great difficulties. Very many speak only what is called "Pidgin" or
"Pigeon" English, that is Business English. Business on the lips of
the new learner becomes "Pidgin." They like to end a word with ee as
"muchee," and they find it next to impossible to frame the letter R.
For example the word _rice_ becomes _lice_ in a Chinaman's mouth,
and a Christian is a Chlistian, while an American is turned into an
Amelican. Of course this does not apply to the educated Chinaman who
is polished and gifted in speech as is the case with any well-trained
Chinese clergyman or such as minister Wu Ting-Fang in Washington.

All debts among the Chinese are paid once a year, that is when their
New Year comes around in our month of February. There are three ways
in which they may cancel their debts. First, they pay them in money,
if they are able, when accounts are cast up between creditor and
debtor. If in the second place they are unable to pay what they owe
they assign all their goods and effects to their creditors, and then
the debtor gets a clean bill and so starts out anew with a clear
conscience for another year. This in few words is the Chinese
"Bankrupt Law." But, in the third place, if a man has no assets, if he
be entirely impoverished, and cannot pay his debts, he considers it
a matter of honour to kill himself. Death pays all debts for him,
settles all scores, and he is not looked upon with aversion or
execrated. Even Chinese women have resorted to this extreme method of
settling their accounts. But what of their settlement with their Maker
who gave them life, who holds all men responsible for that gift, who
expects us to use the boon aright? A Chinaman does not value life with
the same feeling and estimate as an Anglo-Saxon. Should he fail in any
great purpose, should he meet with defeat in some cherished plan, he
will seek refuge in the bosom of the grave; he will voluntarily return
to his ancestors whom he has worshipped as gods. In the late war