The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1874-09-10
A Dead City"

the most striking and interesting sights In
China is the death cities, inhabited by the
dead only. They are usually situated a few
miles from the living ones, and have no
PARALLEL that | know of anywhere. | shall
essay to convey an idea of the one outside
OF Canton, which visited in company with
friend thoroughly versed in Chinese
matters. 1t presented at first sight the APP
pearance of any other Chinese city, with
the exception Of the dead silence, dearth
OF movement and sort of atmosphere
which felt vapid and stagnant There were
the same narrow streets, paved with the
cobble-stones, and the same quaint little
houses with the elaborate screen in the
doorway instead of door, the latticed
NenItlan window frames, whence the
Chinese woman satisfies her curiosity as to
what Is going on in the outer world But
here no eyes peeped through, no figures
| gllded in and out from behind the screen,
no patterlng feet of bearer coolies smooth
ed the cobbe-stones, no cry of vender of
fruit and fish broke the dull monotony. The
streets intersected each other and ran in
crooked zigzag, as most Chinese streets do.
Here and there were patches of garden
| ground, planted with cadaverous, sapless
flowers, looking as though they had been
struck with paralysis. \ few dwarfed
shrubs looked languidly up, seeming as
though they could not put forth more than
one leaf in a century. There was no hum
Of insects or flies, not even the ubiquitous
musquito. Not so much as a rat ran across
the silent streets, which we traversed for
some time, experiencing with terrible
acutencss the irhhsome jar Of our own foot
falls. My companion suggested that we
should enter one of the houses we there
fore stepped behind the screen and found
ourselves in an ordinary Chinese parlor or
receiving room, furnished with the usual
block ebony chairs and teapoys, with the
quaint, gaudy pictures, lacking perspective,
which we might fancy are hung in sheer
peryersity perpendicuarly instead of hori-
zontally, commencing at the ceiling and
extending to the floor in Il narrow strip
the figures appearing on various stages, as
if upon ladder.
At one end of the room was the altar,
which adorns the principal apartment of
every Chinese house, sustaining some
Notwithstanding foss, which represents
either saint or dcmi-god. On either side
We're brass urns containing smouldering
incense, and in front cups of tea and
samshoo. | 90 not know if the tea was
hot [ did not taste it, for if it is i'll to step
III dead mems shoes it must be worse to
drink dead mems tea. In the centre of
the room was bulky article which looked
like at ottoman or diyan, covered with a
quilted silk countcrpane or mastody, such
as is used on Chinese beds, and it might
have passed for one Of those most uncom-
Portable articles of furniture But it was
hollow, and within it lay the inhabitant of
the dwelling, sleeping his last long sleep,
never more to rise, never more to sip his
tea or samshoo, though it waited there pre-
pared for him never to sit on his ebony
chairs, never to light any more joss stick
to his ancestors, but to have them lit for
him by his posterity.
There were other chambers in the house
similarly furnished, except that the mastody
was thrown back and displayed an empty
coffin which lay ready with sandal wood,
its owner being not yet dead. The vcranda
was furnished with the usual green porcelain
seats and vases, in which seemed to stagnate
the bloodless flowers We stole softly out
into the street, chilled and painfully, yet
not mournfully Impressed. We went into
the next door, this house was ''To Let
Unfurnished. A third was rich in guild
ing and vermilion, and mirrors reflected
and glittered through the rooms The
ebony and ivory furniture was most beauti-
fully corved. The tea and sanshoo cups
were of exquisite egg-shell china objects
de rertu lay about on the altar emblazoned
with rare jewels The bed was covered
with a magnificent crimson velvet quilt,
richly embroidered in gold and seed pearls,
with deep bullion fringe worth its weight
in gold. Under the quilt lay a high man
DARN, who had amassed an enormous for
tune by the very simple process of chopp-
ING off the heads of all such as he discov-
cred to be possessed of money.
Wandering about in this oddly dreary
place. which was neither mirth nor woe,
the painful stiffness and the heavy atmos-
phere being the only elements which inspir-
ed awe, my nerves, nevertheless, received
a shock, when, just as L was examining
the decorations of an apparently new visitor,
speaking i'll whispers and raising the mastody
a shrill shrek made Inc start, drop the
mastody and clutch my companion by the
arm, and for minute | could scarcely
cotrol my fright. He laughed, for it was
only the growing of cock but | declare
ST. Peter was never more startled. But
this was a proof that the corpse was fresh
one, as the white cock, with colored
feather, which accompanies the coffin, is
usually left there when the body goes
merely into lodings. Ifreally inferred, /
believe it is then killed and eaten. In
another portion of the city we saw several
of them, though | think they were past
growing. Some of the interior walls Of the
houses were decorated with portraits sup
posed to represent the defunct; on the