The Newtown bee., 1879-04-01

So may we find our childhoods calm, delicious
 dawn again.
 Sweet are your eyes, oh little ones, that look
 with smiling grace,
 Without q shade of doubt or fear into the iu-
 ture's face!
 Sing, sing in happy chorus, with joyful voices That death is life, and God is good, and all
 things shall be well;
 That bitter days shall cease
 In warmth and light and peace--
 That winter yields to spring
 Sing little children, sing!
 Celia Tharter, t.s St. Nfc1,o'as Chinese Boats, and How They are Pro-
 peIIed.
 If my young readers will look on the map of China for the Yang-tse- -kiang riv- CT, they will find that it runs from west to east, entirely across the country, and empties its muddy waters into the Yellow sea. Yang g-tse-kiang means '' Son of the ! Ocean;" and its lOwlands, or the great | plain through which it flows, are more than two hundred miles broad, extend ing from the Iloang-hO (Yellow riv6r) on the north, to ITang-chan bay on the l south.
 The land is very low, only few inches above tide-water mark; but it is so very ! fertile, and produces such abundant crops of rice and wheat, silk and cotton, that it 1 is very densely populated. Forty mil lions of Chinese find their homes in this lovely valley-.just think of it-about as many people as we have in the whole of our United States This whole region is intersectcd and has been for many cen turies, by a complete network of canals, very much after the fashion of the streets of large city, only not quite so close to- gether. From these large canals smaller ones are cut to within half a dozen feet O every dwelling and store-house, and through all these tiny water-courses the tide ebbs and flows every twelve hours.
 About eighteen miles before the Yang tse-kiang reaches the sea, it receives the waters of the W Whang-pOO river, and about twelve miles above the mouth of the Whang-poO stands the city of Shanghai, called by the Chinese SOng-hae. which means "on'the sea-" It is so called be- cause it is the seaport of this great, rich valley, by means of which the abundant products of the whole region are brought into market, for home and foreign trade The population of Shanghai is variously estimated at from half a million to three quarters; and I think from the teeming multitudes that seem always to thrOng its streets, the last figure cannot much exceed the real number of people who live there, paddling about in their queer boats, and swimming in the muddy waters, when not busy in driving a bar g1in or transporting their wares from point to point.
 But l want to tell you something about their boats, and the way they are pro- pelled on these streams and canals that form a perfect network all through the great Yang-tse-kiang valley. In the first place, all the boats have square sterns, and are nearly as broad at bow and stern as in the middle-looking, as an Ameri- can consul used to say, "as if they were built by the mile, and cut off in lengths to suit purchasers" The boats are pro- pelled by means of 8 "scull," or large oar, that works on an iron pivot over the stern. The lower end of the oar, the part that goes into the water, is broad and thin, and sometimes as much as six teen or eighteen inches wide, if the boat is large; and then is made narrower and thicker, till at the taffrail it is quite round; and some four feet from the end a piece is "spliced " only firmly, first with iron and then with rattan, the object being to give the oar crook down ofan angle of about two degrees. An iron staple with a ring is driven down into the scull near the upper end, and corresponding one in the starboard rail of the poop of the boat. Then thick rope is made fast to the ring in the rail, with an iron hook at the other end of the rope, designed to hook into the ring at the end of the scull; while at third of the distance between the splice and the lower end of the scull an iron socket is firmly set into the scull on the same side as the ring at the end, and into this the pivot works loosely. To start the boat, the scull is placed on the pivot, with some three or four feet of the lower end in the water, then hooked on to the ring at the end of the scull, while the left hand takes hold of the rope at D convenient height for pulling. The man stands pushing, and takes hold with the right hand, of the scull above the splice. If there are two men to TOW the boat, one uses the scull, while the other takes both hands to the rope.
 In starting, the pushing and pulling of the rope is quite moderate at first, and very re0Illar so as not to slip the scull from the pivot. The forward and back ward motion of the scull causes the blade to make rapid twists in the water, each time bringing the broad surface to press hard against the incumbent waters and it is this double leverage that forces the boat forward. It is marvellous to see the ease and speed with which two or three men can propel boat with four-horse team load on board
 Sea-faring men, and those who are fa- miliar with such matters, say we have nothing in our Western worl that, in point of economy in the transportation of merchandise. can at all compete with these Chinese boats-the invention of many centuries ago. Many of these canals are spanned by magnificent granite bridges, win arches forty feet in diame- ter. One near Soochaw has fifty-three arches These numerous canals are also admirably adapted to the journeys of 1 tourists, and to missionary excursions