to enter a second complaint, well bolstered by silver and influence. Another proverb goes in this wise : " If chaff is squeezed with sufficient force, it will yield oil." This time four or five constables are dispatched to the house of the defendant. The terrified family keeps out of the way, and the constables smash dishes and furniture. The responsi ble negotiator arrives with the intention of hauling to prison certain members of the household : these are always absent. The family plucks up enough courage to return and offer bribes and a breakfast. Then more furniture is broken, by way of pastime, and the family gather together a large number of cash. The constabulary is urged to smoke opium; a fowl (dear to the Chinese palate) is cooked; pork and wine are brought. If the Law is received in the first place with open arms, it may condescend to report : "No cause for action." Supposing that the accused is dragged summarily to prison, his only food is what his relatives supply; and he may go untried for years. No wonder that it is profitable to pay a yamun-runner rather than be arrested. If no counter-charge is entered, the constables continue their raids until the family is ruined. A counter-statement is entered in the same manner as a complaint, with like ex penses. After draining the plaintiff dry, the constables pocket the warrant and report favorably of their " client " to the magistrate. The complainant sends up another complaint — and so on, till one party or the other gives in. It is not strange that every Chinaman wants to belong to a protective guild. The party that realizes coming defeat engages a mediator — usually a petty official — to with draw the case from court, treating the said official to supper, and under his advice offer ing the yamun officials a certain number of meals in return for their kindness. Each meal must cost ten dollars, and even the poor
man must pay, as a matter of the commonest decency, several tens, and the rich man several hundreds of dollars, for the privilege of withdrawing from court. Of course the mediator must be compensated, not only with money, but also with a pair of shoes in place of the pair which he has worn out in running on the client's business. When private settlement cannot be arranged, each litigant gets his opponent brought before the magis trate. The constables must again be fed for haling the prisoner. Accuser and ac cused go into court accompanied by influen tial friends. Each suitor personally presents his side of the case. Witnesses are sum moned and tortured, and at the end of the examination the judge throws down a tally marked with the proper number of blows; or he may pronounce a more severe sentence. "It is better," say the experienced Chinese, "to live on garbage than to go to law." " If you consort with beggars, you may have a handful of rice given to you, but if you go among yamun people you will lose your last coin." Mrs. (or Miss) Fielde goes on to relate the story of two warring clans. It seems that near Swatow, in southeastern China, the twelve villages of the Plums repeatedly stole the harvests from the single small commu nity of the Stones. The Stones prevailed on their one Scholar, a literary graduate of the first degree, to set forth their wrongs in poetry, and this is what he handed to the new magistrate at the head of the depart ment "The :great clans Plum make one small clan, surnamed the Stones, their prey; The haughty Plums, in twelve large villages, in Surround strongthearray, lone, weak hamlet of the Stones. They spoil their fields Of ripened grain; their watch-dogs kill; their cattle Theirlead children away kidnap
and harass; their women put to shame;
