Page 5 - To Dragma January 1934

JANUARY, 1934

A MARTHA
Peek at
China . . . IA. SNELL,
By One Nu
Who Lives Omicron
There—

They Live for What L In Soochcu; the Venice of the East, the waterways are used for traffic, laundry and drinking purposes.

the Ages Brought Them

To W R I T E A B O U T C H I N A is a task stupen- happen, anyway. could visit the great South, or the Yangtze directly on to the street, and argue forever
dous in its mere outlines. Being just a I certainly do not intend, however, to talk Gorges, or the famous old city of Pieping, or about the price of a single chicken. Seventy-
college student, a sophomore at that, and in- about such matters. I have said this is to; the many other scenic and historical spots of five cents the shopkeeper asks at first.
capable of anything stupendous, I intend only be but a sketch, and I said truly. It is but old Cathay, but still you would not know "Too high, too high," comes f r o m the dis-
to sketch China. M y attitude of humility is a skimming view of China. China. Go instead, or rather after, to gruntled customer.
distinctly Oiinese. some genuine Chinese city, and walk around
"You have a lovely home, my friend." I f you want to see China, do not go to the streets for a day. There lies the life "Well, what do you ask?"
"Oh, no, very poor, very poor." Shanghai alone. But if you go to China, cer-, "Forty cents at the most."
Such is the polite thing to say. One must tainly do not miss seeing Shanghai. I t is the of the nation; there in the passing pano- "Forty cents!" And then he expands f o r
fifth largest city in the world, hut that is the rama of faces and the gray-black back- five whole minutes on what a fine, fat chick-
always belittle everything he has or does. A t least important thing about it. Shanghai is ground of houses.
least the danger of conceit is not so great not Chinese, nor American, nor English, nor en it is. I f the customer is stern, i f he
mft knows his business, he will still say forty
there. The art of boasting French, nor Russian, nor In such a city, in the narrow, gray can- cents, or raise it to a mere forty-five. The
is hardly known. Japanese, nor any other na- yons called streets, one day I met an old shopkeeper does not agree. The customer
tionality; but rather it is a man. He was a blind fiddler and a begger, starts walking away.
But 1 boast when I proud- composite of them all. It is quite a profitable profession. I stopped and
ly say the population of like a cake, made of many talked to him. He had a dog, a little thing, "Come back, come back. I take fifty."
China is one-fourth that of things, chiefly flour (chiefly more resembling a fox terrier than the The purchase is made with fifty the price,
the w o r l d ; the culture of Chinese), but the whole is usual shaggy street prowler. He told me and the shopkeeper is still discoursing on
China that exists today is different f r o m any one of what a mercy the dog had been to him. what a fine chicken it is.
as ancient as that of the its constituents. I lived in
Greeks and Romans. I boast Shanghai f o r four years. The clever animal led him safely through The morning market hour has passed,
when I say that China has On one side of a streel crowded streets. He never got lost. Such and soon lunch calls all, but not away f r o m
produced one of the three a school (distinctly Ameri- Mind beggars are not uncommon sights, but the streets. The shopkeeper still lolls over
or four greatest men in the can). We would often dash usually only a cane and a bell lead them his counter, but with a bowl of steaming
world : standing near Christ, across the street to a 1 i111o through the city streets. I t is not that rice and meat-vegetable mixture held up
Confucius. Someone has stall in a hovel of a shop there are no dogs, for dogs are everywhere, to his mouth. Between words he uses his
said, "What a wonderful to buy cakes and candies scrawny, mangy specimens, they haunt the chopsticks to shovel the rice, with a loud,
thing it would have been i f (distinctly Chinese). The sunny spots of the streets, and the trash sucking noise, into his mouth. Do not say
Christ and Confucius had policeman, riding a bicycle piles, and sniffle occasionally into gloomy he is impolite. What is impolite in one
met;" the first who has doorways. When a stranger passes by, country is polite in another. The more
done so much f o r the world, in the street was French. they run barking at a safe distance behind. noise one makes the more one is enjoying
The policeman, menacingly They live as best they may. They are part his food. The official at a feast eats just
the second who has done turning the traffic down- of the common life of the people. as loudly. I think, however, the common

so much f o r one-fourth the town, was a bearded sheik. The people, like the dogs, love to lounge man enjoys as much his bowl of rice and
world. Indeed, I echo that The cars kept to the left, 'n the streets. Children skim under rick- a single vegetable as does the official his
wish. I f Confucius had met English fashion. Truly there shaw wheels along with the skurrying twenty or thirty courses. Chinese feasts
Christ, we would have no is no city in the world quite chickens. Old folks sit on benches and are truly affairs at which to marvel. Or
need of sending mission- like Shanghai. gossip the whole of a day. Women sit on 'J rather one should marvel at the Chinese
aries to China today. Rather their door steps, nursing their babies or capacity to eat. Americans think they do
would China be s e n d i n g But i f vou want to know sewing on shoes. They talk to each other I rather well with their entrees, soups, baked
across the narrow, cobbled street. Shop- meats, souffles, light breads, and pies, not
missionaries here. Some China, go further than the keepers loll over their counters, that open
port city of Shanghai. Yon (Continued on Page 11)
have suid that would soon
Martha Snell is a student at Vander-
bilt and a member of Nu Omicron.