These men, dressed in
their best, stood with arms behind them, and smiled stupidly as I
labored with my coat off fixing their primitive machinery. Yet they did
_not_ know, and now, within a few months, not a sheet has been printed,
and the whole plant is going to rack and ruin.
This is the difference between the Chinese and the tribespeople of
Yuen-nan. Here we see the god of the missionary again, quite apart from
any religious basis. The tribesman comes and lays himself at the feet of
the missionary, and says at once, "I do not know. Tell me, and I will
follow you. I want to learn." That is why it is that the Chinese stand
open-eyed and open-mouthed when they see the Miao making strides
altogether impossible to themselves, in proportion to their standard of
civilization, and this position of things will not be altered, unless
they cease to deceive themselves. I have seen a Miao boy of nine who
never in his life had seen a Chinese character, who did not know that
school existed and, whose only tutoring depended on the week's visit of
the missionary twice a year. I have seen this youngster read off a sheet
of Chinese characters no Chinese boy of his age in the whole city would
succeed in.
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