Of all human races, next to the monkies, the Mongolians are the most
imitative. They are only a little lower than the monkies in this
respect, and we have seen some trained ones that could successfully
compete with the Simians on their own ground.

A Chinaman employed in the North Adams shoe factory, for instance, was
asked to imitate exactly a boot of a particular style, which was shown
to him. After a few trials, he imitated the boot so perfectly, that a
customer who came in took him to be the fellow of it, and was not
undeceived until he went to try him on. No wonder that the regular
Crispins are jealous of a foreign cordwainer who can do this.

In the art of dress-making for ladies the Chinese display wonderful
skill. Their taste and inventiveness in this branch are unrivalled even
by the best French _modistes_. The _panier_ with which it pleases the
ladies of the period to protuberate their persons was of Chinese origin.
It was revealed in an opium dream to a celebrated male mantua-maker of
Pekin, who sold the idea to a Yankee-Notions man travelling in China for
a Paris house. The inventor was so chagrined at hearing afterwards of
the immense fortune realized from it by the man of the West, that he
committed suicide by hanging himself on a willow-pattern plate.

Although the Chinaman does not naturally possess an ear for music,
according to our standard, yet his imitative power enables him to adapt
himself very readily to the production of melody. One of the Coolies
employed in the great HERVEY wash-house at South Belleville, N.J., was
observed to watch with great interest an itinerant performer on the
accordion. Shortly afterwards, catching up a sucking-pig by the tail and
snout, he manipulated it precisely as the player did the accordion,
producing--accordion to the testimony of several credible