LEARNING OUR WA'Y'c. EDUCAT' ON OF THE CHILDRL‘D OF THE LEGATION IN WASHINGTON. The Present Minister of China Does Not Think He Would Have a. Daughter‘s Foot “arranged—Wife of Yang Yn’s Sec- retary \Vould not Allow the Torture. No better test of the gradual loos- ening of the bonds which for so many centuries have made China the most exclusive and least progressive of nap tions could be cited than the freedom with which the children of the Chinese Legati’on are now permitted to mingle with American playfellows. It was, indeed, but a few years since the women of the legation were induce the women of the legation were in- ducod to modify somewhat the absolute seclusion to which they were accus- tomed, Mrs. Tsin Kno Yin being the first to exchange social courtcaies with the women of the Diplomatic Corps. Nor was this tremendous innovation accomplished without serious misgiv- ings on the part of the Minister him- ment on the part of his friends. Mrs. Yang Yu, her successor, easily slipped into the way which had been opened for her, her picturesque appear- ' ance and charming personality making her a. social favorite. At her first ap- pearance in public, she was the object of much friendly interest and undis- guised curiosity, but it soon became no uncommon event to see her in public surrounded by her little family. The children were therefore early in- troduced to American customs, and un- der American tutors advanced rapidly in the language. The spirit of Free- masonry existing among boys made it a comparatively easy matter for the eldest son, a boy of eight, to make ac- quaintances and gain friends. He was placed in "school, and possessing an un- usually quick mind, soon acquired ‘é’nOugh English to prosecute his brain. ary studies in that language. He became so attached to his school friends and American ways generally that when in April last a change in the Ministry was made the thought of turning his back upon it all was a source of the greatest grief to him. ' The new Minister, Mr. Wu, being a . V w n EK'LY have had considerable experience with the children of foreigners, and have consequently learned to' adapt their methods to them with a goodly degree ' of skill. Recreation time is quite a, different matter, as games and toys, the univer~ sal language of boys, are fortunately absut the same the world over. Balls, marbles, tops, hide-an d-go-seek, &c. are as much‘the part of a Chinese boy’s life as of an. American’s, and with these as passports Master Wu already boasts his circle of boy friends. He has even learned to ride a bicycle, but owing to his costume is obliged to con- tent himself with a girl’s wheel. Foot- ball is also a new game to him. The Fourth of July was the first gate day that Master Wu witnessed in America, and it seemed a very homelike celebra- tion to him, as fireworks, especially firecrackers, are used on almost every fete occasion in China. The evening display in Washington, however, was a great revelation to him, as, though the Chinese were the first nation in the world to make and use firecrackers, _ ' and still continue to export them in self and conmderable clever managc— I enormous quantities they know little 1 or nothing of colored lights, and the b11111ancy and magnificence of modern pyrotechnical displays. Life, however, is very far from being all beer and skittles to Chinese boys. They are accustomed to spending many more hours a day at their studies than the ordinary American youth. Master Wu,-besides his regular school work, has a Chinese tutor, with whom he is expected to work several hours a day at his studies in Chinese. Chinese par: . cuts are indeed exceedingly strict and- careful in the training and education of their children, rarely turning them over to the nurses during their hours of play. This cosmopolitan education of even a sprinkling of the younger generation Seems bound to have its influence upOn the ironclad customs of the old world and the free intermingling of these high~ ~caste Eastern women with the we'll-bred women of other nations, has already begun to bear fruit. Mrs. Ho, ' for example, wife of the Secretary of _ protege of Li Hung Chang, and, there« ’ ’ nurses and were fed, clothed, and tak- fore of the more liberal party, besides having studied law in London for four years, had, perhaps, fewer prejudices L to combat upon coming to America than any previous Chinese Minister. Mrs. Wu, however, early made her1 entrance into Washington society, and . the only son, a lad of 10, was immedi- ately placed in a private school 01! course, his school life seems a little dull at first, as about all he can do is to sit and listen to the other pupils re- citing, his teacher occasionally calling his attention to some particular object and requiring him to pmnounce its game, However Washington teachers . slowly replied, Mr. Yang Yu, although herself the vic- I tim of bandaged feet, will not allow ? ‘ the feet of her daughters to be bound. indeed, her three little children, all born in this country, had American en care of exactly as American children are. When asked: “If you had a daughter would you the present. Minister was . real good. bind her feet?” an inscrutable look ‘ passed quickly across his face, as he 1 said: “Madame, I have no daughter." “And if you had?" After considerable hesitation, he “I do not think 1 should.” This was a concession, as the Minister evidently takes great pride in the little feet of 1h; wire—«New "York Sun. NIGHT IN NEW YORK.~ THE TWELVE O’CLOCK DISTRIBU' TION OF BREAD TO THE POOR. Henry George Watched the Hungry Crowd at Flolsohmann's, linker, and The! wrote Hie Impression of o Civilizatlol That Permitted Such a Scene. In the New York World of room! date, Henry George wrote as follow: concerning one unfortunate phase oi Metropolitan life: As suggested in your letter, I went before 12 o’clock to the Vienna bakery, where slices of dry bread are distrib- uted at that hour to those who ask for it. I found a large crowd of men stand- ing on Broadway around the side door of the bakery waiting patiently for thl distribution. . ,. , . ..1 c I learned on inquiry that the bread left over from the bakery’s trade is cut up and thus given away so long as it lasts. cup of hot coffee is also given at the same time to help these poor people to stand the cold, but at present all they wait for is dry bread. A more striking evidence of the pov- erty which exists in the midst of wealth could hardly be imagined than their numbers and their patience in waiting for this morsel of food. It may, perhaps, increase beggary to give five cents to the man who stops yOu on the street and tells you he is starving. Perhaps he may spend it in mm or in some other way that will do him no Yet in the face of this crowd gathered at this bakery a‘ man must feel degraded and ashamed if, having a cent in his pocket, he denies such an appeal for help from those who are miserable enough to ask it. Such misery is but an incident that shows the general condition of labor. When. in such a city as this, we see so many who suffer from actual want oi work—and there are great bodies nol driven to such} pass. who are torn by HENRY GEORGE. NURWAL Between November and April 3' the k‘een'est‘iiflé'fing and anxiety—it is. the proof of a state of things that can- not be paralleled in any heathen com. munity in normal times. Savages or- ten. suffer from hunger and disease when-failure ofcrops. incursions of an enemy or any great disaster cuts down their aggre-giate supply of wealth. But here we have suffering from actual want in the very midst of abundance — when the community at large has enough and to' spare. On every hand there'is the cry of “over-production.” This standing and waiting at mid- night for dry bread in the heart of the wealthiest city on the continent and in the shadow of the richest churches is the proof of a crying injustice in thl distribution of wealth—an injustice from which men, women and little children are dying in many forms, not the less surely because we may not stop to notice them. It is a proof oi the general scarcity of labor where the means of supplying labor is most abundant. ‘Behind this there must be a fierce struggle for existence—«he failure or business men, clerks driven to the weary struggle for employment. sui- cide, death in a thousand or other forms, crime and vice, in all degrees. For the one man who stands here at midnight begging for dry bread, thous- ands of men, women and little children must be suffering for want enough to maintain them. And -the natural corrollary of these men begging at midnight for a dry crust to appease their hunger is a ‘Seri1 ous manifestation of our multl-million- aires who are given unearned millions by the same general cause. WET DAYS ARE EEST. For Buying Lumber, Then Cracks and Knots Are More Discernible. Any timber buyer who knows his business will tell you that you should never dream of purchasing timber on a. fine dry day. You must go when the logs, soaking with rain, shine with the wet, and show plainly to a prac- tised eye their cracks and knots. In buying timber from the docks, never‘ select sticks that float low in the wa— ter. It is a sign that they are sappy, and have not their due proportion of heart-wood. Planks sawn out of full-grown tim- ‘ber will bear a much heavier weight than those from young trees, and when the architect has calculated carefully the strains which each por- tion of the building will stand, the substitution of “deals" for cut tim- ber” becomes a very dangerous exper- iment. Servos Him Right. Bobby—~Uncle Joe, what is a biga- mist? Uncle Joe—A bigamist? lie is a man who gets sent to jail for thinking he is smart enough to manage two wo— men 9* once—Truth. \ I'Té.(iliitlélfi‘rt“g THE JORNADA . WELL. .JOHN MARTIN’S LONG STRUGGLE TO FIND WATER ON THE ARID PLAIN. He Was Ready to Abandon the Work but Allowed the Men to Try One Micro Shot to Blast the Rook—Thin I.“ Mort Proved the Crowning One. “Do you see that house. and windmill off to the east?” said an old-time New Mexican to a New York tourist. ’1 no two were occupying the same seat in' the Atchison train rolling southward over the Jornada del Muerto and had struck up a friendly acquaintance to- gether. “That is Martin’s well. The Mexicans tailed it Aleman, the word for German in their tongue. Martin was a German who came to New Mex- ico in early days when the Jornada. had the worst name of any traveled re- gion in the Territory, and deserved it. The trail from Santa Fe to El Paso crossed it, and the trip over this plain meant a seventy-mile stretch without water except the chance of finding a pool in the time of the summer rains. At all other seasons the plain was arid. Travelers undertaking to cross it gave ‘ their horses all the water they wanted at starting, drank all they could them- selves, filled their water bottles, said their prayers then if they ever did, and rode upon- the plain with their lives in their hands. There could be no delay with safety, for, with the best luck, thirst was oppressing them when at last the trail came down among the cottonwoods that border the Rio Grande and man and beast could drink their fill from the muddy current. Bands of Apaches swept the plain and lay in ambush for travelers by the river bank at either. end of the Jornada trail, and it is little wonder that the crossing of it should be dreaded and that it should receive the name it bears, the ‘Journey of Death.’ “Martin was an original character, with lots of push and sand. After crossing the Jornada a number of times with wagon trains he made up his mind that water could be found by digging at a point about midway across it, and made his arrangements to sink a well there. He began with the rainy season, and with a force of diggers and blasters set to work in earnest. The Jornada rests on a feundation of hard volcanic rock, and after digging down a short distance he had to use powder all the rest‘oflthe time. It was a slow, expensive and dangerous piece of busi- ness. The men had to receive high wages to risk their lives in such a place, all supplies had to be brought fifty miles from Mesilla, and every spoonful of water used was hauled in barrels from pools left by the rains in hollows of the prairie. But Martin kept the work going through the rainy season and after until, one by one, the pools dried up, and it became very difficul_t,_to provide his crew with was - O-hlu—g— m—m.;.~---... ... .. - oer. . had done. .’_L ' ‘ suit 11? sign of witch'- File ”is: found in the well as the men worked slowly downward through the rock. ,’ ' “The end (game one day whenMai-tin- . rode in from Mesllla and looked down, into the hole where the men were drill~ lag in the solid rock. ' “ ‘Work till noon, boys,’ he called: down to them. ‘When you come up to dinner'bring your tools, with you. ‘We pack our wagons and start for Mesilla this afternoon! “ ‘Shall we load up the holes we’re putting in and try one more blast?’ asked the foreman. “ ‘Yes, we’ll waste one more round- of powder on the thing,’ answered Mar- tin, and turning his back, walked away to think over by himself what's. fool he had been to invest everything he had in an undertaking that all his friends had told him was bound to fail. “The men filled and tamped the holes, and at noon came up out of the well, the last man staying behind long enough to light the fuses. The blast went oi! while they were seating them- selves ‘at‘idinner. The meal eaten, while some of the men helped to bring in and harness the mules, and'others "began to pack the wagons, One -man sauntered over to the well hole and looked down to see what the last blast He yelled as if . Indians were in sight, and the men came run- sing to see what he had found. The well was half full of water and the water was still rising. The last blast had opened the rock down to the wa- ter vein, and Martin’s fortune was made. “All the great wagon tramc and the .tages over the J ornada had to pay him toll, and his well was a mine of wealth to him. The charge per horse or ox for watering was 25 cents, and with the long wagon trains constantly crossing the desert, the profitscounted ‘1) fast. One class of travelers, the ‘tpaches, never paid toll to Martin. they would come to the well, usually y night, water their horses, and ride way, never molesting the peOple in charge. This mutualunderstandingcon- tinued until these Indians ceased to go on the war path and kept to their reservations. Aleman was made a staé tion of the overland stage route, and a railroad station near the well now bears its name. When, in 1880, the Atchison Company built their railroad across the J ornada and settlers coming out on the desert began to build res~ ervoirs for rain water Land to sink ar- tesianvwells, the glory of Aleman de- parted. and the place became the head- quarters of a cattle company—New York Sun. ' Elucidated. Teacher—“Tommy, can you more fully explain the adage, ‘Old men for counsel and young men for wan?’ ” Tommy—“It means that the old men do the quarreling and then let the young men do the flghting."—Indiapa- Delis Journal- 1 -- _ ....--—- THE YANKEE GRIT. MARCH and 1 INTRODUCTION. Con spirilo. marcato. “veerse. , LEO Gig/FILER. . l o o l‘ 10-.'. / The Yankee Grit—2... [Ilium basso marcalc.
Norwalk Chronicler