In China quarrels between man and wife are too common to excite remark, though often leading to tragic results. On the other hand the process of courtship is businesslike and seldom interrupted, while with us it has become a maxim that "The course of true love never did run smooth." The reason for this contrast is not far to seck. With us personal courtship affords some guarantee for a life of happiness; with the Chinese.
done through third parties; and the ug people never iment face to to the wedding day. How could there be in this initial stage any of those broken vows, that lead to broken hearts. The following story may serve to answer this question. Thad it from a young man of fine talent whom for a short time I employed as a writer. His father is a Brigadier-General, who has long been in Camp at a post on the frontier, his mother and sister remaining at home. The young lady who was the victim in this case, possessed the rare accomplishments of poetry and music and that she was beautiful goes without saying. Her hand was sought by the son of a Taotai. The contract Papers accompanied by betrothal gifts wers exchanged early last spring, but scarcely a month had elapsed" before the youth reported that his father had mised him to the daughter of " Taotai in Kiangsi. As he had not backbone enough to stand by his first engagement we should hardly regard him as worthy of a tear ora sigh. Ho had never entered into conversation with his first fiancee; nor had she seen him except in stolen glimpses through screen or curtain. Yet was her heart engaged and she was wearing a betrothal ring. Hearing of the faithlessness of her lover (if we may call him so) she tore the ring from her finger, choppy ed it into small picces and "swallowed them. In an hour she was a corpse.
Her brother has not sent a challenge to the recreant suitor, but lie proposes to erect a monument to his victim, which cannot fail to make his infamy eternal. He is getting out a small volume of the sonnets of this hapless damsel who had she lived longer might have become wollknown as an Oriental Sappho.
P.M. Wuchang, 10th May, 1903.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.