Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/204



COBEE'S impression of China was a kaleidoscope of jumbled sounds. Kaleidoscope is the proper word despite the fact that it is usually concerned with sight and color. The sounds of China were bursting with color, a bizarre symphony, sometimes high-pitched, ear-splitting, sometimes a sing-song monotone, in rare moments alluringly beautiful. They had commenced their China adventure at Shanghai and even as the steamer entered that weird mud-brown region of water that extends forty miles out into the sea where the loam-laden water of the Yangtze-Kiang and the broad ocean meet, the voice of China could be distinctly heard. All about them small boats loomed up as though they had