Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1890 — Go by Contraries. [ARTICLE]

Go by Contraries.

The customs of the Chinese are so thickly covered with the duss of ages that it is bard for them to see that anything is superior to what they already have. Yet it is impossible for them to withstand the advancement of Western art and science, and sooner or later they must succumb to the inevitable. They are our opposites in customs as in their position upon the globe. Thfey shake hands with themselves, go to the left of the road, the women in 6ewing carry the needle from them and the books begin at the back. It is a fortunate thing that the newcomers do not appreciate the Immense task that lies in Ihe accomplishing of their they did I fear many would never go on. Every word has a separate character, made up from two to fifteen or eighteen marks. Then these characters are separated into four classes, according to their tones or inflections of the

avion. Ikb ti confusing to tn® nnac- 1 castomoA ear, and two of the tones are very much alike. Mistakes many and smoke are made by the students ;of Chinese. My wife wished a tongue ; for dinner, bnt gave the cook orders to prepare a stone. At first we found ourselves asking our callers to go, we really intended to invite them to We seated. If not careful you will buy a chair instead of soap, and so qp ad infinitum. When the chief difficulties ar® surmounted the reward is sufficient, for then fields of study and research are opened which are exhaust! ess, With an authentic history of more foadtwo thousand years, and one semi-authentic for almost a thousand years more, how could such a study be anything eise than interesting? With all their learning, moral character is not poessessed. or is kept wonderfully in the background. Not so lie fs the exception, and when detected they only shrug their shoulders. That ends it 60 far as they are concerned.; - .