452 A MOUNTED MANDARIN 



while our handsome trade-dollar cannot be forced on the 

 people ? The pony arrives half broken, but he may be 

 trained to fair utility, and many people make a decent 

 hack of him. Some say he can jump, but this cannot be 

 what we mean by jumping. At his best he is far below 

 his Himalaya cousin. His appearance proves it. Some 

 individuals, without points, may turn out to be good ; but 

 I never knew a race of horses without points — or of men 

 either — who were worth their salt. 



]S'othing but necessity, or the desire to cut a figure— an 

 incentive, by the way, of the most potent among all hu- 

 man beings — can possibly get a Chinaman astride a pony. 

 I am not referring to the Tartars ; they are another folk. 

 But John Chinaman, as we know him, the inhabitant of 

 the region to which ' Hong - Kong and Shanghai serve as 

 outlets, the pidgeon-English, "chin-chin" Mongol, is no 

 horseman. There are race -tracks in both these great 

 ports, but the sport is sustained by the foreign popula- 

 tion, not by the Chinese. You may see a Chinaman ex- 

 ercising his master's horse, and clad in the garb of the 

 British groom ; but he is the exception, and acquires 

 horsemanship in an imitative fashion. 



The Mandarin on horseback is a sight for gods and 

 men. He is pompous enough in his element ; but astride 

 a horse his dignity may be expressed by a minus quan- 

 tity. To us this is very evident ; but to the never-riding 

 Chinaman no doubt the mounted Mandarin gains in im- 

 portance as he gains in height. He objects to being shot 

 at by a kodak, does the Mandarin, and still more to being 

 deliberately posed by the man with the tripod apparatus ; 

 but he makes an interesting picture. His inverted wash- 

 bowl hat of scarlet silk has a rich black fringe loosely 

 flowing upon it, while a peacock feather sticks out from 

 it like a rudder to the rear. His inner gown of bright 



