Show 1 CHARACTERISTICS OF CHINESE Their Indifference to Suffering and t Their Business Honesty Contemporary Review The China j man is not wantonly cruel but he is marvelously indifferent to the suffer j i ings of others The cook will cover art a-rt with kerosene and set it alight not to enjoy its sufferings but because he believes its screams will scare its fellows fel-lows away A magistrate will fan himself him-self gently on the execution ground on with a yelling malefactor is being grad J ually cut to pieces not because he enjoys en-joys the spectacle but because it is all pert of his days work A crowd of spectators will watch a child drown because be-cause it is no ones special business to save i and because to interfere in what does not concern you may give rise to trouble From has already been said as to the keen interest taken by the Chinese in rroney matters it may be surmised that they should be pa excellence a nation na-tion of shopkeepers And so they are To their credit be it said that they have thoroughly realized that bargains are binding The tea merchant may endeavor en-deavor in every way to get the better of his European confrere but once the mystic words putte booki e enter i in writing have been uttered the latter may rely on the transaction being be-ing faithfully carried through This comparatively high standard of commercial com-mercial morality naturally results in an elaborate system of credit greatly to the advantage of both contracting parties par-ties and though the squeeze or perquisite per-quisite enters into every arrangement it Is not sufficient to stop the wheels of commerce thugh undoubtedly it frequently fre-quently clogs them To go back on your word in a business transaction or to fail to meet your liabilities J lia-bilities catses a Chinaman to lose face and this is to him unbearable < The sacrifices which he will make on the approach of his new year to enable him to avoid being posted as insolvent 4 are as extraordinary a they are admirable ad-mirable Nor would it be right to omit all reference to the fact that to their 1 justice they frequently add generosity I weB remember a case in which an 1 American who had failed after years of i labor was supported during the remainder re-mainder of his life by his compra dc re as the native employed by European Euro-pean firms in their dealings with Chinese r Chi-nese is termed I |