Round the world letters

Front matter

CHARLES WILLIAM WASON

COLLECTION

CHINA AND THE CHINESE

Preface

" Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some iew to be chewed and digested," saith Lord Bacon. Because of the first part of this statement of the great authority I may venture to place this book before the public. There may be nothing to chew and digest, possibly nothing to swallow; but I believe there is something to taste.

During a two years' tour of the world, completed a few months

, ago, I wrote a series of letters for The Providence Daily Journal.

At the suggestion of its accomplished editor, Mr. 6. W. Danielson,

I made these letters a record prominently of personal sight-seeing

and experiences.

This book contains not only that series of letters somewhat altered, but many additions both from my notebooks and from another series of letters I contributed for a Cincinnati paper.

For those readers who have no personal acquaintance with the members of our party so often referred to, I may add : At the conclusion of a ten years' pastorate in Providence, my husband, with

our son and myself, started westward. My cousin, Mrs. M of

Cleveland, whose companionship we had had through the Holy Land and elsewhere, met us in Germany.

Lucy Seahak Baiiibbid0£.

Providence, B. I., December, 1881,

I

Advantage of travel — Auld lang syne advice — Starting Westward — Railway glimpses — Fifty years ago — Giant Industries — Cleveland viaduct — Shakerdom — Chicago — Girlhood memories — Those rollicking days 13

II

Luxury on wheels — Wanted, a minister — Omaha — Across the prairies — Agreeable company — On and up — Mormonism — Cape Horn — Saying grace — " Frisco " lions — China town —"City of Gold " — Newsboys' Club — Kindergarten — Goodly 25

III

A busy wharf — Specifics for Mai de mer — Fellow voyagers — Steward's supplies — The cargo — A day dropped — Slanders — Land ahead ; . 39

IV

Arrival in Yokohama — Fuji-Yama — Boat life in the harbor — Jinrikisha — Daibootz — Plains of Heaven — The Bluff — " Too much salary" — Second-hand stoves — The Yokohama Daily — Our substitute — Tokio — The Nippon-Bashi — Along the business streets — Yashki — Letters of introduction. . . 50

V

Kakimono — A Japanese dinner— Native garden — Gants de Breeches — The Empress School — Curious idioms — Hairy hieroglyphics vi Table 0/ Conimii.

— A Japanese girl's dress — The Emperor's garden — Lacquer Works — " Nichi Nichi Shinbun." 63

VI

Shinto temples — The Shokonsha — Funeral of one of Japan's leaders — Medley > of a Shinto procession — Presenting food to the corpse — Emblems of .respect — Burial — Sponge cake ^^ Asakusa worship — Temple amusements — The State Prison — Uyeno — Shiba — Nikko 76

VII

The Tokaido — A Jap Jehu — Kango riding — Hakone mountains and lake — A Japanese Inn — " Swapped off " — A " clinging nature " — Pitfalls of language — Kioto the sacred city — Airing the idols — American Coloner promoted to Missionary — Mikado's palace — Osaka — Kobe — A noble record — Nagasaki — Watching for the American Eagle — Good-by to Japan. . 90

VIII. Welcome of General Grant in Shanghai — Dress of Chinese officials

— Illuminations — Grand ball at the English Club-house — Mrs. Grundy — Local press on the event — A bit of " pidgin " — Miniature London — Some customs of this farther East — Chit-book — Servant brigade — Native city — Mr. B's interior journey — Going north — Tautoi of Chef 00 — The Derby of hospitality; who virins ? . 107

IX

Chinese togeow — Grand Hotel de Gonyu — Eastern Shantung — Tung-chau-fu — The loneliest corner of the globe — Picnic at Pebbly Beach — Leaving for the Capital — An enjoyable accident— Tientsin — Li-Hung-Chang — Up the Peiho— "Hard road to trabble I believe" — Arrested. 123

X

Praying for rain — Temple of Confucius — Hall of Classics — Temple of Shams — A D^oba-' Ceremonial of the Winter Solstice — No admittance ^ Temple of Heaven — The Observatory — The sacred lotus — Triennial examinations — Illustration of "tiyjtry

Table of Contents. vli

again" — "The fourth "in Peking — Summer's deluge— Guest house at the Legation , . . , 133

XL

Provoking deliberation — 'A John Gilpin ride' — One of the largest hells in the world — Ruined Wan-sho-shan — Palaces of , Yuen-ming-yuen — Temple of the Black Dragon's pool — Camping on the Great Wall — Song of the sandiilies — Nankow Pass — Valley of the tombs — Avenue of animals — Y ung-lo — Cheap fruit — Kindliness of a £)hinese crowds- Call of Chinese heads of government at the Legation ; — Salt hills — A boy's welcome. . . 146

XII

A disastrous T3rphoon — Harbor of Chef 00 — Variegated fleet — A theatrical performance for the gods^ — Newport of China — Lawn tennis — A missionary wheelbarrow — Chinese milkmen — Market prices — A pongee shop — The currency : of China — The travelling tinker — Native seamstresses — Signs of progress — Lady physicians at the front. 158

XIII

Responsibility for death in China — A Mother-in-law' s spite — Example of filial devotion — On the wing — Arsenal at Shanghai — Conjugal love — Remarkable display of phosphorescence — Free drinks for passengers — Effect on one who did his own drinking and ours too — Switzerland of China — Foochow — Brick tea — Enjoying Chinese hospitality — Bill of fare — Some Chinese finery. 173

XIV

Condition of women in China — Glimpse into a house of the middls classes — Coffin in the dining room — Making paper money for the dead — Lunch with Mrs. Gen. Pang —Mandarin calls in an American doctor — Amoy — SwatoW Mission — Boat journey into interior of Kwangtung — Native chapel and service — Persecutioiis. . '°3

XV

Canton a swafming million — Boat life — Moon festival --Honors paid the fire god — Native restaurants — " There's no disputmg about tastes " — Recipe for thin hair — Advertising use of ol(i( viil Table of Conienh.

plasters — The temple of five hundred gods. — Sacred pigs — Howqua family — Canton streets — Po-Shang-pill — Excursion up Pearl river — Hong Kong 19S

XVI

Days of most delightful sea-voyaging — Diving feats of Malay boys — Singapore the bazaar of the world — Tropical vegetation — British and India Steara-ship Co. — Off Malacca — Penang — Tobacco raising on Sumatra — Coolie labor — Up the Salwen — Sagacity of the elephants in lumber yards — Marks of a white elephant — Rice exports — Maulmain — Bungalow homes — Lizards — Tauk-taw — Crows. . . 205

XVII

Pagoda 'htees — Expensive offerings — Various efforts to gain merit — The new pagoda weaving contest — Chewing the betel — Annual illumination of the river — August full moon festival — A gold corpse — A jungle trip to Seejaw and Dogyan — Visit to Amherst— The grave of Mrs. Ann H. Judson. . . . 220

XVIII

Amusing efforts to acquire English — American oil in heathen lands — "P'aing K'lah ' — A visit to all the christian homes of Maulmain —7 Burmese Social Union — A young lady's toilet — Court dress of upper Burmah — The costumes of the young men — Shway-dagon — Bits /of its history — Rangoon city — Its business activity — Many beautiful drives — The trying climate — Irrawaddy Valley Railroad — Prome— King Theebaw's method of recalling his wandering subjects — River steamers — A boat trip in the jungle — Providence news in a Luckiiow paper. . 232

XIX

Canned codfishHiaUs ■ — What natives eat — Strange superstitions — Burmese NewXYear's day — Woman's position in Burmah — Some native naihes — Journeyings in Southern India — Up the Hooghly — Palace of the ex-King of. Oude — Courtesy of Consul General of United States at Calcutta — His work for the English midshipmen — Unwise economy - . 249

XX. Necessary additiotis to one's vocabulaty.— Visiting the Zenanas — '

Table of Contents. Ix

Calcutta " the city of palaces " — Fashionable driving on the Maidan — Bazaar men on the rampage — Worship of Kali — Bishop Heber's monument — Burning Ghaut — Nautch party — A pensive prima donna — Led behind the scenes — Visit to Serampore — Successful coffee rooms for the sailors. . 260

XXI

' Some pumpkins " — Night travel in India — Benares, " the sacred city " — One home in India — Birthplace ^of Buddhism — Well of knowledge — Monkey temple — Worshipping the sacred river — Garden of delights — School for high caste girls — Illustrations of the caste system — Servants necessary for India life — Lucknovf — The ruined Residency — Grave of General Havelock

— Kaiser Bagh, the palace of three hundred wives — Jugglery

— Bareilly — One woman's work in temperance — A Dak bungalow — Meeting old acquaintances 279

XXII. Delhi modern and ancient — Peacock throne — Palace of Shah-Jehan

— Pearl Mosque' — Jumna Musjid — Kutab Minar — Chandni Chouk, the Broadway of Delhi — India shawls — Agra — The Taj

— The wonderful echo — Palace of Akbar the Great — Secundra, his last resting place — Versailles of the 'Moguls. . . 294

XXIII

Cawnpore — The Marble Angel — Park of the Well — Memorial Church — Allahabad, the city of God — M^lee — A lightning message — Bombay — American tramways — Queer names — Parsees

— Towers of Silence — Our party divided — On the Indian Ocean

— Aden — Apchored off Suez — Getting ashore — Custom house fiends — Claiming protection of the Stars and Stripes — Suez. 310

XXIV

Shepherd's hotel — Formidable array of titles — Hero of Lothair — Various sights of Cairo — Changes in Cairo since our last visit — The pyramids — " New small Pasha " — Mosques — The citadel — Alexandria — Port Said — Jaffa — A fearful storm — Beyrout city — View of Lebanon — Pasha's garden — Mysteries of Turkish coins — Telegrams from Bagdad. . • ■ 329 i ihbk of Contents.

XXV

Tent life in Palestine — The double tour — The way We tmvelled -« Bill of fare in camp — A call at Bteddin ■ — Over Lebanon to Sidon — Tyre fulfilling Scripture prophecy — Acre ^- Mount Carmel — Hottahr — Caesarea Palestina — Along the edge of Sharon

— Tenting outside Jaffa — Muleteers in a row — Lydda — Ramleh — Beth Shemesh — Scene of the combat between David and Goliath — Hebron — Cave of Machpelah — Solomon's pools — Bethlehem 349

XXVI

Grotto of the Nativity — Olive wood — Jerusalem — Tenting on Olivet — View of the Holy City — Gethsemane — Via Doloroso — Church of the Holy Sepulchre — Pool of Siloara — Tomb of Absalom — Jews' cemetery — Jews' wailing place — Valley of Hinnom — Field of Blood — House of Caiaphas — Bethany — Mosque of Omar 364

XXVII

Mar Saba — Dead Sea — Jordan river — Jericho — Shady side of tent life — Underneath Jerusalem — Mizpah — Bethel — Shiloh — Mt ' Ebal — Mt. Gerizimr — Jacob's well ^Samaria — Dothan — Ezdraelon — Nazareth — Sea of Galilee — Tiberias — Land of Gennesaret — Sheik's house — Caesarea Philippi — Damascus — Home of our Consul — Scenes in the' bazaars — Baalbek — Tent life ended ,77

XXVIII

Eokkara — Turkish management — Sisters of Kaiserwerth — Hospital of St. John — Syrian College —.Woman's advancement — Various styles of dress — Auction scene — Arrival of the pilgrim — Bacrdad, Babylon and Nineveh notes — Austrian Lloyd steamers

— Artistic and other people — A stray love letter — Cyprus — Rhodes — Smyrna — Syra — Arrival at Piraeus — Athens. 392

XXIX

Ceremonies of St. Constantine's day — Religions in Greece— The Acropolis past and present — Parthenon — MarsHill — Temple of Theseus — Other antiquities — View from the summit of Lycabettus —Dr. Schliemann's residence — The Academy — Greel;

Table of Contents. la

costumes — Corfu — Venetian life — Through the Austrian Tyrol

— Bavaria 410

XXX

The Passion Play — How to get to Ober-Ammergau — Glance at the history of the play — Climbing Ettal — A motley procession — Finding lodgings — The home at "Number thirty-two" — A busy Sunday morning — At the theatre — Performance begins — Duty of the Schutzgeister — Introductory tableaux — Triumphal entry into Jerusalem — The Sanhedrim — Parting at Bethany — Preparations for Passover — The Lord's supper — Judas finely portrayed — Garden of Gethsemane — Christus before Caiaphas

— Peter's denial — Despair of Judas — Pilate — Scourging and crowning — Choosing Barabbas — The Crucifixion — Descent from the cross — Resurrection and Ascension — After thoughts — A day among the villagers — Actors off duty. . . . 426

XXXI

Munich — Beer gardens — Daily concert on Marian Platz — Martial spirit of the people — The Glyptothek — The old Pinacothek — The new Pinacothek- — Kaulback's destruction of Jerusalem — National Musuem — The royal palace — One of the great libraries of the world — Bavarian Hall of Fame — Holy days — Women's work — "God's acre " — Odds and ends — Off for Lake Constance. . 456

XXXII

Swiss wheels set in motion — Alpine glories — The dying lion — Glacier garden — Summer life in Lucerne — Delightful excursioning on Lake Lucerne — Clustered histories — Up Rigi — Pilatus — A glance backward — German tracks on French soil — Belfort 474

XXXIII

Beautiful Paris — The Catacombs of society — A homeless city — The concierge — An average Paris restaurant — French politics — Caricaturing their leaders — Empire and Republic in contrast — Pere Hyaemth^ — The McAll Mission — American Chapel — My vote for General Garfield — Twice elected — His favorite hymn 480 zil Table df ConUnii.

XXXIV

Magasins du Louvre — French Westminster Abbey — Ceremonies of St. Denis' Day — Inquisition of trunks — Detective Agency wanted — Old dishes at Saint Cloud — French newspapers — A brilliant Avenue — Pedestrians no rights — Fleas — The Chan- ■ nel elephant — Custom house — London's vastness — The fog — Spurgeon's, and some other pulpits — Sights at British intellect at its best — Meeting of the Anthropological Institute. . 496

XXXV

World's capitals contrasted — Joseph Cook — Edwin Booth — Lord Mayor's day — English shopping and styles — Snobbery — Gems of the British Museum — Dore's gallery — English hospitality. 516