The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1879-11-26
MISCELLANY.
NiPEKIN.

/
We went down one OF the broad streets
that run for miles without a bend. The Wis.,
ia is closed by city gate, and broken by
here and there an elaborate arch that spans
the roadway, pytow erected to commemorate
either wealth or virtue but the green and
gold have rubbed off, and the structure is ont
/ of line, like gravestone where the earth has
sunk the houses, built of brick, are of one
story, yet as the fronts of the chemists, tea
and tobacco shops are a mass of gilded and
painted wood sometimes thirty feet high,
they make q dazzling show when new but
paint and gliding wear away rapidly in this
climate, and when the gold furnishes it is not
renewed, so that there are. sombre lines of
faded finery broken at intervals by a brilliant
fash of color, like the glare of public house
in street that has lost gentility, The mid
die of the roadway is the highest there are
lower roads on either side, and off these the
sidewalks and the shop. At intervals the
middle is occupied by rows of booths covered
with wooden boards or with curtains of rags,
where travelling merchants display their goods
as in an English fair, or else cook and sell hot
viands that always attract the country folk
who have come in to market. At other
points there are oblong groups of eager lis
teners, each group gather around story-tell-
or, who tells bis tale with wonderful dramatic
| action and as wise as the editors of Western
magazines, when he has worked up the audi
ence to the highest suspense, sends round the
hat before he begins the next chapter. saw
him once vehemently shake his cash box in
the face of a mean fellow who was sneaking
away without paying. A few yards off, a
juggler has an equally eager crowd, while he
swallows porcelain cups and needles without
end. A little furtheB and there is the veri-
table box of Punch and Judy, although the
distinguished persons on that mimic stage are
but very distant and poor relations to their
namesalkes here. On the sidewalks the ehirop-
odist operates on way feet, and the bar
Der is busy shaving customers and settling
their tails. An ancient scribe with horn
spectacles well on his nose is writing letter
for some love sick swain, and knot of 10 or
10 idlers gather round to hear 1t. Other
crowds have collected about ballad singers and
street musicians and we are told that if it
was the kite season, old gentlemen of grave
aspect would be flying paper dragons one
hundred feet long. A ceaseless throng, on
foot and horseback, is in motion through all
these stationary bodies. Soldiers ride by with
guns slouched across their shoulders, and 9TH
ers armed with only bows and arrows. Cows
and camels lie about the sideways, and the
camels are loaded with sacks of coal. A huge
red umbrella appears, and mandarin follows
it, borne in his chair, and with ragged lctors
clearing the way. We pass Pekin cab stand
both the carts and the mules rather faded.
A golden streak of fire rushes out of the
smitby, and nrchins stay and watch 1t as they
do at home. A blind man threads his way
by beating a doleful tune upon a tamborine.
Old men and young men carry sticks to which
birds are attached by slight thread under the
wing, and good bird may cost as much as
co. There is sound, not of reveliy, but Of
mournful stringed instruments, and banners
CLEAN in the distance unsteadily advancing
through the press it Is wedding procession
we are fold, and for an hour the procession
flows slowly by ; coolies, who have flung
scarlet cloaks. over their native poverty I;
bearers with huge structures, supposed to be
a brides presents, sometimes in chairs, some
times on flat trays and instruments of music,
banner poles, sedan chairs, heraldic shields,
tablets, coolies, tray follow in a confused and
broken liue as if they had no natural begin
ming or end. Overhead there is a musical
= =. -. l. 4. Il -.
Tyre is inserted in pigeons tail, some say to
guard it from birds of prey, and the wind
makes the music in its fiight.-Goo Words.