Identifier: fromwesternchina00spra (find matches)
Title: From western China to the Golden Gate; the experiences of an American university graduate in the Orient, with thirty illustrations
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Sprague, Roger, b. 1869
Subjects: China -- Description and travel
Publisher: Berkeley : Lederer, Street & Zeus
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ke to believe that thisrevolution was worked in a day. When thewriter arrived in Chentu on the 1st day of Jan-uary, 1909, a few beggars were still to be foundplying their trade with rice bowl and whiningcomplaint in the old-fashioned way, but thesewere mostly outside of the wall, and even theydisappeared before long. Now and then a manwould appear begging on the streets, but thepolice soon took care of him. A letter writtenfrom Chentu in December, 1909, well describesthe present situation as follows: The youthof the West are being educated for future use-fulness. Extensive plants for housing boys whohave no particular vocation have been con-structed. They are, in fact, large industrialschools over which broods the military spirit.A boy beggar is a stranger in Chentu, and boysidling about the streets are few. Other cities tributary to Chentu, fired by itsexample, were not slow in following suit, andwhen in the summer of 1909 the writer touredthe Chentu plain, visiting the walled cities
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INCEXSE BURNER. Grainger, photo. 113 scattered about it, beggars were scarce and hardto find. In many places they did not seem toexist. Even at Lu Jo, situated more than twohundred miles aw^ay on the Yangtze river, thesame system was in process of being established.The writer is aware that exception may betaken to the above statements on account of theblind fiddlers to be seen wandering the streets.I am perfectly well aware of their existence andalso know that many of them are frauds, butthere is as much difference between them andthe old-fashioned Chinese beggar as there is be-tween daylight and dark. They do not impor-tune, and their music is supposed to be a returnfor anything which may be given. In the United States some authorities holdthat the man without money, without visiblemeans of support, is entitled to occupy that por-tion of the earths surface lying between thelimits of high and low tide. Other authoritiesdeny this. In western China there is a place forsuch a man! Anothe

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