THE CITY OF SHANGHAI; ITS STREETS, TEMPLES,

PRISONS, AND GARDENS.

VISIT to Shanghai City is of very great interest to a foreigner when he has a Chinese friend with him who knows everything about the place, and although most foreigners here have been in it once or twice, there are very few who can say they have seen everything in it that is actually worth seeing, for many a one may only take a listless walk through some of its streets, pick up a few curios at the stalls, and, getting disgusted with the whole place, leave it as soon as he can possibly find his way out,-which is rather difficult to do sometimes,—and vow that he will never go within its walls again. On a Sunday afternoon we made up a party of three or four foreigners, and two Chinese friends. One of the latter knew the labyrinth of the City streets as well as a London hansom cab-driver knows the way from Cheapside to Piccadilly, and the other, who acted as interpreter, was a highly intelligent Chinese gentleman, educated at Yale College, U.S., and who is proud of being a naturalized American citizen. We entered the City at half-past two o'clock in the afternoon, and a beautiful day it was toofine, clear, and the roads dry. The early winter is always the best season for exploring the City, because its sanitary state is then less obnoxious than in the heat of summer weather. The day was therefore in every respect favourable as far as the auspices were concerned; it was the seventeenth day of the 10th Moon. Whether it is set down in the Chinese Calendar as a favourable day for making a journey we don't know; at any rate we did not consider that much at the time, but from what we saw were convinced that the day was a special one with the Chinese, for the city seemed to be en féte, and one might go twenty times without seeing so much as was crowded into our visit extending over two and a half hours. We entered by the New North Gate, and at once proceeded towards what are known as the Tea Gardens. In our way thither we had to traverse about a dozen narrow streets, some leading south, others west, east, in fact in all directions; first we passed through a long street lined with shops and warehouses on each side; then by the side of a dirty stagnant creek, with shops on one hand; over a small bridge and along narrower streets, with the sky obscured from view by the wooden and canvas signboards and ornamental tablets stretching from one side of the street to the other; then over another bridge; through narrow and crowded streets, till we came to more open ground by the side of a creek, where there were crowds of licensed beggars,-male, female, old, maimed, and blind, and each of them holding out a basket with a few cash in it, while the poor creatures implore every passer-by to give them cash. The blind ones know when a foreigner passes, by his heavy tread, and the noise of hard-heeled boots on the rough granite blocks, for a Chinaman. might walk over them in his felt-soled shoes without a blind man knowing that he passed. We never saw any of these beggars getting anything from a native, and when a foreigner gives them anything, he is sure to be followed by dozens of them all the way through the City-a mistake which we avoided, at least at this stage of the journey. The ground here is more open, and on both sides of the creek there is room for Celestial showmen and acrobats,

fortune-tellers, and gamblers; but further on when we come to the large pond surrounding the old Tea House, there is quite a large market square, or "garden" as it is called. On this occasion every part of it was occupied, and the scene was almost as lively as Hampstead Heath on a Bank Holiday. A casual glance was all we had time to give them, but it was sufficient for our purpose. The first performer whose proceedings attracted our notice was an old man, who was surrounded by about fifty Celestials of all ages and both sexes; the old show-man had monopolised a small strip of ground by the side of the creek, and the eager spectators crowded round the performer on all sides, but still preserving a limited open space for him. He was a man who looked as if fifty years had passed over his head; his hair was becoming grey, and precious little tail left; he was stripped bare to the waist, but had on as much threadbare blue cottons-their original colour bleached out of them, and now only a mass of patches—in the shape of wide, very wide trousers, as would have made suits for two or three men; his old feltshoes were in a very dilapidated state, and the excessive amount of cotton rags he wore for stockings, made his ankles of elephantine proportions. He now walked backward and forward on his strip of ground, throwing his arms about like a maniac; he smote his breast with his right hand, then with his left, stretched out both arms, and clenched his fists; walked round and then dropped his arms; walked round again with his hands hanging down, while he was looking anxiously for cash to be thrown into his ground; he then made a great effort, which was about all he could do,―he picked up an iron bolt, that any child might have lifted, threw it down, sticking it into the earth, and once more went on the walk round. He was a fraud, and though the Celestials might be content to look at him all day doing that, it is not probable that he made much money by it. Close by there was a small booth or tent, of bamboo and canvas inside of which about half a dozen Chinamen were sitting. The proprietor of this concern was a fortune-teller and phrenologist. The old patriarchal humbug sat at the back of the tent; behind him the extravagant pictures of some Chinese worthies were hung in paper on the canvas; in front of the fortune-teller was his small table, with writing materials, joss-sticks, and other paraphernalia; and all round about there were eager observers, listening to the wonderful man reading the fortune of a well-to-do native, and watching the movements when the phrenologist placed his fingers on the bumps of his customers' craniums, then put on a long and sage countenance, and uttered profoundly wise sayings; put forth his hand to draw in the wealth just deposited by his constituent, while the latter tabled another five cash, and was determined to hear more of his fortune, at any expense. When we had passed the fortune-teller we came within sight of the "garden" where most of the shows were being held. There were about half a dozen peep-shows, in foreign style, the large ornamental box standing on a table, and the little peep-holes in the box through which the Celestials peered and witnessed the wonders of the world; several of the peep-shows had a decided appearance of foreign manufacture, in the showy glass cases with which they were surmounted, with pictures of palaces or international exhibition buildings, but we did not turn aside to see what they were. There was one old man there, amongst a crowd of itinerant fruit-sellers and confectioners, whose little game for obtaining chash in exchange for roast chestnuts was rather peculiar; he held in one hand three spikes of bamboo about six inches long, and to the end of one of these sticks a red silk thread was attached, but the sticks were so held that there was as much chance of winning in the "three card trick" as in choosing the bamboo with the thread; he manipulated for our

benefit by picking up a cash and placing it on one of the sticks, then pulled the stick out, but it had no thread, repeating the trick several times, sometimes placing the cash on the stick with the thread attached, and at other times putting it on the wrong ones; then shifting them about till it was impossible to tell which was which; the evident arrangement being that a Celestial paid a few cash for a trial,-if successful he got a few roast chestnuts, and if unsuccessful-why then he didn't.

In this Celestial Vanity Fair there were numerous stalls for the sale of sweetmeats, pears, oranges, and cooked sweet-potatoes; stalls loaded with toys; stalls covered with classical literature; stalls of curios, with anything on them from valuable jade-stone ornaments to old nails and champagne corks. Hundreds of natives were loitering all over the place, many of them patronizing the peep-shows; the confectioners and sweetmeat stall-keepers appeared to be doing a good trade, to judge by the piles of cash lying on their tables; but it was at the open air performances of the acrobats, where there was no compulsory payment, where there were very few cash tossed into the ring, and where the sending round of the hat would have been the most effectual method of dispersing the crowd, that the natives gathered in the largest numbers. Near to a small temple or joss-house, on the east side of the Tea House lake, there was a crowd of people, and on looking over the shoulders of some of them, we could see that the attraction was gambling with dice; but close by there was another and much larger crowd, surrounding a couple of acrobatic performers, who were marching to and fro, striking peculiar attitudes, and evidently preparing for the execution of some feats of strength, tumbling, juggling, or some other mountebank tricks; but they were too much like the old man already described, making a great pretence and doing nothing, so that a momentary glance was all that we gave them. The joss-pidgin seemed to be at a discount in this Vanity Fair, for in the small Temple a few red wax-candles were burning at the shrine, but there was no devotee there save the old man in charge of the place.

We next turned our attention to the old Tea House and its artificial lake! Such a dirty dub of stagnant water to be called an artificial and ornamental lake! The small expanse of filthy water, with a skimming of green weeds on the surface, is enclosed by a wall coming up to the level of the ground round about; the lake, pond, or dub, is about thirty yards square, and in the centre stands the Hu-sing-ting, a public Tea House, which may be called the best and most airy institution of its kind in the City, as it is in a comparatively isolated position; but still there is nothing very refreshing in its situation,-the surrounding stagnant and fetid. water makes its position little better than if it was in a small street with cook-houses on every side of it. The Tea House is approached by a long and zig-zag viaduct, which we were told was built fifteen hundred years ago; each pier is composed of two columns of grey granite, standing about three feet apart; on their top is laid a transverse block, and from it to a similar block, on the next pier, three huge slabs of the same everlasting rock are laid, forming a narrow pathway; the whole bridge being provided with low railings of strong woodwork, which must have been a work of more modern days. Granite blocks also form the foundations

on which the Tea House is built, but the house is not nearly so old as the bridge. This Tea House is a fair specimen of Chinese architecture, but only on a small scale; it covers a very limited area, and rises to the height of two storeys, surmounted by a highly ornamental roof; in the lower apartment there is nothing but windows between the supporting pillars, the

windows being of that peculiar translucent substance which the Chinese used in all their houses for glass until the glass of Western countries was introduced, and which substance they still prefer to use in many cases; the wooden frame-work against which the glass is placed in small squares, and the opaque whiteness of the glass in the sunlight, give a good appearance to the Celestial arrangement in windows; when lighted in the interior by the ancient rushlights in red wax, the illumination must have a beautiful effect; the old Tea House would then look like a big lantern. The place was evidently shut up on the occasion of our visit, so we followed the line of the zig-zag viaduct till we had gone over the "lake" from the south-east corner to the north-west, and landed in a small, narrow, and dirty path, unpaved and covered with mud puddles even in this dry weather. A few steps brought us out of that disagreeable part of the "garden" into a very small street, and while passing along we were amused at the display in one shop. It seemed to be a regular theatrical property store, such as is to be seen in the purlieus of Drury Lane, only the costumes and paraphernalia were Celestial and not barbarian. Here there were all kinds of ancient weapons,-some real, others only tinfoil imitations,-masks, wigs, and fancy dresses that might be of service at a masquerade ball or amateur theatricals. Our guide led the way, and though we then thought we had seen all the amusements of the Celestial Vanity Fair, we were mistaken, for he led us into another "garden," only a little to the west of the Tea House and lake, but which was not in view before. Business and pleasure were here combined; it was a regular fair. At one place there were hundreds of bird-cages laid out and piled above each other in rows; the Mocking Bird was the most largely represented species, and there were also many Rock Miners, and other birds which can be taught to speak; hundreds of pretty little birds-names unknown to us— were to be found there in their small wooden cages. Their chirping and singing would have been merry enough if they had only done it by turns, but the aggregate of their musical notes forcibly reminded us of ornithological exhibitions at home, or of the bird stalls in Leadenhall Market. In a small public tea house-the lower tea-room all open door-ways-where there were numerous customers sitting at the tables, bird-cages were to be seen on almost every table, and the house appeared to be a regular mart for the sale of birds. Other kinds of business were being done at other parts of the grounds, where there were great displays of toys and useful as well as ornamental articles in carved wood, laid out on mats on the ground. Our guide fancied one small wooden box, circular, and with a glass lid, which he purchased for eighteen cash. At another of the stalls all the toys were composed of lead,tiny articles of household furniture, tea services, steamboats, junks, and numerous other things in miniature, all of native manufacture, and many of them wonderfully well done. We could easily have identified the steamboat or the junk, but one small curiously shaped thing was a mystery, and we asked what it was meant for. It was oval in form, had an odd number of legs-about half a dozen-neither head nor tail, but three or four spikes stuck out from each. side; the back painted in coloured stripes. This was meant for a crab, and a friend suggested to the toy-dealer that he ought to attach a label to each of them to let people know what they were meant for; but of course the Celestial toy-dealer could not appreciate the joke. Close by the toy stalls, and lining a pathway on either side, there were numerous sweetmeat stalls kept by confectioners who had taken up their stand there for the day, while an itinerant cook

might also wait there for a short time and and cater to a hungry Celestial, and then move off with his cook-shop to some other place. The book stalls were also here, and one was more a display of "fine art" than of literature, for though the stall-keeper had a large pile of pamphlets, his speciality was in the sale of pictures of mandarins, painted in water colours on white paper; and various specimens of these native works of art were laid out on the dry ground with four stones on the corners of each picture to prevent their being blown away. The pictures were of the commonest description, not worth a cent, and we guess the print-seller did not do much trade either with natives or foreigners. At this side of the square, too, there were two or three different crowds watching the gestures of acrobats; in one ring, there were four performers, but neither of them able to do anything further than kick up their legs till they touched the toe of their boot with their hand. Another old man was trying to get up a sensation by beating a small gong, while he had half a dozen or more long seats formed into a square for the convenience of those who honoured him with their patronage; the seats were already nearly all occupied, and the old man walked backward and forward beating his gong, but there was nothing to be seen which could give the slightest indication of what was going to come off; a small boy tried to trade amongst the occupants of the seats by going round with a bundle of sewn pockets, which the Celestials wear round their waist, but he couldn't trade; the occupants of the benches did not sit down there to spend money, and we guess if the showman requested them to give him a slight contribution towards defraying his expenses or for the support of his family, they would clear out at once, and go round to some of the other open-air shows; they seemed to be enjoying themselves for the time at least, and sat there quietly smoking long bamboo pipes, and had no other thing to engage their attention than to re-fill their pipes when a few puffs spent one "fill;" they were of the poorer class, coolies probably, and if we had offered five cents to anyone to carry a parcel, we would have had the whole crowd offering their services.

After leaving the acrobats and stall-keepers of the fair, we proceeded on our journey through the streets of the City, but had not gone very far before we came to a street corner where a wood carver had his shop, and some of our friends, who were now on their first visit to the City, were anxious to see some of the curios and to take with them a souvenir of their visit. The small corner shop was quite open on two sides, and on the counter in front were displayed, in a small glass case, ornamental and curious articles, which were specimens of the workmanship of the natives employed there, some of whom were at that moment engaged in their skilful labour over the carving of some piece of wood, in beautiful designs, with great intricacy and delicacy of finish, requiring much time and labour,-and the whole article when completed only to fetch a few cents. In the glass show case there were several ornaments carved in olive-stone, others in ivory, bamboo, and walnut-shell; the majority of them were small images of Buddhistic appearance, while there were also miniature junks carved in olivestone antl in bamboo; the walnut-shells were engraved all over with representations of Chinese landscape, with temples, pagodas, and figures of Celestials. Any one of the small articles could have been bought at from fifteen to twenty-five cents, and one of our friends traded with the manufacturer of graven images to the extent of half a dollar, receiving a joss or idol, a junk, and an engraved walnut-shell for that sum, while others of the party bought a few of the curios also, and the Celestial artificer seemed very well pleased at doing such a big trade.