The Great Round World And What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 22, April 8, 1897 | Page 5

is that the Emperor has kindly invited ten of them to visit China without delay: two to have their heads chopped off, and the other eight to be imprisoned for life.
Of course none of the Chinamen are going to accept the Emperor's invitation, and so they are not seeking the help of the Minister for themselves. Their anxiety is on account of their relatives.
It would seem that one of the curious little customs they have in China is to arrest all the relatives of a man accused of crime, as well as the criminal himself. These unfortunate people they cast into prison, taking away from them their property, and everything of value they possess. This punishment is for no known reason but that they have had the misfortune to be members of the same family as a rascal.
The consequence is that when a Chinaman gets into trouble, his relatives, instead of standing by him, and trying to help him, desert him with the greatest possible speed, and do their best to hide themselves in less dangerous districts.
While the Chinamen who are now in this country are able to laugh at the Emperor's decree, and have no intention of going where he can make things unpleasant for them, they are horror-struck at the way their poor relatives have been stampeded. A number of these have been thrown into jail, and only the nimblest have managed to escape the imperial vengeance.
The Chinese merchants feel that this is very hard, because they have never been tried and convicted of any crime, and this punishment has fallen upon them because of a report of the Consul in San Francisco, which they say is absolutely false.
It seems that the Consul sent word to the Minister in Washington that these ten men were "rebels and full of treason," that they were plotting the overthrow of the Emperor of China, and were collecting arms for that purpose.
The Minister sent the report on to the Emperor, and his Celestial Majesty, fearful lest these ten men might overthrow his kingdom, instantly ordered them to come right home and have their heads chopped off.
The accused Chinese merchants say that they are innocent, and that the charge was made against them by their enemies; and of enemies they seem to have an unlimited number.
It appears that Chinese society is a very complicated affair.
The Chinese, in their own country, live in families and clans, after the manner of the Scotch, and like the ancient Scotch people there are frequently terrible feuds or quarrels between the various clans. If one man of a clan offends a man of another clan, the two entire clans take up the quarrel, and every man of the one clan is ready to fight any man of the other clan, and injure him as far as lies in his power.
In China, as in Scotland, families or clans consist of every living member or connection of the family.
In China the affairs of every member of the family are managed by a council. This council consists of the elders (men over sixty years of age), and the scholars. We told you in No. 1 of THE GREAT ROUND WORLD what severe trials a man has to go through in China before he can be called a scholar.
It is the duty of this council to collect and save all moneys due to any member of the family, to direct the business of their households, and to manage the family and its affairs so completely that the members of the family are like children under the guidance of a very careful parent; and when they come to this country, and are obliged to think and act for themselves, they are no more capable of doing so than they would be if they were really children.
To meet this difficulty, and help the Chinamen, an organization called the First Company was formed in San Francisco, which undertook the duties of the elders of the families, and was a great comfort to the Chinamen in America.
By and by, as more Chinamen came into the country, the First Company got too large, and others were formed on the same principle, until finally there were six companies altogether. Then other societies were formed by the Chinamen, and among them the Sam Yup and the See Yup.
These two societies seem to have the true clannish spirit, and a hatred and rivalry exist between them that remind one of the stories of the Middle Ages.
Belonging to the Sam Yups was a Chinaman named Little Pete, and it is indirectly through him that trouble has fallen upon the heads of the ten Chinese merchants.
If what is said about him is true, Little Pete must have been a very great rascal. He was a well-known character in San Francisco, and there