Page:Inside Canton.djvu/75

74 the moveable balls, is always near him, as well as his account-books, his pincers, and the piece of granite, marble, or slate, which serves as his ink-horn.

When business is over for the day, the tradesman makes up his accounts; superintends the closing of the establishment; and then, leaving one or two persons in care of it, goes into the walled city, or some distant street of the suburbs, to his wife, or his wives, and children, thus leaving behind the counter, to resume them next day, the cares of business, and the bore and mistakes of speculation. This is a general custom in China. Tradesmen of anything like importance never let their wives and children reside in their houses of business; there are too many dun-flies buzzing about those noisy places. The Chinese let the objects of their affections share in the comfort they have laboriously acquired, and in their domestic enjoyments, but spare them the material cares and anxieties of life. I have, however, seen numerous exceptions to this rule, especially in the northern part of the empire; in the southern portion, you find only a few poor tradespeople, in a little way of business, who depart from it.

A large portion of the houses in the suburbs resembles the one I have just described; thus the streets, so lively during the day, are deserted at