Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-08-04

Times Republican:
Since the war and the high cost of
living seem to be the chief topics Of
conversation in the United States at
present, perhaps some Of your read
ers will be interested in the variety
and price Of food here in the interior
Of Hainan. For several months now
I have had charge Of the boarding de-
partment Of our girls school, and so
have been closely in touch with the
culinary department as we'll as with
the exchequer. The girls have three
meals day, tho in the boys school
the pupils are limited to two and II
prices keep on rising we will have only
two meals day next fall. Rice u the
principal article OF diet. Of course. The
rice we buy is raised In Hainan as the
rice imported from AMMAN is polished
and hence more expensive. The rice
is carried from the villages to the mar
ket and we send our old coolie out to
the market to talk price and buy the
rice. The days that we buy rice am
usually just ready to eat my dinner
when they come with the rice, one or
two or three men, each with basket
Of rice on the end Of his carrying pole
and a gunnysack Of rice on the other
end. / go out to the rice boxes, have
them unlocked, and sit down to see
that the rice is properly measured.
The measure used in called "tsin
1t is made Of wood, and is inches
square at the bottom and inches
square at the top and inches high,
outside measurements. The rice is
scooped in with the hands, heaped up,
and then scraped of level with a hol-
low bamboo stick. Ten tsin make
dau, ten dau a tsioh or stone. A tsin
Of good rice is supposed to weigh a
kin or Chinese pound. A Chinese
pound is 1-3 pounds American
weight, SO a tsin Of rice, which Is usu-
ally about what one man carries
weighs approximately l35 pounds
American weight. At present rice IS
$3.50 cash a tsin. and dollar Mexican
money brings Ito cash in the market.
Last month I bought $50 worth OF rice
for the school, about SIS American
money. and the AMOUNT would be about
1000 or 1900 pounds.
Measuring rice is quite an oppor-
tunity for, the rice merchants to show
their tricks, and I am not quite sure
whether they cheat me every time or
not. Sometimes they have a false bot
tom in TIER tsin that slides up and
down, so that the measure Is short.
Often they keep their thumb In the
tsin and so do not fill it full. and they
do not fill the measure full in the
corners. But man selling rice down
at the boys school had the cutest
trick. He put some nice stick rice anu
sugar candy in the bottom Of his tsin
and of course it looked like full
measure but the rice stuck to the
candy more and more and the measure
held less and less. Mr.. Tappan some-
times buys the rice by weight. but that
is rather unsatisfactory. as the weight
of tsin is variable, depending on the
quality of the rice.
A Chinese meal consists OF rice anu
or rice and meat or nsh.
We can buy various vegetables in sea-
son. Just now It Is eggplant. native
string beans and bean sprouts. The
native string beans are often sixteen
to eighteen inches Iong-great long
tasteless things. Bean sprouts are
very good They soak the beans until
they put out sprouts about three
inches long and then they cook them.
turnips, spinach, native
garlic, and various forms OF native
melons are In season at different times.
the girls have Saturday
noon meal Of just sweet potatoes. The
vegetables are always cooked the
Al an n
with lard or peanut oil first tnen
stewed Sweet potatoes are steamed
whole Every other day is market DAY
at Kachek. when the girls have fresh
pork for one meal. on market days
they have salt hsh, which smells 80
strong I never attempted to eat IL,
fresh fish sailed shrimps. or salted
duck eggs For forty girls we buy
kin and ten ounces or tWenty-slA
ounces Chinese of pork, about "
pounds. Fresh pork is 253 cash a KIN
or about $50. cash for enough for one
meal. Three hundred sixty, cash Is
a bout % cents Mexican or II cents
gold. We have. sailed duck eggs Tor
the girls Sunday dinner, half an ess
for each girl. These duck eggs are de-
licious. I often have one when / am
here alone. The fresh duck eggs are
covered with paste of salty mud and
are kept until of indefinite age. They
are washed. boiled hard, and make a
choice dish. Likewise cheap one-ls
cash apiece. The vegetables and meat
that the girls eat cost about $50
month, with $50 for rice, bringing the
cost up to 1920 for food alone. AT
present rates Of exchange that Is about
$50 gold 1t would not seem to be very
but 1t Is much more than 1t
used to be before prices went up.
Prices OF rice are high for two rea-
sons, the partial failure Of the crops
for the last three or four seasons. and
the coming Of General Lung Tsi-koang
and his soldiers and the extra demands
thus made on the food supply. The