The morning call., 1894-06-24

the feet of the horses killed in battle and
were brought here by the thousands of
barrels.
The old-clothes man of China does a
bigger business than his brothers of other
parts OF the world. There are streets of
secondhand clothiers in every Chinese
city. ana clothes are sold over and over
again, until they get down to the beggaTs.
BY this time they are shreds of rags. but
heir end is not yet. After the beggarS
find them too poor for even their use they
are sold as old rags and are bought by the
makers of shoes. The shoes of the men
and boys of China have soles nearly an
inch thick, and these sOles are made of
rags, which have been washed and dried
and then pasted LAYER upon layer, until
they reach the thickness required. They
are cut then into shape and are so pol
ished along the edges thatyou would think
them made of leather or wood. The
uDpers are made of different qualities
of silk or fine cloth, and the Chinaman's
shoe if manufactured in America would
cost more than the kind we use our
selves. In the making OF the rain boots
Tor muddy weather and hard travelling
sOes of iron are often added, and the
itlnerant shoemaker who sits in nearly
every block of Chinese town has pig
headed iron shoe tacks to drive into the
sOles to save wear and tear, and there are
places where you can have your Chinese
zap TeBONdlCu anu udQ6 equal 10 new.
Even the rich, who have thousands OF dol
lars invested in their fur garments, do not
throw them away when they get dirty
They will wear a coat of silk lined with
lambs wool till the lining is as black
as your haG. But some day the coat
will disappear. 1t will be ripped apart
and preparation of lime and other
material will be used which will make
II as white aud as pure as when it was first
bought. The clothing Of the poor is patched
aud repRtched, and there are women by the
score in every Chinese city who 90 about
doing mendiDg. | see them sitting in the
narrow streets outside the houses working
away under the hot sun, and they 90 from
mouse 10 house and do the patching Of the
families for a few cash per patch. 1t is
the same with the members of crockery
and broken china. These are so skilled
that they will take cup or teapot of the
finest and thinnest of porcelain after it has
been broken into pieces. and by means of
wire rlvets, which are fastened only TO the
outside of the cup or pot. put it together
so that you could not tell if you saw only
the inside that 1t had ever been broken.
They will mend a half-doZen pieces in this
way for from two to three cents. The
work is marvellous. 1t could not be done
bv the watchmakers of America, but it is
one OF the specialties of the Chinese itin-
Grant tinker.
l might go on for; column describing
others of the wonderful economies | see all
around me. ] could tell you how these
people Will take buffalo's horn of about
the size of cows horn and by boiling 1t
and pressing it out make it so thin that il
becomes lantern and forms transparent
globe as big as a two gallon crock. l could
show you them sitting in their shops han
ding old cotton wadding which has been
worn by several different owners till it as
almost dropped to pieces. They will pull 1t
apart. take out the cotton. half clean it and
mix it with fresh CO ton for sale. Take a
look at the BARRIERS who stand on every
street shaving the heads OF all males from
old men TO babies. They receive from less
than cent TO cents a shave, according to
the rank and wealth of their customer,
but you note that they save the scrapin gs
of the head, and these bits of hair are sold
by them to furniture dealers for the max
ing of cushions. 1t is the same with eat
ables. All sorts of green's are eaten. cooked
and raw, and a large number of the beg
gars are supported every winter by the
government of the towns and villages, but
as soon as spring comes this appropria-
ton is dropped and they are literally
turned out to grass.
As to Seggars. there is no country in the
world that has more impudent beggars
than China. but doubt whether in pro-