ricket-bat, and dealing the ball some creditable raps too.

There is perhaps only one good street in the colony, Victoria street or
Queen's road; this traverses the city from end to end, and constitutes
the great business thoroughfare of the place. After about an hour's walk
along it, for the first part under an arcade of trees, we find ourselves
in the filthy, unsavoury Chinese quarter, as the nose is careful to
remind you if there be any doubt about it. They are certainly a very
dirty race, these Chinamen; the dirtiest on earth, I should be inclined
to say, considering their boasted civilization and vaunted morals; and,
though compelled by our sanitary laws to live somewhat more cleanly than
their enthralled brethren on the continent, still they are dirty, and
I'll hazard to say a sight of the Chinese of this town would soon dispel
any illusions one might have nourished to the contrary. A subsequent
visit to the native city of Shanghai shewed us to what disgusting depths
humanity can descend in this particular.

This enterprising people possess some very fine shops, where you can
purchase every known European commodity at cheaper rates than of the
European firms. Every shop has a huge sign-board depending from the top
of the house to the bottom, whereon is recorded in vermillion and gold
characters, not so much the name as the virtues of the man within,
sometimes, too, his genealogical tree is appended. Such expressions as
"no cheating here" or "I cannot deceive," are common, but, in nearly
every case, belie the character of the proprietor, who is a living libel
on the word honesty. Honesty! old Shylock even would blush for them.

Here, where there is protection for life and property, a shopkeeper
surprises you at the rich and grand display of his wares. In China
proper, a dealer dare not show all he is worth for fear of the
mandarins, who, should one chance to pass that way, would in all
probability, cast his covetous eyes on the poor man's property, and
demand whatever had taken his fancy. Nor may a poor man be in possession
of an article inconsistent with his position in the social scale--he may
not be the owner of a tiger's skin, for instance, as none but mandarins
and people of similar position, are permitted such luxuries. This
reminds one of the time, not so very remote, when similar restrictions
were placed on dress in England.

This system of mulcting is known all over China as "_cum-shaw_," a
system, too,