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Show 1 ftumso 4::an ft r. .KXKKsrsnctto I f Bret Harte and some ft of his Western Prose. ftftft ft ft ft v U WVV M W, W h- H 1 rf H I ) 9 .- ft ,..i',4WWVAAl VU W WfcOJ Tin nm u both see ami thinks now-- a tioiwl. Many people sec ami day j many people think. Hut few both sec and think atnl the man who lines i bnth useful anti practical. Most of ns h iu een Chinatlan say lew nt u men all our live hut ever stopped to wonder why it i poor John ic so generally disliked and to contemplate We all (realize that hack his character. windows are useful t hint's to the occupants of a house and usually unattractive to the outsider; beyond that we have not seen or thought. The two short essays which we print this week .show Hict Harte to he a man who has found food for contemplation in what the avcr.igi man has passed by unnoticed. 1 1 rn' 1 JOHN CHINAMAN. nur.T hart The expresdon of the Chiner lace in the abrogate is neither cheerful nor happy. In an acquaintance of half a dozen years, I can only recall one or two exceptions to this rule. There is an abiding consciousness of degradation, a secret pain or sell-lniinilia-ti- visible in the lines of the mouth and cvc. Whether it is only a modification of Turkish gravity, or whether it is the dread Valley of tin Shadow of the Drug through canwhich they are continually straying, not say. They seldom smile, and their laughter is of such an extraordinary and sardonic nature so purely a mechanical spasm, quite independent of any mirthful attribute that to this day I am doubtful whether I ever saw a Chinaman laugh. A theatrical representation by natives, one might think, would have set my mind at Indeed, ease on this point; but it did not. a new difficulty presented itself, the impossibility of determining whether the performance was a tragedy or farce. I thought I detected the low comedian in an active youth who turned two somersaults, and knocked everybody down on entering the stage. Hut, unfortunately, even this classic resemblance to the legitimate farce of our civilization was deceptive. Another brocaded actor, who represented the hero of the play, turned three somersaults, and not only at upset my theory and his fellow-actor- s the same time, but apparently run a muck behind the scenes for some time afterward. I looked around at the glinting white teeth to observe the effect of these two palpable hits. They were received with equal acclamation, and apparently equal facial spasms. One or two beheadings which enlivened the play produced the same sardonic effect, and left upon my mind a painful anxiety to know what was the serious business of life in China. It was noticeable, however, that my unrestrained laughter had a discordant effect, and that triangular eyes sometimes turned ominously toward the Fanqui devil; but as I retired discreetly before the play was finished, there were no serious results. 1 have only giu u the above a an instance of the impossibility of deciding upon the outward and superficial expression of Chinese mirth. Of its inner and deeper existence I have some private doubts. An audience that will view with a serious aspect the hero, after a frightful and agonizing death, get get up and quietly walk off the stage, cannot he said to have remarkable perceptions of the ludicrous. I hav (Mitten been struck with the delicate pliability of the Chinese expression and taste, that might suggest a Inoader and deeper criticism than is becoming these pages. A Chinaman will adopt the American costume, and wear it with a taste of color and detail that will surpass those native, and to the manner horn." To look at a Chinese one might imagine it impossible to shape the original foot to anything less cumbrous hoot than and roomy, vet a neater-fittinthat belonging to the Americanized Chinaman is rarely seen on this side of the Continent. When the loose sack or paletot takes the place of his brocade blouse, it is worn with a refinement and grace that might bring a jealous pang to the exquisite of our mole refined civilization. Pantaloons fall easily and naturally over legs that have known unlimited freedom and baggim-s- . and even garrote collars meet correctly around .suntanned throats, flu new expression seldom overflows in gaudy cravats. I will back my Americanized Chinaman against any neophyte of European birth in the choice of that article. While in om own State, the Greaser resists one by one the garments of the Not them invader, and even wears the livery of his conqueror with a wild and buttonless freedom, the Chinaman, abused and degraded changes by correctly graded transition to the garments of Christian civilization. There is but one article of European wear that he avoids. These Bohemian eyes have never yen been pained by the spectacle of a tall hat on the head of an intelligent Chinaman. My acquaintance with John has been made up of weekly interviews, involving the adjustment of the washing accounts, so that I have not been able to stud) his character from a social view-poior observe him in the privacy of the domestic circle. I have gathered enough to justify me in believing him to be generally honest, faithful, simple, and painstaking. Of his simplicity let me record an instance where a sad and civil young Chinaman brought me certain shirts with most of the buttons missing and others hanging on delusively by a single thread. In a moment of unguarded irony I informed him that unity would at least have been preserved if the buttons were removed altogether. lie smiled sadly and went away. I thought I had hurt his feelings, until the next week when he brought me my shirts with a look of intelligence, and the buttons carefully and totally erased. At another time, to guard against his general disposition to carry off anything as soiled clothes that he thought could hold water, I requested Comhim to always wait until he saw me. ing home late one evening, I found the household in great consternation, over an I g nt 5 Hh Uhl: immovahl. Celestial who had iviiiainrd seated on the front door-t- c pduring the day, ..d and submissive, firm hut aUo patient, and only betraying any animation or token of his mission when he saw me coming. This same Chinaman evinced some evidences of regard for a little girl in the family, who in her turn reposed such faith in his intellectual qualities as to picsent him with a preternatural ly tin nif testing Sunday-schoo- l hook, her own property This hook John made a point of carry ing ostentatiously with It appeared usualhim in his weekly ly on the top of the clean clothes, and was sometimes outside painfully choped of a big bundle of soiled linen. Whether John belic ed he unconsciously imbibed some spiritual life thiough its pasteboard cover, as the Prince in the Arabian Nights imbibed the medieme through t :e handle of the mallet, cr whether he wishes to exhibit a due sense of latitude, or whether he hadnt any pockets, have never been able to ascertain. In his turn he would sometimes cut marvellous imitation loses from cinots (or his little fiicnd. I am inclined to think that the few roses stiewn in Johns path were such scentless imitation. The thorns only weie leal. From the persecutions of the young and old of a ceitain class, his life was a torment. dont know what was the exact philosophy that Confucius taught, but it is to be Imped that poor John in his persecution is still able to detect the conscious hate and fear with which inferiorid ty always regards the possibility of to justice, and which is the the vulgar clamor about servile and degraded races. itv 1 1 even-hande- key-not- e FROM A HACK WINDOW. 15 1 KT II ART K. remember that long ago, as a sanguine and trustful child, I became possessed of a highly colored lithograph, representing a fair Circassian sitting by a window. The price I paid for this work of art may have been extravagant, even in youths fluctuating currency; but the secret joy I felt in its possession knew no pecuniary equivalent. It was not alone that Nature in Circassia lavished alike upon the cheek of beauty and the vegetable kingdom that most expensive of colors, Lake; nor was it that the rose which bloomed beside the fair Circassians window had no visible stem, and was directly grafted upon a marble balcony but it was because it embodied an idea. That idea was a hinting of my Fate. 1 felt that somewhere a young and fair Circassian was sitting by a window looking out forme. The idea of resisting such an array of charms and color never occurred to me, and to mv honor be it recorded, that during the feverish period of adolescence I never thought of averting my destiny. Hut as vacation and holiday came and u'ent, and as my picture at first grew blurred, and then faded quite away between the Eastern and Western continents in my atlas, so its charm seemed mysteriously to pass away. When I became convinced that few females, of Circassian or other origin, sat pensively resting their I slate-penc- il ; |