The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1895-11-09
Everyday Scenes IN China.
BE JULIAN RALPH.


| Nohody can read Julian Ralph's articles on China
| in Harpers Magazine without increased respect
for the Chinese. The paper in the August mum,
ber which he Calls Everyday Scenes in Is China
country and describes some ofthe odd customs OF
the common people.
NOIsYWATER- WAYS.
The farther we travelled in China, the
more we were amazed and delighted by the
boats and the water-life on the inland ca
mails and ways. Every day | noted new
extravagances and eccentricities of form
and color in the floating vehicles around
me, and every day Mr.. Weldon caught up
his coloIs and his brushes and copied some
extraordinary boat or sail that we met. l
have several times referred to this subject
in these papers, but the boats of China
have not been described here or elsewhere.
The hack-artist of the world at large treats
their sails-the most picturesque bits OF
| China-as if they were Venetian blinds,
made of big bamboo Stats backed by can
vas. That is not at all how they look.
The bamboo Stats are in them but they
are very small, and are onl y seen when
near at hand. Otherwise [ do not think
it would be easy to say anything of them
that is not true-they are so dlsslmllar
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 5 apron or lit
tie mat. One is composed of Il single blue
shirt and the next is a crazy-quilt of a
hundred gorgeous flags. In day jour
ney we saw white ones, red ones, black
ones, and others that were splotched,
patched. tattered, 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 notices, others with pictures, and
what may be called heraldic devices
Most of them were mere parallelograms of
cotton. but some were like schooner sails
at home, and some were lateen-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 vessel $ 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 10 do this work the Chi
nese crews are punched together on each
deck. where they shout with each output
of strength. 'Hee -tah, hee tab, hoo -ah,
hoo-ah. hee-tah, they chant, or grunt
whenever two or twenty or two hundred
Cinnamon work together at anything. A
common sight in the cities is to see fifty
OF them pounding the earth for the foun
dation of new building. Every man,
upon high scaffold, tugs at Il rope, and
all the ropes meet at one big rock that is
lifted and dropped necessarily upon the
ground to harden it. Isay every man,
but there are always boys, and even baby
BOYS, at some of the ropes. All shout to-
gether, beginning at daybreak, 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 funeral or Il bedstead out of
house | have known one man to sing IN
that way while carrying my empty hat
box, and have often run upon coOlie chill
dren practising the chant as they should
cred burdenless sticks at play in the
street.
CHINA A VAST GRAVEYARD.
The face of all nature is pimpled with
graves No farm is so small that it
cannot afford at least one; no hill is so
high (I speak of the Garden provinces
of China) that it is not dotted with
them to the top. No city lacks them,
within and without its walls; only the
compactest parts of the compact cities are
without them. They vary in shape and
form, as everything varies in China. The
saving is that ''in ten miles everything
is different and it certainly is so with
the graves. Near Shanghai 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
four feet high. There the coffins had
been put on the ground and covered over
with dirt Father along, toward Soochow
and the Grand Canal, the graves were
brick affairs, round topped, and square at
the end. In the other direction at
and near Cha-pu, on the coast, they were
often vaults of earth faced with stone and
surrounded by horseshoe or broken circle
of earth work. Some Of these had three
doorways, and looked like triple bake-Ovens.
But down Cha -pu way many Of the graves
were perfect little houses of brick, with
tile roofs, and even with roofs, whose cor
ners were bent up in grand style. There
are graveyards in China, family or village
graveyards. that look like mere disturbances
of the earth. where acres have been turned
up into mounds or covered with brick ovens,
and there are graveyards that are solemnly
planted with rows of trees. But, as
rule, the farmers bury their dead in their
rice or cotton fields or among their mul-
berry trees, and the poor buy or lease
resting-place for their departed upon the
acres of some wealthier man. L don
know whether it be true or not, but l was
told that the graves are kept, or let alone,
until change of dynasty occurs, when
they are razed, and China begins over again
to preempt great fraction of her surface
for her dead IF so. it is time for change
of dynasty, because a vast portion OF the
soil is lost to the farmers, who 9therwlse
cultivate almost every foot of it. And the
graves are in all stages of rack and ruin