Part 12 (1/2)

As no one molested me, I became more easy in my mind as the day wore on, and I began to look about me with more interest. From the fine parade along the river,--the Bund it is called,--with its turfed slopes, Shanghai is alive, right away to the men-of-war, local steamers, and launches. The streets are full, even crowded, with pa.s.sers-by and rickshas--the original ”Pull-man car of Shanghai.” On the Bund the business is performed, and its occupants are indeed busy.

It is a wonderful sight for the stranger from Europe, who expects things to be Chinese-like. In the Maloo, or chief road, cabs, broughams, barrows, and hors.e.m.e.n jostle each other daily.

This is not China! It is London, Paris, New York. Fine houses and broad pavements; banks, hotels, imposing buildings, a cathedral. Great s.h.i.+ps and little boats, sampans. Vessels loading and unloading, noise and bustle, cranes and steam-whistles. Babel of language, and the never-ceasing chatter of the Chinaman and his friends. _Cas.h.!.+ cas.h.!.+

cas.h.!.+_ Merchants, coolies, rickshas, runners, porters; Chinese dodging the carts, and avoiding the ”foreign devils”; yet, at times, driving in British landaus driven by a Chinese. Such a confusion, such fun and variety; yet all over it, for me, hung the shadow of the crime of the Corean which led to War!

I crossed the bridge, and visited the Chinese-European sections,--not the city of Shanghai,--and the French Quai des Fosses, and the familiar notice of the continent of Europe--”defendu!” The Chinese possess in their section no landaus, they hire wheelbarrows like Mr. Pickwick's.

Here one can examine the shops and the natives at leisure. You may see the deformed feet, and the really unpleasant supplies of food which the Chinaman consumes, and the frequent coffin which he will occupy later when he dies of ”carrion dishes.”

And all this primitive, conservative, old-world practice in the midst of modern civilisation--electric light, steam, and even comparatively broad streets, high houses, and wide roads,--but not China.

I put in the three last items because Chinese natives have no roads, as we called them, no high houses as in Europe, and no _streets_. The streets are alleys; the houses deep, not high; the roads, paths! All is topsy-turvy; even the house-roof is made and put up before the walls; and politeness consists in depreciating oneself to the visitor.

The lady of the house is a nonent.i.ty, and the meaning of ”wife” is merely ”_the woman who uses the broom_” or servant! In Shanghai Anglo-China you may be amused and interested, but in a Chinese town, such as Amoy, or Shanghai, or Hankow, you will be disgusted, and unless strong in all ways, come away absolutely sick and ill. The sights, the smells, the open drains, the filth, the putrid food, and the personal dirtiness, will, in a quarter of an hour, repel all but the devoted seeker and the confirmed and robust smoker.[1]

[1] The wealthy Chinese are yearly becoming less conservative in their habits, and their wives are now in evidence in carriages.

But when within European districts one may see something, and satisfy legitimate curiosity; perhaps even in the peep-shows, though here again the taste of the native is for ”high” meats; and ”blue” incidents, as in the theatre and such places, are evident.

When I arose next morning I heard that Lung had been arrested, and that the inquest was to be held at once. Lung did not seem in any way interested, and declared that he had acted under directions from high authority in Corea. However that may have been, he was not hanged nor imprisoned, but handed by the consuls to the Chinese, and departed in a man-of-war.

Being much interested in the case, I kept watch, and discovered that the man would be conveyed away by night to Corea. As I was wondering how I could find out the fact, and conceal myself from the police, I saw a well-known figure making for the Consulate, near which I was seated. I rushed up and accosted the new-comer.

”Captain Goldheugh! This _is_ luck!”

”Julius! By thunder! is it yourself entirely? Well now, look at that!

I was going to the Consulate for ye. Look at that!”

This was an apostrophe, a favourite expression with the skipper.

”And ye're not dead at all?” he asked, after a hearty shake, twice repeated.

”Not at all,” I replied, laughing. ”Delighted to see you, captain.”

”So am I, bedad! Why, the steamer was _crying_ for ye, and wouldn't steam scarcely, and we declared it was the name did it--_Feng Shui_, no less. I am thinking of changing it. I am so!”

”Why, sir? Surely _Feng Shui_ is no harm?”

”No harm, is it? Bedad, it may mean anything--in China; and as we're Chinese now--a Chinese transport I think I'll make it, bedad!--I'm going to the Consul to _report_ the _Kows.h.i.+ng_. I never did like the name _Feng Shui_--in China. I was told it was unlucky.”

”Why? What does it mean?” I asked, as we continued our way.

”_Feng Shui_? I told ye it means 'wind and weather,'--but also their influences; things which cannot be exactly understood, but which, like electricity, are evident. In China _Feng Shui_ generally means a grave.”

”That's cheerful, anyway,” I muttered.

”And whether the place is 'good' or 'bad' depends very much upon the imagination or estimation of the persons interested. There are 'professors' who profess to understand _Feng Shui_, but I needn't say they are mostly humbugs, and only try to make money out of ye. But I think China is getting much wiser, and less conservative in many ways.