A Chinese New Year's Celebration

The Chinóse New Year's day in 1882 'ell on the seventeenth of February. i'hcy liave a week of holidays at their sTew Year, just as we do between the wenty-iïfth of December and the first of anuary. In the eities they niake a fine displayof fireworks, but none of the Chinese eople in Santa Barbara are rich, so here were no fireworks, exeept crackrs; but there were barrels and barrels uil of these, and the Chinese boys do .-I Bre off crackers on their New Year's lay as American boys do, a cracker at i time, or one package at a time: they jring out a large box full, or a barrel uil, and lire tlicm off, paokage after iackage, as fast as they can, till the air s bs full of smokeas if there were afire, nd the ground is covered wilh red. lalf-bumed ends. Long before we reached the part of the town where most of the Chinese live, we heard the noise of the crackers gwiii uu, uuu int; v-umuse uiu noi seem to mind it at all. They wero hopping about in the smoke, pouring the crackers on the ground, box after box, barrel after barrel. You could not see their faces clearly for the smoke. Groups of American boys stood as near as they dared, looking on. Now and then one would dart in and snatch up one cracker, or a string of them, which had not gone off. I thought the American boys had almost as much fun out of it as" the Chinese. Every Chinese family keeps open house on New Year's dar. They set up some prominent place, and on a table in front of this they put a little feast of good things to eat. Some are for an oflferingj to the god, and some are for their friends who cali. It was amusing to watch the American boys darting about from shop to sliop and house to house, coming out with their hands fnll of queer Chinese things to eat, showing them to each other, and comparing notes. 'Oh, let me taste that!" one boy would exclaim, on seeing some mthing; and, "Where did you get it? Which houses give that?"' ïhen the whole party would race off to make a descent on that house, and get some more. I thought it wonderfufiy hospitable on the part of the Chinese people to let all these American boys run in and out of their houses in that way, and help themselves from the New i"ear's feast. Sorne of the boys wero vciy rilde aDd ill-mannered - little better than streot beggers; but the Chinese were polite and generous to them all. In some of the stores there were men playing a game which has been played, under different names, all over the worid. It consists siniply in one man holding out his hand, with part of the fingers closed and part open, and his antagonist ealüng out, instantly, how many of his fingers are open" One would think nothing could be easier than t his. Bul when the movements are made rapidly it is next to impossible to cali out the aumber qulokly without making a mistake. For every mistake a íine of some sort, accordiñg to the agreement of the playera, is to be paid. These Chinese men played it with such vehemence that the perspiration stood on their foreheads, and their sumí erying out ol the numbers sounded liko unbroken sentences; there dld not seein a breath between them. Thej rested their elbows on the table, anti, with every opening and closing of the fingers, thrust the fore-arm forward to its ruil length, so there was violent exercise in it. A young gentleman who was pledge to take a young lady to n party remark ed to her on the afternoon pwivious to the ovent, that he was going home to take a sleep, in order to be fresh. "That's right," she replied, "but do not sleep too long." "Why?" he asked. "Because," sho answered, "I do not want you to be too frefih." "Why, John, vfhere have you beon all night?"' was the ereeting, a's he stnmbled np stairs. 'Cornet party, ray doar, zhat's all." "Cornet party? Why, it ought noL to take all night to see the oomet." "If yon zhee as many cometa ash I did, t'would take you, poor, weak woman, i wholo week. Yeshit wou! .. If the typieal young man undcr n.ames all his escapades which bis friends genurally clenoDttlnata "wild oats," his own mother vrould blush to own him- no respectable family would admit him to his doors. The Popular Science Montlily aaks: "What are orowdsP" The science of love says the thinl part}' is a largo orowd.