A
worker in iron realized for me new designs of mine for my tent poles.
My shoes were sent out to be repaired. A barber shampooed my hair.
A servant returned with corn-beef in tins, a bottle of port, another
of cognac, and beer, blessed beer, to wash out from my throat the
dust of an army. It was the land of Canaan. I was in China.
The Korean is the perfect type of inefficiency--of utter
worthlessness. The Chinese is the perfect type of industry. For
sheer work no worker in the world can compare with him. Work is the
breath of his nostrils. It is his solution of existence. It is to
him what wandering and fighting in far lands and spiritual adventure
have been to other peoples. Liberty to him epitomizes itself in
access to the means of toil. To till the soil and labour
interminably with rude implements and utensils is all he asks of life
and of the powers that be. Work is what he desires above all things,
and he will work at anything for anybody.
During the taking of the Taku forts he carried scaling ladders at the
heads of the storming columns and planted them against the walls.
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