Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1876 — Origin of the Chinese Queue. [ARTICLE]

Origin of the Chinese Queue.

The history of the Chinese queues is told by the Rev. Julius Doolittle, a missionary in China, as follows: “The first Emperor of the present dynasty, who began to reign in 1644, having 'usurped the throne, determined to make the tonsure of Manchuria, his native country, the token of the submission of the Chinese to his authdrity. He ordered them 1 to shave all the head excepting the crown, and allowing the hair on that part to grow long, and to dress it according to the custom of Manchuria. The Chinese had been accustomed, under native Empferors, to wear long hair over the whole head, and to arrange it in a tuft or poll. The change was gradual, but finally prevailed through the Empire. At first those who : conformed to the laws received, it is said, a present of a tael of silver, tifter a while only half a tael, and then only a tenth of a tael, and afterward only an egg—finally even an egg was not allowed. The law requiring the people to shave thpir head and braid the queue was not only rigidly enforced by the penalty of immediate death, but it became very manifest that those who did not conform to the! wishes of the dominant dynasty would never become successful in a lawsuit against those who did conform, nor would they sdtceed at the literary examinations.” The census for 1875 shows that Boston has 341,919 inhabitants, of whom 179,657 are women, 162,262 men, while the foreign born are in excess of the natives 2,84:1. There are 3,126. negroes, 1,841 mulattoes, 45 Chinese, 5 Japanese and 57 Indians. —We are asked to believe that lightning struck the horn of a cow, in South Burlington, Vt., the other day, shivering it to the roots, but otherwise leaving the animal unhurt.