(Continnedt.)
An officer on a British man-of-war once mentioned to the writer that he had been subjected to. sundry annoyances through the petty spite of a commanding officer, who obliged hin to sleep on a dining table on account of there being no available cabin or berth. To an inquiry as to the length to which a superior would be able to carry such persecutions, the officer replied coni-prehensively, Well, a nasty man can make it nasty for you anywhere!" In endeavouring to study the complex details of Chinese life, we have often been reminded of the observation of this British subject.
The constitution of Chinese society is such as to put t advantages within the reach of one whom the classical English authors used to call a bold bad man.' This is compendious description of the Chinese Bully, a character of capital importance i China, without an acquaintance with whom itis impossible to comprehend the workings of Chinese social life. The Chinese bully is found in the city and in the country. He is at some times rich, and at other times he is poor. Sometimes he cannot read, and sometimes he is a graduate of one of degrees. Sometimes, strange to say, is'@ woman! But in all cases he unites certain essential qualities in more or less complete proportions, and according to the extent to which these qualities aredeveluped, will be his success as a bully.' He must have a capacity to manage business and to deal with people, and must be possessed of the instinct of general meddling to make himself felt in the region over which he domineers. The bean-curd bully," says one of the enigmatical sayings of the Chinese, rules a square territory, and the carrying-pole bully rules a strip." The cakes of bean-curd are square while the carrying-pole is long, and these objects are intended to represent by their shapes the representative areas dominated by bullies of varying conditions. The bullies of certain cities enjoy a national reputation, are dreaded all over the empire. Thus it is said that in certain parts of China, there are notices posted over the doors of inns, 'No Tientsin men admitted.' The black legs of that port are notorious for their violence, and are even called by " peculiar nickname (hvn-hsing-tze). It was by their means that the \tsin massacre was carried through, and such men are everywhere the leaders of the dangerous classes.' Extended experience in maw provinces has shown how easy it is to stir these elements into a blaze at any time, and on any pretext, especially in any matter te-lating to foreigners. It is largely due to them that the foreigner in China, or in any part of it, literally never knows what a day or a night may bring forth. In view of their possible combination, aided by circumstance, every day to the foreigner in China is liable to a kind of crisis. It was to this that Dr. Williams referred, when he once compared a stay in China to life in a stage-coach; one never knows at what moment it may upset. It is a fe of the outfit of the fully equipped bully, that he is extremely intimate with the bad characters who do the work of the yamens. He can prosecute a law-suit with little or nu expense, because it is to him that the yamen runners owe their living; that is, the persons who are obliged to go to law and whom the yamen people fleece in the process, are brought to this extremity rely through the help of the bullies who get up rows, or take charge of them after they have been got up by others. Toa bully of this special type, a row of some sort is the normal condition of life. When there is no occupation of the sort on hand, he is spoiling for a fight.' In the metaphorical saying of the Chinese, such a person, if he has been three days without a quarrel, is obliged to revile the kitchen sod, by way of keeping himself in practice f he is accomplished in his art, he is able to endure any amount of bambooing with comparative indifference, never betraying any sign of pain, or his prestige would be gone. Once having risen superior to the ordinary trammels of the flesh, the bully is assured of a lucrative practice in the brawls of others. Ifhe is beaten by the magistrate, who is very likely to have the utinust antipathy to such a class of the community, he takes it as a matter of course, and this the expense ut one's lower tall." Some-is called supporting one's upper half, at
times these bullies provoke the magistrate in the spirit of mere bravado, perhaps even reviling him in open court. The city black-leg, or bare-stick' as he is significantly called, is matched by country, cousin, who, if less versatile, is equally adapted to the conditions under which he has his being. If he is a scholar, he has some peculiar advantages from that circuinstance; while if he is a poor man, always with something to vain and never with anything to lose, he has a coign of vantage from which it is hard to dislodge him. In either case, he is uble to exert an influence on the affairs of his native village which is decisive. The city of New York has long enjoyed the distinction of being the worst governed municipality in the world. But the chief principles which characterised the mingovernunact of New York under the rule of the Tweed ring are perfectly well understood in China, and are practised with a degree of success which even democracy cannot rival. It is not every Chinese village which is controlled by this one-man power, but such cases are very common, and one such happens to be the hamlet selected by Providence for the residence ut the present writer. For some years we have enjoyed an opportunity quite unsurpassed, to study the way, method, manner, means,' by which village bare-sticks' oh: tain and retain their power, Their qualifications already described being assumed, it remains for them to indicate the lines along which contemporaneous history is to move, with a liberal admixture of threats as to consequences if these hints are not acted upon by history. If this should fail to secure prompt compliance mysterious fires will break out at deal of i ight, destroying in an hour fuel sutticient for a whole winter's use, and which cannot be replaced. No' one is ever caught setting these fires. By the time several of them have taken place, it has become sufficiently evident who are the ones whom the fire-god doesn't favour. A Chinese fire, sofar
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.