Arvilly and I went out for a walk, takin' Tommy with us. We thought we
would buy some sooveneers of the place. Sez Arvilly, "I want to prove
to the Jonesvillians that I've been to China, and I want to buy some
little presents for Waitstill Webb, that I can send her in a letter."
And I thought I would buy some little things for the children, mebby a
ivory croshay hook for Tirzah Ann and a paper cutter for Thomas J.,
and sunthin' else for Maggie and Whitfield. It beats all what
exquisite ivory things we did see, and in silver, gold, shell, horn
and bamboo, every article you can think on and lots you never did
think on, all wrought in the finest carvin' and filigree work.
Embroideries in silk and satin and cloth of gold and silver, every
beautiful thing that wuz ever made you'd see in these shops.
I wuz jest hesitatin' between a ivory bodkin with a butterfly head and
a ivory hook with a posy on the handle, when I hearn the voice of my
pardner, seemin'ly makin' a trade with somebody, and I turned a little
corner and there I see him stand tryin' to beat down a man from Tibet,
or so a bystander told me he wuz, a queer lookin' creeter, but he
understood a few English words, and Josiah wuz buyin' sunthin' as I
could see, but looked dretful meachin and tried to conceal his
purchase as he ketched my eye. I see he wuz doin' sunthin' he ort not
to do, meachinness and guilt wuz writ down on his liniment. But my
axent and mean wuz such that he produced the object and tried hard to
explain and apologize.
It wuz a little prayer-wheel designed for written prayers to be put in
and turned with a crank, or it could be hitched to water power or a
wind-mill or anything, and the owner could truly pray without ceasing.
Oh how I felt as he explained! I felt that indeed the last straw wuz
bein' packed onto my back, but Josiah kep' on with his apoligizin'.
"You needn't look like that, Samantha; I can tell you I hain't gin
up religion or thought on't. I want you to know that I am still a
strong, active member of the M. E. meetin' house, but at the same
time," sez he, "if I--if there--spozein' there wuz, as it were, some
modifications and conveniences that would help a Christian perfessor
along, I don't know as I would be to blame to avail myself of 'em."
Sez I, "If you're guiltless what makes you look so meachin?"
"Well, I most knew you wouldn't approve on it, but," sez he, "I can
tell you in a few short words what it will do. You can write your
prayers all out when you have time and put 'em into this wheel and
turn it, or you can have it go by water, you can hitch it to the
windmill and have it a-prayin' while you water the cattle in the
mornin', and I thought, Samantha, that in hayin' time or harvestin'
when I am as busy as the old Harry I could use it that way, or I could
be a turnin' it on my way to the barn to do the chores, or I could
hitch it onto the grin'stone and Ury and I could pray for the whole
family whilst we wuz whettin' the scythes."
"Not for me," sez I, groanin' aloud, "not for me."
"You needn't look like that, Samantha; I tell you agin I wuzn't goin'
to use it only when I wuz driv to death with work. And I tell you it
would be handy for you when you expected a houseful of company, and
Philury wuz away."
"No, indeed!" sez I; "no such wicked, wicked work will be connected
with my prayers."
"Well," sez Arvilly, "I d'no as it would be much wickeder than some
prayers I've hearn when folks wuz in a hurry; they would run their
thanksgivin's into their petitions and them into their amens, and
gallop through 'em so there wuzn't a mite of sense in 'em. Or take so
much pains to inform the Lord about things. I hearn one man say," sez
Arvilly:
"'O Lord, thou knowest by the morning papers, so and so.' I d'no as a
prayer turned off by a wheel would look much worse or be much less
acceptable."
Josiah looked encouraged, and sez he to me, _soty vosey_, "Arvilly
always did have good horse sense."
Sez I, "They wuzn't run by machinery--wicked, wicked way. A boughten
machine!" sez I, shettin' up my eyes and groanin' agin.
"No," sez Josiah eagerly, "I wuz agoin' to tell you; I've got a wheel
to home and a cylinder that come offen that old furnace regulator that
didn't work, and I thought that with a little of Ury's help I could
fix one up jest as good as this, and I could sell this for twice what
I gin for it to Deacon Henzy or old Shelmadine, or rent it through
hayin' and harvestin' to the brethren, or----"
Sez I, "You would disseminate these wicked practices, would you, in
dear Christian Jonesville? No, indeed."
"I tell you agin I wuzn't a-goin' to use it only in the most hurryin'
times--I----"
But I sez, "I will hear no more; give it back to the man and come with
your pardner!"
And I linked my arm in hisen and motioned to the man to move off with
his wheels. And my looks wuz that dignified and lofty that I spoze it
skairt him and he started off almost immegiately and to once.
And I hain't hern no more about it, but don't know how much more
trouble I may have with it. No knowin' what that man may take it into
his head to do in Jonesville or China. But prayer-wheels! little did I
think when I stood at the altar with Josiah Allen that I should have
to dicker with them.
It only took six hours to sail from Hongkong up to Canton. The scenery
along the Pearl River is not very interesting except the rice fields,
banana groves with pagodas risin' amongst 'em anon or oftener, and
the strange tropical foliage, cactuses that we raise in little jars
riz up here like trees.
The native villages along the ruther flat shore looked kinder
dilapidated and run down, but yet they looked so different from
Jonesville houses that they wuz interestin' in a way. The forts that
we passed occasionally looked as if they would stand quite a strain.
But the queerest sight wuz the floatin' houses that we had to sail
through to land. Two hundred thousand folks live on them boats, are
born on 'em, grow up, marry, raise a family and die, all right there
on the water, just as other folks live on the land.
If a young man courts a girl he takes her and her setting out, which
is mebby a extra night gown, or I don't know what they do call
'em--their dresses look like night gowns. Well, she will take that and
a rice kettle and go into his junk and mebby never leave it through
her life only to visit her friends. The children swarmed on them boats
like ants on a ant-hill, and they say that if they git too thick they
kinder let 'em fall overboard, not push 'em off, but kinder let 'em go
accidental like, specially girls, they kinder encourage girls fallin'
off. And the Chinese think that it is wrong to save life. If any one
is drownin', for instance, they think that it is the will of the
higher Power and let 'em go. But they look down on girls dretfully. If
you ask a Chinaman how many children he has got he will say "Two
children and two piecee girl." Jest as if boys was only worthy to be
called children, and girls a piece of a child. Miss Meechim wuz
indignant when that way of theirs wuz mentioned; she considers herself
as good if not better than one man and a half. Sez she: "The idee of
calling a boy a child, and a girl a piece of a child, or words that
mean that."
But Arvilly sez, "Well, how much better is it in the United States--or
most of 'em? Girls don't even have the comfort of thinkin' that
they're a piece of a person; they're just nothin' at all in the eyes
of the law--unless the law wants to tax 'em to raise money." Sez she,
"I would be thankful 'lection day if I wuz a piece of a woman, so that
five or six of us would make a hull citizen." Miss Meechim had never
thought on't before, she said she hadn't, but nobody could git her to
say a word aginst American customs no more than they could aginst
herself. She thinks that she and America are perfect, but puts herself
first. Well, America is the best land under the sun; I've always said
so. But I feel towards it as I do towards Josiah: what faults it has I
want to talk it out of, so that it will stand up perfect among nations
as Josiah could amongst men if he would hear to me. Arvilly likes to
stir Miss Meechim up; I believe she sez things a purpose sometimes to
set Miss Meechim off; but then Arvilly talks from principle, too, and
she is real cute.
There wuz all sorts of boats, theatre junks and concert junks and
plain junks, and Josiah wuz dretful took with this floatin' city, and
sez to once that he should build a house boat as soon as he got
home--he and Ury. He said that he could use the old hay-rack to start
it--that and the old corn-house would most make it.
"Where will you put it?" sez I.
"Oh, on the creek or the canal," sez he. "It will be so uneek for us
to dwell when we want to, on the briny deep."
"I guess there hain't much brine in the creek or the canal," Josiah.
"Well, I said that for poetical purposes. But you know that it would
be very stylish to live in a boat, and any time we wanted to, when
onexpected company wuz comin', or the tax collector or book agent,
jest hist the sail and move off, it would be dretful handy as well as
stylish."
"Well, well," sez I, "you can't build it till you git home." I felt
that he would forgit it before then. Arvilly looked thoughtfully at
'em and wondered how she wuz goin' to canvass 'em, and if they would
do as Josiah intimated if they see her comin'. Miss Meechim wondered
if they could git to meetin' in time, they seemed to move so slow,
and Robert Strong said to Dorothy:
"Well, a poor man can feel that he owns the site his home stands on,
as well as the rich man can, and that would be a hopeless attempt for
him in our large American cities, and he can't be turned out of his
home by some one who claims the land."
And Tommy wondered how the little boys could play ball, and if they
didn't want to slide down hill, or climb trees, or pick berries, and
so on and so on. And every one on us see what wuz for us to see in the
movin' panoramy.
Canton is a real queer city. The streets are so narrer that you can
almost reach out your hands and touch the houses on both sides, they
are not more than seven or eight feet wide. There are no horses in
Canton, and you have to git about on "shanks's horses," as Josiah
calls it, your own limbs you know, or else sedan chairs, and the
streets are so narrer, some on 'em, that once when we met some big
Chinese man, a Mandarin I believe they called him, we had to hurry
into one of the shops till he got by, and sometimes in turnin' a
corner the poles of our chairs had to be run way inside of the shops,
and Josiah said:
"I would like to see how long the Jonesvillians would stand such
doin's; I would like to see old Gowdey's fills scrapin' my cook stove,
it is shiftless doin's, and ort to be stopped."
But I knew he couldn't make no change and I hushed him up as well as I
could. Robert Strong got quite a comfortable tarven for us to stay in.
But I wuz so afraid all the time of eatin' rats and mice that I
couldn't take any comfort in meat vittles. They do eat rats there, for
I see 'em hangin' in the markets with their long tails curled up,
ready to bile or fry. Josiah said he wished he had thought on't, he
would brung out a lot to sell, and he wuz all rousted up to try to
make a bargain to supply one of these shops with rats and mice. Sez
he:
"It will be clear profit, Samantha, for I want to get rid on 'em, and
all the Jonesvillians do, and if I can sell their carcasses I will
throw in the hide and taller. Why, I can make a corner on rats and
mice in Jonesville; I can git 'em by the wagon load of the farmers and
git pay at both ends." But I told him that the freightage would eat up
the profits, and he see it would, and gin up the idee onwillin'ly.
Though I don't love such hot stuff as we had to eat, curry, and red
peppers, and chutney, not to home I don't, but I see it wuz better to
eat such food there on account of the climate. Some of our party had
to take quinine, too, for the stomach's sake to keep up, for you feel
there like faintin' right away, the climate is such.
It must be that the Chinese like amusements, for we see sights of
theatres and concert rooms and lanterns wuz hangin' everywhere and
bells. And there wuz streets all full of silk shops, and weavers, and
jewelry, and cook shops right open on either side. All the colors of
the rainbow and more too you see in the silks and embroideries, and
jewelry of all kinds and swingin' signs and mat awnings overhead, and
the narrer streets full of strange lookin' folks, in their strange
lookin' dresses.
We visited a joss house, and a Chinaman's paradise where opium eaters
and smokers lay in bunks lookin' as silly and happy as if they
wouldn't ever wake up agin to their tawdy wretchedness. We visited a
silk manufactory, a glass blowing shop. We see a white marble pagoda
with several tiers of gilded bells hangin' on the outside. Inside it
wuz beautifully ornamented, some of the winders wuz made of the inside
of oyster shells; they made a soft, pleasant light, and it had a
number of idols made of carved ivory and some of jade stun, and the
principal idol wuz a large gilded dragon.
Josiah said the idee of worshippin' such a looking creeter as that.
Sez he, "I should ruther worship our old gander." And Miss Meechim wuz
horrified, too, at the wickedness of the Chinese in worshippin'
idols.
But Arvilly walked around it with her head up, and said that America
worshipped an idol that looked enough sight worse than that and a
million times worse actin'. Sez she, "This idol will stay where it is
put, it won't rare around and murder its worshippers."
And Miss Meechim sez coldly, "I don't know what you mean; I know that
I am an Episcopalian and worship as our beautiful creed dictates."
Sez Arvilly, "Anybody that sets expediency before principle, from a
king to a ragpicker; any one who cringes to a power he knows is vile
and dangerous, and protects and extends its influence from greed and
ambition, such a one worships a far worse idol than this peaceable,
humbly-lookin' critter and looks worse to me enough sight."
I hearn Miss Meechim say out to one side to Dorothy, "How sick I am of
hearing her constant talk against intemperance; from California to
China I have had to hear it. And you know, Dorothy, that folks can
drink genteel."
But Dorothy, with her sweet lips trembling and her white dimpled chin
quivering, sez, "I should think we had suffered enough from the
Whiskey Power, Auntie, to hear anything said against it, and at any
time."
And Robert Strong jined in with Dorothy, and so Miss Meechim subsided,
and I see a dark shadder creep over her face, too, and tears come into
her pale blue eyes. She hain't forgot Aronette, poor little victim!
Crunched and crushed under the wheels of the monster Juggernaut
America rolls round to crush its people under. I wuz some like
Arvilly. When I thought of that I didn't feel to say so much aginst
them foreign idols, though they wuz humbly lookin' as I ever see. And
speakin' of idols, one day we see twelve fat hogs in a temple, where
they wuz kept as sacred animals, and here agin Miss Meechim wuz
horrified and praised up American doin's, and run down China, and agin
Arvilly made remarks. Sez she:
"The hogs there wallowing in their filth are poor lookin' things to
kneel down and worship, but they're shut up here with priests to tend
to 'em; they can't git out to roam round and entice innocents into
their filthy sties and perpetuate their swinish lives, and that is
more than we can say of the American beastly idols, or our priesthood
who fatten them and themselves and then let 'em out to rampage round
and act."
Miss Meechim sithed deep and remarked to me "that the tariff laws wuz
a absorbin' topic to her mind at that time." She did it to change the
subject.
We went to a Chinese crematory and the Temple of Longevity, where if
you paid enough you could git a promise of long life. Josiah is clost,
but he gin quite a good deal for him, and wuz told that he would live
to be one hundred and twenty-seven years of age. He felt well. Of
course we had a interpreter with is who talked for us. Josiah wanted
me to pay, too, for a promise. Sez he with a worried look:
"I shall be wretched as a widower, Samantha; do patronize 'em, I had
ruther save on sunthin' else than this."
So to please him I gin 'em a little more than he did, and they
guaranteed me one hundred and forty years, and then Josiah worried
agin and wanted me to promise not to marry agin after he wuz gone. He
worships me. And I told him that if I lived to be a hundred and forty
I guessed I shouldn't be thinkin' much about marryin', and he looked
easier in his mind.
One day we met a weddin' procession, most a mild long, I should say.
The bride wuz ahead in her sedan chair, her dress wuz richly
embroidered and spangled, a veil fringed with little pearls hung over
her face. Pagodas with tinkling gilt bells, sedan chairs full of silk
and cloth and goods of all kinds wuz carried in the procession by
coolies. Idols covered with jade and gilt jewelry, a company of little
children beatin' tom-toms and gongs, and the stuffed bodies of animals
all ornamented with gilt and red paper riggers wuz carried, and at
the tail end of the procession come the friends of the family.
The bridegroom wuzn't there, he wuz waitin' to hum in his own or his
father's house for the bride he'd never seen. But if the bride's feet
wuz not too large he would most likely be suited.
Miss Meechim said, "Poor young man! to have to take a wife he has
never seen; how widely different and how immeasurably better are such
things carried on in America."
Sez Arvilly, "What bridegroom ever did see his bride as she really
wuz? Till the hard experience of married life brought out her hidden
traits, good and bad? Or what wife ever see her husband's real temper
and character until after years of experience?"
Sez I, "That's so; leaves are turned over in Josiah Allen's mind now
as long as we've been pardners that has readin' on 'em as strange to
me as if they wuz writ in Chinese or Japan."
But then it must be admitted that not to see your wife's face and know
whether she's cross-eyed or snub-nosed is tryin'. But they say it is
accordin' to the decree of Feng Shui, and therefore they accept it
willingly. They have a great variety of good fruit in Canton--some
that I never see before--but their vegetables don't taste so good as
ours, more stringy and watery, and their eggs they want buried six
months before usin' 'em. I believe that sickened me of China as much
as anything. But then some folks at home want their game kep' till it
hain't fit to eat in my opinion. But eggs! they should be like Cæsar's
wife, above suspicion--the idee of eatin' 'em with their shells all
blue and spotted with age--the idee!