Many things.are as straws to your true sociologist,—straws that mark his prevailing wind of. doctrine. [His latest craze is to waylay unsuspecting travellers and to ask them, innocently enough, whether. they, or any peoples of their acquaintance, in shooting with a bow release te are from between the umb and forefinger? It is necessary for the self-respect of most. that they should answer this question in the negative; otherwise they are at once classed as either childish or as savages of an elementary order.] There is one field, however, which (as some-onehasborrowed our Herbert Spencer) we cannot say has been properly shot over by the socioloist, though it should afford sport enough. he advertisement sheet of a great daily paper,—the neglected covert in question—is a most valuable index to national character, or to the outward sign of that character, the customs and social condition of the people. Advertisements give unconscious (and therefore the more trustworthy) testimony to the current statidards of morality, refinement, and or poverty, of a country. In the T voyage intelligence, as much as to the prosperity of the " Sunbeam," Lady Brassey quotes from a Brazilian, paper several announcements of slaves for sale, observing, if we remember right, thnt the presence of these in the columns of a respectable journal showed how openly the sale of slaves. was carried on, and how little repugnant it was to public feeling. On the. other hand the appearance of an advertisement of a bear-baiting or of a fne inconceivable—as inconceivable as, rize-fight in, the Times of to-day is all it. may.be, the open advertising of a football match or of a thousand mile walk in a thousand hours will seem to. our, descendants. Mark Twain's play, bill of the Colosseum is humorous to us because we see an incongruity in feeding lions on Christians; at Gam into Augustan Latin, resuscitate Diocletian, and_he would probably find little: in it to notice,—except, perhaps, a in-excusable inaccuracy of detail.
While, however, we claim for this theory of Advertisements foundation in fact and reason, it is not necessary to push it to extremes, and to declare, on the strength and length of certain advertisements, that we are a nation remarkable for its cleanliness, or that our babies are singular in their fondness for soothing syrup. It is true that in a country whose hotel-keepers look on soap as an honest extra,' there would seem to be little opening for the superlative Pears; but on the other hand advertisements do more than indicate, they create, a want,, and a want which, as the late great Prof. Holloway has shown, with the eloquence. of success, is capable, by skilful treatment, of worldwide expansion. And again, the seduce tive Mrs. Winslow or the ingenious Eno are so far like Shakespeare in that they belong not to one race or clime but to mankind (for proof of which we may point in passing to the pictorial adver-fisement of Beecham's pills): they are but local phases of the universal medicine-man.
Hence when we assert that a clear light is thrown on Chinese customs and modes of thought by the advertisement sheets of, for instance, the Hu Pao, not mean to press this assertion beyond bounds, or attempt to build up a theory of Chinese character from a puff, as Cuvier a mastodon from a jawbone. Nevertheless when an analysis of such sheet taken at random gives these results, some theorising may be allowed, and with safety Advertisements of native theatres 2% Auction sales. 6% Manila and Macao lotteries 16% medicines and medicoes....307 new books and new editions 13% things lost or stolen 2% horses to let or for sale.
steamers to leave General trade announcements Miscellaneous The auction sales and announcements of the departure of steamers are, of course, all or nearly all foreign, (as are about one-half of the general trade advertisements, and of the sale or lease of houses); and as such must be excluded from our speculations. But of the rest of the advertisements some 907% are pure Chinese. If, then, out of this remainder we find literature represented by 16%, the gambling element by 20%, and pharmacy by 377, are we not justified in drawing some conclusions as to the proclivities of the Chinese? Of course we do not mean to assert that one-fifth of the nation are gamblers, or more than a third confirmed dyspeptics, but still that these figures do bear some relation to the actual tendencies of the Chinese of, at any rate, Shanghai is arent to all. One thing at least may deduced from them by our merchants,—it is a deduction, indeed, that has long been drawn, and we believe successfully acted upon, by at least one enterprising firm of ists,—namely, that if there is an opening in China for new foreign goods more promising than another, it is one best filled by the manufacturing chemist. A further conclusion, that their desired customers are gamblers at heart, holds good, unfortunately, rid too. Tuiporters- at Canton have, we understand, already begin to feel the: effect of the licensing, by the Provincial: Authorities of the we Kwang, of the wei-hsing \otteries, demand for their, goods diminishing in proportion as their customers' money is squandered; and the attractions of the Manila lottery cannot be less prejudicial.
Examined in detail the medical advertisements bear out our theory, A fair proportion of them announce cures for opium smoking (this should please Mr. Storrs Turner and the Society which he has been till lately the energetic secretary); a large number puff tonics and aphrodisiacs; while many proffer cosmetics, and a few, cures for the evils caused by foot-binding. Advertisements connected with the Manila and Macao lotteries (the latter somewhat curiously, as it sounds to us, known as the ' White Pigeon') are chiefly interesting from their number, but are occasionally enlivened by free denunciations of dishonest agents.. This fashion of gibbeting an enemy in an advertisement column is one, as far as we know, in which the Chinese are singular, In the days when a vernal cular press was not, every man who felt, himself wronged and was assured,—being moneyless—that he could obtain no redress from the law, forthwith issued a lacerd, and posted it for all to see. Not only was this done to remedy, or avenge, a private wrong, but even officials, if their acts were harsh and unpopular, were paraded in a doggrel lampoon, or censured in more scholarly prose, This is still the case all over the Empire, but in the area in which the native press circulates, its advertisement columns have been freely availed of for these purposes, Hence it is that they, more even than the agony column of the Times, or Charles Reade's favourite "Tiser, repay intelligent. study, and this is why we have commended them to the conscientious sociologist. We hope, if the pressure of events shall allow us, to, lend our little aid to his investigation, or, failing that, to rest happy in having given him th THE FRENCH MALL PAPERS, "The Plot against. the Czar" the Saturday speculates in this way on the effect which the attempts on his life are likely te have on the ruler of Russia Itis in the highest degree uncertain what effect may be produced on him by this renewal (supposing it to bea renewal) of the terrors which surrounded the first years of his reign, and from which he has but lately recovered, It is believed that the timidity that, distin: guished him is rather moral than physical, and that-his nerves, though not, heroically strung, are sufficient for the battle-field, where indeed sovereigns need rarely run into real danger. On the other hand, the entering; upon war at the present time involves, mud wore than at any former period, a certaisi amount of exactly the same vague alarm which; is the most remarkable feature in the influence' exercised by secret plots. Formerly, for an, Emperor of Russia war was a very simple thing. He'might have to fight a campaign or two, he might win or lose a province or two," but he could Ly leave off fighting when he liked. It is not so certain what now. The gane on the vanquished are would be the result of an unfortunate war, tar greater they once were; and it cap"
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.