The Coolidge examiner., 1931-09-04

click in telegraph offices, electric
lights are available to those who
can afford them. few automobiles
may be seen on the main streets,
and western fashions vie with those
of the Orient.
But if the traveller steps into a
! Foochow side street. he steps into
an era of several centuries past
Streets that twist and turn and
come to abrupt stops were marked
features of FoOchOw's early city
planners. For example, the tortu
Gus route of one street might be Wis
ualized by drawing diagram. 1t
begins by running eastward and
| then northward. eastward, north
ward, eastward, nOrthward. east
ward, southwark, westward. south
ward, southeastwardS southwark
westward. southwark. eastward and
southwark
Travellers Use Sedan Chairs.
The whole course of this thor.
Oughfare is equal to but a few
American city blocks in length and
nowhere is it even wide enough for
jinrikisha TO pass without driving
playing children and their play
mates-filthy dogs and pigs-into
bordering doorways. The sedan
chair is used by most travellers TO
penetrate the FOochow passage
ways where the odOrs permeating
the atmosphere are so overwhelm-
ing TO foreign nostrils that chair
bearers are urged on to the nearest
breathing spaces.
Ancient as FoochOw seems 10 be
to the westerner, ii is a sort of wild
west of China TO the natives Of Can
ton and Peiping. In the days of
Confucius all China looked upon
the region that now is Fukien prov
ince as the baliwick of barha
rians. The wall that encompasses
the city did not rise until the Ming
America was discovered and colon
lied.
While poor transportation facil-
tiles for reaching FoOchOw have con
stituted an important factor in keep
ing the city truly oriental. cholera
and the bubOnic plague have also
caused outsiders to give it a wide
berth.
Perhaps the pleasantest portion
of FoOchOw tour is visit to the
tea factories and warehouses where
tea leaves, scented with jasmines.
roses and chrysanthemums are sort.
ed from dawn TO dusk by Chinese
women and children. Last year
FOochow exported more than 1000
600 pounds of Fukien tea and re-eX-
ported an additional 100000 pounds
which were shipped to its tea per
fumerieS." There are more than
forty tea factories in the city.
The open shops along the Foo
chow streets reveal thousands of
natives eking out an existence in
various industries. Before ones
eyes artisans make wooden pillows
and images of gods and odd-loCking
beasts; cabinet makers turn out
fancy furniture; pOtters shape and
fire handsome vessels; brick makers
fashion their products in all shapes.
sizes and colors; both men and
women sit silently embroidering, or
wearing the dark cloth usually worn
by peasants; and dyers. with inky
hands, seemingly turn old garments
into new of a different color.
The Dog Worshipers.
On a mountain not far from the
city one encounters the dog wor-
shipers-easily distinguished by the
peculiar coiffure of their women: a
scaffOld-like effect with cord
dangling before the face. This is
worn because of myth which holds
that a dog once saved the city and
the gods rewarded him by subject.
ing him to a process by which he
was to become human after his in
generation for seven times forty
days. An impatient provincial Pan
dora lifted the cover when all but
his head had been transformed and
thus left a dog-headed man. In go.
ing to claim his bride his face was
covered so his canine features
might not offend her. SO. to this
day, the women of the mountain
wear the headdress in honor of him
and, on New Years day, they wor-
ship the image of a dog.
Near the city of Doctrine hill.
which derives this one of its many
names from the residence there of
certain learned man who accumu-
lated a library-a 540-volume shelf
known as the Doctrine of the
Universe"