Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-09-03
Letter From China.

Siin"OS3oO lSel do my O-APOiiShSS SONS'
/ should say, go to the Hawaiin Is
lands, where the thermometer ranges
from 65 to 80 degrees-the two ex-
tremes for the entire year. The
most disagreeable is in Hong Kong
during the months of July and Au-
gust. From So to 80 degrees isn't
considered exactly frigid, but it is
considered comfortable weather.
China is country that has been
well written up by great many
writer's. Scarcely a library in the
world but what contains numerous
works on China. The American Sun
day School and missionary papers US
ually have something on the subject.
Most writer's seem to select Canton
above all other places to occupy the
most prominent part in their books,
and even the school geography has
pictured 'sa street scene in Canton
| will answer for it's being true to
life, for [ have made three trips to
that city. Any encyclopedia will tell
you its situation and principal char
acteristics. 1t is distant about 80
miles from Hong Kong, and is the
head of navigation for large craft on
the Pearl river, a stream that falsely
suggests pureness and cleanliness to
the readers mind, for it is certainly
the dirtiest stream that | ever saw.
The river was formerly navigable be-
yond Canton, but during the war be-
tween 185O-1860 the river bed was
filled with combustibles and obstruc-
tions to prevent the French and Eng
lish from ascending the river, and the
Chinese have never had enterprise
enough to reopen it. Canton proper
is surrounded by wall six miles in
circumference, and the space enclOs-
ed is divided into halves by another
wall, the Tartar descendants occupy
ing one side and the Chinese the 9TH
er. Within this enclosure the esti-
mated population is one million. 1t
is customary to register the popula-
ton of Chinese cities, within the walls
only, which often gives wrong i'm
preston of the true size. For in
stance, outside of the wall of Canton,
with the boat life on the river includ-
ed, nearly another million of people
reside. / see no reason why the
latter should not be included in
the estimated total, for the walled
portion of the city are so closely
blended that were it not for the wall
one could not tell where to place the
dividing line. The most endurable
place in Canton is an artificial island
called the Shamier, about a mile in
circumference. This was formerly
a useless sandbar, until the enterpris-
ing Britisher turned it into paradise.
1t is now the most valued portion of
the city, and is entirely occupied by
Europeans. Large firms in London
and elsewhere have their branch offic-
es here, whose business is to buy and
attend to the shipping of goods. The
customs officials live here, land in fact,
the European population of Canton
can nearly all be estimated from the
Shamier alone, which ] should judge
to be considerably less than 700.
The Chinese customs are all col
lected and controlled by the English
at the treaty ports. China could not
pay the heavy indemnity demanded |
by Great Britain after the war. They |
said, "we have no revenue" Great |
Britain said, >''very well, we will es-
tablish and collect your customs for
you until the debt is cancelled and
Great Britain goes on collecting Chi
mas customs.
No matter what is written to the
contrary, if Canton is an example, L
saw that the Chinese are the most un-
feeling, inhuman beings in existence.
On my first visit to Canton, after
leaving the steamer, l passed a mud
fat near the wharf that was being
filed with rubbish. My attention
was attracted to perhaps a dozen
coolies, who were standing by heap
Of ashes not more than five feet from
the walk Here | was in the country,
in the very city, that | used to think
SO wonderfully strange, as gazed on
the wood cut in my geography, and
wished myself a man, rich enough
to travel in China. OF course | was
on the qui UiUe to see everything 60
ing, otherwise / might not have no.
ticed the little knot by the ash heap.
On looking to see what was going on,
[ was considerably surprised to see a
poor wretch all but naked rolling and
clutching at the ashes. can opium
victim dying" thought. | stepped
aside and watched the scene for fif-
teen or twenty minutes. L wanted
to learn something of these people.
1t struck me as being very strange
that out of the many hundreds of
people who passed that spot every
hour, the little knot about the dying
man never seemed to increase or di-
minish by more than three or four.
Surely, thought /, this cannot be a
common, every day occurrence? but
if not, why this Indifference? They
would jabber among themselves, laugh
at the poor devils struggles, and 90
their way. l saw this repeated by
different actors three or four times
while / stood there. Not move
not hand was raised to assist the