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

on TO the side near the closed end and connected
with the interior. One would as soon think of
thrusting q Delaying pin or a policeman's trun-
cheon into his mouth 20 smoke through. and
when we tried TO hold on to the mouthpiece with
the teeth as one would their little briar-root or
clay, our upper Jaw was pried upward and back
by the weight until we thought the lid Of our
knowledge box would be twisted of its hinges.
1t was at this time that we declined the pipe and
accepted a cigar in lieu thereof.
Leaving the cook shop, with a promise to re-
turn upon d stated evening and enjoy a real Chi
nese feast-a description of which We promise
to lay before our readers-we strolled into S
dried fish, flesh and fowl establishment near at
hand. Here we found the mummies of a great
variety of fishes and ducks. The ducks were
the oddest-looking things in the lot. They were
piled up on the counter in stacks a foot high;
each particular duck being nicely UHdressed and
then fattened out by being placed upon some
unyielding surface and pressed hard by having a
milestone or two rolled over II. At least, their
extreme fairness suggested some such treatment
although that may not be the way they do 1t.
They may use a hydraulic press.
Boxes full of eggs from China are piled on
one side, and we examine the method of pre-
serving them with considerable interest. They
seem to be covered with a kind of plaster that,
for some inscrutable reason, is colored red. This
keeps the egg fresh, provided 1t Is covered before
1T Is added. 1t doesn't, we are assured, restore
bad ones to their pristine freshness; but the Chi
naman can find a Use TO which to put bad eggs
$1,000 -o $4,000 An No-
sell them and so use them up.
In the butcher shops We find that the pieces of
meat are served out 10 customers by the chop.
That Is, if a man wants one, two, three, five or
ten cents worth, a piece larger or smaller AS the
case may be is chopped off the end of the mass
lying on the block, and handed out on u bamboo
skewer. This plan possesses many advantages.
In the first place, no customer knows Just what
he is going to get, whether a chop from the neck
or the rump, the back or the shin; and the por-
ton they DO get is as good for soup as for steak.
Then, again, the bone is more fairly-and finely
disseminated throughout the piece than when
carved by a scientific butcher; and, finally, the
meat is { more tenderer " than when sliced off in
fiat steaks.
In the how-window of one establishment we
found some musical instrume S. ackbuts,
psalterys, jewsharps, timbrels. gongs, cymbals
and other weapons. We wished TO have them
played upon, in order that We might Judge of
their tim6re and quality; but the performers, We
a series of woeful walls and high falsetto shrieks
emanate from a :! sweet singer Chinese title
to the accompaniment of a one-stringed, long
handled, snakeskin-coVered gourd. This operette
we were old-was known as Z" Hyson and
Bohea, " who were n sort of Chinese Romeo and
Juliet, who must have died in fearful agonies
after lives of discOrdant misery, if their history
was fairly eXsmplifed by the saw-fling sounds
emitted by the performer. After all, the music ~
possessed u subtle charm. The notes haunt us
still, and there is one strain that We catch our
selves humming DER IND DER.
We feel mt times as though we should really
like to take lessons in Chinese singing; but, as
our preliminary efforts scarify our throat and
cause the cats and mynah birds in our vicinity
to fall i'll with envy, We have not, as yet, gone
seriously to work.