White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-08-27

streets, and western fashions vie with
those of the Orient.
But If the traveller steps into Foo
chow side street, he steps into an era
several centuries past. Streets that
twist and turn and come to abrupt
stops were marked features of Foo
elbows early city planners. For ex-
ample, the tortuous route of one street
might be visualized by drawing dia-
gram. It begins by running eastward
and then northward, eastward, north
ward, eastward, northward, eastward,
southwark, westward, southwark,
southeastward, southwark, westward,
southwark, eastward and southwark.
Travellers Use Sedan Chairs.
The whole course of this thorough
fare is equal to but few American
city blocks in length and nowhere is
it wide enough for even jinrikisha
to pass without driving playing chill
dren and their playmates-filthy dogs
and pigs-into bordering doorways.
The sedan chair is used by most trav
elers to penetrate the Foochow pas
sageways where the odors permeating
the atmosphere are so overwhelming
to foreign nostrils that chair bearers
are urged on to the nearest breathing
spaces.
Ancient as Foochow seems to be to
the westerner, it is sort of wild west
of China to the natives of Canton and
Peiping. In the days of Confucius all
China looked upon the region that now
is Fukien province as the bailiwick of
barbarians. The wall that encompasses
the city did not rise until the Ming
period which covered the years that
America was discovered and colon
lied.
While poor transportation facilities
for reaching Foochow have constituted
an important factor in keeping the city
truly oriental cholera and the bubonic
plague have also caused outsiders to
give it 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 cllrysanthemums are sorted from
dawn to dusk by Chinese women and
children. Last year Foochow export
ed more than 100000 pounds of Flu
ken tea and re-exported an additional
100000, pounds which were shipped
to its "tea perfumeries." There are
more than forty tea factories in the
city.
The open shops along the Foochow
streets reveal thousands of natives
eking out an existence in various in
dustries. Before ones eyes artisans
make wooden pillows and images Of
gods and odd-looking beasts; cabinet
makers turn out fancy furniture; pot
tiers shape and fire handsome vessels;
brick makers fashion their products
in all shapes, sizes and colors; both
men and women sit silently embroider-
ing, or weaving the dark cloth usually
worn by peasants; and dyers, with
inky hands, seemingly turn old gar
ments into new of different color.
Trade with 81 cities and many small
villages above Foochow which are
reached by river boats accounts for
much Of Foochows commercial activ-
ity. 1t was not until 1861 when the
Min was opened to foregn shipping
that the city's suburbs" spread out
along the Min banks and Foochow
merchants beckoned to world trade.
Since then Foochow's annual output
of tea alone once reached nearly 1OO,-
100000 pounds and it bids fair to re-
peat.
The Dog Worshpers.
On mountain not far from the city
one encounters the dog worshipers--
easily distinguishable by the peculiar
couture Of their women; scaffold-
like effect with cord dangling before
the face. This is worn because of a
myth which holds that dog once
saved the city and the gods rewarded
him by subjecting him to process by
which he was to become human after
his incarceration for seven times for
ty days. An impatient provincial Pan
dora lifted the cover when all but his
head had been transformed and thus
left dog-headed man. In going to
claim his bride his face WIS 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 worship the image Of dog.
Near the city is Doctrine hill, which
derives this one of its many names
from the residence there of certain
learned man who accumulated u H.
hrary--a 540-volume shelf-known as
the Doctrine of the Universe"