The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-10-23

embroidered shoes. The color of the
clCthiDg is infinite in variety. No two
girls use the same color. No tint is
employed which is sombre or subdued.
Scarlet, crimson, vermilion, ruby, gar
net, cherry, magenta and blood,
among the reds; sulphur, straw, sal
mon, gold, lemon, orange, chrome,
gamboge, topaz, saffron and tumerlc,
among the yellows; ultramarine, sap
phire, turquoise, azurite, gendarme
blue, Prussian blue, cobalt blue, vio-
let, lilac and mauve. among the blues;
grass, copper, malachite, uranium,
Nile green, lettuce, young banyan and
emerald, among the greens, are favor
ties. The Chinese dyerS and silk deal
ers recognize nine hundred different
Upright" colors, and from this long
list the sing-song girl picks the raw
material of her clothes. The coat is
of one color, the collar and edging of
a second. In addition to this the ma
terial is brocaded, painted, or embroid-
cred. The effect of a dozen persons
dressed in this manner is startling in
its brilliancy. Nor is it lessened by
the rich silken robes worn by the Chi
nese gentlemen present or by the ban
ners and chromatic decorations of the
apartment.
The sing-song girls chat with one
another minute or two and then be-
come silent as one of the number ex-
ecutes an instrumental solo. She plays
well, keeping accurate time and dis
playing here and there considerable
talent. But the music, even at its
best, is not altogether satisfactory to
the American ear. There is no shad-
ing in the quantity of sound. Every
note is equally loud. The notation
differs from our own. Two consecu-
tive notes are sometimes merely a
fraction of half-tone apart, and some
times two or three tones. The key
varies, or, rather, there is no real key
whatever. 1t is major in one moment
and minor the next. Within five
minutes the key may change dozen
times. Besides this, nearly everything
is in the upper register. The full low
er notes are almost unknown. Ord1-
nary music starts with T. on the treble
clef and expires somewhere far up in
shrill squeak.
BY the time two or three pieces have
arrived and the company adjourns to
the dining hall. This is handsome
and capacious chamber, similar in
furnishing to the reception room. In
the center is the dinner table. which
is longer, wider, and higher than those
employed at home. The chairs are
huge but very comfortable affairs of
finely carved ebony, inlaid with
mother-of-pearl. They are built after
a model which would meet the ap-
proval of fat mems club, being large
enough for a giant. Additional ease
is given to the guest by arranging the
chairs nearly two feet apart. After
your place is designated, you remove
your coat, hand it to an attendant,
and take your seat.
Then the sing-song girl comes for
ward with a low stool and sits half be-
hind you to your right. The girls have
relinQuished their musical alinstruments
and now each bears a silver tray on
which are a water pipe, cigar lighters,
cigarettes and cigars. This they lay
on the floor beside them. The
walters bring in the first course. The
girls arise and serve the guests from
the central dishes. At first they do it
in dignified and serious fashion, trans
ferring the food to your plate, bring
ing delicacies to you from various
parts of the table, filling your teacup
and pouring into your drinking cup
the hot wines and liquors so popular
with the Mongolian. All the time
they keep up running fire of con-
versation, joking one second and tell
ing a pithy story the next, making
fun of you at one moment and of your
neighbor Immediately afterward,
humming an air, whistling a catch,
initiating bird, doing anything and
everything to provoke mirth and
laughter.
At the end of fifteen minutes or as
soon as there comes a lull in the pro-
ceedings a recess is taken and truce
declared with eating. The girls have
foreseen it, ard as the guests lean
back in their chairs, offer them their
choice of pipe, cigar, or cigarette. In
many cases smart girl will have
found out a mans preference, and
have it at his lips before he realizes
what she is doing. Those who prefer
to sit still remain in their chairs;
others rise and stroll around the two
rooms and such halls as may be open
to guests, and still others lie down on
a bunk and try the seductive fumes of
opium. In the mean time the girls
have handed their fans to the host
and taken seats in corner of the
apartment alongside the orchestra.
The fans are of ivory or elk and con-
tain list of popular songs and pieces
beautifully inscribed upon the sticks.
The host selects one or more and re-
turns the fans to the owners. The
number CHOSEN Is nearly always a
song, and may be anything from a
simple ballad to a part song requiring
every one of the performers.
No manuscript nor roll is produced.
Such an act would be considered
intra dig. by Chinese professional.
No one can be successful artist un-
less she can carry in her memory
the words and music of at least five
hundred compositions. Generally
the piece is vocal solo, duet, or trio.
The singers accompany themselves on
a either, mandolin, and violin. Their
colleagues may play second or similar
instruments while their male orches-
ira brings in the heavy work. This
is amusing, if not annoying. One
tom tom, the bass, consists of snake
skin drawn over what seems an an
cient beer keg. and is played with
bar of wood like druggists pestle.