A BLIND BOY.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 May 1922, Page 1

A BLIND BOY.

SHANGHAI REMINISCENCE. GIRLS STRANGLED; HOYS BLINDED. WELLINGTON,’ .May 1. The N.Z. “Tillius” representative, yesterday, was watching a pathetic little scene enacted in .Manners Street, where a blind hoy, not more than nine years of age, was trying to thread his uncertain way amongst the crowd of pedestrians jostling each other on'tlnu

somewhat narrow sidewalk. A few others, equally interested and touched, were gathered at the corner, and the

“Times” man was just turning away when the voice of a tall, bronzed man at bis side arrested him.

‘■You see thiil sight?” said the stilinger. “Shull 1 tell you wliaf it brings hack to my mind? The slinking, I'etiil atmosphere of the bar hast in general, anil the maludorous iasciitations of the Shanghai native quarter in particular. TIIK HUM) HOY OH SHAXOIIAI. “i was standing one day,” said the tall stranger, “in (Oliverration with the police captain of Shanghai, and we wore watching the wanes of coolies making sections ol a-new asphalt pavement in the courtyard of the pul it 1 h,:uracks. A huge motor lorry was making the immediate surroundings as impleasaut as possible, as it filled the air with acrid smoke and smell from its ( a vito of boiling tar and asplialtnm. Add to this, the raucous cries of the ( ■hair-hearers and riksha-mon and the trrun* s and ejaculations w.ithout which Chinese eooiies seem to he uuahjo to cariv on any part of their daily duties. Around and about us, just a few yards awav, were going on the tnufic and the noise of one of the world’s busies!, narrowest and most, crowded streets; and if you can .add just the right touches., in your mind, of vivid, I urbane colourings, of rotten fish, ol dost, of llii's, of sweating bodies, ol garlic, and of the thousand putrid delights of this peculiar people, you have a pretty good picture of "hat Shanghai was that July attcrmion, with the thermometer climbing up over tlie 111) mark. II was hot—mist t:n-

ijiialifiedlv hot. 1 was nmpmiig.my j brow ami thinking with inward delight of the tenth pin and pinker beer with which 1 proposed shortly to scab my in nor clay, when J - v aw a litth 4 half-naked hoy pass close by, Hip, top. tapping the sidewalk as only lie hlin can and do tap it. "I turned to watch him, with a sinking feeling of utter pity cliucluw; at me, when suddenly it occurred y> | me that l had seen not mm t id. surely, a di'icit such blind children within the past half hour. i !;at gut me interested. I watched more ke( nf v , more ohservamly. Sure enough, vit< - in the next few minutes -three morblind little ones passed me and ml were buys. . “I turned to the noli .»! .uT m l moldioned mv new disenvi rv “lie laughed. a little sadly, 1 thought. After a few minutes’ llmugtiO il sdmii • |,„ took pitv upon me, " str.i U'r ni " strange land, and told me soe.utl/1.4 wliieli has ever since stuck m my inmory ns one of the saddest iarts ol a sad'and strange world. . . • • ('Hl!'' 1*" OH I’OMC KS SIOHi •■Yes ” said the police captain. ' blind hov. It’s always a hoy, yen il notice, never a girl. Part of vie Hm.dliist religion or practices, 1 sup; me Anvwav.it’s oily of those tlmips this Europeans don’t understand, or understanding, don’t seem able to make rielit. In the European quarters il China, we’ve done all wo call to stum > out the practice, hut, in the n« iv•' quarters, policed jiy. ’.iwHy? ( ’ mos '; what eaii we do, what can any Imeigia do, that, will upset the teachings or O ■’ traditions tljat have come down to tl’.cr ' lvnnle through the ages? “‘China! The land uf poverty, < r starvation, of famine! 'When, 111 t h ‘ villages and in the back coiintiy, O ' paltry harvests of rice fail orgivo out, what is left to the poor devils 1 he can die, and they can see their e uldren die. The girls they pan treat

more humanely, more generously than the boys. They strangle the girls, and their troubles are over. As for the boys, there is something in their religious training, or in their superstitions,, that forbids the putting to death of male children. In their ltelp'ess despair, therefore, the untaught heathen of Chinn just dig their hitmhs into the eye-halls of their little hoys, and 1 urn them loose to ■eg their bread. Tf the law of the Far East is tt hard one, the people themelves at least are as humane and kind s their unspeakable’ poverty and i isort - will permit (hem to he. “AT LEAST LIE WILL LIVE.” “ A little blind boy, protected by cox from a merciful death, is an ob:eet of pity and charity. The most needy will give him a portion of food, and at least he will live if only like Die homeless dogs that roam all eastern cities. And now volt know why (lie tap, tap, tapping of a little hov, in Wellington, brought back to me just now the nostalgia that some day will drag me back to the land of enspeakal.de filth yet of equally unspeakable fascinations.”