November 2, 1876

Mr. Editor: -- Please find a place in your local columns for some scraps of information from China. Why should not your antipodes be permitted occasionally to regale your readers with little, spicy items of interest, in return for those with which they are favored from your local correspondents in the Buckeye State? We have a country over here as big as yours -- and a good deal bigger -- with ten times as many people in it; we talk in a language which has as many letters as yours has words; we live under a Government which has seen forty Centennials for your one; and it would be strange if, with all these advantages, we were not entitled to figure occasionally in your columns alongside of your other favored local contributors. At least let us have a chance, for this once.

The heavy fall of rain this season has swelled our noble river -- the Yang-tse-kiang -- to overflowing, and vast tracts of land have been submerged. Part of the city has been flooded, and the people have been driven to the lofts of their houses, while locomotion through the streets is accomplished by means of staging. The surplus water in our back yards has generated myriads of mosquitoes, who spend their days in sleeping, and their nights in singing, dancing, and feasting. A select band has been accustomed to meet regularly each evening in the writer's room for a concert. Were their serenades given gratuitously, they might be acceptable; but, alas! such is not the case. At the close of each musical performance they invariably present their bills. (N.B. This pun, clever as it is, is not original). They are as rigorous in their demands as a railroad conductor. And always, whenever they take a fare, punch it is, and punch with care, right in the face of -- but hold, I am plagiarizing.

Mr. Tai the venerable and esteemed native gentleman who has for many years been associated with the M. E. Mission in the capacity of personal teacher, has recently made a purchase which might seem odd to anybody but a practical, matter of fact Chinaman. Knowing that he and his aged wife cannot expect to continue for an indefinite period their stay in these Celestial climes, he has, in accordance with the custom of his countrymen, invested in a couple of chang sun (long life!) boxes, i.e., two huge wooden coffins which he has stowed away in his humble abode, with the grim satisfaction of knowing that they will be there when needed. Honor to the old gentleman's prudence and foresight in providing for an emergency which, inevitable as it is, so few men make such practical preparations for, it is to be hoped that many years may pass before the venerable couple are compelled to remove to their final home, where their newly acquired furniture will be in requisition.

The new foreign residence, built as a home for the ladies of the W.F.M.S., is being rapidly completed. Occupying a lovely site in a retired and rural part of the city, adjoining the premises known as the Mission "Garden," it will be a most desirable place for carrying on the work of both boarding school and hospital. A tall, beautiful pagoda stands on a rising ground a little to the north-east, near which are seen the peaked cornices of a large Buddhist temple, half hidden among the trees; while on the south stretch away in full view the majestic range of the Lee San Mountains, the crowning glory of the surrounding landscape. There are few open ports in China which furnish so pleasing, beautiful, and healthy a location for a missionary's residence.

Six or seven Chinese women were drowned one morning in attempting to cross the lake behind the city. The wind was blowing a powerful blast, and upset the boat, which was loaded down to the water's edge. Most of the crew were rescued, but the boatman was among the lost. More than one little baby cried that day, because its mother did not come home. The incident, however, seemed to attract only a passing notice among the Chinese, who I believe did not even make an attempt to recover the bodies. A people so dead to the finer feelings of human nature is not be found, I trust, in any other quarter of the globe. Recently a fire broke out in the nighttime among some rude cottages and thatched hovels in the north-west corner of the city. Some thirty or forty buildings were burned to the ground, but the people generally escaped, though with very few of their effects. The next morning the poor wretches presented a sad sight, as they sat dolefully among the ruins of their homes. But the most shocking spectacle was that of the charred corpse of an old woman, who had been burned to death in her rickety hovel. She was blind and decrepit, and in the excitement there was no one to look after or rescue her, so she perished miserably in the flames. A piece of matting had been spread over the ghastly remains, around which a large crowd was collected, not to express their sympathy, but to gratify their curiosity with the sight of the horrid spectacle. Others were raking among the smoldering ruins in search of any valuables that might have escaped the conflagration. On such occasions thieves and beggars are always on hand, to profit, like certain classes of people in civilized lands, from the disasters of their fellow beings.

This grim anecdote comes from Peking: --

Some time ago several criminals were led out to be beheaded. One of them, whether from having a special spite at the executioner, or from a sheer desire to perpetrate a ghastly joke, employed himself during the solemn march in deliberately biting his tongue in two. When they arrived at the place of execution, his mouth was full of blood, and stepping up to the headsman, his hands, of course, were manacled behind him; he voided it, with a hearty goodwill, directly in the latter's face. The executioner staggered back, confounded at the unexpected salute, but quickly recovering himself he laid hold of his sword, and in another moment the fellow's head was rolling harmlessly on the ground. Could anybody but a Chinaman have been guilty of such a grotesque joke as that?

No telegram which has flashed across the wires from America this long while has sent such a thrill of exultation through our hearts as that which announced that Gov. R. B. Hayes had been chosen by the Republican National Convention as a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. Ohio, first and foremost, always! We venture to anticipate for the Governor a sweeping majority almost unparalleled in the annals of the country. Such a pledge of the confidence of his countrymen would be no more than what the gallant soldier, and chivalrous, upright statesman deserves.

Tza kah hai mah you pieh tih hwa shwah. Man man tih, tsai dee shu sin yu, Lao yeh tih sin pao. Hoa ah!

Truly yours,

A. S.

Kiukiang, China, August 7th, 1876