Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-11-12
CANTON.
Strange Sights in II Be~iiderinJ OH city.
Trhe Cosnopolitan.l


TThe Coeinopotai,.l
nm s,1re that Canton is the queerest,
the most wonderful and bewildering
old city under the sun. 1t certainly has
more strange sights to the square yard
than any other city | ever saw, and L
am willing to back it against all the
rest. Even now, when l try to recall
tho strange scenes and sounds l en-
countercd on that memorable visit, it
makes my eyes ache and my brain
whirl, just as it did then.
Well, we'll, we'll! What wonderful
old city it is! How bewildering and
how interesting at every step! This is
no more like the Chinese quarter of
Hong Kong than an old bill is like a
new silver dollar. How very, very DIFF
ferent from what we had expected to
see! Compared with the substantial
newness and Europeanness OF Hong
Kong, this is veritable fossil, relic
of the past, with nothing of the nine
teenth century about it save the Euro
pean quarter and the steamer on the
river The city is all on the ground,
OF, at the very most it will not average
more than story and a half in height.
Where the shops are thicl1est, each
square is an 7nbroken succession of
wide doorways for of every shop the
whole end next to the street takes out
bodily From one street corner to the
next there is only a succession of open
ended rooms and partition walls, with
dark, narrow passages thrown i'll here
and there. There is no architecture
visible, for the houses are so damned
together that it is impossible to single
out any one in particular without climb
ing the roof to see how much it covers.
If this is not street in Wonderland
it might as we'll be. 1t is only about
eight feet wide, and many are less. The
caves of the houses on each side project
q 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 shining the streets are
light enough, but in rainy OF cloudy
weather they are very dark and gloomy,
and the peculiar twilight effect only
adds another clement Of strangeness to
the scene. Thank goodness, the streets
are we'll paved with smooth granite
hag-stones, one foot by three, and be-
ing kept very clean there is no mud to
plod through, even when it rains.
Pcdestrianism is the order of the day.
There are no carriages, carts, drays, big
freight wagons, omnibuses, or street cars
to run over you if you fail to get out of
the way, for all the freight is carried by
coolies.
Now and then, however, your wool
gathering is disturbed by stir and
loud shouting a little way down the
street, and you see the crowd parting
to right and left. Then you know there
is sedan chair coming and you take
shelter behind a siynboard, OF in a
friendly doorway, or hatten yourself
against s. 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; i:
takes so much shouting to clear
the way, and when two meet in mar
row thoroughfare one has to be side
tracked before the other can 90 by.
The use of the chair, therefore, is con.
fined to lazy merchants and officers,
weak women and swell Europeans. For
my part, I would rot do Canton in a
sedan chair il J. could have a whole set
for nothing.
But there is one drawback to pedes-
trianism. AS you pass along YOU are
obliged to be on the alert to keep from
coming into collision with half-naked
coolies, carrying all sorts of loads All
loads are carried in the same way
every schoolboy knows it, so l will not
stop to describe it. No matter where
you go, you can be certain that every
few minutes one of these coolies will
come putting and shutliing along at a
dog trot, shouting every few steps to
those in front of him to "clear the
track, ;" his load springing up and down,
and his bamboo lattice creaking rhyth.
mically at every step.
DON'T WINT TO BE BURIED ALITE
Some Of the philanthropic citizens OF