Read Ebook: The Chinese Dragon by Hayes L Newton Fong Foo Sec Author Of Introduction Etc

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Ebook has 147 lines and 14819 words, and 3 pages

It was a hard and bitter lesson which Calico learned, this matter of keeping one's tugs tight. Uncle Enoch had spared the whip, but in the heart of Broncho Bill, who drove the band-wagon, there was no leniency. Ready and strong was his whip hand, and he knew how to make the blood follow the lash. No effort did he waste on fat-padded flanks when he was in earnest. He cut at the ears, where the skin is tender. He could touch up the leaders as easily as he could the wheel-horses, and when he aimed at the swings he never missed fire.

Travelling with a round top Calico found to be no sinecure. The Grand Occidental, being a wagon show, moved wholly by road. The shortest jump was fifteen miles, but often they did thirty between midnight and morning; and thirty miles over country highways make no short jaunt when you have a five-ton chariot behind you. The jump, however, was only the beginning of the day's work. No sooner had you finished breakfast than you were hooked in for the street parade, meaning from two to four miles more.

You had a few hours for rest after that before the grand entry. Ah, that grand entry! That was something to live for. No matter how bad the roads or how hard the hills had been Calico forgot it all during those ten delightful minutes when, with his heart beating time to the rat-tat-tat of the snare drum, he swung prancingly around the yellow arena.

It all began in the dressing-tent with a period of confusion in which horses were crowded together as thick as they could stand, while the riders dressed and mounted in frantic haste, for to be late meant to be fined. At last the ring-master clapped his hands as sign that all was in readiness. There was a momentary hush. Then a bugle sounded, the flaps were thrown back and to the crashing accompaniment of the band, the seemingly chaotic mass unfolded into a double line as the horses broke into a sharp gallop around the freshly dug ring.

The first time Calico did the grand entry he felt as though he had been sucked into a whirlpool and was being carried around by some irresistible force. So dazed was he by the music, by the hum of human voices and by the unfamiliar sights, that he forgot to rear and kick. He could only prance and snort. He went forward because the rider of the outside horse dragged him along by the bridle rein. Around and around he circled until he lost all sense of direction, and when he was finally shunted out through the dressing-tent flaps he was so dizzy he could scarcely stand.

For a horse accustomed to shy at his own shadow this was heroic treatment. But it was successful. In a month you could not have startled Calico with a pound of dynamite. He would placidly munch his oats within three feet of the spot where a stake-gang swung the heavy sledges in staccato time. He cared no more for flapping canvas than for the wagging of a mule's ears. As for noises, when one has associated with a steam calliope one ceases to mind anything in that line. Old Ajax, it was true, remained a terror to Calico for weeks, but in the end the horse lost much of his dread for the ancient pachyderm, although he never felt wholly comfortable while those wicked little eyes were turned in his direction. Hereditary instincts, you know, die hard.

During those four months in which the Grand Occidental flitted over the New England circuit from Kenduskeag, Me., to Bennington, Vt., there came upon Calico knowledge of many things. The farm-horse to whom Bangor's market-square had been full of strange sights became, in comparison with his former self, most sophisticated. He feared no noise save that sinister whistle made by Broncho Bill's long lash. The roaring sputter of gasoline flares was no more to him than the sound of a running brook. He had learned that it was safe to kick a mere canvasman when you felt like doing so, but that a real artist, such as a tumbler or a trapeze man, was to be respected, and that the person of the ring-master was most sacred. Also he acquired the knack of sleeping at odd times, whenever opportunity offered and under any conditions.

When he had grown thus wise, and when he had ceased to stumble over guy-ropes and tent-stakes, Calico received promotion. He was put in as outside horse of the leading pair in the grand entry. He was decorated with a white-braided cord bridle with silk rosettes and he wore between his ears a feather pompon. All this was very fine and grand, but there was so little of it.

After it was all over, when the crowds had gone, the top lowered and the stakes pulled, he was hitched to the leaden-wheeled band-wagon to strain and tug at the traces all through the last weary half of the night. But when fame has started your way, be you horse or man, you cannot escape. Just before the season closed Calico was put on the sawdust. This was the way of it.

A ninety-foot top, you know, carries neither extra people nor spare horses. The performers must double up their acts. No one is exempt save the autocratic high-bar folk, who own their own apparatus and dictate contracts. So with the horses. The teams that pull the pole-wagon, the chariots and the other wheeled things which a circus needs, must also figure in the grand entry and in the hippodrome races. Even the ring-horses have their share of road-work in a wagon show.

To the dappled grays used by Mlle. Zaretti, who was a top-liner on the bills, fell the lot of pulling the ticket-wagon, this being the lightest work. It was Mlle. Zaretti's habit to ride one at the afternoon show, the other in the evening. So when the nigh gray developed a shoulder gall on the day that the off one went lame there arose an emergency. Also there ensued trouble for the driver of the ticket-wagon. First he was tongue lashed by Mademoiselle, then he was fined a week's pay and threatened with discharge by the manager. But when the increasing wrath of the Champion Lady Equestrienne of America led her to demand his instant and painful annihilation the worm turned. The driver profanely declared that he knew his business. He had travelled with Yank Robinson, he had, and no female hair-grabber under canvas should call him down more than once in the same day. There was more of this, added merely for emphasis. Mlle. Zaretti saw the point. She had gone too far. Whereupon she discreetly turned on her high French heels and meekly asked the boss hostler for the most promising animal he had. The boss picked out Calico.

No sooner was the top up that day than Calico's training began. Well it was that he had learned obedience, for this was to be his one great opportunity. Many a time had Calico circled around the banked ring's outer circumference, but never had he been within it. Neither had he worn before a broad pad.ing the leaves above. Arsenic, which is to mortal man a deadly poison, is food to the dragon. In fact, it is a favorite article of diet, and dragons grow fat upon it. The delicacy, however, for which the dragon has the greatest fondness, is swallows' flesh. Woe to the man who ever tries to cross a body of water in a boat after having eaten a dish of roasted swallows, for a peculiar fragrance, which dragons are always able to detect, will cling to his person. The man in the boat will be pursued by one of these animals, who will cause a storm to rise, the boat will be upset, and the unfortunate person precipitated into the water, where he will fall easy prey to the ruler of the sea. Under ordinary conditions the dragon shows no fondness for human flesh, but with such provocation we are told that he should be considered entirely excusable.

At the autumnal equinox, according to one source, the majority of dragons descend into the sea where they hibernate for six months. In fact, the home of dragons is on the floor of the ocean where they dwell in beautiful palaces. At the vernal equinox dragons leave the sea and ascend again into the clouds. Destructive typhoons and equinoctial hurricanes along the coast, in the spring and autumn, are caused by the disturbance of the waters when the great animals thus enter or leave their maritime home.

HOW DRAGONS CONTROL THE FORTUNES OF MEN

The surface of the earth is believed to be covered with a network of invisible paths of the dragon known as Lung Mei. People who build their houses or find graves for their dead upon one of these courses are extremely fortunate. The ruling emperors, however, made efforts to prevent their subjects from occupying the positions upon such auspicious sites. When Chao Ming, the founder of the Sung dynasty, while still an unknown young man in reduced financial straits, was forced to move his father's bones, he carried them in a reed bag and buried them by accident upon one of these dragon paths. As a result of this fact, we are told, heaven smiled upon him and he himself not long afterward became an emperor.

Within the past few years, a young Chinese, who had been studying in Japan, committed suicide for political reasons while on his way across the ocean. Because he was so well beloved he was buried by his friends in a beautiful mountain valley on a dragon path. The Board of Rites in Peking, on hearing of this, ordered the grave removed, sending telegram after telegram to the local magistrates to have the coffin disinterred at once and taken to another spot. Since the Revolution, it is said that the student's body has been taken back to its first resting place.

When Chinese observe the natural phenomenon which in the West is commonly described as "the sun drawing up water," they say that what is seen is the dragon sucking up water to form the clouds.

When rain falls upon one man's field and not upon his neighbor's, or upon one half of a man's farm and not upon the other, one explanation which is advanced for this fact is that the line which marks the division of dry and wet land is directly beneath the boundary line of the territory governed by two different dragons. One sees fit to order rain when the other does not. The territories controlled by the different dragons are redistributed once each year, on the seventeenth of the third month, which is known as "Li Hsia," "The Festival of the Beginning of Summer."

In the heart of Wuchang there is a steep hill which cuts the business part of the city into two sections. This hill is so steep that it is practically impossible to carry the traffic over it. Some Chinese claim the hill to be the dwelling place of a tortoise, others of a serpent, and still others of a dragon. Some years ago, when Chang Chih Tung was living in that city as viceroy of Hunan and Hupeh, he caused a tunnel to be cut through the hill so that communication from one business center to the other would be facilitated. Not long after this was completed, the viceroy began to suffer from a carbuncle on his neck. Chinese and foreign physicians alike failed in their attempts to cure him. At last a geomancer was consulted. "I know the reason for your Excellency's illness," he said without hesitation. "You have caused the dragon's haunt to be penetrated. Block up the tunnel in the hill and you will get well." The thing was done, the viceroy soon recovered, and faith in the dragon on the part of the people of Wuchang was more firmly established than ever. It might be added that since the Revolution the tunnel through the hill has again been opened.

Many years ago large numbers of the students of Hangchow City failed to pass the Chu Jen, or Master of Arts, Examination. The fact sorely puzzled the city magistrates, who lost much "face." No explanation could be found for this fact until a geomancer explained that a dragon living in the mountain range northwest of the city had no room to wag his head, and that a large section of one end of the range must be dug away before Hangchow students would be able to succeed. The geomancer's suggestion was carried out, the dragon was given the chance he desired, and it is needless to say that since that time all has been well.

THE HOLD OF THE DRAGON ON CHINA

Deaf people are called "lung," a character formed by the combination of the dragon and ear characters signifying a person with ears like a dragon .

The asparagus plant is known as "dragon's beard grass."

The gentian flower is called the "dragon's gall."

A common variety of pine is known as "dragon's tail pine," from the supposed similarity of its branches to the tail of the dragon.

Amaryllis lilies and also the blossoms of a certain locust tree are called "dragon's claw flowers." This is no doubt on account of the shape of the flower clusters.

Fire engines are called "water dragons."

Locomotives and water faucets are commonly designated as "dragon heads."

The keel of a ship goes by the name of the "dragon bone."

Water spouts are known as "dangling dragons." The name was probably given them by junkmen and fishermen who considered these to be the tails of dragons suspended from the clouds.

Spirited horses are said to have "dragon dispositions."

Betrothal certificates are known as "dragon-phoenix papers."

Wedding cakes are called "dragon-phoenix cakes."

The published list of Master of Arts graduates was known as the "Dragon-Tiger Register."

A large number of cities, prefectures, rivers, and mountains have the character "dragon" incorporated into their names. One of the largest rivers of Manchuria and one of its three provinces are named Hei Lung Kiang , because it is related that a large black dragon once made its appearance in its waters.

One of the most famous mountains of the province of Kiangsi is known as the "Dragon-Tiger Mountain."

Perhaps the most popular kind of tea in China is the "Dragon's Well Tea." This received its designation from the fact that its original home was in a valley of that name. Among the hills on the farther shores of Hangchow's beautiful West Lake is nestled a monastery, on the estate of which is a pool of crystal-clear water. From the depths of this "well" a dragon was once seen to rise. The "Dragon's Well" is now the name of the monastery and also of the surrounding hills. Tea of this name, though it may never have grown near Hangchow, is as highly prized in distant Szechwan and in other distant parts of China as it is in the capital of Chekiang province.

In the excellent new encyclopedia recently issued by the Commercial Press, there are no less than 257 references to the dragon. Fifty-one of these are the names of cities or villages, twenty-four of mountains and rivers, and fifteen the names of flora of various genera.

The emperor's most reverential title was "The True Dragon," and in harmony with that idea the word "dragon" in the adjectival sense was used in names of all that had to do with his life and position. As an example of this his throne was the "dragon's seat," his hands the "dragon's claws," the pen he used was the "dragon's brush," the imperial robes were called "dragon's garments," and the imperial glance was known as "dragon's eyes."

The "Dragon Tablet" was the name given to the imperial tablet, which was worshiped during the Ching dynasty in every large temple and monastery in the land, and even in Mohammedan mosques. The inscription on the tablet read as follows: "To the reigning Emperor. May he live ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand times ten thousand years." The tablet received its name from the fact that it represented the Emperor, "The True Dragon," and because it bore at its top a dragon's head.

One insignia of official rank, until the recent Revolution, was the picture-square embroidered in gold and silver thread and worn on the front and back of official robes. The squares worn by civil officers bore the pictures of birds, while those of military officials were decorated with the pictures of animals; each rank and grade having its corresponding variety of bird or beast. The emperor, the princes, and the prime minister were allowed the special privilege of wearing the dragon on one of these embroidered squares.

The round disk on the Chinese Dragon Flag, which is often pictured before the mouth of the dragon, is explained by some as a pearl, by others as a huge spider metamorphosed into a ball. We are repeatedly told in fables that dragons have a peculiar fondness for teasing spiders. A more satisfactory theory, however, is that the disk represents the sun. According to this explanation, the dragon is not trying to devour that heavenly body, as some would lead us to suppose, but is gazing with a great longing, for it desires to become like the sun in brilliance.

In referring to the Dragon Flag, the fact is worthy of notice that although this design appeared upon Chinese military banners through many centuries, the selection of the dragon emblem as a national insignia was of comparatively recent date. It is probable that the custom of foreign nations of using national emblems had a large part to play with the adoption of a national flag.

There is a feeling among many friends of China, and even among a few Chinese as well, that the effect of the Revolution and the passing of the Dragon Flag will very shortly kill out the dragon idea. This the writer believes is impossible. A belief that has gripped the nation for over forty centuries is not to be shaken even by a great revolution, which, though cataclysmic in itself, yet in relation to the ages which have passed, is little more than a ripple upon the surface of the sea of time. The dragon is neither a symbol of the Manchu dynasty nor a type of absolute monarchy, and has nothing in common with either. The idea is distinctly a heritage of the Chinese race itself, and as such it will probably live as long as this people. It will survive at least until a generation after Western science has permeated and dominated every seaside village, every mountain hamlet, and every inland city, to the remotest bounds and limits of this vast Republic.

Should you ever chance to see, swinging up lower Broadway, a hook-and-ladder truck drawn by three big grays jumping in perfect unison, note especially the nigh horse--that's the one on the left side looking forward. It will be Old Silver who, although now rising sixteen, seems to be good for at least another four years of active service.

BLUE BLAZES

AND THE MARRING OF HIM

Those who should know say that a colt may have no worse luck than to be foaled on a wet Friday. On a most amazingly wet Friday--rain above, slush below, and a March snorter roaring between--such was the natal day of Blue Blazes.

And an unhandsome colt he was. His broomstick legs seemed twice the proper length, and so thin you would hardly have believed they could ever carry him. His head, which somehow suggested the lines of a boot-jack, was set awkwardly on an ewed neck.

For this pitiful, ungainly little figure only two in all the world had any feeling other than contempt. One of these, of course, was old Kate, the sorrel mare who mothered him. She gazed at him with sad old eyes blinded by that maternal love common to all species, sighed with huge content as he nuzzled for his breakfast, and believed him to be the finest colt that ever saw a stable. The other was Lafe, the chore boy, who, when Farmer Perkins had stirred the little fellow roughly with his boot-toe as he expressed his deep dissatisfaction, made reparation by gently stroking the baby colt and bringing an old horse-blanket to wrap him in. Old Kate understood. Lafe read gratitude in the big, sorrowful mother eyes.

Months later, when the colt had learned to balance himself on the spindly legs, the old sorrel led him proudly about the pasture, showing him tufts of sweet new spring grass, and taking him to the brook, where were tender and juicy cowslips, finely suited to milk-teeth.

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