OUR OLD CHINA TRADE

...There was no problem in my mind as to the method by which it came into the capable hands of Aunt Isabel...

...The chest was covered with heavy, handmade p»per in black and gold, the graceful inscription on the top suggested a lightly strewn handful of curled tea leaves...

...but is she inward or outward bound...

...I wish I might bring to your vision the quality of Jhe rice paper, then used for painting upon...

...An Old Scrap Book WHILE my hostess busied herself in ceremonious preparation for the rite, I opened her scrap book devoted to her interests in Chinese art...

...She seemed to possess the purest sense of justice that I have ever known in any soul...

...In the heroic hands of the child of the Fanqui the beautifully colored toys were ahort-lived...

...There is more in this matter than the mere boycott under notice...

...All our veteran tea-drinkers were invited to sample it, and many dropped in again, informally...

...We did not see Aunt Isabel and Uncle 'Kiah very often, Choice of the profitable freights regulated their voyaging, but she always wrote wonderful letters to grandmother on that green-colored, British foreign note paper invented to lessen long-distance postage...

...Ivory Carving Collection OBSERVE, there is no 'wrong side,' the embroidery is just as 'finished' by the 'tapering brown hand' on each and it will wash like a silk handkerchief...

...Moreover, this is the first time a boycott has been seriously tackled by the Government...

...He declared the great opportunities should be followed up immediately and concluded by saying, 'And I am almost afraid to tell the members the rate of wages.' It struck me as an anti-climax that men of wealth found cause for intense congratulation in the fact that conditions were such that human energy and skilled hands were plentiful at a few cents per day...

...Our idealists of that time were still in the warm glow of the Declaration of Independence and believed ' a mon's a mon for a' that.' She declared integrity of dealing met with integrity in business with compra-dore and mandarin, was charmed with the type of beauty of many of the high-caste women, and formed genuine friendships in the ports where they cast anchor...

...In the twelfth year of our struggle for liberty there comes not a Lafayette, but an American admiral with more ships than any nation in our Waters, to join those who wish to crush us so that the Republic of China will perish...

...I knew you would admire it...

...About the time we entered into 'the War to end War,' also for 'self-determination of small nations,' I read an account of a banquet given by the Boston Chamber of Commerce to a returned traveler, who had investigated China with regard to business investments...

...The Chinese proverb says, 'One picture is worth ten thousand words.' " She drew forth a black and gold lacquered case about 24 inches square by 3 inches deep, turned the tiny hand-made key and raised the cover, displaying the crumpled, cream-'white loveliness of a heavily embroidered, semi-circular mantle of Canton crepe...

...She took the water like the swan that she is, the whole country-side attending tbe launching.' "It is many years since this beautiful tea caddy came over, bat the wonderful lacquer decoration shows little wear though it was used by the family to some extent...

...One told of an adventure in Hong-Kong...

...You will see," said my hostess, "it was my youthful education In this Oriental art that tnakes me protest the present mechanistic Influence of Western factory exploitation that markets hybrid creations lacking the personal touch that alone gives vitality, that alone satisfies the perceptions of the heart with joyous inflow of inherent beauty, joy that the tongue can-pot measure in words.*' The thing, fragrant slices «f lemon, the- sat-suznas and kumquats, the steaming tea was ready...

...it was about twenty inches in length, showing Chinese detail even to interior furnishings and the pleasure-seekers aboard...

...Sun Issues Appeal to U. S. for Republic:" . . , "America was our example when we started the revolution to abolish autocracy and corruption in high places and establish the Republic of China...

...Aunt Isabel had a fine collection of ivory carvings;, I can picture now the delight of my childhood, a pleasure junk, called a 'flower boat,' made entirely of ivory...

...Through study of statecraft and economics in after years I came to regard them as typical of the race that produced them...

...A severe penalty was inflicted on the one who sold it to the Fanqui...

...A toast...

...The Company . . , a British concern, notified that in future only British currency wffuld be accepted . . This the Chinese took as an affront to their coinage . „ . For weeks past there have been no Chinese on the cars, which are customarily crowded with Orientals...

...OUR OLD CHINA TRADE By Winifred B. Cossette 'WHAT 'a thing of beauty...

...We might well have expected an American Lafayette to fight on our side hi this good cause...

...she challenged me as the cups Were raised...

...on the pedestal surmounted by the carved 'ball within ball' design rose the tall red and white contestants...

...Our Aunt Isabel had 'loads of initiative;' young, willowy, fleet of foot, she caught the rascal, cuffed him soundly, to the admiration of all bystanders and returned to her shopping...

...When put in the case do not fold, thus causing wear on the fold, but spread like a s^mall volcano, no wrinkles are caused by the crumpled condition, such is the soft, resilient texture...

...As a <hild I was dazzled by her so-called 'audacity* and worshipped her in secret, while others took her gifts and qualified their prai3e of her...

...So this corner is a sort of Oriental shrine to her bright, indomitable spirit...

...in the center a family party is in progress, an attendant bringing in the tea...

...Three deep rows of embroidery following the curve of the garment left equal bands of plain surface between each, and on the other side heavy-knotted fringe depended from the rows of embroidery, the fringe on the bottom being eighteen inches deep and heavily knotted...

...The spicy tang peculiar to Chinese tea is very grateful to many...

...1 trust the workmanship that caulked her seams, placed her knees and sprung her stout canvas...

...Just before Grandmother passed away, Aunt Isabel wrote: " 'Outward bound...

...They were seemingly of a fine clay and broke easily, only adapted for the gentle child of the Fokee...

...Once more on the deck 1 stand Of my own swift-gliding craft.* She i3 almost a miracle of beauty...

...Long ere our stores 'handled' it, we girls wore dresses of Chinese wash silk—silk in warp as well as in woof—peeped over painted feather, and exquisitely carved, fragrant golden sandalwood fans at our parties and carried our visiting cards in fragrant carved sandalwood cases...

...and the first item is from a London paper, May, 1913, which quotes a China correspondent to the Indian and Eastern Engineer, February, 1913: "Hongkong has a thorny problem with which to grapple...

...Hongkong, December 20, 192S...

...It is a trial of strength between the 'emancipated' Chinese with their growing swelled-headedness, and British authority...

...The caddy was first made the repository f>>r a very choice tea, which we understood was for the delectation of high-caste beings only...

...To a realisation of the Truth— *of one blood hath Re made ail the nations of fee earth...

...This unspeakable travesty on womanly delicacy was locked in grandmother's breast for over two years and was only disclosed when Aunt Isabel made us tier next visit and in relating the horror of the wreck and their extremity, she naively said it was the first time she gained 'Kiath's cheerful approval of her 'wearing the breeches.' "She spent years in China and hotly criticized British exploitation, the shameful Opium War, the overbearing treatment of all minor officials and brutality to servants...

...I mistrust my flair is much like hers...

...Chinese Wash Silk "THEY were mostly dolls, a large number being of the rotund, base-ballasted type that excited the Anglo-Saxon ive of our baby brother, because they would not stay knocked down...

...The issue Is awaited with deep concern by all foreigners here," AS I recalled It this was in the second year of the young Republic that their great statesman, Sun Yat Sen, was trying to safeguard...

...The Government has passed an Ordinance giving them power to declare certain districts . . . subject to special taxes as long as the boycott continues...

...Around the top of the lid runs a delicate tracery in the two shades of gold, a wreath about an inch wide, of flowers, scrolls and butterflies...

...My first lesson in chess was given by Aunt Isabel with her ivory set...

...The proceeds of these taxes , . , will go to reimburse the company for loss...

...Beautiful Tea Caddy JT WAS in black and two shades of gold, one bright yellow, the other greenish, about ten inches in length, eight in breadth and six in height, perched on tiny gilded dragon feet, octagonal in shape, the four corners cut into panels about two inches wide on which is the usual pagoda with retrousse roof, a tall tree overshadowing at the right and in the foreground1 a Celestial looking fixed in the direction opposite the way his feet indicate his course to be...

...Such of the beautiful specimens of pure Chinese artistry and foursquare workmanship she reveled in as have survived the 'clearing-out' necessitated by the compression of modern homes — our attics being remodeled as apartments—are here, but few, indeed, compared with the choice ones that have vanished...

...The tea was pale gold in color, resembling the 'cambric' of our infancy, but the flavor was intoxicating...

...We children used to call her 'Aunt Isabel,' but 1 can give no details, all records are rrissing, our great Aunt Isabel gave it to grandmother's care on her last home trip along with rich and strange gifts from the Far East, not forgetting toys for the youngest...

...She wrote: 'You may be sure my delighted boys carried Melican lady's chair high during the rest of my stay in port, and I acquired a reputation that lost nothing in the repeating in our shipping circles.'" Wearing the Breeches GRANDMOTHER was always in a state of trepidation as to what new episode 'Isabel' would develop that she would be called upon to explain away to the tribe and the neighborhood...

...Mest of the decoration is heavily raised, and I recall a lecture at Harvard when a Japanese professor described some of the technique of the lacquer process, the "raised" work that was such a mystery to me, as the result of "oxydization" of the continuously applied material, and he stated with impressive countenance that the brush used in the finest tracery must be made from the hair of a sailor, as it is found to be free from the dust and grit that haloes the land* lubber...

...Whether this ship figured in that adventure, I cannot say, but behind grandmother's back we children referred to all their vessels as 'Aunt Isabel's command.' "Once they met with a most disastrous shipwreck in a typhoon that devastated the coast and for several days she had to wear trousers belonging to Uncle TCiah...

...The Master Mariner, often owning a goodly share in the vessel commanded, could be generous with the better-half in their part allowance in that golden era, so it happened to be a fat purse that was snatched under her eyes from the counter, where she was shopping...

...the sheets were about 7x11 inches, soft to the eyes as new-fallen snow and of such beautiful coloring, illustrating Chinese art in flowers, birds and butterflies...

...In my childish mind's eye, I saw gorgeous-robed mandarins delivering the sacred chest in 'her ship's' cabin...

...She wrote she had 'learned navigation,' a queer thing for a 'captain's lady,' but when Undo 'Kiah and the first mate were laid by the heels with a tropic fever she restored them by a therapeutic 'dead reckoning' of her own in collaboration with the ship's medicine chest, brought the craft safely into the pilot's hands with her own health unimpaired...

...It tastes better to me made in this porcelain teapot, a:|d we have left two cups with silk-like interiors of porcelain to complete atmosphere for the fire o'clock tea rite...

...the 'house' was made of thin paper-like plates of ivory carved into an all-over lace pattern...

...I turned the leaves and found a clipping from a New England Daily, headed "Dr...

...Noting my appreciation of the things that she delighted in, she told me of the tapering hand, the colorful eye of the Oriental that unmolested for centuries had developed an art, which is a perfect law to itself, one could not say there is a false line or color...

...a strongly organized and widespread boycott has been in operation among the Chinese against . . . the Tramways Co...