Seven Legs Across the Seas Part 32

Americans of sporting ilk find Manila an uncomfortable place to live in. Every once in a while groups of free-and-easy characters are rounded up by the authorities, taken to a ship sailing for the United States, when they unwillingly bid good-by to Manila's sh.o.r.es.

The climate of Manila differs from that of other countries the same distance from the equator. A majority of Europeans wear the same kind of hats as are worn in the States. Neither were white clothes much worn. In other sections close to the equator one would fall from sunstroke did he not wear a helmet or some other heavy head-covering.

The city and country around Manila is flat and swampy. When a season of heavy rain occurs the suburbs are partly under water, many of the streets being in a deplorable condition. Both the sewerage and water systems are modern, however, but some of the business streets are poorly paved.

Several daily newspapers are printed in the capital, but, aside from a white man being in charge, the printers are mostly natives. The same applies to the island printing office located in Manila. Wages paid the native printers are from $18 to $25 a month. Laborers receive from 50 to 75 cents a day. American mechanics receive about the same wages as those paid in the States.

Soldiers, in khaki uniforms, are always to be seen about the streets of Manila, a fort being located just outside the city. A similar uniform is worn by the British troops in some of their colonies, but the uniform worn by the American soldier looks neater, for the reason that the American uniform is starched, while the Britisher's is ironed. Both police and soldiers are gentlemanly fellows.

Evicting the dead sounds strange, but this takes place in Paco Cemetery, in Manila. The dead are placed in niches built in a wall, from six to seven feet thick, which encloses an area of three acres of land. The wall is perhaps eight feet high, and three niches, or burial places, are built one under the other, with a wall part.i.tion between.

Rent must be paid for these niches, and when friends fail to meet the bills the remains are taken out and placed in a heap with others formerly evicted. One may pay rent for these burial vaults as long as he wishes, but from five to ten years seemed to be the length of time relatives retained regard for the departed. The graveyard is over a hundred years old, but the dates appearing on the slabs of the vaults bear record only of deaths within five to ten years. All the burial places are not like Paco, however, as in a number of cemeteries the dead are placed underground. The total number of vaults in Paco Cemetery will accommodate 1,782 bodies.

Hotel accommodation can be had for $2 a day. Boarding houses charge from $40 to $60 a month. Similar articles cost considerably more in Manila than they do in the States. No duty is levied on American imports when brought to the islands in American ships.

Manila is divided by the Pasig River, and a busy shipping place it is.

North of the Pasig is the business center of the city, and, save for some shipping, there is little business on the other side of the dividing water. The old walled city, however, is located south of the Pasig. The wall itself is the oldest on American soil. Compared with that at Canton, it is limited, as the Manila wall contains an area of less than a mile. Its construction was started in 1591, but was not completed until 1872. The Spaniards did not seem to be in much of a hurry to finish the work. However, it served as a protection from a.s.saults by Chinese and by the Moros; but in 1762 the English led a successful attack on this defense. Built in the walls are numerous chambers which had been used as cells for prisoners, and in some of these, after American occupation, were found instruments of torture, and even human bones. The churches and convents still stand behind the strong walls, and bear witness to the suffering, bravery and endurance in the early history of the Philippines. Some of the buildings in Intramuros are used as government offices. Originally seven gates led to the enclosure, but the Americans decided these were not enough, and two more openings were made. The fort and enclosure were built to command a wide view of Manila Bay, allowing a good stretch of land to intervene between the historic wall and the sh.o.r.e.

Manila has a splendid fire department, good schools, numerous churches, museums and libraries, theaters, sports grounds, hospitals, charities organizations, a very good munic.i.p.al ice manufacturing plant, and club buildings. One will find in that far-off possession most of the advantages to be had in the cities of the United States.

Baseball games are played here the year round, and the Filipino clubs make a good showing.

Good steamship accommodation could formerly be had for $125 on intermediate ships from Manila to San Francisco, but recently the rate has advanced $50. On the larger ships, first-cla.s.s, the fare is $250.

The sailing time between the two points is about a month, the distance being 8,000 miles. Much cheaper rates can be had on j.a.panese ships, second-cla.s.s, but if one can afford the difference in price the $175 rate is worth the increased sum in accommodation. The increase of $50 on the intermediate vessels has diverted considerable travel from American to j.a.panese ships, because many people cannot afford to pay the higher sum.

CHAPTER IV

We left Manila with pa.s.sage paid to San Francisco. Out through the splendid bay we sailed, when the ship was headed for Hongkong, where ships were changed. Leaving at night, a flare of light in the business center of Hongkong gradually tapered up the side of the mountain to the fort on the summit, nearly 2,000 feet. We had started for Shanghai, China. Every ship that leaves Hongkong for San Francisco, of whatever nationality, has Americans aboard. After two and a half days'

sailing the ship anch.o.r.ed off Wusung, where the sea was yellow with the muddy water of the great Yangtse River delta. A ship tender was boarded and a start made up the Huangpu River, which was crowded with ships, and along and away from the banks smoke-stacks towered for 14 miles, when the boat was made fast to a wharf at Shanghai. From the wharf, looking over a strip of green, there rose a wall of big, solid, clean-looking business buildings, nearly as good as one will find in any city of the world.

One has a varied choice of post offices in Shanghai, as there are seven, representing as many nationalities. These are French, Russian, German, American, British, j.a.panese and Chinese. Shanghai is another Chinese city known as a "treaty port," which signifies that China had granted land concessions to one or more nations, on which to build cities--forts, if necessary--and collect revenues from imports, and in some instances from exports, pa.s.sing through the treaty port. Chinese live in some of the concessions, but they make their home in these districts only by sufferance of the country, or countries, to whom these tracts have been granted. The Chinese residents have neither voice nor vote in the smallest matters pertaining to the general government of treaty settlements. Large numbers of Chinese living in both the French and International Settlements found protection under these flags during native wars, when their own country could not offer them a place of safety.

In 1843 British troops occupied Shanghai, and by that means a land concession was gained from China. About the same time the United States was granted a similar concession, and seven years later France had also acquired a land grant there. The American and British concessions were amalgamated in 1863, but France would not join the two English-speaking nations in the formation of one foreign settlement. The t.i.tle of the American and English land tract is "The Foreign Community of Shanghai North of the Yangkingpang," but the territory is commonly termed "The International Settlement." Since the pooling of interests by England and the United States additional territory has been acquired from China, until the International Settlement now comprises an area of 6,000 acres of land; while France, choosing independence, has only the original concession, 358 acres.

Self-governing powers are exercised by the International Settlement, which includes imposing taxation and policing the territory. A council governs the Settlement, and the members are elected by European residents who pay a house rental of $400 and by landowners whose property valuation would bring that sum annually if rented. Land cannot be bought outright for building or speculative purposes, as the land was conceded on terms of perpetual lease. No matter how much interests a Chinaman may have within the Settlement boundary he cannot vote on munic.i.p.al matters. Harbor dues, import and export taxes--any revenue from commerce pa.s.sing in or going out through the section of the harbor owned by the respective countries--is collected by the officials of that country. The United States has the better section of the water-front, but English and j.a.panese ships practically control the trade of that important port.

Shanghai is the distributing center for the commerce of the thickly populated sections on the Yangtse River. Large ships can travel on the Yangtse in certain seasons of the year as far inland as Hankow, 600 miles from the delta. Then smaller vessels go on to Ichang, 400 miles still further inland, and river craft from there carry cargoes to Soufu, 500 miles further, or 1,500 miles inland from Shanghai. The total length of the Yangste, which rises in the mountains of Thibet, with its tributaries, is 3,000 miles. The width of the river at the delta is 30 miles. Shanghai is mentioned in history dating back 2,000 years.

Professional mourners, or weepers, at funerals is an occupation in China that brings in a good fee, if the weeper be a good crier.

Preceding a funeral is what one may term a band, the instruments producing noise being bra.s.s pans or trays, beaten by men. After the pan-beaters come several Chinese, wearing high, fluffy hats. The coffin, which is generally a log of wood shaped out and of cylindrical form, follows the men wearing the strange headgear. The coffin is borne on two bamboo poles, two Chinamen at each end--four carriers in all. Relatives and friends of the deceased follow, either walking or riding in a ricksha, wheelbarrow, or carriage. Among this group a woman will be heard crying l.u.s.tily. It is really touching to hear the deep intonations of grief as vented in a loud, mournful sound, until it becomes known that the apparently grief-stricken woman is a professional mourner, never having known the deceased in life.

Women and men do not play parts together on a Chinese theatrical stage. The actresses generally wear long beards and mope around the stage, showing no more life than that of a snake when the frost is being thawed out of his body by an early springtime sun. To a European the plot is long drawn out, lifeless, and even tedious. But the Chinese have a way of overcoming this, as tea drinking seems to be as much a factor of the playhouse as the performance. Small tables resting on bamboo-pole legs are placed about the seating s.p.a.ce of the theater. One will no sooner have got settled in the seat than a waiter will appear and place a teapot and cup and saucer before the attendant. Neither milk nor sugar accompanies the tea, and the charge is ten cents. In a short time another waiter, carrying in his hand a stack of steaming towels, will stop at the table and lay a hot cloth over the teapot. He pauses, for the price of the towel is five cents.

Later, still another towel fellow stops, removes the one the first man placed over the teapot, puts a fresh steaming cloth over it, waits until he has received the five cents, and walks on. The hot towel serves a dual purpose--keeps the tea warm, and is used on the face and hands to regale the weary theatergoers while enduring the mopy performance. In the cheaper section of a theater, what looks like a store counter is built, from which the "gallery G.o.ds" drink tea.

The Chinese of Shanghai appeared to be in better circ.u.mstances than those in Canton. The young women are very distinctive, and were seen to better advantage than in other places. The millinery era has not reached China, so far as applies to Chinese women, and for that reason most of them go about without head covering. When one is seen wearing anything on the head, it is generally a man's cap. Chinese women are very particular about their hair, and, when not all combed back, it rests on the forehead, like bangs. Hundreds of young women may be seen with bare head, wearing a shiny silk jacket and snug-fitting trousers.

They are straight as an arrow, and their rosy cheeks, una.s.suming manners, tidy hair, and generally neat appearance unite to their credit. The Chinese boys are mischievous little fellows, and all the children seemed fat and strong, with rosy cheeks. The "c.h.i.n.k kid" was the most attractive we had met. All the children seemed to have double the amount of clothes necessary, and most of them wore bulky shoes, made of gra.s.s and reeds.

Chinese cooks, as a rule, are paid no regular salary. They agree to feed a family for a certain sum a month, and the money not used out of the fixed food allowance is his. He does the marketing, and it is needless to add there is some sharp bargaining between grocer and butcher and the cook. For a European family of six a cook would agree to furnish food for from $50 to $60 a month. Beef and mutton sold at 15 cents a pound. Vegetables, however, were proportionately cheaper.

One of the courts of the Settlement is known as "the Mixed Court." A Chinese judge presides, but there is always an American or an English official sitting on the bench with the native judge. Punishment is meted out to the native not as the Chinese authority would have it, but as the white officials suggest. Most of the black and yellow races prefer to be adjudged by a white man, for a white judge will have more of the milk of human kindness in his heart than a colored official.

Like Indians, the upper cla.s.s of Chinese seem to be little concerned about the condition of the poor and starving. The well-to-do Chinese give alms to the needy often, to be sure, but that apparently laudable trait is practiced more out of fear of a beggar's curse, when evil days would befall him. The high-caste Indian also gives to mendicants to ward off evil days.

The Native City is located outside the bounds of the Settlements concession, where Chinese were as numerous, and the streets as narrow, as some in Canton, but of much smaller area. Some of the territory within the wall was under water--a pond--over which a bridge had been built. The bridge was purposely built nearly zigzag to foil the Evil One if he should pursue any of them. Beggars were very numerous in that section of Shanghai, and the mothers, like those seen in Canton, begged, at the same time holding up the little hand of a babe, in which one might put any offering. The Long-Hau paG.o.da, seven stories in height, located outside the city, is a credit to Chinese skill.

Few horses were seen drawing loads in Shanghai. Most of the cartage and trucking is done on bamboo poles by Chinamen and with hand trucks, pulled by ropes and shoved. Five Chinese pull the same load a horse would draw.

The condition of the ricksha pullers of Shanghai is pitiable. Fifteen thousand Chinese are engaged in this occupation, some of them so weak that they frequently fall to the ground from exhaustion, caused by an empty stomach. When a Chinaman quails under hard work it is because he has not a fighting chance to make a showing. Chinese pay them two and three cents for a ride, while Europeans pay five cents and over. The owners of the rickshas pay 75 cents a month to the Settlement as a license fee, and the puller must pay the owner 40 cents a day. Often, when a puller has not earned the rental sum, 40 cents, he will remain in the streets all day and most of the night in the hope of at least earning the required charge. If he cannot pay the 40 cents he is deprived of his occupation until he has settled for the last ricksha.

The wheelbarrow of this city, used to carry pa.s.sengers and move goods, is the oddest device in use the world over. It differs from similar vehicles in that the wheel is in the center of the frame instead of in front. Above the wheel is also a frame, on which to carry articles of light weight. A rope is tied to each end of the barrow handles, and the loop rests on the Chinaman's neck, pa.s.sing under his arms. A Chinaman will wheel a weight of half a ton for miles on this crude device. An article may weigh 500 pounds which cannot be divided--must be carried on one side, the other side free of weight--yet he will short-step along with the one-sided load until he has reached his destination. The barrow will not tip over. On each side of the wheel may often be seen sitting Chinese women with bare heads, wearing white blouses with pink stripes about the sleeves, with baggy velvet trousers, and snow-white stockings showing over neat, boat-shaped, black or colored velvet shoes. Pa.s.sengers get a long ride on the wheelbarrow for from two to five cents. The owner pays a license fee of 40 cents a month for his crude vehicle.

Windows of Chinese temples, and sometimes other buildings, are the same as those seen in Manila--light colored seash.e.l.l.

Both the dollar and the tael are in use in Shanghai, the former worth from 40 to 50 cents and the tael about 65 cents.

Chinese mechanics are paid from 20 to 40 cents a day. Printers receive $10 to $18 a month. The working time is eight or nine hours a day.

Carpenters were on strike for an increase of from two to five cents a day. If a Chinaman hod-carrier, or one working at unskilled labor, should be taken sick, the wife will often take his place until her husband is able to resume work.

An unfriendly feeling seemed to be harbored toward Americans by other Europeans living in the Chinese coast cities. It was claimed that since American occupation of the Philippines the cost of living had advanced 50 per cent., as the influx of Europeans to the islands had created a greater demand for Chinese meat, vegetables and other necessities. Hotel expenses were very reasonable in Shanghai, however, as $1.50 a day only was paid.

Bombay, India, was the most attractive city visited in the East, and Shanghai, China, with a population of a million inhabitants, was the second best city. Between the landing place on the river and the splendid front of buildings that give a visitor his first impression of the metropolis of the Yangtse is a stretch of green, gra.s.s-covered land, known as the Bund. To the right, opening off the park strip, are the Public Gardens. A good street car system is a feature of the city, and electric lights are numerous. In any direction one may look, enterprise and good management are in evidence. The river is teeming with craft, large and small vessels loading and unloading at each side of the waterway, and high smoke-stacks, rising from cotton and paper mills and shipbuilding yards, add much to the thrifty surroundings; then large oil tanks, busy warehouses, and the gunboats of great nations anch.o.r.ed in the river give the place a metropolitan appearance, while the buildings at every turn are good. The streets are crowded with people, and the stores filled with purchasers, most of the merchants in that section of the city being Europeans. The attractive buildings on the Bund do not comprise all of the good buildings of Shanghai, for some of the homes, built of red and gray-colored brick, two and three stories in height, are good to look at. Then there are sidewalks to the Shanghai streets, which are well paved with asphalt and granite blocks, and these are kept clean. Many churches are to be seen. Schools are frequently met with, and parks have been placed at convenient sections; also a horse racecourse, sports grounds, and good hospitals. In fact, both English and United States officials have done well in the upbuilding of the International Settlement.

Down the Huangpu River, the channel walled by merchant ships and gunboats, we sail to Wusung, where an American ship was boarded for j.a.pan. Most of the pa.s.sengers came from Manila, and were returning to the States to regain their health and seek employment in a country where people can drink water and eat raw fruit or vegetables, whether grown in the ground or on trees. The first thing noticed among the pa.s.sengers was the absence of strong drink during meals. Stimulants are a feature at mealtime with almost every other nationality traveling in the Far East. A day and a half's sail through the base of the Yellow Sea brought us to Nagasaki, j.a.pan.

After the vessel had anch.o.r.ed, flat boats or scows loaded with coal, and also with j.a.panese men and women, were seen heading toward her.

The women were to help load the ship with bunker coal. Each woman and girl had over her head a white cloth, with large, black j.a.panese characters stamped in the print. Gra.s.s baskets, that hold but a shovelful, are used to coal ships at this j.a.panese port. The scows have been made fast to the ship, the baskets are being filled, the coal pa.s.sing line is formed from the barge to the vessel, extending up a ladder to a hatch over the bunkers. The tidy looking women are now pa.s.sing baskets from one to the other as quickly as one would hand a plate to another if needed at once. A stream of these is constantly being tossed from one to the other, and small girls are engaged at returning the empty ones to the scow. Two, and even three, streams of coal run into the bunkers from one scow by means of the handleless baskets, and, as from three to five scows will be unloading at the same time from both sides of the vessel, it will be understood what a large quant.i.ty of fuel can be emptied into a ship from ten to fifteen of these coal lines. The time required to furnish a vessel with bunker coal in this manner is from four to five hours. The wages of the coal pa.s.sers are based on the amount of coal a ship takes on, as an equal sum is paid the coalers. This amounts to from 15 to 25 cents each. As many as 500 j.a.panese--mostly women--keep life in their bodies by this means of employment.

The harbor was attractively dotted with partly green islands, and in front the country was hilly and mostly terraced. The terraced hills are the "farms" of the people. Every inch of land that can be built up with rock to a level surface is used to grow vegetables and other products.

Oxen, hitched to carts and wearing gra.s.s shoes, was something that had not been seen--the gra.s.s shoes--in other countries. A gra.s.s string pa.s.sed between the hoofs, which was connected with another gra.s.s string or rope wound about the fetlock. These held on the shoe, or gra.s.s mat, protecting the hoofs from wear on the roads.

In India boards are sawed from logs while sticking in the air at an angle of 35 degrees, with one man on the log pulling a crosscut saw, and another under, on a platform, pulling the saw downward after the fellow on top had pulled the saw up. At Nagasaki boards were being cut from logs by hand also, but the sawyer stood on the ground and ripped the log from the side, in the same way that meat is carved. The saw was two feet long and a foot wide, with deep teeth, and with that implement slabs were being ripped off logs 20 feet in length. Like the Indian, the j.a.p pulls a plane toward him, while a white carpenter shoves a plane from him. Still, one may see any day in New York City men "chopping" wood with granite blocks.

While the rest of j.a.pan was closed to foreigners, Nagasaki, for 200 years before the country was thrown open to the world, was an open port, and even then life was none too safe, as missionaries had been killed in that section. Nagasaki has a population of 150,000, and most of the people are engaged at coaling ships, working in a shipyard, or in pottery works. The streets are narrow, but tidier than those seen in some cities left behind, and the homes small, none higher than two stories, mostly of wood construction. Ricksha pullers in this place were a pest.

CHAPTER V

Nagasaki was left behind when a start was made through the Inland Sea for Kobe, a day's sail separating the two ports. The sail is an attractive one, as this stretch of water is thickly dotted with islands. Were the vegetation tropical it would favorably compare with the journey through the Fiji group. The Inland Sea is generally calm, and foreign ships, together with those of j.a.pan's large fleet of merchantmen, were winding and twisting about the islands in every section of the noted land-locked waterway. The vessel we boarded at Shanghai was the third one since leaving Manila. Our journey through j.a.pan from Kobe will be by rail.

The ship anch.o.r.ed in the bay, and pa.s.sengers were brought to the wharves in tenders. Modern buildings were in evidence, and street cars and railroad trains were running through the city. In general, Kobe presents a much better appearance than Nagasaki.

Almost every woman seen in j.a.pan has a child on her back, the mother's custom of carrying her babe, and most of the girls also wear a bulky piece of cloth likewise, which is tied about the waist. On a farm where there are no reckless boys, and the head of the family is satisfied with the easier ways of life, a colt may be seen walking about a pasture or enclosure with a sack of grain tied to its back; this is put on the colt's back to break it in to ride. The bundles on the girls' backs looked as if they had been placed there for the initial lesson in carrying a baby. The knapsack-like cloth is called the obi. j.a.panese fathers seemed to take more interest in their children than Chinese parents, as we cannot recall seeing a Chinaman carrying a child.

The j.a.panese home is the flimsiest anywhere. Thin pine boards, with paper windows and doors, generally one-story and attic, const.i.tute their sh.e.l.l-like dwelling. Low stools and mats are prominent household accessories, but no chairs or tables. A mat on the floor serves as the seat in a j.a.panese home, which is neat, and the people present a favorable appearance. The roof is its most substantial feature, being covered with black tiles. The doors slide to one side. Crosspieces and upright panels compose the frames of doors, and the squares in windows, which in Manila are of seash.e.l.l, are covered with paper in j.a.pan. The paper is frequently broken, when new "window panes" replace the torn ones.