Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1898-07-21
LIFE IN CANTON.
The People and the Customs of Famous
Chinese City.

The People and the Customs of Famous
Chinese City.
There are Europeans at Canton, but
they live in a settlement outside the
native city Their influence, like their
place of abode, is merely upon the out
ermost edge of the community. Our
ideals of civilization have not touched
the people. They are today as they
have been for centuries past. They
sheer at our institutions and consider
themselves in every way superior to the
white barbarian =" Casual visitors to
the crowded city visit the various points
of interest by means of sedan chairs.
They are accompanied by n native
guide, who conscientiously goes through
q long catalogue of things, wonderful
or horrible, in English, which is fluent
ly spoken but imperfectly understood
by those to whom it is addressed. The
guide is very attentive to those in his
care, very polite in his manners and
often possessed of fair amount of hui
NOR.
The streets of the city are of a pattern
of immemorial antiquity. None is more
than ten feet wide. The houses lean in
ward from the base and almost meet
overhead shutting out all but the mar
rowest strip of daylight. Signboards
are hung perpendicularly outside every
house. They are deliberately carved and
gayly decorated with abundance of gold
leaf and scarlet or black lacquer. The
mystic looking symbols inform the curl
Gus that one particular shopis prosper
ed by Heaven" another has "Never
Ending Good Luck" while yet another
is 1.-THE Market of Golden Profits '-the
said profits, be it known, going into the
pocket of the dealer.
Among the most interesting sights Of
this Interchangeable city are the pawn
shops They are often great, square,
solid granite structures, which look
more like old border keeps than the
The pawnshop fultills double pur-
pose. 1t advances money at an interest
varying from 20 to SO per cent, and it
stores III safety within its massive walls
those articles of finery and adornment
which are only required at special times
and seasons On the fiat roofs of these
citadels are piles Of stones and jars Of
vitriol, ready to repel any attack that
may be made by thieves, whose methods
of plumber are less refined than those of
the pawnbrokers
In the jade stone market we meet
with the Chinese parallel to the western
diamond. The best stones are very val
liable and are brought from Turkestan,
the only place in the world where mines
of this stone are worked. Every well to
do Chinaman wears Il ring, brooch or
bracelet of jade, and the poor, who are
unable to purchase the real article, wear
ornaments of glass, which are colored
in imitation of the more expensive jade.
Shaggy dogs with coal black tongues are
disposed of in another market. Fried rat
and boiled frog, not to mention frlcaS-
seed puppy, tempt the hungry into the
native restaurant. The local medicine
man, >" adhering to the prescriptions of
his ancestors, makes pills and potions
of which the chief ingredients are wax,
deers' horns, petrifed bones, petritied
crabs, snakes scales of the armadillo,
tigers bones and lime When the medi-
cines do not cure they kill, and whether
the patient lives or dies he does 81
knowing that at any rate no hated for
eigner has had anything to do with the
strength or quality of his medical diet
European Magazine, London.