Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1892 — Life in China. [ARTICLE]

Life in China.

The singular conditions of life at Amoy, the metropolis of the great Chinese province of Fukien, have been the theme of an interesting report of the United States consul at that city, Mr. Bedloc. . Amoy, which is a city of about a million people, and the centre of a densely populated region, is perhaps the cheapest place in the world. Workingmen live and support large families on fifteen cents a day, and are said to be as happy as working men anywhere. The daily fare of an Amoy workingman and its cost to him are about as follows: One and a half pounds of rice, costing three cents; one ounce of meat, one ounce of fish, two ounces of shellfish, one cent altogether; one pound of cabbage or other vegetable, one cent; fuel, salt and oil, one cent; total, six cents. This is much better fare than manj' European laborers enjoy. In what little time the Amoy workingman can find from his toil, he flies kites, plays shuttlecock, and indulges in mild practical jokes on his friends. He goes to bed early, and worries about nothing.

The wife and children of the Chinese family gather driftwood, edible sea-moss, shell-fish, mushrooms and dead branches. Some of the things they pick up they barter for rice and vegetables. Sometimes a woman and her children provide in this way. all the food of the family. Small boys earn a few copper coins by marching in religious processions, at funerals, wakes, exorcisms, weddings and other ceremonies. At eight years of age a boy begins his life-calling, which usually is the same as his father’s. Indeed,, children in China begin to work as soon as they can walk. A boy or girl four years old will carry the baby “piggy-back” half an hour at a time, and mind it from dawn to dusk. The house is usually an independent structure, small, and containing two rooms —a living-room and a’ bedroom. The windows are’’ small, high and nearly blocked up with w-ooden, iron or «stone bars. The rent of a house of four or five rooms averages five cents a day. One of the saddest things about child life in China is the early encouragement of gambling on the part of the boys. On every street in the daytime and early evening may be seen groups of children around a peddler, gambling for cake, fruit, or a small amount of money. Gambling is the great curse of the Chinese people, robbing the workingmen of their savings and corrupting the politics of the country. In spite of their hard work and their few indulgences, Chinese children manage to be happy on the whole, as children will be the world over. ..