Beauties and Horrors of Peking.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 250, 28 March 1888, Page 5

Beauties and Horrors of Peking.

When Sir Harry Parkes returned to Peking he said he had como back to " dust, dirt, and disdain ;" and mosb travellers will find this sentence, sweeping though it may bo, r ather lacking' in D's than otherwise' However much Peking ™«y be described, its condition would still remain inconcoiva-* ble to those who have not seen it ; all the tilth thrown into the roadway— a mixture of mud and abominations, in the ruts in which the spring-less cart wheels are for ever sticking ! i'ou get along Curio-street — supposed ' by some people to be the most beautiful in China- by walking along the little bits of crumbling ground in front of each shop, and then swinging yourself rouud the wooden pillar that supports the roof, so as to avoid getting soiled by the quagmire beloAv. As every dirty man you meet does the same thing, the condition of the wooden pillar is not very nice ; so that if you aro at all fastidious you rush to change your clothes on returning home; before sitting down with decent people. The outside of the Emperor's palace- all that any European has ever seen i of it since the days of Marco Polo— is ideal, a faivy palace. High walls shut in the forbidden city ; a moat surrounds them ; and then there are the glistening yellow tiles, the roofs built by the old Mongols in imitation of tents. Then thore is the greeu hill with its trees, and palace roofs climbing up to it. The entrances are of deep blue, bright green, , golden dragoned, with here

and there a touch of vermilion. The skyis blue above, the sun shines ; and there ia, the roadway nfcs a child stark naked, its face so. dirty that ifc is impossible to see what ib is like, its head noishapen with disease. No wonder the piesont Emperor never cares to come outside, nnd is supposed never to have done so. The world inside must be far more delightful, if it matches with those glittering; fairy roofs. Report does nob speak well ot the young Emperor. He is described as unwilling to Icavn, sickly, nnd froward — very ready to fling tiling at people's heads if displeased, and altogether cut out to commit some great folly if ho evev becomes leally the iulcj of China. He receives thehigh officers of the empire kneeling on their knees, he alone sitting in stale ; but behind a curtain hits the I'dgning Empress, hearing all, and really ruling China. The Lascamt Father.-, and the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, who alone of Christian mission 4*4 * have for centuries nestled under the palace walk, and who of late years built themselves a chinch to whose high towers the Empi ess strongly objected, are now moving in to other quarters ;anditiB said the Empress intends to occupy the Fathers* house, and to u&e tho church as an audi-ence-hall in which to receive foreigners. The Chinese .Minister lately accredited to a leading European Court was taking leave of a very eminent Englishman ; and, pitying him that his wife had gone to England for the education of their children, said, " You must be very lonely. But of course you havo a Number Two." " I tried to explain to him," said the Englishman, "that that* was quite out of the question. My wife would be in a great rage if I took a second wife, and my Government would punish me severely." The Chinese diplomatist was astonished ; but after a pause he said, "You Europeans have so> much more intercourse with China now, that we may hope you will soon become sufficiently civilised to act as we do." In this spirit the Chinese diplomatist* started for Europe, and in this spirit he will probably return. Yesterday he went to the doors of the Temple of Heaven, which were quickly closed as we approached. Ifc is too holy for foreign foot to enter ; but all around it the filth, the indecencies, the open sewers or drains, through which our mercifully sure-footed donkeys guided their steps, were such, as no town in Italy or France could equal in its most neglected districts ; and here they extend right up to the sacred portals. — " St. James's Gazette."