The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1895-01-24
On tao Ir at Il In OF CHM.

To imagine a Chinese city you must
try to fancy both city and country walled
Ia together; dense city. and green fields
and groves side by side within a long
gray battlemented wail You must
fancy the enclosure dissected by canals
as well as streets. and the streets must
be pictured as only. from five to nine
feet wide, so that the awesome crowds
in the principal thoroughfares are as the
crowds on broadway would be IL all the
people were assembled on one Broadway
sidewalk. AS there are no carriage roads,
there are no carriages. The rich ride in
sedan chairs, high above your head on
poles laid on the shoulders of coolies
The ordinary folk ride on wheelbarrows.
II at all, and nearly everybody walks
Inc travel outside the cities is by boat
therefore there is nearly always a good.
sized city at each point where a water
way joins the moat that surrounds the
wall. The jam, the awful crush, at one
OF these gate cities Of II is beside large
cny, rs beyond description. Boats are
there as thick as cut trees on a logging
stream. Junks, flats, chop-boats, ex.
presS-b boats. kickaway boats. sampans
and flower boats all lie in seemingly
endless huddle, with just a narrow. shift.
ing thread OF passage through the
mass. The shouting, the clatter. the din
OF yelling, distract attention from the
delicate steering your men must do to
work their way through the mass. In
the thick OF the fiotila are seen floating
houses and shops. wherein men, women
and children are at work or are sleeping
or eating. There are floating shops fol-
the sale OF fish and baskets and vege
tables, rice, nuts-everything There
are the famous flower boats, all gilt and
satin behind their carved exterior With
their showing of painted and powdered
girls ana divans and drink and pipes
The population is like that of Suffolk
street, like that OF an ant-hill or the
hold of an emigrant steamer. Over the
tops of the boats on one side are seen
the city walls, and its edging OF grass
dotted with huts of mud and bamboo
and with graves that roughen the sur
face Ike mounds OF prairie dogs. Or
the other side are the shops of the outer
city, all open TO the waterway, at the
tops of stone stairways, given over &c
crowHs of men, eating. drinking tea, shop
ping, selling, buying. idling. or rushing
about
n you enter such city by waterway
through an arched gate in the wall you
may see many pleasure craft, called
''play-pidgin boats" OF glass and lacquer
and gilt work, and wherever there Is a
stone bridge will be seen street--of
the dead walls of dwellings that show
no windows or Of long rows of shops
These shops are either wholly open. or
disclose little fanciful railing ending
with carved Hons head. to separate
the public from the shop-keepers The
shopping streets are best worth a visit
Every shop has its sign hung across
The number OF shops for the sale OF
seals, made OF wood or white metal.
brass or jade-stone, surprises a stranger
The impress of seal Is as important
there as written signature is here
The number OF tea-shops, which cores
pond to our bar-rooms, Is also pro
digious, but they show nothing but Ia
bles and chairs and BARRIERS at work
while the customers drink. The display
OF vegetables is gaudy, and the cooking
of cakes almost perfumes entire cities
In the stores for the sale OF silks or
clothing or cotton goods one sees the
stock on shelves. but In most shops very
little is displayed. Customers must ask
for what they want. And the worst
goods are always shown first-either be
cause they bring the greater proht or
because IL Is desired 10 get rid OF them
One needs great patience to get at what
a merchant has to sell. Sometimes he
shows his best stock only after many
visits TO the shop. Inc Jewelry stores
are splendid repositories OF beautiful
things, but the best one / saw in China
displayed nothing but a counter ard a
Gov, score boxes There are almost as
many places for selling ornaments for
women's hair as there are seal-shoDs
The fan-shops and the lantern-shops are
"a strange 10 the eye as they are attrac-
tive In the shops the merchants gen
sralIv keen themselves In the background.
beside an ink-slab and brush or cup
Of ysu 's see when yoa note ,hs
long crrled-up finger-nails OF the master
and the heavy jade-stone ring upon his
right thumb. Thus men cripple their
right hands TO give proof that they do
n Is fun to loiter in a drugstore and
10 watch the making mp OF prescriptions.
for they are apt to call for dead beetles
ewes or insects. and everything that can
he suggested by the ignorance OF the
most backward profession In China