“And we had a hundred and twenty at home; and father said he sometimes felt cramped up, because he didn’t own right to the top of the mountain. If it wasn’t that John Chinaman can live on next to nothing, he would starve to death.”
“But certainly all the people are not so poor.”
“There are some rich people in the cities, but the majority merely live from hand to mouth. The richest man of all is Earl Li Hung Chang, one of the viceroys, who visited the United States some years ago. He is a millionaire many times over, and a very powerful political leader in the bargain. They say he is the only viceroy who enjoys the confidence of the dowager empress and the young emperor.”
“It’s a wonder he doesn’t make a move to enlighten his people, and get them to take up Western ideas.”
“There is too much of religion and superstition in the way. The Chinamen all believe in geomancy, as it is called. According to that, no street in a village must be straight for fear the Evil Spirit may sweep through too easily, and no door in a house can be directly opposite to another for the same reason. The cities and towns are all laid out according to the rules of geomancy, as expounded by the so-styled learned men who make the mysterious art a life study. Even the grave of a rich man is not located until the geomancer has been well paid in order to locate a spot where wind and weather cannot disturb the spirit of the departed one.”
“Such superstition is almost beyond belief.”
“That is only the beginning of it. They believe in all sorts of signs and omens, and won’t even cook a meal at a fireplace unless the latter is located near a door or window, so that the evil spirits in the food can find an easy way out of doors.”
“Humph! I wonder what they would say to some of our up-to-date inventions,—the telephone, for instance?”
“I don’t know about the telephone; but they do say that in the interior the people believe the telegraph wires are bewitched, and they won’t walk under them excepting with their eyes closed and while holding their breath, or else while repeating some verse from Confucius. For many years they wouldn’t allow a railroad to go through, because such a road would disturb the graves that are scattered here, there, and everywhere instead of being in regular cemeteries, as in our own country.”
“I reckon the people in the interior are even more ignorant than those on the seacoast.”