PEACE AT ANY COST.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 2 April 1891, Page 4

PEACE AT ANY COST.

'■ » Sthop yer rumpus, will yez," snooted *n Irishman at a social gathering which was somewhat demoralised. "Phwat the divil do vez want, Dennis Doolan ?" returned one of the company. " Peace, begorra ! I want peace ; and Oi'm goin" to have it if I have to lick ivery mother's son in the party." THE MOST ECONOMICAL PEOPLE, i, The Chinese are pre-eminently economical, whether it be in limiting the number oJ wants, in preventing waste, or in adjusting forces in such a manner as to make a little represent a good deal. Their universal diet consists of rice, beans, millet, garden vegetables, and fish, with a little meat on high festivals. ■ Food costs them less than a penny a day for each adult, and in famine time thousands of persons have been kept alive for months on about a halfpenny a day each. This implies the existence of a high degree of culinary skill in the Chinese ; their modes of preparing ' food are thorough and various. There is no waste ; everything is made to do as much duty as possible. What is left is the veriest trifle. The physical condition of the Chinese dog or cat which has to live on the leavings of the family shows this : it is clearly kept on starvation allowance. The Chinese are not etremely fastidious in regard to food: all is ush that comes to their net, and most things come there sooner or later. Chinese women carry economy into their dress ; nothing comes amiss to them. If it is not used in one place it is in another, where it appears a thing of beauty. Foreign residents who give their cast-oft clothes to Chinese may be assured that the career of usefulness of these garments is at least about to commence.