The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1894-12-21
LIFE IN HONG KONG.
A City Of Picture sque Structures
and Uproarious Smells.
How the Europeans Pass Their Time
When Not Engaged in Business-Dens
Of Iniquity Where Jack Tar
Is Ensnared.

In Hong Kong the English equivalent
of which is Fragrant Streams" the
Chinaman shows developed taste for
tenement houses.
Hundreds of pig tails will crowd into
house built for one ordinary Euro
pean family. All the accommodation
the coolie boarder asks is a shelf COM
modious enough to smoke opium on
when he has any.
Each sleeping-room, says the Chicago
News, is converted into kind of gil
gantic apple cupboard, with tiers of
shelves all round from floor to ceiling,
divided up into lengths of six or seven
feet The cellars are called into
requisition, and, in San Francisco at
any rate, the proprietors excayate cata-
combs under the street to extend their
sickening dor1nitory accommodation.
Outwardly, however, in Hong Kong the
abodes of the Chinese are often quite
picturesque, for they have their triple
arcades like any other Hong Kong
street, and over the balustrades of
these the 'tenementers' clothes are gen
orally hanging out, the bright butch
er's blue affected by the coolie class of
course predominating. These arched
and draped dwellings are piled up
furthermore in terrace upon terrace on
the steep slopes of the island; for Hong
Kong is hung about mountain eight
cen hundred feet high above the sea.
If, however. the visitor wishes 80 see
Hong Kong at its very worst let him
dive under one of the forbidding black
archways at the bottom of THE Hill
Of Great Peace" and see the type of grog
shop and music hall and female char
acter to which Tommy Atkins intro
duces Jack Tar when a new queens
ship comes in amid roar from the bat
teries und the men-of-war of half a
dozen nations. AS the Chinese wear
piles of padded clothing, wash them
selves very little and use species of
nettoyage for making their clothes APP
pear clean, the atmosphere of this
forcing bed for the plague may be i'm
agined.
The European portion of the city is.
however. SO healthy that not single
case of the plague has occurred in it,,
though the Chinese are dying off like
flies. The apex of European life in
Hong Kong is the Peak-in two senses
1t is the highest point in the island
eighteen hundred feet above sea level
and as soon as a man becomes
wealthy. enough he buys a bungalow
there for summer residence in addi-
ton to his winter home nearer bust
ness. There is also popular and IA
nous hotel near the summit. He
reaches the Peak swinging in sedan
chair on the necks Of four stout coolies
or by climbing railway which rises so
perpendicularly in places as to Scare
the life out of a stranger.
There are seven or eight thousand
Europeans to the one hundred and fifty
thousand Chinese in Hong Kong, and
they have means of beguiling their
time which are the envy of the English
colonies in Japan. In the first place
there are the gambling bells at Ma
Gao and Kowloong. the strip of British
territory on the other side of the har-
Dor. Then there are the excellent
pony races held in the beautiful Hap
Ply Valley" just outside the cemeteries.
Christian and heather. In the season,
too, there are private theatricals as
good as any in the world, and balls
galore, aided materially by the pres
ence OF half dozen regiments, and a
dozen and 4 half men-of-war and the
purses Of rich brokers. for Hong Kong
is tie city OF brokers': and last, but not
least. there is delightful club right
in the heart Of the city.