Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-05-07
LIFE IN CHINA.
essential Customs That Seem Amusing
to Dwellers In the Occident.

0&fental Customs That Seem Amusinr
to Dwellers II the Occident.
Who and what are these melancholy
mortals who are meandering along COW
cred with s~heepskinsp They are what,
when you see them in Fleet street, you
call sandwich men. They are ex-S
hibitingg the ware purchasable at this
clothier's shop ON u left. Instead Of.
carrying advertisement-boards and.
wandering up and down the street, a
layer Of lean mortality between two
slices ofwood, they wear upon their
own backs the very goods which you
are respectfully invited to inspect and.
to buy. Do not imagine that q China.
mans 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 reflections. But he would
no doubt drive a harder bargain on the
pleasthat they had been already much
worn. These sheepskins are very high;
" valued in winter by the country: peo-
pie. II you were relating to an agrfcul-
tural audience in the south of China,
and IS the north also to towns
people, the sufferings Of the
4persecuted saints Of old, it would
never do to tell them that .sthey wan
Sdered about in sheep-skins and goat
skins" You would err as much as
the Moravian missionaries did who first
preached of the fires Of hell to the
Greenlanders. Those Arctic folk were
imnnouco1v ,,1ooood up;&h %ho o,.r.. -
going there, and the missionaries were
naturally very much shocked at the re-
suit OF their own preaching. And so,
to the Chinese mind, the wandering
about in sheep-skins and goat-skinsd does
not at d imply that thew were .tdesti-
tute, afflicted, tormented." They
wouldsvery much like to be persecuted.
to that degree. The Chinaman Is q
wonderful creature for enduring end
less nuisances, regarding them as things
that are and have been, and therefore,
still must be. We could scarcely have
asbetter Illustration Of that last remark
than this stage, which has been thrown
right cross the main thoroughfare.
We must either find our way round;
5kysga side street, or creep under the
JstRgge as best we can. Fancy what it
Would be for q band of itinerant
elbctorst to erect theater in Cheapside..
eompelling all the traffic to turn aside
Tors 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 doSnot
iEcomplain. It is probable that NOT one
SsnI = hundred who turn aside because the
road is blocked thinks that i nui-
sances ought not to be. allowed. II is
much moro likely that the inhabitants
0f the street are5objects of envy because
the theater is brought to their doors.
Some shopkeeper in the street has in
yited the actors at bis expense, anUd$his
neighbors are much obliged to him for
giving them an opportunity 81 seeing
stheplay, and Of hearing the drums beat,
the bells ring, the cymbals clash, and
Tho actors howl and screech, withoutthe
trouble Of leaving their shop-doors.
The entertaining sights are so snnmerous
that to describe all that strikes the new.
conner asfantastic would take aisvolume.
You may see woman deliberately
washing her long black hair III wooden
] bowl, combang il out and doing II up ID