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Article A VISIT TO CANTON. ← Page 3 of 14 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Visit To Canton.
the resolution with which a Chinese can at need repress the yearnings of his cupidity . The insolvent debtor , under the threatening bamboo of the Tche-s-hien ; the shopkeeper , invited by the discharges of all the fireworks and rejoicings in Physicstreet , to hasten and join the sports and pastimes of his neighbours , would neither of them abate one sapee in Iris
demand , if he detected in the imprudent eagerness of his customer a chance of obtaining his price . But at this moment we had just landed in China , and had to pay the necessary price of our inexperience . Amongst all the tradesmen , the one who most gained our confidence , and whose shop was beset by the most customers ,
was the venerable Sao-qua , an old man with a shaking head , a grizzly tail , and warmly wrapped in a long wadded robe which crossed over his chest . His skilful manner of displaying his goods exhibited every object to the greatest advantage , each one setting off the rest ; precious vases placed upon exquisitely carved wooden tripods , the graceful flowerwork holding a bronze cotemporary of the Ming ; an amphora
from Nan-king ; a cup made of rhinoceros-horn , filled with vine-leaves and birds ; an ebony horn , inlaid with mother-o ' - pearl , with precious stones beautifully cut and polished . It is not requisite to speak either the Mandarin dialect or the patois of Canton , to be understood by the merchants of Chinastreet ; a slight knowledge of English is all-sufficient ; in
fact , English has become the commercial language of the far East—not with the rough and hard pronunciation which issues with its native asperity from a true British throat , but the English softened and improved , rounded with gHblyfiowing syllables and easy inflections—a perfect exotic , grafted upon a wild stock . The Chinese speak this soft Creole
language without difficulty or effort . They , as it were , seem to take pleasure in exchanging the fatiguing monotony of their own language for this liquid flow of vowels . With a lneroglyphic and expressive conciseness , and an adaptation for condensing thought , the Anglo-Chinese language has already its dictionary and grammatical rules , and may one day have its literature * The worthy Sao-qua knew all the resources of this insinuating idiom , and he failed not to fascinate us by
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Visit To Canton.
the resolution with which a Chinese can at need repress the yearnings of his cupidity . The insolvent debtor , under the threatening bamboo of the Tche-s-hien ; the shopkeeper , invited by the discharges of all the fireworks and rejoicings in Physicstreet , to hasten and join the sports and pastimes of his neighbours , would neither of them abate one sapee in Iris
demand , if he detected in the imprudent eagerness of his customer a chance of obtaining his price . But at this moment we had just landed in China , and had to pay the necessary price of our inexperience . Amongst all the tradesmen , the one who most gained our confidence , and whose shop was beset by the most customers ,
was the venerable Sao-qua , an old man with a shaking head , a grizzly tail , and warmly wrapped in a long wadded robe which crossed over his chest . His skilful manner of displaying his goods exhibited every object to the greatest advantage , each one setting off the rest ; precious vases placed upon exquisitely carved wooden tripods , the graceful flowerwork holding a bronze cotemporary of the Ming ; an amphora
from Nan-king ; a cup made of rhinoceros-horn , filled with vine-leaves and birds ; an ebony horn , inlaid with mother-o ' - pearl , with precious stones beautifully cut and polished . It is not requisite to speak either the Mandarin dialect or the patois of Canton , to be understood by the merchants of Chinastreet ; a slight knowledge of English is all-sufficient ; in
fact , English has become the commercial language of the far East—not with the rough and hard pronunciation which issues with its native asperity from a true British throat , but the English softened and improved , rounded with gHblyfiowing syllables and easy inflections—a perfect exotic , grafted upon a wild stock . The Chinese speak this soft Creole
language without difficulty or effort . They , as it were , seem to take pleasure in exchanging the fatiguing monotony of their own language for this liquid flow of vowels . With a lneroglyphic and expressive conciseness , and an adaptation for condensing thought , the Anglo-Chinese language has already its dictionary and grammatical rules , and may one day have its literature * The worthy Sao-qua knew all the resources of this insinuating idiom , and he failed not to fascinate us by