Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

Page 28 text:

22 The Augusta Seminary Annual. would give a peculiar signal, and heavy iron doors were pulled to ; when the policeman passed, the scrambling and shrill chattering of a few minutes ago was hushed into silence, and no sign of gambling-den was visible. Their temples of worship are perhaps the most interesting spots in China-Town, On one side of a large room three huge and hid- eous images were sitting upon a platform, and before each god was a little bowl of tea which might have stood there for a week. Our loquacious guide showed us how they worshipped their idols and burned incense before them, and called our attention to two large blocks of light- wood on one side of the room, representing battle scenes, most delicately carved with only a small knife. From the temple we were led down some dark, narrow, under- ground steps ; the smell of opium grew stronger as we descended until it almost suffocated us. This underground hole was divided into many little cell-like rooms, and peeping into one of them we saw two men lying on a dirty couch with a little lighted lamp be- tween them, each smoking a long-handled opium pipe. The air was so offensive that we soon saw enough of opium- smoking, and we next made a brief visit to the Chinese opera- house, a rude, unsightly affair, whose greatest objects of interest were the highly colored and exquisitely woven garments of the actors ; then we went to a beautiful restaurant, witli hard-wood floors, flnely carved walls and handsome ebony chairs inlaid with ivory ; here we were served with delicious tea and cake. Then we took a car for our hotel just as a faint light Ijegan to glimmer in the east. Ida Ijell Gossom.

Page 27 text:

The Augusta Seminary Annual. 21 away togetlier. Scattered here and tliere over tlie field lie tlie yellow jniinpkins and streaked kershaws wliicli have grown unseen aniontjst tlie corn, and when tlie day is over the o;reat farm wa oii, with its load of merry chihlren, rumbles in through the hars to carry them homo, iany and swift are the hands that gather them, and soon the h(. rst ' S are turned home, the burdened wagon rolls slowly away and leaves deseited the field where the shocks appear like dusky wigwams in the light of the harvest moon. Ruth See. A Visit to China=Town. NO visit to San Francisco is complete without a sight of Cliina- T(»wn by midnight, for it is then that the Chinese may best be seen in their gambling and opium dens, their shoi)s and tem- ples. About eleven o ' clock our guide took us by cable-car to this little Chinese city of thirty or forty thousand inhal)itants. His tongue never stopped ; he knew everything, at least in his own estimation. We first entered a china and curiosity shop where everything, from back-scratchers and chop-sticks to the most beautiful china, might be bought. The old proprietor understood English well, and told us that he had been in San Francisco twenty-seven years, during which time he had made three visits to his native country. Then we entered a Chinese drug store, and here we saw curious preparations of herljs ; pills as large as birds ' eggs, and dried frogs prescribed fV r rheumatism. As we went through the streets we saw these curious people in all their occupations and employments ' , in their grocery stores with pressed ducks and frogs brought all the way from China ; in their dirty, narrow homes filled with boys in queer caps and red trousers, and i)oor little girls with their tiny feet in cruel, wooden shoes ; in their gambling-dens, crowded at that time of night. These gandjling holes are strictly against the law, and watchmen were stationed at every corner ; if a policeman came in sight they

Page 29 text:

The Aiignsta Seminary Annual. 23 A Day in and about a Tropical City. IT is a warm, bri i:lit morning, and we find our wide straw hats very agreeable as we start out on an ex])edition through the city. AVe walk slowly, for we find the scenes of a I ' razilian town novel and interesting to us. The streets are crowded, for it is market day, and the people hurry l)y in never-ceasing streams. Here comes the water-carrier with his big barrel on wheels, while the water leaks out through its cracks and trickles down upon the pavement. Then follows the mo- lasses man, with his tin cans rattling noisily in the rickety cart, while now and then one sees the mischievous black eyes of a sable urchin peering over the sides of the wagon. And now comes the bird- seller with his numerous cages, in which the yellow canaries twitter, the parrakeets croak, and the scissor bii ' ds utter their rasping tweet-tweet. One by one come in quick succession milk wagons, fruit wagons, vegetable wagons, beggars on foot and beggars on horseback, pmnpkin-laden donkeys and tame goats which take possession of the sidewalks and leave the street to peddlers and to other pedestrians, snake-sellers, charm-sellers and many more, all of whom press their wares eagerly upon you. Now the sun shines down more fiercely and the bustle subsides into lazy inactivity. The shopkeepers mount on their counters and sluml)er peacefully, their wives take out their lacework and swiftly draw out the threads as they gossip, while the goats and dogs stretch themselves out on the sidewalk to bask in the sun. Here is the market place, and tempted by the delicious fruits we pass in through the wide gates. Here are busy housekeepers seeking something for dinner, children spending their few pemiies on ginger-bread men and candy animals, while now and then one sees a pretty Italian maiden in her scarlet bodice, merrily barter- ing for a string of coral with which to ornament her slender neck. Kear the entrance sits an old woman whose bare neck and arms are gorgeously decked in necklaces and bracelets of colored beads. Spread around her on the floor are her wares : bunches of bananas, huge cabbage-heads, and withered herbs sure cures for all diseases.