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Topic: The Chinaman's Chance (Read 872 times) |
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RichardN
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The Chinaman's Chance
« on: Dec 23rd, 2007, 2:56pm » |
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I have always been interested in the derivation of words/phrases. Many of you GHOFs (Grayhaired-old-farts) know this phrase from the Bogey era movies, . . . "he doesn't have a chinaman's chance".
In 1981, I was fortunate to meet and be able to spend quite a lot of time with a wonderful & kindly man . . . Boris Rings, who was 81 at the time. Boris fought (on the white side) during the Russian revolutionary war, and (when the Reds won) walked out of Russia . . . then was an aircraft mechanic for the U.S. Army Air Corp in World War I . . . immigrated to this country and worked in the (military) aircraft industry til his retirement in the 70's. He and his wife (also Russian immigrant) were married 50 yrs, but unfortunately never had children, and both lost all their relatives in the revolution. His wife had passed a year before I met him. Boris is long gone . . . and this is my way of continuing his memory. I will try and tell this story as it was told to me.
The Chinaman's Chance
First, . . . you have to understand that Russians REALLY like good tea (and of course vodka). Now everyone knows that the best teas come from China. In olden days, there were only two ways to get teas from China to the northeast regions of Russia. One, by the overland route . . . which was long, arduous, and expensive. The other by sea routes going via the Yellow Sea and Sea of Japan.
Now . . . because the Russians REALLY liked their tea, they preferred the overland route product as the sea transported teas were frequently tainted with salt water.
One of the problems with the overland route is they had to go through Siberia . . . and in southern Siberia they had to contend with the Siberian tiger. Now the interesting thing about the Siberian tiger is . . . they will always circle and attack from the rear. Now of course the caravans had professional guards/hunters to protect their men/animals/cargo, but before leaving on the journey they would hire (at VERY good wages . . . half in advance . . . balance at the end of the trip) several (needed more than one) chinamen, who's job is was . . . to be the LAST guy in the tea caravan . . . .. and THAT was "The Chinaman's Chance"
And you thought YOUR job sucked 
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I can live with the beast as long as I don't have to "dance" with the bastard.
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phil_h
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one day at a time , one headache at a time.....
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Re: The Chinaman's Chance
« Reply #1 on: Dec 27th, 2007, 7:28am » |
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Angels are among us ........beasts beware !!!!!!
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