Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-04-13

riers of the town. A bar six feet long rests
upon his shoulder, and from the ends OF
this hang two great buckets, each noidlns
four gallons of the vtiest or STOP. lie
comes toward you on a swinging trot, and
the buckets screw up and down. and the
slop splashes to and fro as he passes you.
You put your smelling bottle to your nose,
draw your knees close together and hug
the wall, to let him go by. Behind him
come two scowling Cinnamon carrying
hides. They have half ton of raw skins
swung In the center of pole. which rests
upon their shoulders, and they grunt and
grunt in a harmony of woe, as they rush
toward you. Other laborers behind follow
with other loads. and you note that every
couple has its own peculiar grunt or sound.
Some cry ''O-ah, O-ah; E-he, E-he, Ohio
Ohio, E-he." The men on the wharves have
their own grunt. and even men working
alone make spasmodic noises of the most
horrible kinds to help them in their work.
The Song of the Wheelbarrow.
But behind these laborers comes another
machine, which has screech of its own.
1t IS the Hankow wheelbarrow, with a
half ton of freight strapped to its side.
1t almost scrapes the walls, and you would
he ground up by it were there not an open
doorway in which you could step. These
wheelbarrows are all made as to screech
out their song of toll and their larynx is a
piece of bamboo which is purposely fitted
in, that it presses against the wheel of
the barrow. These barroWS are unlike any
other you see in China, and they are pc
culiar to the province of Hupeh By the
time you have jumped out of the way .of
one of them you find yourself rushing into
something else. There are dirty Chinese
hogs black and ugly, splattered with mud.
and there are yellow dogs covered with
mango and fleas. The hogs try to run be-
tween your legs The dogs snap at you
and while they will let the Chinese go by
without barking they can recognize for
eigner three blocks away. and they will
howl until he is out of sight.
1 cannot describe the filth of Chinese
city. Picking is worse than barnyard, and
the vilest COW yard in America is cleaner
than the mud through which you wade in
walking through Hankow. You have to
keep your eyes on your feet. and there is
no bone factory in the United States which
surpasses the smell arising from the streets
a wet day. Here and there along the
business streets in the side streets just
off of the most thronged parts of the city,
you will pass great watts spashed with the
vilest of dirt. These are public water
closets. They are owned by private par
ties. who grow rich by selling the sewerage
to the farmers.
How the Chinese Do Business.
But let us get into the business parts of
the cities and take a look at the stores.
There are tens of thousands of them and
they are packed together like the booths of
fair. They are all opened to the streets,
and the most of them are filled with Gus
toners. They are walled with shelves. and
twelve feet square makes big store.
Some of them have floors of cement. some
are boards and others no noorS but dirt
The signhoards hang up ard down the
stores instead of across the top as with US
These signs are so many that they almost
fill the streets They nearly cover the
fronts of some of the shops. and the drug
stores advertise their patent medicines by