, 1886-06-03
LIFE AMONG THE ceLEsTIALs.
Curious Sights on thcs Streets of China
A Very Patient People.


A Very Patient People.
Who and what are these melancholy
mortals who are meandering along GOV
cred with sheepskins? They are what
when you see them in Fleet street, you
call sandwich men, They are ex
hibiting the wares purchasable at this
clothier's shop on our left. Instead oil
carrying observation-disclosures, and
wandering up and down the street, a
layer of lean mortality between two
slices of wood, they wear upon their OWL
backs the very goods which you are re-
spectfully invited to inspect and to buy
Do not imagine hat a Chinaman's mind
feels any qualms at the thought that
these garments have been for weeks upon
the back of one Of the unwashed. He Is
troubled by no such unpleasant refiec-
tons. But he would no doubt drive a
harder bargain, on the plea that they
had beer already much worn.
These sheepskins are very highly val
ued in winter by the country people. II
you were relating to an agricultural au'
dience in the south of China, and in the
north also to townspeople, the suffering
of the prosecuted saints Of old, it woult
do to tell them that they wandered
about in s%heepskins and g~oatskins." You
would err as much as the Moravian mis-
sionaries did who first preached OF the
fires OF hell to the G~reenlanders. Those
arctic folk were immensely pleased with
the prospect Of going there, and the mis-
sionaries were naturally very much
shocked at the result of their own preach
ing. And 50 to the Chinese mind the
wandering about in sh%eepskins and goat
skins does not at all imply that they were
destitute, afflicted, tormented." They
would very much like to be prosecuted
to that degree.
The Chinaman is a wonderful creature
for enduring endless nuisances, regard
ing them as things that are and have
been, and therefore must still be. We
could scarcely have a better illustration
of that last remark than this stage,
which has been thrown right across the
main thoroughfare. We must either find
our way round by n side street, or creep
under the stage n best we can.
Fancy what it would be for a band
of itinerant actors to erect n theatre in
Cheapside, compelling all the traffic to
turn aside for a whole day, and then
consider that the street we are in bears
about the same relation to the city Of
Annoy as Cheapside does to the city Of
London. Yet the people do not com
plain. 1t is probable that not one in a
hundred who turn aside because the
road is blocked thinks that such a nuis-
ance ought not be allowed.
1t is much more likely that the inhab-
itants of the street are objects of envy
because the theatre is brought to their
very doors. Some shopkeeper in the
street has invited the actors at his own
expense, and his neighbors are much
obliged to him for giving them an OPP
p%ortunity to see the play, and of hearing
the drums beat, the bells ring, the
cymballs clash and the actors howl and
screech, without the trouble of leaving
their shop doors. The entertaining
sights are so numerous that to describe
all that strikes the newcomer as fantastic
would take II volume. You may see a
woman deliberately washing her long
black hair in a wooden bowl, combing
it out and doing it up in public, without
SO much as a thought hat any one
would think she should do it indoors.
Or, maybe, it is a man in scanty garb,
sitting on the threshold of his shop,
washing his long legs in a basin of hot
water.
Sometimes you may come across IA
conjurer performing at N of the tiny
clear spaces where the road widens for n
few yards. Close by this spot once met
a man who seemed to have a knife broken
off short in the top of his skull, and the
blood apparently running down upon his
clothes. The people stood aside with
what | thought was a shocked aspect as
he walked solemnly on, looking to
neither right nor left, and it proved to be
only n famous conjurer going through
one of his most remarkable performances.
Occasionally you may happen upon one
of the eccentric customs of idolatry and
see n new house concentrated by the
presence of the black face idol.
BY the way, while we are just finish
ing our journey, l will tell you a curious
fact about Cinnamon and foreign pict-
ures The Cinnamon who see a foreign
picture for the first time looks at it with
the eyes of n grown up child. When |
had discovered this fact l tested the
truth of it many times by showing pict-
ures to intelligent friends. A fine sketch
of the interior of n Turkish man-of- war,
four guns served by about ten men,
and the admiral standing in the fore
ground with his hand resting upon his
sword, was put down as mountains"
and n large and elaborate picture of the
funeral of NJ. Theirs proceeding through
the streets of Paris was said to be "a ship
at sea" This is an interesting fact for
psychologists. Everyday Life in
China"