Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1891-08-21
In FAR-0FF Annoy.
PICTURES OF LIFE ON TIE
CHINESE COAST.
-<aow Rigid Economy is Practicei In
Land That is Over-popuiated-
Cnfathomablc Ignorance and
peculiar Supersiitions.

cious trhVeler5, the chinese do rs much
maritime commerce as any European ma
ton. The bay at Annoy is always crowed
with native craft. The vessels are not
very handsome, but they are verJ cheap.
They begin with tho sampan, which is
halt scow and half gondola. It carries
from three to twenty passengers aud can
neither capsize nor founder. Its owner
lives in it, having miniature stove and
pantry, using the floor as bed and max
ing nightly roof out of bamboo mat.
He pays Sl2 for the sampan when new,
spends 81 year in Frightening up the
scarlet, ultra-marine, gold aud green
paint with which it is decorated, aud
charges two cents to ferry passenger
mile. Then come the freight sampans,
(which range in size from a Whitehall boat
ito au 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
be noticed. They are clumsy and fragile
things in appearance, but in reality are
strong, swift and seagoing. 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 atoa:d aud de-
livercd alive ut tho fish market A coolic
with bamboo rod gently but constantly
stirs 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 galleons of
the old buccauccr days. They are vast
structures of bamboo, rattan aud soft
, light wood. The sails arc constructed
of grass mating, stilTcned with bamboo
ribs, and when set look like a bats
wings. These boats encounter the
ticrcest typhoons with impunity, while
European ship or steamer would founder
in a few hours.
Last are the China steamers. These
are all of English OF German make and
always have Anglo-Saxons of some sort
Tor captain and engineer. The crew,
officers, agents aud owners are Chinese.
They do an ever increasing business and
are becoming formidable rivals to foreign
'coastwise commerce. The steamers are
managed like our own. All the other
Chinese boats are conducted in a very
different manner. Each is a floating
home, or village. The smaller ones have
one family on board; the larger, two
three and up to ten. On these IN
wicldly craft the boatmen are born, grow
up, marry, have families, and die. The
women are as good sailors as the men.
In Hong Kong the commanders of most
boats are women. The children are en-
pcrts mariners Mt six or seven years of
-Ne. The boatmcn are hardy, inteli-
HDnt and prolific race. There arc said to
be 300, 600 of them in China They all
prosper financially, and many are quite
wealthy, from Il Monaghan standpoint,
owning boats on the water anil stores and
houses OH the land. When they become
pirates they are the most dangerous and
-b!oodthirsty eXtaat, neither giving nor
asking quarter under any circumstances
whatever.
How hard life becomes when n land is
'bver7populated! There, are more than
million souls 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
u citizen of the great republic. Labor is
a drug in the market. An expert joiner,
carpenter or netalsmith receives twenty
live cents day, Sl.40 week, or So. 25
n mouth. ~ labo"cr is glad to get fifteen
cents day, or So. so month. An old
women or 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
Is crowded with men, women and CHI
'dren They gather sea moss and change
1t into nutritious food, sea worms and
sea urchins and by slow cooking trans
mute these into mysterious stews and
schowdcrs. The driftwood thrown up
by the sen is dried add uscl for fuel.
Even the tiny animal which builds little
shell houses in the mud or under rocks
and bouidcrs are pried out, one by one
and served upon the dinner table Two
hundred scarcely fill a small cup and re-
.quirc four hours hard work to gather
but they are in the market every day and
sell for three or four cents pound. The
children are trained to pick up dead
leaves, sticks and straws and put them
aside to dry until useable as fire. wood.
One 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 watcrmelons,
squashes, sunflowers and fruits, the en-
, trails of animals, the fins and bones of
y fishes arc all utilized, and it must be con-
fessed made into very savory dishes
What cannot be digestcd 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 esculent tips
aThcn they begin to grow. The coolie
housewife boils them until they are soft
and digcstible, cuts off the extreme por-
tions for the human members of her
household aud puts aside the remainder
for her various animals. have seen
grass, clover, thistles, cabbage stalks,
cactus, century pants and even palm
tops treated in this way. and witnessed