By the time he has arrived at this conclusion our native domestic has
by a direct process of reasoning settled in his mind another important
point, namely, that any practice of the civilities and ceremonies
which Chinese custom exacts from the servant to the master, would be
entirely out of place in reference to the degraded being whom an
accidental command of dollars has invested with the title, though
hardly with the rights, of a patron. Consequently, little acts of
gross rudeness, unperceived of course by the foreigner, characterise
the everyday intercourse of master and servant in China. The house-boy
presents himself for orders, and even waits at table, in short clothes
--an insult no Chinaman would dare to offer to one of his own
countrymen. He meets his master with his tail tied round his head, and
passes him in the street without touching his hat, that is, without
standing still at the side of the street until his master has passed.
He lolls about and scratches his head when receiving instructions,
instead of standing in a respectful attitude with his hands at his
side in a state of rest; enters a room with his shoes down at heel, or
without socks; omits to rise at the approach of his master, mistress,
or their friends, and commits numerous other petty breaches of decorum
which would ensure his instant dismissal from the house of a Chinese
gentleman. We ourselves take a pride in making our servants treat us
with the same degree of outward respect they would show towards native
masters, and we believe that by strictly adhering to this system we
succeed in gaining, to some extent, their esteem. Inasmuch, however,
as foreign susceptibilities are easily shocked on certain points
ignored by Chinamen of no matter what social standing, we have found
it necessary to introduce a special Bill, known in our domestic circle
as the Expectoration Act. Now it is a trite observation that the
Chinese make capital soldiers if they are well commanded, and what is