Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1911 — CHINESE CUSTOMS. [ARTICLE]

CHINESE CUSTOMS.

It te not difficult for the western mind to make mistakes as to what is decorous behavior in China, and at Ningo-po there was recently much consternation, for it appeared as though two distinguished foreign visitors were being taken away to suffer the extreme penalty of the law. These individuals hired two of the native sedan chairs, and whether the roofs were too low, or their hats too high, is not stated, but they ordered the coolies to take off the tope. The coolies refused, and the visitors did it for themselves, and wondered very much at the excitement with which their progress was followed, especially as they went towards the south gate of the city. Later on they learned that to ride in a roofles sedan chair was the distinctive mark of a criminal going to decapitation, and as the usual place for such punishment was near this particular gate, the populace had imagined that an execution of most unusual character was about to take place.