HEROISM REWARDED

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 275, 12 April 1913, Page 10

HEROISM REWARDED

STRANGE CHINESE CUSTOMS. I China, venerable and conservative, need not always look to the Occident it'or suggestion as she quickens her march toward rejuvenation and modernity. Occasionally some of our newest 'things prove to be some of our oldest. The .hero fund, instituted by Mr. Carnegie, is a .thing of yesterday; but Miss M. A. Carlyon lias recently'pointed out thai tliere lias been fur centuries a reguarly •established Chinese Virtue Reward Ofliee. Its nwiirds for heroism and eminently meritorious conduct, long duly published in the "Peking Gazette." are often bewildering to read, it is true, for Chiivse ethics, although like our own in most of the great fundamentals, are tousy-ttirvily difVerent in their minor manifestation*. We should never, for ■■ instance, have desired to erect a-memor-ial arch—-the Virtue Reward office confers its rewards only after death—to the lovely and loving' Mrs. TIo. much as j we admire self-sacrifice and wifely devotion ' ',

Ho was tin- young and bountiful wife of Lu-Shu-Yung. who. when lie fell mortally ill. nui'scrl bini tenderly bv da v. preserving always her sweet and .■lioprfnl demeanour that she might not distress her parents, and passing her nights ill otl'cring up "incense and tearful pra--ers." So far we can sympathise. Tint when, in further evidence her devotion, iiic lady began cutting liltle pieees from h' v arms and mixing them with W'< medicine, our Western feelings would revolt: indeed, our syinpatliv is transferred to Lii-Slm-Yumr. thus tricked into cannibalism against bis will. Whether in spite of ffo's cfl'oils. or on acconnl. of them, lie died; an.d his widow, after having (in the intervals of a series of fainting fits) made proper arrangements for the cave of his aged parents committed suicide by swallowing a gold ring. Her admiring neighbours at once circulated a petition, which was numerously signed, that an arch, properly inscribed, should be erected to commemorate her noble behaviour. This was duly forwarded to the Virtue Reward ' Office, considered and approved, and in time the arch was erected.