Later in the day our Witch was in another part of the city; while
walking through an alley, she saw a Chinaman carrying a large basket
full of clean clothes that he was returning to the owners. The Witch
also noticed several half-grown boys and heard one of them remark:
"Say we take a shot at that heathen."
So with one accord they commenced pelting him with everything
available. Their victim tried to defend himself to the best of his
ability, but the half dozen boys pounced on him, and in the fracas the
clothes were upset into the street.
It was hard to tell how far they would carry their vicious work, which
they considered a capital joke, when some one appeared among them who
was also at work. Very soon they all left off, not knowing why. The
Witch stood near while he gathered up the clothes, which necessarily
must be washed over again.
Then she tried to solve in her mind this Chinese problem:
These Mongolians are in a measure obnoxious, but as a rule are
peaceable and industrious, which is more than can be said of many other
people.
They have few opportunities for making a living in their own
over-populous country, but perhaps when they have become more
thoroughly Christianized, the race will be less prolific, which would
be beneficial to their own nation and others.
Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. Psalms xcvi, 10.
For the more a man leans to divinity the less he cleaves to his animal
nature; and what is true of the Chinese applies to other densely
populated countries.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh;
but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Romans viii, 5.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should
obey it in the lusts thereof. Romans vi, 12.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of
the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth
the will of God abideth forever. John ii, 16, 17.
Her mind reverted to an incident which she witnessed in a cemetery. It
was the Sabbath and she was walking about in there as she often did on
this day, for what more forcible sermon can be delivered than a
thinking mind can feel while moving about among the dead?
After a time she was conscious of a disturbance of some kind going on
at one corner of the enclosure. A promiscuous crowd had gathered and
ere long there came a Chinese funeral train and stopped at the open
grave.
Then the crowd mocked them, and by this time it was evident that they
had gathered there to have sport at the expense of the mourners.
The children were cutting up all manner of antics, and the parents
stood by highly amused at the proceedings. It was almost impossible to
conduct the burial rites on account of the confusion made by the mob.
To be sure it was a peculiar ceremony, but some respect ought to have
been due the feelings of these sorrowing ones at such a time. These
children were wholly undisciplined in the matter of right and wrong;
their behavior was like so many young savages.
What were their parents teaching them? To selfishly enjoy the
discomfort of others, and this was all, never trying to encourage the
finer and better feelings in their natures.
Our Witch did not wait till the ceremony was over. Thoroughly disgusted
with human nature, she left the cemetery.