Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1899-12-14
-NOLIKEFNINEE.
Mrs. Patton Receives a Let
ter from Ed. HaISeII.

from Canton to Hon Kong, Chi.
ma, October 30th, 1899.
DEAR MoTHER-We reached the
| Chinese shore Wednesday evening
at II o'clock, and have been on
the 60 ever since. We took in
Shangbi and adjoining country,
then proceeded to Hong Kong.
We gave up the trip to Pekin as ii
would take about twenty days to
go from Shanghai, and the weather
gets very cold in that country at
this season. The river Yang Tse-
KIang Is not navIgable after Nov
l5H, about which time the ice
begins to come down, and by Dec
LIST it is frozen up solid. We will
see enough of the Cinnamon in
Shanghai, Hong Kong, Canton,
Macao and several other cities, and
we will not 60 to Pekin, for when
you see one Chinese town you see
them all and soon tire of them.
The filth and stencil is something
awful. Filth won't kill people or
the Cinnamon would all be dead,
especially the poor class. Instead
of washing their clothes they
grease them, and will eat anything
they can pick up. Their health is
attributed to the fact that they
never drink water but always drink
tea. Wherever you see them at
work you will find tea pot with
an apparatus for making tea, and
everything they eat is cooked well,
their principal food being rice and
fish. The fish of course is eaten
most any way; poor people boil il
or eat it raw. They also like pork
but never have salt meats as we do.
You can see whole pigs hanging up
in the markets nicely baked. They |
have all kinds of dried meats, such
as fish, rats, duck and also cat.
Special places you can go and get
nice cat soup and you can see the
kind of cats that are used, but if
they are able everything is cooked
in greese.
Canton is a city of three million
people; four hundred thousand
live on the water. You see some
fine boats or houses on the water,
a great many of them two stories
high. When they want to go Wis
ting they pull up stakes and take
house and all. You get to Canton
by boat on Pearl river; it is very
wide and fat and Canton is where
the river come saround a hill. It's
very wide with about ten feet of
water Canals run through the
city and everything is taken in on
or what we would call
Jugs or fiat boats. There is not a
vehicle of any kind in the city and
he only way OF travelling is by
Sedan chairs, or walk. The streets
ire six feet wide on an average;
no side walks at all. They are
celebrating the fire of God or fow-
sr parade.
The streets were lit up at night
by Chinese lanterns, and their
music almost ran us crazy. The
1and consisted Of one horn, gong,
fiddle with two strings with
'osin pasted on it so the musician
,an grease his bow as be plays, a
wooden drum, and fiat sticks
which they knock together. They
ing a regular Shawnee "stomp"
lance song and during the flower
parade they keep this racket up
III night.
What the destiny of the China
nan is, is hard to tell. We Wis
ted the execution grounds but
here was no one to be beheaded
hat day. Four persons had been
executed three days before and
be decapitator offered to show us ;
he heads for ten cents, Mexican,
,Ct we declined. While we were
It Shanghai We went to a South
Methodist mission to church. The
ervice was very impressive. A
Chinese girl led the choir and
played the organ, and they sung
,ur old Methodist hymns in Chi
lese. The sound was there, but
he tongue, no. Their voices were
,ood and they all Joined in the
lymns. We took tiffin with Miss
Richardson, a missionary who was
ent to China at the time Pauline
vent to conference at Little Rock.
diss Haygood was very i'll and
lad been for some time. A China
nan preached that day, so after
ervices Miss Richardson inter-
)reted the sermon for US.
The filth, superstition and ig-
lorance in China is something
Iwful to see. They worship Bud
lha, and images and wooden or
itone gods. Every man keeps his
,od in his house and burns incense
md prays to him. Every Chinese