Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1879-07-19

a NOW AOIA AOIulu COCC0SpOuu-
ent, describing General Grants
visit to Canton, China, says it was
an extraordinary sight. The colors,
the surroundings, the barbaric
pomp. the phases of an ancient civil
ization, SO new, so strange, SO in
teresting, and beyond all this teem-
ing city, alive with wonder and
curiosity, giving this one day to see
the foreigner, to look in awe upon
the face of the American whose
coming had been discussed in every
bazaar and by every silk loom in
Canton. The multitude seemed to
have been pressed into space by
some system Of artificial pressure,
the people were 40 close together,
men, women and children.
At intervals Of a hundred yards
were guards of soldiers, some carry
ing spears shaped like a trident,
others with slaves or pixies, others
the clumsy, old-fashioned gun.
There is nothing martial in the
Chinese soldier, I am afraid, but
his dress was specially decorated
and helped to give color to the
scene. Then came groups of man
darians (oficials), their hats sur
mounted with buttons which indi.
cato their ranks, holding fans, and
as the General passed saluting in
Chinese fashion, raising both hands
to the forehead in supplicating at.
titude, holding them an instant and
bringing them down with a rotate
ry gesture. Wherever the street
was intersected with other streets
the crowd became so dense that ad-
ditional troops were required to
hold it in place, and at vario us
points the Chinese salute of three
guns was fired. The road to the
viceregal palace was three miles,
and as the pace of the coolie who
carries your chair is a slow one, and
especially slow on days of multi
tude and pagentry, we were over
an hour in our journey, and for this
hour we journeyed through a sea Of
faces, a hushed and silent sea, that
swept around us, covering windows,
doors, streets, roof tops, wherever
there was room for a pair OF feet
or hands. Some of the party esti-
mates that there were 100000 peo-
pie to witness General Grants pro-
gress through Canton.
The young men we're, as a gener-
al thing, handsome, especially those
Of rank, who were known by their
buttons, and who gazed upon the
barharians with a supercilious and
contemptuous expression, very
much as young men of the same
class would regard Sitting Bull or
Red Cloud from a club window as
the Indian chiefs went in procession
along Fifth avenue. As a matter
of fact / suppose they looked upon
General Grant and his party as
some of us would regard Red Cloud
and his braves. We were foreign
ers, outside barbarians, and if we
came at all to yiceregal palace,
if we were received with music and
the firing of cannon and the beat
ing of drums-it was because the
Viceroy was in a gracious mood and
deigned to give the barbarian a
sight of imperial Chinese splendor.
But while you saw this curious, in.
quiring, contemptuous expression,
now and then you saw in some hur-
rie'l observation and the ripple of
mocking laughter which came with
it that you we're under criticism,
that your black coat or white cravat
or crushed opera bat-that your
braided hat and embroidered shoul-
ders were inspiring emotions like
those which the plumes and paint
of Sitting Bull would inspire in the
bosOms of cynical New YOrkers.
A lady who had had much ex-
y =