Some Odd Chinese Advertise mental

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 221, 24 September 1887, Page 7

Some Odd Chinese Advertise mental

The u North China Herald " quotes several curiouß specimens of a class of advertisements quite 1 common > in Chinese newspapers. A husband whose \v-ife has eloped from him 'inserts an advertisement,' in which he' details at 'considerable length the circumstances 'under which he married the lady and the story of her elopement. lie married her in July, 1878, and he goes on to say : We lived together as husband and wifo in kindness and affection for seven years, nor was there any change in our peaceful relations. My wife is twenty-seven years old this year. In July, 1883, I followed the Ko-ching battalion (the " courteous and tranquil " battalion which the late Viceroy Tso Tsung-t'ang brought with him through the Settlements here) to their quarters at the West Gate. As my son was also on duty with tho detachment, my wife and I took up our residence at Shanghai. In the March of this present year we removed to the Hui-fang Lou, when, it seems, my wife, under the pseudonym of Chou Ai-ch'ing {Chou rAmonreuw), began to frequent the Ti-i'Lou, where she would sip tea—circumstances of which 1 was at the time quite ignorant. Later on, on the 15th of tho Bth moon, a Huchou man, whose name and surname I do not know, went privately with my wife, ne'e Kung,tothe temple to burnincense. fie had the effrontery to weal' a blue button and tho medallions and bend& of an official. This went on until at eight o'clock on the night of the 17th of this month my wife secretly fled from the house, carrying a bundle with her. I cross-questioned the nurse, and so became acquainted with tho preceding 1 facts. I cannot control my wrath and bitterness. My wife, ne'e Kung, has, ifc i& plain, been enticed away by this rascal's deceit. How, I wonder, can a mere tailor's block succeed in beguiling a girl who has ci lawful husband ? Surely ho has nob law or justice before his eyes ! It is on this account that lam advertising. Should any kind-hearted gentleman who can give me information do so by letter I am ready to reward him with 20 dolrf. ; should he bring her back, I will gratefully give him 40 dols. I will most certainly not eat my words. His kindness and benevolence for a myriad generations, to all eternity, shall not be forgotten. But, before my eyes is still my one-year-old baby girl, wailing and weeping night and morning. Should that rascal piosume on his position and obstinately retain her mother as his mistress, not only to all eternity shall he be infamous, not only shall he cut short the lino of his ancestors and be bereft of posterity, but wo three, father, and sou, and little daughter, will alike risk our lives to punish him. I hope and trust he will think thrice, and so avoid an after repentance. I make this plain declaration expressly. Letters may be addressed either to No. 4, Hui-fang Lou, or to my niece's husband, Haia L<io-£>an, at the Yung-10. The advertisement tells a sad st^ry, nor is the pathos at all lessened by the artlessness of the writer, who thus lets his soul bare to the newspaper-reading public. Here is a piteous appeal worthy of the agony column of the "Times." The title is very striking : Avoid incurring death by thunder ' — Your mother is weeping bitteily as she writes this for her boy Joy to s-ec. When you ran a,vay on the 30th of the Sth moon the people of the shop came and inquired for you, and that was the first news we had. 1 nearly died of fear at the time, and since then sleep and food have been in vain, and lam weeping and sobbing still. The letter that came from behind the horizon I have, but it gives no place or abode where I might seek you. I am even now at my last gasp, and the family has suffered for many days from grievous insults of others. If you delay longer and do not return, I cannot, cannot bear ifc, and shall surely seek an end to my life, and then you will stand in peril of death by thunder. If you come, no matter how, everything is sin c to be arranged. I have thought of a plan, and your father may still be kept in ignorance. My lite or death hangs on the issue of these few days. Only 1 pray that all kind hear ted people everyv here will spread this abroad, so that the right man may hear of it. So will they lay up for themselves a boundless store of secret merit. — Written by one in Soochow city. We shall quote once more : " Lost to-day," a slave girl named Fdngp'ing [" the Phoenix Screen,"] aged just 14 years, a Cantonese, dark complexioned, with slightly protrusive front teeth, dressed in tunic of blue cotton, with a green wadded cotton jacket, black cotton drawers, white stockings and cloth shoes, but with nothing further on. She went out this morning at eight o'clock to buy things and has not been seen to return. Should anyone know of her whereabouts and inform me by letter I will recompense him with two large pieces of gilt silver. Should he detain her and bring her back I will recompense him with ten large pieces. I will assuredly not eat my words. A notice. Advertisement by Wu Shunch'eng, of the I-ch'angh-'ien, near the Second Ferry.