The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1888-05-10
CHINESE COOLIES.
The Barefooted ImpassiVe Toll
ers in Oriental Hong Kong.
Fantastic Scenes in a Mongo-
lian Seaboard City.

lian Seaboard City.
On the mainland shore at Hong Kong,
says a China correspondent in the
Globe Democrat, are large docks, bar
racks, an observatory and other solid
evidences OF England's firm grasp and
power and comparative quiet reigns,
but at the waters edge of the city the
whole din and uproar of a Chinese city
assaults the ears, as the same old
Chinese smell deals the nose a blow.
The Praya, that runs along the water S
edge, with high stone houses on one
side, swarms with barefooted coolies
with poles and burdens over their
shoulders and sedan chairs carried by
more coolies spirit an occasional
foreigner along above the common
heads The fronts of the high houses
have open arcades at each story, and are
covered with signs, among which the
vermiIion paper of the Chinese shows
everywhere.
There is something suggestive of
Italian seaports in this quay, and when
the coolies lift the chair poles and begin
ascending the staircase of a side street,
one thinks instlnctively of Geneva's
stone stairways. On The upper levels,
on the roads above all the Chinese shops
and houses, the resemblance is even
greater and the stone balustrades of
the long terraces, the heavy gateways
and the massive houses with their
stories loggias make one sure that the
blue water below is the Mediter
ranean or one of the lakes. Through
one arched way in a high stone wall one
looks up long staircase lined on either
side with masses of red, white and yell
low flowers to the door of a
Portuguese chapel, and an italian
convent is approached between white
stone walls, and more rows
of gorgeous blossoms. The shrub
berry is all tropical, the banyan tres
spreading a network of roots over slop-
ing banks and swapping, snaky roots
with fine lunches of tendrils of root over
ones head. Banana trees, rows of tree
ferns, huge-leafcd things that are
strange to ones eyes, fill the gardens,
and rows of potted chrysanthemums of
most brilliant colors line stairways and
surmount balustrades. The scarlet poin-
setta IS here a spreading bush or tree
far above ones head, and the whole
top blaze of big red stars that fairly
burn the eyes with their intense color
ing. The shade trees arch over the
terrace roads, and when one passes
from sunshine to shade there is that
difference and sudden chill that warns
one that the climate has its Italian turn,
too
The conveyance one rides in is not
Italian nor are the common people by
the roadside like the fascinating inhabi-
tants of the peninsula. The cheapness
of human labor is shown when one can
be borne aloft on the shoulders of two
men, like an idol in a procession, at the
rate Of fifteen cents an hour, and the
contrast between the leisure and work
ing classes is most apparent when the
one leans back in his ease and the
other pants under the poles of the
chair. Nearly all the coolies are bare
footed, loose, tapping straw sandals
from the fine, sharp stones with which
the cement roads are set. The slip
slap, muffled sound of bare feet being
set down fatty and in a steady me-
chanical beat, as regular as machinery,
has a curious effect on one. At first it
seems as though the regularity
of the tread was enough
to sooth one to sleep, but
afterwards, especially if coming home
late in the evening through these still
avenues of trees and high stone walls,
there is something in this methodical
foot fall that gives one an uncomforta-
bic sensation as of being carried off by
some unknown power suggestive of evil
and the supernatural The chair coolie
wears only the two cotton garments,
unless the weather is chill enough to
call for a second coat, or hot enough to
remove the first one. The trousers are
of the universal Chinese cut for the
cooIie class, each leg in Topping petit
coat of cotton, a yard wide, reaching
below the knee, No race of people have
designed an uglier dress and stuck to it
without change for so many centuries.
ESEjmO Enduranoo