Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/117

 pay the greatest deference and respect to their parents. The most heinous offence that a child can commit would be to strike his father or mother; and by law and custom the parent would be justified in punishing the child with death. “Young China” never ignores or snubs “the governor.” So far is filial affection carried that grandparents are almost worshipped. “Sharper than a serpent’s tooth to have a thankless child,” has a significance ten-fold greater here than in America. The Scripture injunction to “leave father and mother and cleave unto the wife,” is not according to Confucius. The claim of one’s parent upon the affections and love of the married son is considered to be paramount to that of his wife. The reason given is that the loss of a father or mother is irreparable, but that of the wife is not. Women are treated with more respect and consideration as they advance in years, and mothers are universally regarded with great affection and tenderness. Although the husband and wife never see each other before marriage, and have nothing to do with making choice of their partner for life, a strong attachment often springs up between them, and divorces are rare and only justifiable if the wife is so unfortunate as to be childless. While customs and theories vary, human nature and woman’s nature is the same the world over. The Chinese have a theory of the inferiority of woman, which they often find it difficult to carry into practice. They pay a tribute to the “weaker” sex when they deny them education, for the professed reason that they find it sufficiently difficult to keep them in their proper place without it. In many families here as well as in America, the superiority of the wife’s will and authority is sufficiently manifest and cheerfully acknowledged, although “hen-pecked husbands” are perhaps more rare than among Western nations.

I attended, last evening, the Chinese theater by invitation of a friend, who took along with him his compradore as guide and interpreter. It is situated in the Chinese quarter, and the streets in the vicinity were full of restaurants and the walks crowded with venders of fruits, sweetmeats and all kinds of eatables. The outside of the building was covered with immense pictures of the sensation order, representing dragons, lions and nondescript animals, giants and dwarfs, and reminded me of Barnum’s Museum in olden