Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1920-08-26

Hundred Gods, Canton.
The city is 70 miles up the Pearl
river from the sea. Naming the kinds
of junks that ply about Canton re-
quires as much knowledge as picking
the makes of automobiles that spin
along Riverside drive or Michigan ave.
nue.. The slipper boats" are recog-
nizable because of a striking resem-
blance to their European-given nick
name; the Canton sampans" are nu-
merous; the two-masted passenger
junks are the Canton-Hongkong fer
ries, but the most curious of the many
other kinds, perhaps, are the che-ting,
operated by Cinnamon stepping on a
treadmill in the rear. These were in
vented by an European who sensed
that man power is the cheapest and
most plentiful to be had in China
land where labor-utilizing rather than
labor-saving devices pique the inven-
tor
The cutters are in the middle of the
street, in Canton. The divers down
by the water front go in feet first.
The Canton bOn-bOn is pit-tan, eggs
preserved in rice hulls, ashes and lime.
If a man has a beautiful yard or gar
den, he hides it by a high wall; but
once the visitor breaks through this
privacy, in company with a trusted
guide, he may find himself not only
on the premises but conducted through
an exclusive home as if it were a pub
lie building, and the household men,
bers go serenely about their own affairs
while they, too, are described and ex-
planned by the cordial friend. Here
is hint Of the origin of the China,
town tours in our great cities.
Temples and Legends.
If the struggle for existence sug-
gests materialism, one need only visit
the temples in Canton, to glimpse the
delicate, subtle, and daring magma
ton of the seemingly literal, cautious
Chinaman. The "FIOwery Pagoda,"
with the copper pillar topped by a
golden ball, is where a famed Indian
missionary once spent night, and
SO fragrant was his presence that the
tower still is free from mosquitoes.
To the Five Fairies Temple" once
came five genii, wearing coats of diff
ferent colOrs and riding goats of differ
ent colOrs. Each fairy brought stalk
of grain, which was given to the peo-
pie with the benediction dwell here
in perpetual peace, and never know
famine" The fairies departed, but
their steeds turned to stone, and re-
main to this day in the temple. A
more mechanical curiosity is the tow
er where time is measured by water
dripping from four copper vessels, ar
ranged at different levels.
The hills about are famed no less
for their legends than for the terraces
where the ginger root is grown that
is preserved by the Cantonese. One
peak is crowned by rock that sways
when spoken to in angry tones; there
is a stream where some Oriental
Enoch drank a potion of iris leaves
and, becoming immortal, was waited
away to heaven.
There is a chamber of commerce at
Canton, but the characteristic indus
trial bodies are the guilds, Y in num-
Der, iron bound, self-perpetuating Or
of great power both eco
nomically ana politically. The Chi
nese merchant and artisan is an apt
of the tremendous forces of
inertia, or precedent, if you like, in
Chinese life. He carves, brews. or
sells gold foil, not only because his
father or grandfather did, but because
ais remote ancestors, when Columbus
sailed westward or Marco Polo toured
east, did that very thing in just that
way.
Quality, not variety, is the merit he
eeks, and the guilds define the exact |
phere of their members infinitely.
There is the Guild of Dealers in Cloth
interviewer with Metal Threads of |
Tarious ColOrs, the Guild of Dealers
n Kerosene Lamps, the Guild of Deal
rs in Hand-Reeled Silk, and the Guild
( Dealers in Liquor Brewed from
lice.
The honesty of the Chinese rner-
liant is proverbial. In Canton lived
Ion Qua, millionaire, who furnished
conspicuous example of this quality
When a firm which owed large sums
D foreigners became bankrupt, Hon
lua headed list of Canton business
len who made good the debt, on the
round that Chinese credit must not
e furnished.