Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-31

boats encounter the feroest typhoons with
impunity, where European ship or steamer
would founder in few hours.
Last are the China steamers. These are
all of English or German make, and always
have an Anglo-Saxon Of some sort for cap
tain and engineer The crew, officers, agents
and owners are Chinese. They do an ever
increasing business, and are becoming for
midable rivals to foreign eoastwise com
merce. These steamers are managed like
our own. ALI 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-
marry, have families and die
Women Have Their Rights at Sea-
, The women are as good sailors as the men;
In Hongkong the commanders of most boats
are women. The children are expert mari
ners at or years of age. These boatmen
are hardy, intelligent and prolific race.
China. They all prosper financially, and
many are quite wealthy, from Mongolian
standpoint, owning boats on the water and
stores and houses on the land. When they
become pirates they are the most dangerous
and bloodthirsty e1tant, neither giving nor
asking quarter under any circumstances
whatever.
How hard life becomes when q land is
overpopulatedl There are more than a
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 in way that would astonish citizen
of the great Republic. Labor is drug in
the market. An export joiner, carpenter or
metalsmith receives 25 cents q day, 81 40 for
week or s. 25 a month. A laborer is glad
to get Is cents day or So 30 month. An
old woman or small boy receives 81 a
month.
How They Practice Economy.
But to live upon these rates demands in
finite economy, and this prevails everywhere
in China At low tide the beach is crowded
with men, women and children. They
gather sea moss and convert it into gelatin;
sea weed and change 1t into nutritious
food; sea worms and sea nrchins and by slow
cooking transmute these into mysterious
stews and chowders. The driftwood thrown
up by the sea is dried and utilized for fuel.
Even the tiny animals which build little
shell houses in the mud or under rocks and
boulders are pried out one by one and served
upon the dinner table. Two hundred
scarcely fill small cup, and require four
hours hard work to gather, but they are in
the market every day and sell for or 4
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 waterInelons,
squashes, sunfowers and fruits, the entrails
of animals, the fins and bones Of fishes are
all utilized, and, it must be confessed, made
into very savory dishes. What can not be
digested by the human stomach is reserved
for the pigs, chickens and ducks, with which
every coolie family is provided.
Odd Things Made Palatable.
Thus nearly all the vegetable growths
have esculent tips when they begin to grow.
The coolie housewife boils them until they
are soft and digestible, cuts off the extreme
portions 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, cent
and even palm-tops treated in
this way, and witnessed the delight shown
by the people to whom they were served as
the chief dishes of their daily provender
The rich mandarins go the opposite ex-
treme and dine on birds-nests at $50 dozen;
ON handled gold fish, fattened frogs, tigers
Evers, preserved ducks eggs, truffies, bam-
boo oysters, cock s combs and other luxuries.
q mandarin dinner will cost
from 500 to $50 plate. When it is remem-
bered that little or no wine is used at these
- - b< -,
easily appreciated.
The Women of Annoy.
The domestic life of the Annoy Chinese is
admirable and detestable. The wife is not
but drudge. Unless she be-
longs to the coolie or boatman class, her feet
have been bandaged in infancy so that her
gait suggests a young boy learning to use
stills. Her costume is unique, consisting Of
four to seven blouses, as many trousers, hose
and low-cut shoes. She wears no hat and in
lieu of gloves, buries her hands in the folds
Of her long sleeves.
In appearance she is neat as fashion
plate. Her hair, oiled every day and sham
her face shines from soap, water and fric-
lion; her clothes are spotless, and are
brushed and ironed every morning. She is
and courteous. But her
ignorance is. unfathomab1e and her SUPER
,tition wonder. She burns joss-sticks at
he door to keep away evil spirits; in the
yarden to scare mildew and parasites from
ler plants; in the during room as an anti
lote to poisons, and in the bedroom to
ntimidate the nightmare. burglars and wild
beasts.
Unhappy When Her Husband Prospers.
She receives no company but the few
women of whom her husband approves She
,nows no men outside of her family circle.
t is deadly insult to ask Chinese gentle |
nan how his wife is. She is sad when her |
'etter half makes money, because she fears
lie will take an additional wife or two and |
purchase one or more concubines. If he |
lies it is her duty prescribed by a custom |
200 years old to commit suicide, SO that |
Ter sons can erect monument to their |
mother as ga Virtuous Widow" She goes |
owhere, reads little or nothing, sees no
and has no social pleasures |
,he never complains, because she has been |
aught to be what she is and no thought of |
hange or difference has probably ever
rossed her mind.
AT times she catches glimpse of Euro
ean women, but regards them with more
ontempt and deeper loathing than the out
asts of her own sex and race. Her happi-
ess is in her kitchen, her garden and her |
hildren 1t is through having nothing
lse to do that she has acquired her marvel
us skill in raising silk-worms. in spinning
he thread, weaving the tissue and making II
be exquisite embroidery for which China
, famous EDWARD BEDLOE.