Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-08-28
A Quaint Oriental City.
CANTON BEwILDERING RkLIo or THE PAST
SIGHTS FROM WONDERLAND.

A 8U0Hme VEIC0b8I Gueys
CANTON BEwILDERIN0 RELIC or THE PAST
SIGHTS FROM WONDERLAND.
W. T. HornAday. in the Cosmopolitan.
am sure that Canton IL the queerest the
most wonderful and bewildering Old city
under the sun. It certainly has more strange
sights to the square yard than any other city
ever saw. and am willing to back 1t against
AL the rest Even now, when try to recall
the strange scenes and soundsI encountered
on that memorable visit, 1t makes my eyes
ache and my brain whirl, Just as it did then;
=. Well we'll welll What q wonderful old city
every stepi The city Is eli on the ground. or u
the very most It will not average more than
STORY and half in height Where the shops
are thtckest, each square Is an unbrOken sue.
cession OF wide doorways; for of every shop the
whole end next to the street takes out bodily.
only a succession OF open ended rooms and
partition walls. with dark, narrow passages
thrown In here and there. There Is no architec-
lure visible, for the houses are SO damned To-
gether that 1t Is impossible to single out any
one In particular without climbing on the roof
10 see how much it covers.
Ii this Is not q street in Wonderland 1t might
as well be-. 1t is only about eight feet VIDE, and
many are less. The caves Of the houses on each
side project quarter or third of the way across
the street. and the remaining third in the
middle is very often loosely covered over with
boards placed crosswise. When the sun is shin
cloudy weather they very dark and
gloomy, and the peculiar twilight effect only
auuS duOtner element Oh SLrHuSeueSS 10 Tue
scene: Thank goodness, the streets are well
paved with smooth, granite hagstones, one foot
by three and being Kept very ciean there Is no
Professionalism is the order OF the day. There
are no carriages, CARTS drayS, big freight wagons,
omnibuses, or street cars TO run over you, Ii you
IAN TO get out of the way; for all the freight Is
Carried by coolies.
Now and then, however, your wool gathering
is disturbed by d stir and loud shouting a little
way down the street, and you see the crowd part
Ing TO right and left. Then you know there is
sedan chair coming and you take shelter behind
assign board, or in a friendly doorway, or fiatten
yourself against a wall until the peripatetic
nuisance has gone by. But the streets are so
narrow that chairs are not very often used. They
move TOO slowly; 1t takes too much shouting to
clear the way, and when two meet in a narrow
thorous hfare one has to be side tracked before
Inc o,her can get by. The use of the chair,
ofhcers, weak women and swell Europeans For
my part, would not do Canton in a sedan chair
II could have a whole set for nothing.
But there is one drawback to pedes tria nism
AS you pass along you are obliged 70 be on the
alert to keep from coming into collision with
All loads are carried in the same way; every
scnooiDoy knows 1t, SO will not stop to des-
crioe 1t. No matter where you CO. you can be
certain that every few minutes one oi these COOL
les VIII come putting and shut1ing along at dog
tfot, shouting every few steps to those in front
up and down. and his bamboo lathee creaking
rhy thinlcllly at every step.
The Human Family.
The human family living to-day on earth
consists Of about 1,45O, O0O, 900 individuals;
not less, probably more. These are distributed
over the earth's surface, SO that now there is no
considerable part where man is not found. In
Asia, where he was first planted, there are now
approximately about 500 100000, densely
crowded; On an average 12O to the square mile.
La Europe there are $4,000, 900, averaging
lOO to the square mile, not 80 crowded, but
everywhere dense, anu at points overpopu-
lated. In Africa there are 21O,OOO.OOO. In
America, North and South, there are ITO, OOO,-
OOO, relatively tninly scattered anu recent. In
the islands, large and small, probably 10000
600. The extremes OF the white and black are as
hve to three; the remaining 7OO.OOO,UUO inter-
mediate brown and tawny. Or the race, $780,
OOO,OOO are well cioLhed-that is, wear gar
ments of some kind to cover their nakedness
7OO,OOO,OOO are semi-cothed, covering inferior
parts OF the body, 25O,OOO, OOO are practically
naked. Or the race. OO,OOo,OOO live in houses
partly furnished with the appointments Of
civilization; 100000 in huts or caves with
no furnishing; 2SO,OOO.OOO have nothing that
can DE called d home, are barbarOus and savage.
The range Is from the tOpmoSt round-tne
Anglo-Saxon civilization, which is the highest
knOWn-dOWn to naked savagery. The portion
OF the race lying below the line of human con-
dition is Ut the very least three-f1ltns OF the
whole, or 9OO,OOO,OOO.
DEL