Answer.—The last report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs furnishes proof positive that “Indian-hater” is either utterly unprepared to make assertions on this subject, or wilfully misrepresents the facts. Last year there were 5,113 Indian pupils being taught at boarding-schools, and 5,014 in day-schools. There are seventy-eight boarding-schools upon Indian reservations, having in all 4,396 pupils, and in these industrial training has been carried on so successfully that the pupils have cultivated 1,526 acres, raising 18,334 bushels of corn, 4,952 bushels of oats, 19,340 bushels of vegetables, and have made 1,171 tons of hay, and 4,325 pounds of butter. Of the boarding pupils in schools not on reservations, 641 have attended the Indian training-schools at Hampton (109), Carlisle (390), and Forest Grove (151), and 106 have been distributed among various white schools in the States. At Hampton, since 1878, the government has contributed in all $52,000, and private charity $81,000, or, taking the existing number of students as the standard for the five years, $244 per year per student. In these training schools the industrial and mechanic arts are kept in the foreground, and the main object is to inspire the minds of the young Indians with habits of faithful, continuous work. During the past year Carlisle, in addition to much other work, has turned out ten spring wagons to be sent to Indian agencies, and Carlisle and Hampton propose to furnish during the present fiscal year 2,000 pair of shoes, 3,350 dozen articles of tinware, 22 dozen bridles and halters, and 450 sets of harness. An effort is made to teach every Indian girl pupil sewing and housework and the boys farming and mechanical trades. The various religious societies have expended $74,689 in aid of the government work of education strictly, besides $70,142 expended on their own missionary work. This is besides $13,278 contributed by them in aid of Forest Grove and Carlisle training schools, the $26,668 in aid of the pupils at Hampton, $30,504 expended by the societies on their own seminaries, academies, and missions among the five civilized tribes, and $24,149 devoted to schools and missions in Alaska. The Commissioner pays a high tribute to the value of this religious aid.
CHINESE PROVERBS.
LaSalle, Ill.
I have just read that the Chinese are exceedingly fond of proverbs, and make great use of them. That many of these proverbs are full of lofty sentiment and wisdom. Can the Curiosity Shop give us a few of them as specimens?
A Regular Reader.
Answer.—The Chinese are indeed remarkably fond of proverbs. They not only employ them in conversation—and even to a greater degree than the Spaniards, who are noted among Europeans for the number and excellence of their proverbial sayings—but they have a practice of adorning their reception rooms with these sententious bits of wisdom, inscribed on decorated scrolls or embroidered on rich crapes and brocades. They carve them on door posts and pillars, and emblazon them on the walls and ceilings in gilt letters. In 1875, W. Scarborough published a collection of 2,720 Chinese proverbs; and these are but a small part of the great collections to be found in the “Jeweled Mirror for Illumining the Mind,” “The Coral Forest of Ancient Matters,” and other Chinese works. The following are a few specimens of this sort of literature, taken from “The Middle Kingdom,” by S. Wells Williams, for many years Secretary of the United States Legation at Peking, and several times de facto United States Minister. As a sneer at the use of unnecessary force to crush a contemptible enemy, they say; “He rides a fierce dog to catch a lame rabbit.” Similar to this is another, “To use a battle-ax to cut off a hen’s head.” They say of wicked associates: “To cherish a bad man is like nourishing a tiger; if not well fed he will devour you.” Here are several others mingling wit with wisdom: “To instigate a villain to do wrong is like teaching a monkey to climb trees;” “To catch fish and throw away the net,” which recalls our saying, “Using the cat’s paw to pull the chestnuts out of the fire;” “To climb a tree to catch a fish,” is to talk much to no purpose; “A superficial scholar is a sheep dressed in a tiger’s skin;” “A cuckoo in a magpie’s nest,” equivalent to saying, “he is enjoying another’s labor without compensation;” “If the blind lead the blind they will both fall into the pit;” “A fair wind raises no storm;” “Vast chasms can be filled, but the heart of man is never satisfied;” “The body may be healed, but the mind is incurable;” “He seeks the ass, and lo! he sits upon him;” “He who looks at the sun is dazzled; he who hears the thunder is deafened,” i. e., do not come too near the powerful; “Prevention is better than cure;” “Wine and good dinners make abundance of friends, but in adversity not one of them is to be found.” “Let every man sweep the snow from before his own door, and not trouble himself about the frost on his neighbors’ tiles.” The following one is a gem of moral wisdom: “Only correct yourself on the same principle that you correct others; and excuse others on the same principles on which you excuse yourself.” “Better not be, than be nothing.” “One thread does not make a rope; one swallow does not make a summer.” “Sensuality is the chief of sins, filial duty the best of acts.” “The horse’s back is not so safe as the buffalo’s”—the former is used by the politician, the latter by the farmer. “Too much lenity multiplies crime.” “If you love your son give him plenty of the rod; if you hate him, cram him with dainties.” “He is my teacher who tells me my faults, he my enemy who speaks my virtues.” Having a wholesome dread of litigation, they say of one who goes to law, “He sues a flea to catch a bite.” Their equivalent for our “coming out at the little end of the horn” is, “The farther the rat creeps up (or into) the cow’s horn, the narrower it grows.” The truth of their saying that “The fame of good deeds does not leave a man’s door, but his evil acts are known a thousand miles off,” is illustrated in our own daily papers every morning. Finally, we close this list with a Chinese proverb which should be inscribed on the lintel of every door in Christendom; “The happy hearted man carries joy for all the household.”
SHINTUISM—BUDDHISM—CONFUCIANISM.
Castleton, Ill.