this entertainment was given in Shanghai this horse--"Black
Bess"--fell sick. A tonic was administered in the shape of the lively
tune which the band always played as she was about to enter the arena
and play her part as the highwayman's mare. The animal made pitiable
attempts to rise, and her inability to do so apparently suggested to
the intelligent creature the dying scene she had so often played. She
lay down and relaxed, prepared to die in reality. The attendants,
ignorant of the manner in which the horse had let herself go, tried to
lift her, but in her relaxed condition her bowels split--Black Bess had
acted her part for the last time.

[1] This is a rather unorthodox view, but nonetheless interesting,
especially as it pertains to his following statements.--A. R. L., 1996.

Chapter 17. Sports

Perhaps in nothing do the Chinese differ from their Western friends in
the matter of amusements more than in regard to sports. The Chinese
would never think of assembling in thousands just to see a game played.
We are not modernized enough to care to spend half a day watching
others play. When we are tired of work we like to do our own playing.
Our national game is the shuttlecock, which we toss from one to another
over our shoulders, hitting the shuttlecock with the flat soles of the
shoes we are wearing. Sometimes we hit with one part of the foot,
sometimes with another, according to the rules of the game. This, like
kite-flying, is a great amusement among men and boys.

We have nothing corresponding to tennis and other Western ball games,
nor, indeed, any game in which the opposite sexes join. Archery was a
health-giving exercise of which modern ideas of war robbed us. The
same baneful influence has caused the old-fashioned healthful gymnastic
exercises with heavy weights to be discarded. I have seen young men on
board ocean-going steamers throwing heavy bags of sand to one another
as a pastime. This, though excellent practice, hardly equals our
ancient athletic feats with the bow or the heavy weight. Western
sports have been introduced into some mission and other schools in
China, but I much doubt if they will ever be really popular among my
people. They are too violent, and, from the oriental standpoint,
lacking in dignity. Yet, when Chinese residing abroad do take up
Western athletic sports they prove themselves the equals of all
competitors, as witness their success in the Manila Olympiad, a