The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-10-27
CHINESE MODE OF LIVING.


 ! Pekin Corr St. Petersburg Messenger.
 Excluding beef and daiy products, Chinamen eat everything that is edible i horse and ass flesh, snakes, rats, mice, dogs, grasshoppers, spiders, worms, CO., i coons, sea oucumbers, swallows nests, etc. Once, while living in villa near Pekin, saw very strange scene. There appeared cloud of grasshoppers. Sud- denly the field was covered with China men. who ran frantically hither and ththe, gathering them in. They filled large sacks and bags with the insects. They carried portable stoves, on which they roasted their curious game. Other Ghinamen greedily devoured the grass hoppers. paying penny for ten.
 4, the head of all meats Chinamen put, of coarse. pork. In their opinion, to the hog belongs the first place in the lis; of domestic animals. If you ask China man why. he will answer you proudly :: Because il was hog from whom the Chin2men descended '" Don't you see ! the Celestials have beaten Darwin on the theory of the descen, of man. IL |, only natural, then, tha. among Chinamen hogs should enjoy fuii rights of citizen ship. Like dogs. they wander wherever ] they please. A Chinese street without a number of hogs IS an impossibIlity. Are there many hogs in China: should think so. On single holiday in memory of their ancestors no; the original an- eestors, the hogs. but merely human an- cestors-,he Celestial, eat fully 65o.ooo hogs. must admit that Chinese pork is ! superior 10 any found elsewhere on the 1 globe. poot Chinamen, who cannot afford te bay pork. Ct meat of dogs, asses. horses. rats. mice. rabbits. hares, goats and sheep. Bl. never saw them eating Cats.
 c; birds the Chinese eats silver-pheas- ants, ducks. geese, chickens, jackda@s, crows and many others. Curiously enough. the so-ealled Cochin ( aina fowls are very rarely seen here.
 Among the choice delicacies of the ! Chinese must be mentioned the fins of sharks and the nests of sea-swallows. nder the latter Is understood not the whole nest. bu, only the mucilasinous inner coating of the nests. 1, is believed that the swallows who build their nests on the sea.rocks cover their nests and glue them 10 the rocks with the juice of sea- cane, which on being dried looks like mueilaginous membrane. On the market these nests are found ia the shape of a hemisphere of the size of a half orange peel The nests are sold here a, from sI5 to So per pound They are used principally for making broth. to which they give peculiar aroma and taste, much valued by gas,ronomers.
 Rice stands. of course, al the head of vegetable foods. Without rice-gruel no meal is served here. " r in means both ito have meal and to es, rlce gruel. :" The brown rice, which is common rice. bu. heated and musy. Is much liked There is also red variety of rice.
 Honey Is much used here. but chiefly as a cosmetic. After being mixed with four ii is rsed by the women in their air-dressing. With their nair saturated sticky and shining with honey. they mas, be indeed. sweet,
 As everybody knows. the Chinese are passiona,ely fond of tea. which they cul- tivate for the rest of the world. They drink 1t at every meal. at home and out; when Idle and at work. Tn saops and Tn ottices-in short, everywhere. and d. any tune of day or night. The red. black and green sorts of tea they prepare only for export. while they themselves use ex cldsively yellow tea. They take ;ea in sin all cups and without sugar,
 Though in China there are excellent, sorts of grapes. yet no wine Is prepared thee. The Chinese III ike two kinds of whisky slgo and of tice-and drlnk good deal of il. Women a>o drink and smoke here. A tin gil ot ,ke shape of an hour-glass IS used for whisky drink ing. They had no glass works here un,il recently. when an American gen,lem an taught some Celes,ials to make glass 1 During my thirty years residence here have never seen a single drunken China men on the street. No coffee or choco- late Is used here.
 The usually fertile soil of this country yields produ,ts enough to satisfy the 1 appetite of all the C-les,2ls. and m view of their peculiar philosophy o: the stomach. they ought 10 be able. all of them, 10 reach the blissful state oi sa;iety Ne, how many of them are lean. hungry. with wis,tul eyes and hollow s;omachs /: What heartrending tragedy each of these thin fellows presents. whose ail-ab- sorbing idea i, 10 be thick. When look upon the crowd ofhollow-cheekedC China men and then upon the few who are in the bl.sfIl state of corpuleney, canno; help thinking oi the lean-aeshed and the fa;-hesh d kind Of Pharoh