helors and old maids have no place in the
Chinese scheme of life. Theoretically, bride and bridegroom are not
supposed to see each other until the wedding-day, when the girl's veil
is lifted on her arrival at her father-in-law's house; in practice, the
young people usually manage to get at least a glimpse of one another,
usually with the connivance of their elders. Thus the family expands,
and one of the greatest happinesses which can befall a Chinaman is to
have "five generations in the hall." Owing to early marriage, this
is not nearly so uncommon as it is in Western countries. There is an
authentic record of an old statesman who had so many descendants that
when they came to congratulate him on his birthdays, he was quite unable
to remember all their names, and could only bow as they passed in line
before him.

As to income and expenditure, the earnings of the various members go
into a common purse, out of which expenses are paid. Every one has a
right to food and shelter; and so it is that if some are out of work,
the strain is not individually felt; they take their rations as usual.
On the death of the father, it is not at all uncommon for the mother to
take up the reins, though it is more usual for the eldest son to take
his place. Sometimes, after the death of the mother--and then it is
accounted a bad day for the family fortunes--the brothers cannot agree;
the property is divided, and each son sets up for himself, a proceeding
which is forbidden by the Penal Code during the parents' lifetime.
Meanwhile, any member of the family who should disgrace himself in any
way, as by becoming an inveterate gambler and permanently neglecting his
work, or by developing the opium vice to great excess, would be formally
cast out, his name being struck off the ancestral register. Men of this
stamp generally sink lower and lower, until they swell the ranks of
professional beggars, to die perhaps in a ditch; but such cases are
happily of rare occurrence.

In the ordinary peaceful family, regulated according to Confucian
principles of filial piety, fraternal love, and loyalty to the
sovereign, we find love of home exalted to a passion; and bitter is the
day of leave-taking for a long absence, as when a successful son starts
to take up his official appointment at a distant post. The latter, not
being able to hold office in his native province, may have a long and
sometimes dangerous journey to make, possibly to the other end of
t