The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-11-11
THE N


the fatigue,
Passing up Nuuauu street from King towards
Hotel, the first thing that IS noticeable IS the
life and hustle OF the street. Almost without
exception the many stores and shops are
tenanted by Chinese, and "A dozen different kinds
Of bushes are carried on. Here Is a shop with
a front about twelve feet. and a depth of twenty,
in which are eleven men making canvas shoes
Zach one has just such work. assigned him as he
Is most skilful in, and what each has To do Is
done without any Interruptions, save those
brought about in tea-drinking. until the day
light has waned, and q short rest Il taken until
the lamps are lighted. We really do not know
how many pairs OF shoes are turned out from
this shop each day, but II Is fair to presume that
there IS made about as many again as there
would be if white labor was employed. Near
the shoe shop is a tinsmith and he, too, with
his wOrkmen are busted all day, and every day
except Sunday. The goods they manufacture
are, TO the eye at least-we never tested them
as good as those made elsewhere, and the work
upon them Is, as in the case of the shoes, sub
divided amongst many men.
Near at hand Is a tailor, and next to him a
maker Of all kinds of underwear for ladies. As
for the tailor we know nothing as to whether
the clothing he turns ont is well or lily cut, or
whether 1t wears or not; the man with his as
sistants is always at work using mp bales of
cloth in keeping three or four machines going.
In the underclothing store, the plices asked for
the garments are 50 low as compared with the
amount Of tucks, frills. Insertions, gussets.
bands and seams cunningly applied to tie fabric,
that one Is half tempted 10 suspect the quality
Of the material, or the honesty of the dealer.
But, IN one case we learn from inquiry that the
material Is of fair quality, and in the other that
no one. as yet, has complained Of their clothes
lines being robbed. Numerous fruit-stands are
tucked in between the larger stores, and to
Judge from their stock III trade W. should say
that the average Chinaman commences with a
vegetable basket, which is generally soon balanced
by another; they both being exchanged for IA fruit
stand, that in time takes TO itself tobacco and
smoking materials. That establishment is then
pi-.r, m, 81 n vra+.I .,1 .lncl gfcra onn ci1a ~
which is soon filled with articles imported
by the proprietor, who shortly after begins to
be known as IA wholesale dealer and importer.
From this estab ishment offshOots in the shape
of little shops spring up, and SO the business is
extended. y prominent barroom on the corner
Of Hotel and Nuuanu streets is kept by a China
man, and he having placed beer on tap at ten
cents IA glass, has a steady run of custom for
that beverage. Whether it pays him or not we
don't know but are inclined to think that 1t
does. There are a good many men who will
spend three ten-cent pieces for three drinks of
beer, that would hesitate about giving twenty
five cents for one of whiskey.
Turning into Hotel street towards Maunakea,
we find ourselves wholly in Chinatown. Gro
tesque looking signs, bearing upon them mys-
ferrous symbols, are arranged perpendicularly at
the door lintels, and huge globular lanterns be-
tassled and dutch-metalled swing overhead. We
stepped into IA drug store being attracted
thither by the stunning smell issuing therefrom-
and examined some of the medicines. We saw
a pair of antlers of a variety of deer found in the
Alatau Mountains of Russia, that, powdered, the
Chinese value very highly as a medicine. Queer
shaped ~canisters were labelled as q picked cells
feet, dried adders' tongues, - essence of
good spirits and something that looked like
est. Jacobs Oil rendered into Chinese. The
taste of the medicines is not so bad as their
smell-in fact some are quite palatable, Sam
shoe" particularly sO-but as it is q sine qua non
that those who expect to derive benefit from the
mixtures must possess faith" and as we are
devoid of that essential, we will still trust the
alienation of our bodily pains to English-speak-
ing physicians when occasion requires.
A Chinese barber shop is not, to draw it mild,
so equipped with comfortable appliances as to
WOO the customer into its precincts. Still, If we
had a long queue la take care uf and considered
1t incumbent upon ourself II extend our forehead
to the Top of our craninm, and keep it there by
frequent shaving, we should certainly employ a
Chinese barber. After the hair is dressed there
is the nose, ears, eyes and finger nails to attend
to. Various probes, scrapers, gouGes, picks and
crochet hooks are handled by the tonsori-opti-
auri-nasical artist, and with each new operation
a fresh invocation is Offered up To the especial
god having in charge the organ next in order.
D.. No. III.
With all our faculties sharpensd through the
agency of the Chinese barber we moved on to a
cook shop near mt hand. Smoked pork was
largely in the ascendant literally, for quantities
were being carried up stairs, whittier, by the
light of a lantern, we followed it. Out on a
platform built high up in the air the long strips
of fat meat were carried, and hung on lines
stretched from post to post. Here it was to be
left to exude superfluous oiliness and dry in the
sun. Preparatory to this, however, the pig is
caught, killed, disemboweled, and trussed for
baking. This is done in n massive, cylindrical,
open-top oven built in the yard back of the cook
shop. This oven is packed full of small billets
of hard wood and the mass ignited. By the
time the wood is reduced to Goals the sides of
the oven are intensely hot. The Pig being sus-
pended by the hind legs to IA chain running over
"A pulley in the roof overhead, is lowered into
the oven and u dome-shaped cover put on. After
"A while the meat is considered cooked, and the
carcase Is removed and cut into the thin slices
spoken of. During the time that the oven is be-
ing heated, the volume of smoke arising is dis
seminated through the upper rooms of the house
and serves in IA great degree to preserve the occu-
pants from that premature decay so common
amongst people who are deprived of this powerful
siccative.
Later in the day, when the pig is being roasted,
the fumes from the cooking meat are in turn
waited through these same apartments, and
again when the labors of the day are ended the
soothing influence of opium smoke lulls the
weary Celestial to happy dreams of the Flowery
Kingdom. Underlying all these, and serving as
a basis for all the others, is the smell of old salt
fish and strings OF sausaSes-made, we Judge,
from their appearance, by the kirghis hordes on
the Siberian frontier and transported on camels'
backs across the Empire 10 the seaboard. Occa-
sionally u more hideous scent staggers one. 1t
arises from packages of huge dried CLAIMS looking
like Jumps of gutta-Dcrcha, and smelling like
sin. What they-the Chinese-do with these
things is "A mystery. One informant told US that
the females put them under their pillows when
they wanted to dream of future husbands; but
we think that the image that would be likely to
be conjured up by one of those nightmare-pro-
voking Jumps would reconcile any woman TO the
husband she already had, and cause her to look
with dread upon any possible change. 1t is also
stated that no : foreign devil - can possibly ac-
quire a really fluent delivery of speech while
talking Chinese without first having devoured
one or two of these same clans. This We do not
doubt; neither do We the statemen that al who
strive to master the Chinese language go crazy
sooner or later. 1t must be so.
The fungus known amongst the Hawaiians as
- pepeao " is highly priced by the Chinese, and,
when properly prepared, it makes a deliciously
g%lutinous soup. 1t must be boiled gently for
seventy-two hours, and then be allowed to stand
on the back of the stove until next week. At
the end of that time a thick agglutinization COM
mences, and when conglomeration is fairly estab-
lished and the mass is homogeneous q D portion