Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1899-12-28
CHINESE CUSTOMS.
The Position Of Clerk No Sinecure-Re.
pulsive Beggars Met Everywhere
Manner Of Cooking.

continues it far into the night. 1t is
his business ON no account to let
possible customer escape, and if moth
ing else remains to be done, Arthur
Ii. Smith informs us, he is to set to
work to look over the days cash-as
the brass coins of everyday commerce
are called-to see il there is among
them any of peculiar value that could
be sold to the curio collector.
The worker of metal, the tinker of
copper kettles, sets up his forge and
Ibis half-naked workmen ply their
trade, like all the others, under the
eye of the passerby. 1t is a mixed
population, certainly, but until they
are reused to demonstration a pecu-
liarly quiet one. Beggars in filthy
rags display their sores and deformi-
ties; old women even more repulsiye
and filthy beset you with sticks OF in
cense; the ordinary coole in his blue
cotton, thick-soled shoes, bare-headed,
adds to the throng. and occasionally
a man OF the better class appears in
garments OF silk and brocade, But this
rarely happensfi as men OF this class
take their airings on their well-fed
mules, in carts, or in sedan chairs.
They make their purchases through
Intermediates, and goods are brought
to the houses. Lijlle effort is made
to decorate the booths or shops; one
or two were feslooned with tassels Of
scarlet wool, and over another ! saw
q row of grotesque heads of metal
supplied with long antennae Of fine
spiral springs capped with an acorn;
these vibrated continually in the wind.
Besides the people, the middle of the
street is crowded with carts, donkeys
mules and horses, and with all these,
flocks OF sheep beng driven to the
market-place without the gates, and
strings of cames loaded with salt or
coal from the northern mines. All the
coal used in Pekin which comes down
fir Al the north is brought to Pekin in
this way, and as the quantity is neces-
sarily limited, ftlel-not from lack OF
o natural supply, but from the difficult
ty of transportation Is very costly.
To make It last longer the coal dust
is mixed with earth and water, re-
duced to a paste and nodded in balls,
which are put into the sun to dry.
Much Of the cooking in houses is done
in stoves heated by these coal balls.
The fuel question is a paramount
question in China, and this, too in the
face of the fact that the coal mines in
northern China are the largest in the
world. They are poorly worked, and
the country being destitute of high
ways and railways, canies are the
only means of carrying it to the mar
kets. Wood is scarcely to be had, es-
pecially on the almost treeless plains
of the north. NolIling. therefore, is
wasted that can be burned; grass is
tied into tight bundles tor fuel, and
dead leaves are used for the same pur-
pose.
Foreigners, by which term the
Chinese designate all Europeans and
Americans use American stoves for
heating their houses. but the Chinese
cook uses the native brick stove in
the kitchen. 1t is simply a square Of
masonry five feet long or more, and
about four feet in height. 1t has doors
~ wnlcn ruei may be supplied, and
holes for pots, but the oven is on the
top and resembles huge inverted
iron kettle. The draught is perfect
and the cookery that they manage to
turn out with this contrivance is
hardly surpassed by those who work
with the latest culinary inventions.
Flour is imported by the foreign resi-.
dents from California; condensed
milk is largely used, and most of the
butter comes from France, by the way
Va Achuoh' hViihVtICdiiV stdlcu III
seven-pound tins. An American lady
said recently that it had been more
than a year since she had tasted fresh
butter. 1t seems strange that butter
should not be imported from Califor.
mia, where there are now f1ourshing
diaries, but it is said that which has
been tried has proven unsatisfactory
brand that must then be very diff
ferent from that supplied the steam
ships of the Oceanic line. Woollens
very largely come from Germany, and
the fine kerosene lamps, that give a
most brilliant light, are imported also
from Berlin. Kerosene is in general
use, although the hotels and few
of the embassies are supplied with
electricity. There is little or no pre-.
text made of lighting the streets of
Pekin as our cities and even villages
are lighted. The Chinese not only
worship their ancestors, but all their