LIFE IN CANTON. Human Life is Cheap, There's so Much of it—A Human Ant-Hill.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 326, 19 December 1888, Page 3

LIFE IN CANTON. Human Life is Cheap, There's so Much of it—A Human Ant-Hill.

(As we approach,) the river '-becomes a scene of the most intense activity. Boats of every sort, from the warships builb entirely by the Chinese from English models, and the gayly decorated crafts of the mandarins to the long lines of boats fastened to posts, •with matted roofs over them, the homes of the floafcing population for which China is so celebrated. We go ploughing through these myriad 3 of strange barks, when suddenly the captain di&covers that some fishermen have stretched their nets directly across the stream. The ( whistle is blown, and the men pull out to saVe their pro petty, \ery nearly wrecking their own lives. But human life is cheap in China, there is so much of it, while property id scarce. Bui ib is too late .' We tear i through the nets, very nearly drawing the ! little boat under our own paddles. ! Ib is impossible to describe the crowded state of this city. Humanity swirms from every possible crevice or inch of space. Human forms spring upon you out of the water, out of the air, even. , We pass a wnite building, near sliding into the water, surrounded by huts on all sides, which the j Captain points out to us as the only English hotel. Thank- heaven we have nob to go there. At last we reach a wharf, but entirely J concealed by a living ant-hill of men, wait- i ing to rush on board for the caigo, each one carrying his bamboo pole, with ropes swinging at the ends. Among the crowd which Hows in upon us when we stop are two men in uniform, who find us out. One comes from the agent of Purcell arid Co. for me, while another firm has sent his boab for the Americans. We crawl through and over the boats of the native fleet, walk over children under theseabs, packed away like so many kittens roiled up in a lump, over men and women asleep on mats, until we teach our own boat, which swiftly bears us to the foreign place. How in a moment everything is changed ! Thus suddenly leaving the mo-t curi&us sight you have ever seen, all bustle and confusion, and finding yourself in bhree minutes' time walking through a park of big trees, past large houses with lovely gardens, and everything as quiet as a country village on a Sunday morning. — ' Canton Corr. Boston Transcript,'