The Van Buren press., 1895-09-21
NOISY WATER WAYS.
Whsre Much of the Din ef China b
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The farther we travelled in China tho
more we were amazed and delighted by
the boats and the water life on the in
land sanal and ways. Every day ]
noted new extravagances and eccen'
tricities OF form and color in the float.
ing vehicles around me, and every day
Mr.. Weldon caught up his colors and
his brushes and copied some extraor-
binary boat or sail that We met ]
have several times referred TO this sub
ject 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 sailsAthe
most picturesque bits of China-as II
they were Venetian blinds, made Of
big bamboo Stats backed by canvaA
That is not at all how they look. The
bamboo Stats are in them, but they are
very small, and are only seen when near
at hand. Otherwise 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 q great white steeple
or a cloud above houses,
trees and everything. The next
may be made of o woman's apron or q
little mat. One is composed of sin.
gle blue skirt, and the next is crazy
quilt of hundred gorgeous flags In
days journey 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 de-
vices. Most Of them were parallelo-
grams 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 boat may carry,
and one often sees Ave 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-go-
ing 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-tah. hee-tah, hoo-ah,
hoo-ah, hee-tah," they chant, or grunt.
whenever two or twenty or two hun.
dred Cinnamon work together 1t any
thing. A common sight in the cities
is to see fifty of them pounding the
earth for the foundation of q new
building. Every man, upon high
scaffold, tugs at q rope, and all the
ropes meet at one big rock, that is lift
ed and dropped incessantly 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 .
funeral or 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
shouldered burdenless sticks at play in
the street Julian Ralph, in Harper's
Magazine.