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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (May 15, 1921)
TOUR kjj i r ill r BY EDGAR FIPER JR. ', IX common with a great many for eigners visiting the orfent, I feel compelled to confess, on return ing, that very few matters were dis covered at variance with the concep tions we have long entertained in respect to China; and that, so far as I am concerned, the reDorts of nre- vious observers, beginning with the i uiswnguisnea aiarco rolo, may as well stand confirmed. This comforting reassurance, how ever, applies only to the larger gen eralities. It is true that the popu lation runs into extravagant figures; that most Chinamen work hard and tarn little. It is true that they wear their hats in the house and begin their meals with dessert and end them with soup; It is true that they pay doctors to keep them well; and it is true that white instead of black is the color for mourning. It is true also that Chinamen going down the street do not walk abreast, but in column, like their own written lan guage. It is true, finally, that next to -eating a majority of Chinese seem to prefer gambling; -although nothing counts among the incidents of this life quite so much as death, which is regarded as a suprems. achievement. Some Beliefs Repudinted. ' Some few popular beliefs In regard to the Chinese must repudiate. It has been supposed at times that CAREER OF CRIPPLED NOMAD RIVALS ANYTHING IN FICTION Marian, Girl of 20 Years, Now Walking Without Crutches or Other Supports for First Time in Life Full of Adventures. A TER being a helpless cripple IX since birt.i. and leading a no- - madic existence rivaling any thing in fiction. Mariani a pretty -'0-yeaiold girl, is now walking without crutches or other supports for the first time in her life. Born of parents whom she has never seen, Marian was left, with lit tle unshapen legs and a tw isted spins, In a public orphanage in a middle western city when she was but a few days old. Since then she has traveled in every part of the country, dressed at times as a boy, and always suf fering severe pain in those crippled legs which had always failed to y'eld to medical or surgical science. It ,was a year ago that she aTrlvsJ in Portland, sick and despondeiit.'ard on the verge of quitting this world which had buffeted her about with the relentless regularity of the tide of the seas. And then one night, when she had crawled her painful way deep into the woods back of Arlington Heights, there to lie down and die. she reached a new dci9on. She wanted to live. She wantci to walk and play like other girls whose iii?J friendships she had held dur BS her strange agrant career. Hefuge Finally Found. Dawn was Just breaking over the ;ity that early spring morning a year ago as she dragged herself through a drenching rain to the Salvation Army White Shield h me. below Arlington Heights, and appealed for aid. At Jast she had reached her port of ref uge. She was taken in; and ther for the first time she told the complete s:ory of her miserable existence to Majo Harris. matran of the home. And! there she found that svmDathetic un- I derstanding that had so long been I denied her. . I That was a, yea,' ago. Today Marjan PROVES THE POPULAR CONCEPTIONS OF CHNA ARF TRUE Nation Is Found Right-Side-Up and Belief That Chinamen Eat Dogs, Cats and Rats Is Repudiated Beggars' Guild Minimizes Destructive Competition and Thrives. I " "4 XT' China is upsidAiown and that people walk around heads downward: and that a majority of the population is enthusiastically engaged in the laun dry business; and that all Chinamen have long fingernails and wear pig tails; and that Chinamen eat dogs and cats and rats. But these beliefs are all chimerical, as "I shall hope to reveal. China Is right side up except in merely figurative sense. Considering tiie second point, I have observed that John Chinaman does not "washee washee" to any extent. It is not an Iron-bound custom among the Chinese to perform any sort of ablutions, these rites being purely voluntary. Here are the facts: (a The Chinese do not like to wash, (b) The Chinese are not obliged to wash. Categorical Denials Knongh. As to the fingernails and the pig tails, categorical denials ought to suffice. Only a few pigtails and a few sets of long fingernails have survived. The fallacies regarding Chinese diet are easily indicated. Chinamen eat what they can get; they leave nothing for rats and cats. A rat has no chance. Conclusion: there are hardly any rats in China, so how could Chinamen eat them? So much for the few excessive er rors which have clouded our un derstanding. TJie next chapter, at tracting most .'observers could be entitled as follows: ''What Is Wrong With China?;' But as to the rather acute diffi culty of existence in China, as to the is still at the home, but instead of the pitiful little figure with twisted legs, she is a happy carefree girl in the full hloom of health. For now she can walk like other girls, and in an other year, or less, $he will be mak ing her own living in her own way. Major Harris enlisted the aid of Dr. Otis I'. Akin who, after several examinations. expressed the belief that he could straighten out those two crippled legs. A local hospital donated the use of all its facilities to help bring about the reclamation of the unfortun.-.ie girl. During the past year Marim has undergone 12 operations, and e.ght weeks ago she was discharged from the hospital. Her legs now are as good as normal, and day by day she is learning to walk a little more. 'Wonderful," Says CirL "It is all so wonderful that I can scarcely believe it, Marian exclaimed the other day. is she related the story of her hapless existence. "She is the mrst grateful child I have ever seen and I know she will make good at anything she under takes," said Mai-ir Harris. But let Marian, tell her own story in her own words: "My earliest recollection is of being In that orphanage where I did not. even have the advantages of other children. When they would take them for walks or to pick fruit in the orchards I would have to remain at home because I was a cripple. I was always shunted into the background, and I can remember how I used to cry right after night because I could not play like the other children. "When I was about 10 years old I underwent an operation for my crip pled legs; but it was not a success. After the operation they kept mv legs In casts for several months, and with these cast3 I was able to walk, although It always pained me. "iiecau&e X was always kept, la the it. Y. 1 1: Mi 1 Wheel of fortune aeems to lie one of the milder forma of aleatory diverition encountered in Chlnee atreetH. 2 Choice location for mendicants in Shanghai is afforded at every angle of the xig-zogr bridge leading to the ancient willow pattern tea house. Thin beggar has exclunive rights to one of the more desirable "slgs." 3 All trains are met by members of the beggars' guild, as shown here on the outskirts of Tien Tsin. 4 Wheelbarrow parking spaces at Tsinanfu are usually at the main street intersections. 5 The classic mode of locomotion In China is usually tried by for eigners at least once. 6 The willow pattern tea house is In the center of the old walled city at Shanghai. Devils, having no joints in their knees, cannot cross the gig-sag bridge leading out to it from the edge of the stagnant pond where it Is situated. ...... . , - - r, ... scanty happiness and copious misery of the inhabitants, the prevalent im pressions scarcely need rehearsal. 1 doubt if Baron Munchausen himself could exaggerate the state of affairs among the population at large. Until Job broke out with the boils he was no worse off than the average native of China and had no greater oppor tunity for the exercise of patience. Chinaman's Views Count Most. Any discussion among occidentals of what is wrong with China, not withstanding, could at best only ap pear as a gratuitous revelation of hypocrisy. Far more Illuminating would be the views of an average Chinaman on the subject. Bernard Shaw established this logical point in a play by this illustration: "I asked that man what it felt like the first time he kicked his father and found that it was just like kicking any other man. He laughed and said that it was the old man that knew what it felt like." Similarly, it if. only the Chinaman who knows what it feels like to live in China. Considering the views of the Chi nese, then, as to what is wrong with China, we might make some discov eries. It would soon appear, in' all probability, that no civilization in the world, save their own, can fur nish conditions required to further a certain ideal state of society. It is upon our respective attitudes toward background' at this orphanage. I wanted to run away. There was a newsboy who delivered papers at the home who became a strong friend of mine and heloed me out. Then he I took me down to the raiiroad yards I and helped me crawl into a hiding place beneath the observation car, Then he gave me a box of crackers, a bottle of water and $1. "This train was a San Francisco limited and I remained in my hiding place beneath zh'.f car until the train reached Frisco. My water and crack ers had. run out and I was nearly dead from hunger and thirst. I was also so cramped from being in one position during that. Ioiij ride of more than two days that when the train reached 'Frisco I simply rolled out onto the around. "Before leaving the town where the orphanage was located this news boy took his penknife and cut off my curls. Then he helped me to dres in boy's clothing and nobody could have toid was a girl after I reached 'Frisco, covered with dirt and grime. and with my clothes black and torn. Girl Becomes "Newsboy." "With 60 cents of 'my $1 I bought a bundle of papers and began selling papers around the ferry builaing. I posed as a boy for the next six months, and lid among them in alleys and parks and fought just like the rest. It was there that I learned to smoke cigarettes. "One day I got into a fight with an other newsey and hit him too hara. The boy went it.sane from the blow and I was taken 'to jail. It was then that I took off the boy's clothing, and after I got out of jail I got a job in a box factory. I went to live at the home of a girl friend. They tried to help me, but I wanted to keep moving.' One da I stole several dol lars from the girl's mother and beat my way down into Texas. "From Texas I went to New York, then back to Chicago. Omaha, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. At Los Angeles I was taken ill with influenza and was sick for several months. It was there that a woman gave me her return ticket from Los Angeles to Portland and I stole a few dollars from the home where I was staying and came here. "During all thi3 time I would never take charity from anybody. I was w tiling to steal anything I could find. TIIE SUXDAY OREGOXIAN, PORTLAND, 3TAT 4n . ttg,.' this ideal that the whole difference between China and the outer world reposes. Of course it is granted that most ideals are shaped to suit circum stances. Accordingly it has coma about in China, perhaps through the cultivation of superior moral quali ties, that civilization has attained an ideal, still highly regarded anions 'other nations whereby human off spring are produced in such marvel ous abundance tnat in spite of regu lar visitations of famine and pesti lence an ample surplus will always remain, as in "Penguin Island," who might "contribute by their private misery to the public prosperity." Toward these beings who survive the dangers of infancy and succeed in the struggle for a livelihood, Chi nese, forbearance, then, is superla tive. Their society has succeeded in assuring to each of these beings his narrow, ugly and disgusting little private well-being. Here, apparently, is an ideal admirably realized. ' Labor Burdens Heavy. To suit the needs of their society the individual man has come to be. through a process of biological adaptation, such an admirable bearer of burdens and such a laborious per former of wearisome tasks, that he might be described most conveniently as a rather versatile domestic animaL He is adapted so well, in particular. to the conveying of freight as to but there was something in me that made me too proud to beg. I ar rived in Portland with $1.50 and went at first to the Travelers' Aid, and they directed me to the Salvation Army "I went to the home and talked with Major Harris, but she wanted me to submit to ah examination of my legs. Ever since I was old enough to talk or understand.! had ben ashamed of my crippled condition, Every place I went I told the people I had inflammatory rneumatism as I was ashamed to admit I was a cripple. "I always wore long dresses in or der to hide the casts which were, al ways tied about my legs, for without these Casts I was unable to walk one step, and even with them I was al ways in pain. There were times when I was compelled to make my own casts after the old ones had r.orn out." Tears of gratitude welled up into Marian's eyes as she promised Major Harris that her faith in the homeless little wait-would never be shaken. Girl "Resigned to Fate. "One'of tlrese days I am going to make ait effort' to determine Marian's parentage," Major Harris said, aa she discussed the case with Marian. "No, I wouldn't do that," said the girl. "My mother, whoever she may be, probably is happy now and to seek her now,; 20 years later, might only cause her untold sorrow. So far as I am concerned it makes no difference. I would rather continue through life as 1 have in the past without knowing who my mother is. because to reveal her identity now might only break her heart." Major Harris Is confident tnat Marian comes from refined people. In spite of her nomadic career and the rough life she has led, she bears what seems to be an -inherent air of refinement. She cannot remember ever having seen either her father or her mother. But her parents gave her up as an infant and she is com pletely resigned to her fate. She is willing to continue her battle through life without any thought of parental assistance. Clothier Esteems All Anfiles. One clothing merchant uses the apple as a trade-mark. He says there wouldn't have been any clothing busi ness If it hadn't heed for an apple. 01 III 4 ilM j 1 - r 4 ! f f kiwi' render the competition of horses, mo tor trucks and of railroads difficult. It ensues, in consequence, that Chi namen occupy themselves to a large extent in the classic role of porters, rickshaws, wheelbarrows and sedan chairs, utilizing a maximum of human labor- for the results accomplished. CHECK AND PLEA TO SUPPLY LIQUOR ARE SENT SENATOR Capper of Kansas, However, Is Compelled to Inform Writer That He (the Writer) Can't Be Considered as a Hospital. r-flHE OREGOXIAN NEWS BUREAU. I Washington, D. C, May 14. Senator Arthur Capper is one of the dryest of dry senators, and when it is pointed out that he comes from Kansas the reader will readily un derstand that a walk through the Sahara desert at midday would have no terrors for him and that the pro hibition amendment and the Volstead act are in his opinion among the greatest bits of legislation ever put throirgh congress. Not long ago one of the press asso ciations carried a story over its wires about the seizure by customs authori ties of a large quantity of the very best kind of liquor that would mak-: a dying man sit up and beg for a prescription. The government, the story said, was to dispose of this rum for 11 a gallon, to hospitals which desired it.. One morning Senator Capper was opening his morning mail from back home. To his surprise as he tipped up dhe innocent looking envelope out dropped a check for J5. With the check was a letter from a prominent man in Kansas, which ran like this: "Dear Senator: "I have been feeling bad lately. I call your attention to the inclosed clipping. Here is my check for $5. Please send me five gallons of the best brandy. I will use it as a tonic. for medicinal purposes only." Here were the check, the letter nd the clipping with the story. The senator didn't know what to do at first, but finally wrote his corre spondent that since he hardly couid be called a hospital he hardly thought he would qualify to get the five gal lons. To anyone looking from an airplane. two of the members of President Harding's cabinet. Secretary Weeks of the war department ana secretary T, tJJ2T ,- -r" ir $? UV mi fr itZesfSZL j -4!iS? rveT u seem to characterize China in the eyes of foreigners and to illustrate the disadvantages of being a China man. Upon the famous Chinese wheel barrow I shall endeavor to furnish no fresh data, except that I have seen ten passengers riding on one Denby of the navy, look quite a lot alike. They have the same area of uncultivated land on the tops of their shining and broad domes and the shape of the slope is about the same. So is the size of head. When they were posing for a pic ture one of the spectators recalled that these two men were in the house of representatives years ago at the same time. The late Ollie James of Kentucky, another member of the house, formed the third of a trio that looked remarkably alike when it came to headpieces. James and Weeks and Denby were standing in the lobby of the house one day when J. Adam Bede of Minne sota, one of the famous wits of the house In those days, came strolling along. It was just about the time that Elinor Glynn's best known con tribution to literature was running out in front of the other best sellers. Bede stopped and looked long at the group. The similarity of these three big bald heads hit him all at once. "Do you know." he asked, "what this reminds me of? Neither echo r.or anyone else an swered. "Three Weeks." said Bede. Harry M. Daugherty, our only attorney-general of the United States, is not particularly fond of the owner and publisher of a newspaper out in his home town of Columbus. Ohio. In fact this publisher and Mr. Dougherty have disagreed for a good many years about most anything that has come along the political and national hori zon, including a few things that took place preceding the nomination of Harding by the republican conven tion in Chicago. Mr. Dairgherty frequently goes back to Columbus to spend a few days over the week-end and the reporters for this particular paper naturally get in Much with him to discover if fc' 'ill ti vehicle, which I think should go on record. I have read several accounts of China as seen by various observers and can't remember that even Marco Polo remarked anything to equal this. In case he did, I am willing to make it eleven. Dadwinian selection probably es tablished the type of wheelbarrow in use today throughout China. All Chinese wheelbarrows are identical. Some trifling provincial variations alone I noticed, as for example at Tsinanfu, where all the whealbar- rows ran without grease and squealed through the streets like a thousand pigs. Lower Shantung had impro vised a small square sail on its wheel barrows for traveling before a fair wind. One Class Thrives. Between the customary spectacle e-f Chinese economic distress and tUe unusual features of this year's famine it is difficult for an inexperienced observer to distinguish, and I should prefer not to expatiate upon the phe nomena visible In North China today as the result of crop shortages. As in Kurope during the Middle Ages, there is a flourishing class through out all China professionally engaged In the art of mendicancy and furnish ing in all of the large cities an Inter esting, though a rather unappetizing, spectacle. Many are members of a guild, or confrerle, which sustains their monopoly of alms-gathering to such an extent that few casual ob servers, perhaps, could dissociate the genuine cases of indigency created oy famine conditions. It is the beggars' guild that under takes to perfect the practice of men dicancy and to systematize its pur suit to the greatest degree possible. I was told that in Tekln a strike was recently organized among the beggars, who thus obtained better recognition from their guild for cer tain classes of .service. Beggars Urgillnle Hours. The functions of the beggars' guild have been, apparently, to minimize destructive competition between rec ognized members, regulate working hours, to Btation effective workers, with proper reliefs on all profitable locations, to discourage "scabbing" and particularly to see that public gatherings and social functions are adequately covered by representa tives of their craft. As an Instanco of their strength, it. is seriously stated that a sum In the neighbor hood of $500 was recently paid by a wealthy foreigner for Immunity on the occasion of his daughter's wed ding. Unless this sum were advanced the guild had promised to attend the ceremony In force, bringing along all of "the distinguished talent which there is anything on his mind that needs a little publicity. On one of these visits a reporter for this puper called the attorney-general on the telephone and asked the usual ques tion about news and got tne usual answer that there was no news in sight or prospect. "But," said the attorney-general, "you can tell your boss that I'll be lack here every two weeks ana win eriov very much seeing this in- nouncemen t in his paper: "Harry M Daugherty. the attorney-general of the United States, is spending cunaay at home.' " George V. Hobart. the playwright who wrote "Buddies" and a few other successes, was a telegrapn operator vears ago and once upon a time copied the Associated Press night re port on a paper down in South Caro lina. One night when things were slack and the market stuff was coming In on the wire, which Hobart's paper never used and he didn't have to copy, hf thought.he would play a nice little Joke on the copy desk and composing room of the paper. So he sat down at his typewriter and rattled off about three columns of stuff which he headed: "The fol lewing code message was sent today by President Hayes to Secretary bf State Blaine." The rest of the three columns was nothing but an unln telligible mass of figures and letters and everything on the typewriter key board which would not make sense hooked together. Hobart took this "story" of his typewriter, pirt a copy on the hook as he did with other copy and in due time it got to the copy desk. The man reading copy that night was not particularly fond of the foreman of the composing room so he sent It along upstairs to be set as If it were to go Into the paper.. The foreman was a pretty smart bird himself. He ad the edge on the copy desk because it had been sent up. so he turned It over to a compositor and had It all set up and apparently ready to go into the paper, where it undouhtedlly would have made almost as much of a sensation as the firing on Fort Sumter. But along about this time tne pro prietor of the paper happened to come In. He found a proof of this code message story on the hook in his . V;- i -- ' ;.3 1 they reserve only for special occa sions. It was only after consulting th police and then reflecting upon th spectacle of dismembered lepers snd. other side-show specimens lltterlni up his neighborhood that the for eigner decided to appropriate the rea tonable sum required. Theatrical Development Entail. Since entertainment is not essen tial to life, the Chinese must be cor. , tent with a few very rudimentary operatic and theatrical troupes which go barnstorming among the villages There had been very little develop ment In ell her of thene two arts sines the time of Confucius and both am followed verv much as a trade of any other kind would be. An actor Ui apparently a fellow who might man age a wheelbarrow very suitably, hue who has chosen in preference a Jol at longer hours and less physical strain. His greatness consists ex clusively in whatever endurance h may develop; and a really good actor can keep his part wagging along fnp a week at a stretch, naps and re freshments being taken without leav ing the stage. Individual talent does not seem to be at a premium anrl when one actor seems weary, another is brought out and warmed up. Music Nnt Harmonious. Chinese opera Is distinguished front drama by the addition of an orches tra. Although musicians who must keep going far beyond union hour are likely to fall into all lassiluda within a few days after the over ture, a certain amount of noise is an indispensable accessory to the mors intense moments and one or two of the orchestra usually arrange to be hanging around when the time comes for them to Set up a clatter. There is no conductor and most of the heightened vocal and instrumental effects are achieved through the happy coincidence of players and singers co-operating voluntarily lit some passing moment of simul taneous inspiration. The maximum effort of tho various personnel Is nol necessarily synchronized, for the or ganization is founded on the prettr Utopian ideal whereby each labors as he pleases and at tho time he thinks best. Some Chinese music produces ef fects a great deal more lasting than our own. Confucius relates that upon hearing a certain strain lie wa so deeply moved that he was unable to taste meat for six weeks there, after. I have Inferred from tho chronicles to my own satisfaction that tho ultimate recovery of th sage was complete, which In six weeks' time, I think, was fairly re markable. private office and he made thlnas hop around the whole office for the next half hour. In those days there were no machines for setting lypt. at least in this South Carolina of fice, and the w hole three column had been set by hand a pretty ex pensive Job. The boss traced the tiling out and finally chose the copy reader for the goat. He had the pleasure of having the cost of com position taken out of his weekly pay envelope. Hobart didn't suffer at all. E. I. Lewis, the newly appointed, member of the Interstate commerce commission, from Indiana, may equal If not surpass all records on the com mission for travel. Mr. lcwls tins traveled and investigated public util ities In Europe and has bern in tha South sias ana going around the world for him is almost like bosrdln a rattier to go to Chicago Is for most Indiana folks. Some of t lie old em ployes around tho commission aia making book that Edgar E. Clark, now a member of the body who once head of the railway conductors. has Mr. Lewis faded in the matter of miles traveled, but Indianans here who know what Mr. Lewis has dune in this way are' betting on him strong. The story goes tnat wnen the president wanted a man for the vacancy on the commission he spoke to Senator New about it: I want the best man I ran gel on any state commission." is about the way the president put u. "Here you are. said benator .-New in substance, "None better anyw ncr. So Mr. Lewis was appointed. Secretary Dafts of tho department of labor works hard but tries to tuk life not too seriously In his off hours. He was strolling over to a cahlint meeting when the seamen's :rlke was hanging over his head, but ho was talking to some newspaper friends about It and trying to get i laugh or two out of a serious Ituation. "Why." said Davis. "I've bni n working on this strike situation all the time. I put In four hours lust night. I guess 111 have to send In a bill for overtime to Andrew uru seth, president of the International Seamen's union."