Norwich bulletin., 1909-05-29

to me no more. But the following winter, when I realized that their food must be getting short, 1 wondered if they would remember the whistle. went out on the porch and blew 1t, and to my surprise they came flock ing into the compound, and again fed them through the winter, and not withstanding that they were English sparrows, they were under the pro- tectlon of the American consulate during their winters. But my suc- cessor, knowing that it was not among his official duties to care for birds, neglected them, and they came no more. Yet they were cared for by the wife of the imperial commissioner of customs, and in my letters from her, after my return to San Francisco, she often spoke of the birds, and so tame had they become that they would eat from the table when set in the open air
 I used to find it quite interesting to stand on the bund of d morning ana see the Chinese fish from the house. boats in which they live. The man of the boat stands on. the bow, throws over a net, and pulls the bow oar, as the boat drifts down the strong cur rent. Then, after drifting for awhile he lays in his oar and hauls in the seine. The wife manages the boat with an oar at the stern and she not only steers the boat but souls it alone against the strong tide. As a gen. eral thing the woman manages a sam pan better than the man can. The families live on the boats. Children are born on them and are buried from them.
 The Monocacy was, the United States warship stationed at Tien-tsin dur ing the winter of 1885. found the officers very excellent gentlemen. Their free-and- manner, their possession and their social quail ties were in such striking contrast with those of the officer son the Eng fish and French gunboats that the Americans at once captured all the ladies and gentlemen in the settle ment. And yet the officers of the oth- CT guhboats were as favorably dis posed toward the Monocacy officers as was the community, and the social re- lations on board all three ships were very harmonious and unusually friend ly On Christmas day quite a number of us visited the Monocacy by invita- tion of the captain and ward room ofIl- cers, to see the decorations of the ship and the preparations the sailors had made for their Christmas dinner, as the Monocacy men had invited the sailors from the English and French 6 ulDUdAh IO SlldlG .lutlI Guttis AS there was more thanNsixty of the Eng fish and French sailors besides about a hundred of themselves, 1t certainly was a brave feast and a generous one. To see the tables you would have fam cied that they were not only expect ing the ships crews, but all the for eigners in the settlement as we'll Of course all the guests could not dine at the same time. and believe they had a arranOad fOy. fhrpp cfxfxr ot a time. Those who were not eating danced on deck to the music of the ships band noticed amongst the good things on the table roast turkey, roast goose, chickens, pheasants, ducks, roast beef, confectionery of all kinds in great quantities. mince and squash pies, with tea and coffee nothing stronger After we had seen all this the captain called on hands on deck and asked me to address them. I was somewhat taken by surprise but it was easy to talk to sailors. with whom I always feel at home. It took me about three minutes to finish my speech. and they seemed to enjoy it. I compared the dinners of the olden time, when I was sailor, with the Christmas dinner they had spread out on the lower deck, and told them that III my day the sailor not only had no turkey but was lucky if he found on@ ions in his lobscouse on Christmas day The captains of my time took such good care of fthejr sailors that they put dried apples in the plum duff for fear the seeds in the raisins might set hard on the sailors stomachs. The Mono- eacy men gave me three cheers at the close of my speech, and right royal cheers they were. One of the sailors on the Monocacy was a clever artist, and designed and executed all the name cards and menus for the cap- tain's and officers state dinners. EIe was a man of good family, with talent enough to have made him name, fame