Southwest Oregon recorder., October 14, 1884, Image 3

v9
33
ALL THE WAY FROM CHINA
A Chinese Barber and Tailor
in New York.
-Methods of These Enterprising Foreigner?.
"Wong Chin Foo" in a letter from
0 2ew York in the Chicago News says:
At 22 Mctt street is the only Chinese
, barber in New York. He rejoices in
the name of Ti Chow and in the pos
session of a lucrative business. His
little shop is filled the week long, but
on Sundays and Mondays it is over
crowded with patient and long-waiting
customers. For the Mongol knight of
the razor is a far greater artist than
his American cousin, ne comes, in
deed, very near to the barber of four
centuries ago, who to tonsorial knowl
edge added skill as dentist, doctor,
chiropodist, oculist, and surgeon.
In China he ha3 but low caste, receiv
ing only 4 cents for a shave; and
money in China measures things as
well as in "Wall street. Here he re
ceives from 50 cents to $1.
Chinese shaving is a slow process.
The customer seats himself erect upon
a stool, with the knowledge that an
hour must pass before he is released.
The barber opens the fire by carefully
. "washing the victim's face, throat, head
and ears with warm water, either
plain or perfumed. He then begins
shaving the hea l, beginning from over
the.right ear and moving toward the
right until the forehead and lower
part of the back head are cleaned. He
then passes to the face and afterward
to the neck. The ears are then
shaved and thoroughly cleaned. This
is done by delicate instruments that in
appearance suggest a dentist's imple
pents. The face, neck, and head are
then washed and rubbed until the skin
assumes a healthy pink. The second
part is somewhat like the Swedish
movement-cure. The barber begins
to turn and manipulate the head and
neck until every cord and muscle has
been stretched, pinched, and pulled.
The shoulders, arms, ; nd back are then
pulled and pounded until the victim
expresses a desire to stop; the queue
is then unbraided, cleaned, combed
and rubbed, and again braided and
put in place. Occasionally the hands
and feet are then washed and rubbedt
and each toe and finger pulled until it
cracks. They are then dried.perf timed
Oand rubbed until the blood circulates
In every capillary.
The operation is lengthy, but is
heartily enjoyed. One word should be
said for the razors. They are made of
a fine manganese or chrome steel, have
a very high temper, and are half-moon
In shape. In hardness, elasticity, and
temper they excel any razor turned
out in Sheffield. When rusty, how
ever, or badly stropped, they "pull"
worse than anything known, and
might be put in a curiosity shop with
the thumb-screw and boot-leg of the
middle age?. -
At 11 Pell street is Lo Lyon, tailor
and draper. He ha3 long had the
monopoly of supplying the moon-eyed
with blouses, petticoats, and trousers,
and has amassed a competence. He
is a shrewd fellow, and, to prevent
competition, ha3 invariably refused to
take apprentices no matter how large
a bonus was offered for the privilege.
He is sufficiently Americanized to use
the last invention in sewing-machines,
and also to charge 25 per cent more
for the lator than when done by hand.
A Chinese tailor at work sits on a
chair, or stool behind a counter and
never crosses his legs. He indulges
In the latter luxury only when toil is
over. In China they employ a goose
in the shape of an arrow with a long
handle; but here they have adopted
the regular flatiron of the trade. The
needle is the same as the European,
but with a much longer eye to facili
tate threading; the scissors are similar
except that they change the handles
so as to fit the fingers and parts of the
hand that do the cutting. In regard
to goods the Chinese use silk, woolens,
linen and cotton. For silk they pre
fer their own manufacture; in woolen
cloths the French brands are preferred,
and next to them English broadcloths.
Of cottons American goods are re
garded as the best. In cost silk good3
run from $6 to $9 a yard, so that a
suit would cost from $35 upward. The
official suit of the secretary of the Chi
nese embassy was made by Lo Lyon
, and cost $320. Ordinary suits for
"summer wear cost $10 and $12.
r Tailors in unmese society are classi-
ucu wiui Luucia auu aiiuis, auu cu a
almost outcasts. The stigma of their
trade is inheritable, and injures their
children and grandchildren. To
marry the daughter of a tailor in
China is socially far worse than to
wed that of a day laborer in this land.
The origin of the prejudice appears to
lie in the fact that ages ago in the
flowery kingdom all tailoring was done
by women. When a man got so low
from dissipation and vice a3 to lose all
caste he became a tailor in order to
make a bare living. Although to-day
the business is almost monopolized by
men, the feeling remains, and the pay
is about the same as when the trade
sprang into being, their pay being but
250 "cash" a day.
riantain Leaves for Snake Poison.
A Marlborough (N. Y.) letter to the
Hew York Times says: Charles M.
Purdy is one of the leading commission
merchants in New York who handle
the fruit products of the Hudson
Valley. Mr. Purdy's residence is near
Marlborough, About 80 years ago Mr.
Purdy's mother, then a young woman,
while rambling along the bank of the
Hudson here, on what is now the
Thomas T. Buckley estate, was bitten
by a rattlesnake on the leer. The
poison caused great pain and the limb
wa3 discolored very much, and the old
settlers said that the only thing to do
was to mount a fast horse and to ride
to the Marlborough Mountain and coax
an old Indian woman, who lived there
then all alone in a cave, to come and
cure her. This was clone, and the life
of Mrs. Purdy was saved through the
medicine furnished by this old squaw.
It is a simple remedy a small cupful
of the juice of the plantain weed, which
is to be found along every road and in
nearly every door yard in the country
Mrs. Purdy gave these facts to the
Times correspondent for publication
expressing the hope that inasmuch as
the plaintain juice undoubtedly saved
the life of Mr. Purdy's mother the
same service might be made available
to others if publicity was given to the
facts.
Inquiry made among farmers and
country people generally elicited the in
formation that plantain weed is used ex
tensively for poulticing, to heal up run
ning sores and to break up cases of
chills and fever. Dr. A H. Palmer, of
this town, says that a handful of plan
tain leaves made into a cup of teal
breaks up severe attacks of. certain
malarial disorders when other specifics
fail. Old inhabitants say plantain
leaves years ago were considered a sure
cure f 6r hydrophobia. Wood choppers
on the Plattekill, Marlborough, and
Shawangunk Mountains say that they
have long known that plantain juice
would prevent fatal results from the
bite of a rattlesnake. Toads and other
animals know the medicinal properties
of the plantain weed. When bitten by
a snake they invariably hop to where
the specific can be found.
Marked Trout.
It is the custom of some of our fish
commissioners to attach metal tags to
liberated salmon, that when captured
again, the growth of the fish may be
noted. We once knew an angler who
was in the habit of putting his mark
on trout; but he did not use a metal
tag. It was a rule with him to retain
no trout that weighed less thaa one
half pound. When he landed one of
less weight, he would carefully take it
off the hook, mark it by biting off the
upper portion of its tail fin, and throw
it back into the water to grow. Some
times he would catch these fish again
after they had attained the proper size
to find a place in his basket ; and it was
often a source of pleasure to him to re
ceive a letter of thanks from some fellow-angler
who had chanced to take
one of the marked big fellows. One
day this biter of trouts tails was driv
ing along some eighteen miles from
home, when he came to a bridge over
a stream, and in passing saw a big
trout rise. The next day, with his
tackle, he drove back over thQse eight
een miles and tried for a rise. He
found not a sign of trout. The next
day he made the journey again, with a
like result. The third day, nothing
daunted, he drove out again. . This
time he pulled out a three-pound trout.
The upper half of its tail fin was gone;
and our friend has always believed
that it was one of his marked trout
forest and Stream.
There are twelve
voters in Maine.
thousand French
TOPICS OF THE DAY.
A farmer of Montgomery county,
Pennsylvania, cut three sheaves of
wheat during harvest, thrashed and
cleaned the grain, which-was at once
ground into flour, then baked into
cakes and eaten by the harvest hands,
within ten minutes from the time the
grain was standing in the field.
Cities are not rich. They are really
desperately poor. It is the country that
is rich; it is the barren sea that is
wealthy. It is only out of the ground,
or out of the ocean you can get new
wealth. All the wealth of cities be
long to some one. The boundless and
exhaustle33 wealth of the world is in
the fields under the sod or under the
waves of the sex
The Mechanical World, of Lonlon
says that the United States has the
' best machinery and tools in the world;
i and M. Lourdelot, who was recently
sent over here by the French Minister
; of Commerce, says that the superiority
' of tools used here and the attention to
! details too often neglected in Europe
1 are elements of danger to European
! industries.
Professor Stevenson, of the Smith-,
simian Institution, has gone with a
party of explorers to the region of the
cliff and cave dwellers to make a
collection of relics and curiosities to be
taken to the New Orleans Cotton. Cen
tennial Exposition. Explorations will
be made in Arizona and New Mexico
and will be conducted in part among
villages never before visited.
In this country we farm as we like
or a3 we can, being only subject to
natural conditions and changes of
weather. We grow our tobacco as we
please. In Germany the farmer must
observe certain regulations promulga
ted by the government. An equal dis
tance between the plants and rows
must be reserved and varions other
rules are enforced. In Great Britain
the cultivation of tobacco is absolute
ly prtfubted under any and all condi"
li. L.S.
A most remarkable show was re
cently held in Austria. It was an
exhibition of nose3. Eighty persons
competed for the prize offered for the
most extraordinary nasal protuberance
in form, size and color. The jury de
cided that only three out of the whole
could be admitted as competitors for
the prize. It was "finally adjudged to
a competitor from Vienna, who is
the proud and happy possessor of
what is said to be a gigantic no3e of
deep violet blue.
Some professional baseball-players
command higher saleries than many
leading divines aud educators; in fact,
there are in every college men of fine
attainments who are paid fifty per
sent, less for their scholarly services
than some "pitchers" and "catchers"
receive for work of the most ordinary
cQrt. Just now good pitchers bring
all the way from $2,000 to $4,000,
catchers are scarce at $3,000, infielders
command as much, if not more, while
very poor outfielders will bring $2,000.
Dr. Ord, who has been engaged for
two years in studying the- death rate
as occurring in people of various
occupations, stated it recently as fol
lows: He first numbered the persons
engaged in eighty occupations in 1881
In 1882 and 1883 he noted their deaths
excluding all who were under twenty
five and over sixty-five years. He
chose 1000 as the average number of
all the persons in all the occupations.'
Thi3 gives the deaths of people in
hotel service at 2205; wine and spirit
merchants, 1525; cabmen, 1482; butch
ers, 1170; lightermen, 1305; earthen
ware makers, 1742; file makers, 1662;
cutters, 1309; medical men, 1122; far
mers, 675; agricultural laborers, 653;
gardeners, 559; clergymen, 556.
Never before, perhaps, in modern
times, has the world rewarded those
who amuse it with such social and
material consideration as now. There
are members of the theatrical and
musical professions whose income ex
ceeds that of the heads of the church,
the law, or the army, and the average
actor draws a salary larger than the
income of the average member of any
of the learned professions. In London
especially he lives luxuriously, has his
club, moves in high circles, drives his
own phaeton, and, if he has performed
a military part, sticks a cockade in his
servant's hat. Four or five actresses
have, within the last two years, mar
ried noblemen or noblemen presump
tive, and there can no longer be a
doubt of the stage having lived down
"the rebuke and reproach under which
it formerly cowered," and London
society is ready to receive an actor or
actress, if only well talked about,
without regard to any rumor of scan
dal, which would be fatal to the pre
tentions of a member of any other
profession.
The average life of a railway car is
ten years. It is estimated that there
are 500,000 cars in the country; hence
50,000 a year must be built to keep up
the supply. Three thousand feet of
lumber for each car equals 150,000,000
feet a year. The tie3 for the 121,782
miles of track at 2,600 to the mile
which on the average last six years,
requires 1,632,377,056 feet, board
measure, every year. Thus, to keep
a road-bed and cars in repair, to say
nothing of new work, calls for 1,735,
377,056 feet of wood, which is nearly
one-fouth the entire output of the
milb of the Northwest, and almost
one-twelfth that of all the mills in
the United States. When we add the
vast amount used in building locomo
tives, depots, fences, cattle pens, etc,
and on many roads as fuel, to say
nothing of the forest fires kindled by
sparks from the engines, we can see
that the railroads make a heavy draft
on our timbers.
A return is published by a Vienna
ournal with regard to the quantity of
beer brewed in Europe last year.
England, of course, comes first with
27,050 breweries and about 990,000,000
gallons, though Germany, with 25,902
breweries and 900,000,000 gallons, runs
her close. These two countries are
far ahead of all the others, the third
being France, which has 3,000 brew
eries, a3 against only 2,094 in Austria
and Hungary, though the quantity of
beer brewed in France is onTy 157,500,
000 gallons, as against 280,000,000
gallons brewed in Austria and Hun
gary. Belgium has . 1,250 breweries,
which produced last year 210,250,000
gallons, and then came Holland, with
500 breweries, producing 34,000,000
gallons; Russia, with 430 breweries,
producing 68,000,000 gallons; Switzer
land, with 423 breweries, producing
27,000,000 gallons; Norway, with 400
breweries, producing only 13,500,000
gallons; Denmark, with 250 breweries,
producing 28,000,000 gallons; Sweden,
with 220 breweries, producing 21,
000,000 gallons, and Italy, with 150
breweries, producing 4,000,000 gallons.
Facial Freaks.
We have it on the authority of Dr.
Karl Muller that in . his boyhood he
knew a man who, Janus-like, had two
totally different faces, one side laugh
ing, and the other crying. "Naturally,"
he says, I dreaded this strange double
face, with its one side smooth, plump,
comely, like a girl's cheek; while the
other was all scarred by the smallpox.
This side of the face denoted churlish
ness, and while the other bore a smile,
this boded mischief."
The same authority is also responsi
ble for the following story: 'T was
once sitting in a cool underground
saloon at Leipsic, while without people
were ready to die from the heat, when
a new guest entered and took a seat
opposto to me. The sweat rolled in
great drops down hi3 face, and he was
kept busy with his handkerchief, until
at last he found relief in the exclama
tion, 'Fearfully hot!' I watched him
attentively as he called for a cool drink,
for I expected every moment he would
.fall from his chair in a fit of apoplexy.
The man must have noticed that I was
observing him, for he turned toward
me suddenly, saying: 4I am a curie as
sort of person, am I not?' 'Why?' I
asked. 'Because I perspire only on my
right side, he responded. And so it
was.- . His right cheek and the right
half of his forehead were as hot as fire,
while the left side of his face bore not
a trace of perspiration. I had never
seen the like, and in my astonishment
was about to enter into conversation
with him regarding this physiological
phenomenon, when his neighbor on
the left broke in with the remark:
Then we are opposites and counter
parts of each other, for I perspire only
on the left side.' This, too, wa3 the
fact So the pair took seats opposite
each other, and shook hands like two
men who had just found each his other
half. Current.
CLIPPINGS FOR THE CURIOUS.
There are over 1,500 Smiths employ
ed by the government, 400 of whom
are John Smiths. There are over 800
each Jones and Johnsons.
A horse which trots a mile in 2:10
goes at the rate of 27 9-13 miles per
hour nearly the speea of a railroad
train.
The first circu3 in the United States
showed at Newburyport, Mass., May
3, 1812. The managers were Italians,
Cayetano & Co. Purdy Brown was the
next, 1825.
There are only five genuine signa
tures of Shakespeare known to be In
existence. Ont -is in the London
Library, the other in the British
Museum, one attached to his will at
Doctor's Commons, and two in posses- '
sion of private collectors.
It is said that the Eastern prophet
Mohammed was so fond of his favorite
cat that, when he fell asleep on his
robe one day, he cut off the sleeve
rather than disturb the slumber of the
cat, and it is said that to thi3 day,
almost every Mohammedan in those
Eastern countries ha3 a eat in his
house which he loves and makes tc
share all hii comforts.
During the tenth century persons
accused of robbery were put to trial
by a piece of barley bread, on' which
mass had been said, and if they could
not swallow it they were declared
guilty. Sometimes a slice of cheese
was added to the bread. The bread
wa3 to be made of unleavened barley,
and the cheese made of ew es' milk in
the month of May.
Some of the favorite dishes in Eliz
abeth's time were curious enough.
Seagulls were eaten. There were pick
led goose with cloves and ginger,
soused turkey boiled in white wine and
vinegar and soaked for a month, and
pear puddings, containing no peais,
but made of cold fowl or turkey chop
ped up with flour, currants and eggs,
and then fashioned into the form of
pears and baked. The stalks of tulips
cooked like peas, omelettes of mallow
stalks, hart3horn jelly, pippins pre
served in jelly, apple syrup and quince
cheese were also among the delicacies
of the age.
City vs. Country.
Put down in a judicial frame of
mind, says an Exchange, the relative
advantages of town and country, and
strike a balance; your ledger page will
icad something like this: In the
country, nature: in the city, human
nature. In the country, quiet; in the
city, activity. In the country, vege
tation; in the city, emulation. In the
country, leisure, but no advantages;
in the city, advantages, but no leisure.
In the country, danger of rusting
out; in the city, certainty of wearing
out In the country, life sometimes
wearisomely slow; in the city, life
painfully fast. In the country you
make friends, in the city acquaint
ances; in the country you know all but
a few neighbors, in the city jostle
against innumerable strangers ; in the
country you live in undre33, in the
city you are always on dress parade ;
in the country you rest, in the city you
work; the country is God's Sabbath,
the city man's week-day. The coun
try is God-made, the city man-made;
in the country are birds, in the city'
orchestras; in the country flowers, in
the city dresses; in the country sun
sets, in the city art collections; in the
country stars, in the city gas-lights;
strike your balance.
The English folk are wiser than the
Americans; they live in the country
and go to town; Americans live in
town and go to the country. The
rush of the age is town ward. Rural
life is at a discount. "Country cous
ins" are a pretty jest. "Countrified"
is a term of reproach. Town and
cityt populations are on the increase;
rural homes on the decrease; and with
them home-life. For honies are ex
pensive luxuries in town; hotels, res
taurants, boarding houses, flats, tene
ments, afford poor substitutes. We
raise no protest against the tendency
knowing it will be useless. We assure
our country readers that they are
better off than their envied city
cousins. The country is the place to
live in. The country makes men; the
city uses them up.
The district around Galena, Kansas,
is credited with being the largest zinc
producing locality in the world. Last
year 70,000 ton3 were mined.