Baseball Joe Around the World Part 26

But just behind this lay the real China, looking probably the same as three hundred thousand years ago. The little streets, so narrow in places that the houses almost touched and a carriage could not pa.s.s! That strange medley of sounds and smells and noises! Here a tinker mending his pans on the sidewalk! There a dentist, pulling a tooth in the open street, jugglers performing their tricks, snake charmers exhibiting their slimy pets.

There was a bewildering jumble of trades, occupations and amus.e.m.e.nts, so utterly different from what the tourists had ever before seen that it held their curiosity unabated and their interest stimulated to its highest pitch during the period of their stay.

"Everything is so topsy turvy!" exclaimed Mabel, as she threaded the noisome streets, clinging close to Joe's arm. "I feel like Alice in Wonderland."

"It's not surprising that things should be upside down when we're in the Antipodes," laughed Joe.

"If we saw men walking on their heads it would seem natural out here,"

said Jim. "All that a Chinaman wants to know is what other people do, then he does something different."

"Sure thing," said Joe. "See those fellows across the street. They're evidently old friends and each one is shaking hands with himself."

"You can't dope out anything here," said Jim. "When an American's puzzled he scratches his head--the Chinaman scratches his foot. We wear black for mourning, they wear white. We pay the doctor when we're sick----"

"If the doctor's lucky," interrupted Joe.

"They pay him only while they're well. They figure that it's to his interest then to keep them well. We think what few brains we have are in our head. The Chinaman thinks they're in the stomach. Whenever he gets off what he thinks is a good thing he pats his stomach in approval. We put a guest of honor on our right, the Chinaman puts him on his left."

"Anything else?" asked Clara laughingly.

"Lots of things," replied Joe. "And we'll probably find them out before we go away."

As they pa.s.sed a corner they saw a man standing there, rigged out in a queer fashion. About him was what seemed to be a tree box, from which only his head protruded.

"Why is he going around that way?" asked Mabel, curiously.

"You wouldn't care to know that," said Joe, hurrying her along, but Mabel was not to be disposed of in so cavalier a fashion.

"But I do want to know," she persisted.

"Might as well tell her," said Jim, "and let her suffer."

"Well," said Joe, reluctantly, "that fellow's being executed."

"What do you mean?" exclaimed Mabel, in horror.

"Just that," replied Joe. "That thing that looked like a tree box is what they call a cangue. They put him in there so that he's standing on thin slabs of wood that just enable him to keep his head above that narrow opening around his neck. Every little while they take one of the slabs of wood from underneath him; then he has to stand on tiptoe. By and by his feet can't touch the slabs at all, and then he chokes to death."

The girls shuddered and Mabel regretted her ill-timed curiosity.

"What a hideous thing!" exclaimed Clara.

"And what cruel people!" added Mabel.

"One of the most cruel on G.o.d's earth," replied Jim. "You see in all this crowd there is n.o.body looking at that fellow with pity. They don't seem to have the slightest tincture of it."

"Let's go back to our hotel," pleaded Mabel. "I've seen all I want to for to-day."

The games at Hong Kong were interesting and largely attended. There was one rattling contest between the major leaguers that after an eleventh-inning fight was won by the Giants.

A few days later a second game was played in which a picked team from the visitors opposed a nine of husky "Jackies" selected from the United States battleships that lay in the harbor.

To make the game more even, the Giants loaned them a catcher and second baseman, and a contest ensued that was full of fun and excitement.

Of course, the Jackies were full of naval slang, and sometimes their talk was utterly unintelligible to the landsmen. At the end of the third inning the Giants had three runs to their credit, while the boys from the navy had nothing.

"Say there, Longneck, we've got to get some runs," howled one Jackie to his mate. "Give 'em a shot from a twelve-inch gun!"

"Aye! aye! Give it 'em."

In the next inning the Jackies took a brace, and, as a consequence, got two runs. Immediately they and their friends began to cheer wildly.

"Down with the pirates!"

"Let's feed 'em to the sharks!"

"A double portion of plum duff for every man on our side who makes a run!"

cried one enthusiastic sailor boy.

Several of the Jackies were quite good when it came to batting the ball, but hardly any of them could do any efficient running, for the reason that they got but scant practice while on shipboard. The way that some of them wabbled around the bases was truly amusing, and set the crowd to laughing loudly.

"Our men don't like this running," declared one sailor, who sat watching the contest. "If, instead of running around those bases, you fellows had to climb a mast, you'd see who would come out ahead."

The Jackies managed to get two more runs, due almost entirely to the lax playing of the Giants. This, however, was as far as they were able to go, and, when the game came to an end, the score stood 12 to 5 in favor of the Giants.

A visit to Shanghai followed, where only one game was played, and this by a rally in the last inning went to the All-Americans, thus keeping the total score of won and lost even between the rival teams.

They spent a few more days in sightseeing, and then set sail for the Philippines, glad at the prospect of soon being once more under the flag of their own country.

"Look at those queer little boats!" exclaimed Mabel, as they stood at the rail while the ship was weighing anchor and looked at the native sampans with their bright colors and lateen sails as they darted to and fro like so many gaudy b.u.t.terflies.

"What are those things they have on each side of the bow?" asked Clara.

"They look like eyes."

"That's what they are," replied Jim, seriously.

Clara looked at him to see if he were joking.

"Honest to goodness, cross my heart, hope to die," returned Jim.

"But why do they put eyes there?" asked Clara, mystified.

"So that the boat can see where it's going," replied Jim.

"Well," said Mabel, with a gasp, "whatever else I take away from this country, I'll have a choice collection of nightmares."

The steamer made splendid weather of the trip to the Philippines, and in a few days they were steaming into Manila bay. Their hearts swelled with pride as they recalled the splendid achievement of Admiral Dewey, when, with his battle fleet, scorning mines and torpedoes, like Farragut at Mobile, he had signaled for "full speed ahead."