CUTTING THE QUEUE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 73, 22 March 1912, Page 2

CUTTING THE QUEUE.

BONFIRES OF HUMAN HAIR. “When the awakening of China comes she will make as much progress in live years as Japan has done ill the last 25 years.” 'this is the deliberate opinion of Mr Jansen, an American stage magician, who lias just concluded a tour of the East, and arrived in Sydney last week by the Mataram, under engagement to a firm of entertainers. “I 1 was in China right in the heat of the revolution,” he said to a “Herald” reporter, “Playing for six weeks at Tientsin, but Canton was really the heart of the revolution. Curiously enough, the only white man’s hotel in Canton is run by an Australian, and, with my curiosity whetted by an approaching visit to you/r country, I was naturally interested. Australians arc to' be found all over the world, t It seeing it’ remarkable thing that a man should cut his hair to show that he is a rebel. But you had the iSarae thing in the time of the Stuarts. There Us only this difference: the Chinese have cut their pigtails just for the same reason that the Saxon serf struck off the iron ring of servitude. ; Hitherto the cutting of the queue has been a treasonable offence —no Chinaman could possibly return to his. native land without it. The origin,i of course, everyone knows to have been the fact that the Manchus wore (pigtails ' when! they conquered.

wore*pigtails when they conquered China: At Hongkong, on the night of the news of. the first,,rebel victory, a crowd collected outside the theatre,, and made a i remarkable demonstration; Fathers and sons mutually sawed off each otljeirV pigtails; others were rushing round seeking friends to perform .the' barbering feat, and it was curious to notice the. styles of hair-cutting. ’ In some instances a short’few inches wobbled about, in others the hair was shaved almost to the skin. A riot ensued, and one man ’was seriously injured, his opponent having slashed him. across the throat. The police in Hongkong are summoned by whistle, but knowing the apathy of the force, I ran to my hotel, got my camera, loaded it, and got back in time to get a snap of tbo victim before the police arrived. “In Canton huge bonfires were made of the queues, and the smell of burning liair was to bo remembered. Seine of tbb Chinese, however, have already developed ! a commercial habit, and thousands of queues were sold, to figure later on,‘ no doubt, in the pads and ; switches ! which adorn the fair heads of European women, and evon the impossible legal wigs that grace our : 'Judges; l ' M ‘• i | “The rdhels were exceedingly friendly to KiiropcaUs, and" invited 1 them freely to the fireworks disphVys that marked each _ rebel success. It is little wonder that the revolt started. I have seen women carrying hods of •htj,uj£Sb TJljj^tgdl.J&d^y§,, .at the foot to silcirle their babies. The poverty is appalling. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, of Chinese keep a family, on a Mexican dollar a week—say, 25.” ! f i n •< }. J —'T~ —rr on~ f~ ’ -