Tachientu, Feb. 27.
A number of guns went off in rapid succession carly this morning, ahd on inquiry later in the day we learned that they were fired at one Of the city temples, the occasion be-Jing the sacrifice to Confucius. A cow was killed and offered in sacrifice to this great Chinese sage, the ceremony was attended by all the officials in the town, military and civil.. The occasion is observed with much pomp and reverence and the old sage of China's classical litperature is not forgotten in this faraway border town. Tt seems remarkable' that up here on the frantic and in this. small. town with only 20,000 people, 15,000 of whom are Chinese from' other provinces, there should be given such prominence to China's greatest teacher. The fact la remarkable in the schools of the city, a very high place being given to the teaching of Confucius. The schools have been very fortunate in fecuringe men who are able to teach the classics While other parts of China have had their slogan of "down with fucianism!" this semi-Chin border town has x0 far seen no rea gon to abandon the classic lore this proud and ancient country. The Four Books are still memorized in the good old-fashioned way and the Days receive hard knocks if they fail to repeat them correctly. When the old man feels like it and takes off hhis spectacles, the books are explained in the old-time manner. 'Thus, educationally, the city goes on pretty, much as it did 100 years ago. 'There {in one thing to be said in favour of, the old-time form of Chinese edueation, for wherever you meet it you. will' generally find friendliness, courtesy, and kindness. There is something about the ancient Chi ¢lassics which makes a man rate of others. It will be a ational toss to this great country should the old dominies disappear old form of learning be Chinese history adorned with many great names and they are mostly those of men whose life-work has been largely grounded on the clnasieal literature of their country. Bolshevism,—Sovietism, Communism, Rossianism, and every other "ism," will find a bulwark in the Chinote classics which will stand the never built for hard work. The youth of China will do well to get back to those hard-thinking books which teach so much about benevolence, -righteousm etiquette, knowledge, and sincerity. We are indeed grateful to see this old-fashioned Chinese town sticking to those old-fashioned Chinese books.
The Friendly Frontier 'The entente cordiale is stil fiercely maintained away up here on the Chinese frontier of Tibet. The order is just getting over the New Yar and during the past weeks there have been numerous Chinese feasts. 'The girls' school started the Dall rolling, then two Chinese generals invited members of the foreign community, and the treasurer of the darder administration and the city: magistrate sent invitations round the town. A feature of this year's! feasts was the presence of several Tibetans. At one table it was common to sce Chinese, Tibetans, French, and British, all enjoying the good-fellowship of each other's company. Naturally, there was the language difficulty, as there was no tone at the feast who could speak all the four languages; some could speak three, others only one. Though the snow was falling outside, yet! the warm, steaming dishes brought! rood cheer into. the hearts of all resent, The frontier has always been remarkable for its friendly attitude to strangers. In fact, all are strangers on this foreign soil, for no one claims the border as his home or: birthplace. Perhaps it was this fact which united the company in the and of fellowship. The oldest man tu the community is undoubtedly the old French bishop, who has seen something like 65 years along the frontier.
The Ubiquitous Pest The Chinese'merchants have fired off their fire-crackers and the city looks, forward to another year of business, but unfortunately the roads leading to the outside world are not only infested but inhabited by robbers. The brigands have thei agents in the city here and, when a. big caravan starts for Yachow, the robivers simply wait its coming and clean out the whole thing. Oficial despatch-beerers are also held up and robbed, and on two occasions it was reported large consignments postage stamps Were stolen. Some days ago, a big robbery took place} fon the road out to China. A nom her of Kiungchow merchants hid a considerable quantity of silver among some Yunnan hams, and not} only did those delicious Yunnan hams delight the palate of the! brigands, but the silver enabled them to. procure "enough wine to them down, With the highway in its present] condition, the business outlook for the coming year is not very bright. Tachienlu is dependent on a clear run to Shanghai and, unless this is 4, the merchants suffer considerable ess, The roads to the interior are quiet and free from robbers. It seems remarkable that, once in Lhasa-governed territory, brigands are conspicuous by their absence. Apparently the Tibetan troops are used to keep the highways clear robbers and in this they are very The Tibetans are now finding the Lhasa taxation somewhat heavy, for the Lhasa government is maintaining a large standing army and ite wpkeen is cling om the people. very Kood plan might be to use the thousands of lamas in the large lamaseries to keep the peace of the Immediate—neighbourhood. 'There' te between two and three thousand lamas at Dave, the same number and Litang, Derge, and Daje have also thousands of well-armed priests, who might fight and pray, and relieve the country of its heavy taxation. Many of those same Tamas are not ashamed to: rob and pray, 80 why not watch and pray? Their numbers are large enough and they are sufficiently well clad and fed to do their country service, 'A Fashion Note Fashions change. A remarkable feature on the border at the present time is the novel dress of the women and girls. Last year, the younger girls adopted the old time Bianchy garment, and the head of the Chin ese Chamber of Commerce had all his little girls neatly and comely dressed in the long Manchu robe. The garments looked very sober and very becoming, and now it is quite the fashion among Chinese ladies in the town to wear this stile of gar would seem that the Shu garment is also common down on the plain, ax many of the Jadien now in town have only recently come from the glams below. It fs interesting and " remarkable! that there should be this adaptation by Chinese ladies of the old long Manchu style of garment. Other parts of the province are enjoying hobbed hair and the Indies are wearing rather akimpy "dresses. Here fon the frontier the fashion seems. running in the other direction.
The "movies" have at last arrived in Tachienl, and it is a common question:—"Have you been to the Someone picked cheap moving picture outfit in Peking or Shanghai and the pictures: fare now in Tachienlu. A feast was given at the girls, school and the guests were invited to stay and see the pictures. The demoralizing progress of civilization has at last its spell over this far-away border, town and Chinese and Tibetans all pay theft 2,000 cash to get in to see the pictures, Acgirl lies fast asleep in her bed. She suddenly starts up, for there is, a noise down-stairs. She rises, proceeds down-stairs and secs burglar relieving the safe. She telephones for the police, makes love with the burglar, the police arrive, the man is arrested, ele. So there are "wai-kueh" burglars, Why! not? Time will reveal the influence of the "movies" on the frontier.
So far, their advent has not met with much encouragement, as an occasional free fight takes place and someone gots smashed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.