Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1914-06-06

few yards of the landing
stage. 80 miles up the Pearl river from
Hong Kong, is a solid row of European
buildings, public gardens leading to a
series of tennis courts, and British
consulate. The appearance of the
Shameen. the narrow island of the con-
cession, with its churches, its lofty
blocks of merchants Offices, its spa
cious tree-shaded boulevards, its hand
some International club, and its nu-
merous official buildings, gives an I'M
mediate feeling of confidence to any
Western stranger, writes A II. f1sner
in Illustrated London News.
After | had secured a room at the
Victoria hotel, l crossed the creek
by the British bridge with two resi-
dent acquaintances, and entered Chi
nese territory. Tall brick-built 60
downs, with shops on the ground floor.
seemed pushing out into the thronged
roadway along which we walked to
part whence | could get good view
of the Water-town. Here a vast popu-
lation lives In various kinds of craft
from small Sahtengs or sand-boats TO
the gaily decorated Flower boats
with their gold-fretted fronts stuck
over with mirrors.
A Floating City.
Along a narrow wooden footway,
built upon piles, we walked for half a
! mile till we seemed to be in the mid
die Of a floating city; but away. farth-
er to the west | could make out an
iron-roofed building, which, | learned,
is the terminus of the railway from
Samshin to Canton, and a pair OF
sheerlegs, which marked the position
of the Canton-Hankow railway, con,
nected with the other by a ferryboat
service and likely, ere long, to become
the regular route for reaching the
Trans-Siberian line. Looking back to-
wards the town. | had pointed out to
me a tall, gray stone building as a
pawnshop, an institution regarded in
China as a kind of bank.
We now turned away from the creek
up a narrow street where all the build
ing were wholesale rice stores. Almost
every street is set apart for one trade
or industry. In Sap-Pat-Po otherwise
Ward 49,, however, the chief business
street of Canton, the shops were filled
with general manufactured goods
German and Japanese clocks, Ameri
can soaps, gramophones and sewing
machines. Here were strange articles
whelks. bamboo shoots and dried cut
tie fish. There were bankers shak
ing coins into trays till each of a hun
dred circular depressions was filled, a.
a way of counting, dealers in old pic
lures, a lottery shop, where prizes
were being paid out for lottery late
ly drawn, and an ancestral hall o.
meeting place for some particular clal
or guild. Then came a whole stree
of the makers of "Old-Age Clothes,
as the Chinese call their collins, and ;
street of pewter workers, and a stree
of smiths-and all this time we hat
only reached a gateway of the QUITE
wall of Canton. Inside this. afte
passing a small island of shops, W
went under the semi-circular arch o
the Great West Gateway. where tn
wall was II yards thick.
We climbed from within on to tn
top of the wall, and above there was
sudden peace and quietness. Here an
there about the bastions were oil
British muzzle-loading guns on Woo
, en- carriages. On one l read the dat
1912, and on another 1916. We 70
lowed the top of the wall for some di!
, lance to the great five-storied p;
, CODA, and began to climb it from foo
to floor, passing through the fla
doors which shut down over the stair
of each On the fourth floor was tn
, official tea house, and on the uppe
. most a group OF figures of Chimes
deities. From the balcony numbe
? of people were enjoying the view owe
) the city. In the distance rose the twi
spires of the French cathedral, whic
the Chinese thought would attract de