Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-11-16

rect the SO0 10 MS SANCTUARY
Going on down the street We find
ourselves in the business center. How
[ should ike to transfer some Of you
from an American city or town OF
village even to this city. It is as
as day and night. The
streets are narrow and shops are On
either side Of the street. for blocks
and blocks, only the streets are not
broken by blocks as they are at home.
Here is a harness maker; there are
a lot OF stores where brass wear is
sold, in the shape of cooking uten-
sis and lotas, or drinking vessels.
Further along, there is sweet
meat shop or confectionery store
and here they sell sweets called
''Jalabies" and a lot OF cocoanut and
sugar things fried in ''ghee or grease
The flies and bees swarm around
here until it looks anything but ap-
petizing and tempting. And then
there are a lot of grain shops and
there is a woman selling cucumbers
and she has them spread along on
the ground, while she sits in her
basket. Over there, almost in the
middle of the street, sits a shoemaker
mending shoes. He hasn't much stock
on hand so only requires the place
he is sitting on. As we turn a cor
ner, we saw a woman sitting under an
umbrella and on a box she has a
few simple articles spread out for
sale; right next to her is another wo-
man who has not accumulated enough
wealth yet to have an umbrella or a
box, so she has her wares spread on
a dirty piece of cloth on the ground.
1t looked as though these two were
running a sort of competition trade
Now, we are in a wider street and
the first shop is a bangle store,
and here's where a large majority
of women come with their earnings
of "pice" and trade it for glass
bracelets. When they have enough
money to buy a silver armlet, brace
let or anklet, they have the cheaper
glass ones broken off. They consid-
er this a safe way of keeping their
money, by converting it into jewelry,
and many wear coins woven on a
bright colored string around their
necks. 1t reminds us of the Bible
story of the woman who had lost her
coin and how she called in her
friends and neighbors to help her
sweep the room and hunt for it and
what rejoicing there was when it was
found It is a part of her adOrnment
Some of the women are fairly loaded
with jeweIry for they wear beads and
necklets, five or six pairs of ear
ings often, armlets, bracelets, ank
Let's and rings on their fingers and
toes as well as in the nose. Even
the poorest and lowest castles wear
bracelets; they would rather have
these than clothes and hundreds OF
little children run about in the
streets without a stitch of clothing
wearing only a string of beads and
often bedecked with jewels and trink
cts.
We have had to go rather slowly
for a while, as there was a drove Of
buffaloes ahead of US. They are
coming home from grazing and are
crowding along the narrow streets
mixing with, men, women and childre-
They are ferocious looking beasts with
their elephant like skin and their big
horns. We passed them safely and
now there is a heard of goats ahead,
running hither and thither. There
must be several hundred of them in
the drove
We are attracted by a great jab-
Der on the other side of the street.
Curiosity gets the better of us and
we cross over 1t sounds as though
someone was quarreling and sure e
nough we might have known it, as
it is a daily, yes, hourly occurrence
in this country A lot of women have
been selling grass, which they have
brought in from the country; they
have carried these heavy loads on
their heads all these miles and now
the one with whom they are bargain
ing is trying to cheat them. The
cheating and lying here is something
terrific. We leave them to settle it
and go on, passing groups of "men
and women" sitting on the ground
in their doorWays, smoking the pipe
of peace and evidently settling some
neighborhood dispute at the same
time. There is one pipe going the
rounds. They each take a few puffs
at it and pass it to the next one. One
is forcibly struck with the amount
of time these people literally waste,
doing nothing, caring not, seemingly,
whether they transact any business
or not Often when you go into a
shop to make purchases someone run
out to hunt up the shop-keeper, for
he is smoking somewhere or having
a ''bak bak'' with some friends. The.
like nothing better than to sit or
gossip by the hour.
There is a small shop over there
with dozens of bright collored bot
ties hanging around outside. What
are they? Investigating, we learn
they are bottles filled with holy
water" or colored powder or liquid
to be thrown over them on festival
occasions or weddings.
We must turn around now and pass |
back through the massive arch that
stands at the entrance of the city |
proper. The population is more
dense here and the doors more ques-
-ionable. Suddenly We hear the pc
culiar strains of the wedding march
and sitting in front Of a house newly
White washed and plastered with COW