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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 1903)
Truly Celestrial Life of the Chinese Child (Copyright. 1908, by Ouy T. Vlsknlskkl.) rk tho avert) en missionary In tha I Chinese quarter of an American 1 liv whrltinr flirt nlmond-fved grown-ups euro for their chldrcn, ami he will answer In a vulce of tnlnglcd astonishment and sadness; "My dear brother, thtso people come of a race who Hell their girls as slaves. How Can they love their children?" Hut despite the fact that he works among Mongolians, tho missionary frames Ms point of view In much the name manner as Goes tho average American. A Chinaman, pagan of a thousand ancestors, Is not In tho habit of taking a white preacher Into bis confidence. Both tho missionary and tho layman must Judge tho Chinaman by What he shows them a stolid. Inscrutable countenance and a tonguo that Is well bridled. Once In a rare while, however, a whit devil comes along to whom the Chinaman will reveal bin lender Hide. He may be moved to do thl for many reasons tho white man can speak tho language of the Flowery Kingdom; ho has protected tho laundryman from a crowd of trigging boys; or bo has known John for years, and constant Intercourse brings about the revelation. It Is to men of this sort that such stories of the Chinaman's lovo of his offspring are told us that one Which has a rich and Influential merchant Of New York's Chinatown for its hero. This particular merchant c:ime from China some twenty years ago. From tho day ho started In Ironing shirts prosperity followed him, and Boon be was uble to pet Up as u merchant In Molt street. Then, B.l time went along and his savings grew, be began looking around for n wife. Ho found her In the belle of the colony, and Boon thereafter the street was merry with the wedding festivities. For five years the merchant and his wife were childless, and then one morning, when the man went Into his store to serve hli customers with tea, his face was tilled with a great Joy. "It Is a son," be told them. A little over a year ago, when the boy had reached his rlxth year, there suddenly overtook him what bis father had offered up many a prayer In the Joss House to avert a spinal disease that was hereditary on tho father's side. Chinese doctors were called In, ono after another. They could bring no relief. Then, although he was a good Buddhist, tho father turned to American physician, but they, too, shook their heads. "Your ion will not live the year out," they said. The merchant was beside himself with grief. Money he had n-plenty, but only one son and tho boy was all the more precious to him because the mother had died while giving him life. How to save the child was the ono thought that ran through his mind. At last there flashed to his memory a Hay when, far up In the Interior of China Tar away from his home In Canton ho Blood with his father In a great, rich, black field ut tho foot of a towering moun tain. His father had taken Mm thero that they might gather certain roots: with which to cure tho child of his father's brother, who lay 111 with some spinal complaint. And as they gathered the roots Ms father had told him that those same roots had been used In tho family for gen erations und had never failed to cure the trouble. Ho had been a mero boy at tho time the years had all but obliterated tho Incident from his memory. But now It had all co'mo back to Mm, and the father took fresh hope. He went Into the room wh ro the child lay, peeked, gradually dying. "Light of my eye," he said, "I am going r ;: c r xz- tTi. J .4. -?-vr -it;) THREE MOTHERS OF NEW YORK'S CHINA TOWN. far away to get a wonderful root that will make you well again." Then he committed the boy to an aunt's care and a few days later, when he had re ceived his return papers, be was speeding across the continent for China. In four months he was back In New York. In the meantime he had gone to Canton, spent a day In a river boat, then truveled on foot many miles until tho field where the wonderful root grew was reached. He brought back great bundles of the herb and a certain kind of ginseng for giving strength to his boy after the other root had accomplished its purpose. He returned to find the child all but dead. He saw that quick work was necessary and he wasted no time. Straightway he set to work and shaved down root after root, and then, when he had the right quantity, he made a bath of If. Into this he placed the wasted little body of his son and after the prescribed length of time put tho child on Its bed again. This treatment the father kept up for two weeks, and after each bath tho child seemed to take a firmer grip on life. Then one day tho native doctors were called In. "Wonderful!" they exclaimed. "The boy Is all but well ngaln." Today tho boy Is running around the streets of New Y'ork's Chinese colony as healthy and robust' as any boy can be. Rut not one of tho many white customers of the father's tea Btoro know how the cure was made possible by parental love. They only know that be was cured the father shows them an Inscrutable countenance when they speak of tho lad's remarkable recovery. The doctors at a certain hospital In New York can also give testimony concerning parental love among tho Chinese. Some few months ago a boy from Mott street. Lu Long How by name, weut up town to visit a cousin who runs a laundry. While there ho accidentally backed up against a red-hot stove and before he could move his back was badly burned. Tho boy was taken to the hospital, where, despite all that could be done, the burns .V."A'?HSaM&J 9" - a 4 t NEW YORK MERCHANT WHO WENT TO CHINA TO GET A MEDICINAX ROOT TO SAVE UIS SON'S LIFE. would not heal and the child's life despaired of. "Tho only thing that will save him," the doctors told his father, "Is skin grafting." After the Chinaman had grasped what skin grafting meant, he put a hand to hla throat and the next moment was standing naktd to the waist before the doctors. "Take the skin off there," he said simply, pointing to his own back. And the mother, who was present, quietly made a similar offer. The next day nine square Inches of skin were removed from the woman and eleven inches from tho man, and neither would allow cocaine to be used to deaden the pain. "It was one of the finest cases of nerve sustained by parent love that I have ever known," raid ono of the surgeons who per formed the operation. "And I am happy to say that the parents got their reward Lu Long was sent back to them well aud sound." To him who knows tho American China men well, their love of their sons and daughters Is also displayed In their every day solicitude for the health of the young sters. "He who leta his children be weak lings Is a weakling In his love," is a rough translation of a Chinese proverb. In their effort to keep their children strong and healthy the parents of Chinese colonies, notably those In New York and other eastern cities, have set a play-hour for the little ones. As a result, long before whlto boys and girls are beginning to tub the sleep out of their eyes of mornings, the yellow boys and girls of Chinatown are romping up and down the streets in all the abandon of happy childhood. ThU very early play-hour In summer it is 4:30 o'clock Is due to two things. The parents Ilk (Continued on Page Fifteen.) Is m or i MJ 11" 1 1 JOHN YUP AND HIS BABIES. OF WHOM HE IS EXTREMELY PROUD. LtT LON! HAW AND TUB FATHER. WHO GAVE UP ELEVEN INCHES OF HIS SKIN FOR HIS SON'S SAKE.