Page:Ling-Nam; or, Interior views of southern China, including explorations in the hitherto untraversed island of Hainan (IA cu31924023225307).pdf/54

 50 Ling-Nam.

extort it confirm our worst suspicions. No dignity appears in the court which we enter, and it is difficult to see how the ends of justice can be met, when no reliable means of collecting or sifting evidence are used. It usually becomes a question of which party can give the highest bribes, and the means to such unlawful gains open to the magistrate may be surmised from the fact that the incumbent of this office a few years ago, while holding his position but for ten months, made $180,000 in addition to his lawful income. Returning to the main street, we pass out of the city through the “Gate of Virtue,” and crossing a bridge over the city moat, we enter a street where black-wood furni- ture, richly carved and inlaid with marble and mother- of-pearl, forms the chief article of trade. Chairs, tables, couches, stools, brackets, mirrors, and other articles are temptingly displayed. Beyond these are the furriers, and on the same street a row of shops; where musical instru~ ments are made, flutes, guitars, violins, ete., of the oddest shapes, a dozen varieties being offered for the modest sum of ten dollars. Passing these, long lines of shoe stores, with hoots and shoes peculiar to the country, in all colours, displayed to catch the eye; marble shops, book stores, ido] manufactories, incense shops, stores with silk thread of many hues, out-fitting establishments for theatres and processions ; embroidery work in rooms open to the street, dozens of men, each with his own frame and pattern; stitching from morning till night, and many other inter- esting sights, are passed on our way to the Great Peace Gate, which leads us into the western suburbs of the city ; medicine shops where ginseng, hartshorn, cassia, and a