The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1885-04-11
CHINESE TAILORS.
British and American Artisans Beaten in
Their Own Fields.


Their Own Fields.
A gentleman who wishes to be well
clad need never 60 to q foreigner for
any article of dress. The Chinese
tailor absolutely swarms in Hong Kong.
l have counted twelve neat shops in
walking quarter of a mile on the
Queens road, all of them having
English signs and subsisting entirely by |
foreign patronage. And these are only |
a small part of the aggregate. There
are probably in this colony several hun
bred Chinese merchant and Journey
men tailors subsisting in the same man
ner. The suits they make cost from
five to twenty dollars, and are all of
European stuffs. The cut may not
equal that of a fashionable New York
tailor, but the garments are usually
good and becoming. 1t is not easy to
estimate the number of persons in Hong
Kong who wear so-called European APP
parel Including resident Europeans,
half-breeds, Portuguese of all tints Off
GERS and sailors, Parsees and men of
unclassiied colors and unexplainable
social utilization. there may be twenty
five thousand. In Europe or America
a community of that size would give
employment to twenty or more tailor
ing establishments and small army of
journeymen. There is, in fact, but one
foreign merchant tailor following that
distinctive trade, and he leads preca-
rious existence. There are, besides,
two foreign firms doing a general rner-
camille business that have tailoring de-
partments. The Chinese tailors supply
the remaining demand and it may be
said of the Hong Kong male commu-
nifty that it is decently and comfortably,
if not exquisitely, appareled. The Chi
nese tailor is peripatetic. You hear a
! knock at the door at your hotel You
open it and the tailor man" walks
in smiling blandly, his samples in
a handkerchief under his arm. Ii
you select suit he whips out tape
measure from under his tunic, takes
your proportions, jots them down in
his memory, and few days later walks
in smiling as before and unfolds the
same Handkerchief, displaying your new
: garments. If you are indisposed to ex-
ertion, you find this way of carrying on
the business saves some trouble As a
general thing, at every tailor's shop
there can be found good assortment OF
furnishing goods shirts, undercloth-
ing, hosiery, neckwear of all kinds,
handkerchiefs-al the various articles
needed to complete a gentleman S ward
robe. These are of the best quality,
often duplicates of similar articles for
which from thirty to fifty per cent. more
will have to be paid in the European
} shop in the next block. In most of the
Chinese shops in the neighborhood
5 most frequented by foreigners is to be
found showcase containing toilet
l articles, such as combs, brushes, hand
mirrors, fine soaps, perfumeries, to1tl
= powders manufactured in London,
Paris, or New YORK, and often sold al
: less than the jobbng rate near the
h place of manufacture. / have found al
several places in Hong Kong, and il
. shops within the walls of the old city O
d Canton, well-known toilet wafer Of
New York make, which is sold all oveI
S America in fashionable drug stores a
IS seventy-five cents a bottle, and in dru2
v shops of less pretensions at fifty cents
:. selling here without question at THIRTY
cents bottle. If twenty-five cents wa
= offered it was refused, on the plea tina
It the less price allowed no proht-leav
- ing it to be inferred that somethin!
If could be made by selling it at the great
Il er, though that was below the manu-
r facturer's rate in America. And thi
k experience could probably be had at
s. hundred places in Hong Kong and Can
ton, not only in respect to special toile
articles, but to clocks, watches an
J. other commodities coming from Amer
B. lea. Hong Kong Cor. San FranctSc
t. Chronicle.