paradise; for all the woes and miseries, incorporated with the management of a household, are in the Far East placed on the shoulders of the male servant, who, it often must be surprising, does not break down under his burden (not unlike that of Hercules when bearing the heavens on his shoulders during the absence of Atlas). Here is a brief résumé of a "boy's" principal occupation: shroff, house-boy in general, cook, scullion, mafoo, jinricksha coolie, office-boy, sampan-man, house coolie, yachtsman, punkah coolie, lackey, chit-coolie, &c., &c. The above-mentioned fact naturally indicates that the responsibility of an amah in a household is of most trifling importance. Their services, in fact, are restricted to those of nurse-maid; and even this "pidgin" does not invoke all the inconveniences connected with similar positions at home. They are tabooed from the precincts of a kitchen, and thus evade those innumerable mortifications connected therewith; in fact, their knowledge in culinary science appears to be confined to the task of dissolving condensed-milk for the use of their little cherubs. Even the broom, this terrifying sceptre in the hands of a white servant, is taken out of their hands. Dressing and feeding babies makes up their day's labour.

Chinese amahs, however, offer the drawback that they do not supply the want of a "confidential person," as white servants do in the West. They cannot be entrusted with any of those secrets, which always hover about the threshold; nor can you disclose to them your petty grievances, on account of their apathy; nor can you engage with them in any gossip. On the other hand, amahs have points in which they are preferable to their European sisters. They are not ladies in their own estimation, nor do they claim partnership in your fancy silk ribbons, or scent-bottles, or pomatum, or other toilet requisites. A stranger in the Far East, on paying an introductory visit, runs also no risk of a possible confounding between servant and "mississee."

Amahs consider their "pidgin " one of considerable importance-in fact, much greater than that of the "boy's." And why should they not? For, don't they enjoy the full confidence of a mater familias, as regards the safety of their tender offspring, while "boys" are but given charge of the master's ponies or his pack of hounds? And must they not feel themselves. flattered by being put in an elegant "turn-out" and enjoying a ride? The features of a religious fanatic, who in his ecstasies beholds the sunny regions of his future paradise, cannot look more radiant than the full-moon face of an amah who is seated in a carriage with glasspanes all round (thus virtually placed in a glass-box), which permits their being seen by all the world passing by. An amah's "pidgin" is certainly lucrative. Their monthly pay is exceedingly high, as compared with that of a "boy," considering the work she does for it. It ranges from $5 to $15 (about the same amount as paid for a male servant); the difference in the pay presumably depending on the number of children under their care, and their "efficiency," if there is any at all wanted! Now, taking $10 as the average monthly pay, this sum would be equal to about £24 per year; certainly an exorbitant pay, as compared with that which domestics get at home; even if compared with the wages given to amahs in Japan, where a first-class servant can be got for $4 per month. But there wavers an enigmatical point around these domestiques -namely, what do they with all the money they earn? They certainly do not spend it on dress, for silk and satin are unknown to them, cotton stuff being only in use. They also do not seem to be extravagant in showing a great display of jewellery; jadestone mostly taking the place of gold. So where

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goes their money? We notice that many of these Dulcineas have a "plopa" Romeo, and almost invariably one or two more as reserve," in case of the first-named jilting her, an accident which often happens, whenever the "selected" finds a better "chancee." So it is not impossible that these hangers-on get away with the better part of their purse.

Chinese amahs have apparently inherited from their western sisters the characteristic trait of garrulity. Just watch them in the Public Garden, when the conversazione is in full swing! And there it becomes most forcibly obvious what important factors they must fancy themselves. We all know what an abiding nuisance these blue-cotton-gowned mentors in charge of a heap of squealing and romping "cherubs" are; with what majesty they sweep the Garden grounds, their eyes refulging with self-consciousness of their magnitude, not unlike that of the lion moving over the boundless deserts of Lybia. Just let them once_settle down on a chair and your cry

"A chair, a chair! A kingdom for a chair!"

will be left unanswered; and sooner, certainly, will you be able to entice a half-starved donkey to leave his bundle of fresh-cut carrots, than persuade an amah to give up the seat once occupied. Amahs have fair opportunities of acquiring the "pidgin" talk, and if their stock of English words is not so large as that of a "boy's," this is to be accounted for by the fact that their sphere of life confines them more indoors, and excludes them from mixing up with the bustle of the town. Some of them, however, succeed in learning "pidgin " English to a creditable degree; and we noticed those especially experts who had served for a number of years in the houses of missionaries; and if the latter happened to hail from the States they even somehow managed to acquire the nasal twang, and some of their Americanisms. As for the rest, an amah's vocabulary is restricted to the "pidgin" equivalents regarding babies' clothing, babies' food, and odds and ends making up the boudoir or sleeping apartment of her "mississee."

China cannot boast of any particular district which is famed for supplying foreigners with female domestics en masse who have the reputation of being possessed of special "grit" for adapting themselves to their duties. The necessary contingent is drawn from all the various coast ports, and the interior at times. In Shanghai, the neighbouring districts, and Soochow especially, furnish a large supply, and those from the last-mentioned city are also credited with being of a more handsome and aristocratic appearance than the generality of amahs; however, not being judges of "horse flesh," it would be difficult to vouch for the accuracy of this statement. Canton also sends up a goodly number, and so does Ningpo. In one point, however—and it is the principal-they all appear to resemble each other-namely, they are all alike stupide; excuse, gentle reader, the using of a French word, as we fear they might understand us, and

Amahs mostly keep on good terms with "boys," though there sometimes arise trifling disputes between them, when they too frequently come to the kitchen and ask for hot water. They are as a rule honest; in fact, unusually honest, as compared with "boys." On very rare occasions have we met with cases of dishonesty, and whenever such a case came before the Mixed Court, so far as our observation goes, it finally transpired that some "boy" was at the root of the evil. Though we are not very edified with the general cleanliness of Celestials, we must confess that amahs, almost invariably, are scrupulously adroit in their dress. Finally,

they may be automata, to a certain extent, but then, they have the laudable characteristic of doing what they are told; they never talk one to dead, as white servants do; nor do they carry stories out of the house (?), nor do they put impertinent questions; and last, but not least, you can dismiss them without ceremony at any time.

THE CANGUE AND THE CHAIN-GANG.

HE prisoners sentenced at the Mixed Court receive a wide variety of punishments. The Magistrate either imposes a fine, orders a flagellation with bamboo sticks, the cangue, imprisonment in the court goal, in the police cells, or hard labour in the chain-gang; and either of these punishments, or a good many of them combined, may be awarded to the prisoner. The punishment of the cangue is the wearing of a wooden collar by the prisoner for a certain number of days, generally only a few days, but in some cases extending over a month. That wooden board is the most awkward and uncomfortable thing—at least it looks like it-that a fellow could have round his neck. It measures about two feet square, and is divided in two parts which are separated when the collar is to be put on or taken off; but when on, the pieces are securely dove-tailed and the prisoner cannot remove it himself. The board is attached to a chain, which is also wound round the prisoner's waist, and perhaps half a dozen of the fellows may be linked together when sitting in the cages at the entrance to the Mixed Court, or when they are taking exercise in the yards of any of the police stations. It is a very common mode of punishing a thief to place him in the vicinity of the place where he committed the theft; he will have to stand there all day, for he is chained so that he cannot sit down without strangling himself, and a native emissary of the police force will keep an eye on him and bring a supply of "chow-chow" rice to him. Thieves are often chained up this way in the settlements or in the outskirts, and have to remain at their post as a terror to evil-doers for eight or ten hours a day, being taken home to the police stations at night. An incorrigible thief who was once chained up at a garden on the Bubbling Well Road got hold of something which enabled him to file through the link of his long chain, although, like all the thieves which are put out by themselves this way, he was handcuffed. He made his escape across country with the wooden collar still on and two or three yards of chain hanging about him, and being thus heavily handicapped he was easily caught by some natives, who thought they would make a good thing of it by capturing him. The wooden collar is covered with strips of paper, bearing in Chinese characters the name of the prisoner and the offence for which he is being punished, which is meant to be a part of the punishment, and a warning to others; but most of the professional thieves who wear the wooden collar look as if they were quite reconciled to it. The prisoners who are sentenced to long terms generally go through the mill by getting flogged, exposed in the cangue, and then drafted into the chain-gang. Some of the prisoners are sent to the chain-gang for two or three months and others for longer periods, some for two years. There are incorrigibles that are hardly ever out of the gang and are disposed to spend the whole of their lives in it. The majority of the gang are of the coolie class, and habitual and reputed thieves; but we have seen cases where native merchants, and natives who held comparatively good situations, were sent to the chain-gang for serious offences, such as embezzlement, fraud, and theft of large sums. The chain-gang

is so called from the fact that the Municipal Council utilize convict labour by making the prisoners do most of the road work in the settlement; the prisoners are yoked together in large teams, and attached to huge street rollers. The Council also employ a large number of coolies for road work, as the prisoners in the chain-gang are so closely chained to each other that they have not sufficient freedom to do all the necessary work. The chain-gang therefore is chiefly employed is dragging street rollers, and while so engaged they are under the charge of a foreign constable and two or three native constables. The filling up of the foreshore of the Bund was a big job for the Municipal Council's coolies and the chain-gang, and there the squads of prisoners had plenty of work for their huge iron rollers. The chain-gang fellows are all dressed uniformly in drab-coloured drill cloth, and the trousers and jackets are all marked with a Chinese character, which means that the wearer is a prisoner. In regard to boots and hats the widest varieties are allowed, and some of the convicts show their pride by wearing polished foreign boots, while others wear hempen sandals, others felt shoes, and others go barefooted. The hats are of all sorts and sizes, both native and foreign styles. On a wet day, nearly everyone in the chain-gang has an umbrella, and as the street roller is dragged slowly along by the team of celestial convicts covered with straw-thatch water-proof coats, and tattered and torn paper-umbrellas or demoralized cotton ones, the whole team presents a very strange sight. These fellows in the chain-gang are as happy as the day is long; their work is light, and infinitely better than coolie labour; they have plentiful supplies of "chow-chow" rice, are well housed, they need have no thought of the morrow, and as they jog along in their chains, watching all the sights on the Bund, they must feel that they are better off than jinricsha or wheelbarrow coolies; many of the latter may envy their countrymen in the chain-gang, and take steps to secure an appointment in it; while those already in the gang will resolve to return to it when their present term expires.

The chain-gang was abolished in 1890, upon the introduction of the steam-roller.