to be arrayed upon the other
side. The amount of solid honesty to be met with in every class, except
the professionally criminal class, is simply astonishing. That the word
of the Chinese merchant is as good as his bond has long since become a
household word, and so it is in other walks of life. With servants from
respectable families, the householder need have no fear for his goods.
"Be loyal," says the native maxim, "to the master whose rice you eat;"
and this maxim is usually fulfilled to the letter. Hence, it is that
many foreigners who have been successful in their business careers, take
care to see, on their final departure from the East, that the old and
faithful servant, often of twenty to thirty years' standing, shall have
some provision for himself and his family. In large establishments,
especially banks, in which great interests are at stake, it is customary
for the Chinese staff to be guaranteed by some wealthy man (or firm),
who deposits securities for a considerable amount, thus placing the
employer in a very favourable position. The properly chosen Chinese
servant who enters the household of a foreigner, is a being to whom, as
suggested above, his master often becomes deeply attached, and whom
he parts with, often after many years of service, to his everlasting
regret. Such a servant has many virtues. He is noiseless over his work,
which he performs efficiently. He can stay up late, and yet rise early.
He lives on the establishment, but in an out-building. He provides his
own food. He rarely wants to absent himself, and even then will always
provide a reliable _locum tenens_. He studies his master's ways, and
learns to anticipate his slightest wishes. In return for these and other
services he expects to get his wages punctually paid, and to be allowed
to charge, without any notice being taken of the same, a commission on
all purchases. This is the Chinese system, and even a servant absolutely
honest in any other way cannot emancipate himself from its grip. But if
treated fairly, he will not abuse his chance. One curious feature of
the system is that if one master is in a relatively higher position than
another, the former will be charged by his servants slightly more than
the latter by his servants for precisely the same article. Many attempts
have been made by foreigners to break through this "old custom,"
especially by offering higher wages; but signal failure has always been
the result, and those maste