Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-11-22
a City Without sewers, and Asiahc wO-
men,


How human beings live by the hundred thou
sands in such city as Pekin is only to be ace
counted for by their insensibihty to sights and
smells; but they don't see and they don't smell.
Eyes and noses in China are, indeed, of as great
curses as they are generally big blessings, |
should Ike to dispense with nose till get back
to America, or into Europe, if ! could then buy
it back again! Nc sewers, no closets, no drains
No way Of letting out OF a big city the filth in
It'll Streets unclaimed for centuries, save by the
hogs and vulturesl The poor are unGlad and
unwaShcd, with skins the water seems never to
have penetrated, and eyes that are SOre-but
why pain you to describe? Imagine the worst
Of everything in that way, and that worst is all
here. Nevertheless, people do live here, and
some few ma9nifcently. There are some wealthy
Chinese. There are many wealthy mandarins.
The interior OF some of their hopeless exterior
looking dwellings abound in a certain species of
Injuries, and in very few comforts, What
Pekin is, therefore, one cannot see in the streets
and as foreigner can only with great difficulty
get into Chinese home, no stranger is likely to
see more than these streets,
There are SumptuGry laws in Pekin that sfOr-
bid luxurious indulgence. No mandarin can
ever ride in a sedan chair, no matter how many
battles he has won, what their color is or fans
he carries but by special permission Of the en-
peror. Tho sedan chair is the enperor3s pge-
rogatiVe. Foreigners attached to legations use
",
"insolence" is tolerated from necessity; but
no Chinaman ventures upon anything beyond a
cart, save one two great days of life or death
the first marriage procession, and the second
a funeral. LuXuries are allowed then. The
woman, then, the only day of her life, rides in
a sort ofsedan. Hence, now | understand the
commotion made on the night of my entering
tie city in an open sedan, and lady in it.
These sumntuary laws that speak OF pervade,
am told, all Pekin life, and are here especially
kept up to keep the people as far as possible re.
moved from the luXuries Of the emperor. They
do not exist elsewhere in China, only in this
court city, where the emperor is. The man
DARN, has his special sable robe Or ermine adom-
ments in winter. As for the women, they seem
to be of no accOun. here save as mothers
Of children.
The Chnaman takes as many wives here as
he can support-the emperor has them by the
hundred-but the first wife is the real wife the
only mistress OF the establishment and the 9TH
ers are only her handmaids about the establish
mcnt, and they all obey her The Abraham
Isaac and Jacob mode of life is the life in China
yet, They have not advanced, in this respect a
step beyond the patriarchs. What Il field this
would be for Mrs. Cady Stanton and the other
bright, strongmipded ladies, who in America
are for reforming the wQrld-for woman is not
of the least account here, snYe to be pretty and
well painted with white powder and yermilion
hair long, skewered and well glued. so that a
gaze ol WING cannot disturb 1.-THE whole stand
Ing upon two little props, looking like birds
claws done up in sandals, and here called eject"
Alasl concentrations are equally foolish every
where! bet in Japan, once, the woman's hair
was her own, and was beaten i'll the bet
would not het on anything about woman in
China now, from her head to her foot.claws-
from her long nails to the color of her face.
Copper | should have called her color, but see
so many powdered and Yermilion faces that |
am not certain, now, the women face is notWhte
with red checks, or cheeks a little Redeemed.
Above the brows is often painted red, with the
eyelids, too.-James Brooks IN Ne,o York En-
press,