The record-union., 1898-05-17
THE INvIOLATE CITY,
Some of the Sights and Smells of
Peking.

/
The fur market covers several acres,
and here in the early morning one may
see thousand almond-eyet merchants
| in gorgeous silks moving about among
masses of furs of all kinds brought in
! by nomads on their camels and drome-
daries from the wild and cold regions
of Mongolia. 1t is one of the most in
teresting of all the novel spectacles
which Peking has to offer to watch the
| caravans Of these nomads and their
odd looking animals with hair nine or
twelve inches long passing in single
| file through the gate. They bring in
furs, and carry back brick tea, silk and
coal to the Tartars and Russians of the
interior. In a peregrination of the city
| one comes across strange spectacles,
and makes acquaintance with strange
| businesses. Here is a butcher killing a
| sheep in front of his shop and leaving
| the blood on the ground before you.
| Next door, perhaps, is one who sells
| fish. which he extracts all alive from a
tank. In case you wish for less than
a whole fish, the dealer will pull one
out of the water, lay it on the block
| and cut a piece of quivering flesh out
Of the side while you wait, throw the
remnant back into q separate pail of
water, and wait for another customer
to take it. One of the chief meats sold
is pork, and you see pigs trotting about
through the streets. Close to the pork
shop is a place they sell nothing but
collins, which the dutiful son invests
in as a present for his father long be-
fore the old gentleman is dead; and
on the opposite side are places whose
speciality is incense and joss sticks or
gold and silver paper to be burned at
funeral to provide the fare from this
world into the next or birds and gold
fishes or coal dust mixed up with mud
and made up into balls. If you are
very hard up and in want of a meal,
there is little place round the corner
where you can get camel's meat soup
roast mule and similar luxuries at low
prices. There are places for gambling
and dime museum" shows. There are
restaurants of every description and
opium joints without number. And the
streets meanwhile are filed with a
stream of yellow individuals of all
ages and both sexes. You pass striking
looking officials on Mongolian ponies,
the backs of some of which are decor
ated with arrows and you know they
are on their way to the shooting
matches outside of Peking
The Tartar city is in many respects
different from the rest of Peking In
it dwell the thousands of Manchu Off
cials, the foreign Legations, the Gov
ernment departments and all the para
phernalia of this queer Chinese court
1t is the most interesting city on the
face of the globe, and its sights really
beggar description. From the walls
this portion of Peking looks like an i'm
mense orchard, with here and there
onestory buildings shining out through
the trees. In it's center there is a wall
ed off inclosure filled with massive
buildings, rooted with yellow tiles. This
is the Purple Forbidden City where the
Emperor and his court reside. Closer
acquaintance fails to fulfill the promise
afforded by a view from the wall The
streets are wider, but they are quite as
filthy and foul as in the Chinese sec
ton. The roads have no sidewalks. and
the rude Chinese carts sink up to their
hubs as they move along. The streets
are the sewers, and it would be hard
to find anywhere a savage with less re-
gard for the exposure of his person
than have these pig-tailed, silk dressed
gaudy, fat Pekingese.-Pall Mall Ge-
Zette