Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-11-13

CELESTIAL CITY.-The most FUSED up" Of
travellers must rouse himsef and look about him
there when, having passed by an enormous
establishment of iercely military appearance,
devoted to the Matching of ducks eggs and
rearing of ducks 1.-THE latter arc trained TO obey
the summons of horn when sounded by a
celestial dummling), they are landed on the
shore of the earth-supported city, and find
themselves treading streets a yard and half
in width, paved, slippery, and crowded to an
excess for which neither Japanese nor SiameSe
mutitudes had prepared them. They take at
random the street of the fishmongers, and slide
through it upon a deposit of slime into the
butchers street, where punches of rats, battened
and dried like "fnuah haddies," and edible
dogs, whose tails still retain a little tuit of yell
low hair, hang up temptlngly in the stalls. To
this succeed immense silk warehouses; then
come the porcelain shops, Crammed with objects
beautiful for their hdeOusness in many in
stances, and of great price. "but," says NJ de
Beauvoir, ''all these streets have an indescrib-
able stamp upon themi they are trOdden
by a population arrayed in bright-colored
clothing, with long tails OF hOrsG.hair, and
pointed hats. Mandarius in sky.blue silken
robes are iostled by strings of blind men, who
wind their way In and out, holding by each
others gdrmensi by hideous leperg, and
wretcheS afflicted with eephantasis, who can
only crawl along the ground. Bands OF yigor-
GUS COOlles tlDOW lIG CTUWut ana push every
one ont of their way, But, alasi for one we'll
dressed Chinaman, we are saddened by the
sight of 200 infrm, naked and starving crea-
lures, dragging their limbs along, and devoured
by vermin, which hang in clusters from their
skeleton bodies, Above the heads Of this noisy
throng, scarlet sign-boards covered with golden
characters hang vertically, and swing in the
wind. These are the signs of Shops or reig-
iouS sentences. We soon began to feel giddy
among this multitude, through which we had
TO fight our way with our fists and our elbows.
The insects forsOoE the lepers and beggarS who
beset us, and accorded us a distressing prefer
ence; we were dazzled by the richness of the
shops, astonshed at the wonderful traffic of the
coolies, grieyed by the misery on all
sides which brought tears to our
eyes, and DESTROYS of forming some
really correct notion of this great city, thirty of
whose streets we had threaded without having
ever seen more than ten steps before us" In
order to get good view of the swarming and
humming city, the travellers climbed to the top
of a great wooden tower, which was one of
those most ancient institutions of the Chinese
empire, of which Mr.. Carlyle has lately given
so strange an account in his "All Round the
World, a mont de piete" 1t contained eight
stories, in which were slowed away thousands
of little parcels, all numbered and in order NJ
de Beauyoir gives detail of the institution
which we do not remember TO have seen else.
where. He says: Hundreds OF pots of var
nished earthenware are ranged along the edge
of the tower; they are filled with vitriol, DIES.
tined to be flung into the eyes of the assailants
But it seems to have escaped his knowledge
that these mont dc piete are civic wardrobes as
well, in which all the inhabitants of Canton who
have any winter clothing store it in the summer
time From this post of observation they gazed
over the vast extent of the city, and singled ont
for visit one particularly imposing pagoda,
which it took them an hours battling with the
throng in this strange city, where there are no
vehicles and all the beasts of burden are human,
to reach.-!SpectGtOr