SERVANTS
General character of servants--The duties and perquisites of the
cook--Taking account with cook--His oblique ideas of morality--The
boy, his duties, etc.--The way that small things mysteriously
disappear in a house--Percentages--The servant question.
The general experience of Englishmen in China with regard to the servants
is, taking it all in all, a pleasant one. The average intelligence of the
class of men and women that are employed is a fairly good one. They
consequently learn their work easily, and as they are industrious and
moved by a sense of fidelity they render such very pleasant services that
when families have to return to England, they think with regret of the
home life they have left behind them in that far-off land, which owed a
good deal of its charm to the cheerful and willing service rendered by the
servants in it.
It must not be inferred that there never is any friction. That would be to
assume a state of things that could be found nowhere in the wide world.
Disagreements do happen and collisions do take place, but these are but as
it were the occasional clouds in a sky that is usually sunny, and besides
there is so much of the grotesque mingled with the unpleasant, that after
the affair is over and the irritation has subsided one is more inclined to
laugh at the whole affair than to be angry.
If there is a family, the servants usually required are a cook, a table
boy, a water coolie to carry water, and an amah or nurse, who will help
with the children, if there are any, look after the bedrooms, and do any
mending that may be needed. The most important amongst them all is the
cook, for the comfort of a home depends in a very large measure upon him,
so the great aim of every housewife is to secure a man who knows his work
well, is clean, and is fairly honest. If such a one as this can be
secured, there will never be any disposition to get rid of him, even
though he may have serious faults that it requires considerable patience
to endure.
As soon as it is known that you wish to engage a cook, you have almost an
immediate application for the situation. You gaze upon the applicant with
a good deal of anxiety, and if it were possible you would like to read
into his very heart to know what kind of a character he is. Is he
good-tempered, or is he touchy and masterful, and, like most Chinese, does
he want his own way? You scan his face to see if you can catch a glimpse
of the soul within, but it is as expressionless as a statue. The control
that a Chinaman has over his features is one of the mysteries of this
wonderful people. He has so schooled them, that when he likes they will
show no trace of what is going on in his mind.
You inquire of him if he knows how to cook. If he is a really clever
artist, he will reply, "A little." There is a double motive in saying
this. It is a sign of pride, and it also secures him in the future from
any very serious criticism of the mistress, for if he should fail to
please her in any particular dish, he will remind her that he warned her
when she was engaging him that he did not profess to be an adept in
cooking.
All the time you have been questioning him he has been looking at you with
those black, piercing eyes of his and trying to read you. Are you shrewd
and wideawake, or are you so green that you can be cheated with your eyes
open? Are you acquainted with the wiles of the Chinese mind, or will you
accept everything you are told as though it were gospel truth? Will you
watch everything that is going on in your kitchen, or will you leave the
full control in his hands? These are some of the questions that flash
through the Yellow brain, and before he quits you he will have formed a
very accurate idea of the kind of mistress you are to whom he has engaged
himself.
There is one thing that is quite settled, and that is from the moment of
his engagement the one great aim of his life is to make as much money as
he can out of the situation he has just gained. His facilities for doing
so are very great, for the custom in the East is for the cook to purchase
all the daily food that is used in the family. The mistress never does
this. It would be impossible for her to rise every morning by daylight and
go into the narrow ill-smelling streets and buy from the farmers as they
bring in their produce from the country in the early dawn. There are
months in the year, besides, when the heat is so intense and the rays of
the sun are so scorching that she would not dare to venture out to make
her purchases. The result is, the duty of buying is left to the cook, and
as his conscience is an exceedingly elastic one, it may easily be
conceived what an opportunity this gives him of making money.
In the art of doing this every Chinaman is an adept. He begins to learn it
when he is a boy. His mother sends him out when he is a small lad to buy
some simple thing for the home. He returns with the article minus ten per
cent., which he considers his lawful commission, though he is careful not
to let his mother know, and with this he plays pitch-and-toss with other
youthful gamblers in the street. As he grows in years, he becomes more
expert in the art of extracting commissions from every sum entrusted to
his care, and now that he has become a cook a golden field is opened up
before him, where his gains are only bounded by the ignorance or
carelessness of his employer.
As it is impossible for his mistress to follow him down the narrow,
crowded streets where the provisions for the day are to be bought, he has
a wide field for the exercise of his ingenuity as to how much extra he is
to charge for everything he buys. She does not know the market rates, and
therefore within certain very undefined limits she is at his mercy.
It is as good as a play to watch the progress of the taking an account of
the purchases for any particular day, and to see how the wily Chinaman,
with his childlike, innocent-looking face, and the Englishwoman with her
open-hearted, guileless disposition, settle such a difficult financial
problem.
The latter seats herself at the table with her account-book open and with
pen in hand. She is restless and uneasy, for she is conscious that she is
going to be cheated, and that she herself will have to register the
figures that will ensure her own defeat. The Oriental stands some way off,
with head slightly drooping and with a face that might have been that of a
saint. With a calmness and simplicity of manner, as though he were stating
one of Heaven's eternal principles, he mentions the first item of his
account. There is no faltering or hesitation in his accent, or any sign of
guile, though it is precisely fifty per cent. more than he actually paid
for the article he has mentioned.
The lady moves restlessly in her seat. Her heart is beginning to swell
with indignation, for she is positive that she is being overcharged. She
has no proof, however, and with her Occidental training that it is not
right to bring an accusation unless supported by some evidence, she puts
down the lying figures. The Oriental looks on without the shadow of a
smile, though with his sense of humour bubbling up within him, he is
conscious of the huge comedy that is being played. He has scored his first
success, but to let his face show that would be to throw victory from him
when it was just within his grasp.
Another and another item is given, as though they were quotations from his
own sacred classics, each one as mendacious as the first, and the scribe,
conscious that with every additional figure sums are being stolen from her
own pocket and transferred to the cook's, nervously writes them down,
though her heart is vigorously protesting all the time. The only protest
she can make is an indignant "Too dear, too dear by far," which the
Oriental listens to unmoved, and as though they were eulogies upon his
honesty.
At length one sum, that she has certain information about, that is a
hundred per cent. over the market price is given her, without a quaver in
his voice. She at once asks him, with a ring of passion that up to this
time she has managed to suppress, how it is that he dares to charge her
just double of what he gave. The Chinaman is equal to the occasion. No
man, indeed, in this great Empire is ever at a loss for an answer on the
spot to the most awkward question that may be put to him. An Occidental
will stammer and hesitate when a difficulty of this kind occurs, and the
scarlet flush that will flash over his face will announce his confusion.
An Oriental will instantly become more calm. His eyes will melt into
gentleness, and his face assume the appearance of one that is absorbed in
some great moral problem that he is endeavouring to solve.
The cook looks at the lady in gentle wonder. The charge has steadied him,
and made him more tranquil and composed. "What does the mistress mean?" he
asks. His face is childlike in its assumption of innocence. "Do you really
think I would cheat you? I may be poor," he continues, "but I am honest,
and if you only go to the market and inquire the price of goods, you will
find that I am charging exactly what I paid." "Well," she triumphantly
replies, "I have been there already, and I find you have charged me just
double the market rate."
This seems to be a crushing answer, but it only serves to bring out the
true resources of the Chinese mind. Instead of being flustered with this
decided evidence of his guilt, he becomes more self-possessed. "It is
quite true," he says, "that such goods can be bought at the price you
name, but they are inferior articles, and such as would not be accepted by
you, were I to buy them for you. You always want the best, and I would
never dream of purchasing such things. I can get them for you at the price
you mention, but you must not complain if they are not as good as you are
used to."
The lady is determined not to be beaten, so she puts down the price at
half that he has named, the cook meanwhile protesting that he is a loser,
and that himself and family will have to suffer.
But it is not simply in the matter of overcharges that the cook finds a
large field open to him for successful financial operations. Overweights
are also a fruitful source of revenue to him. When he goes to market he
always carries with him his steelyard, and every purchase that is made is
weighed with it.
Chinese law has never legislated with regard to weights and measures, and
no inspector ever goes round to see that the public is not cheated when
they make their purchases. The consequence is that every man that can
possibly afford it carries his own steelyard, in order to check the
tradesmen who might be inclined to give them short measure. The cook would
no more dream of going out to market without his steelyard than he would
think of going without his fan in the dog days. It is his _vade mecum_ by
which he can measure his gains, for when he returns home he reports to the
mistress that he has bought so many ounces more than he really has, and
the money she pays him for these mythical weights is so much pure gain
that he pockets.
If the lady, however, takes a pride in the management of her household and
is anxious to keep down expenses, she will insist that every article that
the cook buys shall be brought and weighed in her presence before she pays
for it. This home is not an ideal one for a cook. He has, however, to
submit to the inevitable, but he at once sets his wits to work to
circumvent her by ingenious ways and dogged perseverance in his plans,
such as no watchfulness on her part will ever enable her entirely to
frustrate. There is no profession in China like a cook's for developing
the inventive faculties or for stimulating the imagination.
The mistress in self-defence gets a steelyard. Without that she would be
at the mercy of the man whose whole aim in life is now to circumvent her,
and circumvent her he will, or the Yellow brain will have lost its
cunning. Some of his schemes are most ingenious. For example, he is told
one day to go out and buy a fowl. He goes to the market, and secures one
after an immense amount of haggling and carries it home.
After he has got there he proceeds to cram down its throat some very
common stuff, till its crop is as full as it can contain. This is to
increase its weight and consequently his gains, for the animal is sold at
so much an ounce.
The cook brings the fowl to be weighed, with a look of the sweetest
simplicity on his face. Such a thing as guile could never exist behind
such a bland and childlike countenance as his. The mistress, who is up to
all his dodges, is unmoved by the seraphic air his face wears. She feels
the fowl that is hanging by its legs from the hook on the steelyard, and
she remarks how thin it is, and then points to the distended crop, and
asks him what he means by such cruelty, and how he dares to try and cheat
her by such a transparent device. The cook at once assumes an air of
surprise, and looks at the swollen crop with the utmost indignation. "Oh!"
he exclaims in a truly theatrical tone, "I have been cheated. This was
done in the shop, and, as it was dimly lighted, I did not perceive how I
was being taken in. I shall give that man that sold me the fowl a piece of
my mind when I next see him."
The lady is accustomed to such tricks as this, and she says, "I shall
deduct two ounces from the weight you have given me." The man puts on an
injured air and in a plaintive voice says, "You surely do not wish me to
be a loser by my purchase, I am a poor man and I cannot afford that." The
lady, however, is firm, and by and by his usually placid look once more
overspreads his sphinx-like countenance, whilst his admiration for his
mistress' ability is vastly increased.
One day a cook brought in a round of beef to his mistress to be weighed.
There was an ingenuous look about him that disarmed suspicion. There was
evidently no deception there, and she was just about to accept it, when
the instinct of suspicion that lingers in the mind whenever you have to do
with the Chinese about money prompted her to say, "Undo the string that
ties this beef and let me see inside." A sudden flush ran through the
man's face, and he hesitated for a moment to carry out her orders, but
knowing that any delay would only excite her anger, he cut the string,
when out rolled a stone of fully half-a-pound in weight. A look of
surprise and indignation swept across the face of his mistress, for even
she, with all her knowledge of the fertility of the Chinese brain, had
never dreamed of such a cunning device to cheat her.
She looked at the cook with flashing eyes, but he was apparently unmoved.
No flush of shame mantled his cheeks. Instead of that an innocent air
crept over his countenance, and a look of wonder stole into his eyes, as
he exclaimed, "Dear me, however did that stone get there? The people of
the shop must have put it in whilst my head was turned. How dishonest of
them! I really must give up dealing with them. The principles of Heaven
are evidently unknown to them." The withering tones of indignation uttered
by his mistress seemed to make no impression upon him, and he left her
presence, muttering to himself, "How wrong of that butcher to cheat me as
he has done to-day, and to cause me to lose face, and to make me a
laughing-stock to every one that may hear this story."
The steelyard is an invention that is intended to promote honest dealing.
It is sometimes, however, the unconscious instrument of a systematic
deceit, which is all the more effective because it is so entirely
unsuspected. On one occasion a young fellow had been engaged as cook. He
was a man of engaging manners, with a pleasant open face, and a winning
disposition that made one unconsciously have great faith in him. He was
consequently greatly trusted by his employers, though they never forgot
the terrible temptations to which as a cook he was exposed.
It seemed that after a while the spell of money spun its subtle web over
him, and he succumbed to its fatal fascination. With the implicit faith
that his mistress had in him, the opportunity for making money on all his
purchases became enlarged. This led him into gambling, and as the gambler
nearly always loses, he had to look around for some method that would give
him a larger revenue than could be secured by his squeezes on the articles
he bought every day for the use of the home.
In this dilemma, a bright idea occurred to him; he would so manipulate the
steelyard that it should serve his purpose, and enable him to pay his
gambling debts, and still give him funds to pursue his favourite vice. He
accordingly filed off two ounces from the iron weight attached to it, and
which acted as a counterpoise to the goods that were being weighed at the
other end of the yard, and by a single stroke he secured to himself twelve
and a half per cent. on every purchase that he made.
The mistress had no suspicion of this deep-laid scheme, for she never
dreamed of testing the iron weight, and the cook with guileless looks and
childlike smiles gathered in his gains, feeling confident that he had now
struck a mine that would never be exhausted. But a Nemesis was at hand,
and one day his treachery was revealed by a person with whom he had
quarrelled, when he was instantly dismissed as a man with a mind too
original and too dangerous to be allowed to hold any position in the
household for the future.
From the above it will have been inferred that the difficulty of
controlling a cook in China is one that no foreigner ever hopes to cope
with successfully, and the same thing only in a milder form exists with
regard to all the other servants that are employed in the running of a
home in this land. If the Chinaman was less expert in disguising his
thoughts, the matter would be simpler. Ages of practice, however, have
taught them to conceal their feelings from the keenest scrutiny to which
they may be subjected. Looks and language, which in other peoples are
usually an index to the condition of the mind, are in their case no guide
whatsoever.
The boy, for example, who really is a full-grown man, comes to you one
morning, and in a low, melodious voice informs you that he wishes you to
engage another servant, as he is compelled to leave you. You are
surprised, for no intimation of anything of the kind has come to you till
the present moment. You ask him why this sudden decision, and if there is
anything in the home with which he is dissatisfied. He says, "No, you have
been very kind to me, and I am exceedingly unwilling to leave you, but I
have had a letter from my father, and he is very urgent that I should go
home as quickly as I can. The fact is," he continues, "he is getting old,
and he needs my help on the farm, and I must ask you to let me go."
He tells his story in such an easy, natural manner, that you are inclined
to believe him, though lingering doubts will run through your mind. You
remember that his family is desperately poor, and depend very largely upon
this son for the wages he earns to keep them from starvation. You are
perplexed to know what to do, but finally you pay him the wages due to
him, and with many bows and a genial smile lighting up his yellow
features, he bids you good-bye.
Not long after he has gone, the true secret of his desire to leave his
employ comes out. The letter from his father, and the need of his help on
the farm, are myths that his fertile imagination conjured up, and never
had any existence in fact. The real truth is he had a row with the water
coolie, who comes from a village in the country contiguous to his own, and
who belongs to a more powerful clan than his. He dreads any further
collision with this man, who might send word to his relatives there, who
would speedily take measures to avenge their wrongs on their weaker
neighbours, and so, to save himself and the family, he resigns.
Chinese servants, taking them all in all, may be considered to be honest.
It is true that from a ten commandments point of view, and the higher
morality we have been accustomed to in England, they cannot in a strict
sense be said to be so. Of course they have never heard of the Decalogue,
and therefore they cannot be blamed for not knowing what it demands. The
training they have been subjected to during the past two thousand years
has taught them to look with very different eyes upon certain subjects
from what ours do.
Overcharges, for example, and skilful manipulations of the steelyard to
make it lie, are not considered so much moral defects as tokens of an
unusually active brain. A man who does not know how to do such things is
not looked upon as one who has a higher standard of life, but one who is,
in the expressive language of the vernacular, "idiotically honest." It is
not a question of conscience with such a man, but rather a lack of brain
power, which has made him less mentally fit for those keen and rapid
movements of thought that are essential in the conflict of mind with mind.
It is not simply, however, in the question of overcharges and the
manipulating the steelyard that the servants' ideas of morality differ
materially from our own. There are a good many other points where they
certainly look with leniency upon certain questionable actions that we
should never dream of doing. Small things, for example, of comparatively
little value, will mysteriously disappear. The Chinese would repudiate the
idea that they were stolen. They simply vanished, and no trace is left of
them. A kerosine tin, for example, has been emptied and placed in the yard
for a short time. The mistress is aware of the peculiar idiosyncrasies of
the Chinese with regard to articles of the kind, and she keeps a sharp
look out upon it. She happens to have to go to another part of the house
for a few minutes, and when she returns it is gone. She calls each of the
servants, and asks them all where is it. They all feign surprise, and
remark to each other about the daring of the man that had carried it off.
"Very remarkable," says one. "Why, I saw it myself only a moment ago!
Where can it have got to?" "The men of the present day are not to be
compared with those of ancient times," remarks another sententiously, as
though he were one of the sages of China. They gather round the spot where
the tin stood and peer into the ground, as though some sprite had
bewitched it into the earth.
The acting of the servants on this occasion is inimitable. Not only is the
one that absorbed it present, but each of the others knows that he is the
culprit; yet not a twinkle of the eye, nor a movement in the muscles of
the face of any one of them can be discerned to show that they are either
moved by the absurdity of the matter, or indignant that the honesty of the
whole should be called in question by the act of one of them.
Again, a half-dozen empty bottles are left on a table. One by one they
slowly disappear, and nobody knows where they have gone, though the
itinerant rag merchant who makes his daily rounds could tell you exactly
how much he gave for them, and from whom he bought them. If there is one
thing, however, more than another that has a fascination for the Chinese,
it is a pocket-handkerchief.
The nation as a whole knows nothing of this useful article. The ancient
worthies that founded the Empire never dreamt of such luxuries. Their
descendants, however, have taken to it with an avidity that is perfectly
amazing, and whenever they can get a chance they quietly absorb them. You
buy a dozen and have them marked with the blackest of indelible ink. The
identity of those handkerchiefs can never be disputed, so you feel
satisfied that you will have a fair service out of them.
A week passes by, and you suddenly find two of them have vanished. You are
staggered, for you remember that handkerchiefs have a fatal facility for
disappearing. You put off the decision of the question by assuming they
have gone to the wash, or they are hidden away in some of your pockets,
and they will turn up by and by. Another week goes by, and others vanish,
till in the course of no very long period only one is left. You question
the servants, but blank and child-looking faces meet you at every inquiry
that you make.
It is never suggested that the cat has walked off with them, as might be
in England, where all kinds of unspeakable immoralities are put down to
that animal. Chinese civilization has never yet produced a cat that has
got the reputation of the same species in the West. Everybody simply
denies that he ever saw the handkerchiefs, or knew indeed that they
existed; and yet it is quite probable that if you were to visit their
homes, you would find the lady members of their families sporting them on
all public occasions, and making their female members green with envy
because they could not have the same.
Now, it must not be inferred that the Chinese servants are systematic
thieves, because they are not. With regard to the more valuable things in
a house, they may be said to be strictly honest. Articles of considerable
value, such as clocks, opera-glasses, and ornaments for the mantelpiece,
one need never have any anxiety about. They would fetch much more than
some of the other things that are bound, by a law as unvarying as that of
the Medes and Persians, to disappear, but they are as safe in the rooms as
though a policeman's eye was constantly upon them. What are the mental
processes a Chinaman goes through to enable him with a good conscience to
appropriate something worth a dozen cents or so, whilst he would scorn the
idea of walking off with any of the more valuable property of his master,
is a mystery to the foreigner. Perhaps he could hardly analyze his own
feelings on the subject. His love for the indirect and curvilinear method
of approaching a subject may have had some influence in making him unable
to decide the question even for himself.
There is one subject that must not be omitted in this discussion of the
servants, and that is the percentages they claim upon everything that the
dealers from outside bring into the house. These are quite distinct from
those that the cook makes in his purchases, and he never lays claim for
any share in them. Although they are perquisites that are supposed never
to come to the ears of their superiors, and are strictly private
transactions, they do in a certain sense seriously affect the pockets of
their masters.
The baker and the milkman, for instance, have to pay the boy ten per
cent. at the end of the month when they receive payment for the goods they
have supplied, whilst the washerman is more severely taxed, for, in
addition to the above tax, he has to wash all his clothes for nothing. No
tradesman attempts to evade these impositions, for he well knows that were
he to do so, the boy would so manipulate matters that he would lose the
custom of the house, which would at once be transferred to a rival that
could offer more.
On one occasion a milkman was being coerced into increasing the percentage
that he had been accustomed to pay. He declared that he could not possibly
afford to do so, as his profits were so scanty. The boy became silent, but
there was a gleam in his eyes that boded no good to the milkman. Next
morning the latter as usual brought round the daily bottle of milk for the
house. The boy placed it beside the hot kitchen range and, when the family
assembled for breakfast, he brought the milk to his mistress and showed
her that it had gone bad. When he was asked the reason for this, he
assured her it was the milkman's fault, whose milk was of a decidedly
inferior character; and as for his cows, they were well known to give only
adulterated milk at the best. The lady is naturally indignant, and at once
asks him if he cannot get another man to supply the home with milk. "Oh!
yes, I have number one man, milk number one good, can do." He is directed
to see if he could not get sufficient immediately to do for breakfast,
which he declares can be easily done. This he can well guarantee, as he
has already a man outside just waiting to be called. He produces a bottle
of milk, which it would appear he came by accidentally, though the whole
thing is planned and engineered by the boy. The milk turns out to be so
excellent that the whole family is charmed with it. It has a rich creamy
look about it, such as they have not seen since they left England, and
which they will not probably see the like of for many a day to come. It
has the look and taste of milk, and has no suspicion of the pump about it,
and so the tea this morning has not tasted so nice since they know not
when.
Imperative orders are issued that the old milkman who had dared to bring
such inferior milk should be at once dismissed and the new one taken on,
and so the deep-laid scheme of the boy has succeeded, and his increased
percentage secured. From this moment the services of the pump will come
into requisition, and the old sky-blue hue will colour every bottle of
milk that comes into the house.
Chinese servants as a rule never accept a situation under a foreigner
simply for the wages that are offered them. These usually are higher than
could be got in a purely Chinese home. It is the fat percentages that are
the main attraction, for by these the salary will often be increased as
much as fifty per cent. A Chinaman is ever on the look-out for these, and
like the eagle in the sky can scent his prey from afar.
You have had occasion, for example, to dismiss your boy. The news spreads
in the most rapid and unexplained manner. There are no registry offices
that are interested in supplying servants. Not an hour has passed by,
however, before you are told that two men want to see you. "Ah! the new
boy," you mutter, as you walk out to see them. One of the two is your
cook, and a glance shows you that the other is the expectant boy.
The cook does all the talking, whilst the other looks nervous and
uncomfortable. He moves uneasily from one foot to the other, gives now and
then a short, dry cough, all signs of that species of nervousness that a
man feels when some important question is going to be decided. He hangs
his head, and his black, piercing eyes seem absorbed in his contemplation
of the ground, but in the meanwhile he is reading your character and
figuring up in his own mind how much he is going to make and whether he
is likely to get on with you.
The cook seems to be in the happiest of moods. His face is wreathed in
smiles, and his speech is adorned with Oriental similes that excite poetic
thoughts in your mind, if it is capable of such. He knows that you are in
want of a boy, he says. Boys are difficult to be got: they are at a
premium just now. Good capable ones are not to be obtained at any price,
but as good luck would have it, here is one that has just turned up, a
very paragon in his way, and one that would suit the master down to the
ground.
You look at the man with a critical eye, but you get but very little out
of that sphinx-looking face of his. Does he understand his work? you
weakly ask the cook, more for something to say than for any hope of
obtaining any exact knowledge about the man before you. "Certainly he
does," he replies, with a toss of his head in the air and a wave of his
right hand as though he had just demonstrated a problem in Euclid, and was
ending with the triumphant formula, Q.E.D.
After some further questioning, you ask the cook if he is prepared to
stand security for the man and be responsible for his honesty. He is
evidently ready to do so, for he at once strikes an attitude, slaps his
breast with his open palm, and with gleaming eyes and impassioned look he
says, "This is my affair; I will guarantee the man that he is a good and a
safe one, and you may accept him as a servant without any fear."
You are satisfied, and you at once take him on. The cook is also pleased,
for the man will have to pay him the heavy percentage of one-half of his
month's salary for the service he has just rendered him.
The servant question is a most interesting one for watching the play of
thought and the subtle and unexpected ways in which the Yellow brain
works. It is at times a very irritating one, and is apt to give one
distorted views of the whole Chinese race, and to cause one to make
sweeping statements about the general incapacity of the whole nation. In
one's saner moments one will freely confess that the home servants are on
the whole less obliging and more exacting than the same class out here.
There is besides the ludicrous element in the Chinese, that always takes
off the edge of almost any unpleasantness. Even when one is most annoyed
there is something so funny about the way in which a Chinaman acts, that
one's anger is most likely to explode in laughter. There is one thing
highly in their favour, and that is their great love and tenderness for
children. Taking them all in all, any one who has had large experience of
the servants in China can honestly declare that on the whole they are a
faithful and satisfactory class of people.