Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-10-25

streets which contain no other shops
/ We have the idea that the Chinese
i merely live upon rice and upon rats
| and that their chief industries are the
! making of mating, of fans and OF
| silks. The truth is that China does 3
vast business, and she produces al
sorts of commodities. Nearly every
one Of these Chinese streets contains
shops of all kinds, and the main bust
ness OF China is not supplying goods
for the foreign markets, but the max
ing of those required for her own peo-
pie. They have as many wants as
we have. and they require as much
goods. The mobiles dress in the finest
of silk. and there are hundreds of
stores which sell nothing but pictures.
The art displayed in most of the paint
ings is abominable, but they are pict-
ureS, nevertheless, and the Chinese
pay good money for them.
| wish | could show you the mar
ketS of Pekin. You can get as good
meat here as you can in New York.
and there is no finer mutton in the
world than that of north China. The
sheep are of the fat-tailed variety.
and l saw many which had tails
weighing over pound. 1t is queer
how they kill the animals which. they
sell. They have no slaughter houses.
and a sheep is often butchered in
front of the shop and the blood lies
on the ground While you buy There
are all sorts of fish, and they are al
ways sold alive. No Chinaman would
buy a dead fish, and in case you want
to buy less than a whole fish at a
time the Chinese peddler will pull the
fish out of the water, lay him squirm-
ing on the block, and cut piece of
qulvering flesh out of his side for you
while you wait. He does not kill the
fish, and after you are through he
throws 1t back into 4 separate pail of
water and waits for another customer
to take off the rest. One of the chief
meats sold is pork, and you see hogs
trOtting about through the streets of
Pekin. They wallow in the puddles
right under the shadow of the emper-
Or'S palaces, and they are the dirtiest
hogs in the world. There are all sorts
of game for sale in the markets, and
you can get snipe and quail and squir-
rels of all kinds. The Chinese are the
best raisers Of poultry in the world.
They have duck farms and goose
farms, and they know all about arti-
ha SNI1 =
quantities of dried geese and dried
ducks, and they carry bushel-baskets
full of dried ducks about the city for
sale. They sell all kinds of fruit and
they are adopts in the raising of the
choicest of vegetables. They bury
winter, and you can buy your nuts by
- cats, dogs and rats,
| did not see any sold in Pekin, and |
don't believe that the better classes
are accustomed to use them. | am
told, however, that such cats as are
sold in the south are raised and fat
tened especially for the market, and
that their diet is usually rice. Dogs
flesh is supposed, by the people, to
give heroic properties to those who
feed on it, and the same effect is pro-
duced by bears meat and the ground
up bones of tigers. These things ought
to bring a high price just now in Pekin
for the people certainly have reason
to increase their courage Another
queer article that you see in the Pekin
market is false hair. l passed several
places where lOng-Queued Cinnamon
stood beside board upon which were
hung long punches of black Chinese
locks. Each of these was a false pig
tail, and it is said that one of the
chief articles of export from Corea
to China is human hair. The Chinese
braid extra locks into their queues and
they often patch out their queues with
silk thread.
The most interesting part of Pekin,
however, is the big Tartar city. 1t is
the capital of one third of the pOpula-
ton on the globe, and in it lives the
son Of heaven, the emperor of China,
to whom all his subjects must bend
their knees. 1T contains the thousands
of Manchu officials, the foreign lega-
tons, the government departments and
all the paraphernalia of this queer
Chinese court. 1t is the mos interest
ing city on the face of the globe, and
it's sights really beggar description
From the walls the whole city looks
like an immense orchard, with here
and there one-story buildings shining
out through the trees. In It's center
there is a walled off inclosure filled
with massive buildings, rooted with
yellow tiles. This is the imperial city,
in the innermOst parts of which is a
brick pen inclosing several square
miles, where the emperor lives, sur
rounded by eunuchs. He is perhaps
the rareSt bird in the whole Chinese
aviary, and 1 will follow this with a
special letter describing some of his
antics. He is kept apart from Chinese
and foreigners, and you might live in
Pekin 80 years and not see him. He
really knows nothing about his people
or Dts surroundings, and ne is a sort
of puppet who stands still or dances
when his highest officials or the old
empress dOwager pulls at the string
No better idea of the condition of
the government Of China could be got
ten than by a trip through this Tartar
city. 1t is one of the oldest towns in
the world. 1t was founded more than
a thousand wears before Christ and if