The Wonders of Canton.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 50, 17 May 1884, Page 5

The Wonders of Canton.

When called upon once to name the most wonderful city which she had ever visited, Miss Bird, the gifted lady traveller, promptly responded : " Canton is at once the most novol, fascinating, and startling of all the places I ever visited." After a residence here of a little over two weeks, I am prepared to endorse this statement, if, indeed, a statement coming from such a source needs any endorsement. It will be observed that this is not ascribing to Canton pre-eminenceforany-thing like beauty, not by any "manner of [ means." I think there is more here that is disgusting than there is that is attractive ; but these sights, sounds, and especially smells that are offensive, are peculiar to every Chinese city, and a tourist must lay aside all prudish and fastidious notions in order to understand anything of the people and their institutions. Canton is certainly replete with surprises and extravagances of every sort. The methods of performing the various industries are constantly interesting; sometimes preposterous, sometimes worthy of imitation. One sickens of the revelations of cruelty, filth, poverty and ignorance, but never wearies of these anomalous street sights. 4.n imaginary " specimen tour thi balmy February afternoon^ may not fail u develop some interesting views of Cantonese life. One must take a sedan chair. Few men who come here on a flying excursion attempt to thread their way through the mafey labyrinth of Canton streets on foot, eve^n though they are accompanied by a guide. Soon we are being hurried along the narrow, streets, which are densely packed with people. Our sweating and panting coolies keep up an incessant yelling to warn the pedestrians to make a passage for us ; and so dexterous are they and so obliging are thejeopleon foot that the swinging dogtrot ife seldom relaxed. Whenever we meet another chair, however, one party has to stop entirely to wait for the other to pass by, anU even then the sides of the cars frequently rub together. The coolies are trained \o such encounters in narrow places, and there seems to be a tacit recognition as to the\ vehicle which shall defer to the other, which is always according to circumstances. So, also, when we turn a corner, it is frequently difficult to wedge a chair through, owing to the extreme narrowness of the street. \ , It is, indeed, a motley crowd that we meet. There are *>H types, from the blind, leprous, deformed and mendicant up to the most aristocratic mandarin?. The common people are the most interesting. There are two things for which they can be heartily admired. No more industrious and temperate people are to be found anywhere. They have reduced the cost of living to its actual minimum, and for the $2 per month that it actually re-

quires they will toil assiduously irom morning till night seven days in the week. Most of those ono meets aro busy transporting various kinds of burdens. These are suspended from tho ends of bamboo poles, which aro carried over tho shoulder. In this way the most impossible loads aro carried, ranging all the way from delicate chinaware up (or down) to live hogs. We Americans, who have so much dilliculty in carrying a small umbrella in a crowd, might take a lesson from the heathen, who bob along so rapidly in a four-foot street, wit'i two two-bushel baskets dangling from the ends of a pole. , Here comes the chair of some public j ollicial. Of course we barbarians mubt give way before such an august por&onago, and our chairs are wedged close up against a wall to allow tho procession to pass.—Canton Corr.— " Philadelphia Press," February 20th.