rtain never drawn
aside between Chinese and European. The foreign man is a
materialist, a mere worshipper of things seen. With us "the taste of
the tea is not so important as the aroma." When Chinese gentlemen
meet for pleasure, they talk of poetry and the wisdom of the sages, of
rare jade and porcelains and brass. They show each other treasures,
they handle with loving fingers the contents of their cherished boxes,
and search for stores of beauty that are brought to light only for those
who understand. But when with foreigners, the talk must be of tea, its
prices, the weight of cotton piece goods, the local gossip of the town
in which they live. Their private lives are passed within a world apart,
and there is between these men from different lands a greater bar than
that of language-- the bar of mutual misunderstanding and lack of
sympathy with the other race.

Poor China! She is first clubbed on the head and then stroked on the
back by these foreigners, her dear friends. Friends! It is only when the
cold season comes that we know the pine-tree and the cypress to be
evergreens, and friends are known in adversity. The foreigners who
profess to be our friends are waiting and hoping for adversity to come
upon us, that they may profit by it. They want our untouched wealth,
our mines of coal and iron and gold, and it is upon them they have
cast their eyes of greed.

The foreigners have brought dishonesty in business dealings to our
merchants. At first, the trader from the foreign land found that he
could rely on old-time customs and the word of the merchant to bind a
bargain; but what did the Chinese find? There are no old-time customs
to bind a foreigner, except those of bond and written document. He
has no traditions of honour, he can be held by nothing except a court
of law. For years the word "China" has meant to the adventurers of
other lands a place for exploitation, a place where silver was to be
obtained by the man with fluent tongue and winning ways. Even
foreign officials did not scruple to use their influence to enter trade.

An old case has recently come before the Governor. It has been
brought many times to the ears of the officials, but they have said
nothing, for fear of offending the Great Government whose
representative is involved in the not too pleasant transaction. One of
our great inland cities had no water nearer than the river, several miles
away. A foreign official with a machine of foreign inven