over his fellows, as brave as he, but who did not have the same
+opportunity to show bravery. Ill feeling may be the result. Every man is
+expected to be brave, and extraordinary examples of bravery are
+recognized in other nations by the presentation of medals, the
+possession of which creates no ill feeling. The actual head of the army
+is the Secretary of War, a political appointment, an adviser selected by
+the President, who, usually, has no military knowledge. This officer
+gives all the orders to the general of the army, and, as in a recent
+instance, a vast amount of friction has been the result. Intense feeling
+was occasioned by the elevation of certain officers, who were supposed
+to possess remarkable executive ability.
+
+Civil war veterans at the Army and Navy Club complained to an
+acquaintance of mine that when they arrived at the seat of war in Cuba
+they found their superior officers to be, first, General Wheeler, an
+ex-Confederate, against whom they had fought in the civil war; second,
+Colonel Wood, who had been a contract army surgeon under nearly all of
+them; and finally, Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt, who was a babe in arms
+when they were fighting the battles of the civil war. This story serves
+to illustrate the point that political "pulls" and favoritism are
+rampant in the service, and are the cause of much disgust among
+officers. General Funston affords an illustration that has incensed many
+officers. Funston was an unknown man, who captured Aguinaldo by a clever
+ruse, a valuable and courageous piece of work, which should have been
+rewarded with a decoration and _some_ promotion; but he was jumped over
+the heads of hundreds, landing at the top of the army in one "fell
+swoop." I judge the policy of the Government to be to promote officers
+so soon as they show evidence of extraordinary capability.
+
+It would be an easy matter for any one to obtain photographs of plans
+and sketches of American fortifications. One of my friends hired a
+photographer to get up what he called a scrap-book of pictures to take
+home to his family in Tokio in order to "entertain his people." The
+photographer sent him a wonderful series, showing the forts overlooking
+New York harbor, interiors and exteriors; and those in Boston, Portland,
+Baltimore, Fort Monroe, Key West, and San Francisco were also obtained.
+Photographs of guns and charts, which can be purchased everywhere, were
+included, as well as Government reports. If Japan ever goes to war with
+the Yankees my friend's scrap-book will be in demand. I do not believe
+the American War Department makes any secret of the forts. They are open
+to the public. Even if a kodak were not permitted, pictures could be
+secured. My friend said his photographer had a kodak which he wore
+inside his vest, the opening protruding from a button-hole. All he had
+to do was to stand in front of an object and pull a cord. Such a kodak
+is known as a "detective camera." There are several designs, all very
+clever. I once saw my face reproduced in a paper, and until I heard
+about this camera it was a mystery how the original was obtained, as I
+had not "posed" for any one.
+
+The possibility of America going to war with another nation is remote.
+From what I see of the people and their tremendous activity they could
+not be defeated by any nation or combination of nations. They are like
+Senator ----'s Malay game-cock, of which the senator has said that there
+is only one trouble with him--the bird never knows when he is licked,
+and if he does he does not stay licked. America could raise an army of
+ten or twelve millions of the finest fighters in the world for defense
+against any combination, and she would win. The senator told me a story,
+which illustrates the situation. One of the American men-of-war in a
+Malay port had an old American eagle aboard as a mascot and pet. When
+the men got liberty they went ashore with the eagle, and showed it as an
+"American game-cock." The natives wanted to arrange a match, and finally
+one was planned, the eagle cock against a black Malay. When the fight
+began, the black cock put its spur into the eagle several times, the
+latter doing nothing but eye the cock, first with one eye, and then with
+the other. Once more the black cock stabbed the eagle, bringing blood,
+whereupon the eagle leaned forward, and as the cock thrust out its head,
+seized it with one claw, pressed it to the ground, and with the other
+tore off its head and began to eat it. This is what would happen if
+almost any nation really and seriously went to war with the United
+States. But the country was ill prepared for the war with Spain. If
+Cervera had reached the New England coast he could have shelled Boston
+and then New York.
+
+Service in America is not compulsory. It is merely made popular, and as
+a result, every part of the country has State militia of splendidly
+drilled men, ready to be called on at a moment's notice. They receive no
+pay, considering it an honor to be in the militia service. In the
+regular army old names are perpetuated. The great generals and admirals
+have sent sons into the service. Our Government would do well to send
+young men to West Point and Annapolis. The Japanese did this for years,
+and received the best of their ideas from those sources. There is but
+one thing in the way. Chinamen are _tabooed_ in America, and doubtless
+would reach no farther than the port of entry. The only way to get in
+now would be for a new minister or diplomat to bring over ten or a dozen
+young men as members of the suite and then distribute them among the
+schools and universities--a humiliation that China will probably resent.
+
+Our trade with America is extremely valuable to her. The cotton, flour,
+and other commodities we import represent a vast sum, and I believe if
+we refused at once to buy anything from America we could make our own
+terms in less than two years. This could be accomplished very gradually.
+The Americans would find it out first through their consuls, who are all
+instructed to report on every possible point of vantage that can be
+taken in China by their merchants. They would report a decreased demand.
+American merchants would then demand an explanation from the Department
+of State, and finally we could announce that we preferred to buy from
+our friends, American treatment of the Chinese being inimical to good
+feeling. Knowing the American business men as I do, you could count on a
+wail coming up from them. An appeal would be made to Congress through
+representatives and senators, the American business men demanding that
+the "Chinese matter" be arranged upon a "more liberal basis." When you
+touch the pocketbook of "Uncle Sam" you reach his earthquake center; yet
+for defense, for the preservation of the national honor, this people
+will spend untold sums. The American Government bond is the best
+security in the world. It is founded on the rock of honor and
+patriotism. And there is no repudiation like that of ----, and none like
+the pretended one of ----.[12] We have our faults, and it is well to
+recognize them; but I never saw them until I mingled with the English
+and Americans.
+
+There is of course a large foreign element in the American
+army--thousands of Irish and Germans; but this does not signify, as I
+learn that in the State of Massachusetts, the stronghold of Americans,
+the Irish hold a third of the official positions, the native-born
+Yankees about one-fourth. This is particularly exasperating to old
+families in New England, as it is notorious that the Irish come directly
+from the very dregs of the poverty-stricken peasantry--the
+"bog-trotters." I was much impressed by the high standard of honor in
+the army and navy, and am told that it is the rarest of occurrences for
+a regular army officer to commit a crime or to default. This is due to
+the training received at the military and naval schools, where young men
+are placed on their honor.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[12] China has twice repudiated its Government bonds within four
+centuries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ART IN AMERICA
+
+
+It is seldom that I have been complimented in America, but a lady has
+told me that she envied our "art sense." She said the Chinese are
+essentially artistic, that the cheapest thing, the most ordinary
+article, is artistic or beautiful. I wished that I could return the
+compliment, but a strict observance of the truth compels me to say that
+the reverse is true in America. If one go into a Chinese shop and ask
+for any ordinary article, it will be found artistic. If one go into an
+American shop, say a hardware "store," there will not be found an
+article that would be considered decorative, while everything in a
+Chinese shop of like character would fall under this head. The
+conclusion is that the Chinese are artistic, while the Americans are
+not.
+
+The reason lies in the fact that the Chinese are homogeneous, while the
+Americans are a mixed race, that is injured by the continual
+introduction of baser elements. If immigration could be stopped for
+fifty years, and the people have a chance to acquire "oneness," they
+might become artistic. The middle class, however, is, from an artistic
+standpoint, a horror; they have absolutely no art sense, and the
+_nouveaux riches_ are often as bad. The latter sometimes place their
+money in the hands of an agent, who buys for them; but all at once a man
+may break out and insist upon buying something himself, so that in a
+splendid collection of European names will appear some artistic horror
+to stamp the owner as a parvenu.
+
+The Americans have not produced a great painter. By this I mean a
+really great artist, nor have they a great sculptor, one who is or has
+been an inspiration. But they have thousands of artists, and many poor
+ones thrive in selling their wares. You may see a man with an income of
+thirty thousand dollars having paintings on his walls that give one the
+vertigo. The poor artist has taken him in, or "pulled his leg," to use
+the latest American slang. There are some fine paintings in America. I
+have visited the great collections in Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
+Washington, Chicago, and those in many private galleries, but the best
+of the pictures are always from England, France, Germany, and other
+European countries. Old masters are particularly revered. Americans pay
+enormous sums for them, but sometimes are deceived.
+
+They have art schools by the hundred, where they study from the nude
+and from models of all kinds. There are splendid museums of art,
+especially in Boston and New York. The art interests are particularly
+active, but not the people; there are a few art lovers only, the people
+in the mass being hopeless. Cheap prints, chromos, and other deadly
+things are ground out by the million and sold, to clog still deeper the
+art sense of an inartistic people. They laugh at our conventional
+Chinese art, but the extreme of conventionality is certainly better than
+some of the daubs I have seen in American homes. Americans have peculiar
+fancies in art. One is called Impressionist Art. As near as I can
+understand it, painters claim that while you are looking at an object
+you do not really see it all, you merely gain an impression; so they
+paint only the impression. In a museum of art I was shown several rooms
+full of daubs, having absolutely nothing to commend them, weird colors
+being thrown together in the strangest manner, without rhyme or reason,
+but over which people went mad. The great masters of Europe appeal to me
+strongly. In America, marine painters attract me the most, for example,
+Edward Moran, who is a splendid delineator of the sea. Bierstadt is a
+noble painter, and so is Thomas Moran. There are half a hundred men who
+are fine painters, but half a thousand men and women who think they are
+artistic but who are not.
+
+Americans have developed no individual architecture. You see
+semipagoda-like effects in the East, and old English houses in the
+South. They steal the latter and call them Colonial. They steal the
+architecture of the Moors and call it Mexican. They borrow Roman and
+Grecian effects for great public buildings. At one time they went mad
+over the French roof, or mansard. Nowhere have I seen purely American
+architecture. The race is not possessed of sufficient unity. So all
+their art is from abroad, and notably is French and English. They make
+broad effects, and give them an American name; but they are copied from
+the Dutch or Germans. All the furniture designers in America are
+Europeans. You will find a splendid house with a Chinese room, having
+teak inlaid with ivory, etc.; a Japanese room, a Moorish room, and an
+Italian room, all splendidly decorated; but the family lives in an
+"American room," that is commonplace and subversive of all art digestion
+and assimilation. The average middle-class American knows absolutely
+nothing about art; the lower classes so little that their homes are
+hopeless. Knowing this, they are preyed upon by thousands of foreign
+swindlers. There are hundreds of articles manufactured in Europe to sell
+to the American tourist. I have seen Napoleonic furniture enough to load
+a fleet. I can only compare it to the pieces of the true cross and the
+holy relics of the Catholics, of which there are enough to fill the
+original ark which the Bible tells the Americans landed on Mount Ararat
+in a great flood.
+
+The houses of the best people I have told you about are as far removed
+from the commonplace as the equator from the poles. They are rich in
+conception, sumptuous in detail, artistic in every way, and filled with
+the art gems of the world. But these people have descended from refined
+people for several generations. They are the true Americans, but make up
+a small number compared to the inartistic whole. I believe America
+recognizes this, and with her stupendous energy is doing everything to
+educate the masses in art. They are building splendid museums; rich men
+give away millions. There are hundreds of art schools, free to all, and
+art is taught in all the schools. Fine monuments are placed in public
+squares and parks, and beautiful fountains and memorials in these and
+other public places. Their buildings, though foreign in design, are
+beautiful. In Boston one may see marvelous work in frescoes, etc., and
+in the Government buildings at Washington. The Capitol, while not
+American in design, is a pile worthy of the great people who erected it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE DARK SIDE OF REPUBLICANISM
+
+
+The questions I know you will wish answered are, Whether this stupendous
+aggregation of States is a success? Does it possess advantages beyond
+those of the Chinese Empire? Does it fulfil the expectations of its own
+people? Frankly, I do not consider myself competent to answer. I have
+studied America and the Americans for many years during my visits to
+this country and Europe, and while I have seen many accounts of the
+country, written after several months of observation, I believe that no
+just estimate of the republican form of government can be formed after
+such experience. My private impression, however, is that the republic
+falls far short of what the men in Washington's time expected, and it
+is also my private opinion that it has not so many advantages as a
+government like that of England.
+
+It is too splendid an organization to be lightly denounced. The idea of
+the equality of men is noble, and I would not wish to be arraigned among
+its critics. There is too much good to offset the bad. I have been
+attempting to amuse you by analyzing the Americans, pointing out their
+frailties as well as their good qualities. I tell you what I see as I
+run, always, I hope, remembering what is good in this spontaneous and
+open-hearted people. The characteristic claim of the people is that the
+Government offers freedom to its citizens; yet every man is quite as
+free in China if he behaves himself, and he can rise if he possesses
+brains.
+
+Any native-born citizen in the United States may become the head of the
+nation has he the courage of his convictions, the many accomplishments
+which equip the great leader, and should the hour and the man meet
+opportunity. This is the one prize which distinguishes America from
+England. The latter in other respects offers exactly as much freedom
+with half the wear and tear; in fact, to me the freedom of America is
+one of her disadvantages. Every one knows, and the American best of all,
+that all men are _not equal_, never were and never can be. Yet this
+false doctrine is their standard, and they swear by it, though some will
+explain that what is meant is political freedom. Freedom accounts for
+the gross impertinence of the ignorant and lower classes, the laughable
+assumptions of servants, and the illogical pretenses of the _nouveau
+riche_, which make America impossible to some people. Cultivated
+Americans are as thoroughly aristocratic as the nobility of England.
+There are the same classes here as there. A grocer becomes rich and
+retires or dies; his children refuse to associate with the families of
+other grocers; in a word, the Americans have the aristocratic feeling,
+but they have no peasant class; the latter would be, in their own
+estimation, as good as any one. One class, the lower and poorer, is
+arraigned against the upper and richer, and the gap is growing daily.
+
+But this would not prove that the republic is a failure. What then? It
+is, in the opinion of many of its clergymen, a great moral failure. No
+nation in history has lasted many centuries after having developed the
+"symptoms" now shown in the United States. I quote their own press, "the
+States are morally rotten," and you have but to turn to these organs and
+the magazines of the past decade, which make a feature of holding up
+the shortcomings of cities and millionaires, to read the details of the
+tragedy. Thieves--grafters--have seized upon the vitals of the country.
+St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, great representative
+cities--what is their history? The story of dishonesty among officials,
+of bribery, stealing, and every possible crime that a man can devise to
+wring money from the people. This is no secret. It has all been exposed
+by the friends of morality. City governments are overthrown, the rascals
+are turned out, but in a few months the new officers are caught devising
+some new "grafting" operation.
+
+I have it from a prominent official that there is not an honest State or
+city administration in America. What can a nation say when for years it
+has known that a large and influential lobby has been maintained to
+influence statesmen, a lobby comprising a corps of "persuaders" in the
+pay of business men? How do they influence them? The great fights waged
+to defeat certain measures are well known, and it is known that money
+was used. Certain congressmen have been notoriously receptive. I have
+seen the following story in print in many forms. I took the trouble to
+ask a well-known man if it was possible that it could be founded on
+fact; his reply was, "Certainly it is a fact." A briber entered the
+private room of a congressman. "Mr. ----, to come right to the point, I
+want the ---- bill to pass, and I will give you five hundred dollars for
+the vote and your interest." The congressman rose to his feet, purple
+with rage. "You dare to offer me this insulting bribe? You infernal
+scoundrel, I will throw you out." "Well, suppose we make it one
+thousand," said the imperturbable visitor. "Well," replied the
+congressman, cooling down, "that is a little better put. We will talk it
+over."
+
+The American Government had been attempting, since 1859, to build a
+canal across the Isthmus. I believe surveys were made earlier than that,
+but bribery and corruption and "graft" enabled the friends of
+transcontinental railroads to stop the canals. It would be a
+disadvantage to the railroads to have a canal across the Isthmus. So in
+some mysterious way the canal, which the people wished, has not been
+built, and will not be until the people rise and demand it. Corruption
+has stood on the Isthmus with a flaming sword and struck down every
+attempt to build the canal. The morality of the people is low. Divorce
+is rampant, the daily journals are filled with accounts of divorces, and
+daily lists of crimes are printed that would seem impossible to a
+nation that can raise millions to send to China to convert the
+"heathen." If they would only divert these Chinese missionaries from
+China to their own heathen and grafters, but they will not. The peculiar
+freedom of the country, which is nothing less than the most atrocious
+license, tends to drag it down.
+
+The papers have absolutely no check on their freedom. Men and women are
+attacked by them, ruined, held up to scorn and ridicule, and the victim
+has no recourse but to shoot the editor and thus embroil himself. That
+it is a crime to ridicule a man and make him the butt of a nation or the
+world seems never to occur to these men. Certain statesmen have been so
+lampooned by the "hired" libelers that they have been ruined. The press
+hires a class of men, called cartoonists, usually ill-bred fellows of
+no standing, yet clever, in their business, whose duty it is to hold up
+public men to ridicule in every possible way and make them infamous
+before the people. This is called the freedom of the press, and its
+attitude, or the sensational part of it, in presenting crime in an
+alluring manner, is having its effect upon the youth of the country.
+Young girls and boys become familiar with every feature of bestial crime
+through the "yellow journals," so called, and that the republic will
+reap sorely from this sowing I venture to prophesy.
+
+I asked one of the great insurance men why it was that great financial
+institutions took so strong an interest in politics. He laughed, and
+said, "If I am not mistaken, not long since your country repudiated its
+Government bonds, and they are not negotiable to any great extent among
+your people." Hearing this I assumed the American attitude and "sawed
+wood." "We take an interest in politics," he continued, "to offset the
+professional blackmailer and thief. Now in the case of your repudiation
+I understand all about it. The Chinese Government was in straits, and
+suddenly some seemingly patriotic citizen started a petition, stating to
+the Government that the subscribers offered their Government securities
+to the Government as a gift. By no means all the bondholders signed, but
+enough, I understand, to have justified your Government in repudiating
+the bonds--'at the request of the people'--thus destroying the national
+credit at home and abroad. Now in America that would be called 'graft.'
+The act would be done by a few grafters in the hope of reward, or by
+some unscrupulous statesmen to save the Government from bankruptcy
+during their term of office. I conceive this to be what was done in
+China. If we do not keep eternal watch we shall be bled every day. It is
+done in this way: a grafter becomes an assemblyman, and with others lays
+a plan of graft. It is to get up a bill, so offensive to our corporation
+that it would mean ruin if passed. The grafter has no idea that it will
+pass, but it is made much of, and of course reaches our ears, and the
+question is how to stop it. We are finally told that we had better see
+Mr. ----, in our own city. He is accordingly looked up and found to be a
+cheap and ignorant politician, who, if there are no witnesses, tells our
+agent plainly that it can be stopped for ten thousand dollars. Perhaps
+we beat him down to eight thousand, but we pay it. Hundreds of firms
+have been blackmailed in this way. Now we keep an agent in the State
+Capitol to attend to our interests, and we take an interest in politics
+to head off the election of professional grafters."
+
+One of the most serious things in this phase of national immorality is
+showing itself in what are termed "lynchings"; that is, a negro commits
+a crime against a white woman, and instead of permitting the law to run
+its course, the people rise, seized with a savage craze for revenge,
+batter in the jails, take the criminal, and burn him at the stake. This
+burning is sometimes attended by thousands, who display the most
+remarkable _abandon_ and savagery. Some African chiefs have sacrificed
+more people at one time, but no savage has ever displayed greater
+bestiality, gloated over his victim with more real satisfaction, than
+these free Americans in numerous instances when shouting and yelling
+about the burning body of some unfortunate whose crime has aroused
+their ferocity to the point of madness.
+
+Not one but many clergymen have denounced this. They compare it to the
+most brutal acts of savagery, and we have the picture of a country
+posing as civilized, with the temerity to point out the sins of others,
+giving themselves over to orgies that would disgrace the lowest of
+races. I have it from the lips of a clergyman that during the past
+twelve years over twenty-five hundred men have been lynched in the
+United States. In a single year two hundred and forty men were killed by
+mobs in this way, many being burned at the stake. If any excuse is
+offered, it is said that most of these were negroes, and the crime was
+rape, and the victims white women; but of the number mentioned only
+forty-six were charged with this crime and but two-thirds were black.
+Many confessed as the torch was applied, many died protesting their
+innocence, and in no case was the offense legally proved. This lynching
+seems to be a mania with the people. It began with the attack of negroes
+on white women. The repetition of similar cases so enraged the whites
+that they have become mad upon the subject. The feeling is well
+illustrated by the remark of a Southerner to me. "If a woman of my
+family was attacked by a negro I must be his executioner. I could not
+wait for the law." This man told me that no lynching would ever have
+taken place had it not been for the uncertainty of the law. Men who were
+known to be guilty of the grossest of crimes had been virtually
+protected by the law, and their cases dragged along at great expense to
+the State, this occurring so many times that the patience of the people
+became exhausted. This man forgot that the law was instigated for the
+purpose of justice.
+
+The negro is an issue in America and a cause of much crime, a vengeance
+on the people who held them as slaves. The negro has increased so
+rapidly that in forty years he has doubled in number, there now being
+over nine millions in the country. At the present rate there will be
+twenty-five millions in 1930--a black menace to the white American.
+
+The negro is a factor in the national unrest. They outnumber the whites
+in some localities, and hence vote themselves many offices, while the
+few whites pay eighty or eighty-five per cent of the taxes and the
+negroes supply from eighty to ninety per cent of the criminals. While
+this is going on in the South and the whites are rising and preparing to
+disfranchise the blacks in many States, the people of Boston and
+Cambridge are discussing the propriety of the whites and blacks
+marrying to settle the question of social equality. Such proposals I
+have read. Reprinted in the South, they added fuel to the flame.
+
+Another element of distress in America is the attitude of labor, the
+policy of the Government of letting in the lowest of the low from every
+nation except the Chinese, against whom the only charge has been that
+they are too industrious and thus a menace to the whites. The swarms of
+people from the low and criminal classes of Europe have enabled the
+anarchists to obtain such a foothold that in this free country the
+President of the United States is almost as closely guarded as the
+Emperor of Russia. The White House is surrounded and guarded by
+detectives of various kinds. The secret-service department is equal in
+its equipment to that of many European nations, and millions are spent
+in watching criminals and putting down their strikes and riots. The
+doctrine of freedom to all appeals so well to the ignorant laborer that
+he has decided to control the entire situation, and to this end labor is
+divided into "unions," and in many sections business has been ruined.
+
+The demands of these ignorant men are so preposterous that they can
+scarcely be credited. The merchant no longer owns his business or
+directs it. The laborer tells him what to pay, how to pay it, when and
+how long the hours shall be--in fact, undertakes to usurp entire
+control. If the owner protests, the laborers all stop work, strike,
+appoint guards, who attack, kill, or intimidate any one who attempts to
+take their place. In this way it is said that one billion dollars have
+been lost in the last few years. Contracts have been broken, men
+ruined, localities and cities placed in the greatest jeopardy, and
+hundreds of lives lost. Every branch of trade has its "union," and in so
+many cases have the laborers been successful that a national panic comes
+almost in sight. Never was there a more farcical illustration of
+freedom. Irrational, ignorant Irishmen, who had not the mental capacity
+to earn more than a dollar a day, dictated to merchant princes and
+millionaire contractors. In New York it was proved that the leaders of
+the strikers sold out to employers, and accepted bribes to call off
+strikes.
+
+The question before the American people is, Has an American citizen the
+right to conduct his own business to suit himself and employ whom he
+wishes? Has the laborer the right to work for whom and what rate he
+pleases? The imported socialists, anarchists, and their converts among
+Americans say no, and it will require but little to precipitate a
+bloody war, when labor, led by red-handed murderers, will enact in New
+York and all over the United States the horrors of the French Commune.
+
+The republic for a great and enlightened country has too many criminals.
+I am told by a prohibition clergyman that the curse of drink and license
+has its fangs in the heart of the land. He tells me that the Americans
+pay yearly $1,172,000,000 for their alcoholic drink; for bread,
+$600,000,000; for tobacco, $625,000,000; for education, $197,000,000;
+for ministers' salaries, $14,000,000. It has been found that the
+downfall of eighty-one per cent of criminals is traceable to drink. He
+said: "Our republic is a failure morally, as we have 2,550,000 drunkards
+and people addicted to drink. We have 600,000 prostitutes, and many more
+doubtless that are not known, and in nine cases out of ten their
+downfall can be traced to drink."
+
+I listen to this side of the story, and then I see wonderful
+philanthropy, institutions for the prevention of crime, good men at work
+according to their light, millions employed to educate the young,
+thousands of churches and societies to aid man in making man better.
+When I listen to these men, and see tens of thousands of Christian men
+and women living pure lives, building up vast cities, great monuments
+for the future, I feel that I can not judge the Americans. They perhaps
+expect too much from their freedom and their republican ideas. I shall
+never be a republican. I believe that we all have all the freedom we
+deserve. It is well to remember that man is an animal. After all his
+polish and refinement, he has animal tastes and desires, and if he makes
+laws that are in direct opposition to the indulgence which his animal
+nature suggests, he certainly must have some method of enforcing the
+laws. Like all animals, some men are easily influenced and others not,
+and the human animal has not made progress so far but that he needs
+watching in order to make him conform to what he has decided or elected
+to call right.
+
+You will expect me to compare the American to the Chinaman, but it is
+impossible. Some things which we look upon as right, the American
+considers grievous sins. The point of view is entirely at variance, but
+I have boundless faith in the brilliant and good men and women I have
+met in America. I say this despite my other impressions, which also
+hold.
+
+The great political scheme of the people is poorly devised and crude. It
+is so arranged that in some States governors are elected every year or
+two and other officers every year, representatives of the people in
+Congress every two years, senators every six, Presidents every four
+years. Thus the country is constantly in a whirl, and as soon as the
+rancor of one national election is over begins the scheming for another.
+The people have really little to do with the selection of a President. A
+small band of rich and influential schemers generally have the entire
+plan or "slate" laid out. A plan, natural in appearance, is _arranged_
+for the public, and at the right time the slated program is sprung.
+Senators should be elected by the people, congressmen should be elected
+for a longer period, and Presidents should have twice the terms they do.
+But it is easy to suggest, and I confess that my suggestions are those
+of many American people themselves which I hear reformers cry abroad.
+
+The vital trouble with America to-day is that she can not assimilate
+the 600,000 debased, ignorant, poverty-stricken foreigners who are
+coming in every year. They keep out the one peaceful nation. They
+exclude the Chinese and take to the national heart the Jew, the
+Socialist, the Italian, the Roumanian and others who constitute a nation
+of unrest. What America needs is the "rest cure" that you hear so much
+about here. She should close her seaports to these aliens for ten years,
+allow the people here to assimilate; but they can not do it. The foreign
+transportation lines under foreign flags are in the business to load up
+America with the dregs of Europe. I know of one family of Jews, four
+brothers, who wished to come to America, but found that they would have
+to show that they were not paupers. They mustered about one thousand
+dollars. One came over, and sent back the money by draft. The second
+brought it back as his fortune, then immediately sent it back for
+another brother to bring over, and so on until they all arrived, each
+proving that he was not a pauper. Yet these same brothers, each with
+several children, became an expense to the Government before they were
+earners. The children were sent to industrial homes, and later entered
+the sweat-shops. In America there is not a Chinaman to-day in a
+workhouse, or a pauper[13] at the expense of the Government; yet the
+Chinese are not wanted here.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[13] This is doubtful.--EDITOR.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+SPORTS AND PASTIMES
+
+
+I had not been in Washington a month before I received invitations to a
+"country club golf" tournament, to a "rowing club," to a "pink tea," to
+a "polo game," to a private "boxing" bout between two light-weight
+professionals, given in Senator ----'s stable, to a private "cock-fight"
+by the brother of ----'s wife, to a gun club "shoot," not to speak of
+invitations to several "poker games." From this you may infer that
+Americans are fond of sport. The official sport--that is, the game I
+heard of most among Government officials, senators, and others--was
+"poker," and the sums played for at times I am assured are beyond
+belief. There are rules and etiquette for poker, and one of the most
+distinguished of American diplomatists of a past generation, General
+Schenck, emulated the Marquis of Queensberry in boxing by writing a book
+on the national game, that has all the charm claimed for it. It is
+seductive, and doubtless has had its influence on the people who employ
+the "bluff" in diplomacy, war, business, or poker, with equal tact and
+cleverness.
+
+Middle-class Americans are fond of sport in every way, but the
+aristocrats lack sporting spontaneity; they like it, or pretend to like
+it, because it is the fashion, and they take up one sport after another
+as it becomes the fad. That this is true can be shown by comparing the
+Englishman and the American of the fashionable class. The Englishman is
+fond of sport because it is in his blood; he does not like golf to-day
+and swimming to-morrow, but he likes them all, and always has done so.
+He would never give up cricket, golf, or any of his games because they
+go out of fashion; he does not allow them to go out of fashion; but with
+the American it is different.
+
+Hence I assume that the average American of the better class is not
+imbued with the sporting spirit. He wears it like an ill-fitting coat. I
+find a singular feature among the Americans in connection with their
+sports. Thus if something is known and recognized as sport, people take
+to it with avidity, but if the same thing is called labor or exercise,
+it is considered hard work, shirked and avoided. This is very cleverly
+illustrated by Mark Twain in one of his books, where a boy makes his
+companions believe that white-washing a fence is sport, and so relieves
+himself from an arduous duty by pretending to share the great privilege
+with them.
+
+No one would think of walking steadily for six days, yet once this
+became sport; dozens of men undertook it, and long walks became a fad.
+If a man committed a crime and should be sentenced to play the modern
+American game of football every day for thirty days as a punishment,
+there are some who might prefer a death sentence and so avoid a
+lingering end; but under the title of "sport" all young men play it, and
+a number are maimed and killed yearly.
+
+Sport is in the blood of the common people. Children begin with tops,
+marbles, and kites, yet never appreciate our skill with either. I amazed
+a boy on the outskirts of Washington one day by asking him why he did
+not _irritate_ his kite and make it go through various evolutions. He
+had never heard of doing that, and when I took the string and began to
+jerk it, and finally made the kite plunge downward or swing in circles,
+and always restored it by suddenly slacking off the cord, he was
+astonished and delighted. The national game is baseball, a very clever
+game. It is nothing to see thousands at a game, each person having paid
+twenty-five or fifty cents for the privilege. In summer this game,
+played by experts, becomes a most profitable business. Rarely is any one
+hurt but the judge or umpire, who is at times hissed by the audience and
+mobbed, and at others beaten by either side for unfair decisions; but
+this is rare.
+
+Football is dangerous, but is even more popular than the other. You
+might imagine by the name that the ball is kicked. On the contrary the
+real action of the game consists in running down, tripping up, smashing
+into, and falling on whomever has the ball. As a consequence, men wear a
+soft armor. There are fashions in sports which demonstrate the
+ephemeral quality of the American love for sport. A while ago "wheeling"
+was popular, and everybody wheeled. Books were printed on the etiquette
+of the sport; roads were built for it and improved; but suddenly the
+working class took it up and fashion dropped it. Then came golf,
+imported from Scotland. With this fad millions of dollars were expended
+in country clubs and greens all over the United States, as acres of land
+were necessary. People seized upon this with a fierceness that warmed
+the hearts of dealers in balls and clubs. The men who edited wheel
+magazines now changed them to "golf monthlies." This sport began to wane
+as the novelty wore off, until golf is now played by comparatively few
+experts and lovers.
+
+Society introduced the automobile, and we have the same thing--more
+magazines, the spending of millions, the building of the _garage_, and
+the appearance of the _chaufeur_ or driver. Then came the etiquette of
+the auto--a German navy cap, rubber coat, and Chinese goggles. This
+peculiar uniform is of course only to be worn when racing, but you see
+the American going out for a slow ride solemnly attired in rubber coat
+and goggles. The moment the auto comes within reach of the poor man it
+will be given up; but it is now the fad and a most expensive one, the
+best machines costing ten thousand dollars or more, and I have seen
+races where the speed exceeded a mile a minute.
+
+All sports have their ethics and rules and their correct costuming.
+Baseball men are in uniform, generally white, with various-colored
+stockings. The golfer wears a red coat and has a servant or valet, who
+carries his bag of clubs, designed for every possible expediency. To
+hear a group of golfers discuss the merits of these tools is one of the
+extraordinary experiences one has in America. I have been made fairly
+"giddy," as the Englishmen say, by this anemic conversation at country
+clubs. The "high-ball" was the saving clause--a remarkable invention
+this. Have I explained it? You take a very tall glass, made for the
+purpose, and into it pour the contents of a small cut-glass bottle or
+decanter of whisky, which must be Scotch, tasting of smoke. On this you
+pour seltzer or soda-water, filling up the glass, and if you take enough
+you are "high" and feel like a rolling ball. It is the thing to take a
+"high-ball" after every nine holes in golf. Then after the game you
+bathe, and sit and drink as many as your skin will hold. I got this from
+a professional golf-teacher in charge of the ---- links, and hence it
+is official.
+
+The avidity with which the Americans seize upon a sport and the
+suddenness with which they drop it, illustrating what I have said about
+the lack of a national sporting taste, is well shown by the coming of a
+game called "ping pong," a parlor tennis, with our battledores for
+rackets. What great mind invented this game, or where it came from, no
+one seems to know, but as a wag remarked, "When in doubt lay it to
+China." Some suppose it is Chinese, the name suggesting it. So
+extraordinary was the early demand for it that it appeared as though
+everybody in America was determined to own and play ping pong. The
+dealers could not produce it fast enough. Factories were established all
+over the country, and the tools were ground out by the ten thousands.
+Books were written on the ethics of the game; experts came to the
+front; ping pong weeklies and monthlies were founded, to dumfound the
+masses, and the very air vibrated with the "ping" and the "pong."
+
+The old and young, rich and poor, feeble and herculean, all played it.
+Doctors advised it, children cried for it, and a fashionable journal
+devised the correct ping-pong costume for players. Great matches were
+played between the experts of various sections, and this sport, a game
+really for small children, after the fashion of battledore and
+shuttlecock, ran its course among young and old. Pictures of adult
+ping-pong champions were blazoned in the public print; even churchmen
+took it up. Public gardens had special ping-pong tables to relieve the
+stress. At last the people seized upon ping pong, and it became common.
+Then it was dropped like a dead fish. If some cyclonic disturbance had
+swept all the ping-pong balls into space, the disappearance could not
+have been more complete. Ping pong was put out of fashion. All this to
+the alien suggests something, a want of balance, a "youngness" perhaps.
+
+At the present time the old game of croquet is being revived under
+another name, and tennis is the vogue among many. Among the fashionable
+and wealthy men polo is the vogue, but among a few everything goes by
+fads for a few years. Every one will rush to see or play some game; but
+this interest soon dies out, and something new starts up. Such games as
+baseball and football, tennis and polo are, in a sense, in a class by
+themselves, but among the pastimes of the people a wide vogue belongs to
+fishing, and shooting wild fowl and large game. The former is universal,
+and the Americans are the most skilled anglers with artificial lures in
+the world, due to the abundance of game-fish, trout, and others, and the
+perfect Government care exercised to perfect the supply.
+
+As an illustration, each State considers hunting and fishing a valuable
+asset to attract those who will come and spend money. I was told by a
+Government official that the State of Maine reckoned its game at five
+million dollars per annum, which means that the sport is so good that
+sportsmen spend that amount there every year; but I fancy the amount is
+overestimated. The Government has perfect fish hatcheries, constantly
+supplying young fish to streams, while the business in anglers' supplies
+is immense. There are thousands of duck-shooting clubs in the United
+States. Men, or a body of men, rent or buy marshes, and keep the poor
+man out. Rich men acquire hundreds of acres, and make preserves.
+Possibly the sport of hunting wild fowl is the most characteristic of
+American sports. This also has its etiquette, its costumes, its
+club-houses, and its poker and high-balls. I know of one such club in
+which almost all the members are millionaires. A humorous paper stated
+that they used "gold shot."
+
+As a nation the Americans are fond of athletics, which are taught in the
+schools. There are splendid gymnasiums, and boys and girls are trained
+in athletic exercises. Athletics are all in vogue. It is fashionable to
+be a good "fencer." All the young dance. I believe the Americans stand
+high as a nation in all-around athletics; at least they are far ahead of
+China in this respect.
+
+I have reserved for mention last the most popular fashion of the people
+in sport, which is prize-fighting. Here again you see a strange
+contradiction. The people are preeminently religious, and
+prize-fighting and football are the sports of brutes; yet the two are
+most popular. No public event attracts more attention in America than a
+gladiatorial fight to the finish between the champion and some aspirant.
+For months the papers are filled with it, and on the day of the event
+the streets are thronged with people crowding about the billboards to
+receive the news. No national event, save the killing of a President,
+attracted more universal attention than the beating of Sullivan by
+Corbett and the beating of Corbett by Fitzsimmons, and "Fitz" in turn by
+Jeffries. I might add that I joined with the Americans in this, as the
+modern prize-fighter is a fine animal. If all boys were taught to
+believe that their fists are their natural weapons, there would be fewer
+murders and sudden deaths in America. I have seen several of these
+prize-fights and many private bouts, all with gloves. They are governed
+by rules. Such a combat is by no means as dangerous as football, where
+the obvious intention seems to be to break ribs and crush the opponent.
+
+Rowing is much indulged in, and yachting is a great national maritime
+sport, in which the Americans lead and challenge the world. In no sport
+is the wealth of the nation so well shown. Every seaside town has its
+yacht or boat club, and in this the interest is perpetual. Even in
+winter the yacht is rigged into an "ice-boat." I have often wondered
+that fashionable people do not take up the romantic sport of falconry,
+as they have the birds and every facility. I suggested this to a lady,
+who replied, "Ah, that is too barbaric for us." "More barbaric than
+cock-fighting?" I asked, knowing that her brother owned the finest
+game-cocks in the District of Columbia. Among the Americans there is a
+distinct love for fair play, and such sports as "bull-baiting,"
+"bull-fights," "dog-fights," and "cock-fights" have never attained any
+degree of popularity. There are spasmodic instances of such indulgences,
+but in no sense can they be included, as in England and Spain, among the
+national sports, which leads me to the conclusion that, aside from the
+many peculiarities, as taking up and dropping sports, America, all in
+all, is the greatest sporting nation of the world. It leads in
+fist-fighting, rifle-shooting, in skilful angling, in yachting, in
+rowing, in running, in six-day walking, in auto-racing, in trotting and
+running horses, and in trap-shooting, and if its champions in all fields
+could be lined up it would make a surprising showing. I am free to
+confess and quite agree with a vivacious young woman who at the country
+club told me that it was very nice of me to uphold my country, but that
+we were "not in it" with American sports.
+
+The Presidents are often sportsmen. President Cleveland and President
+Harrison both have been famous, the former as a fisherman, the latter as
+well as the former as a duck-shooter. President McKinley has no taste
+for sport, but the Vice-President is a promoter of sport of each and
+every kind. He is at home in polo or hurdle racing, with the rifle or
+revolver. This calls to mind the national weapon--the revolver.
+Nine-tenths of all the shooting is done with this weapon, that is
+carried in a special pocket on the hips, and I venture to say that a
+pair of "trousers" was never made without the pistol pocket. Even the
+clergymen have one. I asked an Episcopal clergyman why he had a pistol
+pocket. He replied that he carried his prayer-book there. The Southern
+people use a long curved knife, called a bowie, after its inventor. Many
+people have been cut by this weapon. The negro, for some strange reason,
+carries a razor, and in a fight "whips out" this awful weapon and
+slashes his enemy. I have asked many negroes to explain this habit or
+selection. One replied that it was "none of my d---- business." Nearly
+all the others said they did not know why they carried it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE CHINAMAN IN AMERICA
+
+
+The average Irishman whom one meets in America, and he is legion, is a
+very different person from the polished gentleman I have met in Belfast,
+Dublin, and other cities in Ireland; but I never heard that the American
+Irishman, the product of an ignorant peasantry crowded out of Ireland,
+had been accepted as a type of the race. Peculiar discrimination is made
+in America against the Chinese. Our lower classes, "coolies" from the
+Cantonese districts, have flocked to America. Americans "lump" all
+Chinese under this head, and can not conceive that in China there are
+cultivated men, just as there are cultivated men in Ireland, the
+antipodes of the grotesque Irish types seen in America.
+
+I believe there are seventy-five or eighty thousand Chinamen in America.
+They do not assimilate with the Americans. Many are common laborers,
+laundrymen, and small merchants. In New York, Chicago, San Francisco,
+and other cities there are large settlements of them. In San Francisco
+many have acquired wealth. The Chinese quarter is to all intents and
+purposes a Chinese city. None of these people, or very few, are
+Americanized in the sense of taking an active part in the government;
+Americans do not permit it. I was told that the Chinese were among the
+best citizens, the percentage of criminals being very small. They are
+honest, frugal, and industrious--too industrious, in fact, and for this
+very reason the ban has been placed upon them. Red-handed members of the
+Italian Mafia--a society of murderers--the most ignorant class in
+Ireland, Wales, and England, the scum of Russia, and the human dregs of
+Europe generally are welcome, but the clean, hard-working Chinaman is
+excluded.
+
+Millions are spent yearly in keeping him out after he had been invited
+to come. He built many American railroads; he opened the door between
+the Atlantic and the Pacific; he worked in the mines; he did work that
+no one else would or could do, and when it was completed the American
+laborer, the product of this scum of all nations, demanded that the
+Chinaman be "thrown out" and kept out. America listened to the blatant
+demagogues, the "sand-lot orators," and excluded the Chinese. To-day it
+is almost impossible for a Chinese gentleman to send his son to America
+to travel or study. He will not be distinguished from laundryman
+"John," and is thrown back in the teeth of his countrymen; meanwhile
+China continues to be raided by American missionaries. The insult is
+rarely resented. In the treaty ratified by the United States Senate in
+1868 we read:
+
+"The United States of America and the Empire of China cordially
+recognize the inherent right of man to change his home and allegiance,
+and also the mutual advantage of the free immigration and emigration of
+their citizens and subjects respectively from the one country to the
+other for purposes of curiosity, of trade or as permanent residents."
+
+Again we read, in the treaty ratified under the Hayes administration,
+that the Government of the United States, "if its labor interests are
+threatened by the incoming Chinese, may regulate or limit such coming,
+but may not _absolutely prohibit_ it." The United States Government has
+disregarded its solemn treaty obligations. Not only this, our people,
+previous to the Exclusion Act, were killed, stoned, and attacked time
+and again by "hoodlums." The life of a Chinaman was not safe. The labor
+class in America, the lowest and almost always a foreign class, wished
+to get rid of the Chinaman so that they could raise the price of labor
+and secure all the work. China had reason to go to war with America for
+her treatment of her people and for failure to observe a treaty. The
+Scott Exclusion Act was a gratuitous insult. I hope our people will
+continue to retaliate by refusing to buy anything from the Americans or
+sell anything to them. Let us deal with our friends.
+
+Then came the Geary Bill, which was an outrage, our people being thrown
+into jail for a year and then sent back. I might quote some of the
+charges made against our people. Mr. Geary, I understand, is an Irish
+ex-congressman from the State of California, who, while in Congress, was
+the mouthpiece of the worst anti-Chinese faction ever organized in
+America. He was ultimately defeated, much to the delight of New England
+and many other people in the East. Mr. Geary's chief complaint against
+the Chinese was that they work too cheaply, are too industrious, and do
+not eat as much as an American. He obtained his information from Consul
+Bedloe, of Amoy. He says the average earnings of the Chinese adult
+employed as mechanic or laborer (in China) is five dollars per month,
+and states that this is ten per cent above the average wages prevailing
+throughout China.
+
+The wages paid, according to his report, per month, to blacksmiths are
+$7.25; carpenters, $8.50; cabinet-makers, $9; glass-blowers, $9;
+plasterers, $6.25; plumbers, $6.25; machinists, $6; while other classes
+of skilled labor are paid from $7.25 to $9 per month, and common
+laborers receive $4 per month. In European houses the average wages paid
+to servants are from $5 to $6 a month, without board. Clothing costs per
+year from 75 cents to $1.50. Out of these incomes large families are
+maintained. He says: "The daily fare of an Amoy working man and its cost
+are about as follows: 1½ pounds of rice, 3 cents; 1 ounce of meat, 1
+ounce of fish, 2 ounces of shell-fish, 1 cent; 1 pound of cabbage or
+other vegetable, 1 cent; fuel, salt, and oil, 1 cent; total, 6 cents.
+
+"Here," said Mr. Geary, "is a condition deserving of attention by all
+friends of this country, and by all who believe in the protection of the
+working classes. Is it fair to subject our laborer to a competitor who
+can measure his wants by an expenditure of six cents a day, and who can
+live on an income not exceeding five dollars a month? What will become
+of the boasted civilization of our country if our toilers are compelled
+to compete with this class of labor, with more competitors available
+than twice the entire population of France, Germany, Austria, Belgium,
+Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain?
+
+"The Chinese laborer brings neither wife nor children, and his wants are
+limited to the immediate necessities of the individual, while the
+American is compelled to earn income sufficient to maintain the wife and
+babies. There can be but one end to this. If this immigration is
+permitted to continue, American labor must surely be reduced to the
+level of the Chinese competitor--the American's wants measured by his
+wants, the American's comforts be made no greater than the comforts of
+the Chinaman, and the American laborer, not having been educated to
+maintain himself according to this standard, must either meet his
+Chinese competitor on his own level, or else take up his pack and leave
+his native land. The entire trade of China, if we had it all, is not
+worth such a sacrifice."
+
+Mr. Geary forgets that when Chinamen go to America they adapt themselves
+to prevailing conditions. Chinese cooks in the States to-day receive
+from $30 to $50 per month and board; Chinese laborers from $20 to $30,
+and some of them $2 per day. In China, where there is an enormous
+population, prices are lower, people are not wasteful, and the
+necessities of life do not cost so much. The Chinaman goes to America to
+obtain the benefit of _high_ wages, not to _reduce_ wages. I have never
+seen such poverty and wretchedness in China as I have seen in London,
+or such vice and poverty as can be seen in any large American city. Mr.
+Geary scorns the treaties between his country and China, and laughs at
+our commercial relations. He says, "There is nothing in the Chinese
+trade, or rather the loss of it, to alarm any American. We would be
+better off without any part or portion of it."
+
+In answer to this I would suggest that China take him at his word, and I
+assure you that if every Chinaman could be recalled, if in six months or
+less we could take the eighty or one hundred thousand Chinamen out of
+the country, the region where they now live would be demoralized. The
+Chinese control the vegetable-garden business on the Pacific Coast; they
+virtually control the laundry business; and that the Americans want
+them, and want cheaper labor than they are getting from the Irish and
+Italians, is shown by the fact that they continue to patronize our
+people, and that in various lines Chinamen have the monopoly. Even when
+the "hoodlums" of San Francisco were fighting the Chinese, the American
+women did not withdraw their patronage, and while the men were off
+speaking on the sand-lots against employing our people their wives were
+buying vegetables from them.
+
+Why? Because their hypocritical husbands and brothers refused to pay
+higher prices. America is suffering not for want of the cheapest labor,
+but for a laborer like the Chinese, and until they have him industries
+will languish. With American labor and American "union" prices it is
+impossible for the American farmer or rancher to make money. The
+vineyardist, the orange, lemon, olive, and other fruit raisers can not
+compete with Europe. Labor is kept up to such a high rate that the
+country is obliged to put on a high tariff to keep out foreign
+competition, and in so doing they "cut off the nose to spite the face."
+The common people are taxed by the rich. The salvation of industrial
+America is a cheap, but not degraded, labor. America desires
+house-servants at from $10 to $12 per month; this is all a mere servant
+is worth. She wants good cooks at $12 or $15 per month. She wants
+fruit-pickers at $10 to $12 per month and board. She wants vineyard men,
+hop-pickers, cherry, peach, apricot and berry pickers, and people to
+work in canneries at these prices. She wants gardeners, drivers,
+railroad laborers at lower rates, and, to quote an American, "wants them
+'bad.'"
+
+When in San Francisco I made a thorough investigation of the
+"house-servant" question, and learned that our people as cooks in
+private houses were receiving from $30 to $50 per month and board. A
+friend tells me there is continued protest against this. Housekeepers on
+the Pacific coast are complaining of the lack of "Chinese boys," and
+want more to come over so that prices shall go down. The American wants
+the Chinaman, but the American _foreign laborer_, the Irishman, the
+Italian, the Mexican, and others who dominate American politics, do not
+want him and will not have him. As a result of this bending to the alien
+vote the Americans find themselves in a most serious and laughable
+position in their relations to domestic labor.
+
+I am not overstating the fact when I say that the "servant-girl"
+question is going to be a political issue in the future. The man may
+howl against the Chinese, but his wife will demand that "John" be
+admitted to relieve a situation that is becoming unbearable. As the
+Americans are all equal, there are no servants among them. The poor are
+as good as the "boss," and won't be called servants. You read in the
+papers, "A lady desires a position as cook in a small family, no
+children; wages, $35." "A young lady wishes a position to take care of
+children; salary, $30." "A saleslady wants position." "A lady (good
+scrubber) will go out by the day; $2." When you meet these "ladies," in
+nine cases out of ten they are Irish from the peasant class--untidy,
+insolent, often dissipated in the sense of drink. When they apply for a
+position they put the employer through a course of questions. Some want
+references from the last girl, I am told. Some want one thing, some
+another, and all must have time for pleasure. Few have the air of
+servants or inferiors, but are often offensive in appearance and
+manners. I have never been called "John" by the girls who came to the
+door where I called to pay a visit, but I could see that they all wished
+so to address me. In England, where classes are acknowledged and a
+servant is hired as a servant, and is one, an entirely different state
+of affairs holds. They are respectful, having been educated to be
+servants, know that they are servants, and as a result are cared for and
+treated as old retainers and pensioners of the family.
+
+The whole story of exclusion is a blot upon the American national honor,
+and the most mystifying part of it is that intelligent people, the best
+people, are not a party to it. The railroads want the Chinese laborer.
+The great ranches of the West need him; people want cooks at $15 and $20
+a month instead of $30 or $50. In a word, America is suffering for what
+she must have some time--cheap labor; yet the low elements force the
+issue. Congressmen are dominated by labor organizations on the Pacific
+slope, and there are hundreds of Dennis Kearneys to-day where there was
+one a few years ago. To make the case more exasperating, the Americans,
+in their dire necessity, have imported swarms of low Mexicans to take
+the place of the Chinese on the railroads, against whom there seems to
+be no Irish hand raised. The Irish and Mexicans are of a piece. I know
+from inquiry everywhere that the country at large would welcome
+thousands of servants and field-workers in vineyards and orchards which
+can not be made to pay if worked by expensive labor.
+
+The Americans try to keep us out, but they also try to convert those who
+get in. They have what they call Chinese missions, to which Chinamen go.
+To be converted? No. To learn the language? Yes. I am told by an
+American friend that here and in China over fifty thousand Chinese have
+embraced Christianity. On the Atlantic coast I am assured that eight
+hundred Chinamen are Christians, and on the Pacific slope two thousand
+have embraced the faith of the Christians. There is a Christian Chinese
+evangelist working among our people in the West, Lum Foon, and I have
+met the pastor of a Pacific coast church who told me that nearly a third
+of his congregation were Chinamen, and he esteemed them highly. But the
+most conclusive evidence that the Americans are succeeding in their
+proselyting is that in one year a single denomination received as a
+donation from Chinamen $6,000. The Americans have a saying, "Money
+talks," which is much like one of our own.
+
+On the other hand, a clergyman told me that it was discouraging work to
+some, so few Chinamen were "converted" compared to the great mass of
+them. The Chinese of California have sent $1,000 to Canton to build a
+Christian church, and the Chinese members of the Presbyterian Church of
+California sent $3,000 in one year for the same purpose. I am told that
+the Chinese Methodists of one church in California give yearly from
+$1,000 to $1,800 for the various purposes of the church. The Christians
+have captured some brilliant men, such as Sia Sek Ong, who is a
+Methodist; Chan Hon Fan, who ought to be in our army from what I hear;
+Rev. Tong Keet Hing, the Baptist, a noted Biblical scholar; Rev. Wong,
+of the Presbyterians; Rev. Ng Poon Chiv, famous as a Greek and Hebrew
+reader; Gee Gam and Rev. Le Tong Hay, Methodists; and there are many
+more, suggestive that our people are interested in Christianity,
+against the _moral_ teachings of which no one could seriously object.
+
+I dined some time ago with a merchants' club, and was much pleased at
+the eulogy I heard on the Chinese. A merchant said, "My firm deals
+largely with the Chinese and Japanese. When I make a trade with the
+Japanese I tie them up with a written contract, but I have always found
+that the word of a Chinese merchant was sufficient." This I found to be
+the universal feeling, and yet Americans exclude us at the bidding of
+"hoodlums," a term applied to the lowest class of young men on the
+Pacific coast. In the East he is a "tough" or "rough" or "rowdy." "Tough
+nut" and "hard nut" are also applied to such people, the Americans
+having numbers of terms like these, which may be called "nicknames," or
+false names. Thus a man who is noted for his dress is a "swell," a
+"dude," or a "sport."
+
+The United States Government does not allow the Chinese to vote, yet
+tens of thousands of poor Americans, "white trash" in the South,
+ignorant negroes, low Irish and Italians who can not speak the tongue,
+are welcome and courted by both parties. It is difficult for me to
+overlook this insult on the part of America. There is a large settlement
+of Chinese in New York, but they are as isolated as if they were in
+China. In San Francisco there is the largest settlement, and many fine
+merchants live there, and also in Los Angeles.
+
+In the latter city ---- told me that the best of feeling existed between
+the Chinese and Americans; and at the American Festival of the Rose the
+Chinese joined in the procession. The dragon was brought out, and all
+the Chinese merchants appeared; but these gentlemen are never consulted
+by the Americans, never allowed to vote or take any interest in the
+growth of the city, and ---- informed me that none of them had ever been
+asked to join a board of trade. It is the same everywhere; the only
+advances the Americans make is to try and "convert" us to their various
+religious denominations. While the Chinese are not allowed to vote or to
+have any part in the affairs of government, they are taxed. "Taxation
+without representation" was the cause of the war of the American
+Revolution, but that is another matter.
+
+Yet our people have ways of influencing the whites with the "dollar,"
+for which some officials will do anything, and, I regret to say, all
+Chinamen are not above bribing Americans. I have heard that the Chinese
+of San Francisco for years were blackmailed by Americans, and obliged
+to raise money to fight bills in the Legislature. In 1892 the Six
+Companies raised $200,000 to defeat the "Geary Bill." The Chinese
+merchants have some influence. Out of the 110,000 Chinamen in America
+hardly ten per cent obeyed the iniquitous law and registered. The
+Chinese societies contracted to defend all who refused to register.
+
+Our people have a strong and influential membership in the Sam Yup, Hop
+Wo, Yan Wo, Kong Chow, Ning Yeong, and Yeong Wo companies. These
+societies practically control everything in America relating to the
+Chinese, and they retain American lawyers to fight their battles. I have
+met many of the officers of these companies, and China has produced no
+more brilliant minds than some, and, _sub rosa_, they have been pitted
+against the Americans on more than one occasion and have outwitted them.
+Among these men are Yee Ha Chung, Chang Wah Kwan, Chun Ti Chu, Chu Shee
+Sum, Lee Cheang Chun, and others. Many of these men have been presidents
+of the Six Companies in San Francisco, and rank in intelligence with the
+most brilliant American statesmen. I regret to see them in America.
+
+Chun Ti Chu especially, at one time president of the Sam Yuz, should be
+in China. I met this brilliant man some years ago in San Francisco.
+After dinner he took me to a place and showed me a placard which was a
+reward of $300 for his head. He had obtained the enmity of criminal
+Chinamen on the Pacific coast, but when I last heard of him he was still
+alive. There are many criminals here who do not dare to return to China,
+who left their country for their country's good. These are the cause of
+much trouble here, and bring discredit upon the better class of our
+people. Our people in America are loyal to the Government. It was
+interesting to see at one time a proclamation from the Emperor brought
+over by Chew Shu Sum and posted in the streets of an American city: "By
+order of his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of China." The President, the
+mayor of San Francisco, was not thought of; China was revered, and is
+to-day holding her government over the Chinese in every American city
+where they have a stronghold. So much for the loyalty of our people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE RELIGIONS OF THE AMERICANS
+
+
+Thomas J. Geary, the former congressman, is an avowed enemy of the
+Chinese and the author of the famous Geary bill, but I condone all he
+has said against us for one profound utterance made in a published
+address or article, in which he said: "As to the missionaries (in
+China), it wouldn't be a national loss if they were required to return
+home. If the American missionary would only look about him in the large
+cities of the Union he would find enough of misery, enough of suffering,
+enough people falling away from the Christian churches, enough of
+darkness, enough of vice in all its conditions and all its grades, to
+furnish him work for years to come." This is a sentiment Americans may
+well think of; but there are "none so blind as those who will not see."
+There will always be women and men willing to spend their time in
+picturesque China at the expense of foreign missions. China has never
+attempted to convert the Americans to her religion, believing she has
+all she can do to keep her people within bounds at home.
+
+In my search for information in America I have had some singular
+experiences. I have made an examination of the many religions of the
+Americans, and they have been remarkably prolific in this respect. While
+we are satisfied with Taoism, Buddhism, but mostly with Confucianism, I
+have observed the following sects in America: Baptists of two kinds,
+Congregationalists, Methodists, Quakers of three kinds, Catholics,
+Unitarians, Universalists, Presbyterians, Swedenborgians,
+Spiritualists, Christian Scientists (healers), Episcopalians (high and
+low), Jews, Seventh-Day Adventists, and many more. Nearly all are
+Christians, as we are nearly all Confucians. Unitarians, Universalists,
+Jews, and several others believe in the moral teachings of Christ, but
+hold that he was not of divine origin. America was first settled to
+supply room for religious liberty, which perhaps explains the remarkable
+number of religions. They are constantly increasing. Nearly all of these
+denominations hold that their own belief is the right one. Much
+proselyting is going on among them, with which one would take no
+exception if there was no denouncing of one another. Our religion,
+founded in the faith of Confucius, seems satisfying to us. Some of us
+believe that at least we are not savages.
+
+Some American friends once invited me to go to a negro church in
+Washington. Upon arriving we were given a seat well down in front. The
+pastor was a "visiting evangelist," and in a short time had these
+excitable and ignorant people in a frenzy, several being carried out of
+the church in a semicataleptic condition. Suddenly the minister began to
+pray for the strangers, and especially "for the heathen in our midst,"
+for the unsaved from pagan lands, that they might be saved; and I could
+not but wonder at the conceit and ignorance that would ask a believer in
+the splendid philosophy of Confucius to throw it aside for this African
+religion. This idea that a Chinaman is a "pagan" and idolator is found
+everywhere in America, and every attempt is made to "save" him.
+
+I very much fear that many of our countrymen go to the American
+missions and Sunday-schools merely to learn the language and enjoy the
+social life of those who are interested in this special work. I was told
+by a well-to-do Chinaman that he knew Chinamen who were both Catholic
+and Protestant, and who attended all the Chinese missions without
+reference to sect. They were Methodist when at the Methodist mission,
+Catholic when at mass, and when they returned to their home slipped back
+into Confucianism. Let us hope this is not universal, though I venture
+the belief that the witty Americans would see the humor of it.
+
+I was told by a prominent patron of the Woman's Christian Union that she
+felt very sorry I did not have the consolation of religion, coming as I
+did from a heathen land. Some "heathens" might have been insulted, but I
+had come to know the Americans and was aware that she really felt a
+kindly interest in me. I replied that we could find some consolation in
+the sayings of our religious teachers, as the great guide of our life
+is, "What you do not like when done to yourself do not do to others."
+
+"Why," said the lady, "that is Christian doctrine, our 'Golden Rule.'"
+
+"Pardon me," I answered, "this is the golden rule of Confucius, written
+four hundred years or so before Christ was born."
+
+"I think you must be mistaken," she continued; "this is a fundamental
+pillar of the Christian belief."
+
+"True," I retorted; "but none the less Christians obtained it from
+Confucius."
+
+She did not believe me, and we referred the question to Bishop ----, who
+sat near us. Much to her confusion he agreed with me, and then quoted
+the well-known lines of one of our religious writers who lived twelve
+hundred years before Christ: "The great God has conferred on the people
+a moral sense, compliance with which would show their nature inevitably
+right," and remarked that it was a splendid sentiment.
+
+"Then you believe in a God," said the lady, turning to me.
+
+"I trust so," was my answer.
+
+Now this lady, who believed me to be a "pagan" and unsaved, was a
+product of the American school system, yet she had never read a line of
+Confucius, having been "brought up" to consider him an infidel writer.
+
+I have seen many of the great Western nations and observed their
+religions. My conclusion is that none make so general and united an
+attempt to be what they consider "good and moral" as the Americans; but
+the Americans scatter their efforts like shot fired from a gun, and the
+result is a multiplicity of religious beliefs beyond belief. I do not
+forget that America was settled to afford an asylum for religious
+belief, where men could work out their salvation in peace. If Americans
+would grant us the same privilege and not send missionaries to fight
+over us, all would be well. No one can dispute the fact that the
+Americans are in earnest; the greater number believe they are right, and
+that they possess true zeal all China knows.
+
+The impression the convert in China obtains is that the United States is
+a sort of paradise, where Christians live in peace and happiness, loving
+one another, doing good to those who ill-treat them, turning the cheek
+to those who strike them, etc.; but the Chinaman soon finds after
+landing in America that this is often "conspicuous by its absence."
+These ideas are preached, and doubtless thousands follow them or attempt
+to do so, but that they are common practises of the people is not true.
+There is great need of Christian missions in America as well as in
+China. I told a clergyman that our people believed the Christian
+religion was very good for the Americans, and we had no fault to find
+with it, nor had we the temerity to insinuate that our own was superior.
+
+A Roman Catholic young lady whom I met spoke to me about burning our
+prayers, our joss-houses, and our dragon, which she had seen carried
+about the streets of San Francisco. "Pure symbolism," I answered, and
+then told her of the Christian dragon in the Divine Key of the
+Revelation of Jesus Christ as Given to John, by a Christian writer,
+William Eugene Brown. This dragon had nine heads, while ours has only
+one. I believe I had the best of the argument so far as heads went.
+This young woman, a graduate of a large college, wore an amulet, which
+she believes protects her from accident. She possessed a bottle of water
+from a miraculous spring in Canada, which she said would cure any
+disease, and she told me that one of the Catholic churches there, Ste.
+Anne de Beaupré, had a small piece of the wrist-bone of the mother of
+the Virgin, which would heal and had healed thousands. She had a picture
+of the church, showing piles of crutches thrown aside by cured and
+grateful patients. Can China produce such credulity? I think not.
+
+All nations may be wrong in their religious beliefs, but certainly
+"pagan China" is outdone in religious extravaganza by America or any
+European state. Our joss-houses and our feasts are nothing to the
+splendors of American churches. An American girl laughed at the bearded
+figures in a San Francisco joss-house, but looked solemn when I referred
+to the saints in a Catholic cathedral in the same city. If I were "fancy
+free" I should like to lecture in America on the inconsistencies of the
+Caucasian. They really challenge our own. Instead of having one splendid
+church and devoting themselves to the real ethics of Christianity, these
+Christians have divided irrevocably, and so lost strength and force.
+They are in a sense turned against themselves, and their religious
+colleges are graduating men to perpetuate the differences. No more
+splendid religion than that expounded by Christ could be imagined if
+they would join hands and, like the Confucians, devote their attention
+not to rites and theological differences but to the daily conduct of
+men.
+
+The Americans have a saying, "Take care of the pennies and the dollars
+will care for themselves." We believe that in taking care of the morals
+of the individual the nation will take care of itself. I took the
+liberty of commending this Confucian doctrine to a Methodist brother,
+but he had never been allowed to read the books of Confucius. They are
+classed with those of Mohammed, Voltaire, and others. So what can one do
+with such people, who have the conceit of the ages and the ignorance of
+all time? Their great scholars see their idiosyncrasies, and I can not
+begin to describe them. One sect believes that no one can be saved
+unless immersed in water; others believe in sprinkling. Others, as the
+Quakers, denounce all this as mummery. One sect, the Shakers, will have
+no marriages. Another believes in having as many wives as they can
+support--the Mormons. The Jews and Quakers oblige members to marry in
+the society; in the latter instance the society is dying out, and the
+former from constant intermarriage has resulted in conspicuous and
+marked facial peculiarities. These different sects, instead of loving,
+despise one another. Episcopalians look down upon the Methodists, and
+the latter denounce the former because the priests sometimes smoke and
+drink. The Unitarians are not regarded well by the others, yet nearly
+all the other bodies contain Unitarians, who for business and other
+reasons do not acknowledge the fact. A certain clergyman would not admit
+a Catholic priest to his platform. All combine against the poor Jew.
+
+So strong is the feeling against this people among the best of American
+citizens that they are almost completely ostracised, at least socially.
+In all the years spent in America I do not recall meeting a Jew at
+dinner in Washington, New York, or Newport. They are disliked, and as a
+rule associate entirely with themselves, having their own churches,
+clubs, etc. Yet they in large degree control the finances of America.
+They have almost complete control of the textile-fabric business,
+clothing, and many other trades. Why the American Christians dislike the
+American Jews is difficult to understand, but the invariable reply to
+this question is that their manners are so offensive that Christians
+will not associate with them. I doubt if in any of the first circles of
+any city you would meet a Jew. In the fashionable circles of New York I
+heard that it would be "easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a
+needle" than for a Jew to enter these circles. Many hotels will not
+receive them. In fact, the ban is on the Jew as completely in America as
+in Russia. I was strongly tempted to ask if this was the brotherly love
+I heard so much about, but refrained. I heard the following story at a
+dinner: A Chinese laundryman received a call from a Jew, who brought
+with him his soiled clothing. The Chinaman, glancing at the Jew, refused
+to take the package. "But why?" asked the Jew; "here's the money in
+advance." "No washee," said the Christian Chinaman; "you killed Melican
+man's Joss," meaning that the Jews crucified the Christ.
+
+The more you delve into the religions of the Americans the more
+anomalies you find. I asked a New York lady at Newport if she had ever
+met Miss ----, a prominent Chinese missionary. She had never heard of
+her, and considered most missionaries very ordinary persons. This same
+lady, when some one spoke about laxity of morals, replied, "It is not
+morals but manners that we need"; and I can assure you that this
+high-church lady, a model of propriety, judged her men acquaintances by
+that standard. If their manners were correct, she apparently did not
+care what moral lapses they committed when out of her presence. Briefly,
+I looked in vain for the religion in everyday life preached by the
+missionary. Doubtless many possess it, but the meek and humble follower
+of the head of the Christian Church, the American who turned his cheek
+for another blow, the one who loved his enemies, or the one who was
+anxious to do unto others as he would have them do unto him, all these,
+whom I expected to see everywhere, were not found, at least in any
+numbers.
+
+In visiting a certain village I dined with several clergymen. One told
+me he was the Catholic priest, and invited me to visit his chapel. Not
+long after I met another clergyman. I do not recall his denomination,
+but his work he told me was undoing that of the Catholic priest. The
+latter converted the people to Catholicism, while the former tried to
+reclaim them from Catholicism. I heard much about our joss-houses, but
+they fade into insignificance when compared with the splendid religious
+palaces of the Americans, and particularly those of the Catholics and
+Episcopalians. Their religious customs are beyond belief. As an
+illustration, their religion teaches them that the dead, if they have
+led a good life, go at once to heaven, though the Catholics believe in a
+purgatory, a half-way house, out of which the dead can be bought by the
+payment of money.
+
+Now the simple Chinaman would naturally believe that the relatives
+would be pleased at the death of a friend who was _immediately_
+transported to paradise and freed from the worries of life, but not at
+all; at the death of a relative the friends are plunged into such grief
+that they have been known to hire professional mourners, and instead of
+putting on clothes indicative of joy and thanksgiving array themselves
+in somber black, the token of woe, and wear it for years. Everything is
+black, and the more fashionable the family the deeper the black. The
+deepest crape is worn by the women. Writing-paper is inscribed with a
+deep band, also visiting cards. Women use jet as jewelry, and white
+pearls are replaced by black ones. Even servants are garbed in mourning
+for the departed, who, they believe, have gone to the most beautiful
+paradise possible to conceive. Contemplating all these inconsistencies
+one is amazed, and the amazement is ever increasing as one delves deeper
+into the ways of the inconsistent American.
+
+The credulity of the American is nowhere more singularly shown than in
+his susceptibility to religion. At a dinner given by the ---- of ---- in
+Washington, conversation turned on religion, and Senator ----, a very
+clever man, told me in a burst of confidence, "Our people are easily
+led; it merely requires a leader, a bright, audacious man, with plenty
+of 'cheek,' to create a following." There are hundreds of examples of
+this statement. No matter how idiotic the religion or philosophy may be,
+a following can be established among Americans. A man of the name of
+Dowie, "ignorant, impertinent, but with a superabundance of cheek" (I
+quote an American journal), announced himself as the prophet Elijah, and
+obtained a following of thousands, built a large city, and lives upon
+the credulity of the public.
+
+Three different "healers" have appeared within a decade in America, each
+by inference claiming to be the Christ and imitating his wanderings and
+healing methods. All, even the last, grossest, and most impudent
+impostor, who advertised himself in the daily press, the picture showing
+him posing after one of the well-known pictures of Christ, had many
+followers. I hoped to hear that this fellow had been "tarred and
+feathered," a happy American remedy for gross things. This fellow, as
+the Americans say, "went beyond the limit." I asked the senator how he
+accounted for Americans, well educated as they are, taking up these
+strange impostors. "Well," he replied, puffing on a big cigar, "between
+you and me and the lamp-post it's on account of the kind of schooling
+they get. I didn't get much myself--I'm an old-timer; but I accumulated
+a lot of 'horse sense,' that has served me so well that I never have my
+leg pulled, and I notice that all these 'suckers' are graduates from
+something; but don't take this as gospel, as I'm always getting up
+minority reports."
+
+The religion of the Americans, as diffuse as it is, is one of the most
+remarkable factors you meet in the country. Despite its peculiar phases
+you can not fail to appreciate a people who make such stupendous
+attempts to crush out evil and raise the morals of the masses. We may
+differ from them. We may resent their assumption that we are pagans and
+heathens, but this colossal series of movements, under the banner of the
+Cross, is one of the marvels of the world. Surely it is disinterested.
+It comes from the heart. I wish the Americans knew more of Confucius
+and his code of morals; they would then see that we are not so "pagan"
+as they suppose.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of As A Chinaman Saw Us, by Anonymous
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of As A Chinaman Saw Us, ed. by Henry Pearson Gratton.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of As A Chinaman Saw Us, by Anonymous
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: As A Chinaman Saw Us
+       Passages from his Letters to a Friend at Home
+
+Author: Anonymous
+
+Editor: Henry Pearson Gratton
+
+Release Date: October 2, 2007 [EBook #22831]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AS A CHINAMAN SAW US ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p class="center"><img src="images/illus-front-001.jpg" width='396' height='700' alt="a chinese book cover decoration" /></p>
+
+<h4>A CHINESE BOOK COVER DECORATION</h4>
+
+<p class="center">Made when the Anglo-Saxon people were living in caves</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h1>AS A CHINAMAN<br />SAW US</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>PASSAGES FROM HIS LETTERS<br />TO A FRIEND AT HOME</h2>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><img src="images/002.png" width='99' height='120' alt=" Publishers logo" /></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">NEW YORK AND LONDON</p>
+
+<h4>APPLETON AND COMPANY<br />1916</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1904, by</span><br />
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">Printed in the United States of America</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+<p>Since the publication in 1832 of that classic of cynicism, The Domestic
+Manners of the Americans, by Mrs. Trollope, perhaps nothing has appeared
+that is more caustic or amusing in its treatment of America and the
+Americans than the following passages from the letters of a cultivated
+and educated Chinaman. The selections have been made from a series of
+letters covering a decade spent in America, and were addressed to a
+friend in China who had seen few foreigners. The writer was graduated
+from a well-known college, after he had attended an English school, and
+later took special studies at a German university. Americans have been
+informed of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span>impressions they make on the French, English, and other
+people, but doubtless this is the first unreserved and weighty
+expression of opinion on a multiplicity of American topics by a Chinaman
+of cultivation and grasp of mind.</p>
+
+<p>It will be difficult for the average American to conceive it possible
+that a cultivated Chinaman, of all persons, should have been honestly
+amused at our civilization; that he should have considered what Mrs.
+Trollope called "our great experiment" in republics a failure, and our
+institutions, fashions, literary methods, customs and manners, sports
+and pastimes as legitimate fields for wit and unrepressed jollity. Yet
+in the unbosoming of this cultivated "heathen" we see our fads and
+foibles held up as strange gods, and must confess some of them to be
+grotesque when seen in this yellow light.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p><p>It is doubtless true that the masses of Americans do not take the
+Chinaman seriously, and an interesting feature of this correspondence is
+the attitude of the Chinaman on this very point and his clever satire on
+our assumption of perfection and superiority over a nation, the habits
+of which have been fixed and settled for many centuries. The writer's
+experiences in society, his acquaintance with American women of fashion
+and their husbands, all ingeniously set forth, have the hall-mark of
+actual novelty, while his loyalty to the traditions of his country and
+his egotism, even after the Americanizing process had exercised its
+influence over him for years, add to the interest of the recital.</p>
+
+<p>In revising the correspondence and rearranging it under general heads,
+the editor has preserved the salient features of it, with but little
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>essential change and practically in its original shape. If the reader
+misses the peculiar idioms, or the pigeon-English that is usually placed
+in the mouth of the Chinaman of the novel or story, he or she should
+remember that the writer of the letters, while a "heathen Chinee," was
+an educated gentleman in the American sense of the term. This fact
+should always be kept in mind because, as the author remarks, to many
+Americans whom he met, it was "incomprehensible that a Chinaman can be
+educated, refined, and cultivated according to their own standards."</p>
+
+<p>With pardonable pride he tells how, on one occasion, when a woman in New
+York told him she knew her ancestral line as far back as 1200 <span class="smaller">A. D.</span>, he
+replied that he himself had "a tree without a break for thirty-two
+hundred years." He was sure she did not believe him, but he found her
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span>"indeed!" delightful. The author's name has been withheld for personal
+reasons that will be sufficiently obvious to those who read the letters.
+The period during which he wrote them is embraced in the ten years from
+1892 to 1902.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Henry Pearson Gratton</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">San Francisco, California</span>,<br /> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; May 10th, 1904.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#PREFACE">PREFACE.</a></span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The American, who he is</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The American Man</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">American Customs</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The American Woman</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Superstitions of the American</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The American Press</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The American Doctor</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Peculiarities and Mannerisms</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Life in Washington</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The American in Literature</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Political Boss</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Education in America</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Army and Navy</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Art in America</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Dark Side of Republicanism</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Sports and Pastimes</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Chinaman in America</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Religions of the Americans</span></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>AS A CHINAMAN SAW US</h1>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN&mdash;WHO HE IS</h3>
+
+<p>Many of the great powers believe themselves to be passing through an
+evolutionary period leading to civic and national perfection. America,
+or the United States, has already reached this state; it is complete and
+finished. I have this from the Americans themselves, so there can be no
+question about it; hence it requires no little temerity to discuss, let
+alone criticize, them.</p>
+
+<p>Yet I am going to ask you to behold the American as he is, as I honestly
+found him&mdash;great, small, good, bad, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>self-glorious, egotistical,
+intellectual, supercilious, ignorant, superstitious, vain, and
+bombastic. In truth, so very remarkable, so contradictory, so
+incongruous have I found the American that I hesitate. Shall I give you
+a satire; shall I devote myself to eulogy; shall I tear what they call
+the "whitewash" aside and expose them to the winds of excoriation; or
+shall I devote myself to an introspective, analytical <i>divertissement</i>?
+But I do not wish to educate you on the Americans, but to entertain, to
+make you laugh by the recital of comical truths; so without system I am
+going to tell you of these Americans as I found them, day by day, month
+by month, officially, socially; in their homes, in politics, trade,
+sorrow, despair, and in their pleasures.</p>
+
+<p>You will remember when the Evil Spirit is asked by the modest Spirit of
+Good to indicate his possessions he tucks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> the earth under one arm,
+drops the sun into one pocket, the moon into another, and the stars into
+the folds of his garment. In a word, to use the saying of my friends, he
+"claims everything in sight"; and this is certainly a characteristic of
+the American: he is all-perspective, he claims to have all the virtues,
+and in his ancestry embraces the entire world. At a dinner at the &mdash;&mdash;
+in Washington during the egg stage of my experience I sat next to a
+charming lady; and having been told that it was a custom of the French
+to compliment women, I remarked that her cheeks bloomed like our poppy
+of the Orient. She laughed, and responded, "Yes, I get that from my
+English grandfather." "But your eyes are like black pearls," I
+continued, seeing that I was on what a general on my right called the
+"right trail." "I got them from my Italian grandmother," she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> replied.
+"And your hair?" I pressed. "Must be Irish," was the answer, "for my
+paternal grandmother was Irish and her husband Scotch." It is true that
+this charmingly beautiful and composite goddess (at least she would have
+been one had she not been naked like a geisha at a men's dinner) was the
+product of a dozen nations, and a typical American.</p>
+
+<p>The original Americans appear to have been English, despite the fact
+that the Spaniards discovered the country, though a high official, a
+Yankee whom I met at a reception, told me that this was untrue. His
+ancestor had discovered North America, and I believe he had written a
+book to prove it. (<i>En passant</i>, all Americans write books; those who
+have not, fully intend to write one.) I listened complacently, then
+said, "My dear &mdash;&mdash;, if I am not mistaken the Chinese discovered
+America." I recalled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> the fact to his mind that the northwestern Eskimos
+and the Indians were essentially Asiatic in type; and it is true that he
+had never heard of the ethnologic map at his National Museum, which
+shows the location of Chinese junks blown to American shores within a
+period of three hundred years. I explained that junks had been blown
+over to America for the last <i>three thousand</i> years, and that in my
+country there were many records of voyages to the Western land, ages
+before 1492.</p>
+
+<p>You see I soon began to be Americanized and to claim things. China
+discovered America and gave her the compass as well as gunpowder. The
+first Americans were in the nature of emigrants; men and women who did
+not succeed well in their own country and so sought new fields, just as
+people are doing to-day. They came over in a ship called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> the
+"Mayflower," and were remarkably prolific, as I have met thousands who
+hail from this stock. At one time England sent her criminals to
+Virginia&mdash;one of the United States&mdash;and many of the refuse of the home
+country were sent to other parts of America in the early days. Younger
+sons of good families were also sent over for various reasons. Women of
+all classes were sent by the ship-load, and sold for wives. I reminded a
+lady of this, who was lamenting the fact that in China some women are
+sold for wives. She was absolutely ignorant of this well-known fact in
+American history, and forgot the selling of black women. Among the men
+were many representatives of old and noble families; but the bulk, I
+judge from their colonial histories, were people of low degree. Very
+soon other countries began to ship people to America. Italy, Germany,
+Russia, Norway, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>Sweden, and other lands were drawn upon for constantly
+increasing numbers as years went by. All tumbled into the American
+hopper. Imagine a coffee-grinder into which have been thrown Greek,
+Roman, Jew, Gentile, and all the rest, and then let what they call Uncle
+Sam&mdash;a heroic, paternal, and comical figure, representing the
+government&mdash;turn the handle and grind out the American who is neither
+Jew, Gentile, Greek, Roman, Russe, or Swede, but a new product, <i>sui
+generis</i>, and mostly Methodist.</p>
+
+<p>This process has never ceased for an hour. America has been from 1492 to
+the present time, in the language of the American "press," the
+"dumping-ground" of the nations of the world, the real open door; yet
+this grinding assimilation has gone on. It is, perhaps, due to the
+climate, perhaps the water, or the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> air; but the product of these people
+born on the soil is described by no other word than American. It may be
+Irish-American, very offensive; Dutch-American, very strenuous, like the
+Vice-President;<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Jewish-American, very commercial; Italian-American,
+very dirty and reeking with garlic; but it is American, totally unlike
+its progenitor, a something into which is blown a tremendous energy,
+that is very wearisome, a bombast which is the sum of that of all
+nations, and a conceit like that possessed by &mdash;&mdash; alone. You see it is
+incurable, also offensive&mdash;at least to the Oriental mind. Yet I grant
+you the American is great; I have it from him and from her; it must be
+so.</p>
+
+<p>You have the spectacle here of the nations of the world pouring a
+stream, that is not pactolean, and not perfumed with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> the gums of Araby,
+flowing in and peopling the country. In time they had grievances more
+fancied than real, yet grievances. They rose against the home
+government, threw off the English yoke, and became a republic with a
+division into States, which I will write of when I tell you of the
+American politician. This was the first trust&mdash;what they call a
+merger&mdash;but it occurred in politics. They have killed off a fair
+percentage of the actual owners of the soil, the Indians, swindling them
+out of the balance, and driving them back to a sort of ever-changing
+dead-line. Without delay they assumed the form of a dominant nation, and
+announced themselves the greatest nation on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Immigration was resumed, and all nations again sent their refuse
+population to America. I have facts showing that for years English
+poorhouses and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>hospitals were emptied of their inmates and shipped to
+America. It was a distinct policy of the anti-home-rule party in Ireland
+to encourage the poor Irish to go to America; and now when there are
+more Irish in America than in Ireland the fate of Ireland is assured.
+Yet the American air takes the fight out of the Irishman, the rose from
+his cheek, and makes a natural-born politician out of him. America still
+continued to receive immigrants, and not satisfied with the natural flow
+of the human current, began to import African slaves to a country
+founded for the benefit of those who desired an asylum where they could
+enjoy religious and political freedom. The Africans were sold in the
+cotton belt, their existence virtually creating two distinct political
+parties. America long remained a dumping-ground for nearly all the
+nations of the world having an excess of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> population. Great navigation
+companies were built up, to a large extent, on this trade. They sent
+agents to every foreign country, issued pamphlets in every European
+language, and uncounted thousands were brought over&mdash;the scum of the
+earth in many instances. There was no restriction to immigration until
+the Chinese were barred out. After accepting the outlaws of every
+European state, the poor of all lands, they shut the door on our
+"coolie" countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>In this way, briefly, America has grown to her present population of
+80,000,000. The remarkable growth and assimilation is still going on&mdash;a
+menace to the world, but in a constantly decreasing ratio, which has
+become so marked that the leading Americans, the class which corresponds
+to our scholars, are aghast at the singular conditions which exist.
+Non-assimilation shows itself in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> labor riots, in the murder of two
+Presidents&mdash;Garfield and Lincoln&mdash;in socialistic outbreaks in every
+quarter, and in signal outbreaks in various sections, at lynchings, and
+other unlawful performances. I am attempting to give you an idea of the
+constituents of America to-day; but so interesting is the subject, so
+prolific in its warnings and possibilities, that I find myself
+wandering.</p>
+
+<p>To glance at conditions at the present time, about 600,000 aliens are
+coming to America yearly. What is the result? I was invited to meet a
+distinguished German visiting in New York last month, and at the dinner
+a young lady who sat by my side said to me, "I wish I could puzzle him."
+"Why?" I asked, in amazement. "Oh," was her reply, "he looks so cram
+full of knowledge; I would like to take him down." "Ah," I said. "Ask
+him which is the third largest German<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> city in the world. It is New
+York; he will never guess it." She did so, and I assure you he was
+"puzzled," and would scarcely believe it until a well-known man assured
+him it was true. There are more Germans in Chicago than in Leipsic,
+Cologne, Dresden, Munich, or a dozen small towns joined in one. Half of
+the Chicago Germans speak their own tongue. This city is the third
+Swedish city of the world in population. It is the fourth Polish city
+and the second Bohemian city. I was informed by a professor in the
+University of Chicago that, in that strange city, the number of people
+who speak the language of the Bohemians equaled the combined inhabitants
+of Richmond, Atlanta, Portland, and Nashville&mdash;all large cities. "What
+do you think of it?" I asked. "We are up against it," was the reply. I
+can not explain this retort so that you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> would understand it, but it had
+great significance. The professor, a distinguished philologist, was
+worried, and he looked it. A lady who was a club woman&mdash;and by this I do
+not mean that she was armed with a club, but merely a member of clubs or
+societies for educational advancement and social aggrandizement&mdash;said it
+was merely his digestion.</p>
+
+<p>I learned from my friend, the dyspeptic professor, that over forty
+dialects are spoken in Chicago. About one-half only of the total
+population speak or understand English. There are 500,000 Germans,
+125,000 Poles, 100,000 Swedes, 90,000 Bohemians, 50,000 Yiddish, 25,000
+Dutch, 25,000 Italians, 15,000 French, 10,000 Irish, 10,000 Servians,
+10,000 Lutherans, 7,000 Russians, and 5,000 Hungarians in Chicago. You
+will be surprised to learn that numbers do not count. The 500,000
+Germans are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> not the dominating power, nor are the 100,000 Swedes. The
+10,000 Irish are said absolutely to control the political situation. You
+will ask if I believe that this monster foreign element can be reduced
+to a homogeneous unit. I reply, yes. Fifty years from to-day they will
+all be Americans, and a majority will, doubtless, show you their family
+tree, tracing their ancestry back to the Mayflower.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This passage was written just before the assassination of
+President McKinley.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN MAN</h3>
+
+<p>Hash&mdash;and I do not mean by this word a corruption of hasheesh&mdash;is a term
+indicating in America a food formed of more than one article chopped and
+cooked together. I was told by a very witty and charming lady that hash
+was a synonym for <i>E pluribus unum</i> (one from many), the motto of the
+Government, but I did not find it on the American arms. This was an
+American "dinner joke," of which more anon; nevertheless, hash
+represents the American people of to-day. The millions of all nations,
+which have swarmed here since 1492, may be represented by this
+delectable dish, which, after all, has a certain homogeneity. Englishmen
+are at once recognized here, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> so are Chinamen. You would never
+mistake one of our people for a Japanese; an Italian you would know
+across the way; but an American not always in America. He may be a
+Swede, a German, or a Canadian; he is not an American until he opens his
+mouth. Then there is no mistake as to what he is. He has a nasal tone
+that is purely American.</p>
+
+<p>All the old cities, as Boston, New York, Richmond, and Philadelphia,
+have certain nasal peculiarities or variants. The Bostonian affects the
+English. The New Englander, especially in the north, has a comical
+twang, which you can produce by holding the nose tightly and attempting
+to speak. When he says <i>down</i> it sounds like <i>daoun</i>. It is impossible
+for him not to overvowel his words, and nothing is more amusing than to
+hear the true Yankee countryman talk. The Philadelphian is quite as
+marked in tone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> and enunciation. A well-educated Philadelphian will say
+where is <i>me</i> wife for <i>my</i>. I have also been asked by a Philadelphian,
+"Where are you going at?" It would be impossible to mistake the
+intonation of a Philadelphian, even though you met him in the wilds of
+Manchuria in the depths of night.</p>
+
+<p>Among the most charming and delightfully cultured people I met in
+America were Philadelphians of old families. The New Yorker is more
+cosmopolitan, while the Southern men, to a certain extent, have caught
+the inflection of the negro, who is the nurse in the South for all white
+children. The Americans are taught that the principal and chief end of
+man is to make a fortune and get married; but to accomplish this it is
+necessary first to "sow wild oats," become familiar with the vices of
+drink, smoking, and other forms of dissipation,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> a sort of test of
+endurance possibly, such as is found among many native races; yet one
+scarcely expects to find it among the latest and highest exponents of
+perfection in the human race.</p>
+
+<p>The American pretends to be democratic; scoffs at England and other
+European lands, but at heart he is an aristocrat. His tastes are only
+limited by his means, and not always then. Any American, especially a
+politician, will tell you that there is but one class&mdash;the people, and
+that all are born equal. In point of fact, there are as many classes as
+there are grades of pronounced individuality, and all are very unequal,
+as every one knows. They are included in a general way in three classes:
+the upper class (the refined and cultivated); the middle class
+(represented by the retail shop-keepers); and last, the rest. The cream
+of society will be found in all the cities to be among the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> professional
+men, clergymen, presidents of colleges, long-rich wholesale merchants,
+judges, authors, etc.</p>
+
+<p>The distinctions in society are so singular that it is almost impossible
+for a foreigner to understand them. There are persons who make it a life
+study to prepare books and papers on the subject, and whose opinions are
+readily accepted; yet such a person might not be accepted in the best
+society. What constitutes American society and its divisions is a
+mystery. In a general sense a retail merchant, a man who sold shoes or
+clothes, a tailor, would under no circumstances find a place in the
+first social circles; yet if these same tradesmen should change to
+wholesalers and give up selling one article at a time, they would become
+eligible to the best society. They do not always get in, however. At a
+dinner my neighbor, an attractive matron, was much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> dismayed by my
+asking if she knew a certain Mr. &mdash;&mdash;, a well-known grocer. "I believe
+our supplies (groceries) come from him," was her chilly reply. "But," I
+ventured, "he is now a wholesaler." "Indeed!" said madam; "I had not
+heard of it." The point, very inconceivable to you, perhaps, was that
+the grocer, whether wholesale or retail, was not readily accepted; yet
+the man in the wholesale business in drugs, books, wine, stores, fruit,
+or almost anything else, had the <i>entr&eacute;e</i>, if he was a gentleman. The
+druggist, the hardware man, the furniture dealer, the grocer, the
+retailer would constitute a class by themselves, though of course there
+are other subtle divisions completely beyond my comprehension.</p>
+
+<p>At some of the homes of the first people I would meet a president of a
+university, an author of note, an Episcopal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> bishop, a general of the
+regular army (preferably a graduate of the West Point Academy), several
+retired merchants of the highest standing, bankers, lawyers, a judge or
+two of the Supreme Bench, an admiral of good family and connections. I
+have good reason to think that a Methodist bishop would not be present
+at such a meeting unless he was a remarkable man. There were always a
+dozen men of well-known lineage; men who knew their family history as
+far back as their great-grandparents, and whose ancestors were
+associated with the history of the country and its development. The men
+were all in business or the professions. They went to their offices at
+nine or ten o'clock and remained until twelve; lunched at their clubs or
+at a restaurant, returned at one, and many remained until six before
+going to their homes. The work is intense. A dominating factor or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+characteristic in the American man is his pursuit of the dollar. That he
+secures it is manifest from the miles of beautiful residences, the show
+of costly equipages and plate, the unlimited range of "stores" or shops
+one sees in large cities. The millionaire is a very ordinary individual
+in America; it is only the billionaire who now really attracts
+attention. The wealth and splendors of the homes, the magnificent <i>tout
+ensemble</i> of these establishments, suggests the possibility of
+degeneracy, an appearance of demoralization; but I am assured that this
+is not apparent in very wealthy families.</p>
+
+<p>It is not to be understood that wealth always gives social position in
+America. By reading the American papers you might believe that this is
+all that is necessary. Some wealth is of course requisite to enable a
+family to hold its own, to give the social retort courteous, to live<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+according to the mode of others; yet mere wealth will not buy the
+<i>entr&eacute;e</i> to the very best society, even in villages. Culture,
+refinement, education, and, most important, <i>savoir faire</i>, constitute
+the "open sesame." I know a billionaire, at least this is his
+reputation, who has no standing merely because he is vulgar&mdash;that is,
+ill-bred. I have met another man, a great financier, who would give a
+million to have the <i>entr&eacute;e</i> to the very best houses. Instances could be
+cited without end.</p>
+
+<p>Such men and women generally have their standing in Europe; in a word,
+go abroad for the position they can not secure at home. A family now
+allied to one of the proudest families in Europe had absolutely no
+position in America previous to the alliance, and doubtless would not
+now be taken up by some. You will understand that I am speaking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> now of
+the most exclusive American society, formed of families who have age,
+historical associations, breeding, education, great-grandparents, and
+always have had "manners." There are other social sets which pass as
+representative society, into which all the ill-mannered <i>nouveau riche</i>
+can climb by the golden stairs; but this is not real society. The
+richest man in America, Rockefeller, quoted at over a billion, is a
+religious worker, and his indulgences consist in gifts to universities.
+Another billionaire, Mr. Carnegie, gives his millions to found
+libraries. Mr. Morgan, the millionaire banker, attends church
+conventions as an antipodal diversion. There is no conspicuous
+millionaire before the American public who has earned a reputation for
+extreme profligacy.</p>
+
+<p>There is a leisure class, the sons of wealthy men, who devote their time
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> hunting and other sports; but in the recent war this class surged to
+the front as private soldiers and fought the country's battles. I admire
+the American gentleman of the select society class I have described. He
+is modest, intelligent, learned in the best sense, magnanimous, a type
+of chivalry, bold, vigorous, charming as a host, and the soul of honor.
+It is a regret that this is not the dominating and best-known class in
+America, but it is not; and the alien, the stranger coming without
+letters of introduction, would fall into other hands. A man might live a
+lifetime in Philadelphia or Boston and never meet these people, unless
+he had been introduced by some one who was of the same class in some
+other city. Such strange social customs make strange bedfellows. Thus,
+if you came to America to-day and had letters to the Vice-President, you
+would, without doubt, if <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>properly accredited, see the very best
+society. If, on the other hand, you had letters to the President at his
+home in the State of Ohio you would doubtless meet an entirely different
+class, eminently respectable, yet not the same. It would be impossible
+to ignore the inference from this. The Vice-President is in society (the
+best); the President is not. Where else could this hold? Nowhere but in
+America.</p>
+
+<p>The Americans affect to scorn caste and sect, yet no nation has more of
+them. Sets or classes, even among men, are found in all towns where
+there is any display of wealth. The best society of a small town
+consists of its bank presidents, its clergymen, its physicians, its
+authors, its lawyers. No matter how educated the grocer may be, he will
+not be received, nor the retail shoe dealer, though the shoe
+manufacturer, the dealer in many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> shoes, may be the virtual leader, at
+least among the men. Each town will have its clubs, the members ranging
+according to their class; and while it seems a paradox, it is true that
+this classification is mainly based upon the refinement, culture, and
+family of the man. A well-known man once engaged me in conversation with
+a view to finding out some facts regarding our social customs, and I
+learned from him that a dentist in America would scarcely be received in
+the best society. He argued, that to a man of refinement and culture,
+such a profession, which included the cleaning of teeth, would be
+impossible; consequently, you would not be likely to find a really
+cultivated man who was a dentist. On the same grounds an undertaker
+would not be admitted to the first society.</p>
+
+<p>With us a gentleman is born; with Americans it is possible to create
+one,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> though rarely. An American gentleman is described as a product of
+two generations of college men who have always had association with
+gentlemen and the advantages of family standing. Political elevation can
+not affect a man's status as a gentleman. I heard a lady of unquestioned
+position say that she admired President McKinley, but regretted that he
+was not a gentleman. She meant that he was not an aristocrat, and did
+not possess the <i>savoir faire</i>, or the family associations, that
+completely round out the American or English gentleman. I asked this
+lady to indicate the gentlemen Presidents of the country. There were
+very few that I recall. There were Washington, Harrison, Adams, and
+Arthur. Doubtless there were others, which have escaped me. Lincoln, the
+strongest American type, she did not consider in the gentlemen class,
+and General Grant,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> the nation's especial pride, did not fulfil her
+ideas of what a gentleman should be.</p>
+
+<p>You will perceive, then, that what some American people consider a
+gentleman and what its most exclusive society accepts for one, comprise
+two entirely different personages. I found this emphasized especially in
+the old society of Washington, which takes its traditions from
+Washington's time or even the pre-Revolutionary period. For such society
+a self-made man was impossible. Such are the remarkable, indeed
+astounding, ramifications of the social system of a people who cry to
+heaven of their democracy. "Americans are all equal&mdash;this is one of the
+gems in our diadem." This epigram I heard drop from the lips of a
+senator who was the recognized aristocrat of the chamber; yet a man of
+peculiar social reserve, who would have nothing to do with the other
+"equals." In a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> word, all the talk of equality is an absurd figure of
+speech. America is at heart as much an aristocracy as England, and the
+social divisions are much the same under the surface.</p>
+
+<p>You will understand that social rules and customs are all laid down and
+exacted by women and from women. From them I obtained all my
+information. No American gentleman would talk (to me at least) on the
+subject. Ask one of them if there is an American aristocracy, and he
+will pass over the question in an engaging manner, and tell you that his
+government is based on the principle of perfect equality&mdash;one of the
+most transparent farces to be found in this interesting country. I have
+outlined to you what I conceived to be the best society in each city,
+and in the various sections of the country. In morality and probity I
+believe them to stand very high; lapses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> there may be, but the general
+tone is good. The women are charming and refined; the men chivalrous,
+brave, well-poised, and highly educated. Unfortunately, the Americans
+who compose this "set" are numerically weak. They are not represented to
+the extent of being a dominating body, and oddly enough, the common
+people, the shopkeepers, the people in the retail trades, do not
+understand them as leaders from the fact that they are so completely
+aloof that they never meet them. A sort of inner "holy of holies" is the
+real aristocracy of America. What goes for society among the people, the
+mob, and the press is the set (and a set means a faction, a clique)
+known as the Four Hundred, so named because it was supposed to represent
+the "blue blood" of New York ten years ago in its perfection. This Four
+Hundred has its prototype in all cities, and in some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> cities is known as
+the "fast set." In New York it is made up often of the descendants of
+old families, the heads of whom in many instances were retail traders
+within one hundred and fifty years ago; but the modern wealthy
+representatives endeavor to forget this or skip over it. It is, however,
+constantly kept alive by what is termed the "yellow press," which
+delights in picturing the ancestor of one family as a pedler and an
+itinerant trader, and the head of another family as a vegetable vender,
+and so on, literally venting its spleen upon them.</p>
+
+<p>In my studies in American sociology I asked many questions, and obtained
+the most piquant replies from women. One lady, a leader in New York in
+what I have termed the exclusive set, informed me with a laugh that the
+ancestor of a well-known family of to-day, one which cuts a commanding
+figure in society, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> an ordinary laborer in the employ of her
+grandfather. "Yet you receive them?" I suggested. The reply was a shrug
+of charming shoulders, which, translated, meant that great wealth had
+here enabled them to "bore" into the exclusive circle. I found that even
+among these people, the <i>cr&ecirc;me de la cr&ecirc;me</i> in the eyes of the people,
+there were inner circles, and these were not on intimate terms with the
+others. Here I met a member of the Washington and Lee family, a
+descendant of Bishop Provoost, the first Episcopal bishop of New York,
+and friend of Washington and Hamilton. This latter family is notable for
+an ancestry running back to the massacre of St. Bartholomew and even
+beyond. I astonished its charming descendant, who very delicately
+informed me that she knew her ancestry as far back as 1200 <span class="smaller">A. D.</span>, when I
+told her that I had my "family tree,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> as they call it, without a break
+for thirty-two hundred years. I am confident she did not believe me, but
+her "Indeed!" was delightful. In fact, I assure you I have lost my heart
+to these American women. I met representatives of the Adams, Dana,
+Madison, Lee, and other families identified with American history in a
+most honorable way.</p>
+
+<p>The continuity of the Four Hundred idea as a logical system was broken
+by the quality of some of its members. Compared to the society I have
+previously mentioned it was as chaff. There was a total lack of
+intellectuality. Degeneracy marked some of their acts; divorce blackened
+their records, and shameless affairs marked them. In this "set," and
+particularly its imitators throughout the United States, the divorce
+rate is appalling. Men leave their wives and obtain a divorce for no
+other reason than that a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> woman falls in love with another woman's
+husband. On a yacht we will say there is some scandal. A divorce ensues,
+and afterward the parties are remarried. Or we will say a wife succumbs
+to the blandishments of another man. The conjugal arrangements are
+rearranged, so that, as a very merry New York club man told me, "It is
+difficult to tell where you are at." In a word, the morale of the men of
+this set is low, their standard high, but not always lived up to. I
+believe that I am not doing the American of the middle class wrong and
+the ultra-fashionable class an injustice in saying that it is as a class
+immoral.</p>
+
+<p>Americans make great parade of their churches. Spires rise like the
+pikes of an army in every town, yet the morality of the men is low.
+There are in this land 600,000 prostitutes&mdash;ruined women. But this is
+not due entirely to the Four <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>Hundred, whose irregularities appear to be
+confined to inroads upon their own set. Nearly all these men are club
+men; two-thirds are in business as brokers, bankers, or professional
+men; and there is a large percentage of men of leisure and vast wealth.
+They affect English methods, and are, as a rule, not highly intelligent,
+but <i>blas&eacute;</i>, often effeminate, an interesting spectacle to the student,
+showing that the downfall of the American Republic would come sooner
+than that of Rome if the "fast set" were a dominating force, which it is
+not.</p>
+
+<p>In the great middle class of the American men I find much to admire;
+half educated, despite their boasted school system, they put up, to
+quote one of them, "a splendid bluff" of respectability and morality,
+yet their statistics give the lie to it. Their divorces are phenomenal,
+and they are obtained on the slightest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> cause. If a man or woman becomes
+weary of the other they are divorced on the ground of incompatibility of
+temper.</p>
+
+<p>A lady, a descendant of one of the oldest families, desired to marry her
+friend's husband. He charged his wife with various vague acts, one of
+which, according to the press, was that she did not wear "corsets"&mdash;a
+sort of steel frame which the American women wear to compress the waist.
+This was not accepted by the learned judge, and the wife then left her
+husband and went away on a six or eight months' visit. This enabled the
+husband to put in a claim of desertion, and the decree of divorce was
+granted. A quicker method is to pretend to throw the breakfast dishes at
+your wife, who makes a charge of "extreme incompatibility," and a
+divorce is at once obtained. Certain Territories bank on their divorce
+laws, and the mismated have but to go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> there and live a few months to
+obtain a separation on almost any claim. Many of the most distinguished
+statesmen have been charged with certain moral lapses in the heat of
+political fights, which, in almost every instance, are ignored by the
+victims, their silence being significant to some, illogical to others;
+yet the fact remains that the press goes to the greatest extremes. No
+family secret is considered sacred to the American politician in the
+heat of a campaign; to win, he would sacrifice the husband, father,
+mother, and children of his enemy. So remarkable is the rage for divorce
+that many of the great religious denominations have taken up arms
+against it. Catholics forbid it. Episcopalians resent it by ostracism if
+the cause is trivial, and a "separation" is denounced in the pulpit.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>AMERICAN CUSTOMS</h3>
+
+<p>The American is an interesting, though not always pleasant, study. His
+perfect equipoise, his independence, his assumption that he is the best
+product of the best soil in the world, comes first as a shock; but when
+you find this but one of the many national characteristics it merely
+amuses you. One of the extraordinary features of the American is his
+attitude toward the Chinese, who are taken on sufferance. The lower
+classes absolutely can conceive of no difference between me and the
+"coolie." As an example, a boy on the street accosts me with "Hi, John,
+you washee, washee?" Even a representative in Congress insisted on
+calling me "John." On <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>protesting to another man, he laughed, and said,
+"Oh, the man don't know any better." "But," I replied, "if he does not
+know any better how is it he is a lawmaker in your lower house?" "I give
+it up," was his answer, and he ordered what they term a "high-ball."
+After we had tried several, he laughed and asked, "Shall we consider the
+matter a closed incident?" Many diplomatic, social, and political
+questions are often settled with a "high-ball."</p>
+
+<p>It is inconceivable to the average American that there can be an
+educated Chinese gentleman, a man of real refinement. They know us by
+the Cantonese laundrymen, the class which ranks with their lowest
+classes. At dinners and receptions I was asked the most atrocious
+questions by men and women. One charming young girl, who I was informed
+was the relative of a Cabinet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> officer, asked me if I would not sometime
+put up my "pig-tail," as she wished to photograph me. Another asked if
+it was really true that we privately considered all Americans as "white
+devils." All had an inordinate curiosity to know my "point of view";
+what I thought of them, how their customs differed from my own. Of
+course, replies were manifestly impossible. At a dinner a young man,
+who, I learned, was a sort of professional diner-out, remarked to a
+lady: "None of the American girls will have me for a husband; do you not
+think that if I should go to China some pretty Chinese girl would have
+me?" This was said before all the company. Every one was silent, waiting
+for the response. Looking up, she replied, with charming <i>na&iuml;vet&eacute;</i>, "No,
+I do not think so," which produced much laughter. Now you would have
+thought the young man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> would have been slightly discomfited, but not at
+all; he laughed heartily, and plumed himself upon the fact that he had
+succeeded in bringing out a reply.</p>
+
+<p>American men have a variety of costumes for as many occasions. They have
+one for the morning, which is called a sack-coat, that is, tailless, and
+is of mixed colors. With this they wear a low hat, an abomination called
+the derby. After twelve o'clock the frock-coat is used, having long
+tails reaching to the knees. Senators often wear this costume in the
+morning&mdash;why I could not learn, though I imagine they think it is more
+dignified than the sack. With the afternoon suit goes a high silk hat,
+called a "plug" by the lower classes, who never wear them. After dark
+two suits of black are worn: one a sack, being informal, the other with
+tails, very formal. They also have a suit for the bath&mdash;a robe&mdash;and a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>sleeping-costume, like a huge bag, with sleeves and neck-hole. This is
+the night-shirt, and formerly a "nightcap" was used by some. There is
+also a hat to go with the evening costume&mdash;a high hat, which crushes in.
+You may sit on it without injury to yourself or hat. I know this by a
+harrowing experience.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the customs of the Americans are strange. Their social life
+consists of dinners, receptions, balls, card-parties, teas, and smokers.
+At all but the last women are present. At the dinner every one is in
+evening dress; the men wear black swallowtail coats, following the
+English in every way, low white vest, white starched shirt, white collar
+and necktie, and black trousers. If the dinner does not include women
+the coat-tails are eliminated, and the vest and necktie are black.
+Exactly why this is I do not understand, nor do the Americans. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+dinner is begun with the national drink, the "cocktail"; then follow
+oysters on the half-shell, which you eat with an object resembling the
+trident carried in the ceremony of Ah Dieu at the Triennial. Each course
+of the dinner is accompanied by a different wine, an agreeable but
+exhilarating custom. The knife and fork are used, the latter to go into
+the mouth, the former not, and here you see a singular ethnologic
+feature. Class distinctions may at times be recognized by the knife or
+fork. Thus I was informed that you could at once recognize a person of
+the gentleman class by his use of the knife and fork. "This is
+infallible," said my young lady companion. If he is a commoner, he eats
+with his knife; if a gentleman, with his fork. This was a very nice
+distinction, and I looked carefully for a knife eater, but never saw
+one.</p>
+
+<p>There is a vast amount of ceremony<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> and etiquette about a dinner and
+various rules for eating, to break which is a social offense. I heard
+that a certain Madam &mdash;&mdash; gave lessons in "good form" after the American
+fashion, so that one could learn what was expected, and at my first
+dinner I regretted that I had not availed myself of the services of the
+lady, as at each plate there were nearly a dozen solid silver articles
+to be used in the different courses, but I endeavored to escape by
+watching my companion and following her example. But here the
+impossibility of an American girl resisting a joke caused my downfall.
+She at once saw my dilemma, and would take up the wrong implement, and
+when I followed suit she dropped it and took another, laughing in her
+eyes in a way in which the American girl is a prodigious adept; but
+completely deceived by her nearly every time, knowing that she was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+amusing herself at my expense, I said nothing. The Americans have a
+peculiar term for the mental attitude I had during this trial. I "sawed
+wood." The saying was particularly applicable to my situation. My young
+companion was most engaging, and presently began to talk of the
+superiority of America, her inventions, etc., mentioning the telephone,
+printing, and others. "Yes, wonderful," I replied; "but the Chinese had
+the telephone ages ago. They invented printing, gunpowder, the mariner's
+compass, and it would be difficult," I said, "for you to mention an
+object which China has not had for ages." She was amazed that I, a
+Chinaman, should "claim everything in sight."</p>
+
+<p>There is a peculiar etiquette relating to every course in a dinner. The
+soup is eaten with a bowl-like spoon, and it is the grossest breach to
+place this in your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> mouth, or approach it, endwise. You approach the
+side and suck the soup from it. To make a noise would attract attention.
+The etiquette of the fish is to eat it with a fork; to use the knife
+even to cut the fish would be unpardonable, or to touch it to take out
+the bones; the fork alone must be used. The punch course is often an
+embarrassment to the previous wines, and is followed by what the French
+call the <i>entr&eacute;e</i>. In fact, while the Americans boast that everything
+American is the best, French customs are followed at banquets
+invariably, this being one of the strange inconsistencies of the
+Americans. Their clothes are copied from the English, though they will
+claim in the same breath that their tailors are the best in the world.
+For wines they claim to be unsurpassed, producing the finest; yet the
+wines on their tables are French or bear French labels. Game is
+served<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>&mdash;a grouse or perhaps a hare, and then a vast roast, possibly
+venison, or beef, and there are vegetables, followed by a salad of some
+kind. Then comes the dessert&mdash;an iced cream, cakes, nuts, raisins,
+cheese, and coffee with brandy, and then cigars and vermuth or some
+cordial. After such a dinner of three hours a Southern gentleman clapped
+me on the back and said, "Great dinner, that; but let's go and get a
+drink of something solid," and I saw him take what he termed "two
+fingers" of Kentucky Bourbon whisky&mdash;a very stiff drink. I often
+wondered how the guests could stand so much.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner has no attendant amusement, no dancing, no professional
+entertainers, and rarely lasts over two hours. Some houses have stringed
+bands concealed behind barriers of flowers playing soft music, but in
+the main the dinner is a jollification, a symposium of stories,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> where
+the guests take a turn at telling tales. Story-tellers can not be hired,
+and the guest at the proper moment says (after having prepared himself
+beforehand), "That reminds me of a story," and he relates what he has
+learned with great <i>&eacute;clat</i> and applause, as every American will applaud
+a good story, even if he has heard it time and again. At one dinner
+which I attended in New York story-telling had been going on for some
+time when a well-known man came in late. He was received with applause,
+and when called on for a speech told exactly the same story, by a
+strange coincidence, that had been told by the last speaker. Not a guest
+interfered; he was allowed to proceed, and at the end the point was
+greeted with a roar of laughter. This appeared to me to be an excellent
+quality in the American character. I was informed that these stories,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+forming so important a feature of American dinners, are the product
+mainly of drummers and certain prominent men; but why men that drum are
+more skilful in story inventing I failed to learn. President Lincoln and
+a lawyer named Daniel Webster originated a large percentage of the
+current stories. It is difficult to understand exactly what the
+Americans mean.</p>
+
+<p>The American story is incomprehensible to the average foreigner, but it
+is good form to laugh. I will relate several as illustrative of American
+wit, and I might add that many of these have been published in books for
+the benefit of the diner-out. A Cabinet minister told of a prisoner who
+was called to the bar and asked his name. The man had some impediment in
+his speech, one of the hundred complaints of the tongue, and began to
+hiss, uttering a strange <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>stuttering sound like escaping steam. The
+judge listened a few moments, then turning to the guard said, "Officer,
+what is this man charged with?" "Soda-water, I think, your honor," was
+the reply. This was unintelligible to me until my companion explained
+it. You must understand that soda-water is a drink that is charged with
+gas and makes a hissing, spluttering noise when opened. Hence when the
+judge asked what the prisoner was charged with the policeman, an
+Irishman, retorted with a joke, the story-teller disregarding the fact
+that it was an impertinence.</p>
+
+<p>A distinguished New York judge told the following: Two tenement
+harridans look out of their windows simultaneously. "Good-morning, Mrs.
+Moriarity," says one. "Good-morning, Mrs. Gilfillan," says the other,
+adding, "not that I care a d&mdash;&mdash;, but just to make conversation."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> This
+was considered wit of the sharpest kind, and was received with applause.
+In their stories the Americans spare neither age, sex, nor relatives.
+The following was related by a general of the army. He said he took a
+friend home to spend the night with him, the guest occupying the best
+room. When he came down in the morning he turned to the hostess and
+said, "Mrs. &mdash;&mdash;, that was excellent tooth-powder you placed at my
+disposal; can you give me the name of the maker?" The hostess fairly
+screamed. "What," she exclaimed, "the powder in the urn?" "Yes," replied
+the officer, startled; "was it poison?" "Worse, worse," said she; "you
+swallowed Aunt Jane!" Conceive of this wretched taste. The guest had
+actually cleaned his teeth with the cremated dust of the general's aunt;
+yet he told the story before a dinner assemblage,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> and it was received
+with shouts of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>I did not hear the intellectual conversation at dinner I had expected.
+Art, science, literature, were rarely touched upon, although I
+invariably met artists, litterateurs, and scientific men at these
+dinners. They all talked small talk or "told stories." I was informed
+that if I wished to hear the weighty questions of the day discussed I
+must go to the women's clubs, or to Madam &mdash;&mdash;'s Current Topics Society.
+The latter is an extraordinary affair, where society women who have no
+time to read the news of the day listen to short lectures on the news of
+the preceding week, discussed pro and con, giving these women in a
+nutshell material for intelligent conversation when they meet senators
+and other men at the various receptions before which they wish to make
+an agreeable impression.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p><p>The American has many clubs, but is not entirely at home in them. He
+uses them as places in which to play poker or whist, to dine his men
+friends, and in a great measure because it is the "proper thing." At
+many a room is set apart for the national game of poker&mdash;a fascinating
+game to the player who wins. Poker was never mentioned in my presence
+that some did not make a joke on a supposed Chinaman named Ah Sin; but
+the obscurity of the joke and my lack of knowledge regarding American
+literature caused the point to elude me at first, which was true of many
+jokes. The Americans are preeminently practical jokers, and the ends to
+which they go is beyond belief. I heard of jokes which, if perpetrated
+in China, would have resulted in the loss of some one's head. To
+illustrate this, in the Spanish-American War the camps at Tampa were
+besieged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> with newspaper reporters, and one from a large journal was
+constantly trying to secure secret news by entertaining certain officers
+with wine and cigars; so they determined to get rid of his
+importunities, and what is known as a "job" in America was "put up" on
+him. He was told that Colonel &mdash;&mdash; had a detailed map of the forthcoming
+battle, and if he could get the officer intoxicated he doubtless could
+secure the map. This looked very easy to the correspondent, so the story
+goes, and he dropped into the colonel's tent one night with a basket of
+wine, and began to celebrate its arrival from some friends. Soon the
+colonel pretended to become communicative, and the map was brought out
+and finally loaned to the correspondent under the promise that it would
+not be used. This was sufficient. The correspondent hied him to his
+tent, wrote an article and sent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> the map to his paper in one of the
+large cities, where it was duly published. It proved to be what
+dressmakers call a "Butterick pattern," a maze of lines for cutting out
+dresses for women. The lines looked like roads, and the practical jokers
+had merely added towns and forts and bridges here and there.</p>
+
+<p>The Americans are excellent parents, though small families are general.
+The domestic life is charming. The family is denied nothing needed, the
+only limit being the purse of the head of the family, so called, the
+real head in many cases being the wife, who does not fail to assert
+herself if the proper occasion opens. Well-to-do families have every
+luxury, and no nation is apparently so well off, so completely supplied
+with the necessities of life as the American. One is impressed by their
+business sagacity, their cleverness in finance, their complete<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> grasp of
+all questions, yet no people are easier gulled or more readily
+victimized. An instance will suffice. In making my investigations
+regarding methods of managing railroads, I not only obtained information
+from the road officials, but questioned the employees whenever it
+happened that I was traveling. One day, observing that it was the custom
+to "tip" the porters (give money), I asked the conductor what the men
+were paid. "Little or nothing," was the reply; "they get from
+seventy-five to one hundred dollars a month out of the <i>passengers</i> on a
+long run." "But the passengers paid the road for the service?" "Yes, and
+they pay the salary of the porter also," said the man. With that in view
+the men are poorly paid, and the railroad knows that the people will
+make up their salaries, as they do. If you refused you would have no
+service.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p><p>This rule holds everywhere, in hotels and restaurants. Servants receive
+little pay where the patronage is rich, with the understanding that they
+will make it up out of the customers. Thus if you go to a hotel you fee
+the bell-boy for bringing you a glass of water. If you order one of the
+seductive cocktails you fee the man who brings it; you fee the
+chambermaid who attends to your room. Infinite are the resources of
+these servants who do not receive a fee. You fee the elevator or lift
+boy, or he will take the opportunity to jerk you up as though shot out
+of a gun. You fee the porter for taking up your trunk, and give a
+special fee for unstrapping it. You fee the head waiter, and when you
+fee the table waiter he whispers in your ear that a slight fee will be
+acceptable to the cook, who will see that the <i>Count</i> or the <i>Judge</i>
+will be cared for as becomes his station.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> When you leave, the sidewalk
+porter expects a fee; if he does not receive it the door of the carriage
+may possibly be slammed on the tail of your coat. Then you pay the
+cabman two dollars to carry you to the station, and fee him. Arriving at
+the station, he hands you over to a red-hatted porter, who carries your
+baggage for a fee. He puts you in charge of the railroad porter, who is
+feed at the rate of about fifty cents per diem.</p>
+
+<p>The American submits to this robbery without a murmur; yet he is
+sagacious, prudent. I can only explain his gullibility on the ground of
+his innate snobbery; he thinks it is the "thing to do," and does it, and
+for this reason it is carried to the most merciless lengths. To
+illustrate. In the season of 1902, when I was at Newport, Mr. &mdash;&mdash;, a
+conspicuous member of the New York smart set, known as the "Four
+Hundred," lost his hat in some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> way and rode to his home without one.
+The ubiquitous reporter saw him, and photographed him, bareheaded, and
+his paper, the New York &mdash;&mdash;, gave a column the following day to a
+description of the new fad of going without a hat. Thus the fashion
+started, and the amazing spectacle was seen the summer following of men
+and women of fashion riding and walking for miles without hats. This is
+beyond belief, yet it attracted no attention from the common people, who
+perhaps got the cast-off hats. Despite this, the Americans are
+hard-fisted, shrewd, and as a nation a match for any in the field of
+cunning.</p>
+
+<p>I can explain it in no way than by assuming that it is due to
+overanxiety to do the correct thing. Their own actors satirize them, one
+especially taking them off in a jingle which read, "It's English, quite
+English, you know." It is said of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> the men of the "Four Hundred" that
+they turn up their trousers when it rains in London, special reports of
+the weather being sent to the clubs for the purpose; but I cannot vouch
+for this. I have seen the trousers turned up in all weathers, and found
+no one who could explain why he did so. What can you make of so
+contradictory a people?</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN WOMAN</h3>
+
+<p>The most remarkable feature of America is the women. Divest your mind of
+any woman you know in order to prepare yourself to receive my
+impressions. To begin with, the American woman ranks with her husband;
+indeed, she is his superior in that all men render her homage and
+deference. It is accounted a point of chivalry to stand as the defender
+of the weaker sex. The American girl is educated with the boys in the
+public school, grows up with them, and studies their studies, that she
+may be their intellectual equal, and there is a strong party, led by
+masculine women, who contend for complete political rights<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> for women.
+In some States they vote, and in nearly all may be elected to boards of
+various kinds and to minor offices. The Government departments are
+filled with women clerks, and all, from the lowest to the highest, are
+equal; hence, it is a difficult matter to find a native-born American
+who will become a servant. They all aspire to be ladies, and even aliens
+become salesladies, cook ladies, laundry ladies. They are on their
+dignity, and able to protect it from any point of attack.</p>
+
+<p>The lower classes are particularly uninteresting, for they have no
+individuality, and ape the class above them, the result being a cheap,
+ludicrous imitation of a lady&mdash;an absurd abstraction. The women of the
+lower classes who are unmarried work in shops, factories, and
+restaurants, often in situations the reverse of sanitary; yet prefer
+this to good <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>situations in families as servants, service being beneath
+their dignity and tending to disturb the balance of equality. I doubt if
+a native-born woman would permit herself to be called a servant; indeed,
+all the servants are Irish, Swedes, Norwegians, French, German, or
+negroes; the American girls fill the factories and the sweat-shops of
+the great cities. When I refer these girls to the lower classes it is
+merely to classify them, as morally and intellectually they are
+sometimes the equal of the higher classes. The middle-class women or
+girls are an attractive type, well educated and often beautiful. You
+obtain an idea of them in the great shops and bazaars of the great
+cities, where they fill every conceivable position and receive from five
+to six dollars per week.</p>
+
+<p>But it is with the higher classes that you will be most interested, and
+when I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> say that the American girl, the product of the first families,
+is at once beautiful, refined, cultured, charming physically and
+mentally, I have but faintly expressed it; yet the most pronounced
+characteristic is their "daring," or temerity. There is no word exactly
+to cover it. I frequently met women at dinners. With few exceptions, it
+appears impossible for the American girl to take one of our race, an
+Oriental, seriously. She can not conceive that he may be a man of
+intelligence and education, and I can not better describe her than to
+sketch in its detail a dinner to which I was invited by the &mdash;&mdash; at
+Washington. The invitation was engraved on a small card and read "The
+---- and Mrs. &mdash;&mdash; request the honor of the presence of the &mdash;&mdash; at
+dinner on Wednesday at eight o'clock, etc." I immediately sent my valet
+with an acceptance and a basket of orchids to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> hostess, this being
+the mode among the men who are <i>au fait</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A week later I went to the dinner, and was taken up to the dressing-room
+for men, where I found a dozen or more, all in the conventional evening
+dress I have described&mdash;now with tails, it being a ladies' affair. In a
+corner was a table, and by it stood a negro, also in a dress suit,
+identical with that of the others. I was cordially greeted by a guest,
+who said, "Let me introduce you to our American minister to Ijiji and
+Zanzibar," and he presented me to the tall negro, who was turning out
+some bottled "cocktail." I shook hands with him, and he laughed, showing
+a set of teeth like an elephant's tusks, and asked me "what I would
+have." He was a servant dealing out "appetizers," and this was an
+American joke. The perpetrator of this joke was a minor official<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> in the
+State Department, yet the entire party apparently considered it a good
+joke. Fortunately, I could disguise my real feeling, and I merely relate
+the incident to give you an idea of the sense of the proprieties as
+entertained by certain Americans. All that winter the story of the
+American minister to Zanzibar was told at my expense without doubt.</p>
+
+<p>Having been "fortified," and some of the men took two or three
+"cocktails" before they became "tuned up," we went down to the
+drawing-room, where I paid my respects to the host and hostess, who
+stood at the end of a beautiful room. As I approached the lady greeted
+me with a charming smile, extending her gloved hand almost on a direct
+line with her face, grasping it firmly, not shaking it, saying, "Very
+kind of you, &mdash;&mdash;. Delighted, I am sure. General"&mdash;turning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> to her
+husband&mdash;"you know the &mdash;&mdash;, of course," and the general shook my hand
+as he would a pump-handle, and whispered, "Our minister to Zanzibar
+treated you all right, eh?" and with a wink indescribable, closing the
+right eye for a second, passed me on. The story had got down-stairs
+before me. Americans of the official class have, as a rule, an absolute
+lack of <i>savoir faire</i> and social refinement; lack them so utterly as to
+become comical.</p>
+
+<p>I now joined other groups of officers and officials, there being about
+thirty guests, half of whom were ladies. The latter were all in what is
+termed full dress. Why "full" I do not know. Here you see one of the
+most extraordinary features of American life&mdash;the dress of women. The
+Americans make claim to being among the most modest, the most religious,
+the most proper people in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> world, yet the appearance of the ladies
+at many public functions is beyond belief. All the women in this house
+were beautiful and covered with jewels. They wore gowns in the French
+court fashion, with trains a yard or two in length, but the upper part
+cut so low that a large portion of the neck and shoulders was exposed. I
+was embarrassed beyond expression; such an exhibition in China could
+only be made by a certain class. These matrons were of the highest
+respectability. This remarkable custom of a strange people, who deluge
+China with missionaries from every sect under the sun and at home commit
+the grossest solecisms, is universal, and not thought of as improper.
+There was not much opportunity for introspective analysis, yet I could
+not but believe that such a custom must have its moral effect upon a
+nation in the long run.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p><p>It was a mystery to me how the upper part of some of the gowns was
+supported. In some instances there was no strap over the shoulders, the
+upper third of these alabaster torsos and arms being absolutely naked,
+save for a band of pearls, diamonds, or other gems, of a size rarely
+seen in the Orient; but I learned later that the bone or steel corset,
+which molds the form, constituted the support of the gown. I gradually
+became habituated to the custom, and did not notice it. My friend &mdash;&mdash;,
+an artist of repute, explained that it all depends on the point of view.
+"Our people are essentially artistic," he said. "There is nothing more
+beautiful than the divine female contour; the American women realize
+this, and sacrifice themselves at the altar of art." Yet the Americans
+are such jokers that exactly what my friend had in mind it was difficult
+to arrive at.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p><p>After being presented to these marvelously arrayed ladies we passed
+into the dining-room, where I found myself with one of the most charming
+of divinities, a woman famous for her wit and literary success. I have
+described the typical dinner, so I need not repeat my words. My
+companion held the same extraordinary attitude toward me that all
+American women do; amused, half laughing, refusing absolutely to take me
+seriously, and probing me with so many absurd questions that I was
+forced to ask some very pointed ones, which only succeeded in making her
+laugh. The conversation proceeded something as follows: "I am charmed
+that I have fallen to your Highness." "Equally charmed," I replied; "but
+my rank does not admit the adjective you do me the honor to apply."
+"No?" was the answer. "Well, I'll wager you anything that when the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+butler pours your wine in the first course he will call you Count, and
+in the next Prince. You see, they become exhilarated as the dinner
+progresses. But tell me, how many wives have you in China, you look
+<i>very</i> wicked?" Imagine this! But I rallied, and replied that I had
+none&mdash;a statement received with incredulity. Her next question was,
+"Have you ever been a highbinder?" Ministers of grace! and this from a
+people who profess to know more than any nation on earth! I explained
+that a highbinder ranked with a professional murderer in this country,
+whereupon she again laughed, and, turning to General &mdash;&mdash;, in a loud
+voice said, "General, I have been calling the &mdash;&mdash; a highbinder," at
+which the company laughed at my expense. In China, as you know, a guest
+or a host would have killed himself rather than commit so gross a
+solecism; but this is America.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p><p>The second course was oysters served in the shell, and my companion,
+assuming that I had never seen an oyster [ignorant that our fathers ate
+oysters thousands of years before America was heard of and when the
+Anglo-Saxon was living in a cave], in a confidential and engaging
+whisper remarked, "This, your 'Highness,' is the only animal we eat
+alive." "Why alive?" I asked, looking as innocent as possible; "why not
+kill them?" "Oh, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
+will not permit it," was her reply. "You see, if they are swallowed
+alive they are immediately suffocated, but if you cut them up they
+suffer horribly while the soup is being served. How large a one do you
+think you can swallow?" Fancy the daring of a young girl to joke with a
+man twice her age in this way! I did not undeceive her, and allowed her
+to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>enlighten me on various subjects of contemporaneous interest. "It's
+so strange that the Chinese never study mathematics," she next remarked.
+"Why, all our public schools demand higher mathematics, and in the
+fourth grade you could not find a child but could square the circle."</p>
+
+<p>In this manner this volatile young savage entertained me all through the
+dinner, utterly superficial herself, yet possessed of a singular
+sharpness and wit, mostly at my expense; yet she was so charming I
+forgave her. There is no denying that you become enraged, insulted,
+chagrined by these women, who, however, by a look, dispel your
+annoyance. I do not understand it. I found that while an author of a
+novel she was grossly ignorant of the literature of her own country, yet
+she possessed that consummate American froth by which she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> could
+convince the average person that she was brilliant to the point of
+scintillation. I fancy that any keen, well-educated woman must have seen
+that I was laughing at her, yet so inborn was her belief that a Chinaman
+must be an imbecile that she was ever joking at my expense. The last
+story she told me illustrates the peculiar fancy for joking these women
+possess. I had been describing a storm at Manchester-by-the-Sea and the
+splendor of the ocean. "Did you see the tea-leaves?" she asked,
+solemnly. "No," I replied. "That is strange," she said. "I fear you are
+not very observing. After every storm the tea-leaves still wash up all
+along Massachusetts Bay," alluding to the fact that loads of tea on
+ships were tossed over by the Americans during the quarrel with England
+before the Revolution.</p>
+
+<p>The daring of the American woman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> impressed me. This same lady asked me
+not to remain with the men to smoke but go on the veranda with her,
+where <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> she produced a gold cigarette-case and offered me a
+cigarette. This I found not uncommon. American women of the fast sets
+drink at the clubs; an insidious drink&mdash;the "high-ball"&mdash;is a common
+one, yet I never saw a woman under the influence of wine or liquor. The
+amount of both consumed in America, is amazing. The consumption per head
+in the United States for beer alone is ten and a half gallons for each
+of the eighty millions. My friend, a prohibitionist, a member of a
+political party whose object is to ruin the wine industry of the world,
+put it stronger, and, backed by facts, said that if the wine, beer,
+whisky, gin, and alcoholic drinks of all kinds and the tea and coffee
+drank yearly by the Americans could be collected it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> would make a lake
+two miles square and ten feet deep. The alcoholic drinks alone if
+collected would fill a canal one hundred miles long, one hundred feet
+wide, and ten feet deep. May their saints propitiate this insatiate
+thirst!</p>
+
+<p>It would amuse you to hear the American women of literary tendency boast
+of their schools, yet when educational facilities are considered the
+average American is ignorant. They are educated in lines. Thus a girl
+graduate will speak French with a good accent, or she will converse in
+Milwaukee German. She can prove her statement in conic sections or
+algebra, but when it comes to actual knowledge she is deficient. This is
+due to the ignorance of the teachers in the public schools and their
+lack of inborn culture. No better test of the futility of the American
+public-school education can be seen than the average girl product<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> of
+the public school of the lower class in a city like Chicago or New York.
+Americans affect to despise Chinese methods because the Chinese girl or
+boy is not crammed with a thousand thoughts of no relative value. China
+has existed thousands of years; her people are happy; happiness and
+content are the chief virtues, and if China is ever overthrown it will
+be not because, as the Americans put it, she is behind the times, but
+because the fever of unrest and the craze for riches has become a
+contagion which will react upon her. The development of China is normal,
+that of America hysterical. Our growth has been along the line of peace;
+that of other nations has been entirely opposed to their own religious
+teaching, showing it to be farcical and pure sophistry.</p>
+
+<p>If I should tell you how many American women asked me why Chinese<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> women
+bandage their feet you would be amazed; yet every one of these submitted
+to and practised a deformity that has seriously affected the growth and
+development of the race. I am no iconoclast, but listen to the story of
+the American woman who, with one hand, deforms her waist in the most
+barbarous fashion, while waving the other in horror at her Chinese
+sister with the bound feet. American women change their fashions twice a
+year or more. Fashions are in the hands of the middle classes, and the
+highest lady in the land is completely at their mercy; to disobey the
+mandates of fashion is to become ridiculous. The fashion is set in Paris
+and various cities by men and women who have skilled artists to draw
+patterns and paint pictures showing the new mode. These are published in
+certain papers and issued by millions, republished in America, and no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+woman here would have the temerity to ignore them. The laws of the Medes
+and Persians are not more inexorable.</p>
+
+<p>It is not a suggestion but an order, a fiat, a command, so we see this
+free nation really truckling to or dominated by a class of tradesmen.
+The object of the change of style is to create a sale for new goods,
+give work for laborers, and enable the producer to reach the pocketbook
+of the rich man; but the "fashions" have become so fixed, so thoroughly
+a national feature, that they affect rich and poor, and we have the
+spectacle of every woman studying these guides and conforming to them
+with a servility beyond belief. I once said to a lady, "The Chinese lady
+dresses richer than the American, but her styles have been very much the
+same for thousands of years," but I believe she doubted it. It would be
+futile, indeed impossible, for me to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>explain the extravagances of
+American fashion. Their own press and stage use it as a standard butt.
+At the present time tablets or plates of fashion insist upon an outline
+which shows the form completely, the antipodes of a Chinese woman; and
+this is intensified by some of the women who, when in the street, grasp
+the skirt and in an ingenious way wrap it about so that the outline of
+the American divinity is sufficiently well defined to startle one. Such
+a trick in China could but originate with the demimonde, yet it is taken
+up by certain of the Americans who are constantly seeking for variety.
+There can be no question but that the middle-class fashion designer
+revenges himself upon the <i>beau monde</i>. They will not receive him
+socially, so he forces them to wear his clothes.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago women were made to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> wear "hoops," pictures of which I
+have seen in old publications. Imagine, if you can, a bird-cage three
+feet high and four feet across, formed of bone of the whale or some
+metal. This was worn beneath the dress, expanding it on either side so
+that it was difficult to approach a lady. A later order was given to
+wear a camel-like "hump" at the base of the vertebral column, which was
+called the "bustle"&mdash;a contrivance calculated to unnerve the wearer, not
+to speak of the looker-on; yet the American woman adopted it, distorted
+her body, and aped the gait of the kangaroo, the form being called the
+"Grecian bend." This lasted six months or more; first adopted by the
+aristocracy, then by the common people, and by the time the latter had
+it well in hand the <i>bon ton</i> had cast it aside and were trying
+something else.</p>
+
+<p>A close study of this mad dressing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> shows that there is always a "hump."
+At one time it went all around; later appeared only behind, like an
+excrescence on a bilbol-tree. At the present time the designer has drawn
+his picture showing it as a pendent bag from the "shirtwaist," like the
+pouch of the bird pelican. A few years ago the designer, in a delirium,
+placed the humps on the tops of the sleeves, then snatched them away and
+tipped them upside down. Finally he appeared to go utterly mad with the
+desire to humiliate the woman, and created a fashion that entailed
+dragging the skirt on the ground from one to two feet.</p>
+
+<p>Did the American woman resent the insult; did she refuse to adopt a
+custom not only disgusting but really filthy, one that a Chinese lady
+would have died rather than have accepted? By no means; she seized upon
+it with the ardor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> of a child with a new toy, and for a year the
+side-paths of the great cities of the country were swept by women's
+skirts, clouds of dust following them. The press took up the question,
+but without effect; the fashion dragged its nauseating and frightful
+course from rich and poor, and I was told by an official that it was
+impossible to stop it or to force a glimmer of reason into the minds of
+these women. Then they gave it up, and passed a law making it a
+statutory offense, with heavy fines, for any one to "expectorate" on the
+sidewalk or anywhere else where the saliva could be swept up by the
+trains of the women of nearly all classes who followed the fashion. The
+American woman, as I have said, looks askance at the footgear of the
+Chinese&mdash;high, warm, dry, sanitary, yet revels in creations which cramp
+the feet and distort the anatomy. The shoes are made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> of leather,
+inflexible, pointed; and to enable them to deceive the men into the
+belief that they have high insteps (a sign of good blood here) the women
+wear stilt-like heels, which throw the foot forward and elevate the heel
+from two to three inches above the ground.</p>
+
+<p>But all this is but a bagatelle to the fashions in deformity which we
+find among nearly all American women. There are throughout the country
+numbers of large manufactories which make "corsets"&mdash;a peculiar waist
+and lung compressor, used by nearly every woman in America. These men
+are as dogmatic as the designers of the fashion-plates. They also issue
+plates or guides showing new changes, and the women, like sheep, adopt
+them. The American woman believes that a narrow waist enhances her
+beauty, and the corset-maker works upon the national weakness and builds
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>creations that put to shame and ridicule the bound feet of the
+aristocratic Chinese woman. The corset is a lace and ribbon-decorated
+armor, made either of steel ribs or whale-bone, which fits the waist and
+clings to the hips. It is laced up, and the degree of tightness depends
+upon the will or nerve of the wearer. It compresses the heart and lungs,
+and wearing it is a most barbarous custom&mdash;a telling argument against
+the assumption of high intelligence on the part of the Americans, who,
+in this respect, rank with the flat-headed Indians of the northwest
+American coast, whose heads I have seen in their medical offices side by
+side with a diagram showing the abnormal conditions caused by the
+corset.</p>
+
+<p>A year ago the fiat went forth that the American woman must have wide
+hips. Presto! there appeared especially devised machinery, advertised in
+all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> journals, accomplishing the condition for those whom nature had
+not well endowed. Now the dressmaker has decided that they must be
+narrow-hipped, and half a million dollars in false hips, rubber pads,
+and other properties are cast aside. No extravaganza is too absurd for
+these people who are abject slaves to the whimsicalities of the
+designer, who is a wag in his way, as has been well shown in a story
+told to me. The designers for a famous man dressmaker in Paris had a
+habit of taking sketches of the latest creations to their club meetings.
+One evening a clever caricaturist took a caricature of a fashion showing
+a woman with enormous and outlandish sleeves. It created a laugh. "As
+impossible as it is," said the artist, "I will wager a dinner that if I
+present it seriously to a certain fashion paper they will take it up."
+This is said to be the history of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>"big-sleeve" fashion that really
+amazed the Americans themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The customs of women here are so at variance with those of China that
+they are not readily understood. Our ways are those culled from a
+civilization of thousands of years; theirs from one just beginning; yet
+they have the temerity to speak of China as effete and behind the times.
+In writing, the women affect the English round hand and write across
+from left to right, and then beginning at the left of the page again.
+They are fond of perfumes, especially the lower classes, and display a
+barbaric taste for jewels. It is not uncommon to see the wife of a
+wealthy man wear half a million pounds sterling in diamonds or rubies at
+the opera. I was told that one lady wore a $5,000 diamond in her garter.
+The utterly strange and contradictory customs of these women are best
+observed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> at the beach and bath. In China if a woman is modest she is so
+at all times; but this is not true with some Americans, who appear to
+have the desire to attract attention, especially that of men, by an
+appeal to the beautiful in nature and art; at least this is the
+impression the unprejudiced looker-on gains by a sojourn in the great
+cities and fashionable resorts. If you happen to be riding horseback, or
+walking in the street with a lady, and any accident occurs to her
+costume whereby her neck, her leg, or her ankle is exposed, she will be
+mortified beyond expression; yet the night previous you might have sat
+in the box with her at the opera, when her d&eacute;collet&eacute; gown had made her
+the mark for hundreds of lorgnettes. Again, this lady the next morning
+might bathe with me at the beach and lie on the sand basking in the sun
+like a siren in a costume that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> would arrest the attention of a St.
+Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>Let me describe such a costume: A pair of skin-tight black stockings,
+then a pair of tights of black silk and a flimsy black skirt that comes
+just to the knee; a black silk waist, armless, and as low in the neck as
+the moral law permits, beneath which, to preserve her contour, is a
+water-proof corset. Limbs, to expose which an inch on the street were a
+crime, are blazoned to the world at Newport, Cape May, Atlantic City,
+and other resorts, and often photographed and shown in the papers. To
+explain this manifest contradiction would be beyond the powers of an
+Oriental, had he the prescience of the immortal Confucius and the
+divination of a Mahomet and Hilliel combined.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SUPERSTITIONS OF THE AMERICANS</h3>
+
+<p>Among the many topics I have discussed with Americans, our alleged
+superstitions, or our belief in so-called dragons, genii, ghosts, etc.,
+seem to have made the deepest impression. A charming American woman,
+whom I met at the &mdash;&mdash; Embassy at dinner, told me with seriousness that
+our people may be intelligent, but the fact that in San Francisco and
+Los Angeles they at certain times drag through the streets a dragon five
+hundred feet long to exorcise the evil spirits, showed that the Chinese
+were grossly superstitious. If I had told my companion that she was the
+victim of a thousand superstitions, she would have taken it as an
+affront, because, according<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> to American usage, it is not proper to
+dispute with a lady. The Americans are the most superstitious people in
+the world. They will not sit down to a dinner-table when there are
+thirteen persons. No hostess would attempt such a thing, the belief
+being general that some one of the guests would die within a year. I was
+a guest at a dinner-party when a lady suddenly remarked, "We are
+thirteen." Several of the guests were evidently much annoyed, and the
+hostess, a most pleasing woman, apologized, and replied that she had
+invited fourteen, but one guest had failed her. It was apparent that
+something must be done, and this was cleverly solved by the hostess
+sending for her mother, who joined the party, and the dinner proceeded.
+I do not think <i>all</i> the guests believed in this absurd superstition,
+but they were <i>all</i> very uncomfortable. I do not believe I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> met a
+society woman in Washington or New York who would walk through a
+cemetery or graveyard at midnight alone. I asked several ladies if they
+would do this, and all were horrified at the idea, though strongly
+denying any belief in ghosts or spirits.</p>
+
+<p>In nearly every American city one or more houses may be found haunted by
+ghosts, which Americans believe have made the places so disagreeable
+that the houses have been in consequence deserted. So well-defined is
+the superstition, and so recurrent are the beliefs in ghosts and
+spirits, that the best-educated people have found it necessary to
+establish a society, called the Society for Psychical Research, in order
+to demonstrate that ghosts are not possible. I believe I am not
+overstepping the bounds when I say that this vainglorious people, who
+claim to have the finest <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>public-school system in the world, are,
+considering their advantages, the most superstitious of all the white
+races. Out of perhaps thirty men, whom I asked, not one was willing to
+say he could pass through a graveyard at night without fear at heart, an
+undefined nervous feeling, due to innate superstition. The middle-class
+woman who stumbles upstairs considers it to mean that she will not
+marry. To break a mirror, or receive as a present a knife, also means
+bad luck. Many people wear amulets, safe-guards, and good-luck stones.
+Several millions of the Catholic sect wear a charm, which they think
+will save them from sudden death. All Catholics believe that some of
+their churches own the bones of saints, which have the power to give
+them health and other good things. Many Americans wear the seed of the
+horse-chestnut, and many others wear lucky<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> coins. Belief in the luck of
+the four-leaf clover, instead of that with three leaves, is so strong
+that people will spend hours in hunting for one. They are designed into
+pins and certain insignia, and used in a hundred other ways.</p>
+
+<p>But more remarkable than all is the old horseshoe superstition. I have
+seen beautifully gowned ladies stop their driver, descend from the
+carriage, and pick up such a shoe and carry it home, telling me that
+they never failed to pick up one, as it brought good luck; yet this lady
+laughed at our dragon! In the country, horseshoes are commonly seen over
+the doors of stables, and even of houses. These same people once hung
+women for witchcraft, and slaughtered women for persisting in certain
+religious beliefs. I had the pleasure of meeting a well-known man, who
+stated that he had the power of the "evil eye." <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>Innumerable people
+believe the paw of an animal called the rabbit to contain sovereign good
+luck. They carry it about, and can buy it in shops. Indeed, I could fill
+a volume, much less a letter, with the absurd superstitions of these
+people who send women to China to convert the "Heathen Chinee," who may
+be "peculiar," as Mr. Harte states in his poem; but the Chinaman
+certainly has not the marvelous variety of superstitions possessed by
+the American, who does not allow cats about rooms where there are
+infants, fearing that they will suck the child's breath; who believe
+that certain snakes milk cows, and that mermen are possible. I stood in
+a tent last summer at Atlantic City&mdash;a large seaside resort&mdash;and watched
+a line of middle-class people passing to see a "Chinese mermaid," of the
+kind the Japanese manufacture so cleverly. It was to be seen on the
+water.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> All, so far as I could judge, accepted it as real. So much for
+the influence of the American public school, where physiology is taught.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN PRESS</h3>
+
+<p>One feature of American life is so peculiar that I fear I can not
+present it to you clearly, as there is nothing like it under the sun. I
+refer to the newspapers. If such an institution should appear in any
+Oriental country, or even in Russia, many heads would fall to the ground
+for treason or gross disrespect to the power of the throne. The American
+must not only have the news of his neighbor, but the news of the world
+every hour in the day, and the newspapers furnish it. In the villages
+they appear weekly, in the towns daily, in the great cities hourly, boys
+screaming their names, shouting and yelling like demons. Yesterday
+beneath the window<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> a boy screamed, "The Empress of China elopes with
+her coachman!" I bought the paper, in which a column was devoted to it.
+Fancy this in Pekin. Shades of &mdash;&mdash;! I can not better describe these
+papers than to say they have absolute license as to what to print, this
+freedom being a principle, but it is grossly abused by blackmailers. The
+papers have no respect for man, woman, or child, the President or the
+Deity. The most flagrant attacks are made upon private persons. Rarely
+is an editor shot or imprisoned. The President may be called vile names,
+his appearance may become the butt of ridicule in opposition papers, and
+cartoonists, employed at large salaries, draw insulting pictures of him
+and his Cabinet. One would think that the way to obtain patronage of a
+person would be to praise him, but this would be considered an
+orientalism. The real<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> way to secure readers in America is to abuse,
+insult, and outrage private feelings, the argument being that people
+will buy the journal to see what is said about them. All the American
+press is not founded upon this system of virtual blackmail. There are
+respectable papers, conservative and honorable; but I believe I am not
+overstating it when I say that every large city has at least one paper
+where the secrets of a family and its most sacred traditions are treated
+as lawful game.</p>
+
+<p>The actual heads of papers have often been men of high standing, as
+Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond, E. L. Godkin, Henry Watterson, the
+late Charles A. Dana, James Gordon Bennett, and William Cullen Bryant.
+But in the modern newspaper the man in control is a managing editor,
+whose tenure of office depends upon his keeping ahead of all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> others.
+The press, then, with its telegraphic connection with the world, with
+its thousands of readers, is a power, and in the hands of a man of small
+mind becomes a menace to civilization and easily drifts into blackmail.
+This is displayed in a thousand ways, especially in politics. The editor
+desires to obtain "influence," the power to secure places for his
+favorites, and, if he is slighted, he intimates to the men in power,
+"Appoint my candidate or I will attack you." This is a virtual threat.
+In this way the editor intimidates the office-holder. I was informed by
+a good authority of two journals of standing in America which he knew
+were started as "blackmailing sheets"; and certainly the license of the
+press is in every way diabolical, a result of the American dogma of free
+speech. When one arrives in America he is met with dozens of
+representatives of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> press, who ask a thousand and one personal and
+impertinent questions, which, if one does not answer, one is attacked in
+some insidious way. One man I know refused to listen to a very
+importunate newspaper man, and was congratulating himself on his escape,
+when on the following day an article appeared in the paper giving
+several libelous pictures of him, the object being to show that he had
+nothing to say because he was mentally deficient. He appealed to the
+editor, but was told that his only recourse was to sue. As one walks
+down the gangplank of a ship he may become the mark for ten or fifteen
+cameras, which photograph him without permission, and whose owners will
+"poke fun" at his resistance.</p>
+
+<p>As a news-collecting medium the press of the United States is a
+magnificent organization. At breakfast you receive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> the news of the
+whole world&mdash;social, diplomatic, criminal, and religious. Meetings of
+Congress and stories of private life are alike all served up, fully
+illustrated with pictures of the people and events. A corner is devoted
+to children, another to women, another to religious Americans, and a
+little sermon is preached. Then there are suggestive pictures for the
+man about town, recipes for the cook, weather reports for the traveler,
+a story for the romancer, perhaps a poem, and an editorial page, where
+ideas and theories are promulgated and opinions manufactured on all
+subjects, ready made for adoption by the reader, who in many instances
+has his thinking done for him. I made a test of this, and asked a number
+of men for their opinion on a certain subject, and then guessed the name
+of their favorite paper, and in most instances was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> correct. They all
+claimed that they took the paper because it agreed with their political
+ideas; but I am confident that the reverse is true, the paper having
+insidiously trained them to adopt its view. Here we see where the power
+of one man or editor comes in, and worse yet, a nation which acquires
+this "newspaper habit," this having some one to think for it by
+machinery, as it were, will lose its mental power, its facility in
+analysis. I made bold to suggest this to a prominent man, but he merely
+laughed. As a whole, the American newspapers are valuable; they are the
+real educators of the people, and have a vast influence. For this reason
+there should be some restriction imposed on them.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN DOCTOR</h3>
+
+<p>At a dinner at Manchester in the summer I had as my <i>vis-&agrave;-vis</i> a
+delightful young American, who, among other things, said to me: "It is
+astonishing to me that so many of your people live long, considering the
+ignorance of your doctors." I assured her that this was merely her point
+of view, and that we were well satisfied with our doctors or physicians.
+I wished to retaliate by telling my fair companion a story I had heard
+the day previous. An American physician operated upon a man and removed
+what he called a "cyst," which he displayed with some pride to a doctor
+of another school. "Why, man," said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> latter, "that isn't a cyst;
+it's the man's kidney!"</p>
+
+<p>The Americans have made rapid advances in medicine and surgery, and they
+have some extraordinary physicians. From two to four years of study
+completes the education of some of the doctors, and hundreds are turned
+out every year. Some are of the old and regular school of medicine, but
+others are called homeopathic, which means that they give small doses of
+the more powerful medicines. Then there are those who practise in both
+schools. Indeed, in no other field does ignorance, superstition,
+credulity, and lack of real education display itself as among the
+American doctors or healers. I believe I could fill a volume by the mere
+enumeration of the diabolical and absurd nostrums offered by knaves to
+heal men who profess to hold in ridicule the Chinese doctors. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> mention
+but a few, and when I tell you, as a truth beyond cavil, that the most
+extraordinary of these healers, the most impossible, have the largest
+following, you can see what I mean by the credulity of the people as a
+whole. Christian Science doctors have a following of tens of thousands.
+They combine so-called science with religion; leave their God to cure
+them at long or short range through the medium of so-called agents. The
+head of this faction is an ignorant but clever woman, who has turned the
+heads of perhaps thirty-three and a third per cent of the American women
+whom she has come in contact with.</p>
+
+<p>Then come the faith curists, who rely upon faith alone. You simply are
+to <i>think</i> you will get well. Of course, many die from neglect. As an
+illustration of the credulity of the average American, a Christian
+Science healer was once <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>treating a sick woman from a distant town, and
+finally the patient died. When the bill was presented the husband said,
+"You have charged for treatment two weeks after my wife died." It was a
+fact that the healer had been treating the woman after she was buried,
+the husband having failed to give notice of the death. One would have
+expected the "healer" to be thrown into confusion, but far from it; she
+merely replied, "I thought I noticed a vacancy."</p>
+
+<p>Next come the musical curists, who listen to thrills of sound, a big
+organ being the doctor. Then there is the psychometric doctor, who cures
+by spirits. The spirit doctor cures in the same way. The palmist
+professes to point out how to avoid the ills of life. Magnetic healers
+have hundreds of victims in every city. Their advertisements in the
+journals of all sorts are of countless kinds.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> Some cure at short hand,
+some miles distant from the patient. They are equaled in numbers by the
+hypnotists, or hypnotic doctors, who profess to throw their patients
+into a trance and cure them by suggestion. I heard of one cure in which
+the guileless American is made to lie in an open grave; this is called
+"the return to nature." Again, patients are cured by being buried in hot
+mud or in hot sand. I have seen a salt-water cure, where patients were
+made to remain in the ocean ten hours a day. The plain water cure has
+thousands of followers, with hospitals and infirmaries, where the
+patient is bathed, soaked, filled, washed, and plunged in water and
+charged a high amount.</p>
+
+<p>Then there is the vegetarian cure, no meat being eaten; and there are
+the meat eaters, who use no vegetables. There are over fifty thousand
+<i>masseurs</i> and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>osteopaths in the country, who cure by baths and
+rubbing. You may have a bath of milk, water, electricity, or alcohol, or
+a bath of any description under the sun, which is guaranteed to cure any
+and all ailments. Perhaps the most extraordinary curists are the color
+doctors. They have rooms filled with blue and other colors, in whose
+rays the patient victim or the victim patient sits, "like Patience on a
+monument." I could not begin to give you an enumeration of the various
+kinds of electric cures; they are legion. But the most amazing class
+comprises the patent-medicine men, who are usually not doctors at all,
+but buy from some one a "cure" and then advertise it, spending in one
+instance which I investigated one million dollars a year. Every
+advantageous wall, stone, or cliff in America will be posted. You see
+the name at every turn, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>gullible Americans bite, chew, and
+swallow.</p>
+
+<p>It is not overstating facts when I say that three-fifths of the people
+buy some of these patent nostrums, which the real medical men denounce,
+showing that the masses of the people are densely ignorant, the victims
+of any faker who may shout his wares loud enough. In China such a thing
+would be impossible; the block would stop the practise; but, my dear
+----, the Americans assure me China is a thousand years behind the
+times, for which let us be devoutly thankful! I have not enumerated a
+tenth of the kinds of doctors who prey upon these unfortunate people.
+There are companies of them, who guarantee to cure anything, and
+skilfully mulct the sick of their last penny. There are retreats for the
+unfortunate, farms for deserted infants, and homes for unfortunate
+women<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> carried on by villains of both sexes. There are traveling doctors
+who go from town to town, who cure "while you wait," and give a circus
+while talking and selling their cure; and in nine cases out of ten the
+nostrum is an alcoholic drink disguised.</p>
+
+<p>In no land under the sun are there so many ignorant blatant fakers
+preying on a people, and in no land do you find so credulous a throng as
+in America, yet claiming to represent the cream of the intelligence of
+the world; they are so easily led that the most impossible person, if he
+be a good talker, can go abroad and by the use of money and audacity
+secure a following to drink his salt water, paying a dollar a bottle for
+it and sing his praises. Such a doctor can secure the names and pictures
+of judges, governors of States, senators, congressmen, prominent men and
+women, officers of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>volunteer army, artists, actors, singers&mdash;in
+fact, prominent people of all kinds will provide their pictures and give
+testimonials, which are blazonly published. These same people go to
+Chinese drug shops and laugh at the "heathen" drugs, and wonder why the
+Chinaman is alive. America has a body of physicians and surgeons who are
+a credit to the world, modest, conscientious, and with a high sense of
+honor, but they are as a dragon's tooth in a multitude to the so-called
+"quacks," who take the money of the masses and prey upon them, protected
+in many cases by the law. No one profession so demonstrates the abject
+credulity of the great mass of Americans as that of medicine.</p>
+
+<p>One other incident may further illustrate the jokes these so-called
+doctors play upon the common people. In a country town was a "quack"
+doctor, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> professed to be a "head examiner," giving people charts
+according to their "bumps," a fad which has many followers. "This,
+ladies and gentlemen," said the lecturer, holding out a small skull, "is
+the skull of Alexander the Great at the age of six. Note the prominent
+brow. This [holding up a larger skull] is the same at the age of ten.
+This [holding out another] at the age of twenty-one; [then stepping out
+to the front of the stage] this is the <i>complete</i> skull of Alexander at
+the time of his death." All of which appeared to be accepted in good
+faith.</p>
+
+<p>Of the best physicians in America one can not say enough in praise. I
+was most impressed by their high sense of honor. They have an agreement
+which they call their "ethics," by which they will not advertise or call
+attention to their learning. Consequently, the lower<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> and ignorant
+classes are caught by the blatant chaff of the patent-medicine venders
+and the quack doctors. What the word "quack" means in this sense I do
+not quite know; literally, it is the cry of the goose. The "regular
+doctor" will not take advantage of any medicine he may discover, or any
+instrument; all belongs to humanity, and one doctor becomes famous over
+another by his success in keeping people from dying. The grateful
+patient saved, tells his friends, and so the doctor becomes known. In
+all America I never heard of a doctor that acted on the principle which
+holds among our doctors, that the best way to cure is to watch the
+patient and keep him well, or prevent him from being taken sick. The
+Americans, in their conceit, consider Chinese doctors ignorant fakers;
+yet, so far as I can learn, the death-rate among the Chinese, city for
+city, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>country for country, is less than among Americans. The Chinese
+women are longer lived and less subject to disease. In what is known as
+New England, the oldest well-populated section of the country, people
+would die out were it not for the constant accession of immigrants. On
+the other hand, the Chinese constantly increase, despite a policy of
+non-intercourse with foreigners. The Americans have, in a civilization
+dating back to 1492, already begun to show signs of decadence, and are
+only saved by constant immigration. China has a civilization of
+thousands of years, and is increasing in population every day, yet her
+doctors and their methods are ridiculed by the Americans. The people
+have many sayings here, one of which is, "The proof of the pudding lies
+in the eating." It seems applicable to this case.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>PECULIARITIES AND MANNERISMS</h3>
+
+<p>One finds it difficult to learn the language fluently because of a
+peculiar second language called "slang," which is in use even among the
+fashionable classes. I despair of conveying any clear idea of it, as we
+have no exact equivalent. As near as I can judge, it is first composed
+by professional actors on the stage. Some funny remark being constantly
+repeated, as a part of a taking song, becomes slang, conveying a certain
+meaning, and is at once adopted by the people, especially by a class who
+pose as leaders in all towns, but who are not exactly the best, but
+charming imitations of the best, we may say. To illustrate this
+"jargon," I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> took a drive with a young lady at Manchester&mdash;a seaside
+resort. Her father was a man of good family, an official, and she was an
+attendant at a fashionable school. The following occurred in the
+conversation. Her slang is italicized:</p>
+
+<p>Heathen Chinee: "It is very dull this week, Miss &mdash;&mdash;."</p>
+
+<p>Young lady, sententiously: "<i>Bum.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Heathen Chinee: "I hope it will be less bum soon."</p>
+
+<p>Young lady: "<i>It's all off with me all right</i>, if it don't change soon,
+<i>and don't you forget it</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Heathen Chinee: "I wish I could do something."</p>
+
+<p>Young lady: "Well, you'll have to <i>get a move on you</i>, as I go back to
+school to-morrow; then there'll be <i>something doing</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Heathen Chinee: "Have you seen &mdash;&mdash; lately?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p><p>Young lady: "Yes, and isn't he <i>a peach</i>? Ah, he's a <i>peacharina</i>, and
+<i>don't you forget it</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Young lady (passing a friend): "<i>Ah, there</i>! why <i>so toppy</i>? <i>Nay, nay,
+Pauline</i>," this in reply to remarks from a friend; then turning to me,
+"Isn't she a <i>jim dandy</i>? <i>Say</i>, have you any girls in China that can
+<i>top</i> her?"</p>
+
+<p>These are only a few of the slang expressions which occur to me. They
+are countless and endless. Such a girl in meeting a friend, instead of
+saying good-morning, says, "<i>Ah, there</i>," which is the slang for this
+salutation. If she wished to express a difference of opinion with you
+she would say, "<i>Oh, come off.</i>" This girl would probably outgrow this
+if she moved in the very best circle, but the shop-girl of a common type
+lives in a whirl of slang; it becomes second nature, while the young men
+of all classes seem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> to use nothing else, and we often see the jargon of
+the lowest class used by some of the best people. There has been
+compiled a dictionary of slang; books are written on it, and an adept,
+say a "rough" or "hoodlum," it is said can carry on a conversation with
+nothing else. Thus, "Hi, cully, what's on?" to which comes in answer,
+"Hunki dori." All this means that a man has said, "How do you do, how
+are you, and what are you doing?" and thus learned in reply that
+everything is all right. A number of gentlemen were posing for a lady
+before a camera. "Have you finished?" asked one. "Yes, <i>it's all off</i>,"
+was the reply, "and <i>a peach</i>, I think." It is unnecessary to say that
+among really refined people this slang is never heard, and would be
+considered a gross solecism, which gives me an opportunity to repeat
+that the really cultivated Americans, and they are many, are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> among the
+most delightful and charming of people.</p>
+
+<p>They have strange habits, these Americans. The men chew tobacco,
+especially in the South, and in Virginia I have seen men spitting five
+or six feet, evidently taking pride in their skill in striking a
+"cuspidore." In every hotel, office, or public place are
+cuspidores&mdash;which become targets for these chewers. This is a national
+habit, extraordinary in so enlightened a people. So ridiculous has it
+made the Americans, so much has been written about it by such visitors
+as Charles Dickens, that the State governments have determined to take
+up the "spitting" question, and now there is a fine of from $10 to $100
+for any one spitting in a car or on a hotel floor. Nearly all the
+"up-to-date" towns have passed anti-spitting laws. Up to this time, or
+even during my college days in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>America, this habit made walking on the
+sidewalk a most disagreeable function, and the interior of cars was a
+horror. Is not this remarkable in a people who claim so much? In the
+South certain white men and women chew snuff&mdash;a gross habit.</p>
+
+<p>In the North they also have a strange custom, called chewing gum. This
+gum is the exudation from certain trees, and is manufactured into plates
+and sold in an attractive form, merely to chew like tobacco, and young
+and old may be seen chewing with great velocity. The children forget
+themselves and chew with great force, their jaws working like those of a
+cow chewing her cud, only more rapidly; and to see a party of three or
+four chewing frantically is one of the "sights" in America, which
+astonishes the Heathen Chinee and convinces him that, in the slang of
+the country, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>"<i>there are others</i>" who are peculiar. There are many
+manufactories of this stuff, which is harmless, though such constant
+chewing can but affect the size of the muscles of the jaw if the theory
+of evolution is to be believed; at least there will be no atrophy of
+these parts.</p>
+
+<p>In New England, the northeastern portion of the country, this habit
+appeared to be more prevalent, and I asked several scientific persons if
+they had made any attempt to trace the history of the habit or to find
+anything to attribute it to. One learned man told me that he had made a
+special study of the habit, and believed that it was merely the modern
+expression in human beings of the cud chewing of ruminating mammals, as
+cows, goats, etc. In a word, the gum-chewing Americans are trying to
+chew their cud as did their ancestors. Any habit like this is seized
+upon by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>manufacturers for their personal profit, and every expedient is
+employed to induce people to chew. The gum is mixed with perfumes, and
+sold as a breath purifier; others mix it with pepsin, to aid the
+digestion; some with something else, which is sold on ships and
+excursion-boats as a cure or preventive for seasickness, all of which
+finds a large sale among the credulous Americans, who by a clever leader
+can be made to take up any fad or habit.</p>
+
+<p>The Americans have a peculiar habit of "treating"; that is, one of a
+party will "treat" or buy a certain article and distribute it
+gratuitously to one or ten people. A young lady may treat her friends to
+gum, ice-cream, soda-water, or to a theater party. A matron may treat
+her friends to "high-balls" or cocktails at the club. The man confines
+his "treats" to drinks and cigars. Thus five or six<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> Americans may meet
+in a club or barroom for the sale of liquors. One says, "Come up and
+have something;" or "What will you have, gentlemen; this is on me;" or
+in some places the treater says, "Let's liquor," and all step up, the
+drinks are dispensed, and the treater pays. You might suppose that he
+was deserving of some encomium, but not at all; he expects that the
+others will take their turn in treating, or at least this is the
+assumption; and if the party is engaged in social conversation each in
+turn will "treat," the others taking what they wish to drink or smoke.
+There is a code of etiquette regarding the treat. Thus, unless you are
+invited, it would be bad form among gentlemen to order wine when invited
+to drink unless the "treater" asks you to have wine; he means a drink of
+whisky, brandy, or a mixed drink, or you may take soda or a cigar, or
+you may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> refuse. It is a gross solecism to accept a cigar and put it in
+your pocket; you should not take it unless you smoke it on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>Drinking to excess is frowned upon by all classes, and a drunkard is
+avoided and despised; but the amount an American will drink in a day is
+astonishing. A really delightful man told me that he did not drink much,
+and this was his daily experience: before breakfast a champagne
+cocktail; two or three drinks during the forenoon; a pint of white or
+red wine at lunch; two or three cocktails in the afternoon; a cocktail
+at dinner, with two glasses of wine; and in the evening at the club
+several drinks before bedtime! This man was never drunk, and never
+<i>appeared</i> to be under the influence of liquor, yet he was in reality
+never actually sober; and he is a type of a large number in the great
+cities who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> constitute what is termed the "man about town."</p>
+
+<p>The Americans are not a wine-drinking people. Whisky, and of a very
+excellent quality, is the national drink, while vast quantities of beer
+are consumed, though they make the finest red and white wines. All the
+grog-shops are licensed by the Government and State&mdash;that is, made to
+pay a tax; but in the country there is a political party, the
+Prohibitionists, who would drive out all wine and liquor. These, working
+with the conservative people, often succeed in preventing saloons from
+opening in certain towns; but in large cities there are from one to two
+saloons to the block in the districts where they are allowed.</p>
+
+<p>Taking everything into consideration, I think the Americans a temperate
+people. They organize in a thousand directions to fight drinking and
+other vices,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> and millions of dollars are expended yearly in this
+direction. A peculiar quality about the American humor is that they joke
+about the most serious things. In fact, drink and drinking afford
+thousands of stories, the point of which is often very obscure to an
+alien. Here is one, told to illustrate the cleverness of a drinker. He
+walked into a bar and ordered a "tin-roof cocktail." The barkeeper was
+nonplussed, and asked what a tin-roof cocktail was. "Why, it's on the
+house." I leave you to figure it out, but the barkeeper paid the bill.
+The ingenuity of the Americans is shown in their mixed drinks. They have
+cocktails, high-balls, ponies, straights, fizzes, and many other drinks.
+Books are written on the subject. I have seen a book devoted entirely to
+cocktails. Certain papers offer prizes for the invention of new drinks.
+I have told you that, all in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> all, America is a temperate country,
+especially when its composite character is considered; yet if the nation
+has a curse, a great moral drawback, it is the habit of drinking at the
+public bar.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>LIFE IN WASHINGTON</h3>
+
+<p>One of the best-known American authors has immortalized the Chinaman in
+some of his verses. It was some time before I understood the smile which
+went around when some one in my presence suggested a game of poker. I
+need not repeat the poem, but the essence of it is that the "Heathen
+Chinee is peculiar." Doubtless Mr. Harte is right, but the Chinaman and
+his ways are not more peculiar to the American than American customs and
+contradictions are to the Chinaman. If there is any race on the earth
+that is peculiar, it is the "Heathen Yankee," the good-hearted,
+ingenuous product of all the nations of the earth&mdash;black, red, white,
+brown, all but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>"yellow." Imagine yourself going out to what they call a
+"stag" dinner, and having an officer of the ranking of lieutenant shout,
+"Hi, John, pass the wine!"</p>
+
+<p>Washington can not be said to be a typical American city. It is the
+center of <i>official</i> life, and abounds in statesmen of all grades. I
+have attended one of the President's receptions, to which the diplomats
+went in a body; then followed the army and navy, General Miles, a
+good-looking, soldier-like man, leading the former, and Admiral Dewey
+the latter, a fine body of men, all in full uniform, unpretentious, and
+quiet compared to similar men in other nations. I passed in line, and
+found the President, standing with several persons, the center of a
+group. The announcement and presentation were made by an officer in full
+uniform, and beyond this there was no formality, indeed, an abundance
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> republican simplicity; only the uniforms saved it from the
+commonplace.</p>
+
+<p>The President is a man of medium size, thick-set, and inclined to be
+fleshy, with an interesting, smooth face, eye clear and glance alert. He
+grasped me quickly by the hand, but shook it gingerly, giving the
+impression that he was endeavoring to anticipate me, called me by name,
+and made a pleasant allusion to &mdash;&mdash; of &mdash;&mdash;. He has a high forehead and
+what you would term an intelligent face, but not one you would pick out
+as that of a great man; and from a study of his work I should say that
+he is of a class of advanced politicians, clever in political intrigue,
+quick to grasp the best situation for himself or party; a man of high
+moral character, but not a great statesman, only a man with high ideals
+and sentiments and the faculty of impressing the masses that he is
+great. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> really intelligent class regard him as a useful man, and
+safe. It is a curious fact that the chief appreciation of President
+McKinley, I was informed, came from the masses, who say, "He is so kind
+to his wife" (a great invalid); or "He is a model husband." Why there
+should be anything remarkable in a man's being kind, attentive, and
+loyal to an invalid spouse I could not see. Her influence with him is
+said to be remarkable. One day she asked the President to promote a
+certain officer, the son of one of the greatest of American generals, to
+a very high rank. He did so, despite the fact that, as an officer said,
+the army roared with laughter and rage.</p>
+
+<p>The influence of women is an important factor in Washington life. I was
+presented to an officer who obtained his commission in the following
+manner: Two very attractive ladies in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>Washington were discussing their
+relative influence with the powers that be, when one remarked, "To show
+you what I can do, name a man and I will obtain a commission in the army
+for him." The other lady named a private soldier, whose stupidity was a
+matter of record, and a few days later he became an officer; but the
+story leaked out.</p>
+
+<p>President McKinley is a popular President with the masses, but the
+aristocrats regard him with indifference. It is a singular fact, but the
+Vice-President, Mr. Roosevelt, attracts more attention than the
+President. He is a type that is appreciated in America, what they term
+in the West a "hustler"; active, wide-awake, intense, "strenuous," all
+these terms are applied to him. Said an officer in the field service to
+me, "Roosevelt is playing on a ninety-nine-year run of luck; he always
+lands on his feet at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> the right time and place." "What they call a man
+of destiny," I suggested. "Yes," he replied; "he is the Yankee Oliver
+Cromwell. He can't help 'getting there,' and he has a sturdy, evident
+honesty of purpose that carries him through. A team of six horses won't
+keep him out of the White House." This is the general opinion regarding
+the Vice-President, that while he is not a remarkable statesman, he
+already overshadows the President in the eyes of the public. I think the
+secret is that he is young and a hero, and what the Americans call an
+all-around man; not brilliant in any particular line, but a man of
+energy, like our &mdash;&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p>He looks it. A smooth face, square, determined jaw, with a look about
+the eye suggestive that he would ride you down if you stood in the way.
+I judge him to be a man of honor, high purpose,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> as my friend said, of
+the Cromwell type, inclined to preach, and who also has what the
+Americans call the "get-there" quality. In conversation Vice-President
+Roosevelt is hearty and open, a poor diplomat, but a talker who comes to
+the point. He says what he thinks, and asks no favor. He acts as though
+he wished to clap you on the shoulder and be familiar. It will be
+difficult for you to understand that such a man is second in rank in
+this great nation. There are no imposing surroundings, no glamor of
+attendance, only Roosevelt, strong as a water-ox in a rice-field,
+smiling, all on the surface, ready to fight for his friend or his
+country. Author, cowboy, stockman, soldier, essayist, historian,
+sportsman, clever with the boxing-gloves or saber, hurdle-jumper, crack
+revolver and rifle shot, naturalist and aristocrat, such is the
+all-around Vice-President of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> United States&mdash;a man who will make a
+strong impression upon the history of the century if he is not shot by
+Socialists.</p>
+
+<p>I have it from those who know, that President McKinley would be killed
+in less than a week if the guards about the White House were removed. He
+never makes a move without guards or detectives, and the secret-service
+men surround him as carefully as possible. It would be an easy matter to
+kill him. Like all officials, he is accessible to almost any one with an
+apparently legitimate object. Two Presidents have been murdered; all are
+threatened continually by half-insane people called "cranks," and by the
+professional Socialists, mainly foreigners. Both the President and
+Vice-President are well-dressed men. President McKinley, when I was
+granted an audience, wore a long-tailed black "frock coat" and vest,
+light trousers, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> patent leather or varnished shoes, and standing
+collar. The Vice-President was similarly dressed, but with a "turn-down"
+collar. The two men are said to make a "strong team," and it is a
+foregone conclusion that the Vice-President will succeed President
+McKinley. This is already talked of by the society people at Newport.
+"It is a long time," said a lady at Newport, "since we have had a
+President who represented an old and distinguished family. The McKinleys
+were from the ordinary ranks of life, but eminently respectable, while
+Roosevelt is an old and honored name in New York, identified with the
+history of the State; in a word, typical of the American aristocracy,
+bearing arms by right of heritage."</p>
+
+<p>I have frequently met Admiral Dewey, already so well known in China. He
+is a small man, with bright eyes, who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>already shows the effects of
+years. Nothing could illustrate the volatile, uncertain character of the
+American than the downfall of the admiral as a popular idol. Here a
+"peculiarity" of the American is seen. Carried away by political and
+public adulation, the old sailor's new wife, the sister of a prominent
+politician, became seized with a desire to make him President. Then the
+hero lovers raised a large sum and purchased a house for the admiral;
+but the politicians ignored him as a candidate, which was a humiliation,
+and the donors of the house demanded their money returned when the
+admiral placed the gift in the name of his wife; and so for a while the
+entire people turned against the gallant sailor, who was criticized,
+jeered at, and ridiculed. All he had accomplished in one of the most
+remarkable victories in the history of modern warfare was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>forgotten in
+a moment, to the lasting disgrace of his critics.</p>
+
+<p>One of the interesting places in Washington is the Capitol, perhaps the
+most splendid building in any land. Here we see the men whom the
+Americans select to make laws for them. The looker-on is impressed with
+the singular fact that most of the senators are very wealthy men; and it
+is said that they seek the position for the honor and power it confers.
+I was told that so many are millionaires that it gave rise to the
+suspicion that they bought their way in, and this has been boldly
+claimed as to many of them. This may be the treasonable suggestion of
+some enemy; but that money plays a part in some elections there is
+little doubt. I believe this is so in England, where elections have
+often been carried by money.</p>
+
+<p>The American Senate is a dignified<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> body, and I doubt if it have a peer
+in the world. The men are elected by the State legislatures, not by the
+people at large, a method which makes it easy for an unprincipled
+millionaire or his political manager to buy votes sufficient to seat his
+patron. The fact that senators are mainly rich does not imply unfitness,
+but quite the contrary. Only a genius can become a multi-millionaire in
+America, and hence the senators are in the main bright men. When
+observing these men and enabled to look into their records, I was
+impressed by the fact that, despite the advantages of education, this
+wonderful country has produced few really great men, and there is not at
+this time a great man on the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>America has no Gladstone, no Salisbury, no Bright. Lincoln, Blaine and
+Sumner are names which impress me as approximating greatness; they made
+an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> impression on American history that will be enduring. Then there are
+Frye, Reed, Garfield, McKinley, Cleveland, who were little great men,
+and following them a distinguished company, as Hanna, Conkling, Hay,
+Hayes, and others, who were superior men of affairs. A distinctly great
+national figure has not appeared in America since Daniel Webster, Henry
+Clay, and Rufus Choate&mdash;all men too great to become President. It
+appears to be the fate of the republic not to place its greatest men in
+the White House, and by this I mean great statesmen. General Grant was a
+great man, a heroic figure, but not a statesman. Lincoln is considered a
+great man. He is called the "Liberator"; but I can conceive that none
+but a very crude mind, inspired by a false sentiment, could have made a
+horde of slaves, the most ignorant people on the globe, the political<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+equals of the American people. A great man in such a crisis would have
+resisted popular clamor and have refused them suffrage until they had
+been prepared to receive it by at least some education. Americans are
+prone to call their great politicians statesmen. Blaine, Reed, Conkling,
+Harrison were types of statesmen; Hanna, Quay, and others are
+politicians.</p>
+
+<p>The Lower House was a disappointment to me. There are too many ordinary
+men there. They do not look great, and at the present time there is not
+a really great man in the Lower House. There are too many cheap lawyers
+and third-rate politicians there. Good business men are required, but
+such men can not afford to take the position. I heard a great captain of
+industry, who had been before Congress with a committee, say that he
+never saw "so many asses <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>together in all his life"; but this was an
+extreme view. The House may not compare intellectually with the House of
+Commons, but it contains many bright men. A fool could hardly get in,
+though the labor unions have placed some vicious representatives there.
+The lack of manners distressed a lady acquaintance of mine, who, in a
+burst of indignation at seeing a congressman sitting with his feet on
+his desk, said that there was not a man in Congress who had any social
+position in Washington or at home, which, let us trust, is not true.</p>
+
+<p>As I came from the White House some days ago I met a delegation of
+native Indians going in, a sad sight. In Indian affairs occurs a page of
+national history which the Americans are not proud of. In less than four
+hundred years they have almost literally been wiped from the face of the
+earth; the whites have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> waged a war of extermination, and the pitiful
+remnant now left is fast disappearing. In no land has the survival of
+the fittest found a more remarkable illustration. But the Indians are
+having their revenge. The Americans long ago brought over Africans as
+slaves; then, as the result of a war of words and war of fact, suddenly
+released them all, and, at one fell move, in obedience to the hysterical
+cries of their people, gave these ignorant semisavages and slaves the
+same political rights as themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Imagine the condition of things! The most ignorant and debased of races
+suddenly receives rights and privileges and is made the equal of
+American citizens. So strange a move was never seen or heard of
+elsewhere, and the result has been relations more than strained and
+always increasing between the whites and the blacks in the South. As
+voters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> the negroes secure many positions in the South above their old
+masters. I have seen a negro<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> sitting in the Vice-President's chair in
+the United States Senate; while white Southern senators were pacing the
+outer corridors in rage and disgust. There are generally one or more
+black men in Congress, and they are given a few offices as a sop. With
+one hand the Americans place millions of them on a plane with themselves
+as free and independent citizens, and with the other refuse them the
+privileges of such citizenship. They may enter the army as privates, but
+any attempt to make them officers is a failure&mdash;white officers will not
+associate with them. It is impossible for a negro to graduate from the
+Naval Academy, though he has the right to do so. I was told that white
+sailors would shoot him if placed over them. Several<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> negroes have been
+appointed as students, but none as yet have been able to pass the
+examination. Here we see the strange and contradictory nature of the
+Americans. The white master of the South had the black woman nurse his
+children. Thousands of mulattoes in the country show that the whites
+took advantage of the women in other ways, marriage between blacks and
+whites being prohibited. When it comes to according the blacks
+recognition as social equals, the people North and South resent even the
+thought. The negro woman may provide the sustenance of life for the
+white baby, but I venture to say that any Southern man, or Northern one
+for that matter, would rather see his daughter die than be married to a
+negro. So strong is this feeling that I believe in the extreme South if
+a negro persisted in his addresses to a white woman he would be shot,
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> no jury or judge could be found to convict the white man.</p>
+
+<p>In the North the negro has certain rights. He can ride in the
+street-cars, go to the theater, enter restaurants, but I doubt if large
+hotels would entertain him. In the South every train has its separate
+cars for negroes; every station its waiting-room for them; even on the
+street-cars they are divided off by a wire rail or screen, and sit
+beneath a sign, which advertises this free, independent, but black
+American voter as being not fit to sit by the side of his political
+brother. This causes a bitter feeling, and the time is coming when the
+blacks will revolt. Already criminal attacks upon white women are not
+uncommon, and a virtual reign of terror exists in some portions of the
+South, where it is said that white women are never left unprotected; and
+the negro, if he attacks a white woman,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> is almost invariably burned
+alive, with the horrible ghastly features that attend an Indian
+scalping. The crowd carry off bits of skin, hair, finger-nails, and rope
+as trophies. In fact, these "burnings" are the most extraordinary
+features in this "enlightened" country. The papers denounce them and
+compare the people to ghouls; yet these same people accuse the Chinese
+of being cruel, barbarous, insensible to cruelty, and "pagans." It is
+true we have pirates and criminals, but the horrible features of the
+lynchings in America during the last ten years I believe have no
+counterpart in the history of China in the last five hundred.</p>
+
+<p>In Washington the servants are blacks; irresponsible, childlike, aping
+the vanities of the white people. They are "niggers"; the mulattoes, the
+illegitimate offspring of whites, form another and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> totally distinct
+class of colored society, and are the aristocracy. Rarely will a mulatto
+girl marry a black man, and <i>vice versa</i>. They have their clubs and
+their functions, their professional men, including lawyers and doctors,
+as have the white people. They present a strange and singular feature.
+Despised by their fathers, half-sisters, and brothers, denied any social
+recognition, hating their black ancestry, they are socially "between the
+devil and the deep sea." The negro question constitutes the gravest one
+now before the American people. He is increasing rapidly, but in the
+years since the civil war no pure-blooded negro has given evidence of
+brilliant attainments. Frederick Douglas, Senator Bruce, and Booker T.
+Washington rank with many white Americans in authorship, diplomacy, and
+scholarship; but Douglas and Bruce were mulattoes, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> Booker
+Washington's father was an unknown white man. These men are held in high
+esteem, but the social line has been drawn against them, though Douglas
+married a white woman.</p>
+
+<p>Balls are a feature of life in Washington. The women appear in full
+dress, which means that the arms and neck are exposed, and the men wear
+evening dress. The dances are mostly "round." The man takes a lady to
+the ball, and when he dances seizes her in an embrace which would be
+considered highly improper under ordinary circumstances, but the
+etiquette of the dance makes it permissible. He places his right arm
+around her waist, takes her left hand in his, holds her close to him,
+and both begin to move around to the special music designed for this
+peculiar motion, which may be a "waltz," or a "two-step," or a "gallop,"
+or a "schottische," all being different and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> having different music or
+time, or there may be various kinds of music for each. At times the
+music is varied, being a gliding, scooping, swooping slide,
+indescribable. When the dancers feel the approach of giddiness they
+reverse the whirl or move backward.</p>
+
+<p>Many Washington men have become famous as dancers, and quite outshadow
+war heroes. All the officers of the army and navy are taught these
+dances at the Military and Naval Academies, it being a national policy
+to be agreeable to ladies; at least this must be so, as the men never
+dance together. To see several hundred people whirling about, as I have
+seen them at the inaugural of the President, is one of the most
+remarkable scenes to be observed in America. The man in Washington who
+can not dance is a "wallflower"&mdash;that is, he never leaves the wall.
+There is a professional <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>champion who has danced eight out of
+twenty-four hours without stopping. A yearly convention of
+dancing-school professors is held. These men, with much dignity, meet in
+various cities and discuss various dances, how to grasp the partner, and
+other important questions. Some time ago the question was whether the
+"gent" should hold a handkerchief in the hand he pressed upon the back
+of the lady, a professor having testified before the convention that he
+had seen the imprint of a man's hand on the white dress of a lady. The
+acumen displayed at these conventions is profound and impressive. Here
+you observe a singular fact. The good dancer may be an officer of high
+social standing, but the dancing-teacher, even though he be famous as
+such, is <i>persona non grata</i>, so far as society is concerned. A
+professional dancer, fighter, wrestler, cook, musician, and a hundred
+more are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> not acceptable in society except in the strict line of their
+profession; but a professional civil or naval engineer, an organist, an
+artist, a decorator (household), and an architect are received by the
+elect in Washington.</p>
+
+<p>I have alluded to the craze for joking among young ladies in society. At
+a dinner a reigning beauty, and daughter of &mdash;&mdash;, who sat next to me,
+talked with me on dancing. She told me all about it, and, pointing to a
+tall, distinguished-looking man near by, said that he had received his
+degree of D. D. (Doctor of Dancing) from Harvard University, and was
+extremely proud of it; and, furthermore, it would please him to have me
+mention it. I did not enlighten the young lady, and allowed her to
+continue, that I might enjoy her animation and superb "nerve" (this is
+the American slang word for her attitude). The gentleman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> was her uncle,
+a doctor of divinity, who was constitutionally opposed to dancing; and I
+learned later that he had a cork leg. Such are some of the pitfalls in
+Washington set for the pagan Oriental by charming Americans.</p>
+
+<p>Dancing parties, in fact, all functions, are seized upon by young men
+and women who anticipate marriage as especially favorable occasions for
+"courtship." The parents apparently have absolutely nothing to do with
+the affair, this being a free country. The girl "falls in love" with
+some one, and the courtship begins. In the lower classes the girl is
+said to be "keeping company" with so and so, or he is "her steady
+company." In higher circles the admirer is "devoted to the lady." This
+lasts for a year, perhaps longer, the man monopolizing the young lady's
+time, calling so many times a week, as the case may be, the familiarity
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>between the two increasing until they finally exchange kisses&mdash;a
+popular greeting in America. About now they become affianced or
+"engaged," and the man is supposed to ask the consent of the parents. In
+France the latter is supposed to give a <i>dot</i>; in America it is not
+thought of. In time the wedding occurs, amid much ceremony, the bride's
+parents bearing all the expense; the groom is relieving them of a future
+expense, and is naturally not burdened. The married young people then go
+upon a "honeymoon," the month succeeding the wedding, and this is long
+or brief, according to the wealth of the parties. When they return they
+usually live by themselves, the bride resenting any advice or espionage
+from her husband's mother, who is the mother-in-law, a relation as much
+joked about in America as revered in China.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the "engaged" couple do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> not marry. The man perhaps in his
+long courtship discovers traits that weary him, and he breaks off the
+match. If he is wealthy the average American girl may sue him for
+damages, for laceration of the affections. One woman in the State of New
+York sued for the value of over two thousand kisses her "steady company"
+had taken during a number of years' courtship, and was awarded three
+thousand dollars. The journal from which I took this made an estimate
+that the kisses had cost the man one dollar and a half each! Sometimes
+the girl breaks the engagement, and if presents have been given she
+returns them, the man rarely suing; but I have seen record of a case
+where the girl refused to return the presents, and the man sued for
+them; but no jury could be found to decide in his favor. A distinguished
+physician has written a book on falling in love.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> It is recognized as a
+contagious disease; men and women often die of it, and commit the most
+extraordinary acts when under its influence. I have observed it, and,
+all things considered, it has no advantages over the Chinese method of
+attaining the marriage state. The wisdom of some older person is
+certainly better than what the American would call the "snap judgment"
+of two young people carried away by passion. One might find the chief
+cause of divorce in America to lie in this strange custom.</p>
+
+<p>I was invited by a famous wag last week to meet a man who could claim
+that he was the father of fifty-three children and several hundred
+grandchildren. I fully expected to see the <i>Gaikwar of Baroda</i>, or some
+such celebrity, but found a tall, ministerial, typical American, with
+long beard, whom &mdash;&mdash; introduced to me as a Mormon bishop, who,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> he
+said, had a virtual <i>cong&eacute; d'&eacute;lire</i> in the Church, at the same time
+referring to me as a Chinese Mormon with "fifty wives." I endeavored to
+protest, but &mdash;&mdash; explained to the bishop that I was merely modest. The
+Mormons are a sect who believe in polygamy. Each man has as many wives
+as he can support, and the population increases rapidly where they
+settle. The ludicrous feature of Mormonism is that the Government has
+failed to stop it, though it has legislated against it; but it is well
+known that the Mormon allows nothing to interfere with his
+"revelations," which are on "tap" in Utah.</p>
+
+<p>I was much amused at the bishop's remarks. He said that if the American
+politicians who were endeavoring to kill them off would marry their
+actual concubines, and <i>all</i> Americans would do the same, the United
+States would have a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> Mormon majority the next day. The bishop had the
+frailties and moral lapses of prominent people in all lands at his
+fingers' ends, and his claim was that the whole civilized world was
+practising polygamy, but doing it illegally, and the Mormons were the
+only ones who had the honor to legitimatize it. The joke was on &mdash;&mdash;,
+who was literally bottled up by the flow of facts from the bishop, who
+referred to me to substantiate him, which I pretended to do, in order
+totally to crush &mdash;&mdash;, who had tried to make me a party to his joke. The
+bishop, who invited me to call upon him in Utah, said that he hoped some
+time to be a United States senator, though he supposed the women of the
+East could create public sentiment sufficient to defeat him.</p>
+
+<p>I once stopped over in Utah and visited the great Mormon Temple, and I
+must say that the Mormon women are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> far below the average in
+intelligence, that is, if personal appearances count. I understand they
+are recruited from the lowest and most ignorant classes in Europe, where
+there are thousands of women who would rather have a fifth of a husband
+than work in the field. In the language of American slang, I imagine the
+Americans are "up against it," as the country avowedly offers an asylum
+for all seeking religious liberty, and the Mormons claim polygamy as a
+divine revelation and a part of their doctrine.</p>
+
+<p>The bishop, I believe, was not a bishop, but a proselyting elder, or
+something of the kind. The man who introduced me to him was a type
+peculiar to America, a so-called "good fellow." People called him by his
+first name, and he returned the favor. The second time I met him he
+called me Count, and upon my replying that I was not a count<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> he said,
+"Well, you look it, anyway," and he has always called me Count. He knows
+every one, and every one knows him&mdash;a good-hearted man, a spendthrift,
+yet a power in politics; a <i>remarkable</i> poker player, a friend worth
+knowing, the kind of man you like to meet, and there are many such in
+this country.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Probably Senator Bruce.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>THE AMERICAN IN LITERATURE</h3>
+
+<p>I have been a guest at the annual dinner of the &mdash;&mdash;, one of the leading
+literary associations in America, and later at a "reception" at the
+house of &mdash;&mdash;, where I met some of the most charming men and delightful
+women, possessed of manners that marked the person of culture and the
+<i>savoir faire</i> that I have seen so little of among other "sets" of
+well-known public people. But what think you of an author of note who
+knew absolutely nothing of the literature of our country? There were
+Italians, French, and Swedes at the dinner, who were called upon to
+respond to toasts on the literature of their country; but was I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> called
+upon? No, indeed. I doubt if in all that <i>entourage</i> there was more than
+one or two who were familiar with the splendid literature of China and
+its antiquity.</p>
+
+<p>But to come to the "shock." My immediate companion was a lady with just
+a <i>soup&ccedil;on</i> of the masculine, who, I was told, was a distinguished
+novelist, which means that her book had sold to the limit of 30,000
+copies. After a toast and speech in which the literature of Norway and
+Sweden had been extolled, this charming lady turned to me and said, "It
+is too bad, &mdash;&mdash;, that you have no literature in China; you miss so much
+that is enjoyed by other nations." This was too much, and I broke one of
+the American rules of chivalry&mdash;I became disputatious with a lady and
+slightly cynical; and when I wish to be cynical I always quote Mr.
+Harte, which usually "brings down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> the house." To hear a Chinese heathen
+quote the "Heathen Chinee" is supposed to be very funny.</p>
+
+<p>I said, "My dear madam, I am surprised that you do not know that China
+has the finest and oldest literature known in the history of the world.
+I assure you, my ancestors were writing books when the Anglo-Saxon was
+living in caves."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> She was astonished and somewhat dismayed, but was
+not cast down&mdash;the clever American woman never is. I told her of our
+classics, of our wonderful Book of Changes, written by my ancestor Wan
+Wang in 1150 <span class="smaller">B. C.</span> I told her of his philosophy. I compared his idea of
+the creation to that in the Bible. I explained the loss of many rare
+Chinese books by the piratical order of destruction by Emperor Che
+Hwang-ti, calling attention<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> to the fact that the burning of the famous
+library of Alexandria was a parallel. I asked her if it were possible
+that she had never heard of the <i>Odes of Confucius</i>, or his <i>Book of
+History</i>, which was supposed to have been destroyed, but which was found
+in the walls of his home one hundred and forty years before Christ, and
+so saved to become a part of the literature of China.</p>
+
+<p>Finally she said, "I have studied literature, but that of China was not
+included." "Your history," I continued, "begins in 1492; our written
+history begins in the twenty-third century before Christ, and the years
+down to 720 <span class="smaller">B. C.</span> are particularly well covered, while our legends run
+back for thousands of years." But my companion had never heard of the
+<i>Shoo-King</i>. It was so with the <i>Chun Tsew</i><a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> of Confucius and the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span><i>Four Books</i>&mdash;<i>Ta-h&#277;-&#335;</i>,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> <i>Chung-yung</i>,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> <i>Lun-yu</i>,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>
+<i>M&#259;ng-tsze</i>.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> She had never heard of them. I told her of the
+invention of paper by the Marquis Tsae several centuries before Christ,
+and she laughingly replied that she supposed that I would claim next
+that the Chinese had libraries like those Mr. Carnegie is founding. I
+was delighted to assure her that her assumption was correct, and drew a
+little picture of a well-known Chinese library, founded two thousand
+years ago, the Han Library, with its 3,123 classics, its 2,706 works on
+philosophy, its 2,528 books on mathematics, its 790 works on war, its
+868 books on medicine, 1,318 on poetry, not to speak of thousands of
+essays.</p>
+
+<p>I could not but wonder as I talked, where were the Americans and their
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>literature when our fathers were reading these books two thousand years
+ago! Even the English people were wild savages, living in caves and
+huts, when our people were printing books and encyclopedias of
+knowledge. I dwelt upon our poetry, the National Airs, Greater Eulogies,
+dating back several thousand years. I told her of the splendors of our
+great versifier, <i>Le-Tai-Pih</i>; and I might have said that many American
+poets, like Walt Whitman, had doubtless read the translations to their
+advantage. I had the pleasure at least of commanding this lady's
+attention, and I believe she was the first American who deigned to take
+a Chinaman seriously. The facts of our literature are available, but
+only scholars make a study of it, and so far as I could learn not a word
+of Chinese literature is ever taught in American schools, though in the
+great universities there are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>facilities, and the best educated people
+are familiar with our history.</p>
+
+<p>The American authors, especially novelists, who constitute the majority
+of authors, are by no means all well educated. Many appear to have a
+faculty of "story-telling," which enables them to produce something that
+will sell; but that all American authors, and this will surprise you,
+are included among the great scholars, is far from true. Some, yes many,
+are deplorably ignorant in the sense of broad learning, and I believe
+this is a universal, national fault. If one thing Chinese more than
+another is ridiculed in America it is our drama. I met a famous
+"play-writer" at the &mdash;&mdash; dinner, who thought it a huge joke. I heard
+that his income was $30,000 per annum from plays alone; yet he had never
+heard of our "Hundred Plays of the Yuen Dynasty," which rests in one of
+his own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> city libraries not a mile distant, and he laughed
+good-naturedly when I remarked that the modern stage obtained its
+initiative in China.</p>
+
+<p>A listener did me the honor to question my statement that Voltaire's
+"<i>L'Orphelin de la Chine</i>" was taken from the <i>Orphan of Chaou</i> of this
+collection, which I thought every one knew. All the authors whom I met
+seemed surprised to learn that I was familiar with their literature and
+could not compare it synthetically with that of other nations, and even
+more so when I said that all well-educated Chinamen endeavored to
+familiarize themselves with the literature of other countries.</p>
+
+<p>I continually gain the impression that the Americans "size us up," as
+they say, and "lump" us with the "coolie." We are "heathen Chinee," and
+it is incomprehensible that we should know <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>anything. I am talking now
+of the half-educated people as I have met them. Here and there I meet
+men and women of the highest culture and knowledge, and this class has
+no peer in the world. If I were to live in America I should wish to
+consort with her real scholars, culled from the best society of New
+York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, and other cities. In
+a word, the aristocracy of America is her educated class, the education
+that comes from association year after year with other cultivated
+people. I understand there is more of it in Boston and Philadelphia than
+anywhere; but you find it in all towns and cities. This I grant is the
+real American, who, in time&mdash;several thousand years perhaps&mdash;as in our
+own case, will demonstrate the wonderful possibilities of the human race
+in the West.</p>
+
+<p>I would like to tell you something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> about the books of the literary men
+and women I have met, but you will be more interested in the things I
+have seen and the mannerisms of the people. I was told by a
+distinguished writer that America had failed to produce any really great
+authors&mdash;I mean to compare with other nations&mdash;and I agreed with him,
+although appreciating what she has done. There is no one to compare with
+the great minds of England&mdash;Scott, Dickens, Thackeray. There is no
+American poet to compare with Tennyson, Milton, and a dozen others in
+England, France, Italy, and Germany; indeed, America is far behind in
+this respect, yet in the making of books there is nothing to compare
+with it. Every American, apparently, aspires to become an author, and I
+really think it would be difficult to find a citizen of the republic who
+had not been a contributor to some publication at some time,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> or had not
+written a book. The output of books is extraordinary, and covers every
+field; but the class is not in all cases such as one might expect. The
+people are omnivorous readers, and "stories," "novels," are ground out
+by the ton; but I doubt if a book has been produced since the time of
+Hawthorne that will really live as a great classic.</p>
+
+<p>The American authors are mainly collected in New York, where the great
+publishing houses are located, and are a fine representative class of
+men and women, of whom I have met a number, such as Howells, the author
+and editor, and Mark Twain, the latter the most brilliant litterateur in
+the United States. This will be discovered when he dies and is safe
+beyond receiving all possible benefits from such recognition. Many men
+in America make reputations as humorists, and find it impossible to
+divest their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> more serious writings from this "taint," if so it may be
+called. They are not taken seriously when they seriously desire it; a
+fact I fully appreciate, as I am taken as a joke, my "pigtail," my
+"shoes," my "clothes," my way of speaking, all being objects of joking.</p>
+
+<p>The literary men have several clubs in New York, where they can be
+found, and many have marked peculiarities, which are interesting to a
+foreigner. Several artists affect a peculiar style of dress to advertise
+their wares. One, it is said, lived in a tree at Washington. It is not
+so much with the authors as with the methods of making books that I
+think you will be interested. I met a rising young author at a dinner in
+Washington who confided to me that the "book business" was really ruined
+in America by reason of the mad craze of nearly all Americans to become
+writers. He said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> that he as an editor had been offered money to publish
+a novel by a society woman who desired to pose as an authoress. This
+author said that there were in America a dozen or more of the finest and
+most honorable publishing houses in the world, but there were many more
+in the various cities which virtually preyed upon this "literary
+disease" of the people. No country in the world, said my acquaintance,
+produces so many books every year as America; so many, in fact, that the
+shops groan with them and the forests of America threaten to give out,
+and the supply virtually clogs and ruins the market. So crazy are the
+people to be authors and see themselves in print that they will go to
+any length to accomplish authorship.</p>
+
+<p>He cited a case of a carpenter, a man of no education, who was seized
+with the desire to write a book, which he did. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> was sent to all the
+leading publishers, and promptly returned; then he began the rounds of
+the second-class houses, of which there are legion. One of the latter
+wrote him that they published on the "cooperative" plan, and would pay
+<i>half</i> the expenses of publishing if he would pay the other half. Of
+course <i>his</i> share paid for the entire edition and gave the clever
+"cooperative" publisher a profit, whether the edition sold or not. And
+my informant said that at least twenty firms were publishing books for
+such authors, and encouraging people to produce manuscripts that were so
+much "dead wood" in the real literary field. He later sent me the
+prospectus of several such houses which would take any manuscript, if
+the author would pay for the publishing, revise it and send it forth. I
+was assured that thousands of books are produced yearly by these houses,
+who are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> really "printers," who advertise in various ways and encourage
+would-be authors, the idea being to get their money, a species of
+literary "graft," according to my literary informant, who assured me I
+must not confuse such parasites with the large publishers of America,
+who will not produce a book unless their skilled readers consider it a
+credit to them and to the country, a high standard which I believe is
+maintained.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most interesting phase of literature in America is found in
+the weekly and monthly magazines, of which there is no end. Every sport
+has its "organ," every great trade, every society, every religion; even
+the missionaries sent to China have their organs, in which is reported
+their success in saving <i>us</i> and divorcing us from our ancient beliefs.
+The great literary magazines number perhaps a dozen, with a few in the
+front<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> rank, such as the Century, Harper's, Scribner's, The Atlantic,
+Cosmopolitan, McClure's, Dial, North American Review, Popular Science
+Monthly, Bookman, Critic, and Nation. Such magazines I conceive to be
+the universities of the people, the great educators in art, literature,
+science, etc. Nothing escapes them. They are timely, beautiful, exact,
+thorough, scientific, the reflex of the best and most artistic minds in
+America; and many are so cheap as to be within the reach of the poor. It
+is interesting to know that most of these magazines are sources of
+wealth, the money coming from the advertisements, published as a feature
+in the front and back. These notices are in bulk often more than the
+literary portion, and the rate charged, I was told, from $100 to $1,000
+per page for a single printing.</p>
+
+<p>The skill with which appeals are made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> to the weaknesses of readers is
+well shown in some of the minor publications not exactly within the same
+class as the literary magazines. One that is devoted to women is a most
+clever appeal to the idiosyncrasies of the sex: There are articles on
+cooking, dinners, luncheons, how to set tables, table manners, etiquette
+(one would think they had read Confucius), how to dress for these
+functions; and, in fact, every occupation in life possible to a woman is
+dealt with by an extraordinary editor who is a man. Whenever I was joked
+with about our men acting on the stage as women, I retorted by quoting
+Mr. &mdash;&mdash;, the male editor of the female &mdash;&mdash;, who is either a consummate
+actor or a remarkably composite creature, to so thoroughly anticipate
+his audience. The mother, the widow, the orphan, the young maiden, the
+"old maid," are all taken into the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>confidence of this editor, who in
+his editorials has what are termed "heart to heart" talks.</p>
+
+<p>I send you a copy of this paper, which is very clever and very
+successful, and a good illustration of the American magazine that, while
+claiming to be literature, is a mechanical production, "machine made" in
+every sense. One can imagine the introspective editor entering all the
+foibles and weaknesses of women in a book and in cold blood forming a
+department to appeal to each. I was informed that the editors of such
+publications were "not in business for their health," but for money; and
+their energies are all expended on projects to hold present readers and
+obtain others. The more readers the more they can charge the
+"advertiser" in the back or side pages, who here illustrate their deadly
+corsets, their new dye for the hair, their beauty doctors,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> freckle
+eradicators, powders for the toilet, bustles, and the thousand and one
+things which shrewd dealers are anxious to have women take up.</p>
+
+<p>The children also have their journals or "magazines." One in New York
+deals with fairies and genii, on the ground that it is good for the
+imagination. Another, published in Boston, denounces the fairy-story
+idea, and gives the children stories by great generals, princes of the
+blood, captains of industry, admirals, etc.; briefly, the name of the
+writer, not the literary quality of the tale, is the important feature.
+There are papers for babes, boys, girls, the sick and the well.</p>
+
+<p>The most conspicuous literary names before the people are Howells,
+Twain, and Harte, though one hears of scores of novelists, who, I
+believe, will be forgotten in a decade or so. As I have said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>
+previously, I am always joked with about the "Heathen Chinee." I have
+really learned to play "poker," but I seldom if ever sit down to a game
+that some one does not joke with me about "Ah Sin." Such is the American
+idea of the proprieties and their sense of humor; yet I finally have
+come to be so good an American that I can laugh also, for I am confident
+the jokers mean it all in the best of feeling.</p>
+
+<p>There are in America a class of litterateurs who are rarely heard of by
+the masses, but to my mind they are among the greatest and most advanced
+Americans. They are the astronomers, geologists, zoologists,
+ornithologists, and others, authors of papers and articles in the
+Government Reports of priceless value. These writers appear to me, an
+outsider, to be the real safety-valves, the real backbone of the
+literary productions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> of the day. With them science is but a synonym of
+truth; they fling all superstition and ignorance to the winds, and
+should be better known. Such names as Edison, Cope, Marsh, Hall, Young,
+Field, Baird, Agassiz, and fifty more might be mentioned, all authors
+whose books will give them undying fame, men who have devoted a lifetime
+to research and the accumulation of knowledge; yet the author of the
+last novel, "My Mule from New Jersey," will, for the day, have more
+vogue among the people than any of these. But such is fame, at least in
+America, where erudition is not appreciated as it is in "pagan" China.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> As a frontispiece to this volume, the cover design used on
+one of these old Chinese books is shown.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Spring and Autumn Annals.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Great Learning.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Confucian Analects.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Doctrine of the Mean.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Works of Mencius.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE POLITICAL BOSS</h3>
+
+<p>At an assembly-room in New York I met a famous American political
+"boss." Many governors in China do not have the same power and
+influence. I had letters to him from Senators &mdash;&mdash; and &mdash;&mdash;. I expected
+to meet a man of the highest culture, but what was my surprise to see a
+huge, overgrown, uneducated Irishman, gross in every particular, who
+used the local "slang" so fiercely that I had difficulty in
+understanding him. He had been a police officer, and I understand was a
+"grafter," but that may have been a report of his enemies, as he
+commanded attention at the time of the election.</p>
+
+<p>This man had a fund of humor, which was displayed in his clapping me on
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> back and calling me "John," introducing me to a dozen or so of as
+hard-looking men in the garb of gentlemen as I have ever seen. I heard
+them described later as "ward beetles," and they looked it, whatever it
+meant. The "Boss" appeared much interested in me; said he had heard I
+was no "slouch," and knew I must have a "pull" or I would not be where I
+am. He wished to know how we run elections on "the Ho-Hang-Ho." When I
+told him that a candidate for a governmental office never obtained it
+until he passed one of three very difficult literary examinations in our
+nine classics, and that there were thousands competing for the office,
+he was "paralyzed"&mdash;that is, he said he was, and volunteered the
+information that "he would not be 'in it' in China." I thought so
+myself, but did not say so.</p>
+
+<p>I told him that the politicians in China<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> were the greatest scholars;
+that the policy of the Government was to make all offices competitive,
+as we thus secured the brightest, smartest, and most gifted men for
+officials. "Smart h&mdash;&mdash;!" retorted the "Boss." "Why, we've got smart
+men. Look at our school-teachers. Them guys<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> is crammed with guff,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>
+and passing examinations all the time; but there ain't one in a thousand
+that's got sense enough to run a tamale<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> convention. The State
+governor would get left here if all the boys that wanted office had to
+pass an examination. We've got something like it here," he said, "that
+blank Civil Service, that keeps many a natural-born genius out of
+office; but it don't 'cut ice with me.' I'm the whole thing in the
+ward."</p>
+
+<p>Despite his rough exterior, &mdash;&mdash; was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> a good-hearted fellow, as they
+say, no rougher than his constituents, and I was with him several days
+during a local election with a view to studying American politics. Much
+of the time was spent in the saloons of the district where the "Boss"
+held out, and where I was introduced as a "white Chinee," or as a "white
+Chink," and "my friend." I wish I had kept a list of the drinks the
+"Boss" took and the cigars he smoked <i>per diem</i>. Perhaps it is as well I
+did not; you would not believe me. I was always "John" to this crowd,
+that was made up of laboring people in the main, of whom Irish and
+Germans predominated. The "Boss" was what they called a "bulldozer." If
+a man differed with him he tried to talk or drink him down; if it was an
+enemy and he became too disputatious, he would knock him out with his
+fist. In this way he had acquired a reputation as a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>"slugger," that
+counted for much in such an assemblage, and he confided to me one
+evening that it was the easiest way to "stop talk," and that if he "laid
+down," the opposition would walk off with all his "people." He was
+"Boss" because he was the boss slugger, the best executive, the best
+drinker and smoker, the best "persuader," and the best public speaker in
+his ward. So you see he had a variety of talents. In China I can imagine
+such a man being beheaded as a pirate in a few weeks; this would be as
+good an excuse as any; yet men like this have grown and developed into
+respectable persons in New York and other cities.</p>
+
+<p>"For ways that are dark and tricks that are vain, the Heathen Chinee is
+peculiar," but I doubt if he is more so than the political system of the
+United States, where every man is supposed to be free, but where a few
+men in each town own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> everything and everybody politically. The American
+thinks he is free, but he has in reality no more freedom than the
+Englishman; in fact, I am inclined to think that the latter is the
+freest of them all, and I doubt if too much freedom is good for man.
+Politics in America is a profession, a trade, a science, a perfect
+system by which one or two men run or control millions. Politics means
+the attainment of political power and influence, which mean office. Some
+men are in politics for the love of power, some for spoils ("graft" they
+call it in slang), and some for the high offices. In America there are
+two large parties, the Republican and the Democratic. Then there are the
+Labor, Prohibition (non-drinking), and various other parties, which, in
+the language of politics, "cut no ice." The real issues of a party are
+often lost sight of. The Republicans may be said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> to favor a high
+tariff; the Democrats a low tariff or free trade; and when there is not
+sufficient to amuse the people in these, then other reasons for being a
+Democrat or a Republican are raised, and a platform is issued. Lately
+the Democrats have espoused "free silver," and the Republicans have
+"buried" them. The Democrats are now trying to invent some new
+"platform"; but the Republicans appear to have included about all the
+desirable things in their platform, and hence they win.</p>
+
+<p>In a small town one or two men are known as "bosses." They control the
+situation at the primaries; they manage to get elected and keep before
+the people. Generally they are natural leaders, and fill some office.
+When the senator comes to town they "escort" him about and advise him as
+to the votes he may expect. Sometimes the ward man is the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>postmaster,
+sometimes a national congressman, again a State senator; but he is
+always in evidence, and before the people, a good speaker and talker and
+the "boss." Every town has its Republican and Democratic "boss," always
+striving to increase the vote, always striving for something. The larger
+the city, the larger the "boss," until we come to a city like New York,
+where we find, or did find, Boss Tweed, who absolutely controlled the
+political situation for years.</p>
+
+<p>This means that he was in politics, and manipulated all the offices in
+order to steal for himself and his friends; this is of public record. He
+was overthrown or exposed by the citizens, but was followed by others,
+who manipulated the affairs of the city for money. Offices were sold;
+any one who had a position either bought it or paid a percentage for it.
+Gambling-dens and other "resorts" paid large sums<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> to "sub-bosses," who
+become rich, and if the full history of some of the "bosses" of New
+York, Philadelphia, Chicago, or any great American city could be
+exposed, it would show a state of affairs that would display the
+American politician in a dark light. Repeatedly the machinations of the
+politicians have been exposed, yet they doubtless go on in some form.
+And this is true to some extent of the Government. The honor of no
+President has been impugned; they are men of integrity, but the enormous
+appointing power which they have is a mere form; they do not and could
+not appoint many men. The little "boss" in some town desires a position.
+He has been a spy for the congressman or senator for years, and now
+aspires to office. He obtains the influence of the senator and the
+congressman, and is supported by a petition of his friends, and the
+President names<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> him for the office, taking the senator for his sponsor.
+If the man becomes a grafter or thief, the President is attacked by the
+opposition.</p>
+
+<p>In a large city like New York each ward will have its "boss," who will
+report to a supreme "boss," and by this system, often pernicious, the
+latter acquires absolute control of the situation. He names the
+candidates for office, or most of them, and is all powerful. I have met
+a number of "bosses," and all, it happened, were Irish; indeed, the
+Irish dominate American politics. One, a leader of Tammany in New York,
+was a most preposterous person, well dressed, but not a gentleman from
+any standpoint; ignorant so far as education goes, yet supremely sharp
+in politics. Such a man could not have led a fire brigade in China, yet
+he was the leader of thousands, and controlled Democratic New<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> York for
+years. He never held office, I was told, yet grew very rich.</p>
+
+<p>The Republican "boss" was a tall, thin, United States senator. I was
+also introduced to him&mdash;a Mephistophelian sort of an individual&mdash;to me
+utterly without any attraction; but I was informed that he carried the
+vote of the Republican party in his pocket. How? that is the mystery. If
+you desired office you went to him; without his influence one was
+impotent. Thousands of office-holders felt his power, hated him,
+perhaps, but did not dare to say it.</p>
+
+<p>The "boss" controls the situation, gives and "takes," and the other
+citizens get the satisfaction of thinking they are a free people. In
+reality, they are political slaves, and the "boss," "sub-boss," and the
+long line of smaller "bosses" are their masters. Very much the same
+situation is seen in national politics. The party is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> controlled by a
+"boss," and at the present this personage is a millionaire, named Hanna,
+said to be an honest, upright man, with a genius for political
+diplomacy, a puller of wires, a maker of Presidents, having virtually
+placed President McKinley where he is. This man I met. Many of the
+politicians called him "Uncle Mark." He has a familiar way with
+reporters. He is a man of good size, with a face of a rather common
+type, with very large and protruding ears, but two bright, gleaming
+eyes, that tell of genius, force, intelligence, power, and executive
+talents of an exalted order. I recall but one other such pair of eyes,
+and those were in the head of Senator James G. Blaine, whom I saw during
+my first visit to America. Hanna is famous for his <i>bonhomie</i>, and is a
+fine story-teller. Indeed, unless a man can tell stories he had better
+remain out of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>politics, or rather he will never get into politics.</p>
+
+<p>As an outsider I should say that the power of the "boss" was due to the
+fact that the best classes will have none of him, as a rule (I refer to
+the ordinary "boss"), and as a consequence he and his henchmen control
+the situation. I think I am not overstating the truth when I say that
+every city in the United States has been looted by the politicians of
+various parties. It is of public record that Philadelphia, Chicago, St.
+Louis, and New York citizens have repeatedly risen and shown that the
+city was being robbed in the most bare-handed manner. Bribery and
+corruption have been found to exist to-day in the entire system, and if
+the credit of the republic stands on its political <i>morale</i> this vast
+union of States is a colossal failure, as it is being pillaged by
+politicians. Every "boss" has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> what are termed "heelers," one function
+of whom is to buy votes and do other work in the interest of "reform." A
+friend told me that he spent election day in the office of a candidate
+for Congress in a certain Western town, and the candidate had his safe
+heaped full of silver dollars. All day long men were coming and going,
+each taking the dollars to buy votes. By night the supply was exhausted,
+and the man defeated. I expressed satisfaction at this, but my friend
+laughed; the other fellow who won paid more for votes, he said. I was
+told that all the great senatorial battles were merely a question of
+dollars; the man with the largest "sack" won.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, there are senators who not only never paid for a vote
+but never expressed a wish to be elected. The foreign vote&mdash;Italians and
+others&mdash;are swayed by cash considerations; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> negroes are bought and
+sold politically. The "bosses" handle the money, and the senators
+consider it as "expenses," and doubtless do not know that some of it has
+been used to influence legislators. The Americans have a remarkable
+network of laws to prevent fraudulent voting. Each candidate in some
+States is required to swear to an expense account, yet the wary
+politician, with his "ways that are dark," evades the law. The entire
+system, the control of the political fortunes of 80,000,000 Americans,
+is in the hands of a small army of political "bosses," some of whom, had
+they figured as grafters in "effete" China, would have been beheaded
+without mercy.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Slang for citizens.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Slang for information, facts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Mexican hash in corn-husk.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>EDUCATION IN AMERICA</h3>
+
+<p>A fundamental idea with the American is to educate children. This is
+carried to the extent of making it an offense not to send those above a
+certain age to school, while State or town officers, called "truant
+police," are on the alert to arrest all such children who are not in
+school. The following was told me by a Government official in
+Washington, who had obtained it from a well-known literary man who
+witnessed the incident. The literary man was invited to visit a Boston
+school of the lower grade, where he found the teacher, an attractive
+woman, engaged in teaching a class of "youngsters," the progeny of the
+working class. After the visitor had listened to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> recitations for
+some time, he remarked to the teacher, "How do you account for the
+neatness and cleanliness of these children?" "Oh, I insist upon it," was
+the reply. "The Board of Education does not anticipate all the
+desiderata, but I make them come clean and make it a part of the
+course;" then rising and tapping on the table, she said, "Prepare for
+the sixth exercise." All the children stood up. "One," said the teacher,
+whereupon each pupil took out a clean cloth handkerchief. "Two," counted
+the teacher, and with one concerted blast every pupil blew his or her
+nose in clarion notes. "Three," came again after a few seconds, and the
+handkerchiefs were replaced. At "four" the student body sank back to
+their seats without even smiling, or without having "cracked a smile."
+You could search the world over and not find a prototype. It goes
+without saying that the teacher was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> a wit and wag, but the lesson of
+handkerchiefs and their use was inculcated.</p>
+
+<p>Education is a part of the scheme to make all Americans equal. A more
+splendid <i>system</i> it is impossible to conceive. Every possible facility
+is afforded the poorest family to educate their children. Public schools
+loom up everywhere, and are increased as rapidly as the children, so
+there is no excuse for ignorance. The schools are graded, and there is
+no expense or fee. The parents pay a tax, a small sum, those who have no
+children being taxed as well as those who have many. There are schools
+to train boys to any trade; normal free schools to make teachers; night
+schools for working boys; commercial schools to educate clerks; ship
+schools to train sailors and engineers. Then come the great
+universities, in part free, with all the splendid paraphernalia, some
+being State <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>institutions and others memorials of dead millionaires.
+Then there are the great technical schools, as well as universities
+(where one can study Chinese, if desired). There are schools of art,
+law, medicine, nature, forestry, sculpture; schools to teach one how to
+write, how to dress, how to eat, and how to keep well; schools to teach
+one how to write advertisements, to cultivate the memory, to grow
+strong; schools for shooting, boxing, fencing; schools for nurses and
+cooks; summer schools; winter schools.</p>
+
+<p>And yet the American is not profoundly educated. He has too much within
+his reach. I have been distinctly surprised at crude specimens I have
+met who were graduates of great universities. The well-educated
+Englishman, German, and American are different things. The American is
+far behind in the best sense, which I am inclined to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> think is due to
+the teachers. Any one can get through a normal school and become a
+teacher who can pass the examination, and I have seen some singular
+instances. If all the teachers were obliged to pass examinations in
+culture, refinement, and the art of <i>conveying</i> knowledge, there would
+be a falling of pedagogic heads. The free and over education of the poor
+places them at once above their parents. They are free, and the daughter
+of a ditch laborer, whose wife is a floor scrubber, upon being educated
+is ashamed of her parents, learns to play the piano, apes the rich, and
+is at least unhappy.</p>
+
+<p>The result is, there remains no peasant class. The effect of education
+on the country boy is to make him despise the farm and go to the city,
+to become a clerk and ape the fashions of the wealthy at six or eight
+dollars a week. He has been educated up to the standard of his "boss"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>
+and to be his equal. The overeducation of the poor is a heartless thing.
+The women vie with the men, and as a result women graduates, taking
+positions at half the price that men demand, crowd them out of the
+fields of skilled labor, whereas the man, not crowded out, should,
+normally, marry the girl. In power, strength, and progress the American
+nation stands first in the world, and all this may be due to splendid
+educational facilities. But this is not everything. There result strife,
+unhappiness, envy, and a craze for riches. I do not think the Americans
+as a race are as happy as the Chinese. Religious denominations try to
+have their own schools, so that children shall not be captured by other
+denominations. Thus the Roman Catholics have parochial schools, under
+priests and sisters, and colleges of various grades. They oppose the use
+of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> Bible in the public school, and in some States their influence
+has helped to suppress its use. The Quakers, with a following of only
+eighty thousand, have colleges and schools. The Methodists have
+universities, as have the Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and others. All
+denominations have institutions of learning. These schools are in the
+hands of clergymen, and are often endowed or supported by wealthy
+members of the denomination.</p>
+
+<p>A remarkable feature of American life is the college of correspondence.
+A man or firm advertises to teach by correspondence at so much a month.
+Many branches are taught, and if the student is in earnest a certain
+amount of information can thus be accumulated. Among the people I have
+met I have observed a lack of what I term full, broad education,
+producing a well-rounded mind,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> which is rare except among the class
+that stands first in America&mdash;the refined, cultured, educated man of an
+old family, who is the product of many generations. The curriculum of
+the high school in America would in China seem sufficient to equip a
+student for any position in diplomatic life; but I have found that a
+majority of graduates become clerks in a grocery or in other shops, car
+conductors, or commercial travelers, where Latin, Greek, and other
+higher studies are absolutely useless. The brightest educational sign I
+see in America is the attention given to manual training. In schools
+boys are taught some trade or are allowed to experiment in the trades in
+order to find out their natural bent, so that the boy can be educated
+with his future in view. As a result of education, women appear in
+nearly every field except that of manual labor on farms, which is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>
+performed in America only by alien women.</p>
+
+<p>The richest men in America to-day, the multi-millionaires, are not the
+product of the universities, but mainly of the public schools. Carnegie,
+Rockefeller, Schwab, men of the great steel combine, the oil magnates,
+the great railway magnates, the great mine owners, were all men of
+limited education at the beginning. Among great merchants, however, the
+university man is found, and among the Harvard and Yale graduates, for
+example, may be found some of America's most distinguished men. But
+Lincoln, the martyred President, had the most limited education, and
+among public men the majority have been the product of the public
+school, which suggests that great men are natural geniuses, who will
+attain prominence despite the lack of education. The best-educated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> men
+in America to my mind are the graduates of West Point and Annapolis, the
+military and naval academies. These two institutions are extremely
+rigorous, and are open to the most humble citizens. They so transform
+men in four years that people would hardly recognize them. The result is
+a highly educated, refined, cultivated, practical man, with a high sense
+of honor and patriotism. If America would have a school of this kind in
+every State there would be no limit to her power in two decades.</p>
+
+<p>Despite education, the great mass of the people are superficial; they
+have a smattering of this and that. An employer of several thousand men
+told the Superintendent of Education of the District of Columbia that he
+had selected the brightest boy graduate of a high school for a position
+which required only a knowledge of simple arithmetic. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> graduate
+proved to be totally unfit for the position and was discharged. Later he
+became the driver of a team of horses. America abounds in thousands of
+educational institutions, yet there is not one so well endowed that it
+can say to the world we wish no more money. It is singular that some
+multi-millionaire does not grasp this opportunity to donate one hundred
+millions to a great national school or university, to be placed at
+Washington, where the buildings would all be lessons in architecture of
+marble after the plans of a world's fair. Instead they leave a few
+thousands here and a few there. Carnegie, the leading millionaire, gives
+libraries to cities all over the States, each of which bears the name of
+the giver. The object is too obvious, and is cheap in conception. In San
+Francisco some years ago a citizen tried the same experiment. He
+proposed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> give the city a large number of fountains. When they were
+finished <i>each</i> one was seen to be surmounted by his own statue. A few
+were put up, how many I do not recall, but one night some citizens
+waited on a statue, fastened a rope to its neck, and hauled it down. So
+peculiar are the Americans that I believe if Mr. Carnegie should place
+his name on ten thousand libraries, with the object of attaining undying
+fame, the people, by a concerted effort, would forget all about him in a
+few decades. Such an attempt does not appeal to any side of the American
+character. I have known the best Americans, but Mr. Carnegie has not
+known the best of his own countrymen or he would not attempt to
+perpetuate his memory in this way.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ARMY AND NAVY</h3>
+
+<p>Among the most delightful people I have met in America are the army and
+navy officers, graduates of West Point and Annapolis, well-bred,
+cultivated men, patriotic, open-hearted, and chivalrous. They are like
+our own class of men who answer to the American term of gentlemen. I am
+not going to tell you of their splendid ships, their training or
+uniform, but of a few of their idiosyncrasies. There is no dueling in
+the army. If two men have trouble at the academies they fight it out
+with bare fists, and in the army settle it in some other way, dueling
+being forbidden. Owing to the fact that all men are equal in America,
+the attitude of the officer to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> the civilian is entirely different. If a
+civilian strikes an officer in Germany the latter will cut him down with
+his saber and be protected in it, but here the man would be arrested and
+treated as any other criminal; in a word, the officer is a servant of
+the people, and stands with them. He has been trained to treat his men
+well, and they respect him. But while the officer is the people's
+servant and his salary in some part is paid by the humblest grocer's
+clerk, laborer, or artisan, the officer has a social position which, in
+the eyes of himself and the Government, makes him the social equal of
+kings and emperors; and here we see a strange fact in American life.</p>
+
+<p>When a garrison is ordered to a town or city, people call to pay their
+respects. The grocer, who in being taxed aids in paying the officer's
+salary, is <i>persona non grata</i>. The grocer, milk dealer, shoe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> dealer,
+and retail dealers in general might call, but would not be received on
+cordial terms. The wife of the colonel might return the call of the
+grocer's wife if she made a good appearance, but the latter would under
+no circumstances be invited to a function at the camp or post. The
+undertaker, the dentist, the ice-man, the retail shoe man are under the
+ban. Certain kinds of business appear to have certain social rights.
+Thus a dentist would not be received, but the man who manufactures
+dentists' tools may be a leader among the "Four Hundred."</p>
+
+<p>Strange complications arise. A young officer fell in love with a
+sergeant's daughter, and married her, as I learned from a well-known
+officer at the Army and Navy Club. This was serious enough, as there
+could be no intimacy between a commissioned and non-commissioned
+officer. The young man and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> his bride were ordered to a distant post,
+where the story of course followed them. All went well for a time. The
+bride sank her social inferiority in the rank of her husband, and the
+ladies of the post called on her, not as the sergeant's daughter but as
+the officer's wife. The mother of the bride finally decided to visit
+her, and thus became the guest of the officer, who was a lieutenant.
+Under ordinary circumstances it was the duty of all the ladies to call
+on the mother of the lieutenant's wife; but it so happened that she was
+the wife of a sergeant, and hence to call was impossible. No one did so.</p>
+
+<p>The young wife felt herself insulted, and the ubiquitous reporter seized
+upon the situation, until it was taken up by every paper in the country.
+The pictures of mother, daughter, and sergeant were shown, and columns
+were written on the subject. Almost to a man the editors <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>denounced what
+they termed the snobbishness of the army, and denounced West Point for
+producing snobs, claiming that the ladies of the post, had they been
+real ladies, would have called on a respectable laundress even if she
+had been the sergeant's wife. I refer to this to show the intricacies of
+American etiquette. The point is that nearly all the editors who knew
+anything, believed that the ladies were right, but did not dare to say
+so on account of the fact that the majority of their readers felt
+themselves the equals of the army officer; hence the cry of snobbery
+that went whistling over the land. The lieutenant committed a gross
+mistake in marrying the girl; he married out of his class. But in
+America I am told there are no classes, and I am constantly forgetting
+this.</p>
+
+<p>In the army there are several black regiments (negroes). They have
+black<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> chaplains, and attempts have been made to find black officers,
+but the social difficulties make this impossible, though the blacks are
+free and independent citizens and help pay the salaries of the white
+men. It would be impossible to force white soldiers to admit to their
+regiment black soldiers. No white man would permit a black officer to be
+placed over him, even by inference.</p>
+
+<p>In the navy we see an entirely different situation. On every ship are
+negroes in the crew, sleeping on the same gun-decks with the white men,
+and no fault is found; but a negro officer would be an impossibility.
+Though several have been sent to the Naval Academy, none have "gone
+through." Even in these almost perfect institutions favoritism exists.
+To illustrate: the son of a prominent man was about to fail in his
+examinations, when the powers that be passed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> word that he must
+pass, <i>nolens volens</i>. The professor in whose class he was and who had
+found him deficient resented this, and when he learned that it was the
+intention to pass the boy over his head he resigned and was ordered to
+his regiment. The young man was graduated, entered the army and, aided
+by influence, jumped many of his class men and finally acquired rank at
+the request of the wife of one of the Presidents. This was a very
+exceptional case, the result of strong national sentiment that favored
+the father.</p>
+
+<p>The management of the army does not seem rational to a foreigner. To
+preserve the idea of republican simplicity and equality, army men are
+not rewarded with orders, as in other countries, which is a great
+injustice. Few officers, though veterans of many wars, wear medals, and
+when they do they were not given as rewards for bravery, but are merely
+corps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> badges, showing that the officer belongs to this or that army
+corps. But if an officer does a brave deed he may be promoted several
+points over his fellows, as brave as he, but who did not have the same
+opportunity to show bravery. Ill feeling may be the result. Every man is
+expected to be brave, and extraordinary examples of bravery are
+recognized in other nations by the presentation of medals, the
+possession of which creates no ill feeling. The actual head of the army
+is the Secretary of War, a political appointment, an adviser selected by
+the President, who, usually, has no military knowledge. This officer
+gives all the orders to the general of the army, and, as in a recent
+instance, a vast amount of friction has been the result. Intense feeling
+was occasioned by the elevation of certain officers, who were supposed
+to possess remarkable executive ability.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p><p>Civil war veterans at the Army and Navy Club complained to an
+acquaintance of mine that when they arrived at the seat of war in Cuba
+they found their superior officers to be, first, General Wheeler, an
+ex-Confederate, against whom they had fought in the civil war; second,
+Colonel Wood, who had been a contract army surgeon under nearly all of
+them; and finally, Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt, who was a babe in arms
+when they were fighting the battles of the civil war. This story serves
+to illustrate the point that political "pulls" and favoritism are
+rampant in the service, and are the cause of much disgust among
+officers. General Funston affords an illustration that has incensed many
+officers. Funston was an unknown man, who captured Aguinaldo by a clever
+ruse, a valuable and courageous piece of work, which should have been
+rewarded with a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>decoration and <i>some</i> promotion; but he was jumped over
+the heads of hundreds, landing at the top of the army in one "fell
+swoop." I judge the policy of the Government to be to promote officers
+so soon as they show evidence of extraordinary capability.</p>
+
+<p>It would be an easy matter for any one to obtain photographs of plans
+and sketches of American fortifications. One of my friends hired a
+photographer to get up what he called a scrap-book of pictures to take
+home to his family in Tokio in order to "entertain his people." The
+photographer sent him a wonderful series, showing the forts overlooking
+New York harbor, interiors and exteriors; and those in Boston, Portland,
+Baltimore, Fort Monroe, Key West, and San Francisco were also obtained.
+Photographs of guns and charts, which can be purchased everywhere, were
+included, as well as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> Government reports. If Japan ever goes to war with
+the Yankees my friend's scrap-book will be in demand. I do not believe
+the American War Department makes any secret of the forts. They are open
+to the public. Even if a kodak were not permitted, pictures could be
+secured. My friend said his photographer had a kodak which he wore
+inside his vest, the opening protruding from a button-hole. All he had
+to do was to stand in front of an object and pull a cord. Such a kodak
+is known as a "detective camera." There are several designs, all very
+clever. I once saw my face reproduced in a paper, and until I heard
+about this camera it was a mystery how the original was obtained, as I
+had not "posed" for any one.</p>
+
+<p>The possibility of America going to war with another nation is remote.
+From what I see of the people and their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>tremendous activity they could
+not be defeated by any nation or combination of nations. They are like
+Senator &mdash;&mdash;'s Malay game-cock, of which the senator has said that there
+is only one trouble with him&mdash;the bird never knows when he is licked,
+and if he does he does not stay licked. America could raise an army of
+ten or twelve millions of the finest fighters in the world for defense
+against any combination, and she would win. The senator told me a story,
+which illustrates the situation. One of the American men-of-war in a
+Malay port had an old American eagle aboard as a mascot and pet. When
+the men got liberty they went ashore with the eagle, and showed it as an
+"American game-cock." The natives wanted to arrange a match, and finally
+one was planned, the eagle cock against a black Malay. When the fight
+began, the black cock put its spur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> into the eagle several times, the
+latter doing nothing but eye the cock, first with one eye, and then with
+the other. Once more the black cock stabbed the eagle, bringing blood,
+whereupon the eagle leaned forward, and as the cock thrust out its head,
+seized it with one claw, pressed it to the ground, and with the other
+tore off its head and began to eat it. This is what would happen if
+almost any nation really and seriously went to war with the United
+States. But the country was ill prepared for the war with Spain. If
+Cervera had reached the New England coast he could have shelled Boston
+and then New York.</p>
+
+<p>Service in America is not compulsory. It is merely made popular, and as
+a result, every part of the country has State militia of splendidly
+drilled men, ready to be called on at a moment's notice. They receive no
+pay, considering it an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> honor to be in the militia service. In the
+regular army old names are perpetuated. The great generals and admirals
+have sent sons into the service. Our Government would do well to send
+young men to West Point and Annapolis. The Japanese did this for years,
+and received the best of their ideas from those sources. There is but
+one thing in the way. Chinamen are <i>tabooed</i> in America, and doubtless
+would reach no farther than the port of entry. The only way to get in
+now would be for a new minister or diplomat to bring over ten or a dozen
+young men as members of the suite and then distribute them among the
+schools and universities&mdash;a humiliation that China will probably resent.</p>
+
+<p>Our trade with America is extremely valuable to her. The cotton, flour,
+and other commodities we import represent a vast sum, and I believe if
+we refused<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> at once to buy anything from America we could make our own
+terms in less than two years. This could be accomplished very gradually.
+The Americans would find it out first through their consuls, who are all
+instructed to report on every possible point of vantage that can be
+taken in China by their merchants. They would report a decreased demand.
+American merchants would then demand an explanation from the Department
+of State, and finally we could announce that we preferred to buy from
+our friends, American treatment of the Chinese being inimical to good
+feeling. Knowing the American business men as I do, you could count on a
+wail coming up from them. An appeal would be made to Congress through
+representatives and senators, the American business men demanding that
+the "Chinese matter" be arranged upon a "more liberal basis."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> When you
+touch the pocketbook of "Uncle Sam" you reach his earthquake center; yet
+for defense, for the preservation of the national honor, this people
+will spend untold sums. The American Government bond is the best
+security in the world. It is founded on the rock of honor and
+patriotism. And there is no repudiation like that of &mdash;&mdash;, and none like
+the pretended one of &mdash;&mdash;.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> We have our faults, and it is well to
+recognize them; but I never saw them until I mingled with the English
+and Americans.</p>
+
+<p>There is of course a large foreign element in the American
+army&mdash;thousands of Irish and Germans; but this does not signify, as I
+learn that in the State of Massachusetts, the stronghold of Americans,
+the Irish hold a third of the official positions, the native-born
+Yankees<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> about one-fourth. This is particularly exasperating to old
+families in New England, as it is notorious that the Irish come directly
+from the very dregs of the poverty-stricken peasantry&mdash;the
+"bog-trotters." I was much impressed by the high standard of honor in
+the army and navy, and am told that it is the rarest of occurrences for
+a regular army officer to commit a crime or to default. This is due to
+the training received at the military and naval schools, where young men
+are placed on their honor.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> China has twice repudiated its Government bonds within
+four centuries.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>ART IN AMERICA</h3>
+
+<p>It is seldom that I have been complimented in America, but a lady has
+told me that she envied our "art sense." She said the Chinese are
+essentially artistic, that the cheapest thing, the most ordinary
+article, is artistic or beautiful. I wished that I could return the
+compliment, but a strict observance of the truth compels me to say that
+the reverse is true in America. If one go into a Chinese shop and ask
+for any ordinary article, it will be found artistic. If one go into an
+American shop, say a hardware "store," there will not be found an
+article that would be considered decorative, while everything in a
+Chinese shop of like character would fall under this head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> The
+conclusion is that the Chinese are artistic, while the Americans are
+not.</p>
+
+<p>The reason lies in the fact that the Chinese are homogeneous, while the
+Americans are a mixed race, that is injured by the continual
+introduction of baser elements. If immigration could be stopped for
+fifty years, and the people have a chance to acquire "oneness," they
+might become artistic. The middle class, however, is, from an artistic
+standpoint, a horror; they have absolutely no art sense, and the
+<i>nouveaux riches</i> are often as bad. The latter sometimes place their
+money in the hands of an agent, who buys for them; but all at once a man
+may break out and insist upon buying something himself, so that in a
+splendid collection of European names will appear some artistic horror
+to stamp the owner as a parvenu.</p>
+
+<p>The Americans have not produced a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> great painter. By this I mean a
+really great artist, nor have they a great sculptor, one who is or has
+been an inspiration. But they have thousands of artists, and many poor
+ones thrive in selling their wares. You may see a man with an income of
+thirty thousand dollars having paintings on his walls that give one the
+vertigo. The poor artist has taken him in, or "pulled his leg," to use
+the latest American slang. There are some fine paintings in America. I
+have visited the great collections in Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
+Washington, Chicago, and those in many private galleries, but the best
+of the pictures are always from England, France, Germany, and other
+European countries. Old masters are particularly revered. Americans pay
+enormous sums for them, but sometimes are deceived.</p>
+
+<p>They have art schools by the hundred,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> where they study from the nude
+and from models of all kinds. There are splendid museums of art,
+especially in Boston and New York. The art interests are particularly
+active, but not the people; there are a few art lovers only, the people
+in the mass being hopeless. Cheap prints, chromos, and other deadly
+things are ground out by the million and sold, to clog still deeper the
+art sense of an inartistic people. They laugh at our conventional
+Chinese art, but the extreme of conventionality is certainly better than
+some of the daubs I have seen in American homes. Americans have peculiar
+fancies in art. One is called Impressionist Art. As near as I can
+understand it, painters claim that while you are looking at an object
+you do not really see it all, you merely gain an impression; so they
+paint only the impression. In a museum of art I was shown several<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> rooms
+full of daubs, having absolutely nothing to commend them, weird colors
+being thrown together in the strangest manner, without rhyme or reason,
+but over which people went mad. The great masters of Europe appeal to me
+strongly. In America, marine painters attract me the most, for example,
+Edward Moran, who is a splendid delineator of the sea. Bierstadt is a
+noble painter, and so is Thomas Moran. There are half a hundred men who
+are fine painters, but half a thousand men and women who think they are
+artistic but who are not.</p>
+
+<p>Americans have developed no individual architecture. You see
+semipagoda-like effects in the East, and old English houses in the
+South. They steal the latter and call them Colonial. They steal the
+architecture of the Moors and call it Mexican. They borrow Roman and
+Grecian effects for great public <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>buildings. At one time they went mad
+over the French roof, or mansard. Nowhere have I seen purely American
+architecture. The race is not possessed of sufficient unity. So all
+their art is from abroad, and notably is French and English. They make
+broad effects, and give them an American name; but they are copied from
+the Dutch or Germans. All the furniture designers in America are
+Europeans. You will find a splendid house with a Chinese room, having
+teak inlaid with ivory, etc.; a Japanese room, a Moorish room, and an
+Italian room, all splendidly decorated; but the family lives in an
+"American room," that is commonplace and subversive of all art digestion
+and assimilation. The average middle-class American knows absolutely
+nothing about art; the lower classes so little that their homes are
+hopeless. Knowing this,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> they are preyed upon by thousands of foreign
+swindlers. There are hundreds of articles manufactured in Europe to sell
+to the American tourist. I have seen Napoleonic furniture enough to load
+a fleet. I can only compare it to the pieces of the true cross and the
+holy relics of the Catholics, of which there are enough to fill the
+original ark which the Bible tells the Americans landed on Mount Ararat
+in a great flood.</p>
+
+<p>The houses of the best people I have told you about are as far removed
+from the commonplace as the equator from the poles. They are rich in
+conception, sumptuous in detail, artistic in every way, and filled with
+the art gems of the world. But these people have descended from refined
+people for several generations. They are the true Americans, but make up
+a small number compared to the inartistic whole. I believe America
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>recognizes this, and with her stupendous energy is doing everything to
+educate the masses in art. They are building splendid museums; rich men
+give away millions. There are hundreds of art schools, free to all, and
+art is taught in all the schools. Fine monuments are placed in public
+squares and parks, and beautiful fountains and memorials in these and
+other public places. Their buildings, though foreign in design, are
+beautiful. In Boston one may see marvelous work in frescoes, etc., and
+in the Government buildings at Washington. The Capitol, while not
+American in design, is a pile worthy of the great people who erected it.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DARK SIDE OF REPUBLICANISM</h3>
+
+<p>The questions I know you will wish answered are, Whether this stupendous
+aggregation of States is a success? Does it possess advantages beyond
+those of the Chinese Empire? Does it fulfil the expectations of its own
+people? Frankly, I do not consider myself competent to answer. I have
+studied America and the Americans for many years during my visits to
+this country and Europe, and while I have seen many accounts of the
+country, written after several months of observation, I believe that no
+just estimate of the republican form of government can be formed after
+such experience. My private impression, however, is that the republic
+falls far short of what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> the men in Washington's time expected, and it
+is also my private opinion that it has not so many advantages as a
+government like that of England.</p>
+
+<p>It is too splendid an organization to be lightly denounced. The idea of
+the equality of men is noble, and I would not wish to be arraigned among
+its critics. There is too much good to offset the bad. I have been
+attempting to amuse you by analyzing the Americans, pointing out their
+frailties as well as their good qualities. I tell you what I see as I
+run, always, I hope, remembering what is good in this spontaneous and
+open-hearted people. The characteristic claim of the people is that the
+Government offers freedom to its citizens; yet every man is quite as
+free in China if he behaves himself, and he can rise if he possesses
+brains.</p>
+
+<p>Any native-born citizen in the United States may become the head of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>nation has he the courage of his convictions, the many accomplishments
+which equip the great leader, and should the hour and the man meet
+opportunity. This is the one prize which distinguishes America from
+England. The latter in other respects offers exactly as much freedom
+with half the wear and tear; in fact, to me the freedom of America is
+one of her disadvantages. Every one knows, and the American best of all,
+that all men are <i>not equal</i>, never were and never can be. Yet this
+false doctrine is their standard, and they swear by it, though some will
+explain that what is meant is political freedom. Freedom accounts for
+the gross impertinence of the ignorant and lower classes, the laughable
+assumptions of servants, and the illogical pretenses of the <i>nouveau
+riche</i>, which make America impossible to some people. Cultivated
+Americans are as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>thoroughly aristocratic as the nobility of England.
+There are the same classes here as there. A grocer becomes rich and
+retires or dies; his children refuse to associate with the families of
+other grocers; in a word, the Americans have the aristocratic feeling,
+but they have no peasant class; the latter would be, in their own
+estimation, as good as any one. One class, the lower and poorer, is
+arraigned against the upper and richer, and the gap is growing daily.</p>
+
+<p>But this would not prove that the republic is a failure. What then? It
+is, in the opinion of many of its clergymen, a great moral failure. No
+nation in history has lasted many centuries after having developed the
+"symptoms" now shown in the United States. I quote their own press, "the
+States are morally rotten," and you have but to turn to these organs and
+the magazines of the past <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>decade, which make a feature of holding up
+the shortcomings of cities and millionaires, to read the details of the
+tragedy. Thieves&mdash;grafters&mdash;have seized upon the vitals of the country.
+St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, great representative
+cities&mdash;what is their history? The story of dishonesty among officials,
+of bribery, stealing, and every possible crime that a man can devise to
+wring money from the people. This is no secret. It has all been exposed
+by the friends of morality. City governments are overthrown, the rascals
+are turned out, but in a few months the new officers are caught devising
+some new "grafting" operation.</p>
+
+<p>I have it from a prominent official that there is not an honest State or
+city administration in America. What can a nation say when for years it
+has known that a large and influential lobby has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> maintained to
+influence statesmen, a lobby comprising a corps of "persuaders" in the
+pay of business men? How do they influence them? The great fights waged
+to defeat certain measures are well known, and it is known that money
+was used. Certain congressmen have been notoriously receptive. I have
+seen the following story in print in many forms. I took the trouble to
+ask a well-known man if it was possible that it could be founded on
+fact; his reply was, "Certainly it is a fact." A briber entered the
+private room of a congressman. "Mr. &mdash;&mdash;, to come right to the point, I
+want the &mdash;&mdash; bill to pass, and I will give you five hundred dollars for
+the vote and your interest." The congressman rose to his feet, purple
+with rage. "You dare to offer me this insulting bribe? You infernal
+scoundrel, I will throw you out." "Well, suppose we make it one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>
+thousand," said the imperturbable visitor. "Well," replied the
+congressman, cooling down, "that is a little better put. We will talk it
+over."</p>
+
+<p>The American Government had been attempting, since 1859, to build a
+canal across the Isthmus. I believe surveys were made earlier than that,
+but bribery and corruption and "graft" enabled the friends of
+transcontinental railroads to stop the canals. It would be a
+disadvantage to the railroads to have a canal across the Isthmus. So in
+some mysterious way the canal, which the people wished, has not been
+built, and will not be until the people rise and demand it. Corruption
+has stood on the Isthmus with a flaming sword and struck down every
+attempt to build the canal. The morality of the people is low. Divorce
+is rampant, the daily journals are filled with accounts of divorces, and
+daily lists<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> of crimes are printed that would seem impossible to a
+nation that can raise millions to send to China to convert the
+"heathen." If they would only divert these Chinese missionaries from
+China to their own heathen and grafters, but they will not. The peculiar
+freedom of the country, which is nothing less than the most atrocious
+license, tends to drag it down.</p>
+
+<p>The papers have absolutely no check on their freedom. Men and women are
+attacked by them, ruined, held up to scorn and ridicule, and the victim
+has no recourse but to shoot the editor and thus embroil himself. That
+it is a crime to ridicule a man and make him the butt of a nation or the
+world seems never to occur to these men. Certain statesmen have been so
+lampooned by the "hired" libelers that they have been ruined. The press
+hires a class of men, called <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>cartoonists, usually ill-bred fellows of
+no standing, yet clever, in their business, whose duty it is to hold up
+public men to ridicule in every possible way and make them infamous
+before the people. This is called the freedom of the press, and its
+attitude, or the sensational part of it, in presenting crime in an
+alluring manner, is having its effect upon the youth of the country.
+Young girls and boys become familiar with every feature of bestial crime
+through the "yellow journals," so called, and that the republic will
+reap sorely from this sowing I venture to prophesy.</p>
+
+<p>I asked one of the great insurance men why it was that great financial
+institutions took so strong an interest in politics. He laughed, and
+said, "If I am not mistaken, not long since your country repudiated its
+Government bonds, and they are not negotiable to any great <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>extent among
+your people." Hearing this I assumed the American attitude and "sawed
+wood." "We take an interest in politics," he continued, "to offset the
+professional blackmailer and thief. Now in the case of your repudiation
+I understand all about it. The Chinese Government was in straits, and
+suddenly some seemingly patriotic citizen started a petition, stating to
+the Government that the subscribers offered their Government securities
+to the Government as a gift. By no means all the bondholders signed, but
+enough, I understand, to have justified your Government in repudiating
+the bonds&mdash;'at the request of the people'&mdash;thus destroying the national
+credit at home and abroad. Now in America that would be called 'graft.'
+The act would be done by a few grafters in the hope of reward, or by
+some unscrupulous statesmen to save the Government from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> bankruptcy
+during their term of office. I conceive this to be what was done in
+China. If we do not keep eternal watch we shall be bled every day. It is
+done in this way: a grafter becomes an assemblyman, and with others lays
+a plan of graft. It is to get up a bill, so offensive to our corporation
+that it would mean ruin if passed. The grafter has no idea that it will
+pass, but it is made much of, and of course reaches our ears, and the
+question is how to stop it. We are finally told that we had better see
+Mr. &mdash;&mdash;, in our own city. He is accordingly looked up and found to be a
+cheap and ignorant politician, who, if there are no witnesses, tells our
+agent plainly that it can be stopped for ten thousand dollars. Perhaps
+we beat him down to eight thousand, but we pay it. Hundreds of firms
+have been blackmailed in this way. Now we keep an agent in the State
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>Capitol to attend to our interests, and we take an interest in politics
+to head off the election of professional grafters."</p>
+
+<p>One of the most serious things in this phase of national immorality is
+showing itself in what are termed "lynchings"; that is, a negro commits
+a crime against a white woman, and instead of permitting the law to run
+its course, the people rise, seized with a savage craze for revenge,
+batter in the jails, take the criminal, and burn him at the stake. This
+burning is sometimes attended by thousands, who display the most
+remarkable <i>abandon</i> and savagery. Some African chiefs have sacrificed
+more people at one time, but no savage has ever displayed greater
+bestiality, gloated over his victim with more real satisfaction, than
+these free Americans in numerous instances when shouting and yelling
+about the burning body of some unfortunate whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> crime has aroused
+their ferocity to the point of madness.</p>
+
+<p>Not one but many clergymen have denounced this. They compare it to the
+most brutal acts of savagery, and we have the picture of a country
+posing as civilized, with the temerity to point out the sins of others,
+giving themselves over to orgies that would disgrace the lowest of
+races. I have it from the lips of a clergyman that during the past
+twelve years over twenty-five hundred men have been lynched in the
+United States. In a single year two hundred and forty men were killed by
+mobs in this way, many being burned at the stake. If any excuse is
+offered, it is said that most of these were negroes, and the crime was
+rape, and the victims white women; but of the number mentioned only
+forty-six were charged with this crime and but two-thirds were black.
+Many confessed as the torch was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> applied, many died protesting their
+innocence, and in no case was the offense legally proved. This lynching
+seems to be a mania with the people. It began with the attack of negroes
+on white women. The repetition of similar cases so enraged the whites
+that they have become mad upon the subject. The feeling is well
+illustrated by the remark of a Southerner to me. "If a woman of my
+family was attacked by a negro I must be his executioner. I could not
+wait for the law." This man told me that no lynching would ever have
+taken place had it not been for the uncertainty of the law. Men who were
+known to be guilty of the grossest of crimes had been virtually
+protected by the law, and their cases dragged along at great expense to
+the State, this occurring so many times that the patience of the people
+became exhausted. This man forgot that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> law was instigated for the
+purpose of justice.</p>
+
+<p>The negro is an issue in America and a cause of much crime, a vengeance
+on the people who held them as slaves. The negro has increased so
+rapidly that in forty years he has doubled in number, there now being
+over nine millions in the country. At the present rate there will be
+twenty-five millions in 1930&mdash;a black menace to the white American.</p>
+
+<p>The negro is a factor in the national unrest. They outnumber the whites
+in some localities, and hence vote themselves many offices, while the
+few whites pay eighty or eighty-five per cent of the taxes and the
+negroes supply from eighty to ninety per cent of the criminals. While
+this is going on in the South and the whites are rising and preparing to
+disfranchise the blacks in many States, the people of Boston and
+Cambridge are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> discussing the propriety of the whites and blacks
+marrying to settle the question of social equality. Such proposals I
+have read. Reprinted in the South, they added fuel to the flame.</p>
+
+<p>Another element of distress in America is the attitude of labor, the
+policy of the Government of letting in the lowest of the low from every
+nation except the Chinese, against whom the only charge has been that
+they are too industrious and thus a menace to the whites. The swarms of
+people from the low and criminal classes of Europe have enabled the
+anarchists to obtain such a foothold that in this free country the
+President of the United States is almost as closely guarded as the
+Emperor of Russia. The White House is surrounded and guarded by
+detectives of various kinds. The secret-service department is equal in
+its equipment to that of many European nations,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> and millions are spent
+in watching criminals and putting down their strikes and riots. The
+doctrine of freedom to all appeals so well to the ignorant laborer that
+he has decided to control the entire situation, and to this end labor is
+divided into "unions," and in many sections business has been ruined.</p>
+
+<p>The demands of these ignorant men are so preposterous that they can
+scarcely be credited. The merchant no longer owns his business or
+directs it. The laborer tells him what to pay, how to pay it, when and
+how long the hours shall be&mdash;in fact, undertakes to usurp entire
+control. If the owner protests, the laborers all stop work, strike,
+appoint guards, who attack, kill, or intimidate any one who attempts to
+take their place. In this way it is said that one billion dollars have
+been lost in the last few years. Contracts have been broken, men
+ruined,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> localities and cities placed in the greatest jeopardy, and
+hundreds of lives lost. Every branch of trade has its "union," and in so
+many cases have the laborers been successful that a national panic comes
+almost in sight. Never was there a more farcical illustration of
+freedom. Irrational, ignorant Irishmen, who had not the mental capacity
+to earn more than a dollar a day, dictated to merchant princes and
+millionaire contractors. In New York it was proved that the leaders of
+the strikers sold out to employers, and accepted bribes to call off
+strikes.</p>
+
+<p>The question before the American people is, Has an American citizen the
+right to conduct his own business to suit himself and employ whom he
+wishes? Has the laborer the right to work for whom and what rate he
+pleases? The imported socialists, anarchists, and their converts among
+Americans say no, and it will <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>require but little to precipitate a
+bloody war, when labor, led by red-handed murderers, will enact in New
+York and all over the United States the horrors of the French Commune.</p>
+
+<p>The republic for a great and enlightened country has too many criminals.
+I am told by a prohibition clergyman that the curse of drink and license
+has its fangs in the heart of the land. He tells me that the Americans
+pay yearly $1,172,000,000 for their alcoholic drink; for bread,
+$600,000,000; for tobacco, $625,000,000; for education, $197,000,000;
+for ministers' salaries, $14,000,000. It has been found that the
+downfall of eighty-one per cent of criminals is traceable to drink. He
+said: "Our republic is a failure morally, as we have 2,550,000 drunkards
+and people addicted to drink. We have 600,000 prostitutes, and many more
+doubtless that are not known, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> in nine cases out of ten their
+downfall can be traced to drink."</p>
+
+<p>I listen to this side of the story, and then I see wonderful
+philanthropy, institutions for the prevention of crime, good men at work
+according to their light, millions employed to educate the young,
+thousands of churches and societies to aid man in making man better.
+When I listen to these men, and see tens of thousands of Christian men
+and women living pure lives, building up vast cities, great monuments
+for the future, I feel that I can not judge the Americans. They perhaps
+expect too much from their freedom and their republican ideas. I shall
+never be a republican. I believe that we all have all the freedom we
+deserve. It is well to remember that man is an animal. After all his
+polish and refinement, he has animal tastes and desires, and if he makes
+laws that are in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> direct opposition to the indulgence which his animal
+nature suggests, he certainly must have some method of enforcing the
+laws. Like all animals, some men are easily influenced and others not,
+and the human animal has not made progress so far but that he needs
+watching in order to make him conform to what he has decided or elected
+to call right.</p>
+
+<p>You will expect me to compare the American to the Chinaman, but it is
+impossible. Some things which we look upon as right, the American
+considers grievous sins. The point of view is entirely at variance, but
+I have boundless faith in the brilliant and good men and women I have
+met in America. I say this despite my other impressions, which also
+hold.</p>
+
+<p>The great political scheme of the people is poorly devised and crude. It
+is so arranged that in some States governors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> are elected every year or
+two and other officers every year, representatives of the people in
+Congress every two years, senators every six, Presidents every four
+years. Thus the country is constantly in a whirl, and as soon as the
+rancor of one national election is over begins the scheming for another.
+The people have really little to do with the selection of a President. A
+small band of rich and influential schemers generally have the entire
+plan or "slate" laid out. A plan, natural in appearance, is <i>arranged</i>
+for the public, and at the right time the slated program is sprung.
+Senators should be elected by the people, congressmen should be elected
+for a longer period, and Presidents should have twice the terms they do.
+But it is easy to suggest, and I confess that my suggestions are those
+of many American people themselves which I hear reformers cry abroad.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p><p>The vital trouble with America to-day is that she can not assimilate
+the 600,000 debased, ignorant, poverty-stricken foreigners who are
+coming in every year. They keep out the one peaceful nation. They
+exclude the Chinese and take to the national heart the Jew, the
+Socialist, the Italian, the Roumanian and others who constitute a nation
+of unrest. What America needs is the "rest cure" that you hear so much
+about here. She should close her seaports to these aliens for ten years,
+allow the people here to assimilate; but they can not do it. The foreign
+transportation lines under foreign flags are in the business to load up
+America with the dregs of Europe. I know of one family of Jews, four
+brothers, who wished to come to America, but found that they would have
+to show that they were not paupers. They mustered about one thousand
+dollars. One came over,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> and sent back the money by draft. The second
+brought it back as his fortune, then immediately sent it back for
+another brother to bring over, and so on until they all arrived, each
+proving that he was not a pauper. Yet these same brothers, each with
+several children, became an expense to the Government before they were
+earners. The children were sent to industrial homes, and later entered
+the sweat-shops. In America there is not a Chinaman to-day in a
+workhouse, or a pauper<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> at the expense of the Government; yet the
+Chinese are not wanted here.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> This is doubtful.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Editor</span>.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>SPORTS AND PASTIMES</h3>
+
+<p>I had not been in Washington a month before I received invitations to a
+"country club golf" tournament, to a "rowing club," to a "pink tea," to
+a "polo game," to a private "boxing" bout between two light-weight
+professionals, given in Senator &mdash;&mdash;'s stable, to a private "cock-fight"
+by the brother of &mdash;&mdash;'s wife, to a gun club "shoot," not to speak of
+invitations to several "poker games." From this you may infer that
+Americans are fond of sport. The official sport&mdash;that is, the game I
+heard of most among Government officials, senators, and others&mdash;was
+"poker," and the sums played for at times I am assured are beyond
+belief. There are rules and etiquette for poker,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> and one of the most
+distinguished of American diplomatists of a past generation, General
+Schenck, emulated the Marquis of Queensberry in boxing by writing a book
+on the national game, that has all the charm claimed for it. It is
+seductive, and doubtless has had its influence on the people who employ
+the "bluff" in diplomacy, war, business, or poker, with equal tact and
+cleverness.</p>
+
+<p>Middle-class Americans are fond of sport in every way, but the
+aristocrats lack sporting spontaneity; they like it, or pretend to like
+it, because it is the fashion, and they take up one sport after another
+as it becomes the fad. That this is true can be shown by comparing the
+Englishman and the American of the fashionable class. The Englishman is
+fond of sport because it is in his blood; he does not like golf to-day
+and swimming to-morrow, but he likes them all,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> and always has done so.
+He would never give up cricket, golf, or any of his games because they
+go out of fashion; he does not allow them to go out of fashion; but with
+the American it is different.</p>
+
+<p>Hence I assume that the average American of the better class is not
+imbued with the sporting spirit. He wears it like an ill-fitting coat. I
+find a singular feature among the Americans in connection with their
+sports. Thus if something is known and recognized as sport, people take
+to it with avidity, but if the same thing is called labor or exercise,
+it is considered hard work, shirked and avoided. This is very cleverly
+illustrated by Mark Twain in one of his books, where a boy makes his
+companions believe that white-washing a fence is sport, and so relieves
+himself from an arduous duty by pretending to share the great privilege
+with them.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p><p>No one would think of walking steadily for six days, yet once this
+became sport; dozens of men undertook it, and long walks became a fad.
+If a man committed a crime and should be sentenced to play the modern
+American game of football every day for thirty days as a punishment,
+there are some who might prefer a death sentence and so avoid a
+lingering end; but under the title of "sport" all young men play it, and
+a number are maimed and killed yearly.</p>
+
+<p>Sport is in the blood of the common people. Children begin with tops,
+marbles, and kites, yet never appreciate our skill with either. I amazed
+a boy on the outskirts of Washington one day by asking him why he did
+not <i>irritate</i> his kite and make it go through various evolutions. He
+had never heard of doing that, and when I took the string and began to
+jerk it, and finally made the kite plunge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> downward or swing in circles,
+and always restored it by suddenly slacking off the cord, he was
+astonished and delighted. The national game is baseball, a very clever
+game. It is nothing to see thousands at a game, each person having paid
+twenty-five or fifty cents for the privilege. In summer this game,
+played by experts, becomes a most profitable business. Rarely is any one
+hurt but the judge or umpire, who is at times hissed by the audience and
+mobbed, and at others beaten by either side for unfair decisions; but
+this is rare.</p>
+
+<p>Football is dangerous, but is even more popular than the other. You
+might imagine by the name that the ball is kicked. On the contrary the
+real action of the game consists in running down, tripping up, smashing
+into, and falling on whomever has the ball. As a consequence, men wear a
+soft armor. There are fashions in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> sports which demonstrate the
+ephemeral quality of the American love for sport. A while ago "wheeling"
+was popular, and everybody wheeled. Books were printed on the etiquette
+of the sport; roads were built for it and improved; but suddenly the
+working class took it up and fashion dropped it. Then came golf,
+imported from Scotland. With this fad millions of dollars were expended
+in country clubs and greens all over the United States, as acres of land
+were necessary. People seized upon this with a fierceness that warmed
+the hearts of dealers in balls and clubs. The men who edited wheel
+magazines now changed them to "golf monthlies." This sport began to wane
+as the novelty wore off, until golf is now played by comparatively few
+experts and lovers.</p>
+
+<p>Society introduced the automobile, and we have the same thing&mdash;more
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>magazines, the spending of millions, the building of the <i>garage</i>, and
+the appearance of the <i>chaufeur</i> or driver. Then came the etiquette of
+the auto&mdash;a German navy cap, rubber coat, and Chinese goggles. This
+peculiar uniform is of course only to be worn when racing, but you see
+the American going out for a slow ride solemnly attired in rubber coat
+and goggles. The moment the auto comes within reach of the poor man it
+will be given up; but it is now the fad and a most expensive one, the
+best machines costing ten thousand dollars or more, and I have seen
+races where the speed exceeded a mile a minute.</p>
+
+<p>All sports have their ethics and rules and their correct costuming.
+Baseball men are in uniform, generally white, with various-colored
+stockings. The golfer wears a red coat and has a servant or valet, who
+carries his bag of clubs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> designed for every possible expediency. To
+hear a group of golfers discuss the merits of these tools is one of the
+extraordinary experiences one has in America. I have been made fairly
+"giddy," as the Englishmen say, by this anemic conversation at country
+clubs. The "high-ball" was the saving clause&mdash;a remarkable invention
+this. Have I explained it? You take a very tall glass, made for the
+purpose, and into it pour the contents of a small cut-glass bottle or
+decanter of whisky, which must be Scotch, tasting of smoke. On this you
+pour seltzer or soda-water, filling up the glass, and if you take enough
+you are "high" and feel like a rolling ball. It is the thing to take a
+"high-ball" after every nine holes in golf. Then after the game you
+bathe, and sit and drink as many as your skin will hold. I got this from
+a professional golf-teacher in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> charge of the &mdash;&mdash; links, and hence it
+is official.</p>
+
+<p>The avidity with which the Americans seize upon a sport and the
+suddenness with which they drop it, illustrating what I have said about
+the lack of a national sporting taste, is well shown by the coming of a
+game called "ping pong," a parlor tennis, with our battledores for
+rackets. What great mind invented this game, or where it came from, no
+one seems to know, but as a wag remarked, "When in doubt lay it to
+China." Some suppose it is Chinese, the name suggesting it. So
+extraordinary was the early demand for it that it appeared as though
+everybody in America was determined to own and play ping pong. The
+dealers could not produce it fast enough. Factories were established all
+over the country, and the tools were ground out by the ten thousands.
+Books<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> were written on the ethics of the game; experts came to the
+front; ping pong weeklies and monthlies were founded, to dumfound the
+masses, and the very air vibrated with the "ping" and the "pong."</p>
+
+<p>The old and young, rich and poor, feeble and herculean, all played it.
+Doctors advised it, children cried for it, and a fashionable journal
+devised the correct ping-pong costume for players. Great matches were
+played between the experts of various sections, and this sport, a game
+really for small children, after the fashion of battledore and
+shuttlecock, ran its course among young and old. Pictures of adult
+ping-pong champions were blazoned in the public print; even churchmen
+took it up. Public gardens had special ping-pong tables to relieve the
+stress. At last the people seized upon ping pong, and it became common.
+Then it was dropped like a dead fish. If some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> cyclonic disturbance had
+swept all the ping-pong balls into space, the disappearance could not
+have been more complete. Ping pong was put out of fashion. All this to
+the alien suggests something, a want of balance, a "youngness" perhaps.</p>
+
+<p>At the present time the old game of croquet is being revived under
+another name, and tennis is the vogue among many. Among the fashionable
+and wealthy men polo is the vogue, but among a few everything goes by
+fads for a few years. Every one will rush to see or play some game; but
+this interest soon dies out, and something new starts up. Such games as
+baseball and football, tennis and polo are, in a sense, in a class by
+themselves, but among the pastimes of the people a wide vogue belongs to
+fishing, and shooting wild fowl and large game. The former is universal,
+and the Americans are the most skilled anglers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> with artificial lures in
+the world, due to the abundance of game-fish, trout, and others, and the
+perfect Government care exercised to perfect the supply.</p>
+
+<p>As an illustration, each State considers hunting and fishing a valuable
+asset to attract those who will come and spend money. I was told by a
+Government official that the State of Maine reckoned its game at five
+million dollars per annum, which means that the sport is so good that
+sportsmen spend that amount there every year; but I fancy the amount is
+overestimated. The Government has perfect fish hatcheries, constantly
+supplying young fish to streams, while the business in anglers' supplies
+is immense. There are thousands of duck-shooting clubs in the United
+States. Men, or a body of men, rent or buy marshes, and keep the poor
+man out. Rich men acquire hundreds of acres, and make <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>preserves.
+Possibly the sport of hunting wild fowl is the most characteristic of
+American sports. This also has its etiquette, its costumes, its
+club-houses, and its poker and high-balls. I know of one such club in
+which almost all the members are millionaires. A humorous paper stated
+that they used "gold shot."</p>
+
+<p>As a nation the Americans are fond of athletics, which are taught in the
+schools. There are splendid gymnasiums, and boys and girls are trained
+in athletic exercises. Athletics are all in vogue. It is fashionable to
+be a good "fencer." All the young dance. I believe the Americans stand
+high as a nation in all-around athletics; at least they are far ahead of
+China in this respect.</p>
+
+<p>I have reserved for mention last the most popular fashion of the people
+in sport, which is prize-fighting. Here again you see a strange
+contradiction.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> The people are preeminently religious, and
+prize-fighting and football are the sports of brutes; yet the two are
+most popular. No public event attracts more attention in America than a
+gladiatorial fight to the finish between the champion and some aspirant.
+For months the papers are filled with it, and on the day of the event
+the streets are thronged with people crowding about the billboards to
+receive the news. No national event, save the killing of a President,
+attracted more universal attention than the beating of Sullivan by
+Corbett and the beating of Corbett by Fitzsimmons, and "Fitz" in turn by
+Jeffries. I might add that I joined with the Americans in this, as the
+modern prize-fighter is a fine animal. If all boys were taught to
+believe that their fists are their natural weapons, there would be fewer
+murders and sudden deaths in America. I have seen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> several of these
+prize-fights and many private bouts, all with gloves. They are governed
+by rules. Such a combat is by no means as dangerous as football, where
+the obvious intention seems to be to break ribs and crush the opponent.</p>
+
+<p>Rowing is much indulged in, and yachting is a great national maritime
+sport, in which the Americans lead and challenge the world. In no sport
+is the wealth of the nation so well shown. Every seaside town has its
+yacht or boat club, and in this the interest is perpetual. Even in
+winter the yacht is rigged into an "ice-boat." I have often wondered
+that fashionable people do not take up the romantic sport of falconry,
+as they have the birds and every facility. I suggested this to a lady,
+who replied, "Ah, that is too barbaric for us." "More barbaric than
+cock-fighting?" I asked, knowing that her brother owned the finest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>
+game-cocks in the District of Columbia. Among the Americans there is a
+distinct love for fair play, and such sports as "bull-baiting,"
+"bull-fights," "dog-fights," and "cock-fights" have never attained any
+degree of popularity. There are spasmodic instances of such indulgences,
+but in no sense can they be included, as in England and Spain, among the
+national sports, which leads me to the conclusion that, aside from the
+many peculiarities, as taking up and dropping sports, America, all in
+all, is the greatest sporting nation of the world. It leads in
+fist-fighting, rifle-shooting, in skilful angling, in yachting, in
+rowing, in running, in six-day walking, in auto-racing, in trotting and
+running horses, and in trap-shooting, and if its champions in all fields
+could be lined up it would make a surprising showing. I am free to
+confess and quite agree with a vivacious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> young woman who at the country
+club told me that it was very nice of me to uphold my country, but that
+we were "not in it" with American sports.</p>
+
+<p>The Presidents are often sportsmen. President Cleveland and President
+Harrison both have been famous, the former as a fisherman, the latter as
+well as the former as a duck-shooter. President McKinley has no taste
+for sport, but the Vice-President is a promoter of sport of each and
+every kind. He is at home in polo or hurdle racing, with the rifle or
+revolver. This calls to mind the national weapon&mdash;the revolver.
+Nine-tenths of all the shooting is done with this weapon, that is
+carried in a special pocket on the hips, and I venture to say that a
+pair of "trousers" was never made without the pistol pocket. Even the
+clergymen have one. I asked an Episcopal clergyman why he had a pistol
+pocket. He replied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> that he carried his prayer-book there. The Southern
+people use a long curved knife, called a bowie, after its inventor. Many
+people have been cut by this weapon. The negro, for some strange reason,
+carries a razor, and in a fight "whips out" this awful weapon and
+slashes his enemy. I have asked many negroes to explain this habit or
+selection. One replied that it was "none of my d&mdash;&mdash; business." Nearly
+all the others said they did not know why they carried it.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CHINAMAN IN AMERICA</h3>
+
+<p>The average Irishman whom one meets in America, and he is legion, is a
+very different person from the polished gentleman I have met in Belfast,
+Dublin, and other cities in Ireland; but I never heard that the American
+Irishman, the product of an ignorant peasantry crowded out of Ireland,
+had been accepted as a type of the race. Peculiar discrimination is made
+in America against the Chinese. Our lower classes, "coolies" from the
+Cantonese districts, have flocked to America. Americans "lump" all
+Chinese under this head, and can not conceive that in China there are
+cultivated men, just as there are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>cultivated men in Ireland, the
+antipodes of the grotesque Irish types seen in America.</p>
+
+<p>I believe there are seventy-five or eighty thousand Chinamen in America.
+They do not assimilate with the Americans. Many are common laborers,
+laundrymen, and small merchants. In New York, Chicago, San Francisco,
+and other cities there are large settlements of them. In San Francisco
+many have acquired wealth. The Chinese quarter is to all intents and
+purposes a Chinese city. None of these people, or very few, are
+Americanized in the sense of taking an active part in the government;
+Americans do not permit it. I was told that the Chinese were among the
+best citizens, the percentage of criminals being very small. They are
+honest, frugal, and industrious&mdash;too industrious, in fact, and for this
+very reason the ban has been placed upon them. Red-handed members of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>Italian Mafia&mdash;a society of murderers&mdash;the most ignorant class in
+Ireland, Wales, and England, the scum of Russia, and the human dregs of
+Europe generally are welcome, but the clean, hard-working Chinaman is
+excluded.</p>
+
+<p>Millions are spent yearly in keeping him out after he had been invited
+to come. He built many American railroads; he opened the door between
+the Atlantic and the Pacific; he worked in the mines; he did work that
+no one else would or could do, and when it was completed the American
+laborer, the product of this scum of all nations, demanded that the
+Chinaman be "thrown out" and kept out. America listened to the blatant
+demagogues, the "sand-lot orators," and excluded the Chinese. To-day it
+is almost impossible for a Chinese gentleman to send his son to America
+to travel or study. He will not be distinguished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> from laundryman
+"John," and is thrown back in the teeth of his countrymen; meanwhile
+China continues to be raided by American missionaries. The insult is
+rarely resented. In the treaty ratified by the United States Senate in
+1868 we read:</p>
+
+<p>"The United States of America and the Empire of China cordially
+recognize the inherent right of man to change his home and allegiance,
+and also the mutual advantage of the free immigration and emigration of
+their citizens and subjects respectively from the one country to the
+other for purposes of curiosity, of trade or as permanent residents."</p>
+
+<p>Again we read, in the treaty ratified under the Hayes administration,
+that the Government of the United States, "if its labor interests are
+threatened by the incoming Chinese, may regulate or limit such coming,
+but may not <i>absolutely prohibit</i> it." The United States <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>Government has
+disregarded its solemn treaty obligations. Not only this, our people,
+previous to the Exclusion Act, were killed, stoned, and attacked time
+and again by "hoodlums." The life of a Chinaman was not safe. The labor
+class in America, the lowest and almost always a foreign class, wished
+to get rid of the Chinaman so that they could raise the price of labor
+and secure all the work. China had reason to go to war with America for
+her treatment of her people and for failure to observe a treaty. The
+Scott Exclusion Act was a gratuitous insult. I hope our people will
+continue to retaliate by refusing to buy anything from the Americans or
+sell anything to them. Let us deal with our friends.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the Geary Bill, which was an outrage, our people being thrown
+into jail for a year and then sent back. I might quote some of the
+charges made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> against our people. Mr. Geary, I understand, is an Irish
+ex-congressman from the State of California, who, while in Congress, was
+the mouthpiece of the worst anti-Chinese faction ever organized in
+America. He was ultimately defeated, much to the delight of New England
+and many other people in the East. Mr. Geary's chief complaint against
+the Chinese was that they work too cheaply, are too industrious, and do
+not eat as much as an American. He obtained his information from Consul
+Bedloe, of Amoy. He says the average earnings of the Chinese adult
+employed as mechanic or laborer (in China) is five dollars per month,
+and states that this is ten per cent above the average wages prevailing
+throughout China.</p>
+
+<p>The wages paid, according to his report, per month, to blacksmiths are
+$7.25; carpenters, $8.50; cabinet-makers, $9;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> glass-blowers, $9;
+plasterers, $6.25; plumbers, $6.25; machinists, $6; while other classes
+of skilled labor are paid from $7.25 to $9 per month, and common
+laborers receive $4 per month. In European houses the average wages paid
+to servants are from $5 to $6 a month, without board. Clothing costs per
+year from 75 cents to $1.50. Out of these incomes large families are
+maintained. He says: "The daily fare of an Amoy working man and its cost
+are about as follows: 1&frac12; pounds of rice, 3 cents; 1 ounce of meat, 1
+ounce of fish, 2 ounces of shell-fish, 1 cent; 1 pound of cabbage or
+other vegetable, 1 cent; fuel, salt, and oil, 1 cent; total, 6 cents.</p>
+
+<p>"Here," said Mr. Geary, "is a condition deserving of attention by all
+friends of this country, and by all who believe in the protection of the
+working classes. Is it fair to subject our laborer to a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>competitor who
+can measure his wants by an expenditure of six cents a day, and who can
+live on an income not exceeding five dollars a month? What will become
+of the boasted civilization of our country if our toilers are compelled
+to compete with this class of labor, with more competitors available
+than twice the entire population of France, Germany, Austria, Belgium,
+Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain?</p>
+
+<p>"The Chinese laborer brings neither wife nor children, and his wants are
+limited to the immediate necessities of the individual, while the
+American is compelled to earn income sufficient to maintain the wife and
+babies. There can be but one end to this. If this immigration is
+permitted to continue, American labor must surely be reduced to the
+level of the Chinese competitor&mdash;the American's wants measured by his
+wants, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>American's comforts be made no greater than the comforts of
+the Chinaman, and the American laborer, not having been educated to
+maintain himself according to this standard, must either meet his
+Chinese competitor on his own level, or else take up his pack and leave
+his native land. The entire trade of China, if we had it all, is not
+worth such a sacrifice."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Geary forgets that when Chinamen go to America they adapt themselves
+to prevailing conditions. Chinese cooks in the States to-day receive
+from $30 to $50 per month and board; Chinese laborers from $20 to $30,
+and some of them $2 per day. In China, where there is an enormous
+population, prices are lower, people are not wasteful, and the
+necessities of life do not cost so much. The Chinaman goes to America to
+obtain the benefit of <i>high</i> wages, not to <i>reduce</i> wages. I have never
+seen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> such poverty and wretchedness in China as I have seen in London,
+or such vice and poverty as can be seen in any large American city. Mr.
+Geary scorns the treaties between his country and China, and laughs at
+our commercial relations. He says, "There is nothing in the Chinese
+trade, or rather the loss of it, to alarm any American. We would be
+better off without any part or portion of it."</p>
+
+<p>In answer to this I would suggest that China take him at his word, and I
+assure you that if every Chinaman could be recalled, if in six months or
+less we could take the eighty or one hundred thousand Chinamen out of
+the country, the region where they now live would be demoralized. The
+Chinese control the vegetable-garden business on the Pacific Coast; they
+virtually control the laundry business; and that the Americans want
+them, and want cheaper labor than they are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>getting from the Irish and
+Italians, is shown by the fact that they continue to patronize our
+people, and that in various lines Chinamen have the monopoly. Even when
+the "hoodlums" of San Francisco were fighting the Chinese, the American
+women did not withdraw their patronage, and while the men were off
+speaking on the sand-lots against employing our people their wives were
+buying vegetables from them.</p>
+
+<p>Why? Because their hypocritical husbands and brothers refused to pay
+higher prices. America is suffering not for want of the cheapest labor,
+but for a laborer like the Chinese, and until they have him industries
+will languish. With American labor and American "union" prices it is
+impossible for the American farmer or rancher to make money. The
+vineyardist, the orange, lemon, olive, and other fruit raisers can not
+compete with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> Europe. Labor is kept up to such a high rate that the
+country is obliged to put on a high tariff to keep out foreign
+competition, and in so doing they "cut off the nose to spite the face."
+The common people are taxed by the rich. The salvation of industrial
+America is a cheap, but not degraded, labor. America desires
+house-servants at from $10 to $12 per month; this is all a mere servant
+is worth. She wants good cooks at $12 or $15 per month. She wants
+fruit-pickers at $10 to $12 per month and board. She wants vineyard men,
+hop-pickers, cherry, peach, apricot and berry pickers, and people to
+work in canneries at these prices. She wants gardeners, drivers,
+railroad laborers at lower rates, and, to quote an American, "wants them
+'bad.'"</p>
+
+<p>When in San Francisco I made a thorough investigation of the
+"house-servant" question, and learned that our people as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> cooks in
+private houses were receiving from $30 to $50 per month and board. A
+friend tells me there is continued protest against this. Housekeepers on
+the Pacific coast are complaining of the lack of "Chinese boys," and
+want more to come over so that prices shall go down. The American wants
+the Chinaman, but the American <i>foreign laborer</i>, the Irishman, the
+Italian, the Mexican, and others who dominate American politics, do not
+want him and will not have him. As a result of this bending to the alien
+vote the Americans find themselves in a most serious and laughable
+position in their relations to domestic labor.</p>
+
+<p>I am not overstating the fact when I say that the "servant-girl"
+question is going to be a political issue in the future. The man may
+howl against the Chinese, but his wife will demand that "John" be
+admitted to relieve a situation that is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>becoming unbearable. As the
+Americans are all equal, there are no servants among them. The poor are
+as good as the "boss," and won't be called servants. You read in the
+papers, "A lady desires a position as cook in a small family, no
+children; wages, $35." "A young lady wishes a position to take care of
+children; salary, $30." "A saleslady wants position." "A lady (good
+scrubber) will go out by the day; $2." When you meet these "ladies," in
+nine cases out of ten they are Irish from the peasant class&mdash;untidy,
+insolent, often dissipated in the sense of drink. When they apply for a
+position they put the employer through a course of questions. Some want
+references from the last girl, I am told. Some want one thing, some
+another, and all must have time for pleasure. Few have the air of
+servants or inferiors, but are often offensive in appearance and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>manners. I have never been called "John" by the girls who came to the
+door where I called to pay a visit, but I could see that they all wished
+so to address me. In England, where classes are acknowledged and a
+servant is hired as a servant, and is one, an entirely different state
+of affairs holds. They are respectful, having been educated to be
+servants, know that they are servants, and as a result are cared for and
+treated as old retainers and pensioners of the family.</p>
+
+<p>The whole story of exclusion is a blot upon the American national honor,
+and the most mystifying part of it is that intelligent people, the best
+people, are not a party to it. The railroads want the Chinese laborer.
+The great ranches of the West need him; people want cooks at $15 and $20
+a month instead of $30 or $50. In a word, America is suffering for what
+she must have some time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>&mdash;cheap labor; yet the low elements force the
+issue. Congressmen are dominated by labor organizations on the Pacific
+slope, and there are hundreds of Dennis Kearneys to-day where there was
+one a few years ago. To make the case more exasperating, the Americans,
+in their dire necessity, have imported swarms of low Mexicans to take
+the place of the Chinese on the railroads, against whom there seems to
+be no Irish hand raised. The Irish and Mexicans are of a piece. I know
+from inquiry everywhere that the country at large would welcome
+thousands of servants and field-workers in vineyards and orchards which
+can not be made to pay if worked by expensive labor.</p>
+
+<p>The Americans try to keep us out, but they also try to convert those who
+get in. They have what they call Chinese missions, to which Chinamen go.
+To be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> converted? No. To learn the language? Yes. I am told by an
+American friend that here and in China over fifty thousand Chinese have
+embraced Christianity. On the Atlantic coast I am assured that eight
+hundred Chinamen are Christians, and on the Pacific slope two thousand
+have embraced the faith of the Christians. There is a Christian Chinese
+evangelist working among our people in the West, Lum Foon, and I have
+met the pastor of a Pacific coast church who told me that nearly a third
+of his congregation were Chinamen, and he esteemed them highly. But the
+most conclusive evidence that the Americans are succeeding in their
+proselyting is that in one year a single denomination received as a
+donation from Chinamen $6,000. The Americans have a saying, "Money
+talks," which is much like one of our own.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, a clergyman told<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> me that it was discouraging work to
+some, so few Chinamen were "converted" compared to the great mass of
+them. The Chinese of California have sent $1,000 to Canton to build a
+Christian church, and the Chinese members of the Presbyterian Church of
+California sent $3,000 in one year for the same purpose. I am told that
+the Chinese Methodists of one church in California give yearly from
+$1,000 to $1,800 for the various purposes of the church. The Christians
+have captured some brilliant men, such as Sia Sek Ong, who is a
+Methodist; Chan Hon Fan, who ought to be in our army from what I hear;
+Rev. Tong Keet Hing, the Baptist, a noted Biblical scholar; Rev. Wong,
+of the Presbyterians; Rev. Ng Poon Chiv, famous as a Greek and Hebrew
+reader; Gee Gam and Rev. Le Tong Hay, Methodists; and there are many
+more,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> suggestive that our people are interested in Christianity,
+against the <i>moral</i> teachings of which no one could seriously object.</p>
+
+<p>I dined some time ago with a merchants' club, and was much pleased at
+the eulogy I heard on the Chinese. A merchant said, "My firm deals
+largely with the Chinese and Japanese. When I make a trade with the
+Japanese I tie them up with a written contract, but I have always found
+that the word of a Chinese merchant was sufficient." This I found to be
+the universal feeling, and yet Americans exclude us at the bidding of
+"hoodlums," a term applied to the lowest class of young men on the
+Pacific coast. In the East he is a "tough" or "rough" or "rowdy." "Tough
+nut" and "hard nut" are also applied to such people, the Americans
+having numbers of terms like these, which may be called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> "nicknames," or
+false names. Thus a man who is noted for his dress is a "swell," a
+"dude," or a "sport."</p>
+
+<p>The United States Government does not allow the Chinese to vote, yet
+tens of thousands of poor Americans, "white trash" in the South,
+ignorant negroes, low Irish and Italians who can not speak the tongue,
+are welcome and courted by both parties. It is difficult for me to
+overlook this insult on the part of America. There is a large settlement
+of Chinese in New York, but they are as isolated as if they were in
+China. In San Francisco there is the largest settlement, and many fine
+merchants live there, and also in Los Angeles.</p>
+
+<p>In the latter city &mdash;&mdash; told me that the best of feeling existed between
+the Chinese and Americans; and at the American Festival of the Rose the
+Chinese joined in the procession. The dragon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> was brought out, and all
+the Chinese merchants appeared; but these gentlemen are never consulted
+by the Americans, never allowed to vote or take any interest in the
+growth of the city, and &mdash;&mdash; informed me that none of them had ever been
+asked to join a board of trade. It is the same everywhere; the only
+advances the Americans make is to try and "convert" us to their various
+religious denominations. While the Chinese are not allowed to vote or to
+have any part in the affairs of government, they are taxed. "Taxation
+without representation" was the cause of the war of the American
+Revolution, but that is another matter.</p>
+
+<p>Yet our people have ways of influencing the whites with the "dollar,"
+for which some officials will do anything, and, I regret to say, all
+Chinamen are not above bribing Americans. I have heard that the Chinese
+of San Francisco<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> for years were blackmailed by Americans, and obliged
+to raise money to fight bills in the Legislature. In 1892 the Six
+Companies raised $200,000 to defeat the "Geary Bill." The Chinese
+merchants have some influence. Out of the 110,000 Chinamen in America
+hardly ten per cent obeyed the iniquitous law and registered. The
+Chinese societies contracted to defend all who refused to register.</p>
+
+<p>Our people have a strong and influential membership in the Sam Yup, Hop
+Wo, Yan Wo, Kong Chow, Ning Yeong, and Yeong Wo companies. These
+societies practically control everything in America relating to the
+Chinese, and they retain American lawyers to fight their battles. I have
+met many of the officers of these companies, and China has produced no
+more brilliant minds than some, and, <i>sub rosa</i>, they have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> pitted
+against the Americans on more than one occasion and have outwitted them.
+Among these men are Yee Ha Chung, Chang Wah Kwan, Chun Ti Chu, Chu Shee
+Sum, Lee Cheang Chun, and others. Many of these men have been presidents
+of the Six Companies in San Francisco, and rank in intelligence with the
+most brilliant American statesmen. I regret to see them in America.</p>
+
+<p>Chun Ti Chu especially, at one time president of the Sam Yuz, should be
+in China. I met this brilliant man some years ago in San Francisco.
+After dinner he took me to a place and showed me a placard which was a
+reward of $300 for his head. He had obtained the enmity of criminal
+Chinamen on the Pacific coast, but when I last heard of him he was still
+alive. There are many criminals here who do not dare to return to China,
+who left their country for their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> country's good. These are the cause of
+much trouble here, and bring discredit upon the better class of our
+people. Our people in America are loyal to the Government. It was
+interesting to see at one time a proclamation from the Emperor brought
+over by Chew Shu Sum and posted in the streets of an American city: "By
+order of his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of China." The President, the
+mayor of San Francisco, was not thought of; China was revered, and is
+to-day holding her government over the Chinese in every American city
+where they have a stronghold. So much for the loyalty of our people.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE RELIGIONS OF THE AMERICANS</h3>
+
+<p>Thomas J. Geary, the former congressman, is an avowed enemy of the
+Chinese and the author of the famous Geary bill, but I condone all he
+has said against us for one profound utterance made in a published
+address or article, in which he said: "As to the missionaries (in
+China), it wouldn't be a national loss if they were required to return
+home. If the American missionary would only look about him in the large
+cities of the Union he would find enough of misery, enough of suffering,
+enough people falling away from the Christian churches, enough of
+darkness, enough of vice in all its conditions and all its grades, to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>furnish him work for years to come." This is a sentiment Americans may
+well think of; but there are "none so blind as those who will not see."
+There will always be women and men willing to spend their time in
+picturesque China at the expense of foreign missions. China has never
+attempted to convert the Americans to her religion, believing she has
+all she can do to keep her people within bounds at home.</p>
+
+<p>In my search for information in America I have had some singular
+experiences. I have made an examination of the many religions of the
+Americans, and they have been remarkably prolific in this respect. While
+we are satisfied with Taoism, Buddhism, but mostly with Confucianism, I
+have observed the following sects in America: Baptists of two kinds,
+Congregationalists, Methodists, Quakers of three kinds, Catholics,
+Unitarians, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>Universalists, Presbyterians, Swedenborgians,
+Spiritualists, Christian Scientists (healers), Episcopalians (high and
+low), Jews, Seventh-Day Adventists, and many more. Nearly all are
+Christians, as we are nearly all Confucians. Unitarians, Universalists,
+Jews, and several others believe in the moral teachings of Christ, but
+hold that he was not of divine origin. America was first settled to
+supply room for religious liberty, which perhaps explains the remarkable
+number of religions. They are constantly increasing. Nearly all of these
+denominations hold that their own belief is the right one. Much
+proselyting is going on among them, with which one would take no
+exception if there was no denouncing of one another. Our religion,
+founded in the faith of Confucius, seems satisfying to us. Some of us
+believe that at least we are not savages.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p><p>Some American friends once invited me to go to a negro church in
+Washington. Upon arriving we were given a seat well down in front. The
+pastor was a "visiting evangelist," and in a short time had these
+excitable and ignorant people in a frenzy, several being carried out of
+the church in a semicataleptic condition. Suddenly the minister began to
+pray for the strangers, and especially "for the heathen in our midst,"
+for the unsaved from pagan lands, that they might be saved; and I could
+not but wonder at the conceit and ignorance that would ask a believer in
+the splendid philosophy of Confucius to throw it aside for this African
+religion. This idea that a Chinaman is a "pagan" and idolator is found
+everywhere in America, and every attempt is made to "save" him.</p>
+
+<p>I very much fear that many of our countrymen go to the American
+missions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> and Sunday-schools merely to learn the language and enjoy the
+social life of those who are interested in this special work. I was told
+by a well-to-do Chinaman that he knew Chinamen who were both Catholic
+and Protestant, and who attended all the Chinese missions without
+reference to sect. They were Methodist when at the Methodist mission,
+Catholic when at mass, and when they returned to their home slipped back
+into Confucianism. Let us hope this is not universal, though I venture
+the belief that the witty Americans would see the humor of it.</p>
+
+<p>I was told by a prominent patron of the Woman's Christian Union that she
+felt very sorry I did not have the consolation of religion, coming as I
+did from a heathen land. Some "heathens" might have been insulted, but I
+had come to know the Americans and was aware that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> she really felt a
+kindly interest in me. I replied that we could find some consolation in
+the sayings of our religious teachers, as the great guide of our life
+is, "What you do not like when done to yourself do not do to others."</p>
+
+<p>"Why," said the lady, "that is Christian doctrine, our 'Golden Rule.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," I answered, "this is the golden rule of Confucius, written
+four hundred years or so before Christ was born."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you must be mistaken," she continued; "this is a fundamental
+pillar of the Christian belief."</p>
+
+<p>"True," I retorted; "but none the less Christians obtained it from
+Confucius."</p>
+
+<p>She did not believe me, and we referred the question to Bishop &mdash;&mdash;, who
+sat near us. Much to her confusion he agreed with me, and then quoted
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> well-known lines of one of our religious writers who lived twelve
+hundred years before Christ: "The great God has conferred on the people
+a moral sense, compliance with which would show their nature inevitably
+right," and remarked that it was a splendid sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you believe in a God," said the lady, turning to me.</p>
+
+<p>"I trust so," was my answer.</p>
+
+<p>Now this lady, who believed me to be a "pagan" and unsaved, was a
+product of the American school system, yet she had never read a line of
+Confucius, having been "brought up" to consider him an infidel writer.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen many of the great Western nations and observed their
+religions. My conclusion is that none make so general and united an
+attempt to be what they consider "good and moral" as the Americans; but
+the Americans scatter their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> efforts like shot fired from a gun, and the
+result is a multiplicity of religious beliefs beyond belief. I do not
+forget that America was settled to afford an asylum for religious
+belief, where men could work out their salvation in peace. If Americans
+would grant us the same privilege and not send missionaries to fight
+over us, all would be well. No one can dispute the fact that the
+Americans are in earnest; the greater number believe they are right, and
+that they possess true zeal all China knows.</p>
+
+<p>The impression the convert in China obtains is that the United States is
+a sort of paradise, where Christians live in peace and happiness, loving
+one another, doing good to those who ill-treat them, turning the cheek
+to those who strike them, etc.; but the Chinaman soon finds after
+landing in America that this is often "conspicuous by its absence."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>
+These ideas are preached, and doubtless thousands follow them or attempt
+to do so, but that they are common practises of the people is not true.
+There is great need of Christian missions in America as well as in
+China. I told a clergyman that our people believed the Christian
+religion was very good for the Americans, and we had no fault to find
+with it, nor had we the temerity to insinuate that our own was superior.</p>
+
+<p>A Roman Catholic young lady whom I met spoke to me about burning our
+prayers, our joss-houses, and our dragon, which she had seen carried
+about the streets of San Francisco. "Pure symbolism," I answered, and
+then told her of the Christian dragon in the Divine Key of the
+Revelation of Jesus Christ as Given to John, by a Christian writer,
+William Eugene Brown. This dragon had nine heads, while ours has only
+one.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> I believe I had the best of the argument so far as heads went.
+This young woman, a graduate of a large college, wore an amulet, which
+she believes protects her from accident. She possessed a bottle of water
+from a miraculous spring in Canada, which she said would cure any
+disease, and she told me that one of the Catholic churches there, Ste.
+Anne de Beaupr&eacute;, had a small piece of the wrist-bone of the mother of
+the Virgin, which would heal and had healed thousands. She had a picture
+of the church, showing piles of crutches thrown aside by cured and
+grateful patients. Can China produce such credulity? I think not.</p>
+
+<p>All nations may be wrong in their religious beliefs, but certainly
+"pagan China" is outdone in religious extravaganza by America or any
+European state. Our joss-houses and our feasts are nothing to the
+splendors of American<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> churches. An American girl laughed at the bearded
+figures in a San Francisco joss-house, but looked solemn when I referred
+to the saints in a Catholic cathedral in the same city. If I were "fancy
+free" I should like to lecture in America on the inconsistencies of the
+Caucasian. They really challenge our own. Instead of having one splendid
+church and devoting themselves to the real ethics of Christianity, these
+Christians have divided irrevocably, and so lost strength and force.
+They are in a sense turned against themselves, and their religious
+colleges are graduating men to perpetuate the differences. No more
+splendid religion than that expounded by Christ could be imagined if
+they would join hands and, like the Confucians, devote their attention
+not to rites and theological differences but to the daily conduct of
+men.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p><p>The Americans have a saying, "Take care of the pennies and the dollars
+will care for themselves." We believe that in taking care of the morals
+of the individual the nation will take care of itself. I took the
+liberty of commending this Confucian doctrine to a Methodist brother,
+but he had never been allowed to read the books of Confucius. They are
+classed with those of Mohammed, Voltaire, and others. So what can one do
+with such people, who have the conceit of the ages and the ignorance of
+all time? Their great scholars see their idiosyncrasies, and I can not
+begin to describe them. One sect believes that no one can be saved
+unless immersed in water; others believe in sprinkling. Others, as the
+Quakers, denounce all this as mummery. One sect, the Shakers, will have
+no marriages. Another believes in having as many wives as they can
+support<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>&mdash;the Mormons. The Jews and Quakers oblige members to marry in
+the society; in the latter instance the society is dying out, and the
+former from constant intermarriage has resulted in conspicuous and
+marked facial peculiarities. These different sects, instead of loving,
+despise one another. Episcopalians look down upon the Methodists, and
+the latter denounce the former because the priests sometimes smoke and
+drink. The Unitarians are not regarded well by the others, yet nearly
+all the other bodies contain Unitarians, who for business and other
+reasons do not acknowledge the fact. A certain clergyman would not admit
+a Catholic priest to his platform. All combine against the poor Jew.</p>
+
+<p>So strong is the feeling against this people among the best of American
+citizens that they are almost completely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> ostracised, at least socially.
+In all the years spent in America I do not recall meeting a Jew at
+dinner in Washington, New York, or Newport. They are disliked, and as a
+rule associate entirely with themselves, having their own churches,
+clubs, etc. Yet they in large degree control the finances of America.
+They have almost complete control of the textile-fabric business,
+clothing, and many other trades. Why the American Christians dislike the
+American Jews is difficult to understand, but the invariable reply to
+this question is that their manners are so offensive that Christians
+will not associate with them. I doubt if in any of the first circles of
+any city you would meet a Jew. In the fashionable circles of New York I
+heard that it would be "easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a
+needle" than for a Jew to enter these circles. Many hotels<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> will not
+receive them. In fact, the ban is on the Jew as completely in America as
+in Russia. I was strongly tempted to ask if this was the brotherly love
+I heard so much about, but refrained. I heard the following story at a
+dinner: A Chinese laundryman received a call from a Jew, who brought
+with him his soiled clothing. The Chinaman, glancing at the Jew, refused
+to take the package. "But why?" asked the Jew; "here's the money in
+advance." "No washee," said the Christian Chinaman; "you killed Melican
+man's Joss," meaning that the Jews crucified the Christ.</p>
+
+<p>The more you delve into the religions of the Americans the more
+anomalies you find. I asked a New York lady at Newport if she had ever
+met Miss &mdash;&mdash;, a prominent Chinese missionary. She had never heard of
+her, and considered most missionaries very ordinary persons.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> This same
+lady, when some one spoke about laxity of morals, replied, "It is not
+morals but manners that we need"; and I can assure you that this
+high-church lady, a model of propriety, judged her men acquaintances by
+that standard. If their manners were correct, she apparently did not
+care what moral lapses they committed when out of her presence. Briefly,
+I looked in vain for the religion in everyday life preached by the
+missionary. Doubtless many possess it, but the meek and humble follower
+of the head of the Christian Church, the American who turned his cheek
+for another blow, the one who loved his enemies, or the one who was
+anxious to do unto others as he would have them do unto him, all these,
+whom I expected to see everywhere, were not found, at least in any
+numbers.</p>
+
+<p>In visiting a certain village I dined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> with several clergymen. One told
+me he was the Catholic priest, and invited me to visit his chapel. Not
+long after I met another clergyman. I do not recall his denomination,
+but his work he told me was undoing that of the Catholic priest. The
+latter converted the people to Catholicism, while the former tried to
+reclaim them from Catholicism. I heard much about our joss-houses, but
+they fade into insignificance when compared with the splendid religious
+palaces of the Americans, and particularly those of the Catholics and
+Episcopalians. Their religious customs are beyond belief. As an
+illustration, their religion teaches them that the dead, if they have
+led a good life, go at once to heaven, though the Catholics believe in a
+purgatory, a half-way house, out of which the dead can be bought by the
+payment of money.</p>
+
+<p>Now the simple Chinaman would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> naturally believe that the relatives
+would be pleased at the death of a friend who was <i>immediately</i>
+transported to paradise and freed from the worries of life, but not at
+all; at the death of a relative the friends are plunged into such grief
+that they have been known to hire professional mourners, and instead of
+putting on clothes indicative of joy and thanksgiving array themselves
+in somber black, the token of woe, and wear it for years. Everything is
+black, and the more fashionable the family the deeper the black. The
+deepest crape is worn by the women. Writing-paper is inscribed with a
+deep band, also visiting cards. Women use jet as jewelry, and white
+pearls are replaced by black ones. Even servants are garbed in mourning
+for the departed, who, they believe, have gone to the most beautiful
+paradise possible to conceive. Contemplating all these inconsistencies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>
+one is amazed, and the amazement is ever increasing as one delves deeper
+into the ways of the inconsistent American.</p>
+
+<p>The credulity of the American is nowhere more singularly shown than in
+his susceptibility to religion. At a dinner given by the &mdash;&mdash; of &mdash;&mdash; in
+Washington, conversation turned on religion, and Senator &mdash;&mdash;, a very
+clever man, told me in a burst of confidence, "Our people are easily
+led; it merely requires a leader, a bright, audacious man, with plenty
+of 'cheek,' to create a following." There are hundreds of examples of
+this statement. No matter how idiotic the religion or philosophy may be,
+a following can be established among Americans. A man of the name of
+Dowie, "ignorant, impertinent, but with a superabundance of cheek" (I
+quote an American journal), announced himself as the prophet Elijah, and
+obtained a following of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> thousands, built a large city, and lives upon
+the credulity of the public.</p>
+
+<p>Three different "healers" have appeared within a decade in America, each
+by inference claiming to be the Christ and imitating his wanderings and
+healing methods. All, even the last, grossest, and most impudent
+impostor, who advertised himself in the daily press, the picture showing
+him posing after one of the well-known pictures of Christ, had many
+followers. I hoped to hear that this fellow had been "tarred and
+feathered," a happy American remedy for gross things. This fellow, as
+the Americans say, "went beyond the limit." I asked the senator how he
+accounted for Americans, well educated as they are, taking up these
+strange impostors. "Well," he replied, puffing on a big cigar, "between
+you and me and the lamp-post it's on account of the kind of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> schooling
+they get. I didn't get much myself&mdash;I'm an old-timer; but I accumulated
+a lot of 'horse sense,' that has served me so well that I never have my
+leg pulled, and I notice that all these 'suckers' are graduates from
+something; but don't take this as gospel, as I'm always getting up
+minority reports."</p>
+
+<p>The religion of the Americans, as diffuse as it is, is one of the most
+remarkable factors you meet in the country. Despite its peculiar phases
+you can not fail to appreciate a people who make such stupendous
+attempts to crush out evil and raise the morals of the masses. We may
+differ from them. We may resent their assumption that we are pagans and
+heathens, but this colossal series of movements, under the banner of the
+Cross, is one of the marvels of the world. Surely it is disinterested.
+It comes from the heart. I wish the Americans knew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> more of Confucius
+and his code of morals; they would then see that we are not so "pagan"
+as they suppose.</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE END</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of As A Chinaman Saw Us, by Anonymous
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@@ -0,0 +1,4899 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of As A Chinaman Saw Us, by Anonymous
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: As A Chinaman Saw Us
+       Passages from his Letters to a Friend at Home
+
+Author: Anonymous
+
+Editor: Henry Pearson Gratton
+
+Release Date: October 2, 2007 [EBook #22831]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AS A CHINAMAN SAW US ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
++-------------------------------------------------+
+|Transcriber's note:                              |
+|                                                 |
+|In this text the breve has been represented with |
+|                                                 |
+|[ua] [ue] [uo].                                  |
++-------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+[Illustration: A CHINESE BOOK COVER DECORATION
+
+Made when the Anglo-Saxon people were living in caves]
+
+
+AS A CHINAMAN
+
+SAW US
+
+PASSAGES FROM HIS LETTERS
+TO A FRIEND AT HOME
+
+[Illustration: Publisher's logo]
+
+NEW YORK AND LONDON
+APPLETON AND COMPANY
+1916
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
+
+Printed in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Since the publication in 1832 of that classic of cynicism, The Domestic
+Manners of the Americans, by Mrs. Trollope, perhaps nothing has appeared
+that is more caustic or amusing in its treatment of America and the
+Americans than the following passages from the letters of a cultivated
+and educated Chinaman. The selections have been made from a series of
+letters covering a decade spent in America, and were addressed to a
+friend in China who had seen few foreigners. The writer was graduated
+from a well-known college, after he had attended an English school, and
+later took special studies at a German university. Americans have been
+informed of the impressions they make on the French, English, and other
+people, but doubtless this is the first unreserved and weighty
+expression of opinion on a multiplicity of American topics by a Chinaman
+of cultivation and grasp of mind.
+
+It will be difficult for the average American to conceive it possible
+that a cultivated Chinaman, of all persons, should have been honestly
+amused at our civilization; that he should have considered what Mrs.
+Trollope called "our great experiment" in republics a failure, and our
+institutions, fashions, literary methods, customs and manners, sports
+and pastimes as legitimate fields for wit and unrepressed jollity. Yet
+in the unbosoming of this cultivated "heathen" we see our fads and
+foibles held up as strange gods, and must confess some of them to be
+grotesque when seen in this yellow light.
+
+It is doubtless true that the masses of Americans do not take the
+Chinaman seriously, and an interesting feature of this correspondence is
+the attitude of the Chinaman on this very point and his clever satire on
+our assumption of perfection and superiority over a nation, the habits
+of which have been fixed and settled for many centuries. The writer's
+experiences in society, his acquaintance with American women of fashion
+and their husbands, all ingeniously set forth, have the hall-mark of
+actual novelty, while his loyalty to the traditions of his country and
+his egotism, even after the Americanizing process had exercised its
+influence over him for years, add to the interest of the recital.
+
+In revising the correspondence and rearranging it under general heads,
+the editor has preserved the salient features of it, with but little
+essential change and practically in its original shape. If the reader
+misses the peculiar idioms, or the pigeon-English that is usually placed
+in the mouth of the Chinaman of the novel or story, he or she should
+remember that the writer of the letters, while a "heathen Chinee," was
+an educated gentleman in the American sense of the term. This fact
+should always be kept in mind because, as the author remarks, to many
+Americans whom he met, it was "incomprehensible that a Chinaman can be
+educated, refined, and cultivated according to their own standards."
+
+With pardonable pride he tells how, on one occasion, when a woman in New
+York told him she knew her ancestral line as far back as 1200 A. D., he
+replied that he himself had "a tree without a break for thirty-two
+hundred years." He was sure she did not believe him, but he found her
+"indeed!" delightful. The author's name has been withheld for personal
+reasons that will be sufficiently obvious to those who read the letters.
+The period during which he wrote them is embraced in the ten years from
+1892 to 1902.
+
+                                         HENRY PEARSON GRATTON.
+
+SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA,
+     May 10th, 1904.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                                 PAGE
+
+    I. THE AMERICAN, WHO HE IS                             1
+
+   II. THE AMERICAN MAN                                   16
+
+  III. AMERICAN CUSTOMS                                   40
+
+   IV. THE AMERICAN WOMAN                                 63
+
+    V. THE SUPERSTITIONS OF THE AMERICAN                  92
+
+   VI. THE AMERICAN PRESS                                 99
+
+  VII. THE AMERICAN DOCTOR                               106
+
+ VIII. PECULIARITIES AND MANNERISMS                      118
+
+   IX. LIFE IN WASHINGTON                                131
+
+    X. THE AMERICAN IN LITERATURE                        164
+
+   XI. THE POLITICAL BOSS                                185
+
+  XII. EDUCATION IN AMERICA                              200
+
+ XIII. THE ARMY AND NAVY                                 212
+
+  XIV. ART IN AMERICA                                    229
+
+   XV. THE DARK SIDE OF REPUBLICANISM                    237
+
+  XVI. SPORTS AND PASTIMES                               261
+
+ XVII. THE CHINAMAN IN AMERICA                           279
+
+XVIII. THE RELIGIONS OF THE AMERICANS                    303
+
+
+
+
+AS A CHINAMAN SAW US
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE AMERICAN--WHO HE IS
+
+
+Many of the great powers believe themselves to be passing through an
+evolutionary period leading to civic and national perfection. America,
+or the United States, has already reached this state; it is complete and
+finished. I have this from the Americans themselves, so there can be no
+question about it; hence it requires no little temerity to discuss, let
+alone criticize, them.
+
+Yet I am going to ask you to behold the American as he is, as I honestly
+found him--great, small, good, bad, self-glorious, egotistical,
+intellectual, supercilious, ignorant, superstitious, vain, and
+bombastic. In truth, so very remarkable, so contradictory, so
+incongruous have I found the American that I hesitate. Shall I give you
+a satire; shall I devote myself to eulogy; shall I tear what they call
+the "whitewash" aside and expose them to the winds of excoriation; or
+shall I devote myself to an introspective, analytical _divertissement_?
+But I do not wish to educate you on the Americans, but to entertain, to
+make you laugh by the recital of comical truths; so without system I am
+going to tell you of these Americans as I found them, day by day, month
+by month, officially, socially; in their homes, in politics, trade,
+sorrow, despair, and in their pleasures.
+
+You will remember when the Evil Spirit is asked by the modest Spirit of
+Good to indicate his possessions he tucks the earth under one arm,
+drops the sun into one pocket, the moon into another, and the stars into
+the folds of his garment. In a word, to use the saying of my friends, he
+"claims everything in sight"; and this is certainly a characteristic of
+the American: he is all-perspective, he claims to have all the virtues,
+and in his ancestry embraces the entire world. At a dinner at the ----
+in Washington during the egg stage of my experience I sat next to a
+charming lady; and having been told that it was a custom of the French
+to compliment women, I remarked that her cheeks bloomed like our poppy
+of the Orient. She laughed, and responded, "Yes, I get that from my
+English grandfather." "But your eyes are like black pearls," I
+continued, seeing that I was on what a general on my right called the
+"right trail." "I got them from my Italian grandmother," she replied.
+"And your hair?" I pressed. "Must be Irish," was the answer, "for my
+paternal grandmother was Irish and her husband Scotch." It is true that
+this charmingly beautiful and composite goddess (at least she would have
+been one had she not been naked like a geisha at a men's dinner) was the
+product of a dozen nations, and a typical American.
+
+The original Americans appear to have been English, despite the fact
+that the Spaniards discovered the country, though a high official, a
+Yankee whom I met at a reception, told me that this was untrue. His
+ancestor had discovered North America, and I believe he had written a
+book to prove it. (_En passant_, all Americans write books; those who
+have not, fully intend to write one.) I listened complacently, then
+said, "My dear ----, if I am not mistaken the Chinese discovered
+America." I recalled the fact to his mind that the northwestern Eskimos
+and the Indians were essentially Asiatic in type; and it is true that he
+had never heard of the ethnologic map at his National Museum, which
+shows the location of Chinese junks blown to American shores within a
+period of three hundred years. I explained that junks had been blown
+over to America for the last _three thousand_ years, and that in my
+country there were many records of voyages to the Western land, ages
+before 1492.
+
+You see I soon began to be Americanized and to claim things. China
+discovered America and gave her the compass as well as gunpowder. The
+first Americans were in the nature of emigrants; men and women who did
+not succeed well in their own country and so sought new fields, just as
+people are doing to-day. They came over in a ship called the
+"Mayflower," and were remarkably prolific, as I have met thousands who
+hail from this stock. At one time England sent her criminals to
+Virginia--one of the United States--and many of the refuse of the home
+country were sent to other parts of America in the early days. Younger
+sons of good families were also sent over for various reasons. Women of
+all classes were sent by the ship-load, and sold for wives. I reminded a
+lady of this, who was lamenting the fact that in China some women are
+sold for wives. She was absolutely ignorant of this well-known fact in
+American history, and forgot the selling of black women. Among the men
+were many representatives of old and noble families; but the bulk, I
+judge from their colonial histories, were people of low degree. Very
+soon other countries began to ship people to America. Italy, Germany,
+Russia, Norway, Sweden, and other lands were drawn upon for constantly
+increasing numbers as years went by. All tumbled into the American
+hopper. Imagine a coffee-grinder into which have been thrown Greek,
+Roman, Jew, Gentile, and all the rest, and then let what they call Uncle
+Sam--a heroic, paternal, and comical figure, representing the
+government--turn the handle and grind out the American who is neither
+Jew, Gentile, Greek, Roman, Russe, or Swede, but a new product, _sui
+generis_, and mostly Methodist.
+
+This process has never ceased for an hour. America has been from 1492 to
+the present time, in the language of the American "press," the
+"dumping-ground" of the nations of the world, the real open door; yet
+this grinding assimilation has gone on. It is, perhaps, due to the
+climate, perhaps the water, or the air; but the product of these people
+born on the soil is described by no other word than American. It may be
+Irish-American, very offensive; Dutch-American, very strenuous, like the
+Vice-President;[1] Jewish-American, very commercial; Italian-American,
+very dirty and reeking with garlic; but it is American, totally unlike
+its progenitor, a something into which is blown a tremendous energy,
+that is very wearisome, a bombast which is the sum of that of all
+nations, and a conceit like that possessed by ---- alone. You see it is
+incurable, also offensive--at least to the Oriental mind. Yet I grant
+you the American is great; I have it from him and from her; it must be
+so.
+
+You have the spectacle here of the nations of the world pouring a
+stream, that is not pactolean, and not perfumed with the gums of Araby,
+flowing in and peopling the country. In time they had grievances more
+fancied than real, yet grievances. They rose against the home
+government, threw off the English yoke, and became a republic with a
+division into States, which I will write of when I tell you of the
+American politician. This was the first trust--what they call a
+merger--but it occurred in politics. They have killed off a fair
+percentage of the actual owners of the soil, the Indians, swindling them
+out of the balance, and driving them back to a sort of ever-changing
+dead-line. Without delay they assumed the form of a dominant nation, and
+announced themselves the greatest nation on the earth.
+
+Immigration was resumed, and all nations again sent their refuse
+population to America. I have facts showing that for years English
+poorhouses and hospitals were emptied of their inmates and shipped to
+America. It was a distinct policy of the anti-home-rule party in Ireland
+to encourage the poor Irish to go to America; and now when there are
+more Irish in America than in Ireland the fate of Ireland is assured.
+Yet the American air takes the fight out of the Irishman, the rose from
+his cheek, and makes a natural-born politician out of him. America still
+continued to receive immigrants, and not satisfied with the natural flow
+of the human current, began to import African slaves to a country
+founded for the benefit of those who desired an asylum where they could
+enjoy religious and political freedom. The Africans were sold in the
+cotton belt, their existence virtually creating two distinct political
+parties. America long remained a dumping-ground for nearly all the
+nations of the world having an excess of population. Great navigation
+companies were built up, to a large extent, on this trade. They sent
+agents to every foreign country, issued pamphlets in every European
+language, and uncounted thousands were brought over--the scum of the
+earth in many instances. There was no restriction to immigration until
+the Chinese were barred out. After accepting the outlaws of every
+European state, the poor of all lands, they shut the door on our
+"coolie" countrymen.
+
+In this way, briefly, America has grown to her present population of
+80,000,000. The remarkable growth and assimilation is still going on--a
+menace to the world, but in a constantly decreasing ratio, which has
+become so marked that the leading Americans, the class which corresponds
+to our scholars, are aghast at the singular conditions which exist.
+Non-assimilation shows itself in labor riots, in the murder of two
+Presidents--Garfield and Lincoln--in socialistic outbreaks in every
+quarter, and in signal outbreaks in various sections, at lynchings, and
+other unlawful performances. I am attempting to give you an idea of the
+constituents of America to-day; but so interesting is the subject, so
+prolific in its warnings and possibilities, that I find myself
+wandering.
+
+To glance at conditions at the present time, about 600,000 aliens are
+coming to America yearly. What is the result? I was invited to meet a
+distinguished German visiting in New York last month, and at the dinner
+a young lady who sat by my side said to me, "I wish I could puzzle him."
+"Why?" I asked, in amazement. "Oh," was her reply, "he looks so cram
+full of knowledge; I would like to take him down." "Ah," I said. "Ask
+him which is the third largest German city in the world. It is New
+York; he will never guess it." She did so, and I assure you he was
+"puzzled," and would scarcely believe it until a well-known man assured
+him it was true. There are more Germans in Chicago than in Leipsic,
+Cologne, Dresden, Munich, or a dozen small towns joined in one. Half of
+the Chicago Germans speak their own tongue. This city is the third
+Swedish city of the world in population. It is the fourth Polish city
+and the second Bohemian city. I was informed by a professor in the
+University of Chicago that, in that strange city, the number of people
+who speak the language of the Bohemians equaled the combined inhabitants
+of Richmond, Atlanta, Portland, and Nashville--all large cities. "What
+do you think of it?" I asked. "We are up against it," was the reply. I
+can not explain this retort so that you would understand it, but it had
+great significance. The professor, a distinguished philologist, was
+worried, and he looked it. A lady who was a club woman--and by this I do
+not mean that she was armed with a club, but merely a member of clubs or
+societies for educational advancement and social aggrandizement--said it
+was merely his digestion.
+
+I learned from my friend, the dyspeptic professor, that over forty
+dialects are spoken in Chicago. About one-half only of the total
+population speak or understand English. There are 500,000 Germans,
+125,000 Poles, 100,000 Swedes, 90,000 Bohemians, 50,000 Yiddish, 25,000
+Dutch, 25,000 Italians, 15,000 French, 10,000 Irish, 10,000 Servians,
+10,000 Lutherans, 7,000 Russians, and 5,000 Hungarians in Chicago. You
+will be surprised to learn that numbers do not count. The 500,000
+Germans are not the dominating power, nor are the 100,000 Swedes. The
+10,000 Irish are said absolutely to control the political situation. You
+will ask if I believe that this monster foreign element can be reduced
+to a homogeneous unit. I reply, yes. Fifty years from to-day they will
+all be Americans, and a majority will, doubtless, show you their family
+tree, tracing their ancestry back to the Mayflower.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] This passage was written just before the assassination of President
+McKinley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE AMERICAN MAN
+
+
+Hash--and I do not mean by this word a corruption of hasheesh--is a term
+indicating in America a food formed of more than one article chopped and
+cooked together. I was told by a very witty and charming lady that hash
+was a synonym for _E pluribus unum_ (one from many), the motto of the
+Government, but I did not find it on the American arms. This was an
+American "dinner joke," of which more anon; nevertheless, hash
+represents the American people of to-day. The millions of all nations,
+which have swarmed here since 1492, may be represented by this
+delectable dish, which, after all, has a certain homogeneity. Englishmen
+are at once recognized here, and so are Chinamen. You would never
+mistake one of our people for a Japanese; an Italian you would know
+across the way; but an American not always in America. He may be a
+Swede, a German, or a Canadian; he is not an American until he opens his
+mouth. Then there is no mistake as to what he is. He has a nasal tone
+that is purely American.
+
+All the old cities, as Boston, New York, Richmond, and Philadelphia,
+have certain nasal peculiarities or variants. The Bostonian affects the
+English. The New Englander, especially in the north, has a comical
+twang, which you can produce by holding the nose tightly and attempting
+to speak. When he says _down_ it sounds like _daoun_. It is impossible
+for him not to overvowel his words, and nothing is more amusing than to
+hear the true Yankee countryman talk. The Philadelphian is quite as
+marked in tone and enunciation. A well-educated Philadelphian will say
+where is _me_ wife for _my_. I have also been asked by a Philadelphian,
+"Where are you going at?" It would be impossible to mistake the
+intonation of a Philadelphian, even though you met him in the wilds of
+Manchuria in the depths of night.
+
+Among the most charming and delightfully cultured people I met in
+America were Philadelphians of old families. The New Yorker is more
+cosmopolitan, while the Southern men, to a certain extent, have caught
+the inflection of the negro, who is the nurse in the South for all white
+children. The Americans are taught that the principal and chief end of
+man is to make a fortune and get married; but to accomplish this it is
+necessary first to "sow wild oats," become familiar with the vices of
+drink, smoking, and other forms of dissipation, a sort of test of
+endurance possibly, such as is found among many native races; yet one
+scarcely expects to find it among the latest and highest exponents of
+perfection in the human race.
+
+The American pretends to be democratic; scoffs at England and other
+European lands, but at heart he is an aristocrat. His tastes are only
+limited by his means, and not always then. Any American, especially a
+politician, will tell you that there is but one class--the people, and
+that all are born equal. In point of fact, there are as many classes as
+there are grades of pronounced individuality, and all are very unequal,
+as every one knows. They are included in a general way in three classes:
+the upper class (the refined and cultivated); the middle class
+(represented by the retail shop-keepers); and last, the rest. The cream
+of society will be found in all the cities to be among the professional
+men, clergymen, presidents of colleges, long-rich wholesale merchants,
+judges, authors, etc.
+
+The distinctions in society are so singular that it is almost impossible
+for a foreigner to understand them. There are persons who make it a life
+study to prepare books and papers on the subject, and whose opinions are
+readily accepted; yet such a person might not be accepted in the best
+society. What constitutes American society and its divisions is a
+mystery. In a general sense a retail merchant, a man who sold shoes or
+clothes, a tailor, would under no circumstances find a place in the
+first social circles; yet if these same tradesmen should change to
+wholesalers and give up selling one article at a time, they would become
+eligible to the best society. They do not always get in, however. At a
+dinner my neighbor, an attractive matron, was much dismayed by my
+asking if she knew a certain Mr. ----, a well-known grocer. "I believe
+our supplies (groceries) come from him," was her chilly reply. "But," I
+ventured, "he is now a wholesaler." "Indeed!" said madam; "I had not
+heard of it." The point, very inconceivable to you, perhaps, was that
+the grocer, whether wholesale or retail, was not readily accepted; yet
+the man in the wholesale business in drugs, books, wine, stores, fruit,
+or almost anything else, had the _entree_, if he was a gentleman. The
+druggist, the hardware man, the furniture dealer, the grocer, the
+retailer would constitute a class by themselves, though of course there
+are other subtle divisions completely beyond my comprehension.
+
+At some of the homes of the first people I would meet a president of a
+university, an author of note, an Episcopal bishop, a general of the
+regular army (preferably a graduate of the West Point Academy), several
+retired merchants of the highest standing, bankers, lawyers, a judge or
+two of the Supreme Bench, an admiral of good family and connections. I
+have good reason to think that a Methodist bishop would not be present
+at such a meeting unless he was a remarkable man. There were always a
+dozen men of well-known lineage; men who knew their family history as
+far back as their great-grandparents, and whose ancestors were
+associated with the history of the country and its development. The men
+were all in business or the professions. They went to their offices at
+nine or ten o'clock and remained until twelve; lunched at their clubs or
+at a restaurant, returned at one, and many remained until six before
+going to their homes. The work is intense. A dominating factor or
+characteristic in the American man is his pursuit of the dollar. That he
+secures it is manifest from the miles of beautiful residences, the show
+of costly equipages and plate, the unlimited range of "stores" or shops
+one sees in large cities. The millionaire is a very ordinary individual
+in America; it is only the billionaire who now really attracts
+attention. The wealth and splendors of the homes, the magnificent _tout
+ensemble_ of these establishments, suggests the possibility of
+degeneracy, an appearance of demoralization; but I am assured that this
+is not apparent in very wealthy families.
+
+It is not to be understood that wealth always gives social position in
+America. By reading the American papers you might believe that this is
+all that is necessary. Some wealth is of course requisite to enable a
+family to hold its own, to give the social retort courteous, to live
+according to the mode of others; yet mere wealth will not buy the
+_entree_ to the very best society, even in villages. Culture,
+refinement, education, and, most important, _savoir faire_, constitute
+the "open sesame." I know a billionaire, at least this is his
+reputation, who has no standing merely because he is vulgar--that is,
+ill-bred. I have met another man, a great financier, who would give a
+million to have the _entree_ to the very best houses. Instances could be
+cited without end.
+
+Such men and women generally have their standing in Europe; in a word,
+go abroad for the position they can not secure at home. A family now
+allied to one of the proudest families in Europe had absolutely no
+position in America previous to the alliance, and doubtless would not
+now be taken up by some. You will understand that I am speaking now of
+the most exclusive American society, formed of families who have age,
+historical associations, breeding, education, great-grandparents, and
+always have had "manners." There are other social sets which pass as
+representative society, into which all the ill-mannered _nouveau riche_
+can climb by the golden stairs; but this is not real society. The
+richest man in America, Rockefeller, quoted at over a billion, is a
+religious worker, and his indulgences consist in gifts to universities.
+Another billionaire, Mr. Carnegie, gives his millions to found
+libraries. Mr. Morgan, the millionaire banker, attends church
+conventions as an antipodal diversion. There is no conspicuous
+millionaire before the American public who has earned a reputation for
+extreme profligacy.
+
+There is a leisure class, the sons of wealthy men, who devote their time
+to hunting and other sports; but in the recent war this class surged to
+the front as private soldiers and fought the country's battles. I admire
+the American gentleman of the select society class I have described. He
+is modest, intelligent, learned in the best sense, magnanimous, a type
+of chivalry, bold, vigorous, charming as a host, and the soul of honor.
+It is a regret that this is not the dominating and best-known class in
+America, but it is not; and the alien, the stranger coming without
+letters of introduction, would fall into other hands. A man might live a
+lifetime in Philadelphia or Boston and never meet these people, unless
+he had been introduced by some one who was of the same class in some
+other city. Such strange social customs make strange bedfellows. Thus,
+if you came to America to-day and had letters to the Vice-President, you
+would, without doubt, if properly accredited, see the very best
+society. If, on the other hand, you had letters to the President at his
+home in the State of Ohio you would doubtless meet an entirely different
+class, eminently respectable, yet not the same. It would be impossible
+to ignore the inference from this. The Vice-President is in society (the
+best); the President is not. Where else could this hold? Nowhere but in
+America.
+
+The Americans affect to scorn caste and sect, yet no nation has more of
+them. Sets or classes, even among men, are found in all towns where
+there is any display of wealth. The best society of a small town
+consists of its bank presidents, its clergymen, its physicians, its
+authors, its lawyers. No matter how educated the grocer may be, he will
+not be received, nor the retail shoe dealer, though the shoe
+manufacturer, the dealer in many shoes, may be the virtual leader, at
+least among the men. Each town will have its clubs, the members ranging
+according to their class; and while it seems a paradox, it is true that
+this classification is mainly based upon the refinement, culture, and
+family of the man. A well-known man once engaged me in conversation with
+a view to finding out some facts regarding our social customs, and I
+learned from him that a dentist in America would scarcely be received in
+the best society. He argued, that to a man of refinement and culture,
+such a profession, which included the cleaning of teeth, would be
+impossible; consequently, you would not be likely to find a really
+cultivated man who was a dentist. On the same grounds an undertaker
+would not be admitted to the first society.
+
+With us a gentleman is born; with Americans it is possible to create
+one, though rarely. An American gentleman is described as a product of
+two generations of college men who have always had association with
+gentlemen and the advantages of family standing. Political elevation can
+not affect a man's status as a gentleman. I heard a lady of unquestioned
+position say that she admired President McKinley, but regretted that he
+was not a gentleman. She meant that he was not an aristocrat, and did
+not possess the _savoir faire_, or the family associations, that
+completely round out the American or English gentleman. I asked this
+lady to indicate the gentlemen Presidents of the country. There were
+very few that I recall. There were Washington, Harrison, Adams, and
+Arthur. Doubtless there were others, which have escaped me. Lincoln, the
+strongest American type, she did not consider in the gentlemen class,
+and General Grant, the nation's especial pride, did not fulfil her
+ideas of what a gentleman should be.
+
+You will perceive, then, that what some American people consider a
+gentleman and what its most exclusive society accepts for one, comprise
+two entirely different personages. I found this emphasized especially in
+the old society of Washington, which takes its traditions from
+Washington's time or even the pre-Revolutionary period. For such society
+a self-made man was impossible. Such are the remarkable, indeed
+astounding, ramifications of the social system of a people who cry to
+heaven of their democracy. "Americans are all equal--this is one of the
+gems in our diadem." This epigram I heard drop from the lips of a
+senator who was the recognized aristocrat of the chamber; yet a man of
+peculiar social reserve, who would have nothing to do with the other
+"equals." In a word, all the talk of equality is an absurd figure of
+speech. America is at heart as much an aristocracy as England, and the
+social divisions are much the same under the surface.
+
+You will understand that social rules and customs are all laid down and
+exacted by women and from women. From them I obtained all my
+information. No American gentleman would talk (to me at least) on the
+subject. Ask one of them if there is an American aristocracy, and he
+will pass over the question in an engaging manner, and tell you that his
+government is based on the principle of perfect equality--one of the
+most transparent farces to be found in this interesting country. I have
+outlined to you what I conceived to be the best society in each city,
+and in the various sections of the country. In morality and probity I
+believe them to stand very high; lapses there may be, but the general
+tone is good. The women are charming and refined; the men chivalrous,
+brave, well-poised, and highly educated. Unfortunately, the Americans
+who compose this "set" are numerically weak. They are not represented to
+the extent of being a dominating body, and oddly enough, the common
+people, the shopkeepers, the people in the retail trades, do not
+understand them as leaders from the fact that they are so completely
+aloof that they never meet them. A sort of inner "holy of holies" is the
+real aristocracy of America. What goes for society among the people, the
+mob, and the press is the set (and a set means a faction, a clique)
+known as the Four Hundred, so named because it was supposed to represent
+the "blue blood" of New York ten years ago in its perfection. This Four
+Hundred has its prototype in all cities, and in some cities is known as
+the "fast set." In New York it is made up often of the descendants of
+old families, the heads of whom in many instances were retail traders
+within one hundred and fifty years ago; but the modern wealthy
+representatives endeavor to forget this or skip over it. It is, however,
+constantly kept alive by what is termed the "yellow press," which
+delights in picturing the ancestor of one family as a pedler and an
+itinerant trader, and the head of another family as a vegetable vender,
+and so on, literally venting its spleen upon them.
+
+In my studies in American sociology I asked many questions, and obtained
+the most piquant replies from women. One lady, a leader in New York in
+what I have termed the exclusive set, informed me with a laugh that the
+ancestor of a well-known family of to-day, one which cuts a commanding
+figure in society, was an ordinary laborer in the employ of her
+grandfather. "Yet you receive them?" I suggested. The reply was a shrug
+of charming shoulders, which, translated, meant that great wealth had
+here enabled them to "bore" into the exclusive circle. I found that even
+among these people, the _creme de la creme_ in the eyes of the people,
+there were inner circles, and these were not on intimate terms with the
+others. Here I met a member of the Washington and Lee family, a
+descendant of Bishop Provoost, the first Episcopal bishop of New York,
+and friend of Washington and Hamilton. This latter family is notable for
+an ancestry running back to the massacre of St. Bartholomew and even
+beyond. I astonished its charming descendant, who very delicately
+informed me that she knew her ancestry as far back as 1200 A. D., when I
+told her that I had my "family tree," as they call it, without a break
+for thirty-two hundred years. I am confident she did not believe me, but
+her "Indeed!" was delightful. In fact, I assure you I have lost my heart
+to these American women. I met representatives of the Adams, Dana,
+Madison, Lee, and other families identified with American history in a
+most honorable way.
+
+The continuity of the Four Hundred idea as a logical system was broken
+by the quality of some of its members. Compared to the society I have
+previously mentioned it was as chaff. There was a total lack of
+intellectuality. Degeneracy marked some of their acts; divorce blackened
+their records, and shameless affairs marked them. In this "set," and
+particularly its imitators throughout the United States, the divorce
+rate is appalling. Men leave their wives and obtain a divorce for no
+other reason than that a woman falls in love with another woman's
+husband. On a yacht we will say there is some scandal. A divorce ensues,
+and afterward the parties are remarried. Or we will say a wife succumbs
+to the blandishments of another man. The conjugal arrangements are
+rearranged, so that, as a very merry New York club man told me, "It is
+difficult to tell where you are at." In a word, the morale of the men of
+this set is low, their standard high, but not always lived up to. I
+believe that I am not doing the American of the middle class wrong and
+the ultra-fashionable class an injustice in saying that it is as a class
+immoral.
+
+Americans make great parade of their churches. Spires rise like the
+pikes of an army in every town, yet the morality of the men is low.
+There are in this land 600,000 prostitutes--ruined women. But this is
+not due entirely to the Four Hundred, whose irregularities appear to be
+confined to inroads upon their own set. Nearly all these men are club
+men; two-thirds are in business as brokers, bankers, or professional
+men; and there is a large percentage of men of leisure and vast wealth.
+They affect English methods, and are, as a rule, not highly intelligent,
+but _blase_, often effeminate, an interesting spectacle to the student,
+showing that the downfall of the American Republic would come sooner
+than that of Rome if the "fast set" were a dominating force, which it is
+not.
+
+In the great middle class of the American men I find much to admire;
+half educated, despite their boasted school system, they put up, to
+quote one of them, "a splendid bluff" of respectability and morality,
+yet their statistics give the lie to it. Their divorces are phenomenal,
+and they are obtained on the slightest cause. If a man or woman becomes
+weary of the other they are divorced on the ground of incompatibility of
+temper.
+
+A lady, a descendant of one of the oldest families, desired to marry her
+friend's husband. He charged his wife with various vague acts, one of
+which, according to the press, was that she did not wear "corsets"--a
+sort of steel frame which the American women wear to compress the waist.
+This was not accepted by the learned judge, and the wife then left her
+husband and went away on a six or eight months' visit. This enabled the
+husband to put in a claim of desertion, and the decree of divorce was
+granted. A quicker method is to pretend to throw the breakfast dishes at
+your wife, who makes a charge of "extreme incompatibility," and a
+divorce is at once obtained. Certain Territories bank on their divorce
+laws, and the mismated have but to go there and live a few months to
+obtain a separation on almost any claim. Many of the most distinguished
+statesmen have been charged with certain moral lapses in the heat of
+political fights, which, in almost every instance, are ignored by the
+victims, their silence being significant to some, illogical to others;
+yet the fact remains that the press goes to the greatest extremes. No
+family secret is considered sacred to the American politician in the
+heat of a campaign; to win, he would sacrifice the husband, father,
+mother, and children of his enemy. So remarkable is the rage for divorce
+that many of the great religious denominations have taken up arms
+against it. Catholics forbid it. Episcopalians resent it by ostracism if
+the cause is trivial, and a "separation" is denounced in the pulpit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AMERICAN CUSTOMS
+
+
+The American is an interesting, though not always pleasant, study. His
+perfect equipoise, his independence, his assumption that he is the best
+product of the best soil in the world, comes first as a shock; but when
+you find this but one of the many national characteristics it merely
+amuses you. One of the extraordinary features of the American is his
+attitude toward the Chinese, who are taken on sufferance. The lower
+classes absolutely can conceive of no difference between me and the
+"coolie." As an example, a boy on the street accosts me with "Hi, John,
+you washee, washee?" Even a representative in Congress insisted on
+calling me "John." On protesting to another man, he laughed, and said,
+"Oh, the man don't know any better." "But," I replied, "if he does not
+know any better how is it he is a lawmaker in your lower house?" "I give
+it up," was his answer, and he ordered what they term a "high-ball."
+After we had tried several, he laughed and asked, "Shall we consider the
+matter a closed incident?" Many diplomatic, social, and political
+questions are often settled with a "high-ball."
+
+It is inconceivable to the average American that there can be an
+educated Chinese gentleman, a man of real refinement. They know us by
+the Cantonese laundrymen, the class which ranks with their lowest
+classes. At dinners and receptions I was asked the most atrocious
+questions by men and women. One charming young girl, who I was informed
+was the relative of a Cabinet officer, asked me if I would not sometime
+put up my "pig-tail," as she wished to photograph me. Another asked if
+it was really true that we privately considered all Americans as "white
+devils." All had an inordinate curiosity to know my "point of view";
+what I thought of them, how their customs differed from my own. Of
+course, replies were manifestly impossible. At a dinner a young man,
+who, I learned, was a sort of professional diner-out, remarked to a
+lady: "None of the American girls will have me for a husband; do you not
+think that if I should go to China some pretty Chinese girl would have
+me?" This was said before all the company. Every one was silent, waiting
+for the response. Looking up, she replied, with charming _naivete_, "No,
+I do not think so," which produced much laughter. Now you would have
+thought the young man would have been slightly discomfited, but not at
+all; he laughed heartily, and plumed himself upon the fact that he had
+succeeded in bringing out a reply.
+
+American men have a variety of costumes for as many occasions. They have
+one for the morning, which is called a sack-coat, that is, tailless, and
+is of mixed colors. With this they wear a low hat, an abomination called
+the derby. After twelve o'clock the frock-coat is used, having long
+tails reaching to the knees. Senators often wear this costume in the
+morning--why I could not learn, though I imagine they think it is more
+dignified than the sack. With the afternoon suit goes a high silk hat,
+called a "plug" by the lower classes, who never wear them. After dark
+two suits of black are worn: one a sack, being informal, the other with
+tails, very formal. They also have a suit for the bath--a robe--and a
+sleeping-costume, like a huge bag, with sleeves and neck-hole. This is
+the night-shirt, and formerly a "nightcap" was used by some. There is
+also a hat to go with the evening costume--a high hat, which crushes in.
+You may sit on it without injury to yourself or hat. I know this by a
+harrowing experience.
+
+Many of the customs of the Americans are strange. Their social life
+consists of dinners, receptions, balls, card-parties, teas, and smokers.
+At all but the last women are present. At the dinner every one is in
+evening dress; the men wear black swallowtail coats, following the
+English in every way, low white vest, white starched shirt, white collar
+and necktie, and black trousers. If the dinner does not include women
+the coat-tails are eliminated, and the vest and necktie are black.
+Exactly why this is I do not understand, nor do the Americans. The
+dinner is begun with the national drink, the "cocktail"; then follow
+oysters on the half-shell, which you eat with an object resembling the
+trident carried in the ceremony of Ah Dieu at the Triennial. Each course
+of the dinner is accompanied by a different wine, an agreeable but
+exhilarating custom. The knife and fork are used, the latter to go into
+the mouth, the former not, and here you see a singular ethnologic
+feature. Class distinctions may at times be recognized by the knife or
+fork. Thus I was informed that you could at once recognize a person of
+the gentleman class by his use of the knife and fork. "This is
+infallible," said my young lady companion. If he is a commoner, he eats
+with his knife; if a gentleman, with his fork. This was a very nice
+distinction, and I looked carefully for a knife eater, but never saw
+one.
+
+There is a vast amount of ceremony and etiquette about a dinner and
+various rules for eating, to break which is a social offense. I heard
+that a certain Madam ---- gave lessons in "good form" after the American
+fashion, so that one could learn what was expected, and at my first
+dinner I regretted that I had not availed myself of the services of the
+lady, as at each plate there were nearly a dozen solid silver articles
+to be used in the different courses, but I endeavored to escape by
+watching my companion and following her example. But here the
+impossibility of an American girl resisting a joke caused my downfall.
+She at once saw my dilemma, and would take up the wrong implement, and
+when I followed suit she dropped it and took another, laughing in her
+eyes in a way in which the American girl is a prodigious adept; but
+completely deceived by her nearly every time, knowing that she was
+amusing herself at my expense, I said nothing. The Americans have a
+peculiar term for the mental attitude I had during this trial. I "sawed
+wood." The saying was particularly applicable to my situation. My young
+companion was most engaging, and presently began to talk of the
+superiority of America, her inventions, etc., mentioning the telephone,
+printing, and others. "Yes, wonderful," I replied; "but the Chinese had
+the telephone ages ago. They invented printing, gunpowder, the mariner's
+compass, and it would be difficult," I said, "for you to mention an
+object which China has not had for ages." She was amazed that I, a
+Chinaman, should "claim everything in sight."
+
+There is a peculiar etiquette relating to every course in a dinner. The
+soup is eaten with a bowl-like spoon, and it is the grossest breach to
+place this in your mouth, or approach it, endwise. You approach the
+side and suck the soup from it. To make a noise would attract attention.
+The etiquette of the fish is to eat it with a fork; to use the knife
+even to cut the fish would be unpardonable, or to touch it to take out
+the bones; the fork alone must be used. The punch course is often an
+embarrassment to the previous wines, and is followed by what the French
+call the _entree_. In fact, while the Americans boast that everything
+American is the best, French customs are followed at banquets
+invariably, this being one of the strange inconsistencies of the
+Americans. Their clothes are copied from the English, though they will
+claim in the same breath that their tailors are the best in the world.
+For wines they claim to be unsurpassed, producing the finest; yet the
+wines on their tables are French or bear French labels. Game is
+served--a grouse or perhaps a hare, and then a vast roast, possibly
+venison, or beef, and there are vegetables, followed by a salad of some
+kind. Then comes the dessert--an iced cream, cakes, nuts, raisins,
+cheese, and coffee with brandy, and then cigars and vermuth or some
+cordial. After such a dinner of three hours a Southern gentleman clapped
+me on the back and said, "Great dinner, that; but let's go and get a
+drink of something solid," and I saw him take what he termed "two
+fingers" of Kentucky Bourbon whisky--a very stiff drink. I often
+wondered how the guests could stand so much.
+
+The dinner has no attendant amusement, no dancing, no professional
+entertainers, and rarely lasts over two hours. Some houses have stringed
+bands concealed behind barriers of flowers playing soft music, but in
+the main the dinner is a jollification, a symposium of stories, where
+the guests take a turn at telling tales. Story-tellers can not be hired,
+and the guest at the proper moment says (after having prepared himself
+beforehand), "That reminds me of a story," and he relates what he has
+learned with great _eclat_ and applause, as every American will applaud
+a good story, even if he has heard it time and again. At one dinner
+which I attended in New York story-telling had been going on for some
+time when a well-known man came in late. He was received with applause,
+and when called on for a speech told exactly the same story, by a
+strange coincidence, that had been told by the last speaker. Not a guest
+interfered; he was allowed to proceed, and at the end the point was
+greeted with a roar of laughter. This appeared to me to be an excellent
+quality in the American character. I was informed that these stories,
+forming so important a feature of American dinners, are the product
+mainly of drummers and certain prominent men; but why men that drum are
+more skilful in story inventing I failed to learn. President Lincoln and
+a lawyer named Daniel Webster originated a large percentage of the
+current stories. It is difficult to understand exactly what the
+Americans mean.
+
+The American story is incomprehensible to the average foreigner, but it
+is good form to laugh. I will relate several as illustrative of American
+wit, and I might add that many of these have been published in books for
+the benefit of the diner-out. A Cabinet minister told of a prisoner who
+was called to the bar and asked his name. The man had some impediment in
+his speech, one of the hundred complaints of the tongue, and began to
+hiss, uttering a strange stuttering sound like escaping steam. The
+judge listened a few moments, then turning to the guard said, "Officer,
+what is this man charged with?" "Soda-water, I think, your honor," was
+the reply. This was unintelligible to me until my companion explained
+it. You must understand that soda-water is a drink that is charged with
+gas and makes a hissing, spluttering noise when opened. Hence when the
+judge asked what the prisoner was charged with the policeman, an
+Irishman, retorted with a joke, the story-teller disregarding the fact
+that it was an impertinence.
+
+A distinguished New York judge told the following: Two tenement
+harridans look out of their windows simultaneously. "Good-morning, Mrs.
+Moriarity," says one. "Good-morning, Mrs. Gilfillan," says the other,
+adding, "not that I care a d----, but just to make conversation." This
+was considered wit of the sharpest kind, and was received with applause.
+In their stories the Americans spare neither age, sex, nor relatives.
+The following was related by a general of the army. He said he took a
+friend home to spend the night with him, the guest occupying the best
+room. When he came down in the morning he turned to the hostess and
+said, "Mrs. ----, that was excellent tooth-powder you placed at my
+disposal; can you give me the name of the maker?" The hostess fairly
+screamed. "What," she exclaimed, "the powder in the urn?" "Yes," replied
+the officer, startled; "was it poison?" "Worse, worse," said she; "you
+swallowed Aunt Jane!" Conceive of this wretched taste. The guest had
+actually cleaned his teeth with the cremated dust of the general's aunt;
+yet he told the story before a dinner assemblage, and it was received
+with shouts of laughter.
+
+I did not hear the intellectual conversation at dinner I had expected.
+Art, science, literature, were rarely touched upon, although I
+invariably met artists, litterateurs, and scientific men at these
+dinners. They all talked small talk or "told stories." I was informed
+that if I wished to hear the weighty questions of the day discussed I
+must go to the women's clubs, or to Madam ----'s Current Topics Society.
+The latter is an extraordinary affair, where society women who have no
+time to read the news of the day listen to short lectures on the news of
+the preceding week, discussed pro and con, giving these women in a
+nutshell material for intelligent conversation when they meet senators
+and other men at the various receptions before which they wish to make
+an agreeable impression.
+
+The American has many clubs, but is not entirely at home in them. He
+uses them as places in which to play poker or whist, to dine his men
+friends, and in a great measure because it is the "proper thing." At
+many a room is set apart for the national game of poker--a fascinating
+game to the player who wins. Poker was never mentioned in my presence
+that some did not make a joke on a supposed Chinaman named Ah Sin; but
+the obscurity of the joke and my lack of knowledge regarding American
+literature caused the point to elude me at first, which was true of many
+jokes. The Americans are preeminently practical jokers, and the ends to
+which they go is beyond belief. I heard of jokes which, if perpetrated
+in China, would have resulted in the loss of some one's head. To
+illustrate this, in the Spanish-American War the camps at Tampa were
+besieged with newspaper reporters, and one from a large journal was
+constantly trying to secure secret news by entertaining certain officers
+with wine and cigars; so they determined to get rid of his
+importunities, and what is known as a "job" in America was "put up" on
+him. He was told that Colonel ---- had a detailed map of the forthcoming
+battle, and if he could get the officer intoxicated he doubtless could
+secure the map. This looked very easy to the correspondent, so the story
+goes, and he dropped into the colonel's tent one night with a basket of
+wine, and began to celebrate its arrival from some friends. Soon the
+colonel pretended to become communicative, and the map was brought out
+and finally loaned to the correspondent under the promise that it would
+not be used. This was sufficient. The correspondent hied him to his
+tent, wrote an article and sent the map to his paper in one of the
+large cities, where it was duly published. It proved to be what
+dressmakers call a "Butterick pattern," a maze of lines for cutting out
+dresses for women. The lines looked like roads, and the practical jokers
+had merely added towns and forts and bridges here and there.
+
+The Americans are excellent parents, though small families are general.
+The domestic life is charming. The family is denied nothing needed, the
+only limit being the purse of the head of the family, so called, the
+real head in many cases being the wife, who does not fail to assert
+herself if the proper occasion opens. Well-to-do families have every
+luxury, and no nation is apparently so well off, so completely supplied
+with the necessities of life as the American. One is impressed by their
+business sagacity, their cleverness in finance, their complete grasp of
+all questions, yet no people are easier gulled or more readily
+victimized. An instance will suffice. In making my investigations
+regarding methods of managing railroads, I not only obtained information
+from the road officials, but questioned the employees whenever it
+happened that I was traveling. One day, observing that it was the custom
+to "tip" the porters (give money), I asked the conductor what the men
+were paid. "Little or nothing," was the reply; "they get from
+seventy-five to one hundred dollars a month out of the _passengers_ on a
+long run." "But the passengers paid the road for the service?" "Yes, and
+they pay the salary of the porter also," said the man. With that in view
+the men are poorly paid, and the railroad knows that the people will
+make up their salaries, as they do. If you refused you would have no
+service.
+
+This rule holds everywhere, in hotels and restaurants. Servants receive
+little pay where the patronage is rich, with the understanding that they
+will make it up out of the customers. Thus if you go to a hotel you fee
+the bell-boy for bringing you a glass of water. If you order one of the
+seductive cocktails you fee the man who brings it; you fee the
+chambermaid who attends to your room. Infinite are the resources of
+these servants who do not receive a fee. You fee the elevator or lift
+boy, or he will take the opportunity to jerk you up as though shot out
+of a gun. You fee the porter for taking up your trunk, and give a
+special fee for unstrapping it. You fee the head waiter, and when you
+fee the table waiter he whispers in your ear that a slight fee will be
+acceptable to the cook, who will see that the _Count_ or the _Judge_
+will be cared for as becomes his station. When you leave, the sidewalk
+porter expects a fee; if he does not receive it the door of the carriage
+may possibly be slammed on the tail of your coat. Then you pay the
+cabman two dollars to carry you to the station, and fee him. Arriving at
+the station, he hands you over to a red-hatted porter, who carries your
+baggage for a fee. He puts you in charge of the railroad porter, who is
+feed at the rate of about fifty cents per diem.
+
+The American submits to this robbery without a murmur; yet he is
+sagacious, prudent. I can only explain his gullibility on the ground of
+his innate snobbery; he thinks it is the "thing to do," and does it, and
+for this reason it is carried to the most merciless lengths. To
+illustrate. In the season of 1902, when I was at Newport, Mr. ----, a
+conspicuous member of the New York smart set, known as the "Four
+Hundred," lost his hat in some way and rode to his home without one.
+The ubiquitous reporter saw him, and photographed him, bareheaded, and
+his paper, the New York ----, gave a column the following day to a
+description of the new fad of going without a hat. Thus the fashion
+started, and the amazing spectacle was seen the summer following of men
+and women of fashion riding and walking for miles without hats. This is
+beyond belief, yet it attracted no attention from the common people, who
+perhaps got the cast-off hats. Despite this, the Americans are
+hard-fisted, shrewd, and as a nation a match for any in the field of
+cunning.
+
+I can explain it in no way than by assuming that it is due to
+overanxiety to do the correct thing. Their own actors satirize them, one
+especially taking them off in a jingle which read, "It's English, quite
+English, you know." It is said of the men of the "Four Hundred" that
+they turn up their trousers when it rains in London, special reports of
+the weather being sent to the clubs for the purpose; but I cannot vouch
+for this. I have seen the trousers turned up in all weathers, and found
+no one who could explain why he did so. What can you make of so
+contradictory a people?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE AMERICAN WOMAN
+
+
+The most remarkable feature of America is the women. Divest your mind of
+any woman you know in order to prepare yourself to receive my
+impressions. To begin with, the American woman ranks with her husband;
+indeed, she is his superior in that all men render her homage and
+deference. It is accounted a point of chivalry to stand as the defender
+of the weaker sex. The American girl is educated with the boys in the
+public school, grows up with them, and studies their studies, that she
+may be their intellectual equal, and there is a strong party, led by
+masculine women, who contend for complete political rights for women.
+In some States they vote, and in nearly all may be elected to boards of
+various kinds and to minor offices. The Government departments are
+filled with women clerks, and all, from the lowest to the highest, are
+equal; hence, it is a difficult matter to find a native-born American
+who will become a servant. They all aspire to be ladies, and even aliens
+become salesladies, cook ladies, laundry ladies. They are on their
+dignity, and able to protect it from any point of attack.
+
+The lower classes are particularly uninteresting, for they have no
+individuality, and ape the class above them, the result being a cheap,
+ludicrous imitation of a lady--an absurd abstraction. The women of the
+lower classes who are unmarried work in shops, factories, and
+restaurants, often in situations the reverse of sanitary; yet prefer
+this to good situations in families as servants, service being beneath
+their dignity and tending to disturb the balance of equality. I doubt if
+a native-born woman would permit herself to be called a servant; indeed,
+all the servants are Irish, Swedes, Norwegians, French, German, or
+negroes; the American girls fill the factories and the sweat-shops of
+the great cities. When I refer these girls to the lower classes it is
+merely to classify them, as morally and intellectually they are
+sometimes the equal of the higher classes. The middle-class women or
+girls are an attractive type, well educated and often beautiful. You
+obtain an idea of them in the great shops and bazaars of the great
+cities, where they fill every conceivable position and receive from five
+to six dollars per week.
+
+But it is with the higher classes that you will be most interested, and
+when I say that the American girl, the product of the first families,
+is at once beautiful, refined, cultured, charming physically and
+mentally, I have but faintly expressed it; yet the most pronounced
+characteristic is their "daring," or temerity. There is no word exactly
+to cover it. I frequently met women at dinners. With few exceptions, it
+appears impossible for the American girl to take one of our race, an
+Oriental, seriously. She can not conceive that he may be a man of
+intelligence and education, and I can not better describe her than to
+sketch in its detail a dinner to which I was invited by the ---- at
+Washington. The invitation was engraved on a small card and read "The
+---- and Mrs. ---- request the honor of the presence of the ---- at
+dinner on Wednesday at eight o'clock, etc." I immediately sent my valet
+with an acceptance and a basket of orchids to the hostess, this being
+the mode among the men who are _au fait_.
+
+A week later I went to the dinner, and was taken up to the dressing-room
+for men, where I found a dozen or more, all in the conventional evening
+dress I have described--now with tails, it being a ladies' affair. In a
+corner was a table, and by it stood a negro, also in a dress suit,
+identical with that of the others. I was cordially greeted by a guest,
+who said, "Let me introduce you to our American minister to Ijiji and
+Zanzibar," and he presented me to the tall negro, who was turning out
+some bottled "cocktail." I shook hands with him, and he laughed, showing
+a set of teeth like an elephant's tusks, and asked me "what I would
+have." He was a servant dealing out "appetizers," and this was an
+American joke. The perpetrator of this joke was a minor official in the
+State Department, yet the entire party apparently considered it a good
+joke. Fortunately, I could disguise my real feeling, and I merely relate
+the incident to give you an idea of the sense of the proprieties as
+entertained by certain Americans. All that winter the story of the
+American minister to Zanzibar was told at my expense without doubt.
+
+Having been "fortified," and some of the men took two or three
+"cocktails" before they became "tuned up," we went down to the
+drawing-room, where I paid my respects to the host and hostess, who
+stood at the end of a beautiful room. As I approached the lady greeted
+me with a charming smile, extending her gloved hand almost on a direct
+line with her face, grasping it firmly, not shaking it, saying, "Very
+kind of you, ----. Delighted, I am sure. General"--turning to her
+husband--"you know the ----, of course," and the general shook my hand
+as he would a pump-handle, and whispered, "Our minister to Zanzibar
+treated you all right, eh?" and with a wink indescribable, closing the
+right eye for a second, passed me on. The story had got down-stairs
+before me. Americans of the official class have, as a rule, an absolute
+lack of _savoir faire_ and social refinement; lack them so utterly as to
+become comical.
+
+I now joined other groups of officers and officials, there being about
+thirty guests, half of whom were ladies. The latter were all in what is
+termed full dress. Why "full" I do not know. Here you see one of the
+most extraordinary features of American life--the dress of women. The
+Americans make claim to being among the most modest, the most religious,
+the most proper people in the world, yet the appearance of the ladies
+at many public functions is beyond belief. All the women in this house
+were beautiful and covered with jewels. They wore gowns in the French
+court fashion, with trains a yard or two in length, but the upper part
+cut so low that a large portion of the neck and shoulders was exposed. I
+was embarrassed beyond expression; such an exhibition in China could
+only be made by a certain class. These matrons were of the highest
+respectability. This remarkable custom of a strange people, who deluge
+China with missionaries from every sect under the sun and at home commit
+the grossest solecisms, is universal, and not thought of as improper.
+There was not much opportunity for introspective analysis, yet I could
+not but believe that such a custom must have its moral effect upon a
+nation in the long run.
+
+It was a mystery to me how the upper part of some of the gowns was
+supported. In some instances there was no strap over the shoulders, the
+upper third of these alabaster torsos and arms being absolutely naked,
+save for a band of pearls, diamonds, or other gems, of a size rarely
+seen in the Orient; but I learned later that the bone or steel corset,
+which molds the form, constituted the support of the gown. I gradually
+became habituated to the custom, and did not notice it. My friend ----,
+an artist of repute, explained that it all depends on the point of view.
+"Our people are essentially artistic," he said. "There is nothing more
+beautiful than the divine female contour; the American women realize
+this, and sacrifice themselves at the altar of art." Yet the Americans
+are such jokers that exactly what my friend had in mind it was difficult
+to arrive at.
+
+After being presented to these marvelously arrayed ladies we passed
+into the dining-room, where I found myself with one of the most charming
+of divinities, a woman famous for her wit and literary success. I have
+described the typical dinner, so I need not repeat my words. My
+companion held the same extraordinary attitude toward me that all
+American women do; amused, half laughing, refusing absolutely to take me
+seriously, and probing me with so many absurd questions that I was
+forced to ask some very pointed ones, which only succeeded in making her
+laugh. The conversation proceeded something as follows: "I am charmed
+that I have fallen to your Highness." "Equally charmed," I replied; "but
+my rank does not admit the adjective you do me the honor to apply."
+"No?" was the answer. "Well, I'll wager you anything that when the
+butler pours your wine in the first course he will call you Count, and
+in the next Prince. You see, they become exhilarated as the dinner
+progresses. But tell me, how many wives have you in China, you look
+_very_ wicked?" Imagine this! But I rallied, and replied that I had
+none--a statement received with incredulity. Her next question was,
+"Have you ever been a highbinder?" Ministers of grace! and this from a
+people who profess to know more than any nation on earth! I explained
+that a highbinder ranked with a professional murderer in this country,
+whereupon she again laughed, and, turning to General ----, in a loud
+voice said, "General, I have been calling the ---- a highbinder," at
+which the company laughed at my expense. In China, as you know, a guest
+or a host would have killed himself rather than commit so gross a
+solecism; but this is America.
+
+The second course was oysters served in the shell, and my companion,
+assuming that I had never seen an oyster [ignorant that our fathers ate
+oysters thousands of years before America was heard of and when the
+Anglo-Saxon was living in a cave], in a confidential and engaging
+whisper remarked, "This, your 'Highness,' is the only animal we eat
+alive." "Why alive?" I asked, looking as innocent as possible; "why not
+kill them?" "Oh, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
+will not permit it," was her reply. "You see, if they are swallowed
+alive they are immediately suffocated, but if you cut them up they
+suffer horribly while the soup is being served. How large a one do you
+think you can swallow?" Fancy the daring of a young girl to joke with a
+man twice her age in this way! I did not undeceive her, and allowed her
+to enlighten me on various subjects of contemporaneous interest. "It's
+so strange that the Chinese never study mathematics," she next remarked.
+"Why, all our public schools demand higher mathematics, and in the
+fourth grade you could not find a child but could square the circle."
+
+In this manner this volatile young savage entertained me all through the
+dinner, utterly superficial herself, yet possessed of a singular
+sharpness and wit, mostly at my expense; yet she was so charming I
+forgave her. There is no denying that you become enraged, insulted,
+chagrined by these women, who, however, by a look, dispel your
+annoyance. I do not understand it. I found that while an author of a
+novel she was grossly ignorant of the literature of her own country, yet
+she possessed that consummate American froth by which she could
+convince the average person that she was brilliant to the point of
+scintillation. I fancy that any keen, well-educated woman must have seen
+that I was laughing at her, yet so inborn was her belief that a Chinaman
+must be an imbecile that she was ever joking at my expense. The last
+story she told me illustrates the peculiar fancy for joking these women
+possess. I had been describing a storm at Manchester-by-the-Sea and the
+splendor of the ocean. "Did you see the tea-leaves?" she asked,
+solemnly. "No," I replied. "That is strange," she said. "I fear you are
+not very observing. After every storm the tea-leaves still wash up all
+along Massachusetts Bay," alluding to the fact that loads of tea on
+ships were tossed over by the Americans during the quarrel with England
+before the Revolution.
+
+The daring of the American woman impressed me. This same lady asked me
+not to remain with the men to smoke but go on the veranda with her,
+where _tete-a-tete_ she produced a gold cigarette-case and offered me a
+cigarette. This I found not uncommon. American women of the fast sets
+drink at the clubs; an insidious drink--the "high-ball"--is a common
+one, yet I never saw a woman under the influence of wine or liquor. The
+amount of both consumed in America, is amazing. The consumption per head
+in the United States for beer alone is ten and a half gallons for each
+of the eighty millions. My friend, a prohibitionist, a member of a
+political party whose object is to ruin the wine industry of the world,
+put it stronger, and, backed by facts, said that if the wine, beer,
+whisky, gin, and alcoholic drinks of all kinds and the tea and coffee
+drank yearly by the Americans could be collected it would make a lake
+two miles square and ten feet deep. The alcoholic drinks alone if
+collected would fill a canal one hundred miles long, one hundred feet
+wide, and ten feet deep. May their saints propitiate this insatiate
+thirst!
+
+It would amuse you to hear the American women of literary tendency boast
+of their schools, yet when educational facilities are considered the
+average American is ignorant. They are educated in lines. Thus a girl
+graduate will speak French with a good accent, or she will converse in
+Milwaukee German. She can prove her statement in conic sections or
+algebra, but when it comes to actual knowledge she is deficient. This is
+due to the ignorance of the teachers in the public schools and their
+lack of inborn culture. No better test of the futility of the American
+public-school education can be seen than the average girl product of
+the public school of the lower class in a city like Chicago or New York.
+Americans affect to despise Chinese methods because the Chinese girl or
+boy is not crammed with a thousand thoughts of no relative value. China
+has existed thousands of years; her people are happy; happiness and
+content are the chief virtues, and if China is ever overthrown it will
+be not because, as the Americans put it, she is behind the times, but
+because the fever of unrest and the craze for riches has become a
+contagion which will react upon her. The development of China is normal,
+that of America hysterical. Our growth has been along the line of peace;
+that of other nations has been entirely opposed to their own religious
+teaching, showing it to be farcical and pure sophistry.
+
+If I should tell you how many American women asked me why Chinese women
+bandage their feet you would be amazed; yet every one of these submitted
+to and practised a deformity that has seriously affected the growth and
+development of the race. I am no iconoclast, but listen to the story of
+the American woman who, with one hand, deforms her waist in the most
+barbarous fashion, while waving the other in horror at her Chinese
+sister with the bound feet. American women change their fashions twice a
+year or more. Fashions are in the hands of the middle classes, and the
+highest lady in the land is completely at their mercy; to disobey the
+mandates of fashion is to become ridiculous. The fashion is set in Paris
+and various cities by men and women who have skilled artists to draw
+patterns and paint pictures showing the new mode. These are published in
+certain papers and issued by millions, republished in America, and no
+woman here would have the temerity to ignore them. The laws of the Medes
+and Persians are not more inexorable.
+
+It is not a suggestion but an order, a fiat, a command, so we see this
+free nation really truckling to or dominated by a class of tradesmen.
+The object of the change of style is to create a sale for new goods,
+give work for laborers, and enable the producer to reach the pocketbook
+of the rich man; but the "fashions" have become so fixed, so thoroughly
+a national feature, that they affect rich and poor, and we have the
+spectacle of every woman studying these guides and conforming to them
+with a servility beyond belief. I once said to a lady, "The Chinese lady
+dresses richer than the American, but her styles have been very much the
+same for thousands of years," but I believe she doubted it. It would be
+futile, indeed impossible, for me to explain the extravagances of
+American fashion. Their own press and stage use it as a standard butt.
+At the present time tablets or plates of fashion insist upon an outline
+which shows the form completely, the antipodes of a Chinese woman; and
+this is intensified by some of the women who, when in the street, grasp
+the skirt and in an ingenious way wrap it about so that the outline of
+the American divinity is sufficiently well defined to startle one. Such
+a trick in China could but originate with the demimonde, yet it is taken
+up by certain of the Americans who are constantly seeking for variety.
+There can be no question but that the middle-class fashion designer
+revenges himself upon the _beau monde_. They will not receive him
+socially, so he forces them to wear his clothes.
+
+Some years ago women were made to wear "hoops," pictures of which I
+have seen in old publications. Imagine, if you can, a bird-cage three
+feet high and four feet across, formed of bone of the whale or some
+metal. This was worn beneath the dress, expanding it on either side so
+that it was difficult to approach a lady. A later order was given to
+wear a camel-like "hump" at the base of the vertebral column, which was
+called the "bustle"--a contrivance calculated to unnerve the wearer, not
+to speak of the looker-on; yet the American woman adopted it, distorted
+her body, and aped the gait of the kangaroo, the form being called the
+"Grecian bend." This lasted six months or more; first adopted by the
+aristocracy, then by the common people, and by the time the latter had
+it well in hand the _bon ton_ had cast it aside and were trying
+something else.
+
+A close study of this mad dressing shows that there is always a "hump."
+At one time it went all around; later appeared only behind, like an
+excrescence on a bilbol-tree. At the present time the designer has drawn
+his picture showing it as a pendent bag from the "shirtwaist," like the
+pouch of the bird pelican. A few years ago the designer, in a delirium,
+placed the humps on the tops of the sleeves, then snatched them away and
+tipped them upside down. Finally he appeared to go utterly mad with the
+desire to humiliate the woman, and created a fashion that entailed
+dragging the skirt on the ground from one to two feet.
+
+Did the American woman resent the insult; did she refuse to adopt a
+custom not only disgusting but really filthy, one that a Chinese lady
+would have died rather than have accepted? By no means; she seized upon
+it with the ardor of a child with a new toy, and for a year the
+side-paths of the great cities of the country were swept by women's
+skirts, clouds of dust following them. The press took up the question,
+but without effect; the fashion dragged its nauseating and frightful
+course from rich and poor, and I was told by an official that it was
+impossible to stop it or to force a glimmer of reason into the minds of
+these women. Then they gave it up, and passed a law making it a
+statutory offense, with heavy fines, for any one to "expectorate" on the
+sidewalk or anywhere else where the saliva could be swept up by the
+trains of the women of nearly all classes who followed the fashion. The
+American woman, as I have said, looks askance at the footgear of the
+Chinese--high, warm, dry, sanitary, yet revels in creations which cramp
+the feet and distort the anatomy. The shoes are made of leather,
+inflexible, pointed; and to enable them to deceive the men into the
+belief that they have high insteps (a sign of good blood here) the women
+wear stilt-like heels, which throw the foot forward and elevate the heel
+from two to three inches above the ground.
+
+But all this is but a bagatelle to the fashions in deformity which we
+find among nearly all American women. There are throughout the country
+numbers of large manufactories which make "corsets"--a peculiar waist
+and lung compressor, used by nearly every woman in America. These men
+are as dogmatic as the designers of the fashion-plates. They also issue
+plates or guides showing new changes, and the women, like sheep, adopt
+them. The American woman believes that a narrow waist enhances her
+beauty, and the corset-maker works upon the national weakness and builds
+creations that put to shame and ridicule the bound feet of the
+aristocratic Chinese woman. The corset is a lace and ribbon-decorated
+armor, made either of steel ribs or whale-bone, which fits the waist and
+clings to the hips. It is laced up, and the degree of tightness depends
+upon the will or nerve of the wearer. It compresses the heart and lungs,
+and wearing it is a most barbarous custom--a telling argument against
+the assumption of high intelligence on the part of the Americans, who,
+in this respect, rank with the flat-headed Indians of the northwest
+American coast, whose heads I have seen in their medical offices side by
+side with a diagram showing the abnormal conditions caused by the
+corset.
+
+A year ago the fiat went forth that the American woman must have wide
+hips. Presto! there appeared especially devised machinery, advertised in
+all the journals, accomplishing the condition for those whom nature had
+not well endowed. Now the dressmaker has decided that they must be
+narrow-hipped, and half a million dollars in false hips, rubber pads,
+and other properties are cast aside. No extravaganza is too absurd for
+these people who are abject slaves to the whimsicalities of the
+designer, who is a wag in his way, as has been well shown in a story
+told to me. The designers for a famous man dressmaker in Paris had a
+habit of taking sketches of the latest creations to their club meetings.
+One evening a clever caricaturist took a caricature of a fashion showing
+a woman with enormous and outlandish sleeves. It created a laugh. "As
+impossible as it is," said the artist, "I will wager a dinner that if I
+present it seriously to a certain fashion paper they will take it up."
+This is said to be the history of the "big-sleeve" fashion that really
+amazed the Americans themselves.
+
+The customs of women here are so at variance with those of China that
+they are not readily understood. Our ways are those culled from a
+civilization of thousands of years; theirs from one just beginning; yet
+they have the temerity to speak of China as effete and behind the times.
+In writing, the women affect the English round hand and write across
+from left to right, and then beginning at the left of the page again.
+They are fond of perfumes, especially the lower classes, and display a
+barbaric taste for jewels. It is not uncommon to see the wife of a
+wealthy man wear half a million pounds sterling in diamonds or rubies at
+the opera. I was told that one lady wore a $5,000 diamond in her garter.
+The utterly strange and contradictory customs of these women are best
+observed at the beach and bath. In China if a woman is modest she is so
+at all times; but this is not true with some Americans, who appear to
+have the desire to attract attention, especially that of men, by an
+appeal to the beautiful in nature and art; at least this is the
+impression the unprejudiced looker-on gains by a sojourn in the great
+cities and fashionable resorts. If you happen to be riding horseback, or
+walking in the street with a lady, and any accident occurs to her
+costume whereby her neck, her leg, or her ankle is exposed, she will be
+mortified beyond expression; yet the night previous you might have sat
+in the box with her at the opera, when her decollete gown had made her
+the mark for hundreds of lorgnettes. Again, this lady the next morning
+might bathe with me at the beach and lie on the sand basking in the sun
+like a siren in a costume that would arrest the attention of a St.
+Anthony.
+
+Let me describe such a costume: A pair of skin-tight black stockings,
+then a pair of tights of black silk and a flimsy black skirt that comes
+just to the knee; a black silk waist, armless, and as low in the neck as
+the moral law permits, beneath which, to preserve her contour, is a
+water-proof corset. Limbs, to expose which an inch on the street were a
+crime, are blazoned to the world at Newport, Cape May, Atlantic City,
+and other resorts, and often photographed and shown in the papers. To
+explain this manifest contradiction would be beyond the powers of an
+Oriental, had he the prescience of the immortal Confucius and the
+divination of a Mahomet and Hilliel combined.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE SUPERSTITIONS OF THE AMERICANS
+
+
+Among the many topics I have discussed with Americans, our alleged
+superstitions, or our belief in so-called dragons, genii, ghosts, etc.,
+seem to have made the deepest impression. A charming American woman,
+whom I met at the ---- Embassy at dinner, told me with seriousness that
+our people may be intelligent, but the fact that in San Francisco and
+Los Angeles they at certain times drag through the streets a dragon five
+hundred feet long to exorcise the evil spirits, showed that the Chinese
+were grossly superstitious. If I had told my companion that she was the
+victim of a thousand superstitions, she would have taken it as an
+affront, because, according to American usage, it is not proper to
+dispute with a lady. The Americans are the most superstitious people in
+the world. They will not sit down to a dinner-table when there are
+thirteen persons. No hostess would attempt such a thing, the belief
+being general that some one of the guests would die within a year. I was
+a guest at a dinner-party when a lady suddenly remarked, "We are
+thirteen." Several of the guests were evidently much annoyed, and the
+hostess, a most pleasing woman, apologized, and replied that she had
+invited fourteen, but one guest had failed her. It was apparent that
+something must be done, and this was cleverly solved by the hostess
+sending for her mother, who joined the party, and the dinner proceeded.
+I do not think _all_ the guests believed in this absurd superstition,
+but they were _all_ very uncomfortable. I do not believe I met a
+society woman in Washington or New York who would walk through a
+cemetery or graveyard at midnight alone. I asked several ladies if they
+would do this, and all were horrified at the idea, though strongly
+denying any belief in ghosts or spirits.
+
+In nearly every American city one or more houses may be found haunted by
+ghosts, which Americans believe have made the places so disagreeable
+that the houses have been in consequence deserted. So well-defined is
+the superstition, and so recurrent are the beliefs in ghosts and
+spirits, that the best-educated people have found it necessary to
+establish a society, called the Society for Psychical Research, in order
+to demonstrate that ghosts are not possible. I believe I am not
+overstepping the bounds when I say that this vainglorious people, who
+claim to have the finest public-school system in the world, are,
+considering their advantages, the most superstitious of all the white
+races. Out of perhaps thirty men, whom I asked, not one was willing to
+say he could pass through a graveyard at night without fear at heart, an
+undefined nervous feeling, due to innate superstition. The middle-class
+woman who stumbles upstairs considers it to mean that she will not
+marry. To break a mirror, or receive as a present a knife, also means
+bad luck. Many people wear amulets, safe-guards, and good-luck stones.
+Several millions of the Catholic sect wear a charm, which they think
+will save them from sudden death. All Catholics believe that some of
+their churches own the bones of saints, which have the power to give
+them health and other good things. Many Americans wear the seed of the
+horse-chestnut, and many others wear lucky coins. Belief in the luck of
+the four-leaf clover, instead of that with three leaves, is so strong
+that people will spend hours in hunting for one. They are designed into
+pins and certain insignia, and used in a hundred other ways.
+
+But more remarkable than all is the old horseshoe superstition. I have
+seen beautifully gowned ladies stop their driver, descend from the
+carriage, and pick up such a shoe and carry it home, telling me that
+they never failed to pick up one, as it brought good luck; yet this lady
+laughed at our dragon! In the country, horseshoes are commonly seen over
+the doors of stables, and even of houses. These same people once hung
+women for witchcraft, and slaughtered women for persisting in certain
+religious beliefs. I had the pleasure of meeting a well-known man, who
+stated that he had the power of the "evil eye." Innumerable people
+believe the paw of an animal called the rabbit to contain sovereign good
+luck. They carry it about, and can buy it in shops. Indeed, I could fill
+a volume, much less a letter, with the absurd superstitions of these
+people who send women to China to convert the "Heathen Chinee," who may
+be "peculiar," as Mr. Harte states in his poem; but the Chinaman
+certainly has not the marvelous variety of superstitions possessed by
+the American, who does not allow cats about rooms where there are
+infants, fearing that they will suck the child's breath; who believe
+that certain snakes milk cows, and that mermen are possible. I stood in
+a tent last summer at Atlantic City--a large seaside resort--and watched
+a line of middle-class people passing to see a "Chinese mermaid," of the
+kind the Japanese manufacture so cleverly. It was to be seen on the
+water. All, so far as I could judge, accepted it as real. So much for
+the influence of the American public school, where physiology is taught.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE AMERICAN PRESS
+
+
+One feature of American life is so peculiar that I fear I can not
+present it to you clearly, as there is nothing like it under the sun. I
+refer to the newspapers. If such an institution should appear in any
+Oriental country, or even in Russia, many heads would fall to the ground
+for treason or gross disrespect to the power of the throne. The American
+must not only have the news of his neighbor, but the news of the world
+every hour in the day, and the newspapers furnish it. In the villages
+they appear weekly, in the towns daily, in the great cities hourly, boys
+screaming their names, shouting and yelling like demons. Yesterday
+beneath the window a boy screamed, "The Empress of China elopes with
+her coachman!" I bought the paper, in which a column was devoted to it.
+Fancy this in Pekin. Shades of ----! I can not better describe these
+papers than to say they have absolute license as to what to print, this
+freedom being a principle, but it is grossly abused by blackmailers. The
+papers have no respect for man, woman, or child, the President or the
+Deity. The most flagrant attacks are made upon private persons. Rarely
+is an editor shot or imprisoned. The President may be called vile names,
+his appearance may become the butt of ridicule in opposition papers, and
+cartoonists, employed at large salaries, draw insulting pictures of him
+and his Cabinet. One would think that the way to obtain patronage of a
+person would be to praise him, but this would be considered an
+orientalism. The real way to secure readers in America is to abuse,
+insult, and outrage private feelings, the argument being that people
+will buy the journal to see what is said about them. All the American
+press is not founded upon this system of virtual blackmail. There are
+respectable papers, conservative and honorable; but I believe I am not
+overstating it when I say that every large city has at least one paper
+where the secrets of a family and its most sacred traditions are treated
+as lawful game.
+
+The actual heads of papers have often been men of high standing, as
+Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond, E. L. Godkin, Henry Watterson, the
+late Charles A. Dana, James Gordon Bennett, and William Cullen Bryant.
+But in the modern newspaper the man in control is a managing editor,
+whose tenure of office depends upon his keeping ahead of all others.
+The press, then, with its telegraphic connection with the world, with
+its thousands of readers, is a power, and in the hands of a man of small
+mind becomes a menace to civilization and easily drifts into blackmail.
+This is displayed in a thousand ways, especially in politics. The editor
+desires to obtain "influence," the power to secure places for his
+favorites, and, if he is slighted, he intimates to the men in power,
+"Appoint my candidate or I will attack you." This is a virtual threat.
+In this way the editor intimidates the office-holder. I was informed by
+a good authority of two journals of standing in America which he knew
+were started as "blackmailing sheets"; and certainly the license of the
+press is in every way diabolical, a result of the American dogma of free
+speech. When one arrives in America he is met with dozens of
+representatives of the press, who ask a thousand and one personal and
+impertinent questions, which, if one does not answer, one is attacked in
+some insidious way. One man I know refused to listen to a very
+importunate newspaper man, and was congratulating himself on his escape,
+when on the following day an article appeared in the paper giving
+several libelous pictures of him, the object being to show that he had
+nothing to say because he was mentally deficient. He appealed to the
+editor, but was told that his only recourse was to sue. As one walks
+down the gangplank of a ship he may become the mark for ten or fifteen
+cameras, which photograph him without permission, and whose owners will
+"poke fun" at his resistance.
+
+As a news-collecting medium the press of the United States is a
+magnificent organization. At breakfast you receive the news of the
+whole world--social, diplomatic, criminal, and religious. Meetings of
+Congress and stories of private life are alike all served up, fully
+illustrated with pictures of the people and events. A corner is devoted
+to children, another to women, another to religious Americans, and a
+little sermon is preached. Then there are suggestive pictures for the
+man about town, recipes for the cook, weather reports for the traveler,
+a story for the romancer, perhaps a poem, and an editorial page, where
+ideas and theories are promulgated and opinions manufactured on all
+subjects, ready made for adoption by the reader, who in many instances
+has his thinking done for him. I made a test of this, and asked a number
+of men for their opinion on a certain subject, and then guessed the name
+of their favorite paper, and in most instances was correct. They all
+claimed that they took the paper because it agreed with their political
+ideas; but I am confident that the reverse is true, the paper having
+insidiously trained them to adopt its view. Here we see where the power
+of one man or editor comes in, and worse yet, a nation which acquires
+this "newspaper habit," this having some one to think for it by
+machinery, as it were, will lose its mental power, its facility in
+analysis. I made bold to suggest this to a prominent man, but he merely
+laughed. As a whole, the American newspapers are valuable; they are the
+real educators of the people, and have a vast influence. For this reason
+there should be some restriction imposed on them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE AMERICAN DOCTOR
+
+
+At a dinner at Manchester in the summer I had as my _vis-a-vis_ a
+delightful young American, who, among other things, said to me: "It is
+astonishing to me that so many of your people live long, considering the
+ignorance of your doctors." I assured her that this was merely her point
+of view, and that we were well satisfied with our doctors or physicians.
+I wished to retaliate by telling my fair companion a story I had heard
+the day previous. An American physician operated upon a man and removed
+what he called a "cyst," which he displayed with some pride to a doctor
+of another school. "Why, man," said the latter, "that isn't a cyst;
+it's the man's kidney!"
+
+The Americans have made rapid advances in medicine and surgery, and they
+have some extraordinary physicians. From two to four years of study
+completes the education of some of the doctors, and hundreds are turned
+out every year. Some are of the old and regular school of medicine, but
+others are called homeopathic, which means that they give small doses of
+the more powerful medicines. Then there are those who practise in both
+schools. Indeed, in no other field does ignorance, superstition,
+credulity, and lack of real education display itself as among the
+American doctors or healers. I believe I could fill a volume by the mere
+enumeration of the diabolical and absurd nostrums offered by knaves to
+heal men who profess to hold in ridicule the Chinese doctors. I mention
+but a few, and when I tell you, as a truth beyond cavil, that the most
+extraordinary of these healers, the most impossible, have the largest
+following, you can see what I mean by the credulity of the people as a
+whole. Christian Science doctors have a following of tens of thousands.
+They combine so-called science with religion; leave their God to cure
+them at long or short range through the medium of so-called agents. The
+head of this faction is an ignorant but clever woman, who has turned the
+heads of perhaps thirty-three and a third per cent of the American women
+whom she has come in contact with.
+
+Then come the faith curists, who rely upon faith alone. You simply are
+to _think_ you will get well. Of course, many die from neglect. As an
+illustration of the credulity of the average American, a Christian
+Science healer was once treating a sick woman from a distant town, and
+finally the patient died. When the bill was presented the husband said,
+"You have charged for treatment two weeks after my wife died." It was a
+fact that the healer had been treating the woman after she was buried,
+the husband having failed to give notice of the death. One would have
+expected the "healer" to be thrown into confusion, but far from it; she
+merely replied, "I thought I noticed a vacancy."
+
+Next come the musical curists, who listen to thrills of sound, a big
+organ being the doctor. Then there is the psychometric doctor, who cures
+by spirits. The spirit doctor cures in the same way. The palmist
+professes to point out how to avoid the ills of life. Magnetic healers
+have hundreds of victims in every city. Their advertisements in the
+journals of all sorts are of countless kinds. Some cure at short hand,
+some miles distant from the patient. They are equaled in numbers by the
+hypnotists, or hypnotic doctors, who profess to throw their patients
+into a trance and cure them by suggestion. I heard of one cure in which
+the guileless American is made to lie in an open grave; this is called
+"the return to nature." Again, patients are cured by being buried in hot
+mud or in hot sand. I have seen a salt-water cure, where patients were
+made to remain in the ocean ten hours a day. The plain water cure has
+thousands of followers, with hospitals and infirmaries, where the
+patient is bathed, soaked, filled, washed, and plunged in water and
+charged a high amount.
+
+Then there is the vegetarian cure, no meat being eaten; and there are
+the meat eaters, who use no vegetables. There are over fifty thousand
+_masseurs_ and osteopaths in the country, who cure by baths and
+rubbing. You may have a bath of milk, water, electricity, or alcohol, or
+a bath of any description under the sun, which is guaranteed to cure any
+and all ailments. Perhaps the most extraordinary curists are the color
+doctors. They have rooms filled with blue and other colors, in whose
+rays the patient victim or the victim patient sits, "like Patience on a
+monument." I could not begin to give you an enumeration of the various
+kinds of electric cures; they are legion. But the most amazing class
+comprises the patent-medicine men, who are usually not doctors at all,
+but buy from some one a "cure" and then advertise it, spending in one
+instance which I investigated one million dollars a year. Every
+advantageous wall, stone, or cliff in America will be posted. You see
+the name at every turn, and the gullible Americans bite, chew, and
+swallow.
+
+It is not overstating facts when I say that three-fifths of the people
+buy some of these patent nostrums, which the real medical men denounce,
+showing that the masses of the people are densely ignorant, the victims
+of any faker who may shout his wares loud enough. In China such a thing
+would be impossible; the block would stop the practise; but, my dear
+----, the Americans assure me China is a thousand years behind the
+times, for which let us be devoutly thankful! I have not enumerated a
+tenth of the kinds of doctors who prey upon these unfortunate people.
+There are companies of them, who guarantee to cure anything, and
+skilfully mulct the sick of their last penny. There are retreats for the
+unfortunate, farms for deserted infants, and homes for unfortunate
+women carried on by villains of both sexes. There are traveling doctors
+who go from town to town, who cure "while you wait," and give a circus
+while talking and selling their cure; and in nine cases out of ten the
+nostrum is an alcoholic drink disguised.
+
+In no land under the sun are there so many ignorant blatant fakers
+preying on a people, and in no land do you find so credulous a throng as
+in America, yet claiming to represent the cream of the intelligence of
+the world; they are so easily led that the most impossible person, if he
+be a good talker, can go abroad and by the use of money and audacity
+secure a following to drink his salt water, paying a dollar a bottle for
+it and sing his praises. Such a doctor can secure the names and pictures
+of judges, governors of States, senators, congressmen, prominent men and
+women, officers of the volunteer army, artists, actors, singers--in
+fact, prominent people of all kinds will provide their pictures and give
+testimonials, which are blazonly published. These same people go to
+Chinese drug shops and laugh at the "heathen" drugs, and wonder why the
+Chinaman is alive. America has a body of physicians and surgeons who are
+a credit to the world, modest, conscientious, and with a high sense of
+honor, but they are as a dragon's tooth in a multitude to the so-called
+"quacks," who take the money of the masses and prey upon them, protected
+in many cases by the law. No one profession so demonstrates the abject
+credulity of the great mass of Americans as that of medicine.
+
+One other incident may further illustrate the jokes these so-called
+doctors play upon the common people. In a country town was a "quack"
+doctor, who professed to be a "head examiner," giving people charts
+according to their "bumps," a fad which has many followers. "This,
+ladies and gentlemen," said the lecturer, holding out a small skull, "is
+the skull of Alexander the Great at the age of six. Note the prominent
+brow. This [holding up a larger skull] is the same at the age of ten.
+This [holding out another] at the age of twenty-one; [then stepping out
+to the front of the stage] this is the _complete_ skull of Alexander at
+the time of his death." All of which appeared to be accepted in good
+faith.
+
+Of the best physicians in America one can not say enough in praise. I
+was most impressed by their high sense of honor. They have an agreement
+which they call their "ethics," by which they will not advertise or call
+attention to their learning. Consequently, the lower and ignorant
+classes are caught by the blatant chaff of the patent-medicine venders
+and the quack doctors. What the word "quack" means in this sense I do
+not quite know; literally, it is the cry of the goose. The "regular
+doctor" will not take advantage of any medicine he may discover, or any
+instrument; all belongs to humanity, and one doctor becomes famous over
+another by his success in keeping people from dying. The grateful
+patient saved, tells his friends, and so the doctor becomes known. In
+all America I never heard of a doctor that acted on the principle which
+holds among our doctors, that the best way to cure is to watch the
+patient and keep him well, or prevent him from being taken sick. The
+Americans, in their conceit, consider Chinese doctors ignorant fakers;
+yet, so far as I can learn, the death-rate among the Chinese, city for
+city, country for country, is less than among Americans. The Chinese
+women are longer lived and less subject to disease. In what is known as
+New England, the oldest well-populated section of the country, people
+would die out were it not for the constant accession of immigrants. On
+the other hand, the Chinese constantly increase, despite a policy of
+non-intercourse with foreigners. The Americans have, in a civilization
+dating back to 1492, already begun to show signs of decadence, and are
+only saved by constant immigration. China has a civilization of
+thousands of years, and is increasing in population every day, yet her
+doctors and their methods are ridiculed by the Americans. The people
+have many sayings here, one of which is, "The proof of the pudding lies
+in the eating." It seems applicable to this case.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+PECULIARITIES AND MANNERISMS
+
+
+One finds it difficult to learn the language fluently because of a
+peculiar second language called "slang," which is in use even among the
+fashionable classes. I despair of conveying any clear idea of it, as we
+have no exact equivalent. As near as I can judge, it is first composed
+by professional actors on the stage. Some funny remark being constantly
+repeated, as a part of a taking song, becomes slang, conveying a certain
+meaning, and is at once adopted by the people, especially by a class who
+pose as leaders in all towns, but who are not exactly the best, but
+charming imitations of the best, we may say. To illustrate this
+"jargon," I took a drive with a young lady at Manchester--a seaside
+resort. Her father was a man of good family, an official, and she was an
+attendant at a fashionable school. The following occurred in the
+conversation. Her slang is italicized:
+
+Heathen Chinee: "It is very dull this week, Miss ----."
+
+Young lady, sententiously: "_Bum._"
+
+Heathen Chinee: "I hope it will be less bum soon."
+
+Young lady: "_It's all off with me all right_, if it don't change soon,
+_and don't you forget it_!"
+
+Heathen Chinee: "I wish I could do something."
+
+Young lady: "Well, you'll have to _get a move on you_, as I go back to
+school to-morrow; then there'll be _something doing_."
+
+Heathen Chinee: "Have you seen ---- lately?"
+
+Young lady: "Yes, and isn't he _a peach_? Ah, he's a _peacharina_, and
+_don't you forget it_!"
+
+Young lady (passing a friend): "_Ah, there_! why _so toppy_? _Nay, nay,
+Pauline_," this in reply to remarks from a friend; then turning to me,
+"Isn't she a _jim dandy_? _Say_, have you any girls in China that can
+_top_ her?"
+
+These are only a few of the slang expressions which occur to me. They
+are countless and endless. Such a girl in meeting a friend, instead of
+saying good-morning, says, "_Ah, there_," which is the slang for this
+salutation. If she wished to express a difference of opinion with you
+she would say, "_Oh, come off._" This girl would probably outgrow this
+if she moved in the very best circle, but the shop-girl of a common type
+lives in a whirl of slang; it becomes second nature, while the young men
+of all classes seem to use nothing else, and we often see the jargon of
+the lowest class used by some of the best people. There has been
+compiled a dictionary of slang; books are written on it, and an adept,
+say a "rough" or "hoodlum," it is said can carry on a conversation with
+nothing else. Thus, "Hi, cully, what's on?" to which comes in answer,
+"Hunki dori." All this means that a man has said, "How do you do, how
+are you, and what are you doing?" and thus learned in reply that
+everything is all right. A number of gentlemen were posing for a lady
+before a camera. "Have you finished?" asked one. "Yes, _it's all off_,"
+was the reply, "and _a peach_, I think." It is unnecessary to say that
+among really refined people this slang is never heard, and would be
+considered a gross solecism, which gives me an opportunity to repeat
+that the really cultivated Americans, and they are many, are among the
+most delightful and charming of people.
+
+They have strange habits, these Americans. The men chew tobacco,
+especially in the South, and in Virginia I have seen men spitting five
+or six feet, evidently taking pride in their skill in striking a
+"cuspidore." In every hotel, office, or public place are
+cuspidores--which become targets for these chewers. This is a national
+habit, extraordinary in so enlightened a people. So ridiculous has it
+made the Americans, so much has been written about it by such visitors
+as Charles Dickens, that the State governments have determined to take
+up the "spitting" question, and now there is a fine of from $10 to $100
+for any one spitting in a car or on a hotel floor. Nearly all the
+"up-to-date" towns have passed anti-spitting laws. Up to this time, or
+even during my college days in America, this habit made walking on the
+sidewalk a most disagreeable function, and the interior of cars was a
+horror. Is not this remarkable in a people who claim so much? In the
+South certain white men and women chew snuff--a gross habit.
+
+In the North they also have a strange custom, called chewing gum. This
+gum is the exudation from certain trees, and is manufactured into plates
+and sold in an attractive form, merely to chew like tobacco, and young
+and old may be seen chewing with great velocity. The children forget
+themselves and chew with great force, their jaws working like those of a
+cow chewing her cud, only more rapidly; and to see a party of three or
+four chewing frantically is one of the "sights" in America, which
+astonishes the Heathen Chinee and convinces him that, in the slang of
+the country, "_there are others_" who are peculiar. There are many
+manufactories of this stuff, which is harmless, though such constant
+chewing can but affect the size of the muscles of the jaw if the theory
+of evolution is to be believed; at least there will be no atrophy of
+these parts.
+
+In New England, the northeastern portion of the country, this habit
+appeared to be more prevalent, and I asked several scientific persons if
+they had made any attempt to trace the history of the habit or to find
+anything to attribute it to. One learned man told me that he had made a
+special study of the habit, and believed that it was merely the modern
+expression in human beings of the cud chewing of ruminating mammals, as
+cows, goats, etc. In a word, the gum-chewing Americans are trying to
+chew their cud as did their ancestors. Any habit like this is seized
+upon by manufacturers for their personal profit, and every expedient is
+employed to induce people to chew. The gum is mixed with perfumes, and
+sold as a breath purifier; others mix it with pepsin, to aid the
+digestion; some with something else, which is sold on ships and
+excursion-boats as a cure or preventive for seasickness, all of which
+finds a large sale among the credulous Americans, who by a clever leader
+can be made to take up any fad or habit.
+
+The Americans have a peculiar habit of "treating"; that is, one of a
+party will "treat" or buy a certain article and distribute it
+gratuitously to one or ten people. A young lady may treat her friends to
+gum, ice-cream, soda-water, or to a theater party. A matron may treat
+her friends to "high-balls" or cocktails at the club. The man confines
+his "treats" to drinks and cigars. Thus five or six Americans may meet
+in a club or barroom for the sale of liquors. One says, "Come up and
+have something;" or "What will you have, gentlemen; this is on me;" or
+in some places the treater says, "Let's liquor," and all step up, the
+drinks are dispensed, and the treater pays. You might suppose that he
+was deserving of some encomium, but not at all; he expects that the
+others will take their turn in treating, or at least this is the
+assumption; and if the party is engaged in social conversation each in
+turn will "treat," the others taking what they wish to drink or smoke.
+There is a code of etiquette regarding the treat. Thus, unless you are
+invited, it would be bad form among gentlemen to order wine when invited
+to drink unless the "treater" asks you to have wine; he means a drink of
+whisky, brandy, or a mixed drink, or you may take soda or a cigar, or
+you may refuse. It is a gross solecism to accept a cigar and put it in
+your pocket; you should not take it unless you smoke it on the spot.
+
+Drinking to excess is frowned upon by all classes, and a drunkard is
+avoided and despised; but the amount an American will drink in a day is
+astonishing. A really delightful man told me that he did not drink much,
+and this was his daily experience: before breakfast a champagne
+cocktail; two or three drinks during the forenoon; a pint of white or
+red wine at lunch; two or three cocktails in the afternoon; a cocktail
+at dinner, with two glasses of wine; and in the evening at the club
+several drinks before bedtime! This man was never drunk, and never
+_appeared_ to be under the influence of liquor, yet he was in reality
+never actually sober; and he is a type of a large number in the great
+cities who constitute what is termed the "man about town."
+
+The Americans are not a wine-drinking people. Whisky, and of a very
+excellent quality, is the national drink, while vast quantities of beer
+are consumed, though they make the finest red and white wines. All the
+grog-shops are licensed by the Government and State--that is, made to
+pay a tax; but in the country there is a political party, the
+Prohibitionists, who would drive out all wine and liquor. These, working
+with the conservative people, often succeed in preventing saloons from
+opening in certain towns; but in large cities there are from one to two
+saloons to the block in the districts where they are allowed.
+
+Taking everything into consideration, I think the Americans a temperate
+people. They organize in a thousand directions to fight drinking and
+other vices, and millions of dollars are expended yearly in this
+direction. A peculiar quality about the American humor is that they joke
+about the most serious things. In fact, drink and drinking afford
+thousands of stories, the point of which is often very obscure to an
+alien. Here is one, told to illustrate the cleverness of a drinker. He
+walked into a bar and ordered a "tin-roof cocktail." The barkeeper was
+nonplussed, and asked what a tin-roof cocktail was. "Why, it's on the
+house." I leave you to figure it out, but the barkeeper paid the bill.
+The ingenuity of the Americans is shown in their mixed drinks. They have
+cocktails, high-balls, ponies, straights, fizzes, and many other drinks.
+Books are written on the subject. I have seen a book devoted entirely to
+cocktails. Certain papers offer prizes for the invention of new drinks.
+I have told you that, all in all, America is a temperate country,
+especially when its composite character is considered; yet if the nation
+has a curse, a great moral drawback, it is the habit of drinking at the
+public bar.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+LIFE IN WASHINGTON
+
+
+One of the best-known American authors has immortalized the Chinaman in
+some of his verses. It was some time before I understood the smile which
+went around when some one in my presence suggested a game of poker. I
+need not repeat the poem, but the essence of it is that the "Heathen
+Chinee is peculiar." Doubtless Mr. Harte is right, but the Chinaman and
+his ways are not more peculiar to the American than American customs and
+contradictions are to the Chinaman. If there is any race on the earth
+that is peculiar, it is the "Heathen Yankee," the good-hearted,
+ingenuous product of all the nations of the earth--black, red, white,
+brown, all but "yellow." Imagine yourself going out to what they call a
+"stag" dinner, and having an officer of the ranking of lieutenant shout,
+"Hi, John, pass the wine!"
+
+Washington can not be said to be a typical American city. It is the
+center of _official_ life, and abounds in statesmen of all grades. I
+have attended one of the President's receptions, to which the diplomats
+went in a body; then followed the army and navy, General Miles, a
+good-looking, soldier-like man, leading the former, and Admiral Dewey
+the latter, a fine body of men, all in full uniform, unpretentious, and
+quiet compared to similar men in other nations. I passed in line, and
+found the President, standing with several persons, the center of a
+group. The announcement and presentation were made by an officer in full
+uniform, and beyond this there was no formality, indeed, an abundance
+of republican simplicity; only the uniforms saved it from the
+commonplace.
+
+The President is a man of medium size, thick-set, and inclined to be
+fleshy, with an interesting, smooth face, eye clear and glance alert. He
+grasped me quickly by the hand, but shook it gingerly, giving the
+impression that he was endeavoring to anticipate me, called me by name,
+and made a pleasant allusion to ---- of ----. He has a high forehead and
+what you would term an intelligent face, but not one you would pick out
+as that of a great man; and from a study of his work I should say that
+he is of a class of advanced politicians, clever in political intrigue,
+quick to grasp the best situation for himself or party; a man of high
+moral character, but not a great statesman, only a man with high ideals
+and sentiments and the faculty of impressing the masses that he is
+great. The really intelligent class regard him as a useful man, and
+safe. It is a curious fact that the chief appreciation of President
+McKinley, I was informed, came from the masses, who say, "He is so kind
+to his wife" (a great invalid); or "He is a model husband." Why there
+should be anything remarkable in a man's being kind, attentive, and
+loyal to an invalid spouse I could not see. Her influence with him is
+said to be remarkable. One day she asked the President to promote a
+certain officer, the son of one of the greatest of American generals, to
+a very high rank. He did so, despite the fact that, as an officer said,
+the army roared with laughter and rage.
+
+The influence of women is an important factor in Washington life. I was
+presented to an officer who obtained his commission in the following
+manner: Two very attractive ladies in Washington were discussing their
+relative influence with the powers that be, when one remarked, "To show
+you what I can do, name a man and I will obtain a commission in the army
+for him." The other lady named a private soldier, whose stupidity was a
+matter of record, and a few days later he became an officer; but the
+story leaked out.
+
+President McKinley is a popular President with the masses, but the
+aristocrats regard him with indifference. It is a singular fact, but the
+Vice-President, Mr. Roosevelt, attracts more attention than the
+President. He is a type that is appreciated in America, what they term
+in the West a "hustler"; active, wide-awake, intense, "strenuous," all
+these terms are applied to him. Said an officer in the field service to
+me, "Roosevelt is playing on a ninety-nine-year run of luck; he always
+lands on his feet at the right time and place." "What they call a man
+of destiny," I suggested. "Yes," he replied; "he is the Yankee Oliver
+Cromwell. He can't help 'getting there,' and he has a sturdy, evident
+honesty of purpose that carries him through. A team of six horses won't
+keep him out of the White House." This is the general opinion regarding
+the Vice-President, that while he is not a remarkable statesman, he
+already overshadows the President in the eyes of the public. I think the
+secret is that he is young and a hero, and what the Americans call an
+all-around man; not brilliant in any particular line, but a man of
+energy, like our ----.
+
+He looks it. A smooth face, square, determined jaw, with a look about
+the eye suggestive that he would ride you down if you stood in the way.
+I judge him to be a man of honor, high purpose, as my friend said, of
+the Cromwell type, inclined to preach, and who also has what the
+Americans call the "get-there" quality. In conversation Vice-President
+Roosevelt is hearty and open, a poor diplomat, but a talker who comes to
+the point. He says what he thinks, and asks no favor. He acts as though
+he wished to clap you on the shoulder and be familiar. It will be
+difficult for you to understand that such a man is second in rank in
+this great nation. There are no imposing surroundings, no glamor of
+attendance, only Roosevelt, strong as a water-ox in a rice-field,
+smiling, all on the surface, ready to fight for his friend or his
+country. Author, cowboy, stockman, soldier, essayist, historian,
+sportsman, clever with the boxing-gloves or saber, hurdle-jumper, crack
+revolver and rifle shot, naturalist and aristocrat, such is the
+all-around Vice-President of the United States--a man who will make a
+strong impression upon the history of the century if he is not shot by
+Socialists.
+
+I have it from those who know, that President McKinley would be killed
+in less than a week if the guards about the White House were removed. He
+never makes a move without guards or detectives, and the secret-service
+men surround him as carefully as possible. It would be an easy matter to
+kill him. Like all officials, he is accessible to almost any one with an
+apparently legitimate object. Two Presidents have been murdered; all are
+threatened continually by half-insane people called "cranks," and by the
+professional Socialists, mainly foreigners. Both the President and
+Vice-President are well-dressed men. President McKinley, when I was
+granted an audience, wore a long-tailed black "frock coat" and vest,
+light trousers, and patent leather or varnished shoes, and standing
+collar. The Vice-President was similarly dressed, but with a "turn-down"
+collar. The two men are said to make a "strong team," and it is a
+foregone conclusion that the Vice-President will succeed President
+McKinley. This is already talked of by the society people at Newport.
+"It is a long time," said a lady at Newport, "since we have had a
+President who represented an old and distinguished family. The McKinleys
+were from the ordinary ranks of life, but eminently respectable, while
+Roosevelt is an old and honored name in New York, identified with the
+history of the State; in a word, typical of the American aristocracy,
+bearing arms by right of heritage."
+
+I have frequently met Admiral Dewey, already so well known in China. He
+is a small man, with bright eyes, who already shows the effects of
+years. Nothing could illustrate the volatile, uncertain character of the
+American than the downfall of the admiral as a popular idol. Here a
+"peculiarity" of the American is seen. Carried away by political and
+public adulation, the old sailor's new wife, the sister of a prominent
+politician, became seized with a desire to make him President. Then the
+hero lovers raised a large sum and purchased a house for the admiral;
+but the politicians ignored him as a candidate, which was a humiliation,
+and the donors of the house demanded their money returned when the
+admiral placed the gift in the name of his wife; and so for a while the
+entire people turned against the gallant sailor, who was criticized,
+jeered at, and ridiculed. All he had accomplished in one of the most
+remarkable victories in the history of modern warfare was forgotten in
+a moment, to the lasting disgrace of his critics.
+
+One of the interesting places in Washington is the Capitol, perhaps the
+most splendid building in any land. Here we see the men whom the
+Americans select to make laws for them. The looker-on is impressed with
+the singular fact that most of the senators are very wealthy men; and it
+is said that they seek the position for the honor and power it confers.
+I was told that so many are millionaires that it gave rise to the
+suspicion that they bought their way in, and this has been boldly
+claimed as to many of them. This may be the treasonable suggestion of
+some enemy; but that money plays a part in some elections there is
+little doubt. I believe this is so in England, where elections have
+often been carried by money.
+
+The American Senate is a dignified body, and I doubt if it have a peer
+in the world. The men are elected by the State legislatures, not by the
+people at large, a method which makes it easy for an unprincipled
+millionaire or his political manager to buy votes sufficient to seat his
+patron. The fact that senators are mainly rich does not imply unfitness,
+but quite the contrary. Only a genius can become a multi-millionaire in
+America, and hence the senators are in the main bright men. When
+observing these men and enabled to look into their records, I was
+impressed by the fact that, despite the advantages of education, this
+wonderful country has produced few really great men, and there is not at
+this time a great man on the horizon.
+
+America has no Gladstone, no Salisbury, no Bright. Lincoln, Blaine and
+Sumner are names which impress me as approximating greatness; they made
+an impression on American history that will be enduring. Then there are
+Frye, Reed, Garfield, McKinley, Cleveland, who were little great men,
+and following them a distinguished company, as Hanna, Conkling, Hay,
+Hayes, and others, who were superior men of affairs. A distinctly great
+national figure has not appeared in America since Daniel Webster, Henry
+Clay, and Rufus Choate--all men too great to become President. It
+appears to be the fate of the republic not to place its greatest men in
+the White House, and by this I mean great statesmen. General Grant was a
+great man, a heroic figure, but not a statesman. Lincoln is considered a
+great man. He is called the "Liberator"; but I can conceive that none
+but a very crude mind, inspired by a false sentiment, could have made a
+horde of slaves, the most ignorant people on the globe, the political
+equals of the American people. A great man in such a crisis would have
+resisted popular clamor and have refused them suffrage until they had
+been prepared to receive it by at least some education. Americans are
+prone to call their great politicians statesmen. Blaine, Reed, Conkling,
+Harrison were types of statesmen; Hanna, Quay, and others are
+politicians.
+
+The Lower House was a disappointment to me. There are too many ordinary
+men there. They do not look great, and at the present time there is not
+a really great man in the Lower House. There are too many cheap lawyers
+and third-rate politicians there. Good business men are required, but
+such men can not afford to take the position. I heard a great captain of
+industry, who had been before Congress with a committee, say that he
+never saw "so many asses together in all his life"; but this was an
+extreme view. The House may not compare intellectually with the House of
+Commons, but it contains many bright men. A fool could hardly get in,
+though the labor unions have placed some vicious representatives there.
+The lack of manners distressed a lady acquaintance of mine, who, in a
+burst of indignation at seeing a congressman sitting with his feet on
+his desk, said that there was not a man in Congress who had any social
+position in Washington or at home, which, let us trust, is not true.
+
+As I came from the White House some days ago I met a delegation of
+native Indians going in, a sad sight. In Indian affairs occurs a page of
+national history which the Americans are not proud of. In less than four
+hundred years they have almost literally been wiped from the face of the
+earth; the whites have waged a war of extermination, and the pitiful
+remnant now left is fast disappearing. In no land has the survival of
+the fittest found a more remarkable illustration. But the Indians are
+having their revenge. The Americans long ago brought over Africans as
+slaves; then, as the result of a war of words and war of fact, suddenly
+released them all, and, at one fell move, in obedience to the hysterical
+cries of their people, gave these ignorant semisavages and slaves the
+same political rights as themselves.
+
+Imagine the condition of things! The most ignorant and debased of races
+suddenly receives rights and privileges and is made the equal of
+American citizens. So strange a move was never seen or heard of
+elsewhere, and the result has been relations more than strained and
+always increasing between the whites and the blacks in the South. As
+voters the negroes secure many positions in the South above their old
+masters. I have seen a negro[2] sitting in the Vice-President's chair in
+the United States Senate; while white Southern senators were pacing the
+outer corridors in rage and disgust. There are generally one or more
+black men in Congress, and they are given a few offices as a sop. With
+one hand the Americans place millions of them on a plane with themselves
+as free and independent citizens, and with the other refuse them the
+privileges of such citizenship. They may enter the army as privates, but
+any attempt to make them officers is a failure--white officers will not
+associate with them. It is impossible for a negro to graduate from the
+Naval Academy, though he has the right to do so. I was told that white
+sailors would shoot him if placed over them. Several negroes have been
+appointed as students, but none as yet have been able to pass the
+examination. Here we see the strange and contradictory nature of the
+Americans. The white master of the South had the black woman nurse his
+children. Thousands of mulattoes in the country show that the whites
+took advantage of the women in other ways, marriage between blacks and
+whites being prohibited. When it comes to according the blacks
+recognition as social equals, the people North and South resent even the
+thought. The negro woman may provide the sustenance of life for the
+white baby, but I venture to say that any Southern man, or Northern one
+for that matter, would rather see his daughter die than be married to a
+negro. So strong is this feeling that I believe in the extreme South if
+a negro persisted in his addresses to a white woman he would be shot,
+and no jury or judge could be found to convict the white man.
+
+In the North the negro has certain rights. He can ride in the
+street-cars, go to the theater, enter restaurants, but I doubt if large
+hotels would entertain him. In the South every train has its separate
+cars for negroes; every station its waiting-room for them; even on the
+street-cars they are divided off by a wire rail or screen, and sit
+beneath a sign, which advertises this free, independent, but black
+American voter as being not fit to sit by the side of his political
+brother. This causes a bitter feeling, and the time is coming when the
+blacks will revolt. Already criminal attacks upon white women are not
+uncommon, and a virtual reign of terror exists in some portions of the
+South, where it is said that white women are never left unprotected; and
+the negro, if he attacks a white woman, is almost invariably burned
+alive, with the horrible ghastly features that attend an Indian
+scalping. The crowd carry off bits of skin, hair, finger-nails, and rope
+as trophies. In fact, these "burnings" are the most extraordinary
+features in this "enlightened" country. The papers denounce them and
+compare the people to ghouls; yet these same people accuse the Chinese
+of being cruel, barbarous, insensible to cruelty, and "pagans." It is
+true we have pirates and criminals, but the horrible features of the
+lynchings in America during the last ten years I believe have no
+counterpart in the history of China in the last five hundred.
+
+In Washington the servants are blacks; irresponsible, childlike, aping
+the vanities of the white people. They are "niggers"; the mulattoes, the
+illegitimate offspring of whites, form another and totally distinct
+class of colored society, and are the aristocracy. Rarely will a mulatto
+girl marry a black man, and _vice versa_. They have their clubs and
+their functions, their professional men, including lawyers and doctors,
+as have the white people. They present a strange and singular feature.
+Despised by their fathers, half-sisters, and brothers, denied any social
+recognition, hating their black ancestry, they are socially "between the
+devil and the deep sea." The negro question constitutes the gravest one
+now before the American people. He is increasing rapidly, but in the
+years since the civil war no pure-blooded negro has given evidence of
+brilliant attainments. Frederick Douglas, Senator Bruce, and Booker T.
+Washington rank with many white Americans in authorship, diplomacy, and
+scholarship; but Douglas and Bruce were mulattoes, and Booker
+Washington's father was an unknown white man. These men are held in high
+esteem, but the social line has been drawn against them, though Douglas
+married a white woman.
+
+Balls are a feature of life in Washington. The women appear in full
+dress, which means that the arms and neck are exposed, and the men wear
+evening dress. The dances are mostly "round." The man takes a lady to
+the ball, and when he dances seizes her in an embrace which would be
+considered highly improper under ordinary circumstances, but the
+etiquette of the dance makes it permissible. He places his right arm
+around her waist, takes her left hand in his, holds her close to him,
+and both begin to move around to the special music designed for this
+peculiar motion, which may be a "waltz," or a "two-step," or a "gallop,"
+or a "schottische," all being different and having different music or
+time, or there may be various kinds of music for each. At times the
+music is varied, being a gliding, scooping, swooping slide,
+indescribable. When the dancers feel the approach of giddiness they
+reverse the whirl or move backward.
+
+Many Washington men have become famous as dancers, and quite outshadow
+war heroes. All the officers of the army and navy are taught these
+dances at the Military and Naval Academies, it being a national policy
+to be agreeable to ladies; at least this must be so, as the men never
+dance together. To see several hundred people whirling about, as I have
+seen them at the inaugural of the President, is one of the most
+remarkable scenes to be observed in America. The man in Washington who
+can not dance is a "wallflower"--that is, he never leaves the wall.
+There is a professional champion who has danced eight out of
+twenty-four hours without stopping. A yearly convention of
+dancing-school professors is held. These men, with much dignity, meet in
+various cities and discuss various dances, how to grasp the partner, and
+other important questions. Some time ago the question was whether the
+"gent" should hold a handkerchief in the hand he pressed upon the back
+of the lady, a professor having testified before the convention that he
+had seen the imprint of a man's hand on the white dress of a lady. The
+acumen displayed at these conventions is profound and impressive. Here
+you observe a singular fact. The good dancer may be an officer of high
+social standing, but the dancing-teacher, even though he be famous as
+such, is _persona non grata_, so far as society is concerned. A
+professional dancer, fighter, wrestler, cook, musician, and a hundred
+more are not acceptable in society except in the strict line of their
+profession; but a professional civil or naval engineer, an organist, an
+artist, a decorator (household), and an architect are received by the
+elect in Washington.
+
+I have alluded to the craze for joking among young ladies in society. At
+a dinner a reigning beauty, and daughter of ----, who sat next to me,
+talked with me on dancing. She told me all about it, and, pointing to a
+tall, distinguished-looking man near by, said that he had received his
+degree of D. D. (Doctor of Dancing) from Harvard University, and was
+extremely proud of it; and, furthermore, it would please him to have me
+mention it. I did not enlighten the young lady, and allowed her to
+continue, that I might enjoy her animation and superb "nerve" (this is
+the American slang word for her attitude). The gentleman was her uncle,
+a doctor of divinity, who was constitutionally opposed to dancing; and I
+learned later that he had a cork leg. Such are some of the pitfalls in
+Washington set for the pagan Oriental by charming Americans.
+
+Dancing parties, in fact, all functions, are seized upon by young men
+and women who anticipate marriage as especially favorable occasions for
+"courtship." The parents apparently have absolutely nothing to do with
+the affair, this being a free country. The girl "falls in love" with
+some one, and the courtship begins. In the lower classes the girl is
+said to be "keeping company" with so and so, or he is "her steady
+company." In higher circles the admirer is "devoted to the lady." This
+lasts for a year, perhaps longer, the man monopolizing the young lady's
+time, calling so many times a week, as the case may be, the familiarity
+between the two increasing until they finally exchange kisses--a
+popular greeting in America. About now they become affianced or
+"engaged," and the man is supposed to ask the consent of the parents. In
+France the latter is supposed to give a _dot_; in America it is not
+thought of. In time the wedding occurs, amid much ceremony, the bride's
+parents bearing all the expense; the groom is relieving them of a future
+expense, and is naturally not burdened. The married young people then go
+upon a "honeymoon," the month succeeding the wedding, and this is long
+or brief, according to the wealth of the parties. When they return they
+usually live by themselves, the bride resenting any advice or espionage
+from her husband's mother, who is the mother-in-law, a relation as much
+joked about in America as revered in China.
+
+Sometimes the "engaged" couple do not marry. The man perhaps in his
+long courtship discovers traits that weary him, and he breaks off the
+match. If he is wealthy the average American girl may sue him for
+damages, for laceration of the affections. One woman in the State of New
+York sued for the value of over two thousand kisses her "steady company"
+had taken during a number of years' courtship, and was awarded three
+thousand dollars. The journal from which I took this made an estimate
+that the kisses had cost the man one dollar and a half each! Sometimes
+the girl breaks the engagement, and if presents have been given she
+returns them, the man rarely suing; but I have seen record of a case
+where the girl refused to return the presents, and the man sued for
+them; but no jury could be found to decide in his favor. A distinguished
+physician has written a book on falling in love. It is recognized as a
+contagious disease; men and women often die of it, and commit the most
+extraordinary acts when under its influence. I have observed it, and,
+all things considered, it has no advantages over the Chinese method of
+attaining the marriage state. The wisdom of some older person is
+certainly better than what the American would call the "snap judgment"
+of two young people carried away by passion. One might find the chief
+cause of divorce in America to lie in this strange custom.
+
+I was invited by a famous wag last week to meet a man who could claim
+that he was the father of fifty-three children and several hundred
+grandchildren. I fully expected to see the _Gaikwar of Baroda_, or some
+such celebrity, but found a tall, ministerial, typical American, with
+long beard, whom ---- introduced to me as a Mormon bishop, who, he
+said, had a virtual _conge d'elire_ in the Church, at the same time
+referring to me as a Chinese Mormon with "fifty wives." I endeavored to
+protest, but ---- explained to the bishop that I was merely modest. The
+Mormons are a sect who believe in polygamy. Each man has as many wives
+as he can support, and the population increases rapidly where they
+settle. The ludicrous feature of Mormonism is that the Government has
+failed to stop it, though it has legislated against it; but it is well
+known that the Mormon allows nothing to interfere with his
+"revelations," which are on "tap" in Utah.
+
+I was much amused at the bishop's remarks. He said that if the American
+politicians who were endeavoring to kill them off would marry their
+actual concubines, and _all_ Americans would do the same, the United
+States would have a Mormon majority the next day. The bishop had the
+frailties and moral lapses of prominent people in all lands at his
+fingers' ends, and his claim was that the whole civilized world was
+practising polygamy, but doing it illegally, and the Mormons were the
+only ones who had the honor to legitimatize it. The joke was on ----,
+who was literally bottled up by the flow of facts from the bishop, who
+referred to me to substantiate him, which I pretended to do, in order
+totally to crush ----, who had tried to make me a party to his joke. The
+bishop, who invited me to call upon him in Utah, said that he hoped some
+time to be a United States senator, though he supposed the women of the
+East could create public sentiment sufficient to defeat him.
+
+I once stopped over in Utah and visited the great Mormon Temple, and I
+must say that the Mormon women are far below the average in
+intelligence, that is, if personal appearances count. I understand they
+are recruited from the lowest and most ignorant classes in Europe, where
+there are thousands of women who would rather have a fifth of a husband
+than work in the field. In the language of American slang, I imagine the
+Americans are "up against it," as the country avowedly offers an asylum
+for all seeking religious liberty, and the Mormons claim polygamy as a
+divine revelation and a part of their doctrine.
+
+The bishop, I believe, was not a bishop, but a proselyting elder, or
+something of the kind. The man who introduced me to him was a type
+peculiar to America, a so-called "good fellow." People called him by his
+first name, and he returned the favor. The second time I met him he
+called me Count, and upon my replying that I was not a count he said,
+"Well, you look it, anyway," and he has always called me Count. He knows
+every one, and every one knows him--a good-hearted man, a spendthrift,
+yet a power in politics; a _remarkable_ poker player, a friend worth
+knowing, the kind of man you like to meet, and there are many such in
+this country.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] Probably Senator Bruce.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE AMERICAN IN LITERATURE
+
+
+I have been a guest at the annual dinner of the ----, one of the leading
+literary associations in America, and later at a "reception" at the
+house of ----, where I met some of the most charming men and delightful
+women, possessed of manners that marked the person of culture and the
+_savoir faire_ that I have seen so little of among other "sets" of
+well-known public people. But what think you of an author of note who
+knew absolutely nothing of the literature of our country? There were
+Italians, French, and Swedes at the dinner, who were called upon to
+respond to toasts on the literature of their country; but was I called
+upon? No, indeed. I doubt if in all that _entourage_ there was more than
+one or two who were familiar with the splendid literature of China and
+its antiquity.
+
+But to come to the "shock." My immediate companion was a lady with just
+a _soupcon_ of the masculine, who, I was told, was a distinguished
+novelist, which means that her book had sold to the limit of 30,000
+copies. After a toast and speech in which the literature of Norway and
+Sweden had been extolled, this charming lady turned to me and said, "It
+is too bad, ----, that you have no literature in China; you miss so much
+that is enjoyed by other nations." This was too much, and I broke one of
+the American rules of chivalry--I became disputatious with a lady and
+slightly cynical; and when I wish to be cynical I always quote Mr.
+Harte, which usually "brings down the house." To hear a Chinese heathen
+quote the "Heathen Chinee" is supposed to be very funny.
+
+I said, "My dear madam, I am surprised that you do not know that China
+has the finest and oldest literature known in the history of the world.
+I assure you, my ancestors were writing books when the Anglo-Saxon was
+living in caves."[3] She was astonished and somewhat dismayed, but was
+not cast down--the clever American woman never is. I told her of our
+classics, of our wonderful Book of Changes, written by my ancestor Wan
+Wang in 1150 B. C. I told her of his philosophy. I compared his idea of
+the creation to that in the Bible. I explained the loss of many rare
+Chinese books by the piratical order of destruction by Emperor Che
+Hwang-ti, calling attention to the fact that the burning of the famous
+library of Alexandria was a parallel. I asked her if it were possible
+that she had never heard of the _Odes of Confucius_, or his _Book of
+History_, which was supposed to have been destroyed, but which was found
+in the walls of his home one hundred and forty years before Christ, and
+so saved to become a part of the literature of China.
+
+Finally she said, "I have studied literature, but that of China was not
+included." "Your history," I continued, "begins in 1492; our written
+history begins in the twenty-third century before Christ, and the years
+down to 720 B. C. are particularly well covered, while our legends run
+back for thousands of years." But my companion had never heard of the
+_Shoo-King_. It was so with the _Chun Tsew_[4] of Confucius and the
+_Four Books_--_Ta-h[ue]-[uo]_,[5] _Chung-yung_,[6] _Lun-yu_,[7]
+_M[ua]ng-tsze_.[8] She had never heard of them. I told her of the
+invention of paper by the Marquis Tsae several centuries before Christ,
+and she laughingly replied that she supposed that I would claim next
+that the Chinese had libraries like those Mr. Carnegie is founding. I
+was delighted to assure her that her assumption was correct, and drew a
+little picture of a well-known Chinese library, founded two thousand
+years ago, the Han Library, with its 3,123 classics, its 2,706 works on
+philosophy, its 2,528 books on mathematics, its 790 works on war, its
+868 books on medicine, 1,318 on poetry, not to speak of thousands of
+essays.
+
+I could not but wonder as I talked, where were the Americans and their
+literature when our fathers were reading these books two thousand years
+ago! Even the English people were wild savages, living in caves and
+huts, when our people were printing books and encyclopedias of
+knowledge. I dwelt upon our poetry, the National Airs, Greater Eulogies,
+dating back several thousand years. I told her of the splendors of our
+great versifier, _Le-Tai-Pih_; and I might have said that many American
+poets, like Walt Whitman, had doubtless read the translations to their
+advantage. I had the pleasure at least of commanding this lady's
+attention, and I believe she was the first American who deigned to take
+a Chinaman seriously. The facts of our literature are available, but
+only scholars make a study of it, and so far as I could learn not a word
+of Chinese literature is ever taught in American schools, though in the
+great universities there are facilities, and the best educated people
+are familiar with our history.
+
+The American authors, especially novelists, who constitute the majority
+of authors, are by no means all well educated. Many appear to have a
+faculty of "story-telling," which enables them to produce something that
+will sell; but that all American authors, and this will surprise you,
+are included among the great scholars, is far from true. Some, yes many,
+are deplorably ignorant in the sense of broad learning, and I believe
+this is a universal, national fault. If one thing Chinese more than
+another is ridiculed in America it is our drama. I met a famous
+"play-writer" at the ---- dinner, who thought it a huge joke. I heard
+that his income was $30,000 per annum from plays alone; yet he had never
+heard of our "Hundred Plays of the Yuen Dynasty," which rests in one of
+his own city libraries not a mile distant, and he laughed
+good-naturedly when I remarked that the modern stage obtained its
+initiative in China.
+
+A listener did me the honor to question my statement that Voltaire's
+"_L'Orphelin de la Chine_" was taken from the _Orphan of Chaou_ of this
+collection, which I thought every one knew. All the authors whom I met
+seemed surprised to learn that I was familiar with their literature and
+could not compare it synthetically with that of other nations, and even
+more so when I said that all well-educated Chinamen endeavored to
+familiarize themselves with the literature of other countries.
+
+I continually gain the impression that the Americans "size us up," as
+they say, and "lump" us with the "coolie." We are "heathen Chinee," and
+it is incomprehensible that we should know anything. I am talking now
+of the half-educated people as I have met them. Here and there I meet
+men and women of the highest culture and knowledge, and this class has
+no peer in the world. If I were to live in America I should wish to
+consort with her real scholars, culled from the best society of New
+York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, and other cities. In
+a word, the aristocracy of America is her educated class, the education
+that comes from association year after year with other cultivated
+people. I understand there is more of it in Boston and Philadelphia than
+anywhere; but you find it in all towns and cities. This I grant is the
+real American, who, in time--several thousand years perhaps--as in our
+own case, will demonstrate the wonderful possibilities of the human race
+in the West.
+
+I would like to tell you something about the books of the literary men
+and women I have met, but you will be more interested in the things I
+have seen and the mannerisms of the people. I was told by a
+distinguished writer that America had failed to produce any really great
+authors--I mean to compare with other nations--and I agreed with him,
+although appreciating what she has done. There is no one to compare with
+the great minds of England--Scott, Dickens, Thackeray. There is no
+American poet to compare with Tennyson, Milton, and a dozen others in
+England, France, Italy, and Germany; indeed, America is far behind in
+this respect, yet in the making of books there is nothing to compare
+with it. Every American, apparently, aspires to become an author, and I
+really think it would be difficult to find a citizen of the republic who
+had not been a contributor to some publication at some time, or had not
+written a book. The output of books is extraordinary, and covers every
+field; but the class is not in all cases such as one might expect. The
+people are omnivorous readers, and "stories," "novels," are ground out
+by the ton; but I doubt if a book has been produced since the time of
+Hawthorne that will really live as a great classic.
+
+The American authors are mainly collected in New York, where the great
+publishing houses are located, and are a fine representative class of
+men and women, of whom I have met a number, such as Howells, the author
+and editor, and Mark Twain, the latter the most brilliant litterateur in
+the United States. This will be discovered when he dies and is safe
+beyond receiving all possible benefits from such recognition. Many men
+in America make reputations as humorists, and find it impossible to
+divest their more serious writings from this "taint," if so it may be
+called. They are not taken seriously when they seriously desire it; a
+fact I fully appreciate, as I am taken as a joke, my "pigtail," my
+"shoes," my "clothes," my way of speaking, all being objects of joking.
+
+The literary men have several clubs in New York, where they can be
+found, and many have marked peculiarities, which are interesting to a
+foreigner. Several artists affect a peculiar style of dress to advertise
+their wares. One, it is said, lived in a tree at Washington. It is not
+so much with the authors as with the methods of making books that I
+think you will be interested. I met a rising young author at a dinner in
+Washington who confided to me that the "book business" was really ruined
+in America by reason of the mad craze of nearly all Americans to become
+writers. He said that he as an editor had been offered money to publish
+a novel by a society woman who desired to pose as an authoress. This
+author said that there were in America a dozen or more of the finest and
+most honorable publishing houses in the world, but there were many more
+in the various cities which virtually preyed upon this "literary
+disease" of the people. No country in the world, said my acquaintance,
+produces so many books every year as America; so many, in fact, that the
+shops groan with them and the forests of America threaten to give out,
+and the supply virtually clogs and ruins the market. So crazy are the
+people to be authors and see themselves in print that they will go to
+any length to accomplish authorship.
+
+He cited a case of a carpenter, a man of no education, who was seized
+with the desire to write a book, which he did. It was sent to all the
+leading publishers, and promptly returned; then he began the rounds of
+the second-class houses, of which there are legion. One of the latter
+wrote him that they published on the "cooperative" plan, and would pay
+_half_ the expenses of publishing if he would pay the other half. Of
+course _his_ share paid for the entire edition and gave the clever
+"cooperative" publisher a profit, whether the edition sold or not. And
+my informant said that at least twenty firms were publishing books for
+such authors, and encouraging people to produce manuscripts that were so
+much "dead wood" in the real literary field. He later sent me the
+prospectus of several such houses which would take any manuscript, if
+the author would pay for the publishing, revise it and send it forth. I
+was assured that thousands of books are produced yearly by these houses,
+who are really "printers," who advertise in various ways and encourage
+would-be authors, the idea being to get their money, a species of
+literary "graft," according to my literary informant, who assured me I
+must not confuse such parasites with the large publishers of America,
+who will not produce a book unless their skilled readers consider it a
+credit to them and to the country, a high standard which I believe is
+maintained.
+
+Perhaps the most interesting phase of literature in America is found in
+the weekly and monthly magazines, of which there is no end. Every sport
+has its "organ," every great trade, every society, every religion; even
+the missionaries sent to China have their organs, in which is reported
+their success in saving _us_ and divorcing us from our ancient beliefs.
+The great literary magazines number perhaps a dozen, with a few in the
+front rank, such as the Century, Harper's, Scribner's, The Atlantic,
+Cosmopolitan, McClure's, Dial, North American Review, Popular Science
+Monthly, Bookman, Critic, and Nation. Such magazines I conceive to be
+the universities of the people, the great educators in art, literature,
+science, etc. Nothing escapes them. They are timely, beautiful, exact,
+thorough, scientific, the reflex of the best and most artistic minds in
+America; and many are so cheap as to be within the reach of the poor. It
+is interesting to know that most of these magazines are sources of
+wealth, the money coming from the advertisements, published as a feature
+in the front and back. These notices are in bulk often more than the
+literary portion, and the rate charged, I was told, from $100 to $1,000
+per page for a single printing.
+
+The skill with which appeals are made to the weaknesses of readers is
+well shown in some of the minor publications not exactly within the same
+class as the literary magazines. One that is devoted to women is a most
+clever appeal to the idiosyncrasies of the sex: There are articles on
+cooking, dinners, luncheons, how to set tables, table manners, etiquette
+(one would think they had read Confucius), how to dress for these
+functions; and, in fact, every occupation in life possible to a woman is
+dealt with by an extraordinary editor who is a man. Whenever I was joked
+with about our men acting on the stage as women, I retorted by quoting
+Mr. ----, the male editor of the female ----, who is either a consummate
+actor or a remarkably composite creature, to so thoroughly anticipate
+his audience. The mother, the widow, the orphan, the young maiden, the
+"old maid," are all taken into the confidence of this editor, who in
+his editorials has what are termed "heart to heart" talks.
+
+I send you a copy of this paper, which is very clever and very
+successful, and a good illustration of the American magazine that, while
+claiming to be literature, is a mechanical production, "machine made" in
+every sense. One can imagine the introspective editor entering all the
+foibles and weaknesses of women in a book and in cold blood forming a
+department to appeal to each. I was informed that the editors of such
+publications were "not in business for their health," but for money; and
+their energies are all expended on projects to hold present readers and
+obtain others. The more readers the more they can charge the
+"advertiser" in the back or side pages, who here illustrate their deadly
+corsets, their new dye for the hair, their beauty doctors, freckle
+eradicators, powders for the toilet, bustles, and the thousand and one
+things which shrewd dealers are anxious to have women take up.
+
+The children also have their journals or "magazines." One in New York
+deals with fairies and genii, on the ground that it is good for the
+imagination. Another, published in Boston, denounces the fairy-story
+idea, and gives the children stories by great generals, princes of the
+blood, captains of industry, admirals, etc.; briefly, the name of the
+writer, not the literary quality of the tale, is the important feature.
+There are papers for babes, boys, girls, the sick and the well.
+
+The most conspicuous literary names before the people are Howells,
+Twain, and Harte, though one hears of scores of novelists, who, I
+believe, will be forgotten in a decade or so. As I have said
+previously, I am always joked with about the "Heathen Chinee." I have
+really learned to play "poker," but I seldom if ever sit down to a game
+that some one does not joke with me about "Ah Sin." Such is the American
+idea of the proprieties and their sense of humor; yet I finally have
+come to be so good an American that I can laugh also, for I am confident
+the jokers mean it all in the best of feeling.
+
+There are in America a class of litterateurs who are rarely heard of by
+the masses, but to my mind they are among the greatest and most advanced
+Americans. They are the astronomers, geologists, zoologists,
+ornithologists, and others, authors of papers and articles in the
+Government Reports of priceless value. These writers appear to me, an
+outsider, to be the real safety-valves, the real backbone of the
+literary productions of the day. With them science is but a synonym of
+truth; they fling all superstition and ignorance to the winds, and
+should be better known. Such names as Edison, Cope, Marsh, Hall, Young,
+Field, Baird, Agassiz, and fifty more might be mentioned, all authors
+whose books will give them undying fame, men who have devoted a lifetime
+to research and the accumulation of knowledge; yet the author of the
+last novel, "My Mule from New Jersey," will, for the day, have more
+vogue among the people than any of these. But such is fame, at least in
+America, where erudition is not appreciated as it is in "pagan" China.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] As a frontispiece to this volume, the cover design used on one of
+these old Chinese books is shown.
+
+[4] Spring and Autumn Annals.
+
+[5] Great Learning.
+
+[6] Confucian Analects.
+
+[7] Doctrine of the Mean.
+
+[8] Works of Mencius.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE POLITICAL BOSS
+
+
+At an assembly-room in New York I met a famous American political
+"boss." Many governors in China do not have the same power and
+influence. I had letters to him from Senators ---- and ----. I expected
+to meet a man of the highest culture, but what was my surprise to see a
+huge, overgrown, uneducated Irishman, gross in every particular, who
+used the local "slang" so fiercely that I had difficulty in
+understanding him. He had been a police officer, and I understand was a
+"grafter," but that may have been a report of his enemies, as he
+commanded attention at the time of the election.
+
+This man had a fund of humor, which was displayed in his clapping me on
+the back and calling me "John," introducing me to a dozen or so of as
+hard-looking men in the garb of gentlemen as I have ever seen. I heard
+them described later as "ward beetles," and they looked it, whatever it
+meant. The "Boss" appeared much interested in me; said he had heard I
+was no "slouch," and knew I must have a "pull" or I would not be where I
+am. He wished to know how we run elections on "the Ho-Hang-Ho." When I
+told him that a candidate for a governmental office never obtained it
+until he passed one of three very difficult literary examinations in our
+nine classics, and that there were thousands competing for the office,
+he was "paralyzed"--that is, he said he was, and volunteered the
+information that "he would not be 'in it' in China." I thought so
+myself, but did not say so.
+
+I told him that the politicians in China were the greatest scholars;
+that the policy of the Government was to make all offices competitive,
+as we thus secured the brightest, smartest, and most gifted men for
+officials. "Smart h----!" retorted the "Boss." "Why, we've got smart
+men. Look at our school-teachers. Them guys[9] is crammed with guff,[10]
+and passing examinations all the time; but there ain't one in a thousand
+that's got sense enough to run a tamale[11] convention. The State
+governor would get left here if all the boys that wanted office had to
+pass an examination. We've got something like it here," he said, "that
+blank Civil Service, that keeps many a natural-born genius out of
+office; but it don't 'cut ice with me.' I'm the whole thing in the
+ward."
+
+Despite his rough exterior, ---- was a good-hearted fellow, as they
+say, no rougher than his constituents, and I was with him several days
+during a local election with a view to studying American politics. Much
+of the time was spent in the saloons of the district where the "Boss"
+held out, and where I was introduced as a "white Chinee," or as a "white
+Chink," and "my friend." I wish I had kept a list of the drinks the
+"Boss" took and the cigars he smoked _per diem_. Perhaps it is as well I
+did not; you would not believe me. I was always "John" to this crowd,
+that was made up of laboring people in the main, of whom Irish and
+Germans predominated. The "Boss" was what they called a "bulldozer." If
+a man differed with him he tried to talk or drink him down; if it was an
+enemy and he became too disputatious, he would knock him out with his
+fist. In this way he had acquired a reputation as a "slugger," that
+counted for much in such an assemblage, and he confided to me one
+evening that it was the easiest way to "stop talk," and that if he "laid
+down," the opposition would walk off with all his "people." He was
+"Boss" because he was the boss slugger, the best executive, the best
+drinker and smoker, the best "persuader," and the best public speaker in
+his ward. So you see he had a variety of talents. In China I can imagine
+such a man being beheaded as a pirate in a few weeks; this would be as
+good an excuse as any; yet men like this have grown and developed into
+respectable persons in New York and other cities.
+
+"For ways that are dark and tricks that are vain, the Heathen Chinee is
+peculiar," but I doubt if he is more so than the political system of the
+United States, where every man is supposed to be free, but where a few
+men in each town own everything and everybody politically. The American
+thinks he is free, but he has in reality no more freedom than the
+Englishman; in fact, I am inclined to think that the latter is the
+freest of them all, and I doubt if too much freedom is good for man.
+Politics in America is a profession, a trade, a science, a perfect
+system by which one or two men run or control millions. Politics means
+the attainment of political power and influence, which mean office. Some
+men are in politics for the love of power, some for spoils ("graft" they
+call it in slang), and some for the high offices. In America there are
+two large parties, the Republican and the Democratic. Then there are the
+Labor, Prohibition (non-drinking), and various other parties, which, in
+the language of politics, "cut no ice." The real issues of a party are
+often lost sight of. The Republicans may be said to favor a high
+tariff; the Democrats a low tariff or free trade; and when there is not
+sufficient to amuse the people in these, then other reasons for being a
+Democrat or a Republican are raised, and a platform is issued. Lately
+the Democrats have espoused "free silver," and the Republicans have
+"buried" them. The Democrats are now trying to invent some new
+"platform"; but the Republicans appear to have included about all the
+desirable things in their platform, and hence they win.
+
+In a small town one or two men are known as "bosses." They control the
+situation at the primaries; they manage to get elected and keep before
+the people. Generally they are natural leaders, and fill some office.
+When the senator comes to town they "escort" him about and advise him as
+to the votes he may expect. Sometimes the ward man is the postmaster,
+sometimes a national congressman, again a State senator; but he is
+always in evidence, and before the people, a good speaker and talker and
+the "boss." Every town has its Republican and Democratic "boss," always
+striving to increase the vote, always striving for something. The larger
+the city, the larger the "boss," until we come to a city like New York,
+where we find, or did find, Boss Tweed, who absolutely controlled the
+political situation for years.
+
+This means that he was in politics, and manipulated all the offices in
+order to steal for himself and his friends; this is of public record. He
+was overthrown or exposed by the citizens, but was followed by others,
+who manipulated the affairs of the city for money. Offices were sold;
+any one who had a position either bought it or paid a percentage for it.
+Gambling-dens and other "resorts" paid large sums to "sub-bosses," who
+become rich, and if the full history of some of the "bosses" of New
+York, Philadelphia, Chicago, or any great American city could be
+exposed, it would show a state of affairs that would display the
+American politician in a dark light. Repeatedly the machinations of the
+politicians have been exposed, yet they doubtless go on in some form.
+And this is true to some extent of the Government. The honor of no
+President has been impugned; they are men of integrity, but the enormous
+appointing power which they have is a mere form; they do not and could
+not appoint many men. The little "boss" in some town desires a position.
+He has been a spy for the congressman or senator for years, and now
+aspires to office. He obtains the influence of the senator and the
+congressman, and is supported by a petition of his friends, and the
+President names him for the office, taking the senator for his sponsor.
+If the man becomes a grafter or thief, the President is attacked by the
+opposition.
+
+In a large city like New York each ward will have its "boss," who will
+report to a supreme "boss," and by this system, often pernicious, the
+latter acquires absolute control of the situation. He names the
+candidates for office, or most of them, and is all powerful. I have met
+a number of "bosses," and all, it happened, were Irish; indeed, the
+Irish dominate American politics. One, a leader of Tammany in New York,
+was a most preposterous person, well dressed, but not a gentleman from
+any standpoint; ignorant so far as education goes, yet supremely sharp
+in politics. Such a man could not have led a fire brigade in China, yet
+he was the leader of thousands, and controlled Democratic New York for
+years. He never held office, I was told, yet grew very rich.
+
+The Republican "boss" was a tall, thin, United States senator. I was
+also introduced to him--a Mephistophelian sort of an individual--to me
+utterly without any attraction; but I was informed that he carried the
+vote of the Republican party in his pocket. How? that is the mystery. If
+you desired office you went to him; without his influence one was
+impotent. Thousands of office-holders felt his power, hated him,
+perhaps, but did not dare to say it.
+
+The "boss" controls the situation, gives and "takes," and the other
+citizens get the satisfaction of thinking they are a free people. In
+reality, they are political slaves, and the "boss," "sub-boss," and the
+long line of smaller "bosses" are their masters. Very much the same
+situation is seen in national politics. The party is controlled by a
+"boss," and at the present this personage is a millionaire, named Hanna,
+said to be an honest, upright man, with a genius for political
+diplomacy, a puller of wires, a maker of Presidents, having virtually
+placed President McKinley where he is. This man I met. Many of the
+politicians called him "Uncle Mark." He has a familiar way with
+reporters. He is a man of good size, with a face of a rather common
+type, with very large and protruding ears, but two bright, gleaming
+eyes, that tell of genius, force, intelligence, power, and executive
+talents of an exalted order. I recall but one other such pair of eyes,
+and those were in the head of Senator James G. Blaine, whom I saw during
+my first visit to America. Hanna is famous for his _bonhomie_, and is a
+fine story-teller. Indeed, unless a man can tell stories he had better
+remain out of politics, or rather he will never get into politics.
+
+As an outsider I should say that the power of the "boss" was due to the
+fact that the best classes will have none of him, as a rule (I refer to
+the ordinary "boss"), and as a consequence he and his henchmen control
+the situation. I think I am not overstating the truth when I say that
+every city in the United States has been looted by the politicians of
+various parties. It is of public record that Philadelphia, Chicago, St.
+Louis, and New York citizens have repeatedly risen and shown that the
+city was being robbed in the most bare-handed manner. Bribery and
+corruption have been found to exist to-day in the entire system, and if
+the credit of the republic stands on its political _morale_ this vast
+union of States is a colossal failure, as it is being pillaged by
+politicians. Every "boss" has what are termed "heelers," one function
+of whom is to buy votes and do other work in the interest of "reform." A
+friend told me that he spent election day in the office of a candidate
+for Congress in a certain Western town, and the candidate had his safe
+heaped full of silver dollars. All day long men were coming and going,
+each taking the dollars to buy votes. By night the supply was exhausted,
+and the man defeated. I expressed satisfaction at this, but my friend
+laughed; the other fellow who won paid more for votes, he said. I was
+told that all the great senatorial battles were merely a question of
+dollars; the man with the largest "sack" won.
+
+On the other hand, there are senators who not only never paid for a vote
+but never expressed a wish to be elected. The foreign vote--Italians and
+others--are swayed by cash considerations; the negroes are bought and
+sold politically. The "bosses" handle the money, and the senators
+consider it as "expenses," and doubtless do not know that some of it has
+been used to influence legislators. The Americans have a remarkable
+network of laws to prevent fraudulent voting. Each candidate in some
+States is required to swear to an expense account, yet the wary
+politician, with his "ways that are dark," evades the law. The entire
+system, the control of the political fortunes of 80,000,000 Americans,
+is in the hands of a small army of political "bosses," some of whom, had
+they figured as grafters in "effete" China, would have been beheaded
+without mercy.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[9] Slang for citizens.
+
+[10] Slang for information, facts.
+
+[11] Mexican hash in corn-husk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EDUCATION IN AMERICA
+
+
+A fundamental idea with the American is to educate children. This is
+carried to the extent of making it an offense not to send those above a
+certain age to school, while State or town officers, called "truant
+police," are on the alert to arrest all such children who are not in
+school. The following was told me by a Government official in
+Washington, who had obtained it from a well-known literary man who
+witnessed the incident. The literary man was invited to visit a Boston
+school of the lower grade, where he found the teacher, an attractive
+woman, engaged in teaching a class of "youngsters," the progeny of the
+working class. After the visitor had listened to the recitations for
+some time, he remarked to the teacher, "How do you account for the
+neatness and cleanliness of these children?" "Oh, I insist upon it," was
+the reply. "The Board of Education does not anticipate all the
+desiderata, but I make them come clean and make it a part of the
+course;" then rising and tapping on the table, she said, "Prepare for
+the sixth exercise." All the children stood up. "One," said the teacher,
+whereupon each pupil took out a clean cloth handkerchief. "Two," counted
+the teacher, and with one concerted blast every pupil blew his or her
+nose in clarion notes. "Three," came again after a few seconds, and the
+handkerchiefs were replaced. At "four" the student body sank back to
+their seats without even smiling, or without having "cracked a smile."
+You could search the world over and not find a prototype. It goes
+without saying that the teacher was a wit and wag, but the lesson of
+handkerchiefs and their use was inculcated.
+
+Education is a part of the scheme to make all Americans equal. A more
+splendid _system_ it is impossible to conceive. Every possible facility
+is afforded the poorest family to educate their children. Public schools
+loom up everywhere, and are increased as rapidly as the children, so
+there is no excuse for ignorance. The schools are graded, and there is
+no expense or fee. The parents pay a tax, a small sum, those who have no
+children being taxed as well as those who have many. There are schools
+to train boys to any trade; normal free schools to make teachers; night
+schools for working boys; commercial schools to educate clerks; ship
+schools to train sailors and engineers. Then come the great
+universities, in part free, with all the splendid paraphernalia, some
+being State institutions and others memorials of dead millionaires.
+Then there are the great technical schools, as well as universities
+(where one can study Chinese, if desired). There are schools of art,
+law, medicine, nature, forestry, sculpture; schools to teach one how to
+write, how to dress, how to eat, and how to keep well; schools to teach
+one how to write advertisements, to cultivate the memory, to grow
+strong; schools for shooting, boxing, fencing; schools for nurses and
+cooks; summer schools; winter schools.
+
+And yet the American is not profoundly educated. He has too much within
+his reach. I have been distinctly surprised at crude specimens I have
+met who were graduates of great universities. The well-educated
+Englishman, German, and American are different things. The American is
+far behind in the best sense, which I am inclined to think is due to
+the teachers. Any one can get through a normal school and become a
+teacher who can pass the examination, and I have seen some singular
+instances. If all the teachers were obliged to pass examinations in
+culture, refinement, and the art of _conveying_ knowledge, there would
+be a falling of pedagogic heads. The free and over education of the poor
+places them at once above their parents. They are free, and the daughter
+of a ditch laborer, whose wife is a floor scrubber, upon being educated
+is ashamed of her parents, learns to play the piano, apes the rich, and
+is at least unhappy.
+
+The result is, there remains no peasant class. The effect of education
+on the country boy is to make him despise the farm and go to the city,
+to become a clerk and ape the fashions of the wealthy at six or eight
+dollars a week. He has been educated up to the standard of his "boss"
+and to be his equal. The overeducation of the poor is a heartless thing.
+The women vie with the men, and as a result women graduates, taking
+positions at half the price that men demand, crowd them out of the
+fields of skilled labor, whereas the man, not crowded out, should,
+normally, marry the girl. In power, strength, and progress the American
+nation stands first in the world, and all this may be due to splendid
+educational facilities. But this is not everything. There result strife,
+unhappiness, envy, and a craze for riches. I do not think the Americans
+as a race are as happy as the Chinese. Religious denominations try to
+have their own schools, so that children shall not be captured by other
+denominations. Thus the Roman Catholics have parochial schools, under
+priests and sisters, and colleges of various grades. They oppose the use
+of the Bible in the public school, and in some States their influence
+has helped to suppress its use. The Quakers, with a following of only
+eighty thousand, have colleges and schools. The Methodists have
+universities, as have the Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and others. All
+denominations have institutions of learning. These schools are in the
+hands of clergymen, and are often endowed or supported by wealthy
+members of the denomination.
+
+A remarkable feature of American life is the college of correspondence.
+A man or firm advertises to teach by correspondence at so much a month.
+Many branches are taught, and if the student is in earnest a certain
+amount of information can thus be accumulated. Among the people I have
+met I have observed a lack of what I term full, broad education,
+producing a well-rounded mind, which is rare except among the class
+that stands first in America--the refined, cultured, educated man of an
+old family, who is the product of many generations. The curriculum of
+the high school in America would in China seem sufficient to equip a
+student for any position in diplomatic life; but I have found that a
+majority of graduates become clerks in a grocery or in other shops, car
+conductors, or commercial travelers, where Latin, Greek, and other
+higher studies are absolutely useless. The brightest educational sign I
+see in America is the attention given to manual training. In schools
+boys are taught some trade or are allowed to experiment in the trades in
+order to find out their natural bent, so that the boy can be educated
+with his future in view. As a result of education, women appear in
+nearly every field except that of manual labor on farms, which is
+performed in America only by alien women.
+
+The richest men in America to-day, the multi-millionaires, are not the
+product of the universities, but mainly of the public schools. Carnegie,
+Rockefeller, Schwab, men of the great steel combine, the oil magnates,
+the great railway magnates, the great mine owners, were all men of
+limited education at the beginning. Among great merchants, however, the
+university man is found, and among the Harvard and Yale graduates, for
+example, may be found some of America's most distinguished men. But
+Lincoln, the martyred President, had the most limited education, and
+among public men the majority have been the product of the public
+school, which suggests that great men are natural geniuses, who will
+attain prominence despite the lack of education. The best-educated men
+in America to my mind are the graduates of West Point and Annapolis, the
+military and naval academies. These two institutions are extremely
+rigorous, and are open to the most humble citizens. They so transform
+men in four years that people would hardly recognize them. The result is
+a highly educated, refined, cultivated, practical man, with a high sense
+of honor and patriotism. If America would have a school of this kind in
+every State there would be no limit to her power in two decades.
+
+Despite education, the great mass of the people are superficial; they
+have a smattering of this and that. An employer of several thousand men
+told the Superintendent of Education of the District of Columbia that he
+had selected the brightest boy graduate of a high school for a position
+which required only a knowledge of simple arithmetic. The graduate
+proved to be totally unfit for the position and was discharged. Later he
+became the driver of a team of horses. America abounds in thousands of
+educational institutions, yet there is not one so well endowed that it
+can say to the world we wish no more money. It is singular that some
+multi-millionaire does not grasp this opportunity to donate one hundred
+millions to a great national school or university, to be placed at
+Washington, where the buildings would all be lessons in architecture of
+marble after the plans of a world's fair. Instead they leave a few
+thousands here and a few there. Carnegie, the leading millionaire, gives
+libraries to cities all over the States, each of which bears the name of
+the giver. The object is too obvious, and is cheap in conception. In San
+Francisco some years ago a citizen tried the same experiment. He
+proposed to give the city a large number of fountains. When they were
+finished _each_ one was seen to be surmounted by his own statue. A few
+were put up, how many I do not recall, but one night some citizens
+waited on a statue, fastened a rope to its neck, and hauled it down. So
+peculiar are the Americans that I believe if Mr. Carnegie should place
+his name on ten thousand libraries, with the object of attaining undying
+fame, the people, by a concerted effort, would forget all about him in a
+few decades. Such an attempt does not appeal to any side of the American
+character. I have known the best Americans, but Mr. Carnegie has not
+known the best of his own countrymen or he would not attempt to
+perpetuate his memory in this way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE ARMY AND NAVY
+
+
+Among the most delightful people I have met in America are the army and
+navy officers, graduates of West Point and Annapolis, well-bred,
+cultivated men, patriotic, open-hearted, and chivalrous. They are like
+our own class of men who answer to the American term of gentlemen. I am
+not going to tell you of their splendid ships, their training or
+uniform, but of a few of their idiosyncrasies. There is no dueling in
+the army. If two men have trouble at the academies they fight it out
+with bare fists, and in the army settle it in some other way, dueling
+being forbidden. Owing to the fact that all men are equal in America,
+the attitude of the officer to the civilian is entirely different. If a
+civilian strikes an officer in Germany the latter will cut him down with
+his saber and be protected in it, but here the man would be arrested and
+treated as any other criminal; in a word, the officer is a servant of
+the people, and stands with them. He has been trained to treat his men
+well, and they respect him. But while the officer is the people's
+servant and his salary in some part is paid by the humblest grocer's
+clerk, laborer, or artisan, the officer has a social position which, in
+the eyes of himself and the Government, makes him the social equal of
+kings and emperors; and here we see a strange fact in American life.
+
+When a garrison is ordered to a town or city, people call to pay their
+respects. The grocer, who in being taxed aids in paying the officer's
+salary, is _persona non grata_. The grocer, milk dealer, shoe dealer,
+and retail dealers in general might call, but would not be received on
+cordial terms. The wife of the colonel might return the call of the
+grocer's wife if she made a good appearance, but the latter would under
+no circumstances be invited to a function at the camp or post. The
+undertaker, the dentist, the ice-man, the retail shoe man are under the
+ban. Certain kinds of business appear to have certain social rights.
+Thus a dentist would not be received, but the man who manufactures
+dentists' tools may be a leader among the "Four Hundred."
+
+Strange complications arise. A young officer fell in love with a
+sergeant's daughter, and married her, as I learned from a well-known
+officer at the Army and Navy Club. This was serious enough, as there
+could be no intimacy between a commissioned and non-commissioned
+officer. The young man and his bride were ordered to a distant post,
+where the story of course followed them. All went well for a time. The
+bride sank her social inferiority in the rank of her husband, and the
+ladies of the post called on her, not as the sergeant's daughter but as
+the officer's wife. The mother of the bride finally decided to visit
+her, and thus became the guest of the officer, who was a lieutenant.
+Under ordinary circumstances it was the duty of all the ladies to call
+on the mother of the lieutenant's wife; but it so happened that she was
+the wife of a sergeant, and hence to call was impossible. No one did so.
+
+The young wife felt herself insulted, and the ubiquitous reporter seized
+upon the situation, until it was taken up by every paper in the country.
+The pictures of mother, daughter, and sergeant were shown, and columns
+were written on the subject. Almost to a man the editors denounced what
+they termed the snobbishness of the army, and denounced West Point for
+producing snobs, claiming that the ladies of the post, had they been
+real ladies, would have called on a respectable laundress even if she
+had been the sergeant's wife. I refer to this to show the intricacies of
+American etiquette. The point is that nearly all the editors who knew
+anything, believed that the ladies were right, but did not dare to say
+so on account of the fact that the majority of their readers felt
+themselves the equals of the army officer; hence the cry of snobbery
+that went whistling over the land. The lieutenant committed a gross
+mistake in marrying the girl; he married out of his class. But in
+America I am told there are no classes, and I am constantly forgetting
+this.
+
+In the army there are several black regiments (negroes). They have
+black chaplains, and attempts have been made to find black officers,
+but the social difficulties make this impossible, though the blacks are
+free and independent citizens and help pay the salaries of the white
+men. It would be impossible to force white soldiers to admit to their
+regiment black soldiers. No white man would permit a black officer to be
+placed over him, even by inference.
+
+In the navy we see an entirely different situation. On every ship are
+negroes in the crew, sleeping on the same gun-decks with the white men,
+and no fault is found; but a negro officer would be an impossibility.
+Though several have been sent to the Naval Academy, none have "gone
+through." Even in these almost perfect institutions favoritism exists.
+To illustrate: the son of a prominent man was about to fail in his
+examinations, when the powers that be passed the word that he must
+pass, _nolens volens_. The professor in whose class he was and who had
+found him deficient resented this, and when he learned that it was the
+intention to pass the boy over his head he resigned and was ordered to
+his regiment. The young man was graduated, entered the army and, aided
+by influence, jumped many of his class men and finally acquired rank at
+the request of the wife of one of the Presidents. This was a very
+exceptional case, the result of strong national sentiment that favored
+the father.
+
+The management of the army does not seem rational to a foreigner. To
+preserve the idea of republican simplicity and equality, army men are
+not rewarded with orders, as in other countries, which is a great
+injustice. Few officers, though veterans of many wars, wear medals, and
+when they do they were not given as rewards for bravery, but are merely
+corps badges, showing that the officer belongs to this or that army
+corps. But if an officer does a brave deed he may be promoted several
+points over his fellows, as brave as he, but who did not have the same
+opportunity to show bravery. Ill feeling may be the result. Every man is
+expected to be brave, and extraordinary examples of bravery are
+recognized in other nations by the presentation of medals, the
+possession of which creates no ill feeling. The actual head of the army
+is the Secretary of War, a political appointment, an adviser selected by
+the President, who, usually, has no military knowledge. This officer
+gives all the orders to the general of the army, and, as in a recent
+instance, a vast amount of friction has been the result. Intense feeling
+was occasioned by the elevation of certain officers, who were supposed
+to possess remarkable executive ability.
+
+Civil war veterans at the Army and Navy Club complained to an
+acquaintance of mine that when they arrived at the seat of war in Cuba
+they found their superior officers to be, first, General Wheeler, an
+ex-Confederate, against whom they had fought in the civil war; second,
+Colonel Wood, who had been a contract army surgeon under nearly all of
+them; and finally, Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt, who was a babe in arms
+when they were fighting the battles of the civil war. This story serves
+to illustrate the point that political "pulls" and favoritism are
+rampant in the service, and are the cause of much disgust among
+officers. General Funston affords an illustration that has incensed many
+officers. Funston was an unknown man, who captured Aguinaldo by a clever
+ruse, a valuable and courageous piece of work, which should have been
+rewarded with a decoration and _some_ promotion; but he was jumped over
+the heads of hundreds, landing at the top of the army in one "fell
+swoop." I judge the policy of the Government to be to promote officers
+so soon as they show evidence of extraordinary capability.
+
+It would be an easy matter for any one to obtain photographs of plans
+and sketches of American fortifications. One of my friends hired a
+photographer to get up what he called a scrap-book of pictures to take
+home to his family in Tokio in order to "entertain his people." The
+photographer sent him a wonderful series, showing the forts overlooking
+New York harbor, interiors and exteriors; and those in Boston, Portland,
+Baltimore, Fort Monroe, Key West, and San Francisco were also obtained.
+Photographs of guns and charts, which can be purchased everywhere, were
+included, as well as Government reports. If Japan ever goes to war with
+the Yankees my friend's scrap-book will be in demand. I do not believe
+the American War Department makes any secret of the forts. They are open
+to the public. Even if a kodak were not permitted, pictures could be
+secured. My friend said his photographer had a kodak which he wore
+inside his vest, the opening protruding from a button-hole. All he had
+to do was to stand in front of an object and pull a cord. Such a kodak
+is known as a "detective camera." There are several designs, all very
+clever. I once saw my face reproduced in a paper, and until I heard
+about this camera it was a mystery how the original was obtained, as I
+had not "posed" for any one.
+
+The possibility of America going to war with another nation is remote.
+From what I see of the people and their tremendous activity they could
+not be defeated by any nation or combination of nations. They are like
+Senator ----'s Malay game-cock, of which the senator has said that there
+is only one trouble with him--the bird never knows when he is licked,
+and if he does he does not stay licked. America could raise an army of
+ten or twelve millions of the finest fighters in the world for defense
+against any combination, and she would win. The senator told me a story,
+which illustrates the situation. One of the American men-of-war in a
+Malay port had an old American eagle aboard as a mascot and pet. When
+the men got liberty they went ashore with the eagle, and showed it as an
+"American game-cock." The natives wanted to arrange a match, and finally
+one was planned, the eagle cock against a black Malay. When the fight
+began, the black cock put its spur into the eagle several times, the
+latter doing nothing but eye the cock, first with one eye, and then with
+the other. Once more the black cock stabbed the eagle, bringing blood,
+whereupon the eagle leaned forward, and as the cock thrust out its head,
+seized it with one claw, pressed it to the ground, and with the other
+tore off its head and began to eat it. This is what would happen if
+almost any nation really and seriously went to war with the United
+States. But the country was ill prepared for the war with Spain. If
+Cervera had reached the New England coast he could have shelled Boston
+and then New York.
+
+Service in America is not compulsory. It is merely made popular, and as
+a result, every part of the country has State militia of splendidly
+drilled men, ready to be called on at a moment's notice. They receive no
+pay, considering it an honor to be in the militia service. In the
+regular army old names are perpetuated. The great generals and admirals
+have sent sons into the service. Our Government would do well to send
+young men to West Point and Annapolis. The Japanese did this for years,
+and received the best of their ideas from those sources. There is but
+one thing in the way. Chinamen are _tabooed_ in America, and doubtless
+would reach no farther than the port of entry. The only way to get in
+now would be for a new minister or diplomat to bring over ten or a dozen
+young men as members of the suite and then distribute them among the
+schools and universities--a humiliation that China will probably resent.
+
+Our trade with America is extremely valuable to her. The cotton, flour,
+and other commodities we import represent a vast sum, and I believe if
+we refused at once to buy anything from America we could make our own
+terms in less than two years. This could be accomplished very gradually.
+The Americans would find it out first through their consuls, who are all
+instructed to report on every possible point of vantage that can be
+taken in China by their merchants. They would report a decreased demand.
+American merchants would then demand an explanation from the Department
+of State, and finally we could announce that we preferred to buy from
+our friends, American treatment of the Chinese being inimical to good
+feeling. Knowing the American business men as I do, you could count on a
+wail coming up from them. An appeal would be made to Congress through
+representatives and senators, the American business men demanding that
+the "Chinese matter" be arranged upon a "more liberal basis." When you
+touch the pocketbook of "Uncle Sam" you reach his earthquake center; yet
+for defense, for the preservation of the national honor, this people
+will spend untold sums. The American Government bond is the best
+security in the world. It is founded on the rock of honor and
+patriotism. And there is no repudiation like that of ----, and none like
+the pretended one of ----.[12] We have our faults, and it is well to
+recognize them; but I never saw them until I mingled with the English
+and Americans.
+
+There is of course a large foreign element in the American
+army--thousands of Irish and Germans; but this does not signify, as I
+learn that in the State of Massachusetts, the stronghold of Americans,
+the Irish hold a third of the official positions, the native-born
+Yankees about one-fourth. This is particularly exasperating to old
+families in New England, as it is notorious that the Irish come directly
+from the very dregs of the poverty-stricken peasantry--the
+"bog-trotters." I was much impressed by the high standard of honor in
+the army and navy, and am told that it is the rarest of occurrences for
+a regular army officer to commit a crime or to default. This is due to
+the training received at the military and naval schools, where young men
+are placed on their honor.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[12] China has twice repudiated its Government bonds within four
+centuries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ART IN AMERICA
+
+
+It is seldom that I have been complimented in America, but a lady has
+told me that she envied our "art sense." She said the Chinese are
+essentially artistic, that the cheapest thing, the most ordinary
+article, is artistic or beautiful. I wished that I could return the
+compliment, but a strict observance of the truth compels me to say that
+the reverse is true in America. If one go into a Chinese shop and ask
+for any ordinary article, it will be found artistic. If one go into an
+American shop, say a hardware "store," there will not be found an
+article that would be considered decorative, while everything in a
+Chinese shop of like character would fall under this head. The
+conclusion is that the Chinese are artistic, while the Americans are
+not.
+
+The reason lies in the fact that the Chinese are homogeneous, while the
+Americans are a mixed race, that is injured by the continual
+introduction of baser elements. If immigration could be stopped for
+fifty years, and the people have a chance to acquire "oneness," they
+might become artistic. The middle class, however, is, from an artistic
+standpoint, a horror; they have absolutely no art sense, and the
+_nouveaux riches_ are often as bad. The latter sometimes place their
+money in the hands of an agent, who buys for them; but all at once a man
+may break out and insist upon buying something himself, so that in a
+splendid collection of European names will appear some artistic horror
+to stamp the owner as a parvenu.
+
+The Americans have not produced a great painter. By this I mean a
+really great artist, nor have they a great sculptor, one who is or has
+been an inspiration. But they have thousands of artists, and many poor
+ones thrive in selling their wares. You may see a man with an income of
+thirty thousand dollars having paintings on his walls that give one the
+vertigo. The poor artist has taken him in, or "pulled his leg," to use
+the latest American slang. There are some fine paintings in America. I
+have visited the great collections in Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
+Washington, Chicago, and those in many private galleries, but the best
+of the pictures are always from England, France, Germany, and other
+European countries. Old masters are particularly revered. Americans pay
+enormous sums for them, but sometimes are deceived.
+
+They have art schools by the hundred, where they study from the nude
+and from models of all kinds. There are splendid museums of art,
+especially in Boston and New York. The art interests are particularly
+active, but not the people; there are a few art lovers only, the people
+in the mass being hopeless. Cheap prints, chromos, and other deadly
+things are ground out by the million and sold, to clog still deeper the
+art sense of an inartistic people. They laugh at our conventional
+Chinese art, but the extreme of conventionality is certainly better than
+some of the daubs I have seen in American homes. Americans have peculiar
+fancies in art. One is called Impressionist Art. As near as I can
+understand it, painters claim that while you are looking at an object
+you do not really see it all, you merely gain an impression; so they
+paint only the impression. In a museum of art I was shown several rooms
+full of daubs, having absolutely nothing to commend them, weird colors
+being thrown together in the strangest manner, without rhyme or reason,
+but over which people went mad. The great masters of Europe appeal to me
+strongly. In America, marine painters attract me the most, for example,
+Edward Moran, who is a splendid delineator of the sea. Bierstadt is a
+noble painter, and so is Thomas Moran. There are half a hundred men who
+are fine painters, but half a thousand men and women who think they are
+artistic but who are not.
+
+Americans have developed no individual architecture. You see
+semipagoda-like effects in the East, and old English houses in the
+South. They steal the latter and call them Colonial. They steal the
+architecture of the Moors and call it Mexican. They borrow Roman and
+Grecian effects for great public buildings. At one time they went mad
+over the French roof, or mansard. Nowhere have I seen purely American
+architecture. The race is not possessed of sufficient unity. So all
+their art is from abroad, and notably is French and English. They make
+broad effects, and give them an American name; but they are copied from
+the Dutch or Germans. All the furniture designers in America are
+Europeans. You will find a splendid house with a Chinese room, having
+teak inlaid with ivory, etc.; a Japanese room, a Moorish room, and an
+Italian room, all splendidly decorated; but the family lives in an
+"American room," that is commonplace and subversive of all art digestion
+and assimilation. The average middle-class American knows absolutely
+nothing about art; the lower classes so little that their homes are
+hopeless. Knowing this, they are preyed upon by thousands of foreign
+swindlers. There are hundreds of articles manufactured in Europe to sell
+to the American tourist. I have seen Napoleonic furniture enough to load
+a fleet. I can only compare it to the pieces of the true cross and the
+holy relics of the Catholics, of which there are enough to fill the
+original ark which the Bible tells the Americans landed on Mount Ararat
+in a great flood.
+
+The houses of the best people I have told you about are as far removed
+from the commonplace as the equator from the poles. They are rich in
+conception, sumptuous in detail, artistic in every way, and filled with
+the art gems of the world. But these people have descended from refined
+people for several generations. They are the true Americans, but make up
+a small number compared to the inartistic whole. I believe America
+recognizes this, and with her stupendous energy is doing everything to
+educate the masses in art. They are building splendid museums; rich men
+give away millions. There are hundreds of art schools, free to all, and
+art is taught in all the schools. Fine monuments are placed in public
+squares and parks, and beautiful fountains and memorials in these and
+other public places. Their buildings, though foreign in design, are
+beautiful. In Boston one may see marvelous work in frescoes, etc., and
+in the Government buildings at Washington. The Capitol, while not
+American in design, is a pile worthy of the great people who erected it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE DARK SIDE OF REPUBLICANISM
+
+
+The questions I know you will wish answered are, Whether this stupendous
+aggregation of States is a success? Does it possess advantages beyond
+those of the Chinese Empire? Does it fulfil the expectations of its own
+people? Frankly, I do not consider myself competent to answer. I have
+studied America and the Americans for many years during my visits to
+this country and Europe, and while I have seen many accounts of the
+country, written after several months of observation, I believe that no
+just estimate of the republican form of government can be formed after
+such experience. My private impression, however, is that the republic
+falls far short of what the men in Washington's time expected, and it
+is also my private opinion that it has not so many advantages as a
+government like that of England.
+
+It is too splendid an organization to be lightly denounced. The idea of
+the equality of men is noble, and I would not wish to be arraigned among
+its critics. There is too much good to offset the bad. I have been
+attempting to amuse you by analyzing the Americans, pointing out their
+frailties as well as their good qualities. I tell you what I see as I
+run, always, I hope, remembering what is good in this spontaneous and
+open-hearted people. The characteristic claim of the people is that the
+Government offers freedom to its citizens; yet every man is quite as
+free in China if he behaves himself, and he can rise if he possesses
+brains.
+
+Any native-born citizen in the United States may become the head of the
+nation has he the courage of his convictions, the many accomplishments
+which equip the great leader, and should the hour and the man meet
+opportunity. This is the one prize which distinguishes America from
+England. The latter in other respects offers exactly as much freedom
+with half the wear and tear; in fact, to me the freedom of America is
+one of her disadvantages. Every one knows, and the American best of all,
+that all men are _not equal_, never were and never can be. Yet this
+false doctrine is their standard, and they swear by it, though some will
+explain that what is meant is political freedom. Freedom accounts for
+the gross impertinence of the ignorant and lower classes, the laughable
+assumptions of servants, and the illogical pretenses of the _nouveau
+riche_, which make America impossible to some people. Cultivated
+Americans are as thoroughly aristocratic as the nobility of England.
+There are the same classes here as there. A grocer becomes rich and
+retires or dies; his children refuse to associate with the families of
+other grocers; in a word, the Americans have the aristocratic feeling,
+but they have no peasant class; the latter would be, in their own
+estimation, as good as any one. One class, the lower and poorer, is
+arraigned against the upper and richer, and the gap is growing daily.
+
+But this would not prove that the republic is a failure. What then? It
+is, in the opinion of many of its clergymen, a great moral failure. No
+nation in history has lasted many centuries after having developed the
+"symptoms" now shown in the United States. I quote their own press, "the
+States are morally rotten," and you have but to turn to these organs and
+the magazines of the past decade, which make a feature of holding up
+the shortcomings of cities and millionaires, to read the details of the
+tragedy. Thieves--grafters--have seized upon the vitals of the country.
+St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, great representative
+cities--what is their history? The story of dishonesty among officials,
+of bribery, stealing, and every possible crime that a man can devise to
+wring money from the people. This is no secret. It has all been exposed
+by the friends of morality. City governments are overthrown, the rascals
+are turned out, but in a few months the new officers are caught devising
+some new "grafting" operation.
+
+I have it from a prominent official that there is not an honest State or
+city administration in America. What can a nation say when for years it
+has known that a large and influential lobby has been maintained to
+influence statesmen, a lobby comprising a corps of "persuaders" in the
+pay of business men? How do they influence them? The great fights waged
+to defeat certain measures are well known, and it is known that money
+was used. Certain congressmen have been notoriously receptive. I have
+seen the following story in print in many forms. I took the trouble to
+ask a well-known man if it was possible that it could be founded on
+fact; his reply was, "Certainly it is a fact." A briber entered the
+private room of a congressman. "Mr. ----, to come right to the point, I
+want the ---- bill to pass, and I will give you five hundred dollars for
+the vote and your interest." The congressman rose to his feet, purple
+with rage. "You dare to offer me this insulting bribe? You infernal
+scoundrel, I will throw you out." "Well, suppose we make it one
+thousand," said the imperturbable visitor. "Well," replied the
+congressman, cooling down, "that is a little better put. We will talk it
+over."
+
+The American Government had been attempting, since 1859, to build a
+canal across the Isthmus. I believe surveys were made earlier than that,
+but bribery and corruption and "graft" enabled the friends of
+transcontinental railroads to stop the canals. It would be a
+disadvantage to the railroads to have a canal across the Isthmus. So in
+some mysterious way the canal, which the people wished, has not been
+built, and will not be until the people rise and demand it. Corruption
+has stood on the Isthmus with a flaming sword and struck down every
+attempt to build the canal. The morality of the people is low. Divorce
+is rampant, the daily journals are filled with accounts of divorces, and
+daily lists of crimes are printed that would seem impossible to a
+nation that can raise millions to send to China to convert the
+"heathen." If they would only divert these Chinese missionaries from
+China to their own heathen and grafters, but they will not. The peculiar
+freedom of the country, which is nothing less than the most atrocious
+license, tends to drag it down.
+
+The papers have absolutely no check on their freedom. Men and women are
+attacked by them, ruined, held up to scorn and ridicule, and the victim
+has no recourse but to shoot the editor and thus embroil himself. That
+it is a crime to ridicule a man and make him the butt of a nation or the
+world seems never to occur to these men. Certain statesmen have been so
+lampooned by the "hired" libelers that they have been ruined. The press
+hires a class of men, called cartoonists, usually ill-bred fellows of
+no standing, yet clever, in their business, whose duty it is to hold up
+public men to ridicule in every possible way and make them infamous
+before the people. This is called the freedom of the press, and its
+attitude, or the sensational part of it, in presenting crime in an
+alluring manner, is having its effect upon the youth of the country.
+Young girls and boys become familiar with every feature of bestial crime
+through the "yellow journals," so called, and that the republic will
+reap sorely from this sowing I venture to prophesy.
+
+I asked one of the great insurance men why it was that great financial
+institutions took so strong an interest in politics. He laughed, and
+said, "If I am not mistaken, not long since your country repudiated its
+Government bonds, and they are not negotiable to any great extent among
+your people." Hearing this I assumed the American attitude and "sawed
+wood." "We take an interest in politics," he continued, "to offset the
+professional blackmailer and thief. Now in the case of your repudiation
+I understand all about it. The Chinese Government was in straits, and
+suddenly some seemingly patriotic citizen started a petition, stating to
+the Government that the subscribers offered their Government securities
+to the Government as a gift. By no means all the bondholders signed, but
+enough, I understand, to have justified your Government in repudiating
+the bonds--'at the request of the people'--thus destroying the national
+credit at home and abroad. Now in America that would be called 'graft.'
+The act would be done by a few grafters in the hope of reward, or by
+some unscrupulous statesmen to save the Government from bankruptcy
+during their term of office. I conceive this to be what was done in
+China. If we do not keep eternal watch we shall be bled every day. It is
+done in this way: a grafter becomes an assemblyman, and with others lays
+a plan of graft. It is to get up a bill, so offensive to our corporation
+that it would mean ruin if passed. The grafter has no idea that it will
+pass, but it is made much of, and of course reaches our ears, and the
+question is how to stop it. We are finally told that we had better see
+Mr. ----, in our own city. He is accordingly looked up and found to be a
+cheap and ignorant politician, who, if there are no witnesses, tells our
+agent plainly that it can be stopped for ten thousand dollars. Perhaps
+we beat him down to eight thousand, but we pay it. Hundreds of firms
+have been blackmailed in this way. Now we keep an agent in the State
+Capitol to attend to our interests, and we take an interest in politics
+to head off the election of professional grafters."
+
+One of the most serious things in this phase of national immorality is
+showing itself in what are termed "lynchings"; that is, a negro commits
+a crime against a white woman, and instead of permitting the law to run
+its course, the people rise, seized with a savage craze for revenge,
+batter in the jails, take the criminal, and burn him at the stake. This
+burning is sometimes attended by thousands, who display the most
+remarkable _abandon_ and savagery. Some African chiefs have sacrificed
+more people at one time, but no savage has ever displayed greater
+bestiality, gloated over his victim with more real satisfaction, than
+these free Americans in numerous instances when shouting and yelling
+about the burning body of some unfortunate whose crime has aroused
+their ferocity to the point of madness.
+
+Not one but many clergymen have denounced this. They compare it to the
+most brutal acts of savagery, and we have the picture of a country
+posing as civilized, with the temerity to point out the sins of others,
+giving themselves over to orgies that would disgrace the lowest of
+races. I have it from the lips of a clergyman that during the past
+twelve years over twenty-five hundred men have been lynched in the
+United States. In a single year two hundred and forty men were killed by
+mobs in this way, many being burned at the stake. If any excuse is
+offered, it is said that most of these were negroes, and the crime was
+rape, and the victims white women; but of the number mentioned only
+forty-six were charged with this crime and but two-thirds were black.
+Many confessed as the torch was applied, many died protesting their
+innocence, and in no case was the offense legally proved. This lynching
+seems to be a mania with the people. It began with the attack of negroes
+on white women. The repetition of similar cases so enraged the whites
+that they have become mad upon the subject. The feeling is well
+illustrated by the remark of a Southerner to me. "If a woman of my
+family was attacked by a negro I must be his executioner. I could not
+wait for the law." This man told me that no lynching would ever have
+taken place had it not been for the uncertainty of the law. Men who were
+known to be guilty of the grossest of crimes had been virtually
+protected by the law, and their cases dragged along at great expense to
+the State, this occurring so many times that the patience of the people
+became exhausted. This man forgot that the law was instigated for the
+purpose of justice.
+
+The negro is an issue in America and a cause of much crime, a vengeance
+on the people who held them as slaves. The negro has increased so
+rapidly that in forty years he has doubled in number, there now being
+over nine millions in the country. At the present rate there will be
+twenty-five millions in 1930--a black menace to the white American.
+
+The negro is a factor in the national unrest. They outnumber the whites
+in some localities, and hence vote themselves many offices, while the
+few whites pay eighty or eighty-five per cent of the taxes and the
+negroes supply from eighty to ninety per cent of the criminals. While
+this is going on in the South and the whites are rising and preparing to
+disfranchise the blacks in many States, the people of Boston and
+Cambridge are discussing the propriety of the whites and blacks
+marrying to settle the question of social equality. Such proposals I
+have read. Reprinted in the South, they added fuel to the flame.
+
+Another element of distress in America is the attitude of labor, the
+policy of the Government of letting in the lowest of the low from every
+nation except the Chinese, against whom the only charge has been that
+they are too industrious and thus a menace to the whites. The swarms of
+people from the low and criminal classes of Europe have enabled the
+anarchists to obtain such a foothold that in this free country the
+President of the United States is almost as closely guarded as the
+Emperor of Russia. The White House is surrounded and guarded by
+detectives of various kinds. The secret-service department is equal in
+its equipment to that of many European nations, and millions are spent
+in watching criminals and putting down their strikes and riots. The
+doctrine of freedom to all appeals so well to the ignorant laborer that
+he has decided to control the entire situation, and to this end labor is
+divided into "unions," and in many sections business has been ruined.
+
+The demands of these ignorant men are so preposterous that they can
+scarcely be credited. The merchant no longer owns his business or
+directs it. The laborer tells him what to pay, how to pay it, when and
+how long the hours shall be--in fact, undertakes to usurp entire
+control. If the owner protests, the laborers all stop work, strike,
+appoint guards, who attack, kill, or intimidate any one who attempts to
+take their place. In this way it is said that one billion dollars have
+been lost in the last few years. Contracts have been broken, men
+ruined, localities and cities placed in the greatest jeopardy, and
+hundreds of lives lost. Every branch of trade has its "union," and in so
+many cases have the laborers been successful that a national panic comes
+almost in sight. Never was there a more farcical illustration of
+freedom. Irrational, ignorant Irishmen, who had not the mental capacity
+to earn more than a dollar a day, dictated to merchant princes and
+millionaire contractors. In New York it was proved that the leaders of
+the strikers sold out to employers, and accepted bribes to call off
+strikes.
+
+The question before the American people is, Has an American citizen the
+right to conduct his own business to suit himself and employ whom he
+wishes? Has the laborer the right to work for whom and what rate he
+pleases? The imported socialists, anarchists, and their converts among
+Americans say no, and it will require but little to precipitate a
+bloody war, when labor, led by red-handed murderers, will enact in New
+York and all over the United States the horrors of the French Commune.
+
+The republic for a great and enlightened country has too many criminals.
+I am told by a prohibition clergyman that the curse of drink and license
+has its fangs in the heart of the land. He tells me that the Americans
+pay yearly $1,172,000,000 for their alcoholic drink; for bread,
+$600,000,000; for tobacco, $625,000,000; for education, $197,000,000;
+for ministers' salaries, $14,000,000. It has been found that the
+downfall of eighty-one per cent of criminals is traceable to drink. He
+said: "Our republic is a failure morally, as we have 2,550,000 drunkards
+and people addicted to drink. We have 600,000 prostitutes, and many more
+doubtless that are not known, and in nine cases out of ten their
+downfall can be traced to drink."
+
+I listen to this side of the story, and then I see wonderful
+philanthropy, institutions for the prevention of crime, good men at work
+according to their light, millions employed to educate the young,
+thousands of churches and societies to aid man in making man better.
+When I listen to these men, and see tens of thousands of Christian men
+and women living pure lives, building up vast cities, great monuments
+for the future, I feel that I can not judge the Americans. They perhaps
+expect too much from their freedom and their republican ideas. I shall
+never be a republican. I believe that we all have all the freedom we
+deserve. It is well to remember that man is an animal. After all his
+polish and refinement, he has animal tastes and desires, and if he makes
+laws that are in direct opposition to the indulgence which his animal
+nature suggests, he certainly must have some method of enforcing the
+laws. Like all animals, some men are easily influenced and others not,
+and the human animal has not made progress so far but that he needs
+watching in order to make him conform to what he has decided or elected
+to call right.
+
+You will expect me to compare the American to the Chinaman, but it is
+impossible. Some things which we look upon as right, the American
+considers grievous sins. The point of view is entirely at variance, but
+I have boundless faith in the brilliant and good men and women I have
+met in America. I say this despite my other impressions, which also
+hold.
+
+The great political scheme of the people is poorly devised and crude. It
+is so arranged that in some States governors are elected every year or
+two and other officers every year, representatives of the people in
+Congress every two years, senators every six, Presidents every four
+years. Thus the country is constantly in a whirl, and as soon as the
+rancor of one national election is over begins the scheming for another.
+The people have really little to do with the selection of a President. A
+small band of rich and influential schemers generally have the entire
+plan or "slate" laid out. A plan, natural in appearance, is _arranged_
+for the public, and at the right time the slated program is sprung.
+Senators should be elected by the people, congressmen should be elected
+for a longer period, and Presidents should have twice the terms they do.
+But it is easy to suggest, and I confess that my suggestions are those
+of many American people themselves which I hear reformers cry abroad.
+
+The vital trouble with America to-day is that she can not assimilate
+the 600,000 debased, ignorant, poverty-stricken foreigners who are
+coming in every year. They keep out the one peaceful nation. They
+exclude the Chinese and take to the national heart the Jew, the
+Socialist, the Italian, the Roumanian and others who constitute a nation
+of unrest. What America needs is the "rest cure" that you hear so much
+about here. She should close her seaports to these aliens for ten years,
+allow the people here to assimilate; but they can not do it. The foreign
+transportation lines under foreign flags are in the business to load up
+America with the dregs of Europe. I know of one family of Jews, four
+brothers, who wished to come to America, but found that they would have
+to show that they were not paupers. They mustered about one thousand
+dollars. One came over, and sent back the money by draft. The second
+brought it back as his fortune, then immediately sent it back for
+another brother to bring over, and so on until they all arrived, each
+proving that he was not a pauper. Yet these same brothers, each with
+several children, became an expense to the Government before they were
+earners. The children were sent to industrial homes, and later entered
+the sweat-shops. In America there is not a Chinaman to-day in a
+workhouse, or a pauper[13] at the expense of the Government; yet the
+Chinese are not wanted here.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[13] This is doubtful.--EDITOR.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+SPORTS AND PASTIMES
+
+
+I had not been in Washington a month before I received invitations to a
+"country club golf" tournament, to a "rowing club," to a "pink tea," to
+a "polo game," to a private "boxing" bout between two light-weight
+professionals, given in Senator ----'s stable, to a private "cock-fight"
+by the brother of ----'s wife, to a gun club "shoot," not to speak of
+invitations to several "poker games." From this you may infer that
+Americans are fond of sport. The official sport--that is, the game I
+heard of most among Government officials, senators, and others--was
+"poker," and the sums played for at times I am assured are beyond
+belief. There are rules and etiquette for poker, and one of the most
+distinguished of American diplomatists of a past generation, General
+Schenck, emulated the Marquis of Queensberry in boxing by writing a book
+on the national game, that has all the charm claimed for it. It is
+seductive, and doubtless has had its influence on the people who employ
+the "bluff" in diplomacy, war, business, or poker, with equal tact and
+cleverness.
+
+Middle-class Americans are fond of sport in every way, but the
+aristocrats lack sporting spontaneity; they like it, or pretend to like
+it, because it is the fashion, and they take up one sport after another
+as it becomes the fad. That this is true can be shown by comparing the
+Englishman and the American of the fashionable class. The Englishman is
+fond of sport because it is in his blood; he does not like golf to-day
+and swimming to-morrow, but he likes them all, and always has done so.
+He would never give up cricket, golf, or any of his games because they
+go out of fashion; he does not allow them to go out of fashion; but with
+the American it is different.
+
+Hence I assume that the average American of the better class is not
+imbued with the sporting spirit. He wears it like an ill-fitting coat. I
+find a singular feature among the Americans in connection with their
+sports. Thus if something is known and recognized as sport, people take
+to it with avidity, but if the same thing is called labor or exercise,
+it is considered hard work, shirked and avoided. This is very cleverly
+illustrated by Mark Twain in one of his books, where a boy makes his
+companions believe that white-washing a fence is sport, and so relieves
+himself from an arduous duty by pretending to share the great privilege
+with them.
+
+No one would think of walking steadily for six days, yet once this
+became sport; dozens of men undertook it, and long walks became a fad.
+If a man committed a crime and should be sentenced to play the modern
+American game of football every day for thirty days as a punishment,
+there are some who might prefer a death sentence and so avoid a
+lingering end; but under the title of "sport" all young men play it, and
+a number are maimed and killed yearly.
+
+Sport is in the blood of the common people. Children begin with tops,
+marbles, and kites, yet never appreciate our skill with either. I amazed
+a boy on the outskirts of Washington one day by asking him why he did
+not _irritate_ his kite and make it go through various evolutions. He
+had never heard of doing that, and when I took the string and began to
+jerk it, and finally made the kite plunge downward or swing in circles,
+and always restored it by suddenly slacking off the cord, he was
+astonished and delighted. The national game is baseball, a very clever
+game. It is nothing to see thousands at a game, each person having paid
+twenty-five or fifty cents for the privilege. In summer this game,
+played by experts, becomes a most profitable business. Rarely is any one
+hurt but the judge or umpire, who is at times hissed by the audience and
+mobbed, and at others beaten by either side for unfair decisions; but
+this is rare.
+
+Football is dangerous, but is even more popular than the other. You
+might imagine by the name that the ball is kicked. On the contrary the
+real action of the game consists in running down, tripping up, smashing
+into, and falling on whomever has the ball. As a consequence, men wear a
+soft armor. There are fashions in sports which demonstrate the
+ephemeral quality of the American love for sport. A while ago "wheeling"
+was popular, and everybody wheeled. Books were printed on the etiquette
+of the sport; roads were built for it and improved; but suddenly the
+working class took it up and fashion dropped it. Then came golf,
+imported from Scotland. With this fad millions of dollars were expended
+in country clubs and greens all over the United States, as acres of land
+were necessary. People seized upon this with a fierceness that warmed
+the hearts of dealers in balls and clubs. The men who edited wheel
+magazines now changed them to "golf monthlies." This sport began to wane
+as the novelty wore off, until golf is now played by comparatively few
+experts and lovers.
+
+Society introduced the automobile, and we have the same thing--more
+magazines, the spending of millions, the building of the _garage_, and
+the appearance of the _chaufeur_ or driver. Then came the etiquette of
+the auto--a German navy cap, rubber coat, and Chinese goggles. This
+peculiar uniform is of course only to be worn when racing, but you see
+the American going out for a slow ride solemnly attired in rubber coat
+and goggles. The moment the auto comes within reach of the poor man it
+will be given up; but it is now the fad and a most expensive one, the
+best machines costing ten thousand dollars or more, and I have seen
+races where the speed exceeded a mile a minute.
+
+All sports have their ethics and rules and their correct costuming.
+Baseball men are in uniform, generally white, with various-colored
+stockings. The golfer wears a red coat and has a servant or valet, who
+carries his bag of clubs, designed for every possible expediency. To
+hear a group of golfers discuss the merits of these tools is one of the
+extraordinary experiences one has in America. I have been made fairly
+"giddy," as the Englishmen say, by this anemic conversation at country
+clubs. The "high-ball" was the saving clause--a remarkable invention
+this. Have I explained it? You take a very tall glass, made for the
+purpose, and into it pour the contents of a small cut-glass bottle or
+decanter of whisky, which must be Scotch, tasting of smoke. On this you
+pour seltzer or soda-water, filling up the glass, and if you take enough
+you are "high" and feel like a rolling ball. It is the thing to take a
+"high-ball" after every nine holes in golf. Then after the game you
+bathe, and sit and drink as many as your skin will hold. I got this from
+a professional golf-teacher in charge of the ---- links, and hence it
+is official.
+
+The avidity with which the Americans seize upon a sport and the
+suddenness with which they drop it, illustrating what I have said about
+the lack of a national sporting taste, is well shown by the coming of a
+game called "ping pong," a parlor tennis, with our battledores for
+rackets. What great mind invented this game, or where it came from, no
+one seems to know, but as a wag remarked, "When in doubt lay it to
+China." Some suppose it is Chinese, the name suggesting it. So
+extraordinary was the early demand for it that it appeared as though
+everybody in America was determined to own and play ping pong. The
+dealers could not produce it fast enough. Factories were established all
+over the country, and the tools were ground out by the ten thousands.
+Books were written on the ethics of the game; experts came to the
+front; ping pong weeklies and monthlies were founded, to dumfound the
+masses, and the very air vibrated with the "ping" and the "pong."
+
+The old and young, rich and poor, feeble and herculean, all played it.
+Doctors advised it, children cried for it, and a fashionable journal
+devised the correct ping-pong costume for players. Great matches were
+played between the experts of various sections, and this sport, a game
+really for small children, after the fashion of battledore and
+shuttlecock, ran its course among young and old. Pictures of adult
+ping-pong champions were blazoned in the public print; even churchmen
+took it up. Public gardens had special ping-pong tables to relieve the
+stress. At last the people seized upon ping pong, and it became common.
+Then it was dropped like a dead fish. If some cyclonic disturbance had
+swept all the ping-pong balls into space, the disappearance could not
+have been more complete. Ping pong was put out of fashion. All this to
+the alien suggests something, a want of balance, a "youngness" perhaps.
+
+At the present time the old game of croquet is being revived under
+another name, and tennis is the vogue among many. Among the fashionable
+and wealthy men polo is the vogue, but among a few everything goes by
+fads for a few years. Every one will rush to see or play some game; but
+this interest soon dies out, and something new starts up. Such games as
+baseball and football, tennis and polo are, in a sense, in a class by
+themselves, but among the pastimes of the people a wide vogue belongs to
+fishing, and shooting wild fowl and large game. The former is universal,
+and the Americans are the most skilled anglers with artificial lures in
+the world, due to the abundance of game-fish, trout, and others, and the
+perfect Government care exercised to perfect the supply.
+
+As an illustration, each State considers hunting and fishing a valuable
+asset to attract those who will come and spend money. I was told by a
+Government official that the State of Maine reckoned its game at five
+million dollars per annum, which means that the sport is so good that
+sportsmen spend that amount there every year; but I fancy the amount is
+overestimated. The Government has perfect fish hatcheries, constantly
+supplying young fish to streams, while the business in anglers' supplies
+is immense. There are thousands of duck-shooting clubs in the United
+States. Men, or a body of men, rent or buy marshes, and keep the poor
+man out. Rich men acquire hundreds of acres, and make preserves.
+Possibly the sport of hunting wild fowl is the most characteristic of
+American sports. This also has its etiquette, its costumes, its
+club-houses, and its poker and high-balls. I know of one such club in
+which almost all the members are millionaires. A humorous paper stated
+that they used "gold shot."
+
+As a nation the Americans are fond of athletics, which are taught in the
+schools. There are splendid gymnasiums, and boys and girls are trained
+in athletic exercises. Athletics are all in vogue. It is fashionable to
+be a good "fencer." All the young dance. I believe the Americans stand
+high as a nation in all-around athletics; at least they are far ahead of
+China in this respect.
+
+I have reserved for mention last the most popular fashion of the people
+in sport, which is prize-fighting. Here again you see a strange
+contradiction. The people are preeminently religious, and
+prize-fighting and football are the sports of brutes; yet the two are
+most popular. No public event attracts more attention in America than a
+gladiatorial fight to the finish between the champion and some aspirant.
+For months the papers are filled with it, and on the day of the event
+the streets are thronged with people crowding about the billboards to
+receive the news. No national event, save the killing of a President,
+attracted more universal attention than the beating of Sullivan by
+Corbett and the beating of Corbett by Fitzsimmons, and "Fitz" in turn by
+Jeffries. I might add that I joined with the Americans in this, as the
+modern prize-fighter is a fine animal. If all boys were taught to
+believe that their fists are their natural weapons, there would be fewer
+murders and sudden deaths in America. I have seen several of these
+prize-fights and many private bouts, all with gloves. They are governed
+by rules. Such a combat is by no means as dangerous as football, where
+the obvious intention seems to be to break ribs and crush the opponent.
+
+Rowing is much indulged in, and yachting is a great national maritime
+sport, in which the Americans lead and challenge the world. In no sport
+is the wealth of the nation so well shown. Every seaside town has its
+yacht or boat club, and in this the interest is perpetual. Even in
+winter the yacht is rigged into an "ice-boat." I have often wondered
+that fashionable people do not take up the romantic sport of falconry,
+as they have the birds and every facility. I suggested this to a lady,
+who replied, "Ah, that is too barbaric for us." "More barbaric than
+cock-fighting?" I asked, knowing that her brother owned the finest
+game-cocks in the District of Columbia. Among the Americans there is a
+distinct love for fair play, and such sports as "bull-baiting,"
+"bull-fights," "dog-fights," and "cock-fights" have never attained any
+degree of popularity. There are spasmodic instances of such indulgences,
+but in no sense can they be included, as in England and Spain, among the
+national sports, which leads me to the conclusion that, aside from the
+many peculiarities, as taking up and dropping sports, America, all in
+all, is the greatest sporting nation of the world. It leads in
+fist-fighting, rifle-shooting, in skilful angling, in yachting, in
+rowing, in running, in six-day walking, in auto-racing, in trotting and
+running horses, and in trap-shooting, and if its champions in all fields
+could be lined up it would make a surprising showing. I am free to
+confess and quite agree with a vivacious young woman who at the country
+club told me that it was very nice of me to uphold my country, but that
+we were "not in it" with American sports.
+
+The Presidents are often sportsmen. President Cleveland and President
+Harrison both have been famous, the former as a fisherman, the latter as
+well as the former as a duck-shooter. President McKinley has no taste
+for sport, but the Vice-President is a promoter of sport of each and
+every kind. He is at home in polo or hurdle racing, with the rifle or
+revolver. This calls to mind the national weapon--the revolver.
+Nine-tenths of all the shooting is done with this weapon, that is
+carried in a special pocket on the hips, and I venture to say that a
+pair of "trousers" was never made without the pistol pocket. Even the
+clergymen have one. I asked an Episcopal clergyman why he had a pistol
+pocket. He replied that he carried his prayer-book there. The Southern
+people use a long curved knife, called a bowie, after its inventor. Many
+people have been cut by this weapon. The negro, for some strange reason,
+carries a razor, and in a fight "whips out" this awful weapon and
+slashes his enemy. I have asked many negroes to explain this habit or
+selection. One replied that it was "none of my d---- business." Nearly
+all the others said they did not know why they carried it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE CHINAMAN IN AMERICA
+
+
+The average Irishman whom one meets in America, and he is legion, is a
+very different person from the polished gentleman I have met in Belfast,
+Dublin, and other cities in Ireland; but I never heard that the American
+Irishman, the product of an ignorant peasantry crowded out of Ireland,
+had been accepted as a type of the race. Peculiar discrimination is made
+in America against the Chinese. Our lower classes, "coolies" from the
+Cantonese districts, have flocked to America. Americans "lump" all
+Chinese under this head, and can not conceive that in China there are
+cultivated men, just as there are cultivated men in Ireland, the
+antipodes of the grotesque Irish types seen in America.
+
+I believe there are seventy-five or eighty thousand Chinamen in America.
+They do not assimilate with the Americans. Many are common laborers,
+laundrymen, and small merchants. In New York, Chicago, San Francisco,
+and other cities there are large settlements of them. In San Francisco
+many have acquired wealth. The Chinese quarter is to all intents and
+purposes a Chinese city. None of these people, or very few, are
+Americanized in the sense of taking an active part in the government;
+Americans do not permit it. I was told that the Chinese were among the
+best citizens, the percentage of criminals being very small. They are
+honest, frugal, and industrious--too industrious, in fact, and for this
+very reason the ban has been placed upon them. Red-handed members of the
+Italian Mafia--a society of murderers--the most ignorant class in
+Ireland, Wales, and England, the scum of Russia, and the human dregs of
+Europe generally are welcome, but the clean, hard-working Chinaman is
+excluded.
+
+Millions are spent yearly in keeping him out after he had been invited
+to come. He built many American railroads; he opened the door between
+the Atlantic and the Pacific; he worked in the mines; he did work that
+no one else would or could do, and when it was completed the American
+laborer, the product of this scum of all nations, demanded that the
+Chinaman be "thrown out" and kept out. America listened to the blatant
+demagogues, the "sand-lot orators," and excluded the Chinese. To-day it
+is almost impossible for a Chinese gentleman to send his son to America
+to travel or study. He will not be distinguished from laundryman
+"John," and is thrown back in the teeth of his countrymen; meanwhile
+China continues to be raided by American missionaries. The insult is
+rarely resented. In the treaty ratified by the United States Senate in
+1868 we read:
+
+"The United States of America and the Empire of China cordially
+recognize the inherent right of man to change his home and allegiance,
+and also the mutual advantage of the free immigration and emigration of
+their citizens and subjects respectively from the one country to the
+other for purposes of curiosity, of trade or as permanent residents."
+
+Again we read, in the treaty ratified under the Hayes administration,
+that the Government of the United States, "if its labor interests are
+threatened by the incoming Chinese, may regulate or limit such coming,
+but may not _absolutely prohibit_ it." The United States Government has
+disregarded its solemn treaty obligations. Not only this, our people,
+previous to the Exclusion Act, were killed, stoned, and attacked time
+and again by "hoodlums." The life of a Chinaman was not safe. The labor
+class in America, the lowest and almost always a foreign class, wished
+to get rid of the Chinaman so that they could raise the price of labor
+and secure all the work. China had reason to go to war with America for
+her treatment of her people and for failure to observe a treaty. The
+Scott Exclusion Act was a gratuitous insult. I hope our people will
+continue to retaliate by refusing to buy anything from the Americans or
+sell anything to them. Let us deal with our friends.
+
+Then came the Geary Bill, which was an outrage, our people being thrown
+into jail for a year and then sent back. I might quote some of the
+charges made against our people. Mr. Geary, I understand, is an Irish
+ex-congressman from the State of California, who, while in Congress, was
+the mouthpiece of the worst anti-Chinese faction ever organized in
+America. He was ultimately defeated, much to the delight of New England
+and many other people in the East. Mr. Geary's chief complaint against
+the Chinese was that they work too cheaply, are too industrious, and do
+not eat as much as an American. He obtained his information from Consul
+Bedloe, of Amoy. He says the average earnings of the Chinese adult
+employed as mechanic or laborer (in China) is five dollars per month,
+and states that this is ten per cent above the average wages prevailing
+throughout China.
+
+The wages paid, according to his report, per month, to blacksmiths are
+$7.25; carpenters, $8.50; cabinet-makers, $9; glass-blowers, $9;
+plasterers, $6.25; plumbers, $6.25; machinists, $6; while other classes
+of skilled labor are paid from $7.25 to $9 per month, and common
+laborers receive $4 per month. In European houses the average wages paid
+to servants are from $5 to $6 a month, without board. Clothing costs per
+year from 75 cents to $1.50. Out of these incomes large families are
+maintained. He says: "The daily fare of an Amoy working man and its cost
+are about as follows: 11/2 pounds of rice, 3 cents; 1 ounce of meat, 1
+ounce of fish, 2 ounces of shell-fish, 1 cent; 1 pound of cabbage or
+other vegetable, 1 cent; fuel, salt, and oil, 1 cent; total, 6 cents.
+
+"Here," said Mr. Geary, "is a condition deserving of attention by all
+friends of this country, and by all who believe in the protection of the
+working classes. Is it fair to subject our laborer to a competitor who
+can measure his wants by an expenditure of six cents a day, and who can
+live on an income not exceeding five dollars a month? What will become
+of the boasted civilization of our country if our toilers are compelled
+to compete with this class of labor, with more competitors available
+than twice the entire population of France, Germany, Austria, Belgium,
+Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain?
+
+"The Chinese laborer brings neither wife nor children, and his wants are
+limited to the immediate necessities of the individual, while the
+American is compelled to earn income sufficient to maintain the wife and
+babies. There can be but one end to this. If this immigration is
+permitted to continue, American labor must surely be reduced to the
+level of the Chinese competitor--the American's wants measured by his
+wants, the American's comforts be made no greater than the comforts of
+the Chinaman, and the American laborer, not having been educated to
+maintain himself according to this standard, must either meet his
+Chinese competitor on his own level, or else take up his pack and leave
+his native land. The entire trade of China, if we had it all, is not
+worth such a sacrifice."
+
+Mr. Geary forgets that when Chinamen go to America they adapt themselves
+to prevailing conditions. Chinese cooks in the States to-day receive
+from $30 to $50 per month and board; Chinese laborers from $20 to $30,
+and some of them $2 per day. In China, where there is an enormous
+population, prices are lower, people are not wasteful, and the
+necessities of life do not cost so much. The Chinaman goes to America to
+obtain the benefit of _high_ wages, not to _reduce_ wages. I have never
+seen such poverty and wretchedness in China as I have seen in London,
+or such vice and poverty as can be seen in any large American city. Mr.
+Geary scorns the treaties between his country and China, and laughs at
+our commercial relations. He says, "There is nothing in the Chinese
+trade, or rather the loss of it, to alarm any American. We would be
+better off without any part or portion of it."
+
+In answer to this I would suggest that China take him at his word, and I
+assure you that if every Chinaman could be recalled, if in six months or
+less we could take the eighty or one hundred thousand Chinamen out of
+the country, the region where they now live would be demoralized. The
+Chinese control the vegetable-garden business on the Pacific Coast; they
+virtually control the laundry business; and that the Americans want
+them, and want cheaper labor than they are getting from the Irish and
+Italians, is shown by the fact that they continue to patronize our
+people, and that in various lines Chinamen have the monopoly. Even when
+the "hoodlums" of San Francisco were fighting the Chinese, the American
+women did not withdraw their patronage, and while the men were off
+speaking on the sand-lots against employing our people their wives were
+buying vegetables from them.
+
+Why? Because their hypocritical husbands and brothers refused to pay
+higher prices. America is suffering not for want of the cheapest labor,
+but for a laborer like the Chinese, and until they have him industries
+will languish. With American labor and American "union" prices it is
+impossible for the American farmer or rancher to make money. The
+vineyardist, the orange, lemon, olive, and other fruit raisers can not
+compete with Europe. Labor is kept up to such a high rate that the
+country is obliged to put on a high tariff to keep out foreign
+competition, and in so doing they "cut off the nose to spite the face."
+The common people are taxed by the rich. The salvation of industrial
+America is a cheap, but not degraded, labor. America desires
+house-servants at from $10 to $12 per month; this is all a mere servant
+is worth. She wants good cooks at $12 or $15 per month. She wants
+fruit-pickers at $10 to $12 per month and board. She wants vineyard men,
+hop-pickers, cherry, peach, apricot and berry pickers, and people to
+work in canneries at these prices. She wants gardeners, drivers,
+railroad laborers at lower rates, and, to quote an American, "wants them
+'bad.'"
+
+When in San Francisco I made a thorough investigation of the
+"house-servant" question, and learned that our people as cooks in
+private houses were receiving from $30 to $50 per month and board. A
+friend tells me there is continued protest against this. Housekeepers on
+the Pacific coast are complaining of the lack of "Chinese boys," and
+want more to come over so that prices shall go down. The American wants
+the Chinaman, but the American _foreign laborer_, the Irishman, the
+Italian, the Mexican, and others who dominate American politics, do not
+want him and will not have him. As a result of this bending to the alien
+vote the Americans find themselves in a most serious and laughable
+position in their relations to domestic labor.
+
+I am not overstating the fact when I say that the "servant-girl"
+question is going to be a political issue in the future. The man may
+howl against the Chinese, but his wife will demand that "John" be
+admitted to relieve a situation that is becoming unbearable. As the
+Americans are all equal, there are no servants among them. The poor are
+as good as the "boss," and won't be called servants. You read in the
+papers, "A lady desires a position as cook in a small family, no
+children; wages, $35." "A young lady wishes a position to take care of
+children; salary, $30." "A saleslady wants position." "A lady (good
+scrubber) will go out by the day; $2." When you meet these "ladies," in
+nine cases out of ten they are Irish from the peasant class--untidy,
+insolent, often dissipated in the sense of drink. When they apply for a
+position they put the employer through a course of questions. Some want
+references from the last girl, I am told. Some want one thing, some
+another, and all must have time for pleasure. Few have the air of
+servants or inferiors, but are often offensive in appearance and
+manners. I have never been called "John" by the girls who came to the
+door where I called to pay a visit, but I could see that they all wished
+so to address me. In England, where classes are acknowledged and a
+servant is hired as a servant, and is one, an entirely different state
+of affairs holds. They are respectful, having been educated to be
+servants, know that they are servants, and as a result are cared for and
+treated as old retainers and pensioners of the family.
+
+The whole story of exclusion is a blot upon the American national honor,
+and the most mystifying part of it is that intelligent people, the best
+people, are not a party to it. The railroads want the Chinese laborer.
+The great ranches of the West need him; people want cooks at $15 and $20
+a month instead of $30 or $50. In a word, America is suffering for what
+she must have some time--cheap labor; yet the low elements force the
+issue. Congressmen are dominated by labor organizations on the Pacific
+slope, and there are hundreds of Dennis Kearneys to-day where there was
+one a few years ago. To make the case more exasperating, the Americans,
+in their dire necessity, have imported swarms of low Mexicans to take
+the place of the Chinese on the railroads, against whom there seems to
+be no Irish hand raised. The Irish and Mexicans are of a piece. I know
+from inquiry everywhere that the country at large would welcome
+thousands of servants and field-workers in vineyards and orchards which
+can not be made to pay if worked by expensive labor.
+
+The Americans try to keep us out, but they also try to convert those who
+get in. They have what they call Chinese missions, to which Chinamen go.
+To be converted? No. To learn the language? Yes. I am told by an
+American friend that here and in China over fifty thousand Chinese have
+embraced Christianity. On the Atlantic coast I am assured that eight
+hundred Chinamen are Christians, and on the Pacific slope two thousand
+have embraced the faith of the Christians. There is a Christian Chinese
+evangelist working among our people in the West, Lum Foon, and I have
+met the pastor of a Pacific coast church who told me that nearly a third
+of his congregation were Chinamen, and he esteemed them highly. But the
+most conclusive evidence that the Americans are succeeding in their
+proselyting is that in one year a single denomination received as a
+donation from Chinamen $6,000. The Americans have a saying, "Money
+talks," which is much like one of our own.
+
+On the other hand, a clergyman told me that it was discouraging work to
+some, so few Chinamen were "converted" compared to the great mass of
+them. The Chinese of California have sent $1,000 to Canton to build a
+Christian church, and the Chinese members of the Presbyterian Church of
+California sent $3,000 in one year for the same purpose. I am told that
+the Chinese Methodists of one church in California give yearly from
+$1,000 to $1,800 for the various purposes of the church. The Christians
+have captured some brilliant men, such as Sia Sek Ong, who is a
+Methodist; Chan Hon Fan, who ought to be in our army from what I hear;
+Rev. Tong Keet Hing, the Baptist, a noted Biblical scholar; Rev. Wong,
+of the Presbyterians; Rev. Ng Poon Chiv, famous as a Greek and Hebrew
+reader; Gee Gam and Rev. Le Tong Hay, Methodists; and there are many
+more, suggestive that our people are interested in Christianity,
+against the _moral_ teachings of which no one could seriously object.
+
+I dined some time ago with a merchants' club, and was much pleased at
+the eulogy I heard on the Chinese. A merchant said, "My firm deals
+largely with the Chinese and Japanese. When I make a trade with the
+Japanese I tie them up with a written contract, but I have always found
+that the word of a Chinese merchant was sufficient." This I found to be
+the universal feeling, and yet Americans exclude us at the bidding of
+"hoodlums," a term applied to the lowest class of young men on the
+Pacific coast. In the East he is a "tough" or "rough" or "rowdy." "Tough
+nut" and "hard nut" are also applied to such people, the Americans
+having numbers of terms like these, which may be called "nicknames," or
+false names. Thus a man who is noted for his dress is a "swell," a
+"dude," or a "sport."
+
+The United States Government does not allow the Chinese to vote, yet
+tens of thousands of poor Americans, "white trash" in the South,
+ignorant negroes, low Irish and Italians who can not speak the tongue,
+are welcome and courted by both parties. It is difficult for me to
+overlook this insult on the part of America. There is a large settlement
+of Chinese in New York, but they are as isolated as if they were in
+China. In San Francisco there is the largest settlement, and many fine
+merchants live there, and also in Los Angeles.
+
+In the latter city ---- told me that the best of feeling existed between
+the Chinese and Americans; and at the American Festival of the Rose the
+Chinese joined in the procession. The dragon was brought out, and all
+the Chinese merchants appeared; but these gentlemen are never consulted
+by the Americans, never allowed to vote or take any interest in the
+growth of the city, and ---- informed me that none of them had ever been
+asked to join a board of trade. It is the same everywhere; the only
+advances the Americans make is to try and "convert" us to their various
+religious denominations. While the Chinese are not allowed to vote or to
+have any part in the affairs of government, they are taxed. "Taxation
+without representation" was the cause of the war of the American
+Revolution, but that is another matter.
+
+Yet our people have ways of influencing the whites with the "dollar,"
+for which some officials will do anything, and, I regret to say, all
+Chinamen are not above bribing Americans. I have heard that the Chinese
+of San Francisco for years were blackmailed by Americans, and obliged
+to raise money to fight bills in the Legislature. In 1892 the Six
+Companies raised $200,000 to defeat the "Geary Bill." The Chinese
+merchants have some influence. Out of the 110,000 Chinamen in America
+hardly ten per cent obeyed the iniquitous law and registered. The
+Chinese societies contracted to defend all who refused to register.
+
+Our people have a strong and influential membership in the Sam Yup, Hop
+Wo, Yan Wo, Kong Chow, Ning Yeong, and Yeong Wo companies. These
+societies practically control everything in America relating to the
+Chinese, and they retain American lawyers to fight their battles. I have
+met many of the officers of these companies, and China has produced no
+more brilliant minds than some, and, _sub rosa_, they have been pitted
+against the Americans on more than one occasion and have outwitted them.
+Among these men are Yee Ha Chung, Chang Wah Kwan, Chun Ti Chu, Chu Shee
+Sum, Lee Cheang Chun, and others. Many of these men have been presidents
+of the Six Companies in San Francisco, and rank in intelligence with the
+most brilliant American statesmen. I regret to see them in America.
+
+Chun Ti Chu especially, at one time president of the Sam Yuz, should be
+in China. I met this brilliant man some years ago in San Francisco.
+After dinner he took me to a place and showed me a placard which was a
+reward of $300 for his head. He had obtained the enmity of criminal
+Chinamen on the Pacific coast, but when I last heard of him he was still
+alive. There are many criminals here who do not dare to return to China,
+who left their country for their country's good. These are the cause of
+much trouble here, and bring discredit upon the better class of our
+people. Our people in America are loyal to the Government. It was
+interesting to see at one time a proclamation from the Emperor brought
+over by Chew Shu Sum and posted in the streets of an American city: "By
+order of his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of China." The President, the
+mayor of San Francisco, was not thought of; China was revered, and is
+to-day holding her government over the Chinese in every American city
+where they have a stronghold. So much for the loyalty of our people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE RELIGIONS OF THE AMERICANS
+
+
+Thomas J. Geary, the former congressman, is an avowed enemy of the
+Chinese and the author of the famous Geary bill, but I condone all he
+has said against us for one profound utterance made in a published
+address or article, in which he said: "As to the missionaries (in
+China), it wouldn't be a national loss if they were required to return
+home. If the American missionary would only look about him in the large
+cities of the Union he would find enough of misery, enough of suffering,
+enough people falling away from the Christian churches, enough of
+darkness, enough of vice in all its conditions and all its grades, to
+furnish him work for years to come." This is a sentiment Americans may
+well think of; but there are "none so blind as those who will not see."
+There will always be women and men willing to spend their time in
+picturesque China at the expense of foreign missions. China has never
+attempted to convert the Americans to her religion, believing she has
+all she can do to keep her people within bounds at home.
+
+In my search for information in America I have had some singular
+experiences. I have made an examination of the many religions of the
+Americans, and they have been remarkably prolific in this respect. While
+we are satisfied with Taoism, Buddhism, but mostly with Confucianism, I
+have observed the following sects in America: Baptists of two kinds,
+Congregationalists, Methodists, Quakers of three kinds, Catholics,
+Unitarians, Universalists, Presbyterians, Swedenborgians,
+Spiritualists, Christian Scientists (healers), Episcopalians (high and
+low), Jews, Seventh-Day Adventists, and many more. Nearly all are
+Christians, as we are nearly all Confucians. Unitarians, Universalists,
+Jews, and several others believe in the moral teachings of Christ, but
+hold that he was not of divine origin. America was first settled to
+supply room for religious liberty, which perhaps explains the remarkable
+number of religions. They are constantly increasing. Nearly all of these
+denominations hold that their own belief is the right one. Much
+proselyting is going on among them, with which one would take no
+exception if there was no denouncing of one another. Our religion,
+founded in the faith of Confucius, seems satisfying to us. Some of us
+believe that at least we are not savages.
+
+Some American friends once invited me to go to a negro church in
+Washington. Upon arriving we were given a seat well down in front. The
+pastor was a "visiting evangelist," and in a short time had these
+excitable and ignorant people in a frenzy, several being carried out of
+the church in a semicataleptic condition. Suddenly the minister began to
+pray for the strangers, and especially "for the heathen in our midst,"
+for the unsaved from pagan lands, that they might be saved; and I could
+not but wonder at the conceit and ignorance that would ask a believer in
+the splendid philosophy of Confucius to throw it aside for this African
+religion. This idea that a Chinaman is a "pagan" and idolator is found
+everywhere in America, and every attempt is made to "save" him.
+
+I very much fear that many of our countrymen go to the American
+missions and Sunday-schools merely to learn the language and enjoy the
+social life of those who are interested in this special work. I was told
+by a well-to-do Chinaman that he knew Chinamen who were both Catholic
+and Protestant, and who attended all the Chinese missions without
+reference to sect. They were Methodist when at the Methodist mission,
+Catholic when at mass, and when they returned to their home slipped back
+into Confucianism. Let us hope this is not universal, though I venture
+the belief that the witty Americans would see the humor of it.
+
+I was told by a prominent patron of the Woman's Christian Union that she
+felt very sorry I did not have the consolation of religion, coming as I
+did from a heathen land. Some "heathens" might have been insulted, but I
+had come to know the Americans and was aware that she really felt a
+kindly interest in me. I replied that we could find some consolation in
+the sayings of our religious teachers, as the great guide of our life
+is, "What you do not like when done to yourself do not do to others."
+
+"Why," said the lady, "that is Christian doctrine, our 'Golden Rule.'"
+
+"Pardon me," I answered, "this is the golden rule of Confucius, written
+four hundred years or so before Christ was born."
+
+"I think you must be mistaken," she continued; "this is a fundamental
+pillar of the Christian belief."
+
+"True," I retorted; "but none the less Christians obtained it from
+Confucius."
+
+She did not believe me, and we referred the question to Bishop ----, who
+sat near us. Much to her confusion he agreed with me, and then quoted
+the well-known lines of one of our religious writers who lived twelve
+hundred years before Christ: "The great God has conferred on the people
+a moral sense, compliance with which would show their nature inevitably
+right," and remarked that it was a splendid sentiment.
+
+"Then you believe in a God," said the lady, turning to me.
+
+"I trust so," was my answer.
+
+Now this lady, who believed me to be a "pagan" and unsaved, was a
+product of the American school system, yet she had never read a line of
+Confucius, having been "brought up" to consider him an infidel writer.
+
+I have seen many of the great Western nations and observed their
+religions. My conclusion is that none make so general and united an
+attempt to be what they consider "good and moral" as the Americans; but
+the Americans scatter their efforts like shot fired from a gun, and the
+result is a multiplicity of religious beliefs beyond belief. I do not
+forget that America was settled to afford an asylum for religious
+belief, where men could work out their salvation in peace. If Americans
+would grant us the same privilege and not send missionaries to fight
+over us, all would be well. No one can dispute the fact that the
+Americans are in earnest; the greater number believe they are right, and
+that they possess true zeal all China knows.
+
+The impression the convert in China obtains is that the United States is
+a sort of paradise, where Christians live in peace and happiness, loving
+one another, doing good to those who ill-treat them, turning the cheek
+to those who strike them, etc.; but the Chinaman soon finds after
+landing in America that this is often "conspicuous by its absence."
+These ideas are preached, and doubtless thousands follow them or attempt
+to do so, but that they are common practises of the people is not true.
+There is great need of Christian missions in America as well as in
+China. I told a clergyman that our people believed the Christian
+religion was very good for the Americans, and we had no fault to find
+with it, nor had we the temerity to insinuate that our own was superior.
+
+A Roman Catholic young lady whom I met spoke to me about burning our
+prayers, our joss-houses, and our dragon, which she had seen carried
+about the streets of San Francisco. "Pure symbolism," I answered, and
+then told her of the Christian dragon in the Divine Key of the
+Revelation of Jesus Christ as Given to John, by a Christian writer,
+William Eugene Brown. This dragon had nine heads, while ours has only
+one. I believe I had the best of the argument so far as heads went.
+This young woman, a graduate of a large college, wore an amulet, which
+she believes protects her from accident. She possessed a bottle of water
+from a miraculous spring in Canada, which she said would cure any
+disease, and she told me that one of the Catholic churches there, Ste.
+Anne de Beaupre, had a small piece of the wrist-bone of the mother of
+the Virgin, which would heal and had healed thousands. She had a picture
+of the church, showing piles of crutches thrown aside by cured and
+grateful patients. Can China produce such credulity? I think not.
+
+All nations may be wrong in their religious beliefs, but certainly
+"pagan China" is outdone in religious extravaganza by America or any
+European state. Our joss-houses and our feasts are nothing to the
+splendors of American churches. An American girl laughed at the bearded
+figures in a San Francisco joss-house, but looked solemn when I referred
+to the saints in a Catholic cathedral in the same city. If I were "fancy
+free" I should like to lecture in America on the inconsistencies of the
+Caucasian. They really challenge our own. Instead of having one splendid
+church and devoting themselves to the real ethics of Christianity, these
+Christians have divided irrevocably, and so lost strength and force.
+They are in a sense turned against themselves, and their religious
+colleges are graduating men to perpetuate the differences. No more
+splendid religion than that expounded by Christ could be imagined if
+they would join hands and, like the Confucians, devote their attention
+not to rites and theological differences but to the daily conduct of
+men.
+
+The Americans have a saying, "Take care of the pennies and the dollars
+will care for themselves." We believe that in taking care of the morals
+of the individual the nation will take care of itself. I took the
+liberty of commending this Confucian doctrine to a Methodist brother,
+but he had never been allowed to read the books of Confucius. They are
+classed with those of Mohammed, Voltaire, and others. So what can one do
+with such people, who have the conceit of the ages and the ignorance of
+all time? Their great scholars see their idiosyncrasies, and I can not
+begin to describe them. One sect believes that no one can be saved
+unless immersed in water; others believe in sprinkling. Others, as the
+Quakers, denounce all this as mummery. One sect, the Shakers, will have
+no marriages. Another believes in having as many wives as they can
+support--the Mormons. The Jews and Quakers oblige members to marry in
+the society; in the latter instance the society is dying out, and the
+former from constant intermarriage has resulted in conspicuous and
+marked facial peculiarities. These different sects, instead of loving,
+despise one another. Episcopalians look down upon the Methodists, and
+the latter denounce the former because the priests sometimes smoke and
+drink. The Unitarians are not regarded well by the others, yet nearly
+all the other bodies contain Unitarians, who for business and other
+reasons do not acknowledge the fact. A certain clergyman would not admit
+a Catholic priest to his platform. All combine against the poor Jew.
+
+So strong is the feeling against this people among the best of American
+citizens that they are almost completely ostracised, at least socially.
+In all the years spent in America I do not recall meeting a Jew at
+dinner in Washington, New York, or Newport. They are disliked, and as a
+rule associate entirely with themselves, having their own churches,
+clubs, etc. Yet they in large degree control the finances of America.
+They have almost complete control of the textile-fabric business,
+clothing, and many other trades. Why the American Christians dislike the
+American Jews is difficult to understand, but the invariable reply to
+this question is that their manners are so offensive that Christians
+will not associate with them. I doubt if in any of the first circles of
+any city you would meet a Jew. In the fashionable circles of New York I
+heard that it would be "easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a
+needle" than for a Jew to enter these circles. Many hotels will not
+receive them. In fact, the ban is on the Jew as completely in America as
+in Russia. I was strongly tempted to ask if this was the brotherly love
+I heard so much about, but refrained. I heard the following story at a
+dinner: A Chinese laundryman received a call from a Jew, who brought
+with him his soiled clothing. The Chinaman, glancing at the Jew, refused
+to take the package. "But why?" asked the Jew; "here's the money in
+advance." "No washee," said the Christian Chinaman; "you killed Melican
+man's Joss," meaning that the Jews crucified the Christ.
+
+The more you delve into the religions of the Americans the more
+anomalies you find. I asked a New York lady at Newport if she had ever
+met Miss ----, a prominent Chinese missionary. She had never heard of
+her, and considered most missionaries very ordinary persons. This same
+lady, when some one spoke about laxity of morals, replied, "It is not
+morals but manners that we need"; and I can assure you that this
+high-church lady, a model of propriety, judged her men acquaintances by
+that standard. If their manners were correct, she apparently did not
+care what moral lapses they committed when out of her presence. Briefly,
+I looked in vain for the religion in everyday life preached by the
+missionary. Doubtless many possess it, but the meek and humble follower
+of the head of the Christian Church, the American who turned his cheek
+for another blow, the one who loved his enemies, or the one who was
+anxious to do unto others as he would have them do unto him, all these,
+whom I expected to see everywhere, were not found, at least in any
+numbers.
+
+In visiting a certain village I dined with several clergymen. One told
+me he was the Catholic priest, and invited me to visit his chapel. Not
+long after I met another clergyman. I do not recall his denomination,
+but his work he told me was undoing that of the Catholic priest. The
+latter converted the people to Catholicism, while the former tried to
+reclaim them from Catholicism. I heard much about our joss-houses, but
+they fade into insignificance when compared with the splendid religious
+palaces of the Americans, and particularly those of the Catholics and
+Episcopalians. Their religious customs are beyond belief. As an
+illustration, their religion teaches them that the dead, if they have
+led a good life, go at once to heaven, though the Catholics believe in a
+purgatory, a half-way house, out of which the dead can be bought by the
+payment of money.
+
+Now the simple Chinaman would naturally believe that the relatives
+would be pleased at the death of a friend who was _immediately_
+transported to paradise and freed from the worries of life, but not at
+all; at the death of a relative the friends are plunged into such grief
+that they have been known to hire professional mourners, and instead of
+putting on clothes indicative of joy and thanksgiving array themselves
+in somber black, the token of woe, and wear it for years. Everything is
+black, and the more fashionable the family the deeper the black. The
+deepest crape is worn by the women. Writing-paper is inscribed with a
+deep band, also visiting cards. Women use jet as jewelry, and white
+pearls are replaced by black ones. Even servants are garbed in mourning
+for the departed, who, they believe, have gone to the most beautiful
+paradise possible to conceive. Contemplating all these inconsistencies
+one is amazed, and the amazement is ever increasing as one delves deeper
+into the ways of the inconsistent American.
+
+The credulity of the American is nowhere more singularly shown than in
+his susceptibility to religion. At a dinner given by the ---- of ---- in
+Washington, conversation turned on religion, and Senator ----, a very
+clever man, told me in a burst of confidence, "Our people are easily
+led; it merely requires a leader, a bright, audacious man, with plenty
+of 'cheek,' to create a following." There are hundreds of examples of
+this statement. No matter how idiotic the religion or philosophy may be,
+a following can be established among Americans. A man of the name of
+Dowie, "ignorant, impertinent, but with a superabundance of cheek" (I
+quote an American journal), announced himself as the prophet Elijah, and
+obtained a following of thousands, built a large city, and lives upon
+the credulity of the public.
+
+Three different "healers" have appeared within a decade in America, each
+by inference claiming to be the Christ and imitating his wanderings and
+healing methods. All, even the last, grossest, and most impudent
+impostor, who advertised himself in the daily press, the picture showing
+him posing after one of the well-known pictures of Christ, had many
+followers. I hoped to hear that this fellow had been "tarred and
+feathered," a happy American remedy for gross things. This fellow, as
+the Americans say, "went beyond the limit." I asked the senator how he
+accounted for Americans, well educated as they are, taking up these
+strange impostors. "Well," he replied, puffing on a big cigar, "between
+you and me and the lamp-post it's on account of the kind of schooling
+they get. I didn't get much myself--I'm an old-timer; but I accumulated
+a lot of 'horse sense,' that has served me so well that I never have my
+leg pulled, and I notice that all these 'suckers' are graduates from
+something; but don't take this as gospel, as I'm always getting up
+minority reports."
+
+The religion of the Americans, as diffuse as it is, is one of the most
+remarkable factors you meet in the country. Despite its peculiar phases
+you can not fail to appreciate a people who make such stupendous
+attempts to crush out evil and raise the morals of the masses. We may
+differ from them. We may resent their assumption that we are pagans and
+heathens, but this colossal series of movements, under the banner of the
+Cross, is one of the marvels of the world. Surely it is disinterested.
+It comes from the heart. I wish the Americans knew more of Confucius
+and his code of morals; they would then see that we are not so "pagan"
+as they suppose.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
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