June 25, 1874

Financial operations in China are based upon the cash system. Chinese cash are little round pieces of metal, with a hole in the center, so as to allow them to be strung together. They vary in value from one-tenth to one-fourteenth of a cent. For convenience sake they are placed on strings of 100 each, and ten of these are joined together. This is the only kind of money in circulation among the masses of the people. Ten or twelve cash will pay for an ordinary meal, and common laborers make from 100 to 200 per day. Beggars manage to live on what would scarcely pay for the spoonful of sugar a foreigner puts in his coffee. When one of these wretched looking objects comes into a store to ask a pittance, it is amusing to see the store-keeper pull out his money-drawer, take out a solitary cash, and gravely deposit it on the counter, while the recipient walks away with his gift, apparently perfectly satisfied.

John Chinaman is not behindhand in ingenuity. I have seen a dexterous image-maker form a wax figure of a female, neatly and handsomely dressed, with hair, eyes, eyebrows, lips and clothes painted with different colors in less than ten minutes, and then offer it for eight cash. Coming along the street one day, our attention was attracted by a large crowd watching the performances of a man who was giving a side show for their benefit. We stopped a few minutes and looked on. The operator was concealed from view by a dirty curtain which hung down from the four corners of his show-box, the latter being a miniature house in shape. The lid, i.e. one side of the roof was raised, and the box was elevated high enough to keep curious people from gazing down inside. After a preliminary performance with a gong inside the curtain, suddenly up popped the figure of a female, the size of an ordinary doll, which began to make a series of graceful bows to the audience, in the mean time winking and blinking like a thing of life. The face was full, but the rest of the form was a skeleton, covered with a little robe, and as it raised its thin arms, and flitted about in every conceivable kind of posture, it seemed like a specter from the spirit world. The gracefulness of its movements was really admirable, for it seemed as polite as if it had been brought up in the most cultured society. Its motions must have been directed by a net-work of automatic wires, skillfully arranged, and managed with great dexterity by the invisible operator. After a few minutes, in which the figure was constantly dancing about, moving graceful gestures, it bowed politely to the audience and disappeared behind the little screen. Then Actor No. 2 bobbed up in sight, being another wax figure with an exceedingly ugly head, and grasping tightly in its ghastly hand a Chinese saucer. That it was a veritable saucer, of bona fide earthenware, there could be no doubt; but after cutting a few antics with it, the figure held it out, a needle like wire was pushed up by an unseen hand and bored into the bottom of the

saucer, until this was suspended upon it, and then old Death's-head began to spin it around for amusement like a top. At this stage of the performance we came away, as our pockets happened to be destitute of the cash for which we were constantly teased.

Shortly after the Chinese New Year's which came about the middle of February, the celebrated Feast of Lanterns was held, and for several evenings our streets were enlivened by processions parading immense paper dragons through the city. These dragons have most horrible heads, and a body of from 75 to 120 feet in length, the hollow folds of which are illuminated by red paper lanterns placed five or six feet apart. The procession is preceded by a drum and gongs and by lanterns borne on poles, while the rear is brought up by men and boys with different sorts of noisy instruments. A single dragon is borne by a dozen men or more, on poles fastened to the lanterns inclosed within its body; and at the principal shops along the streets the procession halts and receives a noisy salute of fire-crackers. Then as it starts, one of the men just in front of the hideous mouth swings his red lantern around in a spiral circle, the man who carries the dragon's head imitates his example, followed by all the rest in due order along the body, so as to represent the convulsions of an immense serpent rolling along the pavement. When one of these dragons is coming toward you in a dark night, the eyeballs protruding several inches from its skull, its huge jaws distended with a long fiery red tongue lolling between a couple of rows of horrible teeth, and six or eight rods of snaky folds twisting and rolling rapidly along behind, it looks very much as if the devil might be after you. Sometimes five or six are on a street at the same time; some are white, others blue, but most of them are red. When two processions pass each other on the narrow pavement, the noise and confusion are outrageous. -- The dragon among the Chinese is the symbol of power, majesty, and terror; and consequently is regarded with great veneration. The Feast of Lanterns is especially designed as a welcome to spring; and from the time of its celebration, the character which represents this season is posted conspicuously over every door front.

More anon from this land of "far Cathay."

S.