Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/44

22 pursuer caught him by the queue. The tail, stuck full of needles, and alas! a false one too, came away, and was left a worthless trophy in the hands of the European.

The Chinese guilds have been a fruitful source of trouble to the government of the Straits Settlements, but I believe that they are now well under control.

One element which operates successfully in maintaining order in China is the superstitious reverence which the Chinese have for their parents. Should a son commit a crime and abscond, his parents are liable to be punished in his stead. This law, even supposing it were put in force in a foreign land, would not affect the immigrants, as they seldom bring their wives or parents with them; and to this fact alone—that is, the absence of the strong family ties held so sacred by the race—we may attribute much of the difficulty encountered by our own authorities in dealing with the crime and vice of this section of the population. A few of the Chinese immigrants marry native women, but the majority remain bachelors. If any one perchance is unable to realise the hope of returning to his native village, if he should die on foreign soil, his friends expend the savings of the deceased in sending his body back to mingle with the dust of his forefathers in China. Thus we find a steady stream of the living and the dead passing to and fro between the Straits Settlements and the southern provinces of China.

The foregoing presents a somewhat sombre sketch of the Chinaman abroad, but it portrays some of the worst phases of his character, and applies most particularly to the "mauvais sujets" who have left their country for their country's good, and some of them, embracing the opportunities afforded for engaging in honest and remunerative labour, depart from their evil ways and become useful members of the community. On