The state republican. (Jefferson City, Mo.) 1871-1896, 1895-10-31
SCENES IN CHINA.
Julian Ralph in Harper's Magazine.

Julian Halph In Harper's Magazine.
The farther we travelled in China,
the more we were amazed and de-
lighted by the boats and the water
life on the inland canals and ways.
Every day noted new extrava-
gances and eccentricities Of form
and color in the floating vehicles
around me, and every day Mr.. We'll
don caught up his colors and his
brushes and copied some extraordi-
nary boat or sail that we met. 1
have several times referred to this
subject in these papers, but the
boats OF China have not been de-
scribed here or elsewhere. The
hack artist Of the world at large
treats their sails-the most pictur-
ssque bits of China-as II they were
Venetian blinds, made OF big bamboo
Stats backed by canvas. That Is not
irt An how ,tkor ,nss 8. TIE bamboo
Stats are fn iem, but they are very
small, and are only seen when near
at hand. Otherwise l do not think
1t would be easy to say anything Of
them that is not true-they are so
dissimilar and varied and peculiar.
One towers like a great white steeple
or a cloud above houses, trees and
everything. The next may be made
of woman's apron or a little mat.
One is composed Of a single blue
shirt, and the next is crazy quilt of
q hundred gorgeous flags. In
days journey we saw white ones,
red ones, black ones, and others
that wero splotched, patched, tat
tered, or rent. We saw sails made
OF mating, made of old coats, made
Of trousers and Of banners. We saw
sails with prayers painted upon
them, others with mottos, others
with pictures, and what may be
called heraldic devices. Most of
them were mere parallelograms of
cotton, but some were like schoon-
ers sails at home, and some we're
latee shaped. There is no rule as to
the number of sails a boat may
carry, and one often sees five spread
on the larger junks, upon three
regular masts and two smaller ones
fastened to the vessels sides, one
forward and one aft.
A great part of the din that beats
upon the air of China comes of the
raising and lowering of these masts
and sails, for on all except the sea-
going craft the masts are hinged,
and are forever being pulled up or
let down. To do this work the
Chinese crews are punched together
on each deck, where they shout with
each output of strength, "Hee- tab,
hee -tah, hoo-ah, hoo -ah, hee. tab, -
they chant or grunt, whenever two
? or twenty or two hundred Cinnamon
work together at any thing. A COM
mon sight in the cities is to see fifty
of them pounding the earth for the
foundation of a new building. Every
man, upon a high scaffold, tugs at a
rope, and all the ropes meet at one
big rock, that is lifted and dropped
necessarily upon the ground to
harden it. say "every man." but
there are always boys, and even
baby boys, at some of the ropes. All
shout together, beginning at day.
break, when all work begins, after
which sleep can only be courted
with chloroform. Whenever two
men work at anything, they chant
, whether it is at the work OF carrying
coffin in a funeral or bedstead
out of house. have known one
man to sing in that way while carry.
ing my empty hat-box, and have
, often run upon coolie children prac.
I ticing the chant as they shouldere6
, burdenless sticks at play in the
street.
The face of all nature Is pimplet
with graves. No farm is 80 small
that it can not afford at least one
no hill is SO high q speak of Garder
provinces Of China) that it is MOI
dotted with them to the top. NJ
; city lacks them, within and withou
. It's walls; only the compactest part
of the compact cities are withou
them. They vary in shape and form
as every thing varies in China. The
saying is that Gin ten miles every
. thing Is Different" and it certainly il
? so with the graves. Near Shangha
8 this eruption on the face of nature
took the form of shapeless mounds
: Of earth, perhaps six feet long by
!, three feet wide and three or foul
= feet high. There the collins hat
/: been put on the ground and covered
over with dirt. Farther along
= toward Soochow and the Crane
4 Canal, the graves were brick affairs
n round topped, and square at the
i ends. In the other direction, at ant
4 near Cha pu, on the coast, they
: were vaults of earth faced with
2 stone and surrounded by horseshoe
: or broken circle Of earth work. Some
4 of these had three doorways, ant
!, looked like triple bake ovens. But
down Cha-pu way many Of the
n graves were perfect little houses o
n brick, with tile roofs, and even will
: roofs whose corners were bent up il
!. grand style. There are graveyard
q In China, family or village grave
Iysrda that Ionh Hka uaara diaturh,