The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-06-10

these streets. and the crowd which moves
through them is OF all grades and of ell
occupations. There are mandarins in
chairs, who are preceded by their servants,
who carry boards In front Of them bear
ing the titles OF their masters. There are
coolies wheeling great barrows. which a.
most hll the street from side 10 side.
There are donksys by the dozen. and
men loaded with all sorts of heavy bur-
dens, some OF which they carry upon
their backs and others which they have
hung 10 the ends of poles. here must
be necessarily much pushing and crowd
Ing, and such scene in Am erica
would include a fight on every block.
Here there is nothing of the kind. The
scholar and the gentleman give way, as a
rule, 10 the heavily loaded laborer, and
the wOTkingman's rights are generally re-
spected If they are not the trades unions
are such that they bring the officials and
people to time. A striking instance of this
recently happened at Marking. The Chi
nese, you know, have no such thing as
sewers, and all Of the Stops of each house
hold are collected every day by men and
carried out into the country to be stored
in watts and afteTward used as liquid ma
nure. Not drop nor an atom of anything
OF feTtIlZlng nature is allowed to 60 20
waste, and slops have their fixed price in
the market and are bought and sold. The
collectors OF these slopS are the most
offensive characters of a Chinese city.
They go about with two four gallon buck
cts fastened to the end of a long bamboo
pole, which rests upon their shoulders
Carrying with them a smell worse than a
bopedust factory, they belong TO the low
est classes of the people. The other day
one of these men was rapidly walking
through Marking when he happened on
turning a corner 10 run into high man
DARN and spatteTed him with the cor
80 hfrol a. u.
ordered him to be arrested, and he was
taken to prison. The head of the slop
union objected, and demanded that the
man be freed. 1t was not done, and the
slOp- carriers struck in a body. The 500,-
600 people of Marking had no way to get
rid of their slops. and the danger of an
epidemic disease was Imminent.
Suppose you should. for instance, for a
week stop up the sewers of your city you
could then appreciate something of the
state of Marking at this time. Marking,
however, was far worse off, for il has no
sewers at all. The result was that the
mandarin was so besieged that he let his
prisoner 60 free and RENTED his fine.
find that the Chinese have fair idea of
Justice. They will fight against wrong,
and there is as much of a democracy here
in this respect as there is in America
There is no place where debts are so pune
tually paid and where credit is so easily
gotten by all classes OF people. Honesty
and integrity are above par in China, and
foreigners tell me they would rather deal
with the Chinese merchant than with any
other business man in the world. He
never goes back on his spoken or written
word, and Even Cameron, one of the lead
ing directors of the HoDg-Kong and Shang-
hal Bank, an este blishment which does
the biggest banking business on the West
ern Pacific, and whose capital amounts to
millions, on leaving China not long ago
said that in the dealings of the bank with
Chinese merchants for a period of more
than twenty years and IN sums aggregat-
ing hundreds of millions of dollars he had
never met with defaultlng Chinaman.
Since this statement was made the bank
has been defrauded by a Chinese cashier.
In general, however, the statement is cor
rect.
The penalties of the law are often very
severe, and the Chinese frequently take
tie punishment into their own hands. All
along the Grand canal and the Yangtse
you may see at the villages here and there
boats cut in half and placed upon ends.
asked what these were and was told that
they were the boats of thieves OF pirates
who had been caught stealing The Grim
inals had had their heads cut off, and
their boats were thus set up as warning
to others. In Shanghai l saw a dozen men
with grea; boards four feet square and
| weighing as much as forty pounds each
fastened about their Deeks, so that they
could not move their hands to their faces
nor brush off the flies. They were
| thieves. In Wuhu there is beggar wEC
| goes about on the stumps Of his legs
| which have been cut off just below the
| knees. He was caught several times steal
/ ing, and his was the penalty of his crime
! IN some parts of the empire man Is pun
| ished with death at Lis third conviction o
! theft, and pirates are always beheaded