SCENES IN CHINA. Description of the Streets and People of a Chinese City.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 188, 22 January 1887, Page 5

SCENES IN CHINA. Description of the Streets and People of a Chinese City.

I did not see so much of Canton as I had wished, the missionaries taking up most of my time, but a description of one Chinese street will give you a fair idea of their customs. The streets are very narrow, hardly more than six feet wide, paved with large, well-known flagstones, houses built high,»but very irregular, in a zig-zag kind of fashion. This, lam told, is done so that evil spirits in passing from one house to another will butt their heads against the houses. The dhops are small, with entirely open fronts, a host of signs, banners and lanterns hanging from their upper windows, hoping to shut out the sun, thus giving the utreets a dark, dreary look. The bulk of their cboking is done in front of their ddors/i, an 4 n^ s the street with smoke Lodk in a butcher's shop, and on tbe first hook you will find a skinned cat, and beside it is a portion of a dog. lou can see at any time a uumber of rats, some fresh, others dried and salted, so thut the statement made in the " Sun" a little before I left home that Chinese do not eat such things does not reconcile itself with the facts here. It can be seen at almost any butcher's shop, and it is just as certain as 370 u3 7 ou can find beef and mutton in your own markets, The Btreets are literally jammed with people — coolies, naked to their waißts, carrying burdens swung across their shoulders, on a bamboo pole ; women with their babies swung over their shoulders, trudging along on their email feet, which have the appearance of having been am putated from the ' instep. Here and there in the middle of the road you meet with a large stone with Chinese characters. No evil spirit can pass these stones. The Chinese in Canton are a curious people, and seem to do everything just, the opposite o F iLuropeans. In their salutations they shake their own hands; their compass points to the south instead of the north ; the women wear the breeches, both literally and metaphorically, and keeping the hat on is considered a mark of politenees. They hate everything that is foreign and all pertaining to foreigners. You frequently hear as you pass along their crowded streets, "Fankwai! Fan-kwai!" (Foreign devils. Foreign devils). They are opposed to all modern improvements, The only railroad they had they tore up, and now there is not a mile of railroad in China.. They have one local telegraph in China, and the Chinese merchants have lately agreed to boycott it. Humanely speaking, it would be an impossibility to convert such a stubborn people, but the foundation of prejudice is being gradually undermined. They will adopt our methods if they are certain it will bring them gain, for they are avaricious, and the greatest gamblers on the face of the earth.