The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-02-03

Many meetings have been held amono
the Chinese interested in the anti
opium movement. They all seem very
much in earnest in their efforts to get
rid of this evil habit. Marked changes
appear, since the visit Of some four
years ago, in this perhaps the largest
city in China. It is a place full of
activity and business. An interesting
description of the city taken from the
Daily Telegraph may be of interest to
Honolulu readers.
Canton City.
Canton is one of the Chinese towns
that to this day shows little trace of
foreign influence, and the first realiza-
tlon of the stranger who sails into the
| harbor, in one of the beautiful river
boats, over deep gray, placid river.
past rows of sampans and of glorions
brown sailed junks, is of something alb
| soluteiy strange, of a life incompre.
| hensible to Western eyes No TEMPLES
and pagodas rise to the memory when
one recalls Canton, of which the late
Dowager Empress of China was a
humble native. The daughter of buck
STEERS in Canton would probably be in
| no way distinguishable from the crowds
| OF women and girls who throng those
narrow streets today, as they did cen
| turles ago. So narrow are those streets
that, stretching your arms, you can
often touch the small. closelv-set
booths on either side. Everywhere the
glow and splendor of color meet; vour
eyes; crimson, yellow, blue, from the
looms of the sik-weavers or the en-
brolderers, the CLEAN of copper or of
gold from the jewelers., iridescent
lights from the kingfshers' feathers
deftly handled by the enamelers, and
the endless play Of hues where the fan
makers are using their brushes.
The daily life of the Cantonese is
devoted to toll, and yet they find time
for recreation, for the hum of CONVEX
sation and of laughter fills the street.
and the traveller who passes through
it in a chair will find himself pressed
upon, gazed at, and criticized by a
dense mass of people, who touch him,
and do not hesitate to ask him uues-
tlons that are frequently embarrassing.
At the upper end of every little room
into which you glance there is a large
screen, gay with gilt and colors, and
on a small table in front flowers are
set, thanked, on days of special observ-
ance, by dish of roast pig and few
oranges. There is the joss house, with
out which no family would regard it.
self as secure from the wrath of the
many gods-such, for example, as one
of the 500 enclosed within the great
temple. Birds twitter from cages at
each open doorway as you pass. and
frequently the trilI of a bird s note
rises louder than all the noise around
you. The Chinaman has peculiar
love for birds, and it is rare to see
him set out, even on a long Journey,
without his bird in its gilded cage
wrapped in a blue linen cloth.
Native Shopping.
"Whatever be the ware sold by the
shopkeeper, his store is filed to over
flowing, for space is at premium and
the booths are all tiny You meet the
Cantonese who has been busy over his
mornings shopping. He has a BAN
boo-rod over his shoulders, and you
notice his neat little scraps of meat
or fish. and similar small scraps figure
at the doors of the eating houses, nice
ly fried and hung on strips of bam-
boo. The shops of the greengrocers
are most attractive, for all vegetables
are washed and spread out to the best
| advantage. Spinach is a favorite, and
huge bundles of it, cut with pretty
long stems, and perfectly washed, are
displayed in every shop. Lettuces,
| onions, potatoes, vegetable marrows,
| cucumbers, and gherkins are in gem
eral use. The fruit markets are liter
ally crammed with fruit from season
to season. Rice forms, perhaps, the
| most important part of the household
supplies, since it is the basis for a
number of articles in daily consump-
| ton. Round the grocer's shop, for in
| stance, you will note a series of large
| brown jars, in each of which a long
spoon is placed These contain such
appetizing additions to the daily meal
| of boiled rice as picked onions, cab
| bage, beans, anchovies, pounded fish,
| chilies made into sauce, also tomatoes
| such as the Italians use, and picked
| beans. The grocer sells, too, eggs pre-
| served in coatings of clay, those which
| he can announce as a hundred years
old obtaining the best price. Piles of
vermicell made from rice decorate one
of his long tables; bean curd, resem-
bling the curd of cheese, fills a stone
receptacle. and he is certain to have
the fms of fish and of sharks dried
| in the sun. His soy is one of his spe-
cial products, and he viii doubtless
have some in process of making. Small
brown beans parboiled form its basis.
They are next rolled in -four and
| spread on bamboo racks to dry for ten
days. From the racks they are placed
in stone Jars and covered with salt and
water, where they lie until the neees-
sary chemical fermentation takes place
GA Chinese shopkeeper who is well
disposed towards his visitor is sure to
offer little white cup of samshu. the
national liquor. and he is not difficult
to persuade that the process of making
it is interesting. In the back regions
of his shop stands huge stone boiler