The Galaxy, Volume 23, No. 2, February, 1877Various
History
The Galaxy, Volume 23, No. 2, February, 1877
Various
American literature -- Periodicals
Did space permit, we should like to follow Mr. Margary, stage by stage,
through his long journey of 900 miles. The first part, through the
provinces of Yunnan and Kwei-chow as far as the city of Ch'en-yuan-fu,
was made by boat--a long and monotonous trip of four weeks, through a
country so picturesque that the "sight was at last completely satiated
with the perpetual view of the most glorious scenery that ever made the
human heart leap with wonder and delight."
At Ch'en-yuan-fu he exchanged his boat for a chair, in which he
completed his journey; traversing Kwei-chow and Yunnan, and the
debatable hill land that lies between the latter province and Burmah;
arriving in Bhamo, on the Burmese side of the border, on January 17,
1875, where he joined the expedition of Colonel Browne that was
advancing to meet him.
Except in two or three instances, he was treated with courtesy by the
people and respect by the officials. In the exceptional cases a display
of his Chinese passports sufficed to quickly change the demeanor of the
mandarins; while a few calm words of rebuke upon their want of
politeness generally caused popular mobs to disperse abashed. An
instance of this is given by him in his account of his stay at Lo-shan,
a small naval station on the Yangtsze. In returning from a visit to the
mandarin of the place, he was surrounded by a dense crowd of street
rabble, leaping and screaming like maniacs, and shouting to one another:
"I say! Come along. Here's a foreigner. What a lark! Ha, ha, ha!"
Margary descended from his chair and delivered a short address:
"Why _do_ you crowd round me in this rude manner? Is this your courtesy
to strangers? I have often heard it said that China was of all things
distinguished for civility and courtesy. But am I to take this as a
specimen of it? Shall I go back and tell my countrymen that your boasted
civility only amounts to rudeness?" "I was astonished," he adds, "at the
effect this speech produced. They listened with silence, and when I had
done walked quietly back quite abashed. Only a few remained; and over
and again after this many an irrepressible youngster was severely
rebuked for any sign of disrespect by his elders."
Contrast this with the effect which such a speech as that of Margary's,
delivered by a Chinaman, would have had upon an English or American mob,
and we cannot repress a slight feeling of sympathy with the natives of
the Flowery Kingdom when they call us "outside barbarians."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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