"Fire Makee, Chop,
Chop, Here, Makee Fire Number One," Chop Being Quick, And Number One
Good, Or "First-Class." If
A servant tells you that some one has called
he says, "One piecey manee here speak missey," and if one
Asks who he
is, he very likely answers, "No sabe," or else, "Number one, tink," by
which he implies that the visitor is, in his opinion, a gentleman.
After the courteous, kindly Japanese, the Chinese seem indifferent,
rough and disagreeable, except the well-to-do merchants in the shops,
who are bland, complacent, and courteous. Their rude stare and the way
they hustle you in the streets and shout their "pidjun" English at you
is not attractive. Then they have an ugly habit of speaking of us as
barbarian or foreign devils. Since I knew the word I have heard it
several times in the streets, and Bishop Burdon says that before his
servants found out that he knew Chinese, they were always speaking of
him and Mrs. Burdon by this very ugly name.
[Victoria is, or should be, well known, so I will not describe its
cliques, its boundless hospitalities, its extravagances in living, its
quarrels, its gayeties, its picnics, balls, regattas, races, dinner
parties, lawn tennis parties, amateur theatricals, afternoon teas, and
all its other modes of creating a whirl which passes for pleasure or
occupation. Rather, I would write of some of the facts concerning this
very remarkable settlement, which is on its way to being the most
important British colony in the Far East.
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