Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-07-18
SCENES IN HONG.KONG.
HfndOo Policemen, Professional Menders
and Female Hod- Carriers.

mug otIeooo dio Vic OlkH pOllccHoH,
tall, finely built Hindoos, with the
classic finely-cut features of that race.
In summer they wear military uni
form of white duck, and at this time
coat and trousers of dark blue cloth
with silver buttons. At all other times
their heads are wrapped up in the huge
turbans of bright red muslin. a broad
four-ya ard strip being wound around
their heads IN some way that they only
can do. The Sikhs have great au-
thority over the Chinese, and at fires
they keep the schreeching heathens
roped off at a good distance, and
maintain order that "our finest"
might envy. O.her Hindoos, in less
snowy and more primitive clothes,
pass by with the multitl de. and
on the higher terrace roads one sees
Indian ayahs, or nurses, out with
focks of little children The avahs'
scant winding gowns and head cloths
are generally white. and there is
something ghostly in these slender,
silent figures. The ayahs carry them
selves well, and their fnely-cut noses
and gaz lie eyes show what fine and
noble race they spring from.
The Parsees, with their black horse
hair, chimney-pot hats with step in
the crown, and their close turbans Of
camers hair exquisitely woven and
embroidered with fine gold thread,
and their protruding eyes, are the
most serious beings in existence, vet
they suggest something comic to one.
1t may be all in the cut of their coats,
which are straight sack, buttoned
from the chin to the hem in front, and
falling straight and tight at the back
without flap, a cross-line. or Il curved
seam. This coat reaches nearly
to the knees, and the man has some
thing the look of wearing a coffin. In
each of the side seams under the arms
there is a pocket hole. and altogether
the Parsee's Prince Albert is a fine
caricature on that garment of dav-
light ceremony. Cingalese. with their
one big bandana-sort of handker-
chief or table-cloth wrapped about
them for a petticoat and a child's
round hair comb set on their heads
like a coronet set backwards, are
matched by the Malays. who wear any
sort of costume that they have been
able to gather up.
To my mind the unique feature of
Hong Kong streets are the profess
sional members or sewing women,
ugly, old Chinese women, with half
dwarfed feet. who crme out in the
morning with low S! ools and basket
of rags and sit by the curbstones or
in archways, recesses or doorways,
and sew away all day long. They do
not exactly darn stockings and sew on
buttons, but their labors correspond
to that. and for trifle a poor work.
man can have his tattered coat
patched and mended or his old
garments made over. Peddlers of
oranges. of dry goods, lamps. toys and
fancy wares stop bowling their wares
through the streets to chat with the
professional members, and of all Chi
nese women the members seem to have
the pleasantest lot. They are wise
looking old Bettys, all of them. and
sometimes they wear huge horn
trimmed spectacles that make them
look like Minerals bird. To watch
them planning, and turning, and
twisting their garments and rags Is
most diverting; and two old members
down the road here are beginning to
look upon me as an intending GUS
toner, fronl the way in which they try
to further engage nv attention each
time and display their skill. The
members look down the social ladder
a great ways at the coolie women en-
ployed on public works in the streets.
but the coolie women probably find
some one further below to drop their
superior gaze upon. 1t jars one
little to see women and children
! carrying baskets of earth sluno from
pole balanced over one shoulder, but
in this way all the DIGGING out and
filling up of the Hong Kong hillsides
and terraces have been done. These
burden-bearers are not above the
small vanities of the sex either and
they wear bracelets and anklets of
white metal, earrings and hair orna-
ments of imitation jade-stone. poor
things. One might expect these female
hod-carriers to be careless Of or in
different to- the charm of delicate
complexion; but they are human and
feminine even in that point, and to
the edge of their flat coolie hats they
sew deep founce of blue cotton that
f1utters about their ugly faces after the
same manner as the priceless lace
ruffie of her garden hat that shades
the face of the Cypress Eagonie in
Winterhalter' S famous portrait of that
lovely woman. Cor. st. LOUIS Globe
! Democrat