PUBLIC ORDER IN PEKIN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2572, 5 January 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

PUBLIC ORDER IN PEKIN.

Tun Chinese Times, in an article on tho capital of China, says that beneath tba superficial quiet, aud order of LVkiu theie .α-o many evil agencies at work. Tho haudiui, for example, think nothing of -eiziny honest folks and holding them to ran-oin. Their special victims are thu silver pi'i'teiv. Tho currency consists of birsre lumps of silver, like partially consumed halves of monster oranges. Ttic carrier? arc said to derive heavy emoluments from their judicious handling , of ilia metil while it is in their cure, bur, the}' have their own trials. When one is known t'> bo j. r oiii!* on duty (he banditti waylay him, and if they .succeed in beating his guards, ho may be hold to a run-uiu amounting , to half a year's profit. Those wealthy purlers seek tho protection of the Princes, as traders did in Europe in the Middle Ag s. If a Prince lends a silver carrier his cart and mule, in return for a share of the profits, the bandits will not cire to muddk , with the august vehicle. Sometimes prize-lighters ;iru hired to sit oil the shalts, aud have t:i be extravagantly paid for their protection. Pie!;packets infest the city in every direction, especially in wet weather. Ladies arc often the victims, even when riding in carts, the thieves springing on top and snatching the valuable head ornaments of the Manchu Udies within, the driver taking no notice for fear of his own skin. The thieves have regular depots, where stolen property is placed, and persons of influence cm generally recover what tliey have lost if they arc persistant enough. Near one of the city gites i.s a market where stolen goods are re-milarly sold fur one hour at daybreak. Spurious articles arc often oll'ered at this place ; a man purchases a roast duck, and finds on arriving at home that it is only a clever imitation in mud ; and rain-boots are counterfeited in paper which melts away when wetted. 'In the social aiTangeuu'iits of the Chinese thu philosophy of gmi-and-bear-it has been cultivated to an extreme perfection, and i.-salac, no doubt, archaic. Bystanders wil , never interfere with the commission of a crime in the open slnu.t in open day, and the whole system uf predatory crime is tolerated, as vermin is, as the ordinal y lot. of humanity. In fact, foulness, impassable roads, defective laws, anil all other forms of sutlering, are borne with for want of the energy to resist and overcome them, and n jt, a.-> is somct.mei supposed, bacause the people, really love these things.