The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-15

sampan by which they cook their hum
bic meals. A peculiar earthen pot set in
the front end of the boat serves as cook
stove.
In such homes, about the size of a
large wagon box, families live who
know of no other home. Here children
are born, grow up, live and die, often
not setting foot on land FOR weeks or
for months at time. just what these
people do to make a living is not evil
dent to the casual observer. except that
large swarms of the sampans surround
the arriving steamers to offer to take
passengers and luggage % the shore.
If they are fortunate to get one or TWO
passengers to land, and collect 10 cents
Mexican from each, the family can
feast for a few days. Possibly the men
AMI also the women get work loading
or unloading cargoes, in which case,
by working hard all day, they may earn
20 or 80 cents Mexican. Any member
or members of the family may be en-
gagged at rowing the sampan, but mere
frequently it is the mother or laugh
ter. 1t is not Uncommon to see
woman tugging hard at the ores with
baby strapped to her back. The CHI
dren on the sampans, of course, like
play as well as other children, though
they have no large back or front yards,
yet they manage TO get some amuse-
ment chasing each other over the rock
ing boats. stepping or leaping from one
to the other as freely as if on terra
firma.
On landing, we at once engage sedan
chairs for each of us and for our guide,
using three or four coolies for each
chair, and with this train of chairs we
proceed TO see Canton. The Shameen,
-
a remarkable contrast with Canton
proper, or the. Chinese City. In the
former we have large, substantial
buildings, with wide streets, beautiful
lawns, comfortable parks, etc, In the
latter we have low, squallid buildings,
densely crowded together, with scarce
ly space left to plant a tree or shrub.
With our train of chairs we cross the
canal and are at once in old Canton.
We plunge into the crowd up what
seems like narrow hallway, our hair
coolies yelling as they go at a lively
pace, and the crowd making way for
us to pass. We are inclined to Won
der to what street or place this hall
way is a shortcut route, but we keep
on going through such a narrow pass
age, and turn and go a long distance
again through another similar passage,
| and thus keep on turning, nov one way
and now the other, and going on and
/ on through like narrow places, which
we now learn are their regular streets
| if such we may call them). They are
! frequently barely wide enough for two
chairs to pass, and at some places we
actually had to crowd partly INTO an
open shop front while some important
Chinaman's big chair passed us. . To
/ turn corners. il sometimes was neeeS-
/ sary to run the poles of the chairs into
the shops to make the turn. 1t is quite
evident why we found no jinrikishas
! here in which to make the trip over the
| city, for these carts, small though they
be, would be too wide to pass each
other in these streets.
! AS is to be expected of such n city,
Canton has its quota of temples, but
! they are not as grand as those at Pc
kin We visited some of the more in
teresting ones, including the Temple of
the 500 CENT; the Temple of the Doc
tor of Medicine where the afflicted
worship an idol that is supposed to le-
store them to health; the Temple of
Horrors, where the devil is imaged as
being subjected TO most terrible toI-
lures, and the Temple of Ancestors Of
| the Chun Family, where any members
of this great family may have tab
| let inscribed to his memory, and iaci-
dentally his wealth advertised. for the
| size and location of the tablet is con-
ditioned upon the amount contributed
to this temple. Another place where
the wealthy may do especial honor to
their dead ancestors is IN the City of
the Dead" near the great burial fields
outside the city wall. Here for month";
" rental of from 81 to S. a month. a
room may be rented in which is placed
the well-sealed casket with the remains
of the dead ancestor. A table is pro-
vided upon which the descendants from
time to time place food for the spirit Of