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The horse and carriage thief

By John Morris Trimmer (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-06-13 09:34

A TRUE STORY AS REMEMBERED BY JOHN MORRIS TRIMMER(with maybe a few embellishments)

This story took place in Nanjing, China many, many years ago. I was born to American parents in Nanjing and this was one of my adventures. I lived at the foot of the Nanjing Drum Tower.

The Drum Tower towered over the city from it's seat on a small hill. On the upper stories hung the old drum and bell that was used in ancient times to warn the people of impending attack.

John Morris Trimmer [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Drum tower was completely surrounded by a circular road and on the hillside were beautiful Chinese gardens. On four sides of the Drum Tower, from four directions, four main roads met the circular road. At one intersection there was a larger than normal space where there was space for two horse carriages to park awaiting hire. This was a favorite spot to wait since it was one block from the Japanese Embassy, and down another street one block was the Drum Tower Hospital.

One of my favorite past times was to go and chat with the horse carriage drivers, or Ma Fu, which loosely translated is horseman. Since I was born and raised in China my Chinese was almost on a par with my Chinese playmates. I would go out and listen to the stories told by the Ma Fus as they chatted with their friends. Over time I had formed an unique friendship with one of the Ma Fu named Old Wu. He would let me accompany him on some of his trips , when he planned to return to the Drum Tower. If the return trips had no passengers, he might even let me hold the reins and act as the Ma Fu.

Often after school, my father would assign me some task to do. One of these, which I found to be irksome, was to retrieve my sister from nursery school , three blocks from home. She attended a Chinese nursery school and was the only blond there. Chinese schools ran longer hours per day than the American ones.

Since I got out in plenty of time my father could not understand why I objected in picking her up. The fact it interrupted my whole afternoon did not affect his orders.

In order to make this job less of a burden I would try to talk 0ld Wu into allowing me to drive horse carriage to pick her up. If Old Wu was not expect a fare, and --- he was in a good mood he just might let me do so.

At times Old Wu would not be at the carriage, but sitting under a tree chatting with the other Ma Fu or he might have walked to the tea house around the circle.

If that were the case, I would first go to the group and then to the tea house to get him.

On this particular day I was in a hurry. I was late picking my sister up.

Teachers do not appreciate having the kids picked up late, be they Chinese or foreign, but the fury of the teachers was nothing to compare to the wrath of my father if he ever found out I was late.

As I dashed out the front gate I saw a carriage sitting in the spot usually occupied by Old Wu's carriage. Being in a hurry, I did not notice that the horse was not quite the same color as Old Wu's. I glanced at the gathering place and saw no one there. I decided they must be at the tea house, so without another thought I jumped in the driver's seat, grabbed up the reins and yelled to the horse to get a move on. The horse did just that.

Unfortunately for me, it was not Old Wu's horse and carriage, nor was it Old Wu asleep in the back seat, but some one I had never seen before; someone who had never heard of me.

The unknown carriage Ma Fu had been rudely awaken to find his horse carriage being driven by a young foreign devil. He reacted by standing up, grabbing the whip from the wipe socked socket and hitting me over the back with his whip.

Naturally that was a sudden shock to me, and I proceeded to bail out of the driver's seat, right over the back of the horse, releasing the reigns as I did so.

As I picked myself up I looked down the road and there went the horse and carriage and standing up in the, back holding on for dear life, was the startled driver.

Needless to say, I lived in daily fear that somehow my father would hear of this and punish me.

Although the incident was referred to a time or two by our servants, they never informed on me. This was really not to surprising since Chinese servants spoiled the foreign children.

I never again jumped into a horse carriage without looking to see if it was the right one.

The author was born Sept 12, 1925 in Nanjing, China at the University Hospital (AKA Gulou Hospital.) Lived in China until 15years of age. Left in 1941 prior to start of WWII. His father was a doctor at the University Hospital who remained in Nanjing during the Japanese invasion and ended up in a Japanese prison camp in Shanghai. Retired from the University of Florida in 1993. John first returned to China in 1980 with a group of fellow Shanghai American School Alumni. In 1982,1989, 1994-5 Masde lecture trips. He will fly to Beijing on June 18, 2011.

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