454 THE ABACUS 



uniformly led by an attendant, though Avhy, it is hard to 

 see. An umbrella -bearer and other servants surround 

 the Mandarin, lest the many-headed should press too close- 

 ly upon his Immaculate Transparency. Thus mounted 

 and equipped he goes to and from the Joss-house — the 

 cynosure of neighboring eyes, and in his own the mirror 

 of purity. 



The Chinaman is a very able mortal, in his Avay. It is 

 astonishing what excellent and reliable work he can do 

 at the rate of twenty-five cents a day for skilled labor. 

 He will copy you a coat, a clock, a steamer ; he will 

 stall-feed and cook you a rat that you shall roll for as 

 sweet a morsel under your tongue as a gray squirrel ; or 

 he will prepare you a puppy that shall serve you for a 

 sucking-pig. He touches nothing that he does not adorn, 

 from philosophic thinking to cheating at cards. Confu- 

 cius was a Chinaman ; so was Ah Sin. He has his limi- 

 tations, to be sure. His coat may rip ; his clock ma}^ not 

 keep time ; his steamer may not go. He rarely perfects 

 anything ; " will pass " is his motto. It costs him an 

 effort to get to the true inwardness of things. Take the 

 case of the abacus. You buy three articles at ten cents 

 each ; the Chinese shopkeeper cannot tell you that the 

 sum is thirty cents (in America it Avould be " three for a 

 quarter," I suppose), but he goes at his abacus, and after 

 rattling away a few seconds, exclaims " Dirty cent V witli 

 a smile of triumph. I went one day into the splendid 

 building of the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Cor- 

 poration, capital ever so many millions, to get some notes 

 changed — $440 at !"/> discount. One must assume that 

 the employes of this concern nva men of the highest abil- 

 ity in their line ; but my particular clerk, though a man 

 of fifty and evidently in authority, could not tell me that 

 he nmst deduct $4.40 for the 1^, and give me back 



