One Asks What Is
Bringing This Swarthy, Motley Crowd From All Asian Lands, From The Red
To The Yellow Sea,
From Mecca to Canton, and one of my Kling boatmen
answers the question, "Empress good - coolie get money; keep it.
" This
being interpreted is, that all these people enjoy absolute security of
life and property under our flag, that they are certain of even-handed
justice in our colonial courts, and that "the roll of the British drum"
and the presence of a British iron-clad mean to them simply that
security which is represented to us by an efficient police force. It is
so strange to see that other European countries are almost nowhere in
this strange Far East. Possibly many of the Chinese have heard of
Russia, but Russia, France, Germany, and America, the whole lot of the
"Great Powers" are represented chiefly by a few second-rate war-ships,
or shabby consulates in back streets, while England is a "name to
conjure with," and is represented by prosperous colonies, powerful
protective forces, law, liberty, and security. These ideas are forced
so strongly upon me as I travel westward, that I almost fear that I am
writing in a "hifalutin" style, so I will only add that I think that
our Oriental Grand Vizier knew Oriental character and the way of
influencing Oriental modes of thinking better than his detractors when
he added et Imperatrix to the much loved V. R.
This is truly a brilliant place under a brilliant sky, but Oh I weary
for the wilds! There is one street, Chulia Street, entirely composed of
Chulia and Kling bazaars. Each sidewalk is a rude arcade, entered by
passing through heavy curtains, when you find yourself in a narrow,
crowded passage, with deep or shallow recesses on one side, in which
the handsome, brightly-dressed Klings sit on the floor, surrounded by
their bright-hued goods; and over one's head and all down the narrow,
thronged passage, noisy with business, are hung Malay bandannas, red
turban cloths, red sarongs in silk and cotton, and white and gold
sprinkled muslins, the whole length of the very long bazaar, blazing
with color, and picturesque beyond description with beautiful costume.
The Klings are much pleasanter to buy from than the Chinese. In
addition to all the brilliant things which are sold for native wear,
they keep large stocks of English and German prints, which they sell
for rather less than the price asked for them at home, and for less
than half what the same goods are sold for at the English shops.
I am writing as if the Klings were predominant, but they are so only in
good looks and bright colors. Here again the Chinese, who number
forty-five thousand souls, are becoming commercially the most important
of the immigrant races, as they have long been numerically and
industrially. In Georgetown, besides selling their own and all sorts of
foreign goods at reasonable rates in small shops, they have large
mercantile houses, and, as elsewhere, are gradually gaining a
considerable control over the trade of the place.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 153 of 229
Words from 80023 to 80541
of 120530
