FIRST DAY IN CHINA.
In due time they entered the waters of the great river of Northern
China, the Yang-tse. They entered them long before they sighted land, as
the vast quantities of earth brought down by the stream make a change in
the color of the sea that can be readily distinguished a great distance
from the coast. In this respect the Yang-tse is similar to the
Mississippi, and the effect of the former on the Yellow Sea is like that
of the latter on the Gulf of Mexico. The coast at the mouth of the
Yang-tse is low and flat, and a ship is fairly in the entrance of the
river before land can be seen. The bar can be passed by deep-draught
vessels only at high water, and consequently it often becomes necessary
for them to wait several hours for the favorable moment. This was the
case with our friends, and they walked the deck with impatience during
the delay. But at last all was ready, and they steamed onward in
triumph, dropping their tow at Woosung, and waving a good-bye to "the
Mystery," who had recognized them from the deck of the disabled bark.
[Illustration: THE WOOSUNG RIVER.]
Shanghai is not on the Yang-tse, but on the Woosung River, about twelve
miles from the point where the two streams unite. The channel is quite
tortuous, and it requires careful handling on the part of a pilot to
take a ship through in safety to herself and all others. Two or three
times they narrowly escaped accidents from collisions with junks and
other craft, and at one of the turnings the prow of their steamer made a
nearer acquaintance with a mud-bank than her captain considered
desirable; but nothing was injured, and the delay that followed the
mishap was for only a few minutes. The tide was running in, and carried
them along at good speed; and in less than two hours from the time of
their departure from Woosung they were anchored in front of Shanghai and
ready to go on shore. They had not seen anything particularly
interesting on their voyage up the river, as the banks were low and not
at all densely settled. Here and there a few villages were thrown
together, and it occurred to Frank that the houses were huddling close
up to each other in order to keep warm. The most of the ground was clear
of timber; but there were some farm-houses standing in little clumps of
trees that, no doubt, furnished a welcome shade in the summer season.
One mile of the river was very much like another mile, and consequently
the monotony of the scenery made the sight of Shanghai a welcome one.
[Illustration: CHINESE TRADING-JUNK ON THE WOOSUNG RIVER.]
Crowds of sampans surrounded the ship as the anchor-chain rattled
through the hawse-hole, and it was very evident that there was no lack
of transportation for the shore. The Doctor engaged one of these boats,
and gave the baggage of the party into the hands of the runner from the
Astor House, the principal hotel of the American section of Shanghai.
They found it a less imposing affair than the Astor House of New York,
though it occupied more ground, and had an evident determination to
spread itself. A large space of greensward was enclosed by a quadrangle
of one-story buildings, which formed the hotel, and consequently it
required a great deal of walking to get from one part of the house to
the opposite side. Our friends were shown to some rooms that were
entered from a veranda on the side of the court-yard. They found that on
the other side there was a balcony, where they could sit and study the
life of the street; and as this balcony was well provided with chairs
and lounges, it was a pleasant resort on a warm afternoon. The house
was kept by an American, but all his staff of servants was Chinese. Fred
regretted that he could not praise the dining-table as earnestly as he
did the rooms, and he was vehement in declaring that a breakfast or
dinner in the Astor at New York was quite another affair from the same
meal in the one at Shanghai. The Doctor and Frank were of his opinion;
but they found, on inquiry, that the landlord did not agree with them,
and so they dropped the subject.
As soon as they were settled at the hotel, they went out for a stroll
through the city, and to deliver letters to several gentlemen residing
there. They had some trouble in finding the houses they were searching
for, as the foreigners at Shanghai do not consider it aristocratic to
have signs on their doors or gate-posts, and a good deal of inquiry is
necessary for a stranger to make his way about. If a man puts out a
sign, he is regarded as a tradesman, and unfit to associate with the
great men of the place; but as long as there is no sign or placard about
his premises he is a merchant, and his company is desirable, especially
if he is free with his money. A tradesman cannot gain admission to the
Shanghai Club, and the same is the rule at Hong-Kong and other ports
throughout the East. But there is no bar to the membership of his clerk;
and it not infrequently happens that a man will be refused admission to
a club on account of his occupation, while his clerk will be found
eligible. There are many senseless rules of society in the East, and our
boys were greatly amused as the Doctor narrated them.
[Illustration: SHANGHAI.]
Shanghai is very prettily situated in a bend of the river, and the
water-front is ornamented with a small park, which has a background of
fine buildings. These buildings are handsome, and the most of them are
large. Like the foreign residences at the treaty ports of Japan, they
have a liberal allowance of ground, so that nearly every house fronting
on the river has a neat yard or garden in front of it. The balconies are
wide, and they are generally enclosed in lattice-work that allows a free
circulation of air. Back from the water-front there are streets and
squares for a long distance; and the farther you go from the
river-front, the less do you find the foreign population, and the
greater the Chinese one. The foreign quarter is divided into three
sections--American, English, and French--and each has a front on the
river in the order here given, but the subjects, or citizens, of each
country are not confined to their own national quarter; several
Americans live in the French and English sections, and there are French
and English inhabitants in the quarter where the American consul has
jurisdiction. There is generally the most complete harmony among the
nationalities, and they are accustomed to make common cause in any
dispute with the Chinese. Sometimes they fall out; but they very soon
become aware that disputes will be to their disadvantage, and proceed to
fall in again. There is a great deal of social activity at Shanghai, and
a vast amount of visiting and dinner-giving goes on in the course of a
year.
The Chinese city is quite distinct from the foreign one; it lies just
beyond the French concession, or, rather, the French section extends up
to the walls of the old city. The contrast between the two is very
great. While the foreigners have taken plenty of space for the
construction of their buildings and laying out their streets, the
Chinese have crowded together as closely as possible, and seemed
desirous of putting the greatest number into the smallest area. It is so
all over China from north to south. Even where land is of no particular
value, as in the extreme north, the result is the same; and there are
probably no people in the world that will exist in so small an area as
the Chinese. Ventilation is not a necessity with them, and it seems to
make little difference whether the air they breathe be pure or the
reverse. In almost any other country in the world a system of such close
crowding would breed all sorts of pestilence, but in China nobody
appears to die from its effect.
[Illustration: A COOLIE IN THE STREETS OF SHANGHAI.]
At the first opportunity our friends paid a visit to the Chinese part of
Shanghai. They found a man at the gate of the city who was ready to
serve them as guide, and so they engaged him without delay. He led them
through one of the principal streets, which would have been only a
narrow lane or alley in America; and they had an opportunity of studying
the peculiarities of the people as they had studied in the Japanese
cities the people of Japan. Here is what Frank wrote down concerning his
first promenade in a Chinese city:
"We found the streets narrow and dirty compared with Japan, or with any
city I ever saw in America. The shops are small, and the shopkeepers are
not so polite as those of Tokio or other places in Japan. In one shop,
when I told the guide to ask the man to show his goods, they had a long
talk in Chinese, and the guide said that the man refused to show
anything unless we should agree to buy. Of course we would not agree to
this, and we did nothing more than to ask the price of something we
could see in a show-case. He wanted about ten times the value of the
article; and then we saw why it was he wanted us to agree beforehand to
buy what we looked at. Every time we stopped at a shop the people
gathered around us, and they were not half so polite as the Japanese
under the same circumstances. They made remarks about us, which of
course we did not understand; but from the way they laughed when the
remarks were made, we could see that they were the reverse of
complimentary.
"We went along the street, stopping now and then to look at something,
and in a little while we came to a tea-house which stood in the middle
of a pond of water. The house was rather pretty, and the balconies
around it were nice, but you should have seen the water. It was covered
with a green scum, such as you may see on a stagnant pool anywhere in
the world, and the odor from it was anything but sweet. Fred said it was
the same water that was let into the pool when they first made it. The
guide says the house is a hundred years old, and I should think the
water was quite as old as the house; or perhaps it is some second-hand
water that they bought cheap, and if so it may be very ancient. We went
into the house and sat down to take some tea. They gave us some
tea-leaves, on which they poured hot water, and then covered the cup
over for a minute or two. Each of us had his portion of tea separate
from all the others. The tea was steeped in the cup, and when we wanted
more we poured hot water on again. Then they brought little cakes and
melon-seeds, with salt to eat with the seeds. Our guide took some of the
seeds, and we ate one or two each to see how they tasted. I can't
recommend them, and don't think there is any danger they will ever be
introduced into the United States as a regular article of diet.
[Illustration: A TEA-HOUSE IN THE COUNTRY.]
"When we rose to go, and asked how much we owed, we were astonished at
the price. The proprietor demanded a dollar for what we had had, when,
as we afterwards learned, twenty-five cents would have been more than
enough. We had some words with him through our interpreter, and finally
paid the bill which we had found so outrageous. We told him we should
not come there again; and he said he did not expect us to, as strangers
rarely came more than once into the Chinese part of Shanghai. He was a
nice specimen of a Chinese rascal; and Doctor Bronson says he must have
taken lessons of some of the American swindlers at Niagara Falls and
other popular resorts. What a pity it is that whenever you find
something outrageously bad in a strange country, you have only to think
a moment to discover something equally bad in your own!
[Illustration: SMOKING OPIUM.]
"At one place we looked into a little den where some people were smoking
opium. They were lying on benches, and were very close together. The
room wasn't more than eight feet square, and yet there were a dozen
people in it, and perhaps one or two more. The guide told us it was a
mistake to suppose that they smoked opium as we smoke tobacco. We stand,
sit, or walk while smoking; but when a Chinese uses opium, he always
reclines on a bench or bed, and gives himself up to his enjoyment. Men
go to the shops where opium is sold and lie down on the benches for a
period of pleasure. Sometimes two persons go together, and then they lie
on the same bench and take turns in filling each other's pipe.
"The opium must be boiled to fit it for use, and when ready it looks
like very thick molasses. A man takes a long needle and dips it into the
opium, and then he twists it around till he gets a ball of the drug as
large as a pea. He holds this ball in the flame of a lamp till it
becomes hot and partially burning, and then he thrusts it into a little
orifice in the top of the bowl of the pipe. He continues to hold it in
the flame, and, while it is burning, he slowly inhales the fumes that
come from it. A few whiffs exhaust the pipe, and then the smoker rests
for several minutes before he takes another. The amount required for
intoxication is regulated and estimated in pipes; one man can be
overcome by three or four pipes, while another will need ten, twenty, or
even thirty of them. A beginner is satisfied with one or two pipes, and
will go to sleep for several hours. He is said to have dreams of the
pleasantest sort, but he generally feels weak and exhausted the next
day.
[Illustration; OPIUM-PIPE.]
"Dr. Bronson says he tried to smoke opium the first time he was in
China, but it made him very ill, and he did not get through with a
single pipe. Some Europeans have learned to like it, and have lost their
senses in consequence of giving way to the temptation. It is said to be
the most seductive thing in the world, and some who have tried it once
say it was so delightful that they would not risk a second time, for
fear the habit would be so fixed that they could not shake it off. It is
said that when a Chinese has tried it for ten or fifteen days in
succession he cannot recover, or but very rarely does so. The effects
are worse than those of intoxicating liquors, as they speedily render a
man incapable of any kind of business, even when he is temporarily free
from the influence of the drug. The habit is an expensive one, as the
cost of opium is very great in consequence of the taxes and the high
profits to those who deal in it. In a short time a man finds that all
his earnings go for opium, and even when he is comfortably well off he
will make a serious inroad on his property by his indulgence in the
vice. A gentleman who has lived long in China, and studied the effects
of opium on the people, says as follows:
"'With all smokers the effect of this vice on their pecuniary standing
is by no means to be estimated by the actual outlay in money for the
drug. Its seductive influence leads its victims to neglect their
business, and consequently, sooner or later, loss or ruin ensues. As the
habit grows, so does inattention to business increase. Instances are not
rare where the rich have been reduced to poverty and beggary, as one of
the consequences of their attachment to the opium pipe. The poor
addicted to this vice are often led to dispose of everything salable in
the hovels where they live. Sometimes men sell their wives and children
to procure the drug, and end by becoming beggars and thieves. In the
second place, the smoking of opium injures one's health and bodily
constitution. Unless taken promptly at the regular time, and in the
necessary quantity, the victim becomes unable to control himself and to
attend to his business. He sneezes, he gapes, mucus runs from his nose
and eyes, griping pains seize him in the bowels, his whole appearance
indicates restlessness and misery. If not indulged in smoking and left
undisturbed, he usually falls asleep, but his sleep does not refresh and
invigorate him. On being aroused, he is himself again, provided he can
have his opium. If not, his troubles and pains multiply, he has no
appetite for ordinary food, no strength or disposition to labor. He
becomes emaciated to a frightful degree, his eyes protrude from their
sockets; and if he cannot procure opium, he dies in the most horrible
agony.'
[Illustration: MAN BLINDED BY USE OF OPIUM.]
"The government has tried to stop the use of opium, but was prevented
from so doing by England, which made war upon China to compel her to
open her ports and markets for its sale. It is no wonder that the
Chinese are confused as to the exact character of Christianity, when a
Christian nation makes war upon them to compel them to admit a poison
which that Christian nation produces, and which kills hundreds of
thousands of Chinese every year.
"We made all our journey on foot, as we could not find any
jin-riki-shas, except in the foreign part of Shanghai. They were only
brought into use a few years ago, and they cannot be employed in all the
cities of China, because the streets are very narrow, and the carriage
could not move about. But we saw some sedan-chairs, and one of these
days we are going to have a ride in them. It looks as though a ride of
this sort would be very comfortable, as you have a good chair to sit in,
and then you are held up by men who walk along very steadily. Ordinarily
you have two men; but if you are a grand personage, or are going on a
long course, three or four men are needed. The chair is quite pretty, as
it has a lot of ornamental work about it, and the lower part is closed
in with light panelling or bamboo-work. It is surprising what loads the
coolies carry, and how long they will walk without apparent fatigue.
They are accustomed to this kind of work all their lives, and seem to
think it is all right.
[Illustration: CHINESE GENTLEMAN IN A SEDAN.]
"We came back pretty tired, as the streets are not agreeable for walking
on account of the dust and the rough places. They don't seem to care how
their streets are in China. When they have finished a street, they let
it take care of itself; and if it wears out, it is none of their
business. I am told that there are roads in China that were well made at
the start, but have not had a particle of repair in a hundred years.
They must be rough things to travel on."