The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1874-06-04
Life in Canton.

/
toned, ran the Pearl river. now floating
my boat high enough for me to avoid the
treacherous g lutinous steps, anon ebbing,
and leaving me dainty draught of mol
lusca. This river is a study of human life
unparalleled IN Europe Its numerous
branches and creeks encircle and intersect
Canton; meeting, dividing, spreading like
lady crochet pattern, each Slip OF water
floating its quantum Of boats of every de-
scription from the warlike Junk bristling
with cannon. to a diminutive cockle-shell
where mere baby padded its own canoe.
Chinese children are both waterproof and
drowning proof, therefore disbelievo the
libel that so much infanticide is committed
by casting babies into the rivers, persllad-
ed rs | am that at no age would a Chinese
infant consent to drown. Thousands of
St3npalaS are plying their oars OF lying to,
the homes Of large families who pass their
whole lives on that slender plank The
water-baby opens its eyes upon the sam
pun, passes its watery youth there, is
damply married there, and not unfreQuent-
" goes from thence to waterv grave
Half 4 million of people are estimated to
live upon the water in Canton alone; and
there is in China and Chochin China what
may be termed 4 water population, who
live exclusively upon the rivers, even
though their boats never stir from the
same spot | believe it would be possible
to find a Chinese la1u{-slck, as in contrast
to our sea-sickness These people rarely
90 ashore. Their occupation is on the
water, their shops are floating. They earn
their living as conveyances for men and
material, Ike the Venetian gondolas,
which they most resemble in construction
though not in color, and are often sculled
in the same manner. They are inhabited
like 4 dwelling, frequently, by two or
three generations. The family sleep un-
der the awning and in the hold, thus form
ING a two-story house. If any member
goes on shore it is the man he may be a
cOolle, Il Water-carrer Il fish vendor. or
keep small shop, while his wife, mother,
grandmother, children, man the boat
have seen mere babies steer like any cox
| swain. There are to be seen the pretty
| sailor girls special to China They are
bright, saucy, rcbust-looking lasses; their
black, glossy hair cut short across the
forehead, and tied up in a knot or plait
| behind They wear neither shoes nor
stockings, and their pretty little feet and
ankles are among the most beautiful and
attractive objects i'll Canton They not
only roWed, and sculled, and steered in
tlrat complicated mesh Of craft but man
aged their boats upon the wider portions
OF the river with the same agility as q
man, This is one Of the specialties and
remarkable features Of Canton, and OF
term the ''upside- e-downness'' of Chinese
Va 4 tbo,
bcr-maids, laundresses, seamstresses, en-
broideresses; while the women are sailors
and boatmcn. And thus it is throughout ;
there is scarcely anything which they dc
not do the reverse of us In Salutator
the Chinese shakes his own hand insteaC
OF his visitors. In paying respect he put,
his hat on. instead Of taking it off The
very houses seem inside out. Wherevel
we begin al the top, they commence Il
the bottom. Their signboards are per
pendcular instead of horizontal Thci
ideas are also very much upon the same
reverse scale What is felony in Europe
plurality of wives-is highly proper il
Jhina. IN fact a mark of distinction; ant
concubinage no more a sin than it was il
the days OF solomon. [Temple Bar
THE WALL OF CHINA. The Wall o
China is a greater wonder than the Pyra
mids Of Egypt, and must have been
heavy drain on the wealth and labor O
the Empire when it was built Mr.. Sew
ard has some interesting comments on it
The Chinese have been for at least two 0
three thousand years q wall-making peo
pie. 1t would bankrupt New York 0
Paris to build the walls of the city G
Pekin. The great wall of China is tn
; great wall Of the world 1t is forty fee
high. The lower thirty feet is of hew
limestone or granite. Two modern cal
riages may pass each other on the sum
nit 1t has parapet throughout it
whole length. with convenient starcases
buttresses, and garrison-houses at eyer
/ quarter of mile. and it runs, not by cu
ting down hills and raising valleys, bu
> over the uneven crests of the mountains
= and down through their gorges, a dis
~ tance OF one thousand miles. Admire
L Rogers and / calculated that it woul
cost more now to build the great wall {
y China, through its extent of one thousan
n miles, than it has cost to build the fifty
# five thousand miles of railroads in til
# United States. What commentary it
e upon the human intellect to see this ore;
It utlitarian enterprise, so necessary an
e effective two thousand years ago, now NJ
t merely useless, but an incumbrance an
an obstruction.