The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-03-10

Canton is of about the size of Paris or
New York, and is one of the best of places
to study Chinese gaStrOnOmy. The restaur-
ants here have birds nest soup at 81
plate, and bought rat which was sailed
and dried, yesterday, for ) cents. | doubt
not the price was five times too high. for
the rat was the smallest on the string
which hung in the butcher shop 1t lies
before me as / write. 1t measures foot
from nose to tail, and it looks a little bit like
a piece Of dried pork. 1t has been skinned
even to the tail. Its legs are cut off and
/ the liver and heart are pressed inside of it.
/ II smells like salt meat and it looks as
! though 1t would make the centre of a good
/ sandwich. l propose to send it to
/ the Gridiron and Glover club as
sample of Chinese gastronOmy In this
same shop l saw cooked cats and l
visited yesterday cat and dog meat res
taurant Carcasses of small dogs which
! looked not unlike clean sucking pigs hung
from hooks about low dark room, and
these, in most instances, had a tuft of hair
left on the tip of the tail. This hair was
black, for black dogs meat is worth more
than that of the yellow dog and black cats
| flesh costs here ten cents a plate. Just be
/ low these dogs, andneXt to the street, were
two clay bowls filed with burning char
coal and upon these was stewing the flesh
| OF dogs and cats. IN little cages on the
/ floor were number of live cats ready to
/ be killed and cooked to order, and l saw
this afternoon peddler showing cat to
woman in one of the narrow streets Of
! Canton. The woman as examining the
eats teeth in order to know its age and she
/ felt Of its body as though it were Il rabbit.
| There were about a dozen Cinnamon dining
in this dog and cat restaurant, and a good
dinner costs on an average fifteen cents.
THE MARKETS OF THE HEATHENs.
The Chinese, however, have as good mar
llets as you viii find anywhere in the world.
l have never seen greater variety of fruits
and vegetables anywhere than in Picking,
Shanghai and Canton. The mutton of the
north is finer than that of England. and the
game is Of the choicest. Fish are always
sold alive and you see tubs of living fish ut
| every Cantonese market stand. The mar
llet man takes the squirming fish from the
water and cleans it while it gasps. He
holds its wiggling tail and cuts slices Of
uuiveriug flesh from its sides to sell, and he
is cruel here as everywhere. All kinds OF
dried fish are sold, and among the common
articles Of food are dried ducks pressed
and sailed. These hang up everywhere and
I see smoked sleeps heads, dried oysters
strung on strings and dried CLANS. The
Chinese fruits are especially fine and JheV
have oranges, bananas, plums, pears and
persimmons which would make your mouth
water. Canton sends thousands OF dollars
Of sweet meats to America yearly and their
preserved ginger is sought for by the gas
/ trOnOuners of the world. The Chinese them
selves are great eaters. Cook shops for the
rich and poor are found everywhere, and a
big Chinese dinner sometimes has one
hundred courses. Mr.. DENLY, the Amerl-
can minister at Picking, when received by
| the viceroy at Canton, was given 4 dinner
of sixty-five courses and he smacls his lips
when he discOurses upon the delicacy Of
sharks fms and birds nest soup.
LIVING ON THE WATER.
I took ride on the river this afternoon.
| Canton has about three hundred thousand
! people who live on the water and there Is
no buster city in the world than this city OF
boats. Crafts of all kinds from the small
steamer. the great Chinese junk and the
tubs rowed by spoon-like paddles move
here and there or dart in and out through
forests of masts. Whole families live on
boats about twenty feet long and no wider
than the average city Vesubule. Here
children are born, grow up and die. Mar
r;ages take place and the whole business
and action of life goes on. Little children
| swarm over them and tots Two years
old with cues hanging down their backs.
play about upon the decks. The boys have
little round barrels or drums about foot
long and six inches in diameter, tied by
strings to their backs, and many girls q
| the same size have nOCllQg. II Lue gil
falls overheard it would be q good fOrtul e
to the poor family to get rid of the expen e
of raising her, but the boy must have h
life-preserver. Poor girls are OF no account
lin China, and infantici1e is still common.
You can buy a girl baby for from one cent
I'D to q dollar, and at the Jesuit children S
ASYLUM near Shanghai one of the sisters
told me that they bought hundreds OF girls
every year for less than dollar apiece.
At Foo Chow Mr.. Wingate, our consul,
told me of a poor woman who strangled her
own baby girl in order that she might adopt
The baby of a neighbor to raise as wife for
herHttle son, and missionary there told me
Of a man who went around peddllng chill
dren. There is founding asylum here,
which upon the payment of 20 cents by the
mother will take a girl baby to raise, but
these girls are sold as soon as they grow
, much asst the weaving age, and they are
bought in large numbers by brothel keep
ers. The selling of girls for wives and con
cubines is common, and full-grown maidens
, bring from S25 upwards spent day sit
ting beside the Chinese judge in the NIKE
court in Shanghai and among the cases
: led was tlat of an old woman who wanted
10 prosecute a mandarin for breaking his
contract in the buying of her daughter. Inc
Girl was sold for $50 and the mandarin tooh
: her with him to FormOsa, but did not pay
the mother. Babies are often bought here
! their eyes are put out and they are ralsec
} as blind beggars.