Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1891-09-04
LIN FAR-0FF Annoy.
prCTuREs OF LIFE ON TIE
CHINESE COAST.
"How Rigid Economy Is Practical In
Land That Is Ovcr-popuIated-
Cnfathomabic Ignorance anu
Peculiar Superstitions.

Niou' eofeiers, tnc CDlneSc Go as much
maritime commerce as any European ma
ton. The bay ut Annoy is always crowed
with native craft. The vessels are not
very handsome, but they are verJ cheap.
They begin with the sampan, which Is
halt scow and half gondola. 1t carries
from three to twenty passengers and can
neither capsize nor founder. It's owner
lives in it, having miniature stove aud
pantry, using the floor rs bed and max
Ing nightly roof out of bamboo mat.
He pays Sl2 for the sampan when new,
spends 81 year iu Frightening up the
scarlet, ultra marine, gold aud green
paint with which it is decorated, aud
charges two cents to ferry passenger a
mile. Then come the freight sampans,
(which range in size from Whitehall boat
TO an eigthty-foot lighter. They bring
tea, brick, tiles, terra Gotta and produce
to Annoy and carry away merchandise.
a vast fleet of fishing boats is the next to
DC noticed. They are clumsy and fragile
things in appearance, but in reality arc
strong, swift and scagoing. Their &C.
'cupants fish with trawl or dragncts,
which they fasten to the stern, and are
always successful. What they catch is
thrown into water tanks aboard aud de-
hvered alive at the fish market. A coolie
with bamboo rod gently but constantly
stlrs the fish to keep them alive till sold.
Still larger than the fishing smacks are
the great trading junks which in build
and rig resemble the Spanish gallcons of
the old buccaneer days. They arc vast
structures of bamboo, rattan and soft
light wood. The sails are constructed
of grass mating, stiffencd with bamboo
ribs, and when set look like a bats
wings. These bouts encounter the
tierccst typhoons with impunity, while a
European ship or steamer would founder
in few hours.
Last arc the China steamers. These
are all of English or German make and
always have Anglo-Saxons of some sort
for captain and engineer. The crew,
officers, agents and owners are Chinese.
They do an ever increasing business and
arc becoming formidable rivals to foreign
'coastwisc commerce. The steamers arc
managed like our own. All the other
Chinese boats are conducted in a very
different manner. Each is floating
home, or village. The smaller ones have
one family on board; the larger, two
three and up to ten. On these un-
wieldly craft the boatmcn are born, grow
up, marry, have families, and die. The
women are rs good sailors Us the men.
In Hong Kong the commanders of most
boats are women. The children are ex-
pcrts mariners mt six or seven years OF
age. The boatrcn arc a hardy, intcll-
gent and prolific race. There arc said to
be 800, 900 of them in China. They all
prosper financially, and many are quite
wealthy, from Il OIongolan standpoint,
owning boats on the water aud stores and
houses on the land. When they become
pirates they are the most dangerous and
b!oodthirsty eX;ant, neither giving nor
asking quarter under any circumstances
whatever.
How hard life becomes when land is
ovcr-populatcd! There are more than
million sous in and about Annoy alone.
They are SO crowded together that when
you see them you forget they are human
and imagine them ants or bees on larger
scale than usual. They have to live, and
they do it i'll way that would astonish
a drug in the market. An expert joiner,
carpenter or mctasmith receives twenty
five cents day, 81. 40 week, or SIS. 25
4 month. ~ aborer is glad to get fifteen
cents day, or 50. u month. An old
women or Il small boy receives 81 Il
month.
But to live upon these rates demands
in finite economy, and this prevails every
where in China. At low tide the beach
ID crowded with men, women anil chill
-drcn. They gather sea moss and change
1T into nutritious food, sea worms and
sea urchins aad b. SLOW cooking trans
mute these into mysterious stcws and
.chowders. The drftwood thrown UP
by the sen is dricI and used for fuel.
Even the tiny animal which builds little
shell houses in the mud or under rocks
and bouldcrs are pried out, one by one,
and served upon the dinner table. Two
hundred scarcely till small cup and re-
.Quire four hours hard work to gather,
but they are in the market every day and
sell for three or four cents u pound. The
children are trained to pick up dead
leaves, sticks and straws and put them
'asiuc W ufy u1Cli uSeaOle as rc-W0Ou.
>Onc child keeps family supplied by
working eight hours day. Necessity
teaches them how to prepare for food
what we consider worthless weeds. The
tops of turnips, carrots, sweet potatoes
and onions, the seeds of watcrmclons,
'squashes, suniowers and fruits, the en-
trails of animals, the fins and bones of
fishes ere all utilized, and it must be con-
'fesscd made into very savory dishes.
What cannot be digested by the human
stomach is reserved for the pigs, chick
ems and ducks, with which every cooie
family is provided. Thus nearly ali the
vegetable growths have csculent tips
when they begin to grow. The coolie
housewife boils them until they are soft
and digestible, cuts off the extreme por-
tions for the human members of her
household and puts aside the remainder
for her various animals. I have seen
grass, clover, thistles, cabbage stalks,
cactus, century pants and even palm
tops treated in this way, and witnessed
the delipht shown by the neoDle tn whom