Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/148

 narrow lane was devoted to cat and dog meat, where pussy and Carlo were sizzling in the frying pans, and others with legs tied were lying on the floor, mewing and yelping most piteously. While in front of one of these shops a little girl came along with a pretty white kitten in her arms, destined for the spit. White is the favorite color with epicures in cats, but black is generally preferred in dogs. It is but fair to the “Heathen Chinee” to say, that this diet is not considered “first-class”, and is only eaten by the poorer classes.

I called at a pawnbroker’s shop, and was introduced to the proprietor, a hard faced, book-nosed old fellow, with a corps of clerks behind him, busy making entries in large folios. He was seated on a high bench passing judgment as to the value of some article which a poor woman with downcast eyes was offering. Just the sight one may see in London, Paris or New York, for hu- man nature is the same all the world over. One of the young Levis was detailed to show me up to the top of the building. Every story was crammed full of packages, each neatly tied up and labeled. As I stood on the roof, from which there was a fine view of the whole city, and of the White Cloud Hills far away to the south, I noticed that Levi was examining closely the quality of my coat, and with an eye to business, looking very sharply at the small diamond pin I wore. He was doubt- less making an estimate of how much it would be prudent to advance on these arti- cles in ease I desired to put them “up the spout.”

Fish in China are always sold alive, and are kept in large tanks of running water, from which the seller catches with a dip-net the one selected by the customer. The gold beaters’ shops, lacquered and glassware fac- tories, streets filled with carvers in ivory and sandal wood, fan-makers, jadestone shops, a blue stone like turquoise, of which most of the ornaments worn by Chinese women are made. These and many other similar places occupied the first day. I must not omit to mention the “curiosity shops,” filled with odds and ends of every description, among which were a broken ivory-handled knife, and a pair of spectacles of European manufacture. Looking about I noticed a small bottle that had a familiar look, and upon examination I found it bore the label, “Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup,” with an uncancelled United States revenue