It would never occur to us to commit suicide in order to
spite another. But in China such suicides occur every day,
because it is believed that a death on the premises is a lasting
curse to the owner. And so the Chinese drowns himself in his
enemy's well or takes poison on his foe's door-step. Only a
few months ago, a rich Chinese murdered an employee in a
British colony, and knowing that inexorable British law would
not be satisfied until some one was punished, he hired a poor
Chinese named Sack Chum to confess to having committed the
murder and to permit himself to be hung, the real murderer
promising to give him a good funeral and to care for his family.
An Englishman who thought this an incredible story wrote a
letter of inquiry to an intelligent Chinese merchant of his
acquaintance and received the following reply:


``Nothing strange to Chinamen. Sack Chum, old man, no money, soon
die. Every day in China such thing. Chinaman not like white man--
not afraid to die. Suppose some one pay his funeral, take care his family.
`I die,' he say. Chinaman know Sack Chum, we suppose, sell himself to
men who kill Ah Chee. Somebody must die for them. Sack Chum say
he do it. All right. Police got him. What for they want more?''


These things appear odd from our view-point and there are
many other peculiarities that are equally strange to us. But it
may be wholesome for us to remember that some of our customs
impress the Chinese no less oddly. The Frankfurter Zeitung,
Germany, prints the following from a Chinese who had seen
much of the Europeans and Americans in Shanghai: